664 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



robbing and stinging get to be the order of 

 the day. 



OVER ONE TON OF HONEY. 



The season came to a close very suddenly. The 

 honey crop was light in this county. I shall have 

 something over one ton, almost all box. 



Komulus, N. Y., Aug. 8, 1887. J. F. Hunt. 



ENOUGH TO WINTER ON. 



Our bees gathered about enough in one week to 

 winter on. They stored it above, and it was taken 

 as surplus. The j)rospect is now that I shall feed as 

 much as I have taken. There is, therefore, now 

 really no surplus. 1 have some hopes yet from red 

 clover and aster. S. W. Morrison. 



O.xford, Pa., Aug. 9, 1887. 



RECEIVED $5011 FOR A LAST YEAR'S CROP. 



It is getting rather late to send in my report for 

 1886, but better late than never. 1 have just got 

 through disposing of my last year's crop. I had 

 3335 lbs. of white-clover honey, for which I received 

 I'ZVt cts. per lb., amounting to $405.95. Then I had 

 nearly 700 lbs. of very dark honey, which I sold for 

 5 cts. per box. 1 also had .500 or 600 lbs. of extract- 

 ed. We ate of it give some away, and what I sold 

 brought me $37.00. Altogether I received between 

 $490 and $500 for my crop. I started in the spring 

 with 51 colonies, increased to 68. J. A. Kennedy. 



FarmingdHlc, III., June 13, 1887. 



l^EP0^Tg DlgC0nR^6ips[^i. 



"NOT MUCH HONEY." 



T FIND, ill looking over my bees, that there are 

 (^ some colonies that have not got honey enough 

 ^r to winter on. The weather has been so very 



"*■ dry all summer that bees in this part of the 

 State have done nothing. One gentleman liv- 

 ing not far from this city ran his apiary of 40 colo- 

 nies for comb honey, and said he did not get a 

 pound. Another, of about one hundred colonies, 

 ran half for comb the other half for extracted, and 

 got only about 300 lbs. of extracted, so you see it is 

 considerably discouraging. A gentleman living 

 eight miles from hero ran 40 colonies for comb 

 honey, and got about 1000 pounds. He uses the 

 Simplicity hive, but took out three brood-frames 

 and put wide frames on the side with sections in. 

 The side storing seems to be good. A. E. Smith. 

 Darlington, Wis., Aug. 13, 1887. 



BEES STARVING. 



Bees are Starving as fast as time rolls around. I 

 came from Texas a few days ago and found half 

 ray bees starved out. I am feeding the others. It 

 has been the dryest time since 1881. Grass, weeds, 

 corn, and all are burning up. There is a good pros- 

 pect to-night for a rain. If we should have such, 

 bees would store winter food from Spanish needle 

 yet. If this is not discouraging I hope such a time 

 won't come. W. W. Addison. 



Bumpus, III., Aug. 11, 1887. 



HALF A CROP. 



The honey-crop in this section is less than half. 

 It Is very dry. Honey is moving moderately at 14 

 and 15 cents. The market is getting firmer. It 

 gives us more light in regard to the kind of founda- 

 tion to be used in sections. Poorly drawn founda- 



tion, with some honey on each side, is not very 

 tempting to the consumer's appetite, and I have 

 good reason to believe that there is much such 

 goods that goes on to the market, and I am afraid of 

 the consequences. A. A. Harrison. 



McLane, Pa.. Aug. 15, 1887. 



HONEYED VISIONS GONE ; IS IT FOUL BROOD? 



I " swarmed out " with a new " queen " on March 

 30, and have been very busy since, fixing up. You 

 have been asking, through Gleanings, for " Re- 

 ports Discouraging." While I myself am not dis- 

 couraged, and still less ready for " Blasted Hopes," 

 my report for this spring, and the prospects for this 

 summer, certainly present a discouraging front. 

 All my sweet hopes and honeyed visions have be- 

 taken themselves to ignominious flight, leaving 

 my pocket-book under the elephant's foot. I went 

 into winter quarters with 10 full colonies, 3 five- 

 frame, and 3 four-irame colonies. One colony was 

 in a two story Root chaff hive; the remaining 14 

 were in Simplicities, with chaff on top and sides; 

 and notwithstanding a severe winter they came 

 through in good condition. All were rearing brood 

 nicely when fruit-bloom commenced (about the 15th 

 of April). In the midst of fruit-bloom we had a 

 week of wet weather which put them almost on the 

 starvation-point. It checked breeding to some ex- 

 tent, and caused them to kill their young drones. 



About the first of May I purchased 4 more colo- 

 nies, making me 19 in all. In the latter part of 

 April and the first part of May T moved them about 

 IVi miles; when I moved the second lot I examined 

 them (May 3) to see if an.v combs were broken 

 down, and was astonished to find 3 colonies with 

 diseased brood. The symptoms did not, nor do they 

 yet, tally with those given in the ABC and in va- 

 I'ious numbers of Gleanings, of foul brood. A 

 friend told me he had a colony similarly affected 

 last year, which he cured by introducing a new 

 queen; so I thought I would try that. I gave them 

 capped queen-cells. The queens ai'e not yet laying. 

 A few days ago I found three more colonies in dif- 

 ferent parts of the yard taking the same disease, so 

 I determined to try Prof. McLain's remedy, given on 

 page 697, Gleanings, 1886, except that I could not ex- 

 tract the honey, which is hardly necessary, since 

 the most of my colonies have very little honey 

 (white clover is a failure). The peculiarity of the 

 disease is, that about three-fourths of the brood 

 dies just before it is ready to cap over. Very little 

 dies after it is sealed. The greater part of the af- 

 fected larvie shrink, just as if something had suck- 

 ed their juices, and finally dry up entirely; now and 

 then one turns to a brownish-looking mess. This 

 seems to be the case only with those that die about 

 the seventh day from hatching. There are no 

 sunken cappings nor pinholes. Of course, there is 

 an unnatural smell about the hive, but not what 

 that from true foul brood is, judging by the de- 

 scriptions in A B C and Gleanings. A. L. Heim. 



Chandler, Ind. 



From the facts you relate. I should rather 

 judge the disease you found among your 

 l)ees was foul brood. You know, I presume, 

 there is one phase of it where the brood dies 

 before being capped. However, in our ex- 

 perience we never noticed unsealed dead 

 brood without finding some in cells capped 

 over. I think, if you were to rake over the 

 cells of capped brood, where you lind the 



