Mr. Editor:—I once found a bee-tree, with an excellent swarm in it. I cut it down Gallup-fashion, and moved it home, in the month of February. The entrance was a hole, about three inches in diameter, just at the top of the cavity. The tree was a green butternut. I sawed it off, short enough to handle easy, and set it up in the yard. The combs were bright and clean, and there were not over a dozen dead bees in it when found. It swarmed twice in June following, and next winter I stopped up the entrance at the top, and made another within six inches of the bottom, by boring a two-inch hole through the side. All this time I kept the top closed tight. The following winter I came near losing them with dampness and dysentery. Next winter, I closed up the auger hole, and opened the top entrance again. They wintered as nice as a pin—no dampness or dysentery. In April I thought I could still better their condition, by making the entrance smaller, and reduced the entrance to one inch in diameter. Within six days after, I came near losing them with dampness and mould. Experimenting still further, I noticed that the fanners or ventilating bees would, in hot weather, be arranged in this manner—one set at the lower edge of the entrance,with their heads outward; the other set at the top of the entrance, facing inward, driving out the hot air. I then reduced the size of the entrance still more, and found that in a very short time nearly the entire swarm would issue and cluster on the outside of the log or gum. Enlarging the hole to three inches again, the bees would soon return inside and resume work. I kept that log hive four years, and then sold it to a neighbor. Whenever I wintered it with the natural entrance open, there was no dysentery and no unnatural distention of the abdomen; and on their first flight in the spring, they would not even speck the snow.
In wintering bees in the Wellhuysen hive, made of willows and plastered with cow manure, they would never have the dysentery—not the least sign of it. The combs were always bright and clean, and the bees always in as good condition as they were in midsummer. I have wintered bees in Canada, in the old-fashioned straw hive, with the entrance, summer and winter, a two-inch hole in the centre at top; and they always wintered well, without the least sign of dysentery, even when they would not leave the hive from the 10th of October to the 1st of May—nearly eight months. In that climate they are nearly always confined from the 1st of November to the 10th or 20th of April, or about five months. When I lived there, there was scarcely ever any honey stored after the 15th of August, yet bee-keeping pays in that climate. To encourage our northern bee-keepers, I will say that, according to my experience, there and in the West, I think the flowers secrete more honey, in the same length of time, there than here. Our atmosphere is rather dry, while theirs is moist and humid—just right for the secretion of honey.
Elisha Gallup.
Orchard, Iowa.
[For the American Bee Journal.]
Mr. Editor:—For twenty years I have had experience in bee-keeping, and had within that time as many different styles of bee-hives in my apiary; but, taking everything into consideration, the advantages derived from Mr. Alley’s, proves it to be the best I have yet seen. It has the best shape, the greatest amount of animal heat for wintering bees, and as for storing honey, it allows as much room for surplus honey as the largest stock would need.
These are only two among the many advantages it presents. Many more might be mentioned. I simply state these, as I consider them the most important. Brother bee-keepers, who are about to purchase, should not fail to give it a trial.
Levi Fish.
Danvers, Mass., Sept. 10, 1870.
Intelligent practice is very different from blind practice; or, in other words, practice preceded by a sound theory is evidently far superior to practice without theory.—Talbot.
[For the American Bee Journal.]
The cellar of my house is nearly underground. Its size is 38 × 28 × 7 feet, inside measure. The temperature during the winter is usually 38° F., with occasional extremes of 35° and 41°. It is damp, and not specially ventilated. A stairway from the porch and one from the kitchen, furnish all the air; the latter being very much used during winter time. In this cellar I have usually wintered some of my bees, for many years—trying various methods and different kinds of hives, with the result always, till last winter, of more or less mouldy combs. I then had among the lot four strong stocks and Gallup hives. These I had setting up three feet from the ground, with caps and honey-boards removed, and the loose top cover laid directly on the hives; and by means of hard wood wedges pushed in between the lower edges of the hives and the bottom-boards, and also between the upper edges and the top covers, I gave them one-eighth of an inch air all round the hives, above and below, except six inches in length at the entrance, where I gave them one-fourth of an inch, so that the bees could get out. In this condition the hives were left all winter. The bees remained very quiet, humming almost inaudibly, and paying little attention to the light of a candle which was carried in many times a day. Scarcely any came out to die; and not over half a teacupful died in each hive. They consumed comparatively little honey, and when the hives were examined after being set out in the spring, the combs were all dry and free from mould. In my experience absorbents used on a hive in a cellar have always caused combs to mould. Who would think of laying on top of his hives a damp straw mat, or a pile of damp corncobs? And yet it is all about the same thing. Give the proper amount of air, and let it pass off unobstructed. I shall try a larger number of hives the coming winter. Many thanks to Gallup.
Henry Crist.
Lake P. O., Stark county, Ohio, Oct. 4, 1870.
[For the American Bee Journal.]
There has been much said on hives in the columns of the Bee Journal. Some are said to be too deep, and others too shallow. But after all, profit in dollars and cents is the great object; and to secure this in the shape of surplus honey, three things are requisite—first, strong colonies of bees;second, a good season with plenty of pasturage; and,third, the placing your surplus honey boxes or frames as near as possible to the brood in the main body of the hive. There are two ways to accomplish this:first, by using the shallow form of hive, with frames say seven or eight inches in depth; and,second, by using the side gathering or storing hive. I prefer the latter, with frames twelve inches deep; and this for three reasons.First, if the apiarian has no repository for winter quarters, his bees are right in these forwintering in the open air.Second, the brood and cards of honey can be so adjusted as to bring the former next to your honey boxes, if necessary; as we never want more than one full frame of honey between the brood and the surplus honey boxes or frames.Third, in the manipulation of colonies there is no comparison between the side storing hive, and the top storing. With the former, when the lid is removed, we have access to the frames, without the intervention of surplus honey or other boxes. Top-storing hives are now behind the age.
