118 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Feb. 



as it disappears behind the building, runs 

 into a larse warehouse for storing lumber, 

 seeds, and goods of all kinds. I used to 

 have a pretty garden on one side of this rail- 

 road track, but now, alas : it is all covered 

 up with pine and basswood lumber, and the 

 garden will have to go over to the right of 

 the factory, where our new house stands. 

 Don't you think it is a rather pleasant place 

 to live ':* I am inclined to think a good many 

 think that way, for applications for places 

 from both boys and girls are now beyond 

 any thing heretofore known. It seems to me 

 as if everybody wanted to work here. May 

 be they wouldn't like it so well, though, aft- 

 er all, "for some seem to think I am awful 

 strict. May be they will think just as much 

 of me for all that, however. There, if there 

 is any thing I have not told you, write, and I 

 will tell you something more. 



In regard to applications for employment. 

 Letters are coming every day, wanting a 

 place with us ; and the book-keeper just now 

 tells me that bd are booked already ; there- 

 fore it would be of little use to book any 

 more, for we shall not, in all probability, get 

 through with the st> for the year to come. 

 1 am inclined to think there is plenty to do 

 at home, friends, if there is only a mind to 

 do it ; and if there is not, you surely 

 wouldn't like it here. 



SHALL we: BUV BEES, OR BU¥ SUGAR 

 AND "MAKE " BEES ? 



SOME INTERESTING QUESTIONS TO THOSE BUILDING 

 UP AN API.\Ry. 



eAN I take two-frame nuclei this spring, g-ive 

 them laying queens, and with the aid of part. 

 ly di-awn combs and full sheets of fdn. (no 

 brood from other colonies) as needed, and stimu- 

 lative feeding, build them up into strong colonies by 

 the time white clover comes in bloom, so as to get a 

 honey crop this year ? 



now early should I begin ? 



How warm must the weather be to begin feeding 

 for this purpose ? 



Would a chaff hive in a house be an advantage over 

 the same outdoors ? 



AVould a frame half the length of a Simplicity 

 frame, T?ith the same depth, be a decided advantage 

 over full-size S. frame ? I could eventually transfer 

 two into one. 



Would a hive built to contain two or more nuclei 

 be an advantage ? 



The above questions are asked with the under- 

 standing that the closest attention, chaff cushions, 

 chaff hives, chaff division-boards, the ABC, Glean- 

 ings, and all the common sense I have will be used 

 in order to succeed. 



I want more bees this spring, and I think buying 

 sugar is as cheap a way to get them as any, when 

 you have not much money to spend, if my idea is 

 practicable. If I can not get them strong enough 

 by white-clover bloom, I would pi-efer increasing in 

 the natural way. If I can get them started by the 

 first of April 1 have sixty days to work in, to the first 

 of June. Will that be enough? I fed for brood-rear- 

 ing last fall in Sept., Oct., and Nov., and had brood 

 as late as the middle of Nov. —the amount of brood 



increasing from the first to the middle of the month, 

 after which the weather was too cold to lookat them, 

 and today they seem none the worse for it. They 

 were outdoors until after we had 33"' below zero, then 

 I overhauled them one wiirm day, and put them in 

 the cellar, fearing to trust the weather further. 

 Cumminsville, Ohio. E. Cloe. 



Friend C , you can build up two-frame 

 nuclei without a bit of trouble, in the way 

 you suggest ; and if you were an old hand 

 at the business, and knew just what to do, 

 and how to do it, I should say vou might 

 commence the first of April. Of course, a 

 good deal would depend on what the two- 

 frame nuclei were. Jf like those desciibed 

 in our price list, they ought to be pretty fair 

 colonies at the time white clover blooms.— 

 If they are in chaff hives, with chafE divi- 

 sion-boards each side of them, you could 

 begin feeding without any trouble the first 

 of April. — Whenever the day is warm enough 

 so the bees can fly freely, I would take the 

 cover of the chaff hive off and let the sun 

 shine directly on top of the burlap which 

 covers the cluster, letting it dry out and 

 warm up the inside of the hive ; then replace 

 llie cushions and cover as soon as the night 

 air begins to make it chilly.— If you were an 

 old hand at it, and could afEord the expense 

 of carrying the nuclei into the house, or, bet- 

 ter, a warm cellar, during cool weather, you 

 could go to work in March. — A frame half 

 the length of the Simplicity would give some 

 advantages when the colony was small ; but 

 as it would be a disadvantage just as soon 

 as they got tolerably strong, I do not think 

 it would pay to use it. I would not have any 

 frame in the apiary, except the regular Sim- 

 plicity, and I would not have more than one 

 nucleus in a hive. There are some advan- 

 tages, but it complicates matters, and is apt 

 to make confusion.— I have given the above 

 answers, under the impression that you are 

 a new hand at the business, and I would not 

 advise you to try very many to commence 

 with— say five or ten. The principal diffi- 

 culty will be to get good strong nuclei by the 

 first of April, without paying pretty nearly 

 the price of a full colony. Perhaps you 

 might get them from some of the friends in 

 the South. You probably would have to get 

 your queens from the South, any way. I do 

 think your plan a' very much better one than 

 to buy bees, and sugar is so cheap now that 

 an expert ought it be able to make a splen- 

 did thing of it by raising bees to sell, and 

 feeding sugar before they begin to get natural 

 stores. There is danger of dysentery in 

 feeding during such cool weather as we are 

 likely to have in ]\Iarch and April. Since 

 we have been having such trouble with foul 

 brood, I am more and more convinced, that 

 with the low price' of sugar, bees can be 

 raised ever so much cheaper than they can 

 be purchased. We do a large business in 

 selling bees, as you know ; but almost every 

 time they go off, I feel as if the purchaser, 

 if he has any time at all on his hands, could 

 raise them very much easier than he could 

 afford to pay for them. Sixty days ought to 

 be ample time for an expert to build a two- 

 frame nucleus up in to a strong colony. I 

 should be very glad to get a report from you, 

 friend C, to know how you succeed. 



