184 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



May 



drones; color and markings of. 



Are the drones of an imported queen always of 

 uniform color? If they are, I am inclined to think 

 that the fertilization of the queen does effect the 

 drone progeny. I raised queens from the larvae of 

 an imported queen. The queens were mated with 

 black drones and their progeny of drones vary as 

 much in color as their worker bees. About the best 

 proof we have of anything 1 is that which we see with 

 our own eyes, instead of using- a lamp nursery, I 

 cut out queen cells when sealed, place them in wire 

 cages, same side up as when in the comb, then place 

 them on top of the frames, under the quilt, among 

 the bees of any good colony. I examine often, and 

 introduce as soon as hatched. F. C. White. 



Euclid, Ohio, May 13, 1878. 



I believe the general decision is that no de- 

 pendence can be placed on the color of the 

 drones from any queen, they vary so much. 

 Are you always sure of a thing, friend W., 

 when you do see it with your eyes? Your 

 wire cage for hatching queens is quite an old 

 idea, but does not seem to be much used. 



FDN. IN EVERY OTHER FRAME, FDN. FOR NEW 

 SWARMS, AND SPACE REQUIRED FOR COMBS. 



I have used fdn. in honey boxes and it works like 

 a charm. Now about the brood chamber; if I put 

 the fdn. inevery other frame will they build the* 

 cards between the fdn. in good shape? or have I 

 got to put it in every frame? I saw in some book that 

 it would not do to hive bees into a hive filled with 

 fdn. and nothing more. Do you think that the 

 fdn. will sag in my 13 by 13J4 racks that you make? 



My hive is 13 in. wide by 13 in. long. I put in 8 

 frames to the 12 in. ; do vou think this enough? 



Springfield, N. Y., Dec* 27, 1878. S. E. Glazar. 



If you put the fdn. in every other frame, 

 they will build in the empty ones all right, 

 but you will find the natural combs will get 

 along much the slower. I have hived a good 

 many swarms on fdn., but have had no bad 

 results. There would be a greater liabili- 

 ty to sag with your deeper frames. Eight 

 frames will do very well in a 12 inch hive, 

 but, if they are all built on fdn., so as to 

 be perfectly straight, you could get along 

 very well with 9. 



ARTIFICIAL HT5AT AS A REMEDY FOR DWINDLING. 



Bees have wintered very poorly in this part of the 

 state. Very few of our small bee keepers will get 

 any through alive, and all have lost some. I had 40 

 stands last fall, and have lost 10. They had the 

 spring dwindling. About Vs of the rest were very 

 weak before I noticed Ihem; they seemed to dwindle 

 so quick. As soon as 1 noticed 'them I took them 

 into a dark room, and am keeping a Are day and 

 nisht. They have been in about 2 weeks and seem 

 to be doing well. Hart Barber. 



Adrian, Mich., March 28, 1879. 



Many attempts have been made to stop 

 the dwindling, by the use of artificial heat, 

 but I do not know as we have had a report 

 of a successfull experiment without the in- 

 tervention of weather that would allow the 

 bees to fly. Will you tell us how your ex- 

 periment succeeded, friend B.V 



old hives and frames, we can just boil the 

 wood in our ley, and throw it out after the 

 gum has all disolved from it. Unless, how- 

 ever, as with honey vinegar, we get some- 

 thing very superior, we can hardly hope to 

 make much money by it, for common rosin 

 is sold so cheaply, that propolis could hardly 

 be gathered up at the price of it. Perhaps 

 the propolis is superior to rosin for this pur- 

 pose; we hope so. 



SOAP FROM PROPOLIS. 



Mr. M. W. Chapman would confer a favor on 

 your readers by giving us his mode of making soap 

 with either propolis or rosin. The fact is, in our 

 "wooden" country, we have the materials in abun- 

 dance for making soap, but don't know how to com- 

 bine them so as to make a soap that will not en- 

 danger the skin when used on the hands; but we 

 make a soap said to be just jolly for house work. 



Whitleyville, Jackson Co , Tenn. H. W. Rehorn. 



1 hope we can make the soap business 

 work, friend R., for it will make another 

 product from the apiary. Instead of being 

 obliged to scrape the propolis off from the 



A FEEDER FOR FEEDING DRY SUGAR. 



I see by your lust th it you wish a f ed ;r that will 

 feed sugar just as taken from the barrel. I have 

 used such a one for some time, and think it far 

 ahead of anything I ever saw. Bore 2 holes in the 

 bottom of a Simplicity feeder, and draw rags 

 through them. Let the rags be not very tight, but 

 just close enough to allow the water to ooze through 

 them slowly. Nail this close underneath the top-oar 

 of a frame, and bore a hole in the top-bar to till it 

 through. Then, on each side of the frame, nail thin 

 boards, wide enough to reach within one inch of 

 the water trough. Fill the sugar box with sugar and 

 the water trough with water, hang in the hive and 

 I will warrant you it will be all gone before you 

 know it. If you prefer, you can place the water 

 trough down from top-bar far enough to let the bees 

 get to the water, and not bore holes in the bottom 

 of the feeder; but, accordingto my experience, they 

 will not use it as fast in that way; for, if the bees 

 do not take the water as fast as it oozes through, it 

 will drop on the sugar and they will t hen soon lick it 

 up. Pei haps the water trough would be better if 

 made of tin, but it works well now. 



Plainfield, Mich., April 8, '70. F. L. Wright. 



I do not know where this idea of water 

 and sugar is to end, but from the number of 

 communications on the subject, I feel that 

 something superior to any feedernow in use 

 is to lif the outcome of it. The demands of 

 the case sppiu to be something to furnish 

 sugar in a considerable quantity, just as it 

 conies from the stores, in such a way that it 

 will not lie wasted. If water is to drip on it, 

 it is to he tight enough so it will not leak, 

 and we are to guard against any sort of 

 daubing. The utensil to hold the water 

 should lie wood or glass; anything made of 



' metal will rust in time, and proove unsightly, 

 even if it is not unhealthy for the bees. It 



i ought to be so made as to be used without 

 opening the hive, and then there will be no 

 escape of the heat of the cluster. Placing 

 it at the entrance, like the Simplicity feeder, 

 seems to be the readiest plan. The water 

 trough can lie open as well as not, that it 

 may be the more readily filled; and if a Sim- 

 plicity feeder or something equivalent is 

 used, robbers can be given to understand 

 that they are quite welcome to all the pure 

 water they wish. I would much prefer 

 that all feeding should be done in the night 

 time, when the weather is such that bees 

 can fly. for I think it very bad policy for 

 bees to be fussing with a feeder, when' they 

 might be at work out of doors, getting their 

 own feed. Who will make the nicest feeder 

 to feed dry sugar at the entrance? Many 

 thanks, friend W., for your idea of letting 

 the wtiter drip on the sugar. 



I am an A I? C scholar, who started a year ago 

 with one colony; in addition, I found one in the 

 woods in May, and increased to 9, and secured over 

 200 lbs. surplus honey. I wintered in Langstroth 

 hives, with clover chaff, a la Cook's Manual. All 

 are now strong except the first swarm from the old 

 hive which is queenless, and very weak. The bees 

 carried the first natural pollen yesterday. I am so 

 well pleased with chaff, that I have purchased a 