Those using shallow frames must, in this latitude and climate, have a house for wintering their colonies, and when bees are removed to their summer stands in the spring, the lid that covers the second-story or surplus honey chamber, should fit on the brood chamber, that the honey chamber may be left off till the time comes for placing surplus honey boxes on your hives. By this means all the heat rising from the bees is secured and diffused through the main hive or brooding chamber for hatching the eggs; and the bees multiply as rapidly for aught I can see, and swarm as early as in the twelve inch frames. I have used one hundred shallow hives, with frames eight inches in depth, for three years; and when I suffer them to throw off natural swarms, they swarm as early, sending off as many and as large swarms as taller hives.
In 1869, I had gathered six thousand pounds of fine surplus honey in frames in the top receptacles of my shallow hives. A large proportion of this I shipped, in the frames, to C. O. Perrine & Co., Chicago, Ills. They paid me twenty-five cents per pound for it, frames and all. Should any honey raisers in the West wish to sell to a good man, I should recommend them to Mr. Perrine. I have trusted him with quite large amounts at a time, and always found all right at settlement day.
To do this properly and safely make the box or case in which you ship only wide enough to receive the length of the top bar of your frames, and one and a half inch deeper than the depth of the frame. Make the case tight and pitch the inside with rosin and bees wax, so that the leakage of the combs will not be lost.
In packing the frame honey, first pierce the projection of the frames through with an awl, invert it and place in the holes one inch finishing nails, then place the top of the frame down and crossways in the case, and with a tack hammer drive your nails. Place the next frame by the side of this first, corresponding as built in the hive, if it can be; and place them so as slightly to touch. In filling the last end of the case, place an iron rod on the head of the nail to drive it, as you cannot play the hammer.
When the case is full, take two strips (common lath) just long enough and wide enough to fill the case tightly from end to end, and cover the ends of the frames and fit tightly against the sides of the case; drive an inch nail through the strips in the end piece of each frame, and the frames will be perfectly solid.
I shipped from one to two hundred pounds in a case, in this manner, and Mr. Perrine tells me the average was not over two frames broken down per case, and no loss from leakage, the boxes being pitched inside.
A. Salisbury.
Camargo, Ills., Sept. 6, 1870.
[For the American Bee Journal.]
I introduce to the notice of bee-keepers a new smoker for bees, believing it will be pronounced the best, until a better one is found.
It will be found the best for ease of lighting, and to retain fire, and as burning with equal facility, rotten wood, old rags, or a combination of wood and rags; and it will not annoy the operator every few minutes by going out.
To make one, procure a piece of wove wire; I use very fine wire cloth, but suppose that a coarser article will answer. The piece should be twelve inches wide and from twelve to eighteen inches long. Take of old rags a sufficient quantity to make a roll about 2 or 2½ inches thick and twelve inches long. Roll the rags evenly and firmly together, and then lay them at one end of the sheet of wove wire, and roll the wove wire over them pretty tightly, and bind with wire. Light at one end with a match; and your smoker, if nicely made, will burn from two to four hours. Or if it be only half filled with rags, then fill out lightly with damp rotten wood, and you will have a big smudge.
John M. Price.
Buffalo Grove, Iowa.
[For the American Bee Journal.]
Mr. Editor:—I see in the June number, page 264, Mr. Worthington asks how to examine bee stores, &c., in the American hive. Here is the way I do. Remove the cap and honey box; blow a little smoke through the slot in the top bar of frames, to quiet the bees; remove the movable side, and with your pocket knife, you can easily run the blade between the top bars, loosening them; lift out the frames, placing them in a skeleton frame made to hold them; and in this way you seeexactlythe condition of your bees. In returning the frames to the hive, you have only one place to watch to prevent killing bees, that is the top.
J. W. Sallee.
Pierce, Mo.
If asked how much such contrivances against the moth will help the careless bee-man, I answer not one iota; nay, they will positively furnish him greater facilities for destroying his bees. Worms will spin and hatch, and moths will lay their eggs, under the blocks, and he will never remove them. Thus, instead of traps, he will have most beautiful devices for giving effectual aid and comfort to his enemies.—Langstroth’s “Hive and Honey Bee.”
[For the American Bee Journal.]
Mr. Editor:—The season in Bennington has been very good for bees, that is, considering that they were in poor condition last spring. Many colonies died last winter in this town, and I should think it safe to say that one half our bees then perished for want of honey. I was not at home in February to attend to mine, and lost five colonies before I was aware of their being so short of supplies, which I discovered only after losing my best stock of Italians. It was quite warm in January, and one day was so like spring that I carried my hives all out, and for a couple of hours it seemed like swarming time. The weather was so mild that my bees began to breed considerable, and so used up their honey. When I removed the dead bees from one of my hives, I found brood in three combs sealed over, a spot as large as my hand in each, besides eggs and larvæ.
