1883 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



gS 



not for the expense.— I am always interest- 

 ed in experiments in regard to keeping bees 

 indoors, because it seems, from the success 

 that has been many times made with single 

 colonies, that there certainly is something 

 here we are not yet familiar with ; and when 

 we can once manage to build any colony \\\) 

 in midwinter, our wintering troubles are 

 surely over. 



Or Letters from Tliose Who have Mpide 

 Bee Culture a Failure. 



P HAVE the worst luck, and the most of it, of 

 anybody. 1 began last spring with one mothy 

 — ' stand of bees; they swarmed three times — one 

 good, one fair, one small. The first did well; the 

 next made enough to live on till winter; but when 

 the moth was about to get the best of them I put 

 them with my last swarm. The old stand which I 

 transferred in November, died with plenty of honey. 

 I don't think they had any queen, for I never saw as 

 many drones in my life in one stand at one time. I 

 am satisfied I killed half a gallon of them when I 

 transferred them; that was after they had done 

 swarming. Now to-day, the one that I doubled is 

 dead too. They had plenty of honey, all sealed at 

 that; also pollen. It was not honej'-dew honey, for 

 they had not eaten any of it. It was sugar syrup 

 that they had lived on all fall. I have read your A 

 B C, but can't find any thing to correspond with my 

 case. Now, what is the matte.r with them? If you 

 know, will you answer through Gleanings? But, 

 don't put me in Blasted Hopes yet. 



HONEY-DEW. 



How many bugs do you suppose it would take to 

 make a gallon of honey? The woods were one shin- 

 ing sheet for a month or more with it. It seems im- 

 possible that aphides could produce such quantities 

 of honey. James T. Swan. 



Smithville, Clay Co., Mo., Jan. 18, 1883. 



Well, really, Friend S., I don't know 

 where else to put you, after you say you have 

 had the worst luck, and the most of it, of 

 anybody. If, with the ABC before you, 

 you have let those bees go on raising drones 

 until you killed half a gallon at one time, it 

 seems to me there hasn't been any bad luck 

 about it at all, if you will excuse me. Why 

 did you not look into the hive, and see if 

 they had a queen, instead of letting things 

 run on in that way V Had you not spoken of 

 transferring we might think you had them 

 In a box hive ; but why one should let things 

 go on thus, when their bees were transferred, 

 is more than I can imagine. If the woods 

 were shining with honey-dew, I am inclined 

 to think this may have had something to do 

 with the other one dying; but it Avasn't the 

 honey-dew that caused them to rear drones 

 by the gallon, sure. The matter was, friend 

 S., that you didn't look to your bees enough 

 to know whether they had queens, or were 

 rearing useless drones. All the books and 

 all the bees wouldn't help one who neglects 

 so simple a matter as this. Can't we look 

 for you next in Eeports Encouraging, friend 

 S.? If your one hive swarmed three times, 

 your locality is certainly not a bad one. 



$dis and ^ii^vie^. 



BEE-STINGS FOR NEURALGIA. 



SAM, and have been, a great sufferer from neu- 

 ralgia, and it is with much effort that I have 

 — ■ written. I am a firm believer in the efficacy of 

 bee-stings to remove this disease, and 1 long for the 

 time to come when I can again live and work among 

 the bees. Mary Smith. 



Plattsburgh, N. Y., Dec. 38, 1882. 



Bees are all O. K.; am using Quinby hive; com- 

 menced with 3 colonies in the spring of 1882, and in- 

 creased to 9. W. E. Potts. 



Edna, Kans., Jan. 17, 1883. 



from 9 TO 19, AND 700 LBS. OF HONEY. 



Spring count, 9; increased to 19; 700 lbs. of honey; 

 bees nicely prepared for winter, in chaff hives. 



D. J. Spencer. 

 Vernon, Trumbull Co., O., Dec. 33, 1882. 



FIFTEEN FROM ONE; WHAT DO YOU SAY TO THAT, 

 FRIENDS ? 



I have got the biggest increase of bees from one 

 swarm in the State— 16 swarms from a May swarm, 

 1883. Benjamin Morris. 



Spencer, Ind., Jan. 15, 1883. 



[Tell us more about it, friend Morris.] 



FROM 13 TO 31, AND 1200 LBS. OF HONEY. 



I had 13 swarms of bees in the spring of 1883, from 

 which I got 900 lbs. of section honey, and 313 lbs. ex- 

 tracted, and 19 surplus swarms, which made 31 

 swarms to commence the winter with, all in good 

 shape. IIow is that for 13 swarms? 



Jefferson, O., Jan. 33, 1883. J. E. Ruggles. 



THE first HONEY REPORT FOR 1883. 



There is not much honey coming in at present, 

 but any quantity of pollen, and I am raising queens 

 from the dollar queens received from you last sum- 

 mer, 1 followed friend Cook's plan. From one 

 swarm I have drones, and from two others I have £6 

 queens, cells capped. G. DeLono. 



Key West, Fla., Jan. 11, 1883. 



FLORIDA; NEW HONEY. 



I left my home in Ohio the 37th of last November; 

 have had some quite cool weather for Florida this 

 winter. Thermometer in the shade to-day, 79°. 

 Bees are flying almost every day, can*} ing in pollen 

 and some honey. It would be quite a good place 

 here for bees, but not as good as on the coast, for 

 there are no mangroves here. C. F. Hopkins. 



Orange City, Fla., Jan. 17, 1883. 



STANDING L. FRAMES ON END FOR WINTER. 



I guess the 8x17 Langstroth hive is not just right 

 to winter bees in. Those L. hives that came through 

 all right, the owner had stood up on the nose, or 

 front, raising the rear of hive about 45 degrees, 

 packing the outside with straw, showing, to my 

 mind, that the 8x17 frame is not right for this part 

 of the country. J. W. Tafft. 



Buffalo. N. Y., Jan. 20, 1883. 



[The above came to hand after our article on p. 79. 

 While it shows that this man wintered his, and 

 others around him did not, it does not necessarily 

 follow that it was because the hives were stood on 

 their "noses," as our friend quaintly expresses it.] 



