1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



99 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS- 



BEES FANNING WITH THEIR WINGS IN MID-WIN- 

 TER. 



ip WEEK or two ago one of my hives leaked a 

 k little, so as to slightly wet the ehafif cushions 

 V/ over the bees. On the morning of the 1.5th 

 ^ the sun was shining- bright and warm, so I 

 concluded to chajige the cushions and give 

 the bees dry ones. When I lifted up the cushions I 

 found the bees so stitt they could scarcely move, 

 yet as many as could do so, perhaps ^UO, had gath- 

 ered to the top of the frames with their heads turn- 

 ed down between the frames, and their wings fan- 

 ning, ,iust as they do at the mouth of the hive on a 

 hot day. I should like to know what they meant 

 by this fanning, when they could scarcely ei-awl be- 

 cause of cold. Were they fanning out the damp- 

 ness, trying to dry otf the cushions, or were they 

 wanting more ventilation from the entranceV 

 Concord Church. W. Va., Jan. 23. T. K. Massie. 



Friend M., without being present to look 

 at the bees I should say there was nothing 

 the matter with them at all. They were in 

 their natural dormant wintering condition ; 

 and when you suddenly pulled the cushions 

 from over them they were rubbing their 

 eyes and slowly waking up, instead of being 

 stiff with cold, as you put it. The 200 bees 

 tliat were on top fanning were nearer the 

 center of the cluster, and were warm enough 

 to begin to move their wings. 1 presume 

 you found them all right after they had 

 been opened to the light a little while, did 

 you notV 

 the great abundance of fall bloom, asters, 



AND GOLDENROD. 



You thought It would be a pretty sight to see the 

 bees humming over a part of an acre of asters. If 

 you had only been here in October you would have 

 been delighted. Such a mass of white and yellow 

 bloom (goldenrod and astcri as covered a great 

 many acres I There is generally a great deal of the 

 former; but the asters, I think, got ahead this time. 

 Farmers who pay no attention to bees or honey, re- 

 marked that they never saw any thing like it before 

 —those "little white flowers," they called them. 

 Every place T went it was the same— in old fields, in 

 clearings, by roadsides, everywhere. Some were 

 not more than six inches high: others two and a 

 half feet. I think they were i?i bloom about Ave 

 weeks, goldenrod about three. 



The honey crop in .June was almost an entire 

 failure. Cool weather iind frost hindered the bees 

 from work some in October, but all filled the brood- 

 chamber, and a number of the colonies filled sec- 

 tions above. It was cool that some swarms 

 seemed unable to build their own comb, and were 

 filling every little starter with honey. Then I gave 

 them foundation. Many of the combs nri' only 

 partly filled and now are candied. I will try feed- 

 ing it to them in March. We like Gleanings much. 

 We do not think we co\ild do without it. 



Bethel, O.. Jan. 2. 18.SH. Mary L. Beck. 



"bee-bait" destructive to ukes: what shall 



BE done V 



T learned from a fai-raer. ou the market-train, of 



the severe loss <if bees, and that nearly one-third of 



the bees in the whole countryaround here had died 



from the eftects of bee-bait. It draws the bees for 

 half a mile, and sours their honey so that 100 lbs. of 

 honey in this state will not carry them through the 

 winter. It sickens and kills the bees! Bee-hunt- 

 ers are to blame for this. Two bee-hunters near 

 Kittanning, Pa., damaged the bee-interest for a 

 circuit of 3(1 to 40 miles. Why do you not urge such 

 legislation as will prevent effectually such slaugh- 

 ter of bees? During the cider-making season, the 

 bees suck the sweet cider, and the sour pumice has 

 as bad an effect as the bee-bait. Please call atten- 

 tion to this great evil to the bee-interest. 



Faruellv Alden. 

 Pittsburgh, Pa., Jan. 14, 1888. 



Friend A., your farmer friend is surely 

 mistaken. There is notliing. I am sure, 

 that will draw the bees for half a mile, that 

 will sour the honey, with such disastrous re- 

 sults as you state them. Where bees get 

 large quantities of cider from cider-mills, it 

 is very apt to give them the dysentery ; but 

 it does not always have this effect. We 

 have had cider-mills close by our bees, and 

 there have been times when they would car- 

 ry away a barrel of sweet cider as fast as it 

 could be pressed from the cheese in the press ; 

 but we wintered nearly every colony, for all 

 that. 



more about the jelly-tumblers. 



On page 038, Dec. 15, is an article on honey-tuui- 

 blers. Wo have here in Minneapolis a glass pail 

 with tin cover, the same as .ielly-tumbler cov- 

 ers, that holds exactly one pound. The cover 

 is stamped. " Old Oaken Bucket." There are 

 two sizes of the pails. It is the larger size which 

 holds a pound. These pails cost CO cents per dozen 

 by wholesale, while jelly-glasses cost from 2T to 3(1 

 cents per dozen. The grocers In Minneapolis who 

 handle our honey, as a rule prefer ,ielly-glasses 

 which hold 9 or 11 ounces of honey, they paying us 

 ten cents I'or the smaller an<l eleven for the larger 

 by the dozen. They can get all the California honey 

 they want in (iO-lb. cans for 7 or 8 cents per pound. 

 We have been selling honey this way for three years 

 without changing the price, and have sold more this 

 last year than ever before. 



This season was .just fair for honey; very little 

 clover, but plenty of basswood and fall honey. 

 Those who attended to their bees had a good crop 

 of honey. Those who did not, got very little. 



Bloomington, Minn., Jan. 3, 1888. E. K. Pond. 



Friend T., I am glad to hear you speak a 

 good word for tlie old oaken buckets ; but you 

 will notice by our price list that m charge 

 only S-l.UO a hundred for the large size and 

 $0.60 for the small size. 



how much honey from 100 nuclei started 



THE first of may. ETC. 



How much surplus coinh honej' per colony is it 

 probable could be obtained (preventing swarmingi 

 in a white clover and basswood community, from 

 100 nuclei, each nucleus containing 2 lbs. of bees 

 and <iucen, the first of May, and allowed to build uj) 

 on fruit-bloom, and stimulated by feeding between 

 fruit-bloom and white clover? Each nucleus is to be 

 supplied with 10 frames, filled with foundation; the 

 100 in one place, or separated into 4 apiaries of2.'> 

 colonies each. Wm. M. Young. 



Nevada. O. 



Friend Y., there are so many conditions I 

 do not know how we can arrive at any sort 



