1881 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



115 



FBIEND STANLEY'S STORY CONTINUED. 



WHAT HE "didn't" DO IN 1880. 



!ELL, well! that old letter is scratched up out 

 of the basket after 13 months' confinement 

 for its length; good! Well, 1879 was a fair 

 year. I wintered all through, even 3 and 4 frame 

 nuclei, end had 125 to begin with, including the 30 

 nuclei. I hired a man to watch them and hive them 

 Avhen they swarmed, and put in starters in boxes, 

 and I visited them when I could, staying with him 

 one or two days in a week (I had to do all the manip- 

 ulating of them.\ until about the middle of June. 

 After that I spent most of my time there, and I got 

 50 lbs. of honey to the hive — ?,' box, and ?a extracted ; 

 T5 increase, some of the 75 being mere nuclei. I also 

 transferred some 75 or 80 stands of bees, and sold 

 nearly 100 empty hives ; with what I had, and those on 

 shares, all together gave me, in the f pring of 1880, 340, 

 50 of which were very weak and short of stores; but 1 

 lost but one by starving, and it was overlooked. (I 

 will just state here that 40 of them came from with- 

 in 3 miles of Dr. Newell's, who, I see, reported his 

 all dead.) I doubled back to 215 in April; gave up 

 every thing else, and we (myself and wife) went to 

 bee-keeping for a living, and the result is, we are on 

 short rations; 10 lbs. of box and IVi of extracted, 

 and not of good quality at that; but it is mostly 

 sold at 20 cts. for box, and 15 for extracted. I ran up 

 to 280 in Aug., and doubled back in Oct. to 3c5, all 

 with plenty of honey. 



WHAT THE BEES HAVE DONE IN 1S81 SO FAR. 



Jan. 30th was the first day since the bees were shut 

 in that they could fly; and as I was 10- miles away, 

 as soon as I ate breakfast I started for my bees. I 

 had that evening and until 2 o'clock the next day 

 to look; and for the first time I then saw and felt 

 what it was to see dead bees; .50 Btands frozen dead, 

 and all weakened down; I think the hives will aver- 

 age 20 lbs. of honey to the hive now. I think some 

 froze in November. I could scarcely miss any honey 

 out of some hives. I could not help thinking of A. 

 Grimm's observation to a friend when I looked at 

 those nice combs of honey; viz., "Won't I have a 

 nice time raising bees next summer?" I was not 

 surprised at the Idss, and am very thankful it is no 

 worse. Thos. C. Stanley. 



Jeffersonville, 111., Feb. 8, 1881. 



THE SPIDER PliANT. 



PL.4.NTS RAISED UNDER GLASS, AND THOSE RAISED 

 IN THE OPEN GROUND. 



S I have before promised I will now give in my 

 report on Spider plant for last season. Of 

 the 5-cent package of seed I got of you I 

 planted about one-half of them late in March in a 

 box under glass— not in a regular hot-b3d— from 

 which I raised about 50 plants; the rest of the seed 

 I planted early in May in open ground, and got also 

 about 50 plants from them. Nearly all were trans- 

 planted when about 3 inches high; the first bloom 

 appeared about July 15th. Bees did not notice them 

 for a week or more; the first planting did not bloom 

 over two weeks ahead of the rest, although planted 

 nearly 8 weeks first. All plants bloomed until the 

 late hard frost killed them. When the weather was 

 wet, or moderately so, that big drop of honey would 

 always begiu to show at about 4 or 5 o'clock p.m., 

 and keep increasing until dark— or, I rather think, 

 until daylight next morning; for in the morning 



thousands of them could be seen,— I would say as 

 large around as a common lead - pencil, without 

 straining the matter at all. I did several times take 

 off stems with the drop of nectar, and take it to 

 show some of my neighbors, but would have to han- 

 dle them very steadily and right side up, or the drop 

 would spill out. I observed that, whenever the 

 ground got dry the drops would not appear in pro- 

 portion to the dryness, until there would be none at 

 all, when a good rain would produce them again. It 

 is scarcely necessary to say, that the bees worked 

 upon them just in proportion as they produce the 

 nectar. In the fall I had plants that spread at least 

 over 5 feet of ground, and an inch and a half stock 

 at the ground. From the hundred plants, I saved 

 about 10 lbs. of seed. I consider the Spider plant as 

 very valuable as a honey-plant for cultivation. 



A. A. Fradenburo. 

 Port Washington, O., Feb. 14, 1881. 



SOITIE EXCEPTIONAL FACTS. 



raiEND HASTY'S REPORT OF THE WINTER. 



fjTfr'Y-P to Feb. 11th, the death-roll in my apiary is 15 

 lj!J out of 104. Dysentery and its consequences is 

 ^■^ the c<»use of the most of it. Some strong col- 

 onies, very warmly packed, got a drift of dead bees 

 clear up among the frames, that couldn't well be 

 poked out from the entrance. Next the living bees, 

 still strong, got in a rage at finding themselves pris- 

 oners, or possibly at the smell, and made such a heat 

 that they melted the combs down. A little queer for 

 such a cold winter, is it not? The colony I meant to 

 rear drones from went this way; also one with a 

 fine Italian queen from W. Z. Hutchinson. 



Part of the hives were not very warmly packed. 

 These ate honey at such a rate that several of them 

 starved before I got wind of what was going on. I 

 thought I was making examinations enough to be 

 quite safe; but there was a corner where I didn't 

 look. 



With one exception, all these 15 extinct colonies are 

 blacks. The hybrids, numbering 37 (more than a 

 third of the apiary), have lost only one; and that 

 one was weak and in a bad condition last fall. As a 

 general thing, I plumply don't believe that hybrids 

 winter better than blacks; but here is the fact not- 

 withstanding. 



DO THE BEST HONEY-G.ATHERERS WINTER AS WELL 

 OR BETTER THAN OTHERS? 



The stands that made the most honey have suffered 

 the most. The honey record of the 15 is as fellows : 

 Three of them made more than three times the aver- 

 age of the apiary; five others made about twice the 

 average, or upwards; three others made consider- 

 ably more than the average; and only four made 

 less than the average. 



This time I will not theorize on these facts, but 

 just stop short. Would like your experience, friend 

 R., whether colonies that make the most honey are 

 generally more apt than others to give one the slip 

 in winter. E. E. Hasty. 



Eichards, Lucas Co., Ohio. 



My experience has been rather to the con- 

 trary ; and if I am not mistaken, those col- 

 onies that every year were strong, and every 

 year gave a good surphis, always wintered 

 well, unless they were divided, or otherwise 

 tinkered with. 'You are doing pretty well, 

 friend II. , but we do not want you to let any 

 more die through neglect. 



