i'34 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



arts, owiv apjaky, 



ij^EPT. Isit. As sure as yon live our bees 

 ^^ too, arc getting honey again. For several 

 days the}^ have been unusually Inis.y, and to- 

 day the scales actually show i^ lb. clear gain. 

 No'.v we have been feeding about a dozen 

 stocks for the past ten days, — we do uot wish 

 now to feed in the .open air, because quite a 

 number have snftlcieut for winter, — and we had 

 quite a curiosity to see whether those fed last 

 ivening would go out to the fields with the 

 same ambition as those not fed ; there is no 

 doubt about it, they do not, l)ut before coming 

 to a hasty decision, perhaps we had better in- 

 quire if the feeding has really made them lazy. 

 How did a dozen colonies come to be on the 

 verge of starvation when others had abun- 

 dance for winter ? We are very much inclined 

 to think that they had so little just because 

 they were poor workers, ?.nd that they do not 

 go out now for the same reason, and 7ioi be- 

 cause we have been feeding them. One of these 

 indolent ones is a colony about three-fourths 

 black bees, and our best working stocks are 

 mostly of the imported strain of blood. Before 

 dropping the subject we wish to say that feed- 

 ing can be made to keep a good colony at 

 home daring a heavy yield oif honey, and to 

 avoid this we would feed only at night and in 

 such small (}uantities that it may be all out of 

 the Avay before morning. 



A. coliee sugar costs us by the barrel, 10>.< 

 cts., and yellow C, S%; we gave two colonies 

 of about equal strength and both having 

 young Queens, just 5 lbs. of sugar, one the for- 

 mer and the other th'.' latter kind, with a view 

 of testing the comb building qualities of each. 

 Although the yellow sugar was taken up with 

 less avidity, it certainly produced the most 

 comb, — sec page H, — and, so far as we can see, 

 seems to give best results in lirood rearing. 



Tiie syrup from this yellow sugar appears in 

 the combs like dark honey It may do as well 

 for wintering, but we doubt it so much that we 

 would advise experimenting on a small scale 

 at first. For building up colonies in warm 

 weather we think it probably even better. 



Perhaps the foreign matter may to some ex- 

 tent supply the place of pollen. 



Syi. 2nd — We mentioned having 13 Queens 

 hatch in one day ; well, a (■jal)bath school picnic 

 and several other things so intervened, that we 

 were delayed in introducing several of them 

 until they were over 24 hours okl, and more 

 than half of these were killed at once. As soon 

 as let out of their cages they started on a run, 

 and of course the bees put after them full chase, 

 as such suspicious conduct seemed to warrant 

 something wrong. If the young Queen in her 

 fright emitted her peep of alarm, we felt that 

 it was just as well to set the register at "miss- 

 ing'", for we were sure on ournext visit, to find 

 Queen cells started. 



The suspended hive shows ^4 lb. to-day, and 

 comb building has commenced even in colonies 

 that have had no feed. Those colonies are do- 

 ing best, that show from the white patches on 

 their backs that they arc working on the wild 

 touch-me-not,— see page 111, Vol. 2.,— and a trip 

 into the forests to-day sliows that an unus- 

 ual amount of honey is contained in the hollow 



spur of the flower. On our visit of a year ago, 

 we found the bees going down into the flower 

 without a thought, apparently, of doing any 

 other way, but now, nearly every bee first ex- 

 amines this spur carefully, and strange to tell, 

 often finds a small oi'ifice cut through the side, 

 perhafps by the bumble bees, although we could 

 see no bees of any kind in the act of making 

 them. Well, the honey is drawn from the spur 

 much more expeditiously than by the old way 

 of pushing into the flower and then kicking and 

 scrabbling to get out backwards. How is it, 

 do bees too improve on former methods of do- 

 ing things, or is it only because this season dif- 

 fers from the last ? Each spur seenis to be 

 quite full of honey, and a dozen blossoms it 

 seems, should furnish a good load. We can 

 readily imagine that they might l)e very glad 

 to escape ruflling their fur the "wrong way" so 

 many times in the day, but what will Dame 

 Nature do now if the bees have really invented 

 a short cut for rifling the flowers of their hon- 

 ied treasurea without even so much as touch- 

 ing the pollen at all ? If it has taken ages to 

 complete the curious and beautiful structure 

 of the touch-me-not, so specially adapted to the 

 habits of our native bees, yet quite inadequate 

 to bailie the extra strength and euerg)' of our 

 new, imported, Italian friends in their zeal for 

 rapid accumulation of sweets, what will the 

 plant proceed to do next ? 



Get your hats or bonnets, and come with us 

 to the woods one of these flue autumn morn- 

 ings, and if you have never before felt like bow- 

 ing in mute revei-ence and thankfulness before 

 the great Author of this mighty universe, stud 

 ythe insects and plants, and see what broad, 

 open pages are spread out before all who care 

 to use the facilities a kind Father has given us. 



Sept. lotli.—ln looking over the hives as we 

 have just been doing, to see how manj' lacked 

 room lor the autumn wild flower honey that 

 is now accumulating at about the rate of l}.^ 

 lbs. per day, we found a quilt that was so bad- 

 ly eaten through that we decided to discard it. 

 By the way, one piece of cloth will pi'ove to be 

 perfectly bee-proof in this respect, Avhile anoth- 

 er will be all eaten through,— and the way they 

 string the batting out at the front of the hive 

 is amusing, — yet both may be our favorite 

 Indian Head brand. We have never found any 

 fabric that will stand under all circumstances, 

 except the duck that we use for feeders, and 

 we have tried red flannel, satinet, and various 

 kinds of woolen goods in the house Apiary, as 

 a covering for the frames. For a while the},' 

 would do very well, but when the room became 

 quite warm, as we want it for comb building, 

 for instance, they would be sure to cut little 

 holes through ; to be sure they go back down 

 into these holes when it gets cool again, but 

 we prefer that they keep down on the combs. 

 It seems to encourage them in the habit of loaf- 

 ing that we have before spoken of. Well, we 

 threw the spoiled quilt across the trellis, and 

 gave them a new one, and by the wa}% if v/e 

 ever lay a thing down thinking we will take 

 care of it at some future time, we are sure to 

 forget it, and so it proved in this case; it was 

 not noticed again until afternoon, and we were 

 astonished to flnd it covered with bees busy 

 loading the propolis as they do pollen. Now 

 we wish to digi'ess here enough to say that our 



