300 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Junk 



having one comb broken out of center, and placed it on 

 the frames, and then covered them with a quilt, and 

 made them as snug as passible in that way; and lo 

 show how vigorous they were they at ouce went to 

 work and built a new comb in the new place of the 

 broken one, and this i)i March. I did not look for 

 the queen in particular at this time; but soon they 

 began to dwindle, and two weeks ago I saw that 

 there was not s j much brood as there had been. I 

 looked for the queen, but did not find her; but in- 

 stead I found two queen-cells near the center of 

 the hive, and List week 1 found a young queen, and 

 the bees reduced to a double handful. When I first 

 found them destitute of a mother, I sent to you for 

 a dollar queen, but she has not arrived yet. It is 

 doubtful whether I can save them. There are still 

 young bees hatching, so that it can not be very long 

 since she disappeared. Was it the exposed condition 

 in winter, or the careful nursing in spring, that 

 caused the loss? I am sorry, for I thought I had 

 proved something. J. F. Temple. 



Ridgeway, Lenawee Co., Mich., May 31, 1883. 



REPORT FROM O. O. POPPI.ETON. 



IMPORTANCE OF WINDBREAKS IN WINTER. 



^"Sif REACHED home two weeks ago, from an ab- 

 Jlji seuce of about six months in the South, and 

 found my bees had wintered very poorly; that 

 the losses in my apiary were more the past winter 

 than the aggregate of all losses for the previous 9 or 

 10 winters. Out of 151 colonies last fall, I now have 

 about 75 good ones, and some 10 or 15 fair and poor 

 ones, making a loss of about 40;; . All wore in chaff 

 hives. As we sometimes learn our best lessons from 

 our failures, I will give what I find, after thorough 

 investigation, to be the circumstances which seem 

 to have caused my loss. Of course, I have depended 

 a good deal on what my assistant tells me, who has 

 charge of the bees during my absence. 



I find the winter has been the coldest and steadiest 

 that Northern Iowa has experienced for nearly 30 

 years past, and that at one time the thermometer 

 was near and below zero for about six weeks con- 

 tinuously. My assistant informs me that the snow 

 entirely covered the hives in some parts of the apia- 

 ry, while in other parts the ground was swept al- 

 most entirely bare, and that the bees that were cov- 

 ered with the snow are nearly all alive, and doing 

 well, while those that were not so covered are most- 

 ly dead. He also says that some of the dead colonies 

 showed signs of dysentery; but the most of them 

 were dry and clean, both bees, hives, and packing, 

 which statement is fully confirmed by my own in- 

 vestigation of hives since coming home. I also find 

 more queenless colonies than usual. 



Last spring I grubbed out a patch of brush and 

 small timber that partly protected the north-east 

 corner of the apiary, and I find that nearly every 

 colony in that corner is dead, and that fully three- 

 fourths of all the dead colonies are in the east half. 

 I also find that my neighbors who winter on a simi- 

 lar plan to my own have succeeded the same as usu- 

 al, the only serious loss that I have heard of in chaff 

 hives being my own. 



It seems to me that the foregoing facts leave but 

 little opportunity for a difference of opinion as to 

 what were the prime causes of this heavy loss — the 

 long-continued spell of very cold weather, which it 

 was utterly out of our power to prevent, in connec- 



tion with the fact of a part of the apiary being left 

 fully exposed to our prairie "blizzards," which last 

 I could and ought to have prevented. I am fully 

 satisfied, that if I had surrounded the exposed cor- 

 ner of my yard with a high tight board fence, that 

 the loss of bees would have been insignificant, and I 

 have already made arrangements for the growth of 

 an evergreen hedge around the exposed part. 



A young friend who lives on the open prairie has 

 never succeeded in wintering his bees during hard 

 winters, although I knew from actual examination 

 that they were properly packed. The reason why 

 he alone was unsuccessful has heretofore puzzled 

 me; but this winter's exp?rience explains it all. 



I think some lessons can be learned from this loss, 

 the most important one being that, to secure success 

 in outdoor, or, in fact, any other method of winter- 

 ing, Ave must attend to every detail that experience 

 teaches us is a help; not alone to the more essential 

 details, but to every detail that is a help; also that 

 bees must have the aid of some kind of surround- 

 ings that will break off the full force of our vigorous 

 winter winds. 



A few other facts I have noticed. Some 40 or .50 

 of my queens were bred in the South: but I can dis- 

 cover no difference in their wintering qualities, 

 compared with Northern-bred queens. Hives that 

 are protected on bottom as well as sides and top, 

 have come through dryer than those having unpro- 

 tected bottoms; but I do not see that they have win- 

 tered their bees much better. I do not feel that the 

 plan of chaff-hive wintering is at all in fault for this 

 loss of mine, but it was caused by an inexcusable 

 blunder of my own in removing one of the means of 

 protection against high winds, without replacing it 

 with something else equally efficient. 



O. O. POPPLETON. 



Williamstown, Iowa, May 17, 1883. 



BEE CULTURE FOR STUDENTS. ' 



FROM 1 TO 3, AND 190 LBS. OF HONEY, 



f BEGAN bee-keeping last spring with one swarm 

 of hybrids. They gave 190 lbs. of honey, and 

 ~" multiplied to three strong colonies. October 1st 

 I packed them in chaff in dry-goods boxes. The en- 

 trances were left open, and provision made for up- 

 ward ventilation. Two are now in fine condition, 

 and still in the boxes. The other swarm, near spring, 

 crowded into a corner, and, as I think, starved. 

 How can this be prevented? 



I am a young man intending to go to college as 

 soon as I get the means. Do you think bee-keeping 

 could be made a help while pursuing the course? 



Lyle, Minn., May 13, 1883. Fred Clow. 



I do think, friend Fred, that bee-keeping 

 is one of the best things in the world for a 

 young man intending to go through college. 

 Very many of our most successful boys in 

 bee culture are college boys. Mr. House is 

 one of them, but he has gone home to work 

 with his bees this summer, and will resume 

 his studies in the medical college in Chicago 

 in the fall. When through, he is going as a 

 missionary physician to Africa. Not only 

 will college students succeed better, other 

 things being equal, but the outdoor work 

 that the bees require is just the best thing in 

 the world for students to keep up their phys- 

 ical health. May God's blessing rest on the 

 bee-keeping students of our land ! 



