1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



497 



fields of wheat. Thousands of pounds are wasting 

 here for want of bees to gather it. The flow te not 

 half over yet. The tested queen I got of you is a 

 splendid one. Her bees have about finished two 

 cases of 1-lb. sections. Each case holds 28 sections. 



Lexington, Tex., June 8. W. S. Douglass. 



Friend D., it would afford me great plea- 

 sure to visit your mint-fields. But are they 

 not an indication of bad farming '? So long, 

 however, as they will grow and flourish, let 

 us by all means utilize the honey they pro- 

 duce. 



A HONEY THAT CANDIES IN THE HEAT OF THE 

 SUMMER. 



Friend Boot;— Can you account for honey candy- 

 ing in the summertime? This summer we extract- 

 ed about 1500 lbs. This was in November; and at 

 Christmas time it was candied without the least 

 signs of any moisture on the tops of the cans. 

 From November to December the thermometer 

 was ranging from 85 to 100 degrees in the shade. 

 You will see by the label inclosed that we tell our 

 customers that the honey will candy as soon as 

 cold weather begins; but when it candied in the 

 full heat of summer we were nonplused. I may 

 say that this honey was gathered from the red 

 mangrove, but it Is a beautiful white honey. 



A. A. Miles. 



Hemmant, Queensland, Aus., May 9. 



Friend M., we have for years back, every 

 little while, had reports of a kind of honey 

 that candies, even at a summer tempera- 

 ture ; and this honey does not seem to be 

 confined to any particular plant, or to any 

 particular locality. It seems, however, as a 

 general rule, to be confined to certain locali- 

 ties. I do not know of any remedy, unless 

 it is to utilize such honey for feeding and 

 brood-rearing. The bees can use it about 

 as we use honey candy, such as they use 

 when they need feeding in winter. 



with you that honey in open gallon vessels, exposed 

 to a daylight temperature, ranging about 100 de- 

 grees for two to three months, would become so 

 thick it never would candy. G. F. Robbins. 



Mechanicsburg, 111., June 5. 



did THE BEES TRANSFER THE EGGS FROM THE 

 QUEEN-CELLS ? 



Eight days ago I found one colony queenless, 

 with some young bees about hatching out. There 

 was no young brood, but plenty of bees. I got a 

 frame full of brood in all stages, and I put it in 

 with them. This day I find four nice queen-cells 

 on it, and on the frame next to it I find three cells. 

 Did the bees transfer the eggs? 



Clearfield, Pa., May 21. J. McGaughey. 



Yes, friend M., the bees did transfer the 

 worker eggs. The same thing has been sev- 

 eral times reported. You will find it in our 

 text-books and in the journals. 



THOSE JARS FOR EVAPORATING HONEY OUT OF 

 THE HIVE. 



Frieiid Root:— You inquire the size of those jars 

 I speak of on page 413. You notice I said lard-cans 

 and stone jars. There were two IC-gallon cans, one 

 6-gallon jar, some 4-gallon jars. The two cans I 

 emptied late in the fall, and refilled them from 

 screw-cap cans. The honey from the latter was 

 candying rapidly at the time, while the former had 

 not commenced to grain. The 6-gaIlon jar was the 

 last one disturbed. When 1 emptied it in January, 

 the honey was candied at the bottom and clear at 

 the top. At the same time, some 2>i-lb. and 5-lb. 

 tin pails of honey, with lids, filled in August, were 

 mostly beautifully liquid. From the above I think 



THE NICEST HONEY ; BURR-COMBS AND THICK 

 TOP-BARS. 



I have kept bees for eight years. I have the 

 name of having the nicest honey around. I had 

 3000 lbs. last year from 28 swarms, spring count. 

 The most I received from one colony was 212 lbs. 

 I sold the most of it around home. It averaged me 

 13 cts. per lb. I also sold some extracted honey. 

 I have had five new swarms. The first came out 

 the 23d of May. I prefer the thick top-bar. I have 

 a few of Ji top-bar frames, which, with >4 in. be- 

 tween frame and super, will not allow burr-combs 

 to any extent. O. H. Pike. 



Mount Vernon, Mich., June 16. 



■u 



GONE BACK TO FIXED DISTANCES. 



I began bee-keeping, or rather, perhaps, keeping 

 bees, in 1850; but when I read the many learned ar- 

 ticles in Gleanings I see I am yet a novice. I 

 have been much interested in the discussions on 

 fixed distances for frames, because the first frames 

 I ever made I made with projections on one side 



only; thus: This gives me the 



distance I wanted, and is right | 



whichever way they were turn- 

 ed. I used this pattern of top-bar for many years, 

 and was satisfied with them till the much-esteemed 

 editor of one of our bee-journals told me that fixed 

 distances were very objectionable, so, of course, 

 I straightway cut off the projections; but in less 

 than one season I got tired of spacing frames with 

 ray fingers, and often squeezing bees between the 

 combs, in pushing them together, so that I drove a 

 nail for a spacer, on one side only. I manage very 

 well with them. A nail on one side is better than on 

 both, as you have not to be so particular where you 

 put them, and it's just half the work. Bees have 

 been doing pretty well here lately on wild mint. 

 Every one has had difficulty in getting swarms to 

 stay. I lost three, but now give them a frame of 

 brood, and they stay. Geo. E. Hailes. 



Syble, Tex., June 6. 



NO LOSS IN winter. 



I put 53 swarms into the cellar, and took out 53; 

 and after they had been out a short time they be- 

 gan to double up, and they kept at it for three 

 weeks, and 16 is the number that went in with oth- 

 er swarms. I have not lost as many as most of my 

 friends here. " A. E. Bradford. 



Hammond, Wis., June 3. 



LOCALITY, and HOW IT AFFECTS BEE-HIVES. 



Why don't you get Prof. Cook to tell us all about 

 the little troublesome flea, and how to master him? 

 Mr. Root, if you and friend Doolittle were keeping 

 bees in Texas, you would not tell bee-keepers to 

 paint their hives white and leave them in the sun. 

 Experience would teach you better. Bees have 

 swarmed a great deal, but no surplus yet. 



Milamo, Tex., May 23. G. W. Beard. 



BEES ON ALSIKE ; RAPE SOWN AMONG THE OATS. 



Mr. Root .—Yours of the 7th was received the Uth, 

 and the goods last Thursday. Every thing was in 

 good shape. The alsike clover seed you sent me 

 last spring, a year ago, you ought to see how big it 



