37i 



GLEANINGS In bee CULTUilE. 



JUNE 



cause of my foot-notes ; but for all that, the 

 greatest good to the greatest number, in my 

 opmion, demanded them. JSlany times a 

 brother gets carried away with some special 

 idea. For the time being his liead is not 

 quite "level,"' as it were. Well, if allowed 

 to go out tliat way. without any thing to 

 modify it, or to tone it down a little, it 

 might be misleading. It is very true, that 

 my judgment may be in error, for it would 

 be strange if it were not, occasionally. In 

 that case it is a misfortune, I admit ; but to 

 avoid such misfortunes, I have at my elbow^ 

 about all the bee-journals published in the 

 world, and all the treatises on bees, of any 

 account, in print. Besides this I have the 

 benefit of the communications that have 

 been sent to me for lo or 20 years past, in re- 

 gard to bee culture ; and I am self-conceited 

 enough to think that my memory is seldom 

 at fault. ;My daily prayer is, that (iod may 

 give me wisdom, and may keep my heart 

 from egotism or prejudice. One or two of 

 the friends have complained because I did 

 not add some comment of some sort at the 

 close of their communications ; and if I 

 should drop my time-honored custom, friend 

 H., some of the brethren would not know I 

 was alive any more. 



SHIPPING BEES. 



Putting 'i lb. of Bees and a Queen on Combs 

 where the Bees Died from Honey-dew. 



MRS. CHADDOCK TELLS HOW IT WORKS. 



fS^HE two half-pound packages and the two 

 §,'' queens came through all right. They were 

 / put up in very good shape; only 25 dead bees 

 in one package, and 80 in the other. They 

 came to the express office on the night of the 

 20th, and I brought them home yesterday, and 

 turned them loose on some combs of honey-dew 

 and bee-bread where the bees died last winter. By 

 the way, it seems to me that these are about the 

 tonguiest bees that I ever saw ; or was it because 

 they were thirsty, that they ran their tongues out 

 so far and so persistently? 



We were coming home — Minnie and her papa on 

 the front seat, the bees and myself on the back, 

 when I happened to look over on the end of the 

 packages, and I saw what I thought were hundreds 

 of legs sticking through the screen; then I thought 

 it could not be legs, but wings, and I called Minnie 

 to look, and she said it was tongues. And it was; 

 hundreds of long slim tongues running out, and 

 waving round; and thej' did this only on the side 

 where the wind struck them. It was too funny to 

 see them running their tongues out to cool them, 

 like a thirsty dog. 



This morning Bro. Phillips came up to look at 

 them. He wants to send for some, but is afraid of 

 getting cheated, and I went out to the hives. 

 "Why," said he, " these bees look weak; they can 

 hardly fly." I looked, and, behold, there they were 

 crawling out from the entrance to the edge of the 

 alighting-board, and then rolling off, their bodies 

 swelled up tight as a drum, and stretched out to 

 their longest capacity. I knew in a second what 

 ailed them, but I said, " See what nice large bees 

 they are," and I took off the cover and showed him 

 the cluster; he said they were very large indeed. 



He went home; and as soon as he was gone I went 

 and looked carefully around the entrance, and 

 there were dozens of those nice large hees lying on 

 their backs, kicking their heels up in the air, and I 

 snatched that honey-dew out of the hive, and gave 

 them some fresh honey taken from another hive, 

 and since dinner I have looked at them again, and 

 the swelling has gone down, and they are perfectly 

 sober. The honey-dew was dripi)ing from every 

 pore when I put them in. I tasted it, and it was a 

 little sour; but I thought that, as they could fly out 

 all the time, it would not hurt them. I looked close- 

 ly, and could see no dead bees near the hive, so I 

 suppose they all recovered. 



Mah.\la n. Chaddock. 



Vermont, 111., May 2\i, 1S8.J. 



Thanks for your report, my friend. My 

 opinion is, that a good strong swarm would 

 have managed ttiose combs, dripping with 

 sour honey-dew honey, all right ; but they 

 might have turned around and swarmed 

 out, going off ''lickety-split,'' holding their 

 noses. To prevent such a catastrophe as 

 this, I think it will be better to hold fast to 

 the oft-repeated injunction— put such combs, 

 one at a lime, in tlie center of a good strong 

 colony, till you get them all purified and 

 sweetened. — I think it likely the bees were 

 sticking their tongues out because the day 

 was hot. and they were suffering for want of 

 air. Whenever they do this, shade them 

 from the sun and put them in the wind. 

 They will usually draw their tongues back in 

 a short time. Bees after a trip like this are 

 in poor condition to work up sour honey. 

 Much the better way is to put so small a 

 quantity of bees as half a pound on a comb 

 of healthy brood taken from some other 

 hive. A whole pound of bees will do very 

 well without this comb of brood ; but with 

 so small a quantity as that mentioned, it is 

 apt to be " nip andtuck " before a reinforce- 

 ment of young bees begins to hatch out. I 

 do not believe I should want to recommend 

 only half a pound of bees to start a colony in 

 a liive containing empty combs. Even if 

 they do make a live of it, a frame containing 

 a little brood would give them a great lift, 

 just at a critical point. 



l^EPeRTg ENC0a^^6iN6. 



nONEY FROM THE WILLOWS, AND THE WAT IT 

 COMES, ETC. 



T WENT into winter quarters with 38 stands— 37 in 

 ^r cellar, one outdoors in double hive. All came 

 ^l out alive; lost two queens this spring after 

 •^ they commenced lajing, and had brood. They 

 had dysentery some, not very bad. I put an 

 upper story on with Hill's device, and put muslin 

 cloth over the frames, and covered with clover and 

 timothy and chaff, which I got in our feeding-room. 

 May 10th the bees conuneuced work on the willow. 

 On the morning of the 12th, before the bees com- 

 menced to fly, I had one of my best colonies of hy- 

 brids on a scale. In the evening they had gained 

 6 lbs.; 13th, 10 lbs.; 14th, -1 lbs. Then the willow 

 bloom closed. In 1883 the willow flow was good; 

 1884, none; 188.5, as above described. Now, how 

 much honey do you suppose they gathered? 

 Conrad Grove, Iowa, May 25, 1885. G. J. Klein. 



