1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



443 



HONEY DEW HONEY. 



I send you, by to-day's mail, a sample of granulated 

 honey. Jt was collected by the bees in May and 

 June, from common honey dew. It granulated very 

 soon after they collected it, and it was, at first, white 

 as A coffee sugar; but, from some unknown cause, 

 it turned a little yellow, and, as you will discover, is 

 melting- now. This sample is just as it was collected 

 by the bees. There is no adulteration in it, and I 

 would like you to show the sample to as many of the 

 experts as you can, and see how many will pro- 

 nounce it pure, and give us the result in Gleanings. 

 Quite a number of men here pronounce it grape 

 sug-ar. A. S. Smith. 



Atlanta, Ga., Oct. 15, 1879. 



The honey is fair to the taste, but was 

 quite soft when it reached us, being but little 

 like grape sugar in taste or appearance. I 

 think the bees would use it for winter stores 

 if as soft as this. The taste is much the 

 same as that of honey dew honey which has 

 been sent us heretofore. On account of its 

 strong taste, like molasses or brown sugar, 

 I should fear dysentery, unless the bees 

 could rly out almost daily. 



where did the queen come from? 



The next day after sending- my postal, the section 

 boxes came to hand, all right, the freight being- 75c 

 I have tOO on Lives, and most are working- very nice- 

 ly. Nothing- can be handsomer than those sections 

 nicely filled with white clover honey. I have a query 

 for you. On May 1st, I had one queenless hive. I 

 inserted a frame of brood and watched it carefully, 

 but no queen cell was built. As the swarm was 

 quite weak and in a poor hive, I thought I would let 

 them perish. Ten days ago, I saw they were work- 

 ing quite actively, and examined them. Ihey were 

 quite strong-, and had three or four frames filled 

 with capped brood. Where did they get a queen? 



Salem Centre, Ind., July 5, '79. W. E. Kimsey. 



You say your hive was queenless. How 

 do you know it was queenless? The very 

 fact of their not starting cells on the brood 

 you gave them seems to me to indicate that 

 they had a young queen all the time; and, 

 as soon as she became old enough, she be- 

 gan to lay. 



"LAZY bees" and what to do with them. 



Friend Root .*— I am vexed at my bees. I have 

 them in L. hives, and have given them the best of 

 care, and am in what I call a good location, there 

 being plenty of white clover, basswood, &c. I gave 

 them plenty of room and kept them well shaded, 

 but they would lie out during clover bloom and ever 

 since, and eat all the honey a few industrious bees 

 gathered. 1 have ten stands, but they never reward 

 me with a little honey to eat. I wintered so that I 

 lost none. They were strong this spring, but they 

 have given me but few swarms; some have not 

 swarmed at all, and are strong colonies. I got my 

 start from a couple of swarms that came into two L. 

 hives I had sitting in the yard. One of them was a 

 hybrid swarm and the other black. They came to 

 me in 1876. The hybrids have about run out, so that 

 I have nearly all blacks now. I like bee-keeping, 

 but it has, so far, been an expense to me, without 

 any returns. I think 10 colonies ought to pay for 

 their hives and other expenses, and if you can tell 

 me how to make them do it, and give me a surplus, 

 I shall be truly grateful. 1 read all the bee litera- 

 ture I can get. I have "Langstroth on the Honey 

 Bee," three numbers of the A B C, and take Glean- 

 ings and the A. B. J., but find nolhing applicable to 

 my case. Now, if you can tell me what to do, please 

 say it and you will truly oblige Henry J. Ar.vis. 



Montrose, la., Aug., 1879. 



Friend A., the frame of sections which we 

 advertise, I invented especially for such ob- 

 durate cases. I would put one of these frames 

 of sections right into the midst of the colony, 

 and, after they get well started at comb 

 building in the sections, move them 

 against the outside of the hive, having the 

 tin separators turned toward the brood, of 



course. When they get well to working on 

 them, in this position, put on an upper story, 

 and hang in it one or more of these frames 

 which they have started, and they will stop 

 loafing on the outside of the hives when 

 there is honey to be gathered, I can assure 

 you. 



