556 



GLEAKiNGS IN B^E CULTURE. 



Nov. 



olis here, making it diflBcult to take the sections out 

 of frame. Why is it the bees do not finish the sec- 

 tions full? There is plenty of honey coming in. 

 They work readily in boxes. Is there any way to 

 compel them to build less drone comb? Mine will 

 build but little worker, therefore I have too many 

 drones. I have used fdn. largely, and even with 

 that they will have drone comb, but not so much. I 

 had two queens in a hive this summer, both laying 

 at once. I took the young one away, putting it with 

 a queenless colony having a fertile worker that 

 would not raise a queen — not even accept capped 

 cells; but after the queen was caged in hive 3i hours 

 they accepted her, and she was laying the next day. 

 The old queen does not seem to be failing; she is 

 the one you sent me over two years ago. Her 

 daughter is larger and finer looking, but can not 

 produce better bees. 



I fully indorse all that the lady says in September 

 Gr.EANiNGS about bee-keeping being too hard for 

 women. I know whereof I speak ; two years' expe- 

 rience convinces me she is right, although I never 

 lifted a hive lull of bees or honey. I have tried both 

 artificial and natural swarming. I find the frame of 

 old comb tied to a light pole to be perfection in get- 

 ting swarms to cluster. Thanks to the one first sug- 

 gesting it. D. C. Ayaks. 



Moawequa, Shelby Co., 111., Sept. 9, 1882. 



"SQUEAKY" SMOKERS. 



Inclosed please find one dollar, and send me a 

 Clark smoker, with the spring on the outside if you 

 have such. My Simplicity makes a squeaky sound, 

 and the bees try to sting it, evidently under the im- 

 pression that it is some kind of animal, and I can't 

 get at the spring to oil it. C. S. Callihan. 



Jem, Clark Co., Mo., Sept., 1883. 



Your idea seems to upset the theory that 

 bees don't hear, friend C. Well, you can oil 

 the outside spring, just as often as you 

 choose, and I don't think you will ever tind 

 it squeaky. 



I am now within 7 miles of S. I. Freeborn. He has 

 about 400 swarms and 25,000 lbs. of honey. I have 

 been at a bee convention since I came here. There 

 were about 20 present. They discussed subjects, 

 among which were " Marketing Honey," " Swarm- 

 ing," " Preparing Exhibitions for the Fair," etc. 

 They meet again the second Tuesday in Dec, to dis- 

 cuss wintering and preparing for winter. It goes 

 by the name of " The Progressive Bee-Keepers' As- 

 sociation." They meet at this place. 



C. W. White. 



Richland Center, Wis., Sept. 30, 1883. 



HONEY-DEW, AND THE HONEY OF A NICE QUALITY. 



Since reading the reports of honey-dew, I thought 

 I would say something about it. There has been 

 dew on the black-walnut trees here almost two 

 weeks. I have stood off from the tree 15 or 20 feet, 

 and the leaves fairly glistened. Some leaves were 

 entirely covered, and some had only small splotches, 

 and others had full-size drops— so much so I could 

 get quite a good taste of it. It is sticky, and looks 

 something like white-sugar candy before it gets 

 hard. Bees were working on the leaves. 



HONEY FROM SPANISH NEEDLE. 



Bees are storing honey very fast also from Span- 

 ish needle. It is just splendid. 1 like it better than 

 basswood or clover honey. It is of a yellowish col- 

 or. I guess it is Spanish needles; for when the bees 



go into the hive they are all covered with yellow 

 dust. Do the Spanish needles yield honey every 

 year like this? 



TAKING BEES THAT ARE TO BE BRIMSTONED. 



Well, now I'll say something about my good luck 

 (or bad), as time will tell. Yesterday I went to a 

 farm some 4 or 5 miles southwest of here, in the bot- 

 tom, where my father bought two stands of black 

 bees at a sale, paying $8.00 for them. While talking 

 to the lady of the house, she told me that her hus- 

 band had just killed two stands of bees that morn- 

 ing, and would kill another one next morning. I 

 inquired what she would take for the bees, and let 

 me take them that evening out of the hive. She 

 looked around at me for almost a minute. 



"Why, you can have them, and welcome," saya 

 she; "but you will surely get stung." 



Says I, " I guess not much." 



So I bought one of the hives they had killed the 

 bees out of, in the morning, paying her a dollar for 

 it. It was not long till I had those blacks out of one 

 into the other, and did not get slung either. Now I 

 must say they are a very fine colony, for there were 

 12 frames, 12x14, full of honey and brood; 4 boxes on 

 top, 6x6, almost full of honey, and there was a good 

 peck of bees underneath the hive, building comb 

 and storing honey. Now, would you call this luck 

 or not? J.A.Thornton. 



Lima, 111., Sept. 13, 1882. 



honey-dew from tomatoes. 



To-day, while my pickers and myself were engaged 

 in picking a two-horse wagon-load of tomatoes for 

 that place. Rock vale, where your railroad agent de- 

 clares there is no such station, and caused my 

 freight to be sold at Denver, I discovered on the 

 plants a great deal of sticky matter — so much so as 

 to be disagi-eeable picking; and looking about the 

 vines I saw some leaves quite full of a white sub- 

 stance, and also the ground was perfectly white un- 

 derneath, while the honey-bees kept up a perfect 

 roar all through the patch, and I soon discovered it 

 CO be the so-called honey-dew in a granulated form. 

 So I went to the house and got a table-spoon and a 

 dish, and began to dip it up, and here is some of it 

 for you to see, just as I dipped it up. Some of my 

 pickers can not be made to believe any different 

 than that it falls from heaven. If so, I must be one 

 of the chosen ones. H. H. C. Breece. 



Wetmore, Custer Co., Col., Oct. 3, 1882. 



The granulated honey-dew come to hand, 

 friend B.; but if the bees make no change 

 in it, I certainly want none of the honey. 1 

 didn't get the taste of it out of my mouth for 

 some time. Many thanks, nevertheless. 



LAYING queens TAKING AN AIRING. 



Seeing in several issues of Gleanings communi- 

 cations in regai'd to queens flying after fertilization, 

 let me say it is by no means an uncommon thing, at 

 least in our apiary, and I judge must be so in others. 

 I have frequently failed to find the queen in queen- 

 rearing nuclei during the pleasantest part of the 

 day, generally from 11 a. m. to 4 p. m., and at first I 

 was puzzled when, later in the day, and early in the 

 morning, I could always find her. Concluding that 

 she was out, I have time and again placed a wire 

 cloth over the entrance, and in the majority of cases 

 have found her ladyship trying to gain admittance 

 in from 15 to 45 minutes thereafter. Since proving 

 to my satisfaction that young laying queens do fly 



