isst) 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



275 



From Different Fields. 



HANDLING VS. DISTURBING BEES. 



S NOTICE, on page 132 of Gleanings for March, 

 that you ask the question, "Do the bees you 

 J handle and loot at most gather the most hon- 

 ey, or those you seldom disturb?" It seems to me 

 that there is a difference between "handling" nnd 

 "disturbing-," and that a distinction should be made. 

 Bees, as well as other animals can be handled, and, 

 it' we give them to understand that they have noth- 

 ing to fear from us, the handling will not disturb 

 them; but, of course, this requires skill in the op- 

 erator. It is this skill which goes largely to make 

 the success of thcapiarist, for it is often called into 

 use. This is especially the case with those who raise 

 bees or queens for sale, for this necessitates fre- 

 quent handling. May it not be true that gentleness 

 in the bee may be encouraged and developed by fre- 

 quent and gentle handling' by the bee keeper, at 

 least where possibility of improvement is not sacri- 

 ficed t», the desire for imported queens? All kinds 

 of other stock are susceptible of improvement, and 

 why not bees'? My own custom is to raise a large 

 number of queens each year, and carefully select the 

 best for next year's breeding. Of course, this ne- 

 cessitates frequent examinations of the hives and 

 nuclei containing the young queens, and I have 

 come to the conclusion that the effect of careful 

 haudling is beneficial rather than otherwise. The 

 queen which I have selected for this year's breeding- 

 is very large and vigorous, an excellent layer, and 

 her bees are very industrious; yet both queen and 

 workers are apparently indifferent to being handled. 

 In spite of their quiet disposition, they arc very 

 watchful against robbers. If we can produce bees 

 which are not disturbed by being- handled, it will be 

 many points in their favor. A. B. Weed. 



No. 75 Bagg St., Detroit, Mica. 



A NEW INDUSTRY; FURNISHING BUILT OUT COMB. 



I have been making Simplicities for my own use 

 for three years, and thought I had enough to supply 

 my bees this season; but my neighbors seem sud- 

 denly to have become convinced that old box-hives 

 are not the thing for either bees or honey, and they 

 have so pressed me to accommodate them that I 

 have sold nearly all the hives I had made up. Now 

 I am fearful I will not be ready for new swarms. 

 Fortunately they bought all my bees too, excepting 

 8 colonies. I never lose any bees in winter, and am 

 sorry for you gentlemen of the North, who have to 

 confine your little servants to the lower story, and 

 tuck them up in chaff bed-clothes to keep them from 

 freezing-. My winter preparations consist in seeing 

 that they have 50 lbs. of honey, and sliding the hive 

 back until the entrance admits but one or two bees. 



The chief drawback here is that most of our hon- 

 ey is too dark to be readily sold in market. Would 

 it pay to cause the bees to devote their energies to 

 making combs on wired f'dn. for the market? How 

 much would such frames of comb be worth per hun- 

 dred, in all wood frames (your make)? and how 

 much in metal-cornered frames? Would you like to 

 inaugurate such a trade? H. A. Moody, M. D. 



I.ongtown, Miss., April 13, 1880. 



I should be very glad to see such an in- 

 dustry inaugurated, friend M., but supply 

 and demand will have to fix prices, and get 

 it started. We offer combs built out on 

 wires, in metal-cornered frames, for Hue. 

 each, as yon will see by our price list. Now, 

 if anybody wanted to buy, how low could he 

 do it? Friend Given's machine is about 

 what is wanted for one who undertakes to 

 do this, if lie will make them to work a lit- 

 tle more satisfactorily than the one he has 

 sent us. 



BEE CULTUUE IN OLDEN TIMES. 



1 was born and raised among the Green Mountains 

 in Vermont. My first lessons in bee-keeping were 

 taken some 44 years ago. Father having a favorite 

 young- apple tree, the bees selected it as a nice bush 

 on which to settle, and, the tree not being large 

 enough to support their weight, I was rigged with 

 bonnet, veil, and mittens, with coat sleeves and 

 pant-legs tied down, and was sent to hold the tree 

 upright, while father got the hive ready,— an old 

 straw hive. Three swarms settled upon this same 

 tree that season. I was also sent up a ladder held 

 by father against the ends of the limbs of an apple 

 tree, to take off and bring down a swarm of bees, 

 which I did successfully. Wheti it was found out 

 that the boy could handle the bees, I had to help 

 hive nearly every swarm. Father kept a large 

 apiary for those days. He manufactured and sold 

 the straw hive. We used for surplus honey a box 

 holding about :.'0 lbs., put upon the top of these 

 straw hives, and supported by putting clay mortar 

 around the hole in the top of the hive, and pressing 

 the box into it. One of these boxes full was con- 

 sidered a good yield from a hive in a season. 



Wm. II. Whitcher. 



Blooming-dale, Mich., Apr. 12, '80. 



A CHAPTER FROM REAL LIFE, BY AN A B C SCHOLAR. 



I went into winter quarters last fall with 17 stands. 

 I lost 6; 4 of them died with the dysentery, and 2 of 

 them starved to death; so I have 11 to start with 

 this spring. The other evening as I was taking- a 

 look at my hives, I noticed the bees crawling- around 

 on the ground in front of one of the hives, and soon 

 found out what was the matter with them. I over- 

 hauled all of them and found 2 more that had com- 

 pletely consumed their stores, so 1 had some feed- 

 ing to do. I made a syrup of sugar and tilled glass 

 tumblers, tied a cloth over them, and inverted one 

 over each cluster. Bight here, I learned one lesson 

 in feeding. These 3 stands, fed in the way men- 

 tioned above, were kept from starving, and that's 

 about all. They seemed to just ily out of their 

 hives, buzz around awhile, and then go back. They 

 had no pollen, and they would not gather any, while 

 the others were packing it in by the peck. It just 

 struck me that I was not feeding fast enough. So I 

 took a frame out of each hive, tilled it with syrup, 

 and hung it in the hive. They soon had the syrup 

 packed away in the center of the brood chamber, 

 and the next day they wci-e bringing in the pollen 

 as fast as any of them. Eli.vs Berg. 



Cicero, Ind., April lit, 1880. 



Why, friend 15.. you ought to— I came 

 very near saying you ought to have a good 

 shaking, for your cruelty in not looking into 

 those Eives, before the poor little fellows 

 were starving and starved. What would be 

 said of a man who put his pigs in a pen, and 



