1871.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



155 



[For the Americaa Bee Journal.] 



Eeport from Kleinsburg, Canada. 



The honey season, this year, has been with us 

 a very good one ; but on account of having lost 

 more than half of our bees last winter, the lioney 

 gathering force was considerably limited and 

 the result in accordance therewith. Yet we 

 lived iu hopes to retrieve our losses by special at- 

 tention to increase our stock as much as season 

 and circumstances would allow, and in such 

 manners and ways as would enable us to retain 

 the increase, and not have to undo it again, or 

 run the risk of finding myself minus of bees iu 

 the spring, <as was my former experience — the 

 cause having been as I reported in the July 

 number, feeding too late in the fall. I had re- 

 course again this season to feeding for winter, in 

 the case of some stocks which were made as late 

 as July 10th, and had scarcely any stores. But 

 this time I fed them in good season, and not 

 with honey either, at least three of them ; but 

 prepared syrup made of loaf sugai-, thus : — 31bs. 

 sugar, 1 quart water, brought to a boil, and add- 

 ing 1 ounce glycerine. Xow, as stated on a 

 former occasion, that the glycerine did not pre- 

 vent crystallization ; but then it was left standing 

 in an open bowl, exposed to warmth and air, and 

 only began to ciystallize after being thus exposed 

 for .^eveial weeks. This I do not now think is 

 sufficient to prove that it could not be safely fed ; 

 for if seasonably fed, the bees would seal it over ; 

 and as far as I have seen on a recent examination, 

 it appears at this time just as if I had fed honey, 

 though it is now since the 20th of August that 

 the syrup was fed. Thus, after a lapse of three 

 months there is no sign of crystallization yet. 

 Besides, I put some of the liquid in an ounce 

 vial, half filled and corked ; and up to this time, 

 no crystals are to be seen. Now, Mr. Editor, 

 you may think it very strange that I should pay 

 so much attention to this little matter ; but sup- 

 pose I find those stocks come out all right in the 

 spring, it will be a great boon to me, and to any 

 others compelled to feed their stocks for winter, 

 when honey is scarce, and at least one-third 

 dearer. I can make five pounds of this syrup, 

 glycerine included, for fifty cents, when honey is 

 here selling at from fifteen to twenty cents per 

 pound. Moreover, as some authors assert that 

 bees need only twenty pounds of syrup, whereas 

 with honey they require twenty-five pounds. 

 Now this is what I am trying more particularly 

 to find out ; and if alive and well next spring, 

 will report to you the result. 



Last spring I was not a little perplexed. After 

 promising myself to what extent I would increase 

 my stocks, especially those that were so strong 

 in numbers that they were literally overfiowing 

 with bees about the first of May, to my surj»rise 

 I found them, apparently, greatly reduced by 

 the first of June. There seemed to be a sudden 

 diminution in numliers, for from 20th of May to 

 the 1st of June, they were clustering out and 

 doing next to nothing. Some of the stocks 

 havirig drone brood under way, I expected them 

 to press forward for swarming early, when all at 

 once I noticed that the bees were gone from the 



outside. On examination, I found rather more bees 

 inside the hive than is usual after a swarm has 

 issued, but less brood than they had previously, 

 for, when I noticed the hive without the usual 

 cluster on the outside, 1 had suspected that a 

 swarm had left, and that it must have departed 

 unobserved, as I had not watched them dilinently 

 enough. I must say, I was fairly puzzlctl to 

 know the cause of so singular a change, for I 

 had never seen such an occurence mentioned iu 

 any writing on bees. At the same time, some of 

 my neighbors, wlio keep bees on the old-school 

 principles, proclaimed that their bees had cleared 

 out, for they had been hanging out for the last 

 three weeks and had now disappeared. Yv'ell, 

 here I stood, scarcely prepared to say that they 

 had not swarmed, nor could I say to the contrary 

 either. I would not have begrudged a five dollar 

 bill had I then been in possession of what friend 

 Gallup wrote in the July number of the Journal, 

 page 10. That 1 acknowledge is worth a great 

 deal, and I tell you my reason on this giound 

 alone. As soon as I was in possession of it, I 

 thought I could explain the my.stery to my neigh- 

 bors, for to me it was perfectly satisfactory ; but 

 to them I made myself, for the time, a laughing 

 stock. Nevertheless, as my bees, as well as those 

 of my neighbors, had done swarming before I 

 was in possession of the July number, yet I had 

 no doubt that mine had not then swarmed and 

 gone oif. But I could not say such was the case 

 with my neighbors' bees, till after leading the 

 article written by Mr. Gallup. Then, after re- 

 flecting on it, I started off; m;dc:ing the necessary 

 inquiry as to which stocks had so unceremo- 

 niously decamped. This being ascertained, I 

 learned that these stocks had afterwards swarmed 

 again, (that being, no doubt, the first or princi- 

 pal swarm) on the 23d of June (the first, or 

 supposed first swarm having left on the 8d of 

 June, if I remember right, as I was told a few- 

 days after it was believed they had gone oft") ; 

 and on the ninth day tlie queen was heard piping ; 

 the first swarm they hived being a monstei-, 

 moreover. Now this could not have been the 

 case if the bees had swarmed at the time it was 

 supposed they did, and three weeks afterward 

 swarmed again. There would then have been 

 none but young queens in the hive, which after 

 that ])eriod would not have swarmed at all ; and 

 what is still better proof, the piping was not 

 heard till the ninth day after what I consider 

 was the first swarm, came oft". 



As there exists so much conti'oversy among 

 queen bee raisers — some of whom would have 

 us believe that artificial queens are not as good 

 as natural ones, I will give what exi^erience I 

 have in that line. Though I have not raised 

 queens very extensively, the results ap]iear to 

 me to point in the same direction — that is of 

 non-egglayers, some will not be tolerated v.hen 

 introduced, and some only for a short time. But 

 as I pursued the nucleus system, that is, raising 

 from brood in small boxes, which some style starta- 

 tion system, as I verily believe it is : I have dis- 

 pensed with it, and tried the raising of queens 

 from the cell, removing it just before hatching, 

 in putting it in a nucleus box with about a pint 

 of bees. And I now find every queen so raised, 



