1881 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



339 



AN A B € SCHOLAR'S ARTIFICIAIj 

 SWARMING. 



BOUGHT 8 swarms of bees last fall, with plt-nty 

 of bees and stores; moved them ia the month 

 of January. They were in L. hives without 

 chaflf cushions. When I got them heme I put on top 

 of frames chair cushions. In February, 3 colonies 

 died with about 30 lbs. of honey. The rest wintered 

 all right. One suffered some from spring dwindling ; 

 the remainder were all strong the loth of May. 

 Then I thought, as I had to be away from home the 

 most of the time, I would artificially swarm the 

 strongest of them, and have swarmed 4 of them. 



I shall have to be called one of the ABC class, as 

 I have not kept bees before in movable-frame hives, 

 and know but very little about bee culture. I have 

 your ABC book, and value it very highly; also 

 Langctroth. I am running them for bees instead of 

 honey; and as I had 6 colonies, I numbered them 

 from 1 to 6, and of course the new colony was No. 7. 

 I took No. 7 hive, fllle'd it with old comb and some 

 sealed honey, except one frame; then took a frame 

 of brood from No. 1, placing No. 7 in No. I's place, 

 then placmg No. 1 in No. 7's place on the further side 

 of apiary. This was done in the middle of the day, 

 and the bees that went forth in the morning in 

 search of stores from No. 1, of course came back to 

 occupy hive No. 7, to their disgust, as the comb was 

 not very clean and neat. But they soon settled 

 down to " solid business," and went to work; built 

 up queen-cells, and now are doing well, except one 

 from which I took the old Queen with the frame of 

 brood, and they are doing as well as the others, and 

 the old colony is rearing the new queen. The 3 last 

 I divided the 25th of May; one I gave a queen-cell 

 from No. 7. 1 think this plan a grand success for a 

 new beginner to practice, although it may not be the 

 best plan to adopt for others. I have had no expe- 

 rience with any other plan, and do not wish to ad- 

 vise others, as I am belter adapted to learn than to 

 teach. I commenced in the latter part of March to 

 feed my bees on bee-candy, made with 1-5 part flour 

 and 4-5 granulated sugar; put on top of frames un- 

 der the cushion; then the first days that they would 

 fly I commenced to feed them rye flour, and that ac- 

 counts for their being so str>.ng, and many of my 

 neighbors' so weak. I think the object is, to get the 

 bees as early as possible in spring; for without the 

 bees we can not get the honey. 1 have built 33 chaff 

 hives, and shall use no other, as I think the principle 

 the best of any, and am in hopes to increase the 6 to 

 30 this season by the method 1 have adopted. 



Mr. O. L. Grennuff had;}6; lost all but 13. Perry 

 Bros, had 40; lost all but 0. The above were win- 

 tered on summer stands without any protection. 

 C. J. Kobson had 4; lost none; his were buried in 

 the ground. C. H. MoORE. 



Richford, N. Y., Juae 5, ISil. 



Your plan does very well, friend M., if 

 you keep constantly in mind the idea that, 

 every day you keep a strong colony without 

 eggs or brood to care for, you sustain a great 

 loss. This is why we should have but few 

 bees in a colony until the young queen be- 

 gins to lay, and then we can strengthen them 

 up as much as we choose. While the bees 

 are waiting for the young queen, they can 

 care for a comb of eggs just as well as not, 

 and this is where neighbor H. succeeds so 



well in raising queens. He keeps every 

 queen in his apiary doing ner utmost in fill- 

 ing combs, and all the bees in every queen- 

 less colony supplied all the time with eggs 

 to keep them busy. 



REPORT OF THE BEES THAT WORKED 

 ON FliOUR IN THE HIVES IN MARCH. 



SEE P. 234, MAV NO. 



fKEPT the bees working upon the flour during 

 cold days, by putting a hot soapstonc over the 

 — ' feeder, and it would keep it warm almost all 

 day. The bees did not carry down more flour than 

 they consumed rearing brood. The swarm after- 

 ward became quite small, but not more so than 

 others as large that we could not induce to work 

 upon flour. We have fed flour in hives other 

 springs, and could induce about one in five to use 

 it, and these invariably came out ahead. Mr. L. C. 

 Koot's and Doolittle's localities are so much later 

 than here, that that has to be taken into considera- 

 tion, with reference to our own. This has been a 

 remarkable season. We could hardly get bees to 

 carry in honey, and they seemed not to have pluck 

 enough to even rob. We have been lunesomc for 

 stings. 



White clover is coming into bloom, and is very 

 plentiful; but yet the weather is very dry, and if 

 we don't have rain soon, the clover will not amount 

 to much. Black locust and dandelions are now in 

 bloom. Mrs. L. H.\rrison. 



Peoria, 111., May 33, 1881. 



My friend, this is just about as I expected, 

 and I came pretty near adding, " And always 

 thought it would be." March feeding, espe- 

 cially late years, even though you thereby 

 start brood-rearing, is pretty sure to leave 

 the colony no better, and often not as well 

 oif, as those not so fed. Of course, such 

 would not be the case were the weather fa- 

 vorable for them to fly out, as it is on occa- 

 sional seasons. I can explain it in no other 

 way, than that the excitement and stimulus 

 of the food induces them to fly at unsuitable 

 seasons, so that more are lost than are raised, 

 by the feeding. I judge this from finding 

 that the bees that are left, after the colony 

 has dwindled down, are all young, downy 

 bees. At the same time, and in the same 

 apiary, queenless colonies will preserve all 

 their old bees until June, and after a queen 

 is given them in suitable weather they will 

 bring up in very fair shape. I would by no 

 means discourage these experiments, for J 

 feel sure we shall eventually succeed in rear- 

 ing as many bees as we wish, any month in 

 the year. 



Friend Jones has just submitted to mo a copy of 

 the letter which he wrote friend Dadant, and to 

 which the latter alludes under the head of " Fair 

 Play," on page 3;5, May No. I think no one would 

 say, from reading the letter, that any reflections are 

 cast on the honesty and fairness of our well-known 

 friend Dadant, and I can see no reason why the mat- 

 ter should not be dropped right here. 



