73 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



AKEPOKTOFTHESEASOl^i OF 1874, ETC. 



BV J. 1>. KUUSCHKE. 



^^jRIEND NOVICE -.—Last spring I wrote you that 

 an our troubles (miue and yours) in "Siiringing" 

 & were of a i-emarkable similarity. Now 1 started 

 like yourselt, with 58 colonies a year ago ; well, last 

 spring they dwindletl down to 'A besides one we sold. 

 Friend Uuffeler, in Dec. No., gives a good report ol 

 the spring— how cold and unfavorable it was lor bees. 

 When honey was gathered to any extent, I don't think 

 1 had 5 strong stocks in my Apiary! iSow mark the 

 result : From these slocks (3Uj tii were made, and all 

 have jilenty of stores; most have 10 irames, size lU^tx 

 10 inches inside, and all are strong enougli lo wiuter, 

 under favorable circumstances. 1 am sure each has 

 a fertile Queen— raised all tiueensmyscU except two- 

 bought one Italian from Ch. JJadant, and earned an- 

 other. 1 tried to have a lew nuclei for winter, but 

 they built up so fast in numbei"S, and as I could easily 

 hel)) them from other stocks, 1 made full stocks of 

 them. One stock 1 made in this wise : I took oil' most 

 of my honey boxes at one lime, placed them close to- 

 gether, put a hive with comb and a caged <,iueen over 

 iliem, and covered the whole with sheets- all done 

 out-doors— and the bees all collected in the hive, 

 when the Queen was released, and all was well. L,ike 

 you, friend N., 1 liad jjleuly of comb, but a good deal 

 of it was ruined by ilie n"ioth, for want ol a proper 

 place to keel) it, so that 1 allowed each hive to build a 

 comb or two. Of honey 1 got 650 lbs. box, and about 

 700 lbs. extracted, the latter 1 took only Irom oUch 

 hives as were too weak, and tliat 1 could not Induce 

 lo work in boxes. Spoiled 8 good stocks lor tlie sea- 

 son, iis regards box honey, by being just one day loo 

 late in cutting out my Queen cells to supply them ! so 

 they were compelleU to raise their own Queens, and 

 they did not make a pound of box honey, while some 

 made over lOO lbs. ; what a Uiiierence from such a 

 slight cause. 



bo far then, we might consider the season's work a 

 great success ; but now comes the drawback: 1 hail 

 to sell my lioney very cheap, or at least it uas solu at 

 a very low ligure ; the comb for 18c. and extracted lie ; 

 a small pi oportion of tlie box honey was soUl for more, 

 and half of the extracle<l 1 sold here for which 1 real- 

 ize<l from 1.^ to Ibc. per lb. Mext jear, shall try lo sell 

 all my lioney at home ; most ol the bee-keeiters around 

 here did so iliis year, and maue consiuerably more 

 than 1 did. The market for honey here is increasing 

 linely. 



On the Iblh of Nov. my bees were all put into Ihcir 

 clamps, in appuiently good condition, i made the 

 clam](S a little vvaimer, and 1 ihink a litiie <iryer. 

 Tlie temperature Ihus far, has stood mostly at iO" ; 

 shall try lo keep it a little higlier hereafter. 



Now lor a lew comments on contents of Nov. Glean- 

 ings. H. llutlson lells us how lo tecure strait combs. 

 Now with my plan, 1 liave so lar loimd no li ouble ; 

 iny hives hoid lo names anil one paililion-board ; ana 

 for winlirii.g it is only necessary lo allow 8 irames to 

 remain so ihat two names of comb are lelt to start 

 another hive with, in spring u or 7 names will be 

 enough lor a stock, so that we have 3 or lour irames 

 to start anoiher stock vvitii which is quite suliicient 

 to make ihem build strait conib ilirougli the whole 

 hive, if evenly dislribuied. 1 use JJatlaiit's comb 

 guides (see page 57 last montli) on my names and in 

 the honey boxes, and lind they foliow Uiem nicelj-. 

 S. F. Newman, sjieaks ol bees gathering meal in the 

 fall, my neighbor, Mr. I'otter, had Ihem do so to (juiie 

 an extent. To induce iliem to work on it, he smears a 

 little anise oil arounil the meal. 1 tried this last 

 spring, and lound the bees went to work almost imme- 

 diately; and ioo, alter liaving kept honey exposeil in 

 Comb for some lime. Our bees gathereu great quan- 

 tities of honey from (iolden rod and Aster, (i just 

 learned tlie njime of the latter by your description) so 

 much, that one hive, \\ Inch hail not workeil in boxes 

 previously, stored ab<)uto5 lbs. Irom these plants alone. 

