1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



767 



a comparatively small weight of honey. In a 

 showcase or on a counter it looks as if it 

 might be on a par with bottles with sunken 

 sides, and fig-boxes with thick bottoms. I say 

 it might be. I don't know. — Ed.] 



on a wheel through the buckwheat 

 country; carniolans. 



I used to think that black bees were better 

 than Italians, but have changed my mind 

 after trying them nine years. But they don't 

 cap their honey as white as the blacks do. 



I have ridden down through the buckwheat 

 territory of this State, and it is something im- 

 mense, for there are acres and acres of it, and 

 it yields honey too. I have ridden a wheel 

 down through there two or three times, and 

 had a nice visit with some of the bee-keepers. 

 I saw those Carniolans drop in with those 

 great loads of buckwheat honey. I don't 

 wonder at their liking them. But I would 

 not take them as a gift for my kind of honey, 

 as they swarm too much. I don't want 

 swarms, but honey. I have 185 colonies now 

 in fine shape, the most of them, and I look 

 for a poor year to come, for it will take a jear 

 to overcome the drouth. Geo. B. Howe. 



Black River, N. Y., Aug. 18. 



[When I went through the buckwheat coun- 

 try I found the Carniolans very popular indeed 

 among buckwheaters ; but I heard nothing in 

 regard to their being such excessive swarmers, 

 although they have that reputation. One thing, 

 the Carniolans deposit very little propolis : and 

 if the right strains are obtained they are very 

 gentle, and good workers. — Ed.] 



queen-cells from a holy-land colony. 



On the 14th I cut out 18 queen-cells from a 

 Holy Land colony formed from a one-frame 

 nucleus (bought in Texas April 18, 1899), that 

 had just swarmed. While holding two cells, 

 showing them to my wife, they hatched, one 

 a queen and one a worker, both lively as 

 crickets. Is it common for a worker to hatch 

 from a fairly well-developed queen-cell ? 



Cyrene E. Morris. 



Coon Rapids, la., Aug. 15. 



[Holy-Land bees are the best cell-builders of 

 any bees in the world ; yes, they will build 

 cells without any cups and without any coax- 

 ing, and the queens are large and vigorous. 

 Indeed, we had one of their queens fly imme- 

 diately upon emerging from the cell, some two 

 or three feet. — Ed.] 



starting bees into sections with ex- 

 tracting-combs; forming nuclei. 



I use Hoffman self-spacing frames below, 

 and shallow extracting-frames in supers, and 

 run mostly for extracted. I like the plain 

 sections first rate. 



I tried a plan this season (and it works 

 well) to get bees started in plain sections 

 (3^x5x1^). Fix a 5^-inch super with rab- 

 bets and tins for section-holders. At one side 

 put a shallow frame of drawn foundation or 

 comb; then a fence; next a section-holder and 

 five sections; then a fence and another ex- 



tracting-comb, and so on to fill out the super. 

 When the bees get started in the sections the 

 extracting-combs can be taken away and the 

 super filled with sections, the combs being 

 used as " baits," either in sections or extract- 

 ing-supers on other hives. 



When forming nuclei or new colonies I 

 cause the bees to fill up, then shake them 

 down in front of an empty hive, when they 

 will run in like a new swarm. I have not 

 found a nucleus, thus formed, to lose any ap- 

 preciable number of its bees by their going 

 back to their old home. I think what few do 

 go back were not thoroughly filled up. 



Le Mars, Iowa. G. A. C. Clarke. 



A Stinging Revenge. 



