<5LEANINGS IN BEECULTUIIE. 



Wi 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS. 



i:ai; N<)\'1CJ'. :— Jlcio we cuiuc with ;i lew jots. 

 In llif Jiisl pliice, voin- llaney Jviiilc Jias i)n)ved 



to bo ;i sjilcjuliiliv liii-iilied .iii.slnuneiU, oi -tinely 



luinporea sic'el,iiii'l it is so ili.'n, and «> fh.-u)), Llial- il 

 auniil.s ot no<-;uvd(.'^s Jianilling'. unless one ilelights iu 

 the luMivv (Il Um-la^ed Jii!,ueis-' J'heii ihevc is QuiJi- 

 by"s bnuiuer -not iierfect jx vJiaps— hut aeveilheloss, 

 woi Ih its \vei;;hl in nold. 



Then here (.(Xinc'ti > luir JJec^ v<.'dl. -n neaUoonvejiJeiit, 

 :i!id conilorlablv cool iirole<-tJon lor the lace— llie best 

 1 have yet seen.' And Novice, <to you know that 1 looli. 

 ujjon the atlejnid to handle beos in .nencral, -:ind 

 tiy bi ills in iiarlic.ular. witli jieiiher smoke nor any kind 

 ol deleai>Jv(! armor (••'-'tars ;uid Stripes (irotect as"K 

 as sometluu>; akin to lool-hardincss ? 



Next couie our tJuuiks lor lliat splojid.id picture, 

 .Medley, wlucJi we hoi>c will be kept as a mojnent-o, 

 .onii', tii-^K/ alter all '-oju'erned in its production shall 

 have jia^rsed to their reward, ••for whatsoever a man 

 ■^owetii, that t-hallhe also reap."' 



it' 1 )Kid t.he proi)er masuilyiug glass, I would be 

 !ikely,jJi--t now, to disobey or'ders, in respect to the 

 photo. oJ vour Apiary, in order to ascertain, if jiotjsj- 

 uie, w-hy .1'. ti. wotdd not let the light of her couiite- 

 jiance shine in the Modleyi 



The Automatic Jlivcr works beautifully, iai theory, 

 but in practice the sw'arnis cluster on the apple trees! 



Now Novice, please "stand from under," AVhile we 

 inijuire il a ch)tJies basket is really the best kind of a 

 hher, and vour methotl of procedure is just •"ilie cor- 

 rect thing .-"'■ KespectluUy, D. T. Lank. 



Koshkouong, Wis. July 5ih, '7"i. 



There .'ife times, it i.s true, when it would be 

 rtisli ill the extrejiie, to iitteini^t to huiidle par- 

 ticular colonies, without smoke, and we re- 

 member a ca^e where some friends went to 

 examine their bees according to our instruc- 

 tions ; they remembered al 1 tlie directions given 

 except one item — they entirely forgot all about 

 ■\i)ioke, and thought they had had experience 

 enotigh with bees to last them a life time. 



We wouhl nevtr use a veil, were it not for 

 mischievous Ix-es cojiiiiig in from other colo- 

 gnes, that cannot be readily reached by smoke ; 

 .•'or with the iSmoker, we can keep in poj'fect 

 subjugation the iiunates of any one hive. Very 

 likely our attempts at hiving were awkward, 

 as we never have had much experience with 

 ■iwarras. 



~ How would you have taken them ott' the 

 apple tree, friend .L. 'i »Since that time we took 

 the same <-lothes Ijasket and fastened some 

 .green twigs in the bottom, then inverted it 

 over a swarm that was hanging to some limbs 

 that could not easilj' be sliaken, and "poked" 

 them gently with a bush, until they all clu.s- 

 tered nicely and quietly iu the basket ; they 

 were then deposited on a sheet, the corners 

 tied over the basket, and we carried them 

 safely some distance, keeping the basket in- 

 verted. We like the basket because it gives 

 them plenty of air, and don't let them get out. 



From the little piece of comb containing eggs, 

 that 1 got of you last fall, 1 got V2 Queen cells, and 1 

 had had luck ; some were droivned, some chilled, and 

 some znated with black drones, and so 1 have only '2 

 pure ones. C J. Yoi>]iK, Orrville, Oliio. 