February was very cold, and a terror to light swarms. I set my hives out again the last of March, and had then only fifteen stocks. Three of these I united with others, thus reducing the number to twelve. One of these got discouraged, and tried to form a partnership with another colony, but got killed in the operation. Thus, by the first of May, I had only eleven colonies remaining, and they were very weak. I fed them every day till I began to see they were getting stronger. Then, thanks to the Bee Journal, I knew enough to double their feed as they increased in numbers and the hives in weight of brood, for they could not of course get much honey till the first trees blossomed. The weather then became warm and pleasant, and the bees got a good start in life, so that when clover and red raspberries bloomed, they were soon ready to march out and take a limb of a tree on their own account. I soon had twenty-five swarms and began to think hives and all would swarm. Besides those we hived, four swarms took the wings of the morning. By the way, a great number of swarms ran away this year to the woods. I found a small swarm about three miles away from home. They came over a barn I was painting, and clustered near by. I hived them in a powder keg, and carried them home at night.
I have taken two hundred and twenty-five (225) pounds of box honey from my bees, besides ten six pound boxes partly filled, of which I take no account. I have twenty-one hives to winter. They are very heavy, too heavy, I fear, to winter well; but hope for the best. Bees within half a mile of mine have not done anything at all; because they had no care or feeding in the spring, and when summer came they were merely ready to begin their spring’s work. I think it pays to feed bees as well as other stock.
I have only two swarms of black bees, and some hybrids, the rest are pure Italians. I received two queens from Mr. Cary this season, and inserted them all right. They were, to all appearance, accepted and owned for four or five weeks, when one day I found one of them thrown out dead on the bottom board; and if it had not been for the Bee Journal on the superseding of queens, I should not have known what the trouble was. The other is all right so far, and the young bees from both queens are beauties. I never saw finer, and am well satisfied with them. My bees are all descendants of Mr. Cary’s stock, and another year I shall get some more from him and other breeders, to avoid breeding in and in.
I have never yet seen a honey extractor at work, but there is one within a few miles of me and I am going to see it. If it proves to be the one thing needful in my case, I shall go for one another year.
I have procured some of the Rocky Mountain bee plant seed from Mr. Green, and if it is good, as I have no reason to doubt it will be, I shall let you know all about it.
The season has been quite favorable here, not as dry as it was in some places; and our crops are very good, with an abundance of fruit. Taking every thing into consideration, I am well satisfied with my bees and their labors last summer. When I bought my bees, a man in the same business blowed a good deal and said it would not be a great while before I would run out with my Italian bees and wintering in the house. Last year (1869) he had in the summer sixty-six colonies. He fed two barrels of sugar this spring, as he says, and now has twenty or twenty-one colonies. Who has run out? I fed half a barrel or one hundred and twenty-five pounds of sugar. He don’t “fool away his money for Bee Journals, nor Italian queens.”
C. H. Bassett.
North Bennington, Vt., Oct. 5, 1870.
[For the American Bee Journal.]
After reading the various accounts in the Journal as to how bees have done in other parts of the country, I think it will not be out of place to let its readers know what has been going on in Massachusetts, or rather in a part of that State.
About May 20th our bees commenced to collect honey rapidly, and from that time to June 7th, honey was very abundant, and I never saw bees put into the hives and surplus boxes faster. From June 7th until July 1st they did very little. In fact we had then ten days in succession when no honey was collected; and by the 1st of July pasturage failed altogether, as it generally does here in New England. I never knew bees to put honey into boxes later than July 12th, and that for only one year, since I have kept bees.
Perhaps it will be new to some of the readers of the Journal to know the fact that bees do not collect honey here, in Essex county, as a general thing, later than the first week in July; and this season they did not work later than the last day of June. Very little honey was put into boxes between June 7th and July 1st. Had the season held out as it gave promise in May, honey would have been plenty in Massachusetts.
I have a few hives that did very well, considering how short the honey harvest was, and to letsome of your readers know that Alley can raise honey as well as queen bees, I enclose a short report that was intended to be shown to the “Honey Committee,” at the Essex County Fair; but as I was the only person who exhibited bees or honey (except four small boxes by Mr. Gould, of Ipswich,) I did not submit it. Of course Alley got the highest “premium,” under such circumstances. I suppose if I say that the stock that did best was in one of Alley’s hives, some one will think that this article is meant only for an advertisement. Well, I cannot help that; so here goes for the report, and all who do not want to believe it, can accommodate themselves in that line, and I will find no fault. I do not, myself, believe more than only just what I think is true, even when I see it in the A. B. J.:
HiveNo. 1, filled sixty-eight 2½lb. boxes, and cast one small swarm. The honey was sold at thirty-five cents per pound, box and all. Weight of boxes and honey 170lbs.; weight of the sixty-eight boxes empty 34lbs.; net amount of honey stored 136lbs., which, at 35 cents per pound,
HiveNo. 2. This was a stock transferred from a box hive to a movable comb hive, May 26th, 1870. It filled thirty 3lb. boxes, and the honey was sold at thirty-five cents a pound, without including the boxes. Net amount of honey stored 75lbs.; which, at 35 cents per pound, is $26 25
HiveNo. 3, filled two 15lb. boxes, and cast two swarms. The first of these swarms filled a new hive, from which I have taken twenty-five pounds of honey, and it now has enough to winter on, without feeding. The second swarm I used to rear queens, and it was worth five dollars to me.
The profit from these three hives is one hundred and eight (108) dollars.
I omitted to say that I took twenty-five pounds of honey from Hive No. 2, as late as August 20th. That hive now has honey enough to winter well.
Since September 20th, the bees have put in a considerable amount of honey, but not in surplus boxes. Even my nucleus hives put in enough from September 20th, to keep them—making a saving to me of twenty-five (25) dollars.
If other bees in this vicinity have done as well as mine, few colonies will starve in this county next winter. My article is getting long. I will stop just here.
H. Alley.
Wenham, Mass., Oct. 3, 1870.
Virgil recommends the hollowed trunk of the cork tree as a hive, than which no material would be more admirable, if it could only be easily and cheaply procured.
