aLEANIN<iS IN BEE CULTURE. 



r?o 



the tall, very likely did prevent brood rearing, 

 i\\\i\ thus lell yon hives weak in bees. Your 

 ventilation was all right. We think it well 

 tlenionstrated that some upward veutilatioa is 

 needed, espechilly where bees are left out in 

 ■ theeold. Although niueh is said about sha- 

 ding the hives, and I'asteniug the bees iu at 

 such times, we have serious doubts whether 

 Jietdi/ii/ bees fly out thus when tliey cannot re- 

 turn ; and if they are diseased, we have little 

 faith in trying to k<H'p them from dying. Our 

 ■bees do jiot go out on the snow this spring at 

 all, and we are much inclined to think they 

 never will when fed on sugar syrup, a little 

 every day through the months of Aug. and 

 Sept., that they may rear plenty' of brood, and 

 seal up tlicir winter stores, ic/tile tlie weuUier in 

 yet warm. If it would not look reckless, we 

 ilou't know but that we should add, they may 

 then be wintered either out-doors or iu. 



Bees out-rloors, as lar as 1 know, were eight-ninths 

 dead belore that storm and will be more when it is 

 ■over. Lost oiie-1'ourth of my own iu house I'lom vari- 

 ous causes, mostly lailure to move over to honey, 

 while it has ne\ er been as cold as ireczing inside house. 

 ■\Vhy is it? J. J. WuirsuN. 



Valley Mills, Marion Co., Ind. 

 'V\ e d(j not know why they fail to move over, 

 unless it is a sluggishness engendered l\y dis- 

 -ease. We find no such trouble among our 

 •own, this sjiring, and we cannot help thinking 

 if bees were fed daily on sugar syrup through 

 Aug. and Sept., as were ours, until they had 

 rleun, dry, sealed stores thcvQ would at least be 

 less of such troubles. Friend Dean suggests 

 that the combs be all removed except those the 

 bees can cover, and if these be well supplied 

 with bees, they will be kept warm and clean, 

 and the bees cannot stray away from their food. 

 .Had our bees all beeu fed as faithfully as tlie 

 greater part were, and put in to the bee house 

 instead of beiug "tinkered," we feel sure there 

 woukl have been no loss, at least up to this 

 date, March 20th. 



Tell that corr^siJoudent of yours who doesn't like 

 lo liave llje bees gum uj) his quills, to spiead one 

 (hitkness of strong muslin on first ; an<i then, his 

 'lUiits may be of old or tender cloth, and always clean. 

 t uiUiermore; will not the giimmed muslin laitl on 

 .^end down the straggling bees, so lliat heavy ]jieces 

 dike best parts of old pants) nuiy be laid on lor quilts, 

 and no bees be crushed ? 



Mus. A. L. GOLLD, <Jnarga, Ills. 



Thanks Mrs. G., very likely you are right. 

 .Sliould wt; use only the single thickness, the 

 Ijees woukl likely gnaw through, but with the 

 quilt over it, they would be warm and all 

 riglit. It is such a pleasure to liave clean soft 

 quilts to work with, that we have often thrown 

 aside our gummed ones for new ones. 



1 want to know how tlie bees make a worker, a drone, 

 a laying worker, and a l^ueen bee out ol the same class 

 of eggs. NoKTON Case, East Toledo, O. 



Many experiments liave demonstrated, we 

 iLink, that fertile workers are no dift'erent 

 s'rom other workers, or at least that almost any 

 worker may lay drone eggs under favorable 

 circumstances, at k-ast they always make their 

 appearance with us, when any colony has been 

 a long time Queenless. This .seems to be the 

 '•ase all the same, with bees that have been 

 reared in hive where no Queen cells have ])een 

 Ijrescut. Any worker egg may be made to 

 l)roduce a Queen before the larva' is more than 

 ■> days old ; it seems to us that fond is the prin- 

 '•ipal, ifnot the only thing that brings about 



this change, if we excej)! making the cell lar- 

 ger to accomcxlate the large insict witli the 

 large amount of conctni rated U:in\ that s!ie 

 literally swims in, where sheccmtsto lull per- 

 fection. We can do no better at present than 

 to reiterate, tliat the eggs that produce duri:es 

 have never Ixen fertilized, as have those that 

 produce the Queens and workers. 



