1881 



GLEANINGS IN EEE CULTUEE. 



555 



cause — alkali ~ so strongly charged that a white 

 mark will follow his knuckles being rubbed on any 

 surface. Perhaps the acid of bee-stings would prove 

 beneficial in his case. Now, friend Root, if you think 

 this may lead to any good, especially to the frater- 

 nity, you may put it in GIjEAnings, after having cor- 

 rected as you see fit, or put it into that basket which 

 I know you have near your writing-desk. 

 Geneseo, Liv. Co., N. Y. C. B. Pottek. 



I declare, friend P., I hardly know wheth- 

 er our medical brethren will pronounce such 

 reasoning orthodox or not. I have often 

 heard of lemons for rheumatism and other 

 ailments, and I feel pretty sure they are oft- 

 en quite beneficial too ; but I am afraid they 

 would be pretty rough on the man who could 

 make a '"chalk mark" with his knuckles. 

 Wouldn't he effervesce, and come all to 

 pieces y I presume the conclusion is, that 

 bee-stings are good for some folks, and not 

 good for others. 



OUK wa.stp:-basket. 



In regard to the waste-basket : You are 

 wrong — I don't have any. The clerk who 

 opens the mail does, and she puts into it all 

 lottery schemes, gift enterprises, patent- 

 medicine circulars, etc., but never a letter 

 written by any real bona-fide live man. They 

 are all answered at once, and then filed 

 away, for fear the next time the man writes 

 he won't put his State on, or something of 

 that kind. 



A SEEMINGLY UNEASY QUEEN. 



I received the queen all right Sept. 21st, and to- 

 day, Oct. 10th, I have just got her well received and 

 settled down in her new home. On the day of her 

 arrival I put her in the cluster, as directed, and 

 closed the hive. In 2 days I opened the hive to look 

 for my new queen, but did not find her in the cage 

 or out. In about six days I found her and several 

 eggs, which she had laid. The next day at night I 

 found her whole family moved into another stock 

 which I had that day made by uniting two. The 

 next morning I rescued the queen from a ball on 

 the bottom-board, and re-hived her and her bees in 

 the old hive; but it was of no use; she came out 

 again, and I hived them In another hive flUed with 

 dry comb, and the result was as before — she would 

 not stay anywhere I put her, and went into anoth- 

 er hive, bees and all, where I found her in the ball 

 as before. I then introduced her to a strong colony 

 with the hive nearly full of honey, where she seems 

 to be contented. Can you tell me why she was so 

 discontented, and shifted my bees around in this 

 way? The hive she was first put into had not much 

 honey in It, and was not very tight. 



Madison, N. H., Oct. 10, 1881. Geo. F. Jackson. 



I -think, friend J., your queen must have 

 been something like the Hibernian who was 

 arrested for having three wives, all living. 

 When gravely remonstrated with for such a 

 wicked course of doing he justilied himself 

 with the excuse that he was "only thrying 

 to get a good one." Your little incident 

 also starts a knotty point in bee culture. 

 Can a queen lead out the bees, even if she 

 should want to? If so, how does she get 

 them to follow her? If a queen wants to 

 go out of a hive, as a usual thing she goes, 

 and the bees pay no more attention to the 

 matter than if any other bee went out. 



How, then, should a strange queen be able 

 to induce the bees of separate colonies to 

 play such tricks as given above? I know 

 they d(), or at least seem to, for I have wit- 

 nessed similar operations. In natural 

 swarming, tlie queen does not lead out the 

 swarm, for she is often among the last to go 

 out, and sometimes don't go at all. I think, 

 friend J., she stayed in the last colony sim- 

 ply because it was an old, strong, well-estab- 

 lished stock ; such iiTeguIarities as you men- 

 tion are mostly contined to nuclei, or swarms 

 made by uniting such. 



another ABC SCHOLAR. 



This is my first year's experience with bees. My 

 Interest was excited by seeing and reading your 

 suggestions in the ABC book, which by chance I 

 found in one of the little towns of this State. The 

 "book " pleased me, and I have followed its teach- 

 ings with very much satisfaction, and, 1 may say, 

 decided profit too, for I have abundance of honey, 

 and six stands increase from my original four stands 

 that I commenced with in the month of June. 



TRANSFERRING IN OCTOBER. 



One question I wish to ask: Is it safe to transfer 

 bees at this late season of the year, with the advan- 

 tage of good weather and plenty of stores for the 

 bees? 



I can get a hundred stands of bees for $3.50 per 

 stand, in this county, most of which are kept in the 

 old-style way (in square gums or boxes), and would 

 venture to buy them if I could transfer them to 

 my " modesty hive" yet this fall. If you have time 

 and patience, please answer. E. J. Dickinson. 



Corydon, Wayne Co., la., Oct. 10, 1881. 



If all of the conditions are observed, you 

 can transfer bees even in October, but I 

 should think it a job much more in the line 

 of a veteran, than one of the ABC class. 

 Do not buy a hundred, friend D.; but if you 

 have the money so that you can easily spare 

 it, try half a dozen, and let us know how 

 you come out. Bear in mind what a risky 

 business wintering is, even among the best 

 of us. 



COMBINED CRATE AND SHIPPING-CASE TWO TIERS 

 HIGH. 



I have not had any experience with the wide 

 frames for getting comb honey, but am pretty w«ll 

 assured that I will not like them; but I should think 

 the combined shipping-case and honey-crate just the 

 thing for surplus comb honey, if it could be used in 

 a Simplicity upper story, where two could be set one 

 on top of the other. I have been using cases made 

 on the same principle (I used them without sepa- 

 rator, and got 35 cts. for most of my honey), and it 

 seems to me they are the nicest arrangements to be 

 found for getting surplus comb honey in section 

 boxes. Set on a case, and when the bees occupy it 

 all, elevate it and place another one under it; the 

 upper one will then be filled and capped first, and 

 can be removed and sent to market just as it is, if 

 you do not use separators. Another one can be sup- 

 plied in the same way the second was. This I sup- 

 pose could be done with the chaflf hives, but it can 

 not with the Simplicities, unless the upper story be 

 made of half-inch stuff. JAS. Border. 



Sonora, Muskingum Co., O., Oct. 11, 1881. 



The combined case can be used two tiers 

 or stories high, friend B., by using a plain 



