1877 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



75 



,.'ti, and got some bos honey besides. Some of the 

 swiirras did not have honey cnoiiph to winter over. Now 

 ( hese bees manaK^d (lunt.^eh-cs^ except that the Jnd(?e 

 liived them. T, <l. McGaw. 



Monmouth, 111., Jan. 29th, 1877. 



I have a Barnes' Saw. like it well- Can't a 7 or 8 inch 

 n;iw be put en the C inch saw mandrel V From 28 colonies 

 :ind an increase of ;50. 1 got over 3300 lbs. of comb honey 

 last year. I just got the Jan. No. of Gleanings last 

 week, and I woukl'iit take $5.00 for what I learned in it, 

 <specially since I use the J^arnes Saw. J. F. Fiorey. 



Modesto, Cal. Jan. 31st, 1877. 



It takes much more power to drive a 7 or 8 

 inch saw, and the light mandrel, although suf- 

 ticient for the 6 inch, we think would hardly 

 be suitable, for large saws ; the belt power al- 

 so, would hardly be capable of running an 8 

 inch saw. As we increase the diameter of 

 saws, we consume power vciy rapidly, and 

 when we get up to 10 inches, we need a ^ or 4 

 horse power engine to drive it eft'ectively. A 

 t> inch saw as a general thing, we think will 

 be found as large as can be used profitably 

 with foot power, unless we accnmulate power 

 by heavy balances, and then saw only a part 

 of the time we are treading. With a man at 

 the crank, and another to do the sawing, an 8 

 inch saw might do very well. 



DTSENTEEY AND DWINDLING, REMEDY. 



I am beginning in the bee business, have some that are 

 dying with the dysentery. What shall I do for them ? 

 Have one in Langstroth, one in box, tlie rest in hives 11^^ 

 xilt inches, movable frames. T. N. Whitelt. 



Burlington, Mich. Feb. 6th, 1877. 

 We really do not feel sure that anything can 

 be done, when bees have once got the disease 

 badly, unless we have warm weather that will 

 allow them to fly freely, and even then, they 

 are very apt to get the "dwindling" and die in 

 spite of us. The best advice we can give, is 

 to double them up until you have strong colo- 

 nies, then give them so few combs, that the 

 "oees can cover them all, and have these combs 

 contain good sealed stores. The thin, watery 

 bad tasting stufl" that is usually found in dis- 

 «iased colonies, will certainly kill them if they 

 are obliged to use it lu bad weather. During 

 the summer, we have used cooibs containing 

 such stores without any bad results that we 

 could discover. Plenty of bees on a few combs 

 of good stores, well covered with chalf cush- 

 ions, will we think take care of themselves in 

 any weather. If you can not get the good 

 stores, give them empty combs, with sticks of 

 candy above them, under the chaff cushions. 



movable frame hive, without having such a sticky mess 

 of it, as is generally the case. I was out in the apiary 

 watching the bees, on the first of February ; the day was 

 warm !»nd pleasant, and the bees were having a fine fly. 

 SudJeidy they began rushing out of an old box hive, and 

 circling in the air as when swarming. The same mo- 

 ment a thouLTht popped into my cranium ; why not trans- 

 fer that hive of bees now, and save the trouble next 

 spring. 1 picked up the old box and carried it a few 

 steps away, and placed on the same stand a movable 

 frame hive nearly full of comb and honey. The bees con- 

 tinued to fly around for a few moments and then settled 

 on a board on which I had set the box they came out of. 



I then took the board and shook the bees off in front of 

 the hive, and happening to see the queen picked her up 

 and put her in the hive where the rest sfxxi followed, and 

 now they don't seem to know that they have changed 

 quarters at all. I afterward examined the hive the bees 

 were in, and found they had no honey, nothing but pol- 

 len ; that probably was the reason they swarmed out. 

 Cteus McQueen, Buena Vista, O., Feb. Uh, 1877. 



It would be rather risky to undertake to 

 make a business of starving bees out in this 

 manner, but we may profit by the idea of giv- 

 ing a transferred colony as many good combs 

 as the new hive will hold, besides all their 

 own brood combs. We advised in Vol. I, giv- 

 ing the pieced up combs to different stocks. 

 This enables them to repel robbers, much bet- 

 ter than if they had all the clearing up to do 

 themselves. 



I generally winter 2 or 3 swarms, and in ,Tuly or Ai^gust 

 take up 4 to 6 new swarms. It does not seem to cost 

 much, neither do I make it very profitable. 



C M. KiNNi^T, Northampton, Mass. Feb. .5th, 1877. 

 Does it not cost you some twinges of con- 

 science, friend K., to thus murder the little 

 rellows you have seen all summer long labor- 

 ing so faithfully, and so innocently? Besides 

 you can get much more, much nicer, can get 

 the honey more easily, and have your bees 

 left besides, by adopting some of the modern 

 ways of working. 



TItANSl-EKKING ON A NOVEL PLAN. 



1 will try to tell you of a trick I played on a hive of 

 b:'tv^ transferring them from an old fashioned bo.\, to a 



ARTIFICIAL POLLEN. 



A friend writes "thusly." Bee Bread : Pulverized slippery 

 elm bark 1 lb. Barley malt yround fine 1 lb. Make into 

 a dough by wetting up with pure strained honey or sugar 

 syrup. If not made too stiff it can be spread on cotton 

 cloth and hung between the frames, or it may be made 

 into cakes and laid on top of frames over bulk of bees. I 

 find it fine for (?«»-/// spring feeding. If the cakes get dry 

 and hard it will be well to dampen them occasionally. 

 Have taken several colonies throuKh winter ivithout any- 

 thing else. Please give your opinion of the above. 



H. Nesbit, Cynthiana, Ky. 

 Some time ago friend Nesbit of Cynthiana, 

 Ky., sent us the above. The paper was mis- 

 laid and we have never made a test of it, but 

 from the good reports of malt, we have no 

 doubt that the bees would use it for brood 

 rearing. Slippery elm, has formed the basis of 

 a great number of receipts and secrets for bee- 

 feed and artificial honey, but friend N's re- 

 port is the first favorable one we have ever re- 

 ceived. Perhaps friend N. has justly earned 

 the $5.00 offered some time ago for a cheap 

 substitute for pollen. Slippery elm is very 

 cheap, and malt — cannot we manage to give it 

 all to the bees '{ 



BROOD rearing IN WINTER, UNDESIRABLE. 



Wintering 23 stocks on summer stands ; all right yet, 

 though the weather keeps obstmately cold. The mercury 

 touched 44 for a short time yesterday, February 2d. My 

 bees have not had a good fly this winter. A few came out 

 the past two days. One colony is breeding, I think how- 

 ever breeding at this season of tiie year is a damage. 

 More bees have died in that hive than any other. 



8. T. Pkttit, Belmont, Out. Can. Feb. ."d, 1877. 



It is pretty well decided that spring dwind- 

 ling is worst whea the bees begin to rear 

 brood rapidly, but on the other hand bees at 

 times raise large amounts of brood in winter 

 without seeming injury, and we have both re- 



