713 



liLEANlNGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15. 



Heads of Grain 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS. 



aldkich's bee-escape. 

 I send you by mail to-day a new bee-escape 

 which I devised. If yon find it worth while to 

 tell us what you think of it, I shall be much 

 obliged. If not, all right. With me it works 

 to perfection. The block I send you is designed 



to represent a board. The escapes can be made 

 for ten cents apiece. Cyrus C. Aeoktch. 



Morristown. Minn.. July 19. 



[We have no doubt that the escape would 

 work nicelv. Whether it would be cheaper 

 than the Porter, which we know gives satis- 

 faction, we can not say.] 



PECOS valeey; a report from onr who 



LIVE8 THERE. 



There have been great fradulent advertise- 

 ments gotten up regarding the Pecos Valley, 

 which is a great ruin to many people who leave 

 their homes and come here. Will you publish 

 a true description of the coiuitry if some one 

 will write it up? These fraudulent advertise- 

 ments are gotten up by land agents who are 

 robbing many poor people. G. W. Wood. 



Monahans, Texas. Aug.. 1893. 



[Yes, certainly.] 



OIL-STOVE TO KEEP HONEY. 



Can any one at the Home of the Honey-bees 

 tell me whether or not the gases generated by 

 oil-stoves will have any deleterious effect on 

 comb-honey? My honey-room shows a tenden- 

 cy to dampness, which, as you know, is ruinous 

 to honey stored for any length of time. Here- 

 tofore I have overcome this fault by keeping a 

 small wood heating-stove in the honey-room; 

 but as a wood fire needs almost constant atten- 

 tion I have thought of replacing it with a ker- 

 osene-burner. F. M. Crane. 



River Sioux. Iowa, Aug. 11. 



[This was forwarded to Dr. Miller, who re- 

 plies:] 



I don't think an oil-stove is a fit thing to be 

 in a room where people want to breathe: but I 

 doubt whether it would have any bad effect on 

 honey. A small cylinder stove with haid coal 

 might please better, and is very little more 

 trouble. 



experience with bee-paralysis: salt a 

 doubtful cure. 

 A. I. fJoot;— At your request I write to report 

 my experience for the last 13 months with bee- 

 paralysis. One colony, purchased from a dealer 

 in South Carolina, brought the disease into the 

 apiary. It spread from one colony to another 

 until, by the close of last year, it had infected 

 all but two. At times the dead bees were 

 strewn very thickly over the ground in the 

 apiary, and it seemed as if every colony would' 

 perish; but the loss at last was only one. 

 Many were so weakened that they bare"ly sur- 

 vived last winter. The disease broke out 

 again in the spring, and showed itself in nearly 

 every hive during the honey season, but grad- 

 ually disappeared, until now there is only one 

 that appears to be infected. The only remedy 



used was a handful of salt, thrown early in the 

 spring on the bottom-board. In wet weather 

 the salt would melt, and the bees had to wade 

 through salt water to get on the combs. In dry 

 weather the water would evaporate, to reap- 

 pear again with a damp atmosphere. At this 

 season the salt is promptly removed by the 

 bees: but in the spring they did not do so. The 

 salt thus applied may have had something to 

 do with the cure, but then' is room for doubt. 



Our honey-flow in the spring was lost by rea- 

 son of the constant rains from April 20th to 

 May l.^)tli. Extracting from some ten colonies, 

 and from the super only, there was a yield of 

 about 1.50 lbs. of dark honey. The extracting 

 might be repeated now with a similar result, 

 but the surplus is reserved to build up weak 

 colonies this winter. T. S. Ford. 



Columbia, Miss., Aug. 11. 



probability of swarms uniting without 



QUEENS. 



Referring to Mr. Major's item on page ().)'.' of 

 Gleanings, you will see that he says nothing 

 about swarms uniting — it is in regard to their 

 returning. A swarm out (done almost invaria- 

 bly returns to its own hive or location. With 

 only 40 colonies there would not often be sever- 

 al swarms out at the same time. I should like 

 to have not only Mr. Major but any one else 

 say, if two swarms are out at the same time, 

 tliey are not almost certain to unite, and, after 

 they are united, do they ever separate, except 

 to a small extent, and return to their respective 

 locations? In my experience, swarms without 

 queens with them are more likely to unite than 

 are those with queens. They spread out more 

 in hunting for their queen, and remain longer 

 in the air without attempting to cluster; be- 

 sides, they are in a mood to join any thing or 

 anybody with the hope of getting a queen. 



Flint, Mich., Aug. 18. W. Z. Hutchinson. 



[It is true, that Mr. Major does not say in just 

 so many words any thing about two or more 

 swarms uniting ; but we feel quite sure that he 

 implied that, or, at least, had it in mind, be- 

 cause, you will observe, in his last sentence he 

 says, " I can not see why Mr. Taylor's bees 

 should act so differently from mine ; " for Mr. 

 Taylor said his bees without queens united, or 

 were quite inclined to do so ; and Mr. Major 

 says his bees did not do that way. If we misin- 

 terpret him we should be glad to have him cor- 

 rect us.] 



the langdon non-swarmer not a failure. 



I have visited apiaries, and seen frame hives 

 filled with bees and honey, with the frames all 

 at one side of the hive, or the combs built cross- 

 wise of the frames, etc. Now. would you con- 

 demn a frame hive because a few had failed 

 with them ? Certainly not. I used 18 of Lang- 

 don's non-swarmers this season, and I think I 

 secured honey enough more with them to pay 

 their cost. I did not succeed as well with tiiem 

 as I liop(>d to, and I think my lack of success 

 was due to myself, or partially at least. I did 

 not get the non-swarmers attached to the hives 

 until the bees were about ready to swarm. 

 They had the swarming fever on, consequently 

 some of them swarmed. I then moved the hive 

 that the swarm came from, to a new location, 

 and put ail empty hive, or one filled with full 

 sheets of foundation, in its place, with the 

 supers on. and hived the swarm into it. and 

 had no more trouble from their swarming. 

 Such swarms worked well, and I got nearly all 

 my surplus from them. Colonies that I put the 

 attachment on before they got so near ready to 

 swarm did not swarm. 



I had no trouble from swarms smothering. I 



