1881 



GLEAJ^mGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



189 



of me who use any other than the old-style hives, ex- 

 cept a friend experimenting with a few Simplicity 

 hives. D. L. Murff. 



West Station, Holmes Co , Miss , March 7, 1881. 



No doubt (xod permitted the tliief to 

 steal your money, friend M. ; but I am 

 very sure it was not his wish that he should 

 do so. and that one of the lessons he wishes 

 you to learn from the transaction is, keep no 

 such amount of money about you. where a 

 thief might be tempted thereby. "Whenever 

 you liave any such sum unemployed, put it 

 in your bank, and ^ive a check to whomso- 

 ever you wish to pay. If it is inconvenient 

 to put it in a bank for any reason, put the 

 greater part of it in an inside pocket, and 

 handle it in such a way that no one shall 

 know you have any such sum with you. 

 Carelessness in handling both money and 

 honey(is often the means of making thieves 

 of both men and bees. 



niJft RED-CLOVER QUEEX. 



The two queens we got of you last summer are all 



right, while the ones we got from Mr. and 



are all dead long ago. I believe the red-clover queen 

 to be a very superior bee. I also believe that the 

 most of cheap queens are worthless. If Red Clover 

 gets through all right, I will raise our own queens. 

 Our bees have been a dead expense so far. Will try 

 again. Mary A. Terris. 



Purdy, Barry Co., Mo., March 10, 1881. 



Such has been the case in our own apiary, 

 friend Mary, and as the red-clover queen is 

 once more strong and all right, while many 

 others are dead, we shall again raise queens 

 from our red-clover queen, at least to a con- 

 siderable extent. A little more charity, my 

 friend. Low-priced queens, raised honestly, 

 should be exactly like all others, only that 

 they are not as yet tested. 



A GOOD REPORT ALL AROUND. 



About two years ago I bought a " sample hive " of 

 Mrs. Lizzie E. Cotton, for which I paid :?1.03. I 

 thought this a high price for only a " sample " which 

 I could not use. I saw in Feb. Gleanings an arti- 

 cle, "Bee-Keeping for Profit, by Lizzie E. Cotton." 

 I concluded to ask her to send me a copy gratis, be- 

 cause I thought she charged me too much for the 

 sample; and, behold ! the other day I received a 

 copy free. I thank her for it. 



I had ten colonies of bees last fall; wintered them 

 out-doors. In Feb., two which I transferred last 

 fall, swarmed out and united with the rest. One 

 had brood in all stages. One of the eight, which I 

 have yet, I bought in Nov. last for thiriy cents. It 

 was in an old store-box with broom-sticks for cross- 

 bars, and had 6 lbs. of honey. I transferred it as 

 soon as I got it home, and fed it sugar syrup and 

 candy. It seems all right thus far. 



Henry L. Weiss. 



Spinnerstown, Bucks Co., Pa., March 14, 1881. 



wintering without protection, etc. 

 I will try to tell you how my bees have done so 

 far. I went into winter-quarters with 30 stands of 

 bees -29 extra good, 1 not very good; sold 3 since, 

 and the poor one died, so I wintered and have on 

 hand 26 in as good condition as I ever saw bees at 

 this time of year. The bees did not have a good fly 

 from the 15th of Nov. until yesterday (March 10.) I 

 fed rye meal yesterday; to-day Is not warm enough 



to fly again. The most of my bees have chaflf in up- 

 per story, but those that have no chaff are seeming- 

 ly as good as those with chaff. I left all the 10 

 frames in, and those full of sealed honey. Some of 

 the side combs are yet untouched, and strong with 

 healthy bees. I had, for a wind-break, corn-fodder 

 set on the north side of the hives of most of them. 

 On one hive I left the section boxes on, and these 

 were filled with honey, and some bees clustered on 

 them, and yet wintered all right, while the ther- 

 mometer near them stood, Dec. 29th, 17° below zero. 

 I think I shall have plenty of bees to start in with 

 the early bloom. I also think I can sell bees by the 

 pound this spring, as it looks all right now. No 

 Blasted Hopes for me. W. St. Martz. 



Moonshine, Clark Co., Ills.. March 11, 1881. 



POLLEN, AND ITS RELATION TO DYSENTERY. 



Has not friend Merrybanks struck the keynote at 

 last, in regard to the great bee malady, dysentery? 

 I made the remark to a neighbor, but a short time 

 ago, that if any one could find out the true cause of 

 the disease, it would be worth a fortune; here is 

 what I have observed this past winter. Last fall I 

 put flour candy over several stocks of my bees; soon 

 after, we h:id our first zero freeze, which lasted 

 about 2 weeks, then "one warm day that the bees 

 could fly freely, and at once I noticed signs of dys- 

 entery. Some stocks spotted their hives with the 

 well-known yellowish-brown color, and others with 

 a white or milky color, which made me think then 

 that the flour was giving dysentery; audi observed 

 particularly that the flour seemed to pass them un- 

 digested, or apparently in grainy lumps. 



Well, after reading the E. A. Robinson letter, I 

 went out and examined a good stock that had died 

 with two good frames of sealed stores, but had got 

 clustered off away from them, in one corner of the 

 hive and had starved, and they were bright and dry, 

 and not the least spot or sign of dysentery about any 

 part of the hive; and further examination showed 

 butnow and then a scattering cell with a little pollen 

 in, perhaps a dozen in all, and nothing to indicate 

 that they had eaten any pollen. Tney had no candy. 



Question: Can any bee-keeper who reads this 

 show that a single stock of bees have ever had dys- 

 entery when they have had no pollen at all? 



A. A. Fradenburo. 



Port Washington, Ohio, March 14, 1881. 



green corn, again. 



The only way we care to dry corn or eat it is to boil 

 it first, then slice off outer ends of grains thinly, and 

 scrape the rest so as to leave the hulls on the cobs; 

 then spread on nice boards, tins, or plates, and dry 

 in dry-house or stove, without scorching or souring 

 it, and we consider it far superior to the old way, 

 and a nice dish, and it requires but little cooking 

 after it has been soaked soft. As none mentioned 

 this way in your paper, I thought they had never 

 had any. Maria Demino. 



Watertown, Washington Co., O., Feb. 26, 18S1. 



OUT-DOOB AND CELLAR WINTERING. 



Our bees did very well last season. We are winter- 

 ing 35 swarms— 20 in the house and 15 out-doors. Ten 

 of those out-doors are packed in chaff, and 5 with 

 boxes over them. They have been well^overed with 

 snow, and we do not see much difference in either 

 way of wintering. They are all doing well. 



M. & W. Ottaway. 



Volusia, Chautauqua Co., N. Y., Feb. 28, 1881. 



