1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



307 



on top, and commenced drumming'. I had done so 

 many a time with good results, but these were hy- 

 brids, and instead of going- up they came out mad 

 as hornets, and alighted on me until I was almost 

 coated with them, biting and stinging the woolen 

 coat 1 had on. I reached for my smoker, but, alas, 

 it had gone out in a short time, and now the bees 

 were finding a way under my coat, and stinging me 

 very much. I stomped, kicked, and brushed them, 

 but to no avail. They were flying around me furi- 

 ously. I ran off about fifty yards, and found mat- 

 ters getting worse. I opened my coat, threw it 

 back to discard it and bees together, forgetting it 

 was tied around my wrists. There I was, coat off 

 and behind me, hanging to my arms. If I had been 

 handcuffed it would not have been much worse; at 

 the same time, bees were stinging me about the 

 neck and body. I finally liberated myself by tear- 

 ing my sleeves badly, leaving the coat with many 

 angry bees on it. I have these bees yet, but they 

 are difficult to manage, even with the most precau- 

 tion. Geo. W. Geaslen. 

 Oakland Mills, Md v Feb. 11, 1889. 



Friend G., I can not understand, from 

 your account of the affair, that you first 

 smoked the bees thoroughly before invert- 

 ing the hive. If you did not do this, you 

 certainly ought to expect to be stung. ' In- 

 stead of waiting for the smoker to go out, 

 you should have smoked the bees until you 

 got them to fill themselves with honey be- 

 fore you did any thing with them at all. It 

 astonishes me to read accounts of people 

 being stung, much the way you were, just 

 because they omitted or neglected, or did 

 not know how to use the smoker. It is 

 next to sheer madness for anybody to stir 

 up a colony of bees first and then hope to 

 quiet them down with smoke afterward. 

 Of course, some colonies of bees at certain 

 times of the year will bear it. 



WHEN TO RENEW OLD COMBS. 



I see that your journal is still improving, and is 

 of vital interest to every one handling bees. I wish 

 you to give an article on when to clean out old hives 

 and start them anew. I have some in which the 

 brood-comb is so old and thick that bees do not 

 seem to want to raise brood in it, and will work 

 above. If I cut it all out in the spring, will they 

 make honey this season any more than a new 

 swarm? H. Kobehtsen. 



Henderson, Tenn., Feb. 21, 1889. 



Brood-comb can be used a great many 

 times, without being renewed ; and when 

 it must be renewed I would take out only 

 the heaviest and thickest, and that which 

 has many imperfect cells. To cut out all of 

 the old comb at once would be a great mis- 

 take. It would cripple your bees, and the 

 probability is that a great part of the old 

 comb would be much better for brood-rear- 

 ing than the new. 



A COLONY OF BEES WITHOUT A HIVE, AND AT- 

 TACHED TO A LIMB IN .JANUARY. 



Inclosed please find a newspaper article about a 

 swarm of bees in January. How is that for South- 

 ern Illinois? Bees had a fly almost every week this 

 winter. M. H. Kuehne. 



Olmstead, 111., Feb. 11, 1889. 



A few days ago, as Silas Coram was walking up 

 the river-bank on the opposite side of the river 



from this place, he discovered a swarm of bees 

 hanging on the limbs of a bush on the brin', of the 

 river, about ten or fifteen feet above the water. 

 At first he was inclined to think his optics were de- 

 ceiving him; but on investigating the matter he 

 found a good sized swarm of bees apparently well 

 satisfied with their place of abode, and almost as 

 lively as if it were summer, or the mild days of 

 early autumn. When our young friend reached 

 home he reported his strange find to his father. A 

 day or two after, the father and son took a hive to 

 the place, and succeeded in hiving the whole swarm. 

 To their astonishment they found a great deal of 

 comb and considerable honey. The fact that there 

 was honey at the place, proved beyond a doubt that 

 they had been there several months. — Golconda 

 Enterprise, 111., Jan. 31, 1889. 



There is nothing very strange in the 

 above. Bees cluster on the trees in Califor- 

 nia or in warm climates, and build combs 

 sometimes, and stay several years. They 

 also do it now and then all through the 

 Northern States ; and if they had plenty of 

 old tough comb it would be nothing strange 

 if they should winter over in such a locality. 

 As our winter was very mild until the first 

 of February, it is not surprising that they 

 were alive and well. Possibly with plenty 

 of stores every one would have come 

 through had they not been disturbed. 



dysentery; not a serious case of. 



I wrote to you some time ago about dysentery, 

 and now two other hives are a little daubed on the 

 front. They seem to be healthy, and look well. 

 Now, the thing is, 1 have been in the habit of going 

 to see them very often, and arousing them. Would 

 not that cause them to gorge themselves with hon- 

 ey, and cause them to come out and soil the outside 

 of the hive? or is it possible that they have got the 

 dysentery? The honey that they have was gather- 

 ed from the Spanish needle. Is not that good to 

 winter on? Warren Wright. 



Ludington, Mich , March 18, 1889. 



As nearly as we can judge from your let- 

 ter, we should say that you have been tin- 

 kering with your bees too much. The 

 stores they had were not necessarily bad. 

 If the hive is not soiled to any appreciable 

 extent inside, you do not need to be alarm- 

 ed. Bees in healthy condition will general- 

 ly, in early spring, soil the outside of the 

 hive to a slight extent. 



that wintering problem, again ; SUGAR 

 stores versus bees. 



I am obliged to friend Heddon for his reply to 

 my inquiry relative to the wintering' of bees. He 

 can winter a colony year in and year out as suc- 

 cessfully as he can his buggy-horse, but thinks at 

 too great a cost, and hopes that " I see the point." 

 Yes. I even feel the point and own the steel. Brief- 

 ly. Mr. Heddon, p. 9D, objects to extracting honey 

 which has a low value and slow sale, to feeding 

 sugar which has a cash value. If his object were 

 building up an apiary, would it not pay him even to 

 extract closely and feed sugar? One dollar's worth 

 of best sugar fed at the right time, bees carefully 

 hid away, ought to winter them, when they surely 

 ought to be worth five dollars in spring. 



Beason, III. J. Hamilton. 



You are right, friend H. It is very poor 

 policy indeed to let bees starve to death, 

 when, by investing in sugar to the extent of 

 one-fourth their value, or less, they could 

 be saved- 



