152 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. ]5. 



conditions being equal, bees will winter better 

 on old combs than on new. This I have found 

 to be universally true. 



BEES AFFECTED BY MOISTURE. 



Question.— Does moisture affect bees winter- 

 ed on sugar-syrup stores in the same way it 

 does those wintering on honey? 



Ansiver. — That depends altogether upon 

 where the moisture is— whether a damp outside 

 air, damp cellar, or moisture in the hives. From 

 the past few winters' experience, I think that 

 bees winter best in a moist — yes, almost wet — 

 atmosphere, and I do not think that a foggy 

 misty winter has any deleterious effect on colo- 

 nies wintered on their summer stands. The mois- 

 ture which has accumulated up to the present 

 time in my bee-cellar stands in drops and runs 

 down the stone flagging overhead, to an extent 

 sufficient to form little pools in the depressions 

 on top of the side walls of the bee- cellar, and 

 yet the bees appear to be wintering perfectly. 

 It is so damp inside, that, should this winter 

 prove as usual, mold will soon begin to form in 

 different places; and by the time the bees are 

 set out in the spring, some of these patches of 

 mold will be as large as, and stand out like, the 

 crown of a hat; still the bees have wintered 

 well in this cellar, with the exception of the 

 year I kept the oil-stove in there. 



Inside the hives, the combs, bees, and all, 

 seem to be as dry as when set in the cellar; but 

 were dampness to collect on the combs and walls 

 of the hives, about the bees, or run down on 

 them, I should then have fears of injury. As 

 to the stores, I believe that sugar syrup does not 

 attract moisture as does honey. Honey seems 

 very susceptible of moisture — in fact, more so 

 than any other liquid with which I am ac- 

 quainted. 



Our host said that he had the large yellow 

 bee of the South. I was all attention and curi- 

 osity at once. I went to the hives and watched 

 the bees carrying in pale-yellow pollen. I 

 caught a bee and examined it through a mag- 

 nifying-glass, and could see no difference in 

 any way from the common brown or German 

 bee. I told my host so, and he said they were 

 called the large yellow bee of the South. They 

 had a small black shiny bee that was very 

 spiteful. 



Peen-to peach-trees have been blooming since 

 October. A friend gave me to-day a peach 

 larger than a pea, and the bees were working 

 upon bloom at the same time. It is surprising 

 how long bloom lasts in this climate. A cluster 

 of .bloom on a scarlet geranium has not appar- 

 ently changed one particle. It is blooming out 

 of doors. Mrs. L. Harrison. 



St. Andrew's Bay, Fla.y'Feb. 1. 



SOME interesting FACTS FROM MRS. HAR- 

 RISON. 



While en route for my winter home at St. 

 Andrew's Bay, Florida, the sailing vessel in 

 which I was a passenger was becalmed in San- 

 ta Rosa Sound. My traveling companion and 

 myself went on shore, and were hospitably en- 

 tertained by a bee-keeper residing there. It 

 was the lllh and 12th of January, and bees 

 were busy working upon mulberry and peach 

 bloom. There were about 40 colonies of bees. 

 In tall box hives, from 10 to 12 inches in diam- 

 ameter. Our host pi'eferred them from 12 to 1.5 

 inches, but he was not always able to get boards 

 of that widt.h. About ?>() swarms the past sum- 

 mer were allowed to go to the woods. As there 

 was no market for honey, his neighbors brought 

 their pails, and honey was cut out of the tops 

 of the hives and given to them. 



V36 "PagesT'xIO 

 '1°° PERYEARj 



Thou hast been faltht'ul over a few things, I will make thee 

 ruler over many thinys.- Matt. 25:21. 



The election of officers of the Bee-keepers' 

 Union shows that they were all re-elected. It is 

 well. This makes again R. L. Taylor, Presi- 

 dent; G. M. Doolittle, First Vice-president; 

 Thos. G. Newman, General Manager. 



"Every thing is chuck full " — so says Barney, 

 the boss printer. We have been obliged, in con- 

 sequence, to leave out two or three of our regu- 

 lar departments; and this in spite of the fact 

 that this journal numbers ,53 pages. We even 

 had to squeeze to get this in. 



Mr. Newman, editor of the Illustrated Home 

 Journal, has this to say regarding the recent 

 improvements made in this journal for the cur- 

 rent year: 



Bro. Root has made a s"reat improvement in 

 Gleanings for 1894 by "leading " tlie matter, mak- 

 ing it much more pleasurable to read. 



In the Review for February is an excellent 

 article by R. L. Taylor, on "Foul Brood: its 

 Cause, Detection, and Cure." After having 

 read it over carefully we do not hesitate to in- 

 dorse every line of it. It is surprising how 

 closely it agrees with the statements we made 

 on page 539 last year, respecting this disease, 

 and yet Mr. Taylor's conclusions were reached 

 over a different route. We feel now more than' 

 ever, as touching this disease, that what we 

 know we TcnoM'. 



The report of the proceedings of the N. A. B. 

 K. A., 24ih annual convention, held at Chicago, 

 is at hand. It is gotten up in fine style, and is 

 profusely illustrated with portraits of the au- 



