4.52 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Nov. 



EARLY ITALIAN DRONES. 



How can we get our Italian drones hatched very 

 early next spring? We want them pushed ahead of 

 the blacks, if possible. Would you advise putting 

 drone fdn. in the hive to get them very earlv? 



Pocahontas, Tenn., Oct., 1879. C. M. Reed. 



[Feeding 1 will start drones earlier, if done skillfully; 

 but it is a pretty hard matter to get them out much 

 before they make their appearance naturally.] 



BLACKS VERSUS ITALIANS. 



Now, if you care to hear it, I will say a word about 

 mv black bees. There i* an apiary of Italians 12 

 miles from here, but my blacks outstrip them "tee- 

 totally," making hundreds of pounds of surplus 

 honev, while his, so to say. make none. If I should 

 succeed in getting three banded workers, I should 

 "try them to their bottom:" and, if they prove 

 themselves superior,— well, I suppose I must then 

 Italianize. J. H. Johnson. 



Middagh/s, Pa., Oct. 21, 18:9. 



[That is risrht: give us reports from practical 

 work. Your locality may be a better one than your 

 neighbor's.] 



WHEN TO PACK BEES IN CHAFF. 



What time do you generally pack for winter? 



[As soon as you have frosts any way, and, if pack- 

 ed a month before, it will be all the better.] 



My bees did middling well. They doubled them- 

 selves in numbers, and gathered considerable sur- 

 plus honev. Jno. II. Kephart. 



Shueyville, la., Oct. 15, 1879. 



HOW LATE MAY QUEENS BE FERTILIZED? 



Is it too late for virgin queens to meet with drones 

 this season? 



Tit depends on the locality, weather. &c. We have 

 never had queens fertilized, here, later than the 

 middle of Oct.: but. with such a fall as this. T pre- 

 sume we might get them fertilized even in Nov. Tt 

 is so risky, however, it hardly pays to take the 

 chances so late.] 



WINTERING IN BOTH FTORIES. 



Will strong colonies winter well, in two stor'-. 

 Lana-stroth hive<=, without honev board, when both 

 stone* are filled? Isaac Kneeland. 



Newburn, la., Oct. 20, 1879. 



[Very strong colonies are sometimes wintered in 

 that way, but, as a general thing-, T think it rather a 

 riskv experiment. It would virtuallv amount too 

 nearlv to the old box hive system, and we have ex- 

 amples all around us, of how bees winter in these.] 



PARALYZING WITH PUFF BALL. 



Friend Harding, a bee man, purchased a "dollar" 

 oueen of t<~vu a few davs ago, and introduced her as 

 follows: He removed the native queen, and near 

 sundown, in order not to be disturbed by robber 

 bees, placed the cage containing the queen in the 

 hive where he wished to introduce her, and, with his 

 smoker charged with puff-ball fuel and Are, pre- 

 cepted to smoke them until all were paralvzed. 

 Then he opened the cage, put <he queen with the 

 bee«, nnd, w^en the bees recovered fi'rm th ; s state 

 of insensibility, 1hev accepted her, of course. 

 Friend H. also unites weak colonies in 1his wav, 

 with sncce«=. Now, friend Foot, what do you think 

 of this plan? Do you think it cruel? 



John F. Michael. 



German P. O., Parke Co., O., Oct. 20, 1879. 



[The nlan was in u«e several years ago, but, as it 

 was discarded in a short lime. T cannot think it was 

 always successful, and I believe those who tried it 

 generally agreed that they preferred live bees to 

 work with, rather than paralvzed ones. Tf it always 

 succeeded, T should not think its cruelty would be 

 an objection.] 



T am an ABC scholar, and must ask yon for some 

 advice. I was unfortunate la=t winter with my bees, 

 having lost 3 out of 5 stands, and I do not wish to 

 sustain such a less this winter, if I can help it. I 

 have now 10 stands of bees, all, save one, in L. hives. 



CHAFF PACKING! OR CELLAR WINTERING. 



Now, in your judgment, would it be better for me 

 to go to the expense of packing them in chaff, leav- 

 ing them on their summer stands, than to put thrm 

 in the cellar? [Yes.] We keep vegetables in the 

 cellar also. 



