1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE 



451 



mr. m:i:it\ banks and neighbor. 



#%,UK friend Merry Banks has succeeded, 

 W_M by getting up early and working hard, 

 ^"^ in getting a fair crop of honey, al- 

 though the season has been the poorest ever 

 known. By careful attention he got each 

 section off the hives, as soon as it was nicely 

 sealed over, and before it had got soiled and 

 dark by the bees walking over it. After 

 the season had closed, he sent samples to 

 several of his friends in the city, asking 

 them to see what offer they could get him 

 for it. Below is his picture after reading 

 one of their replies: 



MR. MERRY BANKS READS HIS LETTER. 



His neighbor who set his bees against the 

 hog pen (see p. 154, April No.) and who 

 does not believe in books or journals, but 

 brimstones his bees every fall, hearing of 

 the good success of friend M.s crop, gets his 

 honey ready and sends it to the city without 

 even asking what he will probably get for it. 

 He did not have any letter, but the man who 

 carried it for him has just been in to tell 

 him of the result. 



IT'S TOO BAD, I DECLARE." 



It seems friend Given is constantly improving 

 with his presses. See the following: 



[ think the Given fdn. machine is "Boss. " I called in to see 

 Mr. i;. while in Hoopston a few days ago, and was surprised to 

 see him making nice sheets of I'dn. , x'.jxlT inches, without using 

 anything hut water for wetting the plates. Hurrah tin the 

 GivenPress! J. A Osborne. 



Kant. nil. 111., Aug. 1880. 



Reports are coming 1 from all sides of a sudden and 

 unexpected flow of honey, and, strangest of all, from 

 many points where they do not usually have honey 

 in the fall. In some cases also, it seems to come 

 right in the midst of dry weather. Let us tind where 

 it comes from, if we can, and be sure to remember 

 to thank God for it, in any case. 



It has been thought hardly expedient to build the 

 addition to our factory just at present, and with a 

 view of helping you toward sending in your orders 

 for next year, during our dull season, we make this 

 proposition: On all supplies for the apiary for next 

 season's work, we will make a discount of 10 per 

 cent during tnis present month of September. This 

 arrangement may be carried into Oct. also, but will 

 probably be reduced to 5 per cent during Oct., Nov., 

 and Dec. We usually have enough to do, so that 

 there will be no discount so far as we now know, 

 after Jan. 1st. If you order now, you certainly will 

 not be troubled about goods not being on hand next 

 season, and the discount will make it a good invest- 

 ment for you, even if you should take some trouble 

 to get the money. This discount cannot be given 

 on any of the counter goods, as the protits are en- 

 tirely too close. 



Somewhat to my surprise, the $4.00 watches are 

 giving excellent satisfaction. 1 do not know as I am 

 so much surprised either, for I knew the movement 

 was good, but I feared the nickle would wear off 

 from the cases, and they would look brassy. I have 

 been urging the makers to put them in solid nickle 

 cases, but I presume it is a pretty hard matter to 

 work so hard a metal into a watch case for so little 

 money. We have a tine lot of them on hand, nicely 

 regulated and tested for time, ready to ship at a mo- 

 ment's notice, for $4.20. The odd 20 cents is for post- 

 age. Each watch is in a beautiful, little case, and a 

 little book explanatory accompanies each. It is a 

 genuine, American-made watch. The $0.50 watches 

 give excellent satisfaction, when we can get them, 

 but the American Watch Factory at Waltham, 

 Mass., is shockingly behind hand in rilling orders. I 

 have several times got so tried, 1 determined not to 

 advertise them more; but, at about that time, they 

 would send a nice lot of them, and then we lived in 

 hope again. If you, too, are impatient, just say so, 

 and we will return the money. 



DRONES IN THE FALL, AND HOW TO GET THEM. 



I have told you in the A B C, that it is quite a dif- 

 ficult matter to get drones after they have all been 

 killed oif. Our neighbor H. showed me, a few days 

 ago, frames of drone fdn. filled with drone brood 

 from top to bottom, and from end to end; and the 

 best part of it is that it is from his Cyprian 

 and Holy Land queens. The result will be that the 

 Italian queens sent out from his apiary this fall will 

 stand a great chance of being half Holy Land or 

 Cyprian, without any additional expense to our cus- 

 tomers. As all his queens are sold to us, I can fill 

 your orders from queens from his apiary almost al- 

 ways, if you just mention it. How did he get his 

 queens to laying so promptly in drone comb? I will 

 tell you. As soon as they were fairly introduced, he 

 took a cake of maple sugar made in a large milk pan, 

 and set it directly over the frames. Maple sugar 

 seems to have a wonderful effect in starting brood. 

 If you want to see an apiary where everything just 

 "purrs,"— weeds too (?)— just pay a visit to neighbor 

 H. He has something over a hundred colonies, but 

 he says he has been so busy this season he has nev- 

 er yet had time to count them. 



FERTILIZATION OF THE QUEEN MORE THAN ONCE. 



The question is asked in the Aug. Erchangc, "has 

 anyone positive proof that queens are impregnated 

 more than once?" I have myself seen the same 

 queen come into the hive on different days, with the 

 usual marks of fertilization, and our apiarist wit- 

 nessed the same thing during the past week. A 

 couple of days intervened between the meetings. 

 Well authenticated cases are on record, I believe, 

 where the same queen has met the drone a third 



