1882 



GLEA2^INGS IN BEE CULTUllE. 



437 



events ; but I &hould want it in dense clouds. 

 I really do not know of any way to handle 

 angry bees, except with smoko. 



A NKW SOI RCK OF HONKY. 



BEES ON WniO.VT-STUBHI.E, AOAIN. 



/P^NE of your correspondents speaks of bees 

 ll^ working on wheat-stubble. In 18T8 a person's 

 boots Avould be wet by walking a few steps in 

 the stubble; the sap was quite sweet, and the bees 

 very busy upon it from morning till night. The 

 wheat was pretty fair, but still did not seem to ripen 

 up just right and naturally. The straw seemed 

 brown and light. This is the third poor honey season 

 in succession. Two j-cars ago some bees starved on 

 their summer stands before frost came. This year 

 we have had only l:iO lbs. extracted honey from 11 



swarms. Had wc better give it up? 



E. Z. Green. 

 Montague, Muskegon Co., Mich., Aug. 14, 1882. 



Most surely E would not give it up, espe- 

 cially so long as I had seen, with my own 

 eyes, honey in the wheat-stubble. It' this 

 occurred over any considerable tract, the 

 yield of swxet must have been enormous, 

 even if it was only sweet water. I presume, 

 by some queer chemical change in the work- 

 shop of dame Nature, the starchy matter in 

 the growing stalk was changed to sugar, and 

 this sweet sap, as it were, tilled the hollow 

 in the straw stubble; Can any one tell us 

 how long after the cutting of the wheat it is 

 that this phenomenon takes place V When 

 we learn enough about these things so we 

 can make it come about at our pleasure, we 

 shall be — wiser than we are now. 



^^e^"^^\V\S^G>s^^-^'t.'ueCV>\:\\^-^^^^^ 



i;^^Si^^^ii'^3Sig^iS^i^^}i^i^^^^^i^^ 



the golden llEE-IIIVE. 



IgKjEE-KEEPING (in frame hives) is just being in- 

 JS^ra troduced here. A boe-man is running over 

 the country with a hive called the " Golden " 

 bee-hive, selling rights, and ordering persons not to 

 use top stories, etc., saying they infringe on his pat- 

 ent. E. C. FiSHEK. 



Sissonville, Kanawha Co., W. Va., July 13, 1883. 



Of late we have had quite a few inquiries 

 in regard to the "'Golden'' bee-hive. It 

 has been shown up several times in the 

 past few years, and the above should be 

 evidence enough for anybody. It would 

 seem almost incredible that any one should 

 pay over money to any party claiming tltat 

 he had a patent on all ''top stories," but it 

 seems several have done so. The idea is 

 even more absurd than Mitchelfs claim of a 

 patent, covering all cloth or mats spread 

 over the frames. Denounce every man as a 

 fraud and swindler who attempts to talk 

 Golden bee-hive to you ; auti, if you choose, 

 show him this, 



QITKENS; THF/IR FERTILITY SOMF- 

 TIltlES IJTIPAIRFD BY TR.VNSIT. 



GALLUP'S IDE.\S IN THE MATTER. 



IN my travels among the bee-keepers I found two 

 cases where the parties had received queens 

 (one from Oatman and one from Dadant), and 

 they said that they received queens that were not 

 proline, and they both condemned the queen-breed- 

 ers. I asked them if the daughters of those queens 

 were not prolific, and they said, "Yes, in every 

 case." Now, we must not condemn the queen-breed- 

 ers in those cases at all, V)ut we must look some- 

 where else for the cause of the unproliflcness. 

 Several years ago I sent two queens to different 

 parties, and which queens 1 knew were extra pro- 

 lific; but the parties who received them sent word 

 after a time, that the queens were not as represent- 

 ed, and accused me of cheating them. 



Now, I had an idea; and to thoroughly test it, I 

 stated ray views to Dr. Hamlin, of Edgefield Junc- 

 tion, Tennessee, and requested him to exchange 

 queens with me. Both were to select queens extra 

 prolific, and report how they turned out. We ex- 

 changed queens several times; and the result 

 turned out in every case just as I expected. The 

 queens proved to bo verj' indifferent layers. Now for 

 the cause: When we take a queen from a colony, 

 with her abdomen distended with eggs in the height 

 of the breeding season, ship her either by express or 

 through the mails for one or two thousand miles, we 

 stop her breeding at once, contrary to nature, and 

 perhaps the thumping about and pounding she gets 

 in transit has something to do with it. We have 

 then injured her for life for the rapid production of 

 eggs, and still it does not and can not affect her 

 progeny or purity. I explained the whys and where- 

 fores as I understood it to those parties, and thus 

 set Messrs. Oatman and Dadant right with their 

 customers. 



I do not recollect of ever having published my 

 ideas on the above question before. Where parties 

 know that their stock is all right, why not ship 

 young queens for long distances, that have just 

 commenced laying, and it would save this injury to 

 their laying qualities? I am not sure but taking a 

 queen away from a populous colony at the height of 

 her breeding, and keeping her in conflpement for 6 

 or 10 daj's, might produce the same result — who 

 knows? 



The California honey crop is almost a failure. 

 Extra good management has produced nearly half 

 a crop in some apiaries or localities; in others it is 

 an entire failure. E. Gallup. 



Santa Ana, Los Angeles Co., Cal., Aug. 3, 1883. 

 While I can not think a pure queen may 

 be made to produce hybrids by a trip in the 

 mails, I can agree with you, friend Gallup, 

 that their fertility is often impaired, and the 

 reports this season show very plainly that 

 they are often rendered incapable of laying 

 at all, after such trips. Let those who get 

 queens, therefore, have a large charity for 

 the sender, and not accuse him of wiMul 

 wrong, as has so often been done. And I 

 agree, too, that queens just commencing to 

 lay are less liable to such injury, and this is 

 another reason, I presume, why the tratlic 

 in queens has gone so entirely, as it were, 

 into these lyitested queens, or queens sold 

 just as sooii as they commence to lay. 



