1881 



GLEANINGS IN i3EE CULTUKE. 



443 



ested almost as much in the nine young 

 '' Texaus " you mention incidentally, as I 

 am in the honey. Give them my love, and 

 make your best bow to the •' madam," for me, 

 and give her my respects. I should dearly 

 love to just go and make you all a visit. 



BEES STINGING A TEAM OF HORSES, 

 AND SOME OTHER MATTERS. 



FROM OUR WISCOKSIN "A U ( CHILD." 



srag^EE.S arc doing- well now, woiking hard on see- 

 J^S ond crop of red clover. I examined some, 

 — and found the tubes nearly full of honey. I 

 wintered 24 colonies on summer stands; lost one in 

 glass hive. My bees have been swarming- every day 

 since May ix. 1 have trebled my number, but I use 

 lull sheets of fdu. I have been obliged to enlarge 

 my hives (Langstroth) to 10 frames, and space combs 

 IVi in. from center to center. Basswood did not 

 yield a drop, although it bloomed freely. The sea- 

 son is not as good here as last year so far. I ha\e 

 returned swarms to keep them in boxes, or else 

 should have had no surplus. As it is, I have TOO lbs. 

 white comb, and .500 or 600 lbs. extr-icted, with line 

 prospects ahead for fall yield. I have 3 Cyprian 

 queens. They are very prolific, and go into boxes 

 readily. 



Now, friend Root, I for one protest against your 

 paying for money sent H. A. Burch & Co., as they 

 advertise quite as much in A. B. J. as in Gleanings. 

 Several here sent him money one, two, and three 

 years ago, and heard nothing from it except prom- 

 ises, from time to time. These all took the A. B. J., 

 not Gleanings. 



BEES ON A RAMPAGE. 



I read in A B C of bees on a rampage. Well, we 

 had just such a case here yesterday. My father-in- 

 law, living 3 miles away, has 13 swarms of bees, and 

 as the team passed them with a load of oats (where 

 they had been drhiug the whole season without any 

 molestation), they became enraged, and sallied out 

 rii inmific upon the horses and driver. So sudden 

 was the attack, and in such great numbers, .-lU 

 bristling with venom, that, instead of an immediate 

 runaway, the team just stood fl.xed, pawed, and 

 fairly screamed aloud like wild beasts. Three men 

 were on hand, and did all in their power to get them 

 away, but no g;>. Th(,' swarm increased until their 

 heads, necks, and chops, were covered, the men all 

 the time rubbing them off, killing them by thous- 

 ands. One horse fell exhausted; its life is despaired 

 of ; the other is slightly better, while the men fared 

 little better, one of them fainting before the horses 

 were cared for. The women folks, too, have their 

 eyes shut. A calf was nearly killed. I hastened to 

 the scene, and found the horses rolling ia agony on 

 the barn floor. We gave brandy, and applied am- 

 monia, and covered them with mud; but they still 

 refuse to eat, and their eyes remain shut. Their 

 ears hang down like junk bottles. The folks are 

 suffering intensely. I picked 103 stings out of one 

 horse's ear. What could have caused the attack? 

 There was at the time a fine honej' How from 5 acres 

 of buckwheat, not 203 yards distant. It was at 8- 

 ,v.M., when they were busiest gathering. The bees 

 are from my stock, and reared from gentle Italians. 

 The 13 swarms are the increase of 3 wintered — one 

 strong, 2 weak, in spring ; the third swarm fill an 8 

 frame L. hive, and 3 cases of sections at a time, and 



have given 30 lbs. surplus, while llrst swarms have 

 given 100 lbs. He refused $10.00 for the queen of the 

 best hive (reared last season;; she tilled 30 L. frames 

 with brood befori^ swarming; her hive swarmed 4 

 times, and all were large swarms. If the horses die, 

 I will let you know. The men are unable to stand 

 up yet, being stung- mostly in the head and face. 

 Do you want any queens or bees? I can send you 

 some choice Cyprians, mated Italian drones. I can 

 send you 40 bushels of bees at SOc per lb. if you wish. 



E. A. MORGAN. 



Arcadia, Wis., Aug. 5, 1881. 



Friend ^I., I can hardly explain the ram- 

 page you describe, but by supposing that the 

 bees had some way got to robbing, unless 

 the queen you mention had met one of your 

 Cyprian drones, and it was the taint of a' for- 

 eign blood, somewhat akin to the Egyptian 

 strain. How near was the team to this hive? 

 It may be a good lesson to us. to be a little 

 careful how we drive horses too near hives 

 of bees. I presume the horses were in a pro- 

 fuse perspiration.— I have answered about 

 Burch ill another column.— Have plenty of 

 bees now. 



BEES IN NEBRASKA. 



HAVE been watching Gleanings for some time 

 past for reports of bee-keepers in Southern Ne- 

 braska. Up to this time I have seen only those 

 of friend Miles, of Pawnee City, and Mrs. Martin, of 

 Tecumseh. Even these reports w(;re not full enough 

 to give us any idea of the condition bees were in, In 

 their respective neighborhoods. 



I am an ABC student, and as a matter of fact, I 

 should like to hear of tener from friends, just how 

 the precious bees pulled through the long cold win- 

 ter. In this section, the winter of 1830 will never be 

 forgotten by any class ; no difference what the avoca- 

 tion was, it fell on all alike. At the same time, I am 

 of the opinion that our brothers in bee culture suf- 

 fered most; and among- them here I will give the 

 names of Jerome Wiltsc, of Rulo, Neb., and George 

 Schock, of Falls City. Mr. W. lost all his apiar>', 

 which numbered about SOOtirst-class colonies, except 

 some 7 or 8, which pulled through in very Ijad con- 

 dition. Mr. S. came out a shade better, with per- 

 haps one-half. Through the country generally, 

 there were a great many bees; but so far as I have 

 made inquiry, nine-tenths died during the winter, 

 and, as a matter of course, the people are consider- 

 ably discouraged, and will hardly embark again 

 very soon in bee culture. .Just here, friend R., let 

 me ask you, if the secret or success of raising bees, 

 especially in the North-west, doesn't depend mainly 

 on the way they are wintered. It seems to mc that 

 the heaviest losses last winter were among those 

 who have been keeping bees for a great many years; 

 and still, from some cause or other, the " amateur " 

 met with as good results as those Avho have expend- 

 ed thousands of dollars in ways and means by which 

 they could give to the world the true principles on 

 which we could rest with entire confidence, that, 

 after the labor of summer was over, and the harvest 

 gathered in, our purses replenished, and our hearts 

 thankful to a kind heavenly Father for his goodness 

 in the past we could feel that, when we had careful- 

 ly packed our bees for winter, with an abundance of 

 stores, they would come out in good condition in the 

 spring. 

 It has been extremely hot here for the last five 



