\)U 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



BEE-KEEPING AND FARMING. 



MY REPORT, ETC. 



WENT into winter quarters witii 144 colonies. I 

 lost about 10 through the winter and spring. 

 The spring was so unfavorable, the bees, in- 

 stead of building- up, ran down from the first 

 of March till about the 18th of August. They 

 did not gather honey enough in that time to make 

 them quiet to manipulate. 



I fed my home apiary, of about 100 colonies, Sbbls. 

 of honey-dew. This I fed outside the apiary, 

 through the months of July and August. The first 

 of August they were starving; that is, the weaker 

 colonies. I then fed them 200 lbs. of sugar, made 

 into syrup, and poured it into empty combs and set 

 it in the hives. 



About the 18th of August thei-e was a little honey- 

 dew, enough to start them to rearing brood: per- 

 haps they gathered 5 or 6 lbs. per colony. About 

 the 25th of August, Spanish needle began to bloom; 

 but it continued so very dry that there was but lit- 

 tle hope of weak colonies gathering sufficient stores 

 for winter. 1 then commenced doubling up, or 

 doubling down, to 95 colonies. Many of them by 

 this time had lived out their threescore and ten. I 

 fixed them up the best I could, and ceased making 

 any effort for comb honey, inasmuch as I had more 

 combs than I could take care of. The moth de- 

 stroyed about 200 combs. I had to take care of my 

 combs 11 months before 1 could save them on hives. 

 My crop foots up to 1000 lbs. of honey and 30 lbs. of 

 beeswax. 



ITALIANS VERSDS BLACKS. 



I had 20 colonies of Italians in one apiary, that 

 were not fed any. I lost one colony and got 435 lbs. 

 of honey from them, leaving 8 well-filled frames be- 

 low for winter stores. I had 15 colonies of black 

 bees in another apiary, and 6 colonies of Italians. 

 About August 25th, when the honey-flow came, 

 if 1 may call it a flow, there were only 4 of the 15 

 alive, and 5 of the 6 Italians alive. I got surplus 

 enough from the Italians to winter the blacks; but 

 I found one more black colony in preparing them 

 for winter, about " petered out," which will leave 

 3 of the 15 alive. 



Bee-men have lost from one-fourth to one-third 

 of their bees, and they are not quite so well sup- 

 plied for winter as usual either, while those that 

 don't care for their bees have lost at least a half, 

 and those that are alive now may not have sufficient 

 stores to winter only the strongest colonies. Feed- 

 ing bees for winter is not practiced here much. If 

 bees don't gather enough to winter on, all they 

 have to do is to step down and out. 



FARMING VERSUS BEE-KEEPING. 



Inasmuch as I had nothing to do to my bees but 

 to feed them occasionally, and count the dead at 

 night, I turned my attention to farming. I sowed 

 (i acres of oats and obtained about 2^'5 bushels. 1 

 had 22 acres of meadow, which .yielded about T tons 

 of hay— and weeds. I gave one-half for getting it 

 put up. I planted 15 acres of corn, which yielded 

 about i;4 gallons per acre. 1 cut up the fodder, 

 bound it in bundles, and after it settled it looked as 

 if there were about 300 bushels of fodder. From 

 the middle of June to this date there has been, as 

 nearly as I could come at it by keeping a jar on a 

 bee-hive, 3'/2 inches of rain. From the middle of 

 July to the middle of August the temperature 

 ranged from 104 to 115, and the country was literal- 



ly plastered with chinch-bugs. Below I append my 

 tabulated report: 



1000 lbs. of honey at 10 cts. per lb $100 00 



30 lbs. of beeswax at 23 cts. per lb 6 90 



106 90 



INCIDENTAL EXPENSES. 



90 gallons of honey-dew at 45 cts. per 



gallon 40 50 



200 lbs. of sugar at 5^2 cts. per lb 11 00 



Other material 90 



52 40 



54 50 



FARM STATEMENT. 



6 acres of oats, 235 bush, at 22 cts. per 



bush $49 50 



15 acres of corn, 3 bush, at 40 cts. per 



bushel 1 20 



22 acres of meadow, one-half, 3!4 tons 21 00 



4 acres of apple-orchard, J4 bush .50 



9 bush, of potatoes at digging time 5 40 



.52 bush, of wheat at ()5 cts. per bushel 34 12 



11 bush, buckwheat at 60 cts 6 60 



118 32 



EXPENSES. 



Cutting oats, planter, and seed $ 6 00 



Wheat thrashing 1 60 



Feed for two horses, corn, 50 bush 16 00 



Say one ton of hay 10 00 



32 65 



85 67 

 I spent about 20 days with the bees. There were 

 between 75 and 100 days spent on the farm. 

 LaClede, 111., Nov. 8, 1887. " R. ROBINSON. 



Bee En^©M0i^06Y, 



Or Enemies of Bees Among the Insect Tribe. 



MYRIAPOD— THOUSAND-LEGGED WORM. 



R. JOHN H. RUPERT, Woodcock, Pa., sends 

 me a species of iulus, one of our common 

 myriapods— the so-called " thousand-leg- 

 ged worms "—and a large female blister- 

 beetle, Meloe AngusticoUis. He wishes me 

 to name them in Gleanings. The first— iulus— is 

 one of the vegetable-feeding myriapods. The com- 

 mon name— thousand-legged worm— shows the ten- 

 dency of our people to exaggerate. These insects 

 are cylindrical, with from fifty to sixty segments, 

 or joints; each ring, or joint, has four legs, or two 

 pairs of legs, so ?a(/itired-legged worms would be a 

 correct name. Some claim that these eat the po- 

 tatoes, and so cause scab. They are often called 

 " wire-worms." This term applies more correctly 

 to the grubs of our elater. or spring beetles. These 

 myriapods are perfectly harmless, and may be 

 handled with no danger, though the sensation of 

 their many feet passing over one's hand is not al- 

 together pleasing. 



The large beetle is illustrated in my bee-book, and 

 is the adult of the bee grubs, illustrated and com- 

 mented on in Gleanings, p. 588. These are among 

 the most interesting of our beetles. The vesicatory 

 properties of the insects, and their strange and 

 unique transmutations, make them most interesting 

 subjects for study. A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College, Mich., Oct. 25. 1887. 



But as the scientilic name — myriapod — 

 means ten thousand tooted, . friend Cook, 

 how much more are common people inclined 

 to exaggerate, after all, who call it only a 

 thousand? 



