1GG 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



The rate at which successive hatchings enable the 

 bees to spread their brood reminds one of the boy's 

 game of rolling snow-balls; the increase in the size 

 of the ball is at first very slow; but the few hist 

 rolls swell its dimensions out of all proportions to 

 the previous ones. Notwithstanding all these de- 

 ductions, this trial hive has more brood and young- 

 bees, and works muc*i stronger than any out of 48 

 colonies, many of which had more than double its 

 population, when the bees went into winter quar- 

 ters. 



Neai'ly all the stocks with which I compared it 

 stopped egg-laying last season by the 1st of Sept., 

 and as nothing was done to stimulate the bees, they 

 went into winter quarters poorly off fer young bees. 

 This particular stock had been taxed, during the 

 whole of September, in building foundations be- 

 tween patterns, during which lime no eggs were 

 laid. I doubt whether one in ten of the old bees is 

 now alive, and, making all due allowance for the 

 extra loss of old bees, caused by such frequent dis- 

 turbances as my experiments compelled, and by the 

 extra demands of such early breeding, I believe, if 

 left to itself, it would have fared no better than 

 many near me. Some of these have died and others 

 are very weak. 



The weather f .^r the last four weeks has been un- 

 usually unfavorable for breeding. Severe freezing 

 (8° above zero) destroyed all the early pollen buds. 

 The number of hours when the bees have been able 

 to fly at all would not exceed what they often get in 

 four pleasant days in this latitude. They have gath- 

 ered very little pollen, but have worked greedily in 

 the flour boxes. But for this, our stocks would have 

 bred very little. Those which have had to depend 

 upon what flour they could gather abroad have 

 made small progress compared with those well sup- 

 plied at home. 



A bee-keeper in this vicinity who has fed no flour 

 informs me that his bees have fairly swarmed upon 

 an open sack of oil meal flour (made from flax seed 

 oil cake), to which they gained access in his barn! 

 To-day, my bees have worked well on this oil meal. 

 Has this been tried before? 



The following extracts from a letter from Mr. 

 Frances Dunham, of Depere, Wisconsin, will inter- 

 est your readers: 



"In Oct., in fixing my bees for winter, I found a 

 great want of pollen in almost all the hives, prob- 

 ably from its having rained almost steadily for three 

 weeks, in September. In thinking what was best to 

 be done under the circumstances, it occurred to me 

 that I would give them flour: so, taking out a partly 

 filled comb, I pressed flour, with a spoon, into the 

 emptv cells. I gave forty colonies about halt' a 

 cup full apiece, thinking they could do no worse 

 than throw it out. I use the Langstroth hive, and 1 

 put wire over the portico, and wintered in a hou e 

 that never went below 35°. The bees never threw 

 a particle out, and came out of winter quarters so 

 strong that several are almost ready to swarm 

 (April 11th). I lost only four out of forty, while 

 many in Wisconsin have lost from 50 to 75 out of 100, 

 and one person has lost 95 out of 100. Five of my 

 hives had some flour in the outside of the outer 

 frame, as well as in the centre frame; the others 

 had flour only in the centre frame. All in the cen- 

 tral frames was consumed, while that in the outer 

 ones was untouched, and had molded. I would say, 

 give the bees plenty of flour in the central frames, 

 where they can keep it dry. Towards spring, I 

 threw a little water into the entrance of each hive 

 with a table spoon. These experiments were on 40 

 stocks." 



Our friend, Arther Todd, of Algeria, whose inter- 

 esting experiments were given in the April No., 

 h.'is an article in the London Journal of Horticulture, 

 for April 3d, from which I make the following ex- 

 tracts: 



