1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



603 



A LONG-FACED LETTER. 



a discouraging report, without any mistake; 

 "to feed or not to feed." 



fHIS is a long-faced letter; and anybody who 

 feels a little blue had better not read it. 

 Last spring I had 23 colonies of bees; they 

 had wintered well, and were the fullest and 

 finest bees that I ever had. I had every thing- 

 ready for a tremendous honey-flow; but the dry 

 weather came, and it was all the bees could do to 

 gather enough to live on—more than some of them 

 could do, in fact. Last fall I doubled them up to 17; 

 6 of them were scarce of stoi-es, and I decided to 

 winter them in the cellar, so did nothing with them. 

 When the day came to carry them in, the Chaddock 

 family vetoed the cellar movement, and I was forced, 

 for want of support, to let them starne on their sum- 

 mer stands. Then one of those that I had doubled 

 up, died. They had plenty of stores, and just pack- 

 ed themselves in solid masses between the combs, 

 and died there— not a hundred bees on the bottom- 

 board. The hive was clean and dry, and so were 



"AM I TO FEED ALL SUMMER?" 



the bees. I guess this was a visitation of Provi- 

 dence. Another one that had not been doubled up 

 died (without any cause)— just i<p and died, and left 

 most of its honey for me to give the living colonies. 

 This leaves me 9, and what do I want with H colonies 

 of bees, in a land where there is no honey? I'd feel 

 richer by half, if I had not a single bee. I have 



" IT DOESN'T PAY." 



been feeding them, on and off, all this spring. They 

 are strong, just boiling over, but that is not a 

 source of comfort. I can not see the sense of all 

 this brood-rearing when there is to be no honey. 



And what I want to know is, "Am I going to be 

 obliged to feed my bees all this summer and all 

 next winter?" If I am, 1 think 1 shall begin to hunt 

 around for somebody who will take bees as a {lift. 

 Here I am, feeding my bees on the third day of 

 June. There is not a pound of honey, I do believe, 

 in the nine hives. Yesterday 1 fed them fifty 

 cents' worth of sugar, and to-morrow I shall exam- 

 ine them again. Other years there was honey-dew 



" OTHER YEARS THERE W.\S HONEY-DEW." 



(sometimesl between the raspberry and white-clover 

 bloom. This year there is nothing. White clover is 

 the thing that we count on for honey here, with 

 two or three days' work on the basswoods; and the 

 white clover all dried up last year, and is very 

 scarce as yet; but I see that the young plants are 

 coming on now. There is not enough white clover 

 in bloom now to make a solid half acre within reach 

 of my bees. Our pasture fields that were white with 

 clover-blossoms in other years now show only a 

 head here and there, sometimes rods apart. This 

 has been a cool (or cold) dry spring, the clovers (nor 

 any kind of grass) do not thrive well, but the crops 

 are all doing well. Now, is not this a long-faced 

 letter? And don't all of you who have read it feel 

 worse than you did? Mahala B. Chaddock. 



Vermont, 111., June 3, 1888. 



Now look here, Mrs. C. Suppose you give 

 up your bees and give up your business. 

 About the first thing you know, the next 

 season we have will be favorable beyond 

 any thing heretofore on record. The "bees 

 you give away will increase enormously, 

 and perhaps your fortunate neighbor gets 

 tons of honey. Everybody will be doing 

 wonderful things, and you will be left out in 

 the cold. This does not apply particularly 

 to bee culture ; but almost every year fur- 

 nishes a wonderful crop of something or 

 other ; and almost every year also furnishes 

 illustrations of those who gave up the busi- 

 ness in disgust, just before the time came to 

 reap a rich harvest. At the time of the oil 

 excitement in Pennsylvania, a man drilled a 

 well away down, down, until he got tired of 

 it and gave it up. There the well stood for 

 several years until somebody went to work 

 at it ; and by going just a very few feet fur- 

 ther they had one of the largest - flowing 

 wells on record ; and we meet such things 

 day after day. It is the ones who hold on 

 persistently who win in the end. Why, in 

 fact there is a Bible text to encourage us — 

 '' He that endureth to the end shall be sav- 

 ed." If there is not any thing to be done 



