488 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



Dec. 



From Different Fields. 



CHILLED BEES REVIVING. 



5nj? HAVE learned a lesson this morning-. I tipped 

 JSjl my box hive over, and found a pint of dead 

 ~) bees on the bottom board. I brushed them on 

 the ground, and took a handful and threw them to 

 the hens, but they did not touch them. I went out 

 3 hours afterward, and my dead bees were coming 

 to life again. The night had been very cold, but a 

 nice day followed, and that is what saved the bees. 

 There is not comb enough for all of them, so they 

 clustered down below the combs. To-morrow I 

 shall pack them in a box, with 8 inches of chaff 

 around them, and shall feed them so that they can 

 till up their empty combs. 



12 o'clock.— They still are coming to life. "Live 

 and learn" is a good motto for beginners as well as 

 old ones. I think that bees which are frozen in 

 winter could often be saved by putting- them in a 

 warm room. Jerry Moffitt. 



Oxford, Worcester Co., Mass., Oct. 26, 1879. 



I think your bees had been chilled but a 

 short time, friend M. They will revive in 

 the way you mention, if they are warmed up 

 and fed inside of 24 or 48 hours ; but if you 

 let them lie more than that time, they are 

 dead "for sure." No one yet has succeeded 

 in freezing bees up in the fall, and thawing 

 them out again in the spring, so as to save 

 their stores, although it is a matter that has 

 been frequently discussed in our back num- 

 bers. 



PACKAGES FOR EXTRACTED HONEY. 



T want some kind of a packag-e for candied honey, 

 and have been thinking a tin box, 4 x 6 x 2, to hold 

 two pounds, would be about the thing, if it would 

 not cost too much. If the honey is kept in a cool 

 room until wanted for use, by slightly warming the 

 bottom of the box and running a knife along the 

 sides, the honey would come out like so much maple- 

 sugar and would look almost as nice as comb honey. 

 I have some that I caked in section boxes, that looks 

 very nice. By lining the sections with writing paper, 

 the honey slips out very nicely when cold. What 

 do you think of the idea? and what could you make 

 the boxes for, by the hundred? 1 suppose the covers 

 could be pressed out also. At what price can you 

 furnish two quart pails with bail and cover? 



Chas. Oliver. 



Spring, Crawford Co., Pa., Oct., 1879. 



We can make the boxes you mention, by 

 the hundred, for 5c. each ; the 2 quart tin 

 pails, by the hundred, 10c. each. I have 

 thought of the section box for a package of 

 extracted honey, and it will be much cheap- 

 er than the others, if we can get our candied 

 honey so dry that it will not be sticky and 

 dauby. 



A BIG report from an a b c scholar. 



Would you advise water and candy so late as this, 

 to incite brood rearing? Do you think I could keep 

 them going slowly all winter, that is raising- brood, 

 or would it be better to leave them until Feb.? I 

 have 21 stocks, and chaff hives for all of them. I 

 am going to try to bring- them all through in good 

 style. I had 7 in the spring, increased to the above 

 number, and took of box honey 500to. in 4 *4x4 ^sect- 

 ions, and 230ft. of extracted honey. It all sold like 

 hot cakes. I didn't have half enough. Extracted 

 honey sells here better than comb honey. I got 10c 

 per ft. for extracted honey and 16c a section, as thev 

 5'iDl. w. (J. Saltford. 



Poughkeepsie, N. Y., Oct. 27, 1879. 



Why, you did splendidly, friend S. Over 

 lOOrb. each from your original stocks, and 

 trebled your number ! Doolittle will have 

 to look out for his laurels. I should be a lit- 

 tle afraid to undertake feeding for brood 



rearing at this time of the year, but it might 

 turn out all right. I have fed the flour can- 

 dy, and with it reared brood all winter long, 

 but I have never given water in cold weather. 



still another hint on introducing. 

