.592 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



that is a great saving of time. The honey-crop will 

 be small in this section, unless there is a very heavy 

 flow from fall flowers. Bees do not swarm very 

 much here. Out of 31 colonies, only 13 swarms up 

 to date. They are extra strong- in bees, hangi rig- 

 out in all kinds of weather. 



Please do not do away with bevel edge of hives, 

 as they are no account with a flat edge. I have 

 them both. Give me beveled-edge hives and metal- 

 cornered frames, and it is a pleasure to keep bees. 



King-birds are a pest to bee-keepei"S. They de- 

 stroy more queens and workers than all the toads. 

 They do not swallow the workers, but simply take 

 them, one after another, on the wing, until they 

 alight, then they press out the nectar and throw 

 the mass of bees out. This is a fact. 1 use a gun 

 freely. Josi.vh Eastbukn. 



Fallsington, Pa., .July 7, 188T. 



]\[8¥Ef5 M^ QaE^IEJS. 



HOW TO MAKE AN UP-GROUND WINTER REPOSIT- 

 ORY. 



WISH to construct a cellar above ground, to 

 winter my bees in, about 40 stands. I wish to 

 make it of lumber, having double walls filled 

 with sawdu.st. Will you please say how much 

 space you would leave for sawdust? Would 

 two feet be about right? H. Lathroi>. 



Browntown, Wis., July 20, 1887. 

 [Two feet would no doubt be an absolute i)rotec- 

 tion against frost, friend L.; but I don't believe 

 there is any need of such very thick walls. The 

 house for wintering that we used for many years 

 had only eight inches of si)ace, and there was never 

 any trouble by frost getting inside, that 1 remem- 

 ber of.] 



DECOY HIVES. 



Two instances of the same place being occupied 

 by swarms coming year alter year are reported here 

 —one in a hollovv apple-tree, the hole being stop()ed 

 with a board, the other in a house. 



W. M. IJadcock. 



Masking Kidge, N. J.. June 35. 1887. 



favorable to FLORIDA. 



1 have good news for this part of Florida. We 

 have had our gallbcrry bloom, and are having saw- 

 palmetto bloom, with black mangrove and cabbage- 

 palmetto to hear from. My best colonj- up to May 

 13 gave me 109 lbs. in 4^4 x f'^xPa sections, and 

 others are doing well. This colony has not swarm- 

 ed this season; and, by the way, they are black, or 

 native bees. S. C. Corwin. 



Sarasota, Fla., May IB, 1887. 



the theory or swarming. 



What is the theory about swarming, further than 

 overcrowding? When I was young I thought the 

 young queen led out the young bees to establish a 

 home of their own. We now know that the old 

 queen leads out the old bees, and others that wish to 

 follow. It seems unnatural for the old bees to pack 

 up and abandon the product of their hard summer's 

 work. P. S. Dilworth. 



Allegheny, Pa., July, 1887. 



[You are right, friend D. It does seem unnatural 

 for bees to work for stores, and fight for the de- 

 fense of these stores as they do, and then to volun- 

 tarily nbandon it, and start to commence anew in 

 an absolutely empty hive. But facts arc stranger 

 than fiction, as you have probably heard. This mat- 

 ter is pretty thoroughly discussed in the ABC book.] 



chickens .4S worker e.aters. 



On page 514, under the head of "Do King-Birds 

 Swallow Their Victims?" I. T. MeCracken claims 

 that chickens do not eat worker bees. I will say 

 here, that chickens (?o eat workers or drones. 1 

 have seen a chicken stand by the hive and catch 

 tlie bees as they go in. laden with pollen. 



Blackville, S. C, July 13, 1887. D. D. Slater. 



A stalk of ALSIKE 5 FT. 7 IN. LONG. 



I see a little talk in Gleanings about alsike clo- 

 ver. I will send you one stalk. This stalk was 

 five feet seven inches long when first taken from 

 the field. I have about ^, acre, all of which will 

 compare with this stalk. This is the pink-edged al- 

 sike. A. E. Griffith. 



Copley, Ohio, July 13, 1887. 



FURTHER TESTIMONY FROM PROF. COOK. 



I have received a stalk of clover from Mr. Grilhth, 

 Copley, O., with the request that 1 comment upon it 

 in Gleanings. 1. It is alsike clover; 3. It is fully 6 

 feet long and U of an inch in circumference. A 

 farmer just in my study says he had this year a 

 field of alsike clover on low clay land, that yielded 

 as heavily as any field of red clover he ever saw. 



A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College, Mich., July 18, 1887. 



WATER-LEAF. 



I inclose you a specimen of what is certainly a re- 

 markable honey-producing plant. What is it? Can 

 it be cultivated to any advantage? Each stalk pro- 

 duces quite a number of clusters like the one in- 

 closed. You will notice the bloom has been oH' lor 

 some days. Wm. Iden. 



Etna Green, Ind., June 34, 1887. 



The specimen from Wm. Iden is water-leaf {Hy- 

 (ifopltijllum nptjrndiculatuin ). 



Experiment.\l Station, per Craig. 



.V (JOOD WORD for THE CARNIOLANS. 



Tlie Carniolan queen Dr. Morrison sent me last 

 summer produces bees, the most gentle I ever saw; 

 and they are great honey-gatherers too— as good as 

 an3' we have seen, even the Syrio-Italians. They 

 are a verj' strong- colony in a Langstroth chatt' hive; 

 and while we were making a cistern, ground was 

 thrown against them, and then we had to lift them 

 and turn them around, which we did without 

 snK)ke. No smoke or veil is required when hand- 

 ling them. IlA MiCHENER. 



Low Banks, Ont., Can., June 37, 1887. 



STRENGTHENING WEAK COLONIES. 



Standing in my yard are 'Z'i colonies, all of them 

 good and strong. This is the way I make strong- 

 stocks out of weak ones. When I get a weak 

 swarm I put it in a hive and fix it in as good shape 

 as possible; then when another small swarm comes 

 ofl:' I lay a newspaper in front of the weak hive, get 

 my small swarm, put it on the iiaper, stai-t them for 

 the hive, and they go in and go to work, and I have 

 a swarm of bees that even this year (for there is no 

 honey in the white clover) fill their hi\e up in a 

 week or ten days. W. M. Webster. 



Kendall. Mich., June 20, 1887. 



[Your plan will work usually, whenever the bees 

 are swarming, friend W.; but unless there is a fiow 

 of honey, a great numy times your reinforcements 

 will be stung to deat'i almost as soon ns they ap- 

 proach the entrance. Better have your smoker in 

 good trim, and watch them uruil you are sure they 

 are well received] 



