fJLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS. 



M'lKSSliS. A. 1. KOOT & Co :— Althoiijj;h my i)rolUs 

 I in bee- kcoi>iiifC hist year weie small eomiiare'l 

 h with tlioso ol' many bee-kecpcrH, fitill u report 



i>t my observations may be interesting to some. 



If "only tlie largest reports were given, we woulii 

 get only exaggerated laeas of tlie lousiness; so 1 will 

 tell you what I have accomplished while taking a 

 ■college course. My Apiary is located at Mason, a tlls- 

 tauce of only 12 miles Iroiii the college, so I was cna- 

 Tjled to give them a little personal attention. Aside 

 from this I liired about twenty-live days labor. 



I began last spring with 20 colonies, increased du- 

 ring the seiison to 50, and lost .'i by wintering. I sold 

 -from them about 8l(j().00 worth of "honey, rlacing on 

 the increase (2f> swarms) the low valuation ofJS.OO ))er 

 •colony, we have S'2(X).(0 for bees. This, i)lus SlOO.OO for 

 honey, minus f.;.").(i(i for labor gives a prolit of 8;}25.00. 



A number of early swarms went to the woods, and 

 through this and other such sources I probably lost as 

 anuch as $l(K).(io. The honey was mostly in the comb. 

 I have one of the Novice Extractors and I think it 

 ■would liave paid better to have used it more had my 

 time permitted. 



But, in spite of the difficulties that one must neces- 

 sarily meet while trying to follow two diverse occupa- 

 Jions" at a time. I hope to show you next fall, when my 

 <;ourse of study here is completed, that my bees have 

 jiald my coUepe expenses. Emmet Fullek. 



Agricultural College, Lansing, Mich. April 5th, '75. 



The following is a fair sample of some of our 

 •"troubles." It was ou a postal. 



Ml!. Root :— I have not rec'd the Feb. or March No. 

 ■of Gleanings. Some post-master must have gone 

 out of office on th j line. W. O. Sweet. 



We find Provideuce R. I., on the other side, 

 ^)ut we have no subscriber there by that name 

 and what shall we do? A short time ago, we 

 were able to remember something about those 

 with whom we had corresponded, but the num- 

 ber of postals we send out now daily, makes it 

 entirely out of the question to remember what 

 we wrote a week ago, and to whom we wrote. 

 In referring to something we have written you, 

 please mention the fact, or if convenient enclose 

 ihe postal and it will assist us very much. Let- 

 ters without signatures, and without town or 

 state, are getting to be alarmingly frequent, and 

 the worst trouble is, the writers are sure to 

 think the blame lies with us, or any where but 

 with themselves. 



You had better not try to ride the "hobby" that 

 "plenty of bees and plenty of honey will always an- 

 swer lor bees to remain on their summer stands." I 

 liave been trying to succeed with a similar )dan for 

 (he last 15 years and have generally succeeded pretty 

 well until iliis winter, it has thrown me Hat upon my 

 back. 1 never hail the bee disease before. I have al- 

 Mays packed my bees together with straw on three 

 sides and top, leaving the front end out and entrance 

 open. I have lost about 50 out of 81 packed in the 

 above way and more will fail yet. 1 think it was 

 caused by (he long continued cold weatiier. Three- 

 fourths of the bees in this section are dead, I did not 

 "tinker" them either, but packed tliem away quietly 

 the 23it1 of Nov. last. I think we will all have to take 

 lessons of friend Bolin in wintering. I would like to 

 see the phiz of those that can keep bees, so please send 

 iuo the Medlev. N. E. Phentice. 



Castalia, Liie Co., Ohio. April 5th, 1875. 



But we did not say Jionei/ friend P., nor did 

 we i?ii7ik honey. "Sealed stores," means sugar 

 syrup fed in the warm weather in the fall,ln- 

 stead of honey from all sorts of weeds. 



Bees are swarming, got five new ones already. 

 DiJ. J. M. Jancso. Los Angelos, Cal. Mar. 23, '75. 



Do you l.;now how Mr. Quinby's bees came out last 

 soring •- lie i^aid he was going to keep some in cellar 

 until flowers made their appearance. 



