714 



GLEANINGS IN EEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



sawdust or sand you uso is suro to do iu our 

 lieavy winds. Tiie grass and weeds will he ef- 

 fectually stopped, which is not the case with 

 sand or sawdust, and. so far as I can see, it 

 poss(>sses all the desii'ahle featvu'es of eithei'. 

 C'ost in some localities might he a possible ob- 

 jection; but the sand would be as expensive as 

 the lumber here, and I doubt not in some places 

 it would be even more so. 



We have had a \-ery poor season in this part 

 of the State, owing to hot winds and little or no 

 rain. During tln^ last week, however, we have 

 had some good rains, and bees are doing a 

 thriving business to-day. We can hardly hope 

 for much suri)lus. though. H. C. Allkx. 



Rising City. Neb.. Aug. •.'_'. 



Friend A., the very lirst hive-stands I ever 

 used were made very much as you describe. I 

 procured nice clean dry-goods boxes, or cases, 

 from the stores, and sawed them in two in the 

 middle, so that each made two. The objection 

 to having them so large is not only the ex- 

 pense, but, more than all, that you jar the hives 

 whenever you step on this hive-stand. And 

 where they are so large, yo\i ai'e sure to put your 

 feet on them, moi'e or less, in managing your 

 bees and going aiound your hives. Another 

 thing, these large bases get out of shape in the 

 course of time, especially when the hives get 

 very heavy with honey. I linally decided that 

 I wanted the alighting-board just as large as 

 the bottom of the hive, and no larger; and 

 then I began to use the cover of the Sim- 

 plicity hive for a bottom -boai'd. enlarging and 

 conti'acting the entrance by i)ushiiig it forward 

 on this same cover. 



h()np:y candying bkfokk caimmno. ktc. 

 The si)ring crop was a total failure. June 

 and July were good. We never did get much 

 honey here through the summer months before 

 this year. From the middl(> of June to the first 

 week in August oui' bees nevei' did better— es- 

 pecially the Italians and hyi)rids. Those that 

 were not bothered for increase stor<'d from 3.5 to 

 .50 lbs. of siu-plus. I think they gathered a good 

 pai't of it from cotton-bloom. ' Lots of the hon- 

 ey would make sugar before it was capped over. 

 I nevei' saw the like before. I slujuJd like to 

 ask. 1, What made it sugar, and where did it 

 come from? 



2. AVill a hive that has ten frames in it, and 

 half (jf them solidly tilled with honey, and the 

 other half of them Si honey and }4 brood, win- 

 ter well in this climate or not? I never had 

 them so nearly till their brood-chamber before. 



3. Does the fertilization of a queen affect her 

 drone progeny or not? I have a book treating 

 on bee culture that claims that it does. I have 

 been watching this very closely for some time. 

 I bi-eed all my queens from an Italian (jueen 

 that I think is pure. I notice that the drones 

 from the queens that produce liybrid workers 

 are not as uniformly marked as those of ones 

 that were purely mated. 



Decatur, Miss.. Aug. 2H. J. R. C'i,kvki,ani). 



1. Certain kinds of nectar will candy very 

 soon after it is gathered, and we believe this 

 has been before n^poited of the cotton honey. 

 Will some of our Southei'ii contributors please 

 <'nlighten us? 2. Yes, w(^ should say a colony 

 under the conditions named ought to be in 

 good condition to wintei'. 3. The fertilization 

 of a (|ueen does not affect her male i)i'()geny — at 



least, the evidence so fai' is to this effect. 

 Drones fr'om tlie same queen will .sometimes 

 vary gn^atly in color. The dnuies fi'om our im- 

 ported Italian (jueens are sometimes almost 

 black, while others from the same cpieen have 

 one or two yellow bands. But we have always 

 found that th(^ drones froTU imi)orted mothers, 

 whether light or dark, produce three-handed 

 workers if the queens are pure. 



TIIK SEX OF THE EG« DKTEKMINKI) 1!V THE 

 (;rEEX"s GUAHD. 



In reading Dr. Miller's article in Gleanings. 

 Aug. 1. a point overlooked by him and all others 

 I have I'ead. came to my mind. Tiie (jueen's 

 guard is ah\ays with her: and when she lays an 

 egg in woi'ker-cells one of the \\'orkers goes into 

 the C(>11 and lixes it. taking more time in "fix- 

 ing" than the (pieen does in laying tiu^ egg. 

 Now, what I want to know is. Does that part of 

 the ceremony havi' any tiling to do with de- 

 teiniiuing the sex? I have noticed tiiis for a 

 jx'iiod of six years or moic. and am now of the 

 ojjinion that it must have something to do with 

 the sex of the bee. Have you ever noticed tliis 

 act, on the part of the workers? If you watch 

 the queen when laying you can not fail to see 

 it. The long drouth has been hai'd on bees in 

 this part of the country. Everything is dried 

 up. and there is no honey to gather. 



Ezbon. Kan.. Aug. Hi. David Ross. 



Friend R.. I have noticed exactly what you 

 describe: and I have often wondered, also, why 

 this bee that crawls into the cell after the egg 

 is laid should stay such a length of time. With 

 our observatory hive we used to get impatient 

 because these bees prevented us from getting a 

 glimpse of a new-laid egg. You maybe right 

 about it: but how in the world are we going to 

 prove it, or determine what the bee does while 

 it has been so long in that dark cell? A cell 

 made of very thin glass might enable us to see 

 what the bee seems to be doing with the egg. 



DEATH OF .Il'DGE ANDREWS. 



Oui- dear friend and brother. JiidgeAV. H. An- 

 drews.of McKinney, Texas, died August (>, 18!K), 

 of l^aralysis. One among the best lights in bee 

 cultun? that we had in the South has gone out. 



W. R. (rKAIIAM. 



Greenville. Tex., S('i)t. 111. 1890. 



You are right, friend G. Judge Andrews has 

 been one of the lights in bee culture^ especially 

 in the South. We I'emember his quiet, kindly 

 ways at the various conventions he has taken 

 the pains to attend; and, by the way, is it not 

 sad that we have not had the pleasure of meet- 

 ing as many of the great bee-men of the South 

 as we did a f(^w years ago? As the older ones 

 pass away, and the boys take ui)the responsibil- 

 ities, let us be cai'eful that these pleasant old- 

 time relaticms and hand-shakings between 

 friends not (mly north and south, but east and 

 west, be not i)assed ovei' noi- forgotten. 



SXTPEIiSKDl'liE AFTEI! THE VOUN<i Ql'EEX 

 STARTS TO I-AVIN(i. 



You ask if it is the rule that the old queen is 

 allowed in the hive until the young one gets to 

 laying. I think it is. for I have had half a 

 dozen or more old queens superseded this spring, 

 and in every case I found the young one laying 



