1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



lsi 



%&ad4 4 %foln 9 



From Different Fields. 



CHANGING LOCATION OF HIVES. 



ON the first of this month, I carried my bees 

 ) (16 swarms) out for a fly, putting- them all 

 close together, and left them out one week, 

 when I returned them to the cellar. Yesterday, I 

 carried them Out again and put them on their sum- 

 mer stands, about ti rods from where they were 

 placed on the first ot Marc'i. In the course of the 

 day, they commenced to return to ihe place they 

 occupied on the first of March. I then took a hive 

 filled with plenty of comb and honey (one in which 

 the bees had died in the winter), and placed it where 

 the bees seemed to he thickest, and now have a 

 good swarm of bees in it, but of course they have no 

 queen. Now, what shall 1 do? Can I get* a queen 

 now? and if so, at what price? C. O. Shannon. 

 Edgerton, Rock Co., Wis., Mar. 28, 1879. 



Your experiment proves that it injures 

 stocks, to change the location of their hives, 

 even though they have been some days in 

 the cell r. as were yours; and I fear you 

 have injured yours, by depriving them of 

 their flying bees when they need them most, 

 even though you have made a new swarm. 

 The bees in your swarm, being all, or near- 

 ly all, old, will soon die off, even if you had 

 a queen to give them, and so I think it 

 would be best to distribute them around to 

 weak colonies. 



QUEENS THAT TURN OUT TO BE DRONE LAYERS. 



In Italianizing my bees last summer, I introduced 

 with some difficulty, a queen to one swarm, on the 

 first of September. The bees did not like her, and 

 tore off a part of her wings while in the cage on the 

 frames, but finally accepted her, till they could 

 suit themselves better, as it seemed, for they tried 

 to supersede her all the fall, and kept building- 

 queen cells, and went into winter quarters with 

 drones in the hive, that 1hey had not killed. The 

 queen did very well last fall; her bees were well 

 marked, most of them being 3 banded; but, this 

 spring, they have raised dnmrs. drones, tinmen, and 

 nothing else. Eggs laid in woiker cebs came out 

 drones. I have not been able to find any worker 

 brood capped over this spring; it would all be bulged 

 out into drone cells, and some of the bees, Mr. Elk- 

 ins said, looked as though they were half drones and 

 half worker-. I destroyed her, and put some egs-s 

 from an imported queen in the hive, the~'9th of April, 

 and set them to raising queen cells. Now, what 

 was the trouble? Had the queen failed? She was 

 young, and I introduced her as soon she commenced 

 laying. Or were the bees the ones that did ihe mis- 

 chief? I don't think it was the bees, but it i« a mys- 

 tery to me. V. Page. 



Kennedy, N. Y., May 7, 1878. 



I think the trouble was all in the queen, 

 and that the bees, by some means unknown 

 to us, had a premonition that she would 

 eventually fail, and therefore were bent on 

 replacing her. Such cases are not uncom- 

 mon. Where the bees persistently build 

 queen cells, in the manner you mention. I 

 believe the queen usually fails pretty soon 

 after. 



ADULTERATION OF HONEY, AND MAPLE SYRUPS. 



In Dec. No of Glka.mngs,I notice some remarks 

 in regard to the adulteration of honey. It has al- 

 most ruined the sale of extracted honey in the 

 western country. The most of the extracted honey 

 in the market, previous to the introduction of Cali- 

 fornia honey, was put up by Perrine of Chicago, and 

 it is so notoriously adulterated that it is hard to 

 convince an old mind that a pure article of extrac- 

 ted honey exists. Perrine also puts up an article 

 which he calls pure maple syrup lhat has but a faint 

 flavor of the genuine article. 



filing circular saws. 



I wish to say to those having Barnes' buzz, saws 

 that I tried every form of filing saws, but none of 

 them would accomplish the amount of work that I 

 thought they should, until I cut out every other 

 tooth, and give them a large thn at. Now 1 can saw 

 more than the warrant calls for with very much 

 less fatigue; the saw should have a pretty good set, 

 about 1-U'l of an inch, and the outer corner of the 

 tooth should always be kept full. I use a small 

 rat tail file, to keep the throat round, so the saw 

 dust will not wedge in as it will sometimes, if the 

 lumber is a little pitchy. 



Canon City, Col., Jan. 13, 1876. Chas. E. McKay. 



Making a "throat" for the saw dust is a 

 very important matter I know, but is it 

 really necessary to take out every other 

 tooth, friend M.V Does not the saw do rough 

 work from being made so much coarser? 



SETTING THE CROSS CUT BAR TO A CIRCULAR SAW. 



In A 15 C, No. 2, you give a plan for settiDg a cross 

 cut bur. I have a plan that I think much more 

 simple and easy. 1 take a scrap of board that has 

 one straight edge or end, place this against the bar, 

 cut a piece from all four sides, and if the last piece 

 is exactly parallel, the bar is accurate. If not it 

 will show* pieces as in accompanying cuts. 



Middleport, O., Mar. 17, 1877. A. E. Gardner. 



Many thanks for your very ingenious plan, 

 friend Li. If I get the idea correctly, when 

 the liar is exactly at right angles, the strip 

 that comes off from the last side will have 

 parallel sides, and your block will be exactly 

 square; but, if there be any deviation from 

 an exact right angle, each successive cut 

 magnifies it, until we get clear around, and 

 at the last cut. we have the sum of all the 

 variations. 



TOO MUCH HONEY, TINKERING WITH STOCKS LATE 

 IN THE FALL, ETC. 



You have met with quite a loss in bees, but ac- 

 cording to friend Fowler, page 114, you should have 

 saved all except the one in the American hive, and 

 so much honey, we have been told, would kill the 

 bees in cold winters in any hive. 



I would like to change my bees to the Simplicity, 

 just for the convenience of handling (not because I 

 ihink I could winter any better), but I can't afford 

 it. 1 don't think I ever had a good colony of bees 

 freeze jet; I certainly have not in the last 3 years. 

 1 use a frame 11 in. deep, 13 in. long, with closed 

 top bar, 11 frames to the hive. The hive is made of 

 7 3 pine lumber. I never used chalf quilts, or any 

 packing whatever. I give the bees plenty of time in 

 the fall to fix up, then let them alone. 



I went into winter quarters last fall with 43 colo- 

 nics all told; I left them on summer stands with no 

 protection whatever, with a full north west expos- 

 ure and I have not lost a colony yet, and they are 

 all strong colonies too. Others have lost bees, but I 

 think it caused by late tinkering. It was so cold 

 here last winter that nearly all the peach trees in 

 the country are killed. I lost 80 peach trees -all I 

 had— several pear and cherry trees, and other 

 shrubbery. 



I like your last improvement in your corners for 

 Simplicity hives. Do get us up that cheap fdn. 

 machine. I use 5 cts. worth of wire cloth, and 5 cts. 

 worth of muslin for bee veil. A. S. Davison. 



Aullville, Lafayette Co., Mo., April 7, 1879. 



T have since lost two more colonies in the 

 very large American hives that I purchased. 

 ( me of them was such a very populous col- 

 ony, that I had paid an extra price for it. It 

 was transferred yesterday, and all I have for 



