84 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1875 



As an illustration of how seldom we stop to 

 think that it is possible a particular course of 

 treatment for wintering may neither do harm 

 nor good, we append the following letters. Our 

 opinion has been for some time that our ma- 

 nure heaps of a year ago, were neither beneficial 

 nor injurious to any considerable extent, and 

 that because a good healthy colony survives a 

 large amount of tinkering, it is no proof that 

 it was benefitted thereby. 



That Gleanings may live and prosper is my sincere 

 ■wish, although it has some erroneous ideas. Say for 

 instance the hot bed arrangement. It cost me five 

 stands of bees last year. It was a cold spring, Itut the 

 manure Itept the hives so warm, they thought it was 

 raid-summer and would come out and never get back 

 again. When the five went up the manure went witli 

 them at a 2-40 rate. It lea me with 4 stands of bees. 

 I increased to 7 and tooli 100 lbs. of honey this spring. 

 Lost one of dysentery caused by water running into 

 the cellar. 



C. S. Wellman, Denver, Bremer Co., Iowa. 



Hives on out door stand went into winter quarters 

 with plenty of stores. Extracted from three hives, 

 two combs from each, put in centre, found Queens all 

 right, took the caps from the hives, (hives are Ameri- 

 ciin) covered the frames with old carpe^,, filled the va- 

 cancy above with oat straw, moved the hives a foot 

 apart and threw oat straw nround out side; then, 

 piled that obnoxious stuff called stable manure over 

 the top, and three sides, covered all with boards, and 

 waited all winter until Saturday 13th March, before 

 removing the covering from the tops. Found all dry 

 and snug as could be ; drew one out from the manure 

 ])ile when Oh ! Oh ! Novice what do you think, they 

 were twice as strong as they were in the fall ; plenty 

 of brood, honey and nollen. I felt like sending my 

 old hat up to the moon'if I had been able. Heigh-ho ! 

 for the manure pile, a perfect success. Am making 

 some Standard hives. Intend to transfer all my bees 

 into them. Am making them to take in 16 American 

 frames ; will adopt the tin rabbets. I have located an 

 Apiary Hexagonal ; ground sloping to the south-east, 

 grade one foot in twelve. (1 foot to 12) is that too much ? 

 W. Stalky, Rohrsburg, Pa. March 15th, '75. 

 One foot in 12, we should think rather too 

 much, not that it would do any harm however, 

 further than to make work inconvenient on so 

 much of a side hill. We should prefer a de- 

 scent of only about 1 foot in 50. 



I took my bees out of the pit March 31st, two weeks 

 later than usual, and found them all in prime condi- 

 tion. They had consumed about 15 lbs. of honey on 

 the average. Those nearest the door consuming most. 

 All h.ad as much brood in all stages as I care to see at 

 this time of the year. It would have made your eyes 

 twinkle to have seen those 24 colonies, hives jam full 

 of bright clean healthy bees, and brood in four to six 

 IVames capped. 1 cleaned them out the first finf day 

 and did not find over a hundred dead bees to the hive, 

 and not more than ten or fifteen worms. I have been 

 leeding rye flour since and they still work on it al- 

 though willows and poplar are in bloom. If it is as 

 sonA a season as last, look out for a big report from 

 '"The economical man." I am so glad you have win- 

 tered so well. I never had any hopes of the glass 

 biisiness, although some may make it work. 



Mv father has abandoned the bee business, brought 

 me all the bees he has left— two weak swarms in box 

 hives— and savs he will give up trying to get honey 

 the old fashioned way, and is too old to learn the new 

 fangled notions. 



B. L. JoiNEK, Wyoming, Wis. April 20th, '75. 



The unusual amount of honey consumed, 

 was probably on account of rearing so much 

 brood in winter quarters, and to do this, if we 

 are correct, they must have large stores of 

 pollen. Was not such the case, last fall, friend 

 J. ? We believe it is true, that getting hon- 

 ey the old fashioned way, is growing more and 

 more precarious, with each succeeding year. 



