418 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



continues until late in the fall, digging at whatever 

 season they can do so most profitably. 

 Venice, III. G. W. T. Reynolds. 



GOD'S GIFTS. 



I agree with what John Craycraft says, Oct. 15, 

 1888— give us the "garden sass." This makes me 

 think, T can raise seed of certain vegetables here to 

 Rood advantage without their mixing, if I could sell 

 it after I have raised it. 1 have been, the past three 

 years, using muck in privy and hen-house, as men- 

 tinned in your book. What to Do, and find it the 

 best and cheapest absorbent (except road dust) I 

 ever used. I am usiny it this winter behind my two 

 cows. A Rood panful, sprinkled on the plank after 

 cleaning' out each day, keeps the stable clean and 

 sweet. I draw it out in August, when the water is 

 low, pile it up, and let it freeze one winter, then dry 

 it, then put in boxes or barrels up off the ground, 

 and under cover. When it is dried and ground fine, 

 like sawdust, it is a great thing to keep out frost. I 

 have about two acres on my ten-acre farm (one of 

 God's gifts), of peat and muck land, all the way 

 from li4to3feet deep, which is easily drained, is 

 perfectly level except for bogs, and covered with 

 grass. KB. Kidder. 



Columbus, Wis. 



THE TURNIP THAT STANDS IX THE GROUND 

 ALL WINTEK, WITHOUT HA KM. 



Our raiders may remember that Abbott 

 L. Swinson, of Goklsboro, N. G, sent me 

 some of the seeds of this, last fall. The 

 turnip is a cross between our well-known 

 seven-top tttrnip, which has been raised so 

 largely for bees and greens, and one of our 

 other varieties producing a bulb. Well, I 

 am happy to tell you that this turnip is a 

 success. They stood in the ground all win- 

 ter, apparently without injury; and now 

 they are furnishing just as many blossoms 

 for the bees as I ever saw in the seven-top 

 turnip. The bees are humming on them 

 now, this 11th day of May. We propose to 

 save the seed from the whole crop. 



AN EARLY PUMPKIN FOR TIES. 



In response to my inquiry, 13 friends sent 

 me seeds of an early pumpkin. That they 

 were not all the same thing, is pretty evi- 

 dent from the seeds. In fact, the seeds 

 seem to indicate that scarcely two of them 

 were alike. We have planted one hill of 

 each, labeling it with the mime of the per- 

 son sending it, and in due time we propose 

 making our report. 



FEEDING IN THE CELLAR. 



CAItllYING BEES THROUGH SUCCESSFULLY, WITH 

 NO STORES AT ALL TO START WITH. 



HAVE a little report tj make, which may be of 

 advantage to others who get caught in a tight 

 Dlace. We have had in this locality two very 

 bad years for honey; ls87 found us in the fall 

 with plenty of bees and nearly empty hives, so 

 far as honey was concerned. I fed up and brought 

 my bees through the winter on a mixture of honey 

 they had in the hives, and syrup. Spring came, and 

 opened out well. Every thing was lovely till the 

 first of June, when the fad dawned on us that 

 there was no white clover in the country, and the 

 alsike had no honey in it. July arrived, and a little 

 basewood came in. None, however, was stored in 



the surplus apartment. A few, say 5 or 6 out of 23, 

 swarmed. When the last of September came, the 

 hives were full of old bees, no pollen, and very little 

 honey. I divided it equally among them, after 

 doubling the lighter ones up, till I had only 20 

 swarms left. I was very busy with my practice 

 and building, which occupied my time, and I saw 

 little of them till a warm day, the Gth of November, 

 when they were having- a good fly. I looked them 

 over to see how they stood for provender. To my 

 surprise I found they had already eaten up 75 per 

 cent of what I had allowed them <> weeks before. I 

 went to work and took all the honey in the apiary, 

 and gave it to six hives and put them up in chaff 

 hives for winter. The rest, fourteen in number, 1 

 carried to a north room in the cellar, darkened the 

 windows, and made up my mind, contrary to all 

 rules, to save my swarms. I took off the supers, 

 and cloth off the top of frames, laid one frame Hat 

 on the rest, and once a week I opened the doors 

 from the furnace into the rest of the cellar; and 

 when the heat got up to about 65 I went in and fed 

 them, giving each hive less than a teacupful of 

 syrup. The next morning I shut off the heat by 

 shutting the doors, and let them alone a week. 

 Temperature during the week stood at about 50°. 

 This I kept up till April 15th, when I saw pollen 

 coming into the hives outdoors. I brought them 

 from the cellar. I had concluded they were very 

 light in bees. Two of the fourteen were; the rest 

 are good average swarms, covering, when in clus 

 ter, from four to seven Heddon improved Lang- 

 stroth frames. On the whole they are not as well, 

 as strong in bees, nor as far advanced, as those I 

 left out in chaff hives. 



Honey is now coming- in from the soft maple. 

 One hive I examined this afternoon had several 

 combs, outside of those with eggs, tilled with nec- 

 tar, and the margin of seven frames that had eggs 

 and larvae in the center were completely filled. I 

 would not advise a novice, nor, in fact, any one, to 

 try the experiment. I had every advantage. I 

 could heat their room as I liked, and as often as I 

 liked. Another thing T proved, too, was the fact 

 that light is no detriment. I happened to be going 

 by the door once in day time, and observed that the 

 sodding I had up at the basement windows had set- 

 tled 254 or :? inches, by the frost having gone out, 

 making it as light as day. As the sun was pouring 

 in this opening, to my surprise the bees were as 

 quiet as in the darkness of the night, with no cloth 

 over them, and the thermometer at 4t'>°. I always 

 took a light, a common lamp turned up, and set it 

 down in the middle of the room, and there was sel- 

 dom a bee that left the hive; never more than two 

 or three during any time I was feeding them. 



Dr. A. E. Hakvev. 

 Wyoming, Ont., April 18, 1889. 



Friend II., with a furnace in the cellar to 

 dry it off and warm it up, it is not any won- 

 der that you succeeded ; and in regard to 

 the matter of light, when bees are in a state 

 of perfect health I do not know why they 

 would be any more likely to lly out at a tem- 

 perature of' -46 in the cellar, titan if they 

 were outdoors. Bees in health seldom go 

 out of their hives unless the temperature of 

 the air runs to about 55. If the sun shines, 

 they often go out in sunny nooks ; but it is 

 because the sun raises the temperature, and 

 not because the light entices them. 



