1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



453 



WELL DONE FOR AN A B C SCHOLAR. 



Bees have done very poorly this season, although 

 I got 56 sections well filled, from one or two swarms, 

 in June, since which time they have only made a 

 living. I started May 1st, with 4 swarms in box 

 hives, bought at $3. each. I then transferred. 



Abingdon, III., Oct. 21, 1879. J. H. Reed. 



CONFINING BEES TO THEIR HIVES. 



I see, in looking over my Gleanings, you seem to 

 approve of confining the bees in the hive, when in 

 the cellar. Are you still of the same opinion? 



[If I were going to winter in a cellar, I think I 

 should confine the bees to their hives, not because 

 it would save the bees, but because it would prevent 

 dead bees from making the room untidy.] 



loss in feeding. 



I fed 29 lbs. of sugar to 3 second swarms, this fall. 

 One day after I finished feeding them, they only 

 weighed 22 lbs. heavier, although I put 1 lb. of water 

 to 2 lbs. of sugar. John Dawson. 



Pontiac, Mich., Oct. 25, 1879. 



[If you fed 29 lbs. of sugar, your hives should show 

 that amount, less what was consumed, and used for 

 rearing brood. You do not say how long you were 

 doing the feeding.] 



HOW TO GET VOUNG QUEENS TO LAY IN THE FALL, &C 



I have a half dozen young queens that are from 20 

 to30diys old and are not laying. They all have 

 good wings and drones are plenty. What shall I do 

 with them? I had one Italian queen that laid an 

 abundance of egs-s, but not a-i egg would hatch. 



South West, Ind., Sept. 24, '79. I. R. Good. 



[Feed the colonies where the young queens are. 

 and give each a frame of brood for a pattern, and 

 they will usually commence laying. This makes 

 still another queen, friend R., whose eggs do not 

 hatch.] 



CEMENT FOR FASTENING IN FDN. 



If there is any kind of cement made for fastening 

 combs in frames, tell me who keeps it, and the price 

 of it. A. Royal. 



Hawkinsville, Fla., Sept. 11, 1879. 



[The cement generally used is rosin and wax. 

 You can get the proportions by trying. If you have 

 too much rosin, it will be brittle; if too much wax, 

 not tenacious enough. White glue has been used 

 for fastening the wired fdn.] 



A QUEEN THAT WOULD NOT LAY, AND TWO QUEENS 

 IN A HIVE. 



As one of your ABC class, I would like an answer 

 to the following: I wrote you about a queen that did 

 not lay for a long time. I fed the colony, as you 

 said, and she began at once to lay. Looking over 

 the combs, Oct. 10th, saw two, yellow queens, but no 

 brood. How did the second queen get into the hive? 

 To-day, Oct. 27th, they are still there. Now. what 

 shall I do? I am afraid that one is a virgin queen. 

 I feed half grape sugar, and half coffee A sugar 

 mixed, for winter. 1 started in the spring with 3 

 swarms, and have increased to 10; 6 Italian, 2 hy- 

 brid, and 2 blacks. The honey crop was a failure 

 here. G. K. Fagely. 



Meiser, Pa., Oct. 27, 1879. 



IDon't do anything, friend F. The two queens will 

 do no harm, even if one is a virgin queen.] 



ti. PURE DAUGHTER OF AN IMPORTED QUEEN AS 

 GOOD FOR BREEDING AS AN IMPORTED QUEEN? 

 o you think a tested queen, that has surely mat- 

 ed with an Italian drone, is just as good, and just as 

 pure, as one fn>m Italy, for raising voung queens? 

 Best's, Lehigh Co., Pa., Oct. 23, '79. D. E. Best. 

 [This is an important point friend B., and I have 

 been for some time thinking that a selection of good 

 queens from our own stock mi^ht be even better 

 than those we import from Italy. If I were going to 

 raise honey alone, I am not sure I should use a 

 queen from Italy. See what I have said on page 431. 

