34 



GLEANINGS IN J3EE CULTURE. 



Jax. 



BLAClv BEES IN ITALY. 



I see that friend Jones says there are black bees in 

 Italy. I had come to that conclusion myself. Hav- 

 ing bought quite a number of dollar queens of friend 

 Ila Michencr, that he reared from the select import- 

 ed queen he got of you, I was surprised to find so 

 many produced what I call hybrids. Friend Ila 

 came to show me they were not hybrids, by placing 

 them on the window, where he said they showed the 

 bands plainly enough (dirty-looking bands they were, 

 though.) Now, the bees produced from that import- 

 ed queen look just the same, and are cross. "Why! 

 if it were possible, I would think she had flown half 

 way across the Mediterranean, and mated a drone 

 from the African coast. I left my bees until now 

 for chafC packing; and, cold as it is, they will boil 

 out on the snow whenever the hive is touched. If 

 friend Jones' CypHan and Holy-Land bees beat that, 

 I don't want any of them. For gentleness, beauty, 

 proliflcness, and honey-gathering, I like the albinos; 

 for, although they may not gather quite as much 

 honey, one can work among them with so much 

 comfort that bee-culture is pleasure if not protit. 



Anson Minor. 



Low Banks, Ont. Can., Oct. 25, 1880. 



You have got it exactly, friend JSI. 1'ho 

 hands are sometimes dingy and lirowii; hut 

 they are there, ])lainly enougli, wiien you 

 look for them right. Very likely, the prog- 

 eny of one queen will he much crosser than 

 another, for this is the case with all races of 

 hees, if I am correct ; hut I would prefer the 

 hees that make the honey, even if they are 

 cross, I think. 



DYSENTERY IN DECEMBER. 



My bees are all dying. I have lost live swarms out 

 of eight; two swarms died in the latter part of Oct., 

 and the other three in Nov. They had a full supply 

 of hone3'-a sullicient amount to have fed them 

 through the winter. Those that have died are the 

 black bees. I have one swarm of Italians, which 

 seem to bo strong and vigorous. My neighbors' bees 

 are all dead. The honey looks well, and is free (rom 

 moth or any infectious trouble. What is the matter? 

 and what is the remedy, if any? James Dodd. 



Clear Creek, Ind., Dec. 4, 1880. 



I do not know what is the trouhle, friend 

 I)., tmless it is the extremely cold spell of 

 weather we have just had, with had stores, 

 or, rather, unwholesome honey, and perhaps 

 insulficient protection, Neighhor JL lias 

 just l)een in, and reports that his l)ees are 

 spotting the liives the worst of any thing he 

 ever saw or heard of, lie has never lost in 

 wintering, you may rememher, and was feel- 

 ing quite coniiderit of his ability to carry 

 hees tlirongh safely, any winter. His hees 

 are down by the river, and they filled their 

 hives nicely on fall tlowers, wliile we were 

 obliged to feed sugar to get ours into win- 

 tering trim. Well, ours have scarcely si)ot- 

 ted the hives at all, and are in excellent con- 

 dition. Some, in both apiaries, are yet in 

 the Simi)licity hives, where we had queens 

 we were intending to take out. He lias lost 

 T) colonies outright, by this aggravated dys- 

 entery, while ours, in the Simplicity hives. 

 are briglit and healthy. I attribute the dif- 

 ference solely to the stores. Ours, you may 

 remember, were fed up on candy made of 

 granulated sugar, and A grape sugar. His in 



the Simplicity hives were much worse af- 

 fected than those in the chaff hives. This 

 seems to indicate tliat chaff hives will do a 

 great deal toward making poor stores Avhole- 

 some ; but that pure sugar is much safer, as 

 a general thing, than natural stores. 



GALVANIZED IRON FOR HONEY UTENSILS, ETC. 



In answer to I. B. Rumford, p. 545, Nov. No., I will 

 say, that I have used galvanized-iron tanks for hon- 

 ey for the last 10 years, and the tanks were as clean 

 and bright the last day as the first. If honey acts on 

 the galvanizing, it must be a very slow process, as I 

 have not been able to detect it during that time. 

 You may also inform j'our readers, that beeswax 

 makes a cheaper, easier, and almost as good lining 

 as tin for home-made wooden extractors, boxes to 

 carrj' combs, uncapping-box, and other utensilsthat 

 can be washed with tepid water. I made this year 

 an extractor, all thoroughly seasoned wood except 

 the wire cloth, honey-gate, screws, and nails, and 

 coated it inside with melted wax. I put a cork or 

 plug in the gate/r(»/»i the inside, while coating it. I 

 made also two tanks of .55-gallon whiskj'-barrels, 

 holding 600 lbs. each, and they cost me $3.50 apiece. 

 They have honey-gates near the bottom. The heads 

 were knocked out, and the barrels coated inside with 

 wax. Wm. Muth-Rasmus.sen. 



Independence, Inyo Co., Cat., Nov. 10, 1880. 



Galvanized iron keeps bright, friend M., 

 just because it is all the time being slowly 

 dissolved hy the lii|uids it contains, or that 

 fall on it. Even pure water will thus dis- 

 solve it. It is not positively dangerous for 

 most kinds of food, unless they stand a con- 

 siderable time in it, in small quantities. If 

 you let a thin stratum of honey remain sev- 

 eral days on galvanized iron, you can readily 

 taste the salt that is formed 'with it and the 

 honey; and if the quantity be sullicient, you 

 will experience the bad effects of a mineral 

 poison. It has been almost entirely dis- 

 carded on this account.— ^Vaxing barrels and 

 other utensils has been very fully discussed 

 in our l)ack volumes and the A }> ('. There 

 is no objection to its use, except a slight 

 stickiness and the inconvenience of not he- 

 ing able to scald such utensils as we can tin. 



WHAT 1 LB. OF BEES IN JUNE DID. 



My bees did well this year. They made me 800 lbs. 

 of box honey, 50 hives. I feel well pleased with that 

 pound of bees I got of you. I put them in their hive 

 the ^Oth of June, and they filled it. On the 15th of 

 August they swarmed, making me 2 good swarms of 

 Italians. Can you beat that from 1 lb. of bees from 

 June 30th? L. S. Sour.KS. 



North Lacrosse, Wis., Nov. ;!0, 18S0. 



AN A B C scholar's FIRST SU.MMER WITH BEKS. 



Good morning, friend Hoot 1 I will try to write a 

 few lines about my first summer in handling bees. I 

 commenced with 5 stands of bees in the spring of 

 1880. I bought chaff hives of friend Good, and hired 

 him to transfer them from common box hives into 

 the chaff hives. May 32d I bought 4 Italian queens 

 of friend Good, and introduced them successfully. 

 June Ist I divided 5 stands and made 10 of them. 

 June 2nd, I bought 5 queen-cells of Good, and had 

 bad luck with them. One was dead in the cell; one 

 came out missing; two were lost, I suppose in thei r 

 wedding trip; the other is a very prolific queen.and 



