1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



23 



a lamp nursery, and some rubber gloves for the 

 "guid wife," and see what we can do. It seems as 

 if bees must do well in a country where they gather 

 honey from the time maple blossomed until the 

 first of November. There were but three days this 

 summer that bees failed to find honey. We have 

 studied the A B (' until we know it by heart; and 

 long- may the author live and prosper. 

 Fairview, Dak. G. L, Hcbbakd. 



REPORT FROM I'ENNSTLVASIA; ITATilANS AHEAD 

 AFTER ALL. 



Our yield is not very good; yet it ma.\ bo fair, 

 Pennsylvania not being- a noted honey-producing 

 State. We went into winter with 5ti colonies; came 

 out with jtj. We commenced bee-keeping in the 

 spring of 1877, through the inlluence of a sample 

 copy of Glkaninos; nevt-r lost a colony in winter- 

 ing, although the winter of 188(i nearly depopulated 

 a few. The present crop is 2t27 lbs. of salable hon- 

 ey, of which about 30IMJ lbs. is clover, the remainder 

 apple - blossom, locust, poplar, and buckwheat. 

 Number of stocks, til. Our honey is very nearly dis- 

 posed of, at from 16 to ;.'0c per lb. The readers of 

 Glf.anin(!S may remember my expressing my 

 doubts as to the superiority of the Italian over the 

 black bee. The experience of the last several years 

 has decided that question satisfactorily to me, in 

 favor of the Italian. J. H. Johnson. 



Middaghs, Pa , Dec. 10, 1883. 



a good report, and somethi.ng abodt pails. 



I went into winter quarters in the fall of 1883 with 

 23 colonies; came out in the spring of 1883 with 13; 

 mostly weak, and in bad fix from the effects of dys- 

 entery. I increased to 26 colonies, and got 3200 lbs. 

 of honey. About 500 lbs. of it was in lib. sections; 

 the rest was extracted; about i?4 of my crop was 

 fall honey, from buckwheat and goldenrod. It is 

 the best quality of late honey that I have ever raised. 

 My bees appear to be in better fix for winter than 

 ever before. Those 2 and 3 lb. honey-pails you sent 

 me are admired by everybody — especially the large 

 pails. I see the grocerymen sell about 3 of the large 

 raised-cover pails, to one of the 2-lb. Jones pails. I 

 don't want any more of the latter, as I don't think 

 they are neat enough. W. L. Miller. 



Chariton, Iowa, Dec. 7. 1883. 



A QUEER FACT ABOUT BEE-STINGS. 



A grandson got stung last summer near the eye, 

 and could not -have liniment applied (so thought), 

 because so near the eye. It closed the eye several 

 days, and nearly closed the other. In a few weeks 

 after, he was stung on the great toe by a bumble- 

 bee, and in a few hours his eyes were swollen nearly 

 as badly as the previous sting. Perhaps you can ac- 

 count for it. It is rather strange to me. 



Henry Baker. 



Cromwell, Iowa, Dec. 19, 1883. 



Fi-iend B., I have often noticed this queer 

 phenomenon, althougii 1 do not think tnat I 

 have before seen it mentioned. After a bee- 

 sting that has swollen considerably has got 

 nearly well, or so that the one who was stung 

 has perhaps forgotten all about it, another 

 sling on another part of the body will cause 

 the lirst one to swell again, much as it did in 

 the hrst place, 1 ])resiime it is because the 

 poison goes so (luickly all through the body ; 

 and where one part iias been recently suffer- 

 ing from the effects of the poison, a very 

 little more of the same or similar poison ag- 



gravates the disorder. Sometimes a sting 

 on the hands will cause a swelling on the 

 face, or about the eyes. 



how long WILL BEES LIVE IN A HIVE WITHOUT 

 CHANGING THE COMBS ? 



A few years ago I transferred a colony of bees for 

 a friend, putting in the frames some very old and 

 heavy combs. During a visit to them a few days 

 afterward I noticed at the entrance an unusual 

 quantity of debris from the old combs. On examina- 

 tion I found that the bees had torn down the cells on 

 a great deal of comb, and some of them were busy 

 tearing down the remainder, while others were 

 equally busy rebuilding the cells with new wax, us- 

 ing the septum of the old comb for foundation for 

 the new cells. This I think will explain why bees 

 will live 30 to 38 years in the same hive, as mention- 

 ed by Benj. Veach on page 756, Dec. No. 



W. L. MOORES. 



Cyrustou, Lincoln Co., Tenn., Dec. 10, 1883. 



I am aware, friend M., that bees often tear 

 old combs, and scatter the litter on the floor- 

 board of the hives ; and. if I am correct, the 

 young bees especially are addicted to this 

 kind of mischief, when they have nothing 

 else to do — that is. when they get no honey, 

 and brood-rearing is not going on vigorous- 

 ly. I have sometimes thought they tore it 

 down because they were displeased with it, 

 and again 1 have been led to think they did 

 it without any particular end or object in 

 view. 1 infer the latter, because they took 

 this same old black wax and built combs of 

 it again, as soon as honey began to come in 

 so that they needed it. Combs are changed 

 about almost incessantly, and they are tear- 

 ing down and building up a great part of the 

 time. If you wish to see how much of this 

 work is going on, just set a little colony into 

 a clean new hive, and see how much litter 

 you will find on the bottom-board in the 

 course of an hour or two. 



FROM 16 TO 51, AND 3600 LBS. OF HONEY. 



I commenced the season with 6 strong and 10 weak 

 colonies, being reduced the lowest I have been for 

 years; and if I had supplied all that wanted bees, it 

 would have taken twice as many as I had left. I in- 

 creased to 51, all of which went into winter quarters 

 strong, and most of them with a surplus of honey. 

 Five or six are short. I shall commence to feed some 

 time in January. Extracted 3400 lbs., and tooK oflf 

 1300 in 2-lb. sections, making 3600 in all, besides a 

 few partly filled sections. W. H. Balch. 



Oran, N. Y. 



There is a moral in the above, friends, and 

 that is, that even if your bees die out so that 

 you almost have to commence over again, 

 remember that by skillful management your 

 hives may be replenished wonderfully quick. 

 Friend Balch promises to tell us how he did 

 this, in a future communication. 



WARM EIVES WITH LARGE VENTILATORS. 



In December Gleanings, page 7+0, Mr. Hayes 

 says: "What is the use of a warm house, if we 

 leave the door wide open ? " That called to mind 

 what I used to think— "If a farmer has a double- 

 walled, frost-pronf cellar-wall, but by chance leaves 

 the door and ventilator open at a zero freeze, his 

 fruit, etc., will all be ruined." For many years, in 

 winter, while I am In bed, the snow sifts in my face, 