Well, friend Y., that is rather bad, to get 

 only tv^) pure Queeus from twelve cells, but 

 atter all, was it not a i^rettv' fair investment, 

 to get two pure (Queens for only 2oc, and those 

 .i'om an importetl mother V Since we have 

 been in the habit of sending small larva;, well 

 supplied with their milky food, we have had 

 scarcel}' a failure, when the distance was such 

 that the}" were received inside of, say 48 hours. 

 All the larviv we send out is oi' course, from 



our im])orted Queens; and during the months 

 of June, July, Aug. and perhaps Sei>t., it is a 

 very cheap way of introducing into your Api- 

 ary a fresh strain of the Itiilian blood. There 

 should be, if there are not already, inii)orted 

 (^ui ens, within at kvist 100 miles of every one 

 of our stibscril)ers, and when the brood is ta- 

 ken from the hive Just l)efore the mail is {)Ut 

 up, and then removed on its arrival, there can 

 be little chance of failure, 



aiK. A. 1. ]JOOT, Dear Sir:— I Jiavc tried the Ucya! 

 jelly on several virgin Queeus, bat it will not make 

 thwn ac^'.cpcable to a strange colony— have tiled per^ 

 haps a hundred times to introduce Virgin (Queens, but 

 liave never succeeded in one single inslan<;e and <lon"i 

 believe it can be done. Since writing the above, 1 see 

 on i)age .')'2, Vol. 3— you hokl out Ike idea that it can 

 be rione. I'lease tell how iu your next i«suo. 



JojiN F. J^AKrKurv, Martinsville, 111. July .'ith, "T.i. 



We only gave the idea of Roytil Jelly, l)e- 

 cau.se it was odd, not thinking any one would 

 place very much tlepeiidance on it, and are not 

 astonished at your failure ; Init frienil Jj., we 

 are astonished and pained at your closing re- 

 mark, if you really mean to doubt the testimo- 

 ny of so many others. So many have written 

 us, that they were having almost invarialjle 

 success with virgin Queens that we have not 

 thought it worth while to publish the state- 

 ments. That a Queen several days old will be 

 stung as ;in intruder almost invariably, we are 

 well aware, and have so stilted most particU' 

 larly. It has for a long time been universally 

 conceded that a Queen is all right where she is 

 hatched, even if the cell be so introduced that 

 she is hatched in one hour or less after tlie old 

 Queen is removed. During our experiment de- 

 tailed iu Vol. 1, we fell to thinking that it was 

 beyond reason that every bee in the hive knew 

 whether a young Queen was hatched there, or 

 came there by other means ; and a few experi- 

 ments convinced us that it was age only, that 

 made this great difference. If any of our read- 

 ers will take a Queen of but few hours old, and 

 before she has been running among the bees of 

 any hive, they will llnd that she can be put any 

 where, and will be unmolested, (even it there 

 l)e a Queen already in the hive), until she gets 

 old enough to show her Royal l)lood. 



Many of you know that it you can tind a lot 

 of cells, just hatching, you can cut out the per- 

 fectly formed Queens with a pen knife, and 

 they will be received precisely as any young- 

 bees just hatched out, for you can put them in 

 any hive with imptinity. 



We are now just about rearing 30 Queens for 

 our house Apiary, and as a means of safety shall 

 have them all hatched in our lamp nursery. 

 All the care needed is to be sure and put them 

 among the bees l)efore they are more than 

 about" 12 hours old. The loss is much less 

 than that of inserting cells, and we have no 

 cutting of combs to do, besides the great sa- 

 ving ol" time, in not being obliged to keep the 

 bees Queenless at till ; in" fact we do not divide 

 the colony until the Queen for it is htitched. 



DI':AI! (iT.EAN'INGS:— My 10 I^angstroth hives, 

 bought last Aug. for frtO.OO, have increased to -20, and 

 have furnished honey enough to )jay for themselves, 

 the extractor, (Winder's No. 2), and knife. Can any 

 other investment jiav like that y T.ut now comes a 

 dilllcultv: the moths, in spite of all my care, have got 

 into nearly all inv hives, and are wading through the 

 combs behind the young bee.-, leaving them uncapped 

 and mostly de.id; are these the ordii'.ary moths ^ If 

 so, how am 1 to remedy the dilliculty ;" l have taken 



