1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



121 



it arrives. Hoping this is the beginning- of a corres- 

 pondence with you, that will be a source of pleasure 

 and profit here below, and a never ending acquaint- 

 ance above, I am W. H. Clemo. 

 Waimate, Canterbury, N. Z., Jan. 3, 1880. 



Many thanks, friend C. The bees you 

 send are the common, black bees of our own 

 country. Do you know how they got on 

 your island V That is, were they brought 

 there, or were they found when the first 

 missionaries landed? I shall be very glad 

 indeed, if I can help introduce our favorites 

 to you, in a way that will contribute to the 

 happiness and comfort of your people, and 

 our brothers in the Lord. 



DOES CONFINEMENT TO THE HIVES CAUSE DYSEN- 

 TERY ? 



The season of 1879 was the poorest for honey ever 

 known in this locality; but bees are wintering very 

 nearly as they did previous to 1871 and 2. There will 

 be no loss in this locality, except by starvation, but 

 loss from this cause will undoubtedly be considera- 

 ble. I see an article going the rounds, which states 

 that long confinement to the hive is the cause of 

 dysentery, the same writer also comparing bees to 

 mankind. Are such people lunatics or don't they 

 know? I supposed that nature designed the honey 

 bee as well as nearly all the insect creation to go in- 

 to a partially dormant state on the approach of cold 

 weather, and remain so for several months, without 

 any injury to themselves whatever, provided their 

 food, house, etc., is agreeable for them to spend the 

 gloomy hours of winter in. If I have been laboring 

 under false ideas, it is time 1 was corrected, and I 

 hope that some kind brother among your many 

 readers will rise up and explain. Hikam Roop. 



Carson City, Mich., Feb. 8, 1880. 



Gently, friend R. Although I entirely 

 agree with you in thinking that bees should 

 not be compared with human beings, yet I 

 think that dysentery is often cured by a 

 change in the\veather that permits the bees 

 to fly freely. Whether it is the new honey 

 and pollen", or their being able to empty 

 themselves, so to speak, I am at present un- 

 able to say positively. Some cases seem to 

 indicate one conclusion, and others the other. 



KEEPING EXTHA QUEENS IN CAGES. 



A. I. Root:— Excuse me for asking you a few ques- 

 tions, as I am one of your A B C scholars. I have 

 read your ABC book through twice, and cannot 

 really satisfy myself just how to save my extra 

 queens. I have 7 light swarms, each containing 

 about two quarts of bees. 1 ought to have put two 

 or three together when they swarmed; they would 

 have done well, however, in an ordinarily good sea- 

 son, but we had a rery dry summer, and old swarms 

 made n> surplus, while latish, young swarms did 

 nothing. Now these 7, light swarms all have g i« d. 

 fertile, black queens, ami I do not want to kill any Of 

 them, but 1 want to put the 7 colonies int i3; how 

 can I save the extra queens until I want to use them? 

 Please tell me. Can I cage them, and put the cage 

 between the combs, in a swarm that ha-* a queen, 

 and not kick up a fuss in the hive? If so, do I want 

 to put some worker bees in the cage with the queens? 

 and how many with each queen? 



MAPLE SUGAR AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR CANDY. 



I went down cellar Saturday night, and looked 



over my 23 swarms. They were all right except 3, 

 which were out of honey, or nearly so. I gave each 

 a pound of dry maple sugar, in the cake, and they 

 eat it like fun. Is that the right way to feed it. 

 But very few bees have died in my hives yet; I do 

 not think there are over 2 quarts out of the whole 23 

 swarms. I look to them every week, and keep the 

 dead bees swept (ait of the hives clean. Some of the 

 large swarms sweat a little, and the bottom boards 

 are somewhat moldy, but I have a cellar that is very 

 warm, so that potatoes are sprouting in it, and so 

 dry that the sand will run in it like dry powder. 

 Are they too warm, da you think? They stay in the 

 hives all right, and are not noisy, but you can hear a 

 gentle buzzing as you walk through among them. 

 Greig, N. Y., Feb. 9, '80. K. P. Lovejoy. 



You can save your queens by the plan you 

 suggest, perhaps, but, friend L., why not let 

 them go right along as they are, since you 

 have wintered them thus far? A queen at 

 liberty and laying is certainly worth more 

 than one caged up, to say nothing of being 

 far safer. You are on the right track, ana 

 have nothing to do but to go ahead, with the 

 light you have. I have never fed any kind 

 of candy with so good results, as with maple 

 sugar. And I have decided this year, if it 

 gets down to the price of coffee A, to buy all 

 I can find. I once put over a colony, in 

 March, a cake which had been made in a pan, 

 and they ate it all in about a month, and 

 built up into a powerful colony, almost ready 

 to swarm, before natural sources yielded at 

 all. Just put some maple sugar cakes over 

 those weak colonies, and build them up. 

 You will get along about as fast as by doub- 

 ling, and you will have 7 colonies instead of 

 3. Your "cellar is an excellent one I should 

 say, but I would prefer to have the bees I am 

 feeding, outdoor. When it is necessary to 

 keep surplus queens, they should have a good 

 lot of young bees in the cage with them, and 

 there is so much danger of the cluster's mov- 

 ing awav from them, thus letting them get 

 chilled, I think I would prefer to have them 

 in the house, where you can look at them 

 quite often. 



FLAT-BOTTOMED FDX. STARTERS, ETC. 



I have used and sold considerable flat bottomed 

 fdn. for starters in sections, 10 sq. ft. to the pound. 

 I am convinced that the bees have to work the flat 

 bottomed cell into natural shape by some means, as 

 I never yet have seen any honey stored or brood 

 raised, until the fdn. was SO fixed. For this reason, 

 I think, if we can get fdn. of natural shape, and thin 

 enough for starters in sections, it will be preferable 

 to the fiat bottomed cell. Neither do I think very 

 favorably of high side walls. They only tend to make 

 the comb tough when one wants to eat it. I have 

 great doubts about the bees working it out as much 

 as a great many claim they do. They will not draw 

 the fdn., as we term it, unless there is a good How of 

 honey, and then they have the means at their com- 

 mand to add new wax. The high side walls are all 

 right for fdn. designed for brood comb. Fdu. for 

 the brood chamber should never be over 5 sq. ft. to 

 the pound, to work successfully, I have just been 

 reading your plan for setting fdn. starters. It is 

 essentially the same as I have used the past two 

 seasons. L. E. St. John. 



Greene, Chen. Co., N. Y., Feb. 5, 1880. 



