68H 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept, 



which must ttake no little honey; and on looking 

 through a hive, the full combs of brood look as if 

 the bees thought it were spring. There are other 

 appearances of spring since the rains, such as the 

 reviving of the brown pastures, and the dandelions 

 are coming out in bloom. The present outlook is, 

 that I shall buy about two tons of sugar this month 

 for my bees. C. C. Miller. 



Marengo. HI. 



Friend M., Mrs. Root and I have a stand- 

 ing disagreement about that before-dinner 

 nap. There is not any disagreement about 

 my nap before dinner at all, for I always 

 find a place fixed, a pillow ready, doors clos- 

 ed, and children chased otf ; and if I don't 

 get to sleep awful quick, I notice she stands 

 sentinel all around that part of the house. 

 There is not any question but that this is 

 the only thing for me ; but although her 

 health is not much better than mine, espe- 

 cially when she works more than she ought 

 to, she utterly repudiates the idea of a nap 

 before dinner, for herself . She says by ac- 

 tions, that it is quite important that my life 

 should be prolonged, but that in her case it 

 is not very much matter. Now, that stirs 

 me up every time I think of it, and I am 

 disappointed in you, friend M.,to think that 

 you made such a feeble fight for the queens 

 of our homes, as Prof. Cook calls them. 

 What shall we doV Why. have one of the 

 grown-up daughters bring things to dinner 

 smoking hot, or else get some relative, 

 whose health does not need this nap ; or, if 

 you can not do that, get some good sensible 

 woman, and pay her a good round price for 

 being sensible, that your wife's life may 

 be prolonged. Mrs. Root generally comes 

 out ahead in all disagreements, but I don't 

 believe she will this time. — Thanks for the 

 important points you bring out in regard to 

 the use of the slatted honey-board. I think 

 I shall have to apologize to friend Heddon 

 right here. He tried to make me see this very 

 thing some time ago, and it did get through 

 my understanding exactly. 



BEST HONEY FOR "WINTERING. 



"bug-juice" a winter feed. 



SN page 61,5, Aug. Gleanings, O. O. Poppleton 

 gives his experience and conclusions on the 

 best honey for wintering; and as your loot- 

 notes call for others on the same I will give 

 mine, which in some respects is right the re- 

 verse of friend P.'s. He says, that " the longer and 

 more abundant the flow of honey, the better the 

 quality." In 1878 we had the most prolific growth of 

 white clover that I ever saw. It was fairly a 

 butden all over the ground, and every head was 

 brimful of nectar, and it held in bloom for fully 

 three months, and of course the hives were full of 

 it for winter stores; but, alas! it proved the worst 

 that could be, for nearly evei-y bee died the follow- 

 ing winter. It was my first winter in trying to keep 

 a large quantity of bees, and so my first loss. I no- 

 ticed that the honey that year was almost as clear 

 as water, and almost as thin too; even that which 

 was fully ripened and capped by the bees would 

 flow like water, almost, when a comb was broken. 

 Ever since then I have found that, whenever 

 clover honey comes in rather slowly it is always 



very thick and heavy, and of a golden tinge; but 

 when it comes in faster it is more clear, and 

 thinner. 



Now, to sum up my conclusions of ten years' ex- 

 perience, I will say that I do not care from what 

 source the bees get their honey for winter use, nor 

 how early or late in the season; so long as it is 

 " thick and well ripened " I am fully convinced 

 that it is all right for them ; and 1 have further con- 

 cluded that it has not been the " honey," but some- 

 thing else that has been the cause of our past great 

 losses in wintering. 



I am now going to tell you something that 

 will not be believed by many who rend it. I should 

 have written it long ago, but I concluded that 

 it would not be believed; nevertheless, I tried it 

 and I know it. It will be remembered, that a few 

 years ago there was a general prolific flow of honey- 

 dew, or " bug-juice." Well, I got my share of it, and 

 but very little of any other honey, and a great deal 

 was said against leaving it in the combs for winter 

 stores. The editor of the A. B. J. was particularly 

 emphatic against it; but as 1 had nothing else for 

 them I left it in, and my bees nearly all died with 

 the dysentery. Two years later I had quite a quan- 

 tity of this same dark strong honey-dew honey that 

 I had extracted and kept over, as it was not fit to 

 sell, and I could not eat it myself. I fed it to half a 

 dozen or more light stocks during the winter, by 

 putting the candied honey on the frames right over 

 the cluster. I have written up this way of winter- 

 ing several times before. They had nothing but 

 dry combs when cold weather began, and I could 

 never ask for bees to winter nicer. They were dry 

 and healthy all the time, and their only food the 

 whole winter was the " bug-juice." I will finish by 

 repeating that I don't care what their stores are, so 

 long as it is not thin and watery, and I can have 

 other conditions to suit me. A. A. Fradenburg. 



Port Washington, O., Aug. 29. 1887. 



Friend F., by reference to our back num- 

 bers you will find at least one other experi- ' 

 ment in this line. A Mr. Pierson, of Ghent, 

 Summit Co., O., lost his bees terribly by 

 spring dwindling. Several were at this 

 time asking if we would advise them to use 

 combs of se;iled stores that came from hives 

 where the bees died. I believe our veterans, 

 including the editors of the bee-journals, 

 most of them, advised against using these 

 stores that seemed to be so disastrous dur- 

 ing at least one winter. Friend Pierson 

 said, however, he was going to try it. He 

 accordingly prepared quite a number of col- 

 onies witli combs of sealed stores taken 

 from hives wlierethe bees had died so badly. 

 Now, although these bees had nothing else 

 whatever, every colony wintered splendidly. 

 This experiment .seemed to indicate that 

 it was not the quality of stores that killed 

 the bees, and I am Inclined to think yet that 

 a good deal of these disastrous losses were 

 in consequence of a sort of distemper or con- 

 tagion that got Among the bees and swept 

 oft' whole apiaries. May be proper care and 

 protection will do very much to enable the 

 bees to withstaiul the distemper. I should 

 be very glad indeed to think it is the re- 

 sult of "skill and experience, that enables us 

 to winter lately without losses when we had 

 such terrible disaster, winter after winter, 

 ten or twelve years ago. 



