1877 



OLEANINCiS IN BEP] CULTl'RE. 



21'.) 



I had a swarm of bees come ofl' May 21st, anfl an- 

 other Mav oflth. I put them in Simplicity hives; they 

 are all very strong but they have not yet commenced 

 to build comb. What is the matter? The weather ia 

 now and has been vers- wet and very cool; has that 

 anything to do with it •■ They are black bees. 



H. 15ETTV, Medina, Kas., June 18, 1877. 



They get no honey, is all that's wrong, and 

 if not fed uader such circumstances, they often 

 starve. 



I am not banished to the column of blasted hopes 

 yet. My 13 hives that I saved through the winter, 

 are now roaring in 36 good colonies. Some have given 

 me 15 lbs. comb hone}', and one gave me one swarm 

 and ;Jfi lbs. ol box honey. I am preparing to move 

 them into the sunk lands in July, and I have a wild 

 scheme In view, of raising queens and capturing wild 

 bees for their subjects. 1 will report when I get In 

 operation, but shall not tell h3w it is done, lest some 

 one may capture your bees or mine, instead of wild 

 ones. A. J. Savage, Lakeville, Mo., June 25th. 



We have tried trapping bees, friend S., but 

 it always turned out that we could get bees 

 and queens cheaper by the regular plan of 

 raising them in the apiary, than we could by 

 trapping them, even if the bee trees were al- 

 ready found and given to us. 



Prospect never was better for a good honey season ; 

 honey is coming in rapidly now. Basswood is going 

 to be full ot bloom, and white clover is abundant. 

 Showers occasionally, and all nature is lovely. Your 

 iiumble servant is awful busy. J. H. Martin^. 



Hartford, N. Y., June 7, 1877. 



We suspect, friend M., that your being "aw- 

 ful busy" is the secret of the whole of it, and 

 if such is the case wo hope you and your bees 

 may always be thus busy — and happy. 



ABSCONDING. 



On the 27th of May my bees commenced to swarm. 

 I successfully hived 3 or 4, and had just hived another 

 when a swarm issued and without settling went right 

 into the last named swarm ; both being very large the 

 hive would not hold them, and consequently 1 was 

 unable to close it at night. Both swarms remained! 

 for two days, and made a goo I deal of comb, when ! 

 they suddenly left, I suppose for the woods. This has 

 happened four times this season, making a loss of 8 ■ 

 lirst swarms. How can you account lor it? Could I i 

 iiave done anything to prevent their leaving, or should 

 1 have endeavored to separate them at first? In all i 

 cases the hive was so full that it could not be shiit 

 down. 



UTILITY OF SAWDUST. 



1 have adopted your plan of having sawdust in front 

 of hives, and find it answers admirably. In two in- 

 stances I have picked the queen up when bees were 

 swarming, and placed her among the swarm, wliere 

 had it been in long grass I shouhl probably not have 

 seen her, and as she could not :ly, she would to a cer- 

 tainty have iieen lost. " Fked Penfolu. 



Richmond, Quebec, June 25, 1877. 



You did a very unwise thing in letting the 

 bees remain iu a hive so small that it would 

 not hold them, whether it was one large swarm 

 or two ordinary ones. An upper story would 

 probably have made them all right, but a comb 

 of brood would have been much the safer way, 

 as we advised in "absconding swarms." It is 

 generally thought most profitable to divide 

 these double swarms. The loss of 8 first 

 swarms, is certainly paying pretty dearly for a 

 little experience. When you saw a second 

 swarm going in with the first you should have 

 carried the hive away to a new stand, and if 

 that did not separate the queens, you could 

 have easily found one of them. Where your 

 hives are light and easy to handle, like the 

 Simplicity, it is an easy matter to separate or 

 divide colonies by moving them to a new lo- 

 cation. We agree with you in regard to the 

 sawdust. 



Prof. A. J. Cook: — In one of our late reports of 

 "State Board of Agriculture" you enquire if any one 

 has observed the occurrence of honey dew in this 

 part of the Stale. 1 would say that I observed it in 

 tills towufchip about the year i8.V2.on llie S E. part of 

 Sec. 3. it extended over a good portion ol that part 

 of the section. I don't remember ever observing it 

 before that date, nor since. The leaves of the trees 

 and shrubs almost dripped, they were so thicklv cov- 

 ered witli that singular substance. H. A. Atkins. 



Locke, Mich,, March 2r,, 1877, 



On the 8th I removed 4 black queens from n colonv, 

 and on the »th gave them a queen cell from my ioi- 

 ported mother, which hatched on the llth. To-day, 

 the I'ith, at ;5'j o'clock, they have throv/n out a large 

 swarm with the young queen. There aie natural 

 queen cells formed in the old hive, but neiUier cggsor 

 larva' in tliera. I have given them a card of brood 

 and eggs from imported mother. Is this kind ot 

 swarming unusual. T. T. Dei.zell. 



Hersey, Mich., June IG, 1877. 



Such cases as you mention occur sometimes, 

 especially when honey is coming in rapidly, 

 and it may be well at such times to destroy all 

 the cells that have been started, after liberat- 

 ing the queen. Mr. Langstroth always ad- 

 vised cutting out the queen cells when a queen 

 had been introduced. Yours was a case of 

 what would be properly termed "after swarm- 

 ing," although no first swarm issued. Your 

 having removed the old queen virtually 

 amounted to the same thing. 



What do you think of transferring them into new 

 hives after I get one swarm each from them ? Would 

 you advise me to buy an extractor this fall taking 

 from all my bees their fall honey and, feeding them 

 sugar for winter ? 



I have built a house 7x9 stufled with sawdust 4 inch - 

 es deep. Will it do to put 12 colonies of bees in 

 through the winter without any ventilation ? 



CHAKLES P. MULFOKD. 



Berkshire Centie, Vt., June 17th, '77. 



If you should undertalce to transfer a hive 

 after it had swarmed, you would very likely 

 find so much honey in the way that your 

 combs would all mash down in a heap, after 

 they were cut loose from the old hive. If you 

 have old stout combs without much honey in 

 the way, yerhaps you might get along witli 

 little trouble. You can empty the pieces with 

 an extractor, so as to do it very easily. At 

 the present prices of both sugar and honey, 

 we would not extract to feed sugar. 



At present we favor out-door wintering, and 

 would much rather risk so small a number of 

 colonies out-doors than in your house. Have 

 them well protected with chaff" or straw, close 

 up to the cluster of bees. Your 12 colonies 

 would hardly need any special provision for 

 ventilation. 



Bees doing well but vcrv cross : would like to cat 

 me if they could. I like the Simplicity hive very 

 much ; have only one other in use, and shall transfer 

 that in August. J. J. White, Clinton, Mich., June 2G. 



We knew bees were fond of sweets, but we 

 never before heard of their trying to cat u|» 

 their keeper; maybe you have been spilling 

 honey aljout. 



I rcc'd the fdn. and put it into .S Irames the same 

 evening— at 8 A. M. this morning I examined them and 

 found .'5 filled out complete, and the other 2 progrcFS- 

 ing finely ; some honey stored in all— this in a<iueen- 

 less colony. Before I sent for mine all bee-keepers 

 in our country seemed to be under the imtiression 

 that the only recommendation it had was Irom the 

 manulactuiers, but I assure you 1 believe every pound 

 worth ?3.'o to any jierson using them )n-operly. I 

 will not be without it if 1 can get it when wanted. 



B. Gkaiiam, Johnstown, Pa., June 25lh, 1877. 



