1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



4.55 



hive ; but I believe that, as a rule, they are 

 mother and dau^liter. In our old volumes 

 you will notice that some queens are in the 

 habit of keeping a daughter with them to 

 lay; but after the daughter is taken away, 

 another is reared. For some time now this 

 subject has been dropped a good deal ; but I 

 should like to see investigaiions pushed on. 

 If this trait could be fixed, it would be a 

 most wonderful stride in bee culture ; and 

 why not lix it as easily as to fix the trait of 

 non-swarming V— Dipping-plates of walnut 

 will doubtless answer tiptop; but they would 

 be dear in our locality, where nice clear wal- 

 nut is SoO.OO per 1000.' 



HONEY PROM THE POPLAR AND HOLLY. 



I cut down a poplar-tree day before yesterday, 

 that was loaded with blooms, glittering- with honey, 

 but not a honey-bee could I find. Did yoii ever 

 know of bees working- on holly-bloomsV There is a 

 tree in my swamp, perhaps eight inches through, 

 that is a mass of bloom, and humming with bees 

 Irom morning till night. L. A. Duggan. 



Cuthbert, Ga., May 1, 1884. 



Friend D., I think the bees must have 

 been very busy on something else, if they 

 would not look at the poplar honey. I do 

 not know that holly has ever been reported 

 before. 



THE PROPOSED MEETING OF BEE-KEEPERS AT 

 THE WORLD'S EXPOSITION. 



Yours of the 10th inst. is at hand, and I am glad to 

 see that you are disposed to visit us during the 

 World's Exposition at New Orleans. The exposi- 

 tion is to open on the 1st of December next, and last 

 until the 31st day of May, 1885. So you see that it 

 will begin just in good time to allow you and other 

 bee-keepers to have the time to come. I only sug- 

 gested, in my letter, the months of April and May, 

 as it is really at that time that the South is most 

 pleasant to the sight, as then every thing is in full 

 bloom. But, friend Root, any time that is most con- 

 venient to you will give us much pleasure to wel- 

 come you in our midst. Trusting that we shall en- 

 joy such a meeting, I remain, in this hope, 



Yours truly, P. L. Viallon. 



Bayou Goula, La., May 31, 1884. 



Our friends will notice from the above, 

 that there has been a suggestion that the 

 bee-keepers of the world, or, at least, a por- 

 tion of them, should meet in New Orleans 

 during the great World's Exposition. It has 

 seemed to me a very proper and fitting thing. 

 We have had a very large and profitable 

 gathering in Toronto, and now why not 

 swing around among our Southern friends V 

 I believe bee-keepers generally can get away 

 from home during the winter better than at 

 almost any other time. If it were not for the 

 exposition. October and November would be 

 convenient months to get away, as far as I am 

 concerned i)ersonally ; but whatever time is 

 fixed upon, I will try to be on hand for a 

 brief visit, if nothing more. 



DKES AND riRE-FLIES. 



For 15 years I have had something to do with 

 bees; and for that length of time I have noticed 

 that good honey seasons are invariably accompa- 

 nied by vast numbers of lire-flies, or lightning-bugs. 

 When there are no bugs there is no honey. I do not 



recollect to have noticed that anybody else has ob- 

 served the same, and it occurred to me that it might 

 interest your readers. I suppose that bees and 

 these bugs all thrive on the same food, or there are 

 some conditions of atmosphere that are favorable 

 to both. Will some of j'our scientific readers ex- 

 plain it? R. H. Love. 

 Allen, Texas, June 2, 1884. 



Friend L., fire-flies are quite pleantiful 

 .iust now in our locality ; in fact, more so 

 than I have known for several years, and we 

 are having a very good flow of honey. Near- 

 ly 400 colonies are filling their hives so fast 

 that our boys have to move lively, I tell you, 

 to keep combs of fdn. in place as fast as they 

 need them. 



WHAT MADE FRIEND BOOKMYER'S BEES ACT SO ? 



During the month of May I purchased two iirst 

 swarms from a neighbor; they were hived, and re- 

 mained about three days where they clustered, then 

 I carried them home, placing them in the shade of 

 two small pear-trees. One swarm went right to 

 work, and was well satisfied, while the other was fly- 

 ing about the hive in great numbers— drones, queen, 

 and all, seeming to be dissatisfied, and apparetnly 

 not working at all. I feared they wei-o intending to 

 leave, as I read in the ABC that the old queen al- 

 waj-s goes out with the first swarm, and, thinking it 

 better to lose the queen (if such would be the case) 

 than to lose the whole swarm by absconding, I con- 

 cluded to clip her wing, which I tried, and put her 

 back into the hive. This was about ten o'clock, but 

 still they kept flying all day, and late in the evening, 

 and were still worse in the morning before I was up, 

 but in a. different manner; they were running out 

 and in, up and down the hive, as if anxiously hunt- 

 ing something. 1 instantly saw by their actions that 

 the queen had attempted to take another flight, aft- 

 er having her wings clipped, and was lost in the 

 grass , but could not find her. So 1 went to my old 

 hive and took out a frame of brood, and gave it to 

 them to raise another, and the hive was hardly clos- 

 ed before they all went in and went to work, and all 

 is well since. Please tell me if I did right in all re- 

 spects, and why the queen flew out so. 



BASSWOOD, COTTONWOOD, OR WHITEWOOD FOR 

 MAKING HIVES. 



Will basswood, cottonwood, or whitewood, make 

 good hives? As I have plenty of the above-named 

 trees, 1 think it would be cheaper than to buy pine 

 lumber. H. S. Bookmyer. 



Clyde, Sand. Co., 0., .lune 9, 1884. 



Friend li., I think all the trouble was, 

 they were a second swarm with an unfertile 

 queen ; if you gave them a comb of brood 

 they felt satisfied to stay at home. This 

 is why I would always have a comb of brood 

 with every new colony. If I am right in 

 my surmise, you clipped the queen before 

 she had been out on her wedding-flight, and 

 therefore you might just as well have clipped 

 her head olf, or. perhaps, better; because 

 then there would have been no danger of her 

 getting back in the hive. If tliey start (jueeu- 

 cells in the frame of brood, however, you will 

 know slie is not there, and you can introduce 

 a queen, or let them rear one.— You can use 

 either of these woods, but I would not recom- 

 mend them. They shrink and swell too 

 much, and the shrinking and swelling change 

 the relative distance between the frames in 



