1878. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



127 



swarming ; others, in other localities, would 

 have hard work, to increase to even two. 

 It depends very much on how much honey 

 you take away frolu them. One swarm, and 

 .50 lbs of honey, would be a fair average, if 

 they were well cared for. 



CLIPPED WINGS AND SWARMING. 



If queens wings are clipped wont the swarm some- 

 times cluster atnjhotv? Wnen returning could they 

 not be hived by covering the old hive, and placing 

 the new one close beside the old, eatsicr than to have 

 them cluster on the rake? 



Bees are doing nicely so far; plenty of young bees, 

 and sealed brood in three eoml>s, a circle 3 inches in 

 diameter. Good enough, eh? J. A. Ward. 



Madisonville, O., Fed., 23d, 1878. 



The swarm will sometimes cluster "any 

 how," but they will not remain clustered 

 A^ery long, unless some kind of a queen is 

 with them. You could, without doubt, get 

 them into the new hive by covering the old 

 one and putting the new one with the en- 

 trance very near the old ; but it would be a 

 surer way, to remove the old one, as soon as 

 most of the bees are out, placing the new 

 one in its stead. If you have a place ah'eady 

 fixed for the old one, and some one is near 

 to help carry it, it is a very quick and easy 

 way of taking care of swarms. If you cage 

 the qtieen as she hops out, and lay the cage 

 at the entrance, you may go off and leave 

 them, even while they are in the air. I know 

 of but one thing that could prevent their 

 coming back, and that is another swanu 

 coming out at the same time : they might 

 possibly join with this. After you have the 

 queen safely caged, you can tie the cage to 

 the rake, with a bush on it. or move the pa- 

 rent hive away, whichever operation you 

 find easiest, in practice. 



You will remembsr we bought two colonies of 

 bees of you over one year Ego. Well, we lost one; 

 the other, we think, did well; it is still living with 

 plenty of honey to spare this spring. If it swarmed 

 the young swarm got away from us, we cannot say as 

 totiiat. It is the only colony in the whole Territory 

 of New Mexico. If we make a success, will keep you 

 posted. It is still a question whether bees will do 

 well in this Territory. M.W.Mills. 



New Mexico, March 5th. 1878. 



To-dav my bees are bringing in heavy loads of 

 pollen, but I notice the Italians bring more than two 

 loads while the Blacks bring one. E. E. Smith. 



Lickley's Corners, Mich. March 7th., '78. 



I purchased 2 swarms 3 years ago next Julj-, pay- 

 ing $10.00 for them, and I can truly say I never in- 

 vested money so well before or since. Having kept 

 a strict account with them, I find the money has 

 tripled, and I have 9 swarms to begin this season 

 with. Joseph H. Strong. 



West Hertford, Conn. March 8th. 1878. 



A beginner's first season. 

 Last spring I started with two colonies; one In an 

 American hive, and one in a common box hive. Each 

 gave me i swarms and over 300 lbs. of surplus honey. 

 My first swarm came out of the box hive, on the 18th 

 of May, and went to a tree, without stopping to clus- 

 ter. Next day I took a hive to the woods and tried to 

 drive them into it, but they would not be driven. The 

 next move I ma'le was to cut open the body, with the 

 intention of scooping them into the hive, but I found 

 them in such a position that I could not reach them. 

 I next placed a shingle over them, and by stirring 

 them up and keeping them in motion, I succeeded in 

 getting about }i of them to cluster on the under side 

 of the shingle. I shook these in front of the hive and 

 they went in. The rest followed, by keeping them 

 "stirred up." Since all this woriy and trouble I have 

 taken quite a fancy to the method of dividing. I let 

 the box hive send out one more swarm, then trans- 



ferred them to a frame hive. This was my first job 

 of transferring. In July I purchased one Italian 

 queen, and introduced her to this colony. I left them 

 on their summer stands with boards around and 

 over them to keep off the wind and storm. They 

 have upward ventilation and are at the present time 

 brooding. Last spring I knew nothing about bee- 

 keeping. Now I can divide, transfer, raise and in- 

 troduce queens, and do all other work that pertains 

 to bee culture. James H. Prescott. 



Gobleville, Mich. Feb, 18th. 1878. 



It has been intimated that I give great 

 prominence to reports from beginners; is it 

 not well to do so? These new hands enter 

 into the business with such vigor and en- 

 thusiasm, that they often do better the first 

 few seasons, than when it gets to be an old 

 story; and their reports point a clear moral 

 to us all, on the importance of giving each 

 colony the care and attention they need, at 

 the proper time; also that bee-culture is not 

 very difficult to learn, when one studies and 

 pushes ahead. Some of our young men with 

 a few years experience, are beating our vet- 

 erans who have spent a life in the industry. 

 Do not forget "blasted hopes,"' but study 

 well the causes of success and failure. 



On page 210, Aug. No., you give dimensions in full 

 for the end board of packing box but for nothing 

 else. Length of strips above and- below, also of end 

 strips, and length and width cf top and bottom would 

 be appreciated; also the size of the glass. 



Do lumbermen out your way keep % in. boards to 

 sell, or do you split inch boards? B. Lunderer. 



I omitted giving the remaining dimen- 

 sions, for fear of guiding you into error, 

 thinking the safest way would be to set as 

 many sections together as you wished the 

 case to contain, and then to cut your thin 

 strips to the proper length ; and the same 

 with the glass. See w^hat sized glass you 

 can purchase to best advantage in your 

 stores, and then saw the rabbets to allow 

 them to slide in, accordingly. I have never 

 found any I lumber kept in stock, but have 

 been obliged to have inch lumber split and 

 dressed. Very cheap lumber will answer 

 for this purpose, if we sort it out a little. 

 Re-sawing lumber, is rather too heavy work 

 for the foot-power saws, but the hand-ripper 

 described on another page, answers beauti- 

 fully for ripping or re-sawing anything not 

 more than 3f inches through. 



SPRING DWINDLING. 



My bees (Italians) are dying in considerable num- 

 bers; they crawl out of the hive and do not seem to 

 have life enough to get off the bottom board, but die 

 at the very entrance. They have plenty of good 

 white honey nicely capped. It does not appear like 

 dysentery as you describe it. It may be the old bees, 

 but I would think they would fly away. What do 

 you think is the matter? The hive is clean, in a good 

 warm place out-doors and shielded from the cold 

 winds, on the south side of a building. 



D. W. Starkjey. 



Batavia, 111., March 7th, 1878. 



The case you mention is, without doubt, 

 one of the phases of the old bee disease or 

 spring dwindling, as it is called. If only a 

 few of the bees are affected, I would not 

 mind it, but if so many that the stock gets 

 seriously depleted, it may be well to feel 

 alarmed. The remedy is to imite to keep up 

 the strength of the colonies, but this, some- 

 times, seems to do but little good. I have 

 never seen a case of it where tlie bees were 

 packed in chaff, but as I have had but few 

 cases of late in any shape, it may not be due 



