ISS.3 



GLEANINGS IN 15EE CULTURE. 



■J,io 



BAD KEPOKT FROM FRIEND MALONE. 



EES all dead, friend Koot. You can make 



room for Blasted Hopes this spring-. Out of 



Sil colonies last fall in our township tliere 



won't be 50 that will pull throug-h the winter, 



though 1 must confess that the trouble is 



mostly carelessness. This winter beats the winter 



of 1880, bad. I have 8 colonies in a clamp, and have 



lost 18 out of 30 on the summer stands. 



Oakley, Iowa, Feb. 23, 1885. Wm. Malone. 



ONLY 3 LEFT OUT OF 20. 



1 went into winter quarters with 26 good colonies; 

 to-day I have three left, and about 300 combs, some 

 Lang-stroth and American. This was the honey- 

 dew, and nothing else. Those that had old honej-- 

 from the year before are all right now. What plan 

 shall I take to fill my boxes with bees? I have no 

 spare money to do this, as I lost my property last 

 June, and now I've lost about all mj' boes; and 

 when summer comes the worms will be hard to 

 keep out. Please tell me what is best for me to 

 do, to make a start again. F. Shim. inc. 



Jewett, Ohio., Feb. 28, 1885. 



Friend S., you can fill your hives I'loui the 

 three you have left ; but you would fjfet 

 along a little faster if you had a few more, 

 and it maybe l>est for you to purchase a few. 

 Instructions for buildiuf? up are <riven in tiie 

 A B C book, and our bade volumes conlain 

 many reports of tIios(^ who have built up 

 with wonderful rapidity from a vei-y small 

 number, after heavy losses in the wiiitcr. 



all DEAD BUT ONE. 



I took the frames out of the upper story, and fill- 

 ed them with rags, about four inches thick, and with 

 planks around them (except in front, which waste 

 the south-east). 1 thought they were all rJAfht, but 

 the winter took all but one. Two had no honey; 

 two had honey in the outside frames, and two had 

 some molasses, which I s'ave them in the fall, in the 

 middle frames, and scaled honey in two of the out- 

 side frames. I have not hoard from others lately, 

 but some had lost several before I had lost all mine. 

 I shall try again. 



GETTING SPIDER-PLANT SEED TO SPROUT. 



I divided the spider plant seed with five who have 

 frames, but not a single grain sprouted. 



F. SlEFICEU. 



Campbcllton, Mo., March 2, 1885. 



Friend S., packinu' the be(>s uj) with ras^s, 

 and fixing them up with i)laiiks and all sorts 

 of protection, is only lime wasted, when the 

 amount of stores is"iusufficient, and I judge 

 it was insullicient. or of poor (piality, with 

 the seven colonies that you lost. J)on't use 

 molasses, or any thing of the soil, for winter 

 feed, but give them granulated sugar until 

 they have sealed stores on both sides, behind 

 and before, and overhead and under foot ; 

 and then when a blizzard comes and lasts 

 for five or six weeks, they can not possibly 

 miss their stores.— Your si)ider-plant seed 

 will i)robably come up yet. It is a (]ueer 

 grower. It has acted very slow and slug- 

 gish in coming up in the 'greenhouse with 

 us, but we have finally got a pretty good lot of 

 plants by waiting some time for its slow- 

 motions. 



A COMPLAINT THAT GLEANINGS COMES TOO OFTEN. 



Last spring found me with 150 swarms of Italian 

 hybrid bees in Langstroth hives, increasing during- 

 summer to ITS swarms, and about TOO lbs. surplus 

 honey, mostly extracted, from one and two pound 

 sections incomplete, or imperfectly filled. During- 

 the drought of summer they were fed liberally with 

 sug-ar syrup, and by that means were made strong- 

 for work on fall flowers, and stored ample supply 

 for winter, and a very small surplus; but, about 

 40 f. froze to death the last half of February, and 

 many more are so weak that they will either die or 

 are too much i-educed to do more than build them- 

 selves up for another winter. The general failure 

 of the honey crop all over the country, except it 

 may be in one or two remote localities, followed as 

 it is by unprecedented low prices, causes me to turn 

 away from apiculture with disgust, and I do not 

 care to be reminded of the business every 15 days 

 by a new Gleanings. The whole thing is "glean- 

 ings" indeed, and of the leanest, thinnest kind. I 

 don't want to think of it. Send the paper the re- 

 mainder of the year (Aug. ne.vt) to . 



j Quincy, 111., Mar. 4, 188.5. J. D. Waldo. 



Friend W., I know your experience has 

 been a little discouragi'ig, but you have re- 

 ported for only two seasons. " \'ery likely 

 i your next season would place yoii away 

 : above board. But if you prefer not to try it 

 ' any longer, it is all rfght, and we will send 

 I (iLEANiXGS to another address. But. my 

 friend, before closing may I remind you that 

 all kinds of business have their vicissitudesV 

 Lines of industry like bees, dependent on 

 j the weather or other accidental circum- 

 stances, perhaps have more ups and downs 

 tlian some others; but at the same time 

 tlu're is also a ixissibility of greater results. 

 You ratlier make liglit of our jilan of glean- 

 imj ; but I sujipose you know that thesi' very 

 gleanings, many of them, tell of single small 

 apiaries yielding a larger income tliaii large 

 farms. Facts from actual exj)erlence are 

 IK eded to bring out the truth of any science 

 or industry ; and this very letter of yoiu'S is 

 an important factor in the general fund of 

 knowledge. I am inclined to think we shall 

 hear from you again, even if you do sell out. 

 Sooner or later you will long for the '•"merry 

 hum" once more. 



One-half of the bees in this section are dead, and 

 most of the rest more or less diseased. 

 Hudson, Mich., Mar. 12, 18&5. J. C. Dickinson. 



HONEV-DEW FOR WINTER STORES. 



About 00 per cent of the bees that went into win- 

 ter with honey-dew, are dead, as far as I can learn 

 (and about T5 per cent of the bees with white clover 

 honey to winter on are alive). This is not very 

 satisfactor3', but it proves honey-dew to be poison- 

 ous as a winter food for bees. There are not bees 

 enough left in this county for seed, which will 

 make honey scarce next year. C. .1. Clahk. 



P.owling Green, O., March 11, 1885. 



OUTDOOR WINTERING VERSUS CELLAR WINTERING. 



Bees have wintered very poorly here, more have 

 died than in any winter for a long time. I think 

 more than half the bees arc dead in this neighbor- 



I hood, and 1 feel safe in saying- that the bees that 

 have wintered outdoors with good protection are 

 coming-out better than those wintered in cellar or 



1 house. Some of our most experienced bee-raisers 



