'1-87G 



t5LEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



i>EAE NOVICE :— You have lateJy rocolAcd an oi-der 

 tior several pounds of fdu. f rom ir.iend Cramer. -Several of 

 lis here liave beea using it ard Ihauk it 'is tlie thing for 

 mice straight worker coszib. Wo have had two lots of Per- 

 xiue at §1,'28, but when I told Uiem wcrould get it at 67/2 

 -ots. of Novice, au 1« lb. lots, we all coijeluded to switch 

 f)fl' onto your track. Tdl those who sa.y idn. aro aiium- 

 ibug, and that strMght worker comb -caw't be made from 

 it. that they are •^ery amch mistaken, a«d if they could 

 just stepdnto Oiir Ona'da bee yards, wC'COuld show them 

 a^ nice worker-comb as they ever saw, built up out of fdn. 

 Many thanks to you Nowce, for shortejiing the loiig word 

 to "fdn."' Bees aise doin^ tip top. Slocks just crowde<l 

 •>vith bees, brood and hoiKjt- — have 17 now and wiU have 

 r-JO soon- We liave one acre of buckwheat in bJooan, and 

 white rfowr is as thick as ^atttr again. 1 have 10 

 Awanus toAakefeaj-e of out in the coinitry, and 28 iw town. 

 Hives to Jia:xke for tkewi lujd outside parties, aaid you may 

 ijQ sure father and I are busy. 



Novice, I have finished «iy new extractor, ajid if you 

 cui beat it you must have a mighty good one. 



WiLt. M. Keiaogw, Oneida, Ills., Aug. lUh, '7S. 



1 tiled flat sheets of yellow was and what surpiised 

 cue was ibey woyld bwikl on flat sheets as ijuickly as 

 '01! Idn. in the same h-lve, thinning them down, and 

 i'.ilcaching them white. But liie cells weix; not so reg- 

 •uiar ; and aametimes they would fill a space between 

 •cells with the surplus wax. Tell Heddon tha<t my 

 i.lack bees arc beating my Italians for honey, this 

 ^•evLV ; ibut perhaps pasture is better where they are, 

 Rn the couBtiy ; my Italians are in town. 



.John Laffektv, Martinsville, 111. 



TLrce-t'ourths of my hives that svvarmei-!, or from 

 any other cause lose their old ([ueen and rear a younj;: 

 one, destroy the young queen before she becomes fer- 

 tile. I.'hey will iraprisou tiie queen when only 

 three or four days old. bite away her wings aad final- 

 ly sting her. S'he oaly way I can get a queen safely 

 fertilized, that has been hatched in a full colony, is to 

 take two or three frames out of the hive wi'ih the 

 queen Rad ad'herip.g bees, pat them in an empty hiy« 

 aad set them off by themselves until the queen begins 

 to lay, when the frames are returEcd to the hive and 

 all goes light. What is theeause and reniedj' for thiy 

 unusual course ? By dividing a colony into several 

 parts and giving each division a queen, we get them 

 all right and the bees do not h-urt their queen. 



J. A. Bi;<<JHANAN, Winter.sville, O., Aug. 8th, '-7^. 

 The trouble ineutiouecl is very stiixnge and 

 uiiusaal, aud we can not help thinking yoit 

 rather exaggerate the utmiber that behave 

 thus. During a de-arth of honey, we have had 

 a few eases of the kind, but feeding, of a natu- 

 ral flow, has always been a remedy. We 

 should be more inclined to think you would 

 have sneh trotibles with queens reared awa^ 

 from the main colonj. 



j Ajj.gust Cin-EANiNGS Said that my best swarm of bees 

 j had ma<!e 150 lbs. of oonib honey in small frames or 

 : sections, by June ISth, It sho«id be Jidi/ IMi. I 

 j don't know whether it was my mistake or tlie type- 

 I setter"^ They now have 221 lbs. and one more set 

 that is nearly ready to cap. 



