1874 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



69 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS. 



MiESSRS A. I. ROOT A CO.— I am trying for '-Bees 

 and Honey." I have nearly completed my high 

 — i fence of plank, on your plan for an Apiary. I 

 have nine colonies in good condition at present; lost 

 almost all my bees last winter, by bad management 1 

 think ; 1 will try to do better In the future. I read the 

 •■1. B. J. and Gleanings with the greatest imagina- 

 ble interest. I intend, if the Lord permits me, to fix up 

 my bees and Apiary nice. Successto vouaadGLEAN- 

 lNRS, and may you long live to strengthen the "Breth- 

 ren" and such' beginners as jour humble servant. 



Parkersville, Ky. Dec. 22nd", 1878. C. Larkins. 



We are right by your side friend L. ; we are 

 certainly going to try and do better, but wheth- 

 er we shall succeed, or not remains to be seen. 

 We trust your nine colonies, are nine this 

 spring. ________ 



FRIEND NO VICE :-I have 23 out of 25 colonies, 

 wish they were all in about 15 hives with the best 

 Queens-think they Would be more profitable than as 

 they are ; they are gathering a little pollen but no 

 honey. Those that were the best last fall are the best 

 now-used fire heat to keep them warm in the house- 

 see no bail effect from it-endeavored to keep the tem- 

 peratnre from 40° to 45°. Hbnrv Palmer. 



Hart, Mich. May 2nd, 1874. 



FRIEN r D NOVICE:-! have been trying to keep 

 bees in Texas four years. This is certainly a fine bee 

 country, as we have" no expense or trouble in winter- 

 ing bees, and there is almost an endless variety of 

 flowers, from which bees gather honey. The best 

 that I have a knowledge of, is the horse mint. I do 

 not think however after all, that bees gather more 

 honey here than with you, as the honey season is fre- 

 quently cut short by dry weather, and perhaps on an 

 average is not longer than in your State. The advan- 

 tages here are, no expense or trouble in wintering, 

 and facilities for early Queen-rearing; last fall I put 

 up ten Queens in my small hives or boxes, made to 

 hold three frames, with a sufficient number of work- 

 ers as an experiment, and this spring I had eight good 

 tested Queens as the result, shall try it on a larger 

 scale next Winter. I opened one of my Italian colo- 

 nies to-day, from which I had removed the Queen 

 nine days since, and found 31 Queen cells ; many of 

 them were so close together that I could not cut them 

 apart without injury. I never saw or heard of as 

 many Queen cells in a hive before, did you ? 



Austin. Texas. Apr. 6th, 1874. T. Kemp. 



Mr. ROOT, Dear Sir:— Two colonies of the ten in 

 the bank cellar are confined to their hives and have 

 no chance to fly, only when set out ; one of the two 

 colonies has as tine a looking Italian Queen as I ever 

 saw; she was reared last June and has not laid an 

 egg that I can find up to writing. The other had a 

 Black Queen which must have stolen into the hive 

 iate last fall and killed the Italian Queen. I killed 

 her March 1st, she had eggs and capped brood at the 

 time. March 12th, the colony had as nice a capped 

 Queen as is often seen, destroyed her and gave them 

 brood and eg^s from an Italian stock. 



April tl/.'i -ilad a hatched Italian Queen. 



April IWh.— Looks nice, but no eggs anil no drones 

 to fertilize hor. 



CORN STARCH DID IT. 



I have been trying corn starch for pollen. Melted 

 candied honey without water and while warm mixed 

 in it a table-spoonful of dry starch, to a half pint of 

 honey, and on the 6th day of April strewed it on top 

 of frames of a colony on summer stand, that had no 

 pollen, brood or eggs. They ate it readily. They 

 gathered no pollen up to this date, April 19th, at 

 which date I examined them. They now have eggs 

 and capped and uncapped brood in two combs. 



I have used corn starch differently prepared on 

 other colonies, but the result not so decided. 



Fire heat in cellar works right. No loss in bees or 

 colonies. Old bees as strong to-day as first of March, 

 that is, the loss of the old wintered bees is impercep- 

 tible. Yours truly, M. Miller. 



