GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. ' 



31 



Osalm^ 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS. 



m\ I put up the fall before. Tiio loss, [ attribute 

 ^^ mostly to defective queens. I increaaeri to 82 

 swarms and obtained 8.200 lbs of box honey and :J0() 

 lbs extracted; the box honey was mostly in Quinby 

 glass boxes. Isold it at '20c per Hi, . ross weight. I 

 have been trying eleven Quinby hives the past sea- 

 son, and think, with projier management, they would 

 be a good hive for box honey, but think them large 

 and clumsy to handle for indoor wintering. In two of 

 them, the bees filled their hive with comb and honey, 

 an<l stored 125 fts of box honey each. 1 think bees are 

 inclined to work in top boxes first; but wlien honey is 

 plenty and they are crowded for room, side boxes 

 seem "an advantage. I liave two (iuiuby hives on their 

 summer stands, packed witli chalf as Mr. Quinby di- 

 rected, but have not much faitli in them for such a 

 winter as we had one year ago. I want some more 

 hooks, such as Mr. (.}. used on the corners of iiis hive. 

 Of whom can 1 get them ? Yours, 



W. H. Tenant. 

 Eureka, Winnebago Co., Wis., Dec. 13th, 1875. 



We think the above a very fair statement of 

 tlie way in which the bees go to work in side and 

 top boxes, as a general thing ; of course there 

 will he exceptions, for one colony of bees will 

 occasionally behave quite differently from 

 another. The most recent way is to take only 

 the//'«??i«s of the Quinby hive in-doors, leav- 

 ing the hive on the summer stand. Six frames 

 will contain the stores and bees for a very 

 large colony. You can get the corner irons 

 of L. C. Root, Mr. Quiuby's former partner. 

 See his advertisement. 



My way of introducing queens: Make a cage by 

 rolling up a piece of wire cloth, as u'iual, put a cork 

 in one end ami sponge in the other with a string fast- 

 ened securely to each. Saturate the sponge with hon- 

 ey. Now hold a jiiece of honey comb before the hive 

 wanting the queen, until you have a number of bees 

 clustered on it ; take them into the house, and after 

 they have taken all the lioney they want they will lly 

 to the window. Catch and put them into "the cage 

 with the (jueen, take them to the hive, spread the 

 combs, jmt in the cage, draw out both strings one at 

 each side of hive below liouey board on quilt. Let it 

 stand 24 hours, then pull out the sponge by its string, 

 holding fast the other string. Feed the bees liberally 

 tor a few days and don't open the hive for four or five 

 days alter. How are the frames kept straight up to 

 the wire cloth in your extractor ? 



John Dawson, Pontiac, Mich. 



It is our impression that if you should thus 

 secure a pint; of bees or more, and get them on 

 the window or any where so they would feel 

 lost, they would peaceably accept any queen ; 

 and your plan of releasing them, under some 

 circumstances, would doubtless be tin advan- 

 tage. We should hesitate to advise leaving a 

 valuable queen four or five days without look- 

 ing after her; they are liable to be enclosed in 

 a cluster and killed, no matter how they arc 

 introduced. 



The suspended frames rest against the wire 

 cloth of their own accord; the others arc Iield 

 nearly up, and as soon as the machine is start- 

 ed, are properly in place. 



Last 8).ring I took, on shares, ';5 swarms of bees; 

 from which I extracted 2,500 lbs, and took 1,000 lbs i 

 box honey, having in the fall, to put up for wintering, j 

 ■44 new swarms. Extracted honey sells liere for loc j 

 per lb, box honey 20c. Seven years ago I was overruix 

 by toads; it was no uncommon occurrence to see j 

 tliree or four around one liive. I watched them close- I 

 ly an.'i soon discovered they were catching the bees i 

 very fast. I then drove ih"em oil, but I hey soon re- I 

 turned, and I finally had to kill tljom to save the bees. ! 

 Th^re is no mistake about this, for I tried to make i 



myself believe they did no liarm. But, seeing is be- 

 lieving, and witnessing I know whereof I speak. 



L. WKiJSTEit, Wiuneconne, Wis. 



UNITING COLONIES. 



