GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



June 



SWEET clover; also something in regard to 



TESTING SEEDS. 



You sent me a sample of your sweet-clover seed, 

 to test the vitality, and I give you the result below. 

 As one can not expect that every seed will sprout, 

 we should take, several things in consideration in 

 testing seeds. The flowers of sweet clover grow in 

 spines, and surely the lower flowers grow larger and 

 stronger than the upper ones, and therefore produce 

 a riper and larger seed. For this we have to make 

 an allowance. Another allowance one has to make 

 is that the plants are cut when the half is ripe, so 

 one might expect that a little over half of the 

 seeds maj' sprout. The seed you sent gave, from 

 100 seeds, 56 plants, and I can say it is tiptop. Be- 

 sides this seed, I tested sevei-al other samples of the 

 same kind, but there were none that came up to 

 yours. One lot of seed brought only 35 per cent. 



Last year I bought sweet-clover seed from different 

 houses, and sowed them. Some came up, but did not 

 grow, and as I saw in another bee-paper that some 

 failed on clay soil, I investigated the matter a little 

 more, and found that where sweet clover grew was 

 a poor soil— gravel, or on piles of ashes. Even the 

 strongest and most robust plants I found on ashes, 

 and so I believe that where nothing will grow, 

 sweet clover will, and it is useless to try to sow seed 

 on clay or black loam. Chas. Faitst. 



Harvard, 111., March 15, 1884. 



Thank you, friend F., for your kind words; 

 but I fear you are giving me more credit 

 than I deserve. Our seeds are purchased 

 from a great many different sources. 

 Althougli we seldom piircliase unless we first 

 have a. sam])le. we can not always get seed 

 uniformly alike. Perhaps we happened to 

 have a yxid lot when you came in. We have 

 somethnig like testing-boxes over our steam 

 pipes to try all seeds; but as you say, there 

 are so many things tobetakeii into consider- 

 ation, I have not yet felt really satistied with 

 our tests. I l)elieve it is a fact, that sweet 

 clover grows better on a hard gravelly soil. 



BEES BUILDING COJIB WHILE CAGED FOR SHIPMENT. 



My bees are working nicely, considering the cool 

 weather, and one of the queens is laying profusely. 

 One of the cages had a piece of comb in it half as 

 large as my hand. This seems to be a little remark- 

 able, as they had no opportunity to carry any thing 

 in, out of which to make the comb. My bees are all 

 doing well. The queen with H pound of bee I got 

 of you on the 29th of last September turned out to 

 be an excellent investment; her bees all have three 

 bands, and she has built up a strong colony. 



Z. M. Cochran. 



Grafton, W. Va., April 7, 1884. 



Friend C.,we shoukllike to have our cages 

 all put in such a way that the bees would 

 build comb en route, but we can not always 

 do it. In the above case they had nothing 

 but the Good candy and no water, if I am 

 correct. 



SOMETHING MORE IN REGARD TO FRIEND ROB- 

 BINS' STRAIN OF BEES. 



Now, friend Root, I wish to say something about 

 R. B. Robbins' strain of bees. I must tell you 

 that there is a reality about them. The first I heard 

 of them was through one of my neighbors who mov- 

 ed through that part from Indiana to Mifflin, Ash- 

 land Co., O. We are near neighbors, and he told me, 

 on the way coming from Indiana, he stopped all 



night with a neighbor in that vicinity. He saw 

 those beautiful bees, and he said they were very 

 quick movers, and active in expelling robber-bees; 

 were good honey-gatherers,and had their wings more 

 elevated than the common bees, and were quicker 

 in flight, and of great endurance. I was still on the 

 lookout to see something in Gleanings, and at 

 last it came. I am a stranger to friend Robbins, so 

 you see I do not write for his interest, but I write 

 what my neighbor Koch told me. Last fall near 

 Mifflin a man cut a bee-tree and found the same 

 strain of bees with plenty of honey, but the combs 

 were too much broken to save the bees. The reason 

 that they keep their purity or particular strain is, 

 they are of a greater speed than the common bee, 

 and therefore the queens are fertilized by their own 

 drones of the same race in general. I am satisfied 

 the way neighbor Koch described the bees ; and the 

 description in Gleanings is plain, that it is the 

 same strain that friend Robbins has advertised. 

 Ashland, O., May, 1884. A. H. Baum. 



WHY DO BEES LOSE THEIR POLLEN AT THE EN- 

 TRANCE, ETC.? 



I started last spring with five colonies of common 

 bees; increased to 11; obtained 6 Italian queens 

 from J. T. Wilson, of Kentucky. I lost two in intro- 

 ducing, also lost two colonies during winter. They 

 were on summer stands, packed with straw. I took 

 over 100 lbs. of comb honey ; sold at 15 cts. per lb. The 

 A B C I received of you is better than I expected to 

 get. It is the book for bee-keepers. I could not get 

 along without it. Bees are now carrying in pollen 

 from hazel and elm. Thej- have any amount of 

 brood, and all are strong, with plenty of honey. 



I notice the bees lose a great deal of pollen at the 

 enti-ance; I did not notice anything of the kind 

 last summer or fall. What is the cause? 



Martin, Tenn. E. W. Stayton. 



I have noticed the loss of pollen too, 

 friend S., and sometimes I have thought it 

 was because the entrance was inconvenient. 

 Again, there are certain hives of bees that 

 seem to have a way of putting on bigger 

 loads than they can "get into the hives with ; 

 and the consequence is, the pollen-balls will 

 always be found around their entrances. 



OYSTER-CAN BEE-FEEDER. 



Here we are with another bee-feeder; yes, 

 a valuable one that costs nothing— one that I con- 

 sider as good as the "bread-pan" feeder in every 

 respect, except for " nesting." Wc will call it the 

 •'oyster-can" feeder. It is simply an oyster-can 

 opened on the side, and the edges trimmed off. 



HOW to use THEM. 



I feed in the upper story by putting a piece of old 

 comb in the can for a float, and another piece at the 

 outside for the bees to crawl upon; put in your 

 syrup, and call up the bees. It gives perfect satis- 

 faction. H. A. Simon. 



Lordstown, Trumbull Co., O., Feb. 8, 1884. 

 Your idea is hardly new, friend B.; but 

 for all that, I know that such feeders answer 

 very well. The objection you mention, that 

 they don't nest, is a very impoitant one; 

 and again in regard to expense, l)read-pan 

 feeders are only 4 cts. each by the hundred; 

 and can one even fix an oyster-can so as to 

 look neat for less than about the above 

 amountV The ])read-pan feeder also liolds; 

 about wice as much as the oyster-can. 



