1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



§83 



and had no help but the A 15 C of Bee Culture. 

 Would you advise me to get Italian queens for the 

 two hybrid colonies this fall'/ If so, which niunth 

 will be the best for making; the change? 



L. H. Green. 

 Bergen, Genesee Co., N. Y., June 29, 1880. 



I do not know, friend G., but I should ad- 

 vise you to keep the hybrids, if you can get 

 along with their stings. After you learn to 

 handle hybrids, you can certainly handle 

 other bees, and if you kill a hybrid queen in 

 any of your manipulations, you are but little 

 out of pocket. Perhaps some of you remem- 

 ber a young man I met in the jail, a little 

 over a year ago, whom I called 8. Well, S. 

 had Gleanings to read while he was in the 

 penitentiary, and he is now not only a pretty 

 fair bee-keeper, but I trust a Christian as 

 well. Last evening he came up to see me, 

 and wanted some hybrid queens. He gave 

 as a reason, that his hybrids made nearly, if 

 not quite, as much honey as his neighbors' 

 Italians, and that if he lost them in introdu- 

 cing and in artificial swarming, it would be 

 little matter. lie said he wanted them to 

 practice with. I remembered a queen that 

 we had hard work to decide upon, whether 

 an Italian or hybrid, and, as we call all un- 

 certain cases hybrids, to be on the safe side, 

 I gave her to him. Another produced very 

 tinely marked bees, but she was rather old 

 and dark, so he went away well satisfied 

 with his two queens at 50c each. I think it 

 quite likely that many queens are con- 

 demned as hybrids, that are really full 

 bloods, and such queens, at a low price, are 

 often a great boon to novices. 



QUEENS FLYING WHEN INTRODUCED, ETC. 



I wrote you, the 25th, that I had received the 

 queen you sent me all right; but, in attempting 

 to introduce her, she Hew away, and I ordered anoth- 

 er one. The mail had not been gone 5 minutes, 

 when I made the discovery that she was in the hive, 

 and permanently enstalled; but, as we only get mail 

 every Tuesday and Friday, I could not countermand 

 the order, for I am 13 miles from Logansport. I 

 have i; stands now. I bought 3 and increased to fi by 

 artificial swarming. When I bought them, they 

 were in box hives, and I transferred them into mov- 

 able frame hives all of my own make. I have taken 

 about 100 lbs. of comb honey, in sections, and have 

 also transferred 6 colonies for my neighbors. 



Carroll, Ind., June 28, 1880. L. C. McFatridge. 



The flying of queens when being intro- 

 duced is a troublesome problem. It is true, 

 they generally come back, but they do not 

 always do so, and it is very trying to the 

 owners, to see them soaring aloft in such a 

 careless if not reckless way, when they cost 

 so much money, and are needed so much 

 down in the hive. I dare not recommend 

 daubing honey on their wings, for, if they 

 should not be accepted, the honey would dry 

 on their bodies and kill theni. Clipping 

 their wings will do it, but I do not like to 

 clip a queen just as she is to be introduced, 

 nor just as I am going to send her away. If 

 I should clip every queen as soon as she be- 

 comes fertile, a great many would scold and 

 refuse to have a mutilated queen, in spite 

 of all the explanations we could make on a 

 whole sheet of paper. I really can not see 



any other way at present, except to let them 

 fly whenever they want to. Will says he 

 hardly ever has them fly, because he lets 

 them run out of the cage directly on a comb 

 and then closes the hive quickly, if they are 

 not molested. One of our lady friends 

 graphically portrays below, her own feelings 

 while her queen was in the air, and also how 

 she felt when the queen came back again. 



I opened up my new swarm, and destroyed what 

 queen cells they had started, and, according to di- 

 rections, put the queen on top of the frames, wire 

 side of the cage down. The bees seemed to receive 

 her at once, but I thought I would go as directed. 

 On Saturday, at noon, I thought I would let her out, 

 though she had only been in the hive 24 hours, in- 

 stead of 48; but as the next day was Sabbath, I con- 

 cluded I would try her. I drew back the slide, she 

 came out, and was walking over the frames perhaps 

 a minute; then up she flew, making several circles, 

 and soared away out of my sight. You can better 

 imagine my feelings than I can express them, so 

 many thoughts passed through my mind, such as 

 these: "I'll not tell any one about this; they laugh a 

 good deal at Mrs. A.'s experience in sending for 

 queens," etc., when back she came and went directly 

 down among the combs. I then shut up the hive, 

 went away, and, in half an hour, opened up again, 

 when she was going over the combs and being fed 

 by the bees. On Monday, I again looked for her, and 

 found she had laid quite a quantity of eggs, so that 

 in 6 or 8 days from now, I expect to see some yellow 

 bees flying to and from that hive. 



Mrs. J. B. Adair. 



Indiana, Indiana Co., Penn., June 18, 1880. 



ON THE RIGHT TRACK. 



My bees are doing very nicely and are just over- 

 joyed with those hives. My early swarms have got 

 ready for the upper story. I now have 28 swarms all 

 told. Oh! I do so much want those hives, In order 

 to get all the honey from them that I can this fall, 

 to help me in my shortened circumstances, for I 

 have a large doctor's bill hanging to me, for kind- 

 ness to me in sickness. Bee-keeping is a new busi- 

 ness to me on so large a scale, and it does seem to 

 me as though the hand of God was with me in pros- 

 perity with them, for I never had any luck with 

 bees before, and it was just because I did not ask 

 for help from the right source. Now, 'friend Boot, 

 please to ship just as soon as you possibly can, and 

 you will do one of the greatest favors you ever did. 



Cortland, O., June 29, 1880. Z. D. StJoiin. 



Our friend's order came to us about half- 

 past 10 a.m., the 3d of July, and by :t p.m., 

 the same day, his hives were packed and on 

 thecals. I do feel that he is on the right 

 track in asking God to help him in his daily 

 work ; and the humble, thankful spirit with 

 which such calls for help should be made 

 seems to show all through the letter. To be 

 sure, lie will prosper. 



SOMETHING AROUT THE SIMPSON nONEY PLANT. 



We left about an acre of land this spring that we 

 had plowed last fall for buckwheat, and, of course, 

 it had grown over with weeds. Last Monday we 

 went over to plow it, but what was our surprise to 

 find it just roaring with bees. Well, I stopped plow- 

 ing, picked off a bunch, and went for the ABC 

 book, and found that it was the Simpson honey 



