. 18 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Seft 



Please itiforni me, 1st: Are Queens reared in a two 

 frame nucleus as good as those reared in an eight 

 frame colony t My bees in nucleus tore down the cell 

 : gave them and are building one for themselves, shall 

 I allow them to proceed? 

 in I. In making a nucleus, I by mistake, got the old 

 ' i • n on one of the frames, which error was not dis- 

 covered till two days after. In that case could I nut 

 li r back in her own hive without endangering her 

 ][<:<■.' or would you advise changing places of the nu- 

 ijictis and the old hive ? 



Gbo. G. Scott, Dubuque, Iowa, July 15th. 1874. 



1st. So Car as vigor is concerned, we would 

 let them use che cell if we were sure it contain- 

 e I a u abundance of royal jelly, which seldom 

 is the case unless the young colony have be- 

 come fully orgauized and are bringing both 

 honey and pollen industriously. Tis our opin- 

 ion a pint of bees, in very warm weather, may 

 do this as well as a larger number, but they 

 would probably be unable to supply more than 

 one or two cells, and a larger number of bees 

 would general !y be preferable. 



2nd. Try and see if they will receive their 

 old Queen of course, before running any risk. 

 If they are gathering honey there will seldom 

 b_> any trouble, but you can easily remove a 

 frame an 1 place her on it in the midst of the 

 bees, having some smoke handy, in case she 

 should be in danger. We introduce Queens 

 newly hatched in this way, with scarcely ever 

 a failure, [f the ho.i >y yield has stopped it 

 may be necessary to cage your old Queen be- 

 fore releasing her, alter two days or more ab- 

 sence, bin. we' should try her first on the plan 

 given. Queens not valued highly we often 

 introduce in the manner given without caging, 

 and even let thein run in at the entrance with- 

 out opening the hive: at certain seasons all 

 will go well every time, but at others every 

 Queen, seemingly, will be destroyed. They 

 can be released on a single comb without dan- 

 ger if you are prompt and fearless in rescuing 

 them when attacked. 



FRIEND NOVICE:— I had an extractor made on 

 your plan, and it works like a charm. I am a sort of 

 a genius but I have been trying to study out the prin- 

 ciple of an extractor the last year or so and could get 

 no idea of how to get it to work till I got first volume 



your hives is much safest in the long run, and 

 if not less than three combs of brood be used 

 to start a nucleus, they will protect themselves 

 from robbers without shutting them in at all. 

 We think we would use nothing smaller than 

 a hive capable of containing ten combs ; these 

 can then be built up to a good colony with lit- 

 tle trouble after they get a laying Queen. 



If the honey can all be extracted in August. 

 or early in Sept., so as to feed the syrup and 

 get everything in good shape during warm 

 weather, it might do ; but transferring in the 

 fall, where the combs are filled with honey, is 

 risky business even for an expert. The safer 

 way would be to wait until spring we think, 

 especially if bees winter well in your locality 

 on natural stores. 



Well, Mr. Gleanings, will you please tell us next 

 month through the "wind-mill print" how Novice 

 manages to separate his honey from the sugar-syrup 

 that gets into his hives in various ways. We would 

 like some times to feed a little syrup but don't want it 

 with our honey. Some say to lis when we offer ex- 

 tracted honey, that it is syrup. We tell them no, it is 

 the pure honey and tell tlie truth too. 



A. J. Hoovek, Plymouth, Pa. 



Just exactly. In the spring we contrive to 

 have all the sugar-syrup used up in rearing 

 brood, before honey comes in, and if some 

 heavy combs still remain we put them into 

 nucleus hives to be used by bees not old enough 

 to gather honey. If placed next to a brood 

 comb it will be used up very fast. 



The present season we found it impossible 

 to use it where the baes had died, without re- 

 serving it until the honey yield had passed. 

 and it is now being worked up to excellent 

 advantage by upwards of 40 young colonies 

 containing Queens just commencing to lay. 

 Such combs filled heavy with sealed syrup, 

 work in beautifully in this way. When we 

 were extracting if by chance any comb was 

 brought in containing sealed honey looking 

 other than as if it had been freshly sealed, it 

 was tested by tasting and if any trace of sugar 

 was perceptible, 'twas condemned and reserve' 1 

 for brood-rearing. Should fall honey come'in 



of Gleanings, fthen went to my tin-smith but had | w h.ile feeding, we really don't know "what is to 



much trouble to get him to understand it. How- 



ever we made ir work, i think 

 prices; I had it made for frame; 

 -loping bottom, molasses 



can beat you on j 

 Uxl4 'i inch, with 

 ue excepted, for $4.15. 



Bees are not doing verv much here this summer, es- 

 pecially blacks. The Italians are still doing some- 

 thing. " I have two that swarmed and have extracted 

 21 ibs.ofhoiu-y from them, the blacks beside them 

 have neither' swarmed not made any honey more j 

 than they consumed. 



1 am rearing a tew dollar Queens this summer. I 

 ean't raise them fast enough, but if my life is spared 

 till next spring 1 wiil breed on a larger scale. 1 should 

 like to have your ad\ ice a- to how to proceed. Would 

 it be best to have my nuclei formed of say -1 or 3 stand- 

 ard frame-, or have little boxes with four frames. 6 

 inches square.' 1 am using the latter now. 



I intend to buy bees to rear Queens with. 1 can buy 

 them in box hives with drawers of from 12 to i.~> -. of 

 box honey for 15.00. Now. if ! use the standard frame. 

 would it be advisable to transfer Ihem in September, 

 extract the honey all from the body of the hive and 

 give them all the comb, then feed sugar-syrup for 

 winter.' Comb honey sells here fori"] cts. per .. and 

 extracted lor Is cts., so they would not cost more than 

 82.00 per hive or hardly that. <»r would it be a better 

 plan to let them remain until spring and pay 85.00 for 

 them without the box honev. and be sure of hot losing 

 Ihem this winter? though' there has not been much 

 trouble in wintering in this section of the country. 



Aakon T. Weidner, Bigler. Pa. 



Small hives, and small frames have been al- 

 most universally abandoned. You will find, 

 we think that using the same frames used in 



be done unless empty combs be inserted tem- 

 porarily to receive the new stores, extracting 

 from them only, and leaving the brood combs 

 untouched at this season. 



My bees have not nor can I make them do much, 

 there seems to be no honey in the clover, and we have 

 no linn; buck-wheat is just commencing to bloom. 

 Have only taken out with extractor from over 50 colo- 

 nies 2K0 lbs., and think I had better have left that in 

 as thev don't increase much. Very cool, no comb 

 honey "al all. A. J. HOOVEIf, Aug. Sth. 1-74. 



Rally friend H., such a report is almost as 

 disheartening as to hear ones colonies are al- 



uiosi a i dead 

 rea ly know h> 

 think some of 



Did we not know 

 to take care of bees, 

 ie fall t yours. 



that you 

 we might 



What 

 White ( 



Alsike clover 



the advantages 

 ;i- a honev plant !- 



i ii\s. h. Rue, Manalapan, N. J. 



That it is a larger plant, bears more an 1 lar- 

 ger blossoms, and consequently gives more 

 honey. On the oilier hand we really fear it ; s 

 not going to "hold" in the ground like the com- 

 mon white, br even the red clover. Something 

 has been said of seeding with what is called 

 Ditch White clover. Can any one tell us in >re 

 about it ':' Seedsmen advertise it we think. 



