GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



it is a pretty hard matter to furnish two un- 

 tested queens at tlie price of one, we hope 

 our friends will take all due measures to get 

 their queens to laying, before asking us to 

 send another. 



GETTING HONEY AND NOT INCREASE. 



Prof. Cook gives a plan in the June No. of Glean- 

 ings, p. 3V6, to get honey when no increase is want- 

 ed. He says, "When our first colony swarms, put 

 it in a new hive; when No. 3 swarms, hive it in No. 

 1, after cutting- out all the queen-cells, and No. 3 is 

 hived in No. 2, and so on." 



Now, as I want both honey and increase, how will 

 it work to follow Prof. Cook's plan, with this diflfer- 

 ence: When No. 1 swarms, g-ive it a new hive; when 

 No. 2 swarms, put it in No. 1, after removing three 

 frames of brood and the adhering bees, cutting out 

 all queen-cells, giving them a new queen, with 

 frames of foundation; when No. 3 swarms, give 

 them to No. 2 after No. 2 has had queen-cells cut 

 out, and three frames of brood and bees removed, 

 and so on with each swarm that comes out? Will 

 this plan work? or what are your objections to it? 

 I would have given it a trial this summer; but out 

 of 25 colonies I had only one swarm, and so far I 

 have taken only 400 lbs. of comb honey, the greater 

 part of it from locust-bloom. Basswood was a fail- 

 ure. I should have done very well this year, if all 

 my colonies had been strong, and in condition to 

 gather the locust honey; but as it was, half of them 

 did not give me an ounce of surplus, while my three 

 strongest gave each 7.5 lbs. John Major. 



Cokeville, Pa., Aug. 16, 1884. 



Tour plan will work, friend M., I think, 

 without any trouble, but I should prefer 

 hiving your new swarm on the frames of 

 brood you speak of, taking out the entire 

 colony. It seems to me that this would be 

 less complicated, and there would be no dan- 

 ger of quarreling among the bees. 



THE bees that WERE DISSATISFIED 



J have a hive of bees which showed signs of 

 swarming the 18th, when I threw water among them, 

 and also yesterday. Bees would go in with pollen 

 and come out without unloading. Yesterday I 

 opened the hive to cut out the queen-cells, and, 

 what was my astonishment when I found none; 

 but I found the comb in one of the outside frames 

 had broken loose, and fallen down. Do you think 

 the bees wanted to forsake their hive? There were 

 eggs and sealed bi-ood in the hive. This comb that 

 broke loose was built between two others, in the 

 summer of 1882; but as to its coming to the bottom 

 of the frame, I am not positive. Combs so built 

 could be filled out at the bottom, with pieces of old 

 comb. Friend Doolittle, in Aug. 1 Gleanings, page 

 516, tells us about the building of comb without fdn. 

 between two other frames, but does not say whether 

 the frames are built full. Will he please enlighten 

 us? W. W. St.\nton. 



Perth, N. Y., Aug. 22, 1884. 



Bees do sometimes desert a hive because 

 the comb has fallen down. They seem to look 

 at the matter with a sort of dismay and in- 

 decision; and even if they do soiiieliiues de- 

 cide foolishly, do not even huniau beings 

 sometimes do as badly? As a general thing, 

 I believe they go to work and take all the 

 honey out of the broken comb, and then 

 fasten it up the best they can, refilling it 



with honey. But where there are several 

 combs down, and honey coming, they often 

 seem to prefer to hunt a new home, and 

 commence it all over again. Our remedy for 

 such mishaps is wired combs. I believe 

 friend Doolittle gets his combs built full, 

 clear to the bottom-bar, although I should 

 think he would need some device for revers- 

 ing the frames in order to get them full and 

 solid. 



pyrethrum a success in keeping ants away. 

 There is no trouble in keeping- ants from honey 

 or any thing- else, if you use pyrethrum powder, 

 and most economically by the use of a powder- 

 blower. Ants would destroy my bees but for it; 

 but with it I defy them. The honey season is nearly 

 over; quality of honey excellent; and where the 

 bees wei-e in good condition, early returns fa- 

 vorable. 



THE FLOODS IN CALIFORNIA. 



We had 87'/2 inches of rain on our place, and M-ater 

 ran in streams all over the land, killing many of 

 our fruit-trees, drowning out some of our lucerne, 

 and, worst of all, keeping the weather so cold that 

 there wei-e no flowers. The streams rose to such a 

 height that we were shut out from communication 

 with the outside world. You remember we live in 

 a canon, shut in by high mountains. Then we dis- 

 covered that the inclement weather caused the bees 

 to consume more honey than ever before, and they 

 were starving. At the peril of life we succeeded 

 in getting to town, and procured sugar, and saved 

 just one-half of our swarms. Then as soon as a 

 road could be made passable, we took them six 

 miles to mouth of the canon, where they found 

 plenty of honey May 5th. We kept two swarms at 

 home, and had to feed until June 15th. Honey ex- 

 tracted since will average 50 lbs. to each hive moved, 

 and we have doubled our swarms by dividing-. 



W. W. Wilson. 



San Bernardino, Cal., Aug. 6, 1884. 



HONEY FROM RED CLOVER. 



I have kept bees, with the exception of a year or 

 two, ever since 1854 (the black bees) ; in all that time 

 I have never noticed them gathering honey from 

 red clover. This season my Italians and hybi-ids are 

 filling sections nicely from it. I have wintered 

 them all that time on their summer stands in a hive 

 made of inch boards, with no other protection; gen- 

 erally the hive was set down close on the bottom, 

 with an entrance of about 2 inches by ?s in. In sum- 

 mer they are raised on blocks at each corner. I 

 never lost a colony that had sufficient stores to win- 

 ter, neither have I lost any from dysentery. They 

 never had any upward ventilation. 



Mickleton, N. J.. Aug. 18, 1884. J. C. Haines. 



HONEY FROM COTTON.— A SMALL SWARM OF BEES. 



This has been a very poor honey season here, but 

 we are now having a fair flow of honey from cotton 

 and sunflower. Wild sunflowers grow so thick a 

 horse can hardly get thi-ough them. I see the bees 

 on them. I suppose they get honey from them. I had 

 a swarm come off last Thursday— not more than a t€a- 

 cupful of bees; they clustered, but I did not care to 

 bother with them; they hung till Saturday night; 

 hived them ; they now have a piece of comb 2 by 3 

 inches, and the queen is laying two eggs to the cell. 

 Got any smaller swarms than that? 



M. A. LUCKEY, 15—18. 



Aberfoyle, Tex., Aug-. 13, 1884. 



