1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



oil 



LOSSES IN MlCHiOAN. 



Our bees are doing- well. The cold winter took a 

 third of them. But that is not as bad as one of our 

 neighbors suffered. He lost '.i'i out of 33. Bees are 

 worth $5.00 a swarm here this spring. 



Hebek Wai.dhon. 



Palo, Ionia Co., Mich., May :M, 1H87. 



HOW TO DISTINGUISH THE BTiMBLiE-HEES TH.\T 

 don't STING. 



In answer to your foot notes, page 183, you can 

 tell the drone bumble-bee by a white spot on the 

 head. When I was a boy, and used the shingle, I 

 could tell them ten feet away. The white spot is 

 square. When I saw one with a square white spot 

 I knew that he could not sting. Jos. Fogard. 



Marion, 111., Mar. \2. 18S7. 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS, 



WHAT IS THE TKOUBLE WITH THE BEES ? 



INCLOSE in this a sample of a bee, or of some- 

 thing else, which I find in one of my hives. The 

 colony is hybrid, and strong and healthy. I 

 have referred to all the authorities which I 

 have— the ABC book, Langstroth, the Ameri- 

 can Bes Journal, and Gleanings, and all that I have 

 been able to find is a short note on page 439 of the 

 last Gleanings, where a man in Georgia has been 

 led to observe the same thing. He says his bees, 

 from ten in the morning till evening, are driving 

 out and killing a bee, in size between a bee and a 

 house-fly, very black, with occasionally the mark 

 of an Italian. The insect that I observe is more 

 like a wasp than a bee, sometimes with one broad 

 band. My opinion is, that they are confined to the 

 hybrids, and that it is caused by introducing or 

 mixing. I should like very much to hear the 

 opinion of our teachers, on the subject. 



W. P. England. 

 White Pine, Lycoming Co., Pa., June 8, 1887. 



The specimens of bees were received. Aft- 

 er carefully examining them and reading 

 your letter, I am strongly of the opinion 

 that, before they hatched, they had been 

 overheated or chilled — more likely the for- 

 mer. It is sometimes a mistake with begin- 

 ners, when a colony is being robbed badly, 

 to close the entrance up tight, even though 

 in warm weather, and the sun be pouring 

 down hot. The result is, that the bees be- 

 come almost suffocated, and, in consequence, 

 overheated ; the temperature of the brood 

 is, therefore, raised considerably above its 

 normal degree of heat, and what brood is 

 not killed outright will hatch out into small 

 black-looking little bees. Sometimes these 

 bees will hatch out with defective wings, or 

 none at all. Was not the brood in your hive 

 overheated at some time or other, either 

 from the cause that I have mentioned or for 

 some other reason ? The reason why the 

 bees were carrying them out was because 

 they were not perfect bees, not having had 

 the proper conditions for healthy growth. 

 Since reading your letter I am strongly in- 

 clined to believe that Mr. Bryan (page 439) 

 had this very same trouble. Mr. B. said 



that he had been tiansferring. If the brood 

 had been exposed to the diiect rays of the 

 sun for any length of time, it would hatch 

 out with such bees as those vou sent. 



double-pointed tacks as a continuation ok 



THE bottom-bar. 



1 have a little invention, or convenience, that 1 

 have been using for two years in ray hives, in the 

 end-bars of my frames— a projection 'i inch from 

 the bottom, a double- pointed tack driven in as 

 shown in the drawing, B. 

 If you have never used 

 any before, just try a 

 few and report, it is al- 

 most impossible to kill 

 a single bee. The bees 

 can in nowise glue the 

 end-bars to the hive. 1 

 have seen hives where 

 half the frames were stuck fast to the end-board. 

 In handling such frames you have to be extremely 

 careful, or you will kill a lot of bees; and when you 

 kill bees it makes the others mad, and I don't blame 

 them. I will use it on my frames as long as I can 

 raise money to buy the tacks. F. P. Hish. 



Henton, III., May 31, 1887. 



D. A. Jones has the bottom-bar to his 

 frame project beyond the end-bar a little, 

 answering the same purpose of your double- 

 pointed tacks. You will also find the same 

 thing figured in the old back volumes of our 

 bee-journals. The Langstroth hives were 

 at one time all made with a blind-staple 

 driven in exactly as you have it. After us- 

 ing frames in this way, however, almost ev- 

 ery bee-keeper who had them sooner or later 

 pulled out the staples and threw them away. 

 The staples themselves killed the bees and 

 bumped the end of the hive when frames 

 were being replaced, and 1 believe there 

 were other objections. 



HOW TO MAKE .\ SWARM COME OUT BEFORE SUN- 

 DAY; destroying drone BROOD. 



Having a swarm hanging out much, and fearing 

 it might swarm on the Sabbath, I overhauled it and 

 found only several small queen-cells just started. 

 I exchanged a frame of its brood with one having a 

 capped queeu-cell, and to my delight it swarmed 

 the next day. I did fear they would destroy the 

 cell on the comb given them; but after the swarm 

 issued I found it all right. 



I practice destroying drones in undesirable 

 swarms. This I have done by shaving otf the cap- 

 pings and heads, as you have suggested. But late- 

 ly I have driven a dozen or fifteen sharp large tacks 

 through the sole of an old rubber boot. With this I 

 hackle their heads off. This device is better to 

 work in the dej)ressions in the comb. J often find 

 drone larvtt, and for this I have a pepper-box of 

 fine dry salt that I sprinkle them with. It is all 

 very soon thrown out, and generally filled with 

 honey instead of brood again. S. L. Haskin. 



Waterville, Minn., June 10, 1887. 



honey-cases and T SUrPOKTS. 



Having used the T-tin supports for honey-racks 

 many years past, the very beautiful ones you sent 

 me in last order are such an improvement on any 

 I ever made that I am delighted to know that I can 



