332 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



July 



every boy and every old woman will know what it is. 

 Or did you give it a new name to get to sell the 

 seeds? Had I known it would sell, I could have had 

 seeds to sell myself, instead of having to buy. Well, 

 it is nil right. But, to return to the "spider plant:" 

 I think if the honey partakes of the flavor of the 

 plant (which no doubt it will), I should not want to 

 eat at the same table where it was. I know lhat 

 hoarhound honey is about as bitter as the hoar- 

 hound candy that we buy; but then it is good medi- 

 cine, if not such palatable food. J. Copeland. 

 Allendale, 111., June 5, 1880. 



Gently, friend C. Had I wanted to make 

 a speculation on these plants, I should hard- 

 ly have offered them in 5c packages, and 

 paid postage besides. I gave it by the name 

 of Simpson's honey plant, before I knew 

 that it was known by other names, and, to 

 prevent confusion by changing names often, 

 I thought best to hold that name ; but, in 

 the A B C, I have given you not only the 

 name carpenter's square, but several other 

 names by which it is known in different lo- 

 calities. As the botany seems to give the 

 name figwort as the most appropriate com- 

 mon name, I have indexed it as such in the 

 ABC. A practiced gardener will make the 

 seeds of either of the plants grow in great 

 abundance, although I at first failed with it, 

 just as you have. Our neighbor Irish sug- 

 gests that the soil be baked in an oven, to 

 kill all the weeds, before planting something 

 new to you, and then all that comes up will 

 be the plant you are seeking, without any 

 mistake. I do not know what the honey 

 from the spider plant may be like, but as 

 that gathered from seed onions loses its 

 flavor before being sealed up, 1 have no fear 

 but that this will be all right. The drops 

 that hang from the flowers have a beautiful 

 crystal clearness. 



PAINTING HIVES INSIDE. 



I propose to shellac all my hives inside and out. I 

 think it will stand the weather better than paint. 

 The great trouble with paint is, that it soon becomes 

 dead. The oil penetrates the wood, leaving the lead 

 and coloring matter. The shellac for the outside 

 coats can be colored any desired shade, by using dye 

 stuff, or mixing dry paint with it. What use is there 

 of our painting and protecting the outside of our 

 hives from the weather, and allowing the inside to 

 absorb all the dampness? Is it any wonder our 

 hives warp and crack so soon? I think we should 

 make our hives water tight, inside and out. How 

 would one coat of beeswax answer for the inside, 

 put on hot with a brush? If well done, water would 

 never affect them. I would like to hear through 

 Gleanings from those having tried it. 



Jos. M. Brooks. 



Columbus, Ind., June 7, 1880. 



LAZY MAN'S BEE CANDY. 



By this day's mail, I send you a sample of my 

 cheaply made bee-feed. Of course your girls [see p. 

 286, June No.] used too much flour for warm weath- 

 er, and perhaps for any time. But I misled you. 

 It was a irere accident that I thought of speaking of 

 it at all. After writing my letter, I thought of the 

 easy way in which I had fed my bees, and hence jot- 

 ted down the formula, just guessing that the pro- 

 portions used by you in your cooked candy would 

 answer; when, in fact, I had been governed simply 



by my judgment as to how much flour would act as 

 a cement, holding the sugar together in a moderate- 

 ly soft cake. I had some of this feed on hand all 

 winter, and fed it out in spring, and it kept all right. 

 Just use enough flour to cake the sugar; use a little 

 more in winter, if you choose, when pollen is need- 

 ed worse than in summer and you will see this is a 

 success. It beats boiled candy to death. The sur- 

 face of this cand3^ should be dampened with a sponge 

 when given to the bees, just to give them a start on 

 it. G. W. Demaree. 



Christiansburg, Ky., June 8, 1880. 



Many thanks, friend 1). The sample you 

 sent is exactly what we want, not only to 

 feed bees, but to make candy for shipping 

 queens. It bas the property we have talked 

 about, in back numbers, of becoming dry 

 and hard on the outside, forming a crust, as 

 it were, while the inside is moist and just 

 right for the bees. Your sample cake is 

 hard and clean to handle on the outside, 

 while the inside is so soft and moist, that I 

 have no doubt but that it would answer to 

 ship bees safely, without any water. If this 

 proves to be the case, we shall be enabled to 

 dispense with our expensive water bottles in 

 the queen cages. I am a little afraid, how- 

 ever, that even so small a quantity of flour 

 will get to be offensive in hot weather, but 

 it would seem so much sugar should pre- 

 serve it. 



SWARM CATCHER FOR ISSUING SWARMS. 



We have been using a "swarm catcher" here with 

 some advantage. It is a wire net. When a swarm 

 begins to issue, it is held in front of the hive, and 

 the bees rush into it. Any bees ahead on the wing 

 soon return and light on the outside. Where many 

 bees are kept, several swarms are apt to issue in 

 quick succession, and generally unite. Many, by 

 this device, are secured and kept separate. 



La Porte City, Iowa, June, 1880. Jesse Oren. 



The only difficulty with such swarm catch- 

 ers, friend O., is that they must be applied 

 to the hive at the exact moment when the 

 swarm starts out, and, even in an apiary of 

 a hundred colonies, the cases are so rare 

 where we can catch a colony right in the act, 

 that I should hardly think such a contri- 

 vance of any very great utility. They have 

 been several times suggested, but I have not 

 learned that they have come much into use. 

 When several stocks start out at once, on ac- 

 count of hearing another, they might prove 

 very convenient, if right at hand, and in 

 charge of an apiarist who could get around 

 lively at such a time. 



RAPID INCREASE BY ONE OF THE ABC CLASS. 



Last year, I ordered 2 Italian queens of you, and 

 introduced them to colonies that grew up to be very 

 strong, and this spring I had 4 colonies of bees, 2 of 

 them Italians. Upon the 4th of May, I commenced 

 artificial swarming, with my 3 Italian swarms. In 

 15 days, one of these artificial swarms threw out a 

 large natural swarm, and now has its hive pretty 

 well filled. Upon the 29th of May, I again divided 

 and subdivided, so that now I have eight Italian 

 swarms, and 9 Italian neuclus swarms. "How ish 

 dat for high?" 



NO ROSE WITHOUT ITS "THORN." 



Of course, upon one occasion, a busy bee introduc- 

 ed its business end into the bridge of my proboscis, 



