03 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



OIK OWN APIARY. 



tTOLD you, in the last December No., 

 about the three lots of imported queens 

 that I did not expect, and that we had 

 225 colonies, and many of them weak. I ex- 

 pected to sell off a lot of queens to sup- 

 ply those who were always wanting one, 

 just the last thing; and we did sell quite a 

 number, but so many of our customers want- 

 ed a pound of bees with the queen, that we 

 were little, if any, better off after all. Every 

 colony was put into a chaff hive, even 

 though it was weak, and the best I could do 

 to save those imported queens that came so 

 inopportunely was to hope that the winter 

 would be mild, like the winter before last. 

 Well, we have been selling queens right 

 along all through December, and are selling 

 them to-day, Jan. 8th ; in fact, I should like 

 to have an order for a full hundred this min- 

 ute. We could then make 200 weak colonies 

 into 100 pretty fair ones. However, I shall 

 have to do the best I can, for aught I see, 

 and develop my skill in nursing through 

 weak swarms, whether I do or do not wish 

 to do so. A few days ago, Will pointed to a 

 queen he was just putting up in one of Miss 

 Andrews 1 cages, shown on page 209, last 

 year's Gleanings, with the remark, 



"There is a whole swarm of bees in that 

 box." 



" A whole swarm ? What do you mean?"' 



" I mean that when I took the queen out 

 of the hive, there were so few bees left I put 

 them all into the cage ; and, although the 

 man paid only for the queen, he has got the 

 swarm with her."' 



" Why, have we colonies with imported 

 queens so weak as that V " 



" It seems we had one such." 



"And those few bees stood it safely in a 

 chaff hive, with a temperature 2 Z below ze- 

 ro V " 



" It was six below zero at our house.' 1 



"Well, I declare! That is more than I 

 ever expected a chaff hive to do." 



After it got warmer, we went over the 

 Avhole apiary and found five colonies dead. 

 One contained an imported queen. A care- 

 ful examination showed that, even with so 

 few bees, those that died were not in the 

 best trim they might have been. The first 

 found dead was in a chaff hive which I 

 bought, and was not nearly as good a protec- 

 tion as our own. The second was in one of 

 our chaff hives, but, by some means, no win- 

 ter passages were made in those combs. 

 The hive had been missed when the rest 

 were done. The bees had got away from 

 their stores, and starved, with food at the 

 other side of the hive. This was all of the 

 losses in the chaff hives. The other 3 were 

 in the house apiary, not well protected with 

 cushions, and not amply supplied with stores. 

 They were all overhauled thoroughly, more 

 cushions given them, and all cracks and 

 crevices well closed up. Out-doors, in the 

 chaff hives, in spite of all the care with 

 Which we had put the cushions in, I found, 

 now and then, a bee or more up under the 

 cover. They would get a glimpse of light 

 around some corner, and then make their 

 way up through. Now, we do not want to 



lose a single bee in this way, and after see- 

 ing how difficult it is to be sure that these 

 cushions are bee-tight, I directed some bas- 

 kets of chaff to be brought. The cushions 

 were removed, and loose chaff filled in be- 

 hind all division-boards where there was any 

 empty space, and then a thin covering of 

 chaff was put over the mat, especially in the 

 corners, or wherever a bee was seen peeping 

 out. The cushion was then put back, and 

 we could see the difference at once by the 

 bees standing around the entrances" and 

 looking out, because their hives were made 

 so warm inside. 



Jan. \*th. — We have now had 9 days of 

 warm rain, and scarcely a trace of frost or 

 ice during this whole time. Of course, the 

 queens are laying, and the bees as well as 

 vegetation seem to be starting forward as if 

 it were spring. It is these warm spells in 

 the midst of our winters in this latitude that 

 has induced me to strongly favor wintering 

 on the summer stands. 



Jan. 23d.*- The weather is still mild, and, 

 strange as it may seem, we have had over 

 three weeks right in the middle of January, 

 without a freeze sufficient to make ice^- inch 

 thick; in fact, there has been almost no 

 freezing weather at all. The grass is green 

 and growing; dandelions are in bloom, and 

 bees are working on them. Of course, we 

 have lost no more bees, for any one who 

 could not keep bees this winter must be 

 careless -indeed. The bees use the grape- 

 sugar candy made with honey, instead of 

 coffee sugar, with a marked preference, and 

 where you have honey that is old and can- 

 died, that will not bring more per ponnd 

 than A coffee sugar, I should, by all means, 

 use it. Almost every colony has hatching 

 brood, and it is no task at all to raise brood 

 with this cheap candy. The editor of the 

 Western Honey Bee gives his experience 

 with it down in Missouri, as follows: 



We printed friend Root's plan of making- grape- 

 sugar-candy bricks, and we here recommend them 

 for feeding - bees, either with or without honey; we 

 have one stand that has not had an ounce of honey 

 since the first of October, the time we received 

 ^Gleanings, and have given them nothing but the 

 grape sugar as directed in our November number. 

 The colony has plenty of brood now in the hive, and 

 we believe it is actually better than honey to winter 

 bees on. We believed it so strongly that we are 

 feeding it to sixty colonies of bees, and they all have 

 more or less brood. 



We made two hundred pounds of grape sugar into 

 candy bricks, and the bees fairly danced when they 

 saw it; why, we tell you, our bees, in pleasant days, 

 come up to the sunny side of our house when we 

 have a brick lying on a board for their amusement, 

 and they will carry in about live pounds of this hard 

 brick each pleasant day. We will repeat that we 

 recommend it as the best feed for bees, not only in 

 cheapness, but because, in reality, it is better to 

 feed than honey. 



It is quite probable that the candy an- 

 swers better for a winter like this than it 

 would during one with long spells of zero 

 temperature ; still, with proper protection, I 

 think it will prove a safe food, for any 

 winter. 



