1882 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



329 



was in the latter part of winter. I found a little 

 patch of brood on 3 sheets of comb, in the center of 

 the hive —just about as much as I always find in a 

 hivo of blacks in winter, but I never found it in 

 Italians. In each patch of brood was a queen-cell, 

 capped; the other was all drone brood in worker- 

 cells. I was then a disciple of Mr. Adair. I wanted 

 to let him know how I was progressing in the knowl- 

 edge of bee culture. I told him that the bees had 

 lost their queen, and ha3 started to make two others, 

 and had made the rest of the brood into drones for 

 the fertilization of the queen. He did not reply to 

 this; but my chagrin was intense when I subse- 

 quently learned that my views were not strictly or- 

 thodox. I supposed that he was ashamed of my ig- 

 norance; but that thing has haunted me until the 

 day I read friend Lane's communication. 



SAVARM-CATCHERS. 



I notice that several new swarm-catchers have 

 been recently invented. I use a much cheaper one, 

 and much more convenient. My queens are all 

 clipped soon after they begin to lay. M'hen a swarm 

 starts out, I catch the queen and then move the 

 parent hive a little distance, set my new hive in its 

 place, and then hold still until the bees start back; 

 I then turn the queen loose at the entrance, and in 

 a few minutes from the time they emerged, I have 

 them hived. If I know the old hive is strong in 

 brood, I let the new one stay in its islnce; but if it is 

 a large swarm, and the old one weak, I move the old 

 one back to its place, and move the new one some 

 distance off. 



DOLLAR QUEENS. 



There is nothing 1 have heard recently among bee- 

 men, which has so astonished me, and which seems 

 so unreasonable, as the war made on "dollar queens." 

 I bow low to the superior talents and erudition of 

 Prof. Cook. I have learned to look upon him as 

 the highest authority on all questions pertaining to 

 the science of Botanj'or Entomology; but I hnow he 

 Is " off," badly " off," on the subject of dollar queens. 

 I can see nothing to prevent queen-breeders going 

 to the highest state of improvement possible, and 

 still the traffic in dollar queens continue, for the 

 benefit of those of limited means. For instance, 

 how would such poor men as I, and many others, 

 over have got a start with Italian queens in any oth- 

 er way? 1 was an enthusiast from the time I read 

 the first pamphlet on bee culture, and wondered that 

 every one else was not; l)ut I could get none to see 

 it as I did. The high prices asked for queens caused 

 men to say that it was all a humbug, to make money. 

 But I was determined to have a (jueen. My first 

 queen and hive cost me only $29.00; but my queen 

 came dead, and my hive was a humbug. But the 

 man replaced the queen with another dead one, and 

 still promised me another one, to be mailed on the 

 5th of August. I rode three miles three times a 

 week for four or five weeks; but it has not come 

 yet. These two queens lasted me about six years, 

 when I paid $5.00 in October for one, and did not get 

 it till the next June, with 80 cents charges. I caged 

 her and put her into a hive, and when I looked for 

 her again, in 2t hours, she was dead. This one last- 

 ed mo about two years longer. At this time I was 

 working along with a few weak colonies of black 

 bees, and no honey. 



My next effort was with A. I. Root. I got a tested 

 queen from him for, I think, $2.00. She had been 

 baked in the express office ; but he replaced her with 



a live one, and I lost her in introducing ; there were 

 80 cents charges on this. 



At this date I had paid $37.00, and no nearer start- 

 ing, so far as I could see, than at first. I forgot to 

 state, that before I sent to friend Root I bought a 

 full ciihmii of Italians for $10.00, thinking that I had 

 a sure thing of it ; bvit it proved to be a drone-layer, 

 and I kept all of my hives queenless five or six 

 weeks, trying to raise queens from drones, and I 

 came near losing my whole stock. Nothing daunt- 

 ed, I got 2 one-dollar queens from Paul L. Viallon, 

 which cost me $;3.00, and proved a success. 1 have 

 bought some other dollar queens since, and can pro- 

 duce as finely marked bees, and as good workcr.a, as 

 any one. 



Friend Root, I think I have read somewhere that 

 you invented the dollar-queen system. I am glad 

 you did not patent it. I can't think of any thing you 

 have ever done which has proved as great a blessing 

 to humanity as that, in a worldly or pecuniary point 

 of view, and I think the people owe you a vote of 

 thanks; and the longer it continues, the more cer- 

 tain will the bee-keeper be in getting and keeping 

 up the pure blood. 



HYBRIDS. 



Friend M. Young gives his experience with cross- 

 ing the breeds, and it is so different from mine, and 

 from that of all others from whom I have heard, 

 who have given them a fair test, that I wish to no- 

 tice it. Among other things which are contrary to 

 my experience, he says: "Cross pure drones with 

 pure black queens, for one cross seems to improve 

 them; but mate a black drone with a pure Italian 

 queen, and we make them worse at the start." 



I raised a queen from those I got from Viallon, 

 which was mated with a black drone. She was as 

 prolific, and made as good honey-gatherers, as I ever 

 saw — far ahead of her mother's progeny. I gave 

 her to a neighbor, in order to try to keep my stock 

 pure; but about this time I lost mj' other queen, and 

 had to put up with a daughter from my hybrid 

 queen, mated with a black drone, which took nearly 

 every whit of yellow out of her bees. Last year 

 they stored 60 or 70 lbs. of box honey, while others 

 (some <ulI-blood) did not store more than 10 lbs. I 

 have had pure queens about four years, but my hy- 

 brids have always started brood about a week before 

 any others, and have been my best honey-gatherers, 

 notwithstanding the pure Italians are always out 

 earlier of a cool morning. If my sole object were to 

 get honey, and I could keep my bees at a standard 

 of half-breeds, I should never have any other sort. 



B. F. Cathey. 



Cabot, Lonoke Co., Ark., June, 1882. 



HOW TO a»RY SWEET CORN, ETC. 



ALSO SOME GENERAL IDEAS IN REGARD TO DRY* 

 ING THINGS. 



lj?N the June number of Gleanings you ask for a 

 j8([ cheap evaporator. I think I have a plan for a 

 — ' dry-house, that will work well. Make a small 

 house '.i ft. square and 4 feet high; have the front to 

 close with two doors; on the two sides nail cleats to 

 hold sliding racks, or, better still, have wire sieves 

 to hold the corn. Put a small stove in the bottom, 

 with pipe to pass around and out at back side, or 

 build a small brick arch, and cover with a piece of 

 sheet ii-on. Perhaps it would be well to cover the 

 sheet of Iron witli a layer of brick, to keep the heat 



