486 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Dec. 



clover and mignonnette in large numbers, but sal- 

 dom saw any on the catnip, although in some places 

 they were planted together. As soon as the mother- 

 wort commenced to bloom, I saw them busy on that. 

 They seemed to favor mignonnette and motherwort. 

 It was the "Giant Mignonnette," of course. They 

 sent out a large swarm July 15, which I had some 

 difficulty in hiving. They staid on the outside two 

 davs, and then 1 drove them in with smoke. I had 

 no" farther trouble with the swarm, but not so wth 

 the old hive. Thus far, I had received no stings. 

 The bees would often get on my fingers, but I was 

 careful not to injure them, and escaped stings, 

 though I used neither gloves nor veil. But, during 

 the latter part of August, I noticed the bees were 

 growing cross. If I ventured in the vicinity of the 

 hive, they gave chase, and gave me a badly swollen 

 eye, if not a black one. 



I frequently saw them coming to the hive in 

 droves, and when a shower came up suddenly, they 

 would come home in droves, and cluster on the out- 

 side by the entrance, and it would be several min- 

 utes before they would all get in. This, and their 

 being so cross set me to thinking. The other stand 

 was some little distance from the old hive, at the 

 base of a hill. I frequently went from one stand to 

 the other but saw no disturbance at the latter until 

 later in the season, and then it was trifling in com- 

 parison. Neighbor A. who lives a few rods from us 

 has 4 hives of the native bees. They stand close 

 together in a covered frame, are in old box hives, 

 and quite small ones at that. Mr. A. had kept bees 

 for 3 years, on shares. At the commencement of 

 this season they had 2 colonies. One hive sent out 3 

 swarms, and the other 2. Two swarms absconded; 

 one staid in the hive 2 days, the other 10 days. An- 

 other, after staying on the outside of the hive i days 

 went back in. "Well, about the middle of September, 

 some 2 weeks from the time 1 first noticed anything 

 unusual about the hive, I had notice from neighbor 

 A. that my bees were plundering their hives, and 

 that they had closed all the entrances, and were 

 throwing boiling hot wa'er on my bees which were 

 clustered at the entrances aud on the tops. They 

 were on every hive. I at once wrote to Mrs. Cotton 

 for advice. She wrote me not to move the bees, nor 

 meddle with them at all, for they could take care of 

 themselves. 1 lost quantities of bees, but they grad- 

 ually gave up going there, and I began to feed both 

 hives all they would take, and thought my troubles 

 were over. But, to-day, I had a note from the own- 

 er of a cider mill a quarter of a mile off, that my 

 yellow jackets were about his mill, getting into the 

 cider and on the pomace and into mischief generally, 

 and stinging occasionally. 



Now, Mr. Editor, what shall I do? The ABC book 

 tells me cider is death to bees, providing any escape 

 being drowned. Must I give up bee-keeping? for 

 the cider mill is a fixture. I wait a reply. The bees 

 are storing in the boxes now. When is the best 

 time to put in the division board and do up for win- 

 ter? Please tell me through Gleanings what to do 

 to keep my bees at home. Tyro. 



Alna. Lincoln Co., Me., Oct. 23, 1879. 



I am very glad of one point in your letter, 

 my friend, and that is, that Mrs. Cotton does, 

 sometimes, till orders, and answer letters. 

 Perhaps she shows a preference toward her 

 own sex ; or is she beginning to do better, 

 and getting ready to fix up all her old ac- 

 counts V She has not yet sent my goods, or 

 returned the money, but she has a great 

 many times promised to do so. When she 

 does, there is quite a little crowd that are 

 really anxious for theirs. 



After your old colony sent out a swarm, it 

 would probably become hybrid, and is not 

 this what made them cross? Bees are usu- 

 ally cross in the fall, after the yield of honey 

 is over. It was rather rough in your neigh- 

 bor, to throw boiling water on your bees, 

 after he had got his hives closed. Can you 

 not curtain the cider mill, when the bees 

 trouble it, as I directed in the ABC? I 

 fear you are borrowing trouble somewhat. 

 Many seasons, the bees will not go near the 

 cider mill at all, and it is only for a few 



weeks that they do so, in any season. As 

 the weather gets a little cooler, they will get 

 over it. Mrs. Cotton's advice happened to 

 be about right, I guess, this time. Put in 

 the division boards at any time you choose 

 after they have ceased getting honey. You 

 will have no trouble in keeping your bees at 

 home when honey comes again iiext season, 

 and, if they trouble you next fall, you must 

 get that neighbor a little better posted, and 

 you two together can fix the robbing. Do 

 the same with the cider mill man, and carry 

 each of them a nice plate of honey. This is 

 a "heap better'' than quarreling, or hard 

 feelings. 



SPRING dwindling; cause and cure. 

 As others are writing their theories on spring 

 dwindling, I would write mine. It is simply starva- 

 tion, with plenty of honey in their cells, but all 

 granulated; they can neither eat it, nor feed it to 

 their larva*, so they dash out to the first mud hole, 

 filled with ice or frozen mud, where the sun has 

 thawed a little water. This they suck up, then to 

 warm themselves and the ie? water in them, you 

 will see them on the fence, old boards, chips, or any 

 place where there is a bit of suushiuo to be found, 

 apparantly enjoying themselves to the utmost of 

 their ability. This ice water chilling them, they in 

 turn chill the bees in the hive. The cold water mix- 

 ed with the honey and pollen fed to the larvae chills 

 them, so they all die together, leaving honey in the 

 hive. 



Your description of the symptoms, friend 

 A., is all right, but I fear your deductions 

 are wrong. We often have spring dwindling, 

 where the honey is too thin and watery. 

 tested queens turning hybrids. 



Like you, I do not believe L. R. Jackson's queen 

 wa9 fertilized the second lime, after having her 

 wing clipped (page 392 Gleanings), but his, like 

 Wm. L. King's, demoralized queens come and go 

 after their own sweet will (304 Gleanings). Soui'j 

 other queen entered the home of his clipped Italian, 

 and filled her combs with hybrids. Queens, as well 

 as drones, are freebooters during the honey season. 

 If it were not for this fact, we could never introduce 

 a queen. All would have to stay in their own homes 

 or be killed. 



I think your explanations may be right, in 

 at least some instances. 

 WAX extracting ; HOW to clean the cloth bags. 



In regard to getting out wax, you say it is best to 

 throw away the cloths through which it has been 

 strained. Now, I think that poor economy. They 

 can be cleaned easily by putting a layer of wood 

 ashes into a kettle then a layer of strainers, and so 

 on alternately, until the kettle is full. Then fill 

 with water, boil, and wash as you would other 

 clothes. This takes the wax all out. The lye with- 

 out the ashes will not take off the wax. 



Olivet, Mich., Oct. 17, 1879. Alzaida. 



Thanks: lam very glad to see economy, 

 where the time is not of more value than the 

 article. The lye from the wood ashes is very 

 easily tried. 



I do feel just a bit inclined to scold. After writing 

 way out to Ohio, and necessarily wailing a week for 

 a reply, then to get an answer so brief that it does 

 not satisfy or fully cover my questions, is a little too 

 bad: especially, as the weather will not consent to 

 moderate till I can hear from you. I know you have 

 a great deal to do in the way of correspondence, but 

 so have a great many business houses who write 

 longer letters. 



I really beg pardon, friend Anna, if I did 

 not answer your questions as fully as I 

 could ; are you sure you do not give me cred- 

 it for more wisdom than I really possess V I 

 will try again, and scrape up all the energy 

 I have from a multitude of other things that 



