1886 



GLEANINGS IN 13EE CULTUtlE. 



&r>1 



fruit, etc., in the cellar; and, worst of all, about 100 

 rats, tuore or less, took up their abode in the cellar. 

 But I soon fixed them with poison. 



You ask if I advocate tliis kind of cellar for bees. 

 No: I have a model bee-ca\'e in construction (men- 

 tally) with circular cement brick for arching- over- 

 head, and with tile sub-earth ventilators, etc.; and 

 so confident do I feel of successful wintering-, pro- 

 vided they have feed late, and have g-ood stores, 

 that ] would not wish to give any great sum to have 

 them insured to winter over. D. E. Brubakejb. 



Maxwell, Story Co., la., Apr. 9, 1880. 



Friend B., although you wintered your 

 bees safely that were moved during a low 

 temperature, I do not think it would be safe 

 to say that we can do it as a rule. In our 

 back volumes, several cases have been noted 

 wliere bees undisturbed wintered nicely, 

 while those moved in the middle of the win- 

 ter, in much the same way you moved yours, 

 all died with the dysentery, showing conclu- 

 sively, it would seem, that disturbance was 

 the cause of the mortality. There is some- 

 thing very complex and perplexing in this 

 whole matter of wintering bees, and the re- 

 sults of the experiments are so very con- 

 flicting that it is a very difficult matter in- 

 deed to decide j)o,s-i7uT?(/ on any thing. 



ANAB C SCHOLAR'S SUCCESS. 



WINTERING WITH PROTECTED, CONTRASTED WITH 

 UNPROTECTED HIVES. 



TN the fall of 188-t, Frank S. Ledyard, who has 

 Ijf been one of your patrons, sold off all his bees 

 ^[ at a public sale. As we had been without bees 

 '*" for several years, I concluded to purchase one 

 colony and try my hand as a bee-man. I there- 

 fore bought his best swarm, which were pure Ital- 

 ians, paying him $7.00 for it. Father also bought a 

 weaker swarm for f ^.{X). M r. L. also had a very weak 

 colony which he did not sell. I got him to put our 

 three colonies into winter quarters, which he did by 

 placing a rough box around each hive, leaving a 

 space of about six inches, to be filled with dry plan- 

 er-shavings. An empty hive was also placed upon 

 the lower story, which was also nearly filled with 

 shavings. After placing the lid on top, and a i-nof 

 over all, they were ready for the winter. Now, 

 everybody who knows any thing about bees, and the 

 winter of 1884-'.5, knows that it was a " stunner" for 

 bees. This section of country never had such a 

 mortality in the apiaries. One of my nearest neigh- 

 bors, Mr. R. B. Bobbins, who has also been one of 

 your contributors and patrons, lost his entire stock, 

 and he claimed to have a hardy strain of bees. 

 Well, when spi-ing came, father discovered that his 

 swarm must be interred in the same graveyard as 

 the hardy strain, while Mr. L.'s and mine i-emained 

 to gather the hone3'. 



About this time I received a copy of the ABC 

 book, and began reading it carefully. My swarm 

 came out very strong and bright in the spring. On 

 the fourth of June I took out one card of brood and 

 formed a nucleus for father, and made two starters 

 of the remainder, each having four cards of brood 

 and comb. I added empty combs to each as was 

 needed, until each was full again. The one that had 

 the queen, built up very fast, while the other was 

 more backward. I soon discovered that they were 

 rearing queens, and in a short time had 17 cells 



nicely capped. Just before they hatched out I re- 

 moved all but one or two, and placed some in wire 

 cages on top of the frames to hatch out, which they 

 did very nicely, and were fed by the bees from be- 

 low. In about two weeks from the time I divided 

 the swarm, I took two cards of brood from the 

 colony having the queen, adding several emptj- 

 combs, and placed them in a hive where the old 

 colony stood, moving the former a little to one side. 

 I also gave them a virgin queen. It was surprising 

 to see how fast the young- colony built up. The old 

 hive was nearly destitute of its workers for a few 

 daj's, while the young- hive was just booming. In 

 five days they threw out a swarm which returned; 

 the next day they did the same thing. I couldn't 

 think what was the matter. When they came out 

 the third time my brother hived them and gave 

 them one of my caged virgin queens, which they at 

 once accepted and settled down to business. I aft- 

 erward concluded that the reason they persisted so 

 in swarming was because they were too much 

 crowded, as I had placed division-boards in the 

 hive, having only five combs. Do you think I was 

 right ? 



The nucleus that I formed for father rapidly be- 

 came a strong colony, and in the latter part of July 

 I took several cards of brood from it and formed 

 another for him, which made rather slow progress 

 during the season. 



The season for honey in this locality was just 

 moderate. The white clover honey was only a 

 medium yield, but a very fine quality. The bass- 

 wood was unusually full of bloom. I heard men of 

 experience say that the flow at no time was very 

 heavy, but the bloom continued much longer than 

 usual, so that an average yield was received. My 

 bees obtained quite a supply from the buckwheat, 

 but the greater part was obtained from the white- 

 clover and basswood. 



Last fall I went into winter quarters with si.\ col- 

 onies of my own, father having two. I packed them 

 the same as the previous winter. Besides giving 

 them all plenty of honey for winter stores, I ob- 

 tained about 30 lbs. of comb, and 50 lbs. of ex- 

 tracted honey, which commanded a price of 10 and 

 15 cents per lb. M. B. Fimon. 



Bloomdale, Ohio. 



cor:eopsis honey. 



THE FLORA OF FARINA, ILL. 



f 5^ HERE are some peculiarities respecting the 

 §)'' honey resources in this locality that might 

 i interest the readers of Gleanings. I have 

 been keeping bees for the past 16 years in 

 this place, and have yet to see the first pound 

 of surplus honey gathered from clover or basswood 

 in this locality. Until the summer of 1882, I usually 

 had to feed my bees in June to prevent their starv- 

 ing. By the first week in July they would usually 

 become self-supporting, getting- honey enough to 

 live on, from plants of the mint family principally. 

 After the great drought of 1881, which killed out 

 much of the grass in road-sides and pastures white 

 clover (which had not been hindered from perfect- 

 ing its seed) came in quite strong, but yet not 

 enough for any surplus, nor enough to induce 

 much swarming. Near the timber, bees get plum 

 and crabapple and other forest bloom, and build up 

 strong earlier than on the prairie. But thai is not 

 very important, unless one wishes to sell bees by 



