1887 



GLEANINGS IK JiEE CULTUllE. 



439 



sugar stores, we became induced to feed largely of 

 granulated sugar, but have lost a great inany col- 

 onies so fed. Last season we i-eturucd to our old 

 practice of saving sealed honey for stores; and the 

 result is, we have lost but two out of fifty put in 

 the cellar. Now, if all would practice ihis method 

 instead of feeding sugar, how much honey would 

 be taken from the city markets, thereby raising its 

 value that much 1 On this matter of using honey 

 in every way we can, and in developing the home 

 market, depends the future price of honey; and to 

 illustrate what I have said in another article 1 will 

 give you a case in point. Mr. P.'s apiary of HO col- 

 onies is five miles from us. Mr. H. lives within ^0 

 rods of Mr. P.'s house and apiary. On one of our 

 trips we saw Mr. H.; and by showing him some fine 

 clover we took his order for $.").so worth. Mr. P. 

 saw us deliver it. and hailed us with " How did >ou 

 sell that man that honey? He has lived here for 

 years, and T have never sold him a pound." I ask- 

 ed Mr. H. how this was, and he replied, " He never 

 offered me any." Our books now show that we have 

 sold Mr. H. three times since then, to the amount 

 of $18.00, but have never sold him a pound except 

 when we offered it to him. Friends, do you see the 

 point? W. W. McKee, 50—48. 



Dyersville, Iowa, May 13, 1885. 



WHAT TO DO WHEN BEES GET A NOTION OF CLUS- 

 TERING ON TALL TREES. 



My place is surrounded by tall oak-trees, and 

 bees seem to have a mania for settling in the ut- 

 most tops of them when swarming, notwithstand- 

 ing there are plenty of bushes all around where- 

 on they might settle. This causes me to lose every 

 year the greater part of my swarms. Now, I think 

 I have read somewhere of some device to be plac- 

 ed in front of the hive when the swarm issues, by 

 which the whole swarm can be caught up. If there 

 is such a thing as a successful swarm-catcher in ' 

 use, I wish you would advise me of it. State pi'ice, j 

 and say whether it can be sent by mail. 1 



Atlees Sta., Va., May 9, 1887. D. A. Kuyk. i 



The Alley drone-trap, shown on page o of • 

 our catalogue, will cause the sw arm to re- 

 turn shortly to the hive. If, then, the 

 trap be detached from the entrance, and be 

 placed among the flying bees, tlie latter will 

 soon cluster about their (pieen in the trap, ; 

 and the swarm may be hived. On page 258 

 of the ABC of Bee Culture an automaiic 

 device is described for catchiug swarms | 

 while in the air. I think, however, if tlie 

 bees trouble you very much about cluster- 1 

 ing on the tops of tall trees I would clip the ! 

 wings of all the queens. When a swarm , 

 issues, catch the clipped queen at the en- 

 trance, cage her, fasten her cage upon a 

 pole (to which is attached a leafy bough), 

 and hold her majesty among the flying bees 

 before they cluster on the highest limb of 

 the trees. In a word, friend K., I would do 

 all I could to discourage the bees from clus- 

 tering at all by the methods I have given. 



HOW MUCH COMB HONEY TO THE GALLON? — MAK- 

 ING BEES GO TO WORK. 



I have sold 3.50 lbs. of comb boney, each cu.stomer 

 asking me to bring a stone jar that will hold 50 lbs. 

 What size of jar must I get to hold 50 lbs. in the 

 comb? As you well know, the jar never holds what 

 it is marked. What does honey weigh to the gallon | 

 when in the comb, well filled, capped over nicely? i 



How much to the gallon when extracted? I am try- 

 ing to start in the bee-business, but my bees will not 

 swarm, which bothers nie very much, as bees are 

 what I am after. J do not understand artificial 

 swarming enough, or know enough of it to try. If 

 my bees lie out on the outside of /ho hive, please tell 

 me the cause of it, and what to do. J. O. IJai{Nes. 

 Hickman, Fulton Co., Ky., May 16, 1887. 



It is commonly considered that there is 

 about 11 lbs. of extracted honey to the gal- 

 lon. If the lioney is very thick, VI lbs. should 

 be allowed. Aiiout an ouuce of comb will 

 hold a pound of lioney, so that it would gen- 

 erally take ab(Mit 12 "lbs. of comb honey to 

 make a gallon. A crock to hold 50 lbs. of 

 honey in the comb should then have a ca- 

 pacity of something over 4 gjillons. — In re- 

 gard to preventing the bees from clustering 

 outside, give them plenty of room inside. If 

 bees act lazy, and disinclined to work, right 

 in the heigiit of the honey season, I would 

 contract tlie brood-nest, biit give them an 

 abundance of loom in the surplus apartment. 

 I would refer you to the Ik ading of " Comb 

 Honey," in the ABC book, for further par- 

 ticulars about starting bees to work. You 

 say that your bees will not swarm, and you 

 seem to think this an undesirable trait. The 

 veterans would be very glad indeed if they 

 could prevent bees from swarming. If you 

 have a strain of non-swarming bees, friend 

 B., you do not need to be at all alarmed. 

 What you want to do is to make them go to 

 work. 



THE NAMELESS BEE-DISEASE, AGAIN. 



What is the matter with the bees? In some col- 

 onies the main foi'ce of the working class seems to 

 be engaged from about 10 o'clock in the morning 

 until about four in the afternoon in driving out 

 and killing a snu^ll bee about a size between a 

 house-fly and a common black bee. These bees are 

 very black, except occasionally one with a little 

 mark of Italian. This trouble is confined entirely 

 to the hybrids, so far as I have discovered yet. 

 One colony will soon be ruined. That one I have 

 examined closely, and I find these little intruders 

 hatching. There seems to be about every fiftieth 

 bee that has just emerged from the cell of that 

 stripe. I took 35 box hives last fall to transfer, and 

 keep for five years. They were all blacks, and of a 

 very low grade of hybrids, and this trouble seems 

 to be confined alone to the hybrids. I transferred 

 them this spring, and never discovered any thing 

 wrong until about two weeks ago. D. B. Bryan. 



Desota, Ga. 



Friend B., your bees have the disease de- 

 scribed under" the above head in our A B C 

 book. It is a little discouraging, that no 

 one has as yet been able to suggest the ori- 

 gin. The remedy is to give each hive thus 

 affected a new qtieen from a healthy colony, 

 then your bees will be all right again. I 

 think it is only by accident that you And it 

 among the hybrids only. It usually affects 

 all kinds of bees alike. I have sometimes 

 seen small black bees hatch out as a result 

 of letting the brood get partially chilled 

 while transferring. Your concluding sen- 

 tence suggests that this may possibly be 

 the trouble in your case, and not the name- 

 less bee-disease, which it very much resem- 

 bles, from your description. 



