440 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



I can hardly think it profitable so long, be- 

 cause the very young bees caged up with 

 her are not old enough to prepare the cells 

 for her, or take care of the eggs when they 

 are ready to hatch. If the enclosed comb 

 contained pollen also, as well as honey, per- 

 haps they might take care of the brood, but 

 I think it a little doubtful, unless you have 

 actually made the experiment and seen her 

 All the frame with brood. In my experi- 

 ments in confining bees thus in the hive, 

 they have always worried the whole of the 

 inmates, by trying to get out, after being 

 caged several days. The model you send is 

 an extremely well made machine, and evin- 

 ces talent enough to enable you to succeed 

 with any thing. 



HONEY IN AUGUST. 



The last half of June and the first 4 days of July 

 were very wet, so that only the very strongest 

 stocks of bees made any more than a living, and 

 nuclei had to be fed up to the middle of July. We 

 have had but two sprinkles of rain since July 4th, 

 and neither of them wet the dust through, yet, 

 strange to say, bees have gathered more honey in 

 the last 4 weeks, than I ever knew them to do at the 

 same time of year before. Even 3 frame nuclei are 

 now getting considerably more than they use, yet 

 nearly all my colonies insist on storing all in the brood 

 chamber even to the cramping of the queen. I have 

 65 colonies and 22, 3 frame nuclei, and they are us- 

 ing about 4 gallons of water daily at home, besides 

 many of them go to the brick yard which is about 40 

 rods distant. 



MELLILOT. 



My mellilot commenced to bloom about the mid- 

 dle of June, and the bees were thick around it until 

 about the middle of July, when it almost quit blos- 

 soming, and I saw scarcely a bee about it till within 

 the last week. It now has a fresh crop of bloom, 

 and the bees are thick around it all day. 



C. T. Smith. 



O'Fallon, St Clair Co., 111., Aug. 16, 1880. 



CROSS BEES, AND WHAT TO DO WITH THEM. 



I have a swarm of bees that I will describe, and 

 would like you to tell me just what to do. Lately 

 they have been too much for me. King's directions 

 will not do. I can not subdue them with smoke. 

 The instant I smoke them, they will come for me. 

 To-day I put on veil and gloves, and went for them 

 with the smoker; it was no use. You say some 

 swarms can be handled better without smoke,— im- 

 possible with this one. Please tell me next issue 

 how you would manage them. You would probably 

 Italianize them ; but, were I to open the hive again, 

 the queen would be in the air trying to sting me and 

 I should not be able to find her. C. H. Boyd. 



North Monroe, Waldo Co., Me., July 28, 1880. 



Occasionally, we find a colony, that seems 

 like a veritable den of tigers to subdue, and 

 it may be well to consider what is best to do 

 with such. If it is during a honey yield, 

 which is very improbable, much can be done 

 by regular daily feeding, for about a week. 

 A lump of maple or even grape sugar, say 4 

 or 5 lbs., laid on the frames, will be sufli- 

 cient for the whole. When they have taken 

 it up so that the eombs look white along 

 their upper edges, you can handle most col- 

 onies without any smoke at all, in nice, 



warm weather. If you are going to subdue 

 them with smoke, first clean up your smo- 

 ker, by scraping off all the soot around the 

 tubes, with a hard wood stick whittled some- 

 thing the shape of a knife blade. See that 

 the valves are right, and if it has been left 

 out in the rain, see that the bellows does not 

 leak. Put it in good order, and with good 

 fuel, you should be able to so deluge any 

 hive of bees with smoke, that resistance is 

 out of the question. It may be well to smoke 

 them at the entrance before opening the 

 hive. After they are once conquered, be 

 careful that they are not trifled with after- 

 ward, by letting them chase folks around 

 the yard, liy the above directions, you may 

 be able to smile at the idea of any hive of 

 bees you can not master. 



AN A B C SCHOLAR'S DESCRIPTION OF HOW HE MAKES 

 BEES OUT OF SUGAR. 



I am not in Blasted Hopes you see, for my first 4 

 swarms gave me 4 more swarms last week, the larg- 

 est that I have had this year, and in the latter part 

 of July, too. Just think; 20 swarms in two seasons, 

 and that out of a few handfuls of bees to start on! 

 Why, they arc made of coffee A. sugar syrup. I have 

 sold 5 swarms, bringing me just $25.00, and leaving 

 me, at present, 15 colonies. My, it is j ust fun to hive 

 them, and seek out the queen, and take her by the 

 arm, and lead her into her house. I have not lost a 

 swarm, or had any trouble hiving them. I have had 

 an acre of buckwheat in blossom over a week, and 

 the b?es are happy every forenoon. 



My Alsike is commencing to blossom some, and al- 

 so the white clover that I sowed last spring, and bees 

 are working on both of them. The wet weather 

 seems to drive a second crop of white clover which 

 grows so spontaneously that the roadside is all white, 

 and bees are working nicely. I have also another 

 piece of buckwheat that will come into bloom in 

 about 10 days, and another sowed a week ago. I 

 shall have to go to extracting pretty soon, or my 

 second swarms may swarm. Some of them are get- 

 ting pretty full. If you come out here to see us, I 

 am pretty sure I can feed you with buckwheat hon- 

 ey, and buckwheat cakes. H. L. Warstler. 



St. Johns, Mich., July 26, 1880. 



I should enjoy it "hugely, '' friend W., for 

 I have enjoyed reading your cheerful letter; 

 but my place seems to be here just now. 



LARGE NUMBER OF QUEEN CELLS ON A SINGLE COMB. 



I feel just a little bit snubbed, just a little. It is a 

 very small matter, but then I feel it all th«=* same. 

 If you are an honest, truthful, sensitive man, you 

 can sympathise with me; and I do not doubt your 

 honesty and veracity, but I suppose your feelings 

 are somewhat callous from long usage. I will tell 

 you the little matter. 



N. A. Prudden wrote to you about losing so many 

 young queens, and, in answer, you say as high as 50 

 queen cells have been found at once in a single hive. 

 You did not propose to state what you had seen 

 yourself. Well ; just about the time he wrote that, 

 or, perhaps since, I wrote you stating that I had 61 

 queen cells on one single frame. I know there was 

 no mistake, and I believe I know how it is done, and 

 can do it again. They were all capped, and my wife 

 and I both counted them. There were 43 on one 

 side. You know it is not a hard matter to count 

 queen cells when they are capped. I tried to cut 



