1883 



GLEANINGS IK BEE CULTURE. 



537 



they never swear, as I said before, and there are 

 other objections too numerous to mention. 



SMALL BUSINESS. 



Last year a bee-keeper out in the country sold a 

 lot of honey to Stratford store-keepers at 12;4 cents, 

 when the local men were getting 15 c. easily. Of 

 course, he had a right to do as he pleased with his 

 prodiict; but when he sells the same class of honey 

 in other towns a few miles away at 15 to 18 c, it 

 looks as if he were bound to break down the smaller 

 men here. I hear he has been offering to sell here 

 at 10 e. this year, while local men are getting ViVi 

 and 13 c. in quantities. It's kind of small business. 



C. W. Young. 



Stratford, Ont., Can., Aug. 16, 1883. 



We are very glad to hear of the bright 

 prospects in Canada, friend Y. — I am sure 

 that I have not heard that wide frames were 

 to be rejected " sooner or Utter."— In regard 

 to the dilference in prices at which honey is 

 sold, I know it is bad ; but I think we are 

 rapidly getting things in shape where this 

 can not happen. Of course, nice honey will 

 bring nice prices, just as nice butter brings 

 nice prices ; but a butter-raiser would not 

 be very likely to sell his butter for 12+ cents 

 in one place, and 15 at another, on the same 

 lot. 



AN INQUIRY IN REGARD TO SOURWOOD. 



I will be obliged if some of your Southern corres- 

 pondents will inform me, through Gleanings, how 

 the sour wood (Oxydendnim arhorcum) can be propa- 

 gated with greatest facility. I have become inter- 

 ested in it by the notice of it in A B C by the repx'e- 

 sentations of a neighbor, and by finding small bushes 

 of it in full bloom. The seeds are so exceedingly 

 small that I doubt if they will germinate. It would 

 be dillicult, too, to save them, for the flve-lobed pod 

 which produces them is pendant, and they doubtless 

 drop out promptly at maturity. I wish some South- 

 ern correspondent of Gleanings would tell me, 

 also, if it can be propagated from cuttings or twigs 

 (as is now done, I believe, with most trees), and the 

 right method of doing this. J. A. G. 



Tuscalodsa, Ala., Aug. 14, 1883. 



Please answer the following: Can honey be ex- 

 tracted from frames that are not wired, without its 

 breaking or coming out? I have ten stands of bees, 

 all in Simplicity hives, and have wintered success- 

 fully for the last four winters on their summer 

 stands, having them packed in chaff. I must say, 

 to the credit of the Waterbury watch, that I have 

 been carrying one for about thirteen months, and it 

 gives perfect satisfaction. D. Conqleton. 



Heslop, Ohio. 



AVhy, friend C, extractors were used years 

 before any such thing as a wired comb was 

 known. In fact, it is only about three years 

 since wired combs came into vogue; and, 

 come to think of it, it is wonderful to see 

 how rapidly they have come into general 

 use. Your question illustrates it well.— I 

 am glad to hear so good a report from your 

 Waterbury. 



ITALIANS, AND THEIR ABILITY TO REPEL DISEASES. 



At the time I wrote the article published on page 

 256, current volume of Gleanings, I had but little 

 practical knowledge of the Italian bee, and all that 

 is said in it relates exclusively to the common black 

 variety; but in the latter part of April I received 

 thirty 4-frame Italian nuclei from Mr. Viallon, and I 



have been experimenting with them in regard 

 to the brood-plague mentioned. I find that they do 

 not seem to be affected by it; and when introduced 

 into a diseased colony they soon overcame it. Early 

 in June I removed the queen from the only hive of 

 blacks I had left; and after waiting some eight days, 

 and destroying cells so that they were hopelessly 

 queenless, I introduced a frame of Italian brood, 

 with the bees that adhered to it, from which they 

 raised a queen; and although the colony was badly 

 diseased, there does not seem to be a vestige of the 

 trouble left. I have also furnished brood to several 

 neighbors for the same purpose, with equally satis- 

 factory results. Of course, I am highly pleased with 

 Mr. V.'s stock of Italians, as they have also done 

 very well in other respects. Are the Italians affect- 

 ed by foul brood the same as the black variety? 



Milton Hewitt. 

 Perryopolis, Pa., Aug. 13, 1883. 



Friend H., it would seem in your case 

 that the extra vigor of the Italians drove out 

 the disease as they drive out the moth worm. 

 Yet I am inclined to think the disease you 

 have described was in some way inherited, 

 and hence a healthy queen of any race would 

 eradicate it. I think this is never the case 

 with foul brood ; and, so far as I know, the 

 Italians are affected with this equally with 

 the blacks. 



making nuclei; how to make the bees stay. 



That Doolittle has been and gone and stolen my 

 discovery! Well, I guess he discovered it first. I 

 am only a beginner in the bee business, and make 

 my artiflcial swarms by making nuclei and building 

 them up. Last year I merely took several frames 

 of brood and bees, and let them raise a queen when 

 I hadn't a queen-cell for them? but sometimes it 

 was slow work. This last summer I moved a queen 

 with two or three frames of brood and bees, and 

 they built up splendidly, leaving the old colony to 

 rear cells. I did so again, giving cells to old colo- 

 nies. I was pleased with the result, and thought I 

 had made a discovery. Now here comes a sample 

 copy of the Bee-Kccpcr's Guide, August number, with 

 a Doolittle article, copied from the A. B. J., in which 

 he states that the old plan is not very good, because 

 so many bees go back to the old stand. He then ex- 

 plains how he discovered that by taking the queen 

 along, in making nuclei for queen-rearing, the bees 

 became fixed in their new habitation, and then the 

 queen can be returned in a few days, and be ready 

 for business. He says such nuclei can be depended 

 upon every time. Truly, "great minds run in sim- 

 ilar channels." Doolittle and I ! 



"white caps." 



Your rule for telling when a colony has a laying 

 queen by the "white caps "at the upper edge of 

 the frames must have some exceptions. Honey has 

 been coming in rather slowly until within a few 

 days, and now almost the only one of my ten hives 

 that shows any " white caps" is the only one that 

 has not a laying queen. Burdett Hassett. 



Howard Centre, Iowa, Aug. 11, 1883. 



watering-places for bees. 

 I will tell you how I water my bees. I have a 

 trough made of two 6-inch fence boards, which I 

 place under the drip, or lead trough that carries off 

 the waste water from the pump. I take a well- 

 washed piece of cotton-cloth (old is the best, I think), 

 wet it well, and then place one end in the ti-ough 



