140 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



I notice an article from J. P. Moore in April No. of 

 Gleanings, in wliich he speaks of seein? nrany frames of 

 \TOrker com'b in section boxes, filled with brootl. My ex- 

 psrience so far is fust the other way, as I have hid many 

 frames filled or partly so, \rith drone brood, birt not a sin- 

 gle egg laid in worker comb, though thsre were some with 

 bee bread in. I had very little drone comb in brood 

 chamber last season. (Section boxes Ij inch.) I thought 

 having so little drone comb there, the cause of so many 

 drone ergs being laid above. The bee bread in section 

 frames, it! worker comb, was less trouble to me than the 

 eggs laid in the drone comb. I don''t remember finding 

 any bee bread in drone comb in the section boxes, but do 

 not know why they would not put it there when they do 

 in the brood chamber. We received 5 $1. queens from Dr. 

 Brown of Augus-ta, Ga.. in Mar. ; every worker hatched 

 Jrom them so far, is three banded. C. E. Caklin, 



Quincy. Fla., 3Iay 1st, '7G. 



Some one enquired whether honey vinegar is good or 

 not. I will say yes, the best there is m.ade. It will 

 not die or lose its strength like most other vinegars, and 

 you can have light or dark vinegar as you take light or 

 dark honey to make it from. You can make what is call- 

 ed sweet pickles with it without any fear of spoiling. 

 Last season a neighbor's family Iwught hmey vinegar of 

 me to do their choice pickling with when they had cider 

 vinegar of their own make, as it ^vas so much better, they 

 said, than cider. I cannot; give any rule for making it, as 

 I have made it from the washings of vessels used in ex- 

 tracting, and of the cappings after the honey was jiretty 

 well di-ained out, but there has got to be such a demand 

 for it in my neighborhood that I mil have to make some 

 from the clear honey this year. 



Bees have wintered we'l in this section so far as heard 

 from, but hive consumed more honsy than usual. I have 

 lost 10 out of C5, all starved to death. They were all 

 young queens and had evidently bred after putting in bee 

 house as there were more bees than when put in. The 

 most of my bees increased in numbars from thi time they 

 were put in until taken out of the house. R, R. Murphy, 

 Fulton, Ills.. May 6, 7G. 



Sir .-—Your postal is received and I will say my ex- 

 perience on rape for bee teed is quite limited. I tried 

 four acres last season and it gave me good satisfac- 

 tion, yielding a large amount of the finest quality 

 equal to white clover. I shall sow again this season. 

 I sow four quarts per acre and sow between the first 

 and tenth of Jane, so it will give my bees something 

 to work on between linn and buckwheat; I think a 

 crop of rape if a man has bees, will yield a larger re- 

 venue than any other crop that can be put out. Any 

 information I can furnish you I will be happy to at- 

 tend to. S. Burleson. 



Xashville, Jackson Co., Iowa. May 9th, 1876. 



Will it do to change the situation of a colony of 

 bees at tho time of transferring them, as taking them 

 down from an old fashioned stand and putting them 

 on the ground at another place? The bees could be 

 sbnt in their hive in the evening \intil they are moved 

 to the new stand and transferred the next day, and if 

 well smoked then, they might nearly all be shaken 

 doivu in front of the new hivo. An empty hive conld 

 be placed at the old stand, and the bees that would 

 gather in it could be shaken down at the new stand 

 in the evening ; but I do not know whether bees could 

 be transferred in this way or not. William L. Au. 



New burg, Penn. May Sth, 1870. 

 It might answer, but we think in the majori- 

 ty of cases many bees would be lost. We have 

 trierl putting au empty hive on the old stand, 



and carrying the bees back at night, but al 

 though they hummed in as merrily as any new 

 swarm, they would be found at their old hom.e 

 invariably when night came, aud carrying- 

 them home so many times soon became tire- 

 some. If your new stand is Dear enough so- 

 they can hear their comrades calling, they 

 will generally get the situation of affairs, and 

 adhere to the new home, especially during the 

 fall or spring months, but if the ciiange be made 

 wliile they are gathering stores daily, thero 

 will be more or less loss, almost iovariably. 



I am very much surprised thac an exi>erienced bee- 

 raan like yourself having plenty of honey, sugar, and 

 candii at hand, and every facility for feeding, sbouUI 

 let a single bee starve ; much less such a hirge num- 

 ber of fnll stocks. We lx;ginn&rs look to yon for ex- 

 ample, but if such 53 the example yon set, I for one. 

 shall hesitate to follow, for I think it is a good rule to> 

 never follow a bad example. Last fall I bought my 

 first stock, a full one in an old rickety l>angr-trotl> 

 hive well filled with honey. 1 took out 3 frames amli 

 ate the honey myself; I also took ofT the old-fashion- 

 ed honey board and put on instead, a piece of old car- 

 pet and put the hive into my coal house for wintering. 

 But I was like a boy with a new jack-knife, I wantecJ 

 to be looking at them all the while, and as the winter 

 kept so warm and open I thought they would eat a 

 large amount, and made a practice of raising a corner 

 of the carpet once or twice a week to see how their 

 rations were holding out, always of course choosing 

 the mildest days. AVell, I began to feed some ten days 

 ago. Three days ago they had about a dozen cells oi 

 capped honey left, and as the weather is yet so chilly 

 they can not work, although there is bloom enough 

 now, 1 shall transfer to a new hive as soon as they can 

 work to build up- By the way, how is your Kussiais 

 queen ? did you let her starve too ? 



One word about youi wind-mill power. Do yon ap- 

 ply the power direct from the mill, or have you some 

 way of storing the power and using it when the wimJ 

 is not turning the mill? 



A. A. FiiADENBUKG, Cleveland, Ohio. 



We know we are not setting a veiy good ex- 

 ample friend F., but had we not told you of 

 our losses very likely you would have known 

 nothing of it, aud you can rest assured the 

 temptation was strong to say not a word, but 

 build up again as fast as we could. Should we 

 lead beginners to think it was all clear sailing, 

 we should be very far from being honest, and 

 the sooner they have tlie real facts in the case 

 the better. The Russian queen, or her bees 

 rather, died with plenty of stores near them, aud 

 as the colony was very fair in March, we tliink 

 we can lay the blame principally to the house 

 apiary. Our power comes direct from tlie mill, 

 and we Ijelieve nothing lias as yet been suc- 

 cessfully devised for storing up the ix)wer. 

 Instead of "making hay when the sun shines," 

 we "make hives when the wind blows." The 

 mill has an arrangement for self regulating, 

 something like the governor to a steam engine, 

 bnt of course can only equalize the speed after 

 it has reached a certain velocity. As there are 

 many lulls, especially in the summer time, a 

 steam engine is in some respects to be preferred. 



Took bees from cellar the Cth inst. Tliey consumed 

 more honey than usual. Found 6 had starved, one 

 dead with honey, two just starving, saved one. One 

 swarmed out ; since had tliem out, 9 lost out of 131. 

 Rest in mediimi condition. Yours, L. C. ROOT. 



Mohawk, N. Y., May 10th, '7C. 