I am wintering on summer stands, l;ut g< nie ifays 

 find 15 or '20 dead bees at llie entrance ol a siulIc )ii\"e, 

 tiien again only 'i or :i. We haidly ever )i;.\e < old 

 spells, that pre\entour Ijees from coming out. 'or-er 

 llian a week. 1 have one hive tiiat is jam lull (<i l.<yu- 

 ey, and 1 have no empty cond) to giv«^ ihcm lo ciusiev 

 on. What will be liie best lor me to do lor llieni ? 



T. iJ. I'AifKiiH, ijoldiboro, N. V. IJec. .•Jnd, 1874. 



We know of no remedy except extra empty 

 combs or the extractor. Although much has 

 been said about bees having too ncich h<n\vy for 

 safe wintering, we cannot remember tliat we 

 liave ever seen such a case. In an experiment 

 before mentioned, where we fed one colony a 

 barrel of sugar iu Oct., removing the combs to 

 other stocks as fast as sealed up, they were in 

 Nov., about as lull of stores as a hive well 

 could be, yet they consumed enough before very 

 severe weather, to give them ample room to 

 cluster, and they actually wintcreil the best of 

 an}/ colony we had. Bees maj' be retarded 

 in raising brood iu the fall, it is very true, but 

 does a good colony of bees ever sufl'er in winter 

 from liaving too much houej'V We should 

 say the bees found at the entrance, indicated 

 an unhealthy state of affairs in some way. 



I have an Italian swarm but tlie bees have all died 

 but a small liaudlul, tlie (.^leen is yet alive, t^hall I 

 buy a black colony anil put her in ^ 



Uo you think the Italian bees will stand our cold 

 winters as well as our black bees ? 



■What will you li.rniih me pure Queens for to sell 

 to my neighbors ? J. A. Sagku* 



><orth bristol, Trumbull Co., O. 

 We would buy a black colony and introduce 

 tlie liaiuUul of bees Queen and all. It eau be 

 done readily by using a cage large euougii to 

 hold them. Put it against a comb of honey 

 and they will help themselves. 



We do think Italians, just as hardy, though 

 there are times when it seems as if there was 

 a ditference. We are inclined to think that it 

 is the.tinkering with them in the lall and win- 

 ter,. that is the cause of the miscliief ; the blacks 

 being let alone, are all right. There is consid- 

 erable that we cannot explain in regard to this 

 dwindling down business. When Queens are 

 sold at $1.00 there can't be any wholesale rates 

 as we can see, and wliy should tliere be 'i Your 

 neighbors can send direct to the producer as 

 well as you, and it will save extra handling. 



Can you tell me at what time the Poplar, or Lirio- 

 demtron Tulipi/ora blossoms in this latiuide ? 



K. J. CoLUoKN, Chicago, Ills. 

 May and June. Altliougli v.e have the trees 

 in our kjrests quite abundantly about here, we 

 have never seen mucli of the honey to recognize 

 it,, at least notliing like basswood. It is called 

 Whitewood, here, and formerly was the princi- 

 l)al soft wood lumber for building purposes. 



DEAR NOVICE:— Here we are in llie sunny iSouth 

 tills 7lh day of March, wilh 1.5 iuclies of xiww on the 

 ground this morning, the <leepest we have seen and 

 llie only snow in about 14 months. 



M. Pause, Pine Kluir, Ark. 



!My U) stocks of bees all right so far— winter in cellar. 



li. S. Elkins, Ivcnnedy. 

 M.'irch l.Tth, "T.i. Chautauqua Co., X. Y. 



