1881 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



339 



grain on it, appai'ently a liybrid. Tlie berry 

 was darker tlian the regular Japanese. I saved 

 it separate, and got 350() from tliis one plant, 

 while 1.500 was the very most I conld get fr'om 

 any one of ten of the Japanese. I discarded 

 all the rest. I sowed it by itself in ISS'i), and 

 harvested one bushel. I sowed that on two 

 acres, away from any other, and harvested 100 

 bushels. Inclosed Hnd sample, which I have 

 named Martin's Pi'olitic. I will sow no other 

 kind another year. Wm. Maktin. 



Cass City, Mich., Dec. 36, 1890. 



[I will say to our readers, that friend Martin 

 wished to sell me the seed mentioned above. I 

 advised him, liowever, to offer it for sale at a 

 moderate price, and let the readers of Glean- 

 ings test it on a small scale. If it is really su- 

 perior to the original, it will soon make itself 

 known.] 



JAPANESE BUCKAVHEAT. 



I think the Japanese Buckwheat takes the 

 lead of any other variety. I bouglit four 

 pounds of you last spring, and sowed it on an 

 eighth of an acre, and harvested from it tliis 

 fall 6}4 bushels. Who can do better? It was 

 sown on loamy land, greensward, with a light 

 sprinkling of manure. P. W. Smith. 



West Braintree, Vt. 



EI6HT:VS.DTHE ten frame L. hives FOB3THE 

 .ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 



May I askfthrough Gleanings whether 

 •eight-frame hives are satisfactoi'y in the Rocky 

 Mountain region ? Tlie length of time a colony 

 must depend on its stores extends from Septem- 

 ber to the middle of May, and I am of opinion 

 that stores less than can be made in a ten-frame 

 brood-chamber will not last through; and that 

 these, being short, the breeding will be corre- 

 spondingly limited. My own experience is, that 

 the largest hives yield by far the greatest 

 amount of super honey in tlie season. I should 

 lilve to know whether this is exceptional in Col- 

 orado and the Rocky Mountain district gen- 

 erally. J. A. Fekguson. 



Loveland, Col.. Feb. 10. 



[There are some localities where the 10-frame 

 L. hives are better than theS-frame. though for 

 the great majority of localities the smaller hive 

 is preferable. It can, of course, be made larger 

 by adding another story. The 8-frame hive 

 would be the better one for most localities 

 among the Rockies.] , 



THE IMPORTANCE OF KEEPING COLONIES FED 

 UP JUST BEFORE THE HAItVEST. 



I made a blunder last spring, there being no 

 bloom for the bees until clover. I fed a good 

 deal, but not enough. In colonies not having 

 enough feed, the queens quit laying in some ten 

 days before clover came. Colonies that had 

 plenty of feed, gathered, some of them, as high 

 as 80 lbs. to the colony, while others that had 

 not the proper amount of feed hardly gathered 

 enough to winter on. L. H. Robey. 



Worthington, W. Va., Feb. 30. 



BEES EATING LAKV.E AND EGGS, AND THE 

 REASON WHY. 



I noticed in Stray Straws, by Dr. Miller, that 

 he is puzzled about bees eating eggs, and the 

 remedy for it. Last fall, a few days after the 

 first heavy frost, I examined my bees and found 

 that the weak colonies that had been raising 

 brood had eaten the white larvae, but I saw no 

 traces of their having eaten any thing else, be- 

 because I did not look further. Each larvae was 

 .aboiit two-thirds eaten; the rest were disap- 



pearing later. Cause. It is evident to me that 

 they wei-e surprised by th(^ cold, and concluded 

 to get rid of the bi'ood by eating it up, as they 

 could not keep all of it warm enough to hatch, 

 and possibly to use it for food. I noticed that 

 only the brood around the outside of the brood- 

 chamber was eaten, and the entrance entirely 

 open, letting all the cold wind in. I afterward 

 started them to laying by almost closing the 

 entrances and feeding. Don't you think they 

 would eat up bee-eggs under similar conditions? 

 Dr. Miller did not state at what time of the 

 year he would expect the eggs to disappear, nor 

 when the queen was taken away. 



Geo. E. Fradenburg. 

 Kansas City, Mo., Feb. 33. 



THE DOOLITTLE METHOD OF QUEEN-REARING 

 A SUCCESS IN CALIFORNIA. 



We are rearing nearly all oui- queens from the 

 artificial cups, and, as a rule, have from one- 

 half to four-fifths of them built out in good 

 shape. We are not having as good success 

 with them this spring as we did last summer 

 and fall; but we hope feeding will make it all 

 i-ight soon. We may report results a little later, 

 as we are a little short of queens for the early 

 orders, and are rearing all queens by the graft- 

 ing process in upper stories, and count on get- 

 ting most of them by using the cups. Friend 

 Doolittle also spoke of its being hard to get a 

 queen mated fi-om an upper stoi-y unless there 

 was a good honey-tlow. We had one mated in 

 November, but she was in a third story, there 

 being two queen-excluders between her and the 

 laying queen below. H. P. Lutheb. 



Redlands, Cal., Feb. 16. 



YOUNG BEES IN SUPERS REMOVED. 



I should like to ask, when you take off sur- 

 plus and carry it three or four rods to get out 

 the bees, what proportion of them will iDe 

 young bees that never will get back to their 

 own hive? J. B. Whiton. 



Ithaca, Mich., Jan. 13. 



[Friend W., I should say there might be ten 

 per cent, possibly twenty, that would not find 

 their way back. If there are other hives around, 

 however, where they can hear the bees hum- 

 ming at the entrance, these young bees will get 

 into them, and will perhaps do nearly as much 

 good there as in their own home. I think, how- 

 ever, I should prefer lettfng them go bacli where 

 they came from.] 



ASBESTOS paint FOR HIVES. 



In Gleanings for Feb. 1, page 107, we see an 

 article cautioning us against a paint made by 

 the Indiana Paint and Roofing Co. Have you 

 ever known any thing of a paint Ivuown as as- 

 bestos, as to how it compares with lead? 



Buffalo, N. Y., Feb. 9. A. W. Lindsey. 



[We have heard tlie asbestos paint talked 

 about, but can not now remember whether it 

 turned out favoi'able or not. Perhaps some of 

 our readers can tell us about it.] 



HIVES FOR hatching CHICKENS. 



I should be pleased to learn through Glean- 

 ings whether any one ever used a hive of bees 

 for the purpose of hatching chickens, or am I 

 the first who discovered it, or " hatched " the 

 idea— which? George James. 



Willoughby, N. S. W. 



[Yes, some of our neighbors have been using 

 some of our old hives, too old for bees — which 

 we sold them cheap for hatching chickens. 

 They reported that they were just the thing.] 



