1883 



GLEAI^INGS m BEE CULTURE. 



13S 



is great enough to induce him to push all his 

 remaining energies right into the work, eve- 

 ry waking moment, it scarcely matters what 

 the disease is, nature will soon begin to as- 

 sert herself, and a natural process of build- 

 ing up and growth will commence, and with 

 it comes happiness, joy, and a spirit of 

 thanksgiving to God the Creator. When 

 you get so busily absorbed in some healthful 

 work that you forget your disease, it will 

 forget you, and go off. I have been through 

 it, and know whereof I speak. 



FROM 19 TO 44, AND 2600 LBS. HONEY. 



My bees did Very well the past year, considering I 

 had but 19 colonies, spring count. The most of 

 them were blacks, with but a small amount of hon- 

 ey, and some of them were in the old-fashioned bee- 

 gums. Dr. J. R. Baker was my bee-keeper for two 

 years. I lost all my bees and bee-house by fire in 

 Feb. last. I had then 51 colonies of Italians, so I 

 could buy only 19 colonies, as they were scarce 

 around here. The docter increased to 44 colonies by 

 natural swarming ; some went to the woods. We 

 got 2000 lbs. comb honey, and 600 lbs. extracted. 

 We got 15 and 20 cts. per lb. for comb, and 12i4 for 

 extracted. No foundation was used in the brood- 

 chamber, and only small starters in sections. We 

 used 2-lb. sections. We built a cave last fall. All 

 my bees are in it, except a few. The temperature 

 is nearly always 45° above zero. Do you think that 

 is too warm for them ? I left off t he caps, and tacked 

 burlap over the tops of the hives. Do they need 

 water during winter ? I am learning to be my own 

 bee-keeper the coming season, if they don't sting 

 me too bad. I think I shall succeed, for women oft- 

 en do harder work than earing for bees. I like Mrs. 

 Harrison's letters very much, and I know we have to 

 work if we want honey. I like Gleanings very 

 much, and shall c ntinue taking it while I live. 



Mrs. Ester Wirt. 



Keithsburg, Mercer Co., 111., Jan. 20, 1883. 



I do not think 45° too warm for the cellar, 

 if it is well ventilated with plenty of pure 

 air. It is rather an unsettled matter about 

 bees needing water ; but this we know, that 

 bees do winter nicely without any more wa- 

 ter than what is contained in their honey, 

 ordinarily. It may still be, however, that 

 they many times die, where water in their 

 winter repositories would have saved them. 



frame you use. I call that good. Her 31 swarms 

 average her $8.00 apiece ; her bees are in the yard 

 yet, and some of them could have given 25 lbs. more 

 taken from the brood-chamber. 



A. F. ElLENBERGER. 



Laddsburg, Bradford Co, Pa., Jan. 22, 1883. 



A WOMAN'S SUCCESS, REPORTED BY HER HUSBAND. 



My wife is determined to have one of your comb- 

 mills, but I can't see where she will get the wax for 

 it. Her bees are all in splendid shape yet. They 

 have not been out of the hives since Nov. 24th. 

 Hooked at them yesterday, and I saw they could sting 

 yet. I raised the chaff from one, and they were 

 lively as could be ; but the buckwheat chaff is the 

 material for them. Our neighbors are somewhat 

 uneasy about the long winter. Mrs. A. F. E.'s bees 

 stand clear profit for her ; and If they die, she is on 

 a balance, and has the honey and combs to begin 

 new. I tell her if some of them die she will have 

 some wax to work on her fdn. mill. We have a 

 spring that is running from 80 to 90 inches of pure 

 water, and 11 ponds, which never freeze over. We 

 have about 16,000 brook trout, from the sack of the 

 egg up to 13 inches ; also about 5.50 catfish, and some 

 German carp. My wife has taken 128 lbs. of one- 

 pound section honey from one colony— the same 



A NEW PLACE FOR BEES. 



There has a swarm of bees come in under the clap- 

 boards of an unoccupied house on our farm, and no 

 one about here knows much about bees. I hoped to 

 find some suggestion that would show me whether I 

 had better try to save the bees, or do as every one 

 says, "Kill them for the honey in the fall." A neigh- 

 bor had a swarm in his house, and because he hung 

 a hive up by the side of the hole, with molasses on 

 it, and they would not go into it, they are sure I can't' 

 do any thing with mine. We found them first last 

 summer. 1 know of a house within two miles that 

 is full of bees. They have been there for five or six 

 years, no one being able to get them out. If I could 

 get bees out of a house, I should be welcome to them 

 too. Although that house is so full, no hive could 

 hold them all. They have so much room in an old 

 house that they never swarm. Mrs. S. P. Hadley. 



South Canterbury, Ct., Dec. 28, 188S. 



My friend, your difficulty is a very trifling 

 one to any bee-keeper at all up with the 

 times ; but it would be pretty hard to give 

 you directions what to do without going 

 through almost the whole science of bee 

 culture. I iear all we can do for you is to 

 tell you to study the ABC book a little, un- 

 til you know something of bees, and then 

 transfer the bees into a hive, according to 

 the directions in the chapter on Transfer- 

 ring. It would seem as if hives and hollow 

 trees were scarce in your locality, if you 

 oblige the bees to crawl into holes in old 

 houses. 



MAPLE SUGAR FOR FEEDING. 



Mrs. Jennie Culp, one of our ABC schol- 

 ars, reported at the Ohio State Bee-Keep- 

 er's Association as follows :— 



I gave each colony 114 lbs. of maple sugar; had 22 

 colonies; increased to 30; I extracted the first of 

 June; put the honey in 6-gallon stone jars, to ripen; 

 had over four barrels of extracted honey at fair 

 time (Sept.); extracted after the fair; altogether 

 had nearly 5 barrels of honey. I attribute my suc- 

 cess to feeding in spring, and to having plenty of 

 surplus combs. I sold all my surplus honey at 20c 

 per lb. 



It was voted that Mrs. Culp had produced 

 the most honey, for the number of swarms 

 she had, of any member Of the society. 



queens not laying, after being moved FROM 

 ONE HIVE TO ANOTHER. 



I have furnished a few tested queens from my own 

 apiary to my neighbors, and when I caught one very 

 fine queen, and caged her for a gentleman who was 

 standing by, he remarked," What nice brood, and so 

 much of it!" That queen never laid an egg for him, 

 though he kept her three or four months. On an- 

 other occasion I furnished another neighbor a queen, 

 and a short time after, when I asked him how his 

 queen was doing, he replied, "The bees received her 

 all right, but she is acting rather strangely. Some- 

 times I find three eggs in one cell." I was glad 

 that he had selected his own queen, and that, too, on 

 account of the large amount of brood in the hive: 

 but in a few days more he informed me that she was 

 behaving very well. Mrs. A. C. Mosher. 



San Marcos, Texas, Feb. 14, 188.3. 



