178 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 



$ch§ and §mrty§. 



CALIFORNIA. 



"V\ f ^ intercourse with neighboring bee-keepers 

 I */"[ leads me to conclude that there will be fewer 

 — ' bees in this county to begin the season with, 

 than we had two years ago, and not in as good con- 

 dition as then. 



SENDING HONEY ACROSS THE OCEAN. 



Most of those who shipped honey from their crop 

 of 1878 to London and other European markets, have 

 received their account of sales during the past 

 month, and report unfavorably in most cases, as the 

 leakage and about a dozen unlooked-for incidental 

 expenses reduce the net returns to less than what 

 they could have realized in San Francisco nearly a 

 year and a half ago. Nathan H. Shaw. 



San Buenaventura, Ventura Co., Cal., Feb. 30, 1880. 



[I am very sorry indeed that the plan of sending 

 honey abroad has turned out to be so unprofitable. 

 Perhaps, after all, we shall be happier and better to 

 be obliged to rely more upon our home markets.] 



Why don't you tell us in Gleanings what you can 

 furnish ink for by the dozen bottles. We all use ink 

 more or less, but we don't want a gross, or a jug 

 full; yet we can any of us take a dozen bottles, es- 

 pecially to help a friend in trouble, even if it should 

 cost as much as we would have to give at home. 1 

 think if the whole four thousand of us were each to 

 take a dozen bottles, it would give our friend a lift; 

 what say you, brother bee keepers? 



Bees are all alive yet, and doing well, with no 

 signs of dwindling. Wm. L. King. 



Benton Harbor, Mich., Feb. 11, 1880. 



Please accept my smiles for tho smoker which 

 came all right, and seems to work well. I don't 

 have to spit or tramp on it, to make the fire go out 

 after I am through using it, as is the case with a 

 cotton rag, and then after all find it is not put out. 



Pawnee City, Neb., Feb. 18, '80. C. K. Miles. 



WINTERING ON CANDY ALONE. 



One small, late swarm that I put in my cellar had 

 no honey in the fall, and I have kept them on candy 

 all winter. Do you think such a swarm is worth 

 bothering with and will they amount to any thing? 



Coriuna Center, Me., Feb. 19, '80. C. B. Ellis. 



[To be sure, they will amount to something. Keep 

 on with your candy, aud, if it contains flour so that 

 they can go on breeding, they may prove the best 

 colony in your apiary.] 



NEW USE FOR SIMPLICITY SMOKER. 



I got the extractor aud sections about ten days 

 ago, and am much pleased with them. We have had 

 some rare sport with the Simplicity smoker. Itgoes 

 under the name of "Jumper," and I tell you it's fun 

 when some one who has not seen it work goes to 

 smell the nozzle, to just press the bellows a little and 

 let them get the puff of cold air in the face; then 

 you will see them jump. W. J. Ellison. 



Stateburg, S. C, Feb. 27, 1880. 



I am one of your ABC scholars, or, at least, I 

 want to be. For 15 years, I have been pretending to 

 keep a few bees in box-hives, without giving them 

 any attention, and, of course, 1 have had bad luck. 

 I got one of your ABC books last year, and one 



colony of Italians from one of my neighbors. The 

 colony is in a movable frame hive said to be a Lang- 

 stroth hive. I took 50ft. of good honey from it last 

 June. I had 3 old box-hives, and took 10fl>. from 

 each; so you know I am carried away with the Ital- 

 ians. They seem to be doing well. On the 10th int., 

 they were working strong, and bringing in loads of 

 pollen from the tag alder while the ground was 

 partly covered with snow, but it was as pleasant as 

 April. J. D. Cooper. 



Traveller's Rest, S. Carolina, Feb. 12, 1880. 



Bless your lawn chaff hives ! While the neighbors' 

 colonies are dying, ours are, so far, all right. They 

 use a packed Kfdder. The last few days were very 

 warm, and the bees proceeded to clean house finely. 



Jennie Leete. 



West Amboy, N. Y., March 1, '80. 



[If the Kidder hives were properly packed, I do 

 not know why they should not do well in them, un- 

 less it is on account of the patent. It really seems 

 as if the simple fact of a hive's being patented was 

 enough to bring a curse on it, ere it has been in use 

 many seasons.] 



I have 32 swarms of bees in the cellar. I took 

 them out and gave them a fly the middle of Jan. 

 They were all right but two, which went into other 

 hives. Last season I got 1,800ft. of honey from 19 

 old swarms and got 21 new swarms and 80 new combs 

 made. Fayette Lee. 



Cokato, Minn., Jan. 28, 1880. 



[The swarming out and going into other hives is 

 an especial feature of weak colonies. Instead of in- 

 creasing 19 to 40 and then going back to 32, would It 

 not have been better to have kept them 32 all the 

 time? As you did so well in getting 1,800ft. from 19 

 colonies, I guess we will not find much fault, no 

 matter how you did it.] 



"MULTUM IN PARVO." 



Mr. Niwice:— Hold your breath one minute; the 

 idea of box making is not new. The Seal-of-North- 

 Caroliua Smoking Tobacco is put up in such boxes 

 with lid aud bottom as you describe. — To fill a small 

 vial with water or honey, suck the air out, hold your 

 finger over the mouth of the vial, and immerse it in 

 honey or water, or use a svringe. —A good winter- 

 passage tool is an inch tube of tin, with a spring in- 

 side to through out the comb; I have been using 

 one for two winters. — I have also been using fdn. 

 full size, in section boxes, and like it better than 

 starters. The beescarried the first pollen Jan. 9, '80. 

 Alice Hofstatter. 



Louisville, Ky., Feb 5, 1880. 



Alfalfa, and California sage. 



I see Mr. K., in speaking of Alfalfa is not quite 

 right about it. Alfalfa is the name given to Lucerne 

 in Chili, and so was sent to Cal. under that name; 

 and you will find that the Alfalfa differs slightly 

 from Lucerne owing to its being acclimated in Chill. 

 We never had any genuine Lucerne in this state, 

 until lately. 



Also you speak about wanting seeds of three kinds 

 of Sage from this state. Now those best informed 

 tell me that there are but two kinds, — the white, and 

 the black which is so called in contradistiction to 

 white. The black is also called blue, from its slight- 

 ly blue flower, and button sage, as its seeds are in 

 buttons very similar to horehound. No seed can be 

 gathered now, but in early fall there is plenty of 



