398 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



OLD-TIME HONEY SEASONS. 



SHOULD like to have some such honey seasons 

 as we have had since I have handled bees. One 

 year I remember that my bees built on the out- 

 side of the hive. It was when I used the box hive. 

 I had them on benches close tog'ether; in one or 

 two Instances they filled in between the hives. I 

 roofed them over; they seemed to work in perfect 

 harmony from each hive. It was one great mass of 

 bees, covering the sides of the hives next each oth- 

 er clear to the tap. I had severiil that year that 

 built comb up the front. I made additions, and 

 screwed them on to the hive for them to work in; 

 took the boxes out of the top?, and tiered them up 

 three high. Oh, for such another year, with my 

 present knowledge and my facilities for securing 

 honey I I have had stocks of bees in the old box 

 hive make and store over 40 lbs. of surplus comb 

 honey after the second Sunday in August. 



B. F. Little. 

 Brush Creek, Iowa, June 19, 1882. 



BLUE honey, and SWEET POTATOES FOR BEE 

 FEED. 



Do you ever have any blue honey in your country? 

 I see nothing about it in your book. Please to give 

 me some information about it. Did you ever try 

 our common sweet potato for feeding bees? If not, 

 please give it a trial. I think you will be pleased 

 with the result. S. W. Clement. 



Wallace, N. C, June 10, 1883. 



I never heard of " blue honey " before, 

 friend C, and if you can send me a sample 

 I should be very glad indeed to say some- 

 thing about it. We have '"blue" people 

 now and then, and I have heard say that 

 they could sour milk by looking at it ; but I 

 suppose it can't be that the blue honey came 

 in that way. Years ago I tried to feed bees 

 sweet potatoes, but with not very gratifying 

 results. It might do for warm-weather feed, 

 but I would warn you against aiiy such for 

 winter stores. 



FEED THE BEES AND HOLD THE FORT; HONEY WILL 

 COME. 



If the goods we ordered May 22d are not shipped 

 the day you receive this, lyoH need not ship them, as 

 my customers are getting " sick " — bees are starv- 

 ing down here. Our bees have liccn consuming pol- 

 len largely, and we have had our/nvst case of dysen- 

 tery, so we score one for Hcddon. At this date we 

 expect no surplus for sale. Our more favored 

 Southern friends will have a boom in the honey 

 market, for which we all should "rejoice and bo 

 glad." D. H. Tweedy. 



Smlthfield, O., June 10, 1882. 



So we have lost an order by beiug behind, 

 and you have lost a crop of honey that you 

 never had, friend T. I must say I commend 

 your closing bit of hopefulness. 



CAN BEES MAKE WORKER EGOS PRODUCE DRONES? 



In June number of Gleanings, Mr. E. A. Morgan 

 gives an account of bees rearing drones from eggs 

 laid in worker-cells. Als i Mr. Lane, in April num- 

 ber, rather carries the idea that tho worker bee de- 

 termines the sex of the " bee to be." Now, then' 

 can't the Dzier/.on theory be correct, and yet have 

 Mr. Morgan's report be true — i.e., the queen be 

 able to lay a worker or drone egg at pleasure, and 

 the nursing bees be able to make a drone from a 

 worker-egg by destroying a part of the deposit of 

 the queen? 



Since reading Mr. M.'s report I have tried asrrarm 

 on drone-eggs, to sec whether thoy could rear a 

 queen, but they would not even try. IIow have 

 others fared who have tried to raise queens from 

 drone - eggs? or haven't others been foolish (?) 

 enough to try? I should try to make the bees start 

 queen-cells over drone-eggs, if it took "all summer;" 

 but I can't afford it; I can onlj' experiment where I 

 think there is a chance to make it pay, to help "keep 

 the wolf from the door." J. J. McWhorter. 



South Lyon, Mich., June 19, 1883. 



Your suggestion iir the former part of 

 your letter is not a bad one, friend M. ; but 

 you are sadly at fault in your last point. It 

 is quite a common thing for the bees to start 

 queen-cells from drone larva? (see A B C), 

 but the drone almost invariably dies by the 

 stimulating treatment, and never produces 

 a queen, nor a " king " either. Many of us 

 learned this to our sorrow, before we recog- 

 nized these " bogus " queen-cells by their 

 smooth exterior, as des:: ibed and illustrated 

 in the ABC. 



HONEY FROM WHEAT STUBBLE. 



I want to know what our bees get on wheat stub- 

 ble. There is a field close to my house, and it has 

 been cut four days, and they are yet sucking on the 

 ends of the stubble, thicker than I oversaw them 

 on white clover, and I hear the same report from 

 two other parties. It is new to me, but may be old 

 to you old bee-keepers. Thoy stay at it from early 

 in the morning till lite in the evening, as thick at 

 noon as any other time of day. 



Vienra, 111., June 15, 1883. D. W. Bellemey. 



We have had honey from almost every 

 source, friend B., even from wlieat and oats 

 before flowering, but never before from the 

 stubble, that I know of. Did you not ex- 

 amine, to see if there was not some sort of 

 sweet juice that captivated their — tongues? 

 I once thought of straws for artificial comb, 

 and now you have them nicely " stuck up " 

 in a field with honey in the — cells! 



CROSS BEES. 



I began handling bees in the spring of 1881; had 3 

 swarms of black bees; found no trouble handling 

 them, with a smoker and veil. In the summer I 

 Italianized with queens procured from pnrtics who 

 advertised pure Italian queens; and as ihey became 

 Italianized they became cross, and 1 found last fall 

 they were almost unmanageable, and this spring so 

 cross I can hardly manage them with gloves, gaunt- 

 lets, veil, and smoker. Now, I wish 5-ou to tell mc 

 if it is piobable or po><sihle that I have the right kind 

 of bees. They are yelliw bees, good color, good 

 workers; never fall off the comb, as some saj'. 

 Now, I think that good workers would naturally te 

 cross and self-protecting. I am perfectly satisfied 



