1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



485 



you give them another. Of course, each 

 frame must contain some honey, and some 

 pollen, but there should be no cells in it 

 without brood, pollen, or honey (unless oc- 

 cupied or ready to be occupied with eggs), 

 when you give them an additional frame. 

 The honey may be in the way when honey is 

 coming in, but I should have little fear of 

 honey being in the way when they have 

 ceased gathering it, for they would soon eat 

 out some empty cells to cluster in. During 

 freezing weather, our bees usually contract 

 into a round ball, and, if this ball includes -5 

 frames, it is a pretty fair colony. A still 

 heavier colony, in a good chaff hive, may till 

 the hive so completely that they will seldom 

 contract into a ball, and any colony is aided 

 in this, by reducing the size of their winter- 

 ing chamber. To do this, I would take out 

 all the frames I could (and still leave them 

 plenty of winter stores), and put in their 

 places chaff cushions. Colonies are gener- 

 ally larger in localities where there has been 

 an uninterrupted how of honey during the 

 whole season, but I do not know that locality 

 makes any difference otherwise. The size 

 of the colony depends very much on what 

 kind of a queen they have. A good queen 

 will often fill, pretty fairly, every one of the 

 10 combs in the lower story. 



WHAT SHALL WE PUT WITH WAX TO 

 MAKE THE COMBS TOUGH? 



FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS. 



SN the Oct. No., I noticed the inquiry, "What do 

 the bees do with the fur they nibble from each 

 — ' other," and "Why are some combs dark colored 

 when first built?" You seem anxious to investigate 

 the cause, therefore I will give you my observations 

 in relation to it. 



Last April, after setting my bees out from the 

 cellar, I fed a weak swarm with flour candy to in- 

 duce breeding. I put it in a small frame such as I 

 use in the upper half story, 5 inches deep, with an 

 ounce vial filled with water, cork, and wick. They 

 took it readily, and began to build comb of brown 

 greyish color, very tough and tenacious. It would 

 bend without breaking. After building about 3 in. 

 in diameter, and filling it with eggs, they continued 

 to build below the frame to the bottom of the hive, 

 and raised a fine comb of brood before there was 

 any in other combs. I have never noticed anything 

 like it before or since. It appeared strange to me, 

 and I thought, at the time, I would write you about 

 it, but have postponed it. 



Now, if you could make fdn. out of such material, 

 what an improvement it would be to prevent sag- 

 ging! I have been using soft carpet paper, nailed 

 to frames for division boards, but found the bees 

 cut it to pieces so badly, I had to abandon it in a 

 measure. A gocd deal of the fibre was found in and 

 about the hives. Did the bees use it to mix with 

 wax for brood combs? Did the flour candy have 

 anything to do with it? 



If you would obtain some fine pulp from a paper 

 mill and incorporate it properly with the wax and 

 work it for fdn., you would get the result. 



Ann Arbor, Mich., Oct. 28, '79. N. A. Prudden. 



Many thanks, friend P. Our boys have 

 been at work at the wax with their micro 

 scopes, and had just decided, when you 



letter came, that the "stiffening" in wax is 

 the fibres of the cocoons from brood combs. 

 Perhaps this is generally the case, when 

 they are building these dark, tough combs, 

 near old brood combs, but I was pretty sure 

 I had seen just such comb building as you 

 describe, yet I could find no piece of it when 

 they were making their investigations. I 

 think it is quite probable that the comb you 

 mention was made with the fiber of the pa- 

 per mixed in with the wax. If you can find 

 the piece now, send it and I will have the 

 boys examine it under the microscope. I 

 think the Hour candy, without doubt, assist- 

 ed in the matter. 



\adi^ ^jiarh^nh 



MR. ROOT:— We received a postal from you, 

 and the bees arrived the day following that 

 i on which the card came. We postponed writ- 

 ing in acknowledgement, until we had something of 

 moment to communicate concerning the bees. Mr. 

 Price thinks there are no beauties to match his 

 Italians, but he introduced them before he found 

 there were directions accompanying them. He had 

 not one particle of trouble with them, but / have 

 trouble with Mm. His Italian queen has succeeded 

 the American wife in his attentions. Every thing 

 about our home is flavored with bee conversation. 



W r e thank you for your promptness (in which you 

 are not a "novice") in sending the bees. The queen 

 bee has grown since her arrival. I dropped a very 

 ripe watermelon in the garden, yesterday, and it 

 broke in halves. This morning, I found it lined with 

 Italian workers, extracting the sweetened water. 



In regard to the photograph, I cannot thank you 

 enough. "Little Blue Eyes" is certainly a child to 

 be proud of, and her picture will be treated with as 

 choice care as the little lady herself deserves. In 

 regard to your age (which I certainly think was a 

 rather indelicate topic for me to have questioned 

 you upon) you just drew the bordering line nicely 

 between my husband's idea and mine. I detect an 

 abundance of fun in your countenance, and your 

 little girl's pleasant expression gives a good index 

 to the kindness in her father's disposition. 



Enclosed, please find $1.00 for your Gleanings, 

 for one year. 1 find that, as the bees receive in- 

 creased attention, our "wood-pile" receives increas- 

 ed neglect; and, that I may regulate the order of 

 things in that direction, please address the books to 

 me. Anxiously awaiting Sept. No. of Gleanings, 

 I am respectfully, Mrs. Charles E. Price. 



Smithtown Branch, Suffolk Co., L. I., Sept. 6, '79. 



I have four stands of black bees, neither of which 

 swarmed this summer. I have taken about one 

 hundred pounds of honey this season, which is bet- 

 ter than some of my neighbors have done, who have 

 25 or 30 colonies. This has been a bad honey year 

 here. I have never seen an Italian queen, and was 

 very anxious to have one this fall, but my husband 

 persuaded me to wait till spring; "But a woman 

 persuaded against her will" has the same anxiety 

 still. I just must have them in the spring, and 

 early too, if I can get them. I am a young ABC 

 scholar, and take Gleanings (which I think splen- 

 did) with a neighbor, ami read until my head is so 

 full of bee reading, I am in the same condition in 

 which Mr. Merry Hanks is in the August number. 

 Mrs. L. C. Carpentfr. 



Ilustunville, Lincoln Co., Ky. Oct., 1879. 



REPORT FROM AN A B C SCHOLAR. 



On the 15th of May, I received from Mrs. Lizzie 

 Cotton a hive of Italian bees, with "Directions for 

 Managing Bees." Being a novice, I at once pur- 

 chased "Qulnby'8 New Bee-Keeping," "Cook's Man- 

 ual," and the ABC book, and also subscribed for 

 the Gleanings. The bees came 50 miles by rail, 

 and 12 by stage. The apple trees were then in bloom, 

 and later wild cherry, which abounds here, white 

 clover, and melilot, motherwort, catnip, mignon- 

 nette, &c. I noticed that they frequented the sweet 



