1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



539 



live days old, sometimes ; but I would not 

 like to guarantee to do it. A month or two 

 ago a bright-looking young man brought us 

 some queens he wanted to sell. I questioned 

 him about his imported queen-mother, etc., 

 and, as the queens looked nice, I bought 

 them to introduce. I may here remark, that 

 1 never buy queens without knowing some- 

 thins - of the one who raises them, or unless I 

 lirst introduce them into my own apiary and 

 test them. There were about 25 of the 

 queens, if I am correct ; but, before we got 

 them introduced, we found a good many 

 that looked surprisingly as if they were just 

 newly hatched. After "a great deal of work 

 we got about two-thirds of them introduced, 

 but many of them did not lay for ten days or 

 two weeks. Meanwhile, our boy had been 

 studying his A 13 C book that he took when 

 he sold us the queens, and pretty soon he 

 confessed that he. through ignorance, took 

 the greater part of the queens just as they 

 hatcbed out. He learned his lesson, and I 

 learned mine, a part of which was, that vir- 

 gin queens can be introduced by caging. 

 But 1 do not want to undertake it again. 



CONVENTION REPORTS, ETC. 



From what you say on page 491, last No., I should 

 think you thought of publishing- convention reports. 

 We have enough of that, and to spare, in the other 

 bee publications. My advice to you is Punch's ad- 

 vice to the man about to marry,— DON'T. L.C. Root 

 did report a good crop for 1880; but I think, from 

 what I hear, that Herkimer and Montgomery county 

 bee-keepers have all had a very good yield. Can't 

 you get some other report from that section— say 

 Philip Elwoods, Starkville, Herkimer Co., N. Y.? I 

 know his is very large, and he has about TOO swarms. 



N. F. Case. 



Glensdale, Lewis Co., N. Y., Oct. 3, 1880. 



FOUR -BANDED 15EES. 



You say in the ABC book, that you have never 

 seen a four-banded bee. Now, Mr. Hoot, one of the 

 dollar queens I bought of you produces all four- 

 banded bees. The third band is the widest of any. 

 Now, if you think I am mistaken, I will send you 

 some of the bees, so that you can see for yourself. 



D. E. BOBBINS. 



Hesperia, Oceana Co., Mich., Sept. 17, 1880. 



Since reading the above I have taken a 

 look, and I think I shall have to confess, 

 that Italian bees can be selected that have a 

 portion of a fourth band, visible when the 

 bee is made to elongate itself sufficiently. I 

 do not think they can be found in every col- 

 ony, but perhaps one or more colonies that 

 can be made to show it may be found in al- 

 most every apiary. Do not confound this 

 band with the fringes of yellow down that 

 are always liable to wear off, but look for a 

 permanent yellow in t lie homy substance 

 composing the band. 



KEEPING QUEENS A MONTH OK TWO. 



Will you please tell £ow you keep queens a month 

 or two? I lost mine in ten days. 



Maiu v L. Dk.MING. 



Watertown, Wash. Co., O., Sept. 25, 1880. 



Give them pure water and pure sugar and 

 fresh young bees as often as they seem 

 dumpish. We have kept them thus out of 



the hives as much as a month, but occasion- 

 ally one would die, do the best we could. I 

 do not think it well to have bees out of the 

 hives more than a week or ten days ; but if 

 it were really necessary, I would make a 

 larger cage and give them not only water 

 and sugar, but sealed honey as well, and I 

 would give them about i or i lb. of bees with 

 them. This is the way friend Jones lixes 

 his bees for their long voyages from Cyprus 

 island and the Holy Land, and he says they 

 have never yet lost one in shipping in our 

 country, that he knows of. It is a good plan 

 to allow the little colonies to fly once in 

 awhile ; but when you do, you must stand 

 sentinel at the entrance, and when the. queen 

 makes her appearance, as she often will, you 

 must cage her and leave her near the en- 

 trance until the bees all come back ; then 

 shut them up, put her in, and your little 

 hive is ready for another three or four weeks. 

 Friend Jones uses a glass bottle of water, 

 with a notch cut in the cork, on my old orig- 

 inal plan. 



BEES AND GRAPE JUICE. 



1 am making wine, and the bees want to work on 

 the grape juice. Will it hurt them? I see nothing 

 in your ABC on the subject. Will they get honey 

 from them if they are not injurious? 



Canton, O., Sept. 23, 1880. E. H. Morris. 



Our bees have never gathered enough 

 grape juice to give it a test; but, from 

 what I have seen of the effects of fruit juices, 

 I should think it would be about as bad as 

 cider. It will not make honey, or, at least, 

 not such honey as comes from the flowers. 

 Cider stores, when ripe, form a sort of trans- 

 parent fruit jelly, which is almost sure to 

 produce an aggravated form of dysentery. 



WHY DID THEY SW r ARM OCT SO MUCH ? 



About a month ago a hive had been invaded by 3 

 several small swarms of bees, one of which was Ital- 

 ian. Friend Foster lives 'i 1 : z miles from me, and has 

 the only Italians about here within 7 miles, and has 

 lost one swarm. Soon after this quadruple volunta- 

 ry union, they left the hive for a bush in the apiary. 

 They were rehived without trouble. This perform- 

 ance became a daily thing, and, not yet being up to 

 the A B C's, I did not for a long time suspect the 

 want of a queen. 1 tried them in different boxes and 

 other frames, but stay they would not. I finally no- 

 ticed that little or no change was made on any comb 

 or fdn. given them, and that they had no pollen, and 

 were not laying up honey, and had no eggs or brood. 

 I then wanted a black queen of friend Foster, who 

 could not supply me, but named you. I sent from 

 here on the 7th; on the lcth, about sundown, they 

 swarmed out, and, after they had clustered, noticing 

 other bees entering the vacated hive (attracted by 

 the sugar syrup that was being fed to them in the 

 hive), I stepped up and closed it, turning away 

 again. My son of 12, however, recalled me. exclaim- 

 ing, " Here is a queen trying to get in!" Before we 

 could secure her, she mounted high up and flew 

 southward. Next morning, the 11th, they came out 

 again quite early, about 7 o'clock. After that, they 

 manifested no disposition to swarm, and Saturday 

 and Sunday they were storing some honey, and eggs 

 were discovered! 



LARGE EGGS. 



They were the largest bee-eggs that friend Poster 



