1883 



gleani:ngs in bee cultuee. 



781 



" But just let me ask you one question, Mr. Mc- 

 Neill, and then, with your vivid description, I will 

 have the whole subject clearly before my mind's eye. 

 How did he get in there?" 



" How did what get in there?" I inquired. 



" Why, how did the bee get into the cell in the first 

 place?" 



I was speechless for a moment, and I guess a look 

 of disappointment and vexation must have passed 

 over my face, for his wife seemed called upon to an- 

 swer his question, and she did it in a way which 

 courtesy alone prevented me from doing. 



"Why, you silly fellow," she exclaimed, "he was 

 never out of there; ho was born and brought up in 

 the cell." 



"Oh! I see, I seel" said my lawyer friend, looking 

 decidedly foolish; and hastily thanking me for my 

 attention, he and his wife were soon lost in the 

 crowd. James Mc>fEin,. 



Hudson, N. Y., Nov. 24, If 88. 



HANDLING BEES DURING A DRY SPELL. 



THE ROBBERS THAT ATE ALL THE HONEY, AND THEN 

 CHEWED UP THE COMBS. 



fIjHERE were two of my colonies that had their 

 frames attached to the bottom of the hives by 

 old pieces of black comb; wishing to remove 

 this, I transferred into another hive in the last flry 

 spell, and the other bees happened to get a smell of 

 the honey, and set to work robbing them, and clear- 

 ed the hives of every drop of honey, and went so far 

 as to chew up the combs. I tried in all manners 

 possible to make them stop robbing, but to no avail. 

 After they were robbed, I tried to strengthen them 

 up again by giving honey in feeders on the top of 

 the frames, removing the covering cv mat, and clos- 

 ing the entrance; but the robbers clung to the sides, 

 and would not go. Seeing that I could not save 

 them, I opened the entrance; and a few days after, 

 the colony started out. Loth to leave their old 

 home, they settled on a small orange-tree alongside. 

 I captured and caged the queens, and the workers 

 forced their way into the other hives. It made me 

 feel sorry for them; but I tried my best, and could 

 not save them. If you know of any method besides 

 those in A B C, please inform. Mrs. M. R. Blaize. 

 Bay St. Louis, Hancock Co., Miss., Nov. 22, 1883. 



I have given place to the above because it 

 so vividly portrays the consequences of open- 

 ing hives during a dearth of pasturage. I 

 presume many of our readers will smile at 

 the idea of robber bees chewing up the 

 combs; but no wonder our friend charged 

 them with that kind of work ; for when rob- 

 bers once get crazy for stores, after having 

 licked up every drop of honey the combs 

 contained, often grind the combs to powder 

 in their eagerness to see if there is not a drop 

 more somewhere ; and after they are through 

 there is a general air of "chewed-npness" 

 all through the ranch. Be careful about 

 opening a hive at such a time, my friend.— 

 There is another moral to your story, and 

 that is, that folks who live away down where 

 the orange-trees thrive do not always have 

 honey coming in in abundance, any more 

 than we do. I think the ABC book gives 

 full instructions for such occasions, if you 

 study it well and practice it along with your 

 study. 



nqcuraging* 



UY nONEY REPORT FOR 1883. 



fWENT into winter quarters with 11 colonies; 

 lost one; commenced the season of 1883 with 7 

 ' good colonies — 3 weak and one queenless, 

 which was united with another after having failed to 

 introduce queen. The 2 weak ones were set to rear- 

 ing queens. My crop of honey was gathered by 7 

 colonies, which was 756 lbs., about GOO extracted; the 

 rest comb in sections. On a Saturday at 5 p. M, I ex- 

 tracted all the honey from 3 of my best colonies (3 of 

 them having their queens removed), making 6 sto- 

 ries. In just 3 days from that time 1 extracted all 

 the honey from 5 of the same stories, and obtained 

 90 tt)S. This was during bass wood bloom. Increased 

 10 colonies. As one oi; the ABC class, I feel satis- 

 fled with my success. I have a neighbor who believes 

 in the loggum hive, who has double the amount of 

 bees that I have, but who gets less than one-fourth 

 the amount of honey that I do. I. P. C. Steddom. 

 Webster, Ind., Dec. 3, 1883. 



My single colony that came to me has developed 

 into seven strong colonies — four of which gave me 

 200 lbs. of comb honey this year, without more than 

 one day's time spent among them. I have leased 

 them to a bee man for another year. 



Onawa, la., Nov. 13, 1883. S. B. Martin. 



I increased my 8 colonies that I wintered last sea- 

 son to 32. They are all well provisioned. They also 

 gave me 200 lbs. of fine comb honey In 1-lb. sections. 

 They are all well packed in chaff, according to your 

 idea of chaff packing, and I feel easy about them, 



C. H. HUBER. 



Rural Valley, Armstrong Co., Pa. 



SEEKING A FOREIGN MARKET. 



Our enterprifing friend, Mr. Willows, of Carling- 

 ford, who made a crop of several tons of honey this 

 season, has, I believe, sailed for England, hoping to 

 dispose of his sweet harvest across the water. Good 

 luck and good prices to him. C. W. Young. 



Stratford, Ont., Dec. 4, 1883. 



report for 1883. 

 I commenced the past honey season with 28 colo- 

 nies, about equal parts Syrian, Italian, and blacks; 

 all in double-colony chaff or sawdust hives. Four 

 or five of the above were weak or queenless, so we 

 could not extract from them. The remainder were 

 from medium to good condition. I increased to 75, 

 principally by natural swarming, and doubled down 

 to 69 for winter, 46 of which are in double-colony 

 chaff and sawdust hives, and 23 in chaff. Nearly all 

 in good condition. I extracted 8500 ftis. of fine honey, 

 mostly from top-stories, and did not at any time in- 

 terfere with their winter stores. About half was 

 clover and raspbeny, and the rest basswood honey. 



LOWER A'ENTILATION. 



I admire your conclusion about large fly-holes for 

 winter for outdoor wintering. I believe in keeping 

 hives close and warm above, and plenty of fresh air 

 below. I don't think they can be packed too warm, 

 providing they have plenty of fresh air at the en- 

 trance, and ample provision made in the lid or cover 

 to dry out the cushions as fast as the dampness riseq 

 up through them. W. Q. {lusSEl,i<, 



Millbpook, Ontario, Dec. 3, 1883, 



