1885 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



101 



This quautity is sufficient to prepare 2H quarts of 

 medicated syrup— more than enoug-h to treat several 

 colonies. Akthuh Todd. 



(iermantown, Pa. 



Tlie above is a wonderful invention, if it 

 be true ; but if I am correct, several of tlie 

 friends report, in the British Jice Journal, 

 failures after having tried it faithfully. If 

 foul brood can be cured by simply feeding 

 bees medicated syrup, it would be worth 

 thousands to our country. Please pardon 

 me for being a little skeptical ; but the truth 

 is. I can not quite see how cells containing 

 diseased larvse in a putrid state are going to 

 be cleansed by feeding the bees medicated 

 syrup. 



RAISING PLANTS FOU CARP. 



Somebody sent us the following, on a little 

 sera)) of pai>er : 



Tlie Fish Commission at Washing-ton had been in- 

 formed that the plant called great bladderwort 

 would furnish excellent food for young- carp. They 

 procured a larg-e number of plants, and had them 

 set out in the carp-jioiKis. The plants came liijrh, 

 but. as they were ^doil \'ny tlu' fish, they had to have 

 them. Then thev uatcli.Ml patientiv lor the carii to 

 eat the plants. Tli.-y had not watchi-<l lout;- till they 

 discovered that the iilnntx ivcrc entiinj tlic pxli. The 

 small bladders growing- on the leaves caught the 

 small fry in great niiml)ers. 



Well, I am sorry the speculation turned 

 out the way it did"; but there is one thing I 

 am glad to know, and that is. that the Fish 

 Commission are so eagerly looking up this 

 matter. A plant that will grow rapidly in 

 the water, and would be eagerly devoured by 

 tiie lisli, is the next great thingto be desired. 



AX AUSTIIAI.IAN LETTEH. 



1 have been diligently studying- A \i C; have made 

 my start as a bee-keeper, with .5 hives purchased in 

 Sept., which is our first month of spring. They 

 were in old boxes, and, 1 dare say, had been in use 

 for some years, as the comb was mostly blaclt with 

 age, and very tough (I suppose with the webs of re- 

 peated brood-rearing-). 



We succeeded in transferring them to I.angstroth 

 hives, and sui)i)lied them with comb foundation. 

 We used only about 2 frames of the brood-comb, as 

 there was, in my ()i)inion, too large a percentage of 

 drone-cells lunong it. We got \ery little honey 

 from these hives, the cause Iteing attributed by me 

 to the immense number of drones ench hive con- 

 tained. 



I may siiy liei-e, that I lune thought about bee- 

 keei)ing- for a long time past, and have read nearly 

 e\-ery thing on the subject that came into my hands, 

 and it has now turned out that my reading was 

 mostly of obsolete works. It was in the Americ<i)i 

 AuricuUurist that we first heard of A. I. Root and of 

 (,»uinby and Prof. Cook. I would luive made a start 

 with :.•() or 30 hives if it had not been for yoiu- ear- 

 nest admonition to the contrary, the value of which 

 advice I now very much appreciate, and to its neg- 

 lect, an apiarist of my ac(iuaintance, owning about 

 100 hives, attributes his utter failure. Our bees are 

 common brown or black bees, but 1 intend to Ital- 

 ianize them as soon as possible, beginning with 

 the hive I am o.v|)ecting at my house. ] can pro- 

 cure a tested Italian queen, second grade, ^4.80; 

 first grade, *12.0:). I shall start on a secc n l-grade 

 queen, following A B C, and afterward I will try 

 the first grade for (jucon- rearing on my own 

 account. Stephen Makt.arkev. 



Sidney, N. S. W., .\usti-alja, Dec. '.i, 1884. 



.JACKSON S SOLAR EXTRACTOR. 



I here give you a description of a solar-heat wax- 

 extractor, as made and used by Mr. A. Jackson, of 

 King's River, Fresno Co., California. Take two 

 boards, 1 X 16 inches, 4 feet long; nail carefully at 

 angles, making a V-shaped trough; put on ends, 

 then line with tin, carefully soldered. Put a honey- 

 gate at one end near the bottom ; put cleats around 

 the outside, near the top, to rest the upper box on. 

 The upper Ijox is made of 1x6 lumber, to fit on the 

 cleats bee-tight. Before nailing together the top 

 box, have 2 saw-cuts put in it all around, the first 

 one inch fi-om the top, the second 2' i inches from 

 the top. Now nail sides to one end, and slip glass 

 into the saAV-cuts, and screw on the other end. Now 

 make a frame, to fit about 1 or 3 inches inside the 

 trough; on this frame tack burlap, and put in 

 place; put your cappings, or combs to be melted, on 

 the burlap frame, then put on your top, and give 

 the whole a lean endwise, and face to the sun, 

 where, if hot, your honey and wax will soon pass 

 through the burlap, and the honey can be drawn ofl: 

 by the gate, and more material added, and the wax 

 taken away at leisure. WMien the burlap becomes 

 clogged by refuse it can be taken off and boiled, to 

 secure any wax which may remain, and another can 

 be tacked on to the frame. This has proved very 

 effective here. George Hobler. 



Hanford, Cal., Jan., 1885. 



Thank you, friend IL The above solar 

 wax-extractor is very simple, and easily 

 made, and I will at once have one gotten up ; 

 and if it works as well as I suppose it will 

 when the weather is warm enough, I will try 

 to remember you and friend Jackson a little 

 more substantially. May be such an ar- 

 rangement would work in California, on ac- 

 count of the more intense heat of the sini, 

 when it would not here. I should hardly 

 think a U-inch space were needed l)etween 

 the two lights of glass, but very likely friend 

 Jackson has exjiei imented on this, anil knows 

 what is about light. 



BEES WORKING ON RED CLOVER. 



In regard to bees working on red clover, I see 

 some say that the blacks do not. In some seasons 

 they do, in others they do not. When the large 

 clover grows to a great size, the bloom opens so 

 they can crawl down far enough to reach the honey, 

 otherwise not. 



I have 33 colonies; no swarms this season; rather 

 poor season for honey. Jno. Jacobus. 



North Urbanna, N. Y., Jan. 2, 188.-). 



EPILOBIUM, OR WILLOW-HERB. 



This is in )io sense a flreweed. As you call for 

 any light that any may be able to shed upon the 

 above plant, I will say that I have observed it 

 (whenever I went north), and corresponded -with 

 several about it for the last six years, and I have 

 known it to be a fine honey-plant ; but I never saved 

 or planted a seed of it, for I feel quite sure it can 

 never succeed so far south as our latitude. Now, if 

 you will study it further, both by botany and cor- 

 respondence, with those living north of 44° north 

 latitude, I feel sure that you will arrive at the same 

 conclusion 1 have, that we can never cultivate it 

 successfully as far south as we reside. 



Dowagiac, Mich., Jan., 18)-o. James Hedoon. 



Thanks for your timely reminder, friend 

 ir. AVhile 1 think of it, all reports from the 

 willow-herb have been from Maine, or the 

 northern portions of Michigan, and maybe 



