380 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



BEES DYING SUDDENLY WHILE BEING EXAMINED. 



I suppose you do sometimes pet out of patience j 

 with us A B"C fellows, but here is something I wish i 

 you to explain. I had occasion to-day to open a 

 swarm of Italians; they were very docile, but I no- 

 ticed, on lifting out a comb, that they all elevated 

 their posteriors and thrust out their stingers. I 

 could even smell the fumes of poison while bending [ 

 over the hive, but nevertheless they all stuck to I 

 their comb and none Hew off. I then took them : 

 into the house to show some friends (all this being 

 done without smoke), when I noticed several fall to 

 the floor. I picked them up, thinking perhaps, as it 

 was rather cool, they were partly chilled; but I no- 

 ticed, in nearlv every case, they would draw up and 

 act as if thev" had been stung, and that some of 

 those that fell off were dead, I then returned the 

 comb to the hive and stood to watch them for some j 

 little time, when thev began to bring out dead bees; 1 

 I should think ten or a dozen in all. The only cause 

 I could give for this strange occurrence was that 

 they unintentionally stung each other from one i 

 comb to the other, their elevated position being fa- 

 vorable for penetrating beneath the folds of the ab- 

 domen of the ones on the opposite comb. Was I ' 

 light? and, if so, what is the remedy? ' 



MOTHER AND STEP-MOTHER IN THE HIVE AT THE 1 

 SAME TIME. I 



One more question: 1 Italianized a colony of 

 blacks this summer, and took away the black queeu ■ 

 two or three davs before I was to introduce her maj- ] 

 estv. the vellow queen. They, cf course, began ; 

 queen cells, but I left them tor the old lady to regu- j 

 late. I looked thn .ugh the hive quite often, but saw 1 

 nothing uncommon, until after the colony was part- 

 ly converted into Italians. I found one day an infe- 

 rior little black queen, as well as the Italian. "What 

 do you think of those young Italians paying homage 

 to their own mother and a step-mother also. 



M. A. Gill. 



Viola, Wis., Oct. 12, 1878. 



I think I have seen bees die, in the way 

 vou mention, after the honey yield liad sud- 

 denly ceased, and they were cross and touchy. 

 I know they look as it tliey had been stung, 

 but as it takes considerable force for a bee 

 to withdraw his sting. I never could quite 

 understand it. Is it not possible that they 

 poisoned tlieir comrades without stinging 

 them? It is very often the case that a young 

 queen is reared from cells started before 

 a queen Avas introduced. (Jn this account. 

 I would not take aAvay the old queen, 

 until the new one is ready to be put in. caged 

 of course. There is great danger of your 

 Italian queen being killed, as soon as the 

 young one is ready to lay. 



A NEW DISEASE OF BEES. 



I have got one swarm of Italian bees, and there is 

 something the matter with them; they are dying off 

 quite fast. In warm days, they will come out of the 

 hive, as if in a great hurry to go to the field for hon- 

 ey, ci awl fast three or four inches from the hive, 

 then stop all at once, commence to shake or flutter, 

 then start off and drag their hind parts and legs, as 

 if they had lost the use of them; they go from one 

 to two leet from the hive, sometimes less, turn part- 

 ly on their sides, remain stupid for one or two hours, 

 and then die. There is brood in the hive from the 

 egg to the hatching bee. There is nothing said in 

 Glmanings about how bees act when they have the 

 foul brood. Please answer in the next number and 

 oV)lige one of your readers. 



In Oct. No.,"l noticed O. Klcinow's success in early 

 swarming. I wintered .5 swarms through, packed in 

 chair, all in one row, in a bin in the corn house. On 

 the :i4th fif April, two swarms came out; 30th, one; 

 May 4th, one; 10th, one; 20th, one; they increased 

 to 13 in number. I kept one from swarming all 

 summer. I got 320 lbs. of honey in all. How is that 

 "for high" in a corn crib, packed in chaff all sum- 

 mer, and a new beginner at that? D. Button. 



