74 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June. 



out sealing it while hot, as we do Iruit. It is 

 well known that maple syrup put up in this 

 way, will, retain all the original flavor of early 

 spring. We have had all the experience we 

 ever wish to have, with jars of honey with 

 sticky labels, and with honey oozing out at 

 the tops, so that they stick last to the shelf on 

 which they are kept. t'e<tl it vp hot, and this 

 will never happen. 



OUK OWl>r AMARY. 



AY 6th. Drones have made their ap- 

 pearance in several colonics, but the 

 weather is quite cold, and brood rearing is 

 almost suspended in the weak colonies. The 

 bees are still actively at work on the meal, 

 and this season it must have been of immense 

 advantage. Stronrj colomts, send out bees for 

 the meal, even during unfavorable weather, 

 and protected as it is by the glass, they will 

 work on it even during a considerable sliower. 

 As these heavy colonies are going right along, 

 with brood in all stages all the time, it does 

 really seem as though one stronrj colony would 

 be w'orth a dozen weak ones. Some colonies 

 are getting natural pollen to some extent, but 

 the meal is the main dependence. Nothing 

 but warm weather can save two more colo- 

 nies ; they have nice Queens from the imported 

 stock and we dislike to unite them. We are 

 making some careful experiments in feeding. 

 Uncapping sealed combs, during a cold spell, 

 we are inclined to think, will not do as well, 

 as feeding them syrup. We hud weak colonies 

 without brood, or with but little, and looking 

 starved, even with heavy sealed combs next to 

 the cluster. If a brisk course of feeding, would 

 till all the cells around the brood, and make 

 them show white bits of new comb just over 

 the brood, we believe they would get along 

 better ; we are trying various ways of feeding, 

 to secure this, and one colony we have given a 

 tea-kettle feeder, full of syrup to be used at 

 their leisure, to see if we cannot make them 

 "get along." Of course we have packed the 

 space all around it well with old clothing. 

 See cover of Dec. No., Vol. 2. 



May \()th — Humiliating as it is, we mu.^t con- 

 fess it ; we have lost one more colony. Our 

 two weak ones swarmed out ; we found the 

 Queen of one, and put her back caged, and 

 then gave them three combs full of brood bees 

 and pollen from a strong colony, enough in fact 

 to have made a good artilicial swarm, and now 

 they are all right. We then went for the other 

 Queen, intently bent on providing for her in 

 the same way ; but after an hour's search, sat 

 down with a long face, on top of a hive, and 

 Wasted some more time making good resolu- 

 tions. The result was a determination that 

 our 46 colonies, mnst go to work, and the way 

 we have made them work "rain or shine" for 

 the last few days, has been so satisfactory that 

 we will give it. Put an empty hive without 

 cover, in some sheltered jilace aftbrding access 

 to the bees; we use the old forcing house, but 

 we presume an open window will do; if it al- 

 lows the sun to shine in the hive all the better. 

 Put in the hive six Universal feeders, and 1111 

 them to the brim with syrup or sweetened 

 water, leaving the mouths all ojjcn ; don't fear, 

 the bees won't drown, and when they get really 



in earnest, — so they will carry oflTa colfee-pot- 

 I'ul an hour for instance, — see if you too don't 

 call it fun. This out door feeding seems just 

 now, to start brood as we would have it, and 

 we are determined that the 46 must work, until 

 the blossoms call them away from artificial 

 supplies. There will be honey to get before 

 winter, ire know, as Mrs. Kowell, says on page 

 lo. The bees have been busy on the meal until 

 to-day, but now they are once more so busy on 

 the natural pollen. AVe forgot to say that our 

 out-door feeding causes nothing like robbing 

 at all ; in tact thej^ seem to take the syrup 

 from these cloth bags precisely as they would 

 honey from the blossoms, and the eft'ect on the 

 interior of the hive, is just what it should be. 



We have just received a report of the Con- 

 vention at Mich., through the kindness of Mr. 

 Burch. The losses reported are strange in- 

 deed, and we cannot help wondering again 

 whether it is really in the power of the bee- 

 keeper to avert them. Mr. Bidwell and others, 

 seem to have no trouble in wintering with 

 the cold frames, but the bees will get "sick" in 

 the spring; there is the great trouble. Mr. 

 Bingham, if we get his ideas correctly, "doub- 

 led up" 150 stocks clear down to two, and yet 

 they would die. Pi'iend Nevins, of Cheviot, O., 

 writes in regard to the freeze. 



Unless yoii have a better show for bee pasturage 

 than wo "have here, I think jou will be fortunate if 

 A ou lose two-thirds of your bees, to save the expense 

 of sugar syrup to keep "them the coming year. 



Now are you not borrowing trouble friend 

 N. ? It is ver,y true that our cherished plans, 

 are at times dashed to the earth, but is it not 

 etiually true that a bountiful honey yield ev- 

 ery little while comes upon us unexpectedly, 

 and is it not a plain duty to be at all times pre- 

 pared for either extreme ? If we make up our 

 minds to faithfully perform the duties of each 

 day as they come up, without regard to what 

 happens, we will soon be astonished to find 

 how much cause we have to be thankful, and 

 how many of our troubles, are after all, only 

 imaginary ones. 



ARTIFICIAL, SW ARMING. 



i^fipESSRS. A. I. ROOT & CO. :— In Gleanings for 



jOwj"l ^^^y-i P''*8e "-. you say that it seems necessary 

 «r«w lo atUt to what" has already been said on trans- 

 ferring bees. Now it ceems to me you ought to add 

 something to explain more fuUj- your mode of making 

 artilicial swarms. I have read Gleanings from Al- 

 plia to Omega and do not lind it tjuite plain. You say 

 take a comb from several liives etc.; that is all very 

 well but yon don't tell us where you get your bvek 

 Can you "not tell us more about it in June No., anil 

 oblige at least one novice i-* 



liees wintered very badly in this section and the 

 dwindling down is "very discouraging. Hives that 

 were reasonably strong in March, contain many of 

 them, no more than a pint or a quart of bees. All bo.v 

 hives in this section. C. E. Pottek. 



Watkins, Schuyler Co., N. Y. May 10th, 1875. 

 We are well aware of the dirficulty friend P., 

 of making it all plain, because we are apt to 

 forget that many of our readers may be unfa- 

 miliar with things, that we see in the Apiary 

 so fre(iuently, that it seems unnecessary to 

 mention them. Now see if we do not make it 

 clear. For instance, take the simplest mode of 

 making an artilicial colony, which consists 

 only in lifting half the combs and bees out of 

 their own hive and .setting them into a new 

 one. If the new hive has been previously lo- 

 cated just where it is to stand, and you arc 

 using the metal corner.-}, you can do this in one 



