!J(T 
GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 
August. 
Out of fifteen colonies all of which came through 
the winter in good condition, 1 lost eleven in the 
month of April. 1 had set them out on the summer 
stands about the 15th of March, and during the long 
cold weather that ensued, the hives not being shaded 
from the sun shine, the bees would fly out and become 
chilled and tie unable to return. Before I was aware 
of the fact I lost eleven. Others in this vicinity have 
been equally unfortunate: one man lost forty colonies, 
about till that lie had. Win. C.vi.mvm.n, Elmore, O. 
My hees are doing splendidly so far this year, I 
started the season with 17 and now the)' have increas- 
ed to 35. all natural hut 1. and still swarming every 
day. Mine are all Italians but S, and they have not 
made a move in that direction yet. Black bees about 
here arc doing nothing of any account, and several 
have complained that the worms are destroying them 
all. Mine are the only Italians within about 15 miles 
of here . E. A. Shei.uon, Independence, Iowa. 
Whatever the Blacks may do in early spring, 
Italians are certainly far ahead in the honey j 
season.. 
You say on first page of July No. of Gleanings 
"H ives that have been destitute of bees ever since 
freezing weather * * * * may be considered safe.” 32' 
V is freezing, and to mv certain knowledge a temper- 
ature of II" will not kill the moth germs in a certain 
stage, huts" or to will do it sure. This is not guess 
work but a fact known to me by actual and extremely 
careful experiment. Hives were kept nil* tight after 
an exposure of U" and were nearly destroyed. 
Yours respectfully, James IIkiiuos. 
Dowagiao, Mich. July 1st, 1871. 
We thank you for the correction, and ac- 
knowledge our error. We only knew that 
combs kept in tight hives over winter in our 
barn were never troubled, but if placed there 
when taken from the hives in warm weather, 
there was sure to be trouble. 
My opinion is, the large hives will he no remedy for 
the common malady in bees; with tne large colonies 
fare full as badly as small ones. Scarcity of bee-bread 
may have something to do with it. yet I think lint lit- 
tle.' My bees had badly failed long before breeding 
had ceased; almost all my hives had bee-bread left. 
It. Wii.kin, Oscnloosa, Iowa. 
1 put six stocks of Italians in cellar last fall, after 
extracting all natural stores and feeding sugar-syrup. 
They all wintered well, but found one Queenless this i 
spring; united it, with another stock and they have j 
done well. Made five new swarms three weeks since, 
raised fourteen Queens and have extracted !I5 lbs. of ; 
honey at present writing; shall expect to get more 
■ soon.* SVlifte Clover is abundant here now and Bass- 
wood promises well. You will see that I have no rea- 
son to be discouraged witli bee-keeping. 
K. W. Poole, West Richfield, O. June 2»tli, 1871. j 
1 . Ought surplus receptacles to be put on or over a | 
new swarm before the main frames are pretty well i 
filled ? | 
2. How do you manage to make the bees build then- 
combs straight? You somewhere say we must watch ; 
and compel them to make their combs straight. 
Stephen Young; Mechnnicsville, Iowa. 
1. If our friend will excuse the liberty we I 
would advise him to put his surplus recepta- 
cles where neither he nor his bees will oversee ; 
them more. So far as we know they rarely use ; 
them until the hive is crammed full of honey, 
and then they often lose another day or two 
of the best part of the honey harvest, waiting 
to think about it, and then about half the time i 
conclude not to work In boxes at till. A coup- [ 
le of our neighbors who have used the extract- 
or successfully for some years, thought they ; 
would try a few hives for box honey this sea- ; 
son, but the sight of hives filled and ready to j 
be extracted, with boxes untouched was more 
than they could stand, and in a trice they were j 
emptied, giving both the bees and 1 lie Queen j 
room; and now they labor industriously like 
the rest. 
2. Have every comb built between two others, 
or between one and the side of the hive, and 
they cannot well be other than straight. 