[For the American Bee Journal.]
Mr. Editor:—Having gained so much instruction and pleasure from the perusal of your valuable paper, I think it no more than right to send you a report of the season’s operations here. But there are so many of your contributors so much more successful, that my account will appear tame in comparison; yet when compared with what has been done by my box and Kidder hive neighbors, it seems to be quite a success.
The season has been favorable in this locality, though rather dry for many crops, yet honey was more or less abundantly yielded all through the season. The weather has been such that the bees could gather honey almost every day, from the first of May until the present time.
We placed ten (10) swarms in the cellar in the fall of 1869, all of which wintered in good condition and came out strong in the spring. Four of them were Italians, and six blacks, seven in movable frames and three in box hives. Those in the box hives were transferred in April; the black queen killed about the first of June, and young, fertile Italian queens of my own raising substituted for them. One hive was broken up into nuclei in May, and also the first swarm. We have run from six to ten nuclei all through the season, to obtain, if possible, a pure queen for every hive; but we have not succeeded in getting all full marked workers in more than half of the stocks, as our box hive neighbors kept us flooded with common drones.
We have taken this season, as surplus, eleven hundred (1100) pounds of honey—eight hundred (800) pounds being comb or box honey, and three hundred (300) pounds extracted; and have increased our stock to fifteen (15) full swarms. Besides the surplus, we have forty Langstroth frames filled with comb and honey, averaging two pounds each. This is not counted as surplus, but reserved for next season’s operations.
After transferring last spring, and cutting out drone combs, our hives lacked from one to two frames each, from a full complement. Having constructed aslingerthis season, we are enabled to lay by a goodly store of combs for future use.
Our best stock gave us twenty-four six pound boxes, weighing one hundred and forty-four (144) pounds, and twenty-five (25) pounds of extracted honey; besides ten frames of brood and honey, taken from the body of the hive at different times in the season and replaced with empty frames. It is now in good condition.
This is the first season that we have practiced non-swarming on the true principle of making box honey, and had we had the knowledge and experience that we now have, we are confident we could have attained still more favorable results. We are no friend to increase, and would never increase more than is absolutely necessary. Nor can we understand how some men are so well satisfied with a large increase and a small amount of surplus. Yet we have not seen any feasible plan put forth whereby a large amount of surplus can be made without a slight increase.
After having tried both kinds to our entire satisfaction,we think we can get as much profit, and far more pleasure, from one Italian swarm in a Langstroth hive, than we can from twenty-five (25) swarms of black bees in box hives.
J. P. Moore.
Binghamton, N. Y., Oct. 3, 1870.
[For the American Bee Journal.]
Mr. Editor:—I write to let you know how bees have done here, this season. I had last spring fifty-one (51) stocks, nearly all in my own hive with frames, and on the top four glass boxes, holding ten pounds each, box and all. I sold two stocks for thirty-six dollars, and they earned for the man who bought them one hundred (100) dollars, in swarms and honey.
During the blooming of the trees in the spring, bees had a week to gather honey. Then they did not get any more until the white cover blossomed, and we had a rain on the 10th of June. From that time until the 25th of June bees did splendid; but after that to the 1st of August, they did not collect as much as they consumed. Then we had the fall flowers, and they have done very well.
I bought ten swarms on the 23d of June, but before they commenced work forage failed. I fed them and four of my own late swarms; one hundred pounds of sugar and two gallons of honey. I then stopped until the first of September. Then I fed them over one hundred pounds more of sugar, doubled up three colonies and broke up two. So I now have seventy-two (72) stocks, all of which I think will winter.
My bees have made about 800 or 900 lbs. of honey. To strengthen the weak ones, I took off boxes full of honey and bees, and gave them to weak swarms. Thus they got bees and honey at the same time. In doubling swarms, I open both hives and take five of the lightest frames from one, and five of the best from the other, put them in and brush all the bees out, and they will not fight.
Bees have done better in the country than in the village, as our village is nearly overstocked. The Spanish Needle is a good honey-producing plant; also a tall flower called Wild Artichoke.—It has been very dry here; but rains have gone in streaks. Two or three rains come in the right time, would have been worth a thousand dollars to me. The white clover dried up early. The bees visited the groceries and were lost by thousands. My bees are nearly all Italians, which I consider the best.
I gave a description of my hive in the Journal, last year. Every one uses it here. It costs about four dollars, and can be made for a little less.
We have had no frost yet, and the bees are collecting honey still, and will do so as long as the Wild Artichoke lasts. I feed my bees by taking off one of the boxes, and put on a saucer with some pieces of comb in it. Then dissolve sugar and fill the comb and saucer. They will take it up every night. Feed till you get them heavy enough.
I divided ten swarms, and they did well, though I divided them too late in the season. If one is going to divide, it should be done early.
Last year was a splendid season for honey. Thirty-two weak stocks gave eighteen swarms, and twenty-six hundred pounds of honey.
Dr. H. Chaffee.
Tolono, Ills., Oct. 3, 1870.
[For the American Bee Journal.]
Mr. Editor:—I once more take up my pen to advocate bee-keeping. As I said in my last article that my apiary was increasing, I have now ten new swarms from eleven old colonies, and I am every day expecting some second swarms to issue, as queens in the hives that sent out swarms, can be distinctly heard uttering the word “peep! peep!” and according to more able apiarians than myself, that is the true sign that second swarms will issue in a few days, if the weather be favorable.
