746 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov 



all over our uror.nJs. Even (hiriii,u: this 

 l)rislit fall weather they came uyt and grew 

 witti astoiiisliiny; rapidity. sho\vin<i- that they 

 (l(» rnnch lietter during cool weather thaii 

 dining Ihr r\<-;^s.sive jieat of the summer. I 

 presume they might he liardened hy gradual 

 exposuie. like cabbages and lettuce, so as to 

 he started (piite early in the spring. They 

 might by this means. I think, be made to 

 bloom in June, ami from that clear on to 

 October. During this isth day of October 

 ours are furnishing more bloom and more 

 honey than at any time during the summer. 



DKAI) KKKS AnOl'ND THE HIVES AT THK AI'PROAf H 

 OF COLD WEATHER. 



T)o lioes die off more aliout the hive on tlie ap- 

 proach of cool weathery Is it the old ones that 

 ehill and get weak, or can it be the eating- of <rranii- 

 lated sugar? I have fed them strictly \ipon it for 

 1 wo months, and have developed fi-om one to Ave 

 during- the time, including- the two queens and nu- 

 clei we boug:ht from you, so you see we have made 

 a wonderful growth. There arc now many combs 

 entirely solid with sealed brood. T estimated some 

 frames the other day by counting- the cells, and 

 there were about 4000 bees in some sing-le combs. 



New Vienna, O., Sept. in, IS84. T. Nordvke. 



Friend N.,bees are dying from old age 

 and other causes every day; but when the 

 weather is Avarm they usually Hy away from 

 the hive, and are not noticed. When the 

 weather gets too cool for them to Hy they 

 simply crawl out and die around the en- 

 trances, or are brought out. This is what 

 you see, I suppose. When a si>el] of warm 

 weather ensues, the live bees often gatlier 

 up these dead bodies about the(h)orway. and 

 carrv tliem olf. as vou will see if you watch 

 tliem. Even a handful or two of dead bees 

 around the entiance during the approach of 

 frosty weather indicates nothing amiss. 



WUIOKK DO ItEES r.ET THE .MATERIAL FOII THE CAP- 

 I'lNO TO UROOD? 



Will you i)leasc explain what the bees use to build 

 natural brood-comb? and what do they get the cap- 

 pings from? We should also like to hear how our 

 friends get along- who moved to catch the basswood- 

 bloom. ('. K. t'uL. 



Millersbiu-g-, O., Aug. i:i, IKS-;. 

 Friend U., I can not answer your (pies- 

 lion. It has been suggested, that where 

 l)ees are found working on the surface of 

 mud left from stagnant pools, that tliey get 

 a soit of fibrous vegetable matter they use 

 for this purpose. It seems to he a sort of 

 l)aper-like substance, not unlike the materi- 

 al of which wasiis make their nests, and this 

 l)aper sulistance is worked up with wax so 

 as to make a very tough and leathery mate- 

 rial. The capping of a (lueen-cell illustrates 

 it well. Now, who can tell us where it 

 comes from? It does not grow out of their 

 bodies as wax does, we are pretty sure, 

 and so it would seem pretty likely it must 

 l»e gathered somewhere. May be they 

 scrape the sides of wooden hives for the 

 liljer. When bees are not very busy in the 

 lields we often see them on the outside of 

 the hive, and on the alighting-board, put 

 their mandibles down on the wood while 

 tliev work backward with a motion some- 



thing like a group of men raking hay. I 

 should conjecture they might be gatliering 

 this liber at such times, only they use the 

 most liber while they are rearing Inood 

 largely, and tliis would bring a great con- 

 sumption at times when no bees are ever 

 seen standing on the outside of the hives. 

 Is it not possible that the fiber contained in 

 the pollen they gather supplies this sub- 

 stanceV— In regard to the basswood-bloom. 

 we ha\ e given all the reports we have re- 

 ceived, relative to it. We shall be glad if 

 those who have tried it will tell us about it, 

 even though the venture was not a paying 

 one. 



INTKOIUCI.Vfi QUEEN'S «V THOKOCOH SMOKlXfi. 



Her " Uoyal Highness," with her attendants alive 

 and well, arrived jir.miptly, and was introduced to 

 her new subjects the sanu' evening, according to a 

 plan recently suggested by J. E. Pond, .Ir., which 

 is, simply, to give the colony a smoking and allow 

 the queen to run in at the entrance. All went well, 

 and she commenced business immediately, and on 

 the second day following I found eggs in the cells. 



New York, Oct. rl, t8S+. Chas. E. Oaklev. 



Friend ().. are you sure the bees would 

 not have received" tlie (pieen without any 

 smoking, or any thing of the sort? A great 

 many times, (pieens may be turned loose 

 without any ju-ecaution." as I have before 

 told you. and proven hy many experiments. 

 It is true, howevei-. that where bees attack 

 the (lueen. and seem determined to kill her. 

 tliey can, by vigorous smoking, be made to 

 let "go. and behave themselves. We often 

 make them receive (pieens from the lamp 

 nursery in this way. 



WHAT AILS the BEES? 



I starte ' with two hives of Cyprians the ".th of 

 March, 18S4: increased to 10 by swarming. I bought 

 one hive of blacks; got one swann, which is IrJ in 

 all. 1 ha\e taken about 30 lbs. of honey; could 

 have taken more, but had no c.vtractor. I would 

 not cut out my combs. I intend getting one ne.\t 

 year. My bees have done nothing for ;i months. 

 I have lost one of my best hives and a tine queen, 

 and half of the bees of one other hive, and a slight 

 loss out of two other hives. They had plenty of 

 stores, honey, and pollen. They would get past tid- 

 ing, and would crawl out and get as far off as they 

 could. To-day they seemed to be a good deal lon- 

 ger than their right length, and would drag them- 

 selves on the ground, and had a sort of twitching. 

 I think it is the pollen they have eaten. I pulled a 

 great many apart. I find a brown substance that 

 looks like pollen. What do you think is the matter 

 with my beesy I have an ABC book, and take 

 (i LEANINGS. I am delighted with the Home readings. 

 I like to work with my bees better than any thing. 



Manchaca, Texas, Sept. 35, 1884. .1. H. Marrow. 



Fi-iend M., I can not tell you what is the 

 trouble, unless the l)ees have been getting 

 something that proves to be unwholesome 

 for them. I do not think it is pollen. 

 Whei-e the abdomen is elongated, as you 

 state, v(ui will generally find the contents 

 about "as you describe it. The twitching you 

 speak of is much like that described in the 

 A 15 (' book, near the close of the item, " Bee 

 Diseases," but they are not swollen and 

 elongated, as you state. 



