886 



GLEANINGS IK BEE CULTUliE. 



June 



HOW TO PREVENT BEES FUOM BUILDING BETWEEN 

 THE UPPER AND LOWER STORIES. 



Some three years ago I wrote to you, asking- if 

 there was any way to prevent bees building comb 

 lietween the brood and wide frames. I did not get 

 any satisfactory answer. I experimented, and 

 found that strips of tin fastened to the bottom-bar 

 of wide frames remedied tlie evil entirely. 1 should 

 not think that tin on topbur of brood frame, as I 

 see by May (tleanings, was half as good. Just try 

 my suggestion the coming season, and then you 

 won't have any more inquiry in regard to prevent- 

 ing their building comb so that it is impossible to 

 get the wide frames out. J. A. Haynes. 



.Stockport, N. Y., May 11, 1885. 



I was well aware, friend II., that bees are 

 ([iiite averse to attaching combs to smooth 

 tin. and the same thing has been accom- 

 l)lished in a chea])er way by simply painting 

 the top-bars. Covering all our frames with 

 tin is pretty expensive, and even painting is 

 somewhat so. I suppose you know that 

 IIeddt)n"s honey-board is principally for the 

 accomplishment of this same thing; and 

 may it not be the cheapest way to manage itV 



A GOOD MAN. 



Somebody sends us a scrap from a news- 

 paper, containing the following: 



" I plows, 1 sows, I reaps, I mows, I cuts up wood 

 for winter: I digs, I hoes, and taters grows; and 

 for what I knows, I am indebted to the printer. I 

 do suppose all knowledge flows right from the print- 

 ing-press, so off I goes in these "ere clothes and settle 

 up~I guess." 



Come to think of it.it must be that the 

 man had been reading our new potato-book, 

 especially if he went and settled up as he 

 started to do. 



FRIEND D. MC KENZIB PROPOSES TO SELL BEES BY 

 THE POUND. 



I have 1.50 colonies of bees more than I know 

 what to do with, and so I think I could spare a few 

 pounds, especially as they are so strong I can not 

 catch the queens after I have got the money for 

 them (I mean the hybrids, 50 and 2.5 cts. each). Wife 

 put on the veil and helped half a day to catch 5 

 queens and caught only one, and that a new weak 

 swarm, and then she said she would burn them up 

 (but brimstone costs money), or I would not have so 

 many bees to-day by at least 100 colonies. Don't put 

 this in Gleanings. 



THE INDIFFERENT IMPORTED gl'EEN 



Vou sent to replace, came to hand on the tith 

 inst.; three-fourths of the bees were dead (chilled, I 

 suppose). I thought the jig was up with, the whole 

 concern. 1 gave them to my wife to warm up, like 

 the chickens, while I read the mail. It was good 

 news when she told me that the queen was alive, 

 but smaller than lots of our bees. I call them the 

 race-horses. What makes some bees so very large, 

 and some so very small, when they all have " all out 

 of doors to grow"'jr' Why, friend Koot, if I had 

 come across the little thing in one of my hives, 

 without knowing who she was, I would have killed 

 lier for a black virgin, and yet I supi)ose she will do 

 me more good than the S^O.OO best imported. If it 

 went by the size, "the cow could catch the har." 

 I had her in the hive the day before I got the post- 

 al. I thought you were like me— had more queens 

 than postals. D. McKenzie. 



Camp Parapet, New Orleans, La., May 8, 1885. 



DO NOT BE IN TOO GREAT HASTE TO CONDEMN A 

 QUEEN. 



The imported queen jou told me to winter and 

 try further is all right this spring. Strange her 

 eggs did not hatch last fall. Please accept thanks 

 for your fair way of doiug. Calvin Lovett. 



Otsego, Mich., April 21, 18!;5. 



I have often known queens to refuse 

 to lay late in the fall, altiiougli we 

 plied their colonies with feed, and did every 

 thing vn'c could ; yet in the spring they would 

 be all right. In the above case the (lueen 

 laid eggs, but the eggs did not hatch. As 

 she is an imported (lueen, and valuable, we 

 advised friend L. to winter her any way. 

 and then report. We are glad to see that 

 she has turned out all right, and we woidd 

 ask friend L. to watch her carefully, and in- 

 form us if she i>roves as good a queen as any. 

 after more extended trial. 



DOUMAN'S report; A GOOD PROSPECT OF ONLY 

 PURE ITALIANS. 



As a good many are sending in their reports, I 

 send mine. I^ast winter I wrote to you that I had 52 

 stands to go into winter quarters. They wintered 

 well up to March; from then until the present time 

 I have lost 22 stands, which leaves me thirty good 

 colonies to begin the season with. They died with 

 dysentery. Some of them had honey-dew to winter 

 on, and I lay it to the cause of their death. Last 

 fall they gathered nothing but honey-dew, which is 

 something remarkable, as I have never known 

 them to gather it before. I have four gallons of it, 

 and it tastes like beet sugar, and is a very dark 

 color. There has been a general cleaningout of 

 the black bees in this locality, which makes a 

 splendid prospect for raising pure Italian queens. 



MOVING BEES A QUARTER OF A MILE DURING 

 WARM WEATHER. 



I expect to move my bees out of town a quarter 

 of a mile from my old location. Can I move them 

 without their coming back? I have called the new 

 yard Sunny Eden. W. S. Dorman. 



Mechauicsville, Ta., May (5, 1885. 



Friend D.. you will have quite a job if you 

 move your bees just at this time of year so 

 short a distance, I fear. It can be some- 

 times managed this way, however : Move 

 your strongest colony lirst. and the I'eturn- 

 ing bees will unite with the remaining 

 stocks. ]SIove the strongest again, and so 

 on. AVhen you get down to Uie weakest 

 you will tind them overflowing with bees. 

 After you take the last one away, probably 

 (luite a good many bees will come back to 

 the old locality. One of our boys tried the 

 same experiment a couple of years ago ; but 

 so many bees came back when the last hive 

 was moved that they made ([uite a respecta- 

 ble little swiu'in. They clustered and hung 

 out over nigiit on a bush. He tlicn took 

 pity on tliem and gave tlicm a (lueen. and 

 they built up to a good colony.— We hoi)e 

 Sunny Eden will be worthy of its name, 

 friend I). 



AX ITIOM IN REGARD TO BEE-FEEDERS. 



Take a round piece of wood, fitted loosely in tlu' 

 top of a can filled with honey or syrup, the edge of 

 the lid chamfered so the bees can suck the feed up 

 between the edge of the can and the lid. As the 

 food is taken out, the lid will settle down till the 



