170 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



its various stages of development, and not 5 lbs. of 

 honey in the hive! 



As the hive already contained an enormous mass 

 of bees, he thought all bees and no honey would be 

 unprofitable; and to prevent more honey from be- 

 ing-consumed in brood rearing 1 , he killed hit queen. 

 When he told me of this fact yesterday, 1 replied 

 that such a queen was worth at least trn doUars; and 

 he still insisted that she was not worth ten cents! 



For several years, I have thought my breed of bees 

 more than usually prolific, and when properly man- 

 aged, profitable in like ratio; but I have no figures to 

 prove that I have ever had any other queen as pro- 

 lific as that. Estimating 100 square inches of brood 

 on each surface of each one of the 36 combs, we have 

 a total of 7200 square inches of brood, which, at 25 

 bees for each square inch, gives 180.000 eggs which 

 must have been laid by the queen in three weeks, the 

 period of incubation. This would be at the rate of 

 8571 eggs, laid by one queen, during each 21 hours, 

 for a period of 21 days at least ! 



To me, such figures seem almost incredible, and yet 

 I have not the least reason for doubting neighbor 

 T's word, and I know that he has handled bees long 

 enough to be qualified to distinguish brood from cap- 

 ped honey, and to make such observations correct- 

 ly. 



St. Johns, Mich., Aug. 19, 1878. G.'E. Corbin. 



I am well aware that a queen is occasion- 

 ally found that will lay enormously, and a 

 brother-in-law of mine had a queen one fall, 

 that reared such an amount of brood, his 

 wife begged him to slice their heads Pofl, in 

 the way they had drones in July. I paid 

 $10.00 for the queen and bees after taking a 

 look through the hive. The bees were hybrids, 

 and as the queen did not prove more than 

 ordinarily prolific the next season, I put an 

 Italian queen in her place. It would be in- 

 teresting to know whether such queens 

 would transmit their extraordinary qualities 



of fertility. 



" • — ♦ ♦ 



VERY THICK COMBS FOR THE EX- 

 TRACTOR. 



ARE THEy ADVISABLE? 



-HEN I read your plan for a chaff hive, the 

 lower frames of which were to be smaller 



than the upper, and considered the fact that 

 the queen could be kept below by having the combs 

 built very thick, I exclaimed "Eureka, at last !"Now 

 I do not want to exchange frames with the lower 

 story, if I can exclude brood from the upper frames. 

 Before using the upper frames, which in my locality 

 would not be before white clover blossomed, I would 

 spread the brood and give the queen achance to con- 

 trol all the room she desires below. Then most of 

 the honey would be stored above, where the bees 

 seem to want it, and where it is most convenient 

 for us to get to and remove. But your answer to 

 my postal has given me a ''set back." Such thick 

 combs, you think with Muth, may be at the expense 

 of honey. I want nothing in the way of that, for I see 

 that honey should bo sold near home, and when 

 home is near poor people, it must be sold cheap, 

 and to make it pay, must be sold in large quantities. 

 Now while I think of it, why educate people to buy 

 it in small quantities? Why not offer it by the gallon, 

 in tin pails, enough cheaper than in small jars, to in- 

 duce people to buy more and use more? It is diffi- 

 cult here, in our small towns, to get 15 cents for 

 comb honey in small packages. People want only a 

 little for a treat. Eight cts for extract cd honey orfl.00 

 per gal., is better in a locality like this, far away 

 from large cities, and it seems to me, it could be 

 made a more common article in the homes of 

 all. if sold in larger quantities, say by the 

 gallon, $1.00 or $1.25 per gal. By extracting, we 

 also have a much better chance to control swar- 

 ming—no small item when you have bees enough 

 andean not sell them. But I am getting away 

 from the subject of thick combs. Before I resume, 

 I must say I want the most convenient arrangements 

 for extracting honey that I can get— a hive 

 which, if I wish, I can also run for comb honey, for 

 those who must gradually be broken off from eating 

 beeswax, or for those who want it to set off the 

 table; but such must pay for it about twice what! 



sell ext. honey for,and I would not try to sell in large 

 boxes. Mrs. Axleil sajs she is Iroubled very little 

 with brood in upper frames, when she moves Hum 

 a little farther apart than she has the lower ones (see 

 page 80, gleanings). Tell me what you think of it. 

