1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



95 



I am not very much mistaken, the bees 

 scattered around on the ground and trees 

 would, a great part of them, revive the next 

 day under the influence of the sunshine, 

 and go back home to their hives. I have 

 often seen pollen-laden bees go out so late 

 as to be obliged to roost on fences or side- 

 walks over night ; but these same bees, 

 when the sun strikes them in the morning, 

 rub their eyes and stretch their legs and 

 wings, and Anally go home, none the worse 

 for camping out, unless it be the tooth- 

 ache, rheumatism, or something of that sort, 

 later on. 



TREATING FOUL BROOD ; REASONS FOR FAILURE. 



Some time last winter I wrote to you about tbe 

 trouble I bad with foul brood in my bees. I fol- 

 lowed your kind advice as regards treatment, and 

 not only put them in clean new hives, foundation, 

 etc., but moved them three miles in the country to 

 my present place. I found the treatment cured the 

 Italian stocks, but not the hybrids. Some of these 

 were brushed off their combs of brood on to 

 foundation, and given clean hives three times. I had 

 no cellar to starve them in, and found it a trouble 

 to get them to take medicated syrup, the season 

 being well advanced, and some honey being gath- 

 ered. So I expect to see the enemy again next 

 season. I requeened the hybrid stocks the last 

 time they were brushed off, and, having no brood 

 to feed, they filled up for winter on buckwheat 

 honey. I think it's the nervous nature of the 

 hybrids when they are disturbed, causing them 

 to gorge themselves to the utmost with the in- 

 fected honey, that makes it difficult to cure them; 

 however, T hope to see the last of the trouble next 

 season, and hope to have a better crop. 



E. Robinson. 



Glendale, Westminster, Ont., Jan. 3, 1889. 



Eriend R., we can assign no cause for 

 failure in our method of curing foul brood 

 in your case, unless it be that you did not 

 compel the bees to convert the honey they 

 might have in their sacs into comb. Every 

 drop of affected honey must be gotten out 

 of their honey-sacs, either by starvation or 

 by building comb, otherwise the treatment 

 will be a failure. If there had been consid- 

 erable natural stores, it would have been 

 well to close the hive at night, after putting 

 the bees in a clean hive, and kept closed for 

 a couple of days. We had no trouble at all 

 in curing when we starved the bees or caus- 

 ed them to build comb. If you had starved 

 your hybrids, or made them build considera- 

 ble comb, all would have been well. 



TO TAKE PROPOLIS OFF A PAINTED FLOOR. 



Take an old whisk or brush broom and a cup of 

 boiling water, and hold the cup of water in one 

 hand and pour on spots, and with the whisk broom 

 scrub the spots. If only a little is on the floor, I 

 use an old teaspoon to scrape it up, as a knife (un- 

 less very dull) is apt to scrape off the paint, and 

 sometimes roughen up the wood, if pine. In our 

 honey-house, which has a hard-wood floor, unpaint- 

 ed, I use the scraper that 1 scrape the bottoms of 

 hives, first wetting the floor with cold water, if it is 

 not convenient to have boiling water. 



Roseville, 111., Jan. 1, 1889. Mrs. L. C. Axtell. 



FROM 90 TO 140, AND 6000 LBS. OF HONEY. 



Y report for last year is as follows: From 90 

 to 140, and about 6000 lbs. of honey— 4000 

 lbs. comb, and 2000 lbs. of extracted. I 

 moved my bees in April over 200 miles, and 

 got them through all safe. It was a very 

 hard spring on bees. I had about 80 fair colonies, 

 and 10 of them were nuclei. These were used for 

 rearing queens. White clover was fair, and the 

 bees built up in good condition for the basswood- 

 honey flow, which was good for about two weeks. 

 My bees are all in the cellar, except two which are 

 packed on their summer stands. I have 138 full col- 

 onies in the cellar, and 7 nuclei. The cellar is 11x13, 

 and about 7 feet high. The bees all have a good 

 woolen blanket on top of the frames, and a 6-inch 

 entrance to the hive. The temperature has been 

 from 45 to 50° all winter. The bees seem to be doing 

 well. We are having a big snowstorm to-day, and I 

 expect it will be cold now. White clover looks very 

 well now. I am looking for a good honey crop this 

 year. N. Staininger. 



Tipton, Iowa, Jan. 9, 1889. 



OVER 700 LBS. FROM ONE COLONY AND ITS IN- 

 CREASE. 



I extracted over 700 lbs. of well-ripened honey 

 from one colony and its increase, and they had 

 abundant to winter on. Who can come up to it? 



Orion, Wis., Jan. 10, 1889. F. L. Snyder. 



1100 POUNDS FROM 13 COLONIES. 



I commenced the season with 15 hives of bees. I 

 used two swarms for raising queens. With the oth- 

 er 13 I got 1100 well-filled one-pound sections, and 

 increased to 52. They are in the cellar, and winter- 

 ing well so far. My honey is all sold by peddling. 

 I liked selling it, first rate. John Ragan. 



Waukon, Iowa, Jan. 10, 1889. 



FROM 19 TO 40, AND 2000 LBS. OF HONEY. 



I commenced the season with 19 colonies of bees 

 (very weak), and increased to 40; took off about 2000 

 lbs. of honey. About all was sold at 10 cts. per lb. 

 for extracted, and 15 for comb. I have no trouble 

 to sell my honey. Where I sell one year I can al- 

 ways sell the next. My bees are all in good shape 

 to winter. So far we have had a very open winter. 



Bucklin, Mo., Jan. 9, 1889. J. W. Switzer. 



FROM 80 TO 100, AND 4200 LBS. OF HONEY. 



I commenced the season with 80 colonies, mostly 

 strong. I had 20 natural swarms, making a total of 

 100. They were all very strong when I put them 

 into winter quarters, with plenty of honey for win- 

 ter stores. Surplus honey taken from them this 

 season in 1-lb. sections, 600 pounds; extracted, 3600 

 pounds. How will that do for such a poor season as 

 we have passed through? 



HONEY FROM BUCKWHEAT. 



I had a fair yield from buckwheat. 1 got 1300 

 pounds of surplus. I had one colony standing on 

 scales, and it gained 25 lbs. in four days, and 11 lbs. 

 in one day. 



I had 3 4 of an acre of Japanese buckwheat. It 

 yielded well, both grain and honey. There was 

 other buckwheat in the neighborhood. So you see 

 if the weather is favorable it will yield honey with 



