187G. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



13 



AVe csiii. readily excuse onr English friends 

 for thinlvins our Extractor lifiht, witlioiit hav- 

 inc: made a practical test of it. Many in our 

 own country liave thought the same, but when 

 the metal is put just where wanted and no- 

 where else, but little comparatively is really 

 needed. Their f fficiency has been pretty thor- 

 oughly tested during the past season, and it is 

 found that but little power is needed when we 

 have no cumbrous machinery to manipulate. 



T.m. A. I. ROOT :— I thought I would quit tnl-iiig 

 Gleanings, but find I can not do without it as it just 

 saved ine one dollar by its expose of B. G. Stauffer's 

 method of wintering bees, as I was about remitting one 

 dollar for it. 



Elias HEBSnEY, Leaman Plaee, Pn., Dee. 16th, 75. 



Although yours is rather a doubtful compli- 

 ment, friend H., we are glad that we were able 

 to help you save your money. 



I have had rather poor sureeps Iti the bee business, com- 

 pared with what others report this season. I took 24 col- 

 onies fi-om the pit. Maivh 31st, in prime order, and kept 

 them so until tlie honey season began : then if yon remem- 

 ber, thin honey knocked my calculations "higher than a 

 kite." I MRS obliged to let the hives till with honey and 

 remain two weeks or more to ripen, and of course the bees 

 took the swnrminsr fever, and when once they ?et it, let 

 me tell you, the only M-ay is to let 'em swanii. The fever 

 lasted fi-fm June l.'ith'to July loth, and I had 31 prime 

 colonies, having sold six swanns. 1 tried all the plans I 

 ever heard of or could think cf to suijjjress swarming, and 

 none of them paid except that r( commended by you in 

 last Gleanings, viz.. carrying the old hive to a new loca- 

 tion and returning tl:e swarm. This I supposed was a 

 discovery of my own, and I did not know but I might get 

 Bro. Mitchell' or StaufTer, to sell receipts for me "on 

 lialves," but you have made the matter public, and I add 

 my testimony in its favor. 



I reduced my stocks to the original 2i this fall, and now 

 they are "sleeping the sleep of the quiet" in my pit. I 

 have to show for the season's work, l-!50 lbs. honey ex- 

 tracted, which I have sold at 1.'; cts. per lb., save what we 

 used in the family ; 60 gallons of sjilendid vinegar, as good 

 as anybody's cider vinegar, at •Jr> els. : six swanns sold at 

 ^3 each, and a 20 lb. box of honey at 2.5 cts. 



Frost made its appeai-ance the 23d of Aug. and cut short 

 a honey harvest that equalled any I ever saw. just as we 

 had begun to extract. In fact, my brother-hi-law, J. T. 

 MoiTis, extracted his the day before the frost and I fear 

 will lose all his bees in consequence. I went o^er and put 

 them in a pit for him Xov. l-ith, and laid candy under the 

 ouilts which will jierhajis keeji them alive >nitil we can get 

 them cut in the sja-iiig and ^rive tlicni litjuid food. 



I get a great many sjihkI ideas from you and your corres- 

 pondents, but it would require at least five year's contin- 

 \ied success to convert me to the house apiary business ; 

 though I hope you will succeed. 



I am content to be one of those who plod in the bee 

 business, and shall be satisfied with a yield of .^^O lbs. per 

 colony and 12* cts. per lb. for honey. My honey has con- 

 tiuered all objections to extracted honey here, and I have 

 no fears that 1 will ever be unable to sell. One man was 

 told by a pretended chemist, that my honey was adultera- 

 ted, "All right," said my friend, "Joiner can adulterate 

 me a keg or two every fall if he wants to." 



R. L. JoiNEE, Wyoming, Wis. 



In v.inter of '70 and '71. I had a good swarm of black 

 bees in a 10 frame Langstroth hive, out all winter with 

 nothing but the cover over them, and that had a two inch 

 hole ni the end, with wire gauze over it. They could see 

 the stars, without stirring about, I think. Siill they came 

 thi"ough finely and threw a swaim very early. Last wn- 

 ter, '7t and '75, I put two of my lightest swarms in the 

 ground. I dug a pit IS inches deep and large enough to 

 set the tMO side by side, ])ut a little straw in the bottom, 

 and a scantling 2x4 to set them on, put them in, covers 

 ()(T, quilts on ; put boards across top of pit, then 3 feet of 

 dirt. The dirt was fro7en as hard as a stone all winter. 

 On the first day of April I O.wfs Ihem out. They were all 

 riyht and among my very best. They had not" a pari icle 

 of vfntilation, I wish I had left them in till May. I do 

 not think it woidd pay en a large scale, as it is quite a job. 

 and then we might get warm^ wet winters. Too large 

 swarms mipht not do as well. My gi'ound is sandy loam. 

