280 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUUfi. 



JulsTE 



that they arc not tou^h. They have not the neces- 

 sary strength to carry them throvigh, but they 

 would have had if they had been allowed to swarm 

 naturally. But the stock must be of the right stripe 

 to commence with, not queens that have been 

 raised by dividing, neither from queens that have 

 been raised from queens that were raised in super- 

 seding old worn-out ones. In fact, from queens 

 found in this country, Italy, Cyprus, and Palestine, 

 where they swarm naturally, and are far enough 

 from bee-keepers that are dividing and raising by 

 the quantity and not for quality. We can also get 

 good stock from a few queen-raisers. The proof of 

 good stock is in their wintering. If you look around 

 the country, you will find men with bees in common 

 hives, kept in the same place for 40 or 50 years, that 

 have wintered them without any great loss, for that 

 length of time. (See H. Alley, A. B. J., Feb. 9, 1881, 

 p. 42; see Gleanings for Feb., 1881, p. 84, J. C. Phil- 

 lips.) After awhile some neighbor gets an idea of 

 keeping bees according to the latest scientific ideas. 

 The ideas are nearly all of them right, but he does 

 not know how to apply them properly; gets a few 

 swarms, transfers to a convenient hive, so he can 

 divide them and build up a large apiary very quick- 

 ly. So ho divides every year until he gets a large 

 quantity of them; but what is the matter? His bees 

 at first wintered as well as his neighbors' in cnmmon 

 hives, without any extra care; but in three or four 

 years he begins to lose a good raaoy, and he anx- 

 iously studies up the wintering question, tries chaff, 

 cellar, etc., and gets along moderately well until, in 

 eight or ten years, more or less, after commencing, 

 there comes an exceptionally cold long winter, and 

 away go his and his neighbors' bees — his neighbors' 

 bees spoiled by drones from his poor, divided queens. 

 Then they report to all the journals that common 

 gums are no better than a frame hive. Why should 

 they be? it is not the hive that makes the bees 

 tough; any one can find (whore far enough away 

 from any of these dividing men) bees that have win- 

 tered well this season in common hives without ex- 

 tra care. We can find plenty of such reports in the 

 back numbers of the journals, where beginners have 

 lost all their bees after a few years of dividing. 



The surest way for any one to get good queens is 

 to raise them from his best stock, naturally, being 

 sure to mark all cells that are started before they 

 swarm, for they are always started from the egg, 

 and when they are matured, make nuclei, giving 

 each a cell. In that way he can raise bees that will 

 winter well in common hives, but better in chaff 

 ones. Need not be carried in and out of cellars, but 

 you must see that they have good stores. My bee- 

 keeping friends, it Is not the cold, for they live as 

 far north as civilized man. It is not the time they 

 are kept from having a fiy, for they are kept con- 

 . fined 5 or 6 months in different places, but because 

 they have lost that toughness which they had when 

 they came from their Creator. If you will take this 

 view of it you will sec that it is not strange that, of 

 two hives side by side, one should winter well and 

 the other should die out. One had a good queen, 

 and the other a poor one. S. S. Butler, M. D. 



Los Gatos, Cal., April 35, 1881. 



There may be truth in what you urge, 

 friend B.; but, if you are entirely right, wliy 

 do not common bees, witli the old style of 

 management, winter better? Our country 

 is almost rid of common bees this spring. 



Again, why does L. C. Root always succeed 

 M'ith liis cellar, and always get a good crop 

 of honey? Why did my "neighbors succeed 

 during the past winter? Neighbor II. got 

 all his bees from queens that I imported, 

 and the stock was precisely the same as 

 mine. I am inclined to go back to proper 

 care, rather than to natural swarming, etc. 



SOME HINTS IIV KKGARR TO MAKING 

 REPOKTS, ETC. 



|[^RlENDHOOT:-you will not fail to get all the 

 Jirl reports for Blasted Hopes you need to pub- 

 lish for a year to come, and as many Reports 

 Discouraging that, if all were published, your A B 

 C class would conclude that money invested in api- 

 culture is very liable to " take to itself wings and 

 fl3' away;" but after all said that can be said, perhaps 

 there areas many who succeed in honey-raising as 

 there are in any other business made a specialty. 

 Heddon has set an example in his report published 

 in Bce-Kecpcr's Guide for April, that I would like to 

 see followed; that is, stating the proportion of capi- 

 tal invested in bees. Now, can not you persuade all 

 who report for 1881 to report the proportion of capi- 

 tal invested in bees, or the occupation in connection 

 with which bee-keeping is carried on? 



For myself, the report for 1S80 runs thus: Mayl, 

 38 colonies; increase by artificial swarming, 3; nat- 

 uralswarms, 15; surplus, 900 lbs.; 600inl-lb. sections; 

 remainder extracted. Capital all in the business; 

 had the rheumatism so that the fore part of the sea- 

 son they were half cared for; the latter part of the 

 season hardly cared for at all. One was robbed in 

 the fall; 23 died up to date; hope to have 30 left the 

 first of May. To-day, Apr. 20, the first pollen is be- 

 ing carried in; Apr. 14, snow was four inches deep. 



The following I copy from my memorandum: — 



OCCUPATION. 

 Blacksmith 

 Blacksmith. 

 I<"armer and Bl'smith. 

 Blacksmith. 

 Cai.)italist 

 Hotel and Farnu-r. 

 Physician. 

 Farmer. 

 Faimer. 

 Farmer. 

 Apiarian. 



APltlL. 



John Fleming, 

 JI. Fleming, 

 (). Miller. 

 Jlr. Hollenbcry, 

 J. Cheever, 

 "\V. Tiflanv, 

 Dr. Jleacl.' 

 K. Eeynolds, 

 1*. Bi'ewer, 

 F. Vanpelt, 

 H. Kcranton, 



Most of the above use American hives. Vanpelt 

 has a Root chaff hive fille<l in with sawdust. His 

 one hive gave 100 lbs. surplus, no increase. Scran- 

 ton had 50 chaff hives; there are no other chaff hives 

 in town. There are six more I would like to hear 

 from who had quite a lot last fall. One is a box- 

 hive man who will not sell a swarm of bees for fear 

 of " selling his luck." If he hasn't lost any I will re- 

 port as soon as I hear. H. Scranton. 



Dundee, Micb., Apr. 20, 1881. 



^ ■a « <t» 



IIO^V TO GET SUBSCRIBERS FOR A BEE 

 JOURNAL,. 



A BOYS ONE-DAY'S EXPERIENCE. 



wp WILL have to write you my experience in try- 

 Ji([ ing to secure subscriptions for Gleanings. 

 — ' Being induced by your advertisement in price 

 list to obtain the Waterbury watch by procuring the 

 requisite number of subscribers, I started out on 

 Monday last to visit neighbor bee-keepers. The first 

 place I stopped at was friend Snodgrass'. Having 

 lent him a book some time ago I felt quite sure of 

 obtaining his name to my list; but after talking 



