636 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1. 



trees of that variety we have in this section 

 failed to bloom. I had only 9 hives, spring 

 count; now I have 32; have taken off 300 lbs., 

 and have 700 or 800 more to take off. I have 

 sold 2.50 lbs. at 20 cts. per lb. The clover 

 honey is as fine as silk and as white as foam. 

 The 'fi-uit-bloom is rather dark, but of ^-xtra 

 flavor. J. L. Bell. 



West Middletown, Pa., July 27. 



MARKETS smashed; TOO MUCH HONEY; KOUL 

 BROOD AND POOR SEASONS BLESS- 

 INGS IN DISGUISE. 



Our white-honey harvest is not over; bees 

 are working hard on both white and sweet 

 clover. I never saw in Wisconsin such solid 

 fields of white clover as we have had, and it 

 keeps renewing right along. Weather is now 

 splendid for secretion. 



Our local market is smashed. I sold a few 

 crates to merchants in Monroe at 12 ><; then 

 in came the farmers and filled them up at 10 

 cts. Now the farmers are going to everybody 

 and selling at 10 cts. Merchants expect to 

 buy at 8 cts. (fancy comb honey). I have 

 sent some trial shipments to Chicago and 

 Milwaukee, but have not received returns yet. 

 N. E. France writes me that those markets 

 are already filled up with CaUfornia honey, 

 both comb and extracted. It looks to me as 

 though the business has fallen by its own 

 weight, and foul brood and bad seasons have 

 been friends instead of enemies. I had ex- 

 pected to go more largely into honey produc- 

 tion, and am running now about IGO colonies; 

 but your kind advice ( which I was wise enough 

 to heed), not to give up railroad work, was 

 the best thing for me that you could have 

 advised. I have had three months' leave of 

 absence this siimmer, and have worked hard 

 in the apiaries here and at Monroe, and had a 

 good man helping me. The Monroe field is a 

 splendid one, and a nice place to live. Brown- 

 town promises to give a heavy crop from the 

 large branching sunflower again this year. 

 Harry Lathrop. 



Browntown, Wis., July 29. 



R. H. L., O. — Sometimes a swarm will 

 come out and enter into another hive, the 

 result being a battle between two lots of bees. 

 Instead of allowing them to fight, however, 

 you shovild have smoked them both thor- 

 oughly. 



/. M., Mich. — I feel quite certain that the 

 bees in que.stion have been visiting milkweed, 

 for I notice the milkweed-pollen appendages 

 to their legs. I think you wall find the milk- 

 weed is in bloom in your vicinity, and that 

 the bees are working on it. The reason why 

 you think thev are robbers is because, when 

 they go into the hive, the other bees attempt 



to claw off the appendages, and they are 

 apparently attacking them as if they were 

 robbers. F~or fuller particulars we woiaid refer 

 you to "Milkweed," in the A B C of Bee 

 Culture. 



R. C, Nt'b. — There must be some mistake 

 about the rumor that you heard regarding a 

 bee-keeper in Illinois feeding his bees glucose 

 by simply knocking in the head of the barrel 

 containing the stuff, and letting the bees help 

 thems-lves. Bees will not touch clear glucose 

 luiless it is diluted ; and even then they will 

 not touch the stuff that is ordinarily used for 

 adulterating. It is too vile, and has too small 

 an amount of sweet to attract their attention. 

 It is possible, however, that the party you re- 

 fer to buys grape sugar, often called glucose. 

 This is not a bad sweet. Years ago, when su- 

 gar was much higher than now, we used to 

 feed our bees this kind of sugar to stimulate 

 brood-rearing. It is such a mild sweet that 

 the bees would never rob. It does not pay to 

 use it now. 



J. H. McC, Ark. — We can not explain why 

 yotir bees should swarm more this year than 

 usual, unless it is because the honey-flow has 

 been unprecedentedly heavy. It does not do 

 to return a swarm back to the hive from which 

 it came, without changing its internal condi- 

 tion. They will sulk, hang out, loaf, and finally 

 swarm again; in fact, they wll swarm as often 

 as you hive them, and as long as the hone}- 

 season continues. The best way is to hive 

 them on the old stand on starters or frames of 

 foundation in another hive. The old parent 

 colony, while the swarm is in the air, should 

 be removed to another location. If there was 

 already a super on the parent colony, it should 

 be put on the new hive now on the old stand. 

 For particulars, see page 32 of our catalog ; 

 also our A B C of Bee Culture. 



IV. IV. P., ///.—It is not difiicult to under- 

 stand why you lost your queen. You proba- 

 bly failed" to note carefully the first three sen- 

 tences of the directions for introducing. We 

 have sent yovi another set of directions, and 

 now call j-our attention to the fact that a colo- 

 ny that has been queenless from 12 to 1-t days 

 is not likely to accept a queen ; for in that 

 time they are pretty sure to have a substitute 

 of their own, in which case it would be simply 

 impossible to introduce a queen. We never 

 think of tryhig to introduce where we find a 

 number of queen-cells. You may be sure you 

 have destroj-ed them all ; but even if you do 

 succeed, the bees somehow have the impres- 

 sion that they have cells, and that, conse- 

 quently, the}- are going to have young queens, 

 and they do not want an introduced mother. 

 You will note that the directions state that 

 colonies should not be queenless over five 

 days, and two. days are usually better. The 

 reason for this is that in this short length of 

 time the bees have not had time enough to 

 rear cells, or, at least, sufficiently far along to 

 "bank " on future prospects. The directions 

 that we have prepared for introducing queens 

 have been adopted by all queen-breeders ; and 

 from this it is reasonably certain that the 

 statements contained there are verj' nearly 

 correct. 



