546 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Nov. 



shown by our back numbers. It was used 

 in England awhile for extractors, but is 

 now, 1 believe, discarded. Paint, if thor- 

 oughly dry, will do no harm.— I have never 

 heard of any book on the cooper trade. Can 

 any of our readers tell us if there is one? 

 One pound of coffee A sugar will go further 

 as a food for bees than 1 lb. of honey, with- 

 out question ; but in feeding the sugar, 

 some of it will be inevitably lost in getting 

 it sealed up in the cells as the honey is, or 

 should be, for winter; therefore I would 

 hardly undertake to sell the honey that we 

 might feed sugar, unless there was at least a 

 little difference in price in favor of the 

 honey. 



FEEDING EXTRACTED, TO GET COMB HONEV. 



I purchased a lot of extracted honey cheap this 

 summer, and if I can get it into sections I can sell it 

 for three times the price I paid foi it. I have been 

 feeding- from a milk pan, as per ABC, but they 

 don't take it fast enough— only about 10 lbs. in three 

 days and nights. The ten brood-frames are full and 

 the colony large. When the cover is taken off, I 

 find about two or three quarts of bees clustered on 

 the under side, building comb. These are shaken 

 off, but they all get back inside of 30 minutes. I 

 have tried one frame of sections in the third story, 

 alongside of the pan, but they won't work them; 

 then I tried an empty fourth story, thinking they 

 wouldn't climb to the cover. Well, they didn't for a 

 day or two, but started comb on the side of the third 

 story. This I kept cut off, but they finally got up to 

 the cover. Then I filled the fourth story with sec- 

 tions, thinking I could trap them into it; but they 

 couldn't see it, and clustered and commenced build- 

 in? comb underneath the broad frames Now, what 

 am I to do? I want to get that honey in sections. 

 Well, I will try two more plans, and if they don't 

 work I shall have to give it up unless you can help 

 me out. The honey is white clover, and very thick. 

 The bees are blacks, and so populous that ( don't 

 think they could be put into a one-story hive on ten 

 frames. If you can make any suggestions, I wish 

 you would do so. Geo. H. McGee. 



Point Marblehead, Ottawa Co., Ohio. 



It seems, friend M., you have succeeded 

 nicely, only in this one respect, of having 

 the bees build comb next to their feeder. 

 Our neighbor prevented this one season, by 

 greasing, with tallow, the hive containing 

 the feeder, and the outside of the pan. I 

 think a better way, however, would be to 

 have a box marie so as to rill all the space 

 unoccupied with frames of sections, instead 

 of the pan. This box can be coated with 

 wax so it will not leak. Friend B. also used 

 a box fastened to the back part of the hive, 

 with a hole to let the bees through into it ; 

 but they commenced to build combs in this 

 box, and he was obliged to grpase the sides, 

 and, if I am correct, the float also, before 

 they could be prevented. 



HOW OLD MAY A QITEEN BE, AND STILL BECOME 

 FERTILIZED? 



I see in Gleanings that there has been some 

 query as to how old a queen can be and yet become 

 fertilized, and a good prolific queen. I will give my 

 experience. The 12th day of Jan., 1880, I found 

 queen-cells in a hybrid hive. The queen hatched, 

 and began to lay on about the 10th of Feb. ; and, 



about the first of March, drones began to hatch, and 

 by the middle of April, worker bees began to hatch. 

 It was a strong hive, but got quite weak. I had to 

 buil'1 it up with brood from other hives. It is strong 

 now. Query: Was she fertilized by her own drones, 

 or was it by some others? They were the crossest 

 bees I ever saw or heard of. I was compelled to kill 

 her in August, as the smoker had lost its power of 

 subduing the little de— hybrids. 



Geo. W. Stebs. 

 Spring Station, Ind., Oct. 1, 1880. 



I can not think, friend S., that the queen 

 raised in the fall was ever fertilized ac all, 

 but that some other queen got in and re- 

 placed her in the spring, about the time you 

 found worker eggs in the combs. No in- 

 stance has ever been reported, of a queen 

 that was raised in the fall being fertilized in 

 the spring; and I am not sure that a queen 

 that began to lay drone eggs was ever after 

 fertilized. 



keeping bees for fun. 



The queen is introduced and laying. I had a seri- 

 ous time introducing her, and I guess that if I had 

 not been in a hurry she would not have been intro- 

 duced yet. I got her one week ago to-night. I left 

 her on frames 48 hours, and then tried to introduce 

 her. but it was no go; the bees balled her in less then 

 a minute, and so I took her and put her back in the 

 cage. Twenty-four hours later I tried again, with 

 like results. The bees did not ball her this time, but 

 seemed to be trying to eat her legs off, and so I 

 caged her again and waited 21 hours more, then let 

 her loose on top of the hive. She went down into 

 the hive, but the bees would not let her alone, and 

 so I tried to get hold of her, but she flew away, and 

 was gone about 5 minutes when she came back and 

 went into the hive at the bottom. I lett her 5 min- 

 utes, then looked her up; but no sooner had I got 

 my eyes on her than she asr»»in took wing, and did 

 not come back for half an hour. Then I went away 

 to work. At noon I came home and found her in 

 the hive all right. Thus I have got a queen, and got 

 her into my hive all right; but I never introduced a 

 queen in my life. I do not keep bees for profit. I 

 keep them for fun. H.M.Smith. 



Frankfort, Mich., June 21, 1880. 



diversity in the price of honey in the same 

 market, etc. 

 We had a fair honey sea«on during August and first 

 part of September. Out of one two-story Langstroth 

 hive I extracted four gallons, the sameamount I had 

 before from that one hive early in July; six others, 

 double-stories with combs, did nothing during the 

 early season; but I got nine gallons from the six 

 hives the first week in Sept; fifteen stands I pre- 

 pared for section and box honey; in the sections I 

 got nothing. They built out the foundation starters 

 only. Five colonies with honey boxes, comb already 

 built in 1878, furnished something over 100 lbs. of 

 nice comb honey. Only three small lots of comb 

 honey came to town this summer for sale; the first, 

 belonging to a Mrs. Zett, hid probably 30 or 40 lbs. 

 nice comb; she could get no offer in the groceries, 

 and retailed it in town at 10c per lb. The next lot, in 

 2 lb. crates, was brought in by a Mr. Wagner. He 

 had nearly 200 lbs. from f^ur hybrid stands. Two of 

 his made nothing. The comb was mb«tly built last 

 year; he realized l*c per l*i. Mr. Nelson, a butcher, 

 sold it for him, who retailed it at 25c per lb. Another 

 lot of •omb honey came to Mr. Swain's grocery— I 