 We had some '25 acres of buckvvlieat in the iieighbor- 

 hootl, whicli was a great lielp to the bees. J han about 

 IJii acres ol rape, and running llie lisk of having it 

 said, that 1 have an "ax to grind," 1 will state, that al- 

 though the season was dry, anil ti e seed came up very 

 unevenly, yet at no time during ils bloom diil the bees 

 "quit their }:old" upon it; and at all times more bees 

 could bo seen in it, than on the buckwheat. While on 

 luickwheat Ihcy winked niostly at morning and eve- 

 ning, on the rape they worked all day. 



In regard to Problem No. '-'5, 1 would sa}-, it lias 

 beon (iulte fully discussed in A. B. J., by Ch. Dadanl 

 R!;d oihera, and the conclusion seems to be, that it is 

 rutherimsajc, lo winter bees without pollen. 



iice-Koepers ! All of you arc tioublcd more or leas 



with leaky covers. We have tried something the past 

 season which has, so far, worked satisfactorily lo pre- 

 vent this trouble, so much so, that we have put all our 

 covers under cover where we can get them in ihe win- 

 ter, and give Ihem the same treatment. What is it? 

 Why I it's simply common brown building ])aper. 

 Take a roll of paper, lay it on a smooth work bench, 

 lay your cover on it, and cut the paper so it will pro- 

 ject about an inch all round ; now turn up this projec- 

 tion nicely, and nail a strip of wood over it, so it will 

 '•hug up" smooth to the cover top. Then i>riine it 

 with thick paint— yellow ochre is good, and cheap, give 

 it two such coats, ana when dry it will shed water like 

 a top. You see by the process, you can use the poor- 

 est kind of boards, and the paper will cover the iniq- 

 uity. 1 would advise lo paint the paper on the under 

 side before putting on (then on top of course) and use 

 narrow boards for cover, lo prevent their warping. 



Last spring we tried the experiment of feeding bees 

 out-doors and found it a perfect success. As you have 

 been alreadj' informed, our bees were weak, but in- 

 stead of starting robbing among them, I verily believe, 

 it prevented it ; for they did not rob at all, whilst with- 

 out this supply, we certainly would have seen some 

 fun. We placed the food about 10 rods from the Api- 

 ary, and I think "thereby hangs a tale." 



J. D. Kkuschke. 



Berlin, Wis. Dec. 17th, 1874. 



Slow TO GET AEONC WEEL,. 



^pCjrO, No! We dou't mean any thing of the 

 J|,\| sort. To be sure if we should dig a well 

 in the ground, and dig it ve7-y dee]:), it would be 

 a "long well," but that is not what we mean, 

 we mean, how to get along pleasantly 

 with the "all sorts" of people that begin now 

 to make up our list of patrons, and we wish to 

 consider, all our patrons, friends. For instance ; 

 if very many people persist in writing good 

 things on both sides of the paper, and thus pre- 

 vent our "scissoring" their communications, 

 etc., shall we scold about it, and try to mould 

 several hundered people to our wants, or shall 

 we endeavor to mould our wants to lit the peo- 

 ple, and let them do things in their own way, 

 or as they can most conveniently ? 



If those who write us letters will persist in 

 supposing that we remember all that was in 

 the letter they wrote us a week or two ago, 

 shall we call them stupid for not knowing that 

 we have so many every day, that we can't re- 

 member all of them, or shall we take a little 

 more trouble ourselves, and tile our lettets 

 away, so that we can liud any letter referred 

 to after a reasonable length of tiineV If folks 

 will omit to give their addreses in lull some- 

 times, even sending money, and then after 

 awhile abuse us for not sending their papers, 

 shall we write back that 'twas their own iault, 

 and it's "good enough for them" etc. ; or shall 

 we provide ourselves with a list of all the Post 

 Offices, printed lists of all who have ever been 

 subscribers and every thing we can think of to 

 save both time and annoyance to our fellow 

 beings as well as ourselves even if the muddle 

 is purely their own fault? Again, if by losing 

 8c, we can save a fellow blunderer 6c, ought 

 we not to do itV [There is an exception to the 

 latter, where you are purposely, and repeaitdly 

 asked to lose your hard earned nickels.] Even 

 supposing you lind a person airfvlly stupid (as 

 you may jjcrhaps think /rcarc sometimes), shall 

 we tell liini so, and that he hasn't "even an 

 idea of Inisiiuss," or shall we take it for grant- 

 ed that such an individual may be expected to 

 turn up about once in so often, and it is our 

 duty to treat him as a brother? Shall we not 

 consider that tl;e poor fellow will doubtless 

 have trouble enough any way with his ideas of 



