1886 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



369 



think all roads ou>rht to be flxed that waj-. The 

 good looks will nearly pay, and leave the crop for 

 profit. Eli.\s Eveuitt. 



Philo, 111., Feb. 33, 1886. 



CAN THE SCIIEW-C.\PC.\NS BE USED POH OTHEH PUR- 

 POSES THAN FOR HONEV AND SYRUP? 



We received the 20 lbs. of California honey to- 

 day. It was i.acked very nicely, and the honey is 

 excellent. Could we use those screw-cap cans in- 

 stead of fruit-jars, for berries, tomatoes, etc.':" 



Elkhart, Ind., Apr. 23, IS"?*!. M. Matuszkiewitz. 



[Friend M., we do not know of any reason why 

 these cans wouldn't answer for any thing- where 

 self-sealing- fruit-jars are used. May b? it would be 

 necessary to use small rubber bands around the 

 edge of the screw caps, to make it tit absolutely 

 air-tight.] 



DRONES OUT OF SEASON. 



You will .'■■ee by this that my hopes are not " bust- 

 ed " so far this winter as they were last. I put 46 

 colonies in the cellar the 0th day of Doc, and Feb. 

 23d I took 46 live colonies out for a Hy, all in good 

 condition but one, and in thr.t one I found drones 

 crawling and hatching, and what I supposed to be 

 drone-eggs. 1 pinched the queen's head otT. Did I 

 do right, or should I have left her to rear early 

 drones? 



WHAT DOES IT? 



In carrying out my bees I found nearly all the dead 

 bees had holes bitten in the back of their heads, 

 and a great many bitten clear into thcii- heads. If 

 you can answer this you will oblige. 



Orion, Wis., Feb. 30, 1888. F. L. Snyder. 



[You are probably right, friend S., in destroying 

 any queen that produces drones in February. 

 Young queens, when they first begin to lay, will 

 oftentimes produce drone-brood for :i little while, 

 and then worker-brood afterward. The holes in 

 the buck part of the heads and bodies of your dead 

 bees were probably made by mice— possibly by 

 ants, if they were where ants had access.] 



do bees POISON HONEY -^VITH THE VENOM OF 

 THEIR STINGS? 



A correspondent of the Cj'Ci'ri/ Ocntlcman ad- 

 vances the theory that honey is sometimes poison- 

 ed by the venom from the stings of infuriated bees, 

 so as to be quite injurious to eat in large quantities. 

 This is especially apt to be the case when the bees 

 are roughly handled or greatly irritated, when the 

 lioney is removed. Gentle treatment he regards as 

 the best remedy for such trouble. What is your 

 opinion on the subject? 



ESTELLINK n. WjI,I,lAMS. 



Maysville, Ky., Feb. 2, 188i. 



[This theory was advanced years ago; and Mr. 

 Langstroth, in his writings, aliudos to it; but I do 

 not know that we have liad any very positive facts 

 to substantiate it. It has been suggested that hon- 

 ey, heated almost to the boiling-point, is rendered 

 more wholesome.] ■ ■ - 



HOW SHALL WE PUT UP OUR KXTRACTED HONEY? 



Here is my answer: Go to the stores and places 

 where they use large quantities of kerosene oil, 

 and buy the empty cans at 10 cts. or less, and 

 engage the boxes they were shijjped in, at 10 cts., 

 of your grocery merchant. Unsolder the patent 

 nozzles, and take them out. Three boxes of lye 

 will clean SO or 40 cans, and you can do the work in 

 half a day. Repair the holes that have been cut or 

 punched in the cans, or get your tinner to do it. 

 You can put in lione}--gates, or you can take a piece 

 of tin, and solder the cans ui) wlien they are filled. 

 Put them in the boxes, and Ihey are rcadj' to ship. 

 Two catis holding 13J lbs., and th? shipping-box, 



ought not to cost o\er 40 cts. 1 hauled 1400 lbs. of 

 honej% put up in this way, with straw packed un- 

 der it, in a wag-on nearly 250 miles, and all the cans 

 were sound and good at the end of the journej'. If 

 you want me to do so, I will tell you how to clean the 

 cans. J. M. Killough. 



San Marcos, Texas, April 31, 18S6. 



S.\ND-BEES. 



Pnif. A. J. C'dofr .-— I send you by mail herewith, a 

 specimen, which please notice in Gleanings, if 

 there is any thing of interest connected therewith. 



Hudson, Mich., Apr.. 1886. A. D. Armstrong. 



This is one of our common sand-bees, of the ge- 

 nus Osi/ita— sec Manual, page 39. They live solitary 

 lives, and not in colonies. They often steal into 

 the hives of the honej'-becs, to rob the latter of 

 their stores. This one is beautiful in color, and a 

 little smaller than the worker-bee. A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College, Mich. 



SWEET clover; when and how to prepare THE 

 GROUND for. 



I wish to sow a piece of heavy clay land with 

 sweet clover. It was in corn last year. Will you 

 please tell me how to manage it to the best advan- 

 tage ? Shall the seed be sown by itself this spring, 

 or is there danger of the weeds choking it if sown in 

 this way ? How would it do to sow It with oats, or 

 with buckwheat ? Will it freeze out on clay land ? 



Salem, O., Mar. S3, 1886. M. Frank Taber. 



[Friend T.. I think your cheapest way will be to 

 sow clover seed with the oats. There is no danger 

 of any thing choking it. 1 n fact, it will grow on the 

 most barren hill-side, or even in a hard road-bed, 

 and oftentimes it makes a most luxuriant growth 

 where nothing else would think of growing.] 



KEEPING SURPLUS QUEENS FOR SHIPMENT. 



I should like to know how you keep queens a 

 month in the office. Ferguson Whiteside. 



Little Britain, Out. 



[Friend W., we do not ordinarily keep queens a 

 month, yet we can do it by giving them fresh bees 

 every few days, and keeping the sugar in the queen- 

 cages saturated with freshly gathered honey. We 

 seldom keep them Umger than a week; for if we 

 get so manj' ahead as to cause such a state of affairs, 

 we prefer t) divide colonics and use them to 

 start nuclei.] 



TBB^cce Oqmmn. 



a SHORT SERMON ON TOBACCO; FROM A FHIEMt 



WHO LETS GO OF THE PLOW-HANDLES LONG 



ENOUGH TO REPLY TO THE GALLIPOLIS 



.TOURNAL. 



§ DANIELS, Pine Grove, Ohio, sends 

 us tlie followino- clipping from tlie 

 Gallipolis Journal. It contains so 

 • many sliarp hits that we here present 

 it to our readers who may liave an 

 interest in the Tobacco Column : 



Mr. Nash:— In your last issue I noticed that you 

 wanted to hear from the farmers on the tobacco 

 question. 



Now, my hand fits the plow-handle much better 

 than a pen, and my intellect has been trained to 

 raise fat pigs and big pumpkins; consequently my 

 patch of literature has been sadly neglected, but 1 

 will trv. 



I notice that your Roard of Trade is to be solicited 

 to issue a pamphlet on tobac(!0. Now, I should lik<' 

 to make a few suggestions as to what it should con- 

 tain. 



I should like for it to contain the name of the 

 man who can stand up and truthfully say that the 

 first tobacco that he placed between h's molars 

 tasted good. 



