7'0 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1875 



all arouii'l, that never before was seen so beau- 

 tiful an April, for' bee-keepers. With the new 

 honey, our own are brini^ing great masses of 

 pollen, that we thinly comes from the slippery 

 Elm, (Ulmus Fulod) and in our eagerness to 

 see it in the cells we tumbled out a lot of it 

 from the other side of the comb ; as it rolled 

 about on the ground, we concluded we had 

 better stop upsetting their household treasures. 

 We never dkl see such continued loads of pol- 

 len, as now (April 10th) stream into our hives, 

 day after day. 



Mit. Root, Dear Sir:— I have no doiiot there are 

 hundreils like me tvho woul'l prefer 2.) ibs. box honey 

 to 100 lbs. extracted, per hive. I have had from one 

 to ten of the double width hives foi- seven years and 

 have broken the whole wyt this fall. They are not as 

 populous in the sprinj? and do not feather so much box 

 honey nor any more extracted unless they are neither 

 of them meddled wltli for the season. Tlie reason ap- 

 pears to be, in a large liive there is room for the bees 

 to cluster at ni^ht, desertinsc the boxes unless very 

 hot. In a small one thev are forced to stav there and 

 if the boxes are occupied by ni^ht, there will be honey 

 put in them if there is any. If they are deserted nights, 

 there will be none put in, no matter how large the 

 swarm or how much honev. E. C. Newell. 



Brookfield, N. H. Dec. ITth, '74. 



But friend N., supposing you put in a divis- 

 ion board, and only give the the same amount 

 of room that you do in a single story until they 

 really need it, and then enlarge one comb at a 

 time. 



I clamiied my bees last fall in the same place as 

 the winter before; we took them out the 7th of this 

 month, all in fine order, 35 in all. They are all from 

 that one box hive purchased the ilrst of June, 1873. 

 You will see on page 9. Jan. No., where you say "If 

 friend M. really means thaV Well it looks bigi but 

 they are there, and sure enough they came all from 

 tliat one box hive and this spring it is stronger than 

 ever before. It is easy to tell a bee master how it was 

 done— simply having plentj- of empty comb, extracted 

 honey, and flour— but to tell a new novice would be a 

 hai'd job for ms. 



In the spring I made flour starch, and while hot ad- 

 ded the same <iuantity of lionev and f^d out-doors, 

 had them fly about 30 vards. I think they l)reed mucli 

 better than" when ted in the hive. I extracted till 

 about 10th Sept., about the last of that mouth fed 

 about 5 lbs. to each hive, of white sugar syru|), which 

 I think I hey store near their brood nest and that puts 

 them through the winter. The honey that is in the 

 out-side combs, they can get when they fly. 



James McLay, Madison, Wis. April lith, '75. 



Another direct report in favor of sugar, and 

 open air feeding. 



Bees, I am sorry to say, are about played out in this 

 part of the country. I have been through and exavn- 

 ihed many hives of dead bees, ami find the bee malady 

 or dysentery the principal diflioulty. I opine that the 

 cause of dysentery is dry weather in summer an<i fall, 

 which stops brood roaring too soon and causes the 

 bees to work on cider and ripe fruits, whi'',h makes 

 bad winter stores ; then, a long cold winter that gives 

 no chance for a fl)% and it is not very strange that the 

 bees perish. My stock consisted of 17 colonies which 

 I put in cellar about the flrst of December, slept qui- 

 etly and all right until about '25th of Feb., when they 

 became damp and restless. The weather r(;mained 

 too colli to give them a fly until the loth of March; 7 

 out of 17 went up. However, that will all come right 

 ■when we learn more about bees and get better pre- 

 pared to keep them. My present location is a good 

 one I think, as there is a large linden grove near in- 

 stead of a cider mill. B. F. Linusev. 



Bushnell, Mcdonough Co., Ills. April 12th, '75. 



