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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov 



the cells as it was in the barrels. Although 

 honey is composed principally of grape su- 

 gar, I hardly think 1 lb. of grape sugar will, 

 aside from its hardening propensity, sustain 

 life as long as 1 lb. of honey ; this may be ow- 

 ing to the cane sugar contained in the honey, 

 but not in the grape sugar. I have before 

 estimated that grape sugar is worth $ as 

 much as cane sugar for feeding bees, and 

 further experience has not induced me to 

 change that estimate. — To be sure, you cau 

 raise tested queens from a tested queen, so 

 far as the mother is concerned ; but you can 

 only determine that your young queens have 

 met Italian drones, by testing them by their 

 progeny ; and it is this that constitutes a 

 tested queen. To be on the safe side, of late 

 years we have been in the habit of using 

 queens imported from Italy, for mothers to 

 all our queens. 



BEES THAT WON'T START QUEEN-CELL 1 *. 



I have 3 queenless hives. Now, how can I set 

 Ihem queens from my old hives? They have started 

 queen-cells all over their combs. I have somi good 

 strong swarms, but I can not get a queen-cell that 

 has any egg- in it. I wish you would start me right 

 in this matter. Now, ABC tells me to put in a 

 frame of brood. I have done so, but there is no 

 queen or brood as soon as they are all hatched. I 

 want to work for increase instead of honey this sea- 

 son. Will my bees raise their own queen? Will saw- 

 dust do as well to pack down bees for winter, as 

 chaff? L. L. Loomis. 



South Eidge, O., July 9, 1880. 



I think, my friend, that if you have a hive 

 that hatches the brood without starting 

 queen-cells, they have a queen, or something 

 they treat as a cpieen. It seems a little sin- 

 gular that you should have three such. You 

 will have to give them two or three frames 

 of bees and young brood, and they will cer- 

 tainly start cells then, or enable you to hunt 

 up and remove any wingless or imperfect 

 queen they may have. As to which is best, 

 sawdust or chaff, is an unsettled matter ; we 

 prefer the chaff : 



ROBBING NEIGHBORS' HIVES, AND WHAT TO DO 

 ABOUT IT. 



I am not a regular subscriber, but would like to 

 ask a question. Last summer, a neighbor living 

 about half a mile away came to me and said he be- 

 lieved my bees were robbing one of his stocks. He 

 said he had been flouring the robbers. We then 

 went to my bee yard and soon saw (as I have but 3 

 or 4 stocks) some of them coming in as white as my 

 uncle when he has had a hard day's work in his 

 gristmill. He asked me if I could not stop them 

 someway. T asked him what I should do. He said 

 if I woul 1 only turn up the hive and run a stick up 

 in they would stop at once. I accordingly picked up 

 a short stick, and, while I wa<5 doing as he suggested, 

 I heard soma lively footstep', and on looking around 

 I saw my neighbor with one hand in his hair, and 

 with the other striking at something; and the last I 

 saw of him was when I handed him his hat over the 

 fence in the street, and he looked as if somebody 

 had struck him. Well, I sat down and had quite a 

 hearty lai;gh, until his son told me my bees had 

 completely ruined one of his father's stocks. I then 

 began to feel very sorry, and wondered if I ought to 

 pay him for the loss of his stock, or give him the 

 surplus honey, which -was about R0 lbs. Please tell 



me which, if either, would be right. I must say, I 

 hardly think it was my fault. If he had read Glean- 

 ings, or some other bee-book or paper, he would 

 have known better what to have done. He has been 

 a bee-keeper much longer than I have. 



Willitt C. Brown. 

 Pleasantville, Westchester Co., N. Y., July 24, 1880. 



I am very glad indeed, friend B., to see 

 you indicate such a Christian spirit, in be- 

 ing willing to recompense your neighbor, 

 even when he is greatly at fault, and I am 

 sure God will bless you for it. It would not 

 be right, as it seems to me, for you to give 

 him so much honey, or to pay him for the 

 full value of the colony ; but I would sug- 

 gest that you talk over the matter together, 

 and you will easily arrange the matter satis- 

 factorily to both of you. If it were my bees 

 that were robbed, I would not take any thing 

 as recompense ; but if my bees should rob a 

 neighbor, and carry his honey into my hives, 

 I would willingly pay him for the honey, and 

 also for the loss of the bees and queen, if he 

 thought it right I should do so. Perhaps the 

 bees and queen were not lost; in that case, 

 you can help him to fix them up. I do not 

 know but that I should reprove you a little 

 for laughing, friend B. There are times 

 when one must not laugh ; and especially 

 is such the case when a fellow-being is suf- 

 fering. 



LOCUST-TREES FOR HONEY. 



I noticed an article in June No., p. 265, by some one 

 wanting to know about the common locust as a 

 honey-bearing tree. Since 1874 the locust has blos- 

 somed heavily until this spring, when it almost failed 

 in this section. The consequence was, that bees 

 were nearly ready to starve before the clover blos- 

 somed. They are doing pretty well now, and are 

 making a good deal of h-mey. I have had the only 

 swarm that I have heard of in this section. I have 

 made seven artificial ones, which I think are doing 

 pretty well. But, to return to locust. It is one of 

 the most valuable trees grown here. Although it is 

 a native of this State, I believe it is up to all other 

 wood. For posts in the ground, at least, I know no 

 other so good. It grows very fast when properly 

 cared for. But the borer is hard on it. They tell me 

 in Missouri it must therefore be well cared for to get 

 it to live. I do not know whether the bloom is al- 

 ways full of honey or not. In the spring of 1879 they 

 worked well on it, and filled their hives so full of 

 honey that they blocked the queen and injured them- 

 selves. We have no extractors here, and so we had 

 no remedy. 



But, to return to Gleanings, I would say that the 

 sample copy furnished information enough to pay 

 for my subscription, and so I shall have it the balance 

 of the year. Tell those who want trees I will deliver 

 them at the express or freight office at from $15.00 to 

 $50.00 per 1000. Nine hundred will set one acre, and 

 afterward, in about 6 years, cut every other one out, 

 going each way, and you will have a nice orchard 

 and lots of nice posts if the soil is favorable. 



I have one of your lamp nurseries made for my 

 own use. S. D. Rutherford. 



Kearneysville, Jefferson Co., W. Va., July 13, 1880. 



MY DOLLAR QUEEN. 



The first week in May, one of my box hives sent 

 out a large swarm which clustered on a cedar-tree. 

 T hired them in a Vi story Simplicity, except about 