Bees have done middling well hei-e this winter. 

 Went into winter uiiftrters with six swarms, came 

 through with five lelt. Wintered 4 on summer stands, 

 lost one of dysentery ; that one had an Italian C^ueen, 

 the rest black. Two in ccrilar came? through strong as 

 went in. A. S. Williams, Kennedy, N. \. 



Rather than that the fault was in any way 

 due to the Italian Queen, we should be in- 

 clined to think it might in some way have 

 been brought about by the delay in brood 

 rearing caused by her introtluction. Was it> 

 not so Iriend W. ? 



DEAK NOVICE:— Oh! my! hovr much easier mv 

 little buzz works and sinffs, since I substituted horse 

 power for human muscle. But do not harbor a thought; 

 that I liaye therefore destroyeil the fo )t power, ^o 

 sir, not by any manner of means. It is mucli too con- 

 venient a fixture to have about the shop, to be thu-s 

 sacrificed. Perhaps you would like to know that f 

 have managed to doable the leixi/lh of the belt that runs 

 the arbor pulley, and thereby have vastly increased 

 the efliuiency of the belt. 



D. P. "Lane, Koshkonong, Wis. April 15th, '75, 



Nearly all the bees wintered on summer stands, in 

 this neighborhood, are dead. 



.1. L. Davis, Delhi, Mich. March 19th, '75. 



If that is the case we shall have to back out 

 before we are started, in our plan of out-dooi- 

 winteriug. Will you, or any one else for that 

 matter, give us a full report of an extra strong 

 colony that has perished on their summer 

 stand, with plenty of upward ventilation V 

 Give us all the minutisie. With natural stores,, 

 perhaps they might die of dysentery, but if 

 they were provided with sugar stores, fed in 

 warm weather, we are inclined to think such a 

 case could not be found. It is a good rousingf 

 colony that we wish to hear of, remember. 



Richard Lord, Muscatine. Iowa, used to run 4 or 5 

 hundred hives but the "disease" took all but a few. 

 He is one of the successful men but does not take Bee 

 Journals, nor attend conventions. Introduces Queens 

 by iinqueeninq, then as soon as royal cells are built he 

 daubs the new Queen with royal jelly and in she goes. 

 D. D. Pal:.:ei{, Eliza, Ills. 

 Royal Jelly, from the Queen cells the bereav- 

 ed colony had started ! The idea is certainly 

 a brilliant one whether it succeeds or not, and 

 we are much inclined to think it would suc- 

 ceed. If she had the scent of their men royal 

 jelly why should they not think that she hatch- 

 ed out of their own cells ? At any rate we 

 have just the conditions most desired, viz., 

 the colony have cells of their own nearly ready 

 to seal. Our friend B. Lundener, wrote several 

 years ago to the A. B. J., that any Queen could 

 be let loose at once safely, in any colony that 

 had just started Queen cells, or something to 

 that effect, and we believe such is the case nine 

 times in ten during the honey season. 



1 am a beginner in the bee business, and would like 

 to know if frames that have both brood and honey 

 can be extracted without injuring the brood. 



Wm. J. Holt. Ashland. O. May 1st, 1875. 

 It is now a customary thing to put every 

 comb in the hive into the extractor, and the 

 most inexperienced novice soon learns that 

 the brood is entirely uninjured, unless he is so 

 careless, as to throw it out with the honey, 

 which is quite unnecessary, for it takes a much 

 higher speed to throw out the unsealed brood, 

 than is required to get out the honey. 



Will you give a description of the Langstroth hive 

 in vour Bee Journal? that a novice may build one if 

 he wishes. H. Quale. 



Grand Ledge, Mich. April 17th, 187.5. 



We gave, in March J^^o. of Vol. 1, a very full 

 description, measurements, etc., of Langstroth 

 hive. Of course it is to be made Simplicity 

 fashion, and we to-day, feel better satisfied of 

 the advantages of this, over the old style with 

 its superlliions lumber, and upper stories un- 

 like, than we were M'hen wo first advised it. 



