282 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



RED CLOVER QUEENS, ETC. 



I have one queen whose bees worked on red clover 

 last season, and I raised 3 queens from her last 

 August. Will their progeny have the same good 

 qualities? If so, I will breed from her altogether 

 this season. She is small and dark, while the bees 

 are very large, and a little shade dark. Shall I use 

 a honey board in two story hive for extractor? 

 Your busy ABC scholar, 



Freeport, Ind., April 22, 1880. Geohge Cole. 



Your young queens will be very likely, 

 some of them' at least, to inherit in a greater 

 or less degree, the peculiarities of the moth- 

 er. I>o not use a honey board or anything 

 else between the upper and the lower stories. 

 If your hive is made properly, there is no 

 room for one; for the upper and lower 

 frames should be only f of an inch apart. If 

 the queen lays eggs in an upper frame, swap 

 it for one having none. By gradually 

 spreading the upper combs until they be- 

 come very thick, you will get much more 

 honey with once uncapping, and the queen 

 cannot very well use them for brood combs. 



yet. I can't touch them without smoke. What 

 would you do with them? How do you tell full 

 bloods from others? Mine have not as many bands 

 as one man's in Gleanings. Now don't you think 

 that 1 have got through Smilery, Growlery, and 

 Blasted Hopes nearly? C. II. Angell. 



Clarksville, Iowa, April 23, 1880. 



Although such absconding as you mention 

 is rather unusual, it is not new with expe- 

 rienced bee-keepers. — By all means use the 

 old combs atid hives where your bees have 

 died. — You can educate your cross Italians 

 to behave better, and it would be nothing 

 strange if they should be found to behave 

 better without smoke than with. — I think, 

 friend A., that you will in time, if you keep 

 on, graduate in all the departments you 

 mention. As you learn to rule all these 

 things, including also the cross bees, I hope 

 you will also learn that great lesson of ruling 

 one's own spirit. The A B C you have or- 

 dered will give you more light on all the 

 points you have just mentioned. 



SOURWOOD. 



The sourwood is a native forest tree from Penn- 

 southward, but is by far the most abundant along 

 the Alleghany range. It is of the species Erica- 

 car, and is known also as the sorrel tree. It derives 

 the name sourwood from the acidity of its leaves. 

 The flowers are white and mug shaped, hanging 

 mouth downward from spikes of considerable 

 length. It is a very showy tree, and quite orna- 

 mental. It' blossoms when 5 or 6 feet high. Seed- 

 lings are of slow growth. Suckers, when they can 

 be obtained, often grow 5 to 7 feet in a season, but 

 do no"t bloom so low as the seedling. The tree often 

 attains the hight of 60 or 70 feet. The wood is use- 

 ful for many purposes, being tirm and straight 

 grained. It cannot be excelled for quantity or qual- 

 ity of honey in the United States. H. A. Davis. 



Moretz Mills, N. C, April 20, 1880. 



Thanks. Who will furnish us with little 

 trees? Will the seeds grow, and the trees 

 thrive in the north? 



AN A B C SCHOLAR'S MISHAPS. 



You ma j - think me like the one you spoke of in 

 Gleanings w ho had too many stands of bees, but I 

 want to ask some questions. Did you ever know a 

 swarm of bees at this time of the year to come out 

 and go off, leaving honey and brood in the hive? I 

 had one that did so last week. Where Ihey went I 

 do not know. I do not think they went in with any 

 of the rest, for there was no lighting or robbing 

 that I could detect. 



I began on the 11th of May, 1878, by cutting two 

 trees and transferring into frame hives. I had good 

 luck and got 3 young swarms, but lost one of the 

 old ones by moths. I wintered 4 all right. In the 

 spiing of '79, 1 bourht one, making 5, and increased 

 to 12 by natural swarming. They were put into the 

 cellar in Nov., and 5 died, with plenty of honey, and 

 one has gone somewhere, leaving ti to start with. 

 Now, will it do to put bees in those hives or not? 



I must tell you about the swarm I bought; I 

 bought it for a full blood Italian coliny, supposing 

 they would not sting so much as the others, but the 

 first time I went near them, they "went for" me 

 lively; so I got my smoker and "went for" them, 

 and th ,ught I had tamo 1 them, but they are just so 



SMOKE MAKING BEES ANGRY, HONEY BOARDS, ETC. 



I have 2 colonies of black bees in movable frame 

 hives. I can open them at any time during the day, 

 take out the frames and examine them. These 

 frames are covered with a honey board which rests 

 on the edge of the hive about \i inch above the top 

 of the frames. While I'am looking at the frames, 

 the bees will gather on top of the frames and edge 

 of hive, but by sliding the board endwise gently 

 along, they will all crawl out of the way so I cm 

 close it up quite quickly. Now, I want to ask you 

 how I can get this mat on; it won't do to lay it right 

 i on the bees, will it? I have a smoker, but smoke 

 makes them angry. They fly into the chimney and 

 stick to the hot side and seem almost frantic. It 

 takes so much smoke and time too, and as I don't 

 need to use smoke only to get the mat on, I don't 

 like to use it for that. There arc no instructions in 

 ABC about putting it on. 



Lizzie H. McClymonds. 



Templeton, Armstrong Co., Pa., Apr. 28, 1880. 



Your honey board will work nicely, friend 

 Lizzie, while the hive is new, but when it 

 gets old and every thing is covered with 

 propolis, you will find it next to impossible 

 to use it in the manner you mention. The 

 mat is to be laid gently right over the bees, 

 or rather left with one edge attached, so it 

 can be easily rolled back in place. We often 

 find bees that we can handle better without 

 smoke, and that is why I have advised you 

 never to use a smoker in opening a hive, un- 

 less you find, by trying, that you are obliged 

 to use it. It is not often that we find a col- 

 ony which is made "frantic," as yours are, 

 simply by smoking them. 



GETTING TnE SIMPSON-PLANT SEEDS TO GERMINATE. 



I sowed the Simpson honey-plant seeds which you 

 sent me. in a box on the 24th day of Feb. last, at the 

 same time when I sowed several other kinds of 

 seeds in the same way. The other seeds have all 

 come up including tho "spider plant;" but, al- 

 though there maybe 93 different and queer weeds 

 which came up in the Simpson honey-plant box, 

 there is not one as yet which I can identify as the 

 Simpson honey-plant. How many months should I 

 wait for the seeds to germinate? and then how long 

 should I still wait and let the 131 difierent "queer 



