1882 



GLEANIKGS m BEE CULTtJIlE. 



499 



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KO HONEY IN IIIE CLOVER, AND A REASON SUG- 

 GESTED. 



S SHOULD like to know if you or any one else 

 has noticed a small insect on or in the honey- 

 " — ' bearing llowers. It is a small yellow tly about 

 1-24 of an inch long-, very slender, and is quick in 

 motion. I have seen as many as fifty in one white- 

 clover head, and the place to find them is about the 

 place the honcj' ouj^ht to be; and the way to find, 

 give the flower a gentle squeeze with thumb and 

 finger; then release and look sharp, ami you can 

 see them crawl and fiy away. I have noticed them 

 in white and red clover, catnip, basswood, and spi- 

 der flower. They must be after the honey, for 1 

 can't find any on flowers that bear no honey. There 

 has been an abundance of white clover in bloom 

 here — more so than I ever saw before, and the 

 weather pretty fair; but the bees have gathered 

 very little surplus. I got only about 100 lbs. of hon- 

 ey in sections from So colonies I had iu the spring, 

 and they were all in good shape the first of June. 



JOON Harrold. 

 Columbiana, Ohio, Aug. 31, 18S3. 



And so you tliink, do you, friend H., that 

 tlie dearth of honey in the clover was be- 

 cause the insect ate it all? It may have tak- 

 en some, but 1 hardly think enough to make 

 any perceptible difference in the honey-tlow. 

 I have noticed the little Hies you describe, 

 but never before thought of their being det- 

 rimental to the honey crop. 



AN "AMBITIOUS" QUEEN; WORKER EGGS AT THREE 

 DAYS OLD. 



I see in Gleanings, Aug., page 250, that Mr. Ajars 

 has a queen that commenced laying when but lour 

 dttj's old. Now, I do not know that I can beat that; 

 but I have a young queen that was hatched on the 

 oOth day of Aug., about noon, and on the 31st, next 

 daj', at 2i4 o'clock, I saw her out on the wing, and 

 this morning, Scp*^. tth, I opened the hive at V o'clock 

 A.M., and found one comb nearlj- filled with eggs 

 and a patch of eggs in the two joining combs, one on 

 either side of the full one. Now, I think that she is 

 rather "ambitious "— don't you? There can be no 

 mistake about this, for she was raised in the hive, 

 and there has been no brood given them. 



Brighton, Mich., Sept. 4, 1882. 0. Tho.mpson. 



Decidedly ambitious, friend T. As they 

 usiuilly lay the day after fertilization, she 

 probably laid when three days old. Very 

 likely she remained in the cell until she Avas 

 most fuUy matured. 



A beginner's report. 

 As it is customary for beginners to give their ex- 

 perience in bee-keeping, I thought I would give 

 mine. 1 commenced last spring with six colonies; 

 sold one the first of May, and have increased the re- 

 maining 5 to 26 by natiual and artificial swarming, 

 and got 50 lbs. of comb honey per colony, spring 



count, and could have got as much more per colony 

 if I had had time to attend to them as I should have 

 done. I bad one colony that Tiade me 9 swarms — 4 

 natural and 4 artificial swarms, and the old swarm 

 makes 9, and gave mo 15T lbs. of comb honey, and 

 every one of the colonies Las at least 40 lbs. of 

 honey each at this time. Since I commenced writ- 

 ing this note 1 heard quite a roaring out in the bee- 

 yard; and on going out I saw a swarm of black bees 

 whirling about in the air. I got a bucket of water 

 and sprinkled them a little, and they settled on a 

 quince-bush, and I hived them; gave them two 

 frames of unsealed brood and a frame of honej', 

 and two frames of fdn. to work on. I will feed them 

 some and see what I can make out of them. They 

 have a nice black queen, but I think I shall replace 

 her with a yellow queen. None of my neighbors 

 have lost a swarm. Where do you think they could 

 have come from? Do you think they would have 

 swarmed out of a tree in the woods and come to my 

 Dee-yard? J. R. Crooks. 



Keiths, Noble Co., O., Aug. 37, 1882. 



Why, friend C, if that is the way begin- 

 ners do, I really can hardly see the use of 

 becoming a veteran. I wonder if it isn't 

 true, that the fresh enthusiasm of a novice 

 often prompts him to greater exertions than 

 he makes after the matter gets to be a little 

 old to him. If you keep on at this rate, 

 where do you expect to be in a few years 

 hence ?— I think the bees came from the 

 woods. 



WORKER BEES FROM DRONE-CELLS, AGAIN. 



I have a case of worker bees hatched from drone 

 comb. T discovered it a day or two since. Some 

 time in July this hive cast a swarm which returned 

 to the hive in a few minutes. I removed 4 of the 

 center combs and inserted frames with 3 in. of fdn. 

 The bees filled the remainder with drone comb, and 

 last week, in extracting, I found workers just gnaw- 

 ing out of drone-cells, and drone larviv close to 

 them. Here is a case of quite a number of workers, 

 as I saw them hatch, and also dug some of them out. 



Adin Stone. 



Vienna, Oneida Co., N. Y., Sept. 4, 1883. 



This only shows, friend S., that the bees 

 were unable to lind the amount of worker 

 comb they needed, and so fitted the drone 

 comb for the queen to use. I presume you 

 found the outer edge of the cells contracted, 

 as has been recently mentioned. I wonder 

 if the bees never felt worried at such a lack 

 of economy as comes from putting a small 

 bee in such a great cell. You know what an 

 economical set of little chaps they are. 



the season in ENGLAND, ETC. 



During the whole of Juno and July the weather 

 was most unfavorable, and many bee-keepers had to 

 feed to keep their pets alive. I have been rather 

 fortunate, as most of my stocks got just enough to 

 enable them to breed enormously. I have thus been 

 able to increase from 35 in the spring to about 80 at 

 the present time, besides selling several colonies, 

 and a large number of bees by the pound. I hope to 

 inci-ease to 100 by the time the season closes. Since 

 August 5th we have had the first genuine summer 

 weather, and my bees are working well on second- 

 crop clover, and 30 acres of sainfoin. They prefer 

 the latter, though a great many pay attention to the 

 clover. Not one bee did I find on the first crop of 



