.140 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



or I ever saw— a good deal larger than common. 

 Friend P. examined the colony with me on Monday, 

 and we concluded that it had dwindled down so low 

 that it would be better to unite it with some other 

 hive. We found the queen that laid the large eggs. 

 She was large and fine looking, and, withal, full (I 

 suppose) of eggs. We pinched her head off, and, aft- 

 er a good smoking, emptied them into a well-smoked 

 hive. They were all right in a few minutes. I can't 

 account for the presence of this large-egged queen. 

 It was evident, she had been laying only about two 

 days. Perhaps she was a young, unfertilized queen 

 up to Saturday, the 17th. Geo. H. Waddell, M.D. 



Coronaco, Abbeville Co., S. C, July 20, 1880. 



Your large colony did not swarm out be- 

 cause they had no queen, but because they 

 had an unfertile queen, and no brood in the 

 hive, I think. At the time you saw this 

 queen, the whole colony had attempted to 

 follow her as usual ; but, not finding her, 

 they clustered, and the queen came back 

 alone, when your son noticed her. A frame 

 of unsealed brood, that we have talked so 

 much about of late, would, in all probability, 

 have saved all of your trouble. I can not 

 think why you should decide the colony 

 could not build up when they had a good 

 laying queen in the month of July. I would 

 have saved her on account of the large eggs, 

 if nothing more, even had it been December 

 instead of July. Are not some of our friends 

 a little in haste, to pinch queens' heads? 

 Give me a young laying queen, with the old- 

 est bees you can pick out, and I will make 

 you a good colony from them during any of 

 the summer months. 



CALIFORNIA. 



The only dollar queen I saved out of the four you 

 sent me last fall is the poorest layer I ever saw. She 

 can not keep up a decent nucleus. Still, the $ 5.30 

 was well invested, for the hybrids raised from her 

 and my black drones were far superior to the blacks 

 in filling frames full of brood— many of them giving 

 over 10 frames of brood and larvae to the hive. We 

 have increased from 10 to 40 by the use of fdn , us- 

 ing 10 frames below for brood, and 10 above for ex- 

 tracting. We got but little honey during the sum- 

 mer—just enough to keep up breeding; but now 

 they are doing well, we think. We got about 30 gal. 

 during last week; the honey is a light yellow and 

 fine quality, but I can not tell where it comes from. 

 Goldenrod is in bloom, but I can not find a bee on 

 it, even though some of the beautiful yellow tops 

 are within a rod of the hives; neither do they ap- 

 pear to gather from sunflowers, of which there are 

 thousands in bloom, except it be now and then a bee 

 that seems to be looking on the stalk for a kind of 

 pitch with which they fasten the frame tightly in 

 some cases. 



BEES TROUBLING FRUIT. 



We have over one thousand vines, of some ten va- 

 rieties, and had trees full of peaches, many bird- 

 picked, during the season when there was no more 

 honey than sufficient for brood-rearing; still, I have 

 yet to see the first bit of fruit disturbed by the bees. 

 They were lively on the blackberry blossoms, but 

 never disturbed the fruit. 



There is one problem I should like to have solved. 

 What would you do if you did not want to increase 

 the stock of bees, but wished to get as much honey 

 as possible? that is, suppose you have two-story 



Simplicity hives, and the queen is not satisfied in 

 tilling all the frames below, and goes up and Alls the 

 frames there with brood also. Again: Why do the 

 bees bite the capping off from many cells, some- 

 times leaving the little white heads exposed? Is cap- 

 ped brood injured by the motion of the extractor 

 forcing their heads against the capping? 



J. B. Rumford. 

 Bakersfield, Kern Co., Cal., Sept. 4, 1880. 



I should hardly want to rear drones to 

 stock my apiary, friend li., from a queen 

 that was not prolific ; but it may be that her 

 producing so little brood was occasioned by 

 something connected with her long journey, 

 in which case it is not likely her progeny 

 would inherit the fault. — You can easily get 

 the honey, even if the queen should lay in 

 every comb, both above and below, by the 

 use of the extractor. I think you wili find 

 that when the queen gets to laying very 

 much above, she is neglecting the lower sto- 

 ry, and I would lift some from below that 

 had no brood, and put those having much 

 brood below. If the colony is not strong 

 enough for the room they have, they will 

 often all move in a mass into the upper sto- 

 ry, because the warmth rises up, toward the 

 roof. — The uncapped brood you mention is 

 all right, and is fully explained in the A B G. 

 The extractor does not harm the brood un- 

 less turned so fast that the unsealed larvae is 

 thrown out. 



I have watched you, and frequently have seen you 

 apparently forsake your own interest, and even of. 

 fer a reward to encourage an invention likely to 

 prove a loss to you, all pro bono publico, especially 

 to benefit the readers of Gleanings. I therefore 

 feel free to write as I would not otherwise. 



COMB FOUNDATION. 



I have used, this season, your light drone fdn., 

 Van Deusen llat-bottom fdn., and Vandervort's nat- 

 ural-bottom fdn. Van Deusen fdn. makes about 10 

 sq. ft. to the pound, and Vandervort about 9>/2 sq. ft- 

 to the pound. I have tairly tested these varieties of 

 fdn., and ajn satisfied that the bees will begin to 

 store honey in all at the same time. I have had Van 

 Deusen fdn. drawn out and honey stored in it with- 

 in 24 hours after giving it to the bees, and I can say 

 the same of the others. The Van Deusen being the 

 lightest, I can with less money fill my sections, if it 

 could be obtained at the same price per pound as 

 the others. John Vandervort, of Laceyville, Pa., 

 makes a thin, natural-bottom fdn. with a side wallas 

 high as the Van Deusen, and I don't see how a more 

 perfect fdn. can be made than this; but he has not 

 yet given us the price of it. My experience leads 

 me to use and recommend, hereafter, very light fdn. 

 with high side walls, the Van Deusen and Vander- 

 vort kinds being the only ones I have used answer- 

 ing the test. I shall also hereafter always fill every 

 section, and am sure I shall obtain, as I already have, 

 a profitable increase in the amount of surplus honey. 



SIMPSON AND SPIDER PLANTS. 



The seed I saved last spring has produced plants 

 that have caused me a good deal of disappointment. 

 I had often seen yellow-jackets and other insects 

 about them both, but never a bee; and yesterday, 

 thousands of winged ants (I believe they were) were 

 flying around the Simpson plants, seemingly enjoy- 

 ing something obtained from the flowers, but not a 



