676 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1. 



month until I threw away the " riggin' " Bing- 

 ham sent to hold the fire in, and inserted a 

 piece of window-screen wire cloth in the nozzle. 

 Had I to do without the wire cloth in the 

 Bingham, I would do without it. 

 Atherton, Ind., Aug. 7. G. F. Ayres. 



AN EIGHT-VEAR OLD WHO CAN FIND (QUEENS. 



I can not let Leah Atchley and Ralph Benton 

 take the honor of being the only little folks 

 who take great interest in bees, and love to 

 work with them. We have a little boy, eight 

 years old June 1. who works among them with- 

 out gloves or veil. His mamma died before he 

 was two years old; since, he has been his 

 " auntie's boy." When I work among the bees, 

 " Ed ■' does too. He can see a queen as quickly 

 as any one, and always looks to one side of the 

 frame while I examine the other. He owns an 

 interest in the bees, and next year will manage 

 a part of them alone, if the Lord spares us till 

 that time. He is named George Edward Davis. 

 Mrs. Sarah E. Dawson. 



Montrose, Col., Aug. 8. 



color, mine would have been pronounced a case 

 of the "'nameless bee-disease" by everybody 

 versed in bee-literature. Chas. F. Muth. 



Cincinnati, O., Aug. 19. 



HOW I SCRAPE SECTIONS. 



On page 631 you use this language: " By the 

 way. we should like to inquire here what sort 

 of device our comb-honey producers have been 

 using for supporting the sections while being 

 scraped." My super, or section case, has slats 

 for the section to rest on, so there is very little 

 bee-glue that gets on the bottom, and none on 

 the ends; and before the sections are taken out 

 of the case I lay it on a shelf where it is con- 

 venient to get at, and with a piece of glass I 

 take both hands, so as to apply considerable 

 strength, and soon clean the tops of a whole 

 case; then when taken out of the easel hold 

 the section in my left hand while I finish. 

 Being in the case solid, they need no holding 

 while I scrape the tops. The piece of glass 

 should be large enough so you can use both 

 hands to advantage. O. B. Barrows. 



Marshalltown, Iowa, Aug. 19. 



THE nameless BEE-DISEASE. 



Friend Root: — Many are the illu5ions under 

 which bee-keepers labor, and more especially 

 beginners. P'or their benefit I wish to relate 

 an experience of my own during last June. I 

 had a colony of Italians whose queen I prized 

 highly for her size and color, and also for the 

 deep orange-colored workers she produced. On 

 my arrival at the farm one day, I saw what 

 seemed to me to be the "nameless disease "in 

 its worst form. A large lot of bees were lying 

 in front of the alighting-board, some dead and 

 some kicking. Every thing about the hive 

 looked very quiet; bu*- bees kept bringing out, 

 leisurely, half-dead sisters, adding them to the 

 pile of dead in front of the hive. " The name- 

 less bee-disease, without a doubt," said several 

 of my bee-keeping neighbors. However, I 

 knew my golden -colored queen and her deep- 

 yellow workers, and saw that, now, half of the 

 bees of the hive were blacks and hybrids. 

 Upon opening the hive I found that a dark 

 queen had taken the place of my bright Italian 

 one, and my golden workers were about half 

 mixed with hybrids— no dead bees in the bot- 

 tom of the hive— no fighting; but the bees 

 were still at it, carrying out half-dead workers. 

 All was plain to me; to wit: A hybrid swarm 

 of one of my neighbors had taken possession of 

 my hive of Italians, and killed my queen. 

 Peace had been or was about to be established 

 when I saw them, although, for several days 

 more, dying bees were carried out. I super- 

 seded to-day the hybrid queen by a fine yellow 

 one. If both colonies had been of the same 



CARNIOLANS; THE GRAY VS. THE GOLDEN. 



What are the distinctive marks of the Carni- 

 olan bee? 1 see in the journals so many asser- 

 tions, pro and con, that it seems to me about 

 impossible to come to any conclusion on the 

 subject. I have what were bought for Carnio- 

 lan bees; but after reading, and comparing the 

 ideas and conclusions of different writers, I 

 don't know whether I have them or not, or 

 whether I have Italians or a mixture of Ital- 

 ians and something else. I think that, if any 

 one is capable of giving a satisfactory solution 

 of the question. " What are true Carniolans? '" 

 you should be a reliable referee. If the gray is 

 the genuine Carniolan, then what is the golden? 

 Is it a variety, as the white and brown are va- 

 rieties of the" Leghorn breed of fowls? And if 

 a variety, how has it been produced? Please 

 give your ideas in Gleanings. 



Denison, Texas. C. Fisher. 



[Frank Benton, who handled the bees for 

 years in their native home, says that the typi- 

 cal Carniolan is a dark steel-gray bee. The 

 so-called " golden " Carniolans seem to be noth- 

 ing more nor less than Italians with, perhaps, a 

 little Carniolan blood; for Mr. Alley admitted 

 that his golden Carniolan queens were mated in 

 an apiary but a little over a mih- from a large 

 apiary of Italians. Plenty of proof has been 

 pioduced to show that qtieens will mate, not 

 only a mile from the apiary, but sometimes 

 three or four miles. The source of the yellow 

 in Mr. Alley's Carniolans is plain. See J. A. 

 Green's articli' in the ^/nerican Bee Journal, 

 page 467, vol. xxviii.] 



the langdon principle without the device. 



The principle of Langdon's swarming-device 

 can be used without using his device. Simply 

 put two colonies close together, and put on one 

 an Alley trap and nail over the zinc a thin 

 board. Now it will act as an escape. All bees 

 going out can not get back; and, being so close 

 together, the bees will go into the open hive. 

 In a week change places with the brood-cham- 

 bers. This gives the bees the same entrance, 

 and all bees now coming out of the hive, with 

 the escape, go right into the hive that is open, 

 without any fussing, as the entrance is in the 

 same old place; you have simply changed 

 places with the brood -chambers. I think the 

 principle is a success, tor the colonies are work- 

 ing nicely. They have 40 sections pretty well 

 along. They work like extracting swarms. 



By placing the hives with entrances facing 

 each other, and bottom -boards touching so the 

 bodies will be about 4 or .5 inches apart, and 

 using an escape-cone in front of the hive 

 that has no sections, you would not need to 

 lift the hive to change the brood-chambers, 

 for the entrance is exactly in the same place, 

 and bees would find it sur(\ It would make no 

 difference which hive had the escape in regard 

 to bees finding entrance. By the above it will 

 cost only the coet of a box with a bee-escape, to 

 try the plan. Those having th<' Alley trap can 

 use it as a i)ee-escape by nailing a thin ijoard 

 over the zinc. For the trap, entrances should 

 be 7 inches apart. F. A. Salisbury. 



Syracuse, N. Y., June 20. 



Inclosed please find $1.00 to continue our sub- 

 scription for Gleanings. We consider it to be tlie 

 best bee-journal that we liave ever taken, and do 

 not intend to ever be without it in the future. 



Santa Atui, Cal. Emerson Bros. 



