498 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



HONEY FROM COTTON BLOOM IN NOVEMBER, ETC. 



Keeping bees this year in this part of Texas has 

 been an up hill business. Westbrook, the black bee 

 man, with his 75 hives, dirl not get a pound; Dr. H. 

 B. Ransom from 20 hives, Italians and hybrids, got 

 40 gallons; and mine, mostly blacks, gave me only 

 12 lbs., and I will be compelled to feed in Feb. or 

 March. [ see to-day the Italians coming in from the 

 cotton fields, heavily loaded with honey. Those 

 Simplicity feeders are just nice; to try one, I ttlled 

 it with syrnp, and in three hours a strong colony 

 had the thing empty, and were crawling about hunt- 

 ing for more. 



LBut how does your cotton happen to be m blos- 

 som at this time of the year, friend O? Is it a usual 

 thing, or only a freak of our warm fall? We folks 

 up here don't undeastand it.] 



ACCEPTING A QUEEN AND THEN KILLING HER. 



Something new to me:— I kept one of the last 

 queens caged three days, and when I went to turn 

 her loose 1 raised a card of hatching brood partly 

 up, and let her loose on this. Just as soon as she 

 got on the card of comb she went to laying, and con- 

 tinued to lay until I closed the hive. At noon the 

 next day, she was still laying; but, three days after, 

 I found her on the alighting board dead, with a few 

 bees around her. What made them do this? I 

 found a queen cell started over her eggs, and if I 

 only had drones I could duplicate her. I put a black 

 queen in her place. B. F. Carroll. 



Dresden, Texas, Nov. 12, 1879. 



[You will see from another page that I have had 

 some similar experience; I am inclined to think it a 

 feature especially of fall introducing. The queen 

 was introduced so quietly, that it almost looks as if 

 they did not know, for a couple of days, that she 

 was there; but when they noticed she' was a stran- 

 ger, they pounced upon her.] 



in 50 lb. lots, or 12%e at retail. Sold all at home, 

 and could not supply the demand. 



W. C. Hutchinson. 

 Acton, Marion Co., Ind., Nov. 11, 1879. 



CHAFF PACKING FOR WINTER; A NOVEL METHOD. 



What can you furnish six chaff gums in the flat 

 for? 1 am rather a beginner in bee culture. I at- 

 tempted it some years ago, and last fall and spring 

 bought 3 stands with the view of trying it the third 

 time. If 1 fail this time, the probability is that.l 

 shall finally give it over. One of my stands swarm- 

 ed the first day of July, and, fearing it would die 

 through the winter, 1 took a large barrel and set the 

 hive into it, and put chaff all around it, and took the 

 board off the cup and made a feeder, and am now 

 feeding syrup of coffee sugar, and put rye flour, in a 

 paper, close by the syrup. This warm weather, they 

 seem to be doing well. They are bringing in some 

 little pollen. Where do they get it now? 



Benj. F. Payne. 



Bridgeport, Harrison Co., W. Va., Nov. 13, 1879. 



Everything that I have had from you this sum- 

 mer hns been satisfactory. The $1. queen is doing 

 very well, and breeds pure Italian bees. The smo- 

 ker is tip top, and the story and a half hives are 

 also satisfactory. The bees in this neighborhood did 

 but very little this summer. I have fed a June 

 swarm already about 10 lbs. of sugar, and I don't 

 think it has enough yet to keep it over winter. I 

 think your ABC book is what every man ought to 

 have, that wants to keep bees. 1 am an ABC 

 scholar. S. Yings. 



Leechburg, Armstrong Co., Pa., Nov. 10, 1879. 



WINTER PASSAGES. 



How would it work to cut winter passages in fdn. 

 before giving it to the bees? I did not think of it in 

 time to try it this season. Bees have done but little 

 in boxes this year, but swarmed well. 



Horace Libby. 



Lewiston, Maine, Nov. 18, 1879. 



[They would be almost sure to fill them up. I 

 have frequently used fdn. with holes in it, but the 

 bees would have the sheet all entire, when it was 

 built out. If a hole is made in a finished comb, they 

 are very apt to leave it large enough for a bee to 

 pass.] 



Bees around here are strong in numbers, but 

 short of stores. Some have already starved. I have 

 doubled down from 23 to 20 stocks, to fix for winter. 

 I commenced in spring with 14 stocks, and have ta- 

 ken 820 lbs. of honey, 100 of it comb in sections, 

 which sold readily at 15c. The extracted sold at 10c 



TO BE SURE THEY OUGHT TO BE "CONTENTED." 



I would like a Simplicity feeder for the enclosed. 

 I want to see if it can not be used for giving the 

 bees water before they are able to leave the hive. 

 We cover the brood frames with two or three thick- 

 nesses of old wool carpeting-, and find it very conve- 

 nient. Last springy we put boxes of Graham flour 

 underneath, on top of the frames, and the bees used 

 it gladly. A piece of candy, a dish of water, and a 

 box of flour, with the prospect of soon being able to 

 fly in the air and sting somebody, oueht to content 

 them through the month of March. Mary Simons. 



Brocton, Chaut. Co., N. ¥"., Nov. 17, 1879. 



DRONES AND WORKER CELLS. 



I had Italian drones hatching 1 in one hive this 

 week, from cells 5 to the inch. Most of the others 

 quit laying drone eggs last month. Last year, but 

 few drone eggs were laid in the latter part of sum- 

 mer, for the reason that honey was very scarce. 

 Very few black queens laid drone eggs this season, 

 in worker comb. C. R. Carlin. 



Shreveport, La., Nov. 8, 1879. 



PIOUS PEOPLE WHO DO NOT PAY THEIR 

 DEBTS. 



Mr? Alley writes: 



I wish some of those pious people who read your 

 paper would pay me what tbey owe me, I might be 

 able to pay mv bills more promptlv. H. Alley. 



Wenham, Mass., Nov. 20, 1879. 



Now, friend Alley, just give us the names 

 of those people, and they shall be published 

 forthwith, will such please take warning. 

 If anybody needs showing up, it is those 

 who claim to be Christians and do not live 

 up to their professions. If it makes more 

 of a crash than Gleanings can stand, down 

 let it go. 



DRONES, NO ATTENTION TO BE PAID TO THEIR 

 MARKINGS. 



I have a drone with the characteristic markings on 

 four of his abdominal rings; if you wish, I will send 

 him on. I have refused an X for his mother (from 

 an old bee-keeper who is "up to snuff.") 



C Lovf.r. 



Reisterstown, Md., Nov. 10, 1879. 



It is comparatively a common thing to find 

 drones with 4 yellow bands, friend L., but I 

 believe general opinion has agreed that no 

 dependence can be placed on the drone 

 markings. Had you worker bees with 4 

 bands, they would certainly be a curiosity ; - 

 but I am not sure they would be of any more 

 value than the others. If we could get some 

 drones that would get honey from the red 

 clover in the fall, when worker bees don't 

 get any, I would bid high for their mothers. 

 It is the honey, I am after, you see. 



THE SAD FATE OF THE QUEEN THAT AL- 

 WAYS HAD A GOOD LOOKING DAUGH- 

 TER IN HER HIVE TO SPARE. 



My offer of $10.00 to friend White (see p. 

 441 last month) turned out badly. The ac- 

 companying bees, of which there were a 

 good many, were in nice order, but the 

 queen was dead without any reason so far as 

 we could see. It was bad luck for both of 

 us, for thus goes the only queen in the world, 

 that will keep raising a young queen, right 

 by her side, in the hive. Perhaps I would 

 better say it is the only one in the world that 

 I know of. 