 Will a distance less than 2 in. exclude all, or most, 

 of the brood from the frame 1 am using (frames run- 

 ning crosswise of a simplicity hive;? Would the 

 same thickness or depth of cells in drone comb ex- 

 clude brood? The cells being larger than worker 

 cells, [ thought it might be easier for the bees to 

 store and evaporate in large cells, but it might also 

 be easier for the queen to lay a lot of drone brood 

 there. I fear these thick combs may be more ob- 

 jectionable for the extractor than boxes, as bees can 

 and do store honey in new comb before it is comple- 

 ted, but when returned tolhem fr< m the extractor, 

 they must work in the completed cell. From what 

 Doolitlle says about evaporating honey, it may be 

 nearly as much work as gathering and storing. 

 Waverly, Iowa, March 22, 1870. J. B. C. 



THE SWEET PEPPER. 



M N engraving of this plant appears on 

 Jrj%\± the page opposite. I have never seen 

 - 1 the plant, but have been induced to 

 give it a place, from the favorable notices 

 it has of late received. I have ordered some 

 plants and hope to give them a fair test on 

 our own grounds very soon. Mr. A. Parsons, 

 of Flushing, N. Y., gives the following ac- 

 count (if it in the A. B. J. for Feb. 



Here on the Atlantic coast, if bees winter and are 

 strong, swarming occurs in June, and again in Au- 

 gust, when the sweet pepper bush comes into bloom. 

 Our people and the school children call it honey 

 dew, from its delightful odor; in fact, the plant is 

 known here by no other name. 



It grows wild in the greatest abundance in the 

 swamps and wet places, and I never knew it to tail 

 from any cause whatever. Dry seasons do not af- 

 fect it, because its home is generally in wet places; 

 and again, no cold appears ever to harm it. The 

 honey is about white, thick, and of fine flavor. 



We extract the following from the cata- 

 logue of the nursery man, Mr. J. W. Man- 

 ning, of Reading, Mass., who furnished us 

 the cut of engraving, and who will furnish 

 plants. 



Its leaves are light green; flowers are pure white, 

 in spikes 3 to 6 inches long. A group of this Clethra 

 in bloom will perfume the air for 20 rods around; 

 a handful will fill a room with its delightful fra- 

 grance. It blooms from July 1st to September. Its 

 cultivation is simple, as it grows to perfect ion where 

 i he lilac will succeed. It never fails to bloom after 

 a hard winter. 



Its effect is impressive when grown in large 

 masses, as produced by a dozen or more plants set 

 in a group. It has never been so well shown to the 

 public as in Central Park, Now York. 



Immediately after the February number of the 

 American Bee Journal had appeared, numerous let- 

 ters came to us from New England to California, 

 and from the Oulf to the Lakes, and beyond, to 

 learn of the supply, culture, price, &c. We have to 

 say that it grows to perfection in our grounds, on 

 what was cold, springy land now under/drained. It is 

 readily increased by suckers and layers, as freely as 

 the old Purple Lilac. A strong plant in fertile soil 

 can be made to increase in three years, by suckers 

 alone, to at least one hundred plants. It is safe to 

 claim that in a few years the planter of a hundred 

 plants will soon cover many square rods, and the 

 planter of a thousand plants can extend its culture 

 to acres of the most profitable forage it is possible 

 to provide for his bees. It blooms on plants 1 to 8 

 feet high, according to its age or strength of soil to 

 produce vigor of growth. In Hie West it will doubt- 

 less succeed to great perfection where the hazel 

 bush delights. It will grow where corn will, or in 

 the shade of higher trees. The Clethra will grow 

 and afford rich pasturage to the bee wherever it 

 may toil for honey. It puts out leaves late in 

 spring. We plant it here till May 15tb, and from 

 October to December. To plant for ornament we 

 have advocated it for 20 years. To plant it largely 

 for bees is not a doubtful experiment, nor is it an 

 expensive one. 



