502 



GLEAi^lKGS m BJ:E CULtUEE. 



Oct. 



ANOTHER WAY TO FOLD ONS-PIECE SECTIONS. 



In my correspondence with hive manufacturers 

 lately, I have been obliged to pay extra postage on 

 letters which were made too heavy by printed mat- 

 ter giving instructions on folding the one-piece sec- 

 tion. I have never yet read your instructions for 

 folding the same, and have never followed ainj one's 

 instructions, and I judge from friend Bingham's ar- 

 ticle, and your answer to same in June Gleanings, 

 page 389, that " I don't have to," lor I feel quite sure 

 that, with a few conveniences and a little practice, I 

 could easily fold 500 in an hour. I stood up to an old 

 dry-goods box yesterday and folded 53 in 7^ minutes, 

 and used a hammer for driving the corners togeth- 

 er, and was obliged to strike twice, when once with 

 a mallet would have been sufficient. Lay the sec- 

 tions as friend B. directs. 



13 3 4 



Take No. 3 in left hand and No. 4 in right; leave 

 No. 3 on bench, and press down firmly as you bring 

 up Nos. 3 and 4 to a perpendicular position, then 

 slip the left thumb to the lower end of No. 1, and by 

 giving the same a firm pressure it will fall right 

 over in its place; then it comes natural for the fin- 

 gers of the same hand to clasp Nos. 1 and 4 together 

 while the right hand picks up that little "five-cent 

 mallet" (which I haven't got), and gives the corner 

 one fop. Just try it. HARATiv C. Ware. 



Port Byron, Cayuga Co., N. T., Aug. 17, 1883. 



TAKING bees ON SHARES, ETC. 



I got a swarm on shares, from which I got one 

 swarm, and recruited another weak colony I had, so 

 that they made out to live through the past winter, 

 but got no honey last year, and this spring 1 had 3 

 colonies to start with. On the 15th of June I had a 

 swarm come off that I hived in a chaff hive, and 

 some two weeks after I put in section boxes; on the 

 30th of July, as they showed signs of swarming, I 

 took out nine boxes, which was all that was capped 

 over; on the first day of Aug. I found 71 out of 73 

 boxes were all capped over, making 80 lbs. I took 

 from this one swarm in 46 days, from the time the 

 swarm started ; and on the Monday following, a very 

 fine swarm came off, leaving a good swarm still in 

 the hive, and the prospect is that I shall get consid- 

 erably more honey out of the hive. 



I have now 9 swarms in all, and have taken about 

 200 lbs. of honey in section boxes, which for me is 

 quite a boom in the bee business. A year ago I was 

 almost discouraged trying to do any thing with bees, 

 and would not Invest a cent. I could have bought 

 the swarm I took on shares for $5.00, and had I done 

 so, I should have doubled my money and had seven 

 swarms of bees for my investment, instead of an in- 

 terest in six. D. Norton. 



Galva, III., Aug. 31, 1883. 



DOES THE QUEEN CONTROL THE SEX? 



The queen bee has not the power to change, or, 

 rather, to control, the sex of her ova. This may be 

 very sound theory, but, if not sustained by facts, it 

 is not worth a cent. About one month since, I 

 transferred a colony (Heddon's fashion), drove every 

 bee out into a new L. hive; the old hive contained 

 13 short L. frames, all worker comb, worked out on 

 Vandervort fdn., with a young queen laying rapid- 

 Ij' at the time of the change. I noticed two frames 

 at the time, just filled with worker eggs, and they 



would have produced worker bees. But not so. 

 After the change, the bees changed their pro- 

 gramme; they fed those eggs on different food, so in 

 due time they hatched out two full frames of nice 

 yellow drones, but rather small. Whether they are 

 perfect drimes or not, I am not able to say; but 

 they are perfect so far as I can tell. Friend Peters, 

 don't be so sui-e of anything that you don't know 

 j'ourself. We are all in the fog, but rapidly approach- 

 ing a perfect knowledge of the mysteries of the 

 honey-bee. J. S. Tadlock, 



Luling, Texas, Aug. 38, 1883. 



It will be noticed from tlie above, that 

 friend T. favors the idea, something in the 

 manner of feeding may prevent the egg 

 from producing a woii<:er. The experiment 

 proves nothing conclusively, for the two 

 frames of eggs might have produced drones 

 any way. Will you please tell us, friend T., 

 if the queen has produced worker brood both 

 before and since, with the exception of those 

 two frames? 



HONEY-LOCUST, AND HOW TO RAISE FROM THE SEED. 



I see you wish to know how to grow honey-locust. 

 I will tell you all I know about it. In the first place 

 it must be sown in autumn, or placed in boxes with 

 sand, and exposed to frost before planting, other- 

 wise they may not vegetate till the second year aft- 

 er planting. But if these seeds are received too late 

 in the spring to expose them to the action of frost, 

 they may be put into a vessel of hot water for an 

 hour or so before planting. You can purchase seed 

 of any seedsman at from 50 to 60 cts. per lb. There 

 are two varieties, and persons will do well to know 

 both, so as to make no mistake in planting. One is 

 called Glfdittichia tiinenosia, and the other, G. triacan- 

 tlws. The first named is more for ornament, but the 

 latter is the one for bees. Fred Holtke. 



Carlstadt, N. J., Aug. 26, 1883. 



If I am correct, it was the common locust 

 that bears honey on the blossoms, that we 

 were inquiring about, and not the so-called 

 honey-locust that bears honey in its pods. 

 Whether these pods furnish honey in a shape 

 available to the bees or not, I am unable to 

 determine. Can somebody tell us about itV 



SPANISH IJEEDLB. 



I inclose .a plant that grows in the swamp, that the 

 bees are at work on. The honey they gather from 

 it is similar to goldenrod. It will last until frost 

 comes, and yields lots of honey. Can you give us 

 the name of it? 



DRONES FROM WORKER EGOS. 



About the sex of the eggs, I Avill say I moved a 

 swarm of bees the 35th of Julj% and gave the hive 

 on the old stand eggs from my Italian (jueen, and I 

 know that every cell has worker comb, and the bees 

 have raised queens, drones, and worker eggs in 

 worker comb. Now, I believe that the bees have a 

 way of raising drones from a fertilized egg; but 

 they can not raise a worker or queen from a drone 

 egg. D. M. TORREY. 



Shiocton, Outagamie Co., Wis., Aug. 20, 1883. 



The plant is one of the great family of 

 Spanish needles, or burr-marigolds. It has 

 the funny fashion of having no petals, on 

 high ground or in fields, while in swamps it 

 has large and beautiful ones that make a 

 great show, and often make a perfect sea of 

 yellow, and yielding large quantities of gold- 



