47S 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



A VISIT FROM FRIEND TAYLOR. 



QUEEN CELLS; SELECTING THE BEST. 



fpIEND TOWNSEND, on p. 323 of July Glean- 

 ings, speaking of selecting queen cells, says, 

 "Choose the best ones to leave." Will he 

 please tell us what he considers the best? 



I confess, friend T., I feel somewhat as 

 you do, like asking how we are to tell which 

 cells are hest ; for some of the finest looking 

 queens have emerged from the smallest and 

 most insignificant looking cells I have ever 

 seen. I think it very necessary however to 

 have cells contain a plentiful amount of roy- 

 al jelly, if we wish good and vigorous queens, 

 and we therefore want the cells built in 

 strong, thrifty, vigorous, working colonies. 



DOES DISTUB1NG BEES IN WINTER AFFECT THE CON- 

 SUMPTION OF STOKES? 



M. A. Gill, in July Gleanings, says that some 

 bees are small eaters. Don't you think that "tink- 

 ering" bees during winter makes them consume 

 more stores than they otherwise would do? Don't 

 you think that setting hives where the sun shines 

 on them in winter, thus causing the bees to fly out 

 every warm day, makes them consume more than if 

 they were kept in a shaded place? 



I think it very likely, that disturbance in 

 winter would make the bees consume more 

 stores than they would if left in quietness. 

 The influence of the sun shining on the hive 

 might make the bees consume more, and 

 rear more brood; but, even ?i they do, I 

 think I should prefer to have the sun strike 

 them. The hives in the house apiary are al- 

 most entirely in the shade, as it were ; but, 

 as a rule, bees have done better outdoors in 

 the chaff hives. 



where the bees got the honey. 

 I have noticed that a great many hee-keepers 

 whose letters have been published in Gleanings, 

 say they do not know where their honey comes 

 from. I always feel disappointed when I read an 

 interesting letter telling of a fine flow of honey, 

 when the writer either says nothing of where the 

 honey comes from, or says he does not know. 



I agree with you in this, also. If a sud- 

 den flow of honey came to our apiary, espe- 

 cially at a time when I did not expect it, I 

 would find out where it came from, even if it 

 did take considerable hard work to follow 

 the little fellows. 



QUEENLESSNESS; HOW TO TELL IT BY THE APPEAR- 

 ANCE OF THE TOP OF THE COMB. 



Sometimes you experts talk as if you liked to mys- 

 tify us. For instance, in Aug. Gleanings, p. 367, 

 speaking of a stock that was supposed to be without 

 a queen you say, "I raised the mat and took a look 

 at the tops of the combs and said, 'Why, this 

 stock lias a queen.' " How could you tell by just 

 "looking at the tops of the combs"? 



I assure you I did not mean to mystify, 

 my friend, but I thought you would under- 

 stand how I knew, without my taking space 

 to explain that. Where you see new, white 

 comb, right over a dense cluster of bees, you 

 may always be pretty sure that there are 

 eggs and brood underneath it, even though 

 you have had good reason to think the hive 

 queenless. Just watch and see if you can- 

 not tell, too. 



STORING ALL THE HONEY ABOVE. 



I have a colony of blacks that store honey in the 

 upper story, which is filled with 1 lb. sections, while 

 their combs in the lower story are nearly empty. 

 They have tilled about one-half of their sections, and 

 built comb in many of the others, and it is the only 

 one of my colonies that has stored any surplus yet. 

 I have a strong notion to raise drones from this col- 

 ony to mate my young Italian queens with. What 

 do you think of the cross? We might develop a 

 strain of bees that would store all their honey in su- 

 pers, except what they needed for current use. In 

 that case, we can well afford to feed them pure, 

 white-sugar syrup for their winter use. 



I keep my bees in the regular, ten-frame, L. hives, 

 all the year round. One out <f 4 died last season, 

 but the one that died was a 4-frame nucleus, and it 

 died of sheer starvation. 



Your arrangement of the different departments in 

 Gleanings is admirable as far as it goes. Bear in 

 mind that I am licensed to write you long letters, 

 and criticise your excellent publication, for you 

 have time and again told us to do so. You have the 

 "blasted hopers," swindlers, growlers, boys, ladies, 

 and honey, all nicely divided off and sorted; but I 

 have always noticed that reports of beginners are 

 invariably thrown in promiscuously. Start a begin- 

 ners' column. James G. Taylor. 



Austin, Texas, Aug. 13, 1880. 



It is a fact, that blacks and hybrids, much 

 more than pure Italians, are disposed to 

 store their honey in the upper story, or even 

 in the case of sections above. And this has 

 been considerably talked about, too. While 

 some consider this a desirable trait, others 

 do not. I have seen hybrids put almost 

 every lb. of their honey into the sections du- 

 ring a large yield of honey in the fall, and 

 then they would have to be fed or they would 

 starve ; while the more prudent Italians put 

 none in their boxes, but had the combs be- 

 low literally crammed, and bulged into every 

 interstice. They would winter without care, 

 while the others would not. A cross with 

 the blacks would assuredly correct this, but 

 many would not care to have it corrected, es- 

 pecially those who use the extractor. I 

 agree with you, that you could well afford to 

 feed the sugar, but a great many do not 

 want that trouble. — Thanks ; but we all 

 have so much to learn that, in one sense, we 

 all are beginners ; are we not, friend T. ? 



oA 



<5> 



\v 



OR HONEY PLANTS TO BE NAMED. 



GIANT hyssop. 

 M RE you aware that there are two varieties or 

 Jr$\ species of the figwort which produce honey? 

 I have two varieties now growing in my 

 garden and apiary. The species are quite distinct, 

 and both of them are superior to the spider plant. 

 The latter produces nectar only early in the morn- 

 ing and late in the evening, while both species of 

 the figwort are crowded with bees all day long. The 

 variety which you call "Simpson honey plant" has a 

 mug-shaped flower, and seed pods similar to flax 

 "bowls;" while the other variety has spikes, or 

 heads, like wheat or barley, minus the beard; and 



