34 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



POISONING BEES WITH YEAST. 



Two men threaten to poison my bees, —one of 

 them because my Italians robbed his blacks; the 

 other, because the bees spoiled his Delaware grapes. 

 The way they are going- to poison them is to mix 

 brewer's yeast with honey, and set it out tor the 

 bees. They say it will make the honey all run out 

 of the hives. Let me know whether this is a fact, 

 and if there is any remedy for this yeast business. 



VV. w. Wil&on. 



Hartland, Waukesha Co., Wis., Dec. 12 187n. 



[[ have eard, years ago, about poisoning bees by 

 feeding theuj honey containing yeast; but, although 

 1 have never tried the experiment, I believe, from 

 what I know of their habits, the bees are equal to 

 the task of taking care of yeast even, if they are 

 strong and in go >d health. Noi withstanding, I would 

 try to make friends with ihose neighbors, if it is a 

 possible thing. Talk the matter over in a pleasant 

 way; show them the articles we have recently pub- 

 lished on the subject; then agree upon damages, 

 and pay it, if they are not too unreasonable. If you 

 can not stand it, got a new location for your bees; 

 but don't quarrel with your neighbors, if you have 

 to give up bee-culture and stop taking Gleanings.] 



CALIFORNIA SAGE AS A HONEY PLANT. 



HbNEY DEW FROM THE BEECH, ETC. 



We have 125 colonies all packed in chaff hives, on 

 theirsummer stands, all in good order, except that 

 they at he red a lot of honey dew from the beech 

 leaves. This fall, some beech trees had the limbs 

 covered with white insects about a quarter of an 

 inch long, and those were the trees that the bees 

 worked on most. The Italians seem to work on it 

 more than the blacks. Buckwheat was a failure 

 here this year. 



We commenced the season with 45 colonies, and 

 made 2,000ft>. of comb honey in one and two poui d 

 sections. This was a good se is -n for honey up to 

 the end of basswood, but the fall was very dry. 



Lifford, Out., Can., Dec. 8, 1879. J. Russell. 



REPORT FUOM IOWA. 



I started with 15J stocks In the spring, extracted 

 1,8001b., and took 2,i00tt>. of section honey, and in- 

 creased to 19i. 1 h ive s >ld somewhat over 4,100ft>. of 

 honey, about 1,700 ot which was extracted honey. It 

 averaged, both comb and extracted, loc. per. lb. 



My bees are mosily black. I have some h.\ brids, 

 which are as saucy as yellow jackets. I'.ees have not 

 done very well among ihe former bee-keepers of 

 this county. There was scarcely any homy raised; 

 the season was too dry; from July till the frost came, 

 there was not much more honey gathered than the 

 bees used to live on. 



CELLAR WINTERING IN IOWA. 



My bees are all housed in out-door caves or cellars, 

 with the caps tilled with dry straw. It took one man 

 one day to carry them in, and cost me $1.00, which I 

 think is che per than to fuss with chaff. I have lost 

 only 5 stands wintering for 3 years. 



[But the chaff packing is an excellent thing when 

 the bees are not iu-doors, friend Q ] 



ADVERTISING BEES DON'T PAY THIS YEAR. 



My advertisement of bees, in Gleanings, did not 

 pay, as 1 have not sold any yet. The mistake you 

 made in September advertisement brought me about 

 100 postals, but when I wrote them it was a mistake, 

 none seemed to want to buy. 



ADVERTISING HONEY DOES PAY THIS YEAR. 



But the honey advertisement made it all up, as I 

 soon sold all my extracted honey. The comb honey 

 1 s >ld near home. Kobt. Qcinn. 



Shellsbug, Benton Co., Iowa, Dec. 12, 1879. 



AGE OP DRONES. 



