1882 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



195 



BEES BY THE POUND, ETC. 



Please accept my many thanks for the free adver- 

 tisement of bees by the pound you gave me last year. 

 I would not have given ten couts to have had my 

 name put in there, for 1 didn't reallj' expect it would 

 bring mc sale for a pound; but to ray surprise it 

 brought uie orders for all I could spare till into July— 

 in all, over 100 lbs., all of which I delivered, to the 

 entire satisfaction of my customers. The most of 

 them I sold the first of Juno at $1.00 per lb., which I 

 think was too cheap. I think your present prices 

 are nearer right. I wish some one would determine 

 just how much honey a pound of bees would gather. 

 It could be told quite closely by weighing a new 

 strong natural swarm at the beginning of the honey 

 season, giving them plenty of empty combs, follow- 

 ing closely with the extractor, and taking awaj' ail 

 combs containing eggs every second or third day so 

 they would use no honey to feed brood. I think a 

 pound of bees would gather 30 !bs. of honey; and as 

 honey is the basis of all bee-keeping, the 30 lbs. at 10 

 cts. would make a pound of bees worth $3.00 at the 

 beginning of the honey season, for the honey they 

 would store. I shall try to demonstrate it this com- 

 ing season. S. C. Perky. 



Portland, Ionia Co., Mich., Mar. 21, 18s3. 



I think you have got it prettj' high, friend 

 l\, for general localities and general seasons; 

 but perhaps not on the average, if rightly 

 cared for. 1 have bought bees by the pound, 

 just a day or two before the close of bass- 

 wood, and had them pay for themselves in 

 three days. You have started quite an in- 

 teresting question : How much honey can a 

 pound of bees gather? 



A BOLD St^OGESTIOX. 



The application of partheno-genesis to Doolittle's 

 statement, in regard to a three-banded progeny 

 from queens which were reared among black drones, 

 will at once give us light upon a mysterious point; 

 and I assume that those queens which he mentions, 

 whose worker progeny plainly showed three distinct 

 bands, were daughters of virgin queens. I once had 

 a very prolific queen which I watched closely from 

 the time she was hatched till the day she commenced 

 laying, and never saw any evidence of copulation, 

 although for three entire days I say her as often as 

 every three hours. This is all theory, I know; but 

 discussion In an amicable manner will aid in eradi- 

 cating error and establishing truth. 



J. E. Pond, Jr. 



Attleboro, Mass., March 12, 18S2. 



If friend Pond has said exactly what he 

 meant to in the above, I fear I do not exact- 

 ly get his meaning ; but if he would suggest, 

 that the queens producing all three-banded 

 bees, among hosts of common drones, never 

 met any drones at all, I think I could see the 

 point. You will remember I have hinted in 

 the ABC, that it seemed possible a queen 

 might produce workers witliout mating at 

 all. If we accept this, it is easy to account 

 for the great numbers of cases of wingless 

 queens that produce worker brood, without 

 declaring they must have met a drone in the 

 hive, or while hopping around near tlie en- 

 trance. I tliink it will be well to go slow in 

 deciding wUat is impossible, so long as there 

 is so much we don't know. 



FLOUR CANDY IN JANUARY. 



Three colonies of my own that I was afraid had 

 not suUleient honey to carry them through, had 

 quite a patch of brood started, some hatching, while 

 in seven others that had an abundance of stores there 

 were no eggs; in others the queen had just begun to 

 lay. I attribute this fact, that to the three light 

 colonies I gave each a frame of flour candy in Janu- 

 ary, which they had nearly consumed, and in one 

 stock had built a small piece of comb in place of the 

 candy. One dollar's worth of granulated sugar 

 makes just two frames (Langstroth) of candy, as I 

 make it. I use about }.i flour, as nearly as I can 

 guess. I don't weigh it. But I tell you it's business 

 to make it and not burn it. I believe you recom- 

 mend clear sugar. I don't know but it would answer, 

 but do you think it as good? I winteicd three nu- 

 clei in one Simplicity hive packed in chaff on one 

 frame of such flour candy each, and a venj little hon- 

 ey; each has now lirood hatching. 



Bethel, Conn., March, 1883. S. H. Hickok. 



I had suggested that the flour bstter be 

 omitted for winter feed, friend II. ; but your 

 experiments seem to decide that it is not al- 

 ivays deleterious, at least. 



TQE NEW DEANB SYSTEM. 



I was somewhat surprised when looking through 

 March Gleanings, on finding the article and illus- 

 trations on the " New Deane System for Comb Hon- 

 ey." Not so much on account of the wonder- 

 ful " system," but because I had invented, and, 

 to a certain extent, iLscd, the very same thing last 

 summei'. 1 had a number of such cases under course 

 of construction when I received the number of 

 Gleanings referred to. The only points of differ- 

 ence between friend D.'s and mine are, that I nail 

 the pieces together, instead of putting them togeth- 

 er as illustrated by you and friend Deane. It is 

 more easily done by one who does not have the re- 

 quired tools for notching or dovetailing; and that, 

 to hold the boards to the sides, and keep the whole 

 together, I use heavy wire, bent at right angles at 

 the proper length, so as to form a clasp. Slip the 

 clasp over the end of the boards (one at each end of 

 the ease, of course), push one end of the clasp down 

 and pull the other up, and you will clamp the whole 

 together so firmly that it will '"sound." I think I 

 should like the word "case" rather better than 

 " system," for I think it is a new case for holdino sec- 

 tion bo^xs, that friend Doane has invented and 

 brought before the public, ra'her than a new system. 

 Bees will come through iu good condition I think. 

 Amos A. Ressler. 



Soudersburg, Lan. Co., Pa., March 13, 1882. 



HOW 1 WINTERED MY BEES AVITHOUT POLLEN. 



Last fall I packed my bees in chaff, on summer 

 stands (30 colonies in all), some of them with enam- 

 eled cloth fitted close down on the frames t<3 exclude 

 all upward ventilutiou, with chaff cushions above 

 that almost filled the upper story; others with car- 

 pet on the frames, and chaff cushions above, and 

 some hives with about half a bushel of loose chaff 

 on the sheet of duck; two with nothing but one 

 thickness of carpet on the frames; all of them with- 

 out pollen in the brood-nest. The last week in Feb- 

 ruary was nice and warm, and the bees came out for 

 a grand jubilee. The next day was flne also, and 



