1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



97 



nailed on, and the other is to have the wire cloth 

 nailed to four small strips, so that four small nails, 

 one through the center of each strip, will hold it 

 fast to the box, yet make it readily removable when 

 we wish to get the bees out. In the top of the box 

 is to be bored a hole of the right size to admit the 

 small end of a large funnel, such as is used in 

 putting up bees by the pound, and over this hole 

 is to be fixed a slide so that it can be closed as soon 

 as the bees are in. Having the box and funnel, 

 proceed to shake the same amount of bees down 

 through it into the box as you did in the former 

 case; but instead of putting the queen with the 

 bees in the box, uncage her and set the frame hav- 

 ing her on back in the hive. In this case you leave 

 the old colony in the same conditions in which they 

 would have been had they cast a swarm, with the 

 exception that they have the old queen with them, 

 so as to keep up egg-laying all the while. Now car- 

 ry your box of bees to your bee-cellar, or some 

 other cool dark place, and leave them undisturbed 

 for four hours, when you are to go and get a queen 

 in a round wire-cloth cage, from one of your nuclei, 

 or one which you ha%*e bought; and after getting 

 where the box of bees is. jar the bees to the bottom 

 of the box, by setting it on the floor suddenly, so 

 that they will not be runnmg out while you are 

 putting in the queen, and immediately let your 

 queen run through the hole into the box. Now 

 close the hole and leave the bees till sunset or the 

 next morning, when you will find them clustered 

 and ready for hiving, the same as a natural 

 swarm would be, having accepted the queen which 

 you gave them, as their own mother. Hive as be- 

 fore, and the work is done. 



In using this latter plan it is best to take the bees 

 between the hours of 10 and 12 \. m. In writing 

 this out it seems like a good deal of work; but 

 where making many swarms, the work goes on 

 rapidly, as the bees are filling themselves while 

 you are working, so that there is no waiting. In 

 this way swarms can be made about as fast as nat- 

 ural swarms could be cared for, while they work 

 nearly as well after they are made. 



Borodino, N. Y., Jan. 17, 1889. G. M. Dooi-ittle. 



Friend D., if I may be permitted to make 

 a suggestion I would tell a novice not to 

 risk shaking the queen with the bees in 

 front of the hive-cover. I have seen the 

 queen a good many times, instead of drop- 

 ping down to the bees, take wing; and 

 when they are on the wing they do not al- 

 ways go in with the bees. Several times I 

 have had them go back to the old hive, 

 where I would find them on one of the 

 combs. I would take the queen off and set 

 her down among the moving bees, and be 

 sure she crawled into the box, then there 

 will be no danger of getting two queens to- 

 gether. I have also found bees from some 

 colonies that would, a large part of them, 

 return to the parent hive after they went 

 out for pollen or honey. Your manner of 

 manipulation, however, may prevent this 

 largely ; and perhaps if you have three- 

 fourths of the bees with the old queen also, 

 the ones that went back would not make 

 any material difference. Lastly, 1 would by 

 all means put a comb with unsealed brood, 

 with an artificial colony of any sort. 1 have 

 tried over and over again this comb of 

 brood, and so have our boys, and we are so 



fully satisfied that it helps to make the bees 

 stay in a new hive, that I never omit it. 

 Sometimes, where we find the bees have ab- 

 sconded, I ask the question, " Did you give 

 them some unsealed brood ? " 



Almost invariably the reply is, " Why, I 

 was too busy just then ; " or, " I declare, I 

 forgot it,' 1 or something of that sort. 



JAPANESE BUCKWHEAT. 



COMPARATIVE TESTS WITH THE COMMON BUCK- 

 WHEAT. 



T SEE several reports of the Japanese buckwheat, 

 Sk but you have never yet, 1 believe, treated the 

 W readers of Gleanings with cakes made of Jap- 

 "*■ anese buckwheat, so, now, let's [have some of 

 them. But before we can have the cakes we 

 must produce the buckwheat, so I will report that 

 first. 



Last season I sowed it at three different times, as 

 much for my bees as for the grain. The ground 

 was an old worn-out piece of farm land that had 

 been farmed to corn and wheat for many years, un- 

 til it would not produce a crop of either, worth the 

 cost of raising. I do not know the amount of land 

 or the amount of seed I used, but probably about 

 two acres of ground. The seed was not good, as 

 some portion of it had been sprouted when harvest- 

 ed, and so did not grow when sown. It stood much 

 too thin. It might easily have been as thick again 

 on the ground. As for bee-pasture, it was a fair 

 success. They worked on it pretty thickly. I did 

 not, however, get any direct surplus honey, yet I 

 could distinctly tell the buckwheat flavor in some 

 of it. Well, I got about i0 bushels of nice grain, 

 which I have refused one dollar per bushel for. I 

 also had a fair chance to test it with the common 

 kind. 



A neighbor sowed 3 acres, on about the same 

 grade of land, with the common seed. I wanted 

 him to sow the Japanese but he thought he could 

 not stand the pressure of four dollars a bushel for 

 the seed. He harvested 36 bushels from the 3 acres. 

 He has since said if he had sown my kind he would 

 have got at least 75 bushels. 



Now, here come the cakes. I took 3 bushels to 

 the mill, and charged the miller to be particular to 

 have the mill well cleaned, so there should be no 

 mixture of any other flour or corn meal with my 

 flour, that could possibly add to or detract from its 

 bulk or quality, as I wanted to have a fair test of it. 

 His report is, first, that it gave about five pounds 

 more flour to the bushel than any other he had ever 

 ground; and, second, that it made the whitest flour 

 he ever saw, from buckwheat. And now I am hav- 

 ing the very best cakes every morning that I ever 

 had in my life. My cook says that I eat from 12 to 

 16 every morning. Be that as it may, my breakfast 

 is a good one; and by the way~she puts away the 

 Japanese buckwheat cakes, she had better keep 

 still or I shall tell how many she eats. 



I had a small plot of ground that I raked over and 

 sowed the Japanese buckwheat on, as late a6 the 

 9th of September, thinking it might furnish a few 

 blossoms for the bees; and when the frost killed it 

 it was 18 inches high, and perfectly loaded with set 

 grain, some of which began to ripen. If it could 

 have had two weeks more time it would have given 

 a pretty good crop of grain. A. A. Fradenburg. 



Port Washington, O., Jan. 21, 1889. 



