304 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



Mr. R. informed me that he had stored a quantity of 

 Ice in one end during the latter part of the winter. 



I can Kive also another instance of bses wintering 

 under opposite conditions. This winter, which has 

 been a very hard one, about the middle of March, I 

 examined some bees owned by a Norwegian, whose 

 only knowledge of bees was that they would sting. 

 Six colonies were placed on shelf in a cellar; the 

 whole cellar bottom was covered with potatoes, there 

 being some 700 bushels of them. He told me that he 

 had one hive he could not get into the cellar, as they 

 stung so badly, and he let them stay out. They 

 were in a two-story hive, with cap on. Where the 

 two stories c.ime together there was a large crack 

 which had been tilled with fragments of paper, but 

 hardly served to keep out cold air; and yet the in- 

 mates seemed to be in good condition. The colonies 

 In the cellar were very strong. 



S. J. YOUNQMAN. 



Cato, Montcalm Co., Mich , May 13, 1883. 



■» ■•« m 



ODDS AND EXDS, FROM DOOLiITTL.^. 



PARAFFINE FOR FOUNDATION. 



^^^N page 186, April No. of Gleanings, you wish 

 wjw those who experimented with fdn. made from 

 ^■^ parafflae, and used it in sections several years 

 ago, to speak out and tell how it worked. As I used 

 several pounds of It, and lost several dollars for 

 every pound used, perhaps it might be well to speak 

 of it as a warning to others. At first I placed a tew 

 sections on the hives filled with parafline fdn., to see 

 if the bees would accept of it reaiily. As they did 

 so, more was put on, and I soon was exultant over 

 the nice white combs, all sparkling with honey. 

 Soon the bees had it nearly all sealed over, and I ex- 

 pected the next time I went over the bee-yard to 

 take off honey, to have a fine lot to come off, as this 

 did look so nice, capped so white and nice from Yt to 

 % the way down the sections. Just before I was to 

 take it off the hives, there came two days in which 

 the mercury rose from 95° to 97° in the shade ; and 

 upon going to the bee-yard I found the bees to these 

 hives having the paralBne fdn. over them, all daubed 

 with honey, and honey running out at the entrance. 

 An examination showed that nearly every section 

 filled with the paraffine fdn. had been ruined, as the 

 fdn. had so sagged that it lay in a mass at the bot- 

 tom of the box, while those having natural comb in 

 them had not been damaged in the least. 



SMALL BROOD-CHAMBERS. 



On page 190, same number, J. Woolsey wishes to 

 know how many feet of comb I give my bees when I 

 put on sections. I generally use 9 Gallup frames, 

 the combs in which are about 10x10?^ inches square. 

 This gives about 6S square feet of comb, surface 

 measure. Sometimes I use only 7 or 8, according as 

 I get them filled with brood when the honey-harvest 

 comes on. I desire to have as much brood in each 

 frame as possible, yet there is generally some little 

 honey and pollen in the upper corners of the frames. 

 If I get to the amount of 7 full frames of brood in 9 

 frames, I call it pretty good. If there is not that 

 amount, I use fewer frames so as to get the first 

 honey put in the sections; for upon this depends 

 our crop of section honey to a large extent. 



POLLEN PRODUCING DYSENTERY, 



On page 191 I find these words: "Brood-rearing 

 and Its attendant consumption of pollen is without 



question one great cause of dysentery." Now, I 

 wish to ask what is the cause of undue " brood-rear- 

 ing and its attendant consumption of pollen" ? Is 

 it the pollen a hive contains? If so, the more pollen 

 the more fatal the result, would be the natural con- 

 clusion. This I do not find to be the case after care- 

 ful examinations. Now, caiididly, I do not think 

 that pollen has any thing to do with the first cause 

 of our wintering troubles. I have made careful ex- 

 aminations the past winter to see if I could get any 

 clew to what caused dysentery and loss of bees in 

 winter. As I have lost 11 colonies, and have others 

 mere remnants, I had some chance to experiment. 

 I find that some colonies will keep in a normal con- 

 dition for 5 months without a flight, while others will 

 not so keep for more than 3 to 3 months. As long 

 as the colony keeps quiet and compactly clustered, 

 they are all right, and I believe some few colonies 

 would so keep on their summer stands, if winter held 

 them inside their hives for 7 months. Now the 

 question comes. If a few will do thus, why not all? 

 What causes a part of our stocks that get the dysen- 

 tery, and die, to do so? I wish I were able to 

 answer this; but as I am not, I will give an item or 

 two showing that brood-rearing and pollen is not the 

 first cause. Soon after Christmas I observed, upon 

 taking a peep into my colonies, as I often do on mild 

 days, that two had become uneasy, and had broken 

 the cluster. At this time no brood-rearing had com- 

 menced, and no pollen been consumed that I could 

 detect. By raising them up at the bottom I suc- 

 ceeded in quieting one of them; but on the other it 

 had no effect. In about two weeks, another mild 

 day occurred, and an examination showed a little 

 brood started in the still uneasy colony, while the 

 other, being quiet, was let down on the bottom-board 

 again. In a week I found that this last was in com- 

 motion again, so I raised it up the second time. The 

 other had a large lot of brood, and had begun to 

 consume pollen to feed the larvte, while the one 

 that seemed to b3 quieted by raising the bottom- 

 board had no brood, and had used no pollen, that I 

 could detect. To make a long story short, after 

 rearing brood in four frames, and using a large 

 quantity of pollen, the one colony died, while the 

 other is still alive, and a fair colony to-day. In all 

 the 11 that have died, I have observed that the con- 

 finement necessarily attending a cold winter causes 

 the abdomen of the bee to become distended with 

 excrement; a desire seizes them to get out; the 

 cluster becomes broken up, after which brood-rear- 

 ing is started quite extensively, in the vain hope to 

 thus keep their numbers good, by replacing those 

 which are dying daily, till the bees are worn out by 

 this constant restlessness, while those hatching can 

 not battle with the cold, and thus all perish together. 

 If pollen and brood play a part in this matter. It is 

 only a secondary part, in my humble opinion. I 

 still believe confinement in relation to the stores is 

 where the trouble lies. For further reasons why I 

 believe so, see page 76 of Gleanings for 1875. 



THE COMING BEE. 



I was much amused in reading friend Secor's arti- 

 cle on page 340, May Gleanings, headed as above, 

 for he brought io my mind very vividly similar 

 scenes through which I had passed, setting bees out 

 of the cellar. Now, friend S., unless you wish to 

 amuse your wife in that way again, just set a cover 

 or bottom-board of a hive just outside your cellar 

 door, and upon this set your hive of bees as you come 

 out of the cellar. Have your lighted smoker handy 



