JANUAUY 15, 1913 



65 



a venture of this kind for this Association. There 

 were four entries of extracted honey, three of comb, 

 and two of old beebooks. Harold Hornor, of Phila- 

 delphia, did the judging. 



For the best display of old books, the award was 

 given to Mr. J. H. M. Cook, of Essex Fells, N. J., 

 who had one of Quinby's first edition as well as an 

 old one by Miner, and a Beekeepers' Journal. 



For the best honey in 4:'^A is. 4,V4: plain sections, 

 W. B. McNamee secured the reward; and for the 

 best in 4 X 5 plain sections, E. G. Carr was the win- 

 ner. There were no beeway sections shown. 



New Egypt, N. J., Dec. 21. E. G. Carr, Sec. 



Trading a Skunk for a Colony of Bees 



In December, 1901, I got my first stand of bees. 

 We were cutting wood, and caught a civet cat (small 

 skunk). On the way home we passed the house of a 

 trapper, and he wanted the civet and tried to buy it. 

 As he had no money I asked him how he would 

 trade a colony of bees for it. He asked me a dollar 

 to boot, so I gave it. I tied them on the back of 

 the buggy and took them home. 



The rest of the folks all laughed at me; but I 

 had always wanted bees, and was going to see what 

 I could do with them. I had an old A B C of Bee 

 Culture that my grandfather gave me. I bought two 

 Danzenbaker hives. I let the bees swarm once, and 

 then transferred them. I used no veil nor smoker, 

 and didn't get stung; but I soon learned better in 

 trying to hive a wild swarm. It was on the corner 

 of a neighbor's house, and was trying to go into a 

 knothole where there were some bees. I got my 

 hive fixed on the ladder, and took a weed to brush 

 them off. I got about 25 stings, but I secured the 

 bees. 



I have tried about all of the different sizes of 

 hives ; and the best for a beginner in this State is 

 the ten-frame dovetailed. No beginner shoiild use 

 any smaller, and I think all manufacturers should 

 have a notice to that effect in their catalog. I have 

 the Danzenbaker ; and while it is excellent for the 

 purpose of getting the honey in the super, I always 

 liave to feed or put on a super of shallow frames 

 for winter. I always get my biggest colonies and 

 the most honey from the ten-frame hives. 



I think one of the most serious mistakes that 

 most beginners make is in not haviiig a good strain 

 of bees. I always get from 30 to 50 lbs. more 

 honey from my pure Italian bees than from the 

 common bees. The best queen that I ever had lived 

 three years, and her colony always ran 100 lbs. 

 ahead of the rest. They swarmed once in that time. 

 I have always found it easy to keep down swarming. 



There are but few people who will make good 

 in the bee business, as most of them do not under- 

 .stand bees, and will wonder why they don't do bet- 

 ter. 



T gained some valuable information in helping to 

 move an apiary of 40 or 50 colonies, all kinds of 

 liives, and in all conditions. Most of them had not been 

 opened for years. Part of them had combs and hon- 

 ey on the outside. Some were rotted out. It took 

 four of us the greater part of a day and all night 

 to get them nailed up. 



Blaine, Kan., Dec. 11. W. V. Pittenger. 



Mating of Queens 



One thing does not seem clear to me in regard 

 to queen-mating and queens clipped to prevent 

 swarming. You say they mate only on the wing. 

 Well, what is a queen worth with one wing off? 

 They come out and flutter around on the ground 

 alone. 



In the Jan. 1st issue for 1912 some one wanted 

 to enlighten beginners by asking questions and an- 

 swering them himself. In his description he makes, 



out that the worker bee is only a stunted female. 

 I didn't suppose the Creator made any stunts. 



Greenleaf, Idaho, Dec. 19. B. H. Vantress. 



[ Queens very rarely meet a drone more than once, 

 and this mating takes place within a week or ten 

 days after the queen has hatched from the cell. 

 If a beekeeper should clip a virgin queen, that 

 queen would, of course, become a drone-layer. The 

 idea is to clip the queen after she begins laying 

 worker eggs, and then she will continue to lay fer- 

 tile eggs, even though she never meets a di'one 

 again, for from two to three, four, and sometimes 

 five years more. There are records of clipped queens 

 that have been profitable fos six years. 



It is true that the worker bees are undeveloped 

 females, really stunted in their growth by coarser 

 food given in the larval stage and the smaller cells. 

 This is proven by the fact that the workers have 

 every female organ, although in rudimentary form. 

 —Ed.] 



Hive-tool Made of Old Sheep-shears 



Mr. Crane's trouble with hive-tools, page 763, 

 Dec. 1, makes me think it would be a good thing 

 for the inspector to carry a good hive-tool. I used 

 to use a screw-di-iver, and thought it was all right; 

 but I should like to give a description of an article 

 that will make a better hive-tool than a screw-driver, 

 and it may be found on almost everv farm. 



Take an old sheepshears. Cut it into two equal 

 parts; bend the flat part of the handle so it will 

 form a ring. Wrap the handle with sheep-twine ; 

 break off the point so it will be about % inch wide. 

 One side of the blade is oval. It should be ground 

 flat so it will not spoil the hive. Then you have a 

 fine tool. 



Sycamore, Ohio, Jan. 1. C. A. Hale. 



Bee-Stings Had no Effect 



The enclosed letter from Geo. Shiber will interest 

 the readers of Gleanings. I have not changed my 

 mind on this subject. There is but one rheumatism, 

 the inflammatory type, and this is a germ disease. 

 Bee-sting poison has no effect on it. 



Buck Grove, la. A. F. Bonnby. 



[The following is the letter referred to. — Ed.] 



My boy, fifteen years old, is just recovering from 

 a bad attack of inflammatory rheumatism. His 

 joints were swollen badly. The truth is, he has been 

 stung to " beat the band " all summer, and he help- 

 ed all the tim* while we were extracting 8000 lbs. of 

 honey. The stings did not stop the rheumatism. 



Randolph, N. Y. Geo. Shiber. 



Another Report Favoring Silverhull Buckwheat 



The hot dry spell caused a short clover-honey flow 

 last summer ; and since the Japanese buckwheat 

 has been grown here the honey from buckwheat has 

 been very light in color. If we go to a field of silver- 

 liuU buckwheat in full bloom in the morning, it will 

 be alive with bees ; but in a field of the Japanese 

 there will be but a few bees at work. The Japanese 

 yields more grain by far, and that is the reason that 

 it is grown so largely. 



Bartonsville, Pa., Dec. 22. Elwood Bond. 



Limiting Time for Inspection to a Short Period 



It has been proposed in Vermont that the time for 

 foul-brood inspection be limited to a very short 

 season, and the bill will be introduced at this ses- 

 sion. As no other State has done this it might be 

 well to have the opinion of some practical beekeep- 

 ers. The member from this section desires advice 

 from Gleanings readers. 



Swanton, Vt,, T>pr, 17. Mrs. C. A. Sibley. 



