lS7fe 



'GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



304 



iieads o| Smlih 



From Different Fields, 



^,|^\^^ILL our friends who are inclined to 

 y^qj prefer the black bees, aotice the fol- 

 'lowing: 



I am mivch iatercstod and pleased to find my bees- 

 all Italians— working freely on red clover ; not having 

 sieen them doing eo until a lew days ago, tioiigh I 

 Avatched them last season and tliis as soon as red clo- 

 ver came to blocKii. I was beginning to thinic that 

 .Mr. Quinby must have been mistaken iu sajing that 

 they did so ^'apparently/row choice Bometimes." But 

 he is coiYCct. In a field near my apiary containing 

 •iioth r-ed and v.'hite about equally mixed, I found yes- 

 4crday, in a half hour's search, Italians only on the 

 red, and blacks only on the white. In fact the Ital- 

 ians seem to hare abandoned the white clover en- 

 tirely, though It is blooming freely, and black bees 

 <'ome over a half mile to within '20 feet of my hives to 

 feed on it. I noticed that the Italians in visiting tlie 

 reil affect only that part of the head which has begun 

 to wilt, leaving the fresh recent blooming untouched, 

 though it contains as much honey as the other. I find 

 as ft reason that the tube of the corolla liaving wilted 

 »ind collapsed, tlie Loney rises in the tube and the bee 

 is enabled to reach it. Perhaps also the tube having 

 become soft and flaccid the bee cnimples it down, 

 making it shorter, in the effort to reach the honey. 

 How does the quality of the honey in the red, com- 

 j>are wifli"ihe white ? E. W. 1;kiswoli>. 



Centre Brook, Conn., June 2:>d, "T'lj. 



We have not been uble to discover any ap- 

 5irecial>le ditt'erence between the honey from 

 the white, aud that from the red clover. 

 iSome declare the latter has more a taste of 

 i':tll honey, but we are of the opinion that this 

 is only because some fall honey is often mixed 

 h\ with the red clover which is gathered in 

 August and September. In localities where 

 clover is not produced spontaneously, honey 

 from fields of diflerent kinds might perhaps be 

 compared, but we feel pretty sure the difl'er- 

 *.-ncii will not be easily perceptible. 



It has been a good honey season here, my uncle 

 has averaged ICO lbs. to the hive, and I have averaged 

 TiO lbs. J had to sell my honey for 17 and 18 cts. Our 

 main dependance is white and sweet clover ; most of 

 iHiT honey was gathered from the sweet clover. All 

 'lur honey is in comb. FuAJfK Salisbukv. 



ticddes, Onondaga (Jo., N, Y., Nov. 7th, '76. 



A chip from Sweet Home. The season for honey is 

 ■ended and our report is as follows. Fore part of ^ca- 

 son good, swarming lively ; we aimed to increase as 

 litrle as possiljle, and frequently jiut two or three 

 swarms in one hive. We lost 15 swarms or more. 

 <'ommeEced with 103, have now 17a and took 1920 lbs. 

 box honey and 9i0 lbs. extractefl honey. We h.ive 

 used the Harbison section box with glass on each end. 

 A box composed of 8 sections holding from 10 to 19 

 lbs. We put guide combs in each section. When oar 

 boxes were taken off we had many jiarlly tilled. In 

 the sections we found quite an adyamtage, for I crated 

 ;dl full sections and from those partly filled, my wife 

 iuicapijed and shing '200 lbs. Those empty com^s are 

 .saved for next sprin"; and wc got readily 15 cts. for 



slung honey instead ol 20 cts. in combs. This seavon 

 our bees did not do as usual for when we doubled 

 swarms they would frequently kill all queens in 

 which case they formerly built drone comb. But this 

 season It made little difference as to the amount of 

 drone or Worker comb built, queen or no queen. \Ve 

 as well as seme of our neighbor bee-keepers think the 

 slates an invaluable adjunct, cut -elates in pieces of 

 2s3 inches and hang on a, nail. 



D. D. Palmeu, I':iiza, Ills., Oct. 28th, '7^ 



One-iialf the bees in this township will be deal if 

 they are not fed, as there was no honey this fall. My 

 boes have gathered nothing since July loili. 



G. DUEM'. Banker Hill, Ills., Oct. ilth, '16. 

 And very late it is getting, to attend to it. 

 But little time can now be left in which food 

 can be sealed. 



I must bother you a little with my getting alon;i 

 with black bees. I i)ut 14 stocks in the cellar last fall 

 anil took the^n all out alive in sprin.::;. I increased 

 them to ;!7. hav£ taken 1710 lbs. extracted honey, I'irt 

 lbs. comb, and they have a good supply for winter, 

 althongli it has been a very i)oor season for honey 

 here. Is not that pretty fair for a beginner with black 

 bees and a wooden extractor? But you may get an 

 order for a better extractor next spring, and I think I 

 shall try Italianizing next summer. V.y the way, I 

 should have had two or three hundred lbs. more ot 

 honey, it I had used comb fdn. Well, I must show 

 both sides of the picture. I think I can mak« bee 

 culture a success if 1 can find market for my honey, 

 which I have failed to do as yet. I wish you would 

 send me a buyer, or inform nre of some good reliable 

 jiarty who would be likely to want It. I t.ave now 0!i 

 haml two barrels of extracted tall honey, and one- 

 half Jvirrel of white clover and red raspberrj-. I 

 shipped one barrel of bass wood to John T. Norris, 

 .Sj/ringtield, Ohi >, on the 19th of September ; have 

 written to him twice, yet I hear nothing from him nor 

 the honey. 



I expect to winter my bees in the same cellar as last 

 winter. It is a log one covered with dirt. I take oiV 

 cover and honey board, and put on a ({ulit made of 

 two thicknesses of cotton cloth with batting (juilted 

 between. D. Gakoner, Carson City, Mich. 



I think I have found what causes foul brood, at 

 least aiu- cause; you have undoubtedly noticed that 

 much of the brood of fertile workers dies on coming 

 to 7natHrUi/, more especially late in the season. Tliis 

 unnatural brood leaves a cocoon of course like otlier 

 brood, and a great deal of it immediately after sjiin- 

 ning cocoons becomes a rotten filthy mass. I have 

 found this to be the case as late as Sept. and October. 

 Such stocks are usually broken up and the combs put 

 away where they freeze, so that all may go well for a 

 while, but not with the bee- keeper who uses such 

 combs when they have not been frozen. I was at 

 friend Muth\s this season early In Sept., and while 

 there. Mr. Moth found that one of his stocks had foul 

 brood, I he first thing of the kind I over saw. I went 

 homi[i til i?t kin ff; and on ray airival I selected combs 

 from two stocks infested with lertile workers, gave 

 them to a stock having a very prolific young queen, 

 and in six weeks I had a worse case of foul brood than 

 friend Mutli had. I should have stated that ! did my 

 best at ceding the stock to cause them to rear broorl. 

 iliKAJi Roor, Carson City, Mich., Nov. 1, '"(>. 



Weren't you mistaken as to its being genu- 

 ine fou! brood'? 



