1882 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



501 



WHAT AVAS THE MATTER ? 



Having- had (as I think) a singular occurrence come 

 to my notice to-day, I thought I would drop you a 

 line respceiing it. Perhaps it is a common thing in 

 your experience. On the 21th ull. I had a very large 

 swarm of bees (blacks) issue. When safely hived 

 they worked very lively, and in two weeks they had 

 their hive pretty well filled with comb, honey, brood, 

 etc. Not liking their actions very well for a week 

 back, and seeing brood in large quantities on the 

 alighting board every morning, I concludtd I would 

 overhaul It to-day and clean out the "moths;" but 

 there was no trace of such, neither the appearance 

 of any queen, although bees were hatching by the 

 hundred, but no signs of any eggs, brood, nor queen- 

 cell — nothing but the hatching brood and a few 

 bare-headed bees which the old bees would catch 

 and fling out amazingly quick. Is it not strange 

 they did not start a queen-cell before the brood be- 

 came too far advanced, or could there possibly be a 

 disabled queen, and so prevented their raising an- 

 other? I, however, gave them material to com- 

 mence a new start. C. S. Buhke. 



Albion, Orleans Co., N. Y., July IT, 18S3. 



Friend B., your description closely tallies 

 with bees starving to death for want of 

 stores, but it seems you surely would have 

 noticed if there was a total lack of honey. 

 If there was plenty of honey iu the hive, it 

 is a case beyond any thing I have ever met. 



TROWELS FOR UNCAPPING-KNIVES. 



I have just been reading Heads of Grain, and I 

 suppose I have been keeping my light hid under a 

 bushel for some time about uucapping-knives and 

 some other things. I got an extractor of D. L. 

 Adair, 10 years ago, and he sent with it a trowel 4'/^ 

 inches long by 2'/4 wide — just such as our eastern 

 stone-masons used for pointing the joints in stone 

 walls when I was a boy. It is ground all on the top 

 side. I got one of your knives some time after. It 

 will work a little faster on nice smooth combs that 

 are not too hard; but on any other kind, the trowel 

 beats it badly. They should be well tempered, so 

 the edge will not turn, if you happen to cut against 

 the frame. 



BI!AD-AWL FOR PUTTING IN FDN. 



I have used a brad-awl about 1-16 of an inch across, 

 with a groove filed in it, for sinking the wires into 

 fdn., ever since I tried wiring frames, and it works 

 well. 



6UUSTI1UTE FOR TIN BARS. 



In place of folded tin for the center-stays, I have 

 used common iron wire, such as tinners use for the 

 rims of common-size milk-pans, and the bees raise 

 brood right over them as well as in any other part 

 of the frame, as far as I can see. 



My last swarm came off on the 4th instant; and as 

 they had a young clipped Italian queen, I caught 

 her and gave her to a hybrid stock, and left the bees 

 on the bush till they got tired of staying. They had 

 but 2 queen-cells started, and nothing in either of 

 them. They are getting a good deal of very nice 

 honey at present. C. T. Smith. 



Trenton, 111., Sept. 13, 1882. 



We now have a Disston trowel on our oO- 

 cent counter, and I think very likely it may 

 do as well as any honey-knife. 1 devised 

 and advised the tin bars, because folded tin 

 is lighter than a solid wire, and because I 

 feared the rusting of the wire might make 



trouble, as it did when we used iron wire 

 untinned for putting the fdn. on. We are 

 glad to know that plain wire will answer. 

 We are also glad to know you, too, friend S., 

 are blessed with a crop of fall honey. 



SEE THAT YOUR QUEENS ARE NOT DRONE-LAYERS. 



I am studying my lessons in the A B C of Bee Cul- 

 ture. I find it interesting and instructive. Looking 

 over my hives to-day I noticed one in which the Dees 

 were idle. I opened the hive, and found that the 

 queen had become a drone-producer. You see, I 

 followed your advice as given in the A B C, p. 189, 

 viz., " Where the bees stand around on the alighting- 

 board in a listlees sort of way, with no bees going in 

 with pollen when other colonies are thus engaged, it 

 is well to open the hive and take a look at them." 

 On page 187 you remark, " You must bear with me 

 when I tell you that any queen, the best you ever 

 saw, is liable at anytime of her life to commence, on 

 a sudden, laying drone eggs altogether, or only in 

 part." I found the state of the hive as you haA'e de- 

 scribed on p. 181, ABC. The eggs were not deposit- 

 ed in regular order. I found drones hatched from 

 worker-cells; found drones capped over, the cells 

 extra high, or, rather, the capping and drones in the 

 worm state in wcrker-cells. I found but a very few 

 worker brood uncapped, say 20. This was a swarm 

 hived in June. I gave them a frame of brood then; 

 the remaining frames were fdn. They drew out al- 

 most all the fdn., and filled it with honey and young 

 bees. They were a fine stock, and are such now. 

 The queen I raised last ye?.r was Italian, but pro- 

 duced two kinds of bees — piire Italians and pure 

 blacks. Jos. Beardmore. 



Annapolis, Md., Sept. 9, liSi. 



REPORTS FROM THE GYPS AND HOLY-LANDS. 



I want to say one word about the Cyprian queens 

 I got of you last summer, and also one Holy-Land. 

 I think they were mostly hybrids. They seem to be 

 smaller, their worker progeny more nervous when 

 disturbed; they cover the frames quickly when the 

 honey-board is removed. Drive them away with 

 smoke, and they return very quickly — indeed, as 

 quickly as you can think. Now, my opinion of 

 them is, that they are more nervous than the Ital- 

 ians, and more for raising bees than storing honey; 

 in fact, it seems as though they bent all their energy 

 to raising brood, and swarming. It seems to take 

 the most of their honey to feed their brood. But I 

 must say that I do not like them so well to handle, 

 and not as well for storing surplus honey in sec- 

 tions as some others I have. They are too much for 

 raising queen-cells; one swarm will raise cells for 

 100 swarms. Albert Potter. 



Eureka, Wis., Aug. 3, 1882. 



SUMAC. 



I sec that friend Thorn, of West Virginia, inquires 

 about sumac. I have noticed it for years past, and 

 have seen bees swarming on it every year. This 

 year was excessively dry here — so dry that the 

 blossoms dried up before they came out. I have 

 asked the old bee-men around here; they think it 

 bears honej' evci-y year. I think that if friend Root 

 would come here in July, we could convince him 

 that bees gt^t honey from sumac, and he could see it 

 in the little liowers too. Our bees did not do any 

 thing till July, after basswood and sumac, when they 

 filled their hives up full; since the middle of August 



