180 



GLEANINGS In bee CULTUBE. 



Mab. 



charge only 15 francs for every box; and the ex- 

 pense for sending- to Australia, having- to be paid 

 beforehand, we pay about 4 francs on each queen. 

 The boxes for that country must be larger, and 

 contain a larg-er number of bees, a greater quanti- 

 ty of honey, and room for watei-— more than those 

 for others. It is also to be remarked, that we re- 

 ceive orders of only 8, or at most 13 queens at once. 

 Bologna, Italy, Jan. 4. Chas. Bianconcini. 



The above gives the sohition, friends. 

 Queens to Australia must be prepaid for at 

 least the greater part of the route. 



liABGE HONEY-YIELDS. 



In regard to immense yields by single colonies, 

 frequently reported, I have been under the im- 

 pression that they are stolen from other colonies. 

 In the January 15th number of Gleanings, Emil J. 

 Baxter mentions a yield of 560 lbs. he had from one 

 colony. I believe his bees in that hive quietly stole 

 the honey from other hives. This quiet stealing- 

 has been mentioned before in Gleanings. If those 

 who have one or more of these big y ielders will dust, 

 with powdered chalk or flour, the bees of the big- 

 yielding colony, and watch carefully, I believe they 

 will find them the poorest lot in the yard. Try it 

 next season. E. E. Ewino. 



Rising Sun, Md., Jan. aS, 1887. 



Friend E., 1 am sure you are entirely in 

 the wrong. Bees may get a little honey, it 

 is true, by this quiet way of stealing, but it 

 is quite out of the question for tliem to get 

 such a quantity as friend Baxter mentions. 

 To get such an enormous crop, they would 

 have to labor not only weeks but months, 

 and that, too, on the high-pressure princi- 

 ple. When Italians were first introduced, it 

 was suggested by a good many that the 

 large yields were made by stealing from oth- 

 er bees; and men in our own vicinity, who 

 ought to liave good .iudgment, claimed that 

 our Italians took all the honey from their 

 hives as fast as the native bees could gather 

 it. When these great yields are coming in, 

 it is a very easy matter to follow tlie bees 

 and see where they get it ; and I believe 

 that most bee-keepers are in tlie habit of 

 finding out the source of these great accu- 

 mulations. Dusting them with fiour is an 

 excellent idea, to enable us to identify them; 

 but I think j/ou will find them on the bass- 

 wood-trees, in the clover-fields, or at some 

 other honest and legitimate work. 



BEES TOO NEAR A RAILROAD, MILL, ETC. 



In your issue of Jan. 15th I note a communi- 

 cation, page .50, in regard to the disturbance, in 

 winter, of bees situated too near a railroad. I have 

 had no experience myself, being- two miles from 

 the railroad; but last summer I visited the large 

 flouring-mill of Mr. J. B. Ward, of our county, and 

 he, being a bee-keeper as well as a miller, 1 was not 

 long at the mill before 1 made inquiry about his 

 bees, as I saw none in his yard or garden. His res- 

 idence is situated but a few yards from the mill, 

 just across and near the road, and the mill upon a 

 high bluff of limestone rock on Stone River. Be- 

 fore he moved his bees near the mill he was a large 

 honey-producer, and. withal, an experienced and 

 scientific manipulator with bees. He informed me 

 his bees did no good, made no surplus worth the 

 trouble of taking, for two years, when kept near 



the mill, and be moved them to his mother's, some 

 two miles off, where they were doing well, although 

 inconvenient for his attention. It was his opinion, 

 that the roar of the mill, and tremulous motion the 

 stones produced when running, disturbed them too 

 much in their work. As the mill frequently runs 

 all night, and also all winter, it may have been the 

 disturbance, at these times, when they were not at 

 work, that caused them so much uneasiness they 

 did no good. He also lives near the line of the N. 

 C. and St. L. Railroad. W. P. Hendbbsom. 



Murfreesboro, Tenn. 



MR. BINGHAM S COMMENTS ON THE ARTICLE ON P. 

 44; A CORECTION. 



I have often recalled my visit to your beautiful 

 home and shops with great pleasure. The multi- 

 tude of incidents following my visit, and the Alba- 

 ny Convention, prevented my reading Jan. 15th 

 Gleanings until yesterday, when lo! on page 44 an 

 account of m.v wanderings confronted me. There- 

 port of my hive is all right; but that about the one 

 fliliug of smoker making abundant smoke for use 

 all day is rather "too yyod." I did not mean to be so 

 understood. I probably said that the fire would not 

 go out; but 1 did not mean that once filling with 

 sound maple wood was sufficient for abundant use 

 all day. The best thing that can be said of a Bm. 

 smoker is, that it burns fuel fast— sufficiently fast 

 to make enough smoKe for instant use witliout woi'k- 

 ing the he.UoW8—just when there is no time to work 

 up a fire. Smoke can not be made without fire. 

 The old saying, "There must be some fire where 

 there is so much smoke," proves to be correct in 

 the case of bee-smokers, if they are always ready 

 with a big puff of smoke to turn the heads of alert 

 hybrids. I shall be glad to send you a smoker to 

 try, and will do so soon. T. F. Bingham. 



Abronia, Mich., Feb. 11, 1887. 



Thanks, friend B. I beg pardon if 1 mis- 

 understood you in regard to the time your 

 smoker will run without filling. 



HOW TO -WARM A CELLAR BY MEANS OF THE 

 SQUARE CANS. 



It is impossible to keep the temperature in my 

 cellar up to 4.5° this winter without the use of arti- 

 ficial heat. I think the frost has penetrated the 

 earth to a greater depth than usual. I have a 6-in. 

 ventilating-pipe, 70 ft. long, laid 5 ft. below the sur- 

 face; and the air, as it enters the cellar, is 38°, or 4° 

 colder than it was last winter. As I did not like to 

 risk a stove of any kind in the cellar, I thought 1 

 would try warming it with hot water. I do not 

 know of a better way to handle the hot water than 

 to have it in the 5-gallon square tin honey-cans. 

 Four of them can be set on the cook-stove at once. 

 I do not think that an open vessel would do, as the 

 vapor would make the cellar too damp. The caps 

 must not be screwed down tight when on the stove, 

 or the cans will burst when the water boils. 



The number of cans needed will depend upon the 

 size and coldness of the cellar. My cellar is 14xl4x 

 8!i ft., and contains 60 colonies of bees, and I find 

 that two cans heated once in 'Zi hours will keep it 

 about 4° warmer than it would otherwise be. The 

 water will give out the heat gradually during 24 

 hours, so as not to excite the bees as the heat from 

 a stove would. I think it is less work to carry the wa- 

 ter up and down cellar than to tend an extra stove. 



Brandon, Iowa, Feb. 13, 1887. G. D. Black. 



