478 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JULY 



a pound of bees and queens, and fill those 60 hives, 

 oi- would the hives be better to rest till a j-ear comes 

 to wariant honey? 



While in Kansas City I visited Mr. Hayhurst. Ho 

 is the most pleasantand accommodating' gentleman 

 I ever met; but all bee-men ai-e the same, are they 

 not? Every thing- in Mr. Hayhurst's apiary was in 

 good order; not a stray lent" seemed to till the path 

 of his bees, and he seems to be willing- to Italianize 

 all the neighbors' bees gratis, so as to keep up a 

 good strain in the vicinity of his apiary. 



CARUYISO EGGS TO QUEENLESS HIVES. 



One other question please answer me. Will it aid 

 matters any to take the cgg-s of the old queen, after 

 removing- her from the hive, to a nucleus of one or 

 two frames? Will it do to place her frames of eg-g-s 

 back in the queenless hive as fast as she tills a card, 

 as she has only a few bees with her, and replace the 

 same with sealed brood? Mrs. L. C. Doxxei.t.v. 



Valmont, Col., June 14, 1884. 



My friend, I am sure I am very mucii 

 obliged indeed for your very kind "opening- 

 words. It makes me feel, as sucli kind 

 words often do, bow inucli more I need, not 

 only grace and wisdom, but strenglli from 

 on bigli, to enable me to do tbe woik that 

 lies before me. Your tirst tron])lp, it teems 

 to me. came from tliat visit. I liave some- 

 times thouglil tliat hee-kecjiers had no busi- 

 ness going visiting at all ; but iieihaps I had 

 better modify it, and say they had better be 

 careful liow they make very loug visits when 

 their l)ees are not in proper trim to take care 

 of themselves during your absence.— It is 

 nothing veiy umisual to have a dearth of 

 honey at almost any time in tlie season. In 

 fact, we have heresometimps l)een ol)liged 

 to feed almost tlirough tlie whole month of 

 June, but we had a good lioney-yield after 

 that. If you had a whole season so bad that 

 forty colonies failed togiveyou lionev enough 

 for your table, I believe it is worse than any 

 thing I ever knew or heard of. l]ut even if 

 you should have such an experience, I should 

 by no means give up. If two sacks of gran- 

 ulated sugar were not sufficient to jnit the 

 forty in proper wintering trim. I would buy 

 more sugar, and continue feeding, no matter 

 what it cost. If I sliould have Ihrcc ijears 

 witli the seasons pretty much like tlie ime 

 we have been talking about. I think I should 

 then give up bee-keeping, or trv a new local- 

 ity. I am loth to believe, liowevtr. that a 

 locality can be found so bad as that. Were 

 your bees not neglected when you were off 

 visiting V It seems to me I could get the 

 honey if 1 were in yom- place, although I 

 may be mistaken. AVe liave had s-^me pret- 

 ty fair reports from ('olorad(^ I believe.— 

 ]}ees do need water, and must have it. In 

 localities wliere no rain falls. tl:ey usually 

 practice irrigation, I believe, and this ought 

 toenal)le bets to get all the water they want. 

 —We divide our l;ees, instead of swiirming \ 

 them artilicially.— You ask what you shall j 

 do with a yard full of emi)ty combs. Keep , 

 them until they are needed; but i>rotect 

 them, according to directions in the A B (" 

 book, from the ravages of the moth.— No, I 

 would not buy lialf a pound of bees. nf)r any 

 other quantity. What is the use of buying 

 them when they do you no good V Besides, 

 if I am correct you have too many already. 



Why increase to so large an apiary until you 

 know you can make them amount to some- 

 thing v—i am very glad to hear of your visit 

 to friend Hayhurst. — You can take eggs 

 from the queens and give to a queenless col- 

 ony, and we often do this. Usually it is 

 considerable trouble, especially where there 

 are many hives to be worked in that way.— 

 I have been thinking, since answering your 

 letter, that it would not l)e strange if, l)y 

 this time, you sliould be in the midst of a 

 wonderful honey-yield. You will see, l)y 

 looking over our "back volumes, that sucii 

 has liappened a great many times to those 

 who were just about ready to give up. When 

 you liave a better report, my friend, we shall 

 be glad to hear from you again. 



MORE ABOUT THE HONEY - DEW. 



DOUBT NOW AS TO WHERE IT COMES 

 NOR— WHAT IT TASTES LIKE. 



HE honey season has not thus far Ixeen very 

 good, as the bees neglect white clover to 

 work on the production of the maple-bark 

 louse, and a tine lot of the miserable stuff 

 we have got, having extracted 50 lbs. from 

 the upper story of a chaff hive, and, of course, the 

 lower story is full. No doubt we can feed it back 

 in the spring, hut it will keep our bees busy to eat it 

 all; but we trust their appetites will be as good as 

 their disposition to sting, and there will be no dan- 

 ger but our poor honey will become mm est in short 

 meter. Hybrids have worked on red clover with us, 

 and more honey has been obtained from that source 

 than from white clover. In all our tramps through 

 the woods we have failed to see a single sign of a 

 basswood-bud, and only on a tree here and there in 

 the o])en fields is there a sign of a blossom to be 

 seen. No doubt the bark louse has destroyed them 

 to a great extent, as they covered all our timber 

 here to such an extent that on black-walnut the 

 limbs look as if covered with tufts of cotton. 



Prof. Cook speaks of the scale being ;^8 of an inch 

 long; in this section it was not nearly as large; in- 

 stead of lapping over each other they were piled 

 one < n to)> of another edgewise, and every way, 

 completely covering the branches and main limbs, 

 down on tlie body of the tree. Basswood, bitter-nut, 

 hickory, and walnut were the most affected; and re- 

 garding the quality of the honey, we have H. H. 

 Pease, on page 4.S8, who tells it exactly, and we 

 would add that a hog ivon't ea.tit, for we trieJ it, 

 and the hog was hungry too. 



Koehester, Ohio, .July 



M. W. Shepherd. 



IJy to-day's mail I send you a small tin vial of 

 honey-dew, which we have here, quite a quantity of 

 it in honey-boxes, and the brond-coml)s arc filled 

 with it. I don't fancy the taste; it is not bad-look- 

 ing honey, but I am afraid it may hurt the honey 

 market unless we are a little careful. It came from 

 buir-oaks, hickory, maple, and on almost all of the 

 trees. A few days ago I saw on the soft-maple a 

 small round web, with a small worm inside. I sent 

 a sample to A. .1. Cook to-day; and on other trees I 

 saw the leaves have a great many warts and little 

 sacs on the under side. I have not stopped to see 

 what is in them. Y. W. Keenev. 



Shlrland, 111., June JiT, 1884. 



