32 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



LETTING BEES STARVE. 



The grape sugar has come at last, in good condi- 

 tion, but was weeks on ihe road, and, by its delay, I 

 lost 4 stands of bees. 1 think full 4-5 of the bees in 

 this country will die before spring. One of my 

 neighbors had lost 40 stands, some weeks ago, and 

 doubtless many more by this time. 



Slater, Mo., Dec. 5, 1S79. Geo. W. Baker. 



THE BETTER WAT. 



Friend Hoot:— After you so kindly offered to take 

 my imported queen back, and send me another, it 

 made me feel ashamed of mjself, and 1 thought that 

 1 was probably mistaken afier all, and I would keep 

 her. black or yellow. P. B. Stout. 



Paola, Miami Co., Kas., Nov. 21, 1879. 



[Many thanks for your kindness, friend s. I fear 

 you do me more than justice; the above illustrates 

 how easily most business transactions may begot 

 along with, where a Christian spirit is shown on one 

 or boih sides. If the queen does not prove what 

 you have a right to expect for the money you paid, 

 i will take her back, or make the price as it should 

 be.] 



WILL THE LOSS OF THE STING KILL A BEE ? 



What bee-keeper has not been asked this question? 

 and how many can answer it? When a bee stings, 

 it dies, don't it? A few years ago. I shut a bee which 

 had stung me, under a tumbler, and kept it 24 hours; 

 then I let it go. The present year, in June, I shut 

 up two that had stung me. One that was badly 

 mutilated lived over 50 hours; the other, over 70 

 hours. In August, one morning, I shut up two that 

 had not lost their stings. At night, they were both 

 dead. They were all fed. B Finch. 



Gallupville, Schoharie Co., N. V., Nov. 24, 1870. 



ed them thoroughly as soon as they commenced 

 hostilities, you could have saved them.] 



Hurrah for Gleanings ! What a glorious thing it 

 was they did not take you to the asylum when you 

 first went crazy ! A. N. DUFF. 



Flat Ridge, 0., Dec. 12, 1879. 



ONE GOOD REPORT FOR 1879, ANY WAY. 



My bees are doing better than for years. I have 4 

 colonies, from which 1 have taken 290 one-p ■aind 

 boxes (black bees at that), and will get enough to 

 make the even 400, if I can get my sections in time. 



Republic, O., July 8, 1879. E. F. Beard. 



HOW TO PREVENT PROPOLIS STICKING TO THE 

 FINGERS. 



Hard soap rubbed on the hands while handling 

 sticky frames prevents propolis from sticking, and 

 is much cleaner than grease. 1 keep a piece handy 

 while at work, and it saves much vexation. This is 

 the poorest honey season I ever knew. 1 do not 

 think over half the bees in the country have honey 

 enough to winter on. Stephen W. Hall. 



Lamoille, Marshall Co., la., Dec. 8, 1879. 



[Many thanks, friend H., for your novel idea. It 

 is said prevention is better than cure, and 1 have no 

 douut but that it will prove so in this case.] 



PUTTING GUMMED HONEY LABELS ON TIN. 



[ ordered some of your gummed labels, received 

 them in due time, and was very much pleased with 

 them; but when I came to put them on tin pails, 

 they would come off as soon as dry. I soon discover- 

 ed a remedy, however, that prevents all such diffi- 

 culty, and thev now work splendidly. 



Winooski, Wis., Dec. 1, 1879, G. H. Peirce. 



[Labels are generally made so as to go clear around 

 the tin can or pail, and then there is no such thing 

 as coming off. Another way is, to make the tin 

 rough with sand paper; but this is too much work 

 where there are many. Have you any better plan, 

 friend P.?] 



Our bees have done so much better on your im- 

 proved plan of handling them, that my friends are 

 astonished. I am making the chaff hive, and have 

 quite a number of stocks in them. E. L. Stove. 



Beardstown, Wood Co., O., Nov. 21, 1879. 



UNITED STOCKS QUARRELING. 



I had a small colony of blacks, and thought I 

 would destroy their ()ueen, and put them in with a 

 small clony <>f Italians. Next morning, everv black 

 was killed. What do you thiuk was the cause? 