Thanks for facts furnished. All now agree, 

 we believe, that sugar \n juM as (jood for winter 

 stores, and enough cheaper to pay the expense 

 of feeding. Supposing you invariably feed 

 tjirough Aug. and Sept. in all localities and 

 during all seasons that furnish no natural 

 stores, have you any doubt it would l)e an ex- 

 cellent investment? Even in th.s month, if 



there is a period of warm weather, during 

 which the bees get no honey, feed by all means : 

 don't let brood rearing stop. 



March 27th, set bees on suratoer stand, ;J1 in all. So> 

 far as I can see, all is well excei^t one which I lost 

 fair and Sfjuare. but can not account for it. 



Would not take ten dollars for Qninby smoker if it 

 could not be replaced. 



T. J. DoDi>s, Le Claire, Iowa. 



I wish yon could see where friend Muth winters and 

 keeps his bees the year round ; he has them arranged 

 on shelves on the top of a three-story house, exposed 

 to all kinds ot weather, and the c'^'ld north winds 

 whistling and blowing hard enough sometimes to car- 

 ry them ofl", yet his uniform success ib a snrjn-ise to 

 everyone; not having lost more than one or two for 

 several years and those not from dysentery but Irons 

 having eaten their stores around them. 



H. E. CURKr, Cincinnati, O. 



Bee? in cellar yet. Seem to l>e in line condition. 

 Most of the bees in central N. Y. are on their summer 

 stands. Heavy losses are reported. Have examined 

 some lots, that were in fine condition, others lose 

 nearly all. K C Root, Mohawk, N. Y. Apr. 16, '75. 



My bees are in fine condition this spring. I write 

 this to say that bees can use coal dust as pollen. The 

 swamp was burnt over again last fall, and the bees 

 have been bnsy this sprinor gathering dust oflTthe logs 

 and other places, and they have used it too, as Is 

 shown by their droppings around the yard, when fall- 

 ing on painted hives, it is perfectly black after i)assinff 

 the bee, as it was before. J. L. Davis. 



Delhi, Mich. April 13th, 1875. 



Something new to us. Yesterday while Father and 

 a liand were sawing a Maple for stove wood, the bees 

 came and clawed and tumbled around in the sawdust 

 and, as nicely as couhl be, they loaded up their little 

 legs with the" very ftnest of the ilust and took it home- 

 We could scarce believe our eyes, to-day the sawdust 

 is almost deserted for the willows. J. N. Lewis. 



West Winsor, Eaton Co., Mich. April 7th, '75. 



We have for many years been familiar with 

 the habits of bees in regard to sawdust, and 

 are now strengthened in our opinion by the 

 item furnished by friend Davis, as well as the 

 one above, that the sawdust meal etc., are used 

 something as cattle and horses often use earth 

 in the spring after being confined to one par- 

 ticular kind of food all winter. We can hardly 

 suppose that the dry earth and the sawdust 

 contain nutriment, yet we cannot think the 

 bees or cattle would take so much pains to get 

 these things were they not in some way bene- 

 ficial. Can some one give us further focts or 

 suggestions in the matter? 



I am now feeding what few bees I have left, and 

 they are bulding up rapidly. I am anxious to get the 

 Extractor to extract honey to feed. 



N. E. Pkentice. Castalia, O. April 10th, '75. 



We have had several orders for Extractors 

 saying they wanted them to extract the honey 

 tor feeding, which is to us incomprehensible, foi' 

 we have always supposed that the very nicest, 

 and most economical way to feed was to have 

 honey in the comb. These combs can with the 

 utmost ease be placed close to the brood, 

 and if we wish to stimulate still fiister, we 

 have only to slice ofl'the caps, as has been pre- 

 viously mentioned. For building up colonies, 

 encouraging brood rearing, or supplying the 

 needful amount of food, we should prefer ■^ lbs. 

 sealed up, to 4 lbs. in the liquid state any time, 

 for it is already deposited in the combs, with- 

 out waste in capping, storing, etc. 



I examined a hivo of bees a few miles from here, 

 which were all dead, the hive h iving a very nni)leas- 

 ant smell ab<nitit: liiey were all up in the top coml>« 

 in clusters, covered with a soi-t of mould resembling 

 sulphur, but there wan no br^iod In any ^lage to be 



