536 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov 



Inclosed 1 send specimens from a swarm of bees 

 which I have. Some friend of mine found them 

 while bee-hunting. It seems that they had been in 

 an old woodpecker's nest, and some one had taken 

 the honey, and they had collected on a bush a few 

 rods from their old home. I took an old hive and 

 brought them home, some 2% miles. They have the 

 appearance of being pure Italians. That is my con- 

 clusion after reading your ABC book, which I have. 

 There are not any such looking bees in this vicinity. 

 There are 3 swarms of pure Italians in this place, 

 but they are not as light colored as those of mine, 

 and they have not lost any swarms. I am trying to 

 keep them by feeding, and keeping them in a warm 

 place this winter. I have not any sealed honey to 

 give them, but have some fdn. which I bought of 

 you. I should think the weather too cool to draw it 

 out. I have 5 swarms of black bees, but do not 

 think that they are good as Italians. If I could 

 keep this swarm over it would give me a good start 

 on Italians. J. E. Hammond. 



Oxford, Mass., Oct. 4, 1880. 



A part have the marks of full blood, and 

 perhaps all ; they are so dried tip that it is 

 hard to tell. It is pretty late for fdn., but 

 with careful feeding, may succeed. Can you 

 not get one comb from each of your other 

 colonies to give them and then feed? Your 

 chances would be much better, if you could 

 do so. 



CALIFORNIA BEE-KEEPING, AND DOW THEY GET A 

 SWARM DOWN OUT THERE. 



We have not had a good year for bees here ihis 

 year, but it has been so much better than last year, 

 that bee-men ought not to complaiD. I started with 

 26 stands last spring; have 98 now; have lost 4 by 

 skunks; sold 2, and have had several take French 

 leave; have extracted between 2000 and 3000 lbs. of 

 as nice honey as I have ever seen. Had it not been 

 for the fire last fall, and the fog this spring and 

 summer, I would have taken out at least five times 

 as much. I must tell you how I saved a swarm of 

 pure Italian bees. They clustered on a leaning oak 

 on the creek bank, about 40 feet up the tree, and 

 nearly 60 feet from the ground up. The tree would 

 not hold my weight, and I could not get a pole up to 

 them. To cut the tree would kill the bees. The 

 limb that they were on was 2 or 2% inches in thick- 

 ness. After getting my hive all ready (with 2 combs 

 of brood), I took my rifle, and, at the third shot, 

 down came bees and limb together. I hived them 

 the best I could, and to-day they are one of the best 

 swarms in the apiary. Neaily all of my bees are 

 two and three banded Italians. E. Cadwell. 



Carpentaria, Cal., Oct. 1, 1880. 



BEES AND SMALL FRUITS. 



Would it be profitable for a man engaged largely 

 in small fruits to go into bce-culturc for honey on a 

 large scale? that is, would the bees break up the 

 fruit farm? P. C. Drake. 



Philadelphia, Pa., Oct. 8, 1880. 



I would not advise any man to go into bee- 

 keeping on a large scale all at once, friend 

 1)., and for that matter I do not know that 

 I should advise him to go into any business 

 in that way ; but, as far as the bees inter- 

 fering with the fruit is concerned, I should 

 not hesitate a minute. I am now planting 

 strawberries and peach-trees, and I am sure 

 the bees will never trouble either of them. 



We have 500 bearing grapevines now right 

 over our bee-hives, but I do not know that I 

 have ever seen a bee on the grapes, even du- 

 ring the severe drought that has just passed. 

 I believe bees do sometimes get agoing on 

 very sweet grapes, but it is only when they 

 are dead ripe, and ought to have been picked 

 some time before, unless I have been very 

 much at fault in my observations. 



THE NEW COVER, ETC. 



You ask, in Oct. No. of Gleanings, "What do you 

 think of our new cover?" Well, I for one don't think 

 anything of it. I can't see what the artist had in 

 view in the design, when he got it up. Oh that tree! 

 It looks as if it might be a bee-tree. Then that wig- 

 wam, or what is it? Where is the smoke? The only 

 pleasing feature about it is the motto in the arch of 

 the dome. The "queen" of my domicile says she 

 can beat it herself. Give us the old one next No. 

 What has become of the Diary and Account-Book 

 you spoke of in June No., page 261? J. P. Watt. 



Duck Creek, Ills., Oct. 7, 1880. 

 Well, now, friend W., that is rather dis- 

 couraging. The wigwam, as you call it, is a 

 bee-hive, in its most primitive form ? — in 

 fact, away back, before they even twisted 

 the straw into shape. On the other side, our 

 friend Whiting, the artist, has tried to show 

 a modern bee-hive. Tell your queen to give 

 reins to her artistic convictions, and send us 

 a sketch of the result. Friend Whiting had 

 only a sample copy and the ABC book, and 

 then did it to suit himself. Some others 

 think differently from what you do, as you 

 will see. — The account-book is all set up in 

 type, but the demand has been so small for 

 them, that, like Mrs. Cotton's great bee- 

 book, it has never yet been printed. After 

 a few more ask about it, we shall probably 

 get it going. 



PERFORATED-TIN SEPARATORS, ETC. 



I think there is a wide epread dissatisfaction with 

 solid-tin separators. Can't you furnish tinners' 

 punches of suitable size for perforating tin with 

 round or oblong % inch holes, and let us do our own 

 perforating? I fear wire gauze can never be made 

 to answer as nicely as perforated tin; and then, 

 we dislike to throw our old separators away, if they 

 can possibly be changed so as to answer. 



J. S. Hughes. 

 Mt. Zion, 111., Sept. 21, 1880. 



The subject is being considerably agitated 

 now, friend II., but 1 fear you will not be 

 able to get a punch to perforate the separa- 

 tors you now have, because it would bulge 

 and curl up the tin, unless a, die was made 

 to work with the punch. Who among us 

 has the necessary skill and tools to make 

 such a machine for a small amount of mon- 

 ey? Friend Jones is very enthusiastic on a 

 separator made to divide off the hive, so that 

 the queen and drones can be "fenced off," 

 as it were, from the workers. The holes are 

 to be oblong, and he says that, if made ex- 

 actly right, the workers pass and repass, 

 without trouble, but the queen and drones 

 are effectually excluded. The separators 

 are made of zinc, and with a pair of them, 

 he claims to be able to make the bees store 

 all the honey they gather in section boxes, in 

 the body of the hive, and in the center of the 

 brood-nest, if we wish, and that, too, with- 



