712 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sett. 



112 colonies, and there are over 300 more within one 

 mile of my bees, making over UK) in an area of one 

 mile square. All are doing well. F. B. Jones. 



Howard, Minn., Aug. 6, 1889. 



21,000 LBS. FROM 160, SPRING COUNT. 



Our bees did quite well this season, considering 

 the help I had, and condition of the bees in the 

 spring. We had to buy sugar, and feed, so they 

 were not strong. We had 100 colonies in the spring, 

 and now have 250 colonies. We have taken off 

 21, COO lbs. of honey— 1C00 lbs. of comb honey, and the 

 rest extracted. Our honey is very nice, all as good 

 as you saw when j ou were here. 



Mrs. W. J. Pickard. 



Richland Center, Wis., Aug. 10, 1889. 



$ 15 PER COLONY, AND HONEY ALL SOLD AT 20 CTS. 

 PER lb.; "HOOSIERDOM" explained. 



This has been a great honey year: but as I have 

 not given the bees the care they ought to have had, 

 much has been lost. The home apiary has yielded 

 about $15.00 per colony, spring count, while those 

 that I left at my old home have done a little better. 

 My honey is nearly all sold at 20 cents per lb. Hugh 

 Vankirk will have about 5000 or 6000 lbs., 1 under- 

 stand. Will jou please ask Ernest what he meant 

 in Aug. 1 G leanings, p. 643, by " Hoosierdom "? It 

 made me feel bad when 1 read it, but perhaps he in- 

 tended us to extract some other meaning than the 

 one given the term here. L. W. Vankirk. 



Washington, Pa., Aug. 17, 1889. 



You have given us a grand report, al- 

 though Indiana, by the Statistics, reports in 

 general a poor season. In regard to that 

 term " Hoosierdom," we meant no unpleas- 

 ant reflections upon any good people who 

 live by the sweat of their brow in a literal 

 sense. If you will excuse another coinage, 

 we meant farmerdom, or the region occupied 

 by the tillers of the soil, as distinct from 

 those little spots occupied by" town chaps/' 

 See? 



I^ep@to Di£ceu^/iGiN<i. 



TWO THIRDS OP THE USUAL CROP. 



We have about two thirds of our usual crop of 

 light honey, which is very nice. The outlook for 

 fall or dark honey is poor. It still continues very 

 rainy, and is getting somewhat colder. 



Jefferson, N. Y., Aug. 9, 1889. Leslie Stewart. 



NOT A POUND OF SURPLUS. 



From 1(0 colonies in good condition, not a pound 

 of surplus honey was secured. Bees got plenty to 

 live on, and we yet live in hopes of getting some for 

 ourselves when the tie - vines bloom. So far as I 

 can learn, t he honey crop is a failure in all the sur- 

 rounding counties. Jno. H. Miillin. 



Oakland, Tex., Aug. 10, 1889. 



THE POOREST SEASON IN FIFTEEN YEARS. 



We had excessive swarming from June 12 to Aug. 

 9. Bees have brought in honey enough to keep up 

 brood-rearing. I have 80 colonies, and not a third 

 of them ha\e honey enough for winter. We shall 

 have to feed unless we have an extraordinary fall. 

 1 do not look for that. We had a frost on the night 

 of the 10th of this month that killed all buckwheat 

 on low lands. L. Reed. 



Orono, Mich., Aug. 13, 1889. 



0a^ (|ue£>fi8N-B0& 



With Replies from our best Authorities on Bees. 



All queries sent in for this department should be briefly 

 stated, and free from any possible ambiguity. The question 

 or questions should be written upon a separate slip of paper, 

 and marked, "For Our Question-Box." 



Question 141.— a. Do you regard the virgin queen 

 traffic as a benefit to bee-keepers, particularly to nov- 

 ices? b. If it is a, benefit, what are the benefits? c. 

 Have ;/"" found any practical plan to introduce virgin 

 queens four or five days old, so that they can be intro- 

 duced cis quickly ami as easily as fertilized queens'! If 

 so, please give it i)i detail. 



a, b. No. S. I. Freeborn. 



I do not. I condemn it in toto. 



Mrs. L Harrison. 



a. As a rule, it is not a benefit; c. No. 



Geo. Grimm. 



a. No. c. Introduce them on sheets of hatching 

 brood. P. H. Elwood. 



a. No; c. I think there is too much uncertainty 

 about it. H. R. Boardman. 



a. No; c. None that will work so as to commend 

 the practice. Dadant & Son. 



a. 1 have my doubts; b. I give it up; c. No. We 

 are experimenting now it that very line. 



A. J. Cook. 



I have not been fortunate enough with the intro- 

 duction of virgin queens to say any thing in favor 

 of the traffic in the article. C. F. Muth. 



a. I think it may be. b. I think they may be fur- 

 nished at lower prices than laying qucenB. c. My 

 experience in that line is very limited. 



C. C. Miller. 

 a. No. b. No. I have practiced Alley's plan, 

 with a loss of one out of every five. I have prac- 

 ticed no other plan. Any plan is very uncertain. 



Rambler. 

 a. No, unless the novice will first learn to intro- 

 duce them successfully, c. Yes, by first making 

 the colony hopelessly queenless, when they may be 

 introduced directly without caging. 



A. E. Manum. 



1 don't think the virgin-queen business will be of 

 any benefit to any one except the queen-breeder; 

 c. No. In making our swarms by division, we some- 

 times have used virgin queens just out of the cells, 

 with good results. E. France. 



a. No, neither to novices nor to experts, c. Let- 

 ting them loose at the entrance is as good as any 

 other way. Some seasons I have no difficulty at all, 

 but at other seasons 1 can hardly have one out of 

 four accepted. Paul L. Viallon. 



My answer to the first must be a mere matter of 

 opinion. My opinion is unfavorable to it. I let vir- 

 gin queens run in the door and take their chances 

 —with perhaps the help of a little smoke. 1 have 

 never tried aged ones. E. E Hasty. 



a. No, not at present. Whether or not it can be 

 made practical I will not offer an opinion, but leave 

 it to those who know more about it than I do. b. I 

 do not know. c. No, not as quickly and easily as 

 fertilized queens. Not with the certainty. 



James Heddon. 



I do not. With novices especially, I think it is 

 likely to prove unsatisfactory. Any one ought to 

 be able to get at least one good queen, and after 