DEAlt NOVICE:— I have not for two years need 
am smoke at mv home apiary where l open some ol 
the hives daily in the season, and where all my chil- 
dren play as carelessly as if there were no such things 
as bees.’ Honev is so scarce during the last hall of 
May. whole of June and July that 1 have to divide up- 
my apiarv into three or four ; take them It an ordi- 
nary tliree-sprlng wagon and trot off on our smooth 
roads, ns fast and as safelv as if pleasure riding. 
! never could use a feather, nor a wisp broom in 
brushing bees from their combs.* 
Plenty of good weeds usually abound, but 1 find an 
asparagus stem with plenty o'f small limb*, just the 
thing; these ref jctable brushes do not make the bees 
mad a bit In fact they soon get used to being bvuslu d 
and will, as soon as they see the right kind of a brush 
coming roll off like pens. 1 have succeeded in repla- 
cing my last tail's number of stocks— 51— by division, 
have art in tip-top order, ready for any tiling that 
comes in the way of honey. 
I put my bees hi my cellar, in the fall, under the 
main living room of my house, vent ilating very little,, 
and have good success. 1 lost tir o between Nov. 15th, 
and March 1st. the day set out— starved— leaving two 
full frames of honey on the side of the hive opposite 
the bees. March was so cold, and April too, lor that 
matter, that, alter a couple of day’s flight, they could 
not be examined for three weeks at a lime. The con- 
sequence was two starved, and four or five came out 
and found other hives. All my hybrids played that 
trick on me. Thev invariably left clean combs, with 
brood and sealed honey -showing their cutMcHntM—'d 
4ti pure Queens, not one would desert her hive. 
1 have to-day 7 frames full of brood, in each of up- 
wards of 1(1 stands -and when we get so many in tin: 
Quinby frame, we may expect some hees one of these 
davs. Imt there will he little honey for them until Aug. 
.tunc 22nd -Contrary to expectations, we are now in 
tlie bight of a wonderful flow of honey from Sumac 
which of late years inis not yielded much. Every 
thing in the hives is tilled full and 1 am kept busy hi- 
ving swarms, as it has become too much of a job to 
keep them lrom it by removing frames of brood. 
G. K. MEltuiAM, Topeka, Ifnnsas. 
We would be glad indeed to learn that the 
spring swarming out, belonged only to hybrids, 
but we believe the full bloods are sometimes 
quite guilty of the same trick. As a general 
tiling weak colonies seem to be the ones most 
addicted to it, but there are •many exceptions 
to this rule that arc hard to get over. 
Sudden yields of honey often come quite un- 
expectedly and from a variety of sources, there- 
fore, ’tis always well to be toady to take ad- 
vantage of them. Give tlie Queen room at 
such times at all hazards, and this can only be 
done with the extractor. When our present 
basswood yield first opened we tried giving 
tlie Queens empty combs of which we have 
plenty, but even when we gave a colony two, 
in the evening, they would be tilled with honey 
before site could more than till a circle three 
inches in diameter. 
Oh Novice! Can you believe me when f tell you 
that I am going to have at least three Queens from those 
eggs such is likely to be the ease I assure you. tor 
there are three nice cells started and lean seethe 
voting brood in the jelly at the bottom. The eggs did 
not reach me lill Thursday. I think they came as tar 
as eight hundred miles. A. Me MAINS. 
Charlton, Iowa. July 10th, 1874. 
Very glad indeed to hear it, and perhaps u 
we could always be sure of having such beau- 
tiful warm weather as we have had during this 
month, we might send them 10(10 miles or 
more. The above piece of comb if we remem- 
ber correctly, contained eggs just laid hi a 
piece of comb containing bees just gnawing 
out. If we cannot manage some wayorotu- 
er, to give all our readers the benefit ot tin' 
Italian bees without such enormous expe isl- 
and failures as have been t he rule, wejshall think 
ice are a failure in one respect at least. 