I see, on p. 481, in December Gleanings, 1879. that 

 broiher Demaree advances a new theory in regard 

 to the length of the life of drones. I do not think 

 his theory a true one, for I have a colony of bees 

 that has kept drones for the past 2 winters. I am 

 ceitain th tt none of them were reared later than the 

 2itth of October. OnTuesday. the 16th of this month, 

 my bees had a good fly, and in that one colonv, I 

 n 'ticed quite a number of drones. The queen is a 

 large black one, and is 3 years old. If those drones 

 live through this wint'T. as they did last, I will re- 

 port airain. My bees are all nicely packed away and 

 enjoying a good rest. Thomas Butler. 



Blooniington, III., Dec. 23, 1879. 



SUBSCRIBER sends me an article 

 from which I clip the following: 



When the plants are well established, which will 

 be when they are two years old, they will yield rich 

 returns, and the seed will scatter and take root on 

 adjoining laud. Year after year the plants will in- 

 crease, more acres will liloom, and the hives will 

 groan under tho weight of honey that will in quality 

 surpass that of vit. tiymettus. 



As the white, blue, and black sage do so well, are 

 of easy culture, and yield large quantities and an ex- 

 cellent quality of honey, they should be distributed 

 in all puts of the State where they will grow; and in 

 a few years, where one pound is now gathered there 

 will be ten pounds. 



Do not . wa it for your neighbor to try it first, but 

 obtain the seed now, and have plants to set out next 

 sprint. Propagate by cuttings as well as by seed, 

 and thereby increase rapidly. Plant on the hillsides, 

 on t he banks < if creeks, and by the roadside. Do this, 

 and the honey-producing flora of your locality will 

 be augmented; and perhaps in a shorter time than 

 one thinks the bees will tie collecting exclusively 

 from sage blossoms, and the honey will be as clear 

 and limpid as one could desire.,— W. A. Pryal, in Pa- 

 cific Rural Press. 



Now if the friends in California are hard 

 up, too, this year, as we are, why do they not 

 send us some seed at something like a fair 

 price? The only price I have seen quoted, 

 was 5c. per packet, or $2.50 per oz. Surely 

 some one can gather seed at less than this V 

 We want some of the three kinds mentioned, 

 and we want to try it, even if it will not bear 

 honey in our climate. Perhaps Ave can get 

 friend Hasty to raise us some that will ripen 

 in " t+0 days, " like the new sugar cane. W\ o 

 can furnish the seeds V My opinion of the 

 honey is, that there is nothing in the world 

 equal to it. I hope soon to be enabled to 

 mail samples of it for 10c. 



THE SPIDER PL \NT, ANO SIMPSON 

 HONE* PLANT. 



ALL I KNOW ABOUT THEIR CULTIVATION. 



TJnlpOW often will the same ground need to be re- 

 r(r|l set with these plants? or how long will they 

 last? Will they nee i cultivatingafter the first 

 season? I do not tind anything in Gleanings touch- 

 ing these poin's. 



Can you furnish tho plants for 2 or 3 acres, in tho 

 spring? and, if so, for how much per hundred? I 

 want to get that many in the spring. 



M. G. Hakes. 

 Tekonsha, Calhoun Co., Wis. Dec. 17, 1879. 



The Simpson honey plant, if I am correct, 

 will remain and blossom year after year in- 

 definitely. On page 407. of Gleanings. 1879, 

 a subscriber says he has one that has blos- 

 somed for 40 years. I would, by all means, 

 keep the weeds out by cultivation. Plant 

 the seeds in boxes of leaf mold from the 

 woods, any month in the year. Keep them 

 in a warm room, and they will come up as 

 thickly and as easily as cabbage plants; but 

 if you try them in hard, common soil, they 

 will not grow at all. I presume February or 

 March would be about the right time to 

 start plants for next year. I have thought 

 they might bloom more next season, if they 

 were sown now. and, to try the experiment, 

 we have a lot of them, already from 2 to 6 

 inches high, in boxes. You will have to try 

 it and see ; it costs but little for seed, or time 

 either. 



