20S 



GLEANl^'GS IN BEE CULTUliE. 



Junk 



down." Now, while this is the truth, still it docs 

 not debar mo from trying different queens, both 

 imported and otherwise, to see If by some of them I 

 can not improve tlio stock I now have. liast season 

 I bought a queen from A. I. Uoot's rcd-cloverqueen, 

 and one from another party, both looking toward 

 improvement. Now, while the latter proves to be 

 of no value, 1 think the former promises success, 

 for both her colony and those of the live young 

 queens I reared froni her wintered far better than 

 the average of my old stock of bees. While I can 

 not say posiiively what they will be as honey-gath- 

 erers, yet, should they prove 'equal in that respect 

 to my old stock, it will be seen I shall have made an 

 improvement bv getting this stock in ray yard. To 

 sum up, " prove all things, and hold fast that which 

 is good." 



CARE OF SURPLUS C05IBS. 



Ne.'ct: E.D. Howell wishes to know how Doolittle 

 cares for empty combs to keep moth worm from 

 destroying them; and friend Root thinks Doolittle 

 has bees enough to cover them by the time warm 

 weather comes. This is a mistake, for I have sum- 

 mered over from two to five hundred for the past 

 two seasons, and it looks at present as if I should 

 carry over 1000 the present season. To preserve 

 them, T had a cupboard or small closet built, in 

 which I could bang on racks 350 combs, which filled 

 the room to within two feet of the bottom. Fill the 

 room with combs, or put in what you have; get a 

 kettle and place some ashes in it; put in a shovel of 

 coals, and on this pour 1 lb. of sulphur for every 100 

 cubic feet contained in your room. Shut the door, 

 and, if necessary, cork all tight with strips of cloth; 

 then leave it for 48 hours, at which time you can 

 take them out and put more in if you have them. If 

 j'ou wait till the eggs which are in the combs are 

 pretty generally hatched, once sulphuring seems to 

 suflice unless the combs are where the moth miller 

 can get at them. From experiment, we have found 

 the above amounts of sulphur to bo none too much, 

 for in case of matted webs or cocoons, if less is used 

 they will not be killed. 



WHAT HECOME.S of CEES when KOBBEDy 



Ncit we come to "comments on Doolittle's com. 

 ments," by A. A. Bradford, of New Hampshire, 

 where he asks, " If the bees that are robbed do not 

 go with the robbers, where do thej' go?' ' It is a well- 

 known law which governs the economy of the hive, 

 that all bees which die leave the hive to die, if the 

 weather will permit them so to do; hence at all 

 times, except during freezing weather, we find no 

 dead bees in or about the hives after the first clear- 

 ing-out In the spring. If a colony becomes queen- 

 less so as to die, the bees one by one depart from the 

 hive as death approaches, till all are gone. Now, as 

 far as my experience goes, this is what becomes of 

 the bees when robbed; and if, as alleged, the robbed 

 bees go home with the robbers, and even help, after 

 being conquered, in carrying the honey away from 

 their once happy home to that of a stranger, it is 

 some thing that has never come under my notice. 

 But I have frequently seen the bees, when robbed 

 during early spring, perish in the hive by starva- 

 tion, and also when warm enough to leave the hive 

 one by one till all were gone. Friend Root says, on 

 page 182 of Gleanings, that he has had cases where 

 the bees from a robbed hive went home withthe rob- 

 bers. Will he please tell us how they acted when 

 going home with the robbers, and how he knew that 



it was the robbed bees that were going to the hive of 

 the victors? 



Borodino, N. Y., May 20, 1881. G. M. Doolittlk. 

 [Tu be contimicd.] 



I know the vcrbbed bees went along with 

 the robbers, friend U., because none were 

 left in the hive after all the honey was out, 

 and the robbers were greatly increased in 

 numbers. The robbers had a cjueen, and 

 the robbed, none. I watched the whole pro- 

 ceeding, but I do not now remember any 

 other instance where I saw it all so plainly. 



SENDING GOODS BACK. 



It seem? pretty hard for some of the brethren to 

 get over the idea of sending things back, if they are 

 not just as they should be, or even if they Imagine 

 such to be the case. Last season a customer mailed 

 a queen back, a long trip, because she did not seem 

 very lively, and some have talked of sending bees 

 back, because a part of them were dead. Please, 

 friends, do not think of doing such a thing; but, out 

 of kindness to the poor little sufferers, if nothing 

 else, take care of them the best you can, as if it were 

 your own mishap, and I think you will always find 

 the shipper disposed to be neighborly. Any one who 

 has bad lu^k in shipping bees needs all the help and 

 assistance we can give him. Do not, I pray you, 

 think of being so unkind as to send any thing back 

 until you have first notified the shipper, and then he 

 cangivesuch directions as to the disposal of the 

 goods as he thinks best. If you get a queen that is 

 feeble after a long trip, put her on a comb of fresh 

 honey, in the Feet cage, the very hour you get her, 

 and then report. 



THE RUBBER-PLATE FOUNDATION MACHINE. 



The rubber plates for making fdn. are a success, 

 except in two points. The first is, that we have not 

 yet succeeded in making fdn. with them as thin as 

 that made by the rolls, or even on the plaster casts; 

 but as it is soft dipped wax, with excellent side 

 walls, it will all be used by the bees, and is probably 

 economy in the end. About .5 square feet per lb. is 

 what the machines will probably average. The sec- 

 ond trouble is the trimming. Unless we make larger 

 sheets than we need, pile them up and trim with 

 a knife, as we do with the rolled fdn., it takes more 

 time to do the trimming than to make the sheets. It 

 will work on wire without trouble; but if made in a 

 wired frame, the surplus wax around the edges will 

 stick to the wood of the frame. Who will solve this 

 problem? We have sent out about half a dozen ma- 

 chines, and will doubtless soon have reports from 

 them. The prices are as gi\en in April No. We 

 have at present rubber sheets for the L. frame only, 

 about 8's by IV'a; but of course we can- easily cut 

 them down to any thing smaller. The price of the 

 above is $5.00, and they can be sent by mail for 80c. 



ANOTHER I.MPLEMENT FOR WIRING FDN. IN FRAMES. 



Some time last winter, W. W. Bliss, Los Angeles, 

 Cal., sent us a little wire, to be used instead of the 

 Blood roller, for fastening fdn. against the wire, in 

 wired frames. We have had no occasion to use it 

 until recently. We find now, that our girls work "it 

 more rapidly, and it does better work, than the I'ol- 

 ler. After using it a while, I picked up an ordinary 

 button-hook, such as ladies use for buttoning their 

 shoes, and after filing a little groove in the back of 

 the hook, so it would not slip off the wire, I found it 



