1883 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



383 



but I had not time then, and tho swarm dwindled 

 away and soon disappeared. 



WHAT A POUND OF BEES MAY DO IN A YOUNG LADY'S 

 HANDS. 



Mr. nouse's advice to friend llice, in Blasted 

 Hopes, induces mo to "have my say" in regard to 

 what a pound of bees may do. July 8, 1883, 1 sold a 

 pound of bees and queen to a young lady bee- 

 keeper of Ottawa. They were supplied with two 

 frames of brood, but received no other help. Be- 

 fore winter they had built up into a good swarm, 

 and produced 17 lbs. of honey in sections; and now, 

 to crown all, have wintered safely. 



PUTTING LABELS ON TIN. 



I suppose many honey-producers have felt the 

 need of a reliable method of making small labels 

 stick to a smooth tin suifuce. The label sticks all 

 right as long as it is moist; but as soon as it becomes 

 perfecUy dry, the adhesion vanishes. After some 

 futile attempts to roughen the surface of the tin 

 with chemiciils, 1 decided that what was needed was 

 something that would prevent the adhesive sub- 

 stance from becoming perfectly dry. I first used 

 glycerine for this purpose, and found it an improve- 

 ment; but soon discarded it for honey. Honey will 

 never dry up enough to peel off from tin; and as it 

 is sticky in itself, it docs not injure the adhesive- 

 ness of any substance with which it is mixed. For 

 putting on label;?, I use and prefer a solution of dex- 

 trine to which is added about '4 its volume of honey. 

 For gummed labels, use a mixture of honey and 

 water. Probably cheap molasses would be better 

 than honey; but I have used honey, because I pre- 

 ferred to "encourage home industry;" and besides, 

 I did not have the molasses. J. A. Green. 



Dayton. LaSalle Co., 111., May 15, 1883. 



ClilPPINO QUEENS' WINGS, ETC. 



DO WE REALLY WANT THEM CLIPPED? 



^ AST Sunday one of my finest colonies being 

 Myjl crowded, I examined to see if I might go to 

 church. The first comb taken out disclosed a 

 capped queen-cell. A dozen more were found, and 

 all taken out with four solid sheets of brood and ad- 

 hering bees. The swarm issued while I was at work. 

 1 took out every queen-cell and put in new combs, 

 intending to bring the swarm back. But they came 

 back; and many being on the ground, I looked for, 

 and found the queen— a fine Italian. I let her run 

 into the hive, and found it was one of the few I 

 clipped. She appeared to be all right. To-day, look- 

 ing into the hive, five days later, I find a full set of 

 c:lls, some of them capped, and some only half built 

 out. I counted 14. As the hive was full rf bees, and 

 ten frames at that, no swarm could have issued. 

 She was not displaced for incfBcieccy, for she was 

 one of the best. It was evident that she laid noeggs 

 since Sunday, for there is no young brood. 



This is the second queen I have lost this spring 

 from clipping. I clip no more. In the other case a 

 monstrous swarm issued and alighted, and in twenty 

 minutes returned to the parent hive. All cells had 

 been taken out. Five days later, new cells were 

 found in abundance, and no queen. The colony was 

 depleted, as before. 



Locust bloom is more abundant than I ever knew 

 before, and a larger amount of nectar is secreted. 

 The trees are masses of white flowers now. This is 



regarded here as a harbinger of a fruitful year, add 

 surely there never was such promise of fruit of all 

 kinds. 



MAKING NEAV SWARMS STRONG, SO AS TO GET BOX 

 HONEY. 



I have practiced very successfully the plan men- 

 tioned by Mr. W. Z. Hutchinson, of at once strength^ 

 ening new swarms, and making them bozm right off, 

 by adding brood largely. My aim is not to increase, 

 because of my large fruit business and farming op- 

 erations. J. W. Porter. 



Charlottesville, Va., May, 1883. 



I agree with you in regard to clipping 

 queens' wings, friend 1'.; or, rather, not clip- 

 ping them, when we have control of the 

 apiary so as to prevent swarming, as we 

 have here. When you are working for box 

 honey, however, and no increase, it is a lit- 

 tle different. Suppose your swarm had gone 

 out when you were at church, for instance, 

 1 know there are difficulties both ways, and I 

 presume that, while some will settle down 

 that they want every laying queen clipped, 

 others will be equally sure they don't want 

 any clipped queens in their apiaries. — Giving 

 frames of brood to new colonies, so as to get 

 large crops of box honey, will work tiptop if 

 you can keep them from getting the swarm- 

 ing mania. But when they get this mania, 

 giving brood will simply foster the swarm- 

 ing impulse. 



— — ^^^^09 — ^ — ^^^^^ I ■ ■■ - — ^ 



SWARMING W^ITUOUT CliUSTERING. 



FRIEND PETERS GIVES US A LITTLE TALK ABOUT IT. 



N reply to the position assumed by "Old Fogy," 

 in your May issue, page 243, 1 have to say that 

 he is not more positive in his belief about bees 

 always clustering when they swarm, than I was up 

 to 1860. I had then kept bees 35 years, and often as- 

 serted the fact that no noise of bells or drums ever 

 arrested a swarm in its flight, or induced bees to 

 cluster, under any circumstances, and ridiculed the 

 idea of bees absconding without taking tiae to clus- 

 ter, to find a future home. 



With this conviction riveted In my mind, I one 

 day saw the very same thing which had often been 

 told me, but never, until then, proven. It happened 

 thus: I had a colony, which had clustered some days 

 preparatory to swarming. One day it swarmed; but 

 the swarm returned without clustering. That night 

 we had a heavy rainfall succeeded by cold weather, 

 which lasted five or six days. On the first warm 

 day, said colony swarmed. I was on hand, and fol- 

 lowed the swarm through the orchard, expecting It 

 to cluster. The bees continued their course beyond 

 the orchard; and instead of mounting high in the 

 air, and flying rapidly, they came low down, just 

 above my head, and crossed the Held slowly until 

 they came to a dead ash within the plantation, half 

 a mile from the house, and went into a hole in the 

 tree. The next day we cut the tree down, hived the 

 bees, and they did well. Three years after that date 

 I had a swarm come out, rise high, and go off rapid- 

 ly. 1 followed them on horseback to the woods, 

 where they entered an old deadening; and when I 

 was about to abandon the chase, I noticed they cir- 

 cled about a sassafras, and I waited and saw they 

 housed themselves in it. I gave the tree away. 



On a third occasion I followed a small swarm just 



