26 



GLEANINGS IN i3EE CULTUEE. 



Jak. 



FROM 34 TO 49, AND 1745 LBS. OF HONEY. 



Last frtll we had 32 colonies of bees; lost during 

 the winter; two others were very weak. The past 

 summer they increased to 49 colonies. They gather- 

 ed II gallons extracted honey (which at 11 lbs. per 

 gallon equals 121 lbs.), and 1624 lbs. comb honey in 

 one-lb. sections, making an average of 67 lbs. comb 

 and extracted honey together, gathered by each col- 

 ony, or less than a fourth of what they did last year. 

 We never saw our bees crosser than they were this 

 Slimmer; veils were indispensable. 



Will hees pay in Southern Dahota.' We had the 

 pleasure of meeting your brother at his prairie 

 home near Mitchell, D. T., on the 11th of Nov. I 

 suppose you have had the same pleasure in Ohio ere 

 this. We expect to make Dakota our home after a 

 while, and will be glad to hear that bees do well 

 there. J. S. Wilson. 



Penrose, 111., Dec. 6, 1883. 



My brother asked me the same question, 

 whether we had many honey men in Dakota. 

 For answer I referred him to our subscrip- 

 tion list, where we have perhaps 20 or 30 

 names ; but I believe we have as yet had but 

 few reports from Dakota, and none that I 

 know of particularly encouraging. Who can 

 give us a good honey report from that Ter- 

 ritory V 



FROM 3 TO 7, AND $61.90 PROFIT. 



I commenced the season with one weak colony of 

 blacks and one 3-frame nucleus* bought of E. T. 

 Flanagan, which reached me May 11, and 1 increased 

 it to 4 strong colonies, and it made 25 lbs. comb hon- 

 ey. The black colony increased to 3, but I got no 

 surplus from it, and then I bought one swarm of 

 blacks. I now have 7 good strong colonies, which I 

 value at $75.00, as I could have sold them for that. 

 They cost me, including hives and all, $16.35; and 

 the honey, at 25 cts., $3.25, which gives me a clear 

 gain of $61.90, which is quite a contrast with some 

 old box-hive men who live ia my neighborhood, who 

 got no honey and very little increase. 



Stoner's, Pa., Dec. 8, 1883. P. D. Miller. 



DO TOMTITS EAT HEESV 



There has been a long controversy in our local 

 newspapers about tomtits eating bees, so I sent 

 them an extract from my Bee-book, which conclu- 

 sively settled the dispute. 



" Nov. 30, 1873, I saw on one of my bee-benches a 

 number of wings, legs, stings, and outside scales of 

 the bodies of bees. I soon said, 'The tomtit (Pcoils 

 cccndeus) hai been busy here.' I had not noticed or 

 seen it before that year. But about 4 o'clock I saw 

 three tomtits eating my bees. One of them 1 watch- 

 ed, and saw him tly down on to the alighling;-board 

 of one of my hives. He began tapping it with his 

 bill. Shortly a bee came out to see who was there, 

 and was immediately snapped up by the tomtit, 

 which Hew with it into an apple-tree near the hive. 

 He then beat the bee against the bough of the tree 

 on which he stood, until it was killed. Thca the 

 tomtit with his right font and beak pulled the bee's 

 wings, legs, sting, and head off, letting the rejected 

 parts fall to the ground, and it then ate the dainty 

 parts of the bee. The tomtit was soon down on the 

 alighting-board again — tap, tap, tap — and another 

 bee came out to see who was there. Then the same 

 process was repeated. I saw him take tlve bees in 

 this way in seven minutes, when I could stand it no 

 longer. So I frightened the tomtit away, as I whs 

 afraid he might have the nightmare by eating such 

 an enormous supper. The tomtits were eating my 

 bees again before ten o'clock next morning. So I 

 brought out my gun, and shot three of them: and on 

 opening their craws I found them nearly filled with 

 bees — one head, antenniE, and tongue complete. 

 This bird must have been very hungry, as they gen- 

 erally reject the bead. I found no wings, legs, nor 



stings in the craws. It grieved me very much to 

 have to kill these useful, beautiful, and interesting 

 birds, but it required the patience of Job to see my 

 pets (the bees) so mercilessly destroyed." 



Your experienced correspondent, " G. D.," is quite 

 correct. The tomtit does little harm in summer, 

 there being at that time such an abundance of insect 

 food, which he prefers. It is only when Its natural 

 food fails that it attacks the bee-hives. 



William Carr. 



Newton-Heath Apiary, near Manchester, Eng., 

 Dec, 1883. 



Many thanks, friend C, fm- the positive 

 facts you give us in the matter. I am glad 

 to hear you put in that concluding clause, that 

 it is not likely the tomtits would molest the 

 bees, unless driven to it. Charity toward the 

 feathered tribes would be a pretty good fail- 

 ing if we are to err either way. 



caging yUEEN-CELLS OVER A STRONG COLONY, ETC. 



In destroying queen-cells, I often want to save a 

 few for my own use, and yet not enough to bother 

 with a lamp-nursery; therefore what would be the 

 greatest objections to the following plan for rearing 

 a few queens'/ Make a shallow box, say two or 

 three inches deep, with a wire - screen bottom, 

 and a quilt or lid on top; put the cells ia this, and 

 put it over a strong colony, so that the heat would 

 go up in the box, but the screen woull keep the 

 1iees down. Please describe the looks of cells that 

 you think contain the best queens. 



Nashville, Mo. John Umhols. 



Youv plan is a very old one, friend U., as 

 you will notice by looking through our back 

 volumes. It works tiptop during settled 

 warm weather ; but when it comes cool 

 nights, you have to have a very strong colo- 

 ny in a good close chaff hive, or many of 

 your cells will get chilled.— I confess myself 

 unable to tell by the looks of the queen-cell 

 what the queen will be ; but this I should 

 want to be sia'e of, that the cells were built 

 in a colony that had plenty of bees, and plen- 

 ty of honey and pollen, and also that the 

 cells were built while stores were coming in 

 rapidly every day. 



DAKOTA FOR BEE-KEEPING; INFORMATION AV ANTED. 



On page 756, Dec, 1883, you speak of your brother, 

 from Mitchell, Dakota, being on a visit to you. Very 

 likely you questioned him in regard to the climate 

 of Dakota being too severe to keep bees, whether 

 there were any wild flowers and honey-producing 

 plants and shrubs growing on the banks of streams 

 and lakes, etc. Will you kindly make public, in your 

 journal, whatever you may have gleaned from him 

 or any other source, on that subject? Being desir- 

 ous of going to Dakota to make a home, but not un- 

 less we can have the pleasure of keeping bees, an 

 early article on this subject will greatly oblige the 

 writer, and, I think, a great many other people. 



Omer, Mich., Dec. 13, 1^8-. ARC Schot.ar. 



Friend S.. I did question my brother quite 

 a little; and I should infer "from what he 

 says, that Dakota might rank well with 

 other States, although perhaps not quite 

 equal to Michigan, York .State, and some 

 others. If I am correct, they have no clover 

 in his vicinity around Mitchell. We have 

 fifteen or twenty subscribers in Dakota, 

 whose names we can give you, if you car© 

 tor tbena. 



