336 



GLEiVNINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



July 



ter in a first-class cellar. I set out in the spriug-, 51 

 stands in fair condition, and most of them were in 

 chaff hives with chatf pillows on top, and confined on 

 5 and 6 frames. Had the weather been as usual 

 after setting out in spring-, all would have gone 

 right through; but you all know how it turned out. 

 I found them growing beautifully less day by day, 

 and after each spell of cold weather they were 

 united until I could count but 16 weak things, and 

 still scarcely any brood, and they confined on 3 and 

 4 frames. To-day they are filled full of brood, hon- 

 ey, and bees, and I have had 5 swarms. If we have 

 a fair season I will build them up to their original 

 number. You maintain that, with proper manage- 

 ment, there is no season so poor that bees will not 

 secure enough stores for winter. Now, I fell safe 

 in saying this is all bosh, and thousands will say 

 the same on reading this. Tell your customers that 

 one pound of granulated sugar is worth 3 pounds 

 of that vile stuff called grape sugar. 



I know it is unsettling to the minds of beginners, 

 and puzzling to veterans in the pursuit to know 

 what course to pursue after reading so many re- 

 ports of success and failures coming out of the same 

 (or what seems the same) course pursued in the 

 preparation of bees for winter. I spent some time 

 this spring examining bees within 10 or 15 miles of 

 my locality, and I will report, for the benefit of all, 

 what came under my observation. Generally, all 

 were dead; but here and there I found some living, 

 and I want to give the conditions under which thej' 

 were left for winter. 



I found one man with -t colonies, all he started with 

 In the fall. First hive examined had all the sections 

 on, as in summer, and in prime condition. Next 

 hive had section frames and boxes removed, and 

 covered with several thicknesses of old cloths, and 

 just bees enough to run a little brood in one frame. 

 Third hive had all sections on as first, and a perfect 

 "boomer." Fourth hive fixed same as second, and 

 In prime order— lots of bees and brood. Now, I don't 

 see any thing proven in this case, as to which is the 

 better way— to leave on or take off the section box- 

 es; if any thing, better left on. Bees were wintered 

 on summer stands. Another party had five hives in 

 fall, and fi\e living in spriug; wintered in a bee- 

 house facing the south, and in box hives raised on 

 blocks half an inch all round, and honej'-boxes on 

 with entrances opening into the same. Bees, pure 

 blacks; one colony in the best condition ; the other 4 

 rather weak, but building- up nicely, and plentj' of 

 honey. A small apiary, 13 stocks, in same neighbor- 

 hood, left in same shape, all died. Examined 6 colo- 

 nies of black bees, all the man had in the fall, and 

 found them in prime order, and especially one hive 

 having a ?i-inch crack from top to bottom, exposing 

 combs to view, and inch blocks under each corner of 

 hive. That's pretty "high "for last winter. Why, 

 I could not have slept at night at all had I a stock of 

 bees in that shape, even if they were blacks. The 

 entrances to boxes were open, and honey-boxes left 

 on in this case. The owner said to me, " Why, you 

 fellers smother your bees In the winter by keeping 

 them closed up too tight; they sweat and become 

 damp, and in this condition soon perish." 



I want to tell a little experience of my own. 



One season I had a swarm come off on the 16th of 

 May, several days in advance of other swarms. Aft- 

 er hiving the swarm, I thought I would see if there 

 were finished cells in the parent hive. When I took 

 the cap off I was astonished to find the frames only 



half covered by the quilt, and that is just as they 

 were all winter out on summer stands, as I had not 

 opened that hive that spriug; but had I known it 

 was in such a sorry fix as that, you may be sure it 

 would have been put in what appears to me good 

 shape. 



I got a queen from your red-clover queen last fall, 

 and as she was put in a chaff hive with a powerful 

 colony I left them out; so one day in March, after a 

 cold spell, I wanted to see if there were any eggs in 

 the combs of that hive. So I opened it, and found 

 the whole business dead! I scratched out the queen 

 and took her into the house, remarking to Mrs. B , 

 "There is my red-clover queen gone up." 



" Well," said she, " that's too bad." 



" Yes," I said, "she is in the 'Blasted Hopes' de- 

 partment, along with the rest of us." But just at 

 this juncture I thought she moved slightly in my 

 hand, and in a few more minutes she was as brisk as 

 any bee. I gave her to a queenless stock, and day 

 before yesterday she came off with a fine swarm, 

 and left 7 L. frames filled with brood. Pretty well 

 for a dead queen ! 



This is a good spring to select queens to breed 

 from. A stock of bees that stored enough last sea- 

 son for their support in localities where it was par- 

 ticularly poor, and wintered without care or special 

 protection, and did not dwindle, is worth propagat- 

 ing. I have two such colonies. They are dark Ital- 

 ians, and I will rear almost all my queens from 

 these. I bought one powerful stock of blacks that 

 had ''stolen enough honey from the beauti'fid Italians" 

 to run them through; and, " don't you fail to forget 

 it," I will rear some queens from her too. 



I think I hear some "fellers" who have just taken 

 the Italian fever bad, and a few breeders of Italians. 

 Cyprians, and so on, say, " Is not that awful? I'd 

 like to pinch their heads off." 



I want to tell you a joke, if you don't say any thing 

 about it. One season, while living in Jefferson Co., 

 O., I was Italianizing bees for neighbors whenever I 

 had a spare day from my farm work. So one day I 

 drummed out the bees from a box hive, and as the 

 queen had mated with an Italian drone, I took her 

 to a queenless stock to experiment with. The first 

 thing I did was to rear queens from her, and select 

 one of the lightest-colored queens to have fertilized 

 by an Italian drone, and from her rear queens, sav 

 iug the lightest queen. The fifth generation gave 

 me some of the finest queens and lightest-colored 

 bees I ever saw. One day the party from whom 

 I got the original black queen asked what I would 

 take to let him pick a queen out of my apiary. I had 

 been showing him one of these fine-colored queens 

 above alluded to. I put the price away up, and he 

 was only too glad of the chance; so he selected, as I 

 expected, a queen that had descended from the old 

 black queen taken from his hive two years before. I 

 told him thehistory, but beauty was what he was 

 after, and he seemed satisfied. 



I notice there are a great many lengthy articles 

 concerning natural and artificially reared queens- 

 some claiming that the queens reared as the aver- 

 age breeder rears them arc the great cause of spring 

 dwindling, bad wintering, etc. I think there is some 

 nonsense about all this theory. I have some queens 

 that were reared under the swarming impulse, and 

 some 3 and 4 year old queens this spring that were 

 reared in stocks allowed to run the thing to suit 

 themselves after removing their queen, and for the 

 life of me I can't see any difference, as all are now 



