86 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



will always be more to learn.] 



Which is the best locality'/ 



[Perhaps California is the best locality known, at 

 present, for honey, but many other conditions are 

 to be considered; it may be difficult to decide.] 



I am buying the best white clover honey, for 15c. 

 per lb. It seems to me there can be but little profit 

 in that, to the original shipper. 



New York, Jan. 14, 1879. Jas. E. Boyd. 



GRAPE SUGAR FOR WINTERING. 



ANOTHER BAD REPORT, SEEMINGLY, FROM GRAPE 

 SUGAR. 



I have seen it stated in the bee journals, and also 

 heard from practical bee men, that grape sugar is 

 an excellent and cheap food for bees. Taking it for 

 granted that these men knew all about it. I sent to 

 Davenport for 110 lbs., which cost me $6.20. 



The next thing was to prepare it for the bees, 

 which 1 did by putting some of it into frames, and 

 cutting some into thin slabs. I put the frames into 

 the hives among the bees, and the slabs on top of 

 the frames. When I came to look at the bees, ex- 

 pecting to see great holes eaten through the sugar, 

 what was my surprise when I found the bees dead,- 

 and the sugar not touched ! 



In one chaff hive containing a large swarm, I hail 

 put 3 cards of honey, then 1 of sugar, then 5 of hon- 

 ey, then 1 of sugar, and then 4 of honey. I found 

 the bees dead between the sugar cards, and no hon- 

 ey wit h.them, but plenty of honey on each side. I 

 suppose, during the cold weather, they could not 

 pass the cold sugar to get honey, and as they would 

 not eat the sugar, they died. In another hive, where 

 the swarm was divided by a card of sugar, the bees 

 on one side ate out their honey and died, while the 

 other side had honey and lived. 



I then melted some grape sugar with first class 

 maple sirup, and put that in the frames, but they 

 would not touch it. Next I took some pure white 

 sugar and put about an ounce of grape sugar to a 

 pound of white sugar. They ate a very little of this, 

 but I am satisfied they would starve oti it. Now I 

 will enclose a small piece of the stuff for you to ex- 

 amine, and see whether it is sugar or tallow. 



I started in the winter with 23 swarms and now 

 have 16. Wm. Bebout, Savannah, O., Feb. 10. '79. 



AND ONE THAT IS NOT BAD, SEEMINGLY. 



Also a Solution of the Great Problem of Combining 

 Flour with Grape Sugar. 



In order that my experiment may be clearly un- 

 derstood, I ought to say that I use a frame 12 ' 4 in. 

 deep and 10% wide inside measure, with closed top 

 bar, the latter being l'» in. wide. My hives hold 10 

 of these frames. Last Nov., I determined to try 

 grape sugar in 4 hivei to see the effect on winter- 

 ing. I prepared it for the hives by taking a frame 

 and making the sides and bottom the same width as 

 the top, V,i inches. This gave me a box, 1^4 inches 

 deep, the size of a frame, but without a bottom. 

 After warming the sugar in the oven until it was in 

 a semi-liquid form, I laid my frame upon a table 

 and poured the grape sugar into it. I generally 

 mixed a little flour with it. In the course of a few 

 hours, the sugar would be hardened in the frames, 

 and they were ready to put in the hives. I intended 

 to put one frame in the middle of a full hive but ac- 

 cidentally left out 2 frames at the side, and this hive 

 was put in the cellar until the latter part of Jan., 

 when it was brought out where it has remained 

 since that time. Since standing out in this very 

 open condition, the mercury has fallen to 5° below 

 zero. I found the cluster right on one side of the 

 comb of grape sugar, which was about half used up, 

 and the two combs right along side of it about \& 

 filled with brood which was hatching out. Every- 

 thing about the hive indicated perfect health. 

 There were very few dead bees. The grape sugar 

 was softened by the heat of the cluster and the bees 

 were feeding on it. 



In another hive, I put a frame of grape sugar in 

 the center of 4 combs of honey, a division board on 

 each side of these combs, and then filled the re- 

 maining space on each side, about 2'i inches, with 

 chaff. This hive has stood out all winter, the tem- 

 perature falling to from 18° to 25° below zero, ac- 

 cording to different thermometers. On examina- 

 tion to-day, I find the condition of this hive almost 

 exactly the same as the other, except that the 2 

 frames on one side of the grape sugar were more 

 than half full of capped brood, the frame next to 



the division board having brood on both sides. I did 

 not have time to look at the other two hives. I 

 think the bees do not use much of the flour; it 

 seems to be on the bottom of the hive. 

