128 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



[ For Gleanings. ] 

 VARIOI S ITEMS. 



BT G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



SN April number of Gleaxixgs you invite brief state- 

 ments concerning C. O. Perrine. In tlie fall of 1871, 

 — ' I received letters from him, wishing me to buy honey 

 for him, he sending nie cash to give to the })arties that 

 would sell honey at the prices named, to hold it for him 

 from 30 to GO days, he stating in said letters that ho would 

 Iiay so much for it, delivered at R. K. I went to my bee- 

 keeping friends, read them his letters, and told them I 

 had confldence in him, and should send liim my own hon- 

 ey. To those that concluded to let him have their honey 

 I gave §o. or $10. as the case might be, of cash sent. He 

 ordered the honey shipped about Oct. 1st, and we took it 

 to R. R. (about 7500 lbs.) expecting to find money there 

 but failed to liiid it. We Anally onchided to send it on 

 to Philadelphia, he being in business there at that time. 

 Alxiut the time it arrived in Phil., Chicago burned, but as 

 our honey was not at Chicago of course it was not burned, 

 but was sold at 50 per cent above what he agreed to pay 

 us for it. All we could hear of it tliroush him was that it 

 was received in splendid condition and was very nice 

 honey ; but as he had lost s) heavily by the lire he could 

 not pay for it. I wrote him 42 letters in all, and after 

 pleading and begging for those that were sulTering for the 

 want of it, I got one-third of it and the rest we had to 

 take his notes for, due in June 1871. When tlie notes 

 came they were without interest. A part of my bee-keep- 

 ing friends thought I was holden for the pay for their hon- 

 ey and J. was obliged to get counsel, etc., which did not 

 result in our being on as friendly terms as before, I will 

 assure j ou. If we want comb foundations will he trust us 

 in tlie same way? "The cash must in all cases accompa- 

 ny the order," does not sound much like it. Now one 

 word to the readers of Gleanings. If you want comb 

 foundations or anything else, pay for it ; and if any honey 

 dealer wants honey, demand the cash for it. This letting 

 them have the staff all in their own hands is something 

 like the boys and the frogs "fun for them but death to us." 

 If they can not afford to trust us as wo do them let them 

 send the money to the express agent whei-e the honcj is 

 to be delivered, and when he sees that it is all right and 

 ' in good order, then demand the cash or hold on to the 

 hojiey. 



If Mr. Wolfenden (page 83) has queens that will not 

 keep more than a part of three frames filled with brood in 

 July or Augxist they can not be good for much. We never 

 knew a good queen to be crowded at any time when there 

 were bees enough to work in boxes. Li apple blossoms 

 Avhen there are but few bees and those mostly old ones 

 the case is different. 



HOW TO FIND A QUEEN. 



If you will excuse us, we would like to tell Mr. Chap- 

 man how to find a queen. Proceed as Novice says on page 

 107, till you get the quilt olY, then bear in mind if the time 

 of day is from one to three o'clock, that as a rule the queen 

 will be on one of the outside brood combs no matter 

 where the bees a re thickest ; if from seven to nine o'clock 

 in the morning you will liud her on the centre brood 

 comb, or if G to 8 combs are filled with brood, on one of the 

 three centre brood combs. The principle is that at from 

 oue to three a. m. the queen is at the outside of brood 

 nest then returns to the centre getting there about eight 

 A. M., and then continues on, an iWug at the opposite out- 

 side at .about two p. 51., then back again getting on the 

 cenire coinl) about eight p. m. Thus she traverses the 

 Mholo brood nest twice every it hours. This is when the 

 colony is in its normal condition. If you are spreading 

 the brood as given on page 135, Vol. II, it breaks up the 

 rejadar operations of the queen and you will usually find 



her on the frame you put in the centre of brood nest. The 

 queen is nearly twice as long as a worker, in the breeding 

 season. Thus it is quite an easy matter to lind a queen 

 unless you are obliged to smoke them so as to get them 

 running like a ilock of sheep, which is frequently the case 

 with blacks or hybrids ; then you want to look in all the 

 cornels of the hive, or out under tlie bottom board, if the 

 bees can get there. Drones in winter, does not with us 

 denote a drone laying queen. Three winters since 18G!», 

 we have had drones wintered over. In the sisring of 187i 

 we had drones ilying in March almost as thick as in mid- 

 summer, but they soon died olf of old age or were killed 

 by the colonics and driven out, just as we see them in 

 Aug. and Sept. 



We tried to save Novice from falling into an error on 

 page 27, present Vol., and now he seems to be liable to fall 

 into a still worse one. See what he says on page 113, first 

 column, a little below the middle of column. Too much 

 stores at this season of the year will just as surely spoil 

 the stock for box honey, as it would to let them starre. 

 We did not say on page 27 that a weak swarm hived on 9 

 fi"ames of sealed honey in the months of April or May 

 would carry said honey into the boxes. No sir ! they 

 would always be weak and there is no such thing as filling 

 the combs with sjtu]) now, and then getting boxes filled 

 with clover honey, for where would the bees come from ? 

 In the cases given you on page 27, we had the bees (and a 

 hive full too) of all ages, and the way we got those bees wo 

 gave you on i)age 135, Vol. II. E. Gallup says in A. B. J., 

 page 6, Vol. IV, "We must never allow the bees to get in 

 advance of the queen, for if we do the prosjjerity of the 

 swarm is checked at once ; that is, if the l>ees are allowed 

 to fill the combs with honey in the spring Ixfore the 

 queen has filled them with brood, the swarm will be an 

 unpi-olitable one." You can not get honey without be«s. 

 Our Gall u]) frames give us 45000 worker bees every 21 

 days, and a queen that is gootl for anything will keep the 

 frames full of brood if you have on boxes with such a force 

 of bees as tliat in July and August ; but give the same 

 queen but 5000 bees and these old ones, and they will 

 crowd her do .vn to a part of three frames every time. If 

 our hives average 5000 bees on the first of Jlay they are 

 what I call extra good stocks, and if you give them what, 

 honey or syrup they can can carry during the month of 

 May, you will have about 5000 bees in your i:ive all sum- 

 mer. We agree on page 115 that ^ve never see too much 

 hoiK y in the hive in the fall for wintering. If every frame 

 is full it does no harm, for by the first of Nov. they will 

 have eaten enough for empty cells to cluster in. 



We do not consider such ^colonies as Mr. Roop tells 

 us about on page 115, any better at that time of the year 

 than one that woidd enclose 5 frames or occupy G si)aces. 

 We never could see, when Novice was in his ecstacy over 

 the manure heaps around his bees, what the object was in 

 getting bees strong enough to swarm in April or May, as 

 white clover does not commence to bloom until about 

 June 20tli, and before that these strong colonies will con- 

 sume more than they will gather if they have no honey 

 in the hive on Aiiril 20th. Aiiy one of ordhiary ability can 

 build a quart of bees up to G0,000 in six weeks, with a June 

 temperature. If any one will five us a quart of )>ee3 in a 

 hive on an average, the 10th of May, we will ask for noth- 

 ing better. We did not average one-fourth that on the 

 20th of May last year. 



Borcdino, N. Y., May 10th, "70. 



[Just a word in defense of Mr. Perrine. 3Iany a man 

 when Chicago was burned, was unable to pay his debts at 

 all. That Mr. P. did pay up all fin,ally, is to his credit, al- 

 though there may bo no excuse for his not pajing for yovr 

 honey, which w-as received in good order and sold at a 

 goixl ])rice. We should ( xercise plenty of charity toward 

 cui nciglrbors should we not, friend D. :— Ed.] 



