1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUllE. 



215 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS. 



HOW TO FEED BEES IN WINTER, WITH A BOTTLE. 



T HAVE not had much experience in the business, 

 ^F but I tbinli a very easy and good way to feed 

 ^[ them in the winter is to take a bottle, a pint or 

 quart, or any size will do. Make a syrup of 

 sugar or honey; don't have it too thick; put it 

 in the bottle; have a small hole in the cork, in the 

 center or along the side, just large 

 enough so that, when the bottle is |, 

 inverted, the syrup will drop out 

 very slowly. If it drops too freely, 

 put a strainer of thin muslin or 

 cheese-cloth over the cork before pushing it in. 

 Place the bottle (inverted) right above the cluster; 

 pack the chaff or quilts around it ; or if only a board 

 is over them, bt)re a hole in it large enough to re- 

 ceive the neck of the bt)ttle. Bees are much like 

 pigs— if they can get at it they will eat up almost 

 any quantity of syrup in a few hours. But in 

 getting it drop by drop, a pint or quart will last 

 quite a while. I had a l!4-pint bottle over a colony, 

 and it lasted ten days. Then, to satisfy my curios- 

 ity, I examined it one mild day and found they had 

 Stored away quite a good deal of it in the combs. 

 Coopersdale. Pa., Feb. 15, 1S88. D. A. Harris. 



Although your device is not exactly new, 

 friend H., I do not know but that it is just 

 as good as any of the more expensive feeders. 

 The objections are, that a single hole is more 

 liable to get filled up, so yoiu- feeder may 

 fail to do its duty, and let a colony starve. 

 If the opening is carefully arranged, how- 

 ever, this is not likely to happen. 



BEES STEALING WAX AWAY FROM GRAFTS. 



Last spring I set some grafts near my apiary. 

 Soon after, I noticed that the wax had all been re- 

 moved. I again waxed them, and the next day I 

 found the bees carrying off the wax at a lively 

 rate. I then covered the wax with cloth, and that 

 prevented further damage. I have put in grafts 

 near my bees in previous years, but never expe- 

 rienced an attack of this kind before. 



THE RESULT OF TAKING A QUEEN AWAY IN THE 

 FALL. 



In this part of Pennsylvania we expect a late crop 

 of honey from buckwheat and red clover, which I 

 usually leave on the hives till I prepare them for 

 winter. When doing this work last fall I found the 

 queen of one colony in the surplus box when I re- 

 moved it to the honey-house. The bees refused to 

 return to their hive; they strove hard to protect 

 their stores, and, when driven out, clustered on 

 the wall like a swarm. In a case of this kind, if 

 the queen is not returned the colony is ruined. 

 As this is the third case I have known, T concluded 

 others might be benefited by my experience. 



Shaw's Landing, Pa. J. M. Bkattv. 



Friend B., I have seen bees at the very 

 trick you mention ; and 1 have sometimes 

 wondered if the varnish, paint, wax, resin, 

 and other kinds of gum Ihev seem so eager 

 for did them any good, or whether they did 

 it just for the fun of the thing, something 

 as they carry sawdust in their hives, in the 

 spring. I do not know of any real use they 



can make of wax, unless it is to stop up 

 cracks and crevices, and make their hives 

 warmer. But why shoitld they want to do 

 this in the spring V Will you please tell 

 us just what month, and what day of the 

 month it w;is, as nearly as you can, when 

 you saw the bees getting the wax V It cer- 

 tainly is veiy important that the queen l)e 

 not removed wlien taking in honey from the 

 top of the liive. Friend Boardman's l)ee- 

 escape, illustrated on page 200, obviates all 

 danger from such catastrophe. 1 have 

 known queens to be removed with the sur- 

 plus arrangements a great many times, and 

 1 think, too. when no eggs or brood was 

 found in said surplus arrangements. 



THE ELEMENTS OF POLLEN. 



In Gleanings, page 124, Prof. Cook answers the 

 question: "What are the chemical properties of 

 pollen?" The chemical composition of different 

 kinds of pollen is certainly different. Von Planta 

 examined the pollen of Coryfus o ccJana (hazel) and 

 Piims gylocstris la pine-tree) audlfound: 



Cor.vlus. 



Water 4.78% . 



Nitrogen 4.81 



Albuminoids 30.06 . 



Ashes 3.81 ., 



Hypoxanthine 0.1.5 



Sugar (cane) 14.70 



Starch 5.26 .. 



Coloring substance 2.08 .. 



Cuticula 3.02 21.97 



Wax-like substance 3.67 3.56 



Fats and oil 4.20 10.63 



Resin-like substance 8.41 7.93 



1 remark, that hypoxanthine is a substance found 

 in muscles of horses, cattle, and hares. Cuticula is 

 the indigestible part of the pollen— shells or cell- 

 walls. We see that Prof. Cook is correct if he says 

 pollen is richer in albuminoids, than oats or wheat, 

 and it is remarkably rich in sugar too. I intend to 

 write about the other questions, in which I do not 

 quite agree with Prof. Cook. L. Stachelhausen. 

 Selma, Texas, Feb. 22, 1888. 



Pinus. 



. 7.66f<', 

 . 2.65 

 . 16.56 

 . 3.30 

 . 0.04 

 .11.24 

 . 7.06 



FOUL BROOD IN THE VICINITY OF OUR APIARY. 



Please tell me if there are any cases of foul brood 

 in your vicinity besides in your own apiary. Was 

 there any spreading of the disease by shipping 

 bees from there last year? G. M. Shaver. 



Fairfax, Mo., Mar. 1, 1888. 



There is not a single case of foul brood 

 anywhere in our vicinity. We have care- 

 fully examined all the bees round about ; 

 and two colonies keptright across the street, 

 belonging to Mr. Calvert, were perfectly 

 healthy all the time we had the foul brood. 

 All the bees sent out by us last season were 

 furnished by Neighbor II., whose apiaries 

 are more than two miles from ours. He has 

 never seen a single cell of foul brood in any 

 of his, and none of our customers have re- 

 ported any foul brood in any that Neighbor 

 H. sent out. There is one thing, however, 

 that I prefer to mention : Early in the 

 spring last year, we felt so sure that no more 

 foul l)rood was going to start out with us, 

 that we lilled a few orders. As soon as we 

 discovered more traces of it. however, we 

 stopped at once. Well, one of these orders, 

 filled from oiu' own apiary early in the 

 spring, did carry foul brood "to a distant lo- 

 cality. Tlie purchaser was at a distance 

 from any other bees, and we instructed him 



