

1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



403 



and wife both counted them. How I wanted a lamp 

 nursery! Did you ever see the like? I don't know 

 that my queen was fertilized. Will bees kill a vir- 

 gin queen whose wins is clipped? B. F. Cathey. 



Cabot, Ark., May 11, 1880. 



LI do not think the bees would kill a virgin queen 

 because her wing was clipped, but she would be of 

 no sort of value. You might as well clip her head 

 as her wing, for she would go out just as usual, and 

 try to fly, and be lost.] 



BEE-SMOKER VERSUS TOBACCO-PIPES. 



I have no smoker, except a clay pipe. 1 used to 

 be one of the worst smokers in America, but I quit 

 '~ l i years ago. I now hate tobacco as bad as any 

 man. Half a pipe will make me sick. I guess I will 

 send and get me a smoker, and lay aside the pipe for 

 fear it may teach me bad habits. H. M. Smith. 



Frankfort, Mich., June 14, 1880. 



[[ am very glad indeed, friend S., that you recog- 

 nize the danger of having a pipe near you, and that 

 no one may think I have a selfish end in view in giv- 

 ing such advice, I will make every tobaccc-user a 

 present of one of our best smokers, he to have his 

 choice, if he will agree to give up tobacco. If he 

 ever goes back to the habit again, he is to pay me 

 the price of the smoker. Who wants a smoker on 

 these terms?] 



SAYING GOODS WERE NOT IN THE PACKAGE. 



The drone fdn. was in the package all right. I 

 overlooked it. J. H. Creighton. 



Chillicothe, Ohio, June 18, 18S0. 



[Now, friends, we will try very hard not to leave 

 anything out of your orders, and will you please try 

 hard not to overlook them, when you open your 

 goods. See what this next friend says.] 



I must beg pardon for what I said on that hurried 

 postal, and say I could only see one box at the de- 

 pot; and I picked it up and did not know until this 

 minute that there were two. Will do better next 

 time. All right now. Chas. D. Hoff. 



Carey, O., June 18, 1880. 



HORSEMINT. 



My bees are working finely on a plant that we call 

 Horsemint. It is almost like the Rocky Mountain 

 Sage. It yields a large quantity of honey, and it 

 grows in large quantities in the woods, in lowtimber, 

 and fence corners. Louis Werner. 



Edwardsville, Madison Co., 111.. June 18, 1880. 



IIELIOTROPE AS A HONEY PLANT. 



I have a large bed of Heliotrope in the greenhouse, 

 a plant that all of you know I suppose. It was load- 

 ed with blossoms all winter through, and is yet as 

 full as can lie. Whenever the sashes were lifted to 

 give ventilation, and bees were Hying outside, they 

 would fairly swarm on it. They are working on it 

 as steadily as on white clover or any other flower. 

 I think it would be worth while to experiment 

 with this plant. Have any of you bee-keepers 

 ever tried it? F. Holtke. 



Cailstadt, N. J., June 22, 188). 



COLOR OF DRONES. 



1 bought a queen supposed to be Italian. She is 

 very large, and a nice leather color. Her increase 

 are mostly three-banded. Her drones are a part of 

 them black, and a part of them three-banded. Now, 

 here is the pu/.zle: why are her drones not all alike? 

 She has tilled her hive with bees, and two combs for 

 others. She came from a yard where they have im- 



ported, hybrid, and black queens. Please inform 

 me what blood she is. S. H. Langworthy. 



Riceville, Pa., May 12, 1880. 



[I should pay no attention to the color of the 

 drones at all. It is only by the worker progeny we 

 nudge of a queen's purity.] 



It is plain to me that for the last two years I have 

 belonged in the category of Blasted Hopes. In the 

 winter of '78-79, by the then prevailing cause, I lost 

 5 swarms. Last summer 1 lost one by bee moth, in 

 a box hive. I wintered 8 in Simplicity hives, and, by 

 feeding, they were all in good condition in March. 

 My time being occupied elsewhere, I did not see 

 them for a day or two, and when I did sec them, a 

 neighbor's bees had destroyed 4, and would have fin- 

 ished the rest had I not come to their rescue. But I 

 shall try again, and fight it out till success crowns 

 my efforts. J. M. Seidel. 



Hudson, O., June, 1880. 



FEEDING BACK SOUREn HONEY. 



Can I feedback to my bees some very thick honey, 

 that has begun to ferment, so as to get it into sec- 

 tions? and can I do its with safety both to the bees 

 and to my reputation? I have a number of sections 

 not quite filled, and our honey season is over for this 

 year. I suppose the bees can fix it up all right, but 

 do not know. Geo. F. Williams. 



New Philadelphia, O., July 20, 1880. 



[If the weather is warm, the bees will restore it so 

 that it will be safe for brood rearing, but, if put into 

 sections, it will have more or less of its original bad 

 flavor. In that case, it would doubtless be safe 

 enough to the bees, but not to your reputation.] 



SOIL FOR RAISING SIMPSON AND SPIDER PLANTS. 



For potting take 1 bu. of black muck from a 

 swamp, 2 bu. of good, rich, sandy soil, 1 pk. of pure 

 bonedust, and 1 pk. of fine charcoal dust. This will 

 give you soil that will grow any thing you plant and 

 keep watered. A. C. Kendel. 



Cleveland, O., Aug. 6th, 1880. 



ABSCONDING MANIA. 



We are having bad luck with our bees this season 

 so far. We have had 18 natural swarms, and have 

 had to hive the most of them from 2 to 4 times apiece, 

 and have lost 4 of them by absconding and 3 went in 

 with other swarms. On the 5th of this month wo 

 made 2 artificial swarms, and put them in the new 

 hives. One stayed all right until the next day, and 

 then left for parts unknown; the other stayed until 

 the 8th, and then they left in the same way. What 

 is the matter with our bees? and what was the mat- 

 ter with our artificial swarms? I do not know as I 

 have ever heard of an artificial swarm going off be- 

 fore. W. A. Bruce. 



Warren, Wis., July 8, 1880. 



[If you observed all the precautions given in A 1! 

 C, and our recent Nos., I do not know as I can give 

 any reason, but to call it an absconding mania, that 

 sometimes gets into an apiary. They will probably 

 get over it soon, but it is bad to lose so many bees.] 



two queens in a hive. 



How is this? It is said by old bee men that there 

 is not, at any time, more than 1 queen in 1 colony of 

 bees, which seems untrue, as we have had 2 queens 

 in one hive for 7 weeks, and they did not meddle 

 with each other; that is, did not kill each other. 

 The theory does not hold out. S. K. Hoshour. 



Glen Rock, Pa., Sept. 6, 1880. 



