18S0 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULT U UK. 



43a 



has imperfect wings, as they are sometimes balled 

 after their excursions. I do not think I would kill a 

 queen in opening hives once in 1000 times, as my 

 frames are made so the combs will not touch. The 

 balling is done oftener than we think, and there is 

 more danger from a light than a good smoking. I 

 have already saved 1 queens that I saw balled this 

 season. S. S. Bctleb, M. D. 



Los Gatos, CaJ , Aug. I, 1880. 



TRANSFEIUUNG AND ITALIANIZING UNDEU DIFFI- 

 CULTIES. 



I transferred 20 swarms of bees last week and got 

 10 of them, and 3501b. of honey, and $18.00 cash for 12 

 Italian queens, and made the trip in 4 days, going 30 

 miles over the most hilly and rocky road in the state. 

 I furnish hive, and transfer on the halves, and intro- 

 duce fertile queens at $1.50, and insure purity and 

 life. I got home with less then 100 dead bees out of 

 3 bushel, and made 14 large swarms out of them. I 

 killed the black queens, and put in frames of Italian 

 brood, each containing a capped queen cell. 



drones; one way to get bid of them. 



The 2nd day after my return, I drove each swarm 

 through a trough 1 ft. wide, and 6 ft. long, with 6 in. 

 sides, and as they passed the gauntlet, we (wife, son. 

 and I) caught the drones and killed them. I don't 

 think we left a dozen in all. I counted 4S5 that I 

 killed «ut of one hive, and wife and son killed almost 

 as many. So we have got rid of a good many honey 

 eaters, and will get our queens purely mated. It 

 took us a good half day to catch the drones out of 

 the 11 swarms. 



We found in the top of each hive, at Mr. Dodson's, 

 whose bees I transferred, a dark substance, which 

 looked and tasted like molasses. He said there had 

 been no sorghum mills within 4 miles of him, for 4 

 years; but the more I tasted it, the more fully I was 

 convinced that it was molasses, and I told him so. 

 After awhile a neighbor called, and Mr. D. told him 

 my opinion of it; and he told Mr. D. that a neighbor 

 had spilled apart of a bbl. of molasses last April, just 

 after our heavy freeze. So it was accounted for. Out 

 of 9 swarms, we got 40 lb. of molasses, or "blooded" 

 honey, as I called it. T. Q. Ayars. 



South Bosque, Tex., July 30, 1880. 



resuscitating queens apparently dead. 



On page 399, August Gleanings, you give an in- 

 State 3 of a queen's having the cramp, and close 

 with the remark, "There are a good many 'kinks' 

 with queens, as well as with bees, you see." Last 

 spring I had occasion to introduce a queen, and, not 

 having any honey right handy, thought I would try 

 scenting water with oil of Ithodium. I put a few 

 drops into a cup of water and dropped the queen in- 

 to it. The instant she touched the water she "keel- 

 ed" over as "dead as a herring." I picked her out, 

 and laid her on my hands, all wet and curled up as 

 though see had been dead for a week. I looked at 

 her with the thought, "There, you green horn, per- 

 haps you will try kerosene next time," and, in my 

 disgust, I threw the dead (?) queen into the hive for 

 the bees to bury. Then you can imagine my aston- 

 ishment the next day, when I opened the hive and 

 found my queen laying nicely in spite of the oil. It 

 may be a good thing to put on fish bait, but I rather 

 guess I won't try it again on a queen. Who knows 

 but the bees have some way of restoring the sus- 

 pended vitality more than we wot of? 



Oquawka, 111., Aug. 19, '80. Will M. Kellogg. 



A FISH BEG PARDON, I MEAN A BEE STORY. 



A Mr. Miles, from Richland Co., S. C., has just giv- 

 en me a call, and while he was here, we had a chat 

 about the source from which bees gather honey 

 here. He says that he has a line place for bees, and 

 that bees generally do well In that county. He tells 

 me that they have had a large yield of honey from 

 honey dew this season. He states that one of his 

 neighbors suspended 6 stands of bees on scales to 

 test the quantity of honey gathered per day, and 

 was greatly surprised to find the average yield per- 

 day to be 03 lbs. per colony. He says that they were 

 suspended 6 days, and the largest yield from one 

 colony was 68 lbs., and the smallest was 61 lbs. per 

 day. He furthermore states that the dew was so 

 heavy that the tips of the leaves had large drops 

 hanging on them. The ground had the appearance 

 of a shower of rain. Now, Mr. Editor, I would like 

 to know how much honey a good colon} 7 of bees can 

 gather, where it hangs on the leaves right at their 

 door. W. S. Cauthen. 



Pleasant Hill, Lan. Co., S. C, Aug. 18, 1880. 



The largest yield I have ever hart, as you 

 will see by the A 13 C, is a little over 14 lbs. 

 per day, for a periort of three days. With 

 the multitude of experiments I have made 

 in feeding, I have never succeeded in get- 

 ting bees to take much, if any, more than 

 that quantity from a feeder in the time men- 

 tioned. Perhaps we would better hunt up 

 the man and locality mentioned above, and 

 locate our ranches around him. 



INTRODUCING BY "CAGING" A WHOLE BRAME OF 

 BROOD. 



As I am an A B C scholar of about one year's ex- 

 perience, and have a way of my own of introducing 

 queens, it may be of interest to you to know some- 

 thing of it. As I have never lost a queen by intro- 

 ducing, I think that I could give a queen to the most 

 stubborn stock of blacks or hybrids that can be 

 found. I have this day mailed to you a model of the 

 apparatus I am using. You will see at once the 

 principle, and, if you see fit to publish it, you can 

 write your own description of it. Mine is 18 1-16 

 inches long by 9J£ deep, and 2 inches wide, inside 

 measure. I go to the hive to which I wish to give the 

 queen, and take out a frame of brood that is hatch- 

 ing, brush off tke bees, and hang it in the introdu- 

 cing cage. Then I let my queen, with her attendant 

 bees, out on the frame, and fasten down the cover, 

 and place her, cage and all, in the centre ef the 

 swarm. In a very short time she will have a nice 

 lot of young bees with her, and she will become so 

 thoroughly scented with the young bees, and the 

 comb that she is running on, that it is impossible 

 for the old bees to detect her when she is turned 

 loose. Besides we need not be in a hurry to let her 

 loose, for she is usually laying and doing well. It 

 may be from two to ten days before I let her loose, 

 which I do with no further trouble than turning two 

 screws, taking off the cover, and closing up the hive, 

 allowing her to come out at her leisure. It may be 

 a day or so before she comes out, but when she does 

 come, you may be sure she is received all right. 



Kavenna, O., Aug. 18, 1880. J. C. Convehsb. 



Your plan has been given here before, 

 friend C., and, although it usually succeeds, 

 I am inclined to think you rather exaggerate 

 the advantages of it. The queen cannot 

 well lay more than 3 days thus caged up, and 



