.548 



(ILEANINGS IN BEE CULTUiiE. 



July 



DOES CHANGING THE INTERIOR OF THE HIVE PRE- 

 VENT SWARMING ? 



I am a beginner in keeping- bees, and I should 

 lilse to run them witliout increase. I have been 

 wondeiln;^- if I could not do it in this way: After 

 the swarm issues, put all the frames containing- 

 brood in lower story, with enough frames of foun- 

 dation to fill up the lower story. Then put the 

 frames containing- honey in upper story, with 

 frames of foundation to fill out the story. I could 

 put a frame of foundation between frames of 

 brood to change the interior of the hive, so that the 

 bees would hardly know it was their old hive. 

 After the upper story is filled, extract. 



H. M. Parker. 



Plymouth, Richland Co., O., May 25, 188C. 



Frieiitl P., the plan you suggest will be 

 nearly equivalent to reversing the brood- 

 combs, as mentioned on another page by 

 friend Alley; and my experience is, that 

 sometimes it works, and, again, it does not 

 work. 



nONEY-DEW, ETC. 



I sold 36 stands of bees last year and 3 this spring-, 

 and I have 23 on hand at this time, and will not sell 

 any more until swarming- is over. I lost none this 

 winter. Bees have been doing- well until the last 

 two weeks, when wo had a heavy frost that killed 

 all the bloom ; but they are coming- out again. Last 

 year, and year before last, I had swarms out by the 

 22d of March. They will be late this spring. They 

 will surely go to swarming in a few days. I have 

 not made any divisions yet, and I don't expect to. 



When I get time I will write you a letter on the 

 production of honey-dew, as I am satisfied that I 

 have discovered it, and 1 should like for j-ou to let 

 mo know if it has ever been satisfactorily settled as 

 to what produces it. J. A. Isaacks. 



Brownwood, Tex., May 1, 1886. 



Friend I., I believe it has pretty generally 

 been agreed upon, that honey-dew is the 

 product of aphides, or some sort of insects. 

 The idea that it falls from the air or clouds 

 is too improbable to receive credence, with- 

 out a very great amount of positive proof. 

 If you have any thing new to oifer on the 

 subject, we shall be glad to receive it. 



now shall we ship our honey in the quantity? 



I do most terribly hate to peddlS, so I offered one 

 of our merchants here my whole prospective crop 

 of extracted honey from 40 hives for 8 cts. per lb., 

 and take it all in trade out of his store, he finding a 

 market for it among- his acquaintances in New 

 York. He told me to-day, that after several days to 

 think about it, if I would put it in tin pails of about 

 T) lbs., so that he could crate it and ship it to New 

 York he would accept my proposition. He is hard- 

 ly willing- to take it in barrels. lean retail it from 

 10 to 12'/^ cts., a limited quantity, but I do so much 

 like to dispose of a crop in bulk. I want to see what 

 can be done. Francis Tkueulooi). 



Archer, Fla., May 21, 1886. 



CARNTOLANS IN CANADA. 



I have to smile a little at your concluding re- 

 marks about Carniolan bees, on page 424. The bees 

 produced by the Carniolan queen I got from J. H. 

 Morrison last September are perfect hybrids in 

 every respect, temper not excepted. Now, how are 

 We to tell when we have pure CarniolansV The old- 



fashioned German bees have a grayish appearance, 

 especially when they are young. Can it be possible 

 that we are being imposed upon, and are getting 

 back our old race of bees? I am feeling- just a little 

 sorry that I e^er got any other race mixed with our 

 Italians. Apple-trees are in full bloom yet, but the 

 weather is so cool there is no honey secreted. The 

 Syrians are terribly cros.s; but when we are open- 

 ing hives wc can soon tell where there is Italian 

 blood. Ila Michener. 



Low Banks, Ontario, May 2fl, 1886. 



CARNIOLANS AS WORKERS. 



I am quite surprised at your article in June 15th 

 No., in reference to Carniolan bees as workers. I 

 have had Italians, Syrians, Cj prians, blacks, and hj-- 

 brids, but I have never yet seen any honey-gather- 

 ers equal to the Carniolans I now have. My experi- 

 ence with the race as to gentleness is, that Avhen the 

 queens have mated with Carniolan drones we have 

 the gentlest bees; but whether mated with Syrian, 

 Italian, or black drones, the worker progeny is still 

 gentle and lovely. I believe Dr. Tinker got a queen 

 from me, mated with a Syrian drone; would he be 

 kind enough to report quality of workers ? I have 

 never had any other queens so prolific. I see no 

 trait about them but superiority in every way over 

 any other race I know of. I think it is doubted 

 that the colony you reported on is C.irniolan. Didn't 

 you report in Gleanings, soon after getting them, 

 that you saw no ditference between the workers of 

 your queen marked " best," and Italians ? Carnio- 

 lans certainly have no yellow bands. 



Oxford, Pa. S. W. Morrison, M. D. 



Friend, M., we were a little surprised to 

 find a few worker-bees from our Carniolan 

 queen yellow-banded ; but they came from 

 Frank Benton direct, iind he would doubt- 

 less send US as good as he had, expecting, of 

 course, we would report. Furthermore, if I 

 am not mistaken, both Mr. Benton and oth- 

 er writers have admitted that a part of these 

 bees are yellow-banded. When I saw this 

 admission I was considerably inclined to 

 feel vexed. Suppose we have the matter 

 decided before we go any further, as to 

 whether Carniolan workers should be yel- 

 low-banded or not. If they are not a pure 

 breed at all, will it not be best to drop them 

 right where the y areV See l etter above. 



how easy it is TO BE MISTAKEN. 



A great many times friends write us that 

 they ordered so and so, and yet they received 

 seniething they didn't order at all. Now. 

 where no copy of the order is kept, people 

 are usually so positive the mistake is not 

 theirs, I have been obliged to give the clerks 

 particular directions to close up every letter 

 of explanation by saying, '•• We can return 

 you your letter, should you not think we 

 ;ire correct in tlie matter, if you so desire." 

 Unless tlui ;ibove is added, tliere is pretty 

 sin-e to be hard feelings, aiul sometimes 

 hard words. The following kind letter illus- 

 trates the point : 



You can not imagine how good I felt when I re- 

 ceived back from you my letter of May 7th, 1886. 

 After waiting, telegraphing, telephoning, and at 

 last paying $1.30 for freight for the sections, it 

 turns out after all that T am to blame for all of it. 

 To say that I was ve.xed would be putting it in a 

 very mild way. The reason I feel good nmv is be- 



