470 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Juke 



to my ABC book for instruction, and then pi'O- 

 ceeiied. I divided them all nicely, and introduced 

 my now queen. I kept her caged about 36 hours, 

 and released her. She was received nicely, but, lo! 

 in about tive days, to my great astonishment I 

 foil lid them all clustered on a peach-tree. On ex- 

 aniiuatiDn I found that the old colony had robbed 

 them of all stores, and they were compelled to 

 hunt a new lo \gin^. 1 hived them in the same hive, 

 and am feeding- them regularly. The old colony is 

 doing- as finely as I ever saw. I put them on 

 foundation, and in four days they had a full set of 

 as nice white pretty comb as F ever looked at. 

 There were 9 queen-cells built in the old hive when 

 I took the old coinb out. T put them hack in 

 frames. B G. Luttreli.. 



Luttre'.l, AI.H., May 16, 1887. 



CATCHING THE QUEEN IN A PEET CAGE. 



I was reading- in the A B C book to-night how 

 you catch and cage your queens. You say, pick 

 them up with the thumb and forc-flnger. Well, 

 now, I will give my way. I remove the comb that 

 contains the q\ieen that I want to cage, then set it 

 d)wn where it is handy to get at. The cut where 

 Ernest is introducing a queen with a Peet cage re- 

 minds me of it. With the smoker I drive most of 

 the bees away from around the queen, then with 

 the slide partly drawn I set it gently over her. 

 She leaves the combs and goes on the screen wire, 

 and also the few tees around her. Generally I get 

 enough bees in that way to send with her; then 

 gently push in the slide, and queen and bees are 

 caged without touching a bee Avith jour finger. 



MY REPORT FOR 1886 AND '87. 



In the spring of 1886 I commenced with 13 stocks, 

 and increased to 37. I bought two and lost one 

 queenless one, so 1 had 38 to commence this spring 

 with. They gave me .500 lbs. of honey, 400 lbs. of 

 comb, and 100 lbs. of extracted. 1 wintered in chaff 

 hives. I have built a bcc-cellar to winter my in- 

 crease in. W. D. SOPER. 



Jackson, Mich., June 3, 1887. 



BO BEES STORE WATER IN COMBS FOR WINTER USE? 



About two weeks ago we took a colony of hybrids 

 out of a tree. Thej' had two large combs filled with 

 water. There must have been a gallon and a half of 

 water in the two combs. I suppose they stored the 

 water in the winter time, while it was handy, as the 

 nearest water in the summer time is about one mile 

 away. Bees haven't done very well this season. So 

 far it has been too wet. My first swarm came out 

 the first of March. I took 30 11)S. of manzanita hon- 

 ey from a colony of Italians the 1.5th of March, and 

 today I was looking at it and found every pound of 

 it candied. My black bees get about enough from 

 manzanita to live on, while the Italians are storing 

 it by the pound. S. L. Watkins. 



Placerville, Cal., May 33, 1887. 



Friend W., if it were not for the fact that 

 you do not liave rain in May in California, I 

 should say the water you" found in those 

 combs was surely rain water tliat had got in 

 by some means; but even this explanation 

 would be a little improbable, for it is quite 

 a diilicult feat, as many of the friends may 

 liave discovered, to get water into the cells 

 of a comb. I know that bees carry water in 

 large quantities, but 1 have never been able 

 to find nx»re than a few cells lull at a time 

 ill a bee-hive. They seem to use it up about 



as fast as it is carried in. I can not for a 

 moment believe they liad struck on a plan 

 of storing water in winter to last all sum- 

 mer ; for even if they had sufficient ingenu- 

 ity, the water would very soon evaporate 

 and be gone, unless it were capped in the 

 way that lioney is capped. 



ITALIANS THE BEST BEES. 



My bees at this date were never in better condi- 

 tion. They have lots of brood, and are strong in 

 bees. The di-ones have flown since Maj' 1st. I nev- 

 er saw drones t^o early In the season. With me the 

 Italians are the most profitable bees. They work 

 the earliest in the morning, and quit the latest at 

 night. They "hold the fort" against robber bees, 

 and they are moth-proof. I had a colony reduced 

 to a mere handful. Thej' guarded the entrance bet- 

 ter against robbers than a whole swarm of blacks. 



Douglas, Q. Fred Leininger. 



Your experience, friend L., seems to be 

 the general verdict in regard to the justly 

 praised Italians. 



A FRIENDL-y LETTER. 



I feel as if I were somewhat acquainted wi.th you, 

 having read your A B C so much. Two or three 

 years ago a friend of mine "went into bees" and 

 had your book. I had no bees, nor did I expect to 

 have then, though I wished to; but I borrowed the 

 book, and read it with a great deal of interest. Last 

 year I bought my friend's bees and the book. My 

 daughter was reading it the other day, and she re- 

 marked, "If ever I go traveling, I am going to see 

 A. I. Root." My Ernest, 11 years old, is very much 

 interested in your account of your 14-year-old Er- 

 nest hiving the bees. Now he is married, as I see in 

 the A. B. J. I also saw his name as president of a 

 bee-convention. Blue Ejes is a big girl now — maj' 

 be grown. Mrs. M. E. Brown. 



Athens, Clarke Co., Ga., April 14, 1887. 



HONEY SEASON ENDED IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 



I have had some trouble by bees destroying cells 

 giA'en them, and Mr. Doolittle has done us a favor 

 in devising " queen-cell protectors," and you have 

 also added another favor, in my humble opinion, 

 in manufacturing them so neatly. Our honey sea- 

 son closes with the end of May; in fact, the most of 

 it is over now. It has been a good honey year, de- 

 spite the dry weather we have had until a week 

 ago, and the high winds through the whole of April 

 and the first week in May. My hives are all full of 

 nice honey, but I could have doubled the quantity 

 if I could only have given them attention; but I 

 have been unable to do so, in consequence of sick- 

 ness. My colonies will average about 50 lbs. of sur- 

 plus. For ten days we have had some of the most 

 beautiful weather possible anj-whcre in the world, 

 which is sayiqg a good deal, but not too much. 



J. W. Hudson, M. D. 



Maysville, S. C, May 16, 1887. 



A LETTER FROM NEW ZEALAND; FOUL BROOD 

 THERK. 



I have not done much with the bees yet. Last 

 summer they had the swiirming fever, and my 

 spare time was taken up in making single Lang- 

 stroth hives. They have not done yet, although wo 

 ai-e within two months of midwinter. There was a 

 small swarm yesterday. We are having splendid 

 weather. Few places in the world can equal our 

 cjimftte. I increased from 6 colonies fo 40. 1 took 



