im 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



f|uepii unless they lost Iheir queen very late in the sfcasoii. 

 The others were weak when .set ont. So I lost two more. 

 Cellar was too damp. They are bnildmg np fast. Bees 

 v.intered well out of doors this winter. 1 th?nk healthy 

 hees wintered outside need no upward ventilation or very 

 little, hut plenty of lower. Does not their instinct say 

 so ? Henkt FrNic, BIo«niijgton, Ills,, June 7th, '7C>. 



f hare been suceessfitl so far, with my Italian 

 hees which I received from you last fall, when I or- 

 dered and received my extractor. I have now '25 or 



00 good strong swarms of Italian hees from the two 

 frame nnclcns which you sent in my extractor. I also 

 have above .3(10 ."iwarms of black bees in frame hives, 

 which I intend to Italianize Jhis anmmcr, if I can. I 

 liave had a better season among my bees than I ever 

 had before; they swarmed earlier than ever beloi-e- 

 r caught i:> or 14 svearms of young bees in Feb., and 

 ahoui: 91 svearms in March. I have taken this spring 

 2."> or .'W gallons of fine honey anil have about 100 2 lb. 

 surplus boxes filled. And now, as Jnne Is come and 

 not far advanced I am as busy as busy can be in hiving 

 and catching young swarms from the bees that 1 

 caught in Feb. and >[arch, at the rate of 10 and 20 

 swarr.is per <lay ; so you can see before the end of the 

 .<;warming season, I will have a. treble increase. I 

 have now up to this date, about 272 colonies, and ex- 

 jject before fall to have about 300 which f think will 

 yield 11 or 12 molasses barrels of honey, and also S or 



1 hundred of those 2 lb. suri)lus boxes. They net me 

 .^t the rate of .'50 cts. per lb. So you see it will well 

 itay a man to invest his money in bees*. 



E. STAUL, Bee-keeper of the city of Kennet, La. 

 June 9th, 1876. 



Of course our friend meaus that he made the 

 25or80, bythc aid of brood from his other 

 stocks. If we only had the time and fewer 

 otiier cares, how we would like to sell bees. 

 The uucleiis mentioned above, was sent in com- 

 pliance witli. an urgent request; and all we 

 illd, was to make a light case for the two 

 -■•ombs of thin pine veneer, two end blocks, 

 and wire cloth lor top and bottom ; in fact we 

 wei-e obliged to make it small enough to go 

 into the extractor. In opening the hive from 

 which we took the queen, we found her on the 

 first frame, put this and one more into the 

 light case, and that was all. In place of the 

 queen removed, we simply dropped in a virgin 

 (uieen from the lamp nursery, and she com- 

 menced laying so soon that neither we nor the 

 bees ever noticed they liad been queenless. 

 The colony is to-day one of our best. 



Bees are swarming in this section, and I hear two-thirds 

 of the swarms go to the woods. 



W. Comfort, Teeuinseh, Mich., June 12th, '7!'. 

 We don't know how our readers feel about 

 it, but whe]i we see a swarm of our finest 

 Italians going for the woods, we feel as if we 

 were willing to go to the expeitse of a halter 

 for eacli individual bee. It is hard enough to 

 get bees, without having tliem take French 

 leave of a body in that way, and all the learn- 

 ed disquitions that vfere ever written would 

 not hinder us from clipping their wing, or 

 wings rather, so long as they raise good large 

 colonies notwithstanding. We clipped over 

 40 a few days ago, and we cannot discover 

 that it has hindered their laying in the least. 



Do you think it necessary to run wax, or fasten pieces of 

 coml) alcn'4 upper ])art of the frame to induce the bees to 

 build straight combs 'r or are the irui'o •■^vlp'i <K'r.'ic\pnt': 



[Our comb guides are all that is needed.] 



WiUa)fev/ Italian colonies (or even queens) eve!itCiall.v 

 Italianize (or even liybridize) the whole stock wlien placed 

 promiscuously in an ai>iary ? 



[If allowed to swarm natiwally,, the Italian bfood would: 

 soon disappear, when blacks lin-gely predominate.] 



Do you think fretiuetit visits among bees, or much 

 handling, familiarizes them to the operator^ or neutrali/o« 

 their asf^rity toward him. or the occasional visitor ? 



&. MeCLE£LAX, Rocky Springs, Miss. 



That frequent and careful handling makes- 

 bees gentle, almost all adm-it; but that tliey 

 can be taught to disfiuguish their keeper from 

 others, is considerably^ disputed. We do know 

 that the bees we handle most frequently, soon 

 leani to go right along- with their labors un- 

 disturbed, while those out of the way, an(? 

 where we seldom pass ther/i, make a great ado 

 if we staud in front of their hives, or tear ott' 

 the quilt suddenly. As the ones most fre- 

 ([uently handled give the largest yields of 

 honey, invariably, we shall have to conclude 

 that it "does 'em good." 



EDITOR GLEANINGS :-A severe type of tee fever 

 has V>roken out in thii* neigby>orhood and grows worse 

 every day. But it is human nature. Two years a^o 

 when 1 bougbt half my friend C4eo. Alleii's apiai-y (10 

 hives for SfO.) I was asked if I thought I could t'ef :is 

 much honey from them as I could eat. No extractor had. 

 been used here before that time. Mr. A. got one, and wi^ 

 took about 400 lbs. of the fiinest kind of lioney. Now they 

 said, "Yon can't sell it," but we clid; and now we have 

 three apiaries running with extractors, and others })re- 

 pariug, Mr. Yates has bought 20 box hives and trans- 

 ferred to L. hives this spring. He came to me last week 

 to set directions for sending for an extractor. I suppose 

 you got his order. Mr. GJeo. Allen has over fO stands, 

 though he lost 10 or 12 last winter, I think from extract- 

 hig too closely last fall. Ho got If s'.ranns for fourL. • 

 hives, one second-handed. Isn't this enougii to create bee- 

 fever? Yet this is the full estimate put on l)ees in t!i 

 old boxes. 



We certainly ought to make money on bees here, if you 

 at the North can with all the trouble you go to, making 

 conili foundations, wintering houses, feeding, etc., etc. 

 My Italian swarms this spring filled their new hives with 

 comb, honey and brood, in two weeks and I took li! to 20 

 lbs. from each. I ha\'e taken fiOO lbs. of clover honey, 

 very heavy and thick, and now the linden harvest is be- 

 ginning. I would like to sell out to make room for the 

 fall crop which is the lai'gest, and I think the finest, in 

 this region. I lost 2tO lbs. last year by some bitter iilnnt. 

 smelling like worm seed. What was it? 



.1. ^. OxEY, M. D. 



Dixon's Si)rhig5, Tenn., June 11th, 1876. 



The bitter honey has been several ttimos 

 mentioned on our pages, but no one seems to 

 know just what the plant is that produces it; 

 and it may be a little difficult to determine 

 with precision. The remedj'^ at present, seems 

 to be to get the good honey oft" the hives before 

 it gets spoiled by any admixture of ^the bad. 

 We should be very glad indeed to get more 

 light on the matter. 



1 thought it would interest you to know how 1 made 

 out with the larva; you sent me, as you thought it too 

 far to send it and make it a success. The result is, I 

 have three queen cells although much of the larv.-p 

 was shaken out of the cells. I shall send for more 

 soon. J. R. Brovv.v. 



Fort Atkins-on, Wis., June 15th, 1S70. 



