1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



673 



been offered for sale. In my opinion, how- 

 ever, it is no more clanp^erons than the com- 

 mon borate, and eitluT one of them may be- 

 come a troublesome weed. 1 presume, es- 

 pecially on farms and in L!,ardens where 

 weeds are allowed to be troublesome. We 

 have tried several times to get blue thistle 

 to grow on our honey-farm, but it has all 

 died out now, so we shall have to try again. 



A SUBSTITUTE FOIl THE HII.I-. DEVICE. 



Instead of the Hill device, use the cheap wooden 

 plates and butter-dishes lurnished by grocers, or 

 two of the Hat pint gift berry-boxes, with a notch 

 cut out of the two sides that join when inverted 

 over the top of frames. 



To prevent wide frames with section boxes from 

 sag-g-ing- (I like to have mine sag), place 4 section 

 boxes in one end of frame, mark the four edges of 

 frame (in center) at side of boxes with a sharp knife, 

 sinking the blade Js of inch. Start a 3-oz. tack in 

 center of top of frame; pass No. 30 wire around 

 frame in the notches; fasten to tack, and drive it 

 home; put in the other 4 sections, and let them sag. 

 When they weigh one lb. each, cut the wire and see 

 them drop out. This saves the bees cari-ying a 

 large amount of propolis, and leaves the box clean. 

 Small-fry bee-keepers can not afford a saw-kerf and 

 a backbone of tin in the bottom-bar of the wide 

 frame. H. M. HawIjEY. 



Terre Haute, Ind., Sept. 1, 1884. 



WHY ARE QUEENS BAUUEI);' 



The queen T ordered of you arrived in apparently 

 fine shape, lively, and all right. I put her into a 

 colony from which I had previously removed the 

 queen, and in 48 hours I released her. Apparently, 

 she was received all right; but, according to your 

 directions, I looked again in about 20 or 30 minutes, 

 and found her balled. I rescued her by means of 

 smoker, and again caged her. The next day I re- 

 peated the operation, only I simplj' closed the hive, 

 and immediately opened it again, when I again 

 found the bees had balled her. T again rescued her, 

 apparently all right; but on looking next morning 

 I found her dead. 



SWARMING OUT WITHOUT A QUEEN. 



] received the co})ies of Gleanings, and see you 

 have quite a controversy thei-ein about whether a 

 queenless colony ever swarms. LcV uw tell you 

 what happened me this season. 1 had a colony of 

 blacks from which I took the queen and 3 frames of 

 brood and liees, and put them in a hive by them- 

 selves, to start a new colony. To the original colo- 

 ny on Saturday, June 28,1884,1 introduced one of 

 your select tested queens. I released the queen on 

 Monday following, and went to my office, as they 

 had received her all right. About two o'clock one 

 of the children came in breathless haste to tell me 

 they had cast a tine swarm. I went home and hived 

 them. The next morning I looked the oi'iginal colo- 

 ny over, and found my (lueen, so I knew the swarm 

 had no (lueen. I went over to where they were, and 

 found them acting just as a queenless colony does 

 —running hither and thither, apparently all on the 

 hunt. That afternoon I received two queens from 

 you for a neighbor, one of which he insisted I should 

 give them, which I did, and to-day it is one of the 

 finest Italian colonies I have. C. M. Koheuts. 



Chillicothe, Ohio, Sept. It, 1884. 



Friend R., I have been for a long time 

 aware that opening a hive where the (pieen 



had been just introduced (especially if the 

 bees receive her under protest) would often 

 cause them to ball her, and I have seen such 

 queens balled almost every time a hive was 

 opened. Tiiey usually let them go, however, 

 after a little time— not always, though, for 

 sometimes they arc killed just" after the hive 

 was last opened.— I do not know but we shall 

 have to give up, friend 11., so many cases are 

 brought forward where bees have evidently 

 swarmed with no tpieen. 



BEES following TUK QUEEN ON HER WEDDING- 

 TRIP. 



R. N. Leach, on page .599, asked: "What would 

 bees that swarmed out with a queen on lier wed- 

 ding-flight do if hived?" I reply: June 31, 18815, 

 about 3 p. M., I had a swarm issue with a queen T) 

 days old. I hived them inside of an hour, and gave 

 them a comb of brood and eggs. Next morning 

 when I went out (before sunrise), the bees were 

 leaving the hive continuously, 3 and 4 at a time, go- 

 ing back to the hive from which they issued. I im- 

 mediately looked the old stand over, and found the 

 queen had returned, either late the evening before, 

 or very soon that morning, as she was certainly put 

 in tlie new hive with the bees, for I saw lier go in, 

 and I particularly examined the old hive an hour 

 after I had hived the bees from it. This was an Ital- 

 ian queen raised in a hive of black bees from a 

 single cell inserted in the hive. All the bees return- 

 ed and left the comb of brood after about an hour, 

 except, possibly, a dozen that remained on the 

 comb of brood when 1 took it out. 



Abbott L. Swinson. 



Walter, Wayne Co., N. C, Sept. 8, 1884. 



Friends., an unfertilized queen is often 

 up to so many antics that it is hard laying 

 down any iiilcs as to wliat they may do." In 

 your case I suppose she trotted out as soon 

 as it was ligiit enougii to see; and the bees 

 being hent on following her, as is shown by 

 their leaving on the day before, they desert- 

 ed their comb and brood and went after her. 



SUNFLOWERS FOB BEES. 



My sunflower seed was supplied me by Landretli 

 & Sons as "Russian Mammoth." All lean say is, 

 that my bees,— blacks, hybrids, and Italians, and a 

 few Holy-Lands,— work on the sunflower morning, 

 noon, and night. During the recent dearth of food, 

 and rainy weather, in ten minutes after the ceasing 

 of a rain storm there would be an average of C to 8 

 bees on every sunflower. I spent hours watching, 

 to make sure, and no pollen was gathered. IMy bees 

 took all theirs from five acres of sweet corn I have. 

 Arthur Todd. 



Germantown, Pa., Aug. 2L 1884. 



TURPENTINE FOR A FELON. 



I have just read the felon cure published l)y Mrs. 

 Myra L. Parson, on page C03 of Gleanings, and the 

 astute manner in which you reason out the true in- 

 wardness of the recipe made me smile. You are 

 indeed right. No turnip, wild or tame, has any thing 

 to do witli the cure; it is the turpentine, pure and 

 simple. Wrap tlie linger in a rag, and saturate it a 

 few times with turpentine, and the felon will be 

 killed, provided it has not gone too far into ulcera- 

 tion. I speak from experience on my own fingers. 



Tcne Haute, Ind. T. H. Kloer. 



Tlianks, friend K. I was inclined to think 

 it was the turpentine in the recipe given ; 

 but this could be determined i)ositively only 