BUCKWHEAT CHAFF. 



Would buckwheat chaff be good to pack tbem in? 

 [Yes. See page 451.] Should the chaff come over 

 the top of the cap of the hive, when chaff cushions 

 are used under it? [Yes.] 



LAWS IN REGARD TO WHERE BEES MAY BE KEPT. 



I have been told that there is a law which prohib- 

 its the keeping of bees within a certain distance of 

 a public road, or a neighbor's house. If there is 

 such a law, I think the ABC class should be in- 

 formed of the fact, before they locate. 



Euclid, O., Sept. 3, 1879. F. C. White. 



LI have never heard of such a law, friend W., and 

 I am pretty sure none such exists; for I have asked 

 those who should know, whether bees could, by law, 

 be banished from a neighborhood, or corporation, 

 and was told it could be done by no existing laws. 

 Notwithstanding, I would not want to keen bees in 

 any place, where they might prove troublesome to 

 my neighbors.] 



QUEENS WHOSE EGGS DO NOT HATCH. 



I noticed T. M. Moltz' statement, in Sept. No. of 

 Gleanings, in regard to a queen whose eggs will 

 not hatch. Well, friend R., 1 have such a queen. 

 She is very large, light in color, and judging by the 

 way she piles up the eggs, she is very prolific. She 

 has been laying for 3 or 4 months, but not an egg 

 will hatch. If you would like such a queen, please 

 send me a cage, with the enclosed order, and I will 

 ship her to you. M. C. Kerns. 



Pomeroy, O., Oct. 19, 1879. 



[Thanks, friend K., but we have found such queens 

 so unprofitable (the two we have had) that we pinch- 

 ed their heads off.] 



ONfY 



r fror 



The plant blooms a little the tirst year from seed; 

 that is, if sown in ihe fall, it will bloom the next 

 summer, but does not come into full bloom until the 

 3d year. The plants I sent you were sown in the 

 fall of ';7. I would have replied sooner, but the 

 sickness and death of my wife, on the 24th of Sept., 

 delayed me. Jas. A. Simpson. 



Alexis, 111., Oct. 2, 1879. 



[Many t hanks, friend S. We all deeply sympathize 

 with you in your berea\ iment.] 



COA r ERING BIVES WITH GLASS. 



To protect your hives in winter, how would it 

 answer to set window sash on end. one on each side, 

 6 or 8 inches from the hive, and one over top, so as 

 to enclose ihe hive, leaving small holes in front for 

 the passage of bees, and ventilation? 



Boyd's, Md., Sept. 24, 1879. F. P. Meigs. 



[The same plan has been tried, friend M. It 

 amounts to about the same thing as the green-house 

 experiment, of several years ago, and the difficulty 

 seems to be that you warm the bees up to an ex- 

 treme degree, even in winter, and, at night, or dur- 

 ing cloudy days, they get so cold, that the changes 

 of temperature are much greater than without the 

 sash. Sudden changes, especially from one extreme 

 to the other, are very hard on all kinds of animated 

 nature. Better use the chaff packed hives, to ward 

 off the sun, as well as the frosts.] 



DRONES ALL WINTER, AND AGE OF DRONES AGAIN. 



Did you ever know drones to be allowed to live 

 through the winter, except in a queenless hive? A 

 neighbor, last winter, had a box hive that contained 

 live drones all winter, and is as prosperous as any 

 at the present time. To my mind, this explodes the 

 idea that drones are very short lived. Do you use 

 chaff cushions in the upper story of chaff hives, or 

 what is used, if anything? I am to u«e several of 

 your pattern of chaff hives this w inter, for the first 

 time. L. D. Worth. 



Reading Centre, N. Y., Sept. 20, 1879. 



[I have heard of drones living over winter in pow- 

 erful colonies, but never saw such a case. It does, 

 indeed, seem to explode the idea of their being so 

 short lived, but are you sure drones were not reared 

 in the winter? Very strong colonies usually start 

 drones about as soon as they get a large cluster of 

 worker brood, even if it is unfavorable weather.] 



