550 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



that I could see no great difference between 

 the man who raises wool and mutton for a 

 living, and the one who raises bees and hon- 

 ey. Tell the assessor what they are worth 

 y(jurself ; what one of your neighbors who 

 Keeps bees would give for them, would prob- 

 ably be something near their value for tax- 

 ation. I believe that in some States a man's 

 land is exempt, if he plants a certain num- 

 ber of forest-trees on it. The government 

 exempts him, because they wish to encourage 

 any movement that is for the public good. 

 It may be so with the colts you mention. 

 But is it so with those who keep bees, on the 

 aveiage? I know of some places where the 

 community think quite the other way. I do 

 not believe I could be happy with money 

 that belonged to some one else, and on the 

 same principle I do not want money that justly 

 belongs to the government. If my neighbor 

 was taxed who had a thousand dollars in- 

 vested in sheep, and I who had the same 

 amount invested in bees was not, I should 

 feel a little ashamed of myself, unless some 

 good reason were given for making the dis- 

 tinction. 1 have read the article you sent, 

 friend O., and I thank you for it ; but still I 

 do not see why bees should be exempt. 



USING "C" COFFEE SUGAR INSTEAD OF "A." 



I thought I would let you know how my bees have 

 made it this summer. I don't think I ever saw bees 

 do so well. I have just taken off 30 lbs. of nice honey, 

 and have plentyin the hiveto winter plenty of bees. 

 The queen that I got with the bees, June 2]d, has 

 kept 8 frames tilled with brood all the season. 



I bought a hive of black bees the other dnj'of a 

 neighbor, that he got out of a tree. They are in 

 poor condition. 1 think there seems to be enough 

 bees. They have but little honey, and but two 

 frames of brood, and not very full at that. I am 

 feeding them on the best C sugar I can get. If you 

 think I can get them through the winter, I want a 

 tested queen. They didn't cost me much — SI. 30, 

 hive and all. There are bees enough to cover 7 

 frames. D. C. Stringer. 



Clinton Falls, Putnam Co., Ind., Sept. 21, 1881. 



Although your C sugar may answer all 

 right, friend S . especially if the winter 

 should be a mild one, I do not believe 1 

 would keep on feeding it. I once fed up a 

 colony that was taken from the woods, on 

 yellow sugar. They built up nicely, and 

 came through the winter well, but they 

 died of dysentery as soon as they got to rear- 

 ing brood, largely in JNIarch. 



WIREWEED, ETC. 



The flow of honey from fruit -bloom was very 

 good, and several small early honey-plants did well, 

 which lasted until poplar, or whitewood, came in. 

 This was very heavy, and gave us a good yield; but 

 when this was gone, all was gone. White-clover 

 bloom was plentiful, but was dried up by the sun as 

 soon as it came out, and so it failed to give us any 

 surplus. Sumac failed too; linden did not do much 

 better; in fact, all the main honey-producing plants 

 have yielded up to the present time, with the excep- 

 tion of poplar; but it is very seasonable now; and 

 as there are several fall honey-plants here, may be 

 they will gather honey enough yet to winter. Wire- 

 weed is our only hop . This is a weed which grows 



from 2 to 3 feet in height. In one of our neighbor's 

 pasture fields last fall it was white as a buckwheat 

 field. It begins to bloom about the middle of Sep- 

 tember, and continues to bloom, if I am not mis- 

 taken, very near to December. Frost does not seem 

 to affect it in the least. I nave seen bees on this 

 plant after a tolerably hard freeze. I think this 

 plant will bloom and be.nr honey as long as nature in- 

 tended, independent of cold weather. 



J. F. KUNNION. 



Spencer, Koane Co., W. Va., Sept. 27, 1881. 



I do not find we have had any such plant 

 as wire weed reported. Is it not a variety of 

 the fall asters, friend S.V 



LADY-BIRES ON THK SPIDER PLANT. 



These arc what I suppose you call moth miller, 

 and one of the friends calls humming-birds. They 

 come in such numbers to my Spidtr plant, about 

 half an acre, that it is of no value whatever to the 

 bees, as the pests come at night in regular swarms, 

 and lap cverj' drop. They make a noise that can be 

 heard some distance. They do not bother the Simp- 

 sons. Now for the report: Commenced the season 

 with 8 strong and 4 weak swarms; transferred them 

 to Simplicities; increased to 3'3; lost 5, absconded, 

 which was caused by my having to farm the place 

 and tend the bees, which are in excellent condition 

 for winter. About 600 lbs. surplus; 200 lbs. extract- 

 ed, rest comb. Extracted, 9c per lb.; comb, 14. I 

 lost at least 100 lbs. by not having hive room enough, 

 but 1 did all I could, which was all about a week be- 

 hind hand. A. Osbun. 



Spring Bluff, Adams Co., Wis., Sept. 21, 1881. 



WHAT TWO HIVES OP Bl Fg, BOUGHT IN JUNE, DID. 



The 9th day of last June I purchased of a neighbor 

 two hives of bees. The 12ih, one of them cast a 

 swarm; the 13th, the other cast a swarm. I put each 

 one in aLangstroth hive. Ten days after, they both 

 swarmed again. I put them in hives full of comb. 

 On the two first swarms that came off, I put 20 

 frames, holding 2 lbs. each, on each hive. The 9th 

 of July I took off 10 I'os. from each hive, the nicest 

 clover honey I ever saw. The £9th of August I took 

 from one hive 30 lbs., and from the other 20 lbs. of 

 buckwheat honey, making, in all, 130 lbs. from the 

 two hives, of surplus honey. The second swarms 

 have filled their hives. H. L. Wheat. 



Croton, Delaware Co., N. Y., Aug. 29, 1881. 



THE QUEEN THAT FLEW 27 MILES (7) TO GET HOME. 



A few weeks since, I took a lot of queens and car- 

 ried them to Ellis County, about 27 miles away, and 

 introduced them into Major H. H. High's apiary, 

 and, while introducing, one queen flew away and 

 didnot return, and I thought her gone forever; but 

 imagine my surprise to find her (I reckon) in her 

 nucleus on my arrival at home. As it was only a 

 two-frame nucleus, it could hardly be possible that 

 two queens were in it, and I am certain that only 

 one cell was given it. Do you Ihink it possible the 

 queen returned? A few dajs since, I opened one of 

 my best colonies to get a frame of bro( d, and found 

 the queen in a ball of her own bees. The queen is 

 very prolific, keeping her hive iull, and is c nly one 

 year old; but she had somewhat suspecded opera- 

 tions on account of drought, and the bees had filled 

 the brood-nest full of honey. I extracted three cen- 

 tral combs, smoked the bees from off the queen, and 

 in one week she had the three frames full, and two 