 Decatur, 111., Feb. 22, 1879. E. A. Gastman. 



PROTECTION AGAINST EXTREMES OF 

 HEAT ANI> COLO, si I5B>1.\ AND SE- 

 VERE CHANGES OF TEMPERA- 

 TURE, ANI> DAMPNESS IN THE 

 HIVES. 



fN the 1st edition of my work on The Hire and 

 Honey Bee, published in May 1853, there is quite 

 i a long chapter with the above title. The follow- 

 ing extracts will give a tolerably fair idea of its con- 

 tents: 



[As Mr. L's. article only reached us the 22d inst., 

 and our journal was all made up, we were obliged to 

 omit the quotations for want of space, but will give 

 you them next month.— Ed.] 



I hope to give in another article my reasons for 

 saying so little upon this all important subject in 

 the 3d and last edition of my book, published in 

 May, 1859, and will close with some facts recently 

 observed by me. 



Having regained my health last fall sufficiently to 

 revive my interest in bee-keeping, I sent to Mr. 

 Root for some of his chaff hives, and an imported 

 queen. A fair stock of bees was placed in one of 

 those hives, early in Dec, their queen removed, and 

 the imported queen safely introduced. It was too 

 cold for the bees to fly. and yet 1 found, shortly af- 

 ter her introduction, that she had begun to lay. In 

 Jan., the mercury sank to 24° below zero— the aver- 

 age of the four coldest days being 11° below zero 

 the coldest consecutive four days ever recorded in 

 Southern Ohio. 



In the latter part of this month, the weather hav- 

 ing moderated enough for the bees to enjoy a 

 cleansing flight, I found a little sealed brood on two 

 frames, and eggs in a third. I gave the stock a 

 frame of flour candy of Mr. Root's make, and al- 

 though not at all lacking in honey or bee bread, the 

 bees begun to work vigorously upon the candy. Jt 

 was put on the outside, and yet the largest spread 

 of brood was soon found to be on the comb ne*t to 

 it; and frequent examinations have shown that the 

 side of the candy next to the brood was always cov- 

 ered with bees busily at work upon it. 



Judging from this experiment, I am strongly in- 

 clined to believe that, if this kind of candy is given 

 to the bees in a thoroughly protected hive, after 

 they have had a good cleansing flight, it will be a 

 constant stimulus to breeding, and enable the apiarian 

 to save the time and losses of the usual mode of 

 stimulative feeding. If so, we may safely say that, 

 by the use of Hour candy, bee-keeping has made an- 

 other important .advance, since, in this latitude, it 

 is indispensable to have the stocks strong early in 

 the season. 



Two weeks ago the mercury sunk on two succes- 

 sive mornings to zero and 2° below zero. Before 

 this, many bees had hatched, and the queen had 

 layed quite a wide spread of eggs. To-day (Feb. 

 20th), I estimate that some two thousand bees have 

 hatched, and at least as many more are staled over. 

 The number of larva? a few days old is email, but the 

 number of newlv laid eggs quite large. This shows 

 that during the last very cold weather, the bees re- 

 moved most of the eggs from the cells. This has 

 given a little check to the progress of the colony, 

 but the loss of eggs, or even very young larva 1 , at 

 this season, is of little consequence. The large 

 spread of eggs found to-day shows that the bees are 

 not at all discouraged. 



As bees, when merely disturbed by the handling 

 of their combs, often, in the fall, resume breeding 

 after they had entirely ceased, I cannot yet decide 

 how much of this winter breeding is owing to the 

 giving of flour candv to a fair stock, in an admirably 

 protected* hive, and how much may possibly be ow- 

 ing to such frequent disturbances as my experi- 

 ments compelled me to make. T do not think that I 

 have lost, in all, a hundred bees upon the snow, as I 

 have used the smoker freely. I shall endeavor to 

 keep your readers advised of the results of this ex- 

 periment. L. L. Langstroth. 



Oxford, O., Feb. 18, 1879. 



*Not only was the hive lined with chaff, and a 

 thick chaff cushion used, with a chaff divider to eon- 

 tract the hive, but by the sawdust arrangement, the 

 bottom of the hive was admirably protected. 



