1S75 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



■Sfl 



too; the next hive had only about (i conil)s 

 instead of 12, l)ut these <» were etjiuilly well 

 stocked with brood and covered with l)ees, 

 and thou we asked to see his very weakest 

 colony. 



"A nucleus?" said I). 



"Well yes, a nucleus. Wc waul to see if 

 your bei-s ■<iltr<iifi< tiW a comb with brood clear 

 down, before tJiey take an(tther." 



"Why that is just what I have been tryini;^ 

 to tell you. I »M/Mv; them do it with the diri.s- 

 ion iKHird. 1 never give the Queen another 

 <'omb, until she has iJlled those she has clear 

 i'ull, and has bees enougii to cover another and 

 take care of the eggs." And so we found it 

 ndear through the Apiary. Bees were found 

 rlustcriug out in front of hives as though they 

 were a "Uig swarm," and on looking inside 

 they had only two mmbx, and both of these, — 

 one against tlie front end, the other close 

 to the division board, — lilled witli brood a-s be- 

 fore. When they began to get crowded out, 

 and not until then, they were given another 

 eomb. Do you see why tlie freeze did much 

 less mischief with his bees than with ours V 



Yesterday we called on friend Blakeslee. 

 He wintered 50 colonies in 2o L. hives — puts in 

 ji division board in the fall, and winters them 

 <H\ 4 combs each. They are now full of bees, 

 -:iud are hanging out — of course one entrance 

 is in front, and the other at the back of the 

 hive, — and he is busy at work giving them a 

 full hive each. We gave him this idea, two 

 years ago, but our first trial of the plan result- 

 ed in so much loss, that we abandoned it, yet 

 Mr. B. has succeeded nicely with it for the past 

 two seasons. Do you see that on the same 

 principle of Mr. Dean's, Mr. B's bees do better 

 on four combs than they would in a full hive ? 



The locust trees are in full bloom now, yet 

 aiot a bee is to be seen on them. A few years 

 ago we wanted to plant a Locud Orchird, but 

 are glad we did uot, now, it is so seldom they 

 yield a crop of honej'. The Linden Orchard is 

 booking glorious — masses of bright green foli- 

 age in strait rows of almost half a mile in 

 length. 



June I2ik — A whole pound of honey the day 

 before yesterday, and i>ro whole ones yesterday 

 were indicated by the spring balance, and it is 

 in all probability from the clover, locusts fur- 

 ziish nothing to speak of, although the trees 

 are white with bloom. 



On the 10th, we paid a. visit to Mr. Coe, the 

 patentee of the house Apiary. The building is 

 very pretty and tasty, and the bees going out 

 and in through the sidts, with the square of 

 different colors jxiinted over each entrance,gives 

 an effect on a grass lawn that to our eye is de- 

 '■idMljj ornamental. On looking into the inte-- 

 vior, the visitor is even more delighted, for 

 arranged on broad shelves on either side, are 

 observatory hives, having a glass over the out- 

 side comb, that gives a view of all the work- 

 ings of the hive. In one where the Ixjes had 

 filled the number of combs given them, we saw 

 the Queen depositing eggs, with all her wonted 

 <liligence. The frames are close fitting sides, 

 and the shelf they rest on, closes the bottom, 

 while the tops are covered with a piece of 

 woolen cloth. In starting a colony, a board 

 the size (jf a frame is first set up before an en- 

 trance, and at a little distance from the wall, 



then two or three C(Mnbs with bees are i)laced 

 against this, then the other board which con- 

 tains an ol)servation glass ; each of these 

 boards has a screw in the side, and a piece of 

 tape or a rubber band, holds the whole togeth- 

 er. As we have said, when all is cleared up, 

 and the bees are seen only through the glass, 

 the beauty of the arrangment is enough to set 

 any one wild with the idea. Mr. Coe u.ses tall 

 frames, as it gives him an opportunity to i)ile 

 the bo.Kcs up on i)oth sides, and this very fea- 

 ture brings the sides so nciU- the centre of tlie 

 brood cluster, that the moment the frames are 

 separated, the bees make exploring expeditions 

 to see what is the matter, in a way that is very 

 annoying when the frames are to be replaced. 

 Mr. Dean who accompanied us, was so disgust- 

 ed in his attempts to open and close a hive 

 without killing bees, that he demjunces the 

 hou.se altogether, unless it be for box honey, 

 and we tried in vain to convince him, that it 

 might even be posnible, to so arrange things, that 

 extracting could be done inside. We must, 

 confess that the sight of bees hopping about 

 on the floor in imminent danger of being tramp- 

 led under foot, and taking their own time to 

 get to the window, was any thing but encour- 

 aging for the extracting business. The fact 

 that similar houses have been in use for years 

 for box honey, and that none of them seem to 

 obtain permanent favor, is rather against them. 

 Mr. Coe however may have made some valua- 

 ble improvements. His patent was granted in 

 Jan. ; we have not seen his claims. 



June lith — As it was quite cold yesterday, 

 index only showed }.< lb., but to-night we see 

 the hand has traveled around to the tune of 

 Uirce pounds aiul a half ! White clover isn't a 

 failure in our "ranch" this season any way. 

 Have made three new colonies, and Dadant 

 sent us an imported Queen, that wc gave four 

 combs of hatching bees (don't pay to run any 

 risks with f 10.00 "insex,") so we are now 47. 



On page 63, we mentioned a colony that had 

 "sick bees" even in warm weather; these got 

 well and now every bee is as healthy as need 

 be. But in another part of the Apiary we have 

 had a similar case for more than a month past, 

 and the trouble seems to be getting alarming. 

 Bees may be seen at all times of the day around 

 the entrance, hopping about antl exhibiting a 

 peculiar, nervous twitching, which finally ends 

 in death ; on opening the hive, these nervous, 

 twitching bees are to be seen all through the 

 colony ; many of them presenting a ([ueer black 

 look, and some of them are so wasted away as 

 to be mere skeletons, painful to look at. 

 The Queen is not of the imported stock, and 

 seems to be quite prolific, and brood rearing is 

 going on finely, yet if something docs not turn 

 up, the colony must perish. A few of these 

 bees are found in other hives, but they may 

 have crawled in by mistake. In tlie first case 

 of the malady, we supposed it was caused by 

 some improper food they had collected, and 

 that it would cease when they began to gather 

 new stores, which seemed to be the case ; but 

 in this latter case, the trouble seems to be 

 rather on the increase. Whether or no it has 

 any thing to do with the prevalent spring 

 dwindling we are unable to say. 



.June 2ith — By some freak of fortune, our 

 Apiary counts 51 colonies instead of 47. We 



