48S 



(JliEANlNGS IN L5EE CULTURE. 



July 



general manager, f)2.") W. :Madison St., Chi- 

 cago, 111. Every lojal bee-keeper interested 

 ill the cause should have a copy and enroll 

 himself as a member of tlie Union. 



Our readers will further see, that if our 

 friend Freeborn loses the case the bee-keep- 

 ers may have a troublesome decision on rec- 

 ord with which to deal hereafter. Let there 

 be no half-hearted work about it. 



NOT READY FOR BLASTED HOPES. 



SOMK WOIIDS OF CAUTION IN KEK.VKU TO KOUBIN(;, 

 AND OTHER M.VTTEUS. 



AM not ready to go into Blasterl Hopes yet; but, 

 ou the contrary, I tun more hopeful than ever 

 *[ liet'orc, and feel more determined to be faith- 

 ful over the few thing's intrusted to my care, 

 having just passed through one of the most 

 trying winters; and when I read of the great loss 

 sustained by many (and some of them veteran bee- 

 keepers too), I realize that I have reasons to be 

 thankful. Although last season's honey-crop was 

 short, yet the fiOO lbs. which was all the sur|)lus 

 we got from 33 colonies (spring count) was of excel- 

 lent quality, being gathered exclusively from the 

 white clover. We increased our stock to 49 colonies; 

 lost one by robbing (by the way, friend Root, 1 con- 

 sider robbing the most disagreeable feature in 

 bee-keepingi; we went into winter quarters with 48 

 colonies on summer stands; lost three in wintering; 

 doubled back to 43, all in fair condition at present. 



1 am glad to see an increase of interest being 

 manifested among bee-keepers in this vicinity, as 

 we are being plied continually with questions re- 

 garding our way of managing bees, what hive is 

 best, etc. You may be sure I am glad to be able to 

 help all such as will profit by the advice given; that 

 is, by taking a bee-journal or some good reliable 

 bee-book, and post up by studying the matter for 

 themselves. Yet there arc many people who think 

 the expense too great, and go blundering along in 

 an uncertain manner, losing more each year by not 

 keeping posted than the books would cost, besides 

 losing the pleasure of knowing just how to go to 

 work to achieve the most satisfactory results. 



The subject of who should keep bees has been 

 discussed at length in the journals in time past. 

 Well, from the i)ast seasons observation I have al- 

 most come to the conclusion that no man should be 

 allowed to keep bees unless ho will post up sufh- 

 ciently to enable him 1o handle them in a rational 

 and intelligent maimer. During the past season I 

 was aware of two instances of persons being so 

 badly stung as to endanger their life, and to render 

 the assistance of a physician necessary — one, a boy 

 about 14 years of age, was stung while assisting a 

 man in hiving a swarm for a widowed lady. I was 

 with him in a few minutes after the occurrence, 

 and it was truly horrible to witness his suflering, 

 being almost a mass of stings from head to foot. 

 Any intelligent bee keeper knows there is no occa- 

 sion for trouble of this kind, in hiving a swarin of 

 bees when settled on the limb of an apple-tree 

 within 8 or 10 feet of the ground, which was the 

 case in this instance. The other was that of a man 

 who was stung in trying to take honey from a box 

 hive during the drought, when robbing was th? or- 

 der of the day. Sarah E. Duncan. 



Linevilie, Iowa, June 8, 1881. 



MRS. CHADDOCK TALKS ABOUT WIN- 

 TERING, ETC. 



BEIXC HORN I,L( KV. 



HAVE read all the articles in the bee-journals 

 on wintering bees, and 1 have inquired iuto the 

 losses around me, and 1 have come to the con- 

 clusion that neither hibernation, pollen, honey- 

 dew, dead-air, nor chaff, ha\ e any thing to do 

 I with it. It is fate, or the star you were born under. 

 There is no other way of accounting for the contra- 

 dictory reports and opposite results. 

 I I have kept bees for fifteen years, and I never 

 I lost a full colony till this winter. I put chatl cush- 

 ions over my bees this winter, just as 1 always hav<' 

 [ done, and one-half my bees died. " Honey-dew r" 

 ! Ves, of course, but one half mile Irom me a man 

 i had six colonies last fall; he did not pay any atten- 

 tion to them (they are in American hives), and they 

 had the same pasture that my bees had, and they 

 all lived. So it i«fs not honey-dew. A mile away 

 lives an old bee-keeper. He has had bees for forty 

 years, and he has them in old box hives; he doesn't 

 care about keeping bees; is too old to climb into tlie 

 apple trees to get the swarms down; doesn't think 

 there is much money in bees any way; women are 

 afraid of them, etc. Well, now, do you suijpose he 

 lost all his bees last winter';' No; he has eight or 

 ten kft. He had the honey-dew too. So It is not 

 contracting the brood-nest, and packing, and all 

 that, that make bees winter well. It is wishing 

 them dead that keeps them warm. 



All writers say there must be no honey left 

 around the hives when there is no honey coming in, 

 as it will start the bees to robbing. Mrs. L. Harri- 

 son told me that several of her colonies died in the 

 winter of 18>'2, and that in the spring she was sick, and 

 she let the other bees clean out the honey where the 

 bees had died, and that after it was gone she put 

 scraps and refuse honey in the empty hives, and let 

 them eat that, and she had no robbing. Now, why 

 did not her bees go to fighting'/ Simply because 

 Mrs. L. H. was born under Jui)itcr or Saturn, or 

 whatever star il is, that it is g<)o<l luek to be born 

 under. 



HEDUtJN'S IM,AN OK IMiEVENTINfi A KTE R-S W A R.MS, 

 AM> now IT TURNED OUT. 



I have tried Heddon's method of ])reventing after- 

 swarms, and failed. My old colony faced to the 

 cast. When the swarin came out I caught the 

 (jueen, turned the old hive around so that it stood 

 at an angle of 45 degrees, and put the new hive full 

 of foundation in the old one's i)lace. In a few min- 

 utes the swarin came back, and I let the queen run 

 in with them. Two days later 1 turned the old hive 

 back so both of them faced to the east; four days 

 later, six days after they swarmed, we carried the 

 old hive to a new location, and on the eighth day 

 they sent out an after-swarm. They alighted on a 

 young elm. and I opened the hive and found one 

 young (jueen and about a dozen queen-cells. One 

 of them was just ready to come out; in fact, the 

 door was partly open. I introduced to a (|ueenless 

 colony, and cut out all the other cells. Then I took 

 the swarm down in a basket (tied it on a beaii-i)ole), 

 and they all went in. It was a large SAvarm, as large 

 as many first swarms. It is my belief that, as a gen- 

 eral thing, it will work all right, but this colony was 

 an extra strong one, and so many young bees com- 

 ing out made them feel strong and independent. 



