486 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15. 



NOT A TRUST, BUT AN EXCHANGE. 



I don't like the word " trust " very well, as 

 spoken by Mr. Coggshall on page 259, but a 

 bee-keepers' exchange conducted on principles 

 like the dairymen's exchange for butter and 

 cheese. Let the bee-keepers of a county (or 

 larger section) organize and meet at somecen- 

 tial point, say once a month during the hon- 

 ey-flow (this being exchange day) bringing 

 samples of their products with them. The 

 dealers will meet them there, offering to buy, 

 the co-operative principles of the exchange 

 fixing a price to the local dealer, or in carload 

 lots to go to the larger markets. Mr. Brown, 

 in his " Benefits of Co-operation," page 260, 

 gives us some good thoughts on this subject. 



Dexter, N. Y. W. R. Gladwyn. 



VOIGT'S SWARM-CATCHER. 



Blocks made like the inclosed drawing, and 

 suspended under the foliage from small branch- 

 es, vines, or wires stretched from one point to 

 another as occasion requires, are fine swarm- 

 catchers. Most of mine were secured in that 

 way last season. 



The fact that 15 swarms clustered on a post 

 over which a grapevine grew suggested the 

 idea. I shall have 15 or 20 among my hives 

 this spring, and avoid much trouble in taking 

 swarms from the trees and posts. Why they 

 cluster on such places I am unable to say, but 

 they do. Ward Voigt. 



Jackson, Miss., Mar. 19. 



BELGIAN HARES ; SOY BEANS, ETC. 



Though in some quarters I think the Bel- 

 gian hare business is just now boomed a little 

 too extravagantly, I can indorse, in the main, 

 both Mr. Greiner and yourself. I have been 

 raising those hares some six years. They are 

 easily and cheaply kept, and my stock in that 

 period has varied from a dozen to sixty or 

 more each season. I do not allow them to 

 run at large, but have a warren inclosed with 



a 4-foot fence, about 2x3 rods in area ; and in 

 one end, under a shed, I have a lot of breed- 

 ing-hutches two tiers high. They furnish a 

 very fine article of meat — white, tender, and 

 as toothsome as chicken. When full grown 

 they reach from 6 to 12 lbs., live weight. 

 Then they have skins as tough as a wood- 

 chuck's, nearly, with fine fur — much used of 

 late in tanning for trimmings for ladies' gar- 

 ments, to which the name "Electric Seal" 

 has been given, and it is nice. 



The past two seasons for honey-raising have 

 been poor in this immediate vicinity. I have 

 secured only what I call about half an average 

 crop. Just now the prospect looks better for 

 this summer. 



Usually we winter from 12 to 21 colonies, in 

 chafT hives ; and in seven successive winters 

 we have not lost a colony in that way. The 

 business, however, here, is not very tempting, 

 the bee-pasturage not being over-abundant. 



SOY BEANS. 



I find that they will thrive nicely on soils 

 that are quite sandy ; are good nitrogen-gath- 

 erers, and hence I believe them to be valuable 

 for fertilizing. But the variety that I have 

 tried will be best cut for fodder here — the sea- 

 son is not long enough to ripen them. But 

 they will stand up strong and green through 

 the severest drouths we have here. 



Muskegon, Mich. ALBERT BAXTER. 



BELGIAN HARES. 



I tried to raise them, but the weather was 

 too hot and damp for them here, 60 miles 

 south of Chicago. They would do all right in 

 winter ; but as soon as warm weather came 

 their throats swelled, and they coughed and 

 died, and I had great trouble to get them to 

 breed. You have to keep them in a pen with 

 a tight floor, as they will burrow a long way, 

 and bark all the trees they can get at. 



Essex, 111. S. H. Gregson. 



HOW TO FIND OUEENS. 



To find the queen in a nucleus is a very easy 

 thing, which I do as follows : First remove 

 the division-board, then lift out and look over 

 the frames as you come to them, setting them 

 on the outside of the hive ; or if robbers are 

 bad, set them in a comb-bucket. Many times 

 queens are harder to find in nuclei than in full 

 colonies, very often being found on the side 

 walls or bottom-board. 



If I am to find a queen in a full colony, if 

 they are Italians and not too numerous I pro- 

 ceed as with the nuclei. Where robbers are bad 

 I find it a very good plan to discard the tin cov- 

 ers to the comb-buckets, and use a cloth kept 

 wet. Now, if the full colony is very strong, 

 or is black, or the bees poor hybrids, I pro- 

 ceed as follows : First smoke the hive a little. 

 Place a queen-excluder between the top and 

 lower stories ; raise the cover, and smoke the 

 majority of the bees down ; then look care- 

 fully over the combs for the queen. If not 

 found, next smoke or drum the most of the 

 bees into the top story where the queen can 

 be found very quickly by looking over the 

 combs. Very often she is found on the ex- 



