5id 



GLEAKiNGS IK BEE CVLTVU^. 



Oct. 



large loss of queens was either accidental, or 

 owing to some fault in management that 

 will disappear with more experience, I think, 

 friend D. I am always glad to hear of eve- 

 ry one wlio is on the side of temperance and 

 good morals. 



HONEY-DE-W. 



Our bees have been storing honey-dew, more or 

 less, all summer. They gather it from the leaves of 

 the forest trees — principally from the oaks, elms, 

 walnuts, and hickories. While working on the oaks, 

 vast numbers of aphides were present on the under 

 side of the leaves. When the aphides disappeared, 

 the flow of honey from that quarter ceased. This 

 was also the case with the elms, walnuts, and hick- 

 ories. The honey is of the lowest grade, being dark 

 and unpalatable. We consider it unwholesome for 

 the bees in protracted cold weather. If we should 

 have a severe winter, I fear that the friends who de- 

 pend upon it for stores will have trouble. 



THE GENTLE CYPS! 



When, after reading Dr. Dougan's description of 

 the cautious manner in which he opens their hives, 

 I read, "The gentlest of all bees," I smiled. Why 

 the necessity of all this caution,if they are so gentle? 

 It is not an infrequent occurrence with me to have 

 to go alone to our yard on cool mornings in May, 

 put up ten or more of the pound packages taken 

 from as many different hives, and drive to the de- 

 pot, four miles away, in time for the eight-o'clock 

 trains. I do it with our Italians, without being 

 stung or hurting bees. But I have to handle the 

 hives and combs with a rapidity that, were they 

 Cyps, I should have an insurrection on hand before 

 the first hive was fairly open. We generally shake 

 the bees from the combs into the shipping-boxes, 

 through a funnel ; but when honey is coming in free- 

 ly it will shake ovit on the bees and smother them; 

 hence at such times we brush them off. Did you 

 ever try brushing Cyprians, doctor? I did — once 

 only I When I open a hive of Cyps they do not " seek 

 shelter between the combs;" they find it somewhere 

 else. "Quickest motioned!" I should say so, and 



keenest sighted too. That small hole in the of 



my pants, so small that wife couldn't find it to mend, 

 the number of Cyps that found it was limited only 

 by the capacity of the pants. It has not been dem- 

 onstrated that the Cyprian colonies yield the most 

 surplus. The careful reader of the bee papers will 

 see that it is a question whether this can be said of 

 any race or strain; that it is the opportunity and the 

 man that make the great yields. Had friends Gal- 

 lup and Doolittle been in Texas this past season 

 with their favorite strains, I think they would have 

 given Bro. Carroll a pretty close rub. 



E. M. Hayhurst. 



Kansas City, Mo., Sept. 16, 1883. 



BULGED COMBS. 



I bought half a pound of bees and a tested queen 

 of Mr. Hayhurst, the first of July. I put them in a 

 modification of the Simplicity hive, with L. frames. 

 On the first three frames I let them build natural 

 comb, as I had no fdn. Now, they would build it on 

 the edge of the frame instead of on the comb-guide; 

 this started me to separating them a little more 

 than ABC directs, and then I guess my eye is not a 

 mechanical one, for I soon got the other frames 

 from M to U inches apart. I got along Aery well 

 until honey began to come; then the combs became 

 so bulged that I had to remove all butsevento make 



room, and these now fill my hive so I can scarcely 

 remove them to examine the bees. What I wish to 

 know is, whether 1 could have controlled the thick- 

 ness of the combs, if I had rigidly kept them }i in. 

 apart. 



REMOVING LARVJ3, TO STORE HONEY. 



Do the workers ever remove larvfc to make room 

 to store honey? My work often keeps me up until 

 midnight, and when the honey was coming in the 

 i fastest I would find every night from 4 or 5 to a 

 dozen larva; (not dead), and young bees that would 

 have iiatched in a day or two, on the alighting-board. 

 I do not think your ABC mentions a case like this. 

 One day, on looking at my frames, I found the queen 

 very busy uncapping worker-cells to liberate the 

 young bees. Did she do this out of maternal care 

 for her young, or because she had become impatient 

 waiting for a cell to lay in? Those few questions 

 may see very simple to an old bee-keeper, but per- 

 haps some of the readers of Gleanings may be ig- 

 norant enough to want to know just what I have 

 asked. M. H. Panton. 



Clay Center, Kan., Sept. 18, 1882. 



With a heavy yield, it is pretty hard to 

 avoid bulged combs ; but by spreading the 

 combs, and making them build all the new 

 ones between the two already built, you can 

 generally avoid the trouble you mention. 

 Almost everybody nowadays, however, uses 

 fdn. for every comb built, and this does 

 away with all trouble about irregular combs. 

 —Bees will at times throw out or cover up 

 larva", when a great yield comes, and they 

 have little or no room ; but in your case it 

 was probably only the imperfect larvje that 

 you saw thrown out. We have never before 

 had a report of a queen biting out the work- 

 ers, that I know of, and I can't imagine any 

 reason for such conduct, unless it was really 

 as you say, that she wanted cells to lay eggs 

 in. 



HIVES, HOW HIGH UP FROM THE GROUND? 



How far from the ground do you winter your bees 

 when you winter outdoors? My hives are 4 or 5 in. 

 from the ground now; shall have to winter outdoors 

 this winter. Snow often falls 3 to 3 feet here in the 

 course of the winter. 



LETTING A NEW SWARM INTO THE SECTIONS AT ONCE. 



I would ask if, when your bees swarm, you practice 

 letting them into the section boxes immediately. I 

 did so, and it worked tiptop. They filled the upper 

 story the first thing, without a bit of brood in the 

 lower story either, and they are filling the sections 

 again now. It was only one hive that I did so with. 



T. Sherman. 



Custer City, McKean Co., Pa., Sept. T, 1883. 



I think your hives are about the right 

 height from the ground. We do not advise 

 letting a new smarm into the sections until 

 they have made some start in the brood- 

 frames ; yet it often works all right when 

 separators are used. The only danger is of 

 brood in the sections. 



WHAT makes THE BEES DIE ? 



I want to tell you of a strange disease that is now 

 destroying my bees. A few days ago I cut a boe-tree 

 that had a good deal of honey, and in which was a 

 good-size swarm. I transferred them into a Simpli- 

 city hive. A few days after that I went to the hive 

 to take the sticks out which I had fastened the comb 



