90 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



^^dfl^^ni 



f THANK you for the lessons of faith and charity 

 you give us; and may God bless you, and fill 

 — ' you with his Spirit. The Nov. No. just an- 

 swered some questions in part that I wished to know 

 about. Would friend Jones please explain his way 

 of feeding bees on sugar— whether in candy or syrup, 

 in winter, out of doors, or in cellar, as he says, in 

 Nov. No., he wintered 160 swarms on sugar? The 

 care of beos is to me a pleasant recreation, although 

 it is a science of small and nice cares, and it has 

 much to learn. 



This spring I had 14 swarms— 8 in the new Lang- 

 stroth hive, 5 of which gave me over 200 sections of 

 honey, and one old-fashioned L. hive, which gave 40 

 lbs. box honey. From one hive I tooli two frames of 

 honey and brood— one to each of two others that I 

 was feeding in the spring, and it gave me a small 

 swarm the 8th of June. Then I put the new swarm 

 in place of the old one, so it should not swarm again. 

 It never seemed to do well, and I think the queen 

 was lost when on her wedding tour ; fiually the other 

 bees robbed and destroyed the swarm. 



The yield of honey from apple-bloom was extra 

 good this spring. No rain fell till out of bloom. 

 White clover was abundant, but fresh showers dur- 

 ing the day hindered the bees from collecting. It 

 seemed to me that there was not as much honey as 

 usual in the bloom. I had only two first swarms, 

 and one second swarm. The hives seemed so full of 

 bees In May that I looked for swarms. My seven 

 swarms in box hives are fit only for Blasted Hopes. 

 Makv a. Munson. 



Independence, Cuyahoga Co., O., Dec. 8, 1880. 



now FRIEND JONES FEEDS GRANULATED 

 SUGAR 



If I am correct, my friend ]SIr. Jones does 

 all his feeding in warm weather, during the 

 fall. He feeds the sugar in the form of a 

 syrup, and feeds it by pouring it on the bot- 

 tom-board of the hive. Of course, the hive 

 has a permanent bottom, made tight by 

 melted wax, if not already made so by the 

 bees, and the front end is slightly elevated, 

 while feeding is being done. The syrup is 

 poured in just at }iight. The idea although 

 it has many good features, has also its ob- 

 jections, such as holding rain-water after 

 storms, etc. It is a plan that has been many 

 years in use, but I believe has not, of late, 

 had very much favor. If I am wrong, will 

 friend Jones please correct V 



'i^lierl^ ffif OMMgmg. 



5650 LBS. OF HONEY FROM 53 COLONIES OF COMMON 

 BEES IN ONE POOR SEASON. 



HAVE sold, of comb honey in sections, 2153 lbs. 

 that I have an account of. I also sold about 

 20O lbs. in brood frames. I have also sold be- 

 tween 9 and 10 barrels of extracted. Well, to make a 

 long story short, I think it safe to say that I ob- 

 tained 5650 lbs., which would be 107 lbs. for each old 

 stock that I had in the sprmg, which was 52— mak- 

 ing, at prices obtained, about $550.00. How is that 

 for a poor season, and black bees at that— or, rath- 



er, what they call black bees around here; but I call 

 them brown bees? Any how, they can't be beat for 

 work by any thing I have ever seen yet. I put 92 

 colonies into winter-quarters, with plenty of honey 

 for winter, and expect to extract about 2 barrels ia 

 the spring. Dennis Gardner. 



Carson City, Montcalm Co., Mich., Jan. 8, 1881. 



When the spring opened out I found myself with 

 20 colonies to begin the season with. Eight out of 

 20 were so weak in bees that it took the whole honey 

 season to build them up to anything like a fair stock 

 of bees. It will be seen that I reduced my number 

 to 12; from the 12 I took 850 lbs. comb honey in 1-lb. 

 sections, and increased to 45 strong swarms. My 

 bees are wintering nicely so far this cold winter. 



Thomas Chilly. 



Grafton, Lorain Co., C, Jan. 17, 1R81. 



FROM 1 TO 4, AND 50 LBS. OF HONEY IN ONE SEASON. 



I wintered one swarm last winter in a Langstroth 

 hive, which gave two good swarms in May, and 50 

 lbs. of box honey; one of the May swarms gave a 

 swarm in August, and it filled its hive by the 1st of 

 October. John G. Fox. 



Middle River, Madison Co., Iowa, Jan. 7, 1881. 



S<^4^ (tnd (Imrie^s. 



NEW COVER, ETC. 



SN regard to Gleanings' new dress, I will say that 

 it is perfection— stylish and artistic, and I can't 

 see how anybody can find fault with such a 

 splendid cover. Give us, my apiarian friends, as 

 much practical informa(i(jn through Gleanings as 

 you did last year (with the honest teacher's help), 

 and I should think all ought to be satisfied. Now, 

 Mr. Root, give us an illustration each month of some 

 apiary, and a cartoon, and I for one am willing to 

 pay 50 cents more for Gleanings per year. 



Preston J. Kline. 

 Coopersburg, Lehigh Co., Pa., Dee. 7, 1880. 



I sold all my honey at 18 and 20 cts. per lb. (box;) 

 2-lb. jars at 40 cts. (extracted). Casper Capser. 

 St. Joseph, Minn., Dec. 23, 1880. 



We are having a very cold winter. I have some 

 fears for our bees. It has been below zero from 5 to 

 26 degrees. D. A. Pike. 



Smithsburg, Md., Jan. 4, 1881. 



sweet corn FOR BEES AND " FOLKS." 



How many bushels per acre will sweet corn pro- 

 duce? How many bushels of green corn will it take 

 to make one of dried? F. J. Wardell. 



Uhrichsville, Tuscarawas Co., O , Jan. 5, 1881. 



[Who will answer?] 



I do not see why friend Johnson, of Danielsonville, 

 Ct., can find any fault. I sent him, as a personal fa- 

 vor, one swarm of Italians and a wintering box for 

 $0.00, and I warranted them to winter all safely. If 

 they do not winter, I am to send him another 

 swarm. A.W.Cheney. 



Kanawha Falls, West Va., Jan. 10, 1881. 



[I think he did not mean to find anj' fault, friend 

 C, and I presume he did not intend his letter for 

 print. You certainly did a great deal more than I 

 should want to, especially during such a winter as 

 this.] 