"The Germans seem to have decided that there is 

 an advanta?e to be gained by feeding the bees with 

 artificial pollen, not out in the open air, but in the 

 interior of the hive, basing their calculations upon 

 the laws of natural nutrition. Taking chemistry 

 for their guide, and learning therefrom that every 

 animal body is composed of albuminous matters, 

 fatty matters, and salts, they have studied the bee, 

 and find it no exception to the rule. The bee 

 draws these matters from its food, which consists of 

 honey, pollen and water. It appears that, acting on 

 an appeal from the eminent Baron Von Berlepsch, 

 extensive experiments have been carried on in 

 Germany, during the past year, to determine the 

 question, and at a meeting of the bee-keepers of 



Nassau, in August last, a report was presented 

 favorable to nitrogenous feeding, as applied in the 

 interior of the hive. Mr. Weygand reports having 

 obtained the most favorable results, and states i hat, 

 in his neighborhood, such was the miserable weather 

 (the cold weather &c.) that not ten per cent of 

 swarms was reported; yet those (including himself) 

 who fed the bees with flour inside the hives, in- 

 creased their colonies fifty and one hundred per 

 cent, and made very good harvests of honey. Anoth- 

 er great German' bee-keeper (Herr Gravenhorst) 

 reports having obtained the most satisfactory re- 

 sults. This all refers to the spring of 1878. Mr. 

 Weygand prepares his food thus: 



"Take one lb. of wheaten flour, adding thereto 

 some salt or a little wine (?), then, with water, make 

 this into a batter, by mixing carefully to avoid 

 lumpiness. In another vessel, put two lbs. of sugar 

 (or if honey, one and a half lbs"), and mix this up in 

 one or two quarts of water. This is now intimately 

 blended with the batter, M'hen it is ready for feed- 

 ing. This mixture keeps good for several days if 

 necessary. Mr. Weygand states that new milk as 

 well as the egg food is improved by mixing- flour 

 therewith, and strongly advises that all feeding be 

 done at night." 



More than ten years ago, at the suggestion of Mr. 

 Samuel Wagner, who got the idea from our German 

 friends, I used flour syrup, with great success, for 

 stimulative spring feeding. I would now suggest 

 for trial on a small scale, where ample stores of pol- 

 len are not gathered, the feeding in September, of 

 sugar syrup or honey, with a moderate supply of 

 flour incorporated in it and in such quantities that 

 it will be stored up by the bees to be used both in 

 winter and early spring. A little experimenting 

 will show how much flour can be safely added. 



With the great attention which has been given to 

 the subject of nitrogenous food for bees, I believe 

 that we shall soon reach results which will prove 

 that the full value of pollen or its substitutes, in the 

 economy of the bee hive, has been greatly over- 

 looked. L. L. Lanostroth. 



Oxford, O., April 18, 1879. 



I am well aware of the value of flour for 

 promoting breeding, and I tried faithfully, 

 years ago, putting flour into the cells of the 

 comb to get the bees to take it, but I never 

 succeeded. They left it until their brood 

 had increased so much, that the flour kept 

 them from using the cells, and it was finally, 

 as nearly as I could make out, cleaned out 

 and thrown away, by much labor and pains. 

 It is quite likely, however, that I tried the 

 experiment when natural pollen was to be 

 obtained, and that different results would 

 have followed its use in the winter or early 

 spring. I used oil meal for spring feeding, 

 several years ago. while experimenting with 

 a great variety of other kinds of meal and 

 other substances. If I am correct, I gave a 

 report of it in Gleanings at the time. The 

 bees, although they worked on it. seemed 

 rather to prefer the rye and oats. 



SPEED FOR SAWS AND EJIFRY 



WHKFLS, AN1> L,HV«.TH OF 



SAW-1MANDK1 L.S. 



HY don't you send or publish a table of 

 speeds at which emery wheels should turn? 

 Neighbor Neal got two 3 in. wheels of you, 

 and wore out one on 3 or 4 teeth of a cress cut saw, 

 before he found out that he had not speed enough. 

 Yes, he was giving you "fits" because you sent him 

 soft, worthless wheels; but when he increased the 

 speed to about 7000 revolut ions per minute, he cut 

 the saw without spoiling his wheel. A 3 in. wheel 

 should revolve about 7200 times per minute; a 4 in., 

 5400; a 5 in., about 4320; a6 in., 36(0. Then not one 

 in a dozen knows how fast a circular saw should 

 travel to be most effective, with the smallest ex- 

 penditure of power. I make my saw teeth go about 

 120 to 150 miles an hour. A list of speeds would ac- 

 commodate some of my neighbors, and perhaps 

 others, if given in Gleanings, so they could have it 

 for reference. 