 I received the two queens you sent me, Saturday 

 night. They were the first queens that ever got off 

 the cars, at this place. I removed the queens from 

 two hives, and placed the cages on top of the frames 

 as directed, and left them there until Monday. As 

 they seemed all right, 1 thought I woidd let one 

 out. Robbers were flying around as thick as hail in 

 a hail storm, and when the Italians came out of the 

 cage, they treated them the same as they did the 

 robbers, queen and all. Of course, I didn't let them 

 hurt the queen, but put her back into the cage, and 

 began to wonder how I would ever get her in there. 

 Finally, I thought I would try another plan. I got 

 all of the Italians out of the cage but the queen, 

 then took from the hive to which I wished to intro- 

 duce her, ten bees that were so full of honey they 

 didn't care about stinging, and put them in the cage 

 with her, and put the cage back on the frames, and 

 left it there until next day, when J let them out a- 

 gain. This time, they let her run down between the 

 combs all right. I next tried the other queen which 

 had been on the frames 60 hours, but had to treat 

 her the same. I looked at them to-day, and they are 

 all right. 



AND A BIG REPORT FROM A CANADIAN ABC SCHOLAR. 



I had 11 colonies of bees last fall, wintered them 

 all, transferred them all this spring, took 1,800 lb. of 

 clover and basswood honey from them, and increas- 

 ed to 26 strong colonies. * James McIntyre. 



Lynden, Out., Ca. Sept. 30, 1879. 



BEE CULTURE IN THE BLUE GRASS REGIONS OF KV., 

 ETC. 



The honey season, proper, is quite short here, in 

 the best of seasons. The great honey months are 

 May and June. Natural swarming takes place, gen- 

 erally, between the 15th of May and the 15th of June. 

 Swarms coming after the latter date do not often 

 get a living from the fields. The flow of honey is 

 prodigious, some seasons, from white clover, &c, 

 but it does not last long enough to make the yield 

 great. My best stock, in 1878, made about 90B>. of 

 comb (surplus) honey and gave a large swarm on 

 the 18th of May, which made a surplus of about 451b. 

 So you see, this colony and its increase made about 

 1301b. of honey in comb; but this was an exception. 

 Fifty lbs. of comb honey is a good avei age. My 

 bees averaged but about 30ft. this season. I did not 

 extract. The season was too poor, I thought, for 

 that. Your experience with the locust tree differs 

 from mine. I believe the locust always bears honey 

 here, when there are blossoms. 



A SUBSTITUTE FOR ENAMELED CLOTH. 



The most satisfactory cover I have ever used for 

 covering frames is a piece of duck, or something 

 similar, painted with "oxide of iron" paint, mixed 

 with linseed oil, nothing more. This is the only 

 paint I know of that leaves the cloth pliable, like 

 rubber goods. These covers lie so nice and flat! and 

 you know "how important that is. To paint them, 

 they should be stretched on a smooth surface and 

 filled with paint (one coat), then suffered to lie till 

 the paint begins to harden. When they should be 

 taken up and dried in the sun. If taken up too 

 soon, the paint will run out of the goods. Try it, if 

 not old, and be convinced. 



Natural swarming was nearly an entire failure 

 here, this season. 1 had only 2 natural swarms. An 

 abundant flow of honey did not last long enough, at 

 any one time to insure natural increase. 



< hristiansburg, Ky., Nov. 1, '79. G. W. Demaree. 



100ft. of honey and didn't know it, &c. 



I thought that I should not renew Gleanings this 

 year, as the times were so very hard, but on reading 

 Our Homes for Nov., I thought that I could nut do 

 without it. I would be glad if I could get it into 

 every family in our county. I have only 7 stands in 

 my apiary. I was taking the top stories off yester- 

 day and putting on blankets for the winter, and, to 

 my astonishment, I found about 100ft. of nice comb 

 honey which I am selling- at 20c. per ft. So I found 

 that there was more money in the bees than I 

 thought for, as they had been neglected so much. 



