25a 



GLEANINGS- IN- BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



ana brimstone the bees to get the honey. I sold sev- 

 ea sovereigns worth of honey, wax and bees before I 

 started for^this countrj-. After I came here I kept 

 bees in box and gum hives and had not enough honey 

 for my own use. About 12 years ago I read of the 

 Langst'roth movable comb hive. I sent for it, for his 

 book on the Ifive and Honey Bee, Qninby's book. 

 King's Text Book, and many others on bee-keeping, 

 and now I have plenty of honey, and have &okl many 

 100 lbs. I have sold honey every year except the last. 

 I have this year, of box honey IGG lbs. and 7-2 Iba. of 

 extracted, and my neighbors with box and gum hives 

 have hardly any for their own nse. Two of ray own 

 neighbors have one movable comb hive each, and 

 they have honey as much as I according to the num- 

 ber of hives. One of them, last winter- bad (> hives ; 5 

 box and one movable comb. He lost all in the bos 

 Mves. They will winter ns well in movable comb as 

 in box hives. I have had an experience of V2 years in 

 that. If I had to go back to the box hive I would not 

 keep bees on any account ; there are so many adiva;;- 

 tages in the movable comb hive that no one can ))'=!r- 

 snade me on that head. William Rqeebts. 



VaughansviUe, Ohio, Sept. E)th, '76. 



Please send me a copy ol Glejxijjgs. I am in- 

 terested so far as this ; a swarm came and settled on one 

 of the chimuies of my Jioute last June and we can not use 

 the chimney, as they are building and making lioneij 

 inside of said chimne;/. What shall I do f 



D. C. WrLLiAMsox, -273 Hudson St. IV. Y. Sept. 11. '7(i. 



Take out bricks enough at the point where 

 they are located to enable you to cut out the 

 combs, and transfer thera as you would from 

 a hollow tree. Bet the hive on the roof of the 

 house until they all find their new location, 

 and after a few days when they have got all 

 their combs secure, move them not less than 

 two miles. When they have forgotten their 

 old home — in three or four weeks — bring them 

 home and put them where you wish. If this 

 Is too much trouble, put them where you wish 

 when first transferred ; but in this case a 

 great many of thera would probably go down 

 the chimney and perish, after their first flight. 



You are mistaken about ,^ inch being enough to al- 

 low for sagging of fdn. at the bottom of frames of all 

 depths. You are probably correct with regard to the 

 L. frame. My Irames are the '"Standard" and M inch 

 was allowed but I had to take out all the frames after 

 they commenced to lengthen the cells and cut off i{ 

 or % inch more from bottom. They had reached the 

 bottom of frame and still they sagged, producing 

 bulging. E. KiMFTOX. 



Cedar Creek, N. J., Sept. 13th, '76. 



Very likely you are right. In our L. frames 

 we have left from I4 to }2 inch, and have had 

 no bulging, but it may be owing to our having 

 in every case, put the fdn. between two old 

 combs. If we can have pure wax, there is 

 certainly no trouble in getting good combs in 

 any weather. 



I took 200 lbs. of wax to the wharf on Saturday to 

 ship to you, but learning that I can get 2Sc gold in 

 San Francisco, I conclude that it is better than o3c in 

 Ohio with freight and 10 per cent discount on curren- 

 cy. I wish you had some of our pretty wax. I will 

 expect GLii.vNisGS on the 10th with big reports of the 

 honey yield in the States. My 127 colonies of last 

 spring increased to S60 and yielded about ten tons of 

 extracted honey, crediting all to the original stock. 

 Most of the practical bee men have done about the 



same- although bee-keepers were surprised by Uu 

 seasoi» being c\Tt short a nvontli earlier than usual. 



So many are staTting in the Dee business here,. 

 which I am glad to see, yet the probability that they 

 will all crowd into one plaec too much, gives me thc- 

 mixed feeling^ of Robinson Crusoe, who longed for 

 nothing so much as ssociely, yet when be saw human 

 foot prints in the sand, fearing they were cannibals- 

 they became the greatest tenior to liim. 



Immense quantities of honey have been storeil up 

 in San Francisco but the low price of 7 to 9c is causing 

 it to go to all parts of the world and the price is going- 

 up. I have sold considerable here at If c in gold. 



We had a rain here last March, and expect a shower 

 again next Nofvcmber. So yen may know there is no- 

 mild. However there is some drrst, yet there is honey 

 in the flowers of the driest soil. R. Wilkix. 



San Buena Tentcrra, OaL, Sept. ^tb, '78. 



T.iste a yomig grub and some royal jelly, and see H 

 they are not very much alike. I think yoa are more 

 than half righ^. Read Frof. Varro's articles in -4. ^. 

 J., 185S, \19 and '70 on this subject. The Prof, died be- 

 fore he had got to the end of his subject. 



T. G. McGaw, Monmouth, Ills., Sept. 2d, '70. 

 The above was sent to friend Klar, and re- 

 fers to his theory that the royal jelly is com- 

 posed of young larvtB cut up, etc. As the 

 young grubs or'larvre are fed on royal jelly 

 and nothing else, for the first few days, we do 

 not think it strange that they taste of it. la 

 this early stage of existence, they are little 

 more than a thin envelope to contain tie 

 nutriment furnished thera ; in fact some of the 

 transparent forms of microscopic animal Viie 

 are so simple that they can be turned inside 

 outward like a sack, and they will go on tak- 

 ing in food, and performing all their functions 

 just as well one side out as the other. Is it 

 then strange that small larva; should taste of 

 the food they are nourished by ? Is it not due 

 to the coarse food given them at a certain age 

 that they become workers instead of queens? 



Have you ever known bees to kill their queen a 

 month after having accepted her? Our daughter of 

 an imported queen that we got of Mr. B'akeslee last 

 year, produces queens three-fourths of which produce 

 three banded workers, but they are dark, and we 

 thought we would like to have one ewarm of yellow 

 bees. Accordingly we got a queen of Mr. Nellis' Al- 

 bino stock. She arrived on the 4th of July, was ac- 

 cepted on the 6'th, and before July was out was filling 

 her combs with brood the second time, but last 

 Thursday we found her missing and the bees were 

 building queen cells. Now I would give something to 

 knovy- what became of that queen. VTe did not kili 

 lier for we always re])laced the comb so carefully, 

 which she was on, that we arc sure we did not hu; t a 

 hair of her liead. 



I would not give 05->e good swarm of Italians for 

 lliree swarms of blacks. During the time of scarcity, 

 between white clover and bas&wood, there was a ten 

 acre field of red clover near us that had been past-u el 

 and then let go for seed, on which the Italians worked, 

 and stored quite an amount while the black bees were 

 doing nothing. And now we have four acres of buck- 

 wheat in bloom. It seems to yield the most, early in 

 the morning. The Italians are out before the black-* 

 thiiik of getting up, run over the buckwheat, then 

 away to the red clover fields that arc to be cut. the 

 second time, leaving the black bees to put in the d,.^.y 

 gathering up what remains of the buckwheat. 



