358 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



Sept. 



home, and transferred and divided into two or three 

 parts, giving- each brood from my Italians, and have 

 Italian queens with most of them. They are now 

 putting up honey very fast from the wild grape. I 

 had one Italian swarm, from which I took the old 

 queen and about 1 i of the bees, that hatched 22 

 queens, 16 on one frame. Who can beat this? I 

 uncapped several of the queens with my knife and 

 took them out; I took out 17 in one afternoon. Do 

 bees ever swarm early in the morning? I found a 

 swarm one morning, about 6 o'clock, half of them 

 being on a stalk of corn. Did they come out that 

 morning, or the evening before? I am experiment- 

 ing this summer in a rough way, and want to start 

 next year in Simplicity hives, with experimental 

 knowledge. J. Q. Ayars. 



South Bosque, Tex., May 27, 1879. 



Your bees probably swarmed early in the 

 morning, although they might have hung 

 out over night. Your luck in getting queen 

 cells, and queens from every cell, was a lit 

 tie remarkable. If your climate is so warm 

 that you can keep building your bees up, 

 even during the winter, you will probably 

 succeed without trouble. 



INTRODUCING A QUEEN WITH % LB. OF BEES. 



I received queen and V 2 lb. of bees the 17th. There 

 were 28 capped cells of honey left in the under side 

 of the lower section, and 25 cells one half filled in the 

 inner side of upper section, and only 15 dead bees in 

 the cage. In place of introducing, as per directions, 

 I took six combs, with the adhering bees, from dif- 

 ferent strong stocks, and put them in a hive (the 

 Italians with them), and gave them a little smoke to 

 pacify them, and they went right to work without 

 any trouble, and are working splendidly now. 



Accord, N. Y., July 21, '79. M. H. Mendelson. 



That was pretty close rations for i lb. of 

 bees ; it seems hard for us to learn that bees 

 eat so much on a journey. Your plan of in- 

 troducing them is generally safe, but, as let- 

 ting them loose on a frame of brood at least 

 partly unsealed, is absolutely safe, I have 

 generally given such directions. 



SEPARATORS AND CHEAP FDN. MACHINES. 



I am a beginner in the bee business, having only 

 been in it two seasons. 1 had 180 swarms last fall, 

 and lost one through the winter. All the bees were 

 missing at once. I don't know what became of 

 them. They left honey in the hive. I had to unite 2 

 more to other stands, because I could not get them 

 to raise queens. 



Is it necessary to use tin separators between sec- 

 tion boxes, where you use fdn.? Is it necessary to 

 have fdn. the full size of box or frame, to make bees 

 build straight combs or keep their combs inside the 

 sections? that is, will they do it without the tin sep- 

 arators? I have some section boxes, and some of 

 the bees are building crosswise, and fastening to 

 the tin separators, which makes a regular mess of 

 it. Will fdn. prevent that? Being a beginner, I have 

 never used fdn. yet, but think 1 will next season. 

 Are any of those cheap fdn. machines a success? 



This year is poor for bees here. It is too dry; 

 there was not enough rain last winter and spring. 

 1 suppose you are aware that there are 6 or 7 months 

 in the summer, when we have no rain here, the days 

 all being clear, and just as near alike as could be. 

 It is a splendid climate for bees, when we get plen- 

 ty of rain in the winter and spring. O. E. Coon. 



Lemoore, Cal., July 8, 1879. 



I think every bee-keeper will have to de- 

 cide for himself whether he wishes to use 

 separators or not. If you wish your sec- 

 tions of honey to be exactly alike, so that 

 any two will tit together without mashing 

 the honey, you will have to use separators. 

 Fdn. helps the matter, but it is not sufficient 

 of itself. Neither are the separtors suffi- 

 cient of themselves ; for, if you do not use 

 starters, either of fdn., or natural comb, you 

 will have many of the combs crosswise as 

 you say. The cheap fdn. machines ($22.00 



and upward) are certainly a success, as is 

 any work that I have ever known from the 

 hand of Mr. Washburn. Many people, see- 

 ing the cheap machines and the higher 

 priced ones side by side, would hardly be 

 able to see any difference. The same may 

 be said of the work produced by them ; it 

 may not be as thin, but, for the brood apart- 

 ment, I do not think any difference will be 

 found in practical use. 



QUEEN REARING IN FLORIDA, ETC. 



I now have 20 stocks, with pure queens. I had 10 

 queens out of 14, which mated and commenced to 

 lay in Nov., and 2 out of 3, in Dec. I selected a lot 

 of pure drone brood and put in a hive which I kept 

 queenless, and it still is so. The drones have not 

 been killed. The hive is still full of them, so I shall 

 have early drones. They fly every pleasant after- 

 noon. My bees were carrying both honey and pol- 

 len on Christmas day. Maple blooms Jan. 15 (about) 

 and bees comence to swarm as soon as Feb. 20th. I 

 can have tested queens in March. 1 have a place 

 for my queen rearing where there are no bees of 

 any kind, either wild or tame, within 3 miles. What 

 can you do with queens in March, if I can send you 

 some fine ones? K. N. McIntyre. 



Daytona, Fla., Dec. 28, 1878. 



If you could put queens in the market in 

 March, or even in April, friend M., judging 

 from past seasons, I should say it would be 

 a good thing for yourself, as well as your 

 purchaser. 



REPORT FROM AN A B C SCHOLAR. 



On the 20th of June, I received from S. Valentine, 

 whose card I noticed in your paper, the prettiest 

 Italian queen that it has been my privilege to look 

 upon. 1 need not say thai with much anxiety, I set 

 my inexperienced hands to work, to remove the 

 black queen. This done, I set the cage containing 

 the Italian on the frames, close to the cluster of 

 bees. After leaving her 12 long hours, I thought 

 things seemed all right, whereupon I opened the 

 cage, and let the black bees in. In a short time, 

 they made a complete ball around her; I quickly 

 disengaged her, and she went leisurely about the 

 combs none daring to molest. On the 14th of July, 

 I opened the hive to look for young bees. I did not 

 see any, but there was brood in the combs. On the 

 16th (26 days after introducing the queen), I again 

 opened the hive and with no small degree of satis- 

 faction, I beheld a few most beautiful Italians, 

 crawling over the combs. To-day (Aug. 1st), many 

 of the Italians are at work. I imagine that they 

 have inspired the blacks of the colony with greater 

 energy; for I notice that the bees of this colony 

 work earlier and later than those of the others. 



CAN AN IMPREGNATED QUEEN DEPOSITE DRONE EGGS 

 IN WORKER COMB? 



How many, where, and what size openings do you 

 use for ventilation, when you employ the chaff 

 cushion in wintering bees? and does the cushion 

 take the place of the honey board? 



J. W. Carter. 



Pleasant Dale, W. Va., Aug 1, '79. 



This is a hard question, but I will venture 

 that she cannot, for if she could, why do the 

 bees try so hard to build some drone comb, 

 when we give them all worker fdn. ? That 

 a queen does occasionally lay drone eggs in 

 worker comb I am well convinced ; but I 

 opine she does not mean to do it. The chaff 

 cushions take the place of the old honey 

 board, most assuredly ; but I would always 

 have some kind of a sheet or mat come next 

 the bees to prevent their soiling and biting 

 the chaff cushion. We have no openings 

 through, or around, the chaff cushions, but 

 we have the space above the cushions venti- 

 lated either by a loose cover, or by holes in 

 the gable ends covered with wire cloth as in 

 the cover to chaff hive, and story and a half 

 hive. The size of the hole is not material. 



