1886 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUilE. 



451 



the upper stoi-y, and they comiiicnccd next day to 

 store in those next to the brood. Now they are all 

 six at it. 



I have seen so nmeh about ci'oss liybrids, that 

 from tlie first 1 anticipated much trouble witli 

 them. I have never had a cross colony. I do not 

 know why; but I often go through a hive, lifting 

 out every frame, and never use a smoker. Some- 

 times they show a little disposition to flght; but a 

 pulf or so of smoke subdues them. 1 have never 

 owned a cross colony, fan you tell why? You 

 said, some lime back, that in the fall, when honey 

 was scarce, tlicy would fight fearfully. Last fall 1 

 had to examine them to Hud out if thc.\' had enougli 

 to winter on. I took from s«)mc and supi>lied oth- 

 ers, and thej- were as quiet as at any other time. 

 Once mj' little boj' set a frame ofuiisealod lioney 

 down that I had given him to take into the house, 

 and they commenced to rob; but I closed every en- 

 trance so as to admit only about one bee at a time, 

 and next day things were as quiet as usual. 



Jehu G. Postell. 



Orangeburg, Orangelairg Co., S. C, May 7, US'j. 



I am inclined to tliink, friend P., that you 

 may not always be a.s successi'td as you li;tve 

 been in having gentle bees, altlioiigli very 

 much depends on the way b?es are handled. 

 If you do not get hold of a colony pretty 

 soon that takes the conceit out of you, then 

 I shall l)e somewhat mistaken, especially if 

 yoti run your numbers up into the forties 

 and fifties. 



SOMETHING FKOM OUK GOOD FKIEND 

 CYULA LINSWIK. 



now IlEll ItEES WINTEUED THIS YEAK. 



u 



f(3R he on honey-dew hath fed. 

 And drunk the milk of Paradise." 

 These lines from Coleridge, slightly 

 changed, as thus— 

 Since the.y on honey-dew have fed, 

 Thej' sij) tlie sweets of Paradise, 

 We have chosen as an appropriate and suggestive 

 epitaph for eighteen colonies of Italian bees now 

 sporting in the Elyslan fields. They died during 

 the past winter and spring; each snugly packed in 

 chaff on its summer stand. Forty-four colonies re- 

 main to us. A largo majority of these are good; 

 the remainder considerably below the average 

 standard for this locality at this date, May 10. 



Intimations in late numbers of Gle.^kings, that 

 the wintering problem is growing unseasonable, for- 

 bid my telling the story in detail, impossible as it 

 might be to refrain from adding thereto inference, 

 speculation, and opinion. But we have received, in 

 days past, too much credit for our success with 

 outdoor wintering— shall I say our good fortune, 

 rather ?— to a^'oid this lirief public confession of 

 failure. 



We doubt not that the friends with whom we oft 

 have mourned will rejoice to sympathize with us. 

 Nor will any one of them, surely, l)c cruel enough 

 to say, "I told you so I " Cyul.v Linswik. 



Very likely the honey- dew which the poets 

 wrote about in olden time was different 

 from the kind we have nowad;iys, friend 

 Cyula; or perhaps they didu't have any 

 honey-dew at all, and talked about some- 

 thing nobody knew any thing about, as we 

 sometimes do, even in this latter age. — 

 Now, I am not glad that you and yoar sister 



have had a little experience in winter losses, 

 but I am glad that you come out so prompt- 

 ly ami own up. 1 have sometimes been 

 forced to conclude that it was more good 

 fortune than good management; but you 

 see you did not feed them on sugar syr- 

 up. May be, now, you will be more ready 

 to agree with friend Ileddon and myself.— 

 It is true we have beeji obliged to pass by a 

 good many reports in regard to wintering ; 

 but we have never felt like passing l)y any 

 thing from you or yom- sister, therefore we 

 want you to remember that there are exce])- 

 tions to this rule as well as to almost all 

 rules ; and when you feel jnrmqjtcd to write 

 any thing, don't repress the incUnation, but 

 let us have it. 



A STBANGE FACT IN REGARD TO 

 QUEEN-BEES. 



A FACT THAT IS ALSO OF CONSIDErtABLE IMPOK- 

 TANCE. 



} WONDER if others have queens faint away 

 and come to again, as some of ours have done. 

 Last summer, in looking for a queen we could 

 notfind her in the hive; but when about clos- 

 ing up I saw her lying quietly on the alighting- 

 board, where some of the combs had been set. I 

 picked her up in my hand, and she appeared dead — 

 no life at all. My first thought was of tossing her 

 awaj-; but the next thought was to drop her in 

 the hive among the bees. I did so, and in a week I 

 examined the hive and she was laying all right, but 

 showed signs of a little weakness. She was a young- 

 queen, fertile only ten days or so, but she has not 

 kept her hive so well filled with brood as some oth- 

 ers, and now she is but one year old. I think I shall 

 give the colony a more vigorous queen. 



About five years ago, on looking through a hive 

 lor a queen I could not find her. I looked on the 

 bottom-board, and there she was, apparently dead. 

 I took her up in my hand; and as I wanted to save 

 a dead queen to show to visitors, I told the attend- 

 ant to lay her on a big box a rod away, until I went 

 into tiie house. What was mj* astonishment, when, 

 on going for my dead (jueen, to find her surround- 

 ed with two or three dozen of her own bees (I sup- 

 pose), all doing homage to her, their heads mostly 

 all turned toward her, and caressing her with their 

 antenme. I put her back in the hive and she was, 

 to all appcai'ance, a well queen for a year or more. 



Again, in swai-ming time my wife caught a queen 

 in a cage with a few bees, and laid them in the sun, 

 intending to take care of her soon, but forgot her 

 for two hours or so; when found she was apparent- 

 ly dead. I placed her in a hive, and she revived 

 and lived to do good service. 



One fall, after uniting several nuclei, we forgot a 

 queen and a few bees we had hunted out and did 

 not care to save, but disliked to kill her, sq we put 

 her in a cage and laid it on the ground, intending 

 to put her on top of brood-frames in some colony, 

 thinking possibly wc might find a hive queenless. 

 She layout all that night; we had a hard white 

 frost, and next morning I found that she and all 

 the bees would shake round in the cage a< if dead. 

 I put tl'.e cage on top of a colony of bees for a day 

 or so, and on going to it all were as liveli', apparent- 

 ly, as if nothing had happened. 



0;u' bees have wintered very finely indeed; those 



