738 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUBE. 



Dec. 



small boxes were much mc-e readily filled by Italian 

 bees, when put directly on top of the frames; and 

 that, however admirably the shallow chamber ans- 

 wered for black bees, the Italians plainly wanted 

 nothing to do with it. How much time and money 

 have been spent in trjing to cmtrol the mating of 

 our queeasl As far as practical results are con- 

 cerned, have we advauced at all bej'ond the Kohler 

 process, given so many years ago in the A. B. J., by 

 which young queens and drones from a selected 

 stock were made to fly later in the daj- than the oth- 

 er drones? Mny we not, by Mr. Jones's bee-guards, 

 make a still cicser approximation to the mating of 

 our queens with our best drones? If we are not lia- 

 ble to be troubled by diones outside of our own api- 

 ries, how easily we can shut in those that we do not 

 desire to breed from ! or, if troubled by droues from 

 bees in the woods, or from stocks too near us, we 

 can confine our young queens, and the drones of 

 selected stocks, until it is so late in the aiternoon 

 that theotherdrones have ceased to fly; then by pour- 

 ing a little thin sugar syiup in to the proper colo- 

 nies, we can quickly tempt both queens and drones 

 to take wing with the excited workers. As the pow- 

 er to control the mating of our queens is fully as im- 

 portant as the control of the same point in our do- 

 mestic animals, I shall ne^er cease to believe that, 

 sooner or later, we shall obtain the desired result. 



The care with which queens and drones can be 

 confiued by the Jones bee-guards, without at all les- 

 sening the ventilattion of the hive, and with the 

 miuimum of interference with any of the labors of 

 the colony, promises to open a wide field lor many 

 Important processes. It may now be possible, in the 

 hands of careful breeders, not only to keep different 

 races of bees pure in the same apiary, but to build 

 up permanently any desired cross between the dif- 

 ferent races. 



Few bee-keepers, who keep up with the modern 

 Improvements, are ignorant of the great services of 

 Mr. Jones, in searching the world, at grcHt expense, 

 to procure the best bees. By his great enterprise he 

 has done more than any one living, to make Ameri- 

 can bee-keeping known in the Old World. We have 

 been much slower, however, to recognize how much 

 ee has done for practical apiculture by his many in- 

 genious devices, and, most of all, by the costly ex- 

 periments and machinery by which he secured for 

 us his perfected metal sheets. 



Oxford, O., Nov., 1883. L. L. Langstroxh. 



Friend L., I have many times thought of 

 how nearly you struck on the plan for ex- 

 cludiniT drones, which we now use so suc- 

 cessfully, when you wrote what you have 

 quoted from your book, 'ihis illustraies 

 how a great invention may be brought al- 

 most to perfection, and then lie light there 

 unused, until something shall give it a start 

 years afterward. We have been using drone- 

 guards in just the way you sug^-esi, ever 

 since we got the perforated sheet zinc. We 

 sometimes, in buying svvaims from our 

 fiiends in the country, get black bees wilh 

 drones in them. We put tht-m in the hives 

 as usual, and then towai d dusk put on the 

 drone-guard over the entrance, shake off all 

 the bees outside the hive, and eveiy drone 

 the hive contains is ready to be killed, or 

 fed to the chickens, as >ou say, the next 

 morning. Insiead of uhing cork, as jou 

 suggest, we tave the drone-guard fastened 



at one end so it can be lifted out of the way 

 when not needed. When we want it to work, 

 we simi)ly pubh down the movable end and 

 fasten it with a tack. If 1 am correct, the 

 perforated zinc was used by our friends in 

 England before even friend Jones got hold 

 of it. But who first had the zinc made of the 

 exact size, and when, I am unable to tell. 

 Perhaps our friends of the British Bee Jour- 

 rial will be able to enlighten us. We have 

 sold a great quantity of the sheet zinc, and 

 also of the perforated honey-broods during 

 the past seast'U, and I believe all purchasers 

 have expressed themselves as pleased with 

 them, both for keeping the queen out of the 

 sections, and also tor preventing the bits of 

 comb uniting the upper and lower stories. 



FRIEND HILTON'S HOME AND APIARY. 



A GLIMPSE OF A BEE-KEPPEIi'S PLAYGROCND. 



STAKE pleasure, friends, in presentingyou 

 with a sketch of a pretty little home ; 

 — ' and I am sure by the looks of things that 

 it is a happy home. How many are there of 

 you who are working and striving for a good 

 comfortable home Y and how many are 

 there who have a little bit of a home that 

 needs hxng up and tidying up, as it 

 were V Perhaps there are some who have 

 no home of their own, and are living on 

 rentf d place? ; but I opiiie not many, for 

 most bee-keepeis, sooner or later, want a bit 

 of ground of bome sort on which to set their 

 hives, where they will not be likely to move 

 very soon. 1 believe I should want a piece 

 of ground all my own, even if it were not 

 more than a rod or two square. Now while 

 you look at the picture below, I want to talk 

 to you a little about it. 



Right up at the left hand of the picture we 

 get a glimpse of the hitching-post near the 

 gate. I have been having quite a study 

 about hitching-posts of late. I'here are none 

 near our house yet, and our minister said a 

 few days ago that he and his wife would not 

 .come to see us and our new baby if I did not 

 have a post tixed to hitch his horse to. Friend 

 H., we are glad to see that you have one. I 

 do not see any ring in it, though ; or did the 

 engraver forget to put on any ring V Next 

 we notice that you have a good comfortable 

 sidewalk, made of pine, I suppose, for they 

 build almost every thing of pine in Michigan. 

 Are the stringers supported by stones V or is 

 the ground so sandy ihey will not rot any- 

 how y A picket fence is rather pretty, but 

 we have been discussing the advisability of 

 omitting fences in our locality of late. Are 

 those basswot)d-trees you have got planted 

 out so nicely V if they are not, I think they 

 ought to be ; they are growing thriftily. 

 Your neatly tixed house hais a very homelike 

 appearance, and I leally believe 1 should like 

 to live there. The house looks to me as 

 though it were just the place where one 

 would be pretty sure to alight upon a good 

 dinner, if he should happen to be along 

 about noon-time. J need hardly tell you how 

 that fatherl> -looking chap standing in the 

 doorway with that bnby in his arms took my 

 eye. I rather think, when you come rigUt 



