1886 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



remember, there is not a word said about the ago 

 of these bees. Friend Doolittle says, in his com- 

 ments on the ABC book, in speaking- of the win- 

 tering- of bees: "Why not feed the whole 3J Its. in 

 one or two nights, if they have plenty of comb 

 room and plenty of hrnod and u<nmo 'x'cs!'" Friend 

 D. hit the nail on the head that time, but he did not 

 hit hard enough. If friend K<iot had said, "A 

 brood-apartment closely ]iacked with young bees, 

 and plenty of good seak'(l stores," then he would 

 have hit the nail fairly and squarely on the head, 

 but he left out the one essential woid. 



Now, I do not pretend to understand I ee-kecping 

 as well as some bee keepers do, neither do I wisli to 

 find fault witli my teachers; yet there is one of my 

 teachers called Experience who charged me at 

 least $300 for her trouble; yet I suppose her teacli- 

 ing is the cheapest, after all. What I am trying to 

 get at is this: In many localities, on account of 

 drouglit or grasshoppers, t ho bees do not gather 

 anj' honey after the first of August; conse(iuently 

 the queen soon stops hiding, and at the beginning 

 of winter there may be a hive full of bees; but 

 they are old, and their span of life is nearly run. 

 Some of them, probably tlio larger portion of them, 

 will live through the winter; but, mark my words, 

 they will dwindle to nothing in the spring. In or- 

 der to show the point clearly, I will give you my 

 experience with si.v colonies during the past win- 

 ter. I have chosen this num^er ior the reason that 

 they were apparently goo J strong colonies on the 

 first of September, cnch one having a good queen 

 as near like the other as two peas. 



For convenience we will number them 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 

 and 6. About Sept. 1st I began feeding Nos. 1, 3, 

 and 3, about one pint of granulated sugar syrup to 

 each colony every night, and kept it up for about 

 three weeks. After feeding a few days, the queens 

 began laying; the old bees went to work gathering 

 pollen (of which there was an abundance); and 

 when winter came these old bees were mostly woi-n 

 out and gone; but I had three hives full of ymnig 

 and healthy bees that were able to and did stand 

 the rigors of winter; and when spring catne there 

 was hardly a dead bee in the hives. Of these three 

 colonies, Nos. 1 and 3 were well protected. No. 3 

 was in a single-walled hive with chaff cushion in 

 the upper story, yet I could see very little dilfer- 

 ence in the wintering of the three colonies. N( s. 4 

 and 5 were prepared just like Nos. 1 and 3, with the 

 exception of the feeding; No. 4 was protected, 

 while No. 5 had no protection whatever. Tliese 

 two colonies lived until spring, when they com- 

 menced to dwindle— the one that was protected dy- 

 ing first, yet they left in each hive at least 30 lbs. of 

 beautiful thick honey. 



No. 6 was in one of A.I. Root's chalf hives; and 

 in fouu weeks' time, beginning about Sept. 15, they 

 were hauled a distance of 130 miles, attending the 

 fairs; and during 8 days of that time they had all 

 the work they wanted to do; and as they had done 

 nothing for six weeks past, they worked with a will ; 

 the queen laid with a will, and they came Ihi-ough 

 the winter with a will to go to work again. This 

 colony was the only one that showed any signs of 

 dysentery, caused, 1 think, by the honey they gath- 

 ered at the fairs. 



Now, friends, do you see the point that I am try- 

 ing to show you? With us last season, the grass- 

 hoppers were so thick after the middle of July that 

 they nipped every bud and blossom as st)on as it 



appeared, so there was no honey for them to gath- 

 er at any time in the fall; and, no difference how 

 much honey the bees had on hand, the queens 

 stopped laying soon after the honey stopp[>d com- 

 ing in. 



You see, from what 1 have said about these sii 

 colonies, that protection seemed of little account, 

 and you might think that I do not recommend it. 

 It will certainli' pay to protect the bees well, iffoi- 

 no other reason than that the piotected ones will 

 not consume as nuich honey as the ones that are 

 not protected. Sometimes we see that neiifly all 

 the colonies in a lai-ge apiary will dwindle to noth- 

 ing in the spring, and yet there will be from one td 

 a dcizen that will come through good and strong. 

 What is the cause if it? Hero is my reason; and 

 if you have a I etter one I should like to hear it: 

 There is in i'\'ery apiary a cci-tain numler of colo- 

 nics that nnike a business of bringing in a little 

 honey every day, and they get it either by robbing 

 or by some hciok or crook; the queen keeps on laj'- 

 ing, and they generally wintc r \\e!l too. 



The Dend. O., Sept. 1, 1880. F. W. Mo.vts. 



I want to tliaiik yon, fi-ieu(_l M.,foryoiu' 

 concluding reniaik ; iiiid it is sometliins" I 

 have often tlioit^iit of; namely, that certain 

 colonies in almost every ai)ijiry ai-e to be 

 found tiiat always getalitlle honey, even 

 during the most severe droughts. Tliey are 

 like some business men who manage, by 

 hook or by crook, to take in a little money 

 every d;iy ; tiiat is, they will accomplish 

 something e;ich diiy, when tlie great multi- 

 tudes around tiiein seem ti> settle down to 

 the coiu-iusion that every thing is;ita stnnd- 

 Siill ; and I believe as yc u sav, thiit colonies 

 with extia eneigy geiieially winter well. 

 Several ye;ir-! ;igo there w:is so much tiilk of 

 gettijig tiie bees to rear lirood just bel'ure 

 winter set in, so as to liav.^ plenty of yoitiig 

 bees for wintering, that a good deal <>f at:- 

 tention wiis turned toward this one point. 

 Finally, however, seve]-;il of our velertins 

 gave insliinces of where bees wintered well 

 when they were qurenless during the fall 

 months, aiid we had one such result. Now, 

 suppose yon iibsolutely prevent all brood- 

 rearing, Siiy iif ler Sept. 1 ; have a fnir quiin- 

 tity of bees, and make all conditions light, 

 are you sure they would not winter as well 

 as those that reared brood during Septem- 

 ber and October? May be you are right ; but 

 we have all of us almost iiished to conclu- 

 sions when a little more time seemed to 

 show the solution of the great problem was 

 not exactly there after all. 



DOOLITTLE S REPORT. 



A GOOD WCUID FOU THE MAMMOTH RED CLOVER 

 AS A H()NEY-PL.\NT. 



HOBABLY in no year within the last quarter 



fof ft century have we had so peculiar a sea- 

 son for honey pi-oduction in this locality as 

 has been the one just passed. I never have 

 realized so fully as T do now, that success- 

 ful beekeeping is wholly dependent upon the 

 weather; for if the weather is unpropitious during 

 a honey-liow, all our etforts in preparing for that 

 How count for naught. Take it as a whole, we 

 have had cold, cloudy, lainy weather jimt when the 

 bees needed pleasant weather, and pleasant 



