1882 



gleakings m bee culture. 



501 



in this case, that their extra energy in hon- 

 ey-gathering was transmitted to her de- 

 scendants. 



HVBUII) CYPRIANS AHEAD. 



I have two swarms of hybriil Cjprians, reared 

 from a queen I sot of j ou two years ago, and which 

 died after lay iug a week. They are tlio best work- 

 ers I e%-er had; and if I can get another queen that 

 ■will produce the same strain of hybrids, I think I 

 shall bid adieu to blacks aud Italians soon. They 

 have more than double the honey in their hive that 

 the blacks have, besides having swarmed (which 

 none of the blacks nor Italians have yet done), and 

 the new swarms are very heavy, and working in 

 sections better than the old colonies of the blacks 

 are doing. If all my bees had been just like them 

 this cool wet season, there would have been at least 

 1500 worth more of honey in the hive than there is 

 at present. Now I am afraid it will be a hard job to 

 get a queen that will breed just such bees again, as 

 I have tried both of these, and their queen progeny 

 produces bees but little better than the blacks; but 

 then they are getting pretty well down toward the 

 blacks, anl I need a good pure queen to start with 

 again. E. M. Johnson. 



Mentor, Ohio, July 7, 1883. 



Our readers will bear in mind, that friend 

 J. is the man who claimed he got more hon- 

 ey from blacks and hybrids than from pure 

 Italians. If he has found the Cyprians an 

 improvement over all, we are glad to note it. 



REPORT OF AN A B C SCHOLAR. 



I said I would send in my report this fall; so, here 

 it is: — 



No. 1, increase, none. Extracted WO lbs. Value, $12M. 

 No. 2, • • • • ' • 100 lbs. •• 12.50. 



No. 3. •' " " 12 lbs. " 1.50. 



No. 1, " •• '• 13 lbs. " 1.60. 



Net profit of 4 hives, S2S.10. 



The above were i swarms which I wintered. Nos. 

 1 and 2, in the spring, were fair swarms. No. 3 was 

 weak, and a very poor queen. No. 4 was queenless, 

 and it was late before they raised a queen, because 

 I had no drones. 



The following are four swarms which I bought in 

 the spring, and were all in box hives: - 



No. 5, incrcue, 4; extracted 50 lbs. Value, $ 6.25. 



No. 6, •• 1; " HO •• '• 17..50. 



No. 7, " 0; . " ICO " " 20.(X). 



No. 8, " 0; " 100 " " 12..50. 



5 swarms at 5 dollars each, - - - 25.00. 



Total, S81.25. 



Deduct $12.50 lor hives - - - - 12..50. 



Net profit on four, $68.75. 



Net profit on first tVur, -..---- 28.10. 



Total, $96.85. 



Newton, Iowa, Sept. 4, 1882. Samuel Lister. 



COMBS BUILT IN WIDE FR.AMES FOR THE EXTRACTOR. 



On page 3.51. July Gleanings, you ask, " Who has 

 tried the wide frames for the extractor?" Three 

 years ago I had 8 sets of combs built during buck- 

 wheat honey, and have them in use to-day, just as 

 good as when first made. The most of them were 

 built down from starters, and at least one-third of 

 them are drone comb. Those I shall destroy; for if 

 they are put on the hive from 3 to 10 days, as they 

 should be before the honey-flow commences, while 

 the honey Is coming in slowly, the queen will al- 

 most invariably lay in them. If they were worker 

 comb, it does no hurt; and my advice to all hav- 

 ing combs built, is to use nothing but full sheets, 

 worker -brood size. I like them better than the 



brood -frame to extract from. The frames will 

 average 10 pounds apiece, and can be uncapped 

 just as quickly as one that holds 6 pounds; and 

 as regards the honey ripening, there is no dif- 

 ference. It is under the process of evaporation just 

 as soon as they commence to put it into the cells, 

 and bj' the time the combs arc full clear down they 

 have it sealed two-thirds of the way, so they are 

 read J' to extract. All the trouble I find with them 

 is, that the Simplicity hive holdsanodd number,and 

 also that often they are so heavy it will not do to 

 throw out all of the honey without turning them 

 twice. Whore they are built of worker comb they 

 can be transferred to the brood-frames if necessary. 

 I have just ordered of you 20 lbs. more of fdn., to 

 use mostly for building combs in wide frames. 



SUMAC. 



There are 30 acres of erimmons about one hundred 

 rods from our apiary, that has a dense growth of 

 sumac, and my wife and I went up there to-day to 

 see the bees at work on it. We found as high as 

 six bees on one spike of blossoms, and they were so 

 eager to get the sweets we could pick the bunches 

 of bljssoms without their flying. 



ALSIKE. 



I would recommend all who can, to sow alsike 

 clover for their bees to work on. Mine has been a 

 perfect roar of bees for the last 4 weeks, right 

 through the wet weather, when white clover was 

 producing no honey. I should have no surplus up 

 to now to speak of, if it had not been for the alsike. 



Millington, Mich., July 16, 18S2. M. D. York, 50. 



glass jars FOR RETAILING HONEY. 



I want a glass Jar to hold 6 to 8 gallons, from which 

 to retail extracted honey in a store. It should be 

 heavj- glass, and perfectly clear and transparent— 

 not green glass - and should be about 2 ft. high. The 

 top or lid should be of porcelain, with a knob to lift 

 it by. This knob might be of the shape and design 

 of the old straw hive. At the bottom there should 

 be a beautiful nickel-plated honey-gate, with tube 

 about one inch in diameter. The words "Pure Hon- 

 ey" might be put on one side, not with any kind of 

 paint, but with gold-leaf covered with glass, or with 

 a gilt label with black letters. I keep extracted 

 honey in the store in a common glass jar holding 

 about l'/2 gallons, from which I retail, and in the 

 Standard and Mason fruit-jars, and I find it sells best 

 from the retail jar, customers bringing their own 

 vessels. Now, with the kind of Jar I describe, with 

 scales sitting under the honey-gate, I think I should 

 have what would suit my trade. Honey presents a 

 very attractive appearcnce in a clear glass jar sit- 

 ting near a window. Would not enough of the bee- 

 keepers take jars of this kind to justify you in get- 

 ting some made? C. L. Davihson. 



Flcmington, W. Va., July 18, 1882. 



Such an arrangement would be nice, but 

 pretty expensive, friend D., and the great 

 drawback would be that it would not look 

 nice at all when the lu)ney began to candy, 

 as it always does at the approach of cool 

 weather. We keep tin pails constantly in 

 stock for this very purpose, and when the 

 honey candies this can easily be set in warm 

 water until the honey is liquified again, 

 i'ou know it is rather aggravating business, 

 to attempt to run honey out of even the 

 largest-sized honey-gate, after it has got 

 pretty well solidified. 



