1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



14 



DEPOSITORY OF 



Or Letters from Those AVlio Have Made 

 Bee Culture a Failiare. 



drhF 127 colonies, [the 163 reported in Feb. 

 mffl No., Will now discovers to have been a 

 ^-"^ mistake ; he counted the SB in the house 

 apiary hcice.] I have lost and doubled up un- 

 til I have only 87 left. I am not discour- 

 aged, or ready to give up, but am going to 

 make the 87 "climb,"' through the influence 

 of careful protection during the spring 

 months, and judicious feeding. The above 

 report is rather disgraceful to one who is 

 teaching bee culture, but whenever the truth 

 will kill me, let me die. 



USING COMBS FROM COLONIES THAT HAVE DIED WITn 

 DYSENTERY. 



I guess you will have to put mo into Blasted 

 Hopes. Out of 70 stands, I think I will have only 

 about 25 It-f i, c msed, 1 suppose, by dysentery, bad 

 honey, and long spell of cold weather. I wintered 

 in Am. hives, on summer stands, well packed. 



I am going- to make chaff hives after this, brood 

 frames to hold 6 Simplicity sections crosswise, 8 sec- 

 tions lengthwise Las mentioned in Feb. No. — Ed.], 

 with open top bars. 1 have got enough of closed 

 top bars. I would like to know if I could use these 

 combs again, by extracting the honey. Will it affect 

 the bees? If not, I shall h.ive to get an extractor. 

 1 have 40 good set of combs, and can build up fast, 

 if I can use them again. Don't you think so? 



Would you take the honey out of the outside 

 combs, when you give them to a young swarm? 



Stephen Hill. 



Port Huron, Mich., March 10, 1879. 



To be sure, you can use these combs again, 

 and do not, for anything, think of extract- 

 ing the honey. It is in the very best shape 

 possible for feeding and for new swarms ; 

 for all you have to do is to hang these combs 

 in the hives, where food is wanted. If you 

 wish to hasten breeding and comb building, 

 just slice the caps off the combs. It has 

 been tried a great many times, and the 

 combs from colonies that have died seem to 

 answer just as well as any, when warm 

 weather comes, and even when used for win- 

 tering bees the winter after, they seem to 

 answer just as well as any. 



I commenced keeping bees in the spiing of '68, 

 and had about 40 colonies. In the fall and winter of 

 '78, I lost 39 colonies. The next winter, 1 lost 29. 

 You see I could not let them alone, and had pur- 

 chased more; but the third winter killed the last 

 colony. I however purchased again, and last fall 

 went into the winter with 70 colonies, of which we 

 have just 48 left; they are, however, all in good con- 

 dition, and we mean to try it again. The yield of 

 clover honey last year was the best I ever knew. 

 Seven colonies of hybrids, in Conklin's Diamond 

 hives, gave me 1,000 lbs. of honey, part being ex- 

 tracted and part comb honey. C. E. Bulison. 



Flushing, Mich., March 12, 1879. 



MOVING HIVES CLOSE TOGETHER FOR WINTERING. 



My trouble is this: I thought of wintering on 

 summer stands, with chaff cushions, &c, as I had 

 strong colonies in L. hives. They were all young, 

 but one, and unusually strong in stores, as I only 

 took off one 5 lb. box of honey the past year, it hav- 

 ing been a very poor one for honey. When our 

 coldest weather came, in Jan., mercury down 10° to 

 25° below zero, I thought my bees needed some pro- 

 tection; sol moved them to the south side of a 

 small building, and stored them side by side, pack- 

 ing them closely with chaff all around. They had 

 previously been scattered all around through the 

 yard, under tr^es. 



The above you will see is contrary to your oft re- 

 peated instructions. Now for the result. They 

 wintered finely so far as consumption of honey is 

 concerned and are strong in numbers, but the first 

 warm days in Feb. and in this month, they have 

 spent their time in fighting more or less. I scattered 

 them to-day and overhauled them. I find I have 

 two queens left in the six colonies, 4 queens having 

 been destroyed. 



Now, what ought I to do? I dislike to unite them, 

 because that would put 3 swarms to a hive; they 

 are all very strong. Wm. H. Graves. 



Duncan, 111., March 8, 1879. 



Give them some eggs and brood, and let 

 them rear a queeen. If no drones are to be 

 found when the queens are 10 days old, kill 

 them and let them rear others, until you get 

 laying queens. If they get weak, give them 

 eggs from time to time, and let them rear 

 their own bees. Reports of such disasters 

 as yott mention, caused by moving bees 

 around, are frequent, and it is mainly for 

 this reason that I have devised the chaff 

 hive, that the bees may remain undisturbed, 

 and require no such ''tinkering," either 

 summer or winter. 



RODBING IN THE SPRING. 



I had hoped to send you an order for some hives, 

 section boxes, foundation, &c, at this time, but now 

 I fear I shall have to go into Blasted Hopes, and will 

 not need any supplies. I have kept a few "bees for 

 10 or 12 years, and in the fall of '76, I had 20 colonies, 

 all in box hives and well filled with honey; but dur- 

 ing the winter of '76 and '77, some were smothered 

 and others died with diarrhoea, so that when the 

 warm days of March came, 1 had but 8 or 9 colonies 

 left. 



I then raised the hives from the bottom about V 2 

 inch so as to give them plenty of air, and let them 

 have a good fly. Well, the result was, robbers 

 cleaned them all out. I started again, in the spring 

 of '77, with one colony, increased to 2, and last year 

 increased to 8 colonies, and had some surplus hon- 

 ey. 



I thought, with the aid of Gleanings, my troubles 

 were at an end; but, alas! 3 of these colonies were 

 in Simplicity hives, 3 in American, and the other 2 

 in box hives. One of those in the American hives 

 smothered, and the 2 in box hives were very weak, 

 but the rest were in good order until the last 3 or 4 

 days, when robbers commenced again. Fclosed the 

 entrance so but one bee could pass at a time, but it 

 has done no good. They are fighting constantly, 

 and it looks now as if they would clean out the last 

 swarm. 



I have a neighbor who had 60 colonies in the fall, 

 and has lost over half of them. E. West. 



Channahan, 111., March 10, 1879. 



I fear, my friend, you have been careless 

 about letting robbers get a start. One of 

 the clerks asks if you did not leave the en- 

 trance of the hive where the bees died open? 

 Have your stocks strong, everything snug 

 and trim, and there certainly ought to be 

 little trouble from the causes you have men- 

 tioned. 



I will not want so many hives this spring as I 

 thought 1 should, since I have only 2 colonies living 

 out of 12; so you see, I have lost heavily for an A B 

 C scholar. I had them in the L. hive, arid the hives 

 were not very well made. The bees had the dysen- 

 tery. The colony containing my Italian queen died, 

 so I am left with 2 blacks; but I am not discouraged. 

 I want to increase, but to buy full colonies is too ex- 

 pensive, for I am only a coal digger. Times are very 

 hard. K. Blacklock. 



Geigerville, Ky., March 12, 1879. 



I am a new beginner in handling bees, and have 

 lost very heavily this winter. I had 60 swarms last 

 fall, and they are all dead but 6. 



James McClenohan. 



Clyde, O., Mar. 17, 1879. 



