IHZQ 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



im 



Can a yoTing queen be fertilized in a cage, made 

 iight and airy, attached to a nucleus ? 



It will be safe to say now, that probably such 

 ;'. thing has never yet been done. Some of the 

 parties were doubtless honest in ihinking they 

 had succeeded. 



1 saw u droae, in Febnip.ry. Is not tbeir pvoductio:! 

 .:tt that time <5f year a strange IVeak of nature ;' 



J. M. McKJKUEAD, Guilford, Mo. 



Nothing very strange, and prol>ai)iy uothiug 



very encouraging. You had better look to the 



■colony, for the indications are that the queen 



is a droaic layer, and that you will lose the col- 



■ ny. if not s-oou supplied with a better queeu. 



1 think it would be a benefit to 30ui- readers, to veu- 

 '. ilate the matter cf chilled bees as presented by Davis 

 in Gleanings. 1 believe that the "spring dwindling'' 

 i* many times from that cause, though not as lie puts 

 it. My experience is, that if the wliole cluster is to 

 all appearance dead, tlie queen will ever after be bar- 

 ren. If there Js a small bail of bees in tiie centre of 

 the cluster with the queen, with just life enough to 

 keep up a continual squirming, though not enough to 

 rawl, the <iueeu will be partially barren, that is, will 

 .av regularly but the eggs do not hatch. 



From two very light stocks last spring, I extracted 

 7(1 ':j Ibi. honey and increased to ten. I had but '2*; 

 i>rood combs to begin with. The ten are all in good 

 health and have stores enough o£ their own gathering, 

 to carry them through. 



Italiaa queen from River Styx, all right. 

 O. W. Parkek, 'S'(iw London, Min., Mar. Sth, ,7'>. 



Such is certainly not always the case, friend 

 .1'., for we have repeatedly rescued bees, even 

 ■.iter they were, queen and all apparently stone 

 Uad, and the queen has almost always, proven 

 iust as good as evei\ We have purposely kept 

 them a year or more, to test the matter. 



I have again lost lots of bees, the past winter— just 

 how many I am not able to say. A part of my bees 

 are on their summer stands, and yesterday had a 

 •light, and some of them v/orked on flour (middlings). 

 Bees in cellar suspiciously quiet. Shall give a severe 

 letting alone for awhile yet. I have a supply of new 

 hives well under way— can not alford to wait till June 

 to see how many I shall want, this season. 



D. P. Lane, Koshkonong, "Wis., April Sth, '76. 



Have you any knowledge on what points C. R. Isham 

 claims a patent for his honey box? or do you knovv' 

 nothing of them? I liave used similar boxes for 

 many years past. 



Sam'l T. Ramsey, 1515 Vine St., Philadelphia, Pa. 

 We presume Mr. Isham will be happy to fur- 

 nish us with a copy of his claim, that we may 

 know just what will be an infringement, and 

 what will not. Inquiries are also at hand as 

 to what parts of the house apiary are patented, 

 also the same in regard to the comb founda- 

 tion. When the owner of a patent manifests a 

 disclination to show his claims, the matter at 

 least looks suspicious. Several of our neigh- 

 bors recently paid an agent for a patent wire 

 fence, over ilOOO.OO for rights, and after he had 

 gone we showed them that the patent was 

 granted for an ornamental cap to the ^ws^5 to 

 the fence, (something they never thought of 



asing) and that the fence they were building 

 h.ad been free property for years. If it is realbj 



"orih ■icJdle we can supplj' ourselves with a 



•ompleto file of the patent office reports. 



I would say in reply to Mr. Johnson's questions, that 

 the division looards are not essential to make the bees 

 build the combs in the sections. My father has used the 

 sectionai boxes for four years, I have been using them the 

 last two years, and it has been our experience that the 

 divisions are a detriment ; as it requires two spaces, one 

 on each side of the divisions, besivles the space the divis- 

 ions take, making two spa^ees and the board between each 

 piece of comb. M'o find that the bees will build the comb 

 just as straight, and will store from two to three pounds 

 more of honey to the box, than they v/ouid with divisions. 

 We find that the sections must be exactly the proper 

 width to get them filled. If they are too narrow, the 

 proper number of combs will not be built ; if too wide, the 

 bees will fill in with extra pieces of comb. 



We find the Barker & Dicer section honey box (made at 

 Mai-shall, Mich.) has just the requisites. We used pieces 

 of comb, last season, abo«t three inches long and 1| wide. 

 In 3000 lbs. of honey there were but few imperfect sections. 

 The honey in sectional boxes sold incur markets last year, 

 for three and fcur cents more per lb. than that put up in 

 other ways. Retailers are getting so they will buy no 

 other. We expect to use the comb foundation this season. 

 Think the middle section should have a piece put in near- 

 ly fuil size. The others would do with less. 



Gur bees have wintered excellently ; have plenty of 

 brood, and if they \vwe no back-sets we may look for early 

 increase. W. L. Poetee, Northville, Mich. 



So far as using wood for the division boards, 

 or separators, is concerned, we rhink you are 

 perhaps right ; but if the sections are to be 

 glassed after being lilled, and only sheets of 

 tin are used, we think the objection mentioned 

 will liardly apply. We purchased some comb 

 honey for our retail trade last fall, (in 8 or 10 

 lb. boxes of all shapes and sizes), which we cut 

 out and retail on plates. And by the wa\', we 

 wish to say it is probably the last experiment 

 of the kind we shall ever make ; for this honey 

 cost us net 25c., and all that run out of the 

 combs in cutting, v/as at once reduced to 18c 

 — price of extracted honey — besides the cost of 

 a hand to cut it out, and to clear u'p and wash 

 up things afterward. As it candied very soon 

 after being cut out of the boxes, we only 

 opened a box as fast as used, and even though 

 we sold it at 35 cts., we fear the lot has never 

 paid expenses. Now the point we are coming 

 at, is this; the bees themselves, when they go 

 alDout their work in a disorderly way — running 

 their combs diagonally, etc., — do not get as 

 much honey in a box as they would if obliged 

 to put it in uniform combs of equal length 

 and thickness. In building it in these large 

 boxes, they leave large spaces and awkw^ard 

 angles unfilled. With the section boxes and 

 tin separators, this we think will be mostly 

 avoided. 



AVas very much disappointed on finding the small type 

 leadetl. I would rather pay §1.50 a year printed as for- 

 merly. Was also much disappointed on learning C. O. 

 Perrine had obtained sole right to manufacture the coinb 

 foundations and at such jn-ices too (?) as he offers them. 



K an Italian queen mates wiih black drone will her 

 drones be pure, or are they affected ? 



F. Saegent, Hubbardstown, Mass. 



We believe the best authorities consider such 

 drones pure, although there are a few who 

 think to the contrary. Our own observation 

 corroborates the general testimony, viz., that 

 they are pure. 