DE.\R NOVICK:— In Dec. No. of (Ji-eanings you 

 mention uniting colonies by simply lifting from one 

 hive Into another, in cool weather. I.,et me a'ld a 

 word of caution, not to you, but to your readers. 1 

 have done the same thing, in more than one instance, 

 and succeeded perfectly, and again 1 have failed. As 

 1 am not sure I know the reason for the difl'erence, i 

 will be content with giving the fact. A. year ago, i 

 wanted to unite two weak colonies, and on a cold day, 

 I carefully lilted the contents of one hive and jiut it in 

 the other. Shortly alter, I noticed that stung bees 

 were crawling out to die, and I took cover and cloth 

 olT the hive and left them thus for hours, hoping,' to 

 cool them down (it was too cold for them to l!v,i so 

 that when covered up they would be all right, i'.ut it 

 was no use. The slaughter continued, and I think 

 one of the colonies was entirely destroyed. 



FOUNDATIONS OF PL.VIN WAX SHEETS. 



Yon ask, "who has tried them ?" I have. Some 

 that I have tried have worked perfectly, and if I did 

 not care whether the oells were drone or worker, J 

 would just as soon have these plain foundations as 

 the ijressed ones, lint others did not work so well. J 

 don't know what made the difl'erence. One founda- 

 tion has been in a hive three years, and the bees 

 worked out the cells on one side of it, but refused to 

 touch the other side; and finally (I think not tid this 

 year,) they have hung a thin sheet of comb beside it, 

 leaving the flat surface of wax on my foundation un- 

 touched. I used some strips of plain sheets this year, 

 as comb guides, and 1 notic(!d that some of them were 

 not worked, the boes merely attaching their comb to 

 the lower edge of the strips. I have had a frame in 

 use three years, having for part of its foundation a 

 piece of paper dipped in melted wax, not pressed or 

 stamped in any way; and this summer wlien I ex- 

 tracted the lioiicy Irom it, I could read the printed 

 letters on the paper. In other cases they have gnaw- 

 ed out the jiaper. 



STINGS. 



I don't think you meant it so, but thei'e might appear 

 just a suspicion of unkindness in j'our reply lo Mr. 

 Hudson, as to the best remedy for stings. Whilst 

 your reply might be the right oiie for 19 out of 20, for 

 the 20th it might be an unwise if aot an unkind one. 

 Last Thanksgiving I spent part of the day in chang- 

 ing a wet cloth on my wife's arm, to make tiie i)ain oC 

 .a sting more endurable. The sting was more than :i 

 day old, and at the same time I had several stings on 

 my neck and hand not half so old, and yet by thai 

 time I could not tell which hand was stung. Now, 

 while it might be well enough to say to ine "(.'et tlie 

 stings out and go on with your work," it would be 

 cruel to say so to her, for a single sting has closed 

 both her eyes and kciH her in beJl for a <lav or more. 



To any one who sutlers specially from bee slings, 

 perhaps the most important advice is not to use the 

 part stung. A sting upon the hand, wiiich, by not us- 

 ing the hantl might pass away in a little while, with 

 little or no swelling, may, if the hand bo mucli used, 

 become badly swollen and very painful. A sting will 

 itch, and you will want to scratch, but don't. If yo\! 

 want to see what a sting can do in the wjiy of s. veil- 

 ing, just scratch. Wet clay or mud applied to a sting 

 wilt often give relief. A single thickness of wet 

 cloth, changed often, is good. 



I?. Lundeeeh. 



We stand corrected, bnt think the exceptions 

 rare in both cases. We agree with you in re- 

 gard to letting tiie swollen hand rest, and 

 when we say "go on vvith your work"' Ave do 

 not mean to advise aggravating the swelling 

 by any kind of exerci.se thtit irritates the ai- 

 fected part. If cold v.'ater gives relief use it 

 by all means, but it certainly brings no allevi- 

 ation on our own person. We could almost 

 fill a number of Gleamngs with a list of the 

 liniments, etc., that are said to l)e good, but as 

 we can find no f/ood evidence in favor of any 

 oC them, we must decline giving them rooiii. 



The strips of comb foundations yon fl'rni^it^d u)i', 

 1 placed in about thirrl comb from side of hive in 

 brood apartment. In every instance they were .'ini.-h- 

 cd out below with drone comb. 



TiriiMA^ l'ni;.s:)V, (ihcuL. ■■). 



