1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



9 



door wintering, finding that, as a rule. IJo lbs. of 

 stores per month is the average amount con- 

 sumed by the bees while in the cellar. Now. 

 where we feed our bees, no matter how done, I 

 find that it can be done to better advantage in 

 the spring than in the fall, for the bees will go to 

 brood-rearing with renewed vigor where fed: 

 and for this reason 1 would say, give the bees 

 only enougli to safely carry them through to 

 May. then supply their wants by feeding tlie 

 amount you would otherwise have given them 

 in the fall. The amount which I think right in 

 this locality, I have given above. 



INTRODUCING QUEENS TO Ql'EENLESS COLONIES 

 IN THE SPUING. 



Another correspondent wishes to know wheth- 

 er he can successfully introduce a queen to a 

 colony which has bef?n \\intered without one. 

 He seems to fear that such a colony would es- 

 tablish laying workers during the winter sea- 

 son, and thus make the introduction of a queen 

 a perilous undertaking. I do not know that I 

 ever placed a colony in winter quartei'S. know- 

 ing that tliey were queenless. but I have sever- 

 al times had queenless colonies in the spring 

 which I believed had been queenless nearly all 

 winter, and had no especial trouble in getting 

 them to accept a queen at that time. I can not 

 say for certain, but I do not think that the bees 

 would establish laying workers while in winter 

 quarters; at least. I never knew of a laying 

 worker, in this locality, earlier than the first of 

 June. Can any of the readers of Gleanings 

 give us any light on this subject? It would 

 have much to do with our trying to winter over 

 queenless colonies. G. M. Doolittle. 



Borodino, N. Y., Dec. 17, 1890. 



[I heartily agree with you, friend D., in every 

 thing you say. only you do not consider at all 

 the strength of the colony. When we used to 

 try to winter nuclei, say with a quart of bees or 

 more, if we succeeded in getting them to pull 

 through, they consumed, of course, but a small 

 quantity of food : and if they dwindled down so 

 there would be but a pint of bees in the spring 

 to build up with, it took only a very small 

 amount of stores for them to build up. I think 

 I have wintered nuclei with not to exceed 5 

 lbs. of stores : and this took them clear up to 

 the bloom of the soft maples : and at the same 

 time I have had powerful colonies, say with 

 four times as many bees as the nucleus men- 

 tioned, that would consume 20 lbs. It is true, 

 however, that less stores will be needed in pro- 

 portion for a powerful colony than for a weak 

 one, especially during winter time. As the 

 powerful colony will, however, start a tremen- 

 dous sight of brood before the nucleus has com- 

 menced brood-rearing at all, they will need 

 stores correspondingly. And the amount of 

 brood reared, and the time when brood-rearing 

 commences with a certain colony, has very 

 much to do with the amount of stores needed. 

 We therefore finally arrived at the conclusion 

 of many of our veterans, that each full colony 

 should liave from 20 to 2.5 lbs. of stores, in order 

 to be (ibx(Autely safe, providing they were not 

 looked over in the spring especially lo see how 

 their stores were holding out. But with this 

 large amount of stores, many will often liave 

 sealed stores left when work commences in the 

 boxes: and this is an argument in favor of 

 ten-frame hives instead of eight-frame. The 

 two extra frames may contain surplus stores 

 the year round, as a sort of reserve force to fall 

 back on in case of drouth or famine, or excessive 

 brood-rearing. 



I can not remember that I have ever had 

 any trouble in introducing a queen to a colony 

 found queenless in the spring : and we, in such 



cases, turn them right loose, the bees often re- 

 ceiving them with a roar of applause. I do not 

 know that I ever saw them " swing their hats," 

 but they make a loud buzz with their wings, 

 and the news passes from one to another very 

 much as shouts of applause go through a crowd 

 of human beings.] 



WHITE SNAKEROOT (EUPATORIUM AGERA- 

 TOIDES). 



DOES IT CAUSE THE DISEASE CALLED " IHLK- 

 SICKNESS "? 



Friend Ro(jt: — Prof. Cook pronounces the 

 plant sent by Mr. Hastings (see p. 79.3) " the 

 common boni?set. or thoroughwort, sometimes 

 called white snakeroot." Although I am not a 

 botanist, I can tell the professor, that, although 

 they may be ranked with the same family of 

 plants, there is quite a difference. Boneset is a 

 much larger, stronger - growing plant than 

 snakeroot: and the leaves that spring from the 

 body of the main stalk entirely encircle it. so that 

 they connect with one another, and the stalk has 

 the appearance of growing through the blades, 

 while the snakeroot is entirely destitute of the 

 band that encircles the other. The seed-ljlos- 

 soms on the top of the plants resemble each 

 other very much. There is a mistake some- 

 where. Mr. Hastings may have sent thorough- 

 wort instead of snakeroot: and if he did. the 

 professor made a mistake. 



In regard to the "• trembles " in cattle, and 

 milk-sickness among those who use the milk of 

 cows that eat it, I have had a pretty sad expe- 

 rience, but not as bad as some of my neighbors. 

 When I came to Ohio in 1844 I heard that 

 there was a section of country on the road from 

 Medina to Seville where the settlers had been 

 afflicted with a strange malady that the doc- 

 tors could give no name to, and several deaths 

 had occuiTed the year before: but the general 

 opinion was that it was somehow caused by the 

 water. I took up a new farm on the road one 

 mile west of the main road to Seville, l5ut my 

 neighbors' woods and mine joined, and then 

 everybody's cattle ran in the woods; but it was 

 so much trouble to hunt mine up that I cut a 

 "slash row "'around my lot. Well, we would 

 hear of sickness ca^t of us; but with tlie excep- 

 tion of a little ague, one year, we enjoyed good 

 health for ten years: but the year 18.5.5 was a 

 dry one in the latter part of the summer, and 

 the water failed on my farm. I let my cattle 

 into the woods for water, and, of course." among 

 the snakeroot. Soon a sucking colt died; then 

 my oldest boy was taken ill, and then there 

 was a general bad feeling, among us all; but I 

 did not send for a doctor, for I dreaded them 

 more than any disease. I was then 46 years old, 

 and my wife 41: but neither of us had "ever tak- 

 en a dose of medicine of any kind/rojji a f7oc- 

 tor. A week passed; wife sick; yearling steer 

 died with trembles: shut the cattle out of the 

 woods, and cut corn for them. Stephen, my 

 boy, had been seven days without any tiling 

 passing his bowels — could eat nothing, drank 

 but little, and generally threw that up. 



I would say here that we had abandoned the 

 use of milk and any of its products. Stephen 

 said that he wanted some ice. I took tlie old 

 jumper from the stable, mounted her, and took 

 a pail and went to the village and got a good 

 big •' hunk," and cut it up so he could get the 

 pieces into his mouth, and he " crunched " it up 

 and swallowed it before it had a chance to melt. 

 After a short spell he commenced to vomit, and 

 threw up not only the water but the contents 

 of a very foul stomach; and from that hour he 

 began to mend. Suffice it to say, that, of the 

 seven of us in the family, we were all sick but 



