HO: 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



lioiiey to soil, iiiitl euoiig-h for our visual spring' feed- 

 iug-. We iirediot lieuvy losses in all this section of 

 the eiiiinti-y, us ii s'l'Ciit porlio:!. ut lea^t. of colonics 

 tliul sent out new swarms are desl itute of stores. 

 Our small surplus eanie Ironi lii-s! swai-ms, and col- 

 onics that iliiiu't s\(arin. We ti'leii all kinds of 

 crates, raeks, am! w iih' liames over the bees for 

 comb li(iue.\ ilie past season, but the season was so 

 lioor tiiat lioiu (i\er riO hi\-es we ran for honey in 

 Mil. sections, we oliiainod only lOOtinished sections. 



'IMK !li:i>l)()N Hi)NKV-fl{ATES. 

 We useil I-.' Ileddoii eases, and we believe them 

 alieud of ail nlhers llial we Isave used for comb 

 honey. We tried two of those cases witliont sepa- 

 rators, and every comb was built straight. Bees 

 can beeome too stronjj- to work advantajjeously in a 

 slng-le tier of sections, therefore we favoi- the 

 tiering--iip jilan. 



FOU.ND.VTIOX IN THK Bl{0()D-( HAJIBEH. 



A great deal has been said and discussed whether 

 it pays to use I'dn. or not in the brood-ehambei*. 

 This is a question to us like a g-ood many others be- 

 ing' discussed in regard to bee culture, and that is, 

 your locality has a good deal to do with it. We were 

 of the opionion last year that it did not pay to use 

 fdn. in the brood-chamber. Our swarming' season 

 usually commences in May, and the honey-How not 

 until August. The bees have plenty of time to 

 build comb, and usually build straighter comb from 

 '2-inch starters. There will not be drone-comb 

 enough built to paj' for extra cost. 



HYBRIDS AHE.\D OF PURE ITALIANS. 



In the past three seasons we closely observed (to 

 our sorrow at first) where our largest yield of honey 

 came from. It was from colonies that have a dash 

 of black blood. These are facts with us, although it 

 would nearly break our hearts when we would oc- 

 casionally find our young queens had met black 

 drones, and as a result these colonies turn out the 

 strongest and best accumulations of honey. Hut 

 you do not want to let the cross go more than once 

 into the black blood. With us the latter have prov- 

 ed very inferior, while the It-aliau queen mated 

 with a black drone has given us better honey-gath- 

 erers than pure Italians. If there is any honey to 

 be had, the hybrids always manage to "get there," 

 though in such a season as this they are the mean- 

 est bee on earth, e.vcept the blacks. They will not 

 defend their hives as well as the Italians. They 

 will sneak around the hive-covers trying to get in; 

 and in four times out of five, it there is any trouble 

 anywhere in the apiary, the hybrids are at the bot- 

 tom of it, either robbing or being robbed. In a sea- 

 son, however, of continuous honey-llow we would 

 Ijrefer them for the following reason: They enter 

 the sections sooner, swarm less, and we can take 

 honey about twice as fast from thera in extracting 

 time; for all purposes and all seasons as they come, 

 we will take the pure Italians, so you see we some- 

 tinies favor one and sometimes the other. 



THE CrPRIANS. 



Last March we sent to B. F. Carroll, Dresden, 

 Texas, for a tested Cyprian queen, and introduced 

 her to a full colony of Italians. We rushed this col- 

 ony for increase by natural swarming to 7 

 colonies. We are of the same opinion as your 

 neighbor H. about the Cyjirians; that is, ours are 

 the gentlest bees in the apiary. Through all our 

 manipulations, and they were various, we did not 

 receive a single sting fi-om thera the past season. 



Jlowever, through ttjcir repufatlou for vicious- 



I ness we handled them carefully— very carefully at 

 ; first, often using no smoke, and very little at any 

 time. My husband sums up their good qualities as 

 j follows: He thinks they are more intelligent than 

 : other bees. They do not follow you around the 

 ; apiai'.\- like hybrids, and sometimes Italians, trying 

 to pick a quarrel. They stay in their hives in bad 

 weather, alight sooner when they swarm, and will 

 I'un in sooner when they are dumped in front of the 

 hive, and ours bore crowding well before the.y 

 swarmed. As honey-gatherers they are superior to 

 any bees in the apiary. This colony raised, with 

 the first batch of swarms, 68 queen-cells. Another 

 good quality, they are robber-proof with us, as we 

 never see a robber fooling around the Cyju-ians very 

 long at a time. One disadvantage we observed, but 

 a different season might change this, that it takes 

 the young queens an everlasting time to settle their 

 quarrels, and get to laying. It took as long as four 

 weeks after swarming before commencing to lay. 

 and we coaxed by feeding at that; but when they 

 do begin to lay, the eggs come by the wholesale. 



CUPPED QUEENS. 



Here is the kind of fun we occasionally have. 

 About four o'clock one Sabbath afternoon, when 

 people were out enjoying the balmy afternoon, my 

 husband sounded the alarm, "The Hayhurst tested 

 queen is swarming, and she is clipped." Volume 

 after volume poured out, and finally her ladyship 

 was secured; and after the swarm had all got out, 

 " one of the largest of the season," a hive was 

 placed in the usual position. We waited for the 

 swarm to return. They flew around, and spread 

 themselves over nearly half of our town, trying to 

 make themselves as conspicuous as i)ossible, and 

 the neiglibors came flocking in from several direc- 

 tions to tell us our bees were swarming and going 

 away. Finally the.v began to return, and tried to 

 enter a hive about .50 feet away. The mosquito-net 

 was brought out and thrown over the hive. This 

 stopped that fun, and finally they began to cluster 

 near by, deciding, we supposed, not to come back to 

 the old hive and queen. We finally carried the hive 

 and queen up to where they were clustering, and, 

 holding the queen in the cluster, the bees kept 

 pouring into the cluster from evei'y direction in 

 enormous numbers. Presently I noticed a hybrid 

 bee going in the cluster, then anothei', until I could 

 see hundreds and then thousands of them. Of course, 

 I soon realized the fact that another swai-m from 

 the opposite side of the house had joined the fray. 

 When the double swarm had clustered we found 

 the queen that could fly, divided the bees, and put a 

 queen with each; set them on their stand, thinking 

 all would be well. In about an hour there were 

 I about two dozen bees with the undipped queen, 

 I and in the hive where the clipped queen was there 

 was about a quart of bees, hybi-ids and Italians 

 mixed. Where the tested queen came from there 

 were lots of hybrids ; and where the hybrid queen 

 came from there were strong reinforcements of the 

 tested Italians. Some of the clipped queens caused 

 us but little trouble; but I believe it is less trouble 

 to hive a swarm in the natural waj'; and it seemed 

 to us, or at least we imagine It, that a swarm with 

 an uiiclipped queen gets down to business sooner 

 and in bettor shape than one with their queen 

 clipped. Kemember, though, we are young about 

 this, and no old veteran must prod at us for just 

 considering it. MRS. M. F, TATHJAN, 



Rossville, I^jvns., Nov. 10, 1884. 



