28 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



robbed, and some were queenless. I can winter a 

 swarm on 12 ff>. of honey. E. M. Kellogg. 



Croton, N. Y., Nov. 22,1879. 



So it seems to be the springing, friend K., 

 rather than the wintering that troubles, 

 when they are kept in cellars, as well as 

 when left on their summer stands. 



The following comes from the Mt. Carroll 

 Seminary : 



KEEPING BEES WITHOUT TROUBLE. 



We contemplate trying " 1'ee Culture" in 1he 

 spring-, and want to get at the most reliable informa- 

 tion. Jf we could keep them in a house, and never 

 have any trouble with their swarming-, we would not 

 hesitate. We want the bees and the honey, but do 

 not want the trouble with their swarming-. Please 

 refer us to the best information on this point. 



F. A. W. Shimer. 



Mt. Carroll, Carroll Co., 111., Dec. 2, 18T9. 



I presume, my friends, you will find plenty 

 of advertisers of patent right hives, who 

 will tell you that you can keep bees in their 

 hives, without any trouble from swarming, 

 etc. I shall tell you no such thing. I do 

 not know how any body can keep bees suc- 

 cessfully, without trouble, or at least much 

 care, and unexpected difficulties will come 

 up almost constantly. If you keep bees for 

 box honey, you are always liable to have 

 swarming, and must expect it. If the honey 

 is carefully extracted before the hives get 

 full, you will have much less of it. If you 

 rear queens for sale, and keep all your stocks 

 weak by division, you may escape swarming 

 entirely, but I know of no other way. Now 

 after all I have said, I will add that there 

 are those who are so much in love with bee- 

 culture, that they consider all these troubles 

 and difficulties only fun, and it is this class 

 who will probably succeed. 



QUEEN DEAD AT THE ENTRANCE. 



I lost my queen by introducing-, but Hopkins was 

 successful with his, and the hive was half full of 

 Italians; but, yesterday, he sat looking at them, and 

 you can imagine his chagrin at finding the queen 

 dead before the hive. Now the question is, what 

 can he do to save them, at this season of the year? 

 The hive is extra large and very full of bees and 

 honey. 



I am inclined to think, friend II., that 

 there was another queen left in the hive ; if 

 you made an examination, you probably 

 know. Where a queen has been laying in 

 the hive, and I rind one before the entrance, 

 I always expect to find another in the hive. 

 I do not remember of any exceptions to this 

 i ule until the present season. This fall, we 

 liave found quite a number of imported 

 queens dead at the entrance, when there 

 were no young queens in their places, in the 

 hive. Very likely this was occasioned, in 

 part at least, by the death occurring at a 

 time after the queens had stopped laying in 

 the fall. 



FEEDING UP A SEPTEMBER COLONY. 



I have a case to report to you. Sifert, a neighbor 

 of mine, had a swarm of Italian* cluster on an apple- 

 tree, the 12th of September, and, it being late in the 

 season and so dry, all the old bee-men told him he 

 could not save them. For the sake of experiment, 

 we put them in a hive, gave them some foundation, 

 and some empty comb, and empty frames. We 

 gave them coffee A sugar syrup, and they went to 

 work on the fmpty frames and built comb out of 

 the syrup, which is white sugar comb and nothing 

 else. They have built 4 large c >mbs and are draw- 

 ing out the foundation, and breeding fast. Is not 



that doing well? If they live over winter, I will 

 report. - M. T. Hobbs. 



Middleport, Meigs Co., O., Nov. 29, 1879. 



I think it is doing quite well, and it is 

 mainly because they have been carefully fed 

 and attended to. The colony will be very 

 apt to turn out one of the best you have. 



WILL ITALIANS PREDOMINATE IF LEFT TO THEM- 

 SELVES? 



About the year 1865, the Italian bee and American 

 patent hive fever swept over this country, and near- 

 ly every bee-keeper had the most of his bees trans- 

 ferred into the American hive, and Italian queens 

 introduced. The queens were said to be imported; 

 but, as the venders transferred a colony and intro- 

 duced the queen for $5.00, I hardly think they were 

 imported. Well, every one thought they had done 

 all that was required to make bee-keeping a success, 

 so they did no more, except to hive the increase, 

 and take off honey, etc. There has, to my knowl- 

 edge, been no more Italians introduced into this 

 part of the country, except one tested queen in 1878. 

 This was 4 miles or more from my apiary. 



About the year 1*70, my grandfather gave me a 

 colony of the yellow bees (this was my start; I now 

 have 10 stands in Qninby hives), and now, 14 years 

 from the time the Italians were introduced, I have 

 one queen that produces a fine quality of Italians. 

 Fully one-half show pretty clearly the three yellow 

 bands, and the other half show two. I have seen 

 none without two yellow bands. The remainder of 

 my colonies all show plain marks of Italian blood, 

 according to the rules in A 15 C. Now, with me, the 

 question is, how long will these bees show the Ital- 

 ian blood if let alone? I don't think it will ever 

 leave them entirely. T. J. Cook. 



Newpoint, Ind., Dec. 1, 1879. 



This is an interesting point, friend C. It 

 is my impression that the Italians will even- 

 tually take the place of the common bees, 

 even if let alone. I judge so, from seeing so 

 many beautifully marked Italians among 

 the wild bees in the woods, and we frequent- 

 ly find as nicely marked Italians in bee trees, 

 as we can get from any apiary. The fact 

 that the Italians will thrive where the blacks 

 starve will, without doubt, enable them, in 

 time, to almost, if not entirely, supplant the 

 natives, even if both races should be let 

 alone. 



WINTER PASSAGES, AND HOW TO MAKE THEM PER- 

 MANENT. 



Friend Novicn: — 1 have bothered myself a great 

 deal about winter passages through the brood 

 combs. I think them necessary, and want a perma- 

 nent passage. I rejected an upright of wood with 

 holes through it, because it took up room; tin and 

 wood thimbles won't do, because the bees will nibble 

 at them; to make the holes every fall, with a sharp 

 stick, is a great deal of trouble; besides, if they are 

 made too early, the bees will shut them up in a few 

 days. Now, I have struck an idea. If we are going 

 to use wired frames, and they must have a support 

 in the center, why not make it of a piece of wood 3 a 

 full by ?b, and have three or four hi in. holes in it for 

 the bees to pass through. This would give us a per- 

 manent winter passage, and there will be no forget- 

 ting to make holes in the combs. Besides, in cool 

 spring weather, the queen, in her egg-laying rounds, 

 can pa«s from comb to comb right through the clus- 

 ter. What do you think nl the idea? 



I have a machine which I have used for years, that 

 I think a great deal of, and don't see how I could get 

 along without it. I call it an uncapping-box. I have 

 never seen one described, so I will just offer mine as 

 a sample to work from. 



SCOVELL'S UNCAPPING-BOX. 



For an L. frame, I make a shallow box, 10 in. wide, 

 18 in. long, and about 6 in. deep. The lid is hinged 

 to the box just as you have seen pocket looking- 

 glasses hinged. W'-en the lid is raised up in posi- 

 tion, it makes a support for the comb. The bottom 

 of the comb-frame rests ag-ainst a cross-bar. In 

 unc ippitig, you draw the knife downward, and the 

 capping--: roll ahead of the knife and fall into the 

 box. Put a strainer, near the bottom of the box, 



