1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



329 



thick honey, you will find that your strings 

 will give enough to let the combs bulge so 

 as to injure them somewhat. We have had 

 such troubles with wire, until we got very 

 stiff wire, and had it well supported with 

 tin bars. — The holly honey is certainly nearly 

 as white as anything we have here, but why 

 is it we have never heard of it before? I 

 shall be very glad indeed of some sourwood 

 seeds. 



FROM AN A B C SCHOLAR. 



I have had -t swarms, and to-day one aftsr-swaxm. 

 May 23d, I had one from the old hive; 25th, one 

 "socker" from my last year's handful; 2iith, another 

 good swarm ; 31st, a swarm from the one I got out of 

 the woods. My other colony just "wiggled" through, 

 and will probably not swarm in a week or so. I 

 think there are a great many bee-keepers ahead of 

 this, but, considering the little handfuls of last sum- 

 mer, that I had to build up, I think I am not doing 

 so bad for an A B C "old man." Surely I will try to 

 succeed. 



RADISHES FOR BEES. 



You wanted to know what kind of radishes mine 

 were that the bees worked on so much last fall. I 

 don't know what the na-ne is; we have had them 

 since we started keeping house, 25 years ago. I am 

 short of seed, as those that were in blossom so late 

 in the fall yielded none, but as soon as I can raise 

 some seed, I will send you som?. The seed can be 

 sowed from April to the first of September for rad- 

 ishes and the flowers. I don't know whether the 

 bees will work on it, if they have something batter, 

 but they preferred radishes to mustard. You can 

 try when you get some seed, which I will send as 

 quick as I can raise it. I believe you rather want 

 short letters, so I will stop right here. 



St. Johns, Mich., June 3, 1830. H. L. Warstler. 



MOTH IN EMPTY COMBS, ANTS, AND PREVENTION OF 

 SWARMING. 



Please toll me how to keep the moth out of my 

 empty comb3, and how to get the moths out after 

 they are once in, without marring the combs. -How 

 can we keep ants from the hives? -If I let a hive 

 swarm once, and in 5 or 10 days afterwards, trans- 

 fer, and remove all the queen cells, will that hive 

 be likely to swarm any more this season? 



Thus. H. Dunc\n. 



Oakland, III., June 9, 1830. 



Brimstone the combs, according to direc- 

 tions in the A B C, and then keep them 

 away from moth ; or, better still, put them 

 in hives where bees can cover them. — Keep 

 ants out of the hives, by keeping them so 

 full of bees that there will be no room for 

 ants; also see "Ants 1 ' in A B C. — The 

 swarming again depends entirely on the 

 yield of honey. If honey keeps coming, the 

 bees will swarm just as soon as the hive gets 

 full, as in the first place. Cutting out the 

 queen cells and transferring are only tempo- 

 rary remedies. 



WHERE SOME OF THE TROUBLE COMES FROM. 



Hives and smoker are received, and I am well 

 pleased. My goods were delayed two weeks from 

 carelessness, or "cussedness," of the agents of the 

 express company. Instead of shipping them on to 

 West Milton, as they were billed, they were put off 



at Troy, O., and lay there about ten days, without 

 giving me any notice. How did I find them? I sent to 

 West Milton every day for a week or more, after re- 

 ceiving your card notifying me of shipment. The 

 express agent at that place finally told me I would 

 better inquire at Troy, as there had been numerous 

 instances where goods had been put off at Troy, di- 

 rected to West Milton. West Milton has a new rail- 

 road; hence the jealousy. J. P. Brandon, M. D. 

 Laura, O., June 4, 188J. 



I do not know but that word ''cussedness," ■ 

 is a bad one to put in print, friend B., but as 

 it means a spirit instigated by the Evil One 

 himself, I do not know but that it is the 

 right one. I do know that those who hold 

 important offices for railroad and express 

 companies, will sometimes delay goods pur- 

 posely, just to vent some little personal spite 

 to somebody, entirely ignoring the trials and 

 vexations caused an innocent party, by their 

 so doing. It is one of my hardest trials to 

 bear such persecutions with meekness and a 

 Christian spirit. 



QUEEN CELLS; TROUBLES IN GETTING THEM. 



What is the reason I can not get my bees to build 

 queen cells in the combs? When I cut a hole in the 

 combs, some fill the hole up, and some take the bees 

 and larvaj away. 



INTRODUCING QUEENS. 



When you make an artificial swarm, and give the 

 bees the queen, do they keep her? Mine won't. 1 

 gave mine a queen when I made it, and went back 

 in about 5 minutes, and they had taken her out of 

 the hive. I took her ftway and gave her to another 

 hive. They did not fight ber, and I let them have 

 her. Is it necessary to put honey on their wings or 

 not? J. A. McKee. 



Sparta, Randolph Co., 111., May 3, 1880. 



Cut out a long hole, friend M., in your 

 comb, and put it in a queenless colony, and 

 I think they will start cells without fail. — 

 You speak as if you did not cage your 

 queens when making an artificial swarm. 

 You can seldom let any queen into a strange 

 colony without caging, unless it is a queen 

 just hatched ; I would not put honey on the 

 queen because, if she did not happen to be 

 receiyed, the honey would be likely to kill 

 her. 



MILKWEED POLLEN AGAIN. 



I here enclose three honey bees. Can you tell me 

 what is the matter with them? The bee3 in and 

 around this part of the country are quite generally 

 affected in the same way, and some of my neighbors 

 have lost nearly every stand they had. They get 

 such a growth upon their feet that they cannot 

 climb up the hive. What is the cause? and what 

 the cure? John Collins. 



Parsons, Kans., June 7, 1880. 



No disease at all, friend C, but only the 

 milkweed pollen masses, samples of which 

 we receive every year, about this time or a 

 little later. If you will look in the A B C 

 book, you will see it pictured out. I think 

 you must be mistaken in- thinking this the 

 cause of the loss of your neighbors 1 bees. It 

 annoys them without doubt, and may be the 

 cause of the loss of some of them, but I 

 think the main cause must be some where 

 else. 



