36 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JAN. 



DEPOSITORY OF 



Or Letters from Those Who Have JTIiide 

 Bee Culture a. Failure. 



MUST confess lam disappointed in bees. Wheth- 

 er or not my poor success is because T live in 

 New Engltnd. where h >ney is not produced in 

 very large quantities, I do not know. 



IN THE SHADE OR IN THE SUN FOR WINTER? 



In thf> first place, many bees were lost on the 

 snow. When 1 bought them, I set the hives iu a 

 sunny place, and, on ihe first day that was a little 

 warm, they Hew out, staining ihe snow, and leaving 

 their dead bodies in great numbers, whilo others, 

 bought at the same place, which were in the shade, 

 did not fly out at all. 



"blesskd bees." 



I read the reports in Gleanings, of the success of 

 those who had frame hives, and was also rather "ta- 

 ken in" by that fascinating book, "The Blessed 

 Bees." Now, do you think I did ri^ht in deciding to 

 transfer my bees into a Langstroth hive.' I did it in 

 spite of the di>c uragt menis I received from others 

 who said it was impossible. I placed one frame of 

 boxes in the hive. The roadsides and lields began to 

 be covered with white clover, and I thought they 

 ought to make a nice little lot of honey, especially if 

 they did no' swarm; but thev did not seem to do 

 much in the boxes, and when I took them out after 

 the bu kwbeat bloom, there was nothing in iheni at 

 all, ai d the foundation-starters were somewhat eat- 

 en. Do you think this is because there is not enough 

 pasuinige, or because the colony is not strong 

 enough? Basswoid is almost unheard of here; so, 

 would it not be well to sow some of the honey 

 plants? or would it be a good plan to feed them up 

 next spring with grape snoar? 1 have a Doolittlo 

 smoker, but can not make it work. I came near 

 taking Mrs. Cotton's offer before I knew she was a 

 fraud. Wm. L. Hyde. 



Lyme, Ct., Nov. 34, 1879. 



I am sorry to hear you are disappointed, 

 my friend, but the best advice I can give is 

 for you to go slowly, and demonstrate for 

 yourself, with your one or two hives, what 

 bees will do, before placing very much de- 

 pendence upon what others may say. Not 

 that others do not tell the truth, but that 

 what succeeds with thern may not succeed 

 just the same with you. " Blessed Bees,' 1 I 

 have no scruple in branding as a positive un- 

 truth, because almost everybody who reads 

 it accepts it as truth and not fiction. I am 

 quite sure the State of Connecticut will give 

 as good results as the general run of other 

 States, if you persevere and become a profi- 

 cient. You. probably, like the rest of us, 

 have had a poor season ; but, had your col.i • 

 ny been strong, I think an old hand would 

 have got some surplus honey, at least. I 

 would not, at present, place much depend- 

 ence on raising honey plants. Take care of 

 the honey that is yielded naturally, first, and 

 leave it to older hands to experiment with 

 artificial pasturage. 



$}m- ( gih §^pa%ifi0it. 



^i? HAVE nothing very big to tell about my bees, 

 *|| except that I lost U out of 2i last winter, and 

 *-* some that came through were not able to swarm 

 this summer. I think the cause of loss was th<ir 

 being k< j pt in a cell a- that was too cold. This sum- 

 mer has been a very poor one in Delaware county 

 for making honey, and stocks are now generally 

 very light, both in bees and honey. I am a beginner 



in the business, and thought I put my bees into win- 

 ter quarters in fine condition last fall, but in the 

 spring I made up my mind I did not know anything 

 about bees. My courage revived a Utile, however, 

 and I thought I would purchase a few to make up 

 the break. So I started out to one of my neighbors, 

 who kept about twenty hives. I asked him how his 

 bees hsid wintered. 



" First rate," said ho. 



I asked him if I could purchase a few colonies. 



"Oh! yes," said he; "we have far too many." 



"We will go down and look at them," said I. 



"Oh!" was his reply, "I haven't time (he was 

 working the team); jusr go down and pick out what 

 you want, and when you came after them at night, 

 we will arrange it." 



I thought that would have been a good chance for 

 an expert. 



To my surprise,! found them all standing on their 

 ■summer stands where they had been wintered. 

 There was no wind-break of any description, and a 

 good many of them were not even covered with a 

 board, and some of the old hives were cracked on 

 two and three sides, and the bees were working just 

 splendidly. How is ihat for chaff picking? At 

 night I loaded live hives into mv wagon and paid him 

 $15.00, and we parted friends. I carried them home 

 safe, and they has " done well for this year. I w( uld 

 like to tell you how i he robbers went for some of my 

 half-dead hives, and how I succeeded in sa\ inglhem; 

 but you have such a big family to sympathise with, 

 I will forbear. I bought a nice Italian queen of L. 

 C. Root, in June, and was successful in introducing, 

 and bave raised some queens this summer. I n>>w 

 have 31 hives put away in the same cellar, onlr made 

 a good deal warmer, with a cement floor in it; also 

 the chambers of the hives are tilled with fine hay. 

 What the result may be remains to be seen. I would 

 like to know if it is necessary to carry them out in 

 winter, f>r a fly. Frances Graham. 



Delhi, Del. Co., N. Y., Dec. 1, 1879. 



Why do you persist m carrying them into 

 the cellar, friend G., when your neighbor 

 winters his so nicely out in the wind and 

 weather ? If you can keep your cellar from 

 getting too warm, I do not think you' will 

 need to take them out for a rl v , and I would 

 not take them out so long as they are quiet 

 and doing well. I know bees sometimes 

 winter all right out-doors without protec- 

 tion, but there are so many other times when 

 they don't, that I do not dare advise it. 



OBITUARY. 



Bro. Root:— While you, with many others, were 

 enjoungr Thanksgiving Day, we were sadk mourn- 

 ing the loss of our dear little pet (daughteri 5 years 

 old. Her name was Valeria; and she alwavs said 

 she was "Pa bee boy," and often was with mo 

 among the bees. She sometimes called me, saying 

 "The bees are swarming"; but that sweet voice is 

 gone. She was only sick :? days. Why do such sad 

 afflictions come wh^n one is already trying to serve 

 God? Is it to make us still more god-like? May 

 G' d help us. Prav for us. Yours in hope, 



Martinsville, 111., D> c. 8, "fl. Wm. St. Mary. 



May God indeed be with you and yours, 

 friend S., in your affliction. I presume there 

 are few of us who can not sympathize with 

 you, and it will help us to be careful how we 

 become unthankful and fretful, while these 

 little ones are spared to lighten and gladden 

 our homes. Even while I write, a little one 

 of two is looking out of the window by my 

 side, at the locomotive that brings our coal. 

 I do not know why, friend S., God sees lit to 

 afflict us so grievously, but I know it is easier, 

 far easier, if we can say " Thy will be done," 

 and rest on his promise of meeting them by 

 and by, in a better and happier land. As we 

 think of our own little ones, we all of us, I 

 am sure, breathe a prayer for our bereaved 

 friend, that God may help him to bear the 

 trial submissively. 



