1881 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



547 



two seasons, and all but two (and they very doubtful), 

 have produced plainly marked hybrids. Does it not 

 seem, if she were pure, with a few black bees a mile 

 distant at least, a part should bring me purely 

 marked workers? 



Are Cyprian and Palestine bees equal to Italians 

 in keeping out moths? T. K. Bctleh. 



Alma City, Waseca Co., Minn., Sept. 5, 1881. 



Why, friend B.. tliere is no sort of need of 

 fallinj^ out of a tree and getting stung as 

 friend Thomas did. nor advertising in your 

 bee journal. ,eitlier, in order that yon may 

 find some nice genteel little woman who 

 would be glad to help you keep bees and — 

 house too I There are plenty of exactly the 

 right kind, right in your own neighborhood, 

 without any sort of a doubt. Either you 

 are too faint-hearred. or else you are too 

 particular. In either case, you must get 

 right over it. If the woman you should get 

 doesn't prove to be exactly perfection, it is 

 your business, with your "broad shoulders. 

 to stand between her and the world, and by 

 kindness and love correct the deficiencies 

 exactly as she will correct yours. It is a bad 

 idea to get into your head, that there are 

 better people a thousand miles aAvay. than 

 there are right in your neighborhood. 



AVe have been assisting the friends large- 

 ly in getting household conveniences, it is 

 true, friend J3.; but you did not suppose we 

 meant to include "in the list household 

 queens, did youV 



If they doh"t know about bees, it will be 

 all the niore interesting to you to have the 

 pleasure of teaching them. Fix up. and 

 start out this very night ; and when you are 

 happier in a home of your own than you ev- 

 er dreamed of being' before, write and tell 

 us about it. 



I have never met just such a case as you 

 mention with the bees, and do not know 

 how to explain it, unless the queen was one 

 of Doolittle's kind; a hybrid that produced 

 three-banded workers. 



I believe the C'yps and Holy-Lands are 

 fully up to any Italians, to keep out the 

 moth. 



HEES AND GRAPES, AGAIN. 



What is the price of the cheapest wire cloth you 

 have that will confine bees to the hive? Do you 

 think, with the thermometer at 75 or 80 , bees could 

 be moved in a spring wagon 5 or miles without 

 melting or breaking down the combs in brood- 

 chamber? Each colony contains 3 or 4 sheets of 

 fdn. (not wired), but they were in the center, and 

 have not much honey in them now; other combs old 

 and tough. Tt seems a great undertaking to move 

 100 swarms, but I can not have them injure the 

 grapes this year as they did last. I should be glad 

 of any suggestion that occurs to you. I think there 

 are more than 100 acres r>f grapes within their range. 



Brocton, N. Y., Sept. 3, 1881. M. Simons. 



Why, my friend, is it really a fact, that 

 your "bees have been meddling with the 

 grapes, to the extent that you are thinking 

 of moving 100 colonies? If so. it is a pretty 

 fair evidence that bees do realh-, at least 

 sometimes, prove a pest to grape-growers. 

 There will be no trouble at all in moving 

 them, providing those new combs made 

 from fdn. are fastened at the bottoms and | 



sides. If not, and such is often the case, 

 Avhere they are fastened to the comb-guide 

 and no more, they will often get to swing- 

 ing when the hive is moved, and break off. 

 If moved during very hot weather, they 

 must have abundant ventilation, as I have 

 explained in the ABC; but I trust ere this 

 you have had a flow of honey, or something 

 providential has rendered it unnecessary for 

 you to undertake such a task. 



RATHER UISHEARTEXING. 



One of my neighbors sent to the city of New York 

 for an imported cjuecu — has received three; the 

 first came dead; the second produced hybrid work- 

 ers and black queens; the third can't hold on to the 

 combs— an old worn-out queen, I think. I have had 

 about the same kind of success in ordering queens. 

 Harvey P. Farrington. 



Mandobi, Buffalo Co., Wis., Aug. 15, 1881. 



Gently, friend F. The imported -queen 

 Inisiness is full of disappointments, both to 

 the buyer and seller. After the long trip 

 they have to make, it is not very unusual 

 for them to come tlirough dead. From your 

 statement, I infer you received another 

 promptly, and I am a little afraid j'^ou pro- 

 nounced her hybrid when she was a pure 

 queen, judging solely from your own state- 

 ment. The daughters of many of our im- 

 ported queens would be pronounced black, 

 by one not acquainted with them ; but they 

 will produce nice yellow bees, in spite of 

 their color. Are not the workers you pro- 

 nounce hybrids gentle to handle and very 

 industrious? See if you do not lind them to 

 stand the test laid down in our A B C. The 

 last one being feeble, was also occasioned, 

 probably, from her long trip. It is a hard 

 thing to" be obliged to bear the loss of an im- 

 ])orted queen ; and to be censured when one 

 is doing the best he can. makes it still hard- 

 er. Shall we not all try to cultivate a spirit 

 of patience and forbearance in these matters? 



COMPARATIVE VALUE OF SUGAR AND HONEY FOR 

 FEEDING. 



You have wintered bees on sugar, and now I 

 should like to know how many pounds of coffee A 

 sugar, made into a sj-rup, a good strong colony of 

 bees ought to have, say the 1st of October, provided 

 they had W) honey for winter stores. What is the 

 comparative value of sugar and honey as a food for 

 bees? W. Z. Hutchinson. 



Rogersville, Mich., Sept. 9, 1881. 



The term " good strong colony '" is rather 

 an indefinite one, friend II. The colony of 

 ours that gathered 13i lbs. in a day weighed 

 llf lbs., but we would call 5 lbs. of bees a 

 good strong colony. In our experiments in 

 shipping bees we "thought a pound of bees 

 would consume a pound of sugar in about 1-5 

 days, if I am correct. Well, bees in a state 

 of rest, as in their hives in winter, should 

 not consume over half tliat amount — say a 

 l)Ound of stores a month for each pound of 

 bees. This would give -SO lbs. for each .5-lb. 

 colony, () months. T do not think, in prac- 

 tice, it will equal more than half that, even 

 for stocks wintered outdoors. Where they 

 are so well protected that they assume their 

 semi-dormant condition, the amount is still 

 less. I should think, from the experience I 



