12 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



white clover, thougk I watched It very closely. The 

 tulip just roared with them. But when melilot 

 opened June 25th, the bees left the tulip for it. I do 

 jiot think half enough has been said in favor of meli- 

 lot. My bees began work on it June 3.5th, and every 

 time I looked at it from that time until Nov. 13th, I 

 found bees on it. The only trouble was, that there 

 was not enough of it near me to go very far. I don't 

 mean that the same plants lasted all that time, but 

 in one particular patch of it nearest my bees there 

 were some plants in bloom, and the bees working on 

 them during the whole time. This, too, although 

 July and August were very dry months, and though 

 we had several frosts in October and the first part 

 of November. It grew on and near the railroad, and 

 seemed to do as well in a bank of broken blast-fur- 

 nace slag as anywhere else. 



THE HORSE-CHESTNUT. 



Another source of honey that I have not seen 

 mentioned is the horse-chestnut. It is a favorite 

 shade-tree here, and during the time it is in bloom it 

 is covered with bees until the raspberry opens. 

 Even then they work on it in the morning. Its 

 great value is, that here it fills the gap after fruit- 

 bloom. Suppose you try two or three in the honey- 

 farm. 



DO BEES VISIT SEVEKAL KINDS OF BLOSSOMS FOR A 

 LOAD? 



One more item: Prof. Cook says that a bee visits 

 only one species of flower on each trip. I have the 

 Impression, that you indorse this view. I have re- 

 peatedly seen bees tly from peach to apple blossoms, 

 and also from blackberry to raspberry, and vice 

 versa. In the second case they had pollen in their 

 baskets. I did not notice pollen in the first. In 

 each case one of the plants was failing. 



My account with my bees stands as follows: 

 By hives and frames on hand, - - f29 00 

 " material and implements, - - 10 68 

 " 5 swarms (pure and strong), - - 50 00 

 " 3 " (hybrid and weak). - - - 12 00 

 " 4i; J lbs. extracted honey@ltj, - - 6 64 

 " 1 " comb honey, - - - - 30 



Total receipts, .... $10853 



To materials and implements, - - $30 68 

 " bees and express charges, - - 34 CO 



" labor, 1 40 



" feed, 2 00 



Total expenses, $48 68 



Balance (clear profit), - - - . $59 84 

 Which is over 123 per cent of the amount invested. 

 My bees had over 300 lbs. of sealed honej' Nov. 10th, 

 which I left to make sure of abundant winter sup- 

 plies, so perhaps I shall have some left in the spring. 

 I would not sell any of the stock on hand at the 

 prices I have put on them. 



Perhaps in perfect fairness 1 should have charged 

 the bees with my labor in hive-making, etc., but I 

 can't tell exactly how much it was, as I worked only 

 at odd times; but a carpenter would do the same 

 work better for $ 0,00. On the other hand I have 

 not given credit for twenty-five or thirty dollars 

 that I would probably have spent for recreation in 

 the time devoted to my bees, nor for at least a hun- 

 dred dollars' worth of pleasant and interesting 

 amusement and Instruction. 



As on May 1st I had no bees, I suppose I must 

 sign myself — F. D. Clarke, 0. 



New York City, Dec. 15, 1883. 



Eriend C, although your letter is a little 

 long for a beginner, there are several points 

 in it I would commend. Principally, among 



them your concluding thought, that without 

 the bees you would have spent a good deal 

 of money for recreation(and may benot found 

 it then) that was saved by keeping the bees. 

 You also have not greatly exaggerated it, I 

 believe, when you say you have had a hun- 

 dred dollars' worth of amusement and in- 

 struction.— About the albinos: I entirely 

 agree with you. They are only a strain of 

 lighter Italians, and never ought to have 

 been called albinos.— I presume we shall 

 have to give up, that bees do load up from 

 different plants at times, but I did not know 

 it before.— May I suggest that the smoke 

 helped the pain in just the way our minis- 

 ter helped the horse that balked V It was a 

 livery buggy, and we were going home from 

 a picnic. The horse balked in a very trying 

 place, with a string of teams behind us. 

 " Wait and I'll tix him," said he, and out he 

 sprang, and unbuckled the girt, flopped it 

 back and buckled it again. The horse 

 turned his head, as if to see what was bro- 

 ken, and in so doing his "horse sense" for- 

 got the " pout," and when his driver jumped 

 back into the buggy, and chirruped to him in 

 a natural way, off he went, and we were all 

 happy. When you smoked the "hurt 

 place" you forgot the pain, and were 

 " cured."— I should call the queen a hybrid. 



HOW TO «iET QUEEN-CEL.I.S, WITH 

 THE OL.D (lUEEN IN THE HIVE. 



TWO, THREE, OR MOKE LAYING QUEENS IN ONE HIVE. 



% 



AST spring I had occasion to get the brood all 

 j»||_,/] | out of a lot of about 30 combs as soon as I 

 could; and as the weather was too cold to 

 take them away from the bees, I had to devise some 

 plan to keep the queen away from them, and to give 

 the bees access, which was as follows: I removed 

 the covers from 3 Simplicity hives, with stocks in, 

 but left the cloth cover on, slipping it back only 

 about 54 inch, so as to let the bees pass up; then I 

 set on a second story, and in these I put 10 combs of 

 the brood I wished to get out, without any hatched 

 bees, then put on a quilt and lid. After a week's 

 time I looked to see how they were doing, but was 

 greatly surprised to find quite a lot of fine capped 

 queen-cells in each of the 3 upper stories. 



As it was too early to divide, I thought I would let 

 them remain, and try the experiment to see what 

 I could make of them; in hive No. 1 the cells were 

 all torn down about the time they should have 

 hatched. Whether a queen ever hatched there or 

 not, 1 do not know; but I could never find one. No. 

 3 hatched a fine queen, and kept her until time for 

 her to fly out to meet the drone; then she was miss- 

 ing. I can not tell what became of her. No. 3 also 

 hatched a fine queen. In due time she became fer- 

 tilized, and began laying in her proper apartment, 

 the upper story; then I set the story off, and had a 

 new colony with a laying queen, without any intro- 

 ducing, and still have it. 



I will add, that when I found the young queens 

 hatched, I raised the top story half an inch to give 

 an upper entrance, and to give the young queens a 

 chance to go out and return without going to the 

 lower apartment; but at all times the bees had 

 free communication between the two stories. 1 did 

 not try the plan again, but I am satisfied that by it I 



