60 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



DYSENTERY. 



What is the matter with my bees ? About the loth 

 of Oct., I transferred one colony from a box hive to 

 an old style Langstroth hive, putting- them on 5 

 frames, contracting brood chamber with 2 division 

 boards, and packing sides and top with cut straw. I 

 also united 3 weak colonies, making one strong one 

 of them, and packed them in the same manner. 

 Since the cold weather, I examined them and found 

 the entrances clogged up with dead bees and ice. I 

 cleaned out the entrances and the bees came buzzing 

 out, leaving the hive and not seeming to have any 

 disposition to return. Some of them would fly in 

 the air 30 or 40 feet, and drop in the snow. I found 

 the alighting board and snow badly specked by the 

 bees. Please give cause and a remedy. 



Plainfield, Ind., Jan. 10, '79 Jno. L. Gunn. 



Dysentery, in the A B C, will give you 

 the whole subject much better than I can 

 possibly give it here. I have several times 

 thought that bees transferred late in the 

 fall were much more liable to be thus affect- 

 ed. We should be very careful that the en- 

 trances are made in such a way, that they 

 cannot readily become clogged. That of the 

 .Simplicity hive is especially advantageous 

 in tins respect. Ice at the entrance is a sun 

 indication of there not being sufficient up- 

 ward ventilation through your straw and 

 chaff cushions. Take them in doors and dry 

 them out; give them a tly inside of a frame 

 covered with netting, as given in the A B C ; 

 put them back on their stands, with the dry 

 chaff and straw close to the cluster, with 

 some sort of a ventilator under the cover, 

 and, if there are bees enough left, they will 

 fetch up all right. 



WINTERING WITHOUT REMOVING THE UPPER FRAMES. 



In July, I put a box with frames on the top of a 

 good strong colony of bees, for them to store sur- 

 plus honey in, and they never stored an ounce all 

 summer but the queen laid a good many eggs in the 

 upper box. Not knowing what to do, 1 left the box 

 on, which has proven too cold, I suppose, for the 

 bees, for they all died early this winter. 



You will oblige me very much, Mr. Root, by tell- 

 ing what I should have done in the case. 



If I had taken the upper box off, what should I 

 have done with the combs containing brood, etc.'.'' 



I am down to one colony, and would not like to 

 lose that on account of not knowing what to do, in 

 case of a repetition of that sort of work. 



Mrs. Helena Madsen. 



Gunnison, San Pete, Utah, Dec. 30, 1878. 



If the bees built combs in the upper story, 

 I must think you mistaken, my friend, when 

 you say they stored not an oz. of honey there. 

 At the time of building the combs, they 

 probably had honey there too. but carried it 

 down afterward. If there was brood above, 

 there was certainly some honey around it. 

 After the season had closed, all the frames 

 above should have been removed, and their 

 places supplied with a chaff cushion, or even 

 loose, fine straw. Any colony except a very 

 powerful one, would suffer, if left all winter 

 with nothing over them but empty combs. 

 When preparing for winter, the brood is al- 

 ways to be put below, in place of some other 

 frame, that has so little honey in it that it 

 can be spared. This is one reason why the 

 lower story should always take the frames 

 used in the upper one. As your lower story 

 was a box hive, you could do nothing but 

 lose the brood, or carry it to some other 

 hive. I should have transferred them, the 

 minute I found myself in such a predica- 

 ment. Cover your one colony with bags or 

 cushions of chaff, and make them snug and 

 warm, if you have not already done so. 



My judgment is, the future for honest bee-keep- 

 ers is very gloomy and discouraging on account of 

 the improper use of glucose by designing bee-keep- 

 ers, as it will almost stop the demand for honey. 



P. D. Hill. 



Mt. Healthy, O., Jan. 30, 1879. 



The Humbug and Swindle department is 

 waiting for such designing bee-keepers, 

 friend Hill, and if any body can put me on 

 track of one who has sold comb honey pro- 

 duced by feeding glucose, I shall be very 

 much obliged for the information. 



EXPENSIVE mistakes. 



I don't think it best to trust to memory in every- 

 thing. I had a hive of bees that needed feeding. A 

 storm came on; I ran out hastily and thrust some 

 candy under the quilt. The storm cleared away; 

 my pets were dead. In my haste I fed the wrong 

 hive. Had I made a note of the number of the hive 

 needing food, the mistake would not have occurred. 



F. M. Peeler. 



Manchester, N. J., Dec. 24, 1878. 



BEES OP EGYPT. 



In Stanley's new book, "Across the Dark Conti- 

 nent," is the following about bees, which may be of 

 interest to your readers. On page 387, Vol. II, he 

 says: "On'the following morning (June 2d), the na- 

 tive brought about 30 lbs. of beeswax, a very dark 

 substance, which, had it not been for the diminutive 

 bees which clung to it, might have been mistaken 

 for pitch. Subsequently, 1 proceeded myself to the 

 source of supply, and discovered about a hundred 

 weight of beeswax attached to a lofty fragment of 

 rock, near Massassa Falls. These bees are of a dark 

 brown color, short and dumpy, about one-half the 

 length of the ordinary honey bee. At several pla- 

 ces, there were similar large secretions of wax, on 

 cliffy rocks." 



This place is about 100 miles from the sea, on the 

 west coast of Africa. If some of the bee importers 

 could manage to import them, they would, no doubt, 

 prove more profitable than Italians. It is a pity Mr. 

 Stanley does not state whether they also collect hon- 

 ey, and whether the swarm of insects is in propor- 

 tion to their immense stores. H. Goetz. 



Boston, Mass., Dec. 38, 1878. 



If these are the same as the Egyptian 

 bees that have been imported to this coun- 

 try, we can hardly consider them equal to 

 the Italians in all respects. 



WHAT HIVES TO BUY, COST OF THEM, HOW TO ORDER, 

 ETC. 



I want to change my bees, in the spring, from the 

 Thomas hive to some other good .reliable hive, and 

 want a littlo advice from you. Now, what I want to 

 know is this: Why do you claim the "Simplicity" to 

 be the best? and what will you furnish them for, 

 ready to nail up? 1 want 25 on the start; what wili 

 they cost per hive? Why do you think them better 

 than the Langstroth? Please answer by return 

 mail. Wm. Lossing. 



Freeland, Mich., Jan. 5, 1879. 



You will see, friend L., by reading every 

 No. of Gleanings, that I do not call the 

 Simplicity hive the best, but admit that there 

 may be other forms that will give just as 

 good results. 



We do claim for the Simplicity hive, how- 

 ever, in comparison with the Langstroth, 

 that it is cheaper, lighter, more simple, and 

 occupies less space, while the inside dimen- 

 sions are the same. Also, one story of the 

 Simplicity always fits over every other story; 

 or, a hvo story hive is always' 2 one story 

 hives, which is not the case with the L. hive. 



It is almost impossible for me to give you 

 prices of Simplicity hives in the fiat, unless 

 you read the conditions expressed in the 

 price-list, whicli we always send free upon 

 application. For instance ; do you want 1 or 

 2 story hives V do you want them arranged 

 for comb honey, or for the extractor V do you 



