1888 



GLEANINGS IK BEE CULttJltE. 



0i5 



he has a good deal of help. Perhaps you have an 

 overseer in a similar position; or if not, you would 

 be kind enough to refer me to an apiarist who 

 would tell me what salary, besides board and lodg- 

 ing, I ought to give. I am in total ignorance my- 

 self as to how this labor is paid, and shall be much 

 obliged to you if you will be kind enough to inform 

 me on this point. Fkekkiuck L. CuHTf-ER. 



Alexandria, V^a., July 1, 1888. 



Friend C, we have never employed an 

 apiarist in the way you speak of in your let- 

 ter. We shoidd think, Iiowever, that he 

 ought to be worth more than farm labor. 

 We pay our exi>erienced help in the apiary, 

 on an average, .$1 .-50 per day, the recipient 

 boarding and lodging himself. As board 

 and lodging are worth on an average iJ^S.OO 

 per week, you can estimate yourself about 

 what it ought to be woith." The price of 

 labor is much less in some localities than in 

 others. If we are correct, in Virginia wages 

 do not average quite as much as further 

 north. Perhaps .51.5 or $20 per month, with 

 board and lodgin^;, will be fair pay. Of 

 course, it depends very largely on what 

 agreement can be made. 



HOW SHALT. WE EXTRACT HONIiY CANDIED IN THE 

 COMBS? 



Some of my honey grained, and I could not ex- 

 tract it. What had 1 better do with it? 



C. M. Farrar. 

 Confidence, W. Va , June 37, 1888. 



Friend F., you have come on to a very dif- 

 ficult operation. A good many decide there 

 is no way to get the candied honey out of 

 the combs, except to give such combs to 

 bees that are rearing brood largely during a 

 dearth of pastiuage. There is still another 

 way that has been successful to some ex- 

 tent : Hang the comb of candied honey in 

 a wash-boiler. Put on the cover and get up 

 steam enough to melt the candied honey, 

 but not melt the comb. Then extract. One 

 extreme is, to melt the wax and spoil the 

 comb ; the other is, not using heat enough to 

 get the honey out. 



DUCKS DEVOURING BEES. 



Thinking may be I have discovered what will to 

 many if not all of your readers prove to be the dis- 

 covery of a new enemy against which it is best to 

 protect their bees, I write to say that ducks have 

 been seen here to stand at the entrance of a hive 

 and devour bees as last as they could make their 

 appearance going in or out. The ducks seemed to 

 care little for the stinging of the bees. 



PROSPECTS FAVORABLE FOR TEXAS. 



I Started this spring with 16 colonies. I have now 

 40, and expect to extract nearly 3000 lbs. of honey 

 in a few days. Horsemint is in full bloom, and 

 yielding an abundance of honey of the finest qual- 

 ity. This has been a seasonable year; and, when 

 seasonable, will equal even Florida for bees and 

 honey in this section. Reports from all bee-men 

 here are encouraging. J. G. O'Brien. 



Dublin, Texas, June 35, 1888. 



no native blacks among them. It is a query in my 

 mind how they came from an Italian queen. Why 

 is it? O. C. Wilson. 



Bloom Center, O., July 3, 1888. 



The presence of black bees among your 

 Italians might be accounted for in two 

 ways. (1) If there are any black colonies in 

 the immediate vicinity of your Italian colo- 

 nies, the latter will receive a few stray bees 

 from the former, and vice versa. The bees 

 of neighboring colonies will intermingle a 

 little, more or less. (2) If your new Italian 

 queens have not been in the colonies over 

 three or four months, the old original blacks 

 may not have died olf entirely yet. You 

 don't say whether you purchased a tested or 

 an untested queen. If the latter it would be 

 nothing strange if you found a few blacks 

 among her progeny. Those who sell untest- 

 ed queens do not guarantee that their prog- 

 eny shall be pure^ 



HOW MANY HEADS OF CLOVER DOES A BEE VISIT 

 IN ORDER TO MAKE A LOAD ? 



I have never seen any report in Gleanings as to 

 how many clover-blossoms a bee visits before it 

 gets a load in dilTereut localities. I went out in the 

 field yesterday, and watched for a bee. I saw one 

 come, and he visited 304 blossoms before he got a 

 load, and it took him just 25 minutes. White clover 

 is in full bloom here now. 



SUNDAY swarming. 



How about the bees working on Sunday for all of 

 those men who wouldn't hive a swarm on Sunday? 

 I should think they would shut them up in their 

 hives, and not let them work. I don't think it is 

 wrong to hive a swarm on Sunday, if they happen 

 to come out. C. C. Phelps. 



East Windsor Hill, Conn., June 33, 188S. 



Thank you, friend P. Even "JO-l visits are 

 a good many, but I believe that some for- 

 mer contributor has put the number a good 

 deal higher than this. Are you sure the 

 bee had not visited a good many clover- 

 heads before you saw him V 



THE PRESENCE OF BLACK BEES IN AN ITALIAN 

 COLONY ACCOUNTED FOR. 



While the greater part of my bees are fine Ital- 

 ians (my queens were reared by a friend who pur- 

 chased his queens from you), there are a few in 

 each colony jet black; yet I know that there are 



WHY THAT SWARM LEFT. 



I should like to ask your opinion as to the cause 

 of a swarm of bees leaving. It was a very large 

 first swarm which I had tried to prevent swarming, 

 by cutting out queen-cells. I examined each one of 

 the ten brood-frames carefully, and cut out eleven 

 cells in different stages of construction. On the 

 second day after this they swarmed. I hived them 

 and gave them a frame of brood, and set the hive 

 on the old stand. They stayed until the next day, 

 when they came out, and, without alighting, went 

 straight to a tree about half a mile away. They 

 had built two large pieces of comb, one on each side 

 of the frame of brood, which contained a small 

 quantity of honey and some eggs. Can you give 

 any reason why they left in this ungrateful manner? 

 The frame of brood which I gave them I took from 

 a hive that had swaimed a few days before, and I 

 thought perhaps the unsealed larvte were too large. 



England, Pa., June 30, 1888. L. B. Post. 



Friend P., your bees had picked out their 

 hollow tree, and got it cleaned out and al- 

 ready fixed up for housekeeping before they 

 swarmed at all. Under such circumstances 

 you could not well induce them to give up their 

 project, especially if you let them remain on 



