1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



401 



From Different Fields. 



DO BEE-? EVER ADD A FIBROUS MATERIAL IN COMB 

 BUILDING TO GIVE ADDITIONAL STRENGTH? 



SSWHAT do the bees do with the down, or fur, 

 WM that they nibble from bees? I have won- 

 u'y/ dered if tbpy used it to strengthen wax. I 

 got bees in box hives of a neighbor, and sawed off 2 

 or 3 inches from the bottom. I put the pieces of 

 comb with brood on the top of weak colonies, and 

 covered them wiih knit woolen garments. They till- 

 ed the remaining space under the garments, with 

 new wax, applying enough lint to make the wax 

 tough. James M. Lewelling. 



SpiceLmd, Henry Co., Ind., Aug. 1, 1876. 



This is an important matter, and one 

 which I have heen revolving over and over, 

 for some time. I have seen comb in the 

 brood apartment, that appeared to have, 

 added to the wax, something like the papery 

 substance of which a hornet's nest is made. 

 The cappings over brood show this, in a 

 degree. What is it that the bees add to the 

 wax to make these cappings V Can we add 

 anything to the melted wax, that will cheap- 

 en the material for making fdn., and that 

 will give this additional strength and secu- 

 rity against sagging V I will pay $25.00 to 

 the one who will work this out so as to make 

 it, practically, a success. 



SHALL WE HAVE ONE TIER OF SEC TIONS OVER THE 

 BROOD NEST, OR TWO? 



A.I. Root:— I wish to congratulate you on the 

 perfection of your machinery which turns out such 

 nice section boxes, and boih broad and narrow L. 

 frames. The story and a half hive is a marvel for 

 cheapness, and is so pronounced by all who have 

 seen it. At the beginning of the honey season, I 

 was especially pleased with the honey crate. I liked 

 it better than the broad L. frames; but, just to test 

 them, I tried one hive with broad frames. I could 

 easily have tried more, but thought more of the 

 crate. My bees with the broad frames rilled their 

 section boxes, capped every cell, and then layout 

 some two weeks, and finally swarmed. While those 

 which were just as strong, but were given, at the 

 same time, the crate with only 28 boxes, swarmed 

 before their boxes were full, and did not fill their 

 boxes Dearly as soon as the others filled their 5t> 

 boxes. In fact, but few of the colonies having the 

 crates filled all their boxes full, and some colonies 

 have had their boxes on all the season, and I fear 

 will not store one lb. of honey. I think, next season, 

 I shall have two tiers of section boxes in most of my 

 hives. L. H. Coblentz. 



New Madison, Ohio, Aug. 18, 187!). 



I believe the majority agree with you, 

 friend C, that an upper story witli broad 

 frames is rilled almost as quickly as the i 

 story, where the colony is strong. There is 

 still another advantage; where you have 

 broad frames, you can put one on each side 

 of the lower story, and get the bees well 

 started in the sections before the upper story 

 is put on, and then raise them up. Of 

 course, you cannot do this readily with the 

 case that contains only a single tier of sec- 

 tions. 



HOW TO "INTKODUCE" A LB. OF BEES AND A QUEEN. 



A. I. Root : -The lb. of bees and queen you sent 

 me on the l.jth inst. was received on the loth, about 

 sundown; I put them in a Simplicity hive, took two 

 frames of brood from a strong colony of blacks (I 



had no others), then put in 4 frames of fdn., opened 

 the cage to let the bees out, put on the cover, and 

 left them till morning. I went out to look for the 

 queen, taking my smoker wiih me. I found tile 

 queen without any trouble. She was all right, and 



seemed perfectly at home. I did not need the smok- 

 er; they were as quiet as lambs. They are busily at 

 work late and early, and, from all appearances, arc 

 doing well. I feel well satisfied with mv little pets 

 thus far. 



DO ITALIANS DRIVE OUT THE COMMON BEES? 



I was watching them a few mornings ago, and 

 noticed something, to me, rather strange. Some of 

 the blacks had hatched and wen; flying; and when 

 they tried to enter the hive the Italians would not 

 let them in, but chased them away. In the after- 

 noon, I noticed them again, and found that they 

 made no objection to their coming in. Why did 

 they reject them at one time and accept them at 

 another? Was it because they were bringing in 

 supplies that they accepted them, and rejected 

 them when they were not? Is this a peculiarity of 



I the Italians? 



i I am an ABC scholar, and have been in the bee 

 business but two years. Last fall, I went into winter 

 quarters with 20 stands, and wintered them in the 

 cellar. I lost one during the winter. After I set 

 them out in the spring, thev began to swarm out 

 and dwindle away, tilt I had but 8 left. I then 

 bought 4 more, and now have 25 stands, 15 in Sim- 

 plicity and Langstroth hives, and 10 in box hives. 

 For this section of country, I think the 1 1-2 story 

 the best, the half story holding one tier of sections. 

 I shall have my hives made that way next year. 

 This has been a very poor honey season with us, but 

 my two first swarms of this year have made some 

 honey in the sections. The honey supply failed here 

 about the 4th of July. I have been feeding some of 

 my late swarms, for the past two or three weeks. 

 My opinion is that, unless we build up our late 

 swarms by feeding, we will have a more doleful 

 report to make next spring than we did last, about 

 bees dwindling and swarming out. One of my 

 neighbors had two swarms come out a few days ago; 

 on examining the hives, there was no honey in them. 

 Fayette, Wis., Aug. 30, '79. C. Abraham. 



I have never seen Italians drive out the 

 native bees, and I can scarcely think it pos- 

 sible, that the bees themselves recognize 

 any difference on account of "color." If 

 the blacks are attacked by the Italians, I 

 think it must be because they are of some 

 hive having a different scent. If they are 

 hatched in the hive, I cannot see how this 

 is possible. I speak of this at length, be- 

 cause several have written that when the 

 young Italians begun to hatch, they have, 

 at times, driven out the black bees. I, of 

 course, do not doubt the truthfulness of the 

 statements, but I think the conclusions 

 were drawn through some mistake or mis- 

 apprehension. 



AN A B C SCHOLAR'S EXPERU3NCE, BEE HUNTING AND 

 ALL. 



As one of your ABC scholars, 1 will give my ex- 

 perience. 1 bought, this spring, 10 stocks of bees 

 for $20. Isold 4 for the same amount, therefore 

 had 6 stocks "for nothing." I divided into 10, lost 

 one, and had one given me (box hive), which I will 

 transfer in the spring. I transferred 4 hives this 

 spring, with success. My bees have no honey, and I 

 will have to feed. Not a very favorable report for a 

 beginner, is it? I tried my hand at introducing 

 queens, and lost 2 out of 5. Bobbers got into one 

 hive and killed one of my pels. When 1 bought the 

 bees, 1 was vvvy much afraid of them, and would 

 not think of going near them without a veil on; but 

 I can now work with them without much trouble, 

 though I get stung occasionally. I took my family 

 to the country for health, and while there found two 

 bee trees. 1 followed your directions, but had a 

 cigar box instead of a regular bee hunting box. I 

 was almost afraid to take the bees, and my friends 

 were as great cowards as myself. I got two old 

 frame hives, and put them in with little trouble. 

 One tree was a large oak. I cut the tree, and then 

 cut out a block. I had no veil on, and rolled up my 

 shirt sleeves to get into the hole, (took out comb 

 enough for &L. frames, and half abuabelof bees, 

 and got stung but twice. They were hybrids, and a 

 large swarm. I Italianized them by setting a tested 

 queen from H. H. Brown. I put it in my first hive 

 lor one week, then took it out and put it in the large 