C. E. POTTEK, Eureka, Wis. 



We have not heard from him directly in re- 



gard to the matter, but think such experiments 

 have l)een on the whole rather favorable. The 

 present season it would have beta best to have 

 left our own bees in-doors, until about March 

 25th ; after that we had about 10 days of be;;u- 

 tiful weather for meal, before natural polk-ii. 

 We tliink it has been much better lor them to 

 liave been thus employed, than to have been 

 kept in-doors longer. We are at present deci- 

 dedly in favor of housing bees in this locality 

 from Nov. 1st, until about April 1st. Even 

 should the weather be quite warm in Nov., wc 

 find no difticulty in keeping them quiet in a 

 good close dark room. 



It is with fcnv and trembling that we put the 

 following in print. We have just been up ou 

 the tower, screwed up all the bolts and made 

 everything tight, and now we are ready for 

 the "gale." 



I disjiosed of my bees last winter and 1 find it lone- 

 some without my busy pets. I'll tell you what! there 

 is no use trying to keep bees without a woman to fix 

 things. That's so. If 1 should coax some nice little 

 Queen (woman) to "swarm" with me from the "old 

 hive," I am going to get another swarm of bees ; and 

 linaliy, if you divulge any of the secrets of this delec- 

 table epistle, I'll tear that irrepressible wind-mill all 

 to "eternal smash." — 



We have been making some arrangements to ship 

 our bees North to Indiana in the spring and back to 

 Tenn. in the fall, thereby getting at least ten weeks 

 more work out of them in a year, which we think \v ill 

 pay for the transportation. Last fall the bees in Tenn. 

 stored about 50 lbs. of honey from the Aster, between 

 loth of Sept. and 1st of Nov., to each colony, where 

 the extractor was used in time. Several swarms came 

 oil' in oiu' Apiary at Gallatin, Tenn., in Sept., one of 

 them tilled 10 frames, L. hive, and 30 frames surplus 

 honey— making all the combs. 



Forty-seven colonies in same Apiary, stored 2(300 lbs. 

 of extracted, and Uio lbs. box honey, and increased to 

 55, in lb74. In same place (Gallatin) the llev. J. W. 

 Shearer commenced the spring with one colony, in- 

 creased to live and extracted 43 j/aitojis of honey, and 

 most of this was from the Aster in the tall months. 



Baknum & Peyton. 



Edgefield Junction, Tenn. Feb. r2th, '75. 



TENNESSEE ITEMS. 



FRIEND NOVICE:—! have to-day (Nov. 17th) fin- 

 ished extracting— 91 colonies of Italians have increas-- 

 ed to 110. and yielded 3500 lbs. of honey, 500 of it comb 

 honey. The spring was very unfavorable for bees in 

 this portion of the South, many colonies that were not 

 fed during April starved on account of having too 

 much brood to care for, then a severe drouth set in 

 quite early. The fall pasturage was excellent. Wild 

 Aster is very abundant throughout the state. Strong 

 colonies had the honey extracted two or three times 

 while it was in bloom. Hives that have not been ex- 

 tracted, have their combs tilled and sealed to the bot» 

 torn. If there should come much freezing weather 

 this winter large losses of colonies that have been 

 managed (?) on the "let alone system," raaj' be expect- 

 ed. Fkank IJKNTi^x, Edgeliekl Junction, Tenn. 



From reports, we judge the result friend B. 

 feared, has already come to pass. 



Bees with us were never in so good shape this time 

 of year before, brood in one to three frames and some 

 hatching. Htoring honey also in past two days, from 

 soft maple and willow— 'twill shake out the combs 

 like summer. J. Oatman & Co. 



Dundee, Ills. April 8th, '75. 



Then friend O., we have just been thinking 

 that it must be new honey that glistened so 

 brightly in the cells, but had we ready means 

 of deciding that it was not honey that had been 

 brought from some other part of the hive. 

 True enough if it is new honey, it will readily 

 shake out of the cells, have we not many a 

 time daubed new honey all over the clean 

 clothes Mrs. N. had just insisted on our "don- 

 ning," by simply turning a comb over to get a 

 good look at the brood V Reports come from 



