1T6 
GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 
0('T 
Thirdly, did they all come through to the 
month of May in good condition? This last 
item may be unimportant, and he like Gallup 
and Adair may think it trivial and beneath him 
to count his hives and allow his pupils to make 
an estimate of the per cent that was probably 
saved, and thus decide whether they can afford 
to build Conservatories for bees alone. 
Our readers can rest assured that we shall 
give the matter a careful test and report from 
month to month. If it enables us to feed meal 
in the spring without the usual loss by cold 
winds etc., we shall think it of much more mo- 
ment than simply getting them through the 
winter. 
FOU.GN. 
ITS RELATION TO BROOIWIEARINC. 
-j-rlUENI) NOVICE A s you put me iu “Wasted 
g] -1 hopes’’ department, in the July No., I must sup- 
— A element it by sending you “Reports Encoura- 
ging.’' 
From my six puny swarms I have increased to ‘25, 
all strong. I could nave possibly made 30 but 1 am 
learning to move slowly. Our main yield ol' honey 
came from basswood and buckwheat, “Linden Ave- 
nue” had a few blossoms this season. Besides our 
increase I have taken almost 250 lbs. of honey. A bee 
house was to have been built and several other things 
purchased for the apiary, but 230 lbs. of honey wont 
make both ends meet and we must wait another year. 
It is said, and truly, that “adversity enables us to 
wear out all of our old clothes.” So, it will make us 
figure close in the apiary. Our cellar is being put in 
prime order for wintering now. We shall try natural 
stores and we are going to keep an eye on friend Bo- 
lin, meantime thanking him for the instructive article 
on page 105. Mr B. is evidently ready to forestall his 
“Waterloo” and to such a person it will never come, 
we trust. 
Now Mr. Novice we wish to consult a little iu rela- 
tion to pollen. Will it do to keep the Queen breeding 
until late in the season ? In nearly all our colonics in 
seasons past, the Queen generally ceases to lay 
almost entirely in Sept, or Oct. Now if we force 
brood-rearing at this season much pollen is UBed that 
would be of use in the spring, the old bees will live 
until spring. If the pollen is preserved, a quantity of 
of brood will be capped over quite early, and by the 
time the old bees die off an army of young ones will 
lie ready to take their places; furthermore may not 
the forced laying produce unprolillcnees in the Queen 
during the next season? 
These thoughts present themselves as we perambu- 
late our apiary; we would like to hear from others on 
the subject. It was very evident that bees hatched 
late in the fall of ’73 died as rapidly in the spring of 
’74 as the old bees. J. H. Maktin, Hartford, N. Y. 
Linden Avenue Apiary. Sept. 3rd, 1874. 
You may be right friend M., in thinking late 
brood-rearing may deprive a colony of the pol- 
len needed in the spring, but we are inclined 
to think otherwise. 
We have made a greater number of artificial 
colonies this season than ever before, and in 
carefully watching the process of building up, 
we were surprised to find that an artificial 
colony, started with two frames of hatching 
brood and bees would iu about ten days, or as 
soon as the Queens began to lay, gather more 
pollen than any old colony in the Apiary. 
This has been the case invariably, and even 
now Sept. 11th, we find our late nuclei “spark- 
liug” with heavily pollen laden bees passing in 
at the entrance, while our strong heavy colo- 
nies seem bringing scarcely any pollen at all. 
What is the reason ? they can certainly find it 
as well as the others, if they thought it was 
needed. An examination shows that these old 
Queens have quite a tendency to cease laying. 
Is not some stimulus or excitement needed to 
stir them up? Natural swarms are frequently 
mentioned as working with greater energy, 
gathering stores when old colonies were al 
most idle ; now this is precisely the case with 
our artificial colonies, in fact they even com- 
mence comb building out of season, if a space 
can be found in which to do it.. 
While we were rearing Queens last fall in 
the upper stories, these Queen colonies brought 
in pollen, while the old colonios below, appar- 
ently did nothing ; had we fed them during 
Aug. and Sept., as we have done this season, 
perhaps they might have gathered pollen too. 
Is there not pollen to be had almost always 
during warm weather if they can only be in- 
duced to gather it ? We have noted precisely 
the state of affairs you mention, viz : an ab- 
sence of sealed brood or larva;, but plenty of 
eggs during weather in the spring in which no 
pollen could be gathered ; we also succeeded 
perfectly (see page 48 Yol. 1.) in getting larva 
by giving pollen gathered the year before 
found stored in an occasional surplus comb. 
These combs were kept iu the barn over win- 
ter. If put in a cold room we have no doubt 
but that pollen can be kept over safely ; we 
should fear however keeping it away from the 
bees iu very warm weather. If covered with 
honey and sealed over, ’twould probably be 
safe, but if unsealed and damp it frequently 
moulds. We succeeded in getting them to 
work on rye to some extent last season in Oct., 
see page 87, Vol. 1. We do not think the 
Queen’s fertility in spring will be in any 
way impaired by keeping her busy during 
Sept, and Oct. in localities where buckwheat 
swarms and fall pasturage are common in the 
fall, we cannot find that the old Queens are in 
spring any less prolific than in other localities. 
Again, is absence of brood in the spring the 
fault of the Queen, or the fault of the bees in 
not using the eggs laid? We think the latter, 
for we have rarely found a Queen unable to 
lay as many eggs in March and April as could 
be cared for. 
PROBLEM NO. 25. 
bYf O VICK : Will you please tell me what it costs a 
Pel comb to feed bees to build them ? Will it pay 
“i I to feed sugar to build combs when you can buy 
combs at 25c each ? Mas. L. II ahuison, Peoria, 111. 
My bees were in good condition when the honey 
harvest came, and I intended to take a nice quantity 
of honey but when it was too late I found 1 had no 
place for them to store it in, so I have to put up with 
what box honey I can get, but I shall have mon- 
combs another year. I had extra combs for two hives 
and have taken <>03 lUs. from them already and think 
I will get a 100 more. Lewis Kelley, Smyrnla, Mich. 
We wrote Mrs. H. that we though it might 
cost about 50c eacli to get combs built by fee- 
ding, which would make it cheapest to pur- 
chase, but in that case we generally have the 
trouble of transferring. An accurate solution 
of this problem is attended witli no little diffi- 
culty, for whenever comb is built to advantage 
we have brood-rearing and the syrup will be 
stored in the comb more or less also. Besides, 
if the bens are gathering nothing at all, they 
decrease in weight a little every day, accord- 
ingly enough for their support must be 
taken into consideration. Who can report an 
experiment that will give us approximately, 
the expense per square foot of comb built by 
bees fed on sugar? 
