1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



r>35 



From Different Fields. 



INTRODUCING VIRGIN QUEENS. 



NEVEE knew till I read your book, that virgin 

 queens can be introduced to nuclei or queenless 

 colonics. So, I made a small box, tacked wire 

 cloth on the bottom, cut a hole in the cloth cover ot 

 a populous colony, the size of the bottom of the box, 

 Bet it over the hole, nut out my queen-cells, and sus- 

 pended i hem in wire cages one inch in diameter and 

 2! 2 inches high; then set them in my little box, cov- 

 ered it up with cloths, nnd the warmth of the bees 

 hatched out all my cells nicely ; and as fast as they 

 hatched out I made up nuclei, and introduced my 

 white, tender queens secundem artem, and out of 13 

 queens thus introduced, all were killed but 3. The 

 bees would at once attack the little fellows, pull 

 their wings and legs, ball them sometimes, and 

 make as though they would sting them. I had smo- 

 ker in hand, and smoked the bees according to Hay- 

 hurst's instructions in A BC, and sometimes worked 

 an hour. To some that had killed their queens the 

 day before, and had started small cells, I gave young 

 hatched queens the next day, and they would kill 

 them in spite of my smoking and work. So, I have 

 laid aside my nursery machinery, and now cut out 

 my cells and insert them in brood combs the day be- 

 fore I make up my nuclei, and hang them in the 

 hive where they were built, according to instruc- 

 tions in ABC. This plan works all right, and I think 

 I shall adopt it entirely hereafter. Hayhurst says it 

 won't work at all times, and I reckon I must have 

 tried it at one of thof e " times." Before I tried the 

 above process, a neighbor of mine (a beginner), at 

 my suggestion had taken out black queens from full 

 colonies, in several instances, and introduced young 

 virgin queens at once, and they were always re- 

 ceived. 



A neighbor found a bec-treo this summer, cut it, 

 hived the bees, took them home, left the brood 

 comb lying at the tree, which is usual here, and in 

 about two weeks had occasion to go there, and 

 found a considerable swarm that had hatched out of 

 those combs. He got a gum, and hived those bees 

 also, and took them home, and they also are doing 

 well. 8. C. Fox. 



Maysfleld, Milam Co., Texas, Aug. 2, 1830. 



Your plan of nursery has been given sev- 

 eral times before, friend F., and it will work 

 just as well as any, in steady warm weather. 

 I do not know where the trouble was with 

 your queens, so many of them being killed, 

 unless it was that you were new in the busi- 

 ness. It is much easier to introduce newly 

 hatched queens to nuclei, or very weak col- 

 onies; and, should you try it again, try them 

 in such, and I think you will succeed! tetter. 



after cool weather has set in; but where 

 there is an abundance of bees and chaff 

 hives, or their equivalent, for protection, 

 there is very little danger. Candy is much 

 safer for cold weather. 



FEEDING LIQUID FOOD IN OCTOBER. 



In feeding diluted honey or syrup in Oct. for win- 

 ter stores, is there not danger of its not becoming 

 perfectly "rip« ned" before cold weather, unless cer- 

 tain limits arc observed? If so, what are such lim- 

 its? Olitbb Foster. 



Mt. Vernon, Iowa, Sept. 24, 1880. 



There certainly is danger, friend 1\, in 

 feeding thin liquid food to a wc;ik colony, 



EARLY-AMBER SUGAR-CANE, ETC. 



I can not get subscribers, as I thought I could. 

 They think they can get along without Gleanings 

 now, as it will be of no use to them this winter. 

 Some say they can not afford it; but they can afford 

 to pay me 50 and 75 cents for dividing their bees, or 

 at least they have done so.— My Early-Amber sugar- 

 cane seed that I received of you was planted about 

 the 1st of June, and from 1-5 of an acre I got 22 gal- 

 lons of No. 1 syrup. How is that for cane? 



X. E. COTTRELL. 



Fayette, Fulton Co., O., Sept. 25, 1880. 



HONEY FROM COTTON. 



This has been a poor season here for honey. I 

 shall probably get half a crop— not. more. I think it 

 a great mistake about bees getting honey from the 

 cotton-blossom. I have watched very closely, but 

 could not find them working on the cotton-blossom. 

 My hives are located in the middle of a large cotton- 

 field. Chas. H. Kincade. 



Sterling, Chicot Co., Ark., Sept. 20, 1880. 



It may be a great mistake, so far as your 

 locality is concerned, friend K.; but you will 

 see by reports from others, given recently, 

 that cotton is visited by the bees in great 

 numbers in some localities. 



RACCOONS, ETC. 



1 have received queens from Mr. Nellis in the 

 Peet shipping-cage. They seem to work well, both 

 for shipping and introducing.— W r ill raccoons des- 

 troy bees? I find the droppings of some animal 

 that tracks nights among my hives, and I can't tell 

 whether he eats bees or not; but it does eat bugs, 

 crickets, and potato -bugs. — I see by Gleanings 

 that some of your customers lose their queens by 

 their flying away while introducing. If they will 

 use a Betsinger introducing cage, and put their 

 queens on the combs on the inside of a closed win- 

 dow, their queens will not fly away from them, and 

 they will scarcely ever lose one in introducing if the 

 hive has been without a queen over night. — Where 

 can I get full-blooded, home-bred Italian queens that 

 will produce the dark, or leather-colored bees? 1 

 want them very d^rk. I want bees for honey-gath- 

 ering. I don't care if they arc cross. 



E. D. Howell. 



New Hampton, N. Y . Sept. 23, 1880. 



Raccoons will, at times, kill. bees, much in 

 the same way that skunks, frogs, and toads 

 do; and it would seem that a great part of 

 the animal kingdom have a sort of fancy for 

 preying on our pets, solely, it would seem, to 

 get' the little drop of coveted nectar contain- 

 ed in their little bodies.— Your plan will do 

 very well to prevent queens from taking 

 wing; but can you not as well release them 

 before a window with one cage as with an- 

 other? (iet an imported queen that pro- 

 duces dark workers, and raise queens from 

 her. They will be quite likely to grow light- 

 er, for the grand-daughters of our foreign 

 queens are almost always lighter than their 

 mother. 



