V\i 



GLEANIXGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 



good queens can not be reared after abont Aug-. 

 ^Otb, while I claim that, by proper care, they can be 

 reared nearly if not quite two months later, or as 

 long as warm weather lasts. Nevertheless, as an 

 experiment, 1 would try rearing some in the winter, 

 if they could bo fertilized. You seem to think, 

 friend D., that if I had my choice I would prefer, for 

 my own use, queens reared in June and July. Ac- 

 cording- to theory, 1 should choose the summer-bred 

 queens; but, as I ro to choose, these facts stare me 

 in the face: Each spring, for the three past years, 

 one-half of my stocks have been " mothered " by 

 these late-reared queens, and they have done fully 

 as well as the ones that had queens reared in June 

 and July. Perhaps you will say that all of my 

 queens may be "poor sticks;" well, perhaps they 

 are; but if such is the case, why do I obtain, on an 

 average, mere honey per colony than my neighbors, 

 and rear on an average 20 queens per colony in ih3 

 baruain? 



Bat why, friend D., ('o you use the words '^for my 

 cwn use," and then put them in italics too? Do you 

 mean to insinuate that I would rear queens to sell 

 that I would not keep for my oivn use? If you do, 

 let me say (although I know it sounds like advertis- 

 ing in the reading columns, but I can not help it), 

 that I have never knowingly sold a queen that I 

 would not keep for my own use. No, friend D., T am 

 not like the breeders of whom you bought some dol- 

 lar queens, who would like to rear Ihe queens for 

 you, when he reared his own. 1 do not rear queens 

 one waj- for the " little bugs," and another way for 

 myself and the "big bugs," for fear the "big bugs" 

 might "tell," if I sent them poor queens, and thus 

 spoil my reputation. If a queen-breeder should 

 write to me, friend D., as that one did to you, I 

 would have nothing to do with him, and I should bo 

 strongly tempted to give his name to the public as 

 a fraud and swindler. AV. Z. Hutchinson. 



Kogersville, Genesee Co., Mich. 



I fear, my friends, we are getting into al- 

 most too mnch of an argitment on this ques- 

 tion ; but as a healthful, wholesome, and 

 friendly rivalry may be productive of good, 

 I have thought best to let it go on. Shall we 

 not drop it right liere, and let the queens 

 themselves, reared by both our friends, do 

 the talking? Quite a lot of us want Doolit- 

 tle queens, and we are going to report fully 

 in regard to them, as we also shall in regard to 

 those reared by friend II. and other breeders. 



WHAT SHAI.L THE FRIENDS DO TO 



STAKT AGAIN, ^% HO HAVE liOS >' 



AliE. THEIR BEES? 



ALSO, WHAT SHALL BE DONE AVITH THE 

 HONEY, HIVES, AND E3IPTY COMBS? 



LTIIOUGII I answered these questions 

 in our Feb. No., it seems I Avas not 



" suftieiently explicit. I am grateful 

 for the confidence you have expressed in 

 coming to me, and for the willingness with 

 which you send me money ; but 1 think you 

 can dobetter by not intrusting it all into my 

 hands, and it is because of this I write. If 

 you have any bees left at all, build up, by 

 the directions I have given you in the ABC, 

 and get bees in your empty Itives and combs. 

 Close yoitr hives up so you are sure no rob- 

 bers can get in at the honey, and they can 



generally be left safely on their summer 

 stands, until about the usual swarming 

 time. Clean out the hives, brush off the 

 dead bees, and when you put the combs back, 

 spread them a little apart so they do not 

 touch each other, and then look at them oc- 

 casionally until they are used. 



Do not fuss much with soiled combs, or 

 those containing dead bees. Just set them, 

 one at a time, in the center of a strong col- 

 ony, in May or June, and the bees will fix 

 up the worst comb you ever saw, so quickly 

 you will hardly know how it is done. 



If you can get bees on all the combs a 

 month earlier, it will be better ; but there is 

 no need of losing any combs by the moth, if 

 you keep a little lookout for "them. If the 

 combs can hang a couple of inches apart, 

 they will be less liable to injury. You can 

 generally effect this by removing all division- 

 boards, and spreading the combs out. 



WILL A LB. OF BEES, AND A QUEEN, 

 BUILD UP TO A GOOD COLONY WITH- 

 OUT ANY BKOOD, IF PUT ON EMPTY 

 C03IB, SAY IN Al'RIL, MAY, OK 

 JUNE? 



This is a question that has been asked a 

 great many times ; but to be frank, 1 do not 

 know that I ever tried it. If the bees are 

 young Italians, I should have no fear but 

 that ihey would, but very much would de- 

 pend upon who had the care of them. A 

 friend in Michigan with hives of empty 

 combs, once built a single colony up so as to 

 make SO of it in a single season. On the 

 other hand, a neighbor s boy once bought a 

 fair-sized nucleus of us, early in the season, 

 and failed to build them up so as to winter, 

 during the whole season. I can not tell 

 what you can do. A pound of bees in our 

 hands, in the month of April, would make a 

 most rousing colony before the season was 

 over, and I am quite sure we could make 

 three or four colonies of it if we chose. If you 

 wish, I will sell you the queen and bees, "but 

 I do not like to say what you can do with 

 them. If you can give them a frame of 

 brood, or even one only partly filled, it will 

 be a great help to them and the queen. If 

 you have not this to give, they should, if 

 they do fairly, soon have it by their own 

 work. 



COST OF A LB. OF BEES ; AND, WILL IT 

 PAY TO BUY THEM? 



As you will see by our April price list, 1 lb. 

 of Italians is worth, in April, $2.00 ; in May, 

 $1.50 ; in June, 81.2.5, and in July, $1.00. If 

 you can buy common bees in box hives, or 

 any other kind for .$5.00 or $0.00, perhaps 

 you had better buy them, and buy Italian 

 queens to put with" tlie bees. I bought nat- 

 ural swarms of bees last season, that weighed 

 six lbs., and at these prices the bees alone 

 were worth, in July, $6.00. Now, if you all 

 insist on coming to me, I shall have to buy 

 bees to fill this enormous demand. Some- 

 body will have to pay the express charges 

 here, and another charge back to you, where- 

 as if you would buy them directly of the pro- 

 ducer, but one charge would have to be paid, 

 and but one risk to run. Again, if Ave pixt 

 a lb. of bees in a hive and let them fiy a week, 

 they will, at the end of that time, have gone 



