cd-2 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



THE DROUGHT IN ILLINOIS. 



I think there has been less raiu the last 1154 

 months than since I have been in the State, in the 

 same time— 3;J years; but 8 months before that was 

 very wet, both lull and spring-. Bees wore in g-ood 

 order the first part of April, but they had to draw 

 on wliat winter stores they had left in Maj'. 



DO BEES EVEH STAKVE liV .TUNE? 



One jear ago they were booming', now the re- 

 verse. Some worked a little in sections, others not. 

 There i.'J plenty of white clover, but it turned 

 brown so quick it had lime to secrete but little nec- 

 tar, as it was very dry and hot. Some days it was 

 above 100° in the shade; and in the sun, against a 

 buildmg-, it ran up to the top— 180°. Little apples 

 fall oft' and soon bake brown; so did blue grass. 

 Hay is about i^ the crop of last year. Small grain 

 is also short, and the ne.vt two months will decide 

 on our staple here— King Corn. I still hope the 

 bees will get enough this fall for winter. 



Limerick, 111., June 28, 1887. E. Pickup. 



]>ees do sometimes starve, even in June. 

 Reports recently seem to indicate that some 

 will starve this year unless fed. 



the cells? 1 took some comb honey about a month 

 ago that was so blue I did not know what it was 

 gathered from, unless it was from the elder. It 

 was in bloom, and the bees at work on it, when the 

 honey was gathered. The comb was very white. I 

 see that you refer to such honey in a former issue, 

 p.oge.M2. .1. C. S.MVLIE. 



Casey ville. Miss., .luly 9, 1887. 



J am inclined to think that tlie honey you 

 mention was from the juice of raspberries. 

 Wiien there has been a dearth of honey dur- 

 ing the time raspberries were ripe, 1 have 

 dissected bees which came in heavily laden. 

 The liquid which came from the honey- 

 sacks of these bees was of a bluish tint. The 

 taste was strikingly like the raspberry. 

 While the honey above may not liave been 

 entirely from this source, yet it probably had 

 enough of raspberry juice to color it. 



CAKNIOLANS, AND THEIR DISPO.*<ITION TO SWARM. 



I am a novice in bee keeping, yet I have had what 

 seems to me a strange experience, if the books I 

 have read are to be relied on. 1 have a colony of 

 Carniolan bees, in a chaff hive, which east its first 

 swarm on the 15th inst. It swarmed again on the 

 36th, and a third time on the 28tli. The last being 

 small, it was hived with the second swarm. In hiv- 1 

 ing them it was discovered that there was more 

 than one queen with the last swarm. We examined < 

 the swarming-bo.x, and took from it four large tine- 

 looking queens. We afterward thought it best to 

 examine the condition of the parent hive. We ! 

 found it in fine condition, e.xeept that it had been '• 

 very much reduced by swarming. We found, also, 

 four other iiueens with as many as ten (lueen-cells i 

 yet to come out, still in the hive. We removed the 

 ()ueen-cells and two of the (lueens, and left two still 

 in the hive. The hive contains about 75 lbs. of hon- 

 ey, but very little brood, and no fresh-laid eggs. I 

 .lust how it will work out, I can not, with my limit- j 

 ed experience, estimate. ,1. ('. Boude. I 



Lexington, Aa., June 2!i, lt-'87. 



One of the characteristics of the Carnio- j 

 lans is their great propensity to swarm. In I 

 this view of the c;ise I do not know that \ 

 what you relate would be any thing strange, i 

 Kven Italians: will sometimes behave them- 

 .selves very much as did your Carniolan 

 swarm. Sometimes as many as 20 young i 

 (|ueens are found in a single second swarm. | 

 Not long ago, one of our correspondents said j 

 positively there were over 100 in one of his j 

 second swarms. See ''Queen-Rearing'' and ! 

 " Swanning,'Mn the A I> C of Hee Culture, 

 for further particulars. 



bees .-VND fruit; honey of BLUISH TINT. 



1 agree with Mr. I>oolittle as regards bees eating i 

 fruit. I have several large fig-trees. Sometimes j 

 the trees are covered with bees until it looks dan- ! 

 gerous to go near them; yet I have never seen a ! 

 bee eating a tig that was not very ripe and bursted 

 open. It has rained every day for three weeks. 

 Hces, of course, are gathering no hoiiey, conse- 

 ijuently they are eating fruit. What do they do 

 with the fi Mit when they eat if? Do they store it in 



how TO make 



tinner's common 



tins with 

 folder. 



T have made T tins on an ordinary tin-folder. My 

 plan is as follows: 1 took strips of common rooting 

 tin, and bent them first like this, ^^^''^^^ exact- 

 ly in the middle . 1 then se t the machine and bent 

 one edge thus: ^^^/ I next set the 



machine the same as at first, ajid finished the first 

 bend, so that the tin looked like this, 

 which was as far as the foldei- would 



bend it. 1 then laid it on top of the -^ 



machine, so that the last b^nd was 

 close to the joint, and the other bend underneath. I 

 next moved the folder around and on to the tin, and 

 pressed the fold together thus: 1 took 

 one screw out at each end of the fold- 

 ing-plate (these screws hinge -~^ this 



plate to the machine), pushed it away, put in the 

 tin, pulled the folding-plate back, and held it there 

 while I bent the other edge, and the tin was done. 

 The machine 1 used was a common tinner's folder. 

 The above may be of use to some who do not care 

 to send a distance for a few T tins. 



W. E. Peterman. 



Trappe, Mont. Co., Pa., July 26, 1887. 



Friend P., you have shown that a tinner's 

 folder can be made to fold T tins. While it 

 is possible to make them in an ordinary 

 folder, yet it is im])racticable to make very 

 many. We gave your letter to the foreman 

 of our tinning department. Lie succeeded 

 in making a very nice T tin. but he says he 

 does not think he could make o\er 100 a day 

 by thaty)laii, whereas he can make witli our 

 T-folder as many as 2-500. Another thing, 

 he says that yoiir plan strains the folder, 

 and niight therefore injure it. 



KINU-BIKDS DESTROVERS OF YOUNG QUEENS. 



In (i LEANINGS for July 1st the question is asked, 

 " Do king-birds swallow their victims? " If they 

 are veiy hungry, I think peihaps they may do so, 

 and that chickens, under like conditions, may do 

 the same thing; but give king-birds plenty of 

 queens and moth millers to eat, and chickens plen- 

 ty of corn and wheat, and my opinion is that you 

 will find very few worker bees in either king-birds 

 or chickens. For the last seven or eight years 1 

 have kept from 1">0 to 2r>(l stands of bees here on the 

 banks of Feather l{i\(ir, where king-birds are 

 plentiful. I have shot a great many of them, and 

 ha\e always failed to find any part of the bee in their 



