322 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



HOW FAR MAY A SWARM GO? FURTHER FACTS. 



In your remarks to J. C. Turner, in the May No., 

 you saj'that " a swarm of bees seldom travels faster 

 than a man can run, do they? say five or six miles 

 per hour. To go 30 miles they would have to fly five 

 or six hours at one continual stretch." In this I 

 think you are mistaken on two points. When a 

 swarm of bees first starts off it generally goes faster 

 than a man can run far. I have seen men who could 

 put five miles an hour behind them, and call it walk- 

 ing; a run would be at least double that, or 10 miles 

 per hour; and as to the continual stretch, did you 

 never know of a swarm of bees clustering after hav- 

 ing made considerable flight? Last year a swarm of 

 bees passed over me. I noticed that it was going 

 very slowly, and therefore I followed it. They soon 

 clustered in a large tree; it was then about 5 o'clock 

 in the evening. I made preparations and cut the 

 tree down about sunset, and succeeded in saving the 

 bees. This swarm had evidently taken up for the 

 night, and would no doubt have continued its flight 

 next day. Now, as bees can carry honey enough to 

 last them several days, with this sort of manage- 

 ment how far is it possible for them to go? I think 

 18 or 80 miles either should not surprise us. 



I knew of another instance where a swarm was 

 followed 3!4 miles, passing over various persons, 

 and the last one said the bees were still going " like 

 a whirlwind." W. H. Greer. 



Paris, Henry Co., Tenn., May 7, 1883. 



Thank yoti, friend G. I suppose bees 

 could fly IS miles, or twice that distance, if 

 they wanted to. The point to me was, that 

 it seemed rather improbable that they would 

 want to go so far, especially when loaded 

 down with honey, as you very truthfully 

 suggest they usually are. Now, who can 

 give us more facts in the case ? How far 

 have a swarm of bees been really known to 

 go V Let us have some more facts that will, 

 if possible, settle the matter without much 

 chance of mistake. 



GR.\NULATED SUGAR. 



I wish to add my testimony in favor of granulated 

 sugar for wintering. I went into winter quarters 

 with 9 full colonies and one three-frame nucleus, all 

 fed on granulated-sugar syrup, as bees did not gath- 

 er half enough to keep them; 8 colonies were pack- 

 ed in chaff on their summer stands; one was kept in 

 the house, and the nucleus was buried in a clamp. 

 All came through in good condition, with but slight 

 signs of dysentery on the part of two or three. 



WINTERING IN CLAMPS. 



The one in clamp wintered nicest of all. It was 

 buried 146 days. The combs were dry and clean, and 

 not a particle of mold about them. The piece of 

 ground I buried them in is wet and spouty, so I ex- 

 pected they would die, but was agreeably disappoint- 

 ed after all. 



MICE IN CLAMPS. 



One feature of the clamp I don't like, and that is, 

 the mice. They got into mine and cut out about a 

 third of a comb. I tried poisoning, but did not suc- 

 ceed in killing them all. I found several dead ones 

 when I opened it. They were tree mice, or the 

 white-bellied kind, and ground-moles. No house 

 mice were about it. Nearly all the bees in this 

 neighborhood died of starvation the past winter. 

 Some have lost all. It was not bad honey, but a 

 scarcity of good. F. S. McClelland. 



New Brighton, Pa., May 1883, 



THE BOY'S bee-feeder; AN IMPROVEMENT SUG- 

 GESTED. 



Let me suggest what I think will be an improve- 

 ment on the boy's bee-feeder, described in Our 

 Homes for May. Let him make another box, with- 

 out top or bottom, of thin wood, % in. smaller each 

 way than the box holding the feed, and just as high 

 as the outside box. Now let him nail a ?»-ln. strip 

 up and down on each side of this box, to keep it in 

 its place when set down into the feed-box. Now, 

 you see that when the wire cloth comes down upon 

 the upper edge of this box, no bees can get over in- 

 to the sea of feed in the middle of the feed-box and 

 be drowned, and the feed will run under the lower 

 edge of the box, and the bees can take it safely in 

 the narrow space between the two boxes till it is all 

 gone. If the boy will accept this amendment, I 

 think his boy's feeder will beat any man's feeder 

 that I know of, for top feeding. You see, dear Nov- 

 ice, that this arrangement involves the principles of 

 my improved Shuck-Gray feeder, which you de- 

 scribed in the last July Gleanings, and which you 

 said was " hardly new." Look out. Novice, and don't 

 get into the habit of saying too flippantly, "Oh! 

 that is old." When you classify all your old books 

 and papers to be ready for friend Flick and " sich," 

 just for the curiosity of it tell us the spot where 

 that idea was described before. 

 gleanings. 



Now a word on another subject. I see internal ev- 

 idence in Gleanings that you are "walking around 

 the stairs" a good deal about making it a semi- 

 monthly or weekly, and perhaps it would not be un- 

 acceptable to you to know the sentiments of your 

 readers about the change. I for one say, don't do it. 

 We alllook forward to the coming of Gleanings 

 with "great expectations;" and when it comes, we 

 read it through from one end to the other, "ads" 

 and all; but if it should get to coming once a week 

 or so, we might get to treating it as we do the daily 

 paper, or the presentweekly bee-papers— just glance 

 them over to see if there is probably any thing new 

 in them, and then lay them aside. To bee-keepers, 

 Gleanings, as it is, is one of the great indispensable 

 blessings of life, and we can not afford to risk any 

 changes in such things. It is now inimitable— ahead 

 of all competition; it ought to suit every reasonable 

 man. Let well enough alone. J. Hasbrouck. 



Bound Brook, N. J., May 4, 1883. 



Thank you, friend II. I didn't mean to 

 intimate that the boy's bee-feeder was new, 

 but I gave it because it illustrated how it 

 helped him, and the point in Home Papers 

 as well. If I am not mistaken, floats are 

 generally used on feeders of that class. 

 Doubtless your plan is an improvement. I 

 always dislike movable floats.— What you 

 say has much truth in it in regard to Glean- 

 ings ; but how about the multitudes who are 

 sending in good communications like your 

 own, which are kept out solely for want of 

 space y I don't know but almost as much 

 matter, and matter equally valuable, is left 

 out of Gleanings every month, just be- 

 cause it won't contain it all. Is that well V 



a "piece" ABOUT FLIES. 



Now comes up another trouble; viz., flics.' House 

 flies they are, too, but they don't in this climate con- 

 fine themselves to the house alone. They are around 

 the bee-hives, amongst the bees; and although a 

 bee will pounce upon one, capture him, fly away off, 



