1881 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



3o 



breeds very nice, gentle, three-banded workers. 1 

 have increased those 5 stands to 27, and taken two 

 late swarms from box hives that were to be killed. 

 I united them together, and they are doing well. 

 I took two from the woods rather late in the fall, 

 and they are doing tolerably well. I bought 10 other 

 stands in box hives; transferred all of them into 

 chaff hives, and these arc doing pretty well. Six of 

 the ten ha%-e not stores enough to winter; but 1 am 

 feeding them. I will not let them starve, if grape 

 and coffee A sugar will keep them. I have now 30 

 stands, all packed in chaff, mostly in good order. 

 The Cypi-ian queen that I bought of friend Jones, of 

 Canad.'i, is doing well. She is very prolific. Her 

 bees are nice, handsome, and gentle as any pets can 

 be. I did not get much honey this summer. It was 

 a poor honey season. I got about TO lbs. of honey. 

 I have been working for bees more than for honey. 

 I intend to raise honey-plants of different kinds. I 

 am offering buckwheat to my neighbors, free of 

 charge, if they will sow it. I will sow 5 acres my- 

 self. Wishing all my brother bee-keepers good suc- 

 cess, I feel very well satisfied with my bees. I think 

 they have done rll that was in their power. 



Philip Morningstar. 

 Wakarusa, Elkhart Co., Ind., Nov. 22, 1880. 



BRIEF REPORT. 



I have been at bee-keeping on a small scale in this 

 county four years. I had three good seasons out of 

 four. The third year was a season of drought. Out 

 of 60 stands in spring, 14 weak ones remained at the 

 end of a year. These U I increased to 42 (I used old 

 comb), and gave about 1800 lbs. extracted honey; all 

 sold at an average of lie per lb. A. Hummel. 



"Webb City, Mo. ■ 



A BAD REPORT FROM SUGAR-FEEDIKG, APPARENTLY. 



I have inclosed one dollar for Gleanings for an- 

 other year, but I think you will have me in Blasted 

 Hopes long before the year is up, for my bees are 

 dying so fast I am afraid they will soon be all gone 

 I did not get a teaspoonful of honey out of 5 hives 

 and no swarm at all. I gave one last year's swarm 

 about 18 lbs. cf the best sugar I could get, and they 

 are dying faster than any of them. Now, I do not 

 want to be put in the Growlery, but the Simpson 

 seed you sent me did not grow. I got only two 

 plants, and I am not sure but they are weeds. The 

 Spider plant did well. The bees worked a good deal 

 on it. Isaac Staples. 



Dayton, O., Dec. 4, 1880. 



It may be tliat the sugar is not a prevent- 

 ive of tlieir dying in winter, friend S.; but 

 tliere are two points you have not made 

 very clear. At what time did you feed this 

 colony 18 lbs. of sugar? If it was early in 

 the season, they may have consumed it all, 

 and may be now on fall stores. You say 

 you got the best sugar you could find. Was 

 it as good as coffee AV ' Granulated sugar is 

 quite a little purer still, and friend .Tones in- 

 sists that it is by far the most healthful. 

 We are very sorry to hear of your poor suc- 

 cess. ' 



WIRE CLOTH OVIR THE BEES FOR WINTER. 



Hns the experiment ever been tried, that you 

 know of, of substituting wire cloth for the mat over 

 the frames of bee-hives in winter, and then filling 

 the upper story with well -sifted chaff? I have 

 thought of this since putting my bees into their 



winter-quarters, or I would have tried it. It seems 

 to me that the moisture, which is always found on 

 the enameled cloth especially, would be absorbed by 

 the chaff, and that dryness in the hive secured, 

 which seems to be regarded as of importance in suc- 

 cessful wintering. James McNeill. 

 Hudson, N. Y., Dec. 7, 1880. 



The idea is an old one. friend M., as you 

 will see from back volumes. I used it for 

 one Avinter, and liked it well, only that it 

 was a good deal of trouble to open a hive, 

 and was. besides, pretty expensive. A good 

 many of these wire-cloth mats were sold, tin 

 lined. You see, you have got to remove all 

 the chaff every time you open the hive, or 

 else have the Mire cloth form the bottom of 

 a sort of box, as it were. If you do the lat- 

 ter, you will kill bees when you set the box 

 back, as you would not do with any soft or 

 yielding material, like the enameled cloth or 

 burlap. Besides, the bees will, at the first 

 opportunity, wax over the meshes of the 

 wire cloth, and then you have virtually an 

 oil cloth, or something a little harder, after 

 all. Wire cloth has also been frequently 

 suggested for the inside of chaff hives ; but 

 it would be more expensive than wood, and, 

 after it is waxed over, probably not as good 

 as the wood, after all. 



CLARIFYING EARLY-AMBER SYRUP WITH CLAY. 



The following is from The Indiana Far- 

 mer, and should have been given some time 

 ago. The ■' clay " idea has been mentioned 

 before in our columns. 



Those who have raised the early varieties of cane 

 are now working it up, and the reports that reach 

 us of the yield and quality of syrup, are very favor- 

 able. The strong- sunshine and high temperature 

 of July.and August secured this result. We have 

 reports from several manufacturers who are using 

 the clay (the light-colored clay is preferred), and as 

 the juice runs from the mill it is transferred to a 

 proper tank, and a half-bushel of clay is mixed with 

 100 gallons of the .iuice, and briskly stirred until the 

 mixture is thorough. Jt is then suffered to stand 

 quiet till the clay settles to the bottom, when the 

 juice will be found to be as clear as spring water, 

 the clay having carried the gum and green coloring 

 matter with it in settling— thus freeing the syrup 

 from the peculiar sorghum taste. The juice is care- 

 fully drawn off from the sediment and rapidly evap- 

 orated to the proper consistency. If the cane is well 

 ripened, litmus paper will show little or no acid; a 

 pound or two of powdered chalk may be mixed with 

 each half-bushel of clay. It is claimed for this pro- 

 cess that it not onlj' makes a better syrup, but that 

 it effects a great saving of labor in heating, skim- 

 ming, etc. The chief objection is that it exposes the 

 juice so long before boiling that the sugar is chiefly 

 converted into glucose. This can be prevented, to a 

 great extent, by the use of four ounces of sulphite 

 of soda to 100 gallons of fresh juice. Try clay. 



WIRE CLOTH FOR QUEEN-CAGES. 



Don't use painted wire cloth on queen-cages. Jolt- 

 ing about in the mails, the paint gets crumbled off, 

 and drops on the candy within. Last season I re- 

 ceived by mail two queens, and I could see a great 

 many particles of paint on the candy. Is it not 

 probable that the bees, in licking the surface of the 

 candy, will eat some of the smallest particles of 

 paint, and in feeding the queen impart the poison to 

 her? G. H. Pond. 



Bloomington, Minn., Dec. 7, 1880. 



This matter has been several times sug- 

 gested, but I have never known bees injured 

 iby the painted cloth we have kept in stock. 

 A neighbor mentioned having had bees and 

 queen all killed by using a wire cloth that 



