6875. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



153 



II^:a;C|# erf (K-S*5ii:llf 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS^ 



*-r\ EAK E.l)ITOa:— Ihad 11 swarms in the spring 

 M! m which I incrcaserl to 33 good strong swarms. I 

 *~^ have taken soniethinsr over (500 Il)s. of box honey, 

 Ijut the early iVost cut off Hie fall gatlienng. My bees 

 are in the " Langstroth hive— mostly Italians, shall 

 Italianize all in "the spring. I had "a lively time in 

 .August, two anil three swarms eoming out at a time. 

 1 lost some. I winter in the cellar, did not lose one 

 ■.-iwainn last winter. Have offered 10 swanus of pure 

 Italians for ssle at $1'2.00 jter swarm, as I cannot get 

 •ihem all into my winter <juarters. They are good 

 strong swarms. I Isad one swarm in a glass hive on 

 I'xhibition at onr rount.y Fair. It was very much ad- 

 snired. They gave the "first premium on mj- honey in 

 jJakcr <& Dicer's section honey box. I hope to send 

 you some more subscribers for G leaxin'gs. I divided 

 •<ny bees, and in August they took the work into their 

 ovvn liands, but most of them to tlieir astonishment, 

 found themselves back in their hive minus the Queen 

 ".oils. T. D. Ward, Lawton, Mich., Oct. "iTth, '75. 



Last April I bouglit three swarms of black bees in 

 box hives. 1 moved them home fourteen miles in a 

 wpring wagon, transferred them into Americnn liives 

 in May, and in June divided each swarm. In 

 July my six divided themselves, that is, swarmed. 

 The twelve swarms are in good condition for winter 

 oxcejtt one, which has too few bees. Last week I bo't 

 a large swarm of a man for a half dollar, took them 

 out of the hive and took out the houej' for liim. I 

 brouglit them home in a box, made a hive double 

 M'idth and jiut a wire c'otk partition through tlie mid- 

 <lle, put in my small swarm, then wet the swarm that 

 was in the l)ox with sweetened water and i)ut one- 

 fourth in with the small swarm, and the balance with 

 ilieir Queen into the other ))nrt of the hive. I took 

 <'ombs from other liives for the new swarm. They 

 <dustered as one swarm but the cloth kept tliem apart. 

 They seem to like their new home, the entrances to 

 the hive are on tlie front, r.re 24 inches apart and a 

 board separates them on the door step. 



W. A. Ei>i>i-, Easton, AYis., Oct. 19th, '75. 



Put a solid tight division board in place 

 of, or besides the wire cloth, or you 

 will be pretty sure to lose one of the two colo- 

 nics ; see page 74, Vol. 3. 



The Los Angeles (Cai.) Herald saj-s that at the pres- 

 i*nt rate of increase it is estimated there will be in 

 four years one million stands of bees in Los Angeles, 

 ^^auta Barbara, and San Bernardino counties, which 

 will produce annuallv one hundred million pounds of 

 honey, worth 5"2O,00t),0O0, which is more than the val- 

 «;c of the sugar and molasses crop of Louisiana, Texas, 

 and Florida combined. 



As a general thing we object to publishing 

 predictions, whether like the above, or to the 

 <!ffect that the honey business is overdone and 

 is, about to sink into insignificance, as our 

 friend Heddon seems to think. There are two 

 extremes in this as in all other things, and we 

 think it much the most profitable to consider 

 the present, to expect just about such seasons 

 as we have been having, and to be prepared for 

 foirer prices, if they come ; if they don't come, 

 we will try and stand that. When items like 

 the above come floating about in the papers 

 encouraging either extreme, we thiuk it a duty 

 to give a little caution. 



I got some half dozen dollar Queens of Dr. J. P. II. 

