1886 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



823 



FROM DIFFEHENT FIELDS. 



AN INCUEASE FIIOM 4 TO 26 COLONIES. 



Tip BOUT two years ago I bought two colonies of 

 qflk bees, and bad one left in the spring. I also 

 ^^m bought one of your ABC books and com- 

 ■^^^ raenced to study it. That summer I got a 

 queen and M lb. of bees of you, and let them 

 out in mj' empty hive, with one frame of brood 

 taken out of my other hive. They went to work 

 immediately, and did first rate; so by fall T had Ave 

 colonics, but I got only a little surplus honey. Last 

 spring I had four good strong colonics left, one 

 weak. One died in June. 1 divided them, and made 

 eight colonics of them; then in about two weeks 

 they commenced swarming. Oh my! how they did 

 act! 1 had no hives on hand, and had to make them 

 by hand. You can i-cst assured I was busy. They 

 kept it up until I had :"C colonies before I could 

 stop them. I put three back in the hive they came 

 out of, and tore down the queen-cells, and had two 

 swarms go oil'. When they stopjjed swarming they 

 commenced storing hone.v. 



I had about 500 lbs. of surplus comb honey, and 

 have 26 good strong colonics with plentj- of 

 stores for wintei-. E. R. Fosmire. 



Cromwell, Union Co., Towa. 



CilVING FRESH AIR TO CITRE FOUL BROOD. 



About June 10th 1 bought 7 colonies of bees for 

 $1.00 each. They each had foul brood in them in 

 all stages, from larvic 3 days old to workers nearly 

 ready to hatch. I moved them 9 miles to a new lo- 

 cality, and for 2 weeks the odor from them scented 

 up my whole apiary of 28 colonies. All I did was to 

 go out every night and lift the covers off and pull 

 the cloths from off the fi-ames to give them fresh 

 air. As soon as I commenced uncovering them at 

 night, so the dew could fall on them, they com- 

 menced improving, and now there is not a sign of 

 foul brood among them. Two of them superseded 

 their old queens. The two young queens are e.xtra 

 prolific, and all 7 of them are doing well. 



The honey ci-op in this part of the State is ex- 

 tremely small and poor in quality, there being but 

 little basswood bloom. W. W. Somerford. 



Navasota, Texas, Aug. 15, 1886. 



Friend S., I should be almost inclined to 

 believe that you did not have the real foul 

 brood if you cured them by giving them 

 fresh air only. Perhaps the change of local- 

 ity had something to do with it. If such 

 were ttie case, they may have been gather- 

 ing something in tlieir old locality which 

 brought on and sustained foul brood, and 

 the change removed them from the cause. 

 Or, possibly, as some claim, they got well 

 themselves. 



SWARMING again; AN EXPERIENCE SI.MILAR TO 

 O. F. ROBBINS'. 



I will now make my report for 1886. I com- 

 menced the season with 80 stands, and bought 8 

 more in box hives for *10.00. I increased to 120, 

 but have doubled back to 112. I took 8000 Ujs. of 

 comb and 1000 lbs. of extracted honey. I have 

 sold most of my comb honey at 12^2 to grocers, and 

 15 cts. retail; extracted, 8 and 10 cts. respectively. 



The season here opened splendidly with maple 

 and willow, cottonwood, fruit-bloom, locust, and 

 raspberry. All came in in their turn, so that but 



few of the bees needed stimulating. I have never 

 been able to get the bees to take artificial pollen, 

 probably on account of the abundance of early 

 flowering trees, mai)lc, willow, elm, cottonwood, 

 etc. White clover came on about ten days earlier 

 than usual; and as I was engaged in other business, 

 it found me unprepared fcr it; but having plenty of 

 materials I soon had surplus arrangements on all, 

 and all went nicely till the first of June, when they 

 took the swarming fever. I shaded the hives and 

 tried to give plenty of room, but swarm they 

 would — first swarms, second swarms, and re- 

 swarras, or those that came out after hiving. One 

 hot Sunday there were 14 of them in all. Often 

 two or three would go together. I would generally 

 hive them together, as I had no time to look up 

 queens, and could find but little hel]). Well, if you 

 want to know any more, re-read G. F. Kobbins' 

 "Fun among the Bees" in Gle.\nings of Sept. l.")th. 

 The excessive heat and abundant flow of honey was 

 the cause, I think. The weather turned dry the 

 last of June, and closed the honej' season. Spanish 

 needle, though full of bloom, was an entire failure. 



T have tried Heddon's plan for preventing sec- 

 ond swarms, and have generallj' succeeded. 



Chillicothc, Mo., Sept. 3J, 1S86. Ben A. Rapp. 



THAT CARNIOLAN QUEEN. 



I have seven colonics now. I started with two in 

 the spring. They are all in good condition, and 

 are gathering considerable honey, which I will be- 

 gin to extract in a few days. I have increased 

 two by natural swarming, and three by nuclevis. 



I bought a Carniolan queen (so called, though she 

 resembled a hybrid) last month, and, observing 

 queen-cells in the hive recentlj', I put a drone- 

 trap (Alley's) in the entrance, as I am much away 

 from home. The swarm came out a week ago, 

 and clustered in an apple-tree a few feet away. 



A boy of 15, who had no experience, managed to 

 get them into a hive after much work, and had 

 them to swarm out once or twice. When I got 

 home I gave them some young brood, foundation, 

 etc.; and though puzzled about the drone-trap and 

 queen, I decided they must have a queen or they 

 would not have swarmed. The queen was not in 

 the drone-tra]) nor in the parent colony either, 

 so I gave the hived swarm a couple of queen-cells 

 to see if they had a queen or not, for I could not 

 find her. Tliey accepted the cells, proving, I sup- 

 pose, that the Carniolan queen was lost. 



One cell hatched the day following the swarm, 

 while I was looking at it, and the young queen 

 was received. They swarmed out ag'ain, however, 

 that day; and as it was a big one I his'ed it also, 

 making two colonies of the fli-st swarm. Every 

 thing seems to be going on light now, after a week, 

 both swarms having young queens, one of them 

 now laying. 



A SWAR.M COMING OUT IN THE R.\IN. 



I am quite puzzled how my Carniolan queen 

 could have left the hive with the ti-ap in the en- 

 trance, and in what way she got lost. I can not 

 understand wiiy the first swarm sent out another 

 on the following da3-, and a rainy one at that. 

 They had a clean hive, lots of room, young brood 

 and two cells, yet they came out in the rain at 10 

 o'clock, and hung on the tree until I got home at 

 5:30 p. M., when I easily hived them. 



It seems to me that after-swarms are always 

 liable to issue if you leave a number of cells in 



