572 



glea:nings in bee culture. 



JuLl' 



The yellow capping mentioned in my last is evi- 

 dently a trait peculiar to some bees. 1 am marking 

 for a change of queens and stoclj, all that show it. 



Our season is wet, and for the last two weeks we 

 have had a decided improvement in the honey-pro- 

 duction, and bees are booming. J. W. Porter. 



Charlottesville, Va., June 28, 1880. 



Friend P., your suggestion is a valuable 

 one. Tlie phosphate-sacks are of exactly 

 the right material, and they come so near 

 being the right size I do not know why they 

 will not answer about as well as any thing 

 we can make. Our experiments of late have 

 all indicated that it pays, and pays well, to 

 protect the hive from both heat and cold 

 while the bees are building combs and stor- 

 ing honey in sections. 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS. 



THE QUEEN THAT STOPPED LAYING. 



fHAT queen mentioned in my letter — page 

 485— commenced laying all right within three 

 days after that letter was written. My guess 

 now, and it is only a guess, is, that she had 

 previously laid drone-eggs exclusively: iuid 

 the little colony, having no use for tliat kind of 

 increase, had destroyed the larvse. 



You have done a special favor to me, and probably 

 to others, by telling your experience with Caruio- 

 lans, though it is rather disappointing. 



THE HONEY-JUMBLES. 



Will you now please publish a recipe for making 

 those honey-jumbles mentioned on page 460? It 

 might be us'eful to families who do not live within 

 range of your wagon. David Strang. 



Lincoln, Tenn., June 'Zl, 1886. 



In regard to the recipe for making honey- 

 jumbles, we have written to the manufac- 

 turers, and below is their reply : 



We should not like to sell a recipe for our honey 

 goods, as it would likely get into the hands of other 

 bakers to our injury, as we pride ourselves particu- 

 larly on the superior quality of our honeys. The 

 recipe would be of little or no beueflt to families, or 

 any one working without machinery. 



Crawford & T.wlor. 



Mansfield, Ohio, June 29, 1886." 



Now, although it seems to be true that 

 jumbles exactly as good as those we sell can 

 not be made in families, no doubt our wom- 

 en-folks, by a little experimenting, could 

 make something near it. Another thing, if 

 they are home-made they might be given to 

 the children hot. I have always been a great 

 admirer of hot cakes and cookies when they 

 are first tumbled out of the oven. It seems 

 to me they are nicer then than they ever are 

 again afterward. After the friends have 

 tested ours, and have tried their skill in 

 making something like them, we will gladly 

 publish recipes for making honey-jinnbles. 

 We can send four by mail, for samples, in a 

 pasteboard box, for 10 cents. 



a few QUERIES; ALLEY TRAP, UONEV-DEW, ETC. 



Bees are booming oon clover and honey - dew, 

 Which is the first I have seen here for 12 years. It 

 is very plentiful some days, but we had a good rain 



to-day which will perhaps piit an end to it. If you 

 will answer the following questions in Gleanings 

 it will greatly oblige me, and possibly many others. 

 How can we tell honey-dew honey from other hon- 

 ey? Have you yet captured any queens in the Alley 

 trap, and hived your swarm without climbing and 

 cutting it down? In other words, does the trap pay? 

 is it a success in hiving? In regard to the Alley 

 queen-nursery, can we raise queens with them by 

 cutting out any extra queen-cells we do not need in 

 other hives, and placing thera in the nursery and 

 keeping them in the center of any good hive? If so, 

 how long can they be kept in the nursery? and how 

 about fertilizing them? Now, I have .50 hives. I 

 want to keep from 60 to SO swarms, but always find 

 five or six hives queenless every spring. Will it pay 

 to try to raise and keep a few queens on hand, or is 

 it best to put new swarms in these queenless hives? 



W. H. RlTTER. 



North Springfield, Mo., June 16, 1886. 



Iloney-dew can be detected in sealed 

 combs by a dark shade of color which it pre- 

 sents under the cappings. By holding the 

 section or frame of capped honey between 

 you and the light, the dilference in color be- 

 tween the honey-dew honey and the clover 

 01 basswood is so great the bad portions 

 may be cut out with a knife ; the rest can 

 tlien be used for table use. Even a single 

 cell can be detected in this w^ay. Other 

 dark honey may present a similar ap- 

 pearance, but the surest test is the taste. 

 If you once get a drop of the pure 

 stutf on your tongue you will never for- 

 get its sickening flavor. — The Alley trap 

 lias been vised very successfully by us. See 

 department of Our Own Apiary of last issue, 

 and also page 461, current volume.— If I am 

 correct, Mr. Alley designed his queen -nur- 

 sery for the very purpose of keeping extra 

 queen - cells. See page 23 of his book on 

 queen-rearing. After the queens are hatch- 

 ed they are to be given a queenless colony, 

 which we do by simply letting them run in 

 on the frames. The queen will then be 

 fertilized in the ordinary manner, if she be 

 accepted by the bees, which she is, in the 

 majority of cases, with us. We use, how- 

 ever, and prefer, the lamp-nursery described 

 in our catalogue, for hatching young queens, 

 to the one used by Mr. Alley.— You could 

 probably raise your own queens if you have 

 a good queen to breed from. You will find 

 your questions more fully answered in the 

 ABC book. 



THE D.VNGER OF LEAVING QUEEN-CELLS IN A COL- 

 ONY WHERE A QUEEN HAS JUST BEEN 

 INTRODUCED. 



A most peculiar misfortune has happened to me 

 in regard to a queen I bought of you, as follows: 

 June 9th I received an untested queen from you, 

 which I immediately introduced to a colony I sold a 

 few days before to a friend. The colony having 

 swarmed before this time, I cut all the cells out and 

 put a piece of larva in. On Sunday, June 13, I look- 

 ed in and found the queen all right; but on the lar- 

 va they had started some queeu-cells which I sup- 

 posed the new queen would destroy, and so I did not 

 touch them, but put on the upper story, supposing 

 every thing was all right. This morning, the 32d, I 

 found the queen dead before the entrance. On 

 looking in I found that your queen had filled sever- 



