696 



GLEANIKGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



son took the hives and put his first swarms that 

 came, into them— one swarm welg'hing VA 1t>s., and 

 the other SVi- One was Italians, the other hybrids. 

 1 think I paid him 60 cents per ft. They did not 

 make any surplus honey to speak of. Last summer 

 I paid tiut little attention to them, thinking they 

 would die in the winter, as usual. Last March I be- 

 gan to hear reports of mortality among the bees. I 

 looked at my two swarms and found them alive; 

 gave each a large cake of maple sugar, and let them 

 alone until about the last of May, when I divided 

 them (as they seemed cmwded, and did not swarm), 

 making two swarms of one and three of the other. 

 And now I must tell you the biggest story I ever 

 read of. In about a week after T divided them. No. 

 1 hive began swarming, and they kept at it until T 

 got 8 swarms, besides one or two that left me. One 

 I know, and 1 think two, went to the woods. I was 

 telling an old bee-man about my luck. He says the 

 most of them will, of course, die, perhaps before 

 winter, as it is impossible for so many swarms from 

 one to be strong enough to make a "live." Well, I 

 have just looked them over, and I find them pretty 

 strong with bees, and a "right smart" of brood in 

 all the hives but one (that is queenless), but the 

 most of them are lacking in honey. I suppose It 

 took a large quantity of honey to raise such an im- 

 mense number of bees. Well, then, to sum up, I 

 have from No. 1 hive 8 good ones, one poor one, all 

 well stocked with bees; four have sufficient honey 

 to winter; the other four will have to be fel; No. 2 

 hive did not swarm, and now, after examining all 

 my hives and getting, on an average, about twenty 

 stings to each hive, and feeling sick at my stomach, 

 you will not wonder that my enthusiasm in apicul- 

 ture is cooled off, and I would like to sell out. 



Ira Bennett. 

 Medina, Ohio, September 20, 1883. 



FriPTiri B., it seems a little fminy to think 

 that yon are the same man who wrote us a 

 fnnnv piece for Blasted Hopes two vears 

 aoro or more. I am very Rlad of your letter 

 above, for it has given abundant proof that 

 your localitv is a' good one, and the plain 

 moral is. T think, that you do not give your 

 bees the right care at the right time. Pnt- 

 tiuff a bier cake of maple sugar over the 

 frames in thp spring was tiptop, and it pro- 

 duced thf^ srreat result you have mentioned, 

 or. at least, it contributed to it largely. Well, 

 you should have followed this up, and, in- 

 stead of letting the bees run the thing after 

 their own fashion, von should have managed 

 It intelligputlv. Had you kept all that mon- 

 strous quantitv of bees that that queen must 

 have nrorinppfl, steadily gathering honey, 

 and fillinsr sections, or filling combs to be 

 emptied bv thp extractor, you might have 

 given us a s^-ory of a tremendous yield, in- 

 stead of snch a great quantity of swarms. 

 Now. T would not feed thpm maple sngar in 

 the fall, but feed them well and strong with 

 granulated-Rusrar syrup, and next year you 

 can srive us a Report Encouraging, snch as 

 Medina Countv has never yet heard of, may 

 be. You need not have twenty stings from 

 each hive: in fact, you ought not to have 

 one sting from twenty hives, if you take a 

 smoker and go at it rightly. And besides, 

 you probably would then have no disposition 

 to "sell out." as you talk of in your con- 

 cluding sentence, 



THE OliU WAY AND THE NEW, 



WITH A LITTLE PICTURE OF THE OLD WAY OF GET- 

 TING HONEY. 



^jP|nUR bees are in the old-fashioned box hives. 

 IJLjj) We commenced with one box 7 years ago. 

 Some summers they would do right well, as 

 far as swarming was concerned, but we seldom got 

 any honey, except when a colony died, which hap- 

 pened quite frequently in winter. Some springs we 

 would have just one colony left, which was the case 

 this spring, but it was a very strong one, and swarm- 

 ed four times. After reading some of the letters in 

 Gleanings I got a little enthusiastic, and concluded 

 we would have some honey from our bees, as it is 

 quite a luxury here, there being very few bees kept 

 in this part of the country. Well, the first thing to 

 be done was to put what we call rent boxes on. It 

 was a long time before any of the bees commenced 

 working in them; but at last one colony started, as 

 we discovered by lifting the box and peeping In, 

 which it required an Immense amount of courage to 

 do. After waiting what seemed a sufficient time 

 for them to have it filled, I equipped myself In bon- 

 net, veil, and woolen mlts, for, oh! they do sting me 

 unmercifully when they can get at me. Not having 

 a smoker (in fact, we never heard of them till we 

 read about them in the journal), we made a big 

 smoke with shavings and gas-tar. I lifted the rent 

 box off and held it right over the smoke, but the 

 bees would not leave, and the heat melted, or, rath- 

 er, softened the combs, and, finding the bees refused 

 to leave, I got very courageous, and determined to 

 have some honey at all hazards, and attempted to 

 take the combs out with the bees on, by cutting 

 along the edge of the comb with a case-knife, and 

 then lifting them out with my hands. Well, I did 

 succeed in getting some little honey, about 4 lbs. ; 

 but such a time! There must about 300 bees have 

 lost their lives by drowning in the honey and burn- 

 ing in the fire, and by being smashed and mutilated 

 in various ways; but they were quite active in the 

 battle, and warmed me up considerably, which did 

 not cool my enthusiasm a bit, only I want to know 

 what we ought to do with bees, and how to do it. so 

 we are all anxiously waiting the arrival of the ABC, 

 as the whole family are now very much interested 

 in bees, although sometimes for months during part 

 of the time we have been keeping bees we have for- 

 gotten them entirely. Alice Pickles. 

 Woodland, Pa., Aug. 34, 1883. 



Friend Alice, I am very sorry indeed to 

 know of the difficulties you encountered in 

 your first attempt at bee culture. I trust 

 you will soon be in the beaten path ; in fact, 

 I have given the above letter mainly to illus- 

 trate the wonderful stride that bee culture 

 has made in the last few years. And those 

 who are familiar with the modern methods 

 will probably smile at the difficulties you 

 have encountered. What a vast difference 

 it does indeed make in working at any thing, 

 whether we do so understandingly or intelli- 

 gently, or whether we start out blunderingly 

 in the dark, as it were. I presume our 

 friend Alice took time enough in getting the 

 four pounds of honey as she did, to take off 

 400 lbs. by our improved methods, to say 

 nothing of taking the lives of so many poor 

 little innocents. 



