328 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



ly first-class article. The wood we used was 

 rotten elm, however, and not punk ; and 

 while I am about it, what we here term punk 

 is a fungus excrescence growing out of logs 

 and standing trees, especially the maple. I 

 used this for years, until the supply gave 

 out. In the earlier days of Gleanings it 

 was advertised put up in 5-cent packages. 

 Now since you have got some that is just 

 right, I propose, friend II., that you send us 

 some to try, in the shape of a 10-cent pack- 

 age by mail ; and if we like it, we will ask 

 yourwoodman to send us a dollar's worth by 

 freight. If it isn't up to sami)le, we shall 

 not want any more of him. If anybody else 

 can furnish good smoker wood, let him also 

 advertise it, sending samples by mail at, 

 say, 10 cents. It seems to me that a good 

 clean article should be furnished at about 2.') 

 cents per bushel. A regular wood-chopper 

 is the man to furnish this material, and I 

 should like samples from all who think they 

 can supply what is needed. I want a sample 

 of that quarter cord, which you lie awake 

 thinking about too, friend Ileddon. Smo- 

 ker fuel that will light at once with a match, 

 and don't make sticky, tarry '' juice " either, 

 and will burn a good while and not go out, 

 will be indeed a boon. I would give $5.00 

 for a cord of it to-day. 



DISABI..KD QUEENS, ETC. 



KECEIVED the queens you sent mc, April 21st. 

 One was In fine coniltition, but the other was 

 disabled; one of her hind legs had got last be- 

 tween the edge of the candy and the feathery edge 

 of the hole it was run into, and her leg was twisted 

 off at the knee joint. I tried to introduce, iiut it was 

 no go; the bees were friendly to her, but she could 

 not stick to the combs, but would tumble off as fast 

 as I could put her on. I then let her go, and watched 

 for results. In about five minutes I looked again. 

 She had fallen on the bottom-board again. This time 

 a few bees were trying to take her out. I worked 

 nearly half a day with her, and then pulled off her 

 head, united the two nuclei into one, and the other 

 queen was laying before night. I sometimes think I 

 should have sent her back; but would it have done 

 any good to you? I send you balance due you for 

 queens; and now, friend Root, If you think I deserve 

 another, send her along, but not till I call. I believe 

 you to be a Christiau, and I am willing to abide your 

 decision. In regard to the queen having her leg off 

 when she came, I refer you to F. J. Gridley, express 

 and ticket agent at Transfer, Pa., for I opened the 

 package in his presence, and he first called my atten- 

 tion to her disability. 



Vi LB. OF DEES AND QUEEN IN JCNE. 



I must tell you of that queen and half-pound of 

 bees I got of you about the middle of June, 1881. I 

 put her and the bees on three frames of comb, and 

 fed them a little for a week or two, and supplied 

 them with frames of fdn. as thej' needed it, and by 

 fall they had ton frames full of honey, and hive full 

 of bees. Thanks for Juvenile Gleanings. I tell 

 you, it made the boys happy. S. Bunninqhoff. 



Transfer, Pa., May 1, 1883. 



One of the reasons why we have to have 

 the margin on queens we do, is that we may 

 not be out of pocket in making good all acci- 



dents like the above, replacing drone-laying 

 queens, queens that do not lay at all, etc. 

 In regard to disabled queens, we never send 

 otit such a one if we know it, although many 

 a queen does, so far as we can see, just as 

 well with a leg gone entirely. In my earlier 

 experiments in clipping queens' wings, I 

 used, once in a while, to get nervous, and 

 clip a leg when she interposed it in order to 

 save her wing, and I never found them to 

 lay less afterward. In your case, friend B., 

 the queen must have been enfeebled as well, 

 I should conjecture, and of course I should 

 expect to send another in her place. I am 

 sorry you wasted half a day with her, my 

 friend, and that you thought necessary to 

 send a reference from your express agent. A 

 real enthusiastic bee-man is always a truth- 

 ful one in the main. Is it not so V 



FRIEND CATHEY AFTER TWO YEARS' 



SILENCE. 



SO.METniNG ABOUT HIS TRIALS IN ITALIANIZING, 

 AND HOW HE AT LENGTH SUCCEEDED. 



T was some time during the year 1880 that the 

 readers of Gleanings heard from me; but I 

 have but few apologies to offer, as I think they 

 have been set back but little on account of my long 

 reticence. But whether your readers have felt the 

 loss or not, I have at times felt an effervescing which 

 was hard to control; but by using proper palliatives, 

 I have subdued it so far. 



THE HONEY CROP OF LAST YEAR 



was very poor in this region. Most of the bee-keep- 

 ers here (and they are few) use the black bees and 

 buster hives; their bees declined in numbers, and 

 gave not an ounce of honey. Mine were those worth' 

 lesH hybrids; but I about doubled my stock, and got 

 some honey. This year bees took a fine start, and 

 there were many early swarms; but the cold wet 

 weather has greatly retarded their progress. 



VENTILATION. 



There has been much said and little proved on the 

 subject of ventilation — upward, downward, and 

 lateral. From all I can hear, I have not yet been 

 convinced that bees in a hive ever died from cold 

 alone. I have had them die in cold weather with 

 honey in the hive, but I always found that they had 

 consumed all the honey in reach, and could not 

 move to get the honey which was some distance 

 from the cluster. 1 will not be dogmatical, but "take 

 an example, to our purpose quite." One of my 

 neighbors had a box hive stolen from him one 

 Christmas night, when there was snow on the 

 ground. It was carried into a wheat field, robbed, 

 and left standing on end, with one half the head off. 

 It stayed there until the wheat was cut. It had 

 borne all the snow, sleet, and rain, of winter, and 

 was in good condition, or the bees seemed to be, 

 working out at the top of the hive. I saw several 

 hives last winter, so open that the bees were work- 

 ing out at the top. We of the South have no need of 

 chaff hives, bee-cellars, or bee-houses. 



SEX OF EGGS. 



I am glad that friend Lane and some others have 

 brought up this subject, for it has bothered me for 

 about 14 years, and I should have mentioned it long 

 ago, but I did not wish to introduce any " heretical " 

 views. The first bees I ever attempted to transfer 



