138 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



A WINTER ENEMY OF BEES. 



I send you by to-day's mail a specimen of a bee- 

 mole that sometimes does serious harm to bees in 

 this part of the country. My bees have been eon- 

 fined to the hive since Thanlrsgiving, until yester- 

 day (Jan. 30), when they got a good fly. I took off 

 the cushions and quilts, and let in the warm sun, 

 and they flew out in large numbers, and covered 

 every thing with their discharges. In opening one 

 of my chaff hives that was strong last fall, 1 discov- 

 ered that the bees were nearly all dead, and that the 

 combs were gnawed along the top-bars. I proceed- 

 ed to investigate, and found three of these little 

 "varmints" down among the dead bees at the bottom 

 of the hive. I destroyed them all, and charged up 

 $7.00 to the account of bee-moles. The one I send you 

 is the largest one of the number. They passed into 

 the hive througli the entrance, which measures ex- 

 actly ?8 of an inch. They consume all of the bee ex- 

 cept the head and wing3. They do not injure the 

 comb3 very badly. Their presence in the apiary 

 may be known when snow falls, by their roads un- 

 der the surface of the snow; traveling as the com- 

 mon ground-mole does. They seem to be able to 

 pass into the hive through an opening that will per- 

 mit a bee to pass through; and as soon as they be- 

 come gorged are unable to pass out again. They 

 are a very small animal, yet able to do a great deal 

 of damage inside of the hive. 



Bees have suffered badly during the past part of 

 the winter — worse, I think, than they did during 

 the winter of 1880-'81. The temperature has not 

 been so low as it was during that winter, but the 

 bees have not lain dormant as they did then, and 

 have consumed more honey and pollen, and have 

 not been able to get out and empty themselves, and 

 they have discharged in the hive, and the result is, 

 that weak colonies have nearly all died with di- 

 arrhoei. I think that the experience of bee-keepers 

 this winter will tend to make the question, " How to 

 winter bees," more difficult to answer than ever. 



BEPORT FROM ONE WHO SELLS BEES INSTEAD OF 

 HONEY. 



My report for the past year is more satisfactory 

 than any former one. I turned my attention to 

 raising queens and bees, and offering them for sale. 

 I made a specialty of flve-frame nuclei, which sold 

 readily at fair prices. I began the year with 23 col- 

 onies; sold 40 5-frame nuclei; increased my stock to 

 46 colonies; extracted honey, 450 lbs.; comb honey, 

 400 lbs. I expended! about one-half my labor in 

 working with my bees, and manufacturing hives and 

 comb fdn. ; the remainder of the time I spent work- 

 ing at my trade. I satisfied myself, also, that bee- 

 keeping is a remunerative occupation, and propose 

 to devote my whole time to the business in the 

 future. William Little, 46. 



Marissa, St. Clair Co., III., Feb., 1883. 



testing chaff hives, etc. 

 You have the chaff hive, and use it, I think. Will 

 you take an empty hive, put In it a dish of water, 

 then fix it as you would if a colony were in it; let it 

 be fully exposed to the weather, and then note how 

 low the thermometer may run, whether to zero or 

 not, without ice showing in the hive thus prepared, 

 and give me your results, as I am experimenting a 

 little in that direction, but with a different material, 

 and I'll change results with you. The great problem 

 to solve is, how to winter our bees successfully. If 

 I can get a hive, and as cheap and light as a single 



wood hive, and yet so warm that water won't freeze 

 with thermometer marking zero, or even 6° to 10" 

 above, I think I'll have a success for our climate, as 

 we usually have so few days as severe, or more so, 

 than that, that the bees can stand it until something 

 better is found. I am hopeful, but not satisfied, so 

 far. If I can make it to i-each zero, and no ice, I 

 shall be fully satisfied, feeling I have a success for 

 bee-keepers. C. P. Ashley, M. D. 



Ypsilanti, Mich., Jan. 29, 1883. 



I think, friend A., you have fallen into a 

 very common error. If you allow time 

 enough to elapse, the water would freeze up 

 solid in any chalf hive you can make, as I 

 understand it. The trouble is, that a dish 

 or pail of water does not produce or give 

 out heat, like a swarm of bees, or as a liv- 

 ing animal does. It contains some heat, of 

 course ; but after this is gone, it gets just as 

 cold as the surrounding substances. If well 

 packed, or blanketed, it would keep the wa- 

 ter a longer time without freezing, it is 

 true ; but a swarm of bees would keep the 

 interior of the chaff hive warmed up per- 

 manently, because the covering retains the 

 animal heat they are constantly generating 

 and giving off. For the same reason, cloth- 

 ing warms our bodies, or keeps the heat 

 from falling ; but if clothing were put over a 

 block of marble, standing out of doors, it 

 would not change the temperature of it as in- 

 gle degree, by the thermometer, no matter 

 how many overcoats or shawls we brought 

 into requisition. 



THE GREAT HONEY-YIELD IN TOWA; WHERE DID IT 

 COME FROM? 



The past summer was the most profitable one 

 known to bee-keepers since the settlement of the 

 State. Bees stored most fabulous amounts of hon- 

 ey in this part of the State. You probably would 

 think the story was a little " fishy," if I should tell 

 you the amount of increase and honey many of us 

 obtained from a certain number of hives. The hon- 

 ey was of the best quality. The spring was wet, 

 cold, and backward; in fact, the whole summer was 

 wet and cool, and the impression of bee-keepers 

 was, that the business would be a failure for the 

 summer. But about the 10th of June bees began to 

 swarm and store honey rapidly, and continued to do 

 so until the 14th of Sept., when the weather became 

 too cool, and was soon followed by slight frosts. 

 Now the question is, To what do we owe this un- 

 usual success? The basswood bloomed about as 

 usual here, and the bees seemed to store about the 

 usual amount of honey fi-om it; but soon after it 

 went out of bloom they began to store faster than 

 before, and continued to all the summer. The only 

 unusual bloom was a good crop of white clover, but 

 not more so than some former summers. Many 

 days were so cool that the bees did not leave their 

 hives until nearly noon; but still the honey increas- 

 ed in the hives wonderfully. The advocates of hon- 

 ey-dews stoutly contended we had many of them, 

 yet I could discover nothing of the kind. Now, is it 

 your opinion that honey-dews ever occur? Is not 

 the so-called honey-dew the exudation from the 

 leaves of trees caused by wounds from insects? 



Oskaloosa, Iowa, Jan. 11. 1883. B. F. Lindly. 

 I am not yet satisfied that honey ever falls 

 as dew, although many claim that it does. 

 Our back volumes contain a great amount of 

 facts in the matter. 