The other morning I was out where my bees are. I suppose you have a strong idea of what I saw, when I raised up one of my stands. There were a half dozen of the fattest full grown moth worms almost any one ever saw. They were lying back in all their glory, after gorging themselves with the rich feast on which they no doubt had luxuriated. I made short work of them, however. Those round, plump, greasy-looking fellows seem to think, from all appearance, that they are lords of creation. But I soon dislodged them from their snug quarters, by means of a sharp-pointed iron bar made for the purpose. “They slept rather late that morning, and were caught up with.”
The piping of the young queen was something new to me. I told some of my bee-raising friends of it, and they hooted at me, calling me a deceiver and impostor. I referred them to Mr. Langstroth’s book, and Mr. Quinby’s, and told them that they should subscribe for the American Bee Journal, or even read it, and they would find that what I said in regard to the young queen’s piping, was strictly correct. My friend Mr. K. (whom I converted) in a conversation with Mr. S., asked him why he did not take the American Bee Journal. “Why,” replied he, “they can print anything in a paper, and there are fools enough to believe it.” I have known Mr. S. for about fourteen years, and know that he has had bees all that time. Yet he has not any more stands now, than he had ten years ago. (It is no wonder.)
The honey product of this season seems to be good. Bees are storing great quantities of surplus honey. The weather has been very favorable for honey-gathering, for the past six weeks. White clover has been in bloom for the last fifteen days, and will probably continue till the middle of July. From it the best honey is gathered. In the spring the early flowers were cut off by sleet, which fell about the 18th of April.
I am now preparing to sow a large field with buckwheat, exclusively for my bees, though some writers in different papers state that the bees do not get any honey from this plant. Whether it is a honey-producing plant or not, the bees seem to visit it as regularly when in bloom, as if there was something about it they are very fond of. Perhaps I can throw some light on this subject. Last fall I had three hives of bees, that came late, while nearly all the other flowers were exhausted, and buckwheat was their only resource for supplies for winter. They worked like white-heads, as long as the blossoms lasted; and after that went through the winter safely, though they were weak the following spring.
I will now give my opinion on ventilation, for the benefit of Mr. A. Green. My mode is as follows: I leave the summer entrance open, and also upward ventilation all winter. I have always, heretofore, wintered my bees in the open air. If Mr. Green uses hives with movable caps, he can close the summer entrance and take off the surplus honey-boxes, substitute straw or fine shavings in their stead, and replace the cap as before. This is the best way that I have yet tried. I intend this for winter. In summer I give them all the ventilation needed—that is, I leave all the ventilators open.
I have drawn out this article longer than I intended, and close with greeting to all bee-keeping friends.
T. H. Woody.
Pleasant Valley, Mo., June 18, 1870.
[For the American Bee Journal.]
Mr. Editor:—Not having much to do, at present, I thought I would give your readers an account of my observation and trial of the different kinds of honey-plants around us here. It may be of some service to new beginners, as I have tried all kinds I could hear of and procure, that were reputed valuable for producing honey.
Among the best are Alsike clover, Melilot clover, White Dutch clover, Borage, and Buckwheat. These, with us, just fill out the season from June to October.
The plants named in the following list, I do not consider of any account here, for honey, viz.: White Mustard, Black Mustard, Rape, Chicory, Mignonette, Lucerne Clover, and the Rocky Mountain Plant. Kale did not come into blossom, and I cannot speak of its value as a honey-yielding plant.
R. Miller.
Rochelle, Ill.
👉 Some of the plants named as of no value for bees, are highly praised, in other localities.—Ed.
I once met with an individual whose breath, shortly after he was stung, had the same odor with the venom of the enraged insect.—L. L. Langstroth.
[For the American Bee Journal.]
Mr. Editor:—About the middle of August, by invitation of Mr. Alfred Green, of Amesbury, a friend and myself visited his place to see the bees work on the Rocky Mountain bee plant. We arrived there about eight o’clock in the morning, and found the plants swarming with bees; one, two, and in some cases three bees upon the same flower.
Mr. Green informed us that they were still at work on it, the day before, at seven o’clock in the evening. It was amusing to see them gather pollen from it while on the wing, the stamens extending so far out that they could not reach them after alighting on the flower.
The plant was growing on a rather light soil, not highly manured, and stood from two to three feet high, branching out in all directions. Planted in the spring, it comes into blossom soon after the white clover disappears and continues until killed by the frost. If planted in the fall, as Mr. G. says it can be, it would blossom much earlier. I think this is the best plant to cultivate for bees, as it fills a vacancy, (in this locality) between the white clover and the fall flower.
Alsike clover I have raised, commencing in 1860; and find that, on my soil, bees prefer it to white clover. But as it begins and ends blossoming at the same time with white clover, it is not of so much value for bees, as it would be if it came a month or so later.
As the seed of the Rocky Mountain bee plant is valuable for poultry, and probably for swine and other farm stock, when made into meal, it would perhaps pay to raise it for the seed alone.
Calvin Rogers.
West Newbury, Mass., Sept. 12, 1870.
[For the American Bee Journal.]
Well, Mr. Editor, I saw in the Bee Journal for July something concerning the injuriousness of the silk weed or milk weed. After reading the article it struck me that there was some of this weed in the vicinity of my apiary, and next day set about to search for it. On going out west, on the low ground on the prairie, I found ten flowering stems of this weed, and seven of the ten had bees fastened on them. Some of these bees were dead, and some still living, though they could not leave the flowers, being fastened in them by their hind legs. The bees seemed to have been gathering honey.
Last Monday, as I was going to a neighbor’s, I saw one of these flowers, three quarters of a mile from my home. I stopped to see if I could find any bees on it, and found an Italian just alive. I am glad there are not many of this species of plants in this neighborhood.
