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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



BEE-STINGS FOR RHEUMATISM. 



Your head is level when you say, Mr. Editor, 

 p. 153, that you "have no faith in bee-stings as a 

 cure for all forms of rheumatism, nor even for 

 the same forms that afflict different individuals." 

 Last spring, when our man Lewis came to help 

 us, he complained bitterly of his swollen and in- 

 flamed wrists. He had been working in a damp 

 pulp-mill. A few bee-stings applied gently to 

 his painful wrists relieved him at once. On the 

 other hand, I have been laid up for over five 

 weeks this winter with rheumatism after receiv- 

 ing enough bee-stings to render me immune the 

 rest of my life, I would suppose. 

 * 



VISITING BEE-KEEPERS. 



"It pays the bee-keeper to go visiting occa- 

 sionally. Whenever occasion offers, take a trip 

 around to other bee-keepers, and a short stay 

 with them may make you more enthusiastic 

 when home again. " He says, same page, and he 

 never said a truer thing, "I never visited another 

 bee-keeper without being benefited, so far as I 

 remember. Even a shiftless bee-keeper may give 

 you some points and set you to thinking." And 

 now, friend Scholl, I wish to thank you for 

 your efforts at exhibiting and introducing granu- 

 lated honey. It is going to take a lot of "hot 

 air" to introduce it and make every one under- 

 stand it, but it must be done. 

 * 



THE LOSS IN FEEDING A THIN SYRUP. 



The article by Allen Latham, p. 212, "Thick 

 Syrup vs. Thin for Winter Feeding," is one of 

 more than ordinary value, it seems to me. I 

 have been especially interested in his estimate of 

 the loss by feeding thin syrup in place of thick. 

 I have no doubt in my own mind that his esti- 

 mates are based on most carefully conducted ex- 

 periments, and he knows whereof he affirms. He 

 estimates there is a loss of nearly one-fourth by 

 the activity of the bees in the amount of winter 

 stores a given amount of sugar will give if fed 

 thin or thick, to say nothing of the loss of vitali- 

 ty in the bees fed. I have fed a large amount of 

 sugar syrup during the past 25 years. I began 

 by feeding 2^ sugar to 1 of water; but after a 

 time I dropped to 2 sugar to 1 water. If fed 

 warm, bees will, as a rule, take it up quickly. 

 Last fall I had one yard very short of stores, and 

 required some 25 or 30 lbs. of thick syrup each, 

 to last them until June. But this yard was some 

 ten miles from home; and to save time and cost 

 of hauling syrup so far I decided to take a ton of 

 sugar to the yard and then get water near by and 

 mix and feed thin syrup — half sugar and half wa- 

 ter by weight. I did so, and finished feeding in 

 three days, and thought it a success; but when I 

 came to pack for winter I was astonished to see 

 how light the hives were in stores, in this yard, 

 and have been unable to account for it until these 

 statements of Mr. Latham appeared. Had I fed 

 all my bees in this way there would have been a 

 loss of more than $100 worth of sugar. I find no 

 trouble, as a rule, in feeding sugar 2 to 1, if fed 

 when warm. A single colony will sometimes 

 take up 25 lbs. of syrup in 24 hours. 



Later. — I felt anxious about those bees fed on 

 thin syrup, and went up to the yard to look them 

 over the fore part of March, and found 32 colo- 



nies dead — yes, "dead as a door-nail," and every 

 one was dead from starvation, and others were on 

 short rations. Now, I have had to feed most of 

 my colonies in the fall for the past 25 years, and 

 this is the first time I have met with any serious 

 loss from starvation, and also the first time I 

 have ever fed thin syrup or cold syrup, and I can 

 not help thinking there must have been quite a 

 loss from warming and reducing so much thin 

 syrup. It would even have required a consider- 

 able amount of fuel to warm and reduce 4500 

 lbs. of syrup (half water) to syrup one-fifth water. 

 And this the bees had to do with the sugar syrup 

 fed — rather expensive method. I had 136 colo- 

 nies in this yard. 



BEE-KEEPING IN THE 

 SOUTHWEST 



By Louis Scholl 



The spring is at least a month early in most 

 parts of the Southwest. The bees have been 

 swarming since March 1, and all hives are just 

 boiling over with bees. 



* 



The first honey-fiow of 1908 opened about 

 March 1. The main sources were Texas persim- 

 mon (Dyospyrus Texana); round-flowered catclaw 

 (Acacia Rcrtneriana), and several other early 

 bloomers. 



# 



Wintering my bees in three shallow stories of 

 the divisible-brood-chamber hive gives me a large 

 brood-nest and rousing colonies early in the spring. 

 The comb capacity is equal to 18 L. frames, and 

 from 40 to 50 lbs. of honey is left to the bees in 

 the fall. 



* 



The apiary making the largest average of sur- 

 plus last season, and coming out strongest this 

 spring, is made up of different combinations of 

 hybrids from Holy Land stock. They are hus- 

 tlers, but they hustle every thing at times. They 

 are ferocious stingers. Now I am in a quandary 

 — which is better, those stings or a few less pounds 

 of honey.' 



* 



To prevent swarming with the least amount of 

 labor I cut up the brood-nest in the three shallow 

 stories of the divisible-brood-chamber hives like 

 this: The upper story is being gradually filled 

 with honey from above, and the brood will be 

 crowded out of it by the time the main honey- 

 flow comes in April. The middle story is full 

 of brood, while the lower one has only a portion 

 of the upper part of its combs with brood. Swarm- 

 ing will be retarded until the honey-flow by 

 simply placing the lower story, just mentioned, 

 between the two filled stories, providing it is done 

 immediately, before the sivarming fever is contract- 

 ed. In so doing we tear asunder the brood-nest 

 by furnishing the story containg the frames hav- 

 ing the empty cells for egg-laying. As soon as 

 the honey-flow begins, all swarming ceases. 



For the bee-keeper who does the right thing 

 just before it is too late, swarm control is quite 

 easy. Experience has taught me this again this 



