1144 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1 



A PARKER FOUNDATION- FASTENER USED AS 

 SECTION-PRESS. 



The sketch below shows how I arranged 

 my Parker foundation-fastener to put sec- 

 tions together. It is raised up on blocks 

 the height of a section. To use, fold the 

 section; put it in front of the machine as 



shown above; push the lever forward and 

 raise it, pressing the section together, then 

 use as we do to put in foundation, then put 

 in the super. J. E. Happing. 



Stuttgart, Ark. 



[This is a very ingenious adaptation of the 

 Parker foundation fastener. It looks as if 

 it might work. — Ed.] 



QUERY ON THOSE " UNDERSIZED YELLOW 

 BEES" IN MEXICO. 



Are they not what are usually called yel- 

 low-jackets? My experience with yellow- 

 jackets in Ohio, here, and also in California 

 and Mexico, leads me to believe that those 

 " little yellow bees " are nothing more than 

 the genuine yellow-jackets that build their 

 nests as described by Mr. Jefferson; and as 

 to their vicious habits, I can fully corrobo- 

 rate as one of a company who went with me 

 to California in 1849 thought he would see 

 if those "little yellow bees," as called by 

 Mr. Jefferson, did not have some honey in 

 their nice little home on a bush. The result 

 was that he got stung so badly it sickened 

 him for two weeks, and he was obliged to 

 abandon his quest for hon§y; but they were 

 the genuine vicious yellow-jacket. 



On my return from California we landed 

 at Mazatlan, Mex., on the Pacific, and came 

 through that country to the Gulf of Mexico 

 on account of cholera on the isthmus, and 

 we found the same kind of yellow-jackets 

 quite plentiful there. We could see their 

 nests on bushes beside the road. If they 

 make honey and comb whiter than common 

 bees, why not introduce them into the bee 

 family as distant relatives? 



Jesse Green. 



uniting, and preventing swarming. 

 How would it do to unite two colonies of 

 bees in the following way? Put one on top 

 of the other, leaving a queen in each, and 

 put a wire cloth between them, leaving an 

 entrance to both top and bottom brood- 

 chambers until next spring, say about March 

 15 to April 1 (according to the season), then 



c'ose the top entrance and take off the wire 

 cloth and put on a queen-excluder, which 

 will allow the bees that are in the upper 

 chamber to pass down through the lower one 

 and out at the bottom entrance? At the 

 same time the excluder will prevent the 

 queen from coming in contact with each 

 other. 



About April 1, which is about the time 

 our bees begm to swarm, take all of the old 

 comb out of the bottom chamber and give 

 them full sheets of foundation (or starters), 

 and all the bees from both chambers (and one 

 queen), leaving them on the old stand, and in 

 one to two days give them a super or two if 

 necessary. Now take ten of the old combs (I 

 use Danzenbaker hive:^) that have the most 

 unhatched brood and eggs, and give them to 

 the other queen, moving them to a new 

 stand, and in seven to ten days shake all the 

 young bees from the old combs off in front 

 of the colony on the old stand. By this 

 method, would I not have pecks of bees in- 

 stead of gallons, to be storing the early and 

 best honey in the super, and at the same 

 time the queen on the old combs would be 

 building up? And, furthermore, would not 

 this manipulation prevent or at least retard 

 swarming? Honey stored by the bees after 

 July 15 is very bitter with us, being gather- _ 

 ed from a yellow weed called " bitter weed;" a 

 and while it yields an abundance of honey it ■ 

 is worthless except that it is fine for the • 

 bees to winter on. So you see I have got to 

 devise some plan by which I can get the 

 early honey or give up bee culture. 



Florence, Ala. J. H, Young. 



[If I understand you, I think your plan 

 would work. The hitch might come when 

 you substituter" the perforated zinc for the 

 wire cloth. At all events, try it and report. 

 -Ed.] 



buckwheat honey and the circulars 

 from the honey-producers' league. 

 I have distributed a great many of Dr. 

 Miller's leaflets on honey, but do not quite 

 like his description of buckwheat honey— too 

 much of a one-sided view of the matter. 

 Tastes differ, so do markets. But the circu- 

 lar of the new Honey- producers' League is 

 much worse. Only a semicolon between 

 buckwheat honey, "very d^k," and the 

 honeys that are ill flavored and not fit for 

 market. Do you think every one will note 

 the meaning of that pause ? I do not. But, 

 even as it stands, this description classes 

 buckwheat as just fit for the market. 



Now, I have been in the bee business only 

 three years, but have already sold honey to- 

 go to Chicago, just because it was buck- 

 wheat; and just now I have an inquiry from 

 a gentleman in Kansas City, Mo., who says, 

 "I want the genuine buckwheat honey, in 

 the comb, for my use, and also to show 

 some friends, who never ate or saw any, 

 what the honey of honeys is." Of course. 

 I do not claim that this description should 

 be used in the circulars; neither should 

 they stand as they are. To describe any 



