1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



485 



some yestei'day. Apple-trees are in bloom; peaches 

 are badly hurt by the cold. We plant no clover or 

 honey crop, so our bees do very little after June. 



Please tell us why :> strips are used in making- the 

 tive-cent honey-frames described on page 341. Why 

 will not two divide off as well? f can't see the use 

 of the third one. H. E. Eaddy. 



Johnsonville, S. C, April U, 1888. 



Thanks for your kind words, friend E. 

 Three strips are used in dividing the brood- 

 frames, so as to make the five-cent honey- 

 packages, because it obviates tiie danger of 

 having the glue run througii the corners so 

 as to stick the little cakes together. Where 

 there are three strips, the middle one will 

 almost always be loose. 



CHAFF P.\CKING, AND SOMETHING UNFAVORABLE IN 

 REGARD TO IT. 



I went into winter quarters with 29 colonies— 17 of 

 them chaff packed on summer stands; 12 of them 

 were on summer stands, with no protection e.xcept 

 the bare hive. I lost two outright; one of them 

 was chaff-packed, and the other unyirotected. Five 

 were weak, three packed, and two unprotected. I 

 have lost one since removing the packing-, also one 

 that was packed with ohaff. This last was robbed; 

 so, taking- everything- into consideration, I have 

 well nigh concluded that chaff' packing in our cli- 

 mate is almost useless. Does it not seem so? I ad- 

 mit that this is nut conclusive, as next winter might 

 not " pan out " that way at all. Bees began gather- 

 ing- pollen March 23d, and are now making a 

 mighty roaring- on fruit-bloom, and the hives are 

 redolent with the perfume of new honey. Peaches, 

 pears, plums,' and some apples are now in full 

 bloom. Prospects now point to a good honey yield, 

 to compensate us for last year's failure. I placed 

 the surplus boxes in jiosition during the past week, 

 and have 26 colonies working- with a vim. Alto- 

 gether I have much to be thankful for to the great 

 Ruler. Allen Agnew. 



Farmington. Mo., Apr. 16, 1888. 



Your report seems to indicate that chaff 

 packing was of no advantage. Your ex- 

 perience is certainly very unusual ; and as 

 the testimony of all bee-keepers, with scarce- 

 ly an exception, is emphatically for chaff over 

 liives not so protected, I can hot help think- 

 ing thei-e was something wrong in the way 

 in which you prepared your bees. In fact, 

 1 feel almost sure you neglected some im- 

 portant detail ; see '^ Chaff Packing," under 

 " Wintering,'' in the A B C of Bee Culture. 

 See, also, "• Feeding."' 



HOW THE A B C OF BEE CCLTURE IS ABLE TO MAKE 

 BEES A SUCCESS. 



Mr. Boot;— Some years ago I became possessed of 

 a swarm of black bees; and from watching their 

 movements for some time I became much interest- 

 ed in them. 1 purchased the best work to be got here 

 on apiculture, one by Taylor, an English work, and 

 I made little headway; but meeting- with so many 

 misfortunes through my ignorance of the subject, I 

 gave up bee-keeping iu disgust. I made frame 

 hives and went to a great "deal of pains, but could 

 not get the bees to build straight combs; be- 

 sides, the bees were eternally stinging the chil- 

 dren, until they hated the name of a bee; and my 

 wife hinted at the cruelly of the matter on my part, 

 to keep such monsters about the place. However, 



about two years ago I came across your A B C book, 

 and made another start at the bees, and, thanks to 

 that, valuable work, and more thanks to yourself 

 for having- written so exhaustive a work on bee- 

 keei)ing, both I and the children are all able to 

 manage bees successfully. We have a number of 

 hives, and have commenced to Italianize them this 

 year. The boys declare we are master of the sub- 

 ject. Of course, I do not indorse their opinions, be- 

 cause I know it is a subject of which a person of 

 moderate intelligence has always something- to 

 learn. J as. Sutton. 



Walhalla, Australia, Feb. 17, 1888. 



BEES FLYING LONG DISTANCES. 



There surely are yet unsolved mysteries in bee- 

 keeping. In Gleanings for March 1,5, 1888, page 

 206, T. B. Smith states that his bees worked on mint 

 six to eight miles from home. Last summer, while 

 alsike clover was blooming- profusely only two 

 miles from me, I was actually compelled to feed my 

 bees; and while sweet clover three miles from my 

 bees was yielding honey plentifully, my bees were 

 hardly making a living. What does all this mean? 

 1 received but little honey last year, as I worked 

 principally for increase. U. H. Walker. 



Sabetha, Kan., March 24, 1888. 



Your experience agrees with my own. 

 Our bees have never worked to any profit, so 

 far as T can discover, when they had to go 

 more than two or two and a half miles from 

 home; and I don't believe I would make 

 calculations on more than that in locating an 

 apiary. Some years ago one of our neighbors 

 was located about three and a half miles 

 from a large swamp where there was a large 

 profusion of iioney-bearing flowers. During 

 dry spells in the fall his bees would 

 go" to this swamp, and they brought some 

 honey ; but he concluded that about as many 

 bees were lost in going this long distance as 

 the honey amounted to— that is, if he was 

 working "to increase his colonies as well as 

 for honey. As an experiment, he moved 

 about fifty colonies right down to the edge 

 of the swamp. The bees stored honey and 

 built comb at once; and another bee-man, 

 located about a mile from the swamp, did 

 quite a business extracting swamp honey. 

 ] know other reports seem to indicate that, 

 under cert^un circumstances, bees will profit- 

 ably go further. 



wintering queenless colonies. 



If a queen dies in the beginning of winter, or dur-' 

 ing- the winter, will the bees winter as well as they 

 would if she had lived? Arch. Duncan. 



Wyoming, Ontario. 



Friend I)., you can winter a colony almost 

 as well, and in some cases even better, if 

 the queen dies or is removed, say any time 

 after the first of November. By the time 

 the bees begin to gather natural pollen, a 

 new queen should be procured from our 

 Florida friends. She will commence laying 

 immediately, and the bees will go to brood- 

 rearing in a way tliat will surprise you. 

 Some of our most expert bee-men are begin- 

 ning to think they would ratlier not have any 

 brood-rearing until the bees begin to gather 

 natural pollen. If this is so, there is no spe- 

 cial need of a queen in the hive at all, from 

 November till April. 



