1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



•507 



0[IR 0wn JinjiW 



CONDUCTED BY ERNEST K. ROOT. 



WET WEATHER. 



E have been having two or three 

 weeks of bad rainy weather. Lo- 

 cust, raspberries, and other kinds of 

 bloom have been out in great profu- 

 sion, but the bees were unable to 

 make use of them. White clover is out in 

 .unusual abundance ; and although it lias 

 been in blossom for a week, the bees have 

 been forbidden by dame Nature to visit it. 

 To-day, June 10, the weather promises to be 

 favorable; the sun is shining brightly, and 

 the weather is warm. Yesterday, between 

 the light warm showers, in spite of the 

 heavy wind, the bees were out doing their 

 level best. There is still strong wind. No 

 honey has been gathered to any appreciable 

 extent so far. In fact, we have been 



OBLIGED TO FEED 



for the last two weeks. I believe I never 

 saw colonies use up stores as fast as ours 

 have done for a few days. One or two 

 stocks that had been recently fed, starved 

 in spite of us. Starvation was not due to 

 neglect, but due, rather, to the inferior 

 quality of the food. Having some old soft 

 maple sugar in cakes, much of it unsalable, 

 we made it into a thin syrup. This we fed 

 out entirely. One or two of the colonies, 

 after feeding, showed signs of dysentery. 

 After feeding this stuff I came to the con- 

 clusion that granulated sugar, even at its 

 present high price, is just about as cheap as 

 the inferior sweet, because it is better and 

 goes farther, Litterly we have been feed- 

 ing granulated syrup, and we have since 

 noticed none of the bad results. 



A large majority of our colonies, I feel 

 sure, would have starved had we not fed 

 them. It is rather discouraging to feed 

 when white clover, raspberries, and locust 

 are successively in bloom in such profusion, 

 and yet the bees are not able to get the 

 sweets. The bountiful rains we have been 

 having, I am in hopes will more than make 

 up for lost time. As we feed only to keep 

 brood -rearing going steadily, we feed small 

 quantities daily, and for this we use butter- 

 dishes. For stimulating feed , I do not know 

 of any thing we like better ; even throwing 

 out the item of cheapness, 1 am emphatical- 

 ly in favor of the butter-dishes. When we 

 moved the colonies down into the basswood 

 orchard, in the Dovetailed hive, we had a 

 great many wire-cloth screens. These 

 screens are simply a rim H inches deep, 

 covered with wire cloth, the rim made the 

 exact size of the Dovetailed body. Well, 

 we placed two butter-dishes on top of the 

 brood-frames of each hive, and placed one 

 of the wire-cloth screens over the whole. 

 Through the wire cloth we poured the feed, 

 put on the regular cover, and every thing 

 was done. To give the next feed, all we had 

 to do was to raise the cover and pour the 

 feed through the wire cloth. This arrange- 

 ment proved to be exceedingly sample and 

 yery satisfactory. 



FEEDIJSG WITHOUT A FEEDER. 



We ran out of butter - dishes and wire 

 screens. I told our Mr. Spafford to pour 

 about H or 2 pounds of syrup all over the 

 brood-combs and among the bees ; if the 

 colony were weaker, to give them a propor- 

 tionate amount in this way. We tried this 

 on about a dozen colonies. In about twenty 

 minutes more we examined those so fed, 

 and found that they were all nice and dry. 

 Once or twice I feared they might not be 

 able to recover from such a sousing of syrup. 

 This dose was repeated a number of times, 

 and the bees each time recovered from it. 

 The colonies were very strong, otherwise I 

 should have hesitated about giving them 

 such a smearing. For feeding this way, the 

 Dovetailed bottom-board worked very nice- 

 ly. By referring to the annexed engraving, 



which I gave some time ago, you will see 

 that the bottom-board is sunk. By tilting 

 the front end up temporarily, we found this 

 bottom-board would make a very good feed- 

 er. In pouring the feed right over the 

 combs, you observe that the bottom-board 

 will take the excess, and retain it there 

 till the bees can use it. The excess of even 

 two or three pounds can be held in this way, 

 and I do not know but it makes a very good 

 feeder. 



CARNIOLANS. 



Several years ago I gave a rather adverse 

 report of these bees. Feeling that 1 had 

 perhaps been a little too hard on them, 1 re- 

 quested one of the leading breeders of these 

 bees to send us one of his best Carniolans. 

 He did so, and we have had them for nearly 

 a year now. I was disposed to feel favora- 

 bly impressed with them, and desired Neigh- 

 bor H. to take them to one of his apiaries, 

 and, if they proved to be a good race of 

 bees, to make preparations to raise them in 

 one of his apiaries, isolated, of course, from 

 all other bees. Chancing one day to think 

 of these Carniolans, I asked him what he 

 thought of them. Well, he didn't "just ex- 

 actly know " —his answer indicating pretty 

 plainly that he liked the Italians better. To 

 satisfy myself directly, I one morning hitch- 

 ed up Billy in the cart, and started. Neigh- 

 bor H. was not in the apiary at the time, 

 but I readily found the bees. Of course, 1 

 proceeded to open up their hive with- 

 out smoker or veil. Not endeavoring to be 

 exceedingly "rambunctious," as the boy 

 says, I proceeded to open the hive, using 

 ordinary caution. I had scarcely got the 

 cover and the cushion off, than the air was 

 tilled with Carniolans, buzzing around in a 

 to me unusual manner. They began to 

 sting, but I held my ground. Neighb r II. 

 then came around, and I asked him where 

 his smoker was. 



"Oh!'' said he, "you don't need any 

 smoker for those bees," and a little sarcas- 

 tic smile played over his face. I had ex- 

 plained to him that they could be " handled 

 without smoke." However, I insisted on 

 the smoker, winch was brought, and used 



