1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



929 



a choice stock. My experience is, that, if a 

 laying queen is introduced too soon, another 

 swarm is liable to issue, as they also are if al- 

 lowed to hatched a queen; but by keeping them 

 queeuless 14 or 1.5 days they are then iiope- 

 iessiy queenless, and will accept a vii'gin queen, 

 and will not swarm. 

 Vermont. N. W. A. E. Manum. 



Give th(^m a laying queen if you have one to 

 spare; but every one does not have laying 

 queens waiting ai'ound for that purpose. In 

 my plan of management I so reduce the num- 

 bers in the old colony that it does not matter so 

 much if they do not have a laying queen for a 

 few days till they can rear one from some of 

 the most advanced queen-cells. My plan is, to 

 give all combs and adhering bees but two 

 frames to the new c-olony, removing to a new 

 stand whei'e. with swarming impulses satisfied, 

 they work with a will, and gather more honey 

 than they would if they had not swarmed at 

 all; and the few left on the old stand will 

 build up into a good colony for next year. 



Wisconsin. S. W. S.' I. Fkeekorn. 



Heads of Grain 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS 



PATENTS ON BEE- HIVES. 



Another patent has just been issued on a bee- 

 hive. It is dated Nov. 10, 1891, and was given 

 to Reuben H. Ewing, of Iowa. It is the old 

 story — a moth-proof hive — worthless and use- 

 less, with not a new feature in it. Here is the 

 claim of the so-called invention: 

 ^ The bee-hive A, having- a borizoutal bottom B, 

 with tlie central hole h, just largre enougli to allow 

 the bees to pass through it, and an upwardly con- 

 vex bottom C, whose oiiposltely inclined sides meet 

 in a vertex c, diiectly under the said hole, and just 

 far enough tlterefioni to jjermit the bees to reach 

 the hole, the said hive being provided witli opposite 

 ■entrances c' c' for the bees and moths between said 

 bottoms, as shown and described. 



DThe inventor does not even know the sex of 

 worker bees, as will be seen by the follow- 

 ing from specifications, where it is called he 

 ■every time. 



The tendency of the bee is to move upwardly; 

 •and as soon as lie readies the vertex c he will make 

 for the- entrance b, while tlie moth will travel up 

 ■one side of the bottom O, and down the other, 

 thereby failing to get into the honey or bee-cham- 

 bers at all, not being able to reach the hole b, even 

 if inclined to do so. 



taWhat a pity it is to fool away good money for 

 such a worthless patent! 



What stupidity it is to maintain a lot of use- 

 less "examiners" to apjirove of inventions, the 

 practical workings of which they know nothing 

 about! 



What dishonesty it is to grant patents, over 

 and over again, to different persons on precisely 

 the same thing! 



What rohhery it is to take the money of the 

 credulous inventor and render no equivalent for 

 it! 



In this case the patentee has sold one-half of 

 the" invention " in advance to secure the money 

 to get a patent, which, for practical purposes, 

 is not worth the paper it is printed upon! Bah! 

 — AmericAin Bee Journal. 



BLACK BEES SUPERIOK TO ITALIANS. 



The Italians are doomed in this section — too 

 much swarming and too little honey, and too 

 much stinging. Now, when my native brown 

 bees were booming on buckwheat and storing 



beautiful amber honey in supers, one-pound 

 boxes, the Italians were gathering honey-dew 

 and using it all up in raising brood, and in 

 swarming and clustering, five or six swarms 

 together; and they balled all tln^ queens, and 

 then all the bees would go to one hive that is- 

 sued one swarm, and pile on so you could not 

 see any thing but a pile of bees. VVell, I learn- 

 ed how to separate them, but it's a muss and 

 bother. I have five brown (or native) colonies 

 that did not swarm this year noi' last. One 

 queen is two years old; but the other four 

 queens superseded young queens, and one colo- 

 ny has the second young queen this year, and 

 hasn't swarmed out for two years, and has filled 

 eighty one-pound boxes of the whitest honey 

 you ever looked at, and 8 Langstroth frames of 

 buckwheat honey, and two frames, half of hon- 

 ey and lialf of bi'ood, at this date, Oct. .5. Said 

 hive is a Chautauqua double-walled hive with 

 two supers and one top. Seth Nelson. 



Wistar, Pa., Oct. 0. 



A STKONG testimonial FOR THE IMPORTED 



ITALIANS. 



You have given brood-frames a good, long, 

 and thorough discussion; now if you would give 

 the queen subject as good an overhauling it 

 would be very interesting to me, but may be 

 not to the majority of the readers of Glean- 

 ings. I have been studying, and putting to 

 practical test this subject of queen-breeding 

 for about ten years, and I have never been able 

 to buy more than one queen that came up to 

 my own raising for honey, and that was an 

 untested one I got of A. I. Root in August, 18tK). 

 I told him I wanted a daughter of an imported 

 mother, and I suppose that was what I got; 

 but she was so dark that I was ashamed to 

 show her to a bee-man who happened to be at 

 the office when I got her. But I am not asham- 

 ed of her bees nor of the pile of honey they 

 put up the past summer; and, besides, the 

 queen led off a fine swarm and made .5(5 sections 

 of honey after filling a new hive of 10 Simplicity 

 frames. I then divided the old colony, and 

 made two out of that, and got a crate of 28 

 sections partly filled from one of them, and got 

 38 sections before they swarmed. Of course, 

 that is not big for some localities; but for this 

 one I do not think it can be surpassed. I have 

 bought several fine queens, and then would 

 have to discard them and then stock up after- 

 ward on account of their poor qualities. I like 

 extra fine bees, such as five-banded, to look at 

 as well as any one; and if I can find those that 

 will come up to the three-banded, such as the 

 daughters of imported mothers produce, I want 

 them, and will willingly pay .fo.OO apiece for 

 queens that will produce strictly five-banded 

 bees, and come up to what I have for honey. 



Poplar Flat, Ky., Oct. 26. L. C. Calvert. 



[Your letter seems to argue that we have 

 been giving some attention to the matter of 

 good queens. It is hard to get a strain of bees 

 that will invariably duplicate certain qualities; 

 but our imported stock come the nearest to it. 

 Our dark bees generally do little the best in 

 honey, and so far are the hardiest in winter.] 



YELLOW OCHER VS. WHITE-LEAD PAINT. 



We note what you say on page 864 about 

 white lead for a body paint to hives. Having 

 had a number of years experience along this 

 line, we several years ago tried yellow ocher 

 instead of white, and have nearly half of our 

 hives painted a light straw color We find it 

 lasts much better than white, as the hives thus 

 painted two years ago still have a bright ap- 

 pearance, while those painted wiiite turn quite 



