670 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1. 



of the prominent bee-keepers in the Southern 

 States, including Texas. At this time of the 

 exposition the railroad rates will be at their 

 lowest, the work in the apiary for the year will 

 be ended, and the bee-keeper will have a 

 grand opportunity to meet and mingle with his 

 brethren in convention, to shake hands, to be- 

 come acquainted, and talk over questions of 

 vital importance to the success and prosperity 

 of his pursuit. This gathering of bee-keepers 

 will know no lines of latitude or longitude, 

 but will lake in the whole American Continent. 

 It is hoped that every live and wide-awake bee- 

 keeper will make his arrangements to meet his 

 brethren on the above days. Subjects of the 

 utmost importance to the continued success of 

 this industry will come up for discussion, in 

 which every bee-keeper in our country should 

 feel the deepest interest. 



All the bee-journals and agricultural papers 

 are most respectfully requested to uotice the 

 time of this meeting. Dk. J. P. H. Bkown. 



Augusta, Ga. 



BEST IIONKY-FLOW FOR YEARS. 



We are having the best honey-flow here thai) 

 we ever had. It commenced about July 8, and 

 still continues. From one colony (the best one 

 I have) I extracted, July 19th, 70 lbs. ; and on 

 the 28th of July, from the same colony, I ex- 

 tracted 80 lbs., and in two more days I shall ex- 

 tract about SO lbs. (16 L. frames) more from 

 them. The honey is very white, gathered from 

 white clover and alfalfa. J. A. Smith. 



Heber, Utah, Aug. 6. 



L. R. D., Kan.— Yes. queens have stings, and 

 sometimes they use them, but only on other 

 queens, and not on bees. In very rare instances 

 they have been known to sting human beings. 



C. M. I., Ala.— The instance you relate, of two 

 queens living together in one hive, one the 

 mother and the other the daughter, is quite a 

 common one. As you surm.ise, the old queen 

 will probably be superseded in a month or so. 



J. B. W., Ga.— The longest comb that has 

 ever been made in bee-trees, that I remember 

 to have seen reported, was 9 feet. We have had 

 frequent reports of where they have been 6 and 

 7 feet long; but even these lengths have been 

 rather extreme. 



W. T. T., Mich. — If you desire your bees to 

 swarm, and they refuse to do so, it is probably 

 because the honey season is now about over. I 

 would advise you to practice what is known as 

 " artificial swarming," as described in the ABC 

 of Bee Culture. 



F. H. F., Tcnn.— The dead drone brood that 

 you sent is evidently immature, and it has been 

 pulled out of the cells by the bees because of the 

 sudden stoppage of honey. If all their worker 

 brood is all right, and drone brood only is found 

 at the entrance, this would be the explanation. 



/. -S., Mich. — The best way to ship honey is to 

 put it up in large crates, ten or a dozf-n cases to 

 the crate. The bottom of the crate should con- 

 tain straw, so as to cushion the cases; and han- 

 dles should stick out of both ends so that the 

 freight-handlers can easily load and unload the 

 crate. 



L. E. A., Minn.— I. If you have honey-dew 

 in the hive it would be well to extract it before 

 winter, and feed the bees sugar syrup. The ex- 

 tracted stuff may be fed them next spring, when 

 it will do th«m no harm. A better way would 

 be to take out the combs containing the honey- 

 dew, put in frames of foundation, or empty 

 combs, then feed syrup. This will save the ex- 

 pense of extracting, and the trouble of the daub, 

 and give you good combs of stores next spring. 

 2. Bees may be fed immediately after extract- 

 ing, and they will repair and clean the combs 

 up in short order. 3. The putting-back of the 

 combs in the former order is notessential. What 

 brood there may be in them should be placed 

 pretty well in the center of the hive; but in the 

 fall we usually do not like to disturb the posi- 

 tion, because the bees make what is known as a 

 sort of winternest — that is, empty cells massed 

 through the center of the brood-nest, for the 

 bees to cluster on. 4. There is no way of dis- 

 criminating between beet and cane sugar — at 

 least, on the part of the ordinary bee-keeper. 

 Our own experience shows that one is about as 

 good as the other as a winter feed; but over 

 across the water, a few think the cane is far 

 better. We never found it so. 



L. N.. Mo.—l. Anywhere from 50 to 7.5 colo- 

 nies usually makes enough for one yard. Some 

 localities will support 300 or 400, but they are 

 very scarce. 2. Bees fly on an average about a 

 mile and a half, although they will often go 

 farther, say two miles or two miles and a half; 

 but so long as there is plenty of forage they will 

 not. as a rule, go farther than the first-named 

 distance. Instances are on record where they 

 have gone as far as 7 miles over bodies of water 

 or across a barren stretch of land. 3. One man 

 can not usually take care of more than two or 

 three yards of 50 or 75 colonies each, and even 

 then it is advisable to have a little help during 

 the busy time of the year. 4. A good colony, 

 depending upon the season and the man, will 

 make anywhere from 5 lbs. to 75 lbs. of comb 

 honey; but during the past dry seasons there 

 has been hardly an average of 25 lbs. in the 

 North. Perhaps 25 or 33 per cent should be 

 added to the foregoing figures when extracted 

 honey is under consideration. 5. A good man 

 with a thorough understanding of the business 



