1878. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



87 



From Different Fields. 



WINTERING BEES. 



,^ps\TJR winters are as variable as our other sea- 



flLil so°^' **"** it is i^iji^ variableness that we, as 

 %-^ bee-keepers, ought to guard against. 



We notice warnings in our Bee Journals "to look 

 to the bees kept in cellars" —"that they are getting 

 uneasy" — "Ihat there have been some losses" — "that 

 they should be taken out." and so on, &c. Now, al- 

 low us to say, if such is the case, it need never to 

 have existed at all if the repositories had been put 

 in proper condition. Every one knows that a bee cel- 

 lar should be dry and dark as possible, but there are 

 other conditions just as important; the cellar should 

 he fortified and pnitrcfrd in every wajiand mannerpos- 

 aihle atininst eold and lieat, alike. What will be suc- 

 cessful in shiittinp- out the cold, will also be success- 

 ful in shutting out the outside heat. In our opinion 

 there is more danger in the change from cold to 

 warm than in the reverse. When these changes in 

 the weather come, the effect in a good cellar, is so 

 gradual that the bees do not notice it, and conse- 

 quently keep quiet. The bees in our own cellar have 

 never been so quiet a winter before, warm as it has 

 been. I have been for some years improving my 

 cellar to bring about ,iust such a condition of things 

 as above recommended. And now let me say here 

 in closing this part of the subject, it is just as im- 

 portaytt thai (nir cellars sho^dd he iveU protectedina 

 winter like this, as in any <>/ the cold severe oties past. 



Which is the better way to winter our bees — out 

 of doors or in cellars— I do not wish to discuss at this 

 time. Those wintering in good cellars, I presume 

 will find a good many dead bees on their floors. We 

 account for it in part this way; it has been warm 

 this winter and consequently There has been more 

 breeding in the hives than usual; the old bees were 

 distuj-bed- came out and died. 8ome of those win- 

 tering ovit of doors, tell us that they have no dead 

 bees, to speak of. The reason no doubt is, the bees 

 carry off all that drop on the bottom of the hive, 

 while the old ones fly away and never come back 

 again. 



Those of us who are wintering our bees in good 

 cellars, "let us possess our souls in patience"— let us 

 not be in a hurry to get out our bees; although our 

 out-door wintering bee friends have had the pleas- 

 ure of seeing their pets fly almost every week this 

 winter, it has been at the expense of their precious 

 stores; the more flying, the more honey used up; 

 while ours will have their stores intact, and "where 

 it will do the most good" for future breeding. 



R. H. Mellen. 



Amboy, Ills., Feb. 9th, 1878. 



GRAPE SUGAR. 



In Dec. No., page .318. Mr. D. C. ITnderhill says, that 

 he had made a svrun of about .5 lbs. of grape sugar 

 *'and one of water." Is this«not a "big mistake?" 

 What manufactory makes grape siigar that can be 

 tlissolved in 1-.5 of water? Please explain it. 



Dr. Wm. Leers. 



Sigel, Ills., Feb. 13th, 18*78. 



No mistake at all. friend I^. Grape sugar 

 is queer stuff, and you can make a syrup of 

 it without any water at all, if you warm it 

 up a little, it solidifies something as does 

 liees wax. When it gets about so cold, it 

 gets solid "all of a sudden."' This is ow- 

 ing to tlie large amount of water of crystali- 

 zation it contains. It does not make syrup, 

 as does cane sugar, but seems to change 

 from sweetened water, as it were, to solid 

 stigar, almost at once. 



Something has been said in the papers, of 

 grape sugar being unwholesome. I would 

 think some of the samples I have received 

 were so, for it was almost sickening to try 

 to eat them, es])ecially that received from 

 X. Y. ; but the light yello'v sugar that vve 

 have been using, I fiiid almost as pleasant 

 as maple sugar, and I have eaten it freely 



for months past. The following from the 

 manufacturers may give some light in the 

 matter : 



In regard to the prejudice of some people, as men- 

 tioned in your letter, I would say that it is totally 

 unfounded. There used to be made some very poor 

 grape sugar which contained considerable sulphuric 

 acid, which may have been unwholesome in cases 

 where lars'c quantities of the sugar were consumed. 

