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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



HARDENING PLASTER DIPPING PLATES. 



I would say to you, dissolve alum in the water 

 with which you wet up your plaster for dipping 

 plates, to harden them. Lewis T. Colby. 



Enfleld Centre, N. H., July 5, 1880. 



[Thanks; but I fear the hot water would dissolve 

 the alum, friend C] 



WHERE DID THE EGG COME FROM? 



I cut a bee-tree this season and killed the queen. 

 I brought the bees home and hived them on fdn. 

 They started some 30 queen cells, in one of which I 

 found an egg. I did not want to wait to see if it 

 would make a queen. Isn't it a little mysterious 

 where they got it? C. G. Knowles. 



Portland, Meigs Co., O., July 16, 1880. 



[If you had let the egg hatch friend K. and it had 

 produced a queen, it would have been pretty strong 

 evidence that bees carry eggs from one hive to an- 

 other. If the egg was laid in the cell by a fertile 

 worker, it would be nothing very mysterious, or un- 

 usual.] 



I am well pleased with Gleanings. I could get 

 you subscribers, but it would "cut my own nose off," 

 for I can sell all the honey I can raise with my bees 

 here at home. Gleanings would waken people up, 

 so more honey would be produced, and spoil my trade : 

 that is, if they would learn as much as I have from 

 it. My bees are doing well. All that I regret is that 

 I did not know sooner that you were printing Glean- 

 ings. Johns. King. 



San Jose, Santa Clara Co., Oil., July 12, 1880. 



[[ don't believe your philosophy is very good, 

 friend K. I believe it is generally admitted that those 

 who give all the information they posses3 the most 

 willingly and freely are the ones who prosper, while 

 those who take pains to keep their neighbors in the 



dark are the ones who have perhaps "bad luck" 



will be as good a name as any for it.] 



THE SWARMING BOX AND HOW TO USE IT. 



We have 78 swarms, but you might put the swarm- 

 ing box on the Gro wlery list, as we did not know how 

 to use it. Harrison Woodford. 



Waterford, Erie Co., Pa., July 10, 1880. 



[Why, friend H., I did not know any directions 

 were needed. Hold it right among the clustered 

 or clustering bees, and they will crawl right into 

 those holes as if it were a hive. Did you try it in 

 that way?] 



Last July, I had 50 hives, and this spring came out 

 with 19; do you think that comes under the head of 

 Blasted Hopes? L. W. Winans. 



Merricksville,. Delaware Co.. N. Y., July 13, 1880. 



[I fear it does pretty nearly, friend W.] 



QUEBNS REARED LATE IN THE FALL. 



I invested in several queens in October and No- 

 vember last year and the year before; and, without 

 a single exception, they were worthless, or so nearly 

 so that I never want any more late queens. 



C. G. Knowles. 



Portland, Meigs Co., O., July 3, 1889. 



[The idea you suggest has been advanced before, 

 friend K., but for several seasons, I have kept and 

 tried the very last we raised on purpose to test the 

 matter, and have found no difference that I could 

 see. Those I tried, however, had their colonies kept 

 up to an unusual vigor, by feeding them with flour 

 candy. Queens reared in cool weather, in either 

 spring or fall, and not in strong nuclei which are 

 fed so as to get the same results as from a natural 

 flow of honey, will be likely to be inferior.] 



HOW BEES SURVIVED THE FLOOD; A SUGGESTION. 



If they had as heavy floods in Noah's time, as we 

 had the other day, it might account for the bees be- 

 ing saved in the Ark; as I saw a log gum, bench, 

 bees, and all, floating down the Patapsco as comfor- 

 tably as if they "remembered" the old 40 days' flood, 

 and were prepared for another. F. Della Torre. 



Iteisterstown, Baltimore Co., Md., June 2, 1880. 



A NEW BEE DISEASE, "EMPTY CELLS." 



I have taken from 4 hives about 300 lbs. of comb 

 honey this season. Don't that do pretty well? But 

 it is so dry now (we have had no rain for about 8 

 weeks) that I am feeding the samo honey which they 

 gave me. Is that not fair? A great many bees are 

 starving out and leaving their hives. I was called 

 yesterday to two different places to assist in re-hiv- 

 ing their bees, and to tell them, if I could, why they 

 left their homes. One party thought there must be 

 something in the hive; and, sure enough, in that, as 

 in the other, I found empty cells. T. R. Turnham. 



Rockport, Ind., Aug. 23, 1880. 



LAZY BEES, AND HOW TO PUT THEM TO WORK. 



I have a colony of blacks in an American hive, 

 that is very strong. It has not given any swarm 

 this season, and keeps the front of the hive nearly 

 covered with idlers. Smoking don't put them to 

 work. If you think it will pay me to make an artifi- 

 cial swarm from them, by moving the old hive and 

 giving them a new hive with comb, etc.. send me a 

 dollar queen for that purpose. The progeny of the 

 7 queens received from you this season are as per- 

 fectly marked as those from a tested queen re- 

 ceived from you last season. We have had very 

 few swarms in this section this season. 



H. B. Thompson. 



Curwensville, Clearfield Co., Pa., July 13, 1880. 



I made one new swarm from two colonies. They 

 had got very lazy, and laid out until yesterday, when 

 I moved the two hives and put one of the Simplici- 

 ties instead, with two frames of brood, and got the 

 remaining bees in it, and am going to give them the 

 queen I get. Is that right or not? Ab. Hower. 



Logansport, Ind., July 13, 1888. 



[Exactly right, I should say, friend H., and your 

 letter answers the question in the letter just before 

 yours, as wpII as I could answer it; for I know of no 

 better way of making bees work, when they have 

 got a habit of loafing on the outside of the hive, 

 while other stocks are at work.] 



YOUNG QUEENS GETTING FAST IN A CELL. 



A young queen, 2 days old, in a strong nucleus, 

 was found dead in a worker cell, being as far in as 

 she could get, head foremost. The queen was 

 strong and active, and the nucleus in good condi- 

 tion. I never heard or read of such a case before. 



Shawneetown, 111., July 23, 1880. C. Sherrick. 



[I don't know any remedy, friend S., unless wc 

 have cells filled with honey in such plenty that 

 young queens will not have to crawl in so far after 

 it.] , 



Does it injure bees to examine them often, say ev- 

 ery two or three days? 



[No; on the contrary, it does them good, if proper- 

 ly and carefully handled.] 



Ought there to be a cloth of any kind between the 

 lower and upper frames in a two story hive? [No.] 



Should there be a cloth on top of the upper frames? 



Bastrop, La., July 5, '80. James Bussey. 



[Yes; bees should never, under any circumstances, 

 be permitted to get up against the cover.] 



