1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



189 



Last summer I had 14 swarms to work with, in- 

 creased them to 30, put them up for winter, and lost 

 one by mice and one by robbing-. 1 sold last sum- 

 mer $95.00 worth of honey, besides having consider- 

 able on hand at present. I used your sections. 



Jackson, Mich., April 17, '79. John W. Wood. 



I have tried the smoker, and it works like a charm : 

 nothing could do better. I have lost heavily in bees, 

 16 stands; but 2 stocks came to me to help make good 

 the loss. 1 feel discouraged this spring; the bees do 

 not act as in other springs. Kobbers have troubled 

 me. J. N. Mooriiead. 



Guilford, Mo., Apr. 17, '79. 



The bees are behaving badly here, this spring. A 

 great many have left their hives tilled with brood 

 and plenty of honey, and come out as they do whore 

 they swarm, and gone into other hives. THis is a 

 general complaint all through this section among 

 bee keepers. On opening the hive every thing looks 

 all right, young bees are hatching and brood is plenty. 

 They were never known to do so before. Can you 

 or your correspondents tell the cause, and the best 

 treatment under such circumstances. 



Fully '.t of the bees died last winter, in thiscountv. 



Watseka, 111., Apr. 18, '79. W.H. Shedd. 



[See answer to other similar inquire?.] 



I cemm' rcrd last year with one swarm, and in- 

 creased to 4. ui.ci get 39 lbs. of honey with the old 

 box hive. Is not this well for a "greenhorn"? 



Montrose, Pa., Apr. It, ls79. II. G. Hoiiton. 



nUMBUGS AND SWINDLES. 



I was pleased to notice, under the head "Humbugs 

 and Swindles", a complimentary notice(?) of Mrs. 

 Lizzie E. Cotton. She (or he) deserves it. Several of 

 us have been swindled. We ought to have known 

 better, but we supposed the person to be a lady, and 

 corresponded with and trusted her as such: but we 

 were suhl. H. H. Barnes. 



Lowell, Mass., Apr. 16, 1879. 



My 15 colonies of last spring increased to 31. 

 They are all packed in chaff, and have wintered very 

 well so far, except one late second swarm which 

 died a few days ago. It had the dysentery. lam 

 located in a valley, at the foot of the hills, which 

 protect me from severe winds. I run my saw by 

 horse-power; when cutting stuff for sections, I put 

 on two horses. This goes better than foot-power 

 "you bet." Henry lippert. 



Meadville, Pa., Apr. 11, 1379. 



My first natural swarm came out this season on 

 2nd of April. I have the 7th out to-day, besides hav- 

 ing made t artificial swarms. The honey crop was 

 certainly cut short some by the freeze on the 5th id' 

 April. Many flowers were cut off by it. Among the 

 honey yielding flowers that were injured, is the hol- 

 ly; its bloom buds were just visible. Also the China 

 berry tree, Melia Azedarach; it does not grow north 

 of Va., and is not generally known as a honey yield- 

 ing tree; but I have observed it to be so, for a num- 

 berof years. Please answer this question: do bees die 

 from poison honey of any plant? Dr. B. says he los- 

 es many from the poison honey of yellow jasmine. 

 Do wild cherry flowers, likethe fruit, contain prussic 

 acid, and cause the death of bees? W. K. Nelson. 



Augusta, Ga., Apr., 14, 1879. 



[We have had reports of plants of which the honey 

 poisoned the bees, but I do not know of any that ate 

 well authenticated. 1 do not think the small por- 

 tion of prussic acid contained in the wild cherry, or 

 peach either, sufficient to do any harm to the bees.] 



ITALIANS AND DWINDLING. 



I have been bragging about my bees wintering so 

 well. I had 14 to start with in the winter, and now I 

 have 15 all in good order, and drones flying- every 

 day from nearly every hive. A swarm came to me 

 on the 15th, and lit on a peach tree right in my api- 

 ary. I put them in a hive, killed their black queen 

 and gave them Dalian brood, and now they have 

 y% -dozen queen cells started. Is this not a good re- 

 port? My bees are all strong, and in place of dwin- 

 dling, as so many claim the Italians do, they are get- 

 ting stronger every day. I cannot believe they 

 dwindle any worse than the blacks. I know of 6 

 men using the Simplicity hives in this part "of the 

 country, and they nave not lost one swarm in win- 

 tering, while I know of 2 men in our county seat 

 'hat have lost 200 out of 300 in the Am. hives, for 

 thpy told me so themselves. James Pakshall. 



