THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



2Bt 



[For tlio Americau Bee Journal.] 



The Honey Season of 1869, in New York. 



When I look back over the year 1869, I find 

 no parallel to it, in my bee experience of twenty- 

 three years. 



The winter of 18G8-69, was very f^xvorable for 

 wintering bees, in this section ; and going into 

 ■winter quarters in good condition, few bees were 

 lost, and they came out in splendid order. 



Out of some ninety stocks that I left on their 

 summer stands, without even examining them in 

 the fall, only three died— one for want of honey ; 

 the other two, being second and third swarms 

 doubled, had "dissolved partnership" Avithin 

 two or three days ai"ter being hived ; but the 

 "retiring partner" took all the queens, and thus 

 left the home firm in no condition to iiicrease their 

 stock in trade, which consequently failed in 

 Avinter. 



The spring commenced fine, and from the 1st 

 to the 10th of May, the prospects never looked 

 brighter. Most of the hives that were not full of 

 comb, commenced lengthening down their combs 

 and prepare for swarming ; and we began to feel 

 quite nervous as to how we were to get all the 

 hives ready for the expected new swarms. But 

 our troubles in this direction soon ceased, turning 

 our minds to the consideration of how we should 

 keep our bees (with the monstrous broods they 

 ■were then nursing) from actual starvation. But 

 the bees seemed to understand the situation ; for 

 the drones, which had began to lly pretty briskly, 

 "were by the workers, made to fly a Ihtle more 

 briskly than they desired ; and when they left 

 their hives, each with a worker on his back, they 

 were served -with peremptory orders never to 

 return ; and some of the drone brood was merci- 

 lessly torn from the cells before it was hatched. 

 And by the Avay, this drone slaughter continued 

 during the whole summer ; and I think there was 

 scarcely a day in the whole season, but there Avas 

 more or less "butchering" done. The destroy- 

 ing of drones in May, is nothing very uncommon, 

 only indicating a scarcity of honey, and swarming 

 for that year, if there be any at all, will be late ; 

 but to have it continue all summer, isncAV to me. 



But, to return to the adverse change in the 

 fore part of May. Our courage did not fail ; for 

 Ave hoped that the fruit (especially the apple) 

 blossoms would bring a favorable turn. But, 

 alas, the apple blossoms came Aviih the dandelions 

 and raspberries in succession, yet no improve- 

 ment. Still, as the prospect for Avhite clover was 

 unusually good, we kept up courage, thinking of 

 the "honeyed future," and that perhaps it made 

 little difference Avhether Ave got the honey before 

 the swarms, or the swarms before the honey. 



The white clover came in abundance, but not 

 the honey ! Many SAvarms came, and with them 

 came starvation ! They seemed to swarm more 

 out of spite, than anything else ; the bees seem- 

 ing determined to preserve the queen cells, and 

 the old queen as determined to destroy them. 

 Unable to succeed in this she appeared bound to 

 quit, though she should starve. There was 

 nothing of the old normal orderly swarming this 

 year. It has been a sort of hurly-burly, pell-mell 

 kind of business. I have had as many as six 



SAvarms on the wing at a time, and before they got 

 settled, they would all be in one pile, and every 

 queen iuniied— that is, enveloped by a knot of 

 bees about as large as a hen's egg. I tried putting 

 oneof the queens so knotted into a hive, and then 

 adding bees enough for a good SAvarm ; and for 

 half an hour or so you would think it avus going 

 to be all Avell with them ; when perhaps the next 

 minute they Avould all swarm out — some return- 

 ing to the hives fnmi which they came, and the 

 rest going into the common stock pile again, 

 ready to be divided up anew. By keeping on 

 dividing, I would succeed in making two or three 

 good stocks out of half a dozen. 



The clover blossoms continued abundant 

 through June, but all the honey gathered therefrom 

 Avas so thin, that they would evapon.te and con- 

 sume during the night the pound or two Avhich 

 they had garnered during the day. On opening 

 hives, as I did more or less of them daily, I did 

 not see a cell of new sealed honey till t-he 2d day 

 of July. 



July brought very little improvement. Still 

 Ave did not despair, thinking Ave stood a chance yet 

 in buckwheat and fall flowers. Our hearts were 

 cheered by buckwheat commencing with moder- 

 ate bloom, AVhich lasted five or six days, and 

 induced the bees to put in a rousing amount of 

 brood ; in tlie maturing of which, they not only 

 consumed all they had garnered l^rom the buck- 

 Avheat, but many of them also consumed all they 

 had previously laid up. By the middle of Sep- 

 tember they had not a pound of honey left. 



Now hope expired ; and the question came up 

 Avhat shall we do ? Shall Ave let our bees go by 

 the board, or make an effort to save them ? But 

 our troubles did not end here. The good house- 

 Avives began to beset us in droves, Avith their 

 lugubrious complaints that, whencA^er the}' under- 

 took to make preserves, sweet pickles, pies, or 

 anything SAveet, my bees pounced on them and 

 so monopolized their supplies that they were 

 forced to surrender. The grocery men, too, 

 joined in the chorus, saying — " Stratton (for poor 

 Stratton has to bear all the blame here), your 

 bees are carrying off all our sugar ;" and the 

 blessings we got Avere anything but lioney. Feel- 

 ing pricked in conscience, all the plea we rcmld 

 make was — '■'■poor starving bees!'''' They replied 

 Ave ought to feed them, and thus keep them at 

 home. In order to gratify their useless whim, 

 and feeling that we might sometime regret we 

 had not made an effort to save them, we com- 

 menced to feed extensively Avith sugar syrup. 

 This we continued till about the middle of Octo- 

 ber, when the weather became too cold, and tl)ey 

 Avould take no more. A good part of what they 

 did take remained unsealed. But that was not 

 the w^orst of it. So many of the bees had been 

 preserved^ pickled, or burned, that there Avas not a 

 swarm Avhich had a fair number left to begin 

 Avinter Avith. Many of them had not a quart of 

 bees, and I do not think that they averaged over 

 two quarts to the hive. Consequently the first 

 severe cold finished some of them ; and though 

 the A\'inter has been mild, yet changes have been 

 so numerous and great, that there has been a 

 continual drain on their scanty stores and num- 

 bers ; for there has scarcely been a week that they 



