1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



lli» 



volume (recently neatly bound) of Gleanings for 

 1879, :in<l on page 261, under heading •• Uniting Bees," 

 1 found the same article written by yourself. C. P. 

 1). i was he bashful in not placing his full name to an- 

 other man's article?) evidently thought he was doing 

 the A. B. J. a service; but 1 doubt if the editors of 

 that journal are of his opinion. It. ( '. TAYLOR. 



Wilmington, N. ('.. Jan. 58, 1880. 



Thanks for your favorable report on set- 

 ting a board before the hive, after moving 

 the bees, friend T. : lint are you sure it will 

 always work as well ? Were noi the chick- 

 ens you tell about of an unusually gentle 

 breed ? Surely, such submissiveness would 

 be a desirable trait. 



So tar as I am personally concerned, I have 

 no objection at all to having my writings 

 copied, when they are of value; but for C. 

 F. D.'s sake, I would enjoin him to remem- 

 ber that such things are dangerous, for they 

 are almost sure to he found out, as in the 

 present case. The article you mention, 1 

 wrote originally as an answer to an inquiry, 

 and it may be found entire on page 260, 

 Oct. No . 1877. What pleased me most about 

 your letter, friend T., was your very neat 

 price list on a postal, pictures of queens and 

 all, evidently done with the cheirograph. I 

 am glad to know you succeeded with it. 



IS ITALIAN BLOOD '•CATCHING"? 



The Italian queen you sent me last May, 1 intro. 

 duced according to your books, and succeeded 

 splendidly. I say they can't be heat in the State. 

 Also, I had a colony of black bees standing about 

 one yard from them, and to-day they are extra hy- 

 brids. How does that come? There were many 

 Italian drones last fall. We have 21 hives. We have 

 lost none this winter. A. J. Sayer. 



Hartford City, Mason Co., W. Va., Jan. 10, 1880. 



I presume your black colony reared a new 

 queen, and that she met one of the Italian 

 drones. Italian bees would probably be 

 found in the hive any way. if they were near 

 together, for bees very often get into the 

 wrong hive, in the working season, without 

 being molested. 



WHAT TO DO WITH ODD-SIZED FRAMES. 



Friend Root : — Help me out of trouble. I bought 

 some regular, standard, L. hives. The frames in my 

 old hives are t in. shorter than I want them in L. 

 hives. Now, would you cut comb out entirely, or 

 take sides and bottom away and fasten the top 

 piece in L. frame? Would you till space left with 

 fdn.? If hives are divided, will they swarm the 

 same season, when worked for com)) honey? 



James Shore. 



Gcrmantown, Pa., Jan. 27, 1880. 



I would take the odd-sized hives and make 

 kindling wood of all of them, saving only 

 the combs. Of these. I would transfer only 

 the good worker comb, using all the rest for 

 wax. I would use fdn. to iill the empty 

 Space in transferring. Hives that are di- 

 vided will not be as likely to swarm, but it 

 all depends on the season. With a steady, 

 uninterrupted How of honey, they may swarm 

 again and again. 



your A 11 C scholars, and have your complete work, 

 you may look for a statement of our progress some 

 time during the coming summer. I will say this 

 much now: In the spring of 1878,wo started with two 

 stands; in the spring of 'T'.i. with three; and, from 

 present indications, will have nine the coming 

 spring. Last season we worked for increase, and 

 two tine swarms got away from us. This coming 

 season, we expect to work for honey, and perhaps 

 raise queens. Bigoer & Swallow. 



Bellbrook, ()., Jan. 8, 1880. 



If you are coming into the A 15 (' class, my 

 friends, you must not let your bees get away; 

 it is too much trouble to raise them. Be- 

 sides, when they go off they are almost sure 

 to do it just before the honey season, or right 

 in the midst of it. and that, von see. is a 

 double loss. 



CALIFORNIA. 



We had a sharp spell of cold weather about Christ- 

 mas, making ice half an inch thick in many places, 

 in the county where tomato vines have heretofore 

 come through the winter unharmed. The past sea- 

 son has been harder on the bee keepers of Southern 

 California than the dry season of 1*77, and I am sat- 

 isfied that there will be fewer bees to begin the sea- 

 son with, in this country, than we had two years ago. 

 The past week has been warm enough for bees to 

 fly, and the prospect now is that they will be at 

 work on the willows very lively during the coming 

 week. Manzanitahas been in bloom in the moun- 

 tains for over a month, but it has been too cold for 

 1hc bees to get tiny benefit from it. 



Nathan H. Shaw. 



San Buenaventura, Cal., Jan. 19, 1880. 



RAISING NEES, AND THEN LETTING THEM "BUS OFF." 



Those queens we got of you show really line prog- 

 eny, which are of much better disposition than our 

 black boos were. As we, in a quid Way, Claim t" be 



TOADS AGAIN, AND HIVES ON THE GROUND. 



I must tell you about my experience in following 

 your advice. You recommend putting hives on the 

 ground or on bricks; so, last spring, I tried it, as 

 soon as I got bees into the Simplicities. I leveled 

 up my bottom boards on ± bricks, as you say, and 

 thought, "Well, I am all right now;" and, to im- 

 prove on your improvement, I put up a slanting 

 alighting-board, and it was just grand to see the bees 

 alight and travel up the board right into the hive. I 

 happened to be near one evening, just about dusk, 

 when I saw a number »,f toads about the hives. So I 

 watched a short time, until one mounted the alight- 

 ing-board, and I knew in a moment what was up. 

 Before it was fully datk, I had killed 2fi toads. I 

 changed the hives the next day by planting a piece 

 of f x 6 scantling, :j ft. long, and leaving 12 in. out of 

 the ground, and nailing a plank on the top, on which 

 I set the hive, leaving the plank projecting enough 

 for the bees to alight on. After that I had no troub- 

 le. T. L. Davidson. 



Early Branch, Hampton Co., S. C, Jan. 2:5, 1880. 



I should object to your board, friend 1)., 

 because it will soon warp and prove unsight- 

 ly, and Inconvenient for the bees. Tbe in- 

 convenience of having hives SO pen bed up 

 on a stake, when extracting, putting up 

 pounds of bees, etc., to say nothing of having 

 heavily laden bees fall to the ground (a prey 

 to the toads after all), to me would more 

 than counterbalance the time occupied in 

 killing the toads, as you did the first night. 

 If you followed that up. yon would be rid of 

 them in a very short time. I dislike the 

 idea of killing the poor things, and, as they 



