1884 



gLeanikgs in bee culture. 



531 



PERFORATED ZINC HONEY-BOARDS. 



My Italian bees work nicely through the zinc 

 honey-boards. The queen has never passed into 

 the second stories. I would not be without the zinc 

 boards for any thing. Place a frame of brood in 

 the center of the upper story if the bees are back- 

 ward about working- there. 



INTRODUCING GOOD QUEENS TO SMALL NUCLEI. 



I have lost two prolitic queens by removing them 

 from full colonies to two-frume nuclei. They be- 

 came disgusted, and " walked out," leaving the lit- 

 tle colonies to "paddle their own canoes." Put 

 them in with four to six frames, and I think they 

 would remain. W. E. H. Searcy. 



Griffin, Ga., July 16, 1884. 



Friend S., I am sorry you did not tell lis 

 the size of perforated zinc you use — proba- 

 bly, however, the large perforations. — I 

 know it is not good policy to introduce very 

 prolific queens to small nuclei, for they will 

 get the combs filled with eggs, and then 

 leave the hive, as you say. 1 once had a 

 large beautiful yellow queen reared in a 

 small nucleus, but she would not lay an egg. 

 After w aitlng several weeks I thought that 

 I would, before destroying her, try her in a 

 full colony. 8he commenced laying at once, 

 and proved to be a good queen. 



TOO iMANY BEES. 



1 wish to put a case to you, on which, if you have 

 opportunity, you may give me your opinion. I have 

 now 73 stocks. I am in a poor country for bee for- 

 age, and, if I started ne.xt season with, say, 30 or 40 

 stocks, that is about as large a number as in an or- 

 dinary season could be handled profitably. I can 

 not find sale for my surplus stocks. You say it is 

 barbarous to brimstone them. What else can I do 

 with them? J. K. Edwards. 



Anacostia, D. C, July 24, 1884. 



Friend E., it seems to me you can certain- 

 ly find sale for the bees at some price, either 

 in your immediate neighborhood or by ad- 

 vertising. If you have made a success of 

 bee culture there must surely be more or 

 less who are thinking of taking up the busi- 

 ness, and who would like to get a colony or 

 two for a start. I think I should advertise 

 in the local papers. If you are prepared to 

 furnish text-books on bee culture for the 

 benefit of those who want to learn, this will 

 pave the way. It seems to me there can 

 hardly be a place in our land where bees can 

 not be sold to better advantage than to de- 

 stroy them. Perhaps some of our readers 

 who see this notice will be willing to take 

 them off your hands. 



TAKING THE LITTLE BEES FOR AN EXAMPLE. 



My bees are in the old-fashioned hives, 4 boards 

 nailed together, and sticks across, but they are 

 working finely, and filling up vei-y fast. If they 

 live over winter I am going to get the Simplicity 

 hive, and transfer them. I am taking quite an in- 

 terest in bees, and love to sit and watch the little 

 fellows come in so heavily laden, and often think if 

 we worked as hard for our heavenly Master as they 

 work, how much better would this world be. If my 

 bees do not live over, I am going to send to you in 

 the spring and get a start, as I am bound to havo 

 bees. Geo. W. Legg. 



Latham, Ohio, July 16, 1884. 



TWO SWARMS IN ONE DAY FROM THE SAME COLONY. 



In the spring I had 4 colonies of bees; now I have 

 8, besides one I sold, and I have taken about 130 lbs. 

 of honey. I had one colony that sent out a first 

 swarm in the morning; they settled, and I hived 

 them, and that evening they sent another swarm; 

 but I soon found that the first swarm had no queen. 

 I gave them a queen-cell contaiijing a young queen, 

 and they went right to work. 



Michael U. Harbold. 



Underwood, Ind., July 33, 1884. 



Friend II., there are two very singular 

 things in the above. One is, that a swarm 

 should go out without a queen; and the 

 other is, that they should send out two 

 swarms in one day. I presume likely you 

 hived the swarm with a frame of brood, and 

 this, caused them to stay, and very likely 

 you hived them so quickly that they did not 

 have a chance to go back as they would have 

 done when they discovered the old queen 

 was not with them. I am inclined to think, 

 however, that a large part of them did go 

 back, and these made enough to try it again, 

 and this last time they succeeded 'in taking 

 the old queen along with them. 



QUEENS CROSSING THE OCEAN BY MAIL; MORE 



SUCCESS. 



In your reply to one of your correspondents in the 

 issue for July 15, you asked if any others have re- 

 ceived queens from Frank Benton, Germany, by 

 mail, in good order. I also have received one by 

 mail in as good condition, apparently, as those from 

 Ohio or Michigan. She was mailed at Munich, July 

 3d, arrived here July 17. There were 6 bees dead 

 and 15 alive, besides the queen, all flue and lively; 

 the sugar candy about half consumed. The re- 

 maining candy in one side of the cage was in good 

 condition. The cage was all wood, and no provision 

 for water. C. L. Brooks. 



Deansville, N. Y., July 21, 1884. 



QUEENS ACROSS THE OCEAN, AGAIN. 



In Gleanings of the 15th, I see F. W. Burgess re- 

 ceived a queen from Benton by mail. You ask, 

 "Has any one else been equally successful?" I 

 have the pleasure to so report. I received in one 

 cage two queens that were shipped July 3, arriving 

 here on the 17th as lively as crickets, not a dead bee. 

 Another one came on the morning of the 19th, post- 

 marked Munich, Ger., July 7. This one had two 

 dead bees only. The cages are very simple in con- 

 struction, and the most remai-kable part of it was, 

 not a drop of water in their cages, showing conclu- 

 sively that water is not necessarj' in slu'pping 

 queens, provided the candy is in proper condition. 



Coatesville, Pa., July 35, 1884. Geo. H. Reess. 



Friend R., I am greatly rejoiced to hear of 

 your success. If you will mail me one of 

 those cages I will" have an engraving made 

 of it. It is cei-taiidy a matter for which we 

 may well l»e thankful, that it is now fully 

 demonstrated theic is no need of water in \\ 

 cage, even for long distances. If they go 

 across the ocean they will go anywhere else. 

 It seems to me we 'might almost give three 

 cheers for the success of this thing we have 

 been so long anxious about. 



BASSWOOD A FAILURE. 



Bees were doing finely here before the first of 

 July; but about that time the drought began totake 



