482 



(jLEANiNcis IN Uee cuLtijki^:. 



JulV 



elected vice-president, and your hUWble servant I 



treasurer and secretlit'y. C. M. Kingsbury, j 



Mt. Vernon, Ohio, Ffeb. 18, 1885. i 



You will notice, that in tlie above letter no 

 hiention is made of the time when this asso- 

 ciation meets again, and 1 have been ^ wait- 

 ing and watchino:"' ever since I got back 

 from New Orleans, for something in regard 

 to the matter. As tlie convention usually 

 meets at the time of the Ohio State Fair, I 

 presume there will be such a meeting this 

 year ; btit I am ashamed to confess, that at ' 

 present I have not been able to find out when 

 or where I am expected to otticiate as presi- 

 dent ; however, 1 will take immediate steps i 

 to tind out, and will try to be on hand, and j 

 do all in my power to make the convention a , 

 success. It has sometimes been quite hard 

 for me to do much mental work unless I do ! 

 it an hour or so at a time, with a good many | 

 recessess thrown in. On this account I have ! 

 to depend a good deal upon our good friend I 

 Martin, vice-presideut, and friend Kings- 

 bury, who writes the above kind letter. Er- ] 

 nest will go with me as private secretary, 

 and perhaps he can help some. 



And Suggestions and Queries Particularly Pertaining 

 to the Season. 



ers of papers, in order to stop lier frauds, all or 

 nearly all that has appeared, and so 1 have not the 

 complaints on hand now. Should you think it just 

 and rifrht to do so. I would ask that you request, 

 through Gleanings, that all who have lor the last 

 ten yeai'S been defrauded by Mrs. Cotton send a 

 plain short statement of it to James B. Mason, 

 Mechanic Falls, Maine, President of Maine Bee- 

 Keepers' Association. 



DRV FECES. 



I notice in Gf.eaninos for .lune 1st that Professor 

 {^ook would confine the controversy on dry feces to 

 the droppings found on the bottom-board. The de- 

 fenders of that theory do not purpose being so lim- 

 ited. Dry feces we understand to be such d^ l|ave 

 so small a percentage of moisture as to retaia^ilieir 

 form, no matter when or where voided. While 

 some such may be found in the debris underneath 

 the cluster, the far greater part will be voided after 

 the bees are set out. We are glad to learn, through 

 the Cavndian Bee-Jovrnal, that S. Cornell, who has 

 no superior in America as a scientific writer on api- 

 culture, has commenced the investigation of this 

 subject. When he gets through we shall have some- 

 thing that all can depend upon. P. H. Elavood. 



Starkvillo. N. Y., .Tunc 34, 1885. 



carnioi-an bees. 



flLL you please tell us in the next issue of 

 Gleanings what your experience has been 

 Avith the Carniolan bees, and does it agree 

 with friend Benton's? Ask those that have 

 tried them to report. We are greatly inter- 

 ested in them, and wish to know more. 

 Mt. Vernon, III. W.W.Addison. 



Friend A., we have never yet seen a Car- 

 niolan bee. We told Benton nearly a year 

 ago to send us a couple at once. He wrote 

 that it was too late in the season, but that 

 they would tome early this spring. They 

 have not yet come, antl he has not as yet 

 given any explanation, yet we notice lie has 

 been sending tliem to others. I wonder if 

 lie is afraid to have them siil),iected to tlie 

 test and scrutiny they will likely meet with 

 at the '' Home of the IIoney-Bees." 



DRONES EROM WORKER EGGS, ONCE MORE. 



I wrote you last year that I believed drones could 

 be had any time the queen was laying-. I have dem- 

 onstrated the fact, and several others that I t«(ld of 

 it. Take the queen out and I guarantee drones. 

 Sometimes only two or three will be raised. 11 no 

 drone comb is in or near the brood-nest, they will 

 build out workei-cells, and raise them there. Mr. 

 Hofensteter, of Louisville, deserves more credit for 

 the discovery than myself. He put me on the track 

 of it by saying on a card to me that the queen laid 

 all one kind of eggs. I am confident he was right, 

 but I stick to the theory that the bees feed the 

 queen something besides honey to bring her into 

 laying condition. If she lives on honey only it looks 

 reasonable that her condition would always be the 

 same. M. L. Wii^liams. 



Maysville, Ky. 



a report from the alley dronb-excluder. 



In using the Alley drone-excluder I find that the 

 drones thus excluded sometimes go to other hives. 

 In using the drone-trap, several young queens go- 

 ing out for mating could not or would not pass 

 through the zinc, but passed up the cone and there 

 remained until liberated by diawing the slide. On 

 returning they could not •.■ct in till the lr:ip was re- 

 moved. 1». F. >'.\VA(ii:. 



Casky, Ky., JunelJO, 1SS5. 



MRS. COTTON. 



Frictid Uodt .—For years it has been apparent that 

 Mrs. Cotton, of West (iorhum, Maine, has been im- 

 posing upon the p\iblic, and the nmtter has been re- 

 ferred to the Maine Association, and we wish to ob- 

 tain what information we can in regard to the mat- 

 ter. Will you please give me what information you 

 have in your possession? Do not refer me to 

 Gleanings, for I have cut out and sent to publish- 



'^tyE are having: a good honey season so far. 

 The yield from apple-blossom was the best 

 I ever knew. The bees filled up the brood- 

 combs so that I had to extract to give the 

 queen room to lay. I took about KM) lbs. of 

 extracted honey from eight or ten stocks, besides a 

 little comb honey, all from apple-blossom. 

 Naugatuck, Ct., July 3, 1885. R. Downs. 



Bees are doing splendidly on alsike clover, and 

 swarming furiously, with basswood aliout two 

 wei'ks ahead. Oui' bees have never been in so fine 

 condition at this season since 1880. 



Wyoming-, N. Y. G. W. Stanley & Bro. 



I have 140 colonies of bees; wintered all right; do- 

 ing pretty well now. Frank Gentry. 

 Uiverton. Miss., June 8, 18.S.J. 



My bees are doing nicely. I have 28 in Simplicity 

 hives, 13 in Langstroth hives, and 47 in cross-sticks. 

 I sold 1300 lbs. of comb honey last year. 



W. S. Fessenden. 



Kerrville, Texas, June 13, 1886. 



