1885 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CL'LTURE. 



67 



tiling be jumping out of tlie frying-pan into 

 the tire, as in your case. 



QUEENS, VEXATIONS IN INTKODUClNfi. 



I am just a be^-inner in bee-keeping-, yet I luive 

 had my share of trials and vexations already. I 

 should like to inquire what causes my bees to act 

 so unreasonable when I am tryinjr to introduce a 

 new queen. I keep Mrs. Queen caged 48 hours: and 

 if the bees act rough toward her I cage her again; 

 and then, if they act kindly, and accept her, I re- 

 lease her. On three different occasions this season 

 they seemed to accept the strange fiueen; but in 

 the course of five or six days I would find them 

 fighting and stinging each other in the same hive. 

 They have kept this up for a week or ten days. I 

 have oi>ened the lii\c and found them balling or 

 hanging to the (jueen's wings, legs, etc., and they 

 Anally kill the queen. Then I have taken a frame 

 from another hive, with bees and gueen, and given 

 them, and they would accept her. What can I do in 

 such cases? It is discouraging to lose so many val- 

 uable (lueeng. II. M. Pawkek. 



Plymouth, Ohio, Aug. 18, 18W. 



rriend V., I can not say why your liec>s 

 act thus, unless it is because of a scarcity of 

 stores. During a protracted dearth of hon- 

 ey, bees often act in just the way you men- 

 tion. Feeding will probably remedy the 

 trouble, providing you use care, and "don't 

 get any robbing started. Perhaps you have 

 found out the remedy already. 



KEES WHE.V I'A( KEI> IN 



in boxes, how large 

 the entrance of the 

 S. K. FusoN. 



the entrancoon 

 in order that we 



WINTEU ENTHANCE FOR KEE 

 BOXES. 



In packing bees for winter 

 ought the opening to be from 

 hive to the outside of the box? 



Uockville, Ind., Sept. IT, 188V 



Friend F., I would liav( 

 the inside f inch in width 

 may exclude mice. The length is not ma- 

 terial, but I would have it as much as eight 

 or ten inches, in order to give a good air- 

 space. \Ve have found, by careful exiieri- 

 ments, that oiu' bees winter better with the 

 entrances to our chaff hives open full width 

 than where contracted. 



WOItKEHS THAT CAN'T ELY : .50 I.BS. OE IIONEV liE- 



SIOES THE INCItEASE. EKOM ONE I'Ol'Nl) 



OF BEES. 



1 received a (|ueen with 1 lb. of bees from Louis- 

 iana— a good i)roliflc (]ueen, only hundreds of the 

 workers can't Hy. They look all right, only they 

 spread their wings when they crawl around, and 

 have not the power to Hy. They leave the hive 

 when a few days old, and die a few feet from the 

 hive, in clusters, and scattered here and theie. 

 Said • queen is superseded. They had a young 

 (iueen laying It days, and I i)Ht the old queen in a 

 hive, and she is laying finely. The one pound of 

 bees have made, to date, 5J lbs. extracted honey, 

 and I have taken away four frames of brood, and 

 they are heavy now. E. E. Smitii. 



Clayton, Mich., Sept. 11, rss,""). 



CI-EANINO SMOKElt - tubes; SOMETHING 1-UKTIlElt 

 ABOUT IT. 



1 have lead in (ii,E.VNiNGS of several different 

 ways of cleaning the Clark smoker, so 1 will give 

 you my way. Take a large wire, about a foot long; 

 make a loop on one end for a handle, and bend the 

 other so as to tit the iMpe of the smoker. Every time 

 fhis n'ire is used, th:' end that tils the piiie should 



be heated quite hot. As the wire is inserted, the 

 heat will soften the gummy matter so that the pipe 

 can be cleaned very easily. I prefer heating the 

 wire to any method I have seen yet. Also a word in 

 regard to fuel. Kotten wood is good, but hard to 

 get. Rags emit a disagreeable odor, and gum the 

 smoker. I keep, in the center of my apiary, a bo.\ 

 full of small chips from the dooryard, and I find 

 that they burn as long, make the hottest Are, and 

 keep the smoker the cleanest, of any thing I have 

 used yet. Wood of any kind burns well in a smo- 

 ker; if dr3-, we need not be particular about it. 

 Lone Tree. la. Rowland Sherbukne. 



A DAILY KECOHD OE ONE COLONY; 134 LBS. OE 

 HONEY IN ONE WEEK. 



My swarm on Fairbanks scales gained, July £7th, 

 16 lbs.; 38th, IT lbs.; :J9th, IT lbs.; :30th, 18 lbs.; 31st, 23'; 

 lbs.; Aug. 1st, 2412 lbs., an hour before they stopped 

 work, when I extracted them; they would have 

 gained 3 or 3 lbs. more by dark. Aug. 2d, IT lbs. I 

 weigh and balance (hem every evening, making 134 

 lbs. gain in a week, and no mistake, in a two story 

 chaflF hive, and I divided them in June. I have ex- 

 tracted, so far, 31.50 lbs. basswood, and not over yet, 

 but drawing to a close. I have taken off no sec- 

 tions yet; have regained my loss in bees in winter- 

 ing and springing. C. G. Darling, 40—80. 



Lincklaen, N. V., Aug. :}, 1885. 



BEES IN LOUISIANA. 



.My bees are doing their level best ; the honey is 

 dark, for which they are not to blame, but it is very 

 clear and sweet, with a fine Havor. 



The "New South, " as our Northern friends call it, 

 is looking up here. Our cotton, corn, and small-grain 

 crops are splendid. The cotton is yielding largely 

 this year, and I shall have some of the honey saved 

 separate. The blue and white water pepper is be- 

 ginning to bloom, and is yielding well. The ever- 

 blooming elm is also full again, and bees are swarm- 

 ing on it. 



About eight miles from us is a place where buz- 

 zards roost, and they have killed the trees for acres 

 and acres. A man near us cut five trees in one day 

 with bees in them, just around the buzzards' roost, 

 and he says that just when the buzzards commence 

 alighting on a tree having bees in it, the bees leave 

 it and go to another, and that he can count 100 trees 

 on ten acres, with bees in them. The neighbors 

 cut a bee-tree near us last Saturday, and on Sunday 

 the bees came to me. I think my honey-gatherers 

 led them home. 1 i>ut them in a hive, and they arc 

 doing well. St. J. T. Moore. 



Monroe, Lu., Aug. it, 188.5. 



We are glad to liear so good a report from 

 you, frieiKl M. ; but I can t quite imderstand 

 why tliere should be bee-trees where the buz- 

 zards roost, unless it is because tiiere are 

 more dead trees, and therefore more hollow 

 trunks. But, why is it that the buzzards kill 

 the trees? Is it because of the unpleasant 

 smell thev carry with themV 



DO .MARTINS EAT BEES .' 



Will you kindly give me your opinion on the fol- 

 lowing question':' I have a fancy martin-box in my 

 yard, in which 12 or 15 birds have made their homes, 

 and arc rearing their young, and my neighbor has 

 sevcr.'il colonies of bees which he claims are suffer- 

 ing through the depredations of my birds. He 

 claims that they carry off' his bees to feed their 

 young, and asks me to destroy the birds. I think a 