Bloomingdale, Mich., Oct. 13, 1878. 



I think the disease is the same, or nearly 

 tlie same, as that described in A B C. tuideV 

 the head of diseases of bees, toward the dose 



of the article. The only remedy I can sug- 

 gest is to remove the queen, for I have good 

 reason to think this a hereditary ailment. 

 Increasing o swarms to 13. and getting 320 

 lbs. of honey. I should call pretty well for 

 anybody. Foul brood does not "^ affect the 

 mature bees. 



Enclosed please find $1.00, for which send me one 

 of your smokers; I mean a Gleanings smoker. A 

 neighbor having borrowed ours concluded to keep 

 it, saying we could send for another. 



Mrs. Eberman. 



Merrimac Point, Ills., Oct. 16th, 1878. 



HOW to remove propolis. 



You mention several modes of taking propolis 

 from the hands; none of which we find as practical 

 as a small piece of pumice stone, kept on the wash- 

 stand, with which, after washing, the propolis may 

 be rubbed off as easilv as fresh paint. 



Cleveland, O., Oct. lo, 1878. Stair & Kendal. 



Our folks always do keep a piece of pum- 

 ice stone near the wash basin, and I former- 

 ly used it to get off the propolis, but when I 

 am in a hurry, and I can scarcely remember 

 the time when I was not. I find a little lard 

 much the most expeditious. 



WOODEN SEPARATORS, SCATTERING THE HIVES IN 

 DIFFERENT LOCALITIES. 



Yours of Oct. 9th is at hand. We have seut you 

 to-day one of our broad frames with sections and 

 separator. This frame is taken out of a case whicU 

 has been used; the filled sections, of course, were 

 taken out and replaced. Can you beat our ba.ss- 

 wood sections? We think they are full as neat if 

 not neater than pine sections. We have also used 

 basswood for separators, and found that it will do 

 just as well as pine. r 



Now, we will give you a statement of what our 

 bees have done this season. We have to mention 

 that they are divided into .5 apiaries; two of them 

 are located in Milo, Yates Co., and three in our own 

 town. The two first mentioned have done best. 

 One apiary of 12 swarms averaged 80 lbs. of comb 

 honey per colony, and we increased them to 18, all 

 in good conditiofi now. .Another of 8 swarms aver- 

 aged 70 lbs. per colony, and increased to 10 swarms. 

 One apiary in our town of 10 hives averaged 50 lbs. 

 of comb honej% and we increased them to 13. An- 

 other apiary of 8 swarms averaged nearly 50 lbs. per 

 colony, and no increase. Our home apiary of 50 

 swarms did the poorest of all, averaging only 25 lbs. 

 per colony, and increased to 52 swarms. As our 

 bees did so much better in Yates Co., we have con- 

 cluded to move pait of our home apiary into said 

 Co., next spring. All our bees seem to be in good 

 condition for winter, and we hope to winter them 

 all. Greiner Bro's. 



Naples, N. Y., Oct. 14th, 1878. 



The basswood sections are certainly beau- 

 tiful, and if we could get wood uniformly 

 Avhite like that you send, I should consider 

 it even nicer than pine. Your wood sepa- 

 rator has certainly answered, for I cannot 

 discover that any combs have ever been at- 

 tached to it, but is not the thickness (f of an 

 inch) rather objectionable on account of the 

 increased room it occupies V The facts you 

 furnish in regard to scattering tlie bees out 

 in the country, are quite valuable, althotigh 

 some careful experiments will be needed to 

 determine whether it was the better locali- 

 ty, or having a smaller number in a place, 

 or l)oth, which caused some to do l)etter tlian 

 otliers. One more item pleases me ; I noticed 

 that your package had a neat stamp on it, of 

 your name, residence, and business, and not 

 only was your letter, but also each section 

 box in tlie package. stam])ed in the same 

 way. These ridjber stamps aie a great bless- 

 ing to those who receive large tpiantities of 

 mail matter, if to no others. 



