178 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



the comb fell out of the frame he is looking 

 at so intently, on account of the hot weather 

 away down in Florida, or whether the en- 

 graver forgot to put it in. The small boy 

 over there is probably his brother, and he, 

 too, is having fun in the apiary. By the 

 way, friends, did you know it is a grand 

 thing to get small boys interested in bee- 

 keeping? Perhaps it is a chunk of honey 

 he is putting in his mouth, so as to prevent 

 the honey from being v^asted (the way I did 

 with the Florida oranges, you know). Nev- 

 er mind the chunks of honey — they are bet- 

 ter and cheaper than chunks of tobacco. 

 The place is so pleasant that a couple of 

 ladies have come out there to look it over. 

 By the way, the best way to make any place 

 in the world pleasant is to have the women- 

 folks there. Friend H., why do you put 

 your hives on stilts? Doesn't it bother the 

 juvenile bees to climb up? I presume they 

 never get chilled, however, in your sun- 

 shiny clime. Well, God bless you all, boys 

 and girls ; and if Uncle Amos goes down to 

 Florida (which he hopes to do some time) he 

 expects to visit the Peach-tree apiary. 



MRS. COTTON'S SYSTEM OF FEEDING 

 BEES. 



EXPLAINED AND DEFENDED BY HERSELF. 



T AM requested to define clearly my position as to 

 jaP feeding bees, through the columns of Glean- 

 ^l INGS, as there are many who mistake my posi- 

 ^ tion, and many who, either from a misunder- 

 standing- or from a desire to misrepresent, are 

 constantly publishing statements calculated to 

 mislead the public. My plan of feeding is intend- 

 ed to encourage the bees to breed rapidly in early 

 spring, and to fui-nish the bees nearly all they re- 

 quire for their own consumption, that we may ob- 

 tain, in glass boxes, in the best possible marketable 

 form, nearly all they collect from natural sources. 



If there were no honey obtainable from natural 

 sources, it would not pay to feed bees; but it is 

 plain to every intelligent person, that, in order to 

 receive the greatest possible profit from bees, they 

 must be fed. The only question is, how, when, and 

 what to feed. It will pay as well to feed bees as to 

 feed our domestic animals— cows, sheep, etc., or 

 manure plants, or any crop the farmer cultivates, 

 to stimulate growth and increase the product and 

 consequent profit of the same. There are other 

 points in my management of bees which are often 

 misrepresented, but I have not the time or space 

 to go over them in detail. Sufiice it to say, I am 

 ready to stand by my statements at all times; and 

 in all my business transactions I intend to be 

 guided by the golden rule; viz., Do by others as I 

 wish others to do by me. Mrs. L. E. Cotton. 



West Gorham, Me., Feb. 14. 1887. 



But, my good friend, you do not directly 

 reply to that part of your chapter on feed- 

 ing, where you state that, if sugar syrup is 

 stored in the surplus-receptacles, no one can 

 tell it from white-clover honey. Do you 

 not think it would be well to change or 

 modify this clause ? The point you make, 

 that a much larger yield of clover honey 

 will be obtained by feeding the bees clear 

 up to the comb-biiilding point, is, without 



question, a big item ; but let us remember 

 the charges that have been brought against 

 us, of feeding sugar and glucose, and selling 

 it as real honey. 



HOW TO FEED BEES IN A CELLAR. 



A FEW SERVICEABLE AND TIMELY HINTS FOR THE 

 NOVICE. 



fU those who have weak colonies in the cellar 

 ' that need more bees or hotiey or both, I will 

 say that they can be built up now just as well 

 as when on their summer stands; and there 

 will be no trouble about quarreling, or bees 

 returning to the hive from which they are taken. 

 Spread the combs of the weak colony, leaving a 

 space in the center of the cluster of bees for one 

 comb. Then go to any colony that has plenty of 

 bees and honey, and get the outside comb that has 

 bees iipnyi it. You may look it over to see that the 

 queen is not upon it, if you wish; but there is not 

 one chance in fifty of the queen being on these out- 

 side combs, in the winter season. Place this comb 

 of bees and honey in the center of the weak colony 

 and they will cluster together, and all will be well. 

 You may give them another comb in a day or two, 

 if thought best, or two can be given at one time In 

 the same manner. Many th^nk that bees should 

 not be disturbed in any manner when in the cellar; 

 but there will no harm come to them by perform- 

 ing any needful operation with them in the cellar, 

 as they will soon resume their former quiet after 

 being disturbed. Bees will only occasionally take 

 wing while being handled in the cellar, especially 

 if the light is kept back and not allowed to shine 

 directly upon them. But they have a disagreeable 

 way of crawling about over the combs and upon 

 the hands of the person working with them. It is 

 better, of course, to build up or unite weak colo- 

 nies in the fall, though many of us will neglect It 

 then, and severe weather finds us with weak colo- 

 nies, perhaps with valuable queens which we wish 

 to winter over, while there are other colonies that 

 were not "tinkered" with to introduce these 

 queens, that have bees and honey to spare. And 

 it is better to equalize them, as nearly as possible, 

 in the cellar, than to leave these weak colonies to 

 be strengthened after being placed on their sum- 

 mer stands. These little weak colonies, when 

 fussed with In cool weather in April, are inclined 

 to swarm out, and we see our little colony in the 

 air with a valuable queen which perhaps we do not 

 care to lose. They also have a provoking way of 

 attempting to join some strong colony in a box 

 hive, with crooked combs and "old black" queen, 

 which we intended to transfer and Italianize in 

 May, and, of course, are all slaughtered, leaving 

 the novice with the empty combs and hives, to buy 

 queens and try his band at Italianizing again anoth- 

 er year. L. C. Clark. 

 Granada, Kan., Feb. 1, 1887. 

 Friend C, I know that bees can be fed in 

 the way you mention, at times ; and at other 

 times (at least so it has seemed to me) the 

 same directions do not seem to answer at 

 all. The bees get on a stampede and fly all 

 over the cellar, and do every thing they 

 ought not to do. M:iy be with some experi- 

 ence, however, 1 might manage better, for 

 it was among my earlier experiences that 

 I tried to feed bees iu the cellar. I think, 



