1885 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



in regard to tlie importance of choosing 

 (|iieeiis on account of their honey-producing 

 • nullities, rather than on account of any ac- 

 cidental stripes they may possess. 



IS THE WATER-OAK HONEY INJURIOUS TO BEESV [ 



I liyvc a small lot of bees, only 24 stands. The 

 l)ees in this section of country gathered honey from 

 the water-oak. It is not fit to eat, and I am much \ 

 afraid it will injure the bees. Tf you can tell what . 

 is the cause, let it be known through your journal. 

 T'here is no one in this section who can tell the , 

 cause. They g-athered tlxat stviff in the month of | 

 Mav last year. F. B. Fut-kersox. j 



Ilarnard, Kan.. May :51. l^sr,. i 



Friend F.. I think the iioiiey you mention 

 must have been the product of aphides.— 

 There has l)pen consideraltle saiil in our 

 liack volumers in regard to honey from the 

 (tak. Some of it is unpleasant, like lliat you 

 describe, while other specimens rank very 

 fair. 1 should dislike to go into winter cpiar- 1 

 ters with stores of such lioiU'y as you refer to. 



THAT BEE-DIlSEASK, AG.MN. 



Will you |ileaso inform me what ails my Ik-cs, and ! 

 what shall 1 do to cure them? In March, two stands i 

 of Cyprians commenced dyiiifr off, and at this time 

 all of my Cyprians, Holy-Lamls, and Italians, are 

 alliicled. They jret black, and have a shiny or 

 ;;lossy apijearance, also a jerking or tumbling move- 

 ment, and they nearly always get on tlieir backs to 

 rlie. I have 11 black swarms, and they are not dis- . 

 cased. I have perused io.ir .V 15 (.' book, and you 

 said at that time, when it was printed, that youwiiil 

 not know any cause, and tli;it j ou had luul only 

 one swarm tliat was diseased, and that you put it 

 with another, an'l that it came out all right. 



C. K. I)i;>M.i!. 



IlMiilnid, Tiiliuc <<)., Cal., .luneS, isg."). 

 i'riend I)., the only remedy I have ever 

 found is to destroy tlie (pieeii and imt in a 

 new one. as mentioned in tiie .\ 15 (" Itook. 

 and 1 have never yet known a case of fail- 

 ure. From this it would seem that the dis- 

 ease is something inherited from the (pieen. 

 .\ new (jueen produces new liees. and tlu se 

 new bees don't seem to be siibjict to the 

 malady. 



IlOItSE.MINT HONEV. 



I am pirlcftly astonished at (he large honey-deal- i 

 ors ot the North. 1 am all out of patience with i 

 them. I don't know why they could be so prejiidie- i 

 ed against horsemint honey (for it certainly is noth- 

 ing more nor less than a i)rejudiec). Tlie plant it- 

 self has a nice odor. Some people make tea of it to 

 drink, and it is a good medicine for stnnmer coin- | 

 plaints. Now, why not have good honey from it. Id 

 like to know? It is just like giving a dog a bad 

 name, and he is sure to go by it. Horsemint honey 

 is almost alwaj s gathered in a dry time, and is gen- 

 erally thick and nice, just from the hive. There is 

 a sad mistake about it, some waj' or other. I think 

 it is the mildest honey t.hat is raised in the South. 



Hracken, Tex., Sept. :?. 18S.-.. X. J. W. 



Fiieiid W..the most of the horsemint hon- 

 ey that has been put on the market was not 

 siilliciently ripened, and as a consetiuence it ] 

 had a rank taste that few people would call ' 

 l>leasant. Give us a nice article thoroughly 

 ripened, and I think it will rank fairly by 

 the side of any we have. The honey itself 

 sjjould be alilp to ovei'come the prejudice. 



TROUBLE IN HKMOVING WIDE FRAMES. 



I want to give you a little of my experience with 

 section bo.ves and frames. I was taking some hon- 

 ey lately, and found my wide frames all fast. The 

 space between the upper and lower frames was all 

 filled with honey; and in trying to get the firet wide 

 frame and section bo.\es out, the frame and some 

 of the boxes pulled to pieces, so I about came to the 

 conclusion to abatidon the section boxes, if I cant 

 find some remedy. I found mj- narrow frames with 

 comb built from one to the other, and they had to 

 be cut apart to get them out. What shall I do about 

 iff I have thought I had betterabandon the section 

 boxes and use only the narrow frames. 



Rev. E. C. Cox. 



Centerville, I.eon Co., Texas, .July 21, LSS."). 



Friend ('.. the Ileddon honey-board reme- 

 dies the trouble you mention, of attachments 

 of comb to the wide frames! or to the cases 

 containing section boxes. The reason why 

 you foiMid your narrow frames built togeth- 

 er solid was because your bees had tiu^ir 

 hive full, and hadn't room to store their 

 surplus. Give your bees more room, and 

 look them over oftener. 



SI'AFFOKDS UKONE TRAT. 



I see you have Spaffords di-ouc-cxcludcr in xour 

 last issue. I tried one on the same priiicii>le this 

 season, and it did not answer, because it blocked 

 the entrance for the worker-bees; the drones being 

 heavier than the workers, they stopped all ingress: 

 but my trap does away with that difficulty. 



Flora. Out., Aug. 28. LSss. G. Straxcwav. 



Thanks for your rei»ort in regard to tiie 

 drtme-trap. friend S. 1 will explain to our 

 readers, that the one you describe is essen- 

 tially the same thing as ligured in our jiages 

 a veiir or two ag<t. and described in the A ]i 

 ('book., I think tiiediHiculty with the Spal- 

 ford drone-trap can be obviated by making 

 more openings ftn- the worker-bees. 



WIl.I. MAri.i: SVRri- A.NSWER Kf)R WINTi:i( STORES, 

 ETC.? 



Will you i>leasetcll me, through next (jleamnu.'^. 

 If maple syrup, tinctured with tartaric acid to pre- 

 \ cut crystallization, will do to feed bees on for win- 

 ter stores, without giving any bad ettccts, such as 

 dysentery? T. H. Wheati.ev. 



East nrooktteld. Vt.. Sept. is, l.s,v,-,. 



Fiiend '\\'., tartaric acid would do no hurt, 

 for it has been repeatedly used to i)revenl 

 granulatioit of cane sugar: l»ut I am afraid 

 that the maple syrup you would be apt to 

 find would hardly be suUiciently free from 

 foreign matter, siich as maple syrup always 

 contains, to render it a safe feed for winter 

 stores. A nice article of maple syrup would 

 answer, witliout doubt : but if you have a 

 nice article you surely can not afford it for 

 your bees, for it would command, in almost 

 any market, double or treble the price of a 

 syrup made of granulated sugar. Any sort 

 of sugar must be pretty nearly chemically 

 pure, to be proper food for winter stores, and 

 the granulated sugar of commerce is. as a 

 rule, the cheapest of any you can get for the 

 purpose, for it is relined in a w holesale way. 

 so that the cost of getting it in a remarkably 

 pure state is comparatively trilling, while 

 the maple syrup usually to be obtained, 

 and. in fact, all other kinds of syrups, in- 