F. M. Dickinson, Whitney's Point, N. Y, 



Iiiuclosed find remedy for ants, I have used it for 

 iJwo years with great satisfaction. It will drive the 

 small bh'ick and red ants from any of their haunts 

 aibtut the apiary, honey house, oa: pantrj'. 1 wrote 

 you about it nearly a year ago, but did not see it in 

 «i; LEANINGS. It is a dead shot. Try it. We call it 

 woiinwood. Eub the leaves up, scatter them around 

 {heir liaunts, and then see them take up the line of 

 f.narch, each with an egg in its nioutli. 



H. Koop, Carson City, Micii., Aug. lUli, '7(5. 



I wish to retort my yield of honey. From one hive, 

 Hwo story, (IlybridsJ since July ICth, ISO lbs. For 

 week, ending Aug. 5th, 5S lbs., four times extracting. 

 How is that for high ? Shall report further. 



J. D. C. McFAKLANt). 



l4reenwood, Ma, Aug. 12t, '76. 



A neighbor of mine had a singular occurrence to happen 



il he other day. He had a queen in a cage, and getting 



stung rubbed on coal oil, after which he jiicked up the 



•cage containing the qraeen, when she died in one minute. 



J. B. Dines, LibertyTille, Mo., Aug. 9th, "76. 



For cotnb honey, the Quinby hive is far ahead. Thiuk 

 it .s;ifeto say that I can get twice the amount of comb 

 honey from the Q. that I caii from the L. hive. Com- 

 .■iiieucetl the spring with 70 Q., a»id 74 L. hives of bees. 

 Put all the new swarms into L. hives. From the 70 old 

 swarms in Quinby hives, have taken (JOO lbs. comb hone\'. 

 Fiuui the 74 old swarms, and all the new (13(; which were 

 3»u[ in L. hives) have received 300 lbs. ; you may liguie it 

 to suit yourself. The great objection to the Quinby hive, 

 for me, is handling, shipping around the country, etc. I 

 r:m lix up a load of L. hives as quickly as I can tix one Q. 

 liive ready for shipment. 



I am willing to answer aiiy qiiestioii frcui you to the 

 «iest of my ability. 



HrxET Paxmee, Il^rt. Slich., Aug. 7th. iSTt;. 



This is the best season for honey ami bees I have 

 seen for aiany years. My 38 swarms have increased 

 to 144 and I have extracted lOOO lbs. and got about 100 

 lbs. o€ comb honey and they have got abundance of 

 honey in their hives to tvinter them. My exi>ericuce 

 has taught me that the best place to winter bees is o« 

 their summer stands with the second story above 

 them filled two-thirds full of chaff or cut straw, with 

 ventilation above the straw to 'et ofl' the moisture 

 arising from the ijees. Have large swarms, plenty of 

 sealed kouey and give them an abundance of fresh 

 air from below, and then wc can bid good bye to the 

 bee disease. 



N. E. Pkentice, Castalia, Ohio, Aug. l.'th, '7G. 



I read all four of the bee Journals and my opinion is 

 that my letter to yow in reg.ird to introducing virgin 

 queens, which you published in July, is a fair sample 

 of more than one-half of owr bee literature, it won't 

 do to depend on. After reading for two years the ex- 

 perience of others, stating tliat a virgin queen not 

 over so and so many hours old can be put in any colo- 

 ny of bees without failure, and my own lirst experi- 

 ence with said number of qitecns which were all do- 

 ing well for 24 hours, I concluded that it wa.i a suc- 

 cess sure enough, and as I was ordering some goods 

 from you just then, I made mention of it to you, but 

 the next niording, before my letter reached you, I 

 found that I had just so many queenless slocks. I 

 picked up more than half of the ([uecns dead in frout 

 of the hives and the balance were killed so dead 1 

 could not find them a,t a':h I have 10 stocks of bees. 

 Introduced virgin (pieens to all of them as soon as tlie 

 old one was rcmoxed, • nly 3 out of the 10 received tlic 

 first young queen I gave them, but after a stock has 

 been queenless 5 or (J days and all queen cells removed 

 I have been successful with virgin queens every time. 

 I have experimented in that line to my full satisfac- 

 tion this season. A. W. W!-M>HOitST, St. Charles, Mo. 



