454 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



VERY ACCOMMODATING. 



If any more queens come without any name, send 

 them all to me. I will take care of them. 



A. F. EiIjENBErgzr. 

 Laddsburg, Bradford Co., Pa., June 9, 1881. 



T started the season with 78 swarms, many of them 

 weak (I lost 71 in wintering:) have increased to 210, 

 and taken, with what is ready to take, about 70001bs. 

 of extracted honey. F. B. Chapman. 



Scipioville, Cayuga Co., N. Y., July 21, 1881. 



I lost one swarm just by not having the A B C to 

 tell me what to do. I should have moved it before 

 the scouts returned and took it to the woods. I 

 have 8 swarms (one in the woods.) F. M. Cheney. 



South Sutton, Merrimack Co., N. H. 



I see you have got our convention wrongly locat- 

 ed. It was first voted to Berlin but was reconsidered 

 in the presence of the Berlin delegates and carried 

 to Pewaukee, Wis. I was secret arypc* ^^oi. Please 

 correct. H. P. Sayi.es. 



Hartford, Wis., Aug. 3, 1881. 



Erratum.— Between us (the type-setter and my- 

 self) there has been a mistake made which I would 

 like corrected. Page 348, July GLEAxixas, " ISO nat- 

 ural swarms May 12," should read, "1881 (the present 

 year), natural swarms Maj' 12, which is a month ear- 

 lier than 1880." Ed. Ladd, Jr. 



Beverly, Mo., July 19, 1881. 



HONEY-DEW BLACK IN t'OI.OIi. 



My bees are gathering honey-dew as black as ink, 

 and building up strong. 



CH.\FF packing. 



The weakest colony I have was not packed for win- 

 ter. The strongest I have was packed in a chaff 

 hive, and cast a natural swarm on the 26th. Give me 

 chaff hives for such a winter as the last in this lati- 

 tude. Jas. A. Nelson. 



Wyandotte, Kan., May 30, 1881. 



cellars, or OUTDOOR PACKING. 



I wintered 32 swarms of bees last winter, 13 in cel- 

 lar, and out of doors, packed in boxes and 

 stuffed with meadow hay. All wintered, until, in 

 April, 4 died without stores. I can not tell which are 

 the best on an average, those wintered in the cellar, 

 or those out of doors. They are gathering honey 

 well at this time. L. E. Bemis. 



Athol, Worcester Co., Mass., June 3, 1881. 



transferring in .JULY; HOW IT WORKS IF YOU 

 don't LOOK OUT. 



After I received the queens, I had two box hives 

 that I purchased, and concluded to transfer one of 

 them and capture the old queen, and release the 

 Italian; but the robbers poured in, and killed queen, 

 workers, and all ; so, you see, nobody is to blame but 

 myself. W. E. Shekrey. 



Olmstead, Logan Co., Ky., Aug. 1, 1881. 



DAILY yield from B.4iSSWOOD. 



Seeing that some were reporting how much honey 

 a single swarm of bees had broiight in in a day, I 

 thought I would report too. I had a swarm so I 

 could weigh them this year. July 4th they gained 

 13}i lbs.; July 5th, 13?J lbs., and July 6th, 11' i lbs., 

 making 3814 lbs. in three days. That is about as well 

 as I have seen any report of bees doing in this part 



of Michigan. They were at work on basswood. 

 Bees are doing well here now on buckwheat. 



T. P. Butcher. 



Spring Arbor, Mich., Aug. 14, 1881. 



[Do you wonder I planted a basswood orchard, 

 friend B.?] 



We commenced the season proper with 123 colonies 

 (that is, after we had done selling). We have now 226, 

 all full of bees but 3 or 4, and on the 12th and 13th we 

 went over the whole and took out all the frames, the 

 sections in which were all 111 led out, and no others; 

 and we took off 276 one-pound sections, well filled; 

 all clover honey, and nearly every colony has com- 

 menced in the second story. How is that for July 12? 



Mauston, Wis., July 15, 188J. H. V. Train. 



CALIFORNIA. 



We will have but little honey this season— one- 

 fifth of a crop. I served an apprenticeship of three 

 years with Mr. J. S. Harbison, and have an apiary of 

 about 200 stands of bees now on my own account, 

 but find I will have to connect the bee business with 

 fruit and vines, as the hon;\v crop is uncertain. I 

 have just got out 1000 raisin grapes, 100 orange- 

 trees, and 100 olives. J. P. M. Rainbow. 



Fall Brook, San Diego Co., Cal., July 18, 1881. 



.>^av.a.ge bees. 



Please inform me what I can do with the most sav- 

 age bees that ever lived. My hand is so swollen 

 from their effects that I can scarcely write. Please 

 do give information. Mrs. Wm. Pate. 



Atwood, Antrim Co., Mich. 



[If it is a sudden freak of theirs to be savage, it is 

 probably because the honey yield has suddenly 

 stopped. In that case, feed them liberally and reg- 

 ularly, and I think they will turn out decent and 

 civil bees again. If they are always cross, kill the 

 queen or sell her to somebody who don't mind cross 

 bees, telling him, of course, exactly why you sell 

 her. You can by this means secure bees just as 

 gentle as you choose, in every hive in your apiary; 

 Do you keep a good smoker, and never let your bees 

 have the upper hand':* It is a very bad plan to let 

 your bees get the habit of stinging. It is like let- 

 ting a high-mettled horse get loose and run away a 

 few times.] 



rerlaiiiing: to JBec Culture. 



\Vc respectfully solicit the aid of our friends in conducting 

 this department, and would consider it a favor to have them 

 send us all circulars that have a deceptive appearance. The 

 trieatest care will be at all times maintained to jn event injustice 

 hein« done any one. 



S REGISTERED N. C. Mitchell an order of $16.00 

 for five nucleus swarms in February, 1880, and 

 was to have the bees by the 10th of May. He 

 went to Smithfield, and said that he couldn't make 

 shipping arrangements to me to suit, and that he 

 would send me two queens for each nucleus ordered, 

 and if I lost any in introducing, that he would make 

 them good. Now, in the first place I ordered five nu- 

 clei with trtitcd queens. He mailed 15 queens; one 

 came through dead; 4 I lost in introducing, which 

 leaves 10. All proved hybrids. Fourteen, at 50 cts. 

 each, would make $7.00; that would leave $9.00 in my 

 favor, or th.at I have not got any thing for. Now, I 



