680 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nor. 



From Different Fields. 



YOUNG QUEENS LAYING DKONE EGGS. 



BON'T your young queens lay drone eggs? Why, 

 ) you are surely behind the times. Over onc- 

 — ' half of mine did this year. I have a young 

 Italian queen that mated with a black drone. She 

 filled all the drone-cells she could tiud in the hive, 

 and. they hatched out drones too. She is not a poor 

 (jueen either. I have another " dollar " queen that 

 I bought from >ou that lays drone eggs. I have a 

 beautiful queen that I bought from J.T. Wilson that 

 iMised a lot of drones. She was a young queen too. 

 By the way, this is the best queen ia the apiary. 

 Tois was besides what queens I raised myself. 



Friend D., I rather think you must have a 

 pretty good locality, to give your young 

 queens such encouragement as to cause 

 them to lay drone eggs the tirst season. I 

 knew it sometimes happened, but I did not 

 suppose as often as you mention. 



HOLY-LANDS. 



1 have a hive of Holy-Lands, and I like them too. 

 I can lift the frames out without smoke (if nobody 

 is around). They are great bees to rear brood. 

 Why, it makes my hair stand lo see the wny that 

 they use up frames of honey. In regard to quiet- 

 nes'?, 1 think they are ab^ut the same as the Ital- 

 ians. If any robbers hang around, they soon get 

 their " necks jerked." 



I believe I rather agree with you in regard 

 to the capacity of Holy-Lands to use up 

 stores. They raise brood at a terrible rate, 

 but it takes lots of provisions to keep them 

 going. 



KC'BBEKS. 



What kind of bees do you find to be the worst rob- 

 bers at your place? The worst hive I have is the 

 gentlest hive of Italians. I can work with them 

 without smoke, and rbey are very "yallrtr." I can't 

 open a hive but they pitch into it. It seems to me 

 the quieter a hive is, the worse it is to rob. 



With US, by all means the worst to rob are 

 the blacks, or those having jusi a little Ital- 

 ian blood. 



PACKING BEES. 



I am packing my bees at present too ealy, am I 

 not? Well, it doesn't matter; better early than nev- 

 er. I guess I will pack them all at present, if I do 

 not change my mind; but the Holy-Lands. I expect 

 they will break me up buying sugar for them. Wt-ll, 

 if they live through, I'll let you know how much 

 honey they doji'f make. I want you to tell us how 

 to pack 185 colonies of bees so as to lose only 100 of 

 them. 



I do not think it too enrly to pack the bees 

 after they have stopped gathering surplus. 

 In fact, we have ours packed the year round. 



METAL-CORNEUED FRAMES. 



W. Z. Hutchinson is right about metal-cui nered 

 frnmes. This is my reas'u for not liking them: 

 They make the bees' feet cold when they walk over 

 them. You have so many colonies. 1 suppose you 

 don't care; but if you had six hives, more or less, as 

 1 have, yovi would not want any of them to get their 

 feet fr( zen. 



Our bees are not in the habit of standing 



barefooted on the metal corners when the 

 weather is cool. They draw into a compact 

 cluster toward the center of the combs, and 

 a bee has no business around the metal cor- 

 ners, unless the weather is warm enough for 

 him to look them over and see that no prop- 

 olis is needed, and that there are no moth 

 worms to be dug out. 



CXNDYING HONEY. 



I put some very thick hont y into a can that h id a 

 little candied honey on the l)i.ttom, and it has all 

 c;indi-d. I put S'.me of the same honey into .-i clean 

 c:in, and it sh iws no signs of candj log ye'. Now, 

 here it is; if anybody wants candied honey, let him 

 put 8<ime candied honey in nice thick honey, and It 

 will candy. I don't expect it will if you want it to, 

 though. John Dallas. 



Sharpsville, Pa., Oct. 9, 18S3. 



I have for a long time been aware that 

 honey would often keep clear and limpid un- 

 til it got a little start in candying, and then 

 it would go all at once ; and I have also seen 

 a little candied honey start a big lot, just as 

 you say. Thank you for the important items 

 you have given us. 



HOW THE DROUGHT AFFKC IS THE BEES. 



One of the N. Y. Tribune'.^ reporters in- 

 terviewed an old farmer in regard to bee- 

 keeping. Here is what he was t"ld: 



"They've done nothin' but loaf round the hives or 

 rtaht an' robtheirneighbors fur the past two months. 

 And they're as ugly and hateful as all tarnation. 

 We dassent touch a skip to take out anv hon^v, 

 'cause the robbers '11 be out in a .litfy, aud they'll 

 fight and kill each other by the hundred. Do you 

 see that little critier there buzzin' round that hive? 

 Well, that's an Italian, aud he's a robber. And there 

 comes a Cyprian bee ti o. Both mean mischief. 

 They can whip th'^ native bee anv time in a fair 

 stand-up flyht. They're constantly rubbing the 

 native nee, but a good many g t killed for their 

 pains. 



" Why are they robbiu' of ench other? It's 'cause 

 they've nothing else to do. When dowers is plenty 

 you don't see much of such work. Thea they're 

 hummin' and singin' mund and as happy and con- 

 tented as an oyster, but now the mischiefs to pay 

 with 'em. Tnke that, will youl" and the man struck 

 down a Cyprian that was buz/.ing and dippmg around 

 in front of a hive and threatening to enter at the 

 first opportunity. 



"There's a weak swarm in that there hive that I 

 guess I'll have to stick a match under to save it. 

 Wue^r, an't it? Killin' 'era to sa\-e'era! But it's 

 got to be did. 'Twon't pay to keep '• m and feed 'em 

 fifteen or twenty pounds of honey this winter, and 

 then mebbe not pull 'em through to spring. There's 

 several sich colonies. Thev swarmed late, and some 

 on 'em haven't made a pound of honev since. They 

 madf> a mighty poor beginnin' in the world, and 

 might bPtter upver sot up hcusekecpin' on their 

 own hook at aM." 



FRIEND MALONE'S REPORT FOR ISHo. 



Bee-keepers generally fnv this has been a bad 

 season for bees; but I can't see it in that light. Mv 

 bees have done well for me, with the exception of 

 five swarms that I ran for comb honey; 20 that T 

 extracted from have given m« 3200 lbs . and have in 

 the hive, ready to take, I thnk at least KKX) Ins. 

 more. Evpr3' thing is killed by frost, and T am a 

 little afraid to extract till it gets c ddcr. Lots of 

 my bee-.'riends come and buy honey from me, and 

 want to know why it is that T can gt^t honey when 

 they can't. I tell them tba' it is the Cyprian-Italian 

 that is the coming bee, and s"'mo of them begin to 

 believe what 1 tell them nov7, though they used to 

 tell me that I had the bee-fever, and would believe 

 just as much as they wanted to. The five that I ran 



