ISSl 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



293 



doors in sing-le-wall hive, with chaflf in top box, and 

 sawdust banked up on back and sides of brood-box. 



Fruit-trees have been in bloom three dnys, and 

 you may tell friend Doolittle that I think I will have 

 the first queen from natural cells, as several colls 

 are sealed, and more coming" on. As they are pure 

 and well marked, I shall save 'em all, "you bet." 



S A Shttck 



Bryant, Fulton Co., 111., May 9, 1881. 



A ORE.iT SINNER, AND — WATERMELON - .JUICE FOR 

 BEES. 



You say, on p. 225 of Gleanings, "The above re- 

 port is from myself, A. I. Root, editor of G leanings." 

 Now, this makes me think of an incident that hap- 

 pened aboutthirly years ag-o. My father and I got 

 lost In the then will woods. After my father had 

 tried every direction in vain to find home, he said, 

 "Washie, tie old Snip's reins up, and let her go. 

 Look out for limbs." And she did go straight home, 

 and, strange to say, we were within one-fourth mile 

 of home! Are you lost or not? is there no society 

 in Medina for the prevention of cruelty to animals? 

 were you not Indirectly the cause of the death of 

 three billion bees? Just think of it! I think surely 

 there would be less sin in the old flre-and-brimstone 

 mode. What would you think of me if I were to tell 

 you I lost one hundred tine calves by selling the milk 

 that belongs to them, and foran excuse I should say, 

 " I could make more out of the milk"? You would 

 say, " Shame on such a way ! " and so do I. I do not 

 say this to find fault, but I do think there is a better 

 way of treating our little pets; and, brother Eoot, I 

 do think you need a little reproving right here. 

 What say you? 



My bees wintered better than ever before. I found 

 the hive that packed the most watermelon-juice 

 wintered the best. I fed several hundred water- 

 melons to m3- bees, and they were all packed in saw- 

 dust. They are now working in the caps. I have 

 several queens laying that [ raised this spring. The 

 first one began to lay April 19. Geo. W. Stites. 



Spring Station, Spencer Co., Ind., May 9, 1881. 



AVhy, friend S.. I am a great deal n-orse 

 sinner tlian you represent me. I have not 

 only let all my bees die, but I have been in- 

 striunental in bringing into existence bees 

 all over our land, and other lands too, that 

 have died as mine did, and not only this past 

 winter, but other winters as well. I would 

 mostgladly tie up the lines and letold '' Snip '' 

 guide us safe home, if that would do it. If 

 you mean they would have wintered better 

 in the old brimstone way, and box hives, I 

 will tell you that a neighbor across the street 

 had a lot of box hives last season, and talked 

 almost all se-i son long of the advantages of 

 box hives and black bees to stand the win- 

 ter, etc.; but his box hives are all dead long 

 ago, and the only four he saved out of an 

 apiary of 2-5 or HO were Italians in chaff hives, 

 j)repared just as mine were. In fact, the 

 past winter has almost '•extinguished"' 

 black bees and box hives the country over, 

 and we are now ready for Italianizing, in a 

 way we never were before. If you mean 

 that we let our bees starve. I can tell you 

 that we have combs filled with good sealed 

 honey, in such quantity that I hardly know 

 what to do with them. You have wintered 

 all right, but hundreds have wintered all 

 wrong, where (to be frank) it is pretty hard 

 to tell why. The only swe way that I now 



see is protection by good cellars, such as 

 George Grimm and others use; but some of 

 the reports would seem to indicate that even 

 cellars are not •■ .*ffn'^?,(/ sure." Your water- 

 melon report begins to shake my faith again, 

 for I Avould have said, surely, that colony will 

 die. Right on this point, the Prairie Farm- 

 er gives a report of excellent wintering of an 

 apiary right close to a cider-mill, where the 

 owner expected they would all die, from in- 

 cessant Avorking on the cider. So well con- 

 vinced was he of this, that he moved a great 

 part of his bees away to save them; but those 

 he moved away died, while the cider-fed 

 ones lived. How much do we know about it, 

 after allV 



a disappointed ABC SCHOLAR, ETC. 



I suppose you want all of your ABC scholars to 

 speak their little piece, so I will make my bow. 

 Last June I bought an A B C book of you, and two 

 colonies of bees of Wm. Gary, Jr., of Colerain, Mass., 

 and took my place at the foot of the class. I began 

 dividing and building up colonics, and by fall had 

 seven strong clonics and two weak ones. The two I 

 united with two others, and prepared them for win- 

 ter by putting three in chatf hives according to your 

 direction?, and four in a good dry cellar prepared 

 as friend Gary does his. I determined to try both 

 plans, and satisfj' myself as to the better way to 

 winter; but to my disappointment all of them came 

 out strong and in good condition, so I am as much 

 in the dark as ever. Almost every one who has 

 bees lost part or all In this section this winter. 



WHY THEY ACT SO. 



And now please tell me what one swarm of my 

 bees are trying to act out; they are the only ones 

 that came out naturally last summer. I hived them 

 the 7th of July, and they have done as well as any of 

 the lot; but from that day to this, when it is warm 

 enough for them to be out, they are continually 

 pulling and hauling each other around on the alight- 

 ing-board; sometimes one and sometimes four or 

 five will get hold of one, and they will go over him 

 as though they would tear him all to pieces. I 

 thought at first there was robbing going on. Some- 

 times the victim takes it quietly until they get done 

 with him, and then walks quietly away; at others, 

 he tries hard to get away ; but I don't know that they 

 ever kill one. It can not be they arc daubed, and 

 these are cleaning them off, for none of the other 

 swarms have any such trouble. If you can, please 

 tell me what it means, and if I can put a stop to it, as 

 it annoys me very much. I shall hope to see it in 

 GLE.A.N1NGS for June. J. W. Merrill. 



Norway, Maine, May 9, 1881. 



The bees that they pull about so are, if I 

 am con-ect, young bees from some other 

 hive, that have got in there by mistake. 

 They do not want to kill them, as "they would 

 robbers, yet they wish to give theni to un- 

 derstand clearly that they do not belong 

 there, and are not wanted. The reason why 

 you see it in this particular hive and no oth- 

 er is, I think, that some other hive stands 

 too close to this one, or at least has such a 

 resemblance to it that the young bees are 

 continually getting confused. It is a rather 

 common phenomenon, and has several times 

 l)een commented on. If any one has a dif- 

 ferent explanation, we should be very glad 

 to hear it. 



