B-2^ 



GLEANINGS IN BeE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



Open to the charge of copying as original 

 what has ahcady appeared in print. There 

 is certainly enough to write about, witliout 

 ever telling the same story over again. 



A FAVORABLE IJEPORT OF THE HEDDON SYSTEM. 



We have been trying: Heddon's system this year, 

 and it has proved a success. We increased our bees 

 from 16 to 31, and took 1000 lbs. of honey. It has 

 been the worst season we have ever known here- 

 cold and rainy, so the bees could not get out to find 

 the honey, of which there seemed to be plenty. 

 However, we shall not be discouraged as long as 

 they do as well as that, and we have a home market 

 for our honey at 20 cents per lb. We shall try the 

 Heddou system another year; but I can tell you, we 

 have to use the 15-lb. stone to keep the covers on 

 here, and the apiary looks like— a i-ockery. 



G. L. Hubbard. 



Fairview, Lincoln Co., Dakota, Oct. 34, 1885. 



S.\LT .\ROUND THE ENTRANCES; WILL IT KILL TOE 

 GRAPEVINES? 



Will not the salt you use and recommend for de- 

 stroying weeds and grass about bee-hives, in time 

 injure your grapevines as well as other valuable 

 things growing in the bee-yard? I have often 

 thought of salt, but feared the results, so I never 

 used it. S. T. Pettit. 



Belmont, Out., Can., Nov. 4, 1885. 



Friend P., we have used salt, more or less, 

 in the manner mentioned, for the past three 

 or four years, and I have never discovered 

 that our grapevines were injured in any way. 

 Salt is frequently nsed as a fertilizer ; and 

 though an overdose will kill the crop for the 

 time being, the land soon recovers, and seems 

 to be benehted for a number of years by the 



application. 



A SAD DEATH OF A TWO-YEAR-OLD BOY FRO.M BEE- 

 STINGS. 



The death of that lady in Pennsylvania, from bee- 

 stings, reported in your issue for Oct. 15, page 704, 

 makes me feel like telling you of another similar 

 case that happened not far from here last month. 

 One of my cousins, Mr. Simeon Letourneau, a rich 

 farmer of St. Constant, three miles from here, was 

 keeping bees in box hives. Last spring I sold him 

 25 Simplicity hives, in which he put all his new 

 swarms, which he put on the ground in his garden. 

 Last September one of his children, a little boy two 

 years old, took a stick and ran after a pig that hap- 

 pened to run in front of the house, and drove it 

 through the garden gate that happened to be open 

 at the time. The pig ran against a hive and shoved 

 it off the platform. The bees flew at the child, and 

 stung him in the face and in the mouth. Mr. Le- 

 tourneau, hearing the cries of the child, ran to him, 

 took him in his arms, and carried him to the house. 

 In a few minutes the child's face swelled up so that 

 his father became alarmed, and hurried one of his 

 men for the doctor; but as soon as he arrived, the 

 child died in his arms, 25 minutes after he got stung. 

 J. O. Belleflei'r. 



Laprairio, P. Q., Canada, Oct. 17. U'85. 



Friend B., tlie story you tell us seems ter- 

 rible. This little boy was just about the 

 age of Iluber, and the poor little fellow was 

 doing the best he knew how, to take care of 

 his father's premises, garden, and bees. I 

 do not know whether any thing could liave 

 saved the child's life, under such ciretmi- 

 stances. Our readers of the medical profes- 



sion have already given us considerable in- 

 formation on the subject, and it is highly 

 important that we should all know all that 

 can be known in regard to the best way of 

 treating such cases. I presume the child 

 was more than usually sensitive to bee-poi- 

 son, for I have known childi-en when quite 

 small to be stung severely, and yet suffer 

 but comparatively little. 



HOW LATE IN THE F.\LL WILL .\ QUEEN BE FOLND 



LAYING, IF NOT STIMULATED BY FEEDING, WITH 



AN ORDINARY AMOUNT OF PASTURAGE? 



I noticed a pretty good colony of blacks, Sept. 21, 

 and there was only one or two combs with brood, 

 and they were nearly all hatched out. No eggs 

 could be seen. I have an Italian micleus I have 

 been building up, and to-day 25 combs are full of 

 brood and eggs. Can I start the black queen to lay- 

 ing this late, by feeding as per directions in your 

 ABC? I will try. L. H. Robey. 



Worthington, W. Va., Sept. 25, 1885. 



Friend R., old queens, as a rule, stop lay- 

 ing when the honey-flow ceases in the fall, 

 or as soon as the weather is so cold that the 

 bees stop flying. Queens reared late in the 

 fall, however, Avill usually keep on with 

 brood quite a little later, and the Cyprians 

 and Syrians will often continue breeding so 

 late as to use up the stores they were allow- 

 ed to have for winter. Yon could start any 

 queen to laying at any time of year by judi- 

 cious feeding, and keeping the colony warm. 



APICULTURAL STATION AT AURORA, ILLS. 



We are glad to note that the above in- 

 stitution has already got at least partially 

 under way, as our friends will notice by the 

 following : — 



In June the Departnient determined to establish 

 an apicultural station; and although this was very 

 late in the season, the Entomologist thought best to 

 make a beginning this year. The location having 

 been selected, all the preliminary work had to be 

 done, and I did not get settled down to work until 

 in July. I have, however, been able to make prog- 

 ress, as will be shown by my report to the Eato- 

 mologist. N. W. McLain. 



Aurora, 111., Oct. 28, 1885. 



REPORT FROM ALSIKE; HOW A BEGINNER RE- 

 DEEMED HIMSELF FROM BLASTED HOPES. 



I received cf you last spring some alsike clover 

 seed, Simpson, spider, and seven-top turnip. The 

 alsike did well. I sowed about three-fourths of an 

 acre, and it is all started nicely. I think by next 

 spring I must get a few pounds more. I did actu- 

 ally raise one spider plant, but it secreted no hon- 

 ey, that I could see, and the Simpson hasn't a ves- 

 tige. There was not a seed that grew. I tried.it 

 in a hotbed and in boxes, in the house, and in the 

 open ground, but not a sign of a plant did I get. 

 The soil may not be right here for those two plants, 

 or else the seed was not good. 



I am just starting in bee culture. Last winter I 

 lost all of my bees, and so of course 1 had to start 

 anew again this spring. I will tell you how I got 

 started. My neighbor, who inillcd eleven colonies 

 through, asked me whether 1 would furnish a hive 

 for every other swarm. As he is a "swarmer" and 

 I am a "hive-maker " (at least I make my own 

 hives and a great many for my neighbors), I told 



