36 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



was supposed to have contained Paris green. 

 If I am correct, they warmed the cages over 

 the stove for some purpose, and the fumes 

 from the Paris green permeated the wood 

 and candy, so as to kill every bee that was 

 tried, very soon after being put into the 

 cages. We have discontinued the tinned 

 wire cloth, because it is too bright for the 

 eyes in trying to see the bees through the 

 meshes. The best thing we have found is 

 the blued wire cloth. This is so dark, the 

 meshes so large, and the wire so fine, that 

 we can see the bees almost as well as if noth- 

 ing intervened at all, to cut off the view. 

 This is the same wire cloth as that used for 

 the blued-wire dish-covers. At present, it 

 can not well be obtained at less than about 

 5c per square foot, while the painted is only 

 3^c per square foot. 



NUMBER OF STOCKS THAT CAN BE KEPT PROFITABLY 

 IN ONE LOCALITY. 



I have about 60 swarms of bees, mostly Italians, 

 and I have them scattered In 4 places, and desire to 

 know how many are profitable to keep in one place, 

 and bow many will thrive in the area of their flight. 

 It has been not much more than starve the past 

 season in this part of our State. The Italians have 

 proved their superiority as honey-gatherers in most 

 instances, but the honey harvest is quite small. 



AMBER CANE. 



Just at this time there is quite an excitement up- 

 on the subject of raising Amber cane for sugar and 

 syrup. Some persons have experimented quite 

 largely, and produced a very nice arHcle. Now, I 

 desire to ask, through Gleanings (if any of your 

 contributors have experience), how an apiary would 

 flourish near a mill where this cane is ground and 

 made into syrup, or how a sugar manufactory and 

 apiary would be likely to work in proximity to each 

 other. An answer through Gleanings would be 

 gladly received. How would this sj-rup answer to 

 feed bees? This Amber cane is not the old sorghum, 

 but seems much superior in every respect. 

 "fair" treatment. 



We obtained the first premium on our honey at 

 the Bradford Co. fair, probably one of the largesf 

 fairs ever held in this part of the State. 



Bela Cogswell. 



Silvara, Bradford Co., Pa., Nov. 22, 1880. 



Locations differ; but, on an average, it 

 is found that about 100 are as many as it is 

 well to keep in one place, where honey is 

 the object. If one is rearing queens, he 

 may keep as many as three, four, or even 

 500, in one apiary; but, of course, he will 

 have to feed more than if they were scat- 

 tered more widely. If it were not for the 

 advantage of having all your bees right un- 

 der your eye and hand, I presume more 

 honey would be obtained by scattering them 

 in apiaries of not over 50 each, and as much 

 as four or five miles apart.— Early- Amber 

 sugar-cane has been pretty fully discussed 

 and reported on in our last year's volume. 

 At times, the bees trouble "the sorghum 

 mills, and at other times they do not. I be- 

 lieve no trouble has been experienced where 

 proper precautions have been taken to keep 

 the bees out of the syrup when they were 

 not getting stores from other sources. If a 

 nice article, it is as safe for feeding bees as 

 cane sugar. 



IS IT AN advantage TO INTRODUCE ITALIANS 

 AMONG BLOCKS, PAYING THEM NO ATTENTION? 



Do you think it a good plan to add a few stands of 

 Italians to the apiary, all the others being blacks? 

 Will the blacks, in a short time, run the Italians out 

 into the common kind? G. G. Kenyon. 



Central Square, Oswego Co., N. Y., Dec. 15, 1880. 



I should consider any admixture of the 

 Italian blood an advantage, and I do not 

 think the Italian blood would be apt to run 

 out, from the fact that almost all the bees in 

 the forest are now getting to be more or 

 less Italianized ; and some of the prettiest 

 marked Italians I have ever found have 

 come from bee-trees in the woods. Unless 

 you take pains to rear queens, or get queen- 

 cells from your Italian stocks, the work of 

 Italianizing would go on slowly ; and if the 

 blacks greatly outnumbered the Italians, and 

 all were left to swarm naturally, the Italian 

 blood might run out entirely. Inasmuch, 

 however, as Italians often gather enough 

 to survive the winter where" blacks would 

 starve, the cliances are greatly in favor of 

 the Italians running out the blacks, in the 

 course of time. 



PREPARED PAPER FOR THE BASE OF COMB FOUN- 

 DATION. 



As there is a lull in business just at the present 

 moment (although I am liable at any moment to be 

 called on to show dress good*, weigh out groceries, 

 fit a pair of stoga boots to a customer, or wait on 

 the post-olHce), I thought I would drop you a few 

 lines in regard to your observations on paper sepa- 

 rators, and paper as base for comb foundation. The 

 bees cluster in boxes more readily', we think, with 

 paper than tin separators; and our experience is, 

 they do not attach wax to the paper as much as to 

 tin. Our prepared paper does not absorb anu of the 

 wax as does a wood base; and, as the paper forms 

 the base, almost all of the wax is placed in sides or 

 contour of cells, thus saving the bees much labor. 

 It will not sag nor crack while extracting; and if I 

 succeed in making it a success, I think it will be the 

 "boss" for shipment. 



Bees are veri) 'inict, with fair prospect of a long 

 winter. J. E. MoORE. 



Byron, N. Y., Dec. 13, 1880. 



Be not weary in well doing, friend M. 

 The trouble is not with paper and wood for 

 fdn., that they absorb the wax, but that the 

 bees are obliged to pile up wax on them, as 

 it were, to get the proper shape for the base 

 of the cell. This same objection holds good 

 for any material, that leaves a flat base to the 

 cell. If you will weigh a piece of finished 

 comb with a paper or wood base, and com- 

 pare it with the natural-wax base, you will 

 see the amount of Avax that is wasted ; or 

 take such a comb and scrape the cells off, 

 and then you will find the ridges of wax that 

 have been saved by a convex and concave 

 Avax base. Wood and paper bases are a suc- 

 cess.witliout doubt, only in this one particu- 

 lar: they are awfully expensive, when we 

 consider the wax that is used by the bees in 

 making them. 



I write you in regard to Alsike clover. Is it a 

 clover that will stand pasturing with cattle and 

 sheep, and is it as^ood as our common red clover? 

 I want to seed 60 acres in the spring with clover for 



