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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



wheat, about the last of July or first of August, 

 but the plan will work any time in the summer. 

 Cochranton, Pa., Aug-. 24, 188.5. N. N. Shepard. 



The above directions from friend Shepard, 

 who gave iis the s\varming-t»ox, I should ap- 

 prove in every respect ; only if the division 

 is to be made as far north as we are. as late 

 as it is now, I wotdd by all means liave a 

 laying queen for the queenless division; 

 and, in fact. I think it would pay to have a 

 laying queen at any time where a strong- col- 

 ony is divided. 



HILLSIDE apiary; THE LATTER PART OF THE 

 SEASON A LITTLE MORE FAVORABLE. 



I have named my apiary the " Hillside Apiary," 

 and have the hives ai-ranged somewhat after one 

 of the cuts in the ABC. I do not think that my 

 hives will average over 35 lbs. apiece this year, as 

 it was so very dry during the white-clover season; 

 but we have had lots of rain here for the past two 

 weeks, and the flowers are coming out nicely now, 

 and I see the bees are working very fast in the 

 boxes. Two or three hybrid swarms in particular 

 are doing a brisk trade just now, and it may be I 

 shall get my 5U lbs. of comb honey from a hive yet. 

 I hope the warm weather may continue for awhile 

 this month and the next. I might make a good crop, 

 the way clover seems to be blossoming now. 



W^iLMER J. Moore. 



West Grove, Pa., Aug. 24, 1885. 



CLIPPING queens' wings. 



I want to tell Ole Fogy (Gleanings, Aug. 15), that 

 I want one wing cut olT from every laying queen in 

 my own apiary. Why ? Because after 5 years' ex- 

 perience with clipped queens, I am fully convinced 

 that I can manage bees at swarming time with 

 more ease and less loss of queens and bees tlian I 

 can in any other way. I ha\;e increased my apiary 

 from two colonies in 1880 to 57 colonies at present 

 date; and to count what I have sold and what have 

 died in winter, I have probably hived 100 swarms 

 with queens having clipped wings, and I can say 

 truthfully that I have lost only one queen in any 

 way at swarming time, and have never had a swarm 

 to run oft and leave me. My bees never supersede 

 their queens until they are ripe with old age, and 

 are on the decline. My neighbors say that they 

 lose one swarm out of every ten by their going off 

 to the timber. I can not see why Doolittle's bees 

 and my bees and many others' behave so Avell with 

 clipped queens, while A. I. Koot's, Heddon's, and 

 many others' behave so badly that they condemn 

 the plan. J. K. Nichols. 



Danville, Ind., Aug. 25, 188,5. 



AN APICULTURAL DISPLAY AT THE CHILLICOTHE 

 FAIR. 



Friday last closed our county fair. The fair was 

 a success. For the first time in the history of the 

 fair there was a display in the line of apiculture. 

 C. M. Roberts had Boot's foundation-machine, some 

 foundation drawn out by bees, some extracted and 

 comb honey, and a very handsome large can for ex- 

 tracted honey. E. Magenhotfen, an extractor; U. 

 Brown, an observatory hive of Holy-Land bees and 

 some queens of the same race. T had an observa- 

 tory hive, with one frame of bees and brood of the 

 native black bee, the style of hive [ use, with its 

 fixtures, a queen-nursei-y after Alley, a fi'rtilizing 

 hive, and a few other things in the bee line. There 

 was a very pleasant interest manifested in our dis- 



play, and projxise to improve on it very much next 

 year. Francis W. Blackford. 



Chillicothe. Ross Co., O., Aug. 24, 1885. 



PACKING FOR AIR SPACE OF HIVES. 



Our English friend Cheshire, who has made so 

 many able contributions to scientific bee culture, 

 suggests cork waste as the best material for this 

 purpose. Where it can Ite readily procured, noth- 

 ing can be better. T will name something which in 

 this country can always be got — dry corn-cobs, 

 ground say as fine as tan-bark. The great non-con- 

 ducting power of corn-cobs is well known; and 

 ground as I suggest, cobs would be very neai'lj" as 

 good as cork. L. L. L.-vngstroth. 



Oxford, Ohio. 



Friend L., at the Toronto convention this 

 subject of cork for packing was discussed 

 quite a little. The difficulty of obtaining it 

 in many localities is the principal objection 

 to its use, so far as I know. 



WHY DO THE BEES THROW OUT CAPPED BROOD'? 



Whatmakes young swarms of bees cut out their 

 young bees just as they are going to hatch? I have 

 had three after-swarms do this. J. G. Meeks. 



Barnhill, 111., Aug. 34, 1885. 



Friend M., it is my opinion that they do it 

 because your combs are infested with moth 

 worms. Were not the combs exposed to the 

 moth miller before you hived your young 

 swarms on them? If I am right, it would 

 do no particular harm, especially if your 

 bees are Italians, for they will very soon 

 liave the combs all cleared from these pests. 



COLONIE.S THAT WON'T START QUEEN-CELLS. 



I have had trouble to get my bees to build queen- 

 cells, some colonies refusing to altogether, and oth- 

 ers building verj^ poor ones. My neighbor, Mr. J. 

 T. Wilson, has the same trouble. Why is it so? 



Nicholasville, Ky., Aug. 10, 1885. J. W. Sheby. 



I should say that such colonies had a 

 queen of some sort, or a fertile worker— see 

 tlie A 15 V book. If you want a great many 

 large strong cfiieen-cells, you want to use a 

 colony of bees that have some Holy-Land 

 blood in thier composition. 



SWARMS going OFF WITHOUT CLUSTERING. 



I feel like writing a few words in reply to Ole Fogy, 

 concerning the matter about bees always settling 

 or clustering when they issue naturally from the 

 hive. He says, " They never, never, never go off 

 without first settling." Now, friend Fogy, I have 

 had two swarms of that kind myself. I was on 

 hand when they began to issue from the hive, wait- 

 ing patiently for them to cluster; but the time was 

 short, for they soon began to move off, and I fol- 

 lowed; but when they came to the timber they arose 

 over the trees and left me below, and T retraced my 

 steps, feeling badly over my loss, for they were 

 fli'St - Class swarms. One year ago this season a 

 neighbor of mine had a swarm come off on Sabbath 

 afternoon, but they did not look for a place to clus- 

 ter, but started for the woods. 



My father got his start of bees from a swarm of 

 this kind. A neighbor had a swarm issue, and left 

 witliout clustering. He followed them about three- 

 fourthsof aniile and treed them, and told my father 

 he could have thenu But I will agree with Fogy, 



