40 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



.surplus, cut ill triangular pieces about three inches each 

 side ? J. M. GOEMLET, Gary, O. Dec. 30th, 187G. 



The increase mentioned, is another of the 

 wonderful and almost incredible ones we have 

 had reported this season, and they are all very 

 easy to account for, with a very prolific queen, 

 and a continued yield of honey for months at 

 a time, as we had it here. Onr young friends, 

 should be careful about making calculations 

 On such seasons as a rule ; make up your 

 minds to be content with 50 lbs. of honey 

 from each old one, and then do better if you 

 can. 



It may be a little difficult to decide which of 

 the two methods of making swarms is the 

 least trouble, and much will depend on cir- 

 cumstances. If we adopt the plan given by 

 Doolittle in this number, we have only to 

 move the colony away as soon as a swarm is- 

 sues, put our new hive in its place, and the 

 work is done without even opening a hive at 

 all. This of course presupposes the queen's 

 wing to be clipped, and that we find her with- 

 out trouble. Can anything be simpler? On 

 the other hand, if the owner is usually absent 

 in the middle of the day, it may be much eas- 

 ier for him to remove a couple of frames of 

 brood to a new hive before breakfast, and then 

 help them a little more when their queen be- 

 gins to lay. Reader which will be easiest for 

 you? With the latter plan, all new stocks 

 can be easily reared from an imported or 

 Choice queen, but with natural swarming we 

 shall have hybrids and blacks all mixed up 

 unless we first get all stocks all about us pure 

 — almo,st an impossibility at the present time. 

 Who will send us the address of a manufac- 

 turer or dealer, in the square tumblers ? Per- 

 haps Muth, could add them to his list profit- 

 ably. We can furnish fdn. in triangular 

 pieces, 3 inches on a side, for % cent each. 



P. S.— Since reading the above our attention 

 has been called to the fact that this enormous 

 increase mentioned, was all from a quart of 

 bees, and in a period of less than 8 weeks. 

 Friend G., we fear we shall have to suppose a 

 heavy swarm of bees must have gone into this 

 (jolony — by no meats an unusual occurrence 

 —at some time without your being aware of 

 it. Full 21 days must elapse before a single 

 bee can be hatched in any swarm put into a 

 new hive even if they were furnished with 

 empty combs, and meanwhile the quart of 

 bees would go down to considerably less than 

 that number. If five swarms issued, the first 

 must have come out ten days or two weeks 

 before the last of July, and at this rate, our 

 poor queen with her few bees would have to 

 perform feats of brood rearing in a few days, 

 that even Doolittle, would consider impossible. 

 If we are in error anywhere, we should be 

 glad to be corrected. 



-a»^i»i ^ 



BEE THBEVES, KEMfEDV FOR. 



Sij?i WISH you ii "Merry Uhrislinas," )'i'len<l Root, and 

 Jl enclose * * * though you will have to set me 

 — ^ down aniong the '-niasted Hopes" as well as 

 "blasted thicveB.'- I can kill the king birds, spiders, 

 .ints, carry off the toads and light the worms, but the 

 hftsty thieves, they come in the night and are gone in 

 the motnins; with your bott boxes or hives of honey. 

 I wa? preparing to winter my bees (20 swarms) od 



their summer stands, packed as usual in sawdust, but 

 the thieves sent them down cellar, where they now 

 are. I am building a house to put my bees in as soon 

 as we have a warm spell. My former experience 

 does not dispose me favorably toward bee houses, but 

 it is bee house or quit, as I can't afford to teetl thieves 

 on honey. As yon seem to have the chaff fever rather 

 strong, I will suggest that you put the 3 inch box 

 under your hives as J. P. Moore directs, but fill the 

 box with coarse shavings up to the combs. These 

 keep the bees off the cold wet bottom and give a good 

 passage to the middle of the hive. I lost one, and in- 

 jured three more, winter before last, by neglecting to 

 do so. N. Case, Toledo, Ohio. 



It will pay with only a few stocks, to make 

 a tight board fence all round your apiary, as 

 much as eight feet high if possible, and if your 

 dwelling is arranged so as to open into this 

 yard, it makes rather close quarters for thieves. 

 It requires a pretty strong inducement for 

 them to get over into such a place and with 

 the unpleasantness that bees often occasion 

 when disturbed, we think few will be induced 

 to try it. The fence will pay, aside from the 

 protection from thieves, by keeping away the 

 cold winds. If your neighborhood is a very 

 bad one, make something on the plan of the 

 house apiary, keep it locked up, and both your 

 bees and honey are safe. You are right friend 

 Case, we certainly can not att'ord to feed 

 thieves on honey. May I venture to suggest 

 that starting a Sabbath school in your neigh- 

 borhood and going \n. yourself to help teach 

 that thieving is very unprofitable, would be 

 worth all the padlocks and jails ever invented. 



^ * % * w p 



OUR OWN APIAKY. 



BOME one made the remark that perhaps 

 we did not care to tell just how many 

 colonies comprised said apiary, just now, but 

 we assuredly have no objection to telling 

 anything about our successes or reverses. 

 Our 40 the first of last May, increased them- 

 selves by swarming, to 91, and gave us perhaps 

 a ton of comb honey ^ it may have been a ton 

 and a half, but as we had no time to weigh it, 

 will call it the former. Some one asked about 

 the hive with the hexagonal combs ; now at 

 the risk of being laughed at, I will try and 

 tell the truth frankly. "They did finely under 

 their chart' covering, built out the fdn., and 

 raised brood, until their hive contained rather 

 more bees than honey. About the first of Oct., 

 I saw they needed stores for winter. Right in 

 the honey house just at hand, were L. combs 

 weighing from 1 to 10 lbs., but so long as this 

 hive would not admit the L. frame, nothing 

 could be done in that direction. We had be- 

 fore resolved that nothing should tempt us t'o 

 have two kinds of frames in the apiary, but 

 here we were again in the old predicament. 

 A feeder was given them and very soon they 

 were rejoicing in peace and plenty, but alas, 

 some of their inquisitive neighbors soon be- 

 gan to rejoice stili more than they, even uproar- 

 iously, for they were by some strange freak, 

 allowed to go "in and out without challenge or 

 molestation. In vain did we try to arouse a 

 bit of spunk in these black hybrids; they 

 would allo\v any bee in the apiary, to go in 

 and load up just as long as there was a cell 



