DEVOTED TO BEEH AISD HONEY, AJVr> HOME INTERESTS. 



Vol. VII. 



DECEMBER 1, 1879. 



No. 12. 



A. I. ROOT. 



Publisher and Proprietor 

 iTIedina, O. 



•L 



Published Monthly 



Established in 



hly. ("n 

 < va 



1873.(10 



FERIWS: Sl.OO Per Annum in Ad- 



ance; 3 Copies for S2.50; 5/nrS3.75; 

 01 more, 60e. each. Single Number, lOc. 



SCRAPS AND SKETCHES. NO. 12. 



MY BEE-XEEPIVG TACTICS. 



EHAVE often hoard a bee-keeper compared to a 

 genei'al haviug an arrnyund^r his command; 

 and I think the comparison a good one, al- 

 though it is getting to be a little old. I have known 

 bee-keepers who, if they should manage an army of 

 soldiers with as little skill as they do an army of 

 ''workers," would m^et with greater loss on the 

 battle-field than they do in the apiary. They do not 

 seem to have any definile plan, and d> not; know 

 whether to work for comb honey or for extracted,— 

 to swarm their bees artificially, or to let the bees do 

 their own swarming; they seem to "kind o' take 

 things as they c une," and let the bees manage 

 things to suit themselves. Although we are depend- 

 ent, to a certain extent, upon the season, I think it 

 is better to have a definite object in view— changing 

 our plan of operations, of course, if circumstances 

 demand it. What that plan should be, every one 

 must decide for himself. I will give you my plan 

 for '78, not as a model, for what is a success with one 

 might be a failure with another, but as an example. 



In the spring, the swarms were kept as nearly 

 equ»l as possible by giving the weak swarms frames 

 of brood from the strong ones. When a colony 

 showed a disposition to " hang out," it was given an 

 upper story supplicdwith f dn. As fast as the combs 

 in the upper story were filled with honey they were 

 emptied with the extractor. This mode of " war- 

 fare " was continued until the basswood-honey har- 

 vest was almost over, when nearly all of the colonies 

 were broken up into n uclei for queen rearing. Late 

 in September, the nuclei were united and the extra 

 hives sold to a man who wished to use them in pre- 

 paring his bees for winter. Last spring, I made 

 rnore hives to take the place of those sold. 



Now that the "campaign" for '78 is over, and I 

 can look back to see if I made any mistakes, I find 

 that 1 made on y one wrong movement; th t was in 

 not beginning to rear queens earlier in the season. 

 In most of seasons, my campaign would have been a 

 brilliant one; but, in '78, the yield from basswood, in 

 this locality, was— well, in my diary I find this ex- 

 pression: "Basswood didn't amount to 'shucks.'" 

 Still, I do not feel the least bit like surrendering, as 

 my profit from eight swarms was $122.26; just about 

 $15.28 per colony. 



Brother bee-keepers, be sure and plan your cam- 

 paign before hostilities aro commenced, and. in time 



of action, never be found without plenty of supplies 

 and accoutrements. 



TWO LITTLE TWIN BEE-KEIPEKS. 



Novice, you have told us of your little " Blue 

 Eyes," and now I'must tell you of our little " Brown 

 Eyes-es." The same day that brought the November 

 No. of Gleanings, for '78, also brought us two little 

 brown-eyed girls. Considering that these are all the 

 "little folks" there are at our house, don't you 

 think I have been— well, modest in not saying any- 

 thing about them until they are more than a year 

 old? They send greetings to "Blue Eyes" and the 

 " new baby." W. Z. Hutchinson. 



Rogersville, Genesee Co., Mich. 



May God bless that little household, and 

 especially the brown-eyed little girls! You 

 have certainly been modest, friend II., to 

 have given us all these homelike articles 

 without saying one word all this time about 

 the little " chicks." Blue Eyes returns the 

 greetings, and I presume the new baby 

 would if I could make her understand it, for 

 her greetings threaten to raise the roof off 

 the house almost every day. 



OUROWN APIARY. 



INTRODUCING QUEENS IN COLD WEATHER. 



OV. 6th.— On the 3d, we received 31 

 more queens from Bianconcini, Bologna, 

 Italy. All were alive but three, which 

 we think pretty good, considering the cold 

 frosty weather during transit. Friend B. 

 puts in two, pretty good sized combs, and 

 plenty of bees, and his queens compare favor- 

 ably with any we have ever received. The 

 weather was freezing cold when they were 

 received, and stormy and windy besides. 

 The problem was, how to introduce them. 

 My plan was to cover the little hive with wire 

 cloth, and invert it over the cluster ; we could 

 not let them out at once, for most of the hives 

 had just been made queenless. My idea was 

 that the cluster was sufficiently large to 

 keep them warm, when the upper story was 

 well packed with chaff cushions, and then 

 the process would be something like uniting. 

 The result was, that the bees, imported 

 queens and all, were cold and stiff next 

 morning. We brought them in and warmed 

 them up. and no great harm was done, but it 