 1 have no df uV>t that a swarm cf bees with plenty of good 

 ;o(,d. iilr.ntcd on tlie i:orth side of a hill, in griund where 

 '.he v.atcr would not irathcr round them, ec \ei-ed with 



corn stalks before the dirt, (as they are the best non-con- 

 ductor of heat or cold in the world) could be left until 

 May without injury. Believe 1 11 try .scime yet. Too many 

 in one pit might accumulate heat. Does anybody know 

 whether bees will make more drone comb in long frames, 

 thaii short ones "r When we want comb honey, give us the 

 hybrids : they are worth twice as much as the pure Ital- 

 iajis, but not for extracted honey. 



E. Stanuope, Pentwatcr, Mich,, Dec. 7th, "75. 



DEAR SIR:— On paire l.5ti. Dec. ^'o. Gleanings, the 

 queslion is asked. "Will toads eat bees'?" I wish to say, 

 for one. they certainly ilo when they get a chance. A ge^(l 

 sized toad will go to a hive from two to three times picrday, 

 and will eat from forty to one hundred bees per meal. ) 

 have known good swarms to be totally destroyed by load? , 

 in the spring. D. J. Bakdwell, Omro, Wis., Dec. "Jth, '7.''. 



Will buckwheat honey create dysentery m bees if al- 

 lowed to make up their winter stores from that alone? 



Are not natural swarms more industrious, and will they 

 not store more honey in proportion to the number of 

 bees, than artificial swarms "r 



Why will bees work in large boxes more readily than 

 small ones "r 



It has been a very good time for bees in this viciiiity 

 this season. But few bees kept here, and they are now 

 keprt mostlv for box honev. "i'cuis in bees. 



Alamo, Mich,, Dec, tith, 1875, K, M. Baeboue. 



Bees winter well on buckwheat honey gen- 

 erally, although we have some reports to the 

 contrary. We should consider it as whole- 

 some as any vainnil stores. 



There is a difl'erence of opinion in regard to 

 natural and artiticial swarms ; even if it should 

 be shown that the former are on an average 

 the most industrious, there are advantages in 

 favor of artiticial swtirniing which place it far 

 ahead, when a rapid increase is desired. 



Ill a large box they can cluster together as a 

 natural swarm, and thus there is a much bet- 

 ter economy of animal heat for comb building, 

 than if they are divided up into several small 

 clusters. The section box we described secures 

 the advantages of both. 



FRIEND NOVICE :-I think you are getting on the 

 right track when you advocate strong swarms. I have 

 had rmly a lew years' experience, but with me small 

 swarms have been a source of loss and vexation. By 

 the way what has become of Hos-ner witli his new 

 theory "of small swarms for wintering ? There may be 

 circumstances under which such swarms if kept in a 

 warm cellar would do well but I think the majority of 

 bee-keepers will be slow to adopt it. 



Perhaps I might add a word in tavor of sugar s^rup 

 for wintering, I started last winter with 17 swarms, 

 one of which had sugar syrup, the rest had natural 

 stores and all had dysentery more or less except this 

 one. In fact, during winter and spring I lost them all 

 except this. Perhaps I ought to state also thai this 

 was in a hive of double width with division boards, 

 and the sides stufl'ed with hay. Most of ihem were 

 covered with straw mats, the caps veniilated at each 

 end, ventilation also below. They were wintered un- 

 der snow « 7rt Doolittle and Cook. To show what a 

 fearful spring we had here— this swaim »vhen the mat 

 was raised on the first of April, on a cold day, occu- 

 ]3ied eight tjuinby fi'ames and by the first of June they 

 were redu<'ed to a cluster about the size of a (juarr 

 bowl. This was the one Irom which I took last year 

 "83 lbs. of honey. 



I start again this winter with 17 swarms ; all are in 

 the cellar except three which are packed in hives of 

 straw. 



Two old men, who live a few miles from me and use 

 box hives, winter bees very successfully on their sum- 

 mer stands. OjiO has box hives without chambers 

 and has wintered six old .swarms (he keejis only a few 

 and sells his young swarms mostly) without swarms, 

 for the last tfiree or four winters. He bores throe or 

 lour 'a inch holes in as many difl'eient sides, about 

 half way up, and without aiiy ]notection whatever 

 from wind and storms leaves them on their sum- 

 mer stands. The other has hives with chambers, but 

 stops all upward ventilation in winter. The body of 

 the hive has an inch hole on the Iront side at the top 

 of the broo(i chamber, besides (he usual fly-holc at the 

 bottom, both of which arc ke])t open in \\ inter. 



liAMia. llAi.i,, V\';irtaw. N. y .., Dec. Oth, "75. 