 If I were raising queens for sale, it would be another 

 matter; for, insomuch as there has been so much 

 disputing about what was pure and what was not 

 pure, it is a comfort to any one, and it would be to 

 me, to know that the queens purchased are unques- 

 tionably daughters of queens right from Italy.] 



THE PICTURES. 



T can not afford to give up Gleanings, for the 

 pictures are worth the price, besides the amount of 

 instruction on bee keeping. I. R. Green. 



Unadilla, N. Y., Sept. 24, 1879. 



A man who bought an A B C book and a smoker, at 

 our fair, said it was of more benefit to him than all 

 the rest of the fair. I). C. Underhill. 



Seneca, Illinois, Sept. 10, 1879. 



A GOOD REPORT FROM BUCKWHEAT, AND ALSO A 

 GOOD REPORT FROM THAT SUNDAY SCHOOL. 



My bees are all Italians and hybrids. Late frost 

 in the spring killed all the maple and elms, and the 

 dry summer killed the remainder. What saved my 

 bees was an acre of buckwheat; and I count that 

 worth $50. to me in surplus honey, not saying any- 

 thing about winter stores. Now about our Sabbath 

 School; we have had a sr>nd meeting and 24 conver- 

 sions recently. Now I don't think there are more 

 than 8 or 10, over 12 years of age, in our large school 

 of 100, that are not Christians, and my praver is that 

 God may give us them. We have such a pleasant 

 school! It does mv soul good to see them come in 

 and enjov themselves so well. I wish you could step 

 in some Sabbath morning and take part with us. 



James Parshall. 



Union Valley, Nodaway Co., Mo., Sept. 22, 1879. 



[I am glad to hear so good a report from a single 

 acre of buckwheat, but I am more glad still, to hear 

 that that Sabbath school is prospering so well. 

 Such work is not only laying up treasures in Heaven, 

 but the influence will spread and widen upon earth, 

 long after you and I have passed away. As I feel 

 that I have a sort of a share in that school, I am go- 

 ing to make them a present of an imported queen, 

 to be koot and cared for by you, for the benefit of 

 the school, in such a way as you may think best.] 



BEES THAT WORK ON RED CL.OVER. 



f]HE following came to hand after what I 

 had written on p. 431 was in print. 

 Yon may be sure, I read it with inter- 

 est, and I hope yon may too. 



Referring to Mr. Vankirk's letter, on page 413 of 

 Gleanings for October, I would ask, is he not a 

 trifle hasty in pronouncing the queens impure be- 

 cause they are dark colored? Having, during the 

 past week, visited the apiary of Capt. W. F. Wil- 

 liams, of Liberty Centre, O., my attention was 

 drawn to numerous colonies that hud stored a large 

 surplus of honey from red clover, and this during 

 the time when blacks and hybrids were not making 

 a living. 



During the past 3 years, friend Williams has se- 

 cured large quantities of red clover honej r , and he 

 endeavors to improve his stock, breeding only from 

 those that possess the ability to gather the honey 

 from red clover. In order to do this, he practices a 

 novel method of measuring (he tongues of his bees, 

 in order to select those he breeds from. I noticed, 

 particularly, that the choicest colonies were a little 

 "off color," and, by a person not experienced in this 

 particular, would be considered hybrids. 



The ability to gather honey should be taken into 

 consideration above every thing else (for it is the 

 honey we are after), and among the other essentials 

 are prolificness, industry, gentleness, and lastly 

 color. Friend W. states that his brightest colored 

 Italian bees do not store the amount of honey that 

 the darker ones do, and that he can clearly distin- 

 guish a difference of a sixteenth of an inch in the 

 length of tongues possessed by some colonies over 

 others. Taking these facts into consideration, 

 would it not be well for our friend to make haste 

 slowly in his decisions? Jno. Y. Detwiler. 



Toledo, O., Oct. 6, 1879. 



