ISSl 



GI.EAXIXGS IX BEE CULTURE. 



27 



From Different Fields. 



15LUE TIirSTLE; \Un\ TO KAISK THE 

 PLANTS. 



^j;IX(!E it has been sliowu Dial blue this- 

 ^ tie is jiot a thistle at all (see p. 460, Oct. 

 '--^ X'o. of last year), we may welcome it 

 among our honey-plants. I had thoiisrht of 

 callinp; it by another name; but as the pres- 

 ent one, blue thistle, is in such general and 

 widespread use. it would prol»ably be a hard 

 matter, should we undertake it. 



If sown in winter, sow in a small bi>-\', not larger 

 than 8x10 inches, nor deeper tlian ti inches. Fill even 

 full with leaf mold and sand, mixed; then s<iw seed 

 on top. On this, put '.^ inch of same mixture, and 

 then with aboard press down level, then moisten a 

 little. On this, place a 10x12 glass to prevent mois- 

 ture from escaping. In 4 or ."> days, the young plants 

 will come up. Then remove glass, place box in a 

 warm window, and as the plants grow, transplant to 

 larger boxes; and when warm weather comes, set 

 out in almost any kind of soil, and by thelast of July 

 you will see a fine lot of blossoming plants with 

 plenty of bees on them. J. T-. Bowkrs. 



nerryville, Va., Nov. 20, 1880. 



canuy-making; a valuable siggestion. 



Allow a novice to make a suggestion relating to 

 the formula for making candy for bees, in winter. 

 Instead of mixing your sugar and flour with water, 

 and boiling it, first mix sugar and water, and boil, as 

 suggested in A B C. When done, take it off, and 

 then, to the amount of flour that you wish, add just 

 enough of the hot syrup to make a liatter, with all 

 the lumps worked out. Then pour this batter slowly 

 into your syrup, and stir it vigorously; then pour. 

 By this method all danger of scorching is avoided. 



Kirksville, Mo. , Nov 27, 1880. I. D. Pearce. 



BEES LEAVING THEIR HIVES IN COLD WEATHEH. 



I have a very large swarm of Italians that are act- 

 ing so strangely that I wish to ask you if you know 

 what T can do to quiet them. About two weeks ago 

 I noticed they were flying out. It was then so cold 

 that they would drop into the snow within Ave or 

 si.x feet of their hive, and they continued to do so 

 right along through the last cold weather up to last 

 Friday, when I fastened them in by nailing wire 

 cloth over the entrance. They will now come down 

 to the entrance and try to get out, and they will 

 staj' there until they die in great numbers of cold 

 or hunger, I can't say which. They are in one of 

 your chair hives, with a cushion that fills the whold" 

 top. I laid this off for two or three days, thinking it 

 might be too warm. It is now over them, with one 

 of your wood mats lying loosely under it, the en- 

 trance is all open, and they are on eight frames, 

 with one division-board on one side of them. 



Ravenna, O., Nov. 20, 1880. J. C. Converse. 



The cushion is not too warm : in fact, I 

 fear it is the opposite. Put some loose chaff 

 under the cushion so as to make all tight 

 above. I should be inclined to think the 

 trouble comes from a sort of dysentery 

 caused by unwholesome stores. 'When bees 

 are so affected as to come out of their hives 

 in cold weather, it is a pretty hard case, un- 



less the weather changes enough so you can 

 take away all their stores, and feed them on 

 pure sugar, say a syrup made of granulated 

 sugar, or granulated sugar candy. 



FIFTEEN NEW SWARMS FROM ONE IN ONE SEASON; 

 GOOD FOR TEXAS. 



The queen j-ou sent to J. J. Taylor came all right. 

 My 154 stands of bees are doing well, and are still 

 gathering some honey. I have not killed their 

 drones yet. I had 8.") swarms of bees come out from 

 July 2tjth to August 27th. I extracted all the honey 

 from all of my young swarms twice, and all are full 

 now. The fore part of the season was bad. Bees 

 gathered very little honey till September. Since 

 then I have taken SiSit lbs., as nice as the nicest ex- 

 tracted. I find ready sale at 15c. I had one stand of 

 bees last spring which sent out 3 swarms. In July 

 they sent out 3 swarms. The 3 swarms that came 

 out in the spring all swarmed 3 times apiece. That 

 makes 15 swarms from one hive in one year, and all 

 in good condition for winter; that is, if winter 

 c<imes. Sometimes it don't come here. 



E. Devenpout. 



Richland Spring, Tex., Nov. 15. 1880. 



BLOWING BEES OCT OF THE HONEY-BOXES. 



A bellows is the best thing that I ever tried or 



I read of to get bees out of open-bottom boxes. By 



; blowing in at one side, the reaction of the wind will 



bring them out at the other side in a stream. It is a 



well-known fact, that bees, if allowed to remain long 



on comb honey after it is taken from the hive, if 



there is no honey coming from the field, uncap a 



portion of it. Therefore, we should hasten to re- 



[ move them. A bellows will do it quickly. My bel- 



I lows is made of boards llxUx 'a, rounded off and 



; brought to a point at one end. F. C. White. 



Euclid, Cuyahoga Co., 0., Nov. 12, 1880. 



Quite an idea, friend W.: but will not our 



: smokers answer just as well as a bellows 



i made expressly? And do you think a 



! stream of pure air better than smoke? I 



I often blow bees from the sections with a 



' smart puff of my breath : but it is apt to 



make one dizzy, to try to blow off a great 



many Italians. I presume we want a pretty 



good-sized l)ellows to make them "git" 



"right fast." 



X GOOD REPORT FROM FLORIDA. 



\ As it is now Oct. s, perhaps I had better hand in 

 ! my report, although my bees have begun to gather 

 quite fast in the last few days, and to-day thej' arc 

 fairly boiling out of some of my hives. So, here 

 goes: Spring count. 14; increased to 40 by natural 

 swarming and dividing, when they were about to 

 swarm naturally; comb fdn. used, 0; extracted hon- 

 ey, IWO lbs. : price obtained in Boston, SI. 10 per gal. : 

 price obtained in other parts of Massachusetts, 12c 

 per lb. The parties who sold the honey said, in their 

 returns. '"Your honey is the finest that ever came to 

 this market from the South, and the price obtained 

 is from 15 to 20c higher per gal. than other honey is 

 selling at here." I will also state, that if I had let 

 my bees do as they wished, I should have had at 

 least 20 swarms more: but as it took me 3 months to 

 got a bill of lumber from Jacksonville, I could not 

 make hives for them, and so I kept them back from 

 swarming. This has been an unusually poor year 

 for bees and honey here, and many have got neither 

 honey nor increase from their hives. I am still 

 ahead, although the gale that wrecked the steam- 



