GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May. 



fatal tr, successful wintering. Therefore taking all 

 things into consideration on the subject of the "Indis- 

 criminate Importation of Italian Queens" I pronounce 

 mvself fuUv in accordance with the views of Mr. 

 Adair, although on the knotty question as to who 

 shall own the two dollars sent him for his cjuarterly, 

 we still continue to disagree; a subject by the way, 

 on which ho has not heretofore been inclined to write 

 lengthy and prolix articles in our Bee Journals. 



Haijpening to be in New York when the market 

 was pretty well stocked with California honey, we 

 made sonic inquiries in relation to it. We found it 

 chiefly made up of the grades, extra white, or white 

 mountain, white, and colored, the last being largely 

 In excess. Its ap])earance was certainly very tine, 

 equal to any thing produced East. The packages 

 were small, neat, well filled and rec'd in good condi- 

 tion; whole car loads we were told coming through 

 without a broken comb or a leaking package. The 

 report of its quality was not so favorable, as a large 

 majority of those who have either handled or used it 

 say that, like much of the California fruit, it lacks 

 flavor, lacks that peculiar aroma so cliaracteristic of 

 tne best products of this latitude. Sugar syrup with a 

 small quantity of Northern honey added, would closely 

 represent the flavor of a larger part of the white 

 grades, the same mixture with a small addition of 

 Cuba honey would give an idea of the colored. We 

 do not apiirehend that it will much if any aflect the 

 price of our choice grades of honey, as it cannot suc- 

 cosfuUy compete, in quality ; nor do we think it will 

 ever be offered in so great quantities as some have 

 anticipated. Much rt'ill depend, in regard to price, on 

 how flrmly Eastern bee-keepers hold back for good 

 prices. No doubt some dealers will try to buy at Cal- 

 ifornia prices, and should a large number of producers 

 sell thus. It may temporarily depress the market. 



r. H. Elwood. 



P. S.— I have wintered largely in double wall hives 

 and although the result has not been entirely satisfac- 

 tory neither has our in-door wintering. I should pre- 

 fer to hear from those with a more lengthy experience. 



Starkville, N. Y. March 15th, 1875. 



Ternis : 7 5c. I?er A.nn\iiti. 



[Including Postage.] 

 For Club Bates see Last Page. 



3S/a:EIDI3Sr.A-, 1>/LAJ^^ 1, 1875. 



A new commandment 1 give unto you, That ye love 

 one another.— John xiii., 17. 



Journals for April all good, and on hand In good 

 time. 



Rape seed is not to be sown until June ; directions 

 will be given next month. 



When the Quinby smoker is all in trim, by its aid 

 you can open hives, and handle combs and bees very 

 rapidly. 



A 15AUUEL of sugar, two coflee pots, and Universal 

 feeders to match, are the arguments we are now bring- 

 to bear, to counteract the effects of the freeze. 



T()-i)AV, the 28th of April, we find a colony with 

 brood in three combs— nearly half filling the middle 

 one— with brood all chilled except a small si)ot where 

 the Queen and a few dozen just hatched bees were 

 clustered. Old bees ^one just a little too soon. 



Mr. Langstkoth agrees with (Quinby, in thinking 

 a iiive with )i inch walls, preferable to any thing 

 thicker for out-door wintering. Mr. L. would also 

 have them unpainted, so far as keeping the bees dry 



is concerned. He has made many, and some eostly 

 experiments with double, and porous walled hives. 



Althol'gh we dislike to throw cold water on the 

 work of the makers of the comb foundations, it were 

 no more than justice to all parties, to state that Lang- 

 stroth mentions that he made an experiment with twc 

 equal colonies, giving one the foundations, and the 

 other nothing. While the former used their artificial 

 aids, the latter oatstrippe<l them by far, in filling their 

 hive. It may be well to try this again, but we would 

 advise investing cautiously at first. 



A FEW have taught that swarms without combs, do 

 better than with a hive furnished ; Mr. L. explains 

 this by saying that during a heavy yield of honey the 

 Italians will fill a set of combs so quickly that brood 

 rearing is almost entirely blocked, consequently unless 

 the extractor be used, the swarm with an empty hive 

 would assuredly be the most profitable. With an ex- 

 tractor and empty combs, as we demonstrated last 

 season, almost any natural swarm would pay for itself 

 in ten days. 



Lest it be said tliat friend Bolin's success in win- 

 tering is accidental, we give the following from the 

 Tiffin Star of March 25th : 



There is a very universal complaint, throughout this 

 county, that the winter has been extremely hard on 

 bees. From what we can learn, we doubt whether a 

 tenth part of the number of swarms which were in 

 good condition last fall, are alive at this time. In this 

 immediate vicinity there will not be an average of 

 more than that saved. The last few weeks liave seem- 

 ed to do the business for most swarms. 



THE DvriNDLiNr,; doi^i^jv in our 



OAVN APIARY. 



m 



UT we have got it after all. It is now April 27th, 

 joji and since the "great freeze," we have for sever- 



al days noticed bees on the walks, clinging to 

 the fences," and in divers places, that looked like any 

 thing hut '-gathering honey all the day," etc. An ex- 

 amination of the hives shows that the old bees are 

 almost entirely gone, .and so suddenly has this taken 

 place, that it looks almost as if they had swarmed out 

 in some cases ; hives that were prosperous, with brood 

 in three combs, two weeks ago, now show brood with 

 no bees to cover it, and all that remain to take care of 

 the Queen, are a few downj- bees apparently just 

 hatched, and two colonies we actually found dead 

 just when the young bees had begun to gnaw out. A 

 third was united with another to save it, so that we 

 are now only 47. Does this begin to sound like the 

 story we told a year ago? Never mind, we are not 

 alone, to judge from the tenor of the postals now 

 coming in, and we are really glad to be able to have 

 the trouble right under our own observation. 



Now although all our colonies (with one exception) 

 have lost all, or nearly all their old bees, they are by 

 no means all weak, and the very best colony in the 

 Apiary is that one in the Standard. They too lost 

 their old bees, yet as their young brood commenced 

 hatching in March, they have bees now over a month 

 old. and able to ])erforin all kinds of out-door labor; 

 and when the freeze came, there were so many of 

 them, they did not even stop brood rearing; at all. 

 By the way we went to look at the colonies that had 

 the gruel ;"sure enough they hail unsealeil larvae in all 

 stages, while other colonies of equal strength had 

 only sealed brood and eggs. This would have been 

 convincing proof had we not examined the Standard 

 next and found it contained even more unsealed larvaj, 

 and yet they have had mo gruel ; in fact they don't 

 needf/rite^ or any other kind of tinkering. '-Do you 

 give this credit all to the different hive ?" s(5me may 

 ask. Certainly not, but we do give it to jjuttiug two 

 good colonies "into one, in Nov., see page 123, Vol. 2. 

 A 20 frame Langstroth hive would perhaps have done 

 as well, unless it be that a deeper frame is better 

 where 20 are to be spread out horizontally. This hive 

 actually has an entire Queen cell built, with an egg in 

 it i)rei)aratory to swarming. What do you thinlc of 

 that while ordinary colonies, are scai'cely making a 

 "live .^" Now then ! has any one faithfully tried the 

 exi)eriment of putting two good colonies into one, 

 and wintering them out of doors? It may be we are 

 getting over on to Gallup's ground, but we are sure, 

 we would as soon it should be lie that is right as .any 

 one. Perhaps such a colony would do well even in a 

 <louble walled hive. Who knows? We do like the 

 Standard hive because it is always all ready for ex- 

 tracting, for wiutering, or for any thing else, Viitliout 



