232 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



pollen, and the combs are fast filling with brood. 

 Just now every thing indicates a prosperous season 

 ahead. T. J. Cook. 



Newpolnt, Ind., April 13, 1883. 



Many thanks, friend Cook. The minute I 

 saw your brush I felt satisfied you had done 

 us all a great favor. It is better than the 

 yucca brush, because it is broader, and yet 

 it may be made more substantial also. With 

 us the yucca brushes are so cheap we have 

 been in the habit of laying them around on 

 the ground, and on top of the hives in the 

 apiary. This plan can hardly be recom- 

 mended; although where a thing of this 

 kind is wanted so often, and is also liable to 

 be wanted by different persons at the same 

 time, it might be a good investment to have 

 several of them — perhaps half a dozen in an 

 apiary of a hundred or two hives. As you 

 li^e suggested the improvement, friend C, 

 I think you had better manufacture them. 

 Make them strong and durable, and 1 will 

 gladly take a gross of them at the price you 

 mention. They can be furnished by mail for 

 about 18 cents each, if made no heavier than 

 the one you sent us. 



Or Dcpartiuont for diitie-s to be attended, to 

 tliis month. 



M'OW is the time with most of you for 

 business in real earnest. The advice 

 — - given in different columns by Mr. 

 House will bear reading carefully, perhaps 

 several times. Of course, it makes a differ- 

 ence whether you wish increase of stock or 

 honey. Decide first what you want to do, 

 and then do it. I presume that with most of 

 you, fruit-trees will be in bloom when this 

 number reaches you. If you have any trans- 

 ferring to do, now is the time to do it. Have 

 a queen of some kind in every hive, under 

 no circumstances allowing a colony to be 

 idling away their time because it has no 

 queen. A black or hybrid queen is better 

 than none at all, for we want eggs laid every 

 day, and every night too, for that matter. 

 If you can have a good prolific queen in 

 every hive, of course it is better ; but a poor 

 queen is better than no queen. If you have 

 on hand a stock of empty combs, get them 

 into use before the moth-worms come to 

 make havoc with them. If these empty 

 combs contain also stores of honey, all the 

 better, even if the honey came from liives 

 where the bees died ot dysentery. It will do 

 no harm now ; in fact, it lias been pretty 

 well demonstrated by repeated experiments, 

 that honey that will produce dysentery among 

 bees one season may not do so another. Be 

 sure that the queen has room. They may 

 iill all their combs with brood and honey 

 from fruit-bloom, almost before you know it. 

 Never say, " Why, I looked at them only day 

 before yesterday, and I didn't think it possi- 

 ble they could occupy all the room in so 

 short a time as this." If your bees swarm 

 during this month, rejoice. If they keep 

 building up and don't swarm, rejoice more. 

 Be sure to be ready for whatever may hap- 



pen. Have a hive or two all ready, fixed to 

 hive the swarms in at a minute's warning, 

 and do this before you have any idea that the 

 swarms may come out. Have every thing 

 necessary for the care of surplus honey in 

 readiness in the same way, that is, have 

 everything all ready before you think it pos- 

 sible it can be needed. 



One great secret of success in having work 

 with bees, work on the farm, or any other 

 kind of work go along briskly and profitably 

 is in anticipating what you may need before 

 you come to it ; and when the time actually 

 comes, in having all ready to go right along. 

 Have extra tools and extra implements of all 

 kinds as far as possible, so that if one won't 

 work, or is borrowed, you won't Jiave to stop 

 work. Be wide awake in all things, and 

 "whatsoever thy hand flndeth to do, do it 

 with all thy might." 



I do not know all of you, my friends, but 

 let me give you this piece of advice here : 

 If you want to succeed as a bee-keeper, be 

 up before five o'clock every morning at this 

 season of the year ; and if you get tired out 

 by nine o'clock, go to bed by nine o'clock, 

 and be ready to get up next morning. When- 

 ever the bees are at work, you are at work, 

 and out among them. 



Rainy days are sure to come, and there- 

 fore it behooves you to have some work laid 

 out for such days. Don't be spending your 

 time on nice sunshiny days at indoor work, 

 and then find yourself prevented from doing 

 necessary outdoor work when it rains. Do 

 your indoor work rainy days and evenings •, 

 and when the sunshiny days come, make the 

 most of them. 



TO MAKE NATURAIi SWARiyilNG MOKE: 



CONVENIENT. 



SOJIETHING FROM FRIEND KENDEL ON THE SUBJECT. 



^^ERY often when swarms issue it is more or 

 less windy. At such times bees will fly about 

 vainly trying to find a steady place to cluster; 

 and at such times they will take most kindly to 

 a grape-post or some other unpleasant place which 

 can not be shaken. Noticing this I planted small 

 trees, trimmed them up to a convenient height, say 

 4 to 6 feet, cut the branches short to make a solid 

 head, and then drove three sticks firmly into the 

 ground, some three feet from the stem, and tied the 

 upper ends firmly among the branches; this secures 

 the tree or shrub firmly against any breeze, and bees 

 cluster most readily. Get a few young peach-trees 

 and try it. I keep a hive under the tree all ready 

 for occupancy, with fdn. or empty combs; this may 

 also be an attraction; but certain it is, that although 

 my 25 swarms stand in my garden of 40x100 feet, it 

 is very seldom that one clusters over the fence, and 

 I have always practiced natural swarming. 



Their tendency to cluster where previous ones 

 have been, also helps in this plan. I always have a 

 short-handled swarming-box ready, into which, with 

 one shake, the bulk of the cluster falls. When these 

 are poured in front of the hive, and the swarming- 

 tree kept slightly in motion, the whole community 

 will readily cluster, or, rather, run, into the hive in 

 an incredibly short time, particularly when a frame 

 of brood has previously been hung in. 



Cleveland, O., March 27, 1833. A. C. Kendel. 



