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GLEANINGS IN BEE CtJLTUBE. 



Jan. 



18 IT DYSENTERY? 



I looked at a colony of bees to-day, and they are 

 spotting the hive luside some. I do not know wheth- 

 er it Is the first stage of dysentery or not. They 

 smell a little strong for a clean healthy stock. It is 

 in a chaff hive, hut are packed on top of frames, or 

 I wouldn't call it packed either. There are two 

 thicknesses of burlap and one of carpet over them 

 — the only one I fixed in that manner. They appear 

 very lively. In half a dozen words, What do you ad- 

 vise? or am I making "much ado about nothing" ? 



WHY DO SOME COLONIES HAVE A STRONG ODOR? 



What makes some colonies have such a strong 

 smell when they appear in good condition? 



MOLDY COMBS. 



Do combs often have a kind of moldy appearance 

 in the hive, in fall and winter? I take out one comb 

 from each hive in fall, and spread in center for win- 

 tering in, and the combs stored away in other hives 

 have a moldy appearance, as well as many among 

 the bees. You can rub the combs, and nothing 

 comes off to indicate mold. 



I intend raising Italian queens next season. How 

 early in spring can I begin, to be on the safe side? I 

 would rather wait until swarming season, but I want 

 them sooner, if I can get them good. Can I get two- 

 thirds pure queens within a mile of a few colonies 

 of blacks? Do you condense your apiary any for 

 winter, or do you let your chaff hives stand just as 

 they do in summer? W. M. Young. 



Nevada, Wyandot Co., O., Dec. 16, 1883. 

 I noticed one of our colonies spotting tlieir 

 liive around tlie entrance very earlj' in No- 

 vember, after a heavy freeze; but to-day, 

 Dec. 22, I find them all right inside, al- 

 though tlie colony is rather weak in numbers. 

 Their combs have the same blue or moldy ap- 

 pearance you speak of, but I have never 

 found it to do any harm. A good strong 

 colony of bees will have a rank, unpleasant 

 odor unless they have abundant ventilation, 

 and may be they will even then; but I am in- 

 clined to doubt it. In my greenhouse or 

 cold-frame experiments, I found, by shutting 

 off the ventilation, that the bees would soon 

 fill the room with this strong rank smell, 

 and finally spot the hives and furniture, if 

 air were not given. I am inclined to think 

 that plenty of air will do away with all the 

 bad smell.— You can commence rearing 

 queens when the bees are at work on soft 

 maples, but you will have many discourage- 

 ments and some bad luck that you will not 

 have in June. The number of pure queens 

 you will get with blacks near, depends on 

 how many drones you keep in your own api- 

 ary. With lots of them flying daily, from 

 almost every hive, you may get nearly all of 

 yours purely fertilized, unless, forsooth, the 

 black stocks all have thousands of black 

 drones flying daily too. Don't you see how 

 hard it is to give any kind of a definite ans- 

 Aver to such questions, friend Y. V We 

 never move our chaff hives at all. 



OUR IMPROVED FOUNDATION, ETC. 



I have never reported on your new style of fdn., 

 such as I had of you last summer. I must say, it far 

 exceeds your old style, and is much quicker worked 

 out by the bees, having no hard wall. I did intend to 

 get one of the machines. I have a Given; but if you 

 can furnish me the fdn., in lots of 100 lbs., at 10 cts. 



per lb. over the price you pay for wax, as you did 

 that lot (}3 was thin), why, I will just let you monop- 

 olize the fdn. trade, and buy of you. 



Birmingham, O., Dec. 11, 1883. C. A. Graves. 



That must have been a special rate, friend 

 G., and we could hardly undertake to do as 

 well now. AVhile we pay 250. for nice wax, 

 we charge, by our price list, 43 by the 100 lbs. 

 for ordinary fdn. If made thin for sections, 

 the price would be 10c. more, or 53 cents. 

 These prices will only hold so long as we can 

 buy clear yellow wax at 2yc. 



WHAT A YOUNG SCHOOL-TEACHER DID WITH HIS 

 FIRST SEASON. 



] am a young school-teacher, and an amateur in 

 apiculture; and the results of the past season, al- 

 though not as glowing as the results obtained by our 

 professional bee-keepers, has made me an enthusi- 

 ast in the science. I began last spring with six 

 swarms, in fair condition ; have increased by natu- 

 ral and artificial swarming to 33 (lood swarms, all in 

 Simplicity and chaff hives, and I think in excellent 

 condition for winter, on their summer stands. My 

 honeyproduct is as follows: Comb honey in 1-lb. sec- 

 tions and 4-lb. boxes, 884 lbs.; extracted, 349 lbs.; to- 

 tal, 1133 lbs. Average price per lb. realized, 16 cts.; 

 total, $181.38. Besides allowing each swarm eight 

 combs, I find that I have 69 extra combs, partly filled 

 with honey. My expenses were comparatively light, 

 as being a carpenter myself I avoided one great ex- 

 pense by making my hives and getting every thing 

 in shape during my spring vacation. 



ANOTHER OP THOSE "AWFUL HYBRIDS." 



By the way, I must tell you what my " best swarm" 

 did. It was hived June 5, and stored 397 lbs. in 1-lb. 

 sections; 19 lbs. extracted, and an ample supply for 

 winter. It was a hybrid. 



I wish to get a foundation machine to make up my 

 own wax. I will use all I have for sections. Now, 

 do you think a 4-inch machine would answer my 

 purpose? and if so, what machine would you recom- 

 mend? D. E. Stratton. 



Bismark, Iowa, Dec. 11, 1883. 

 The 4-inch machine will answer all pur- 

 poses, friend S., just as well as any other; 

 and, in fact, it will, if any thing, make thin- 

 ner Mn. than the larger mills; but you can 

 make strips only 4 inches wide on it. — Your 

 achievement for the first year is another 

 proof that it is not so much age and experi- 

 ence that are needed to do well with bees, as 

 it is real application and enthusiasm. 



MY REPORT FOR 1883. 



We had fine weather the last of March and the 

 fii'St of April. The prospects for a fine honey season 

 were never better than early in the spring. About 

 the middle of April we had a freeze that killed the 

 fruii-bloom. From that time till the first of June 

 was very cold and wet. I continued to feed till 

 white clover commenced blooming; then I united 

 until I had them all full of bees. I decreased from 

 30 to 19 colonies, and quit feeding. I soon found 

 that would not do, for my bees were starving, right 

 in the height of white clover. I commenced feed- 

 ing again, and continued to feed until basswood 

 bloomed. They worked only three days on bass- 

 wood, on account of a cold rainy spell. That 3 days' 

 work, with what they could pick up from stray 

 flowers, lasted them till 



BUTTON-WOOD 



bloomed. There is a button-wood marsh only IVi 



