612 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



was done June 6. The next day I srave them a lay- 

 ing q'leen by caging her on the comb. I looked 

 again the next day, and by some means the queeu 

 had got out and was nowhere to be found; but I 

 found queen-cells, four in number, on the comb of 

 brood. Weil, I thought I would save three of the 

 cells, and in due time made three nuclei. I then 

 went to cut out the (jueen-cells, but fi>u nd two torn 

 down, and plenty of eggs and unsealed larvae in the 

 hive; and upon looking further I found the clipped 

 queen I had given them more than a week before. 

 Now, why did they go on with the cell-building 

 when they had a laying queen in the hive? and how 

 did they get drones? I think it another case of 

 workers changing the sex of eggs; but I lack the 

 proof, from the fact of my not being acquainted 

 with the condition of the colonj' previously, and did 

 not see any drones until after they had hatched. 



J. H. Eby, 10, 18. 

 North Robinson, O., Nov. 20, 1882. 



Your experiment, friend E.,does not quite 

 cover the point in question. You see, tliey 

 had access to larvae of all ages, and so took 

 one 6 days old from the day the eggs were 

 laid, and then produced your ten-day queen. 

 To get any new facts in the matter, you 

 must put an empty comb into a hive, and 

 look at it several times a day until you find 

 eggs in the comb. Now put it into a queen- 

 less colony ; and if you get a queen in less 

 than 16 days, you have proved your point. I 

 believe you show, pretty conclusively, that a 

 queen may be more than 16 days in hatching. 

 —Queen-cells are not torn down immediate- 

 ly after a laying queen is introduced. It has 

 been suggested, that this is because all hands 

 do not at once agree to accept her in place of 

 the one they were goins: to raise. The cells 

 are usually all destroyed about as soon as the 

 new queen gets to laying well. 



SUMAC AS A HONEY PLANT. 



You say you never saw bees work on sumac. Just 

 come out to our place next July, and I will show 

 you plenty of bees on sumac. My bees are the only 

 Italians within ten miles of me. I saw them four 

 miles from home working on sumac. Mr. Koot, I 

 should like to show you how they go for it. I have 

 counted 14 bees on one cluster of bloom. I have 

 one colony of hybrids that gathered about 75 lbs. 

 from the sumac bloom. They gathered, July 16th, 

 101bs.,as nearly as I can lell, and July 20th they 

 sent out a swarm the largest I ever saw. I hived 

 them on two frames of brood and frames flU- 

 ed with fdn., and at this date they are very heavy 

 and strong in bees. That is what sumac does with 

 us. 



A RASPBEHRY THAT RIVALS THE SPIDEll PLANT. 



I got some raspberries last spring from an old 

 lady back in the mountains. She told me that the 

 bees visited them in great numbers; so I set a few 

 in my garden. They bloomed last spring. They had 

 a large white cup-shaped flower, and I dipped the 

 honey from them with the point of a teaspoon sev- 

 eral limes in the presence of different persons. I 

 think they yield more honey than any flower 1 ever 

 saw; and that is not all. The berries are not " bad 

 to take " with honey and cream on them. I am go- 

 ing to set out a large patch of them. The honey is 

 very clear, and of flue flavor. 



HYBRIDS. 



I think the hybrids gather more honey than either 



race pure, and I know they are better for stings. My 

 bees that are the crossest seem to gather the most 

 honey. 



FOUNDATION. 



I think fdn. is one of the greatest inventions that 

 has ever been discovered for the bee-keeper. 



Geo. R. Kisner. 

 Clinton Furnace, W. Va., Nov. 20, 1K82. 



By all means, send us some roots of that 

 raspberry, friend K. ; and if it will bear hon- 

 ey in other locations as well as in your own, 

 it will be a boon to bee-keepers, such as we 

 have seldom had so far. Although our bees 

 were very busy on our red raspberries, and 

 as the period of their bloom now extends 

 over perhaps two weeks or more, I have never 

 yet been able to see honey in the blossoms. 

 Take great care of that plant, and as many 

 more as you can get of them, and rest as- 

 sured we bee - keepers will take them off 

 your hands at good prices.— I am very glad 

 indeed to hear so good a report from sumac. 



THE HOLY-LANDS —"HANDSOME IS, THAT HAND- 

 SOME DOES." 



Friend Eloot, I should like to correct a mistake in 

 the article from me, in the October Gleanings. I 

 made a mistake and put the number of swarms I 

 (/icu had, after my name, instead of the number I 

 had the first of May. It should have been 24. I wish 

 to say to the friends who have bought Holy-Land 

 queens of friend Good, who reported in November 

 Gleanings, that, if they are like the one I received 

 from him on the 4th of July, they are better than 

 they look. As soon as I intrnduced her I wrote Mr. 

 Good, saying I was not satis:i -J with her, because she 

 was so small. I thought she was from a small and 

 imperfect cell. He replied to me that, after testing 

 her, if she were not all right he would satisfy me. 

 So I waited developments, and," oh my!" after about 

 two weeks how she did lay. She built up so that, on 

 the 2M day of Aug. the bees in the hive were mostly 

 hers, and had queen-cells capped ready to swarm; 

 so I put on the upper story with seven wide frames 

 filled with fdn., and in 12 days they had their combs 

 all complete, and sealed half waj' down. 1 extract- 

 ed them and got 56 lb3. of honey; so I think I owe 

 Mr. Good an apology; and it has taught me a lesson, 

 not to be too hasty. She is small yet, but I have 

 raised some queens from her that are just splendid. 



Millington, Mich., Nov., 1882. M. D. York, 24. 



honey-barrels; why they leak. 



I think you failed to give the true explanation of 

 the leaking of the barrels of Mr. Fayette Perry, 

 mentioned on page 70, Juvenile Gleanings. I 

 suspect the staves were soaked with alcohol, or, 

 more likely, water, used to wash out the alcohol, 

 when the honey was put in. The rare or thin fluid 

 saturating the barrels, having a greater affinity for 

 the honey than the wood, was drawn by the lormer 

 from the latter, thereby causing shrinking. A sim- 

 ilar accident with molasses directed my attention to 

 the matter. My barrel was still, and lying on the 

 side, so the hoops could not have been shaken off, 

 but yet every one was loose when I discovered the 

 leaking, and the molasses was running from every 

 crack. 



from two to eleven, and six ran away. 



I began the season with two colonies; have taken 

 about 175 lbs. of comb honey, and now have eleven 

 good colonies, with an abundance of food for winter. 



