THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL AND GAZETTE. 



147 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Washington, Pa., Dec. 29, 1866. 

 Dear Bee Journal : 



I began bee-keeping with one good stock of 

 bees; came in possession of my second when 

 taking possession of n\y country residence at 

 West-End on the first day of April, 1865; ob- 

 tained in March, 1866, of a neighbor, on shares, 

 four stocks, (one of wliicli at the time was 

 dying with a superabundance of bee-bread and 

 mice-nests,) and now I have twenty stocks in 

 all, and all in good condition, none of which 

 cost me anything, and, in this, they say, con- 

 sists " tJie luck.'''' 



Here is my mode of operation : 



The stock I began with in 1864 was very 

 heavy in the spring of 1865, and, in accordance 

 with woman's '■'■ aboriginal instincts,'''' Mamma 

 must have some honey, to give, as Mr. Lorenz 

 has it, "the children some honey-bread this 

 morning." Accordingly the bee-man was sum- 

 moned to produce this longed-for treasure, and 

 the more the bee-man produced, the more 

 Mamma and the children were delighted. The 

 bee-man even was delighted with his labor, and 

 approvingly quoting Mr. Quinby, was "in favor 

 of performing the whole operational once," and 

 at once did it. 



Of the stock of bees which were left on the 

 premises by its former owner, as not worth 

 moving, the bee-man said : " They must surely 

 die, for why, you see, they haven't as much 

 enough as the others have had too much of it, 

 and so, you see, the black combs stay better in 

 there, to help 'em fill up the skep." This 

 moralizing was beyond ni}^ comprehension, and 

 so I nodded assent to its profundity. The bee- 

 man departed, and so did the honey from my 

 poor bees; and what could I do, now, to save 

 them ? Listen, gentle reader, to what you have 

 never heard before. 



There stood beneath the cellar-stairs the rem- 

 Qants of a barrel of sorgho molasses, and, as 

 " necessity is the mother of invention," every 

 time Mamma gave the children some "honey- 

 bread," Papa helped his pets with a jug of 

 Uasscs, and by the time the former were out of 

 honey, my bees were in condition again "to 

 shift for themselves," 



'^lorsd—Esta fabula manifesta. 



1st. That ^n 1865 the Avriter knew nothing 

 about bees. 



2d. That bees ought not to be pruned in 

 spring. 



3d. That bees can be fed on sorgho molasses; 

 and 



4th. That it is not recommended to feed them 

 on sorgho molasses. 



So much for my bees in 1865, with this ad- 

 dition, that from the 5th of May till the blossom- 

 ing of white clover in June, I fed to them the 

 sorgho molasses, at the rate of a tea-cup full 

 each, daily, and that they did neither swarm 

 nor store any surplus, but were in excellent con- 

 dition to winter. 



This year (1866) I endeavored to manage 

 better. ' Last winter, namely, I procured Rev. 

 L. L. Langstroth's excellent treatise on "The 



Hive and Honey-Bee." I read and re-read the 

 book with much interest and satisfaction, es- 

 pecially those pans treating of artificial swarm- 

 ing, the rearing of queens, and the Italian bee. 

 Early in the year one of my neighbors offered 

 to me his bees on shares. I agreed to the pro- 

 position, provided, however, tliat he furnish me 

 with an Italian queen from the apiary of L. L. 

 Laugstroth &, Son. The queen was ordered. 

 All the stocks were meanwhile snugly trans- 

 ferred into frames, and liberally fed with sugar 

 syrup, (equal quantities of soft water and white 

 sugar boiled to a syropy consistency,) increas- 

 ing the dose from a gill to a half pint, to a pint; 

 from a pint, diminisliiug to a half pint, and to 

 a gill again, till June. 



The Italian queen arrived, was introduced se- 

 cundum artem, but was killed a few days later, 

 and so I had to wait till August for another pure 

 queen, from which I raised six hybrids, all of 

 which I introduced safely to as many artificial 

 swarms, made in June. During the month of 

 June and early part of July, whenever a hive 

 Avas full of comb and bees, I divided it, giving 

 it either a queen-cell or a laying black queen; 

 and early in August I had fifteen stocks of bees, all 

 furnished with full combs and plenty of workers. 

 Towards the end of July, when pasturage began 

 to fail, I helped them to white sugar, as above, 

 only in smaller doses. 



My neighbors now began to become very un- 

 easy. Their bees, which did not swarm, hung 

 in heavy clusters beneath their alighting-boards, 

 and fearing there would be too many bees to win- 

 ter on the honey stored by them, came from all 

 directions, entreating me to take them all away 

 from the outside, lest they go in again. I, of 

 course, helped myself to three more good 

 swarms by shaking three or four such outside 

 clusters upon a sheet, before a hive together, 

 giving them two combs of honey for a dowry, 

 and a young queen to keep them company. 

 These collected swarms I placed in a field of 

 buckwheat, and, subsequently, fattened them 

 up to the desired standard as an experiment in, 

 wintering bees on sorghom. 



And there was yet another chance left me to 

 obtain two more strong swarms to complete the 

 score, to wit : 



The time came when those condemned after- 

 swarms were to be " taken up." One man had 

 five of them, at fifty cents each, and another had 

 three, all for one dollar. I took them home, 

 cut out their combs, fastened them with wire 

 and wire-thread into frames, shook out the bees, 

 hunted out all the young queens, except two, 

 one of which I left to every four swarms put 

 together into one hive, adding a frame or two 

 of honey from a well-provided hive, and fed 

 these also. The young queens thus obtained I 

 exchanged with those I knew were older, and 

 this operation was the last of the series during 

 the year, with the exception of ascertaining that 

 each hive had a fertile queen, before placing 

 them into a well-darkened, dry, and airy cellar, 

 over winter. 



Having thus increased my apiary from five 

 swarms to twenty, I shall be thankful if nine- 

 teen of them survive. But whether those I 

 dosed with sorgho molasses will do so or not, 



