1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



821 



637). I have been familiar with the methods 

 of box-hive bee-keeping from my childhood, 

 and I don't care to experiment with their prod- 

 uct personally. I have read and reread the 

 article of Dr. Stell, of Mexico, and am still try- 

 ing to find out what possible connection his 

 deadly compound had with "laurel honey." 

 Branchville, S. C, Oct. 30. A. T. Peete. 



[Nectar partakes very largely of the proper- 

 ties of ihe plant from which it is taken. For 

 instance, honey from onions in blossom has a 

 strong flavor of the onion or the plant itself. 

 Dr. Stell made a tinctureof the mountain-laurel 

 leaves; it was fed to the bees in syrup, stored 

 in the combs, extracted again, and, as reported, 



Eoisoned both the doctor and his helper, who 

 ad eaten it. The "missing link" that you 

 fail to see is that the tincture of leaves and the 

 nectar of the blossom from one and the same 

 plant are much the same, though it would be 

 fair to assume that the former might be the 

 more virulent. Jf it were only half or one- 

 fourth as much, I, for one, would prefer to let it 

 alone. There have been a good many cases of 

 poisoning from eating honey from poisonous 

 plants and it didn't come from box hiveseither. 

 But why should box hives be liable to receive 

 poison anymore than movable-frame hives? 

 If honey is poisonous it must be from the 

 source. 



The United States government through its 

 Departmi nt of Agriculture, I am glad to say, is 

 investigating all thpse cases, ard ere long we 

 shall see what the Department has to say. In 

 the mean time it would be very wise to err on 

 the safe side.— Ed.] 



super after super was taken ofiF, just filled with 

 beautiful capped honey. Wm. A. Selser. 



Philadelphia. Pa. 



FROM NEW ZEALAND. 



Foul brood is very prevalent in this country. 

 It is impossible to keep one's apiary free, owing 

 to robbing done from box hives. Absconding 

 swarms take up their abode in rabbit-holes on 

 the hillsides, and die out from the disease. I 

 keep it under by melting down old combs and 

 rolling out fresh foundation. Some seasons the 

 yield is very good, principally from white clo- 

 ver. One season 16 colonies yielded over 100 

 lbs. per hive, and increased to 33. 



John Moodie. 



Outram, Otago, N. Z., Sept. .5. 



MI{«. DANIEL COXE'S LARGE HONEY- YIELD. 



IJrifton is situated in Luzerne Co., Pa., in the 

 heart of the coal regions of the State. As far as 

 the eye can reach in all directions, great culm 

 banks of coal dirt look like natural mountains 

 out of the surface of which even weeds seldom 

 have a chance to grow. The town itself stands 

 several hundred feet above sea-level, and, with 

 the exception of a few fields of cultivated 

 ground, one would think bees would hardly find 

 sufficient food to supply their annual needs. 

 To show how the Lord provides the nectar in 

 the flowery kingdom in ways past finding out by 

 man, Mrs. Daniel Coxe, of this place, bad 11 

 colonies, spring count, that gathered 2000 lbs. 

 of honey, and her faithful gardener, Luke, who 

 helps take care of the bees, was delighted when 



W. W. ilf., Fla.— You say you have four 

 small colonies or nuclei that you desire to unite 

 in one, and wish to know the best method. If 

 they are scattered over the yard, some night 

 put the bees, brood and all, from the several 

 nuclei, into one hive. If this is not large 

 enough, use two stories. The next day a great 

 many of the bees will return to their old stands, 

 where you should have awaiting them a hive 

 to receive them at each old stand, with per- 

 haps one empty comb. The next thing is to 

 shake these all together into one box, smoking 

 them a little to prevent fighting, and then 

 dump them in front of the hive where you de- 

 sire to leave them all together. You may have 

 to do this on three or four successive days be- 

 fore you can get them to stay; and even then 

 some of them will persist in going back. Doo- 

 little would advise, after shaking the bees all 

 together in one box, keeping them in a dark 

 cellar over night, and then the next morning 

 shaking them in front of the hive. This may 

 be better. 



D. K., J'To?!.— Sometimes a queen will behave 

 as you relate in your letter. It may be because 

 she is frightened. The method of introducing 

 now is not to release the queen in the hive, but 

 put her into an automatic cage and let the bees 

 eat out the candy and release themselves. We 

 have found that, when the apiarist himself opens 

 the hive and lets the queen out, the general dis- 

 turbance not only frightens her but causes the 

 bees to attack her. It is very possible that in 

 your case the bees were not queenless, or, rath- 

 er, that they had something in the hive in the 

 way of a queen- cell, virgin queen, or laying 

 worker, which was regarded as a queen. In 

 this event they would show hostility toward 

 the queen; and it would not be surprising if she 

 should try to get out of the hive, and behave as 

 you describe. Most queen-breeders send out 

 cages so arranged that the bees will release the 

 queen in from one to three days. When this is 

 done by the bees, and they are absolutely queen- 

 less, the new one is usually accepted. 



In the case of the queen you obtained from 

 the party mentioned, we would say that you 

 ought to have sent in your complaint to him in- 

 side of 30 days, to the efl'ect that she would not 

 lay. All reliable queen-breeders are supposed 

 to replace such queens. When complaint is 

 made after 30 days, the breeder is under no ob- 

 ligation to send another, although we usually 

 do so. 