 Brown, of Augusta, Ga., and safely introduced 

 ;dl but one. I also got of Mr. J. H. Nellis.' Canajohario, 

 X. Y., a dozen or more, lost out of the lot some three 

 or four. .Vlso got of Dadant & Son, an iuijjortcd 

 i^.icen. Those 1 got of Brown all turned out well, all 

 i)eing well marked. Those of Nellis also; in fact two 

 that I got of Xellis show as fancy a bee as I ever saw, 

 being very lifiht. while huo of his Queens were very 

 <lark, the progeny of which are a dark leather col- 

 ored bee. In ordering of Dadant, T wrote for a light 

 colored (}uecn but didn't get It. Xow we have all 

 been educated to look upon the pure Italian as a 

 liyht golden colored bee, but latterly I notice (luitc a 



number speaking of them as a dark Uo': Would like 

 to hear from you and others through Gleaninos on 

 this subject. 



AVm. J. Andrews, Columbia, Tcnn., Oct. 21st, '75. 



"We have never seen a genuine imported 

 Queen that was light colored, hut tlieir daugh- 

 ters, many of them, will be <(uite ligiit, and by 

 selecting these to rear from we can get grand- 

 daughters that are as yellow and golden as any 

 one could wish. Our objection to these beau- 

 tiful light colored bees, is^that they are lazy ; 

 when v/inter conies they have to be fed, while 

 the dark bees with three leather colored bands 

 are all in winter trim. T)o you know that 100 

 colonies of bees that will gather enough in the 

 fall to winter are a much stronger argument 

 than 100 of "golden bees" that need 10 lbs. of 

 sugar each ? 



Seventy-five cents for your bee veils is too much. 



Geo. Pekkv, Peru, Ills. 



That is right, talk out just what you think. 

 The principal expense of the veils is the silk 

 1ace for the face, and unless we use some cheap- 

 er material, we cannot well get them up reatly 

 to mail for less than about 00 cents. If you 

 try looking through diflerent material, wire- 

 cloth, etc., you will at once see why we have 

 decided on something that is light and strong, 

 even though expensive. "When looking for 

 Queens and eggs, we v,'ant all the eyes we've 

 got, and if there must be an obstruction, it 

 should be the least possible. Send us a cheap- 

 er one and if as good we will adopt it and 

 thank you. 



The brood you sent me came ou Wednesday, so I 

 conclude it was three days on the road. The box was 

 all in pieces, the paiier was around the comb all right, 

 but; the largf-st of the grubs were nearly out of the 

 cells. I gave it directly to the bees and they started 

 six cells, in ten days 1 put five of them in a sniall lamp 

 nursery. The next day on looking in I was surprised 

 to Und one of the Queens out, and she had gnawed in- 

 to and destroyed two of the cells. I took the young 

 Queen to the hive where my uon-laying Queen was, 

 and after removing her, let the ^oung Queen go on 

 one of the combs. The bees cattght her right away, 

 and for fear they would kill her I put her in a cage, 

 let her stay over night, then sweetened the bees and 

 left the cage open. In a day or two she was missing. 

 Of the others suffice it to say I have but one. Please 

 tell me if it makes any diflerence whether the cells 

 are put into the nursei-y as soon as sealed, or if they 

 arc within 21 hours of hatching. 



S. H. HoiTGU, Kootstown, O., Oct. 9th, 1875. 



Your Queen behaved precisely as ours do 

 when they have been hatched too long ; if you 

 look at your nursery the last thing at night 

 and first thing in the morning we think you 

 will have no such trouble, providing you put 

 them into the hive as soon as they arc found 

 out of the cell. Your one Queen is probablj' 

 worth all your trouble, and you will be sure 

 to do better next time. If the cells are kept 

 carefallj' at a temperature of from 90 to 100 de- 

 grees, we think they are just as good as if left 

 in the hive, but if you cannot be sure of this 

 you had better let the bees have them until 

 they are ready to hatch. 



Saw your ailvertisement in American Aariculturist, 

 of Gleanings in I'.ee Ciltuke. 



The above was all that was to be found ou 

 the postal , not another scrap of informatjon 

 of any kind to be seen. It is quite consoling 

 to our feelings, unknown friend, to hear that 

 you did notice it, but for the life of us wc are 

 unable to cipher out how we are to serve you, 

 unless you will be kind enough to tell us who 

 you are and where you live. 



