18S.5 



ciLfciANiNGS L\ I5i:k cULTUiik. 



h^ 



nicely while there was a steady yield of hon- 

 ey; but when the bees turn to robbing, the 

 whole plan is impracticable. 



In regard to introducing virgin queens as 

 soon as they hatch, if I understand you cor- 

 rectly your experience is very singular. It 

 is a regular business with us, day after day 

 and month after month. We sometimes re- 

 lease from 25 to "jU in a day. I have just in- 

 terviewed Mr. Kimber, our apiarist, and he 

 says, after taking a tested queen out of a 

 strong colony he has difficulty in releasing 

 a virgin queen inside of 24 hours, but with a 

 weal^nucleus he seldom has trouble. As a 

 rule, he generally leaves them about this 

 length of time after taking their queen 

 away, that they may become conscious of 

 queenlessness. Then he lets the young 

 queen in at the top of the hive, being careful 

 not to disturb the bees ; otherwise they 

 might kill her. During this operation he 

 does not look to see whether she is received 

 or not, and not one in twenty-five is lost, 

 treated in this way. He prefers to wait 

 about 24 hours, ratiiVr than to take the time 

 to go around and look tliem up to sec if they 

 are balled, wlii( li lie would think l)cst to do 

 if he let them run in at the same time he re- 

 moved the laying (ineen. We should be 

 glad to hear from others who practice using 

 the lamp nursery, or what Neighboi- II. calls 

 a ''queen-hatcher"— a numbeiof (lueen-cells 

 placed over the brood-nest of a strong colony. 



Now, then, let us not lose sight of the 

 point; viz., some plan of introducing virgin 

 queens from live days to a week old, and a 

 plan that will permit us to juit them in 

 within 24 hours after the laying (lueen is re- 

 moved. Of course, we should like to save 

 this 24 hours, if we could, but it wiuild prob- 

 ably occupy so much time that wi' can better 

 afford to wait this length of time. .Vnother 

 problem is. Where shall we keej) these young 

 queens until llicy are live days or a week 

 oldV My experience seems to indicate that 

 they ought to have a considerable amotmt of 

 room in which to travel about, for thi ir best 

 develoi)ment. A (lueen, as soon as she is 

 hatched, connnences at once to travel over 

 the combs, and travels about incessantly. 

 day and night, for the tirst week of her ex- 

 istence. 1 think she ought to have at least 

 one full-sized comb for a promenade ground. 



We have customers, too. who want (jueens 

 of our own raising. Early in the season, 

 when the greatest demand comes, of course 

 we can not supply this demand. I have 

 tried putting an extra price on queens of 

 our own raising; but if we have got careful 

 men in the South to rear queens for us, why 

 shouldn't they Ite just as good as any raised 

 hereV During this present season, I believe 

 our queens shipped us from the South have 

 been just as good as those raised here, and 

 the queen business this present season is 

 away beyond any thing it has ever been be- 

 fore; and the demand for young queens just 

 commencing to lay has been very much 

 greater than for any other kind ; in fact, a 

 great many prefer such queens, honeslhf 

 raised, to tested (jiieens a year old or more, 

 even if the price were the same. The hue 

 and cry against untested queens seems to 

 have passed almost entirely away. 



HONEY-THIEVES. 



V TERRIBLE PUNISHMENT FOR STEALING A FEW 

 POUNDS OF HONEY. 



UST about one jear ago I missed from one of 

 my hives two 6 lb. boxes; in a few days after, 

 there were two others taken, and in about a 

 weeli there was a Langstroth hive missing 

 one morning. Upon diligent search I found 

 tlie hive behind the garden fence, with the honey 

 ail taken out, and the frames all taken away but 

 two, the bees scattered around in the grass, and a 

 great many of them trampled to death. It was a 

 young swarm put on empty combs, and they had 

 been there long enough to All them all full of honey 

 and brood, that I know, because one of my boys 

 and I had examined it but two days previously to 

 its being taken. 



In about a month after, it leaked out that a cer- 

 tain man and two boys were the thieves, all belonging 

 to ditterent families. The two lioys lived less than a 

 mile from my farm. The younger boy was aliout U 

 years old, and to him I concluded to go and tell him 

 what I had reason to believe, and ask him to confess 

 the crime and help me bring the others to justi<;e. 

 At first he denied it, but afterward agreed to turn 

 .State's evidence, if I would not prosecute him. I 

 then procured warrants for the other two. The 

 man was arrested; but the other l)oy saw the officer 

 coming, and ran into the woods and subsequently 

 to Ohio, and has never yet returned, that I know of. 

 The man had an examining trial before two magis- 

 trates, was bound over under two-hundied dollar 

 bonds for his appearance before the circuit court of 

 Lewis C»)unty, which was to convene the second 

 Monday in December. As he failed to give bonds 

 he was lodged in the county jail, and at circuit 

 court he confessed the crime, and the jury sent him 

 to the State penitentiary for the shortest term— one 

 year, and where he now is, and will stay till the 

 middle of next Deceml er. Our law sends a num to 

 the penitentiary from one to five years, if he steals 

 to the amount of ten dollars. I proved my loss to 

 amount to about *1:{.IK). The boy who confessed, 

 was the son of a widow, and he promised me that 

 he would never be guilty of such a crime again; 

 but I fear he is again at his old trick, or some one 

 else is stealing on his credit; for within the past 

 month I lost at one time two frames from the mid- 

 dle of a hive, and a little later three more, and 

 within the past week three lb. boxes. 



The weather is .cry dry. Hees are not booming. 

 I came through the winter with 14 stands out of 20; 

 have now 24. Wheat is a failure; grass about half 

 !i crop. O. F. Heselton. 



Valley, Ky., July C IBS.",. 



Friend II., this seems terribly severe; but 

 I presiune the warning will he a wholesome 

 restraint upon others who may think of do- 

 ing such a thing. Probably the honey ob- 

 tained in the manner specified above would 

 not have cost, if brought at the proper place, 

 more than a couple of dollars at furthest ; 

 but the damage to you in the loss of bees 

 and a valuable queen was pn)bably all you 

 stated, and perhaps more. I believe it is 

 best, as a rule, to follow such matters up, 

 and have the parties brought to justice. 

 This man who led these boys into this scrape 

 is stopped for the present, any way, and we 

 hope for all time to come. 



