1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



315 



empty combs, and put the bees in on them. I then 

 let them get hungry, and fed them A sugar syrup 

 with a little essence of pepermint. One of them 

 has given me a large swarm that has nearly tilled a 

 L. hive, and the worst one has now plenty of bees 

 and stores, and all the rest are doing as well as bees 

 can do in this locality. 



I think I learned something last winter that 

 will be to my future benefit in bee keeping; that is, 

 never use closed top bar frames. They have un- 

 doubtedly proved injurious; there is more spring 

 dwindling with them than with the open tops. 



Johnstown, Pa., July 11, '79. P. Graham. 



I am an A B C scholar, but instead of asking ques- 

 tions, when in doubt, I have waited till, in some sub- 

 sequent Gleanings, I have found out, at least, what 

 was the opinion of some bee philosopher upon the 

 doubtful point. But there are a few questions that 

 1 have, so far, failed to get sufficient light upon, and, 

 as you are so friendly to beginners, I am encour- 

 aged to ask. 



GIVING ROOM TO THE YOUNG QUEEN AFTER 

 SWARMING. 



After a strong colony has sent out a swarm, when 

 honey producing plants are abundant, will not the 

 queenless colony till with honey all available space, 

 so that the young queen, when matured, will be 

 cramped for room to deposit her eggs? and, if so, 

 will not the colony dwindle without some artificial 

 help? 



Such would seem to be the case, but it 

 does not often happen, in reality, with the 

 common bees or hybrids. When the young 

 queen begins to lay, they will take the hon- 

 ey out of her way, and put it in the surplus 

 boxes, if they have room, and the pollen in 

 the combs will speedily be used up to feed 

 the young brood. The pure Italians some- 

 times almost ruin the colony, by cramping 

 the queen, and, unless empty combs or fdn. 

 is furnished them, the colony will suffer 

 greatly. 



Is it not best to supply such colonies with empty 

 combs or, in case you have neither, with empty 

 frames, as soon as the queen begins to lay? If sup- 

 plied with empty frames before the queen lays, I 

 find they will fill with drone comb. 



Yes ; give them empty combs just as soon 

 as, or a little before, the young queen begins 

 to lay. They will build beautiful worker 

 comb often, just before the queen begins lay- 

 ing. 



FDN. FOR ITALIANS AFTER THE FIRST SWARM IS OUT. 



Is it not proper to supply such colonies with fdn.? 

 and, if worker fdn., as soon as the new swarm leaves 

 the hive? 



Yes, it will do to put in fdn., just as soon 

 as the old swarm has left. 



HOW MANY WIRES ARE NEEDED IN FDN.? 



How far apart would vou advise pvitting the wires 

 in the fdn.? 



After considerable experimenting, I pre- 

 fer the wires just as shown in July No., 

 which brings them about 2i inches apart, 

 If only two wires were put each side of the 

 centre strip, we had, occasionally, a little 

 bulging. 



SWARMING OUT WITH THE YOUNG QUEEN WHEN 

 BROOD IS ALL HATCHED. 



I have found out by the loss of 2 or 15 swarms, that 

 when a swarm is transferred, and the old queen lost, 

 if the brood is all hatched at the time the young 

 queen takes her bridal trip, the bees will swarm out 

 and leave with their young queen, unless supplied 

 with brood unhatched. Query: Does this rule apply 

 to after swarms? If not, why? 



I have never seen trouble with swarming 

 out, when there was a fair sized colony, but 

 much trouble with weak nuclei. A colony, 

 after being transferred, is often more or less 

 upset as it were, and more apt to swarm out. 



Unsealed brood and eggs are always desira- 

 ble in a hive. 



CROAVDING BEES AND STORES ON FEW COMBS FOR 

 WINTER. 



I see it is recommended in Gleanings, to crowd 

 the bees upon as few combs as they can cover, for 

 wintering. Query: Will those lew combs supply 

 the bees that can cover them, with a sufficient 

 amount of honey to winter them, after deducting 

 the space necessary for brood? 



Reese, Mich. L. D. Gray. 



Yes; for but little brood is found, when 

 your combs are crowded up for winter. 



A WORD AS TO DOLLAR QUEENS AND GRAPE SUGAR. 



I bought of you in '77, one tested and 3, "dollar" 

 queens; in '78, I bought about 15 dollar queens. 

 Your tested queen, by mistake, proved impurely 

 mated. At least two-thirds of the "dollar" queens 

 have produced pure Italians, and are as vigorous 

 and prolific as the average of those I have had for 

 20 years, beginning with a queen from Mr. Parson's, 

 the year he imported first, 1859, I think. The dollar 

 queens of last summer were given two frames of 

 brood and bees, upon arrival, and built up by feed- 

 ing through the summer, syrup made of grape 

 sugar, in addition to the honey they gathered from 

 flowers, which could not have been much, as we have 

 nothing of consequence after white clover; no buck- 

 wheat, and very few fall flowers. I fed near 500 

 lbs. of grape sugar. One of these colonies, the lat- 

 est made (as they lost the first queen, which was 

 only replaced in August), lost about one half its 

 bee's in the winter and has been weak this spring. 

 The others wintered as well as any, and are now 

 among the best I have. I have given you the facts 

 about grape sugar feeding, but prefer feeding good 

 sugar at 7 or 8 cts. per lb., taking into consideration 

 the labor of making grape sugar into syrup, and its 

 understood want of saccharine matter. 



Dayton, O., June 5, '79. J. H. Pierce. 



I cannot account for the tested queen's pro- 

 ducing hybrids, unless she began to produce 

 them after she was shipped away, and I am 

 not sure that this is possible. I should be 

 very loth to think we made a mistake here. 

 We have now 2o0 colonies raising queens in 

 our apiary, and there is not a black or hy- 

 brid queen among the whole, unless it is 

 among the untested queens. None we have 

 tested have as yet proved impure. 



BEES AND HONEY IN TEXAS. 



Our honey crop for this season is about over. 

 Bees have done well where thev were in reach of 

 plenty of mesquitte, which is the dependence here 

 in dry years. It rained Nov. 15th, 1878; again April 

 22nd; never since, in my immediate neighborhood. 

 There have been partial rains around for three 

 weeks past. Bread corn will not be made in south- 

 western Texas. There will be about a half crop of 

 wheat: cotton crop is fair. I have 100 stands of 

 bees (Xj. frame). I bought an Italian colony from J. 

 W. Kckman, Richmond, Tex., and raised 35 queens 

 and 5 swarms from the old one. Black bees through 

 here averaged about one swarm from every fourth 

 hive. O. R. Flourney. 



Belmont. Texas, July 8, 1879. 



CALIFORNIA WHITE SAGE. 



I see you think of planting some California white 

 sage. 1 think you will have to keep it in a green 

 house or hot house in winter, as it only blooms on 

 the second year's growth, the same as raspberries or 

 blackberries. The tops die alter the seed ripens, 

 and another growth is ready for the next year, on 

 the same roots. There are from three or four to a 

 dozen or more stalks on one root, and it grows from 

 4 to 6 or 7 feet high according to soil. It does nut 

 grow up high on the mountains in Los Angeles Co., 

 so there is not much difference in the time of bloom 

 of that growing on the highest, and that on the low- 

 est grounds. "Win. Muth Rnsmussen in A.B.J., 

 page 863, calls the flowers pure white; but they 

 looked to me of a pale yellow. Otherwise I agree 

 with his description. Jno. Beckley. 



Cannon City, Minnesota. 



