1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



305 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELD 



DO WE NOT MANIPULATE OUR BEES TOO MUCH ? 



Y experience is, that most of us spend too 

 much unnecessary labor on our bees. My 

 plan of late years has been to have small 

 hives, 7 and 8 combed L. and 8-combed 

 Gallup (I use both kinds). Just as soon as 

 the hives are full of bees I put on one crate of sec- 

 tions and let them swarm naturally. I have plenty 

 of hives ready, and when I do not care for increase 

 1 double up two swarms to each hive, hiving 

 them on two crates of sections, with metal 

 queen-excluding board between the lower hive, fill- 

 ed with frames of foundation. In this way I al- 

 ways have good young- queens in my old colonies, 

 with plenty of stores for winter. Bee-keeping- at 

 the present low price of honey is like farming- in 

 the West — we must save all the labor possible. 

 When I first moved to Kansas, some years back, I 

 thought our Eastern mode of farming would do 

 there; but I soon found it was money out. I soon 

 changed, and followed the farming of the country 

 —at least, such as those followed who made a suc- 

 cess of it. So it is with bee-keeping— each section 

 of country has to be learned, and then they must 

 be run to suit. T. G. Ashmead. 



Williamson, N. Y. 



Friend A., perhaps almost all of us per- 

 form unnecessary labor with our bees ; and 

 I have sometimes thought a great deal of 

 hard laborious drudgery is constantly being 

 done when there is no reason for doing it at 

 all. Let me give you just one illustration. 

 We have on our grounds a movable pig-pen 

 or pig-yard, made of galvanized iron wire. 

 This pen is about 10 x 16 feet. When not 

 in use for pigs, one of our boys uses it to 

 confine sitting hens. A few days ago he 

 raised up one side of it to let a sitting hen 

 out that had been confined for a sufficient 

 length of time. As he stood near the open- 

 ing, she did not come out; therefore he 

 called a stout man from his work, a little 

 distance away, and asked him to hold up 

 one side of the pen while he flopped his 

 arms and " shooed " on the other side, to 

 make biddy go out. Either from stubborn- 

 ness or from lack of sense, however, biddy 

 did n 3t embrace the opportunity of regain- 

 ing her liberty. At that time I came up. 



" Why, H., wiry didn't you put a stick 

 under the edge of the pen, and go about 

 your other work and leave the hen to go out 

 of her own accord, when she feels like it ? " 



Both men went back to their work, with- 

 out making any reply whatever. Now, I 

 meet almost constantly with people who 

 are doing useless work — holding a heavy 

 burden, as in the above instance, where 

 nothing is accomplished at all, or, perhaps 

 better expressed, where the same result 

 might be attained without "taking time or 

 lifting heavy burdens at all. I sometimes 

 think that, if people were working for them- 

 selves, they would use their wits more ; but 

 when I see people who are working for 

 themselves, and working hard to make both 

 ends meet, I will find them using strength 

 and time,> great part of their time, where 



a little thought would have saved both. 

 Applying this same thing to bees, we lose 

 by neglecting them at times ; and, again, 

 we disturb them when the same thing could 

 be accomplished without disturbing them 

 at all. Necessity is not only the mother of 

 invention, but it is a good school where we 

 are bright enough to be taught by it. 



TRANSFERRING IN WINTER SUCCESSFULLY. 



In Gleanings, Mar. 15, I find John Hobbs writes 

 about transferring in winter. I have had some ex- 

 perience in this line this winter. A neighbor of 

 mine gav,e me the bees from a box hive if I would 

 give him the honey— or, rather, take the honey for 

 him. I drove the bees into a soda-box and brought 

 them home. I weighed them when I got home, and 

 there were L ZV 2 lbs. of bees. I turned them loose on 

 4 combs of sealed honey and one comb without any 

 honey. This was done Dec. 11, 1888. Feb. 4, 1889, 

 the queen was laying well. At this time they are 

 breeding well. This colony is as strong in bees 

 now as any I have. My bees have wintered well, 

 and are building up well; are gathering some hon- 

 ey from peach-blossoms. B. C. Griffith. 



Griffith, N. C, Mar. 25, 1889. 



Why, friend G., as I understand it you 

 transferred only the bees and not the combs 

 of brood. This is a very simple matter, and 

 can be done at any season of the year ; and, 

 in fact, so can combs and brood be trans- 

 ferred if one is careful to observe all the 

 conditions. 



REPORTED DEATH OF A YOUNG LADY, FROM A 

 BEE-STING, A MISTAKE. 



In Notes and Queries, Dec. 1, you publish are- 

 port from an American journal, Old Homestead, 

 that would be apt to lead the readers of Gleanings 

 to believe that a young lady named Ella Baker was 

 stung to death by a bee. Now, you know I don't 

 say that you believe such a thing could take place. 

 I feel sure that you are of the same opinion as my- 

 self—that a single bee-sting could not possibly 

 cause death to a human being. The report is just 

 like a good many more (artificial section honey, for 

 instance); when they have gone the rounds of sev- 

 eral publications they don't lose much, but rather 

 the reverse. In the above case the bee-sting had 

 nothing whatever to do with the young lady's 

 death. Being a close neighbor, just a question of a 

 mile, and knowing the poor lady personally, also 

 having to report on the case for several journals, I 

 am somewhat of an authority. The doctor's cer- 

 tificate stated that death resulted from convulsions 

 and syncope— nothing about a bee-sting, you see. 

 Her sister died at about the same age, in exactly the 

 same manner, a few years ago. She was not stung. 

 Miss Ella Baker received a sting on the side of her 

 nose on a Friday morning, early. She did all her 

 household duties during the Friday and Saturday. I 

 myself saw her on Saturday morning. There was 

 just a little swelling, but hardly observable, and no 

 pain was felt beyond the first prick. On Saturday 

 evening, late (9 :30), she lay down on a sofa, and while 

 there was seized with convulsions, and died almost 

 instantaneously. She had been stung twice before, 

 but it had no more effect upon her than the last 

 time. There was no swelling observable after 

 death; the undertaker particularly noticed this, 

 and informed me of the same. This young lady 

 has frequently been present when I manipulated 



