1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1(59 



y.ealand, New South Wales, Queensland, Vic- 

 toria, Tasmania, and Western Australia to fill. 

 One day it came to me in this way: 



You know, Doolittle, when you tised to give 

 bees candy for winter stores, they would do well 

 on it as long as there was honey in the hive to 

 help them a little; but when the honey was all 

 gone they would often die with plenty of the 

 candy left. Then, again, it has been reported 

 to you that, where the bees had arrived dead, 

 they were almost always daubed with soft and 

 sticky candy, the same becoming too soft to 

 stay in the candy-apartments for some reason 

 or other; and upon thinking these matters over 

 it came to me that I should put into the cage a 

 small piece of comb, the same having a few 

 cells of unsealed honey, and the rest empty 

 cells. The cells of honey would help the bees 

 liquefy the candy were it too hard; and should 

 the candy become too soft, then the bees could 

 lick it up and store it away in the cells instead 

 of their becoming all daubed over with sticki- 

 ness, which is always sure death to bees; be- 

 sides, it would make the cage more homelike. 



From the above I concluded to put such a 

 piece of comb in every cage, and did so, after 

 first allowing the bees of some hive to lick and 

 clean up all honey set to running in cutting the 

 comb to the desired shape. As the last steamer 

 brought in the last of the reports, I have been 

 looking over the matter to-day and find that 

 the results of the shipments for 1S94 prove that 

 I succeeded in landing 70 per cent of the whole 

 sent to foreign countries alive. As this is 5 

 per cent better than the best ever before re- 

 corded, of course I am pleased, and fully be- 

 lieve that the little piece of comb put in had 

 much to do with the success. Those sent to 

 western Australia gave 33 per cent alive, after 

 a journey of 14,000 miles and a confinement of 

 46 days en route. Here it will be noted that a 

 queen — yes, and several worker-bees also— lived 

 20 days longer than the very longest to live in 

 any of my experiments; and the report says 

 that the cage and bees were clean and nice, 

 with stores for 1.5 to 20 days longer. 



But there is another item which I wish to 

 speak about before I close this already too long 

 article. It is this: None of the parties shipped 

 to knew that I was going to put the piece of 

 comb in the cages, so the thing drew out many 

 remarks and comments in the reports. Among 

 others, two asked why that piece of comb, 

 and whether there was any brood in it when I 

 started it. Others said I put in too many bees 

 (I generally put in from 25 to 30), and advised 

 putting in not over 12 to 15. Putting these two 

 items together, I think I see something else to 

 our benefit in shipping queens to foreign coun- 

 tries in the future: and next season I shall try 

 not only putting in the comb with a little un- 

 sealed honey, but make a cage so that I can 

 put in a bit of comb containing from ten to fif- 

 teen unhatched bees in it, they being at a stage 



of advancement sutflcient to show color in their 

 eyes, so they will hatch in two or three days 

 after starting. Something pointing toward the 

 success of this lies in the fact that I sent one 

 queen by express to Australia, putting in about 

 70 bees, and brood nearly ready to hatch, to the 

 amount of about as many more bees, after 

 hatching. Through some fault of the express 

 company this cage did not catch the outgoing 

 steamer, although started in good time, so it 

 lay over in San Francisco, Cal., till the next 

 steamer, thus making the time 64 days from 

 the time the bees and brood were put in the 

 cage till the queen was taken out at her desti- 

 nation, and, much to the surprise of both myself 

 and the one who ordered them, the queen and 

 about a dozen bees were as lively as crickets 

 when they arrived, with all brood hatched 

 out of the comb. 



As many are interested in the shipping of 

 queens to foreign countries, besides myself, I 

 have given in time these things looking toward 

 greater success, so tliat any who wish can take 

 advantage of them during the coming season. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



[During the years 1891 and '93 we, like your- 

 self, were much more successful in sending 

 queens to Australia, and we were almost on 

 the point of guaranteeing safe arrival, but we 

 thought we would wail another year. That 

 year, 1893, a. very much smaller per cent went 

 through alive, and the next year was but little 

 if any better, if we except the latter part of it. 

 But since using Good candy, made of honey 

 and coarse granulated sugar, we have had much 

 better success. How we succeeded is shown in 

 the Kind Words department in this and the 

 previous issue. We shall try, this spring, a lit- 

 tled sealed honey with the Good candy, and 

 shall await the outcome with much expecta- 

 tion. When you make the cages large enough 

 to take in candy, sealed honey, and a little 

 brood and 70 bees, are you not in danger of ex- 

 ceeding the limit prescribed by the postal regu- 

 lations as to size and weight of cages'? — Ed.] 



ALFALFA AND SWEET CLOVER. 



PAYING CHOP IN TEXAS, WITHOUT IRRIGATION. 



J. D. Givens. 



Five years last October I sowed five acres in 

 alfalfa. I broke the ground in September, with 

 four mules hitched to a sulky-plow: then I 

 harrowed it till the ground was in as fine con- 

 dition as I could make it. I sowed 30 lbs. of 

 seed to the acre, then harrowed it over once, 

 and got a good stand. I cut three crops of hay 

 the first season, and four every season since, 

 yielding from one to two tons per acre, each 

 cutting, and this without irrigation. As a 

 grazing plant it has no superior. I pasture it 

 from September to March, and it is, without 

 question, the finest hog-pasture in existence. 



Cows prefer sweet clover. I have two acres 

 of this adjoining the alfalfa. The gate opens 

 just on the line between the two. I soon no- 

 ticed the cows turning to the sweet clover. I 

 then noticed very closely; and since that time. 



