468 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Aug. 



HORSEMINT, AFTER ALL. 



We are just throvigh a rather protracted droug-ht; 

 but now the rain has come, and the Texas horse- 

 mint is booming, and the bees are happj', and so are 

 we. But last night some vagrant thief stole a hive 

 of bees, and strewed the honey nlong on the prairie. 

 That's what I call low-down stealing. 



Mexia, Tex., June 12, 1883. E. K. Swinburn. 



A LESSON TO BE LEARNED. 



Clover is slacking up a little, and basswood is just 

 opening; but as trees are so very scarce here, no 

 crop of basswood honey will be gathered. I still 

 learn the old lesson over; that is, to bealways ready. 

 By being behind I have lost part of the clover crop, 

 but got back some in increase of colonies by natural 

 swarming. T. J. Cook. 



Newpoint, Ind., June 25, 1883. 



A SUCCESSFUL HOUSE APIARY. 



Some time when I have more leisure I will send 

 you a drawing and description of my new house 

 apiary, and how I succeed with it. It is 42 ft. long, 

 and I have 35 swarms in it at present; have room 

 for 5 more. Bees have been doing well so far; and 

 if we should have as favorable a fall for honey as it 

 was last year, you will receive some large reports to 

 record. F. E. Price. 



Nokomis, 111. 



IMPORTING QUEENS. 



A party of us, subscribers of yours, want informa- 

 tion concerning Chas. Qianconcini, of Bologna, Italy. 

 1. Is he a square man? [Ves, sir.] 2. Does he de- 

 liver queens free of postage or expressage? [No, 

 sir.] 3. What number of queens are liable to die in 

 transit? [Perhaps a half, on an average.] 4. How 

 long, probably, will it take to get them, after send- 

 ing? [60 days.] 5. In case expressage is charged, 

 what will it be on 8 queens? [From flO to $15, and 

 sometimes $20.00.] ^ Euward Burr. 



llockport, Ind., June 8, 1883.* 



Hid ''iiw((^U'' 



ij9 AM all smiles, gathering in so much honey, and 

 my wife even "grins" too when she sees 

 the sweet stuff dripping from porch to porch, 

 as I have no honey-house; but I will by this time 

 next year, I daily promise her. I think I learn 

 enough from Gleanings to pay its way; and your 

 goods, so far as I have used, are a success. For sev- 

 eral years my wife has said she would rather have 

 honey-bees than Italian bees; but now she rejoices 

 that she has them "combined." I will write you 

 more about ray bees soon, if I am not drowned in 

 this flood of honej-. D. F. West. 



Hiseville, Barren Co., Ky., July, 1883. 



I HiTi glad to hear of the great Hood of hon- 

 ey, friend W.; but may 1 not say just a 

 word about the dripi>ing on the porch, which 

 you suggest? Although you do not say so, 

 one might rather infer that you expect to 

 have the dripping on the floor of the 

 honey-house when you get one. Now, if I 

 were you I would not have any dripping 

 anywhere. It is true, it can be washed up ; 

 but as the honey soaks into the wood, it is a 

 pretty hard m.itter to prevent it from leav- 

 ing a peculiar stickiness ; and by and by a 

 peculiar rank smell is perceived — especial- 



ly when the house has been closed up some 

 little time. I know it takes time, to avoid 

 getting honey on the tloor; but I know 

 many bee-men think it is cheaper to let it 

 drip, and when they get around to it have a 

 "good old scrubbing-up." There 7nay he 

 economy in such a course ; but I do not 

 quite agree to it. I have had a good deal 

 of experience in caring for rooms, and the 

 manufacture of many kinds of goods, as you 

 may know ; but the older I grow, the more 

 I am impressed with the idea that true econ- 

 omy lies in the line of keeping things clean 

 and in order as you go along. May be this 

 little lecture is somewhat out of place right 

 here ; but you suggested the idea, and so I 

 "got to going," you see. Now, then, boys 

 and girls, when you get your new honey- 

 houses made and ready for use, beware of 

 how you let stickiness and sticky habits get 

 in upon you. 



Or Enemies of Bees Among Insect Tribes. 



"(JUEENS THAT ARE NOT QUEENS." 



fN regard to this subject, mentioned on 

 page 89-3 of our last number, Prof. 

 Cook writes as follows : 



They are all real genuine queens. They have no 

 pollen-baskets, have a short tongue, toothed jaws, 

 and curved sting. They are so dried up that I can 

 not study the ovaries and spermathecas so as to de- 

 termine satisfactorily whether they are virgins, or 

 impregnated. They look small, and so appear like 

 uumated queens. But queens long idle, like those 

 just imported, are often small — as small as these. 

 1 received an imported queen a few days since, for 

 ray brother, so small that she might easily be mis- 

 taken by the inexperienced for a worker. These are 

 certainly real queens, either virgins, or queens 

 some time inactive, I should think. A. J. CoOK. 



Lansing, Mich., June 23, 1883. 



Friend Cook, I am glad you have touched 

 on that point, that queens lyiug idle have 

 much the appearance of unfertilized queens ; 

 and I hope the friends who have been so un- 

 charitable and so unkind as to say that the 

 queens they had received had so much the 

 appearance of virgin queens that they did 

 not believe tliey had ever laid an egg at all, 

 will ponder well on the matter. Such words 

 can not very well avoid wounding keenly 

 any conscientious bee-keeper who may send 

 out queens, lleraember, friends, that writ- 

 ing back to a man who sells you a queen, 

 that you do not believe she ever laid an egg 

 at all, is equivalent to telling him that you 

 believe he is dishonest. So much does a 

 queen lying idle become like an unfertile 

 queen, that I have hazarded the conjecture, 

 that such queens sometimes fly out, and are 

 fertilized again. I am led to this belief by 

 having pretty positive proof that young lay- 

 ing queens sent from Italy have several 

 times tlown out and met the drones on their 

 arrival here ; and I am about as sure that 

 friend Bianconcini-sent me none but laying 

 queens as if I had caged them and sent them 

 all myself. 