Peninsula, O. April 19th, 1874. 



We have this spring for the first time no- 

 ticed Black colonies that had brood, while the 

 Italians had none. One Apiary of 27 colonies 

 — Blacks, wintered finely in a neighborhood 



where the Italians have nearly all failed. The 

 only particular difference in treatment that we 

 know of, was that the Italians were used for 

 Queen-rearing until quite late, and the Blacks 

 were In box hives and gave no swarms and 

 had "no treatment." 'Twill be advisable to 

 "go slow" forming conclusions in the matter, 

 but if the Blacks do really rear more brood 

 ert?% in the spring 'twill be well to know it. 



Tis very likely the Italians in their eager- 

 ness, have flown out during our bad spring 

 weather, and got lost when the Blacks did not. 



Before being positive that the "tablespoonful 

 of starch" had any agency in the matter, 

 should we not decide by experiment whether 

 the result would not have been the same, had 

 that been omitted, from the honey fed? 



Will yon please describe the "Straw mat" in Glean- 

 ings ? * How are they made ? how thick are they ? 

 what are they sewed" with ? or are they braided?" I 

 know how straw hives are made. Anything like 

 them? Thanks for wax extractor. Have just made 

 one— cost 80 cts.— works good. That plan of H. Pal- 

 mer page 29, and my plan, page 16, will work in con- 

 junction nicely as 1 understand it, and I mean to try 

 it. Bees will store honey as far from entrance as 

 possible. Wm. H. Kirk. 



Waterbury, Conn. 



Very well, just wait until We fix a heading. 

 There ! 



STRAW MATS, HOW TO MAKE THEM. 



From Peter Henderson's excellent work en- 

 titled Gardening For Profit, we glean the fol- 

 lowing : 



"Straw mats are, however, by tar the warmest cov- 

 ering, and in hot-bed culture are almost indispensable. 

 They are always made at home, during wet days or 

 stormv weather in winter. The manner of making 

 them Is very simple, and will readily be learned at 

 the first attempt. The "uprights,"" (or warps), are 

 formed of live strands of a tarred string, known as 

 "marline ; " these are tightly strained 10 inches apart, 

 by being attached to five strong nails at bottom of a 

 wall, corresponding with the same number, 7 feet 

 from the bottom. Againsi these strings (beginning at 

 the bottom) are laid small handfuls of rye straw, the 

 cut side out. as long and straight as can be procured ; 

 this is secured to the uprights by a lighter kind of 

 tarred string, by taking a single turn around the up- 

 right and the straw, and so continued until the mat"ls 

 finished. Some use a frame to which the strings, 

 forming the warp, are attached. 

 This allows the operator to have his work upright or 

 horizontal, as may be most convenient. Two work- 

 men Will make about five mats in a day. When fin- 

 ished, the mats should be 7 feet in length and \% feet 

 in width, two being sufficient to cover three sashes. 

 The reason for having them made one foot longer than 

 the sash is, that there may be 6 Inches to overlap at 

 top and bottom, which are'the most necessary points 

 to secure from frost. In making these mats they may 

 be constructed of sedge from the marshes, or salt 

 meadow hay, when rye straw cannot be procured. It 

 Is Important, however, that they may be made as 

 light as possible, one inch in thickness being quite 

 sufficient. By care in handling them, these mats will 

 last for six or eight years." 



The mats for Hives, would not need tarred 

 string, as they are not exposed to rain and sun, 

 and the distance and number of the strings as 

 well as the size of the mat, should be arranged 

 according to the size of the hive. 



In a second letter, friend K. explains that 

 his 80c. wax Extractor was made by using a 

 lard pail, an old wire-cloth dish cover, and 

 sundry other utensils found at home, so that 

 80c. was only what he paid the tinner. 



There seems to be a diversity of opinion, as 

 to whether bees prefer storing nearest, or far- 

 thest from the entrance. In our opinion, 'tis 

 governed more by other circumstances, than 

 the locality of the entrance. 



