1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



933 



I have not lost a colony in cellar wintering in the 

 last six years. I wintered from 50 to 135; average 

 about 90 colonies. F. A. Snell. 



Milledgeville, 111., Nov. 23, 1887. 



REPORT FROM TENNESSEE. 



NOT VEHV ENCOUHAGINO. 



■ Y report is not very encouraging, but here 

 are the facts. I wintered on summer stands 

 with no packing, and without loss, begin- 

 ning in the spring with 30 colonies in fair 

 average condition. They started well, but 

 received a severe check when in the midst of peach- 

 bloom. All our fruit was cut short by frost. For 

 some unknown reason, poplar (tulip) was also al- 

 most a total failure. I toolc only 29 gallons of honey, 

 mostly from sourwood and cotton, but might 

 have got five or si.x more in October from 

 aster had not absence from home prevented. The 

 aster was later than usual, on account of drought 

 In August and September, but it came out rich in 

 October. I had but three natural swarms, and put 

 two of them in one hive. I sold one colony and 

 made two full colonies by consolidation of nuclei. 

 I made all ready for winter Dec. Ist, and have 33 col- 

 onies, all rich in aster honey. We have had some 

 cold weather, but nothing near zero. For two 

 weeks bees have been out more or less almost every 

 day. So far as I know, my report is about the 

 average for this county. One of my neighbors 

 has done bettor, several not so well. 

 Lincoln, Tenn., Dec. 6, 1887. David Strang. 



DANGEROUS STINGS. 



APIS MELLIFICA IN A CASE OF SEVERE STINGING. 



ip FTER reading Dr. Porter's article on bee-sting 

 ^ poison as a remedial agent, T thought I would 

 K' tell you what I know about it. My baby, 19 

 ^ months old, got to a stand of bees lately, dur- 

 ing my absence, and was very nearly stung to 

 death. The first thing we did was to bathe him in 

 strong soda-wafer; and after that we gave him 

 cream-tartar water; and when the doctor came, the 

 first thing he gave was apis melliflca, and put him 

 in a hot soda bath. The bee-stings affected his 

 stomach and bowels the same as if he had taken 

 some deadly poison internally. The doctor said it 

 acted like so much arsenic, and that apis mellifica 

 was the remedy to give, and it proved to be so; for 

 the little sufferer soon showed signs of improve- 

 ment. But, the strangest part of it all, the places 

 stung swelled but very little, and that not until the 

 next morning. He had over two hundred stings on 

 the head, face, and hands; and after reading how 

 painful it is to be stung in the gristle of the ear or 

 nose, I know his suffering was terrible, for the 

 blood ran off the ears when the stings were remov- 

 ed, and one bee had to be picked out of his ear with 

 a pin. You may ask why T gave cream of tartar. 

 Well, I don't know whether it is good for bee-stings 

 or not; but I gave it to my brother a few years ago 

 when he had been stung so badly, while trying to 

 transfer a stand of bees, that he had a hard chill, 

 and there were hives all over his body as large as 

 my hand. I gave him about a tablespoontul of 

 cream of tartar, and a strong solution of cream of 

 tartar to bathe in, and then sent for the doctor. He 

 was much better by the time the doctor came, and 



he said I had done as much as he could do, and did 

 not give him anything else. By evening (he was 

 stung about noon) he was able to be up, but said he 

 felt as if he had been sick a week. Now, I think 

 every one who has bees ought to keep a vial of apis 

 melliflca on hand, with directions to give in the case 

 of severe stinging. Mas. E. C. Harper. 



lantha. Mo., Nov. 38, 1887. 

 My friend, I presume 1 should have done 

 just about as you did, in case of such se- 

 vere stinging ; but I think we should keep 

 in mind, after all, that such reports do not 

 give any positive proof that any of tlie 

 remedies you mention did any good at all. 

 From what experience I have had with 

 cases of severe stinging, I should expect 

 the baby to recover just about as you de- 

 scribe, without any medicine or treatment 

 whatever, except removing the stings as 

 speedily as possible. 



WINTER LOSSES. 



COLONIES deserting, AND BEES DYING FROM 

 POISON. 



"1^ AST winter was a hard one on bees about here. 

 1^ One man, who wintered in the cellar, and has 

 '^^ not lost any to amount to any thing for 

 ■*" several yaars, and boasted that he would not 

 lose any last winter, lost two- thirds of 

 what he had. I lost 28 out of 80; 14 out of the 

 28 deserted in one afternoon. There were two 

 more that deserted, but I got them to stay in 

 their hives after putting them back two or three 

 times. 



The .53 that wei-e left I increased to 72, and got 

 enough honey to pay expenses; but I am not dis- 

 couraged, as I got twice as much honey last year as 

 I expected, and did not lose any thing this. This is 

 better than a good many have done. 



If I had followed the advice of some of the lead- 

 ing bee-keepers I should have lost 13 more swarms 

 than I did. They advised that beginners should 

 not handle their bees until the last of April. I com- 

 menced working mine the fore part of March, and 

 found one that would not have lasted much longer, 

 and I brought it through all right. About the 

 middle of April, 12 colonies had lost their queens by 

 deserting and otherwise, but I kept at work at 

 them, so that, when clovercame, they were all right. 



What was the cause of so many colonies desert- 

 ing in one day? Was it the bright warm weather, 

 after the cold snap we had the first of the week? 



PLANTS THAT ARE POISONOUS TO THE BEES. 



What is there about sweet alyssum that will kill 

 bees? We had a little patch in a flower-bed, and 

 some days it would have a very strong and sickish 

 smell; and the bees would buzz around it lively for 

 a while, getting pollen, which was very sweet, when 

 all at once they would drop down as though they 

 were stupefied, and in a minute or two they seemed 

 to be in great agony, and then die. Other days 

 they would work on it all day, and it did not affect 

 them. The days that it killed them, the pollen was 

 a greenish yellow; and when it did not, it was a 

 bright orange. P. H. Fellows. 



Brodhead, Wis., Dec. 3, 1887. 

 Friend F., there are blossoms besides the 

 sweet alyssum wiiich at times seem to have 

 the same effect on the bees. It has been 

 observed and mentioned, even with so 

 common a plant as sweet clover. 



