564 



GLEANmGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Kor. 



it seems as if your way might wet the wood 

 a good way further, unless one were very 

 careful of the amount of water poured on 

 them. As soon as we have another lot to 

 put up, we will give it a good trial, and we 

 tender thanks for the suggestion meanwhile. 



A HYBRID QUEEN GIVES 11 COLONIES, AND 110 I.BS. 

 OF HONEY IN ONE SEASON. 



You seem to like to hear from all bee-keepers, so 

 I will give my experience for this year. I commenc- 

 ed in the spring with four colonies— oce Italian, the 

 other hybrids. One was a hybrid received from you 

 June 5, 1881, with one pound of bees. This queen led 

 out her first swarm June 25; another, August 5; 3 

 second swarms, from the old hive she came from the 

 first time, one second the second time, and the two 

 after-swarms cast one swarm apiece, one the 22d and 

 the other the 23d of August. Now, this is from one 

 to 11, is it not, friend Root, besides getting 60 lbs. of 

 surplus from the old stand, and 50 more from three 

 of the after-swarms. Honey was stored in the brood 

 frames, without any fdn. or comb to start with. 

 Now, from the other three one cast a swarm, and 

 the other 2 did not swarm at all, for I kept taking 

 brood away from them, and thej^ stored more honey 

 than the rest. I built several colonies artificially in 

 July from the colonies that did not swarm. I gave 

 one frame of brood to all swarms to start with, so I 

 have now 19 colonies of bees on 9 frames of brood, 

 and honey to commence the winter with, taken one 

 frame from each colony, so I could spread the others 

 fuither apart. I have 550 lbs. of comb honey; 375 lbs. 

 stored in L. frames to extract. The rest is In one- 

 pound boxes. I had two swarms in September — 

 one first, and one after. They have both enough to 

 winter on. J. A. Thornton. 



Lima, 111., Oct. 9, 1883. 



I do a great deal of the work with the bees. Our 

 honey crop is rather poor, but It has been a good 

 year for selling bees and queens. The last order is 

 filled to-day, and I hope no more will come, for there 

 are no more queens to spare. I think there are 

 some of the bees in a deplorable " fix." They didn't 

 keep enough honey down stairs to winter on, but 

 there will be enough unsalable honey to feed most of 

 them. They are getting some honey from the red 

 clover. Inclosed find seeds of a good honey-plant. 

 What is it? Emma Vankirk. 



Washington, Pa., Sept. 22, 1882. 



Thanks, friend Emma, for your report. 

 The plant you send is the well-known moth- 

 erwort. 



FRIEND FOX'S STORY. 



^^OU will please now let me unload. I have been 

 W loading a long time, and I now have so greac a 

 ' burden I can't carry It any longer. 



A DISEASED COLONY. 



About the first of July I had a full colony of pure 

 Italians, with a prolific queen raised th is year. 1 no- 

 ticed the bees, full of honey, would come out of the 

 hive, and try to fly, but could not, and then run as if 

 they were In a terrible hurry, climb up on a weed or 

 something, and try to fly, but fall down and run 

 again, stop occasionally and wipe their mouths with 

 their fore legs, and brush the abdomen with the 

 hind legs, as if daubed with honey. I examined 

 them with a glass, but could see nothing on them. 



The yard was full of bees running in all directions. 

 None of the other colonies were affected. I found 

 the hive queenless, and the larvtB dried in the cells. 

 A great deal of the capped brood was dead in the 

 cells, some partly gnawed out, with their tongues 

 sticking out, dead. I gave them brood, but they 

 would not raise queen-cells, and even let the larvte 

 all die. In a week it became so reduced I took the 

 upper story of honey off, and part of the combs of 

 the lower part; put the bees in a 6-frame nucleus, 

 and in a few days I feared my bees might rob it, and 

 I carried It to the woods and hid it in a thicket. I 

 kept giving It brood, and finally a hybrid queen, and 

 it is now a fair nucleus, and every thing all right, 

 but I think every old bee left and died. 



INTRODUCING QUEENS. 



About 3 weeks ago I got 3 queens from Hayhurst, 

 and introduced them a la Benton, which I wrote you 

 some time In the spring wai an Infallible way. The 

 next day after releasing I found the three balled. I 

 cut down cells, re-caged, and tried again. The next 

 day after releasing I found one received right. The 

 other two balled; re-caged, cut down cells, and tried 

 again. Next day, after releasing, I found one balled, 

 and I caged her; the other was in a bunch of bees on 

 the bottom-board, dead. I then introduced the 

 balled queen according to your safe way detailed In 

 the ABC, and she now has a pretty fair colony 

 working ail right. Now, friend Root, I have follow- 

 ed Benton's way for 8 years, and never have lost a 

 queen till this, and I will now haul down my colors, 

 and say that It, too, won't work at all times. 



QUEENS MATING THE SECOND TIME. 



About ten days ago I received a Holy-Land queen 

 from I. R. Good; and for fear I might lose her in lu- 

 troduclnp-, T adopted your safe way again; I. e., put 3 

 frames of hatching brood into a nucleus, and turned 

 her and her bees in, etc., and she has not yet laid an 

 egg. The Hayhurst one commenced laying la the 

 cluster the next day after being put In. 



Yesterday afternoon I opened the nucleus, and 

 she had just returned from her wedding flight. The 

 marks of copulation were on her as plainly as I ever 

 saw them on any queen, and the bees were chasing 

 her on the combs to remove It, which I have always 

 found to be the case on such occasions. In an hour 

 after, I looked again and the white substance had 

 about all disappeared. She is a little bit of a thing, 

 like all virgin queens. Her wings don't rest on her 

 body, but she carries them erect. Friend Root, you 

 can tell a virgin queen as quick as you get your eye 

 on her, and so can any body else who ever raised 

 many queens, and has noticed them as closely as I 

 have. I am not going to accuse Mr. Good of sending 

 me a virgin, and yet such a one might have been in- 

 troduced as I introduced this one. When the queen 

 came to hand she evidently had been a laying queen ; 

 her abdomen was plump and somewhat distended, 

 but not so much as a queen is when they are taken 

 from a hive. I have kept laying queens caged as 

 much as a week at a time, and they will never look 

 like a virgin queen, and therefore I knew this one 

 was once a laying queen, and must have lost her fer- 

 tility en route, and re-mated. 



TOBACCO. 



I am now 59 years old. I commenced the use of 

 tobacco when 20 years old, and have faithfully fol- 

 lowed the habit ever since, chewing but not smok- 

 ing, and the habit has grown on me so that I could 

 chew up almost as much tobacco as a cow would of 



