issu 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



231 



swarm by dying, and have never had any spring 

 dwindling-. My 2 weak swarms have got brood in I! 

 combs now. My plan is to keep every hive full of 

 bees; the more the better to winter. They swarmed 

 last summer after being divided. It was the worst 

 year for swarms I ever saw. Sorghum syrup spoils 

 the sale of honey. It is from 30 to 50 e. a gallon. 

 They say it is too much work to raise it so they are 

 stopping. Fayette Lee. 



Cokato, Minn., Apr. 4, 1880. 



FRIEND ADAMS OPINION OF I. AMP NURSERIES. 



That lamp nursery I bought of you proved a fail- 

 ure. I lost 15 cells, the eggs of which were laid by 

 an imported queen. I followed your directions in 

 everything in regard to the nursery and cells. Some 

 of the cells hatched, but queenless colonies would 

 not accept them, proving that that lamp nursery is 

 a nuisance any how. To those same colonies, I gave 

 a queen cell which would hatch the next day, and in 

 a little more than a week they had a laying queen in 

 each hive. Why not introduce queen cells that will 

 hatch soon, instead of young queens that the bees 

 will not accept according to my experience? Now 

 Mr. Root, I can get along a great deal better without 

 that lamp nursery than I can with it, and I want 

 you to take it bach again. I have used it only once, 

 and that is enough. G. II. Adams. 



Sand Lake, N. Y., Jan. T, 1880. 



In your concluding sentence, friend A., 

 you say you only tried it once. I hardly 

 know how it is, but, with the most common 

 implements, we frequently lind people who 

 fail at their first trial, and should they al- 

 ways decide a thing to be a nuisance with- 

 out going farther, I am afraid progress 

 would be rather slow. It is true, as I have 

 told you both in the price list and ABC, 

 that at times newly hatched virgin queens 

 will almost all be rejected, and again success 

 seems to follow invariably. Did you not 

 note this before you ordered a nursery? The 

 general decision is that lamp nurseries are a 

 great saving, and many of our leading queen 

 rearers use them season after season. Eore- 

 most among this number is our friend Hay- 

 hurst, unless he has lately discarded it. 

 AVill he please tell us his present opinion of 

 the lamp nursery? Although friend A. or- 

 dered a nursery made for an odd sized 

 frame, I have taken it back at what he paid 

 for it, and it stands idly now of no use to 

 anybody that I know of. ' I mention this to 

 caution our friends about ordering things 

 that they may not like. 



bee CANDY; another way to make it. 



I want to save you that 2c. per pound, which you 

 are paying the confectioner for makiDg bee-candy, 

 make a warm, saturated solution of sugar syrup, 

 and pour this over your "coffee A" carefully, so as 

 to moisten the entire mass (capillarity will assist 

 somewhat in the process), spread it evenly in your 

 brood frames, and allow it to dry (drain). Thus you 

 do away with all boiling and burning, can incorpor- 

 ate the flour in any proportion, and your candy is 

 always white and dry, being already in the crystal- 

 line state. The sugar syrup acts merely as a ce- 

 ment to hold the grains together. 



lteistertown, Md., Jan. 5, 1880. P. Della Torre. 



Thanks, friend I). I have used substan- 

 tially the same thing, but I did not get it 



hard enough to suit me, without baking it 

 in an oven, and it seemed rather more troub- 

 le than the usual way of making candy. 



BEE i .Tl.TURE IN NEW ENGLAND. 



I received a sample copy of (1 leanings to-day, 

 and in the "Depository of Blasted Hopes" I saw a 

 letter from a gentleman, Win. L. Hyde, from Conn. 

 In it, he says he does not know but his poor success 

 is due to his being a resident of New England. I am 

 sure it is not on that account, as I have kept bees 

 here during the last 12 years, and have been success- 

 ful to a greater or less degree. I have kept bees in 

 the box-hive, in the Langstroth, or one similar to it, 

 and in the Quinby hive. I do not think success is 

 dependent so much up >n the style of hive as upon 

 the management. 



TRANSFERRING EARLY. 



I have transferred quite a number of stocks, and 

 1 never yet had any surplus, the same season, from 

 a stock that was transferred from a box-hive during 

 white clover bloom. I think if friend Hyde had 

 transferred his bees .just as soon as the sugar maple 

 was in bloom, and his stock was a good one, he 

 would have received some surplus. Transferring at 

 that time gives the bees a chance to put things to 

 rights, and when white clover comes they are ready 

 to take advantage of it. From seven hives, during 

 the last season, I took nearly 300 lb. of box honey, 

 and 100 lb. of extracted honey. Our pasturage hero 

 is maple, willow, and fruit blossoms. Basswood is 

 very limited in quantity. White clover is our main 

 dependence for surplus, although buckwheat and 

 golden rod help our bees to hold their own through 

 the fall. S. H. Hickok. 



Bethel, Fairfield Co., Conn., Jan. 20 '80. 



REPORT FROM A SINGLE COLONY OF ITALIANS. 



A year ago last April, I came from Pa. to Kansas. 

 I bought a stand of Italians, and got it rather late, 

 and it was weak at that; but, in the fall, it was very 

 strong and gave me about 30 lbs. of surplus. I win- 

 tered it in the cellar, and it came out last spring in 

 fine condition. It gave a 1st swarm, May 21th; a 2d, 

 June 3d. They commenced killing drones after the 

 second swarm, and I thought, of course, they were 

 done swarming for the season. But they filled up 

 again, and swarmed on the 19th of August. 



From the 1st swarm I took 10 lbs. surplus; from 

 the 2d, 50 lbs. ; from the 3d, 15 lbs. ; and from the old 

 stand 20 lbs, ; making 125 lbs. of splendid honey. I 

 call that a pretty good showing. Don't you? 



Severance, Kas., Jan. 5, 1880. J'. E. Plank. 



KOW T<> FEED DON HIVES WITH A ' BUNO-HOLE" IN 



riu; top. 



ABC came to hand in due time. Many thanks. 

 One thing 1 greatly regret,— that I did not order the 

 ABC book bound in cloth, for 1 never expected it 

 to be what it really is for only $1.0<>. I would have 

 lost both of my colonies of bees if I had not received 

 it just in time. They were in a state of Starvation, 

 and I did not know how to feed them. When I re- 

 ceived the book, I made candy as directed therein 

 (my bees are in box hives with a bung-hole in the 

 top), and took a pine block, 1x1x2 inches, bored a 

 2 inch hole nearly through, run the candy into it, 

 and set it over the bung-hole on the hive, right over 

 the cluster. The bees are licking it up very fast, 

 and are doing well at present. Aug. Tigges, 



Marathon City, Wis., April a, 1880, 



