7HS 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



It is possible, however, to get on very well by al- 

 ways taking your tools with you, provided you 

 never forget them. One day we went to the Hast- 

 ings apiary without any smoker, and we realized 

 then how important a smoker is. Don't trust to 

 memory. In your record-book have a list of the 

 things you generally need to take; and after you 

 are all in the wagon, or ready to get in, read aloud 

 the list and be sure that everything is in the wagon, 

 as: Hats, smokers, dinner (we never forgot our din- 

 ner), chisel, etc. My own practice has been a kind 

 of compromise between having a full kit of tools at 

 each apiary and taking every thing along. If a 

 buggy is used it is not convenient to have very 

 much bulk. By the way, a bad season is not with- 

 out its compensations. I have had two years of 

 such dead failure that we could make almost every 

 trip the entire season in a buggy, for there was no 

 honey to haul, and very little in the way of supplies. 



Marengo, 111. C. C. Miller. 



Now, look here, old friend. Here you 

 have been recommending robber - cloths, 

 while the fact is, that, during the three days 

 I was with you, all over the premises in the 

 honey-house and shop, and making myself 

 at home almost everywhere, I never caught 

 a glimpse of any such thing as a robber- 

 cloth. I do not think I shall insinuate 

 right here that some of the things you re- 

 commend are all on paper, for it just now 

 occurs to me that the bees did not rob while 

 I was there ; in fact, even spilling honey on 

 top of the hives did not make them rob, so I 

 suppose you had the robber-cloths all rolled 

 up and tucked in some neat drawer or cup- 

 board. I thought of them once or twice ; 

 but there was so much talking to be done, 

 that, before I got a chance, the matter es- 

 caped my memory. Now, I do not like a 

 baking-powder box to keep matches in at 

 all. It is too much trouble to pull off that 

 tin cover every time you want a match. I 

 know there is some danger of getting your 

 fuel burned up ; but I like to have matches 

 so I can grab one up with one hand. It is 

 something on a line with what I tell my 

 wife about locking the doors nights. I 

 would about as soon have burglars go 

 through us, say once in about ten years, as 

 to go through the operation of locking and 

 unlocking so many thousand times, without 

 any good from it. She thinks, however, 

 that the feeling of safety and security amply 

 compensates for traveling around night and 

 morning to lock and unlock the doors. 



TO PREVENT ROBBING, ETC. 



SEVERAL THINGS TO BE CONSIDERED IN GETTING 

 READY FOR WINTER. 



TTp CORRESPONDENT asks if musk will pre- 

 9m|, vent robbing, if placed in a hive which is be- 



|jm ing robbed. Musk, spirits of turpentiue, kero- 

 -* r2fc sene oil, etc., have all been recommended to 

 stop robbing; but I do not believe that, after 

 robbing is well under way, any of them will do any 

 good. When robbers first attack a hive, a few 

 drops of kerosene oil or spirits of turpentine 

 sprinkled against the hive and on the alighting- 

 board, a few inches from the entrance, will often 

 cause robbers to leave in disgust. However, 1 find 

 that the best way is to contract the entrance at all 



times when robbing is likely to occur, so that but 

 few bees can pass at a time. I have also tried leav- 

 ing a pane of glass up before the entrance, as rec- 

 ommended by some of our English friends across 

 the water, where robbers seem determined to enter 

 any hive, but I do not see that it is in any way su- 

 perior to contracting the entrance, while it seems 

 to bother the bees of the hive much more. If rob- 

 bers have really got possession of the hive, throw a 

 sheet over it, so that those on the outside caa not 

 get in; and if the colony is good for any thing, they 

 will soon drive out those already in. when the sheet 

 is to be turned so as to get rid of thpm. Leave the 

 sheet on till near sunset, when it is to betaken off so 

 as to allow the few bees out to get into their hive. 

 Fix the entrance so that but one or two bees can 

 pass at a time, and the next morning they will take 

 care of themselves. Something much better than 

 the sheet for stopping robbers is a Lee-tent, to be 

 set over the whole hive; and where the apiarist has 

 such a tent, it is hardly necessary for me to tell him 

 to use it in place of the sheet. 



FEEDING SUGAR. 



Another correspondent wishes to know how to 

 feed his bees on sugar. There are two ways of feed- 

 ing sugar to bees; one of which is, to make the su- 

 gar into candy by kneading a little honey in with 

 it, till it forms a stiff dough, as it were, or it can be 

 made into large cakes of soft candy by boiling it 

 just right in a little water, when it is laid over the 

 frames for winter stores. During winter, the mois- 

 ture arising from the bees collects on the candy, 

 which moistens it to such an extent that the bees 

 can lick it up, thus giving them a supply of food. 

 However, during a cold spell it often happens that 

 the bees fail to cluster on the candy, and the severe 

 cold keeps them from leaving the cluster to reach 

 it, so that starvation occurs, which is not satisfac- 

 tory to the apiarist; hence this plan of feeding is 

 not practiced, only as the bees have been neglected 

 till cold weather prevents any other way of feeding. 

 When a colony has a few pounds of honey in the 

 hive to " bridge " over these cold spells, this way of 

 feediug is very satisfactory for the purpose intend- 

 ed. The second plan, and by far the preferable 

 one, is to make the sugar into a syrup, which is fed 

 to the bees in feeders during the warm days of Sep- 

 tember or October, so that they can store it in their 

 combs, and cap it over the same as honey. As I 

 have so many letters asking how I make this syrup, 

 I think the editor will publish the matter again, 

 even if he has already published the formula twice 

 before. 



Put 15 pounds of water in a vessel that will hold 

 about 35 quarts, and bring the water to a boil. 

 When boiling, slowly stir in 30 pounds of granulat- 

 ed sugar, so that it will dissolve, instead of settling 

 to the bottom and burning. Now bring to a boil 

 again, when it is to be set from the fire, and 5 

 pounds of good honey stirred in. This gives about 50 

 pounds of feed, of about the consistency of honey, 

 the same being the best for winter feeding of any I 

 know of. 



BEES DROWNING IN FEED. 



Still another correspondent wishes to know how 

 he can feed his bees syrup without their sticking 

 fast and drowning in it. To obviate this a very 

 narrow feeder must be used so that the bees can 

 cling to the feeder on each side, or a float must be 

 provided for the wide feeder. A feeder which is 

 more than % of an inch wide will always drown 



