494 



GLEANINGS i:N EEE CULTUBE. 



June 



^EPe^jpg ENcea^^6i]S[6. 



SWARMING AND HONEY-DEW. 



fINCE the Ist of June, bees are doing well. 

 Some are at work in the sections, others are 

 preparing- to swarm. To see bees swarming 

 and working in sections again is something 

 new with us, last season being so poor nothing 

 of the kind happened. We are anxiously looking 

 forward for a good honey-How. AVhlte clover is 

 not very promising, though honey-dew is plentiful. 

 Nearly every hickory bush is covered with it. Early 

 in the morning, the woods seems to be alive with 

 swarms. At 10 or 11 o'clock the dew dries up until 

 late in the afternoon, then work begins again in 

 good earnest till dark. This year the honey-dew 

 began coming in as early as the 30th of May. Two 

 years ago, when we had such a heavy honey-flow, it 

 came about tlie Ist of .7uly. Should it continue to 

 last until the Ist of August, we shall have "bug- 

 juice" in abundance. Jno. Nebel & Son. 

 High Hill, Mo., June 8, 1888. 



CHAPr HIVES IN THE VICINITY OF BT,OOMFIELD, KY. 



T put H hives into winter quarters, with upper 

 story packed with chaff. All came out very strong 

 in spring— rather too sti-ong to suit me, for they 

 commenced swarming on the 8th day of May, and 

 8 out of 13 have cast very large swai-ms. 



Bloomfleld, Ky., May 21, 1888. W. J. Gore. 



HONEY FROM THE SOUTHERN POPLAR. 



We are having a flne yield of poplar honey, with 

 a holly flavor, in some localities. Just now there is 

 much honey-dew. Sourwood has been injured by a 

 late frost. We can not tell yet how far the crop 

 will be affected. David Strang. 



Lincoln, Tenn., May 33, 1888. 



swarming earlier than expected. 



Bees wintered remarkably well in this neighbor- 

 hood, and swarming commenced earlier than 1 ever 

 before knew it. We had one swarm here April 

 27th; 3 on the HOth, and several on the 2d and 3d of 

 May. We had a flne flow of honey last year in 

 September and October, that gave them plenty of 

 stores for winter— a thing unusual here. 



Milton Hewitt. 



Perryopolis, Pa., May 21, 1888. 



SNOW 34 INCHES DEEP, MAY 21, IN MINNESOTA. 



Bees are doing fairly well in this section, consid- 

 ering the cold backward spring. There are only 

 two or three days in a week when they can fly out 

 for water and pollen. I have just aueasured the 

 deepest snowdrift within 80 rods of my apiary, and 

 find it 24 inches deep. This is snow that fell in No- 

 veml)erand December. Do you want to come to 

 Minnesota to start an apiary V A. F. Bright. 



Mazeppa, Minn., May 31, 1888. 



WINTER LOSS ONLY 35 % FROM VARIOUS SOURCES, 

 AS REPORTED BY H. D. CUTTING. 



I have written to 30 persons in this locality, and 

 have reports from nearly all of them. I find that 

 the per cent of mortality is 3.5. Mr. Gander writes 

 me that he lost 4.') per cent in his bee-house. That 

 is the greatest loss 1 have heard from. My bees 

 were all in the cellar except 3, which were on sum- 

 mer stands. I commenced putting them in the 

 cellar in October, and flriished Nov. 11. Some that 

 were put in in October were not taken out until 

 April 38, and were in good condition. They had 



plenty of pollen and honey. 1 could see no differ- 

 ence with natural stores or sugar. Those in the 

 upper tier, 3 deep, contained more water than 

 those on the bottom tier. My cellar is very dry, 

 and the thermometer remained at 3fi to 40. It sel- 

 dom went above 40. By opening a window I could 

 keep the temperature at 40 or below. The cellar 

 was very light. The greater portion in the cellar 

 had one fly in March; but those put in Oct. 37, and 

 taken out Apr. 38, were in just as good condition. 

 How T wish 1 could just call on jou for one day, 

 and look over your many interesting experiments ! 

 Clinton, Mich., May 4, 1888. H. D. Cutting. 



^EP01^n^g Dl?C0U^^6I]M6. 



IS THAT WINTERING PROBLEM SOLVED ? 



T PRESUME you want reports discouraging on 

 ^f wintering bees. We went into winter quar- 

 ^t ters with 5.5 colonies, and have now only 34, 

 and some of those are weak. Prof. Cook says, 

 on page ;M8, Vol. XV., that the winter question 

 is solved. Does losing his 50 per cent look that 

 way? He says that they had not sutBcient stores. 

 This I know was the case with me. Although I may 

 not be wholly right, 1 should like to express my 

 opinion of our own loss. The bees had no honey 

 in their hive after buckwheat bloom until golden- 

 rod, and then a few colonies filled their hives with 

 this kind of honey, sufficient to winter, but it was 

 late before they had finished gathering hone.y, and 

 those that did not get enough I undertook to feed 

 with sugar syrup. As this bothered me about 

 crusting over, I used tartaric acid, as per Heddon, 

 which answered the purpose, as I thought, very 

 well; but when T came to examine them in Februa- 

 ry, T found 5 or 6 of our colonies dead, with syrup 

 hard in the combs, partly sealed over. It was all 

 alike, whether sealed or not. Later, I found other 

 colonies partly dead with their stores in the same 

 condition. These spring-dwindled, owing partly to 

 their weak condition and partly for lack of bee- 

 bread. I am more and more convinced that plenty 

 of bees, and good honey with bee-bread, so the bees 

 can reach it in early spring, has more to do with 

 the wintering than all of the packing, ventilation, 

 cellars, or repositories combined. My bees were 

 well packed on their summer stands with leaves, 

 using division-boards to get them as compact as 

 possible. J. L. Hyde. 



Pomf ret Landing, Conn., May 24, 1888. 



I think you may put us in Blasted Hopes, for all 

 our bees died last winter. To be sure, o^fwas but one 

 hive; but it left us as much without any as if we had 

 lost one hundred. We lost ten ortwelve before last 

 winter, but we mean to try again. 



Douglas, Mich. Jennie Reid. 



SEVERE WINTER LOSSES NEAR ELSIE, MICH. 



Bees wintered in common hives on summer 

 stands, are reported .50 to 75 per cent short of au- 

 tumn count. Wintering in cellars seems to give 

 the best satisfaction in this vicinity. Although our 

 bees have have had but very few days of weather 

 suitable for a flight, yet they seem to have been 

 making hay while the sun did shine, for we find the 

 frames well fllled with brood, and now they are 

 working on blossoms quite busily. 1. A. Wooll. 



Elsie, Mich., May 31, 1888. 



