42 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



SILVERHULL BUCKWHEAT. 



I raised on five acres, about 80 bushels, on a grav- 

 elly, yellow-sand soil. It kept over 100 stocks of 

 bees busy during its season, and they stored consid- 

 erable surplus. The honey is not nearly so dark as 

 old kind. S. C. Pehry. 



Portland, Mich., Dec. 8, 1882. 



How many cubic inches should an average swarm 

 of bees cover at zero weather? C. H. Boyd. 



North Monroe, Waldo Co., Me., Oct. 6, 1882. 



[A rather hard question, friend B. ; but I will haz- 

 ard the remark, that I think a good colony can pack 

 themselves In a sphere not over 6 inches in diameter. 

 What do the rest think?] 



A friend from lUyiois sent me last September two 

 queen -bees, with directions to put them in. I 

 thought It would kill me, but I did it quite well. I 

 now have considerable faith in myself. Both hives 

 are sending out quite a number of yellow-banded 

 fellows. George W. Warner. 



Grass Valley, Cal., Nov. 26, 1882, 



Although we had a very gloomy outlook for bee- 

 keeping in May and June, we have had a very good 

 honey crop here this season. 1 started in the spring 

 with 35 colonies, which T had to feed through May 

 and June; increased to 70, and gave nearly 2000 lbs. 

 comb honey, 2000 lbs. extracted. J. A. Osborne. 



Rantoul, 111., Nov. 27, 1882. 



I began the season with six swarms of black bees 

 and two nuclei of Italians; increased to 17 swarms, 

 and took 1100 lbs. honey in boxes and two-pound sec- 

 tions. Bees are in Langstroth hives in open shed, 

 packed in straw, with chaff cushion over frames for 

 winter. This has been a fruitful season for honey. 



Sigourney, la., Dec. 18, 1882. L. McCoy. 



SWARMING BY MOONLIGHT. 



In last Gleanings you speak of night-swarming 

 as new. The late Mr. Moon had a case once. I speak 

 of it in Manual. A. J. Cook. 



Lansing, Mich., Dec. 15, 1882. 



[Thanks for calling to my notice swarming by 

 moonlight. I had overlooked the fact that you men- 

 tion It, friend CookJ 



Here is my report: Commenced in spring of 1882 

 with 4 colonies; got 400 lbs. comb honey, mostly in 

 1-lb. sections, and increased to 11 good colonies. 

 The lore part of the season was very wet and cold, 

 and bees had to be fed through May. Most of the 

 honey obtained was from smartweed, of very flne 

 quality. W. Shield, 11. 



Muscatine, Iowa, Dec. 8, 1882. 



BLACKS, HOLY-LANDS, IT.iLIANS, .\ND CVPKIAXS. 



I weighed the honey from four hives; black bees, 

 120 lbs.; Holy-Lands, 188 lbs.; Italians, 205 lbs.; Cyp- 

 rians, 225 lbs., all extracted honey. J. W. Utter. 



Amity, Orange Co., N. Y., Dec. 11, 1883. 



[You see, friends, the Cyprians do sometimes get 

 honey any way. Friend Utter has had a wonderful 

 yield from all of his bees.] 



GOLDENROD, THE EARLY VARIETY. 



I see by Oct. No. of Gleanings, that J. H. Peirce, 

 of Dayton, O., asks about the early variety of guld- 

 enrod that blossoms in July. We have this early 

 kind here. It commences the last of July, but we 

 never get honey from this early variety. We never 

 get honey from goldenrod till the 10th of Sept.] 



James B. Mason. 



Mechanics Falls, Me.,' Nov. 2, 1882. 



Or Letters from Those "Who have Made 

 Bee Culture a Failure. 



SHAVE been a subscriber since your first num- 

 ber was issued, but did not think ten years had 

 ' passed since that time till I looked on the cover 

 of the December number. Put me in Basted Hopes, 

 for January, as my report would be 100 colo- 

 nies in flne condition in spring; from them, swarms 

 and 350 lbs. extracted honey, which had to be made 

 up in the fall with sugar. Bees lived on pollen and 

 water while clover and basswood bloomed. 



J. C. TuOM. M. D. 

 Streetsville, Ont., Can., Dec. 0, 1882. 



Friend T., you ought to be thankful for 

 doing as well as you did. You did not gain 

 any thing, it is true ; but you are prepared for 

 Avinter, which is better than some of your 

 fellow-workers have done. Isn't ity 



IMPORTANCE OF HAVING SOME OTHER OCCUPATION 

 THAN BEES. 



Another ye.'ir has rolled around, and yet no honey, 

 and only a few bees. I had 25 in the spring, and in- 

 creased to 40; but the season was so poor that they 

 did not gather enough for winter, so I had to double 

 up till I had only 30. This was the poorest honey 

 season here for many years. No bee-keeper got any 

 surplus honey in this section; but I have seen some 

 good reports in GLE.iNiNGS from Ohio. How can 

 it be that in so short a distance as that, one place is 

 good and the other poor? White clover was abund- 

 ant, and lots of other flowers. I thought I should do 

 a good business with my bees this summer. They 

 were in g lod condition in the spring. I made prepa- 

 ration to give them my whole attention; but if I 

 had had to depend on my bees only, I should not 

 have made a cent. But I have a small farm that 

 gave me some pocket money; therefore I would ad- 

 vise all bee-keepers to do something else besides 

 keep bees, for 1 think it is an uncertain business. 

 But nevertheless, I stick to the bees. In the spring, 

 when I set my25c()lonies out, I felt "kindo' proud." 

 I thought I should soon be up to fifty. Well, then I 

 got a kind of bee fever, and it grew worse till the 

 last week in May, when 1 got a big " dose " of " bee 

 powder," which checked it for another year. The 

 "dose" was, that the bees began to kill the drones 

 ofi'; they just slaughtered them. I opened a few 

 hives, and some had not a drop of honey, and but 

 little brood; si) I had to feed. 



[Name and address to above, lost.— Eb.J 

 As a rule, I do think it best for a bee- 

 keeper to have some other means of sup- 

 porting himself. I would especially give 

 this advice to those just beginning. After 

 you get to be an old hand at the business, 

 and have enough cash laid up so you can af- 

 ford to go through one season without any 

 income, it might do to depend on bees alone ; 

 or, perhaps 1 should say, honey alone. At 

 the present prices of queens and bees, I 

 think a bee-keeper of experience could make 

 a good living selling them alone, even 

 though he had to feed every month in the 

 year ; but to do this he must not be cramped 

 too much for cai)ital, nor can he make many 

 mistakes through inexperience or heedless- 

 ness. A little farm is a very good thing in- 

 deed .to have, when honey happens to be 

 slack in coming in. 