IS THERE DANGER OF BROOD IN THE SECTIONS? 



Does the queen ever put eggs in upper story of 

 your 1% story hives? 



SHORT L. FRAMES AND LONG ONES. 



Do you think the full length Langstroth frame is 

 as good as the short 13 1-2 inch frame, in the spring, 

 for building up? Also, is the short as good as the 

 long frame, after they are built up and are strong? 



Libertyville, Mo., Aug. 13, '79. J. B. Dines. 



We very rarely find that the queen has 

 used our small sections under any circum- 

 stances, and I have never known of eggs in 

 the single tier of sections, on the 1* story 

 hives. We have used this season, frames 

 running crosswise in the Simplicity hives, 

 in one small apiary of hives, but 1 cannot 

 see that nuclei have built up any faster with 

 them, than with the usual L. frames. After 

 they were built up, I have not been able to 

 discover any better progress in brood rearing. 

 I have always supposed we could build up 

 nuclei better with the short frames ; but, so 

 far, practice has not seemed to corroborate 

 the theory. 



CHAFF HIVES BEST FOR SUMMER AS WELL AS WINTER. 



Here is my report: I had, last fall, 22 stocks; 

 this spring, 21; and from the defunct colony, one 

 queen that I saved in a cage until May, then gave 

 her to one of the other colonies that had lost their 

 queen. My stocks, this fall, number 43, 3 or 4 of 

 which are nucleus colonies on 4 frames, that I shall 

 try to keep, as they have nice queens. 1 also took 

 l,600tt>. of extracted honey, l ,2 of it white clover; 

 and, best of all, as much of it as I care to sell is sold. 



I always keep 100 or 200 lb. to feed in the spring, if I 

 need it. Chaff Hives are best for summer use (I had 



II in use), and I hope now they will prove as good 

 for winter. Many persons have lost Dees by worms 

 this summer. All box hive men say that this is the 

 poorest season for 20 years. Many of them lost al- 

 most all their bees last winter, and what they had 

 left made neither honey nor increase, and J4 of them 

 succumbed to the worms; so that, taking all in all, 

 they are pretty well discouraged, and want to sell 

 out. Next spring, I think there won't be a very 

 large stock of bees around here. If mine only live I 

 won't care much, as it is almost impossible to get 

 my queens mated right, there are so many black 

 drones. B. F. Pratt. 



Dixson, 111., Oct. 12, 1879. 



AN A B C SCHOLAR'S TRIALS IN INTRODUCING. 



I am one of your ABC scholars, and, if I am not 

 intruding too much on your time, I will give you my 

 little nay. I began last spring, with 5 colonies, one 

 being queenless. I now have 11 colonies. Iheprog- 

 eny of the little, dark colored queen I purchased at 

 your establishment in May are very handsome yel- 

 low Italians. I tried in vain to introduce her in my 

 queenless colony; they balled her every time that I 

 released her. 1 found a little worker brood in the 

 hive. 1 then united them with another colony, and 

 smoked them thoroughly, but still there was war. I 

 removed the queen from another hive, and was suc- 

 cessful in introducing the purchased queen. I love 

 to be among the bees, and shall see that they go in- 

 to winter quarters well supplied. 



Wooster, O., Aug. 27, '79. P. S. Ihrig. 



THOSE NICE HAMMERS. 



I was going to say something about that nice ham- 

 mer, but Mrs. E., who takes such a lively interest in 

 "Novice and Blue Eyes," has just come into the 

 room, and says I must not mention hammer. I sup- 

 pose you have heard the saying about the "wink and 

 nod to the horse that could not see." 



Stateburg, S. Ca., Oct. 7, 1879. W. J. Ellison. 