R. Miller.
Rochelle, Ills.
[For the American Bee Journal.]
Mr. Editor:—I have at last caught the chaps that rain down what is called honey-dew. In localities where the common willow grows, I found the most. On the Missouri river bottom, which is literally covered with willows, I find in June and July they are covered with small insects, which at a certain age get wings and fly off in large swarms, going for miles. Sometimes they will stop in the air, over some trees, and fly around in a circle for an hour. If you get them between your eye and the sun, you will see them discharging the so-called honey-dew. They will stop in one place, the same as gnats or mosquitoes, which you have often seen about as high as a man’s head.
Now, if any person really wants to test the correctness of this, let him go to a willow grove and he will find those insects (or willow lice) just before sun-down; and getting the willows between him and the sun, he will see them rising from every part of the tree, in small squads, and collecting till they form a large swarm. Then they will be seen discharging continually a fluid which resembles a fine sprinkle of rain. I have often seen those same insects discharging a fluid on a limb, where they were hatching; and then saw large ants, wasps, and yellow jackets working on it. And I often wondered how it got on the very tops of the trees, where no insects were to be found. I think this observation will settle the matter about the origin of honey-dew.
Bees have done very poorly here until now. The golden rod is in full bloom, and the bees are doing well.
H. Faul.
Council Bluffs, Sept. 6, 1870.
[For the American Bee Journal.]
Mr. Editor:—Through the columns of your indispensable Journal, allow me to say to my brother bee-keepers, and “all whom it may concern,” have nothing to do with a hive called the “Multilocular Protoplastic Protean Hive,” though it is no doubt superior to any or all you have in use. Let us not step upward only one step at a time to the use of this hitherto excelsior hive; but let us take at least two steps at once, to that hive and those new principles that “beat”all. Yes, all the long and toilsome labor of a Huber and a Dzierzon is totally eclipsed; and entirely snuffed out are such lights as Langstroth, Gallup, Quinby, Wagner, and many others, who formerly shone so brightly as “instructors.” Your theories, gentlemen, are forever “cast in endless shade.” The great revolution of nature that moves all things, has thrown before my vision this wonderful apistical domicile. I have scanned it closely, and now let me say to you, Rev. L. L. Langstroth, talk no more of laterally movable frames, since this great hive has “a place for every frame, and every frame in its place.” And you, “far-famed Gallup,” say no more of division boards and economy of heat. ’Tis useless, as these frames are made extra large, and small frames for surplus set in the top of the large ones, which space is left in free communication with the brooding apartment, till again filled with surplus. Speak not, Mr. Wagner, of compactness of form, as this marvellous habitation stands erect, human like. And now the sturdy German (Dzierzon) must yield the palm and transfer it over into Indianapolis, (Ind.) the centre of bee-gravity—the place where one hundred colonies are made from one in a single season! Can we not plainly see the dawning of a day when “the land shall flow with honey,” and each and every individual will supply himself freely with this “sweetest of all sweets,” and the apiarian turn his attention elsewhere for a livelihood?
James Heddon.
Dowagiac, Michigan.
[For the American Bee Journal.]
Mr. Editor:—My attention has been called to an alleged error of statement in my article on page 72, Vol. VI., of the Bee Journal, wherein I say, “Mr. Langstroth was among the first to introduce to the notice of the bee-keepers of America the invaluable honey extractor.” Now I claim that the statement is strictly true. Mr. Langstroth wasamongthe first to introduce the honey extractor to the notice of the bee-keepers of this country, taking upon himself the responsibility of manufacturing from a bare description, and extensively advertising the machines for sale; thus risking pecuniary loss in case it should prove unpopular, before any other person in this country, except the editor of the American Bee Journal, spent a single dollar upon them.
Still, in order to give every man due credit for any assistance given to bee culture, I will here, with pleasure, state a fact in this connection that had escaped my recollection at time of writing the previous article, namely, that the firstmentionof the machine of Von Hruschka in the English language was made in the American Bee Gazette,4page 85, September No., 1866, edited by Rev. E. Van Slyke, in an article translated from the German, by the editor. And to this article, Mr. Langstroth was most probably indebted for his first idea of the honey extractor, as Mr. Van Slyke writes me as follows—“Mr. Langstroth himself, who visited me at my office the very next month after the publication, spoke in terms of the highest enthusiasm of the article, and said that from my description as published he was about to construct a machine for honey extraction.” &c.
R. Bickford.
Seneca Falls, N. Y., Oct. 5, 1870.
[For the American Bee Journal.]
Mr. Editor:—Mr. A. Green, in the October number of the Journal, gives an account of finding two queens in one hive. Other correspondents have also given us their knowledge of similar facts; but none have, I think, given us any reasons for such exceptions.
Last fall I bought an Italian queen from a reliable breeder. She came recommended as A No. 1. I received her on the 8th of September. All the workers sent with her were dead, except two; and she was herself so benumbed by cold that I had quite a time of it bringing her back to vitality. Finally I succeeded in getting her quite lively, and introduced her to a tolerably weak swarm. On the 10th of October finely marked Italians were flying in front of the hive. I spared no pains in wintering. (I winter out-of-doors.) In April she had filled three cards of brood. I then gave her a card of drone-comb. She would not look at it, and I moved it back and put in its place a card of worker-comb, which she filled with eggs almost instanter. I then put the drone-comb in the middle of the cluster, and got about fifty drones. Of course I was stimulating, and kept plenty of honey in the hive. I put in other worker-comb, but she refused to lay any more. I then took out a frame to start a nucleus, and in about a week after, when examining the old stock, I found queen cells started and the old queen on the comb, apparently all right. In due course a young queen was hatched, and after destroying the queen-cells, she remained with the old queen ten days before she was fertilized, and at least a week after she was laying. At the end of three weeks the old queen was gone.
