1877 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



77 



Since Jan. iTlh bees Lave llowu nearly every ilay. 

 On the tilst. wc c'xainlne<l two stocka that are out- 

 doors without any protevllon except earjiet on the 

 frames ; they were in good condition, but had con- 

 sumed a big lot of honey. The queens in both had 

 just begun to lay. Temperature in cellar has stood at 

 '48'^ for a week past and the bees are humming as if it 

 were a summer evening, and busy carrying the dead 

 bees to the entrance. To-day I took a stock out that 

 was only ;? inches from cellar lloor and was iicrfccNi/ 

 MUict. It was very strong In bees and had less dea<l ones 

 than I expected to lind in it. In two frames tliere 

 were 3 inches siniare of ca])ped brood. This hive last 

 season gave a swarm June nth; the old hive made 120 

 lbs. box lioiiey and the new swarm 110, total 2:50 lbs. 

 «}uitc a number of 7icw swarnib gave 100 lbs. Now our 

 friend Kellogg is only about 30 miles from here and 

 as good as the past season was, he from 9 stocks in 

 the spring increased to '20 and took only 330 lbs. of ex- 

 tracted honey from the whole '20. He thinks he is in 

 a poor locality and that it is overstocked. I judge 

 there are not 50 stocks witliin a mile of Oneida. 1 

 think the dilliculty is his stocks are not strong at the 

 right time. I told him 1 thought this was his dilllcul- 

 ty. Kellogg will probably combine with Wm. Hol- 

 Hngsworth and run the bees at the river this season. 

 If I take them on the shares again he will work for 

 me. I advised him to run tliera on t.iic shares but he 

 was alraid he would get so many bees on his hands it 

 would swamp liini. 



Well, our young friend Wm. Hardin Haines seems 

 to liave a good deal of vim in him. He is working to 

 get up a convention of bee-keepers to meet here the 

 lirst or second week in April. He has ordered 35 

 <iueen bees from .Switzerland and Italy- -says he will 

 sell them at $8,(0 each. He lias also set his stakes to 

 raise 400 queens besides attending to his apiary. He 

 did liave SO stocks but has sold 30 hybrid stocks. Not 

 many 18 year old chaps that can do all the above. He 

 lives 40 or 50 miles below me. 



T. G. McGaw, Monmouth, 111. 



I have been cariying my be^ out of the cellar to-day. 

 Found all O. K. except S starved out. They were Sept. 

 swarms and I knew they were light but was in hopes 

 that they had enougli to last until I carried them out. I 

 have over 90 colonies left. H. A. Burch and my brother 

 have had bad luck with their bees. They had them in 

 Burch's lijuse apiaries and they took fire and burned up. 

 I think there were some 135 colonies. A. C. Balcu. 



Kalamazoo, Feb. 0th, 1877. 



We sin<'erely hope the house apiaries were 

 well insured, as all such structures should al- 

 ways be. 



We hive a beautiful day here to-day awaj north of you 

 just about where the It degree line comes. It makes me 

 feel like letting my bees out to have a fly. Poor things 

 have been shut up in the cellar for about three and a half 

 months ::nd it seems hard that they should not be allow- 

 I'd to enjoy such ;■- fine d;iy. I hope that bee-keeping will 

 soon be mannaed m that we will not have to kee)) th.em 

 confined all uinter. Do you think 1 had better let them 

 have a good fly in March ? Now I want to begin bee- 

 i;eeping in earnest in the spring. I have 9 stocks of 

 black bees and have bought 10 stocks of Italians from 

 fiiend Jones of Becton. The hive I use is 12x18 inside 

 measure and 15 inches high. Can put any number of 

 frames in from 1 to 12 ; and a division board which comes 

 withhi 5 inches of the bottom. Cover consists of a flat 

 V)Diird nbout 2 inches larger than tlie box outside, with a 

 two inch belt all round It made just large enough to fit 

 (/own over the box cozy. All I iiul telwtcn the c(ncr and 



frames, is one or two thicknesstis of cotton (factory). The 

 frames set crosswise of the box and hang on strips of 

 stovepipe iron so as not to be easily stuck with propolis, 

 and will lift out easily by means of the division board. I 

 can make the hive any size inside. 



BNTIIANCE8 ; AT SIDES OE ENUa OF FRAMES. 



The bees enter at the end of the hive. Would it not be 

 better for them to etder at the end of the frames instead 

 of at the sides of them, as by so doing they have to go on 

 the bottom or .along the side to g<'t to the rack in the far 

 end of the hive from the entrance? 1 have to build a 

 nund)er of new liives this spring and would like to have 

 you suggest any improvement on these. Do you think 

 them too high or too long, 18 inches from entrance to the 

 back of the hive? I shall want about 1 dozen queens as 

 early in the season as 1 can get them, sny .lune 15th. I 

 don't want thrm of iJadant's stock as those 1 have are 

 from his, and I want to cross them. Shall probably pat- 

 roiuze friend Oatman. 



i am going to seed down about 10 acres of my farm near 

 the bees, with clover this se.ison. Can get seed as follows. 

 Ked clover for 1-lc, alsike 25c, white Dutch .'iOc. per lb. 

 Taking the crop, price of .seed, and all into consideration, 

 which kind would you advise me to sow 'f liemember 1 

 am a good bit north of you and our seat-ons must be 

 shorter. If drones are necessary to impregnate queens, 

 how can queens begin to lay in the spring after killing oft' 

 drones the fall before? C. R. Tench. 



Newmarket, Out. Can. Feb. 14th, 1877. 



We too hope bees will soon be wintered so 

 they can come out whenever they wish, and 

 without any attention from their keeper. 

 Where they arc perfectly quiet and healthy — 

 clean, dry combs — we would not djsturb them 

 until settled warm weather, but if damp or 

 uneasy, and trying to come out, wc would set 

 them out to fly the first warm day. 



We do not like such a hive as you describe, 

 near as well as the one we gave on our Feb. 

 cover, with the Langstroth frame. Especially, 

 do we find the bees disinclined to work in a 

 long hive on comb honey. Last season we 

 had combs built much more readily in a fourth 

 story, than in the ends of a hive 30 inches 

 long. It is pretty well agreed that we want 

 our honey stored as near the brood combs as 

 possible, and by no means can we think of 

 omitting the space just above the brood. For 

 the sake of permitting the bees to get to the 

 brood in the most direct way, we would have 

 the entrance at the ends of the central combs, 

 and whether it should be on the bottom board, 

 or a few inches above, remains yet to be deci- 

 ded. 



We do not think you need to take any pains 

 to cross your stock. They will almost always 

 get all the cross needed irom the black bees 

 near j^ou, in spite of all you can do. 



It will be a hard matter to get many queens 

 by June 15th, unless you are willing to pay an 

 extra price for them. 



We would recommend the alsike, although 

 white Dutch may be equally good ; but few 

 experiments have been made with the latter. 



Your latter question is like a great quantity 

 of others, that are fully answered in every text 

 book and every work on bee culture. In fact 

 it is so well understood by all bee-keepers that 

 the impregnation of the queen lasts her whole 

 life, that we fear we are doing wrong to take 

 the space here to reply to such. Will not our 

 friends look over their books a little more, be- 

 fore taking the trouble to ask questions that 

 are really the A, B, C's of the science V Prof. 

 Cook's manual is only ;jOc, and it goes briefly 

 over the whole ground. 