 Fai-ther, the sugar was badly refined or totally crude, 

 in which state it had a bad taste and disgusting ap- 

 pearance. Bees will not take a sugar which contains 

 the slightest trace of sulphuric acid, and this is the 

 main reason why we manufacture an article express- 

 ly for this purpose. I consider it really wholesome 

 and in case of light cold, give it my child as a remedy. 

 Louis. P. Best, Sup't. 



Davenport, Iowa, Feb. 9th, 1878. 



APIS DORSATA. 



On page 40, Feb. No. of ^4. B, J. you will find a no- 

 tice begining "The Dutch government &c." T lately 

 received a letter from Mr. Gravenhorst in which he 

 stated that Mr. Rykens sailed by steamer from Hol- 

 land, early in Oct. arriving in Java by way of the 

 Suez canal, in 7 weeks. He took with liim bees from 

 Austria, also Cyprians, and Italians. Rykens says 

 apis dorsata is of no value for domestication, as it 

 propagates slowly and builds its cells after tho man- 

 ner of wasps, the wax being inferior and but little 

 of it. Honey also inferior and in small quantity, 

 so it appears to have no desirable qualities for the 

 apiarian. Later we will hear of Mr. Rykens success. 

 Mr. Gravenhoist can furnish Cvprian queens in 

 Ai;gust .at f 10 each. 



No losses thus far. One ci lony queenless, I will 

 have to feed soon owing to active breeding and the 

 mild winter. Ehrich Parmely. 



New York City, Feb. 11th, 1878. 



And thus ends, I fear, our cherished 

 hopes, of "-apis d.ormta.^'' Thanks friend P., 

 for your frank statement of the overthrow 

 of your hobby. I fear v. e shall have to 

 breed up large bees on friend Hunter's 

 plan, after all. 



NICE SECTIONS. 



T was about to write to you lo^ee if you could not 

 get up something more perfect than thf^se you sent 

 me last year. 1 -n ant to say ore word abrut s-iwing 

 the dovetail of the sections. The saws should run 



j against the planed side of the sections. Take up 

 a sawed section ard you will observe a slight pro- 



I jpct'on, made by The saw: these projections should 



j .ill come on the inside of the sections. Among those 

 you sent me last year, some were sawed right, but 

 most of them had a projection or both sides. To 

 make this smooth was srme work, which can be 



t avoided by having the aranjr of saws run against the 

 planed surfaces at each end. 



j 1 lost about 3c. per lb. on some of my honev last 

 year by having it imperfect Iv put up.' I think you 



I are on the right track. What we want is a neat 



; section, planed on one sir'^e and both edges, with 

 the top and bottom pieces enough narrower for the 

 glass to come very nearly fiufh with the wide part 

 and yet be free, so that in packing, the sectiot'S can 

 be nressed together without endangerintr the plass, 

 if the market demands glass. L. C. Whiting. 



Epst Saginaw, Mich., Feb. 4th, 1878. 



I omitted to say in my description, that 

 we have the grooving all done in such a veay 

 as to throw the burrs on the inside of the 

 box. 



IMPORTING QUEENS. 



1 What lig-ht has any oflicer of the custom house to 

 j keep f> packngo and seiid word, in place of the pack- 

 I age, that "all the bees are dead?" M-"- second invoice 

 I of queens. I never srw, btit rrreived a dispatch sta- 

 tins- that all the bees were dead. With the third in- 

 voice, the same trick was tried. l>\it I ordered the 

 i package to be sent anyhow, and T found two queens 

 j alive. Paul L. Viallon. 



Bayou Goula, La., Jan. 3d, 1878. 



DANDELIONS. 



I notice in the ABC that you assign to the dande- 

 I lion no use excent for honev and greens. I must in- 

 I form you that tho roots, if dug, washed, out into 



