602 



GLEANIKGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



POISONED BEES. 



I am troubled about some disease that is killinjj 

 my little pets, my Italian bees. The worker bees In 

 all my full-blood Italians are dying by the hundreds. 

 The ground is strewn with them night and day. 

 They crawl out of the hive, and seem to lose the use 

 of their legs; squirm around, fall on their back, and 

 seem to die in great pain. They seem to be full of 

 honey, with plenty of sealed honey in their hives. It 

 does not seem to affect any but the Italian workers. 

 The young bees and hybrids are not affected at all. 

 What is the matter with them, and what can I do 

 for them? John P. Ingram. 



Bonham, Fannin Co., Tex., Oct. 20, 1881. 



The symptoms are somewhat like poison, 

 friend I. Are you sure they liave not been 

 in mischief somewhere, and got poisoned V 

 It looks a little like the Krock and Klasen 

 trouble. It may be they have gathered poi- 

 sonous stores from some source. See what 

 is said in A B C of poisonous honey. In any 

 case, I should remove their stores and feed 

 them on syrup of pure granulated sugar; 

 and if the bad symptoms then cease, Vou 

 will be sure it was from the stores they gath- 

 ered. The reason why it affects the Italians 

 and no others, is probably because they, in 

 their extra industry, have found something 

 the others have not. 



BEES ON SHARES, ETC. 



I have not taken Gleanings the past year, as I 

 have been away this season, and let a friend have 

 my bees to work on shares for half the honey and 

 half the increase. I got for my share 598 lbs. comb 

 honey, 149 lbs. extracted, and ll'/i swarms as in- 

 crease. I had 38 swarms that I let him have In the 

 spring — all I saved out of 85 swarms last winter. I 

 was at home 3 weeks the last of June, and pur- 

 chased one swarm of a man In the country. It was 

 put into an empty hive the 20th of June. I took 3 

 cards of brood from it with bees enough to cover, 

 and gave them some frames filled with combs in 

 their place, also filling the hive. I put the brood in 

 with frames filled \fith empty combs. They raised 

 a queen, and built themselves up to a good swarm. 

 I have enough to winter on. From the main hive I 

 have taken 125 lbs. comb honey in lJ4-lb. sections. 

 Is not that an extra good yield for a queen? I shall 

 work my own bees the next year, the Lord permit- 

 ting. I have 43 swarms now, all in good shape for 

 winter-quarters. I shall winter most of them in my 

 cellar, and pack the rest. My loss last winter was 

 in those that were packed out of doors. 



T. D. Ward. 



Lawton, Vanburen Co., Mich., Oct. 28, 1881. 



HOW THEY DO IN CALIFORNIA. 



In the beginning of February, bees were bringing 

 pollen in quite freely; the previous fall stores be- 

 ing almost intact, we proceeded to bruise the cap- 

 pings of one comb in each hive with the flat of hon- 

 ey-knife. This we continued to do at intervals, ac- 

 cording to the condition of each colony, and pretty 

 soon had rousing swarms, their number being 73. 

 Early in March we obtained a fine number of arti- 

 ficially raised queens, and at once provided each 

 with a two-frame nucleus, intending, in the event of 

 any swarms issuing, to give the parent hive a laj-ing 

 queen with two or three combs of brood and bees, to 

 make room for which we intended to remove a like 

 number in favor of the swarm which had issued. 



thus giving a fair start to all around, placing the 

 new swarm on the stand previously occupied by the 

 nucleus, so that the bees in the field might not be 

 lost. So far as we can judge from the few swarms 

 obtained (13 in number), we found it to work all 

 right — scarcely a bee being lost in the operation. 

 April 2d our first swarm came out; on May 7th, onr 

 last. Finding swarming going on slowly by reason 

 of cool cloudy weather during the first half of April, 

 we proceeded to build up our nuclei, and so prepare 

 for any honey which might come with brighter 

 weather. May 17th we began to extract, continuing 

 to do so at intervals till near the end of July, when 

 we shut down for the season, hiving obtained about 

 8500 lbs. 



Our yield of honey might have been greater but 

 for the fact that we had super comb for about a 

 dozen only, with 30 lbs. thick fdn., necessitating a 

 heavy building of comb with the first flow of honey. 

 Our increase for the season is 63, there being, at this 

 writing, 133 well-stored hives in our apiary. 



D. Stocks. 



Springville, Ventura Co., Cal., OJt. 7, 1831. 



TEXAS; ITS HONEY RESOURCES, BEE-CAVES, ETC., 

 AND— TOBACCO. 



I do not live athnusandmiles from your " Te.xan " 

 correspondent, who is the enviable (?) owner of those 

 nine young Texans in which you seem so much in- 

 terested (Sept. Gleanings, pages 443 and 443), and I 

 am very sure it would do you good to carry out 

 your desire; at least, you would seethe loveliest 

 bee country (natural) you ever saw. I do not won- 

 der at his wanting to secure a large yield of honey, 

 when he can get from 15c to 25c per lb. for it. Where 

 I live, only about 100 miles wnst of Richland Springs, 

 is a very different natural honey-producing country, 

 being high, rolling, and bare, so far as timber is con- 

 cerned; very dry. and no farming done except by ir- 

 rigation. 



I have lost one stand of bees already, and the oth- 

 ers are destitute of stores. I have not taken a 

 pound of honey this season, and am in a query 

 whether it will pay to feed my bees or not. I do 

 not now believe they will ever be any profit on this 

 creek, except at the head, where there is more tim- 

 ber and brush, nearly all of which bears honey at 

 some time of the year. The live-oak tree has an 

 abundance of honey on it now— little balls on the 

 tree, with great drops of honey on them. Bees get 

 very rich off them when they can reach them. I do 

 not know whether I am a "Blisted Hoper" or not. 

 You shall decide. 



I see an article copied from The Youtli'x Com- 

 panion, on " Bee-Caves in Texas." I think the pic- 

 ture a little overdrawn, and In my next I will tell 

 you, not of that cave, for I never heard of it before, 

 but what I know and have seen of "Bee-caves in 

 Texas." 



I will say here, that although I have been an ex- 

 cessive and successful tobacco-user for 8 years, up 

 to the 33d of September, 1S81, when I was converted, 

 so far as the weed is concerned I am now a dean 

 man. R. W. Landrum. 



Dave Creek, Texas, Oct. 15, 1881. 



May the kind Father bless and strengthen 

 you, my friend, in the work indicated in your 

 closing paragraph. If all men, when con- 

 verted, were converted clean, very likely 

 the world would take more stock in the re- 

 ligion of the Lord Jesus Christ.— We are 



