48S 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUllE. 



Jl'NE 



THE HUSK TOMATO. 



Are husk tomatoes good for bees, or an injury 

 to them? We have cultivated thetn tor two years, 

 and the bfes worli on them till the frost kills them 

 in the fall. J. W. PUY. 



Mutual, O., May 38, 1888. 



[I do not see why you should ask the question, 

 friend P. What reason have you to suspect the 

 flowers of this plant can do injury?] 



USING L..\RD-CANS FOR HONEY. 



Will it injure honey to put it in a can where there 

 has been lard? W. D. Thakpe. 



Williamsburg-, N. C. 



[The fact that the can has once contained lard, 

 friend T., Will not injure it a particle, providing, of 

 course, your good wife makes the can perfectly 

 clean. A stone crock that has contained lard, very 

 likely could not be made so clean but that it would 

 taint the honey. I believe there is no difliculty, 

 however, in cleaning tin perfectly.] 



WHEKE DO THE SUPERFLUOUS EGGS LAID BY THE 



yUEEN GO TO? 



What becomes of the eggs that the queen lays 

 when disturbed, or when going from one cell or 

 comb to another ? L. M. Brown. 



Sergeant's Bluff, la.. May 8, 1888. 



[It has been suggested, friend B., that the worker 

 bees eat them, in order that nothing be wasted; 

 and I believe it is true, that they do sometimes eat 

 the eggs of the queen when spare ones are not 

 wanted anywhere.] 



BROKEN comb HONEY, AND HOW LONG WILL IT 

 KEEP CANNED UP ? 



Would it be safe to put up broken comb honey 

 in air-tight glass jars, V2 or 1 gallon sizes? How 

 long would it keep all right? Would it do as well, 

 put up the same way in tins? L. Mabry. 



Aurora, Tex., May ti, 1888. 



[Friend M., the great trouble with broken comb 

 honey is. that the contents of the broken cells, and 

 the liquid honey surrounding, sooner or later be- 

 come candied, and this is almost fatal to comb 

 honey, so far as the market is concerned.] 



" SPORTS " AMONG BEES. 



The queen 1 purchased of you last July produces 

 a strange-looking bee. I at first thought them to 

 be drones, as the workers wei-e killing them ott; 

 but a neighbor of mine who claims to know moi"e 

 about bees than any one else in this neighborhood 

 says they ai-e not drones. 1 inclose you a few of 

 them. I. E. Morris. 



Temperance, Ky., May 33, 1888. 



[The specimens of bees you send are neither 

 drones nor workers. They are what we should call 

 "sports." See Prof. Cook's recent article on the 

 subject. We should be pleased to have you send a 

 cage of live specimens to him.] 



THE ALLEY TRAP A PREVENTIVE OF ABSCONDING 

 SW.VRMS. 



Please tell me if the bee-traps mentioned and for 

 sale in the March Apiculturist will keep the swarm 

 from leaving, by holding the queen till you can 

 care for them. If this is so, that they could be put 

 on the hives, it would save us much time. Farm- 

 ers' folks are always busy, and we are beginners 

 with bees. Lizzie Hurley. 



Mount Carroll, Ills. 



[Yes, the trap will catch the queen. She will be 

 found in the upper apartment. The swarm, failing 

 to find her in the air, will return; but you must be 

 sure to place the queen among the flying bees, or 

 else divide the colony after the swarm has return- 

 ed, taking the queen to her new location. If the 

 trap is left on the hi\x', and the bees make two or 

 three attempts to swarm, and, failing to take their 

 queen with them, they will generally kill her.] 



Every boy or girl, under 16 years of age, who writes a let- 

 ter for this department, containing some valuable fact, not 



GBNKKALLY KNOWN, ON BEES OR OTHER MATTERS, will receive 

 one of David Cook's excellent flve-cent Sunday-school books. 

 Many of these books contain the same matter that you find in 

 Sunday-school hooks costing from SI. 00 to 81.50. If you have 

 had one or more books, give us the names that we may not 

 send the same twice. We have now in stock six different 

 books, as follows; viz.: Sheer Off, Silver Keys, The Giant-Kill- 

 er; or. The Roby Family, Rescued from Egypt, Pilgrim's 

 Progress, and Ten Nights in a Bar-Room. We have also Our 

 Homes, Part l.,and Our Homes, Part II. Besides the above 

 books, you may have a photograph of our old house apiarj', 

 and a photograph of our own apiary, both taken a great many 

 years ago. In the former is a picture of Novice, Blue Eyes, 

 and Caddy, and a glimpse of Ernest. We have also some pret- 

 ty little colored pictures of birds, fruits, flowers, etc., suitable 

 for framing. You can have your choice of any one of the 

 above pictures or books for every letter that gives us some 

 valuable piece of information. 



CONDUCTED BY ERNEST R. ROOT. 



REPORTS ON SWAUMING. 



ELL, little folks, swarming is now 

 upon us, and no doubt your papa 

 has made some arrangement with 

 you to catch the swarms while he is 

 absent. We should like to have you 

 tell us in the next issue what ariangement 

 he has made, it' any ; just how he proposes 

 to catch swarms: what sort of a swarming 

 apparatus you are going to have used. Tell 

 US whether he will clip the queen's wings ; 

 in fact, tell us all about your own experi- 

 ence in swarming. We want lots of little 

 letters for the issue for July 15. Swarming 

 will then be over in a good many localities ; 

 but while your minds are fresh, you can tell 

 us lots of valuable things. Little Violet 

 Fowls, as you will notice, has given us a big 

 point. IIow many more '' big points '' shall 

 we have? We should like to have you re- 

 port also on two or three of the swarm ing- 

 devices illustrated and described in this is- 

 sue. There will be plenty of time for you 

 to make one, and to put it into actual use. 

 It is probably a fact, that women and chil- 

 dren do perhaps half of the swarming in the 

 country, and therefore you children (I don't 

 mean grown-up women-folks) are well qual- 

 ified to speak from experience. 



.\B0UT THAT POETRY ON PAGE 403. 



We received Gleanings yesterday, which had my 

 piece of poetry in. Please accept many thanks for 

 the compliment you jiassedouit; but I am afraid 

 (by the way you wrote) that you accuse me of copy- 

 ing it, which I would not be guilty of. I wrote it 

 over and over again, so as to get it as near correct 

 as 1 could; and for that reason I should not like to 

 be accused of such a mean trick. Clar.\ Strebv. 



Paw Paw, W. Va., Juno 4, 1888. 



Friend Clara, we did not intend to con- 

 vey the idea, or even to insinuate, that pos- 

 sibly you did not write that poetry. We 

 saw ill tlie lines "internal evidences " of 

 originality. We simply intended to call at- 

 tention to the fact that sometimes little 



