1881 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



241 



out this old honey for rearing brood, and get 

 my crop of extracted from the new. Bees 

 will manage candied liouey without trouble, 

 in the summer time. 



REPORT FROM MRS. AXTELL. 



We are losing largely in our bees this cold winter; 

 50 colonies are already dead, and probably many 

 more will die; but "the Lord gave and ho taketh 

 away; blessed be the name of the Lord." We do not 

 feel that we have any right to feel one murmuring- 

 thought, neither are our hopes blasted in respect to 

 the bee business; for i£ the Lord gives us strength 

 we will sec how much we can m ike out of the re- 

 maining ones, as tht-y all belong to him, not to ns. 

 Those in the cellar seem veiy quiet, and have, as far 

 as we can judge, wintered well; but it may be the 

 quiet of death, as the weather is yet too cold to set 

 them out. D. D. Palmer, of Sweet Home, says his 

 are all dead, and he wants to sell all his hives and 

 cjmbs. Mr. Sculder, of same neighborhood, had 

 only 30 left out of 180 some three weeks ago. Our 

 queens last fall, it seemed to me, did not fill their 

 hives with eggs as heretofore; consequently colonies 

 were weak. Sarah J. W. Axtell. 



Itoseville, Warren Co., Ill , April 15, 1S81. 



WHAT ARE OLD COMBS WORTH TO WORK INTO WAX? 



What had I ought to pay for old comb to work into 

 wax? 



Bees have wintered very well in this part of Maine, 

 although it has been the hardest winter known for a 

 number of years. C. M. Jones. 



Solon, Somerset Co., Me., April 8, 1881. 



This is a very hard matter to answer, friend 

 J. It depends very mucli upon whether the 

 combs are new, and mostly wax, or whether 

 they are largely made up of old cocoons and 

 propolis. New white combs are almost all 

 wax, but oftentimes the old tough ones are 

 scarcely i part or even less of wax. I know 

 of no better way than to buy a few and see 

 liow you come out. If you do not get wax 

 enough to pay for what >ou paid, and the 

 trouble of rendering, you' will have to pay 

 less next time. I am very glad indeed to 

 hear that bees have wintered well in one 

 northern locality. 



WATER FOR BEES IX WIXTEH. 



Mr. Langstroth says that in the winter, 5 out of 6 

 bees die for want of water. I have a " patent " of 

 my own for watering bees. It has saved my bees 

 for several winters on their summer stands. I claim 

 no patent. I break up chunks of Ice and lay them 

 on the frames. The heat of the bees will melt all 

 they want to drink. JOHX Clixe. 



Watson, Effingham Co., 111., April, 1881. 



I hardly think bees die often for want of 

 Avater, unless they are confined to stores of 

 candied honey. The matter is one that 

 needs looking "into, Avithout doubt ; but most 

 of us feel as if our greatest difficulty was in 

 keeping the bees sufficiently dry. No doubt 

 tliey melt the ice, but this assuredly chills 

 the cluster, by so doing, and I should greatly 

 fear it would harm them, unless the colony 

 were very strong, or the pieces of ice very 

 small. 



cellars AHEAD. 



I feel about as much like going into Blasted Hopes 

 this spring as I ever did, and perhaps you will think 

 best to put me there. I have kept bees, or had the 



care of them, some 40 years; and duiing that time 

 have had ups and downs, losses and crosses and dis- 

 appointments; but none have inflicted a wound 

 deeper than in the present caso. Last fall J had !„';> 

 swarms, all in good condition, as I supposed; 20 

 swarms were Italianized with choice queens of my 

 own raising, from 4 nice queens I took from the 

 woods (that made it seem all the better, you know), 

 and what was better yet, the young queens were all 

 right and piirely fertilized late In the season by 

 drones kept for the purpose. But to the point: Of 

 the 123 swarms, I sold 24 last fall and the fore part of 

 winter; of the 99 left, I have lost all but 29, includ- 

 ing 15 of my choice queens. I think I shall lose 

 down to 19 swarms. Here let me say, my bees were 

 put into a building prepared for the purpose, about 

 the middle of January. My building was prepared 

 thus: 8 in. of sawdust on the outside, 8 in. straw on 

 the inside, all well packed. Why didn't my bees win- 

 ter better? Others have lost from }i to all. Cellar 

 wintering is ahead here. H. F. Newtox. 



"Whitney's Crossing, N. Y., April 12, 1881. 



I think you are right, friend N., in decid- 

 ing that good cellars are almost the only 

 sure winter repository, in a winter like the 

 past. It is quite a difficult matter to make 

 any building frost-proof during such weather, 

 unless it is at least partly under ground. 



DROXE-LAYIXG QUEEXS. 



I have one queen that won't lay an}- thing but 

 drone-eggs. What must I do with her? Must I kill 

 her and raise another one? I have taken all the 

 drone larvae from her. AVas that right? She was 

 a fine queen last year, and I lost one queen; but 

 along came a starved-out swarm, and I took care of 

 them, "you bet." Almost all of the bees hero are 

 dead. I was the first man that ever used a frame 

 hive here, and everybody is watching me. One says, 

 " You will kill your bees." J. W. Travlor. 



Mt. Joy, Delta Co., Tex., April 9, 1881. 



The best queen in the Avorld, friend T., is 

 liable to turn drone-layer at almost anytime, 

 and there is no better Avay than to kill them, 

 that I know of. Removing the drone comb 

 from the hive will be of no avail, for she Avill 

 lay in Avorker comb all the same. Either 

 give them another queen, or remove all the 

 brood comb, and give them some good brood 

 to rear another queen from, "i'ou Avere for- 

 tunate to find a runaAvay swarm, to put into 

 your queenless hiA^e just in time. 



IXTRODUCIXG QUEEXS. 



1 had a call last fall to go 50 miles from Wenham 

 to introduce some Italian queens. I wanted to in- 

 troduce them and return to Wenham the same day. 

 To make quick work of it, I prepared some introduc- 

 ing cages as follows: I made a ll^-inch hole in a 

 piece of wood 3 inches square and half an inch 

 thick; nailed a thin piece on one side to keep the 

 bees in, and wire cloth on the other. I cut a slot in 

 one edge clear through to the cavity and filled it 

 with home-made sugar candy. The bees were in 

 movable-comb hives, and the frames were covered 

 with thin quilts. After removing the queens from 

 the hives, I placed the introducing cages on the 

 frames under the quilts, and let the sugar come di- 

 rectly over the opening between the frames, so the 

 bees could get at it and release the queen. The re- 

 sult was, the queens (8 in all) were all safely intro- 

 duced. Can any one do better? H. Alley. 



Wenham, Mass., April 14, 1881. 



