1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



481 



Root it is this : Do not, under any circum- 

 stances, pay anybody one single copper for 

 a right to make any kind of fence that has 

 ever been invented. Fences have for many 

 years been a hobby of mine, and I tliink I 

 am pretty well posted, both in regard to 

 common fences and patent fences. 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELD; 



BEESWAX FLOATINO IN WEST-INDIAN WATERS. 



N your answer to Mrs. Chaddock's question in 

 Gleanings, page 351, you overloolied one very 

 common cause of the floating- of valuable arti- 

 cles in these waters; viz., shipwreck. The pe- 

 culiar situation of these West-Indian waters 

 makes them one of the great commercial highways 

 of all nations, and millions of property is lost by 

 shipwreck while traversing it. I wish to say to 

 Mrs. Chaddock, that beeswax, as well as other kinds 

 of valuable property, is obtained here in the West 

 Indies by the same agency as in other parts of the 

 world— that is, by hard work, an<l is not carelessly 

 allowed to tioat over the waters from any of the 

 causes which she enumerates. O. O. Poppleton. 

 Havana, Cuba, W. I., May 16, 1888. 



CUT-WORMS, AND WHAT TO DO WITH THEM. 



Can you or any of the numerous readers of 

 GIjEanings tell us what to do to prevent the cut- 

 worm from desti-oying our cabbage and tomato 

 plants? If you can, I know you would confer a 

 great benefit upon the readers of your journal. 



D. W. C. Matthews. 



Ypsilanti, Mich., May 39, 1888. 



Friend M., prevention is the only cure 

 that 1 know of. There may be remedies 

 after the worms have been at work at yoiu' 

 plants, but I think they will be pretty ex- 

 pensive. Now for the prevention : Have a 

 flock of chickens trained to follow you every 

 time you stir the ground, whether it is to 

 plow, harrow, cultivate, or to drill the seed. 

 It may be difficult to do this with large 

 fields ; but the market-gardener can have a 

 flock of chickens located at different points 

 on his grounds, so as to clean out not only 

 all the cut-worms, grubs, and every thing 

 of that nature, Intt even the angleworms 

 that feed so voraciously on highly manured 

 ground, if you do not have chickens to keep 

 them in check. On our ten-acre farm we 

 have poultry located at five different points, 

 demonstrating the theory laid down in 

 Stoddard's book, called "An Egg-Farm." 

 These separate flocks of fowls adhere to 

 their own location, never mixing up, and 

 seldom crossing each other's hunting- 

 grounds ; and altogether they spread them- 

 selves pretty thoroughly over all the ground 

 we cultivate. ' 



ITALIANIZING, AND WHAT TO DO WITH UNFINISH- 

 ED SECTIONS. 



I wish to know how a person as ignorant of bees 

 as I am can Italianize. Could I use Alley's drone- 

 traps (I have one) with any success? I am very 

 anxious to Italianize. When I commenced with 

 bees, probably 13 years ago, they were Italian; but 

 every trace has disappeared, and they are nothing 

 like as good honey gatherers as they were. 



Will it pay me to get an extractor to work up un- 

 finished sections? If so, how can I uncap partly 

 capped sections? 



Bees have wintered very well with me, not hav- 

 ing lost a colony. Thos. T. Arnold. 



Comorn, Va., April 34, 1888. 



Friend A., the best way to Italianize is to 

 purchase a " tested " queen ;ind introduce 

 her according to the printed directions sent 

 with the queen. Of course, the colony re- 

 ceiving her should be made queenless "pre- 

 viously. If you desire to rear queens, and 

 have black bees in your apiary, you can use 

 the Alley drone-trap to sonie advantage. 

 Attach the trap in succession to all the col- 

 onies having drones from common bees — 

 drones from wiiich you would not desire to 

 breed. In the mean time, raise as many 

 drones from your Italian colonies as you 

 can, and you will stand a chance of having a 

 large proportion of queens fertilized by 

 these drones.— It will hardly pay you to 

 purchase an extractor, if you expect to do 

 nothing more than to extract honey from 

 unfinished sections. The best way to dis- 

 pose of them is to sell them to your neigh- 

 bors and friends at a reduced price. They 

 will also come very convenient for placing 

 on top of the cluster in the fall, for breeding 

 up. If you desire to run for extracted honey 

 at all, we think it would pay you to get ah 

 extractor. 



drones out op season. 



While examining one of my colonies of Italian 

 bees recently I was surprised to see a number of 

 drones in the hive— perhaps as many as fifty. There 

 was a little tirood in all the stages of growth, and 

 ten or twelve sealed drones, but no sign of queen- 

 cells. The queen is healthy, and the colony in good 

 condition. This colony is one 1 reared from the 

 queen and V^ lb. of bees purchased of you in the 

 summer of 1880. Lastyearthey built no queen-cells, 

 and I noticed no drones about the hive until Nov. 

 14. 



What do you think of such behavior? Do Italians 

 usually rear drones when not pi-eparing to swarm, 

 or is it possible they were in the liive all winter? 



Bees wintered well, and are now busy on peach 

 and cherry bloom. Prospects are good for a lai-ge 

 yield of honey, unless something occurs over which 

 we have no control. S. S. Saumenig. 



Ivory, Md., Apr. 30, 1888. 



Friend S., it is nothing unusual to find 

 drones as you describe, in the month of 

 April. It may be owing to some peculiarity 

 of the queen, but I think the bees h.ive also 

 decided, for some sort of reason, that swarm- 

 ing would be in order before a great while. 

 Drones have been known to be in a hive all 

 winter, but it is very unusual, unless the 

 stock is very powerful. 



PREVENTION OF SWARMING BY INSERTING RIPE 

 QUEEN-CELLS, AGAIN. 



On page ^^56, under the heading of "How to Pre- 

 vent Swarming," L. Hubbard writes, " Let the col- 

 ony swarm once of necessity, and in about a week 

 cut out all queen-cells, and in a week from that 

 time, or two weeks from the first, go to said hive 

 with ripe queen-cells and supply them with new 

 hatching ()ueens." Now, will friend Hubbard please 

 answer this question? Did j'ou sometimes have 



