oS8 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



four g'ood stands this spring-. On the 11th of April, 

 two left, and their hives were full of honey. They 

 went to our nearest neighbor's, and his bees killed 

 all of ours, and on the Slst of April the thii-d stand 

 left. Please tell nie why they left. Papa was 

 sorry. Ho likes to work with bees and honey. The 

 hives were all clean and nice when tiiey left. 



Fll.VSCES HE.MMEKIjY. 



Forest, Hardin Co., Ohio, June, 1880. 



I can not tell why your bees left, friend 

 Frances. It is a matter that has been much 

 discussed. Sometimes they seem to get dis- 

 couraged and swarm out because they are few 

 in numbers. It seems to be a sort of mania 

 some certain seasons. A few years ago we 

 used to liave a good deal of complaint of 

 swarming out in early spring ; but of late 

 we have seen but very little of it. I think 

 strong colonies are the liest preventive. 



now TO MAKE HOXEY C.^NDV. 



My pa takes GLE.\NtNGS, and I like to road the 

 juvenile letters. Pa has 50 colonics of bees, and he 

 clips his qu?ens' wing-s, and thinks he can hive bees 

 a g-reat deal better that way than any other way. I 

 will tell yoa how wo make honey taffy to make it 

 look like storo candy. We boil our honey until it is 

 stitJ enoug-h to pull, then we pour it into greased 

 pan's and let it cool ; then we take it out, dividing it, 

 leaving part red, and take the other part and pull it 

 till it is as white as we can get it; then we draw 

 both the white and rod out to the size of a stick of 

 store candy, then twist thein together, making 

 striped candy; then lay it on a plate. Ma uses 

 honey for almost every disease. 



Forest City, Mo. Lizzie E. Pint vis, age 13. 



Thank you, friend Lizzie, for your simple 

 recipe for making lioney candy. I have no 

 doubt but tliat it will make a very whole- 

 some and nice confectionery— mucii better, 

 indeed, than the cheap candies we buy. I 

 think I shall have to get that queen clerk (I 

 mean my other half) to make some, and I 

 will then report how we like it. By the way. 

 is it not a good idea to devise as many new 

 uses for honey as we can? Our friend Muth, 

 of Cincinnati, is getting boney introduced 

 for mechanical purposes. Our friends Craw- 

 ford & Taylor, the bakers, mentioned in 

 another column, have succeeded in making 

 what I call extra nice honey-jumbles. Our 

 friend Arthur Todd, of Philadelphia, makes 

 and advertises honey candies. You see, all 

 these different uses for honey help to raise 

 the price of it. Shall we not have more re- 

 ports (get your mamma to help you) on how 

 to make honey candies, lioney-cakes, etc.V 

 Eknest. 



SHALL WE KILL, SWARMS TOO WEAK TO WINTER? 



Two j'ears ago we started with one swarm of bees. 

 There were no swarms the first year. Last year we 

 increased three and killed one that was not strong 

 enough to go through the winter, and now we have 

 11. Two got away; all were by natural swarming. 



Tilden, HI., June 9, 1886. S. J. & Wm. M. Boyd. 



Thank you, friends S. J. & W. M.; but 

 why siiould you kill a swarm because it was 

 too weak to winter V Why did you not do 

 the best you could with it, and run your 

 cliances of its living througli the winter V 

 You see. you would liave been so niucli 

 ahead if it had survived, 



A KIND WORD FOR MRS. COTTON. 



T HAVE received several letters from bee-keepers 

 j£|[ asking me if Mrs. Cotton ever sent me the col- 

 ^l ony of bees that she promised to send me this 

 "*■ spring. She did. About the first cf May I re- 

 ceived from Mrs. Cotton a swarm of nice Ital- 

 ian bees ill shipping-bo.x, and 1 don't think tlie.y arc 

 interior to Prof . Cook's celebrated strain, which is 

 saying a great deal, for 1 have some that came from 

 his apiary. I will tell what else was in that bo.v. 

 There was as fine a queen as I ever saw. I put them 

 into the Controllable hive that Mrs. C. sent me last 

 year. They have given me two large swarms, and 

 are working in the sections, and gathered more 

 honey than any other colony that I have; so, score 

 one for Lizzie. Hiram Adams. 



Port Austin, Mich., June 28, ISSR. 



[We are very glad to get the above report, friend 

 A. With the very large prices Mrs. Cotton charges 

 for whatever she advertises, she certainly ought to 

 give qood meatmre and (y()(;d quality, and we are very 

 glad if she is beginning to do so.l 



CONDITION POWDERS, EGG FOODS, CATTLE FOODS, 

 ETC. 



[It seems the Philadelphia Farm Journal looks at 

 these things a good deal as 1 do. We clip the fol- 

 lowing from a recent number:] 



We have no faith in condition powders, condiment- 

 al foods, egg foods, and the like. They are all in 

 the same boat with patent medicines. A poultry 

 powder that sells for 60 cents a box was found by 

 Prof. Jordan, of Maine, to contain 84 per cent of 

 mineral matter, chiefly ground shells and a little 

 bone, the rest being water and organic matter. A 

 celebrated cattle food was found to be composed 

 chiefly of wheat bran and corn meal, with a trifle of 

 fenugreek, and a little sulphur. This was sold at 8 

 cents a pound. 



DOES THE DRUMMING ON TIN PANS BHING DOWN 

 SWARMS ? 



In the June 15th No. I see an article from J. J. H., 

 in reply to which you sa}' you would like to know if 

 drumming on tin pans, or any noise that is produced 

 to arrest a swarm of bees, does any good. I can tell 

 you that any noise that may be made when a swarm 

 issues, to drown the noise of the leaders of that 

 swarm, will settle them on the nearest branch that is 

 accessible. I have come to this conclusion from 

 four years of e.xpericnco in the bee-business. When 

 I was there with my tin pans I always saved a 

 swarm; when not, they were lost. 



Samuel D. Bates. 



Sikeston, Scott Co., Mo., June 15, 1886. 



MRS. GULP TELLS US SOMETHING ABOUT HER NEW 

 PUPIL. 



Please accept thanks for the neat little compli- 

 ment paid rac by yourself and our brother "Just 

 Hatched." Permit me to introduce him to you and 

 the bee keeping brt?thrcn and sisters generMliy as 

 our minister, the Kev. J. S. Rickets, of the Ohio 

 Conference, hoping you will all c.yteud to him the 

 right hand of fellowship— I'm quite sure you will all 

 feel quite proud of him when you form his ac- 

 quaintance, for he is, in my estimation, a very pre- 

 cocious bee-keeper. Just think of his writing for 

 the bee-journals before he is a month old! With 

 his and wife's assistance occasional^', things are 

 moving on grandly in the apiar.v. 



jlilliard, 0., July 1, 188Q. ' Jenkje CULP. 



