132 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



for it. I am glad of it too, because it tends, 

 greatly to encourage pushing bee culture 

 out among the mountain-wastes. 



FEEDING BEES IN THE CELLAR. 



I should like to ask you if it would be safe to' 

 feed in the cellar for the purpose of building up 

 stocks, say Vi pint every day. I mean, I should 

 like to have them strong- for the fruit-blossoms 

 (about the 25th of April), which are very considera- 

 ble here— apricot, cherry, plum, apple, peach, pear, 

 raspberry, and others. If you can answer immedi- 

 ately, it will oblige me very much. M. D. Owen. 



Douglas, Mich., Feb. 5, 1889. 



Eriend O., feeding has been done in the 

 cellar successfully, but a good many others 

 have had trouble. If you want to feed 

 liquid food, you will have to fasten the bees 

 in the hive by means of wire cloth, or the 

 excitement of feeding will make them come 

 out — at least, it is pretty apt to do so ; and 

 if confined and fed a liquid food, they are 

 quite likely to get the dysentery. By far 

 the better way would be to give them 

 candy ; but I would by no means think of 

 feeding them any thing unless it were to 

 prevent them from starving. If you com- 

 mence feeding them liquid food for stimu- 

 lating, when they are gathering their first 

 pollen, I think it will be soon enough ; and 

 even then I believe that many think that 

 better results are obtained by giving them 

 combs of sealed honey. Some recommend 

 uncapping the honey to stimulate them to 

 raising brood more rapidly ; but urging 

 brood ahead of the season is likely to do 

 harm, no matter how you manage it. 



WHY BEES BUILD COMB BETTER AT ONE TIME 

 THAN AT ANOTHER. 



C. C. Miller's problem as to whether bees build 

 heavier comb at one time than at another, p. 20, is 

 very satisfactorily solved. But in a super of mine 

 containing 28 1-lb. sections I observed something so 

 different from any thing that I had ever seen be 

 fore, that I called the attention of Mr. C. C. Eddy, a 

 bee-man, to know if he had ever witnessed any 

 thing like it; and his reply was that he never had. 

 If C. C. Miller's theory is universally true, then I 

 should be pleased to know why all of the middle 

 sections in a super I had, contained nice beautiful 

 thinly drawn comb, while all the outside sections 

 contained some of the heaviest and most ill-shaped 

 comb I ever saw, resembling mud wasp cells. I 

 use the house apiary. The supers are set on top 

 of the hives, and with an oil-cloth cover on top, and 

 nothing around the super. The doors were kept 

 open, and there was plenty of ventilation, until 

 the honey-flow closed. The colony to which the 

 super in question belonged produced over 100 lbs. 

 of comb honey the past season. J. A. Golden. 



Reinersville, O., Jan. 25, 1889. 



As you state it, friend G., we feel pretty 

 sure that you gave your bees too much ven- 

 tilation—that is, their surplus receptacle 

 was too cold for them to build uniform 

 comb throughout the super. You say the 

 middle sections contained thinly drawn 

 comb, while the outside ones contained 

 heavy comb. Of course, the middle sec- 

 tions were directly over the brood-nest, 

 where there was the greatest warmth. The 

 outside sections were subjected to the cool- 



er air from without. You know that comb- 

 building, in order to progress properly, 

 [should be in a close compartment, with a 

 moderately high degree of temperature. 

 The comb in the warmest parts of the super 

 mjwould work the most easily. That near the 

 .outside would work harder, and the bees 

 if, would no doubt take less pains to thin it 

 down. 







A MINNESOTA BEE-CONVENTION. 



i A convention was organized here on the 17th of 

 this month, for the purpose of getting together all 

 the bee-keepers in the State, and many from West- 

 ern Wisconsin and Northern Iowa, as quite a por- 

 tion of those two States is near Minneapolis. The 

 first meeting will be held at the Experimental 

 Farm, with the Horticultural Society that meets in 

 June next. All bee-keepers, and those interested 

 in raising small fruits as well as bees, are earnestly 

 requested to meet there. I assure you that you 

 will have a good time. Due notice will be given 

 through the bee-journals and the press. All cor- 

 respondence will be cheerfully answered by the 

 secretary,— Wm. Urie. 



Minneapolis, Minn., Jan. 22, 1889. 



THE MANZANITA OF CALIFORNIA, ETC. 



I send you a twig of manzanita bloom. The bees 

 have been working on it since the first of this month. 

 We have had but little rain since you left. I will 

 say nothing about the honey crop until I get it in 

 tanks. I was sorry you could not stay with me a 

 few days, but I suppose the old gent and I would 

 have smoked you off the ranch. I hope to see some 

 of your folks out next winter, to come and stay 

 awhile. G. W. Lechler. 



Newhall, Cal. 



Friend L., we found a few bushes of the 

 manzanita in bloom the day we left your 

 beautiful ranch. Please give my respects 

 to Mr. Friendship, the " old gent," as you 

 call him, and tell him for me that, when you 

 two old cronies have your big smoke, be 

 sure that none of the boys are around, for it 

 might teach them bad habits. I hope that 

 huge tank will get filled a good many times 

 during the coming season. 



ROARING IN WINTER QUARTERS. 



I wish to say a word in regard to Question 95, 



Dec. 15, page 969, about bees roaring in the cellar. 



A year ago last November, while passing through 



my bee-yard I heard a colony roaring so I could 



hear them plainly several paces off, and found them 



crawling on the bottom-boai-d and front of the 



hive, outside; and upon opening the hive, every 



bee, so far as 1 could see, was on the move, as if 



looking for something, but none took wing. The 



temperature was several degrees below freezing, 



and the roaring lasted several hours. The next 



January I heard another roaring in the same way, 



in the cellar. I marked both hives, and in the spring 



found both queenless. 



M. B. Hammond. 



Ellenburgh Center, N. Y., Jan. 11, 1889. 



Your point is, friend II., that this roaring 

 is in consequeuce of queenlessness, or rath- 

 er, perhaps, that the colony has just discov- 

 ered that it is queenless. If giving them a 

 queen results in quieting them, which it 

 would, very likely, it would strengthen 

 your position. 1 have seen colonies out of 