Now, what does this prove? Simply that the queen was chilled in coming by mail, which interfered with her prolificness, rendering her supersedure a necessity for the future welfare of the colony. She was tolerated in the hive by the new queen and bees, having lost that distinct individuality peculiar to the queen bee, and consequently become to them (the workers and young queen) no more than a common bee. I cannot help but conclude that when such exceptions occur, the course relatively is the same.
Frederick Crathorne.
Bethlehem, Iowa, Oct. 9, 1870.
It cannot be too deeply impressed on the mind of the bee-keeper, that a small colony should be confined to a small space, if we wish the bees to work with the greatest energy, and offer the stoutest resistance to their numerous enemies. Bees do most unquestionably “abhor a vacuum,” if it is one which they can neither fill, warm, nor defend. Let the prudent bee-master keep his stocks strong, and they will do more to defend themselves against all intruders, than he can possibly do for them, even though he spend his whole time in watching and assisting them.—Langstroth.
[For the American Bee Journal.]
Mr.Editor:—We would like to attend the prospective convention of bee-keepers, which is to assemble the coming fall or winter, and to take by the hand some of the many correspondents we have followed through the columns of your Journal, and hear their opinions by the word of mouth, but we must forego that pleasure at present. We are poor and have not straightened up yet the ravages of war. We are rebuilding as fast as our means will admit, and hope in a few years more to see our once desert looking country “blossom as the rose.” We have lost our substance, the toil of years, and in bee parlance, though driven out and robbed of comb and honey, are allowed to return in a bad season, to recuperate.
When these bee conventions become yearly in our country, (and I hope they will,) we will be sure to attend, if within the range of our flight. We would be delighted to see the different specimens of honey and bees which should be in attendance, and ahead of anything to see except the phiz of Novice, Gallup, Grimm, and their ilk, side by side the different hives in working order. A great majority of the hives with movable frames are patented, many are not, and we would like to see them on exhibition, opened, and the points of excellence each contains, shown. We don’t mean the sub-venders of different patents, who are travelling over the country, and attend at the different fall fairs, who never kept or owned a hive of bees, know nothing of the nature and habit of the insects, and who move up to you and talk as learnedly on the bee as Langstroth or Dzierzon could; but men of experience and veracity, who have tried and used for several seasons the hive on exhibition, through poor as well as rich harvests; and hives of different forms and capacity, which you could criticise, and the good qualities, or the real or imaginary defects of which a man might point out, without danger of being called a mutton-head and ignoramus. There are several different patents in our country, and if they are not thrown over the fence the first season, they are sure to go the way of all trash the second. Some unfortunate purchasers try to get their money back by transforming the hives into troughs to feed the cow in; others convert them into boxes for hen-nests. In many of these cases, however, it is through the ignorance of the keepers that they do not succeed.
One year ago, Esq. Boring, a Justice of the Peace from one of our rural districts, thought to outstrip his neighbors in honey and bee-keeping, and ordered a hive with which you could control swarming, catch the drones, keep out moths, and the Lord only knows what its owner didn’t claim for it. Draw out the chamber, take out honey enough for supper, and replace the drawer, and all is right, nice, and snug! I believe they call it the Buck-eye, patented by Mitchell. Esq. Boring was eager to have bees in, and couldn’t wait for a natural swarm, but drove in a fine stock. He was so well pleased with it and its workings, thathe Buck-eyed his whole apiary; and upon inquiry a few days since, he informed me that he would lose nearly all his bees. The first time he drew out the chamber everything worked fine. The second time it was rather tight and glued up. A month after that he thought it would take a small yoke of steers to pull out the chamber of frames, and during the summer nearly the whole fell a prey to the moth-miller. However, he should not condemn the hive after this slight trial. It has been an unusually poor season, and none but the strongest stocks stored any surplus.
W. P. Henderson.
Murfreesboro, Penna., Oct. 6, 1870.
[For the American Bee Journal.]
Under the above heading, Mr. Gallup, in the Journal for October, gives his experience with the queen nursery, which, with him, appears to be a perfect success. I wish to give my experience, and ask Mr. Gallup and others why it is so different from his.
I made fifty cages 1½ × 1¾ × 1¾ inches, four sides of very thin wood, and one side covered with wire gauze, and the other with a piece of glass slipped in grooves in the two wooden sides, so as to be moved up or down for a door. In each of these cages I placed a piece of honey in comb (unsealed), with the cells in natural position; and then placed the cages in frames, on slots inserted across them, so as to hold three tiers of six each, or eighteen to a frame. I then took out two centre frames from good, strong hives, and put one of these frames containing cages in their place. Some very strong colonies, some were medium. To some I gave upward ventilation, by leaving off the honey boxes and raising the cap. On others I left the honey boxes. I then awaited the result. Some queens hatched in fourteen days from starting the cell; some in sixteen days; two or three in twenty-four days; and someneverhatched.
Many of the young queens died in the cages in from twelve to twenty-four hours after hatching; very few lived to be five days old—the time given by many writers for them to mate with the drones; only six or seven out of about one hundred lived two weeks. The queens, when first hatched, were put in fertilizing cages such as described by N. C. Mitchell, butneverwere fertilized.
Now Mr. Editor, will Mr. Gallup or some one else tell me why my experience differs so widely from that of Mr. G.?
