270 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



July 



From Different Fields. 



GETTING QUEENS PROMPTLY. 



^jjpjjjV, LEASE accept thanks for your promptness. I 

 J8r^ received your postal on the 5th, just 7654 

 ^J hours from the time that I put the order in 

 the office (how is that for promptness'). My hive 

 had a division board in it; I set it back far enough 

 to receive the cage containing the queen, then set 

 an oyster can in the bottom, and the cage on that, 

 and left it there 24 hours, when I let her out. She 

 went down all right ; every bee that met her, would 

 make her stop and give the "pass word." Your box 

 came through all right; it is very nice and light; it 

 could not be any better. There was not a dead bee 

 in it. They uncapped about Ji of the honey. It was 

 shipped on the 4th, and bees taken out on the 7th, in 

 the morning; so you can tell about how much hon- 

 ey they will eat in a given number of days. The 

 bees were all very smart and lively; could not be 

 any better. J. L. Jobdan. 



Adrian, Mich., June 6, '79. 



FRIEND HOUGH CONTRIBUTES TO THE COLD BLAST 

 SMOKER. 



I like the smoker, and thought I must add some- 

 thing to it; so 1 tacked a piece of sand paper on top 

 of the bellows to scratch matches on. 



Rootstown, O., June 3, '79. S. H. Hough. 



Many thanks, friend H. It was but yes- 

 terday, in scratching a match on the smoker, 

 I tried to find a rough place on it, but it 

 never dawned on my understanding how 

 handy the sandpaper would be, until you 

 spoke of it. We have placed a dollar to your 

 credit for the idea, and now our smokers all 

 have a piece of sandpaper glued on the 

 bellows board, just before the draft hole. 



OBJECT LESSONS IN BEE CULTURE. 



T received the 5 lbs. of comb fdn. you sent me, put 

 it into racks, and transferred the bees from the old 

 fashioned boxes into the rack hives. You cannot 

 imagine my great surprise at the great change it 

 has already produced, or the surprise of grand- 

 mother, who has tended bees for at least 50 years in 

 the old mode of working with them. But 1 am 

 rather ahead of her now and have already given her 

 two good object lessons on bee culture. And all I 

 know about bees is what I have read from your 

 journal during the past few months. 



S. H. Frankford. 



North Lima, Ohio, June 12, 1879. 



I wonder if our friend is not superintend- 

 ent of a Sunday School as well as a bee 

 keeper. 



SCOTLAND. 



Everything has arrived safely. The ABC gives 

 special satisfaction. 1 have got the sunflower seeds 

 planted in pots and expect to force them into bloom 

 this season. The season here is later this year than 

 usual. As yet, I have not heard of any natural 

 swarms. Fruit blossom, with the exception of the 

 cherry, is scarcely out. Still we live in hope. July 

 is the great harvest month for bees. 



Geo. Leslie. 



Luthrie, Cupar-Fife, Scotland, June 2, '79. 



SHADE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 



H. A. Moody, p. 225, says, "In southern latitudes 

 the sun rises in N. E. and sets in N. W." If he will 

 consider a moment, he will see that it shines more 

 on the north side of a house or hive in N. Y. than it 

 does in Miss., and that the days are longer here. 

 Farther north, nearer the pole, the sun would go 

 round the hive something as 1 suppose you walk 

 round the stairs. 



May I suggest to your proof reader to mark out 

 "onto" whenever he finds it and use the English 

 word upon? J. E. Dean. 



Fishkill, N. Y., June 12, '79. 



FEEDING BROKEN COMB HONEY. , 



I have on hand some sugar syrup, and can buy 

 some good comb honey in poor shape for market at 

 six cents per pound. Will it help the bees any in 

 increasing stock and comb building, by feeding it to 

 them nights and lowery days? and will it pay? How 

 would you feed broken comb honey if you had no 

 extractor? inside the hive or out? Will the bees 

 uncap it, or shall I? Would it do harm to feed hon- 

 ey in front of the hive at night? W. A. Sniffin. 



Spencer, N. Y., June 12, 1879. 



I do not think it will pay to feed bees at 

 all, while they are storing honey. Eeed 

 broken comb honey, either inside or outside 

 the hive, as you choose ; if you feed outside, 

 in the day time, of course you will have 

 other bees getting it, and will be in danger 

 of exciting robbing. Broken comb honey 

 can be fed at the entrance, in the night, 

 nicely, if you do not give them more than 

 they will surely clean up before morning, 

 you can tell, by practice, just how much will 

 answer. No feeder is needed. 



SEVERAL EGGS IN A CELL, AND SELLING HONEY. 



I have an Italian queen which lays from one to 

 twelve eggs to the cell. Now, is it any use to keep 

 a colony of bees to wait on such an "old granny" as 

 that? or is that nothing strange, friend Root ? 



I have 80 colonies under my care. As I am but 19 

 years old, I am quite young to handle so many bees. 

 It is not the production of honey here, but the sale, 

 that makes me look downcast. What shall I do, 

 friend Root ? C. H. Clark. 



Albia, Iowa, June 12, 1879. 



Several eggs in a cell may result from two 

 causes. The most general one is, that the 

 cluster of bees is too small for the queen, 

 and so she goes her rounds over and over 

 again. In this case, you will find eggs in all 

 the cells which the bees have prepared for 

 her. If on the other hand, you find eggs in 

 but few of the otherwise empty cells, and 

 those all '"in a heap," the fault is pretty evi- 

 dently the queens; and the eggs, if they 

 hatch at all, will probably produce drones, 

 showing that the queen, irom old age or 

 some other cause, has become virtually a 

 fertile worker. The remedy is, of course, a 

 new queen. 



I know of no better way to sell your honey, 

 my friend, than to develop your home mar- 

 ket. Put up a shingle, ''Honey for sale," 

 and then make such a nice show of honey to 

 every customer who calls, that it will "aston- 

 ish the natives" round about. In the same 

 manner, introduce your honey into the gro- 

 ceries, and if you can keep up the standard, 

 and keep every thing neat and tidy the year 

 around, there will be no trouble about sell- 

 ing your honey. 



MISHAPS IN INTRODUCING, ETC. 



The queen was received alive and all right. I had 

 the misfortune to kill her but the bees did not do it. 

 I released her yesterday morning, but just as soon 

 as she got out of the box she flew away and was 

 gone about ten minutes. When she came back, I 

 placed her on top of the frames, but I soon saw the 

 bees were going to kill her, so I put her back into 

 the box. In the meantime some of the other bees 

 had got into the box, and it was as bad for her there 

 as it was in the hive. I took her into the house and 

 got the bees away from her, clipped one of her 

 wings, and placed her in a cage by herself, and put 

 her back in the hive. I released her this morning. 

 The bees received her very well, at first; but I 

 looked at the hive in about twenty minutes, and 

 found the bees had balled her. I got her out and 

 put her back in the cage, but when I went to shut 

 the cage, I caught her head against the side of the 



