688 



GLEAKINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



Or Dcpartiuent for duties to bo attended to 

 tills nioiitli. 



WHAT TO FEED, AND HOW TO FEED IN NOVEMBER. 



PAID $5.00 for one colony May 31, which swarm- 

 ed June 1, 11, 13, and 15. Who can beat it? Two 

 of the swarms, however, are very weak (have 

 been robbed), and will have to be fed. Now, Mr. 

 Koot, will you be so kind as to tell me what to feed? 

 how much? when and how, to bring them through 

 all right in the spring? I love to see them work. 



I have two brothers, aged respectively 13 and 15, 

 who are equally fond of bees. 



When I was about 13 years of ag0 I began smoking 

 at school with the other boys, and gradual indul- 

 gence stole upon me for eight or nine years, until I 

 smoked from five to fifteen times a day. But I quit 

 on the 36th of last FebruaiTi and have not smoked 

 since. 1 shall have to get me a smoker next season. 

 Which do you think is best? A. W. Tobias. 



Graham, Jetf. Co., Ind., Oct. 33, 1883. 



Friend T., one of our neighbors, who 

 is in just about your predicament, came to 

 me yesterday and wanted to know what I 

 would do with late swarms. 1 told him that, 

 as it was a warm and pleasant day, it' I 

 were in his place I would take a tea-kettle 

 feeder and till it with good thick syrup, say 

 about 20 lbs. of granulated sugar to a gallon 

 of water. As it is so late in the season, I 

 would boil it until the grain is entirely de- 

 stroyed, and then set the feeder right over 

 the cluster while it is warm as it can be with- 

 out being unpleasant to handle, if given in 

 this way, the bees will probably empty it all 

 in less than 24 hours. If the weather should 

 be cool, I would put woolen cloths around 

 the sides of the feeder. If you can get them 

 to take it all down to the combs before it 

 gets cold, they will probably cap it over, and 

 it will be managed all right. If the feed gets 

 chilled, and they have to carry it down while 

 it is icy cold, it will probably give them the 

 dysentery. It is rather risky business feed- 

 ing in November, I know; but yet I have 

 seen it done without any bad results. [ 

 should much prefer to have a colony in a 

 chaff hive ; but if you can not do that, and 

 you have a dry, warm, dark cellar to put 

 them in, I think I should set them in the 

 cellar. If you feed your bees in the way I 

 have indicated, let us know next spring how 

 they turned out.— I am very glad you have 

 given up tobacco. If you give us your prom- 

 ise to pay us for the smoker if you ever use 

 tobacco in any form again, we will send you 

 one without charge. 



UNITING BEES. 



Considerable has been written in regard to 

 plans for uniting bees. We unite them by 

 the hundreds, and have no trouble whatever. 

 The colony to be put with another is made 

 queenless, and left several days — not long 

 enough for a queen to hatch out, of course. 

 The combs, bees, and all, are simply lift- 

 ed out, and set in with any other colony hav- 

 ing a laying queen. If it is done during a 

 cool day, it can be managed so as to take all 

 of the bees, or nearly ail, at one time. If 

 they go back to the old stand, set in a couple 



of combs a little way apart, and at night 

 they will all be found clustered between 

 these. If a warm day comes, be sure to 

 close up the old hive, or take it away entire- 

 ly. If you do not, the bees may cluster on 

 the sides inside, and starve to death. After 

 their old hive is taken away, they will most- 

 ly get in where they belong, providing the 

 new colony is near by. If it is not near by, 

 they will scatter around into other stocks to 

 some extent, and a few may be lost. But 

 with Italians you lose very few bees. Once 

 in a while they will commence to quarrel ; 

 but you should look at them occasionally, 

 and give them a pretty good smoking when- 

 ever they show such a disposition. We have 

 followed this plan right along, and I have 

 not had a colony of bees stung to death this 

 fall. We prefer to do the uniting toward 

 night, when they have stopped flying, when 

 it has been warm enough for them to fiy. 

 You can do it without any trouble, if you 

 just keep your eye on them and mcike them 

 unite. Of course, you want to get the stores 

 of both colonies into one. To do this, un- 

 cap the combs having a little honey in, and 

 put them at the outside of the cluster. They 

 will usually then take the honey out and 

 carry it to the other combs. After you have 

 got the lower apartment filled, and there are 

 no more combs containing honey, set these 

 in the upper story with the honey uncapped, 

 and they will very soon carry it all below. 

 Have the combs evenly spaced below, and 

 no empty spaces left, or you may have a 

 comb built in the empty space, even in No- 

 vember, if there is much in the combs 

 above, to be carried down. For the first time 

 in years, we have enough natural stores in 

 our apiary to winter as many stocks as we 

 shall try to winter. Now, if we shall suc- 

 ceed with these natural stores, after having 

 failed so many times with granulated sugar, 

 do not say it was because natural stores are 

 better than sugar, but rather because we 

 doubled them up until every colony was a 

 powerful one. 



$cU,§ and %mm§' 



|;ELL me what kind of a "bird " this is, will you? 

 I found him on the fence holding a live bee at 

 arm's length. There are a good many here. 

 Oak Hill, N. Y., Aug. 15, 1883. W. W. Turner. 

 [Friend B., the insect is the old offender mentioned 

 so many times, and described and illustrated In 

 Cook's Manual, the Asilus Missourieiwis. The way 

 you describe is just its way of doing with the honey- 

 bees. Whip and drive them off is the only remedy I 

 know of.] 



I had 13 hives to commence this spring. I have 

 now 36. I have taken nearly 8400 lbs. honey. 



ROBT. Simpson. 

 Kilbride, Ont., Can., Aug. 23, 1883. 



SUCCESa AT LAST. 



I examined the queen yesterday. She has a nice 

 lot of eggs laid already. I had great trouble in get- 

 ting her in; had her caged 8 days, but succeeded at 

 last. C. M, Hicks. 



Falrview, Md., Aug. 30, 1883. 



