1885 



GLEANINGS IN EEE CULTURE. 



71 



Avorld stand between you and cumber you? 

 .Vre you serving him witli a joyous service, 

 or are you a slave to this world's cares, cum- 

 bered and bowed down? If the latter, in 

 his name I bid you drop it all. Come, and 

 let us take a low seat near to Jiis feet, and 

 learn of him, for we have the promise. 

 " Seek ye first the kingdom of dJod and his 

 righteousness, and all else" (these things 

 that cumber and worry us included) " shall 

 be added unto you." 



Recent Developments, 



And Suggestior.s and Queries Particularly Fcr'.aining 

 to the Season. 



FEEDING AFTER NOVEMBER, ETC. 



'AN. 1,1884, I began giving: my whole time to 

 the bee busines. They did well the first two 

 years, some making 100 lbs. of surplus, which 

 I sold at 30 cts. at home; but this year was a 

 "stunner;" white clover did well tor us, but 

 it has not got well set in our country yet. After that 

 there was very little. Blooms was very plentiful, 

 but had no nectar. I made 3,5 chad' hives on my 

 Barnes saw. I bought bees and filled 20, and with my 

 10 old and 6 new ones made 36; they were all in 

 good shape for our fall bloom, which is tJic crop 

 here. In IBSJ, the 12th of Aug. was the first surplus 

 I got. The flow lasted till Sept. l.')th ; but this fall I 

 was feeding, instead of taking off surplus. Owing 

 to sickness I was delayed feeding till Novembor. I 

 was bothered a good deal in not having a larger feed- 

 er than your five-cent one. My bees had only .5 to 

 10 lbs. when I began, so I fed 10 lbs. of syrup, of 

 granulated sugar, half as much water as sugar; 

 then I saw Jas. Heddon's article on syrup, only 3 

 lbs. of water to 10 of sugar, and a little tartaric acid. 

 This made a syrup so thick that on cool nights it 

 would be taken down very slowly. I tried making 

 .50 lbs. into candy in brood-frames, as A B C tells of, 

 and much prefer it to syrup so late as this. It was 

 hard to get chafl' to put in upper story, so I went to 

 the corn-sheller and got the silk that is cleaned 

 from Ihe shelled corn. What do you think of it? 

 Hopkins, Mo. John C. Stewart. 

 The silk from corn answers nicely in place 

 of chaff, friend S.; but you want to look 

 out for mice. They think it is nice too. I 

 think I should prefer candy so late in the 

 season. 



DRONES IN THE WINTER. 



To-day, Dec. 2*, I have a colony of bees with nice 

 drones. I should like to know the reason. They 

 have a nice queen. I got her from you last Octo- 

 ber. They have had drones since June, and have 

 had them ever since the rest killed their drones last 

 July. This one has quite a lot. CuAS. SAYI..ER. 



Marchand, Ohio, Dec. 28, ISSt. 



As a rule, drones in winter indicate the 

 queen to be a drone-layer or a i)artial drone- 

 layer, althougii this is not always the ease. 

 Sometimes a very strong colony will keep 

 drones right through winter, Vvithout our 

 being able to observe that the queen is in 

 any way lacking when she commences lay- 

 ing largely in tlie spring. If sealed drone- 

 brood is now found in the hives, I should be 

 inclined to call the queen a drone-layer. 



CALIFORNIA nONEV AT 12ii CTS. PER LB. 



The following came to hand after our reg- 

 ular market report had been printed: 



Chicago. — J/o(if,iy. — The demand is very light. 

 Prices are weak, and a gradual decline of prices 

 will follow this date, in the etfort to work off the 

 crop. Many of the producers are yet in posses- 

 sion of their last crop. California honey can be 

 bought here at 12'2C per pound in comb. 



Chicago, 111., Jan. 12, 1885. K. A. Bjjrnett. 



MOVING bees WITH HOUSEHOLD GOODS. 



I moved 12 colonies of bees in a car with household 

 goods; car was 8 days on the road. Bees were shut 

 up 12 days in Langstroth hives, with wire screen on 

 top. Itesult, about one quart of dead bees in every 

 hive; about a dozen broken combs, queens safe, 

 and colony in fair condition for wintering. 



Bolivar, Denton Co., Texas. Gcst.w Rauch. 



FROM 3 TO 16, AND A PLEASED "PASSENGER." 



Being very well pleased with your "craft" and 

 its crew on the voyage last year, I have concluded 

 to renew mj- ticket, and keep company with you 

 through the present year. Find the "ducat" in- 

 closed. I lost mare than half my bees last winter, 

 with dysentery, and the remainder were weak. I 

 did not get an ounce of honey last season, running 

 alone for colonies, ending the season with 16 from 

 3. I have them i)acked in paper, on a plan of my 

 own, which I may describe to you, should it prove a 

 success. If not, the less said the better. They 

 went through the late cold snap finely, and yester- 

 day were out strong, making good use of the pres- 

 ent warm spell. C. Garwood. 



Baltimore, Md., Jan. 1. 188.-). 



Mv report for 18f4. 



Last spring my bees were in pretty fair condition, 

 being strong in bees, honey, and brood, when the 

 yield of honey commenced, all except 4 that were 

 weak, and did not make any honey, only cnougli to 

 keep them, and for winter. From the .5), I secured 

 of surplus honey, 32)1 lbs.; I'^O lbs. in one-pound 

 sections; 8;K) lbs. was all I got finished from clover 

 andbasswood; the rest was finished with Spanish 

 needle and smartweed honey, which looks very nice 

 in one-pound boxes. I had 14W lbs. of extracted 

 honey, mostly fall houej-. My increase was by di- 

 viding and building up, and rearing queens. Near- 

 ly all were in pretty fair condition for winter. 

 shoveling snow over the hives. 



There was a i)retty good snow last Tuesday, and 

 I shoveled snow over all the hives, thinking it would 

 be cold weather for a month Or so; but I was disap- 

 pointed, for the weather is warmer, and has l)een 

 raining for almost a week, and to-night 'tis just 

 pouring down. The snow is all melted, and the 

 ground is all covered with water and mud. 



Lima, Ills., Dec. GO, 18?4. J. A. Thornton, 51— "3. 



Friend T., I do not believe I would shovel 

 snow over tlie hives, neither would I shovel 

 the snow off, as some of the friends have 

 done. This is an old (piestion, and I believe 

 the general decision was, not to do anything 

 with the snow at all. If you coidd lix up 

 some sort of a windbreak, to make the snow 

 drift up over the hives, so as to be soft and 

 light, just as it falls, il would be an excellent 

 protection ; Init shoveling snow is apt to 

 disturb the bees, and may do them harm. 

 In fact, examples have been given, showing 

 pretty clearly that unreasonable disturbance 

 sometimes results in dysenterv. 



