438 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1. 



A COKRECTION FROM W. W. BT.ISS; A HINT FOR 



THOSE INTENDING TO GO TO CALIFORNIA 



FOR HEALTH. 



I have read W. A. Pryal's article, on page 

 304; and as he has things '• sorter " mixed in 

 regard to myself. I wish to correct them. He 

 was here but two or three hours; and as most 

 of that time was spent in driving through the 

 orange-groves of this district, he must have 

 got his " notes " mixed somehow. The land of 

 which he speaVcs belongs to my brother, and 

 part of it was bought of the party who owned 

 the original Mexican grant, the rest of the 

 tract from the S. P. R. R. Co. There are about 

 80 acres of the place cleared, some 40 acres of 

 which are set to fruit-trees. Most of the trees 

 are peaches; then come lemon, orange, prune, 

 apricot, plum, pear, etc., in the order named. 

 The future planting will be mostly lemons and 

 peaches. 



There are seasons when dark honey (that 

 gathered from sumac, goldenrod. etc.) brings a 

 good price; but I found it useless to attempt to 

 keep bees in a location where the honey is usu- 

 ally dark, one year with another: and should I 

 ever again be so situated that I could follow 

 bee-keeping I should certainly go to some loca- 

 tion where the most of the honey gathered is 

 light-colored. 



Bees in this locality have done but little so 

 far this season. In one apiary, of some 13.5 

 stands, there have been but live swarms, and 

 swarming is usually about over with by this 

 date. 



The first eighteen years of my life were filled 

 with sickness. In the winter of 1874 I had con- 

 gestion of the lungs, and hemorrhage, bleeding 

 about two quarts. In October, 1876, my mother, 

 brother, and myself started for California. 

 Since that time my health has been very good. 

 Let me say to those who have lung trouble, if 

 you ever intend to come to California, come 

 while there is yet hope; do not wait until one 

 foot is in the grave and the bank caving under 

 the other foot, and then expect our climate to 

 give you a new pair of lungs. W. VV. Bliss. 



Duarte, Cal., May 8. 



Answers to Questions 



FROM BEGINNERS. 



W. B. R., of Va.. asks us how we prevent the 

 wax from sticking to the Daisy foundation- 

 roller, ^ris.— See that the roller is clean in 

 the first place. Dip it occasionally in water 

 while in use. and you will have no trouble. 



Mrs. S. J. O., of N. J., has 32 colonies of bees, 

 all the increase from one colony that came to 

 her; and she wants to know how she can man- 

 age them so as to secure most profit from them. 

 Ans. — P"'or our answer to this question we 

 would refer you to the reply to R. F. W., on 

 page 396 of our last issue. 



J. W. M.. of Mich., has a good many empty 

 hives filled with honey from which bees have 

 died during the past winter. He wants to 

 know if he can hive new swarms on them again 

 this summer. Ans. — Yes, sir. Those hives 

 will be as good as aiiy, and the new swarm will 

 very soon sweeten things up if the hive has 

 been befouled with dysentery. But J. W. M. 

 should remember, in the mean time, to keep 

 the entrances closed, otherwise he will have 

 robbing. 



W. R. W., of Del., says the bees in one of his 

 hives are running in and out of the entrance, 

 and that he is almost sure they have a queen, 



although he admits that a queen-cell hatched 

 the other day. The fact of a cell having hatch- 

 ed would indicate that they probably had no 

 queen, or, at least, one that was " playing out." 

 The commotion at the entiance may have been 

 induced by the young queen returning from her 

 wedding-flight. Without seeing the colony it- 

 self, we could not give any more definite sur- 

 mises. 



Willie Atehley, a son of Mrs. Jennie Atchley, 

 sends us a drone having a white head. ^7i.s. — 

 The drone is a regular "'sport." Although the 

 head is white it is of a rather greenish cast. In 

 our ABC book we mention the fact, under the 

 heading " Drones," that very often drones hav- 

 ing variously colored heads may be found. 

 These are simply a freak of nature, or, what 

 may more properly be called "sports." This 

 sporting, so far as the variously colored heads 

 are concerned, seems to be confined entirely to 

 drones. 



J. W.S.,ofInd., says his bees are spotting 

 up the hives pretty badly; bees seem to be 

 weak, and he is inclined to believe they are 

 affected with what is called dysentery. He 

 wants to know what to do. ^7is. — No doubt 

 the bees have the regular dysentery. The only 

 thing you can do is to let them alone. If you 

 unite a lot of these weak bees they will all die 

 just the same. The only cure we know of is 

 good warm weather. The entrances must be 

 contracted pretty close to prevent robbers from 

 utterly annihilating them. 



H. N. J., of N. H., says he has 20 colonies of 

 bees; but as his business calls him away 

 through the swarming season, he wants to 

 know how it would do to put Alley drone-traps 

 on, and catch the would-be runaway swarms. 

 Ans. — This can be and has been done, although 

 an attendant, soon after the swarm returns and 

 clusters about the trap, should remove the bees 

 and hive them in a new hive. We should pre- 

 fer, however, to use the Pratt automatic hiver. 

 as illustrated and described on page 135 of 

 Gleanings for Feb. 15. 



D. W. B., of Ct., asks whether we know any 

 thing about the " Controllable" hive. Ans. — 

 Yes, sir. It is a hive that used to be sold by 

 Mrs. Lizzie Cotton, of West Gorham, Me., at six 

 or eight times the price of hives of the same 

 capacity sold by other manufacturers. It is an 

 improvement over the old box hive, and that is 

 about all that can be said for it. As to its be- 

 ing " controllable," it is no more so — indeed, not 

 as much so— as are hives of to-day sold by reli- 

 able dealers. We believe that, of late. Mrs. 

 Cotton has not charged such an enormous price; 

 but she has no success in selling hives among 

 those who are informed in regai'd to the present 

 developments in bee culture. 



H. H. Q.. of Fla., says that, after the honey 

 season, he has great strong colonies. Desiiing 

 to increase, he wants to know the best way to 

 divide them, and how to supply the queenless 

 half with queens the most economically. Ans. 

 — After having prepared new hives on separate 

 stands, divide one of the colonies by putting 

 two-thirds of the bees and all the sealed brood, 

 with the queen, on the new stand. This will 

 leave the unsealed, brood on the old stand with 

 one-third of the bees. Most of the bees on the 

 new stand will return, giving the old stand, per- 

 haps, in the end, the larger share. But as the 

 new hive has all the hatching brood, young 

 bees, and the old queen, it will very soon be 

 equal in strength to the old one. After the old 

 queen is removed, the old colony may rear cells 

 from the unsealed brood; but it will be better 

 to give them cells from some choice queen pre- 

 viously made queenless for the purpose. These 



