384 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Auft. 



plant. The bees have been on it from morning to 

 night ever since. The ground is perfectly grown 

 over with it. It would be very abundant here, were 

 it not mowed out of the wheat. We also sowed 2 lb. 

 of rape, and the bees are thick on it in the forenoon. 

 Hutchinson, Minn., June 20, '80. H. Inergens. 



MR. CHESHIRE'S INVKNTION AS TRANSFERRING 

 WIRES, ETC. 



The Cheshire invention is a most extraordinarily 

 valuable invention, and you can have a large trade 

 in it. It will be good for transferring, as well as for 

 comb fdn. I would have liked to write you a very 

 interesting letter, but I thought there was no time 

 to lose in getting this before the public, and the de- 

 mand for queens is so large that I will have great 

 difficulty in supplying them. My bees are gathering 

 about $200.00 worth of honey daily. D. A. Jones. 



Beeton, Ont., Can., June 22, 1880. 



A ROMANCE IN REAL LIFE, "FOUNDED ON FACTS." IN 

 TWO CHAPTERS. 



Chapter I. Dailmess. 



Thanks for your promptness. I received your 

 queen in just one week in good order. In introdu- 

 cing her she took wings, and has not been seen since. 

 I inclose $2.50 for another tested queen, and wish 

 you would clip one of her wings. I think the other 

 was rather small. 



June 20, 1880. 



Chapter II. Sunshine. 



As I found my queen this morning, I will not want 

 another. You can guess I was well pleased. She 

 went to a nucleus about a rod away, where she was 

 well received. It had been queenless for about a 

 week, and I had given them a queen cell on the 20th. 

 She had commenced laying. Well, I think she is 

 fair size; perhaps in a week she will be a large one. 



Violet, Ont., Can., June 30, 1880. Dan. Wright. 



FAULTY R. R. OFFICIALS. ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT 

 THAT SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 



I received my goods last week, and I think they 

 were at the depot at the time I wrote you. The sta- 

 tion is a mile out of town, so that the first time I 

 went to look for the things I made arrangements 

 with the agent and a drayman that I am acquainted 

 with to send them up town, and they never came. 

 I had the goods almost two weeks before I got no- 

 tice of their being at the station. 



Now I want to tell you something about that Sun- 

 day-school queen. We have had 9 queens from her 

 this spring, and they are nice. Now I want to tell 

 you more about it, and that is the Union Valley 

 S. S., last Sabbath, voted their thanks to you for 

 the kindness. I sent off and got the school a new 

 lot of singing books and presented them as a gift 

 from A. I. Root. Some one in the school moved to 

 tender thanks to you for the books. Now just im- 

 agine 100 voices both little and big say "I." 



Bees have not done much here this season yet, for 

 we have no white clover in our vicinit5% but will 

 have soon. My bees are storing honey at present 

 from linn and buckwheat. We get our honey all 

 alter this time here always. James Parshall. 



Union Valley, Mo., June 23, 1880. 



In your remarks about the goods, you 

 touch upon a great weakness of humanity, 

 friend P. I mean a lack of thoroughness. 

 Often we are told goods have not come, or 

 things are not to be found, when a careful 

 search reveals them right where they should 

 be. Our clerks often say goods in stock are 



all gone, when I can find them at once, 

 if I take the time to look. Are my eyes any 

 better than theirs? or is it only because I 

 am more intensely interested?— I am glad 

 to hear from the Sunday-school queen, and 

 from the children. Tell them to stick to the 

 school, and be sure that it never runs down ; 

 I almost feel, friend P., as if there was a 

 sort of relationship between you and me and 

 those children young and old. May God 

 bless you all. 



SENDING QUEENS AND BEES TO COLORADO. 



I received the queen and 1 lb. of bees all right. 

 They came through in 9 days, and still had plenty of 

 honey left. They were in splendid order, and well 

 put up. Charges to Greenwood $2.20. That's pret- 

 ty well for 1 lb. of bees. You state that there is 36c 

 due me yet; I did not intend to have any balance 

 due me, for I directed you to send me a queen 

 worth that much more, from your prolific stock. 

 You might have picked her out a little longer waist- 

 ed or somewhat squarer shouldered. As soon as 

 they came I gave them water, and they seemed very 

 thirsty and drank freely. This morning they are 

 taking a look at the mountain scenery, and breath- 

 ing the cool, fresh air. My bees are storing large 

 quantities of honey, and, at the same time, we are 

 having a fearful drouth.— One of your dollar queens 

 which I got of you last year had her hive filled with 

 honey on the 9th of June,— 16 frames. She was the 

 smallest and darkest one sent. 



H. H. C. Breece. 



Greenwood, Col., June 23, 1880. 



QUEENS TO WASHINGTON TERRITORY; HOW TO PUT 

 THEM UP, ETC. 



The 3 tested queens came through in splendid 

 order. They were 20 days on the trip, and no one 

 could have told by their looks that they had been in 

 the cage 2 hours. Those two-frame cages are the 

 thing for long distances. They had used all the hon- 

 ey in one frame and nearly half of the other. Those 

 old, tough combs are better than new combs I think, 

 for the bees were clean; there was none of that 

 dauby look which those had that I received before 

 on new combs. I introduced them according to in- 

 structions in A B C, and the next morning found 

 two of them laying. H. A. March. 



Fidalgo, Wash. Ter., May 31, 1880. 



The cages used for these queens were like 

 the one shown on page 209, June No., of last 

 year, only they had 2 combs instead of one, 

 in view of the long distance they were to go. 

 They were essentially the same as the cage 

 or box used by our Italian friend Biancon- 

 cini, for sending us queens from Italy. 



DIFFERENCE IN WORKING QUALITIES OF DIFFER- 

 ENT HIVES. 



I started with 79 colonies, and by cate and atten- 

 tion have prevented any great swarming fever; in 

 fact, I have had but 6 natural swarms. Last week 

 one colony (not the best) on scales, gained 13'i lbs. 

 in one day, and to-day 7 lbs. It is passing strange 

 what a difference there is in the working capacity 

 of bees. I have colonies that have made over 100 

 lbs. surplus already, and others built up equally 

 strong have not made 10 lbs. J. W. Porter. 



Charlottesville, Va., June 18, 1880. 



We too, friend P., notice the wide differ- 

 ence in the working qualities of bees, even 

 Italians. Under the old regimen of box 

 hives and logs or hollow trees, the best only 



