172 



GLEANtNCS IN JiKK CULTUUE. 



Mar. 



THE WAY FRIEND TOMLIN FINALT,Y GOT HIS TWO 

 QUEENS INTRODUCED. 



I commenced bee-kecpiug- last spring, with three 

 eol()nio« of hoos; increased to seven; grot only 20 

 lbs. of section honey, for the honej" crop was a fail- 

 ure in this locality. I had black bees. But in Octo- 

 ber I bought two fine Italian queens, untested, of 

 A. D. Stith, of Pleasant Ridge, Ky., both of which 

 proved pure. I had studied the ABC book, and of 

 course I thought 1 could introduce them without any [ 

 trouble; but I was mistaken. Having tried all 

 plans in that book for four days, T took the cage 

 from the hive, and shook the bees off. I took four 

 frames filled with brood, and placed in another 

 hive. After three hours I liberated the queen with 

 the young bees, which had hatched out; after 30 

 hours 1 took the four frames, queen, and young 

 bees, and placed them in the old hive. They were 

 received with kindness, and did ^rell afterward. I 

 raised five queens, which I gave to my other colo- 

 nies. All did well, all pure but one. At this date 

 most of them are Italians, and doing well in the 

 Langstroth hive with chaff cushions above. 



Thos. S. Tomlin. 



(Jardnersville, Ky., Feb. 10, 1885. 



and as she could not move the hive they went baek 

 again, and then I watched them lor a week after, 

 and they never came out again, but went to work 

 with a will, and stored more surplus than any other 

 swarm I had. Why would that not be a good way 

 to prevent swarming? P. E. Twining, C— 10. 



Kipton, Ohio., Dec. 20, 1S84. 



Friend T., the difficulty with your plan is. 

 that the queen will many times go out in the 

 grass or weeds, and get "lost ; and very likely 

 yours was lost, and they raised a new one. 

 The plan is essentially the same as the one 

 given by :Mr. Quinby." years ago. To pre- 

 vent the queen being lost, he had what lie 

 called a "' queen yard."" For some reason or 

 other, one after another has dropped the 

 process. I do not believe it would pay to 

 lose a laying queen in the swarming season. 

 You might get a good crop ot honey with 

 such ; but if the queen had been saved with 

 a few bees out of that big swarm, you might 

 have had two crops of honey instead of one. 



USING HEDDON S CRATE ON CHAFF HIVES. j 



It Strikes me your Hutchinson honey-boards will j 

 be " no good " for the chaff hive, unless you make a 

 larger size especially for it. 1 find it most conveni- 

 ent to use the Heddon case to raise comb honey in 

 the chaff hive. I enlarged it so as to nearly fill the 

 top of the hive, leaving just room enough to insert 

 the fingers to take hold of the handles to take it j 

 out. It rests on knife edges of tin, and the bees can j 

 not stick it down with propolis, but they will build ' 

 up from the brood-combs; and if the new honey- 

 boards will I)re^'ent this, I certainly want them. IMy j 

 cases hold forty 1'. -inch sections, or thirty-two 1'^- ] 

 inch. The honey-board would need to lie atiout 17 x 

 2.1 inches, to go under these cases, or wide frames ' 

 either, I should say. But a strip of wood will have j 

 to be inserted in the upper rabbet, in case wide | 

 frames arc used to raise them up the proper dis- j 

 tance. Chai.on Fowt.s. 



Oberlin, O., Feb. 13, 188."). | 



Thanks, friend F., for your suggestions. 

 We can make a larger honey-board for chaff 

 hives, if need be. The brood-chamber to | 

 the chaff hive is the same as the brood- 

 chamber to tlie Simplicity hive, and there- | 

 fore the same honey-board would cover it; 

 but us this honey-board would necessarily ! 

 reacli above the ledges around the top of the I 

 brood-chamber, I do not see how we can \ 

 manage it nicely without a larger honey- i 

 board, as you suggest. ! 



clipping QUEENS' WINGS TO PREVENT THEIR 

 SWARMING. 



Although I am not a bee-keepei- on a large scale, 

 I will toll you of a little incident that happened this 

 past swarming season. I do not know that it is any 

 thing new, but I never heard of any thing of the 

 kind before. I had one swarm whose queen I 

 clipped the year before (and as that is the only one 

 I had foi'gotten it). One day as I was going to din- 

 ner a large swarm issued from this hive, and I 

 waited for them to cluster; but they all came back 

 in the hive, and then I knew what was the matter. 

 The next day I was obliged to bo away (but my wife 

 was at home), and about noon they came out again, 



SETTING BEES OUT FOR A FLV IN FEBRUARY AND 

 MARCH. ETC. 



Having very recently subscribed for Gleanings, 

 I received mj' first two numbers last week, and 

 must say that I am highly pleased with their con- 

 tents, and mj- little daughter Maud was so delighted 

 with the juvenile department that I fear I shall not 

 get to see each number until she gets through with 

 it hereafter. Well, all right, if it is so. Anything 

 to induce our children to read. 



I have sold the most of my comb honey, being put 

 up in 2-lb. sections, at 2.") cts. per lb., and could sell 

 more at the same price if I had il. I have been for- 

 merly setting my bees out in February to take a fly; 

 but if it is not necessary it will save considerable 

 work and trouble. .><. l{. JIorris. 



Bloomingburg, Ohio, Feb. 4, l8S.j. 



Friend M., 1 woidd leave the bees in the 

 cellar just as long as thev are quiet, and 

 seem to be doing well, fn our locality 1 

 think they will be far better, as a rule, if 

 kept in during the whole month of ]\Iarch. 

 and some seasons through a great part of 

 April. If, however, you can not keep the 

 cellar cool enough "to keep them quiet, 

 and if the weather should be favorable, set 

 them out. Our neighbor Eice, who is so 

 successful in cellar wintering, sets his out 

 when they seem to demand it.' and tlien puts 

 tliem back again, keeping them until pollen 

 is to be gathered, if he can. I would not en- 

 courage bees to lly in March, or April either. 



THE YUCCA, OR SPANISH B.4YONET. 



In regard to the yucca, or Spanish bayonet, of 

 which you give an engraving on page 102, you are 

 mistaken when you say that the engraving is the 

 same plant as the one that I sent you a photograpli 

 of. The one represented in the cut is of a ditlereht 

 species, a iiivtive of Arizona; its habits of growth 

 are entirely diiferent from the Yiirra hacratci. The 

 Arizona yucca grows somewhat like the palm-tree, 

 each year adding to its height, with the sharp-point- 

 ed leaves all the way up the body. The one shown 

 on page 103 is evidently a young one, and has just 

 started to raise its head above the surface of the 

 ground. This yucca ^, however, more useful than 

 the one from which the brushes are taken, as it has 

 been lately discovered that the fiber of the inside of 

 the stalk is very useful for the manufacture of pa- 



