188G 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



869 



A. I. Root. II; hives and fixtures have any thing' 

 to do with my success I must attribute it to the 

 Heddon-Langstrotii hive, which I use exclusively. 

 I had one swarm which was queenless from 

 Sept. U'8, 1885, until June 2, 1886, which makes it !) 

 months and over. It came through with about a 

 pint of bees. 4— Jno. G. Runuingeh, Jh.— ;jl. 



Kilmanagh, Huron Co., Mich., Oct. 18, 1886. 



WHAT SHALL BE DONE WITH "THE OLD-FOGY 



F.\RMERS " WHO ARE BRINGING DOWN THE 



PRICE OF HONEY? 



We have had a good honey season here, and it is 

 of the best quality. The flow has been steady. I 

 have 100 colonies to go into winter; about 3800 lbs. 

 of my crop is disposed of; about ;J.")00 lbs. on hand. 

 I have not taken all off yet. Prices are ruling low. 

 I think it would be a protttable subject for dis- 

 cussion to decide what we are to do with a " set of 

 old-fogy" farmers and "graufl mothers " who per- 

 sist in running to town and selling their honey for 

 whatever a grocer may offer them, thus ruining 

 the market for those " in the business." 



Duncan, 111. W. H. (iiiAVES. 



liny up the honey, frieiul G., t'rom all these 

 good people, and tluis prevent them from 

 demoralizing the market. 



MY REPORT FOR THE SE.4SON OK 1^^6. 



I began with 8 hives of my own, and bought 

 three box hives, which 1 transl'erred into Simplici- 

 ties. I purchased two (ijueens of Jos. Byrne, with 

 ' 2 lb. of bees with each. I turned loose these two 

 queens and their bees, each into a colony, after 

 taking out old queens. One of these hives audits 

 increase gave me 13:5 lbs. of lionej', and increased 

 to 3 good colonies. I took, in all, 963 lbs. of honey 

 —527 lbs. of this in sections. This honey was taken 

 on pasture that does not yield 20 lbs. on an aver- 

 age to box-hive men. I attribute this success to 

 using your Simplicity hive and implements— a 

 superior knowledge of our pursuit gained by read- 

 ing, and last, but not least, plenty of hard ivorh 

 to insure success. 3— S. S. Lawing, 12-24. 



Henderson. Webster Co., Mo., Oct. 21, 1886. 



SWEET clover; a YIELD OF 70 LBS. PER COLONY, 

 FRO.M THIS PLANT ALONE. 



I send you a branch and flower of a plant that 

 has no name. It produces hi)ney of an excellent 

 quality. Our honey crop would hiive been almost 

 an entire failure had it not been for this plant. 

 It blooms twice a j'car, but seems to produce more 

 honey in the fall than in the sjiring. I have 70 

 hives of Italian bees, and did not get a pound of 

 surplus this year until this plant bloomed about 

 August 20. I have had a yield of 70 lbs. of ex- 

 tracted, and .50 of coml) honey per colony, from a 

 flower that I know to be from this jilant. 1 have 

 been watching the honey-yield from it for years, 

 and have concluded it is one of the very best hon- 

 ey-producing plants we have in this locality. It is 

 very abundant here, but is confined to the hills 

 and cliffs. It is never found in the prairies. lam 

 satisfied the yield this fall would have been much 

 larger had it not been so wet and cloudy during 

 September. J.P.Caldwell. 



San Marcos, Hays Co., Te.xas, Oct. 12, 1886. 



Why, friend C. it is a little funny if the 

 plant you send has no name. It is the com- 

 mon well-known melilot, or sweet clover. I 

 am very glad indeed to get such a good re- 

 port from it. 



'imn^ M^ QoEi^iEg. 



THE MOSQUITOS IN TEXAS. 



fEXAS, or some portions of it, have a hard time 

 this year. Great storms on the gulf coast, 

 great drought in the interior of the State, 

 besides the great i-ailroad strike in the 

 spring, i'et some counties are exempt, and 

 Brazoria is one of them, except from storms. The 

 gulf shore suffered a good deal, but crops are good. 

 Cotton and corn are good. It is reported from some 

 parts that bees did not do well; but my report 

 shows .59 colonies in the spring, 60 in October, and 

 about 700 gallons of extracted honey— not so good as 

 last year, but good enough for a bad year. At pres- 

 ent we are having a serious time fighting mosqui- 

 toes. They are so bad we can't pick cotton or do 

 any thing else here, and we have to build fires to 

 make smoke for our horses, and to milk cows. The 

 animals come to the smoke and stand with their 

 heads right in It. The stock cattle are in great big 

 herds, sometimes 200O in a bunch, to keep fighting 

 the above pests. John W. Ross. 



Phair, Texas, October 10, 1886. 



A DRONE-LAYING QUEEN. 



I have a colony of hybrid bees that have raised 

 all drones in worker-cells. I took all the brood- 

 frames out about three weeks ago, and gave 

 frames of empty comb; but they are still raising- 

 all drones. Now, is the queen worthless? or is it 

 the fault of the bees? M. Gumbert. 



Heathville, Pa., June 24, 1886. 



[Fiiend (;., you either have a fertile worker or 

 a drone-laying queen. See A B C, under head of 

 Queen-Rearing, p. 202. A queen that continues to 

 raise drones only is worthless, and she ought to 

 have been destroyed a long while ago.] 



IS it the nameless disease ? 



What ails one colony of my bees? For one 

 month the bees at one stand have been fighting 

 little black slick bees, perhaps a little over half 

 the usual size for a bee. It seems to me they 

 must be bred in the hive, for they always look as 

 if they were nearly starved. On dissecting them 

 I find there is no honey in them. The colonj- is 

 moderately strong. William Pickett. 



Deming, Hamilton Co., Ind. 



[1 think the trouble is the nameless bee-disease, 

 friend P. The shiny-black bees generally have an 

 emaciated look, something like a big black ant, and 

 they usually have a shaking, tremulous motion 

 when they riiove about. | 



TRANSPLANTING SWEET CORN. 



Noticing your enthusiasm on gardening, I will 

 just say I like very much to have early vegetables. 

 I shelled a small ear of sweet corn, made a hole in 

 my hot-bed, and covered it up, to sprout, but be- 

 fore I could get it planted it was one mass of 

 green sprouts and roots. Not wishing to thi-ow it 

 away, I concluded, by way of an experiment, to set 

 it out, and, as a result, I had nice sweet corn for 

 my dinner the 1st day of July. Mollie O. Large. 



Millersville, III. 



[Thank you, friend Mollie. I am glad to know- 

 that you love garden vegetables as well as honey- 

 plants, and that you have a hot-bed. Now, I am 

 much inclined to think that it would pay to have a 

 small patch of early sweet corn started in the way 

 you suggest, in a hot-bed or greenhouse. We could 

 be away ahead of the market, and get a big price 

 to reward us for the trouble of transplanting. 

 Since you suggest it, I think I shall have to try it op 

 fl small scale next season.] 