Union Valley, Mo., April 15, '79. 



Send me a cold blast smoker, quick! had a bee on 

 my stocking! Oh! James Huddelson. 



Victoria, Iowa, Apr. 18, 1879. 



BADLY DEMORALIZED, RUT BOUND NOT TO GIVE IT 

 UP SO. 



Bees have wintered badly in Wisconsin. Ac- 

 counts reach me from every side, that 50 per cent of 

 the bees put into winter quarters have died. Not 

 even chaff hives saved them. My loss has been 

 about the same, although a new beginner; 15 out of 

 28 are lost and a few more are yet to be heard from. 



A. W. WlLLWARTH. 



Embarrass, Wis., Apr. 17, 1879. 



HOME MADE MANDRELS. 



The way 1 made a mandrel was this: Igot a Buck- 

 eye Mowing Machine pitman. % of an in. in diame- 

 ter, cut out a piece about 14 in. long, got threads cut 

 on one end, and got two, eight square nuts, and put 

 the saw between these two nuts. My expense for 

 blacksmithing was $0.15; the balance I did myself. 

 The saw works nicely. It is a hand ripper. 



Bees have suffered badly. Bee-keepers of this 

 section do not use any chaff about their bees or any 

 thing else. 



Very few of them hnveever seen a smoker in their 

 lives; a great many have not even heard of one. I 

 have 3 stands of bees out of 11, but I won't go into 

 Blasted Hopes yet, but will try again. 



Three cheers for Corey and CI irk. T. J. COOK. 

 Newpoint, Ind., Apr. 15, '79. 



Spring is backward. A great many bees died last 

 winter. One man lost 30 stands, all he had. I win- 

 tered 7 out of 10, thanks to GLEANINGS. 



Keesville, O., Apr. 14, '79. H. C. Johnston. 



THE BEE MALADY. 



Several bee-men have suggested that one cause of 

 the great bee malady the past winter was owing to a 

 scarcity of honey during the fall months, which 

 mostly stopped their breeding, and consequently the 

 bees that went into winter quarters were mostly old 

 ones; but where I was last fall, there were many 

 large fields of buckwheat; so, hist week, I wrote to 

 a man there who had 150 stands, and asked for his 

 report. He says he has lost -,, of them; he also 

 says he thought himself secure to winter in any hive. 

 He thinks he was too tender of them, and bundled 

 them too close. Many of them moulded. 



A. A. Fradenburg. 



Port Washington, (>., April 21, 1879. 



[A great many explanations have been given, but 

 the facts brought forward seem to overthrow most 

 of them. I am decidedly in favor of fall feeding' for 

 heavy stocks. I have never lost one of the colonies 

 I have used late in the fall to till out sections by 

 feeding, nor have I ever known such a one to dwin- 

 dle.] . 



WINTERING IN DOORS, AND WINTERING OUT DOORS. 



I uncovered my bees (they were under the ever- 

 greens) last Monday; I found them all dead, with 

 that common comphtint, dysentery. I never will 

 try to winter on summer stands again. Our winters 

 are too long and cold. There has been no time since 

 last November suitable for giving- my bees a fly, till 

 this week. You may as well put me in 'Blasted 

 Hopes. I lost 11 out of 12 colonies in my cellar 2 

 years since, iind I am now satisfied that it was all 

 owing to want of proper ventilation, as my cellar is 

 not what would be culled damp. C. BUTMAN. 



Plymouth, Maine, April 18, '79. 



[If T am correct, my friend, your eiergreens were 

 just the wrong kind of protection over the outside 

 of the hives. I feel sure, that ventilation is not 

 your trouble. In some cases, cellar wintering seems 

 to have resulted more favorably this last winter, 

 but in others the losses seem equally as great. Our 

 neighbor, ISlakeslce, who has for years considered 

 his cellar .sure, has lost heavily by the dwindling.] 



SUGAR, WATER, AND FLOUR. 



I have been experimenting since I received the 

 April No., with water, sugar, and Hour, to be fed 

 inside the hive. I find it will work; the only troub- 

 le is, the bees will soon have all the water out of 



