90 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



HOW TWO QUEENS FOOLED ME; THOSE AWFUL HY- 

 BRIDS ONCE MORE. 



Tho most of my queens last summer were three 

 years old ; and during the swarming' season the most 

 of them were superseded, and a good many hybrids 

 were raised in place. During the honey harvest 1 

 had no time to raise queens to replace them, but let 

 them go thus till I had more time. When ex- 

 tracting I would put the empty combs of one hive in 

 place of full ones taken out of another, as other 

 people do, I suppose, and by this means I got hy- 

 brids mixed through all my pure colonies, for the 

 queens, for want of room below, would lay eggs up 

 stairs in the empty combs before the bees could get 

 them full of honry. I had three colonies that I will 

 call A, B, and C, that 1 thought I would breed from, 

 because their bees were a little finer marked than the 

 others. After the harvest I went to raising queens, 

 to Italianize up again; but a good part of my young 

 queens would still be hybrids. So I kept raising and 

 introducing till October, and I then had 6 or 7 hy- 

 brids still. Then I took the queen out of colony A, 

 and thought I would raise a fine lot of cells, and 

 close out for the season. Some days after, I looked 

 to see how many queen-cells were started, but found 

 none, but plenty of eggs. So I found another queen 

 in there doing duty that had probably been raised 

 from that hybrid brood put in. I now began to 

 scratch my head, and could begin to see why so 

 many of my queens proved to be hybrids. I then 

 went to hive B, opened it and examined it closely, 

 found they had raised a " new " queen, and the hy- 

 brid bees hatching out by the thousand. This open- 

 ed my eyes fully. I am almost ashamed to tell this, 

 but it is really a fact. Now, I have always thought 

 that I was more particular and more guarded than a 

 great many men lest 1 might commit mistakes; yet 

 in this instance I have been completely fooled by 

 two queens. S. C. Fox. 



Maysfield, Milam Co., Tex., Jan. 9, 1883. 



Friend F., your mishap may not be alto- 

 gether '' fooling," after all. Several facts 

 recently given seem to indicate that brood 

 taken from one hive and put into another 

 will often result in an extra queen, and, of 

 course, from the brood put in. Had you put 

 pure brood into a hybrid hive, you would 

 nave had it the other way. Do you see V 



ABSCONDING SWARMS; HOW FRIEND SHEFAKD STOPS 

 THEM. 



I see so much said in Gleanings, and especially in 

 the Juvenile, of late, about bees '"running away," 

 "going to the woods," etc., I thought I would give 

 your readers my plan for stopping all these runa- 

 ways. 1 will just say, I have tested this plan for 

 over ten years in an apiary of from 80 to 150 colo- 

 nies, and have not in that time lost a swarm, though 

 many have tried hard to go. My plan is this: After 

 hiving a swarm (my bees never try to go off till they 

 alight), if they start to come out again, when a few, 

 about a quart, perhaps, have left the hive, I stop it 

 up, keeping the rest of the swarm for about a min- 

 ute; then I open it, letting out about a quart more. 

 This confuses those that are out, as there are not 

 enough to go to the woods, and they soon begin to 

 comeback to the hive they came from. As soon as I 

 see this I open the hive; then there is a rushing-out 

 and going-in for a few minutes, when they all go 

 into the hive again. If they try it again, I serve 

 them in the same way, when they soon give it up 



and go to work. I have had them try to go as many 

 as four times, but I always conquer them. Now, 

 how many of your young bee-keepers will try this 

 plan and save their bees? N. N. Shepa5{d. 



Cochranton, Pa., Jan. 22, 1883. 



While it seems quite likely that some such 

 disturbance would upset their plans for de- 

 camping, it seems to me it will be quite a 

 dilHcult matter to be on hand at just the 

 minute they may start, as they come often 

 at any time of day, almost, and without note 

 or warning. We are, however, much obliged 

 to friend 8. for the idea, as it will enable us 

 to know how to act when we are on hand. 



SUBSTITUTE FOR ENAMELED CLOTH. 



Several years ago a bee-keeper in Los Angeles Co., 

 whose name I have forgotten, showed me a kind of 

 cloth which he used on his hives. It was some thin, 

 white cotton cloth which had been dipped in a mix- 

 ture of melted beeswax, lard (or tallow, I forget 

 which), and other ingredients, which he did not know, 

 having obtained the cloth from somebody else. The 

 cloth was cut from a whole bolt into a long strip, the 

 right width for the hives, and was then passed un- 

 der a roller down into the hot mixture, so that the 

 cloth was thoroughly impregnated with it. After 

 cooling off it was wound upon a round stick, which 

 kept it smooth, and from which pieces could be cut, 

 when desired. The cloths on the hives were all lying 

 smooth and even, not a hole in any of them, and no 

 wax or propolis attached to the under side. The 

 frames came up even with the top of the hive. He 

 would take hold of one corner of a cloth, and peel it 

 back to look at the bees; a id when replaced, the 

 cloth lay as smooth and even before. They stuck 

 fast just enough to prevent the wind from blowing 

 them off, if the cover was off. Now, here you have 

 something to experiment on, and perhaps you can, 

 with these incomplete directions, hit on something 

 that will be better than enameled or any other kind 

 of cloth. 



ANOTHER WAY OP BINDING PERIODICALS. 



The way 1 have been doing it is this: Lay all the 

 numbers of a volume in their order on the edge of a 

 table, with their backs to you. Make the backs all 

 come even and straight with each other. Then 

 clamp them together with a carpenter's hand-screw 

 (two might be better). Now with a long awl pierce 

 them one Inch from the upper end and lower edge, 

 and }i inch from the back. Again pierce them one 

 inch inside the other holes. Then with a long slim 

 darning-needle bring a double linen thread twice 

 through each pair of holes; draw the thread tight, 

 and tie it securely. This will hold them well, al- 

 though it may not be as good as T. J. Cook's plan, 

 but easier done. 



SMOKE FOR RELIEVING PAIN. 



The smoke of burning brown sugar is such an old, 

 well-known remedy, that I wonder you should dis- 

 believe its effect. I also often smoke myhands with 

 the bee-smoker when bees are "bad," although 

 never using any thing now. 



WM. MUTn-RASMUSSEN. 



Independence, Inyo Co., Cal., Jan. 14, 1883. 



FROM 5 TO 51 IN 2 YEARS, AND 1400 LBS. OF HONEY. 



I began the season of 1881 with 5 colonies of blacks, 

 and increased to 33. The spring of 1883 found me 

 with 18 colonies, after losses by queenlessness and 

 robbing were over. From these we have taken 

 about 1400 lbs. of extracted honey, and increased to 



