106 



GLEANINGS IN I3EE CULTUKK. 



Mail 



HOW TO JIANAGK BKKS WHKN THEY 

 GET 0\ A BOBBING UAID. 



|p NOTICE, in the February No., Mr. Wolfenden's 

 || troubles with ii sorghum mill. It may interest 

 your readers, and possibly be a help to some- 

 body, to know a little of the similar tribulations ex- 

 perienced by myself last fall, with a small apiary of 

 17 colonies. 



By way of preface, I may say that, in our large 

 family of nearly 300 persons, when we have honey 

 on our table, from 50 to 60ft>. are consumed at a meal: 

 and, that all may be accommodated as tc > t ime, ou rta- 

 bles are kept set for about two hours at each meal. 

 Well, one day during the very warm weather of list 

 October, honey was served at noon. «Our dining- 

 room being within 50 rods of the apiary, and the win- 

 dows all open, just before the close of the long din- 

 ing-hour, we began to be visited so liberally by the 

 bees, that it was necessary to hurry the last of the 

 honey from the tables, and from the room. 



Having thus whetted their appetites lor stolen 

 goods, the next day, these beautiful and, in many 

 respects, praise worthy insects, made a raid on the 

 large fruit-packing establishment an eighth of a mile 

 away, and were soon drowning by thousands in the 

 hot syrups, besides making themselves an intolera- 

 ble nuisance to the workmen employed there. For 

 a day or two, it was a serious question what to do,— 

 how to control and save them. As we had no con- 

 venient cellar in which to put them, the first night I 

 shut them securely in their hives, as I supposed, 

 giving them ventilation at top and bottom. The 

 next morning, however, the bees from several of 

 the colonies had found their way out, and gone 

 straight for the packinar-room; and those still im- 

 prisoned kept up such an awful roaring that, as the 

 least of two evils, I opened all the hives again about 

 sunset, when the bees poured out and started for 

 the packing-room, many of them never to return. 

 Besides this, their confinement in such hot weather, 

 and consequent excitement, occasioned the death of 

 not a few. 



Once more, when night came, I shut "my pets" in, 

 and though they manifested great uneasiness, kept 

 them confined this time until dusk of the following 

 day, when I again opened every hive, and they im- 

 mediately struck out for the fruit-room. 



After 3 days of such experimenting and loss, with 

 the mercury indicating 75° to 80°, I concluded that 

 some new course must be adopted, if I would save 

 my bees in condition for wintering. This is what I 

 did, and it proved a success: Early on the fourth 

 morning, on the suggestion of a friend, I had in 

 front of the apiary several empty sugar barrels, 

 the insides of which were incrusted with dry sugar. 

 These I sprinkled with water to moisten the sugar. 

 The bees took the bait and staid at home. After 

 they had taken every particle of sugar from the 

 barrels, I still continued sprinkling' them several 

 times a day, with diluted syrup, and kept up this 

 practice for 8 or 9 days, when I gradually left it off, 

 and the bees went to work on the golden rod and as- 

 ters, and did not again trouble the packing room. 



My colonies did not need feeding particularly, and 

 the above practice did not add much to their stores; 

 but it kept them busy and out of mischief, and 

 started breeding some, so that I think they regain- 

 ed all they had lost. They were out for a fly three 

 times during the month of January. 



s. R. Leonard. 

 Community, N. Y., Feb. t>, 1880. 



P. S. — After having the barrels out one day, I 

 noticed that for some reason one of them was pat- 

 ronized but very little by the bees; On clr>se inspec- 

 tion, [ found it to be a salt barrel. It looked about 

 like the others, however, the inside apparently coat- 

 ed with white sugar. S. K. L. 



The above gives a very vivid illustration 

 of the importance of being very careful to 

 stop all such work, the very minute it com- 

 mences. Had the first bee that made its ap- 

 pearance in the dining room been driven 

 out, or promptly killed if it had got load- 

 ed up unnoticed, it woidd very likely 

 have prevented the whole annoyance all 

 around. I am inclined to think the bar- 

 rels of sugar hardly deserve all the credit, 

 for I know that it is quite a task to draw a 

 whole apiary from such a place, even with 

 sugar. Besides, with a hundred colonies or 

 more, it would take more sugar to keep it 

 up all day long, than most apiarists would 

 want to buy. I have had a similar experi- 

 ence in sugar feeding to keep the bees away 

 from the cider mill, and I know what a re- 

 lief it was when honey came from natural 

 sources, to call the bee's away. 



m m *i 



CAGES FOR QUEENS TO GO BY MAIL. 



IfP YEN while we were sending queens by 

 jtJ/ji mail, I had reason many times, to 

 — think the department had pretty good 

 grounds to rule them out as they did, and the 

 idea of a double wire cloth, at one time, sug- 

 gested itself to me very forcibly, when I got 

 a sting, by putting my lingers on the wire 

 cloth, in handling a cage. Our clerks have 

 been stung in the same way, and I presume 

 it comes about by catching on the foot of one 

 of the little fellows as it accidentally comes 

 through the wire cloth. Of course we do not 

 mind a sting here, but nervous people em- 

 ployed in the mails have a right to be pro- 

 tected, and most assuredly should be. Nasty, 

 dauby cages and packages have many times 

 been sent me containing queens, and now 

 comes the question as to how we shall best 

 hold the permit the department has granted 

 us. The following in regard to the matter 

 was sent me by Prof. Cook : 



Dear Friend Root: — Please put the below in next 

 Gleanings, or else use it as a text for something 

 stronger and better. Unless caution is practiced by 

 breeders and shippers, we shall lose what we have 

 gained, and we shall find it very hard to secure it a 

 second time. A . J Cook. 



MAILING QUEEN BEES. 



Until within the ltst few years there was no rulo 

 against sending bees through the mails, and owing 

 to the cheapness and safety of this method of trans- 

 portation the postal service was freely used by those 

 engaged in this traffic, very greatly to the advant- 

 age of those who wished to secure the mure excel- 

 lent Italian bees. . 



A few years since the postoffice department refus- 

 ed the use of the mails forthis put pose. There were 

 doubtless good reasons for this order. Honey was 

 placed in the boxes to serve as food Cor the bees dur- 

 ing their transit. Of ten, owing to the kind of food 

 and carelessness in the method of placing it in the 

 shipping cages, the houey escaped and daubed the 

 mails, greatly to the vexation of the mail agents and 



