1882 



GLEAI^INGS IJ^ BEE CULTUllE. 



459 



brimstoned, and feeding them up. Put 

 them on sheets of wired fdn., and tlien give 

 them sugar and water, until the fdn. is built 

 out and lilled with brood, and then keep on 

 feeding, until the combs are bulged witli 

 capped stores. It will take, if you have no 

 fall honey, about ^2. (JO worth of sugar to 

 carry a destitute colony through ; and if 

 you "give Iheni an Italian queen when you 

 start feeding, you will, before winter, have 

 a colony of Italian l^ees worth something 

 like S^IO.OO in tl\e si)ring. Now is the time 

 to commence with iliese destitute swarms.— 

 I am very glad indeed to hear of reports 

 from varieties of peas that yield honey. By 

 the encouragement of raisiug food products 

 that yield honey, we may have an addition 

 to our bee forage that will le lasting ; for 

 when a crop will pay, even moderately, the 

 honey will be so much clear gain. Who else 

 has seen bees working on ]»easV and where 

 can the peas be obtained, and how and 

 when are they to be sown V This matter, if 

 developed, may soon place honey -bearing 

 peas on a fooling with buckwheat. 



HOW TO GET HONEY DUlilNa A POOR SEASON, ETC. 



Perhaps you woulil like to know what we are do- 

 ing out this way. Bees starved till about the middle 

 of June. Reason, wet and cold; but lots of white 

 clover. I never saw bees carry in much more honey 

 than;they did the first day that they got a sip at the 

 white clover. Then a rest of about two days, on ac- 

 count of rain, and about that rate till basswood; then 

 they got about 10 or 13 good days, then they piled in 

 the honey and swarms all together. I had not room 

 for them, so 1 had to put back a gi-cat many of them, 

 which I don't really think is the best plan. Get 

 them good and strong, and at work; then if they 

 want to swarm, let them; then hive them on about 



4 combs or frames of wired fdn.; fill vip with boxes 

 at the side, and a story on top; and if it is just be- 

 fore basswood, they will fill the hive in about ten 

 days. Then you want a laying queen to put into the 

 old stand, and honey business will go straight tn. 



FERTILE WORKERS. 



I presume I have a case of fertile workers. I hiv- 

 ed a swarm about two weeks ago, and I shook the 

 bees out of the cover on to the ground. I saw the 

 Queenrise and fly, but supposed she would come in 

 all right, and paid no more attention to them till 

 last Saturday, when, passing by them, I thought they 

 were very quiet for such a swarm of bees, so I ex- 

 amined them to see what was the matter, and found 

 two frames filled with eggs, all the way from one to 



5 or 6, and a few just hatched, with lots of queen- 

 cells started. They had 4 or 5 eggs apiece, some of 

 them, and I could find no queen or particular bee 

 that acted as such, so I thought I would try them a 

 little further, so I got a laying queen and let her on 

 to the comb. They seemed to like that, so I closed 

 them up to await further development. 



18th.— Looked at this swarm this morning; they 

 have accepted the queen all right; the eggs are 

 hatching out; some cells have three worms in them, 

 and some two. V. W. Keeney. 



Shirland, 111., Aug. 18, 1883. 



A laying queen will usually be received 

 where there are fertile workers, I believe, 

 but not always. They seem to receive them 

 all right ; but the next time you look for 

 them, you find the same old order of things, 



and the queen gone. In your case, you seem 

 to have been more fortunate, as you say the 

 queen has commenced to lay. 



fJjEXAS is overrun with honey. No sales at all 

 as yet; 125 hives yielded us about 15,000 lbs. 

 — ' of honey. J. L. CA i.dwei.i.. 



Martin, Texas, Aug. 9, 1883. 



I have one colony of bees that are orphans; please 

 send a f 1.00 mother by return mail. H. C. Ware. 

 Port Byron, N. Y., Aug. 9, 1883. 



I want a smoker that I can light with a match, as 

 it is so much handier. Robert Downs. 



Naugatuck, Conn., Aug. 8, 1883. 



[So do I, friend D.] 



I have just been to Toledo with honey, 400 lbs.; 

 sold at 30c. ; first in market, all white, in 1-lb. sec- 

 tions. John F. Temple. 



Kidgeway, Lenawee Co., Mich., July 18, 1883. 



HORSEMINT, AGAIN. 



The honey How was never better. We arc having 

 plenty of rain; crops never better. I can send you 

 plenty of horsemint seed. It is our best honey- 

 plant. F. P. Cline. 



Mesquite, Dallas Co., Tex., July 13, 1883. 



I will furnish rotten elm wood for smokers, fifty 

 bushels or over, put up in sacks, and delivered on 

 cars at Sinclairville, for 40 cents a bushel. Less 

 quantities, 50 cents per bushel. I will send samples, 

 if you wish. Audison Lake. 



Charlotte Center, Chant. Co., N. Y., Aug. ;J0, 1883. 



ALSIKE t'LOVER. 



The alsike clover, the seed of which I got of you, 

 has proved a good thing for the bees this season. It 

 is far more fragrant than the ordinary white clover. 

 It has been alive with bees ever since It blossomed, 

 while there arc but few to be seen on white clover. 



J. W. Martin. 



Kimbotton, Guernsey Co., O., August, 1883. 



CHAFF HIVES FOU COMH HONEY. 



I have taken off some very nice white-clover hon^ 

 ey, and had 23 young swarms. I find that those that 

 I chaffed down and left there have done a great deal 

 better than those I did not. I am selling at 18 cts. 

 per lb. in 5x5 boxes; extracted, 12'/4 here at my yard. 

 I can not keep it in hand. Some of my neighbors 

 have had no swarms yet. I had the last the 14th. 



A. F, ElLENBEROER. 



Laddsburg, Bradford Co., Pa., July 17, 1883. 



ONE OF THE ABC CI..VS.S. 



I think my bees have done well this season, cojisW- 

 ering, as two years ago I did not know a drone from 

 a worker bee. I have taken 50 lbs. of nice comb 

 honey in section boxes from two swarms, and think 

 they have fully half as much more at this time (but 



