734 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



to fill their places in the spring. Yet I do be- 

 lieve the black here is a hardier one for winter- 

 ing than the Italian; but the Italian is superior 

 in so many ways that it makes an apiary more 

 protitable to keep them. The pure blacks run 

 so that they are more liable to lose their queens 

 if handled, and it is difficult to find their queens 

 after the colonies have become populous, as 

 they run so badly. We bought a few black and 

 dark hybrid colonies this spring. The queens 

 were very prolific. They filled their hives with 

 bees, but they don't gather so much honey as 

 good hybrids or Italians. 



As the old honey of last year is almost as 

 black as tar. we extract each comb before giv- 

 ing to the bees, and we are surprised to see so 

 much drone comb, which we have been care- 

 fully cutting out. I don't see how so much 

 drone comb got into our combs, for we have for 

 years been cutting it out, and always watch 

 our combs when being built. Perhaps the 

 hives have been heated, and the combs have 

 sagged. I suspect that was the case wiih the 

 combs that were built on foundation starters. 



TIJYING OUT BEESWAX. 



Yesterday I gathered up all my scraps of 

 drone combs, etc., and tried them out by heat- 

 ing in our old wash-boiler filled with water, 

 then dipping them out into the wax-extractor, 

 and letting them drain a few minutes, then 

 dipping back, and heating and draining again 

 until I was sure I had got the wax all out. I 

 am sure I save much wax by pouring it back 

 into the boiler three or four times, and heating 

 over. I had GO lbs. of beeswax, clean and yel- 

 low. W(^ have a solar wax-extractor also. The 

 scraps that were rendered by the solar extract- 

 or I saved and heated up in a boiler of water, 

 and dipped out into our Root wax-extractor. I 

 got just about one-thii'd as much wax, peilniijs 

 not quite, as was in ken out by the sun: and 

 each solar extractotful was set and diain<d 

 several days before emptying. The solar ex- 

 tractor does not render it out half as fast as I 

 thought it would— perhaps because of so few 

 hot sunshiny days this summer. 



Colonies that have poor queens. I think, are 

 crosser than those with good ones: also queen- 

 less colonies, if large, are much more difficult 

 to handle than after the queen becomes fertile 

 and is filling the hive with eggs. This summer, 

 when I found a full colony queenless I gave it 

 a queen from a nucleus hive, as I do not find 

 queenless colonies work nearly so well in sec- 

 tions as those with good laying queens. The 

 more thrifty the queen, the more section honey 

 is stored. 



We had a few colonies quite a distance from 

 the house. I prevented swarming entirely by 

 changing one comb in the center once a week, 

 changing the same comb each time. It is some 

 work, hut I don't l<now that it is much more if 

 any more work than the hivers would be: and 

 then we have that one comb of eggs or small 

 larvie to build up other weak colonies. The 

 comb at the latter part of the harvest need not 

 be entirely empty of honey at the top of the 

 comb. 



Honey is retailing in our home market yet at 

 20 cents. Our two colonies that gave 90 pounds 

 each, if sold at ;i0 cents, would have brought us 

 •f 19.00 already and probably a fall crop: but 

 likely the price will come down to 15. 



HOW TO CURE BURNS : TO GET BEES OUT OF 

 THE TOP OF A HIVE, ETC. 



To cure a burn, light your bee-smoker and 

 smoke the burnt place vigorously from two to 

 five minutes, holding the nozzle "of the smoker 

 as close to the burn as can be borne. The heat 

 and smoke will draw out the fire so it will give 



no more pain, or but little, though it may blis- 

 ter a little. 



When feeding bees, or working with them 

 otherwise, if they run over the top, and smoke 

 is not at hand, if a cloth is thrown over the 

 hive and drawn to one side before placing on 

 the cover it will clear the top of the hive of 

 bees, and the cover may be placed on without 

 killing any of them. Of course, the cloth is left 

 on until some other time, to be removed. 



When mixing sugar syrup for bees, put the 

 water into the vessel first, then pour in the su- 

 gar, and it will dissolve quicker and not need a 

 fourth the stirring. 



When bees are not gathering honey, and one 

 is desirous of working with them, work btit a 

 hive or two at a place: that is, skip around, 

 first one side and then the other: and when 

 they get too lively to work, put one quart of su- 

 gar to 1:2 quarts of water, and put it out in some 

 stuiny place, in a wooden feeder. The first few 

 times in being fed it will need to be sweeter: 

 but after being taught to go to the feeder they 

 will take it readily in the summer and fall'. 

 Last spring they would not take rich sugar 

 syrup from our outdoor feeder. I found I could 

 work with bees so long as I wished to any time 

 this summer, by thus feeding. 



I saw it recommended in some periodical, to 

 put thin honey into combs that are filled with 

 bee-bread, and let it stand a day or so. and then 

 rinse it out and place the combs between other 

 combs in a hive of bees, and they will remove 

 the bee-bread. Our bees will remove all pollen 

 gathered in this locality by placing the combs 

 in the hive of bees, no matter whether in the 

 brood -nest or above, or at one side, and the 

 combs do not need any honey poured into them. 

 We had over 1000 such combs to care for after 

 they had many worms in them, although we 

 picked out those we could easily get at, and 

 most of the cocoons, after which the combs w"ere 

 placed in the hives of all colonies that did not 

 have section honey on, and they rid them of all 

 moths and the most of the cocoons and pollen. 

 They cleaned them up beautifully. In those 

 hives that had supers on we set four to six 

 combs in front, and left them there three or 

 four week'^. and they too were rid of bee-bread, 

 as we could see the little round pellets or pills, 

 they ought to be called (perhaps capsules would 

 be a better name), in piles on the board under 

 them. Some of the bee-bi'ead was white from 

 the flour and corn meal fed them in the spring. 

 Mrs. L. C. Axtem,. 



Koseville. 111.. Aug. 10, lSii2. 



A CHEAP PAINT FOR WINTER CASES. 



AN INTERESTING EXPERIMENT FOR THE CHIL- 

 DREN. 



I am painting winter cases, and think others 

 may like to learn of a cheap paint. I am using 

 yellow ocher mixed with equal parts of kerosene 

 and linseed oil. A gentleman who uses this for 

 painting barns likes it, and says that it wears 

 well. The winter cases are made of good lum- 

 ber, and will each contain two colonies. This 

 insures one warm side for each colony. I use a 

 great many newspapers around and over the 

 hives. I like this way of wintering, because 

 they can have the protection so much earlier 

 and later. 



BUTTERFI-IES. 



I will tell the juveniles how they may try an 

 interesting experiment. Look on the milk- 

 weeds for a striped worm. Place it under a 

 tumbler and feed milkweed leav<'S. If well 

 grown it will soon crawl to the top, hang itself 



