52G 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aro. 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS, 



BLACK BEES ON BED CLOVER. 



HAVE seeu SO much said in Gleanings about 

 bees working on red clover, it has caused me 

 to notice something- about it; so a day or so 

 since I was in a lot of red clover, and I noticed 

 quite a number of black bees on that clover. 

 They seemed to be very busy atwork, justthe same 

 as thej' do on white clover, so you may put it down 

 that my bees, which are black, work on red clover. 

 T have now 80 colonies at woi-k ; one of those colo- 

 nies seems to suffer a heap of drones among them. 

 Just now I wish I had some of your drone-traps. 



HONEY-DEW ON THE HICKORY AND WHITE-OAK. 



Well, in regard to honey-dew there has been an 

 immense quantity of it here. Woods have been 

 strewn with it; but it seemed to be confined prin- 

 cipallj' to the Avhitc oak and hickory. In early 

 spring it was on peach-trees. The frequent showers 

 of the last few days have washed it off from the 

 leaves somewhat. Bees are quite rich in this sec- 

 tion. 



DELAYS IN GETTING GOODS. 



I got the bo.xes after a long time, that I ordered 

 of you in April. I sent to the depot several times: 

 was told that there was nothing for me, so at last I 

 went myself and found them, and informed the 

 agent that I wanted them. He said very quickly, 

 " Oh, yes I thcij have hccn here for some time." 



C. Watson. 



Yanceyville, Caswell Co., N. C, June -SO, 1881. 



Friend W., your concluding item reminds 

 me of one of the sad weaknesses of human- 

 ity. There is an old adag'ealxmt ,*>-()in,u your- 

 self for any thins,-, instead of seiiiliii.u- some- 

 body ; and it is a fact, that there is only a 

 small portion of humanity who are capable 

 of doing an errand thoroughly ; and espe^ 

 cially do errands at express and freight of- 

 fices turn out vexation sly. The one who 

 does the errand does not understand, or 

 perhaps does not care very much ; and when 

 he meets an agent after the same fashion, 

 trouble ensues as a matter of course. I 

 presume it is the half-heartedness of the 

 world that is at the bottom of a great deal of 

 it. Here in our own factory, over and over 

 I am told certain goods are out ; but I have 

 so often found it a mistake, tliat I feel sure 

 I can furnish the required article, even be- 

 fore I look, and I almost always find it. 



report from iow.\. 

 At this date we have fair prospects of a good hon- 

 ey-harvest. This year has been the best, all things 

 considered, that we have ever known, for colonies 

 to be self-sustaining. We have had a moderate flow 

 ever since the first maple-leaves began to I'orm 

 honey-dew, or aphides honey, first; and then clover, 

 and now basswood, which is gi\ing a good fair yield, 

 far in excess of white clovei", which was very short, 

 on account of the dry rainless weather. We put 

 our first honey on the market this spring the first of 

 June. AVe have the greater part of our honey 

 commissioned by the gi-ocerymen of our neighbor- 

 ing towns. We make a combination stand for them 

 to retail from, holding both comb and extracted 

 honey. The stand has two shelves; the lower one 



in front; the glass slips in from the top 

 between two saw-cuts, making it easy to remove 

 for cleaning, etc. On the back is a hinged door that 

 drops down from the top, and is fastened in place 

 by two buttons. It holds four sections long and two 

 high and four thick. The top shelf holds two rows 

 of Mason's quart .jars, and on top of them are two 

 rows of pound tumblers, which, all together, makes 

 a very fair display of honey. We are trying a few 

 thousand sections made of veneering. They are all 

 in one piece, and nailed. They seem to answer all 

 purposes for home market, but would not, we think, 

 do for shipment, especially long distances. 



VIRGIN QUEENS WITH IMPERFECT WINGS. 



Have you ever had much trouble with virgin 

 queens with imperfect wings? We are troubled 

 very much that way this spring, as well as one of 

 our neighboring bee-keepers. Our bees are mostly 

 hybrids, but we can't see but that they make as 

 much honey and increase as the full-blood Italians. 

 Ouronlyobjection is their crossness. Weareatpres- 

 ent realizing 13' 2 cts. for extracted and 20 cts. 

 for comb in one-pound sections. Comb honey takes 

 the preference. C. D. & L. V. Lf.vehing. 



Wiota, Iowa, July 17, 1S84. 



Yes, friend L., there is always more or 

 less trouble with tlie queens with imperfect 

 wings, although we have had but compara- 

 tively few this season. One advantage in 

 using tlie lain)) ninsery is, that no hive is 

 ever troubled with a queeen with bad wings, 

 for such iire never allowed to go into tlie 

 hive at all; whereas if hatched in the natiu-al 

 way they may leave the colony dwindling 

 along tor weeks before the ti-ouble is dis- 

 covered. Thanks for your description of 

 your retail case. 



REPORT FROM A YOUNG BEE-KEEPER. 



We have .50 hives of bees; did not lose any last 

 winter in the cellar; they have just begun to 

 swarm; have had five come out; one went back 

 again after they were hived. What do you suppose 

 was the matter with them"? We got 2000 lbs. honey 

 last year, in comb, and sold it at 12' 2 cts. They are 

 making honey from white clover now. Why is it, 

 that when one goes out in the apiarj-, or anywhere 

 near it, there are some bees always on hand to 

 chase you? It seems as though there were a few 

 bees that did nothi'ng but watch for you, and begiu 

 to buzz and thump your hat as soon as you appear. 



Mitchellville, Iowa. (i. S. Fox. 



Yes, my friend, I have often tliought that 

 there Avere just about so many mean, med- 

 dlesome sneaks around almost every apiary, 

 that did nothing but fly around and i)ester a 

 body. These bees are always ready to steal ; 

 and when we used to keep" grape "sugar out 

 under the maple-trees, it seemed to have the 

 effect of calling these bees out of the way, 

 for they would rather sit there and steal a 

 poor quality of sugar than to go into the 

 fields aiul work for nice honev, as the others 

 did. " 



HONEY FROM THE OAK. 



The season has been very unfavorable for bees in 

 this locality; they have not stored a pound of sur- 

 plus honey yet. The white sumac has gone and left 

 the hires nearly empty; but the last week I found 

 the}' were getting honey somewhere, and it puzzled 

 me to find what they got it from; but finally I dis- 