Sister cells, cut from the same comb as some of those that were put in the cages, hatched in from fourteen to sixteen days, were duly fertilized, and are now alive and well. Hence it could not be any defect in the stocks they were raised from. In some of the cages, I put two or three workers, to feed the young queens; but still the latter would die, and leave the workers to eat the honey left in the cages.
If queens require any other food than honey, why did not the bees give it to them through the wire gauze on which they clustered in great numbers? Some of the cages were put in colonies that had fertile queens at liberty, but most of them were put in queenless hives.
The cells were mostly put in on the ninth day from starting the cell.
I shall be pleased to see replies to this in the next number ofAmerican Bee Journal.
H. Nesbit.
Cynthiana, Ky.
[For The American Bee Journal.]
Friend Bickford, I wish to shake your honest fist!
Your matter issound, your argumentJUST!!
To render substantial aid to our “venerable Tutor” is an imperative duty. Let us see to it then,at once, andDO THE RIGHT!
I don’t feel at liberty to enlarge on the subject, being “only an Englishman.”
Walter Hewson.
Wickham-breaux, Kent, England, Sept. 28, 1870.
[For the American Bee Journal.]
In the “Poultry Bulletin,” J. M. Wade, of Philadelphia, writes—“A man, I can hardly saygentleman, came into the store yesterday, with seventy-one humming birds, which he had shot the day before in his own yard. He said some years ago he brought a honey tree from Africa, and thousands of humming birds would come to it in one day. Where did so many come from?”
As it may be in the interest of bee culture to know what can be learned about the honey tree of Africa, will some one who is informed give the readers of theAmerican Bee Journalhis knowledge of it? stating its growth, whether bees visit it, its uses, whether it is hardy, length of time in flower, in what month and at what age it blooms, and how it is propagated?
E. Parmly.
New York.
Early in October, I examine carefully all my hives, to see that they are in suitable condition for wintering. If any need feeding, they are fed at this time. If any have too much vacant room, I partition off that part of the hive which they do not need. I always expect to find some brood in every healthy hive at this time, and if in any I find none, and ascertain that it is queenless, I either at once break it up, or if it is strong in numbers, supply it with a queen, by adding to it some feebler stock. If bees, however, are properly attended to, at the season when their young queens are impregnated, a queenless colony will seldom be found in the fall.
Langstroth.
Washington, Nov., 1870.
👉 The residence of the Rev. Mr. Semlitsch is not at Gratz, in Styria, as, in consequence of a slight omission, was erroneously stated in our last issue; but at StrasgangnearGratz.
The attention of those who are unfortunately suffering from the prevalence of foul-brood in their apiaries, will doubtless be arrested by the communication, in this number of the Journal, from Dr.Abbe, of New Bedford (Mass.), announcing that he has succeeded in curing that disease, as it existed in several of his colonies; and that an efficient and easily applicable remedy has at length been devised for the dreaded and devastating evil. Dr.Abbedeserves the cordial thanks of bee-keepers, both in this country and abroad, for so generously and promptly making known his remedy and the mode of administering it.
Last fall we suggested to those who found it necessary to supply their bees with winter food to add a portion of glycerine to sugar syrup or dissolved candy, to prevent crystillization; and we learn that it was advantageously used. We have since learned that gum tragacanth is now employed for the same purpose, by some of the German bee-keepers. This gum, dissolved in water, forms a thick mucilage, which may not mingle so readily with the food as glycerine does; and the latter is hence a more manageable and probably cheaper article, especially as it forms besides an excellent spring stimulant, though still too high-priced to be freely used.
A bee-keeping friend has procured for us a quantity of seed of the Partridge Pea (Cassia chamæcrysta) mentioned by one of our western correspondents, (Mr. Ingels, of Oskaloosa, Iowa,) as an excellent honey plant. It was in bloom here from the middle of July to the middle of October, and frequented by that bees, in crowds, all the time.
This plant is usually classed among weeds, and where it occurs, is regarded by some as one of thepestsof the farm; but as it is an annual, it ought not to be difficult to get rid of it by proper management, when its presence is undesirable. Blooming during the interval between spring and fall pasturage, it constitutes an important resource for bees, here and in other districts, at a period when the native vegetation fails to furnish supplies.
In the third volume of the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Dr. Greenfield of Virginia speaks of the Partridge Pea as furnishing means to recruit worn-out lands, by its decomposition in the soil when plowed under. It was, we understand, originally introduced for that purpose, in the District of Columbia, by the Hon. Benjamin Stoddert, while Secretary of the Navy; and it would probably answer well as a substitute for red clover, where from poverty of soil, the latter could not yet be grown.
We hope to be able to make satisfactory arrangements for the distribution of the seed among bee-keepers desiring to make trial of the plant, and if successful, will state particulars in our next.
We learn from Mr. Adam Grimm, of Jefferson (Wis.,) that his crop of surplus honey, this year, is over 15,000 lbs., and that he “could take at least 10,000 lbs. more from his hives, and still leave the stocks heavy enough to winter well.” Such a result as this must be calculated to unsettle the notions of those who “have kept bees many years, andknowthere is nothing to be made by it!”
We intended to give a brief history of the opposition to the meeting of the National Convention of Bee-keepers at Indianapolis, showing when and where it originated, and what were the obvious motives and objects of those most active in the business. But as it appears to be a “fixed fact” now that the Convention will be held at the time and placed designated, we shall save ourselves the trouble of hunting up musty records in the limbs of things forgotten.
👉 Since the above was put in type we have learned incidentally that it was resolved at Utica by the N. E. Bee-keepers Association to hold another Convention elsewhere, though particulars have not reached us. We sincerely regret this proceeding on various accounts.