242 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mat 



From Different Fields. 



AN A B C SCHOLAR'S REPORT, AND WHAT HK THINKS 

 OF FDN. 



BOUGHT 3 queens of you last season, but let 

 my 8on-in'hiw have one of them. Now, it is ad- 

 mitted by all who have seen them, that one col- 

 ony is the finest Italians they ever saw, I got one 

 colony from the 3 lbs. of bees, and they have winter- 

 ed finely. I took no honey from them, but fed the 

 young colony some, as there was nothing but "dust" 

 to make honey of here after they came. They were 

 well packed in chaff during- the winter with chaff 

 cushions on top of frames, and one foot nearly all 

 around the hives, and young bees are making their 

 appeax'ance in plenty, and yesterday they were 

 bringing In pollen, and I doubt if there has been 

 more than two dozen dead bees seen from each hive. 

 The same may be said of my son-in-law's; he has 3 

 colonies. I tried to utilize comb filled with honey 

 from my dead bees last year, but shall use no old 

 combs again; they make crooked combs of it. I 

 ehail use foundation. V. Toukgek. 



Kingsville, Ashtabula Co., O., April 3, 1883. 



GUM - TREKS. 



In answer to A. S. Davison, page 85, Feb. Glean- 

 ings, I will say that we have two species of gum- 

 trees that grow and seem to be at home here. The 

 sweet gum, which yields no honey, if I am correct, 

 and black gum, which does yield honey; and for 

 color, I will place it upon the same step with clover; 

 but for taste, I would put it away below the foot. 

 Of this honey I wrote on page 124, Gleanings for 

 1880. The honey has a very bitter, pungent taste; 

 in fact, to me it is a sickening taste, for its presence 

 in the apiary can be detected by the (to me) disa- 

 greeable odor, even at a distance. Its time of 

 blooming is between fruit and clover, being a very 

 useful thing at that time. It does not yield honey 

 every year — probably one year in three it will 

 yield a good crop. The sweet gum exudes a kind of 

 glue that bees gather for propolis. Any informa- 

 tion in my power will be given by request on this or 

 any other subject. T. J. Cook. 



Newpoint, Ind., April 8, 1883. 



QUEENS going VISITING. 



I must tell you of a freak of one of my queens. 

 She is a young Italian, raised last 5'ear; colony not 

 very strong. Well, on looking them over I found a 

 queen-cell sealed over. I thought my queen was 

 gone, sure; but I soon found her on another comb, 

 with a circle of eggs about 5 inches in diameter, 4 or 

 5 in a cell, some brood sealed, and some just ready 

 to seal; no very young brood. She looked as if she 

 had been visiting, and just got back. I left the cell, 

 and they kept it two days afterward, then tore it 

 down. They are all right now. Can you explain it? 

 I can't. H. C. Johnson. 



Eeesville, O., April 8, 1883. 



The question was discussed some time ago 

 as to whether queens ever go visiting and 

 come back again; and although instanceswere 

 given where it seemed they were gone long 

 enough for the bees to start queen-cells, and 

 then they came back and began to lay again, 



I can not think they wer-e really out of the 

 hive. Sometimes a queen in a very weak 

 colony, in the spring, will leave the hive in 

 disgust ; and after she comes back she will 

 go to another part of the hive and desert the 

 brood already under way. Well, the bees 

 will often start queen-cells on this little 

 patch of brood, and she may then, in a day 

 or two, conclude to come back to it with her 

 few loyal subjects, and this would give about 

 the state of affairs you witnessed. — The four 

 or five eggs in a cell is the result of too few 

 bees, and hence, too small a held for the 

 queen's labors. 



MY plan of FEEDING BEES. 



I have been trying for a long time to devise a plan 

 to fill combs with syrups, but have never succeeded 

 until recently. Then I exclaimed, "Eureka!" Take 

 a common fruit-can that has become unfit for put- 

 ting fruit iu. Take a small awl (the small end of a 

 hand-saw file will do) and punch the bottom full of 

 holes about Vi-inch apart. Now get a pan large 

 enough to admit of laying the comb down fiat inside 

 of it, to save any syrup that may be spilled or run 

 over the tops of the cells. Hold your can over the 

 comb and pour syrup into it, which will run through 

 the small holes in the bottom of the can in small 

 streams. Hold your can about a foot above the 

 comb, and keep moving it backward and forward 

 over the comb and you will soon fill it full. I have 

 frequently put in from a quart to three pints of 

 syrup in a single comb in Langstroth frame. After 

 your comb is filled, open your hive and put in your 

 combs at the sides of the brood-nest, and watch the 

 little fellows "go for it." Don't have your honey or 

 syrup too thick. The streams falling into cells 

 drive the air out, and fill them full. Any one with 

 a little px'actice can fill a comb almost entirely 

 full. It will not hurt the combs any. Try it. When 

 you have filled one side, turn it over and fill the oth- 

 er. The syrups will not run out. After it is full, 

 stand it on its edge in the pan, and let it drip before 

 you put it into the hive. Wm. Little. 



Marissa, St. Clair Co., 111., March 7. 1883. 



Your plan of feeding, friend L., is very 

 old. It was some years ago illustrated in the 

 American Agriculturist by our old friend 

 Quinby. If I am right, it has been dropped 

 because of the daubing it necessitates, and 

 the danger of inciting robbing. If you do it 

 at a season when the Lees are trying to rob, 

 they will soon learn to literally cover every 

 comb before you can get it out of your cor^ib- 

 bucket, and hang it in a hive. Doing the 

 work by moonlight will answer nicely, if you 

 are enterprising enough to work all day and 

 moonlight evenings too. 



ANSWERS TO PRAYER, ETC. 



In Our Homes for February, I see you have been 

 Instrumental in stopping quite a lawsuit through 

 the elHcacy of prayer. As this is a matter of dollars 

 and cents to the parties concerned, I would suggest 

 that you widen the field of your usefulness, and 

 offer up business petitions to the Deity, Ask him 

 to reveal unto you the secret of wintering bees 

 without loss, especially your own, and then sell the 

 recipe. Ask about the origin of foul brood, the true 

 cause of dysentery. Find out whether bacteria is 

 to be feared, and don't forget the " pollen theory." 



