1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



407 



DEPOSITORY OF 



Or Letters front Tliose Who Have JTIade 

 Bee Culture a Failure. 



^ JjfR- -A. I. ROOT:— Time was when I would have 

 Jlfyffili addressed you as "Dear Novice," or "Dear 



' Gleanings," but I have lost so much money 



in the bee business (which I would never have un- 

 dertaken had I not seen Gleanings), that I am not 

 drawn to you so closely as I used to feel, though I 

 do wish you would help me out of a bad pi ice. Hav- 

 ing been compelled by ill health to give up a lucra- 

 tive business (wholesale boot and shoe business in 

 St. Louis), I went to the country (Jeff. Co., Ohio,) in 

 the fall of '74. There I saw a copy of Gleanings, 

 subscribed for '75, and bought the back volumes. I 

 read them, besides "Quinby's Mysteries" and "Lang- 

 stroth on the Honey Bee." I bought 11 swarms in 

 box hives, transferred to movable-frame hives, 

 Qninby pattern, bought your extractor, slung some- 

 thing less than a barrel of catnip honey, increased 

 to 36 swarms, and wintered on sugar syrup and can- 

 dy. Much enthused by my first year's success, I 

 came here and bought 125 acres in a region reputed 

 good for bees. I got no honey that year, '76, and 

 quit reading Gleanings. In '77 I got less than 500 

 lbs., which I sold in Mason's jars, in Washington 

 City, at retail, for 10c. I got no honey or bees in '78 

 and '70. This year has been a honey year with my 

 neighbors' bees, particularly where sections have 

 been used, but mine have averaged lf-ss than 30 lbs. 

 extracted honey, which at price, 10c retail, does not 

 pay for the sugar fed them last fall and spring. I 

 have always wintered my bees on A sugar, and thus 

 far have paid out nearly $300.00 more than I have 

 taken in; and now I want to sell out and return to 

 the city. I have the only extractor in this part of 

 the country, but am not likely to find a buyer, as 

 the bee-men (?) are too much afraid of stings to use 

 it. Ben. S. Cole. 



Clifton Station, Fairfax Co., Va., Aug. 23, 1880. 



Many thanks, friend C, for your kind, 

 frank letter. If you do not feel like saying 

 ''Dear Gleanings," do not say it. May I 

 suggest that, as you gave up your business 

 in the city on account of bad health, your 

 health may fail again, and that you may 

 have to pay more than $3U0.00 for doctors' 

 bills, and not have as pleasant medicine to 

 take either.— Are you sure you would not 

 have done better to have kept reading a bee 

 journal, instead of stopping it at your first 

 bad luck? May it not be that the "Blasted 

 Hopes 1 ' column would have been the means 

 of preventing you from embarking entirely 

 in the business as you have done? Besides, 

 had you kept up with your journal, you 

 would now, probably, have been using sec- 

 tions as your neighbors are doing, and with 

 UOc or 2oc for your honey (instead of 10c), 

 would it not have made a different showing? 

 If you will accept it, we will send you G LB a x - 

 ings one year, for your very excellent re- 

 port, and kind warning to our A B C class, 

 against embarking too hastily in the start. — 

 You say you have, by the use of sugar, mas- 

 tered the great wintering trouble successful- 

 ly. Is not this worth something? 



I have been examining my bees, and taking off sec- 

 tions, when I could find any that were filled. O dear! 

 Such a derth I never saw! Not more than '4 were 

 fit to come off. There is no use of leaving them 

 longer, for no honey is coming in, though the weath- 

 er is fine. There is not much brood, — combs are 

 empty and clean,— and no crowding the queen. 

 Last year, we called a poor season, but bees were 

 filling up at this time, and went into winter quarters 

 strong. There is the same complaint all over this 

 section. We have had a very wet season, and there 

 was no honey in the flowers. I expected to have a 

 good fall, but I shall be disappointed. Some Ital- 

 ians have filled up well, and also hybrids. Blacks 

 have done poorly. N. A. Prudden. 



Ann Arbor, Mich., Sept. 16, 1880. 



I wish you would send me the "A B C of Bee Cul- 

 ture," or something to instruct me how to transfer 

 bees, as my bees are all being eaten up by the moth. 

 Out of 40, I do not think I can save 5 or 6. Mine are 

 black bees in the old box hives, and I have to tear 

 them up from top to bottom to see the moth. The 

 bees leave every time. If I smoke them out, what 

 little honey there is left tastes of the smoke. If you 

 can help me save the bees, now is the accepted time. 



Leon, la., Aug. 31, 1880. Thos. H. Leeson. 



Friend Root:— At a special meeting held here the 

 2d inst., 34 bee-keepers report- 

 No. of colonies last spring, 518. Increase present 

 season, 377. Box honey taken off, 2,586 lbs. Extracted, 

 695 lbs. Total, 3,281 lbs.,— a little over 6 lbs. per colony 

 of the original stocks. From our 80 colonies, we 

 have had 25 increase, and taken off some over 600 

 lbs., mostly extracted, and all made since 10th to 

 15th of Aug. B. Salisbury, 



Sec., South Mich. Bee-Keepers' Ass'n. 

 Battle Creek, Mich., Sept. 10, 1880. 



Allow me to give you a glowing (!) record of our 

 honey crop in Southern Kansas. For weeks past, 

 the roadsides and fields and sloughs have been al- 

 most literally covered with Spanish needle, golden 

 rod, and sunflowers, yet hardly a drop of honey has 

 come in. From 19 swarms, I shall not get 25 lbs. of 

 honey. Yet, according to the latest theory, it is all 

 my own fault. H. M. Taylor. 



Parsons, Kan., Sept. 18, 1880. 

 Are you not putting that last point pretty 

 strongly, friend T.? ' 



This has been an exceedingly poor year for bees in 

 this section. Not one hive in ten has yielded 1 lb. of 

 surplus honey, and there was scarcely any swarm- 

 ing, so you might as well put this section into 

 Blasted Hopes.— The two, d< liar queens I purchased 

 of you proved excellent queens, as good as any two- 

 dollar tested, as their hives are full of 3-banded 

 Italians. W. Shield. 



Muscatine, Iowa, Sept. 16, 1880. 



THE WHOLE STORY IN A '"NUT SHELL." 



Honey, about 150 lbs. in 1 lb. sections; bees, 45 col- 

 onies; no swarms— none wanted. J. H. PeirCE. 

 Dayton, Ohio, Sept. 10, 1880. 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF FRAMES. 



/fp!^N page 425, Sept. Gleanings, in speaking of 

 %M "uniform hives and frames, you say, "The 

 ^"'^ young bee-keepers who have been educated 

 to use the L. frames are more disgusted than one 



