586 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



most of the time. You may think, friends, that ! 

 this is an expensive way of getting cells; but, try | 

 it once; and when you come to cutting out the cells i 

 you will think it is cheap. The r4ueens hatch about 

 a day sooner, and commence laying sooner, besides j 

 being large, strong, well-developed queens. The j 

 cells that are built under the swarming impulse, in a j 

 full colony, hefDre the swarm issues, are fine cells j 

 usually; but those thai are built after the swarm j 

 issues are lather inferior. If nature is allowed her | 

 way, of course the inmates of these later-built cells i 

 seldom become the mothers of colonies. | 



THE CANADIAN BEE JOUHNAI-. i 



This is proving to be a real, live, practical bee- ' 

 paper. We have learned quite a number of little i 

 '• kinks " from it that bavc been worth more than i 

 the cost of the journal. One is, that of 



HIVING »WAH.MS IN A TENT. 



When two swarms issue at once, set a wire-cloth ; 

 or mosquito-netting tent over one of the hives, and j 

 let the swarm cluster in the top of the tent. Why; 

 wouldn't it be a good plan, in a large apiary, to i 

 have three, four, or more, of these tents " standin' 

 round kind o' handy like," all ready to set over 

 hives when the swarms come " thicker and faster"? ^ 



THE HEDl»ON METHOD OF PHEVENTING AFTEH- j 

 SWAHMS 



Has been a decided success with us for three years; ! 

 and how it should fail with Mr. Doolittle and his 

 neighbors, or any one, is a puzzle to us. [ 



HIVING SWARMS ON FDN.; DOES IT PAV? j 



We have been experimenting again this year I 

 with empty frames vs. fdn., and the indications are, | 

 that fdn. in the brood-nest is a damage, when the 

 swarms hived upon it are given access to a surplus 

 apartment furnished with fdn. Twenty swarms 

 were hived upon fdn., and about 25 others were 

 hived upon empty frames; i. e., empty except 

 " starters " of fdn. one-half inch wide. The swarms 

 were hived alternately as near as it was possible to 

 have them, considering that five more were hived 

 upon empty frames than upon fdn. The swarms 

 hived upon empty frames stored, iji t/»c s^'^'fions, 16 

 per cent more honey. Their brood-nests were 7 

 X>er cent Ughtrr than those given fdn. In the ag- 

 gregate — i. e., counting both the honey in the sec- 

 tions and in the brood-nest, those furnished with 

 fdn. fell h per cent behind. Prof. Cook says bees do 

 not secrete wax unless they need it ; but does it nec- 

 essarily follow that they can not secrete it except at 

 a loss in the amount of honey stored? Our ex- 

 perience sajs no. 8— W. Z. Hutchinson, 70—100. 



Rogersville, Genesee Co., Mich., Aug. 21, 1885. 



Thanks for the valuable facts from experi- 

 ence you give us, friend II. So you are now 

 master of a hundred colonies! Now, then, 

 will you permit an old friend to suggest that 

 you take immediate steps toward making 

 the hundred colonies keep in good shape ini- 

 til next ^layV In our own apiary, that is 

 just the point we are beginning to face once 

 more. A\ e have done it pretty well for a year 

 or two; but the question is, Can we keep 

 it upV — It seems to me as though it were 

 destined to be an established fact, that new 

 swarms that have an opportunity of working 

 in sections well supplied with fdn. are bet- 

 ter off without fdn. in the brood-frames. 

 Our sales of fdn. have been very much less 

 during the past year than for years past— 

 especifiUy f 4n. f ov brooa-J'owbs, J3ut mioth- 



er thing comes in here : How many of those 

 brood-combs contain more or less drone- 

 comb V I should want all of my brood-combs 

 built on fdn. supported by wires, even if 

 they cost something extra. I do think we 

 ought to be getting our fdn. thinner and 

 lighter, both for brood-combs as well as sur- 

 plus honey ; and we are now able to make a 

 very fair article at VZ square feet to the 

 pound. But this, in my opinion, is still too 

 heavy where full sheets are used in the sec- 

 tion boxes. Whenever we have comb honey 

 on the table I am reminded of it. for the fdn. 

 is almost too prominent an object when we 

 are cutting up the honey to spread it on 

 bread and butter. We have had samples of 

 the thinnest made by otir different makers, 

 but I lielieve there is none sent out. as a gen- 

 eral thing, running more than 12 square feet 

 to the pound. 



CRYSTALLIZED HONEY FHOM HON- 

 EY-DEW. 



HOW IT COMES, AND WHAT PKODICES IT. 



HAVE to-day sent you by mall throe packages 

 containing samples of the so-called crystallized 

 honey-dew of Oregon. No. 1 contains stalks of 

 fireweed {Einl»bium aiiyustifoUum), with the 

 insect that caused or produced the crystals. 

 The insects have been on these stalks since the 20th 

 of June: and when they first appeared they pro- 

 duced clear drops of sweet water; and as it evapo- 

 rated it produced the crystals as you see them. 

 They are only in small patches, and there is about 

 one stalk in a hundred like the samples, and the 

 country where I got the samples is covered with 

 the fireweed. The bees do not work on the honey- 

 dew, but prefer to get the honey out of the flowers 

 of the fireweed. I think they are wise that they do, 

 for the honey that they get is as white as snow; and 

 when it is extracted it looks as clear as water. 



No. 2 contains cuttings from two white-flr bushes 

 that grow in the street of a small town, and there 

 are about thirty colonies of bees within one-fourth 

 mile of them, and the.v hum about them all day. 

 but I dont think they would notice them if they 

 had plenty of flowers to work on. 



1 do not know how long these insects have been 

 on these trees. The first time I saw them was 

 about three weeks ago, but 1 have noticed the same 

 insects on the red and yellow flr since the 2.5th of 

 June, but not so plentifully as on the samples; and 

 1 think the reason that the samples look so black is 

 because of the dust from the street settling on it, 

 for it looks as clear as water when first produced. 

 The Insects all sit close together, with their heads 

 sticking close to the bark of the branches. They 

 don't seem to move, and the juice oozes out on their 

 back in small drops, and falls on the branches be- 

 low, or on the grass. 1 saw some drops on some of 

 the bugs as large as a small pinhead. 



Now, Mr. Root, I think this is where the crystal- 

 lized honey-dew came from that Mr. E. S. Brooks 

 sent you in 1883 (see Gleanings for 1883, pages 541 

 and 670). 



No. 3 contains cuttings from a willow brush with 

 the inpect that produced the honey-dew. These in- 

 sects are very numerous in the locality where I got 

 them, and the bees hum about the trees and bushes, 

 wfierp thp IniBects are froifl inorning till Rfffbt, bwt 



