192 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 



POLLEN AGAIN, AS THE CAUSE OF DYSENTERY. 



Hearing that you and many other prominent bee- 

 keepers, through journals, recommend sugar syrup 

 to winter bees on, as it keeps them from geting the 

 dysentery and spotting the hives, I gave it a 

 thorough trial for two seasons, and think there 

 must be a mistake somewhere. I have had them 

 spot the hives quite badly, after making it a point to 

 extract everj' drop of honey from them very late in 

 the fall, after all honey had ceased altogether, feed- 

 ing in its place 21 lbs. of the best A No. 1 granulated 

 sugar syrup to each colony. The sugar syrup has a 

 nice body, having been brought to a boil, and skim- 

 med; and the syrup that is in the hives now is as 

 sweet as when it was fed to the bees, and it has not 

 candied any, it being about like honey itself. The 

 bees appear tobc in excf llr nt condition, the colonies 

 all being strong: and lur the hives, they were all 

 new chaff hives last summer, and are nice and dry 

 now. How can you account for it? But I think I 

 have found out where the trouble comes in. I think 

 it is all in pollen. I may be mistaken, but it is my 

 opinion that, in a prolonged cold spell, the bees will 

 eat pollen before they will leave the frames they are 

 occupying, as most hives will have honey or syrup 

 stored right over pollen in the same cells. I have 

 just examined some of the combs that prove my as- 

 sertion most clearly (that bees eat pollen); and the 

 trouble is pollen, and not sugar nor honey. The 

 trial this winter was with 15 colonies. They had 

 pollen, but no honey. Bees are doing nicely now. 

 It is the first day for them to carry pollen, and they 

 are carrying fast. 



ARE BEES ABLE TO MOVE EGGS FROM ONE CELL TO 

 ANOTHER? 



I am experimenting with an observation-hive in 

 the house, keeping the bees in bondage. I expect 

 them to develop something new, as I am watching 

 them very closely. 1 have seen the queen in the act 

 of laying, come out of the cell (as if annoyed by the 

 worker bees), with the eggs attached to her yet, not 

 leaving any in the cells, when the workers would 

 seize the eggs from her and deposit them in the cell 

 for her. She did not fail very often; but when she 

 did, the bees at once deposited the eggs in the cell. 

 I watched the proceedings with a magnifying-glass, 

 and am sure of what I say. The above is quite in 

 harmony with my article in last-year's Gleanings 

 on workers stealing eggs to raise queens with, as I 

 claim to be the first to discover it. 



BEES KILLING HORSES, ROBBING, GOING ON RAM- 

 PAGES, ETC. 



Fifteen of my hives are not inches apart (en- 

 trances facing one way), 5 of which are not a foot 

 from the walk on which my wife, children, and visi- 

 tors are constantly going to and fro, and the whole 

 15 are not more than 18 feet from three stables 

 where horses are kept all the time, the nearest hive 

 being only 6 feet from one of the stables, and whole 

 is in quite a dense portion of the city, and I have the 

 first complaint to hear yet. They gave me 8 swarms 

 and 300 lbs. of extracted honey last summer, which 

 was very nice, besides some queens I sold. Most of 

 the colonies have your dollar queens, which turned 

 out very nicely. C. H. Beeler. 



Philadelphia, Pa., March 18, 1883. 



Very likely you are right, friend B., that 

 with plenty of pollen the bees might have 

 dysentery in spite of the sugar syrup, when 

 plenty of pollen was in the hives. In our 

 locality very little pollen is wintered over. 



Suppose you try, next time, clean combs 

 and sugar syrup. — I believe it is generally 

 accepted, that bees have the ability to move 

 eggs; but, friend B., are you not mistaken 

 about being the first to suggest it V It Avas 

 talked of many years ago. — Vour bees have 

 behaved, well, it is true, and I believe they 

 do yeneralUj; but suppose they get to rob- 

 bing some "grocery, and get well stirred up 

 and demoralized ; I think you need to be 

 pretty careful in such a locality. 



AVANTED, A RECIPE FOR MAKING HONEY VINEGAR. 



I have nearly four volumes of Gleanings, and 

 the ABC; but I can find no recipe for vinegar, only 

 that honey will make excellent vinegar. There is 

 one in "Honey as Food and Medicine," but I don't 

 want any thing to do with whisky. 1 think it can be 

 made without that. R J. Fox. 



Natick, Mass., Feb. 21, 1883. 



I have noticed at the conventions recent- 

 ly, very pretty sampler of honey vinegar, 

 and doubtless these friends will be quite 

 willing to tell how it is made. Let us hear 

 from you, friends. Bee-men never keep 

 their light under a bushel. 



FROM 7 TO 28, 35 GALLONS OF HONEY, AND $128.80 

 IN MONEY. 



Last spring I commenced with T stands; increased 

 to 2S. The last swarm came out the 15th of Septem- 

 ber. I sold it in the fall for $7.50. It is in good con- 

 dition at the present writing. I extracted about 35 

 gallons of honey, and had considerable comb honey. 

 Host five during the winter. T sold 20 stands the 

 24th of Feb. One stand biou^'ht $9.00; 2 brought 

 $7.00 apiece; one $6.00; five $5.70, and eleven $5.80 

 apiece. It was a very stormy day on which I had 

 my sale, or I should have done better. I intend to 

 change my place of residence, hence the sale of my 

 bees. I like to handle them. 



Eev. James M. Rees. 



Lenox, Taylor Co., Iowa, March 5, 1883. 



A NOVEL BIRD-HOUSE. 



If you or any others who bought any of my dipper- 

 gourd seed last spring have more gourds than is 

 needed for dippers, just hollow them out as you 

 would for dippers, only cutting a smaller hole, and 

 then hang them up on your apple-trees, out-houses, 

 etc., by driving a couple of nails through the han- 

 dles, and let the blue-birds, wrens, etc., take pos- 

 session of them. I used quite a number in that 

 way last spring, and when the young birds peeped 

 out it looked "too 'cute for anything," as the girls 

 would say.— Bee prospects look blue in this vicinity; 

 about equal to two years ago. Cause, starvation, as 

 there was no fall honey gathered to amount to any 

 thing. S. P. YODER. 



Vistula, Ind., March 13, 1883. 



DEVELOPING YOUR HOME MARKET, ETC. 



Last spring I had 43 colonies, all in box hives. 

 They did nothing to speak of until after the 4th of 

 July. Some colonics were killing drones the 5lh of 

 July. The colony that I noticed killing drones the 

 latest in the season made 115 lbs. of box honey. Ten 

 colonies gave me 847 lbs., and my whole crop was 2000 

 lbs. I increased to 57 good strong swarms, and sold 

 about all my honey at from 12 to 16 c. per lb. net. I 

 have been much benefited this season by the advice 

 given in Gleanings in regard to finding a home 

 market, and not shipping to commission men. As 



