588 



GLEANINGS IK JiEE CULTUllE. 



Sept, 



should think, a very rare occurrence. Are 

 you sure you were not deceived, and that 

 some of the young queens did not take her 

 place part of the time? My experience has 

 been as you state, that these young queens, 

 reared while an old (lueen is present, are al- 

 ways good ones. Doolittle mentioned the 

 same thing a spell ago, you may remember. 

 In the table you give, we notice tliat you 

 have no queens that lived to be two years 

 old, excei)t those that were hatched after 

 the twelfth day ; and seven that lived to be 

 three years old were all hatclied after the 

 sixteenth day. In counting these days, I 

 suppose you "mean it was sixteen days after 

 the bees started the queen-cell. In this 

 case it would be pretty certain that they 

 took the egg to commence with. ]Many of 

 us have long felt that it would be more desir- 

 able to have the bees commence with the 

 egg, but we have not had any facts before 

 such as you give. 



Gleanings last montli. Tt then "dawned" upon me 



that the soured honey did it. D. S. Suli.ia'an;' 



Ridgeway, N. Y., Aug. 6, 188.5. ", 



^EP0^¥3 ENCeaBt^6I]S[6. 



THE PROCEEDS OF TWO SWAUMS OF BEES IN THE 

 HANDS OF AN A B C SCHOLAR. 



BOUGHT two stands of bees last May in Sim- 

 piicUy hives. I looked at them on the Ifith, and 

 find 110 lbs. already sealed over- $30.00 worth 

 here. The bees cost $17. .10. Now, it would be 

 unmerciful on my partif I would not do my 

 utmost to winter them properly. I am a novice 

 at the "biz." I sat for hours this summer, and 

 handled the brood-combs, but could not find the 

 queen or queen-cells. I gave them plenty of room 

 and honey-bo.xes early, so as to size up my two 

 swarms, and they have plenty of bees in them, but 

 they did not swarm at all. At this writing they 

 have made 130 lbs. surplus in boxes over them. 

 There are bees almost by the peck. I put two sto- 

 ries on the strongest hive, as they would hang out 

 for want of room. I thought by "sizing up" the 

 swarms f could winter them better. 



I find the ABC book profitable and entertaining, 

 and that so far I have, in my short acquaintance 

 with those in the bee business, found more good, 

 honest, and gentlemanly business men, as a class, 

 than with'any other class I have dealt with. I dont 

 believe there are many bad men in legitimate bee 

 business. There is something humanizing and Chris- 

 ttanizing in handling the little fellows. Mine have 

 taught me many lessons this sununer— lessons in 

 morals, in business, and social life. 

 Harlan, Iowa, Aug. 2i, 1885. W. M. Bo.mberger. 



A GOOD HASSWOOD "BOOM; SOTJIS IIONET AGAIN, 

 AND HOW IT AFFECTED THE BEtS. 



We had that basswood boom down here too, for 

 'ten days. It was "immense," I tell you. Every lit- 

 tle sapling seemed to be loadoil down with bloom 

 and bees. 



I had a little experience with sour honey in the 

 combs. I placed a frame containing some in the 

 center of a strong colony, and I found the next 

 evening the ground in front of the entrance was lit- 

 erally covered with dead bees. They looked as if 

 robbinghad beengoingon. I was unable to account 

 for it until I saw the report from a correspondent in 



MORE ABOUT BEB-POISONINQ. 



ALSO SOME QUERIES IN REGARD TO BriLDING UP 

 NUCLEI. ' ' 



READ the article written by Mr. Langstroth on 

 bee-poisoning in Gleanings of Aug. 1.5, with a - 

 great deal of interest, and also your advice- to ■ 

 Mr. Heddon. I can imagine that I see him ■ 

 smile as he reads it, and sajs to himself, ",'Not 

 any of that kind of inoculation for me if you pleasia." 

 Now. 1 object to that style of wholesale inoculation 

 for several reasons^- principally on account of the 

 after effect which it has upon the system. If one 

 chooses, for any reason, to go out oj* the business, 

 it seems an unpleasant thought that, when he bap- 

 pens to meet a farmer apiarian friend and associate, 

 on greeting him with a cordial shake of the hand 

 one must be thrown into a paroxysmof hydrophobia, 

 or, more properly speaking, bee-phobia. He can.'t 

 be expected to carry a supply of bees around in his 

 coat pocket to inoculate himself as circumstances 

 may require, and ho must therefore receive the 

 shook with as good a grace as possible. It seems to 

 me that a poison that produces such results is bet- 

 ter out of the system than in it, and I think that it 

 would be better to exorcise a little extra caution in 

 the handling of bees, to avoid being stung, even to 

 wearing a veil, when bees are-unusually cross. 



Your article on building up nuclei in the fall was 

 an interesting one to me, as I am engaged frOm 

 small beginnings in building up as rapidly as pCte- 

 sible, with a view to more extensive operations in 

 the future, and I should lilfe to ask you one or two 

 (luestions on this subject. 



FEEDING NUCLEI SO AS TO BUILD THEM UP'.TO 

 FULL COLONIES; HOW MUCH SLrGAR ' 



WILL IT TAKE? ' ■■* 



1. How much sugar is best to feed a three fi-anie 

 nucleus, beginning, say, the middle of August? 

 Would it be well to give them all they will carry 

 down, or is there daiager of giving them too much? 



2. Would it be safe; at this season of the J'car, to 

 feed brown sugar, or will some of that which is fed 

 be retained in the combs for winter use, and caiise 

 dysentery? It is the opinion of some that brown 

 sugar is preferable, for breeding, to graniilated, 

 and it certainly is cheaper. S. A. MeAictn. 



Brooklyn, N: Y., Aug. 2:.', 1885. 



If you are in a locality where little or jio 

 fall lioney is to be expected (and you must, 

 of com-se, do the work by feeding), you 

 will probably need 'M or 40 lbs. of sugar to 

 make them a good colony. I would use 

 granulated sugar, so that there will bP'-noth- 

 iug in the combs but stores suitable for win- 

 ter consumption. Thirty or toity po'uMds of 

 sugar will be worth at this date from 7* to 8 

 cts. per lb., according to the loc-;ility ; so you 

 see that, if you have no honey yield", you can, 

 asarnle, m;"ike coioni) s cheaper by sugarfeed- 

 ing, than by purchasing them at the "sual 

 rates. Yoii will also have the best strniTi of 

 bees, and perfect combs of the most modern 

 construction. Jhowu sugar would answer 

 just as well as any thing for building upiu 

 the fall, and frien'd \' in lion tells us they will 

 build more comb when fed on brown sugar 



