566 



GLEANIKGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



the work as it should be done. Immediately after, 

 a reaction will take place, especially where a 

 small brood-chamber is used, and the bees come 

 boiling- up over the frames, and, if the sections are 

 not otf, up into the sections, when all the smoke we 

 can use will not drive them so but that they will 

 fill themselves. In this way I get off my sections 

 free from bees, and never, as a rule, g-et holes 

 gnawed thro\)gh the capping of the cells as I used to 

 before I learned how to do it. In times of scarcity 

 of honey in the fields, the bees will sometimes stick 

 to the lower portion of unsealed sections; but as 

 these are not marketable, no especial harm is done. 

 However, it is a rare case that all do not go out. 

 The only secret there is to it is to know the right 

 time to take off the sections; just that moment 

 when all the bees are out, and before any return. 

 A little practice will secure the reader that secret. 

 Borodino, N. Y., June, 1886. G. M. Doolittle. 



We have tried the same thing, friend 1)., 

 but we did not all succeed as well as you 

 state, on account of this same reaction ; that 

 is, after the bees had all gone out of the 

 sections with a roar they came trooping 

 back again before we got round to taking off 

 the case of sections. With the suggestion 

 you give us, however, I think now I can 

 manage it ; but we want our honey-crates so 

 they will lift right up without any prying or 

 snapping. Heddon's sink honey-b.uird will 

 probably help in this direction. 



A BEE-SMOKER THAT USES NO FIHE. 



OUR ENGLISH KRIENDS TAKING TIIK I-EAD. 



Ti--' MOX(r the advertisements in the J3nt- 

 "^^jk i.s/i J^ee Journal for June li4tli we see 



pr advertised Webster's fumigator. The 

 •^^ advertisement states that it entirely 

 supersedes the smoker— no going out, 

 as no fire is used; no tainting the honey. 

 The agent used is carbolic acid, oil of tar, 

 and water, properly mixed. The proprietor 

 advertises a bottle of the mixture — enough 

 to last two seasons— for 6 pence. lie also 

 says the instrument can be adjusted by any 

 novice to any ordinary smoker-bellows. We 

 judge from the advertisement that the agent 

 is placed in a sponge. By means of a f umi- 

 gator, the air is made to pas^ twice over the 

 sponge, so as to be thoroughly impregnated. 

 An arrangement is also used to prevent 

 evaporation of the liquid when not in use. 

 Our friends may remember that this subject 

 has been discussed and experimented on be- 

 fore, althougli I believe none of us have 

 thought of using carbolic acid. We ordered 

 a fumigator and extra bottles of the agent, 

 and will report in due time. We do not no- 

 tice any thing in the reading-columns in re- 

 gard to the invention, but it seems to me it 

 promises to make a great revolution in the 

 smoker-business. I, for one, protest against 

 any patents, especially among our American 

 friends. Let each one experiment freely as 

 much as he chooses. Among the testimoni- 

 als we do not find the names of any we 

 know, except Frank C'heshire, and from him 

 only this brief note : 



1 find, by experiment, that the most vicious of 

 Eastern bees are utterly beaten at once. 



MVHY DID THE QUEEN MENTIONED 

 ON P. 485 STOP LAYING? 



A CORRECTION. 



N page 485 David Strang asks, " Why did the 

 queen suddenly stop laying?" I do not 

 think she had ever begun. He says, "Ire- 

 leased her from a cell partly destroyed by a 

 rival, and introduced her to an artificial colo- 

 ny, formed about 12 hours before, of frames and 

 bees from three or four colonies. She was accept- 

 ed, and a week later had nearly four frames full of 

 eggs and young brood," etc. Then four days latei', 

 not an egg or an unsealed larva could be found in 

 the hive. In the first place, a queen will never, as 

 far as I have observed, have 4 frames filled with 

 either eggs or larva' in seven daj's from the time 

 she is hatched. I have raised a great many queens, 

 and I never had one mated in less than five days 

 after hatching, and it is generally seven or eight; 

 then it is from three to five days after they mate 

 before they begin to lay. 



The eggs and larvie that he found in the hive 

 were probably in the combs when he put them in 

 the hive. The reason that the eggs had not hatch- 

 ed into larva^ was because, it being a made-up col- 

 ony, the old bees had all gone back, leaving only the 

 young liees, and there was not sufficient heat to 

 hatch the eggs that were not under the cluster. 

 The reason he did not find them later was. that 

 they had sealed over what brood had hatched, and 

 eaten up or carried out the eggs that would not 

 hatch. 



THE SCARCITY OF CLOVER IN BOURBON COUNTY, 

 KANSAS. 



Bees are doing better here this season than I 

 ever knew them to do in this part of Kansas. 

 There is no white clover here. I do not think all 

 the white clover in this county would make a good 

 stand on a half-acre; but I have three or four acres 

 of alsike sown this spring, and it looks well; but 

 there seems to be a good natural supply of honey. 

 From 18 stands in the spring 1 have extracted 640 

 lbs., and increased by natural swarming and divid- 

 ing to 30, and the best part of the honey season is to 

 come yet. There are a great many bees kept in 

 this part of the State, but nearly all in bo.\ hives. 



A FEW OLD FOGIES STILL LEFT. 



I went to see a man last week who has 4.5 stands 

 in boxes. He says he doesn't want any new-fangled 

 patent gums. I told him there was no patent on 

 them, but that didn't make any difference. He 

 wouldn't give his old box gums for all the patent 

 hives that ever were made; and when he wants 

 honey he takes his sulphui'-pot and kills the bees 

 and destroys the brood and combs; but he is wise 

 in his own conceit, and I could not tell him any 

 thing. He was an old man, and had kept bees for 

 over fifty years, and knew all about them. 



.TOSEPH C. Balch. 



Bronson, Bourbon Co., Kansas, June 'X, 1886. 



Friend B., I think you are right, and I beg 

 pardon for having omitted to note that 

 friend Strang, in his statement, said it was 

 only a week after the queen was hatched 

 that she had her frames full of eggs and 

 young brood. I have frequently noticed 

 that the eggs would remain in' tiie combs 

 several days, where, for some reason or other, 

 bees did not nurse them nor care for them. 