Ft. Smith, Aik., Nov. 18, '79. Stacy Pettit. 



[Such will frequently be the cflse, unless the col- 

 ony to be united with another has been sometime 

 queenless. As I understand it, you killed their 

 queen and united them right nway, did von not, 

 frleud P.? Had you kept watch of them, and smok- 



FEEDING SUGAR TO MAKE HONEY. 



[One of our subscribers sends us the following, 

 ; which I fear will have to go the rounds of the news- 

 j papers, simply because it is such an abominable 

 , suing of falsehoods from beginning to end; the 

 i worst art of it is, that every paper that quotes is al- 

 most sure to give it as a sober fact.] 

 feeding honey bees. — Without speaking of the 

 I numberless attempts to feed bees upon cheap food 

 ! which were all failures, we give the following as the 

 J result of our experimen's: That if bees be fed upon 

 good, pure loaf-sugar dissolved in only water enough 

 to render it liquid, so that they can eat it, or suck it 

 ] up, that an ordinary hive will consume from one to 

 two pounds of svteh mixture every day; but that the 

 actual gain in weight is only what the sugar weighs 

 without the water; the latter being only a solvent, 

 and not convertible into honey. That the sugar is at 

 once converted into the most piire and delicaie hon- 

 ey possible for the bees to make, wiih all the deli- 

 cious flavor perlainingto the best honey; while for 

 whiteness both of honey and comb, it far excels any 

 made from the sweets of flowers. It becomes then 

 simply a matter of cost and profit. Sugar by the 

 tun, in a large api try, can lie converted into honey 

 worth from seventy-five ccntsto one dollar a pound, 

 while present prices continue. Th it by this process 

 bees can be kept at work to profit at all seasons of 

 the year, where the climate is not too cold for them 

 to manufacture the comb, to hold the honey. — Cali- 

 fornia CxMuHst. 



I beganJast spring with two box hives. One of the 

 swarms I found July 8th., 1878, hanging on a small 

 tree. Being a small swarm, I put them in a small 

 box, and ted them 50ft. of coffee sugar. I put them 

 up strtirs in a dark closet. They came out all right 

 in spring. I bought another box hive in the spring, 

 and not knowing any thing about bees, I got no sur- 

 plus honey, but J have plenty of bees. I have 6 col- 

 onies in movable comb hives, and one Svvarm I lost; 

 it went off and never bade me good-bye. 



Wm. Coleman. 



Devizes, Ont., Ca., Dec. 15, 1879. 



[You did well, friend C, especially as yon arc 

 about the first person I ever knew to succeed, who 

 put bees up stairs for winter. Your keeping the 

 room perfectly dark was probably why it did not 

 harm t hem. ] 



troubles. 

 Some of my neighbors think that I ought to go in- 

 to Blasted Hopes, as I went io so much expense and 

 trouble this last season, and got no honey to pay me. 

 My transferred stocks all built themselves up nicely, 

 except the very late ones, and they would also have 

 done so, had I helped them. 



TROUBLES IN FALL FEEDING OUT-DOORS. V 



My fall feeding came near proving a failure. I 

 first tried out-door feeding wiih glass fruit-jars. It 

 started robbing. My only Italian stock got to killing 

 one another. I would not have believed it, but there 

 are no Italians within 4 miles of me except my one 

 stock. 



TROUBLES IN FEEDING AT THE ENTRANCE. 



I then sent to you for a dozen Simplicity feeders, 

 and tried the night-feeding with them, and they 

 were taken possession of by- the little red ants by the 

 thousands. In the morning the feeders would be 

 red with them. 



TROUBLES IN FEEDING IN THE UPPER STORY. 



I then used, on my weakest colonies, a second 

 story, and in it I place I an inverted fruit-jar fill d 

 with syrup. That did first rate, except wiih a couple 

 of colonics, which I had to close up to keep rubbers 

 away. 



TROUBLES IN UNITING. 



T tried doubling one colony with another, and the 

 one that I put in was all killed. 



ALL IS WELL, IF IT ENDS WELL. 



T have chaff cushioned all of mv transferred stocks, 

 both sides and tops, and of those not transferred, I 



