1877 



ULEAI>}INGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



191 



In comb built of fdn. bought of you last summer, 4^2 

 calls to the inch, I find drone and worker brood side by 

 side. The cell seemed to fit both; not a desirable char- 

 acteristic I think. RiCiiABD Fekeis. 



Belleville. N. J., May 15th, W77. 



Hurrah for fdn. ! It makes the most accommodating 

 comb I ever heard of. It just suits the queen in every 

 respect, if she chooses to lay worker e^frs she does so, if 

 drone oc'rCs it answers equally well. I have frames side 

 by side one full of worker theolhor of drone brood and 

 the third has both. 51 ine is -tV cells to the inch fdn. I 

 yot some 5 to the inch from J. H. Nellis, which was the 

 nicest I ever saw and had honey deposited in it in -i hours. 

 How is that for hinh ? T. B. Pabkek, 



Goldsboro, N. C, May 12th. 1877. 



Wc are very very glad indeed that Mr. Nel- 

 5is is succeeding so finely, especially, as he is 

 using a machine of our make. We too have 

 learned all about the droues in the 4'._^ to the 

 inch size, and now always se«d 5 cells to the 

 inch, where wanted for brood comb. 



TOADS EATtKG BEE8. 



You may say to Wm. Payne, of Spencer, Ohio, that 

 tnads Kitt eat bees, and live workers at that, as I proved 

 to my satisfaction, by la.^ iris a small bush on which a 

 number of bees were clustered, in front of a larce toad. 

 The bees were snapped up as fast as his toadship could 

 swallow them taking time however to give a wink of sat- 

 isf:iclion as each bee slipped down. Toads are not tolera- 

 ted in my apiary since that time. 



W. H. Fletcher, Sauk Rauids, Minn. 



rEMPEEATCEE XT WHICH BROOD IS INJURED. 



I have a small observing hive Cyntainin? a queen and 

 balf a pint of bees. On Thursday May 21th, the ther- 

 mometer went down to 31". The nest daj- it snowed and 

 rained all day. Towards nitfht I found every bee stiff and 

 motionless. I carried the hive into the house and set it 

 before the stove and in half an hour the bees revived, but 

 they entirely deserted the brood comb and clustered on 

 the side nest the stove. The following day they were on 

 the brood comb a^ain, which leads me to conclude the 

 brood is uninjured. 



At what temperature is it considered unsafe to expose 

 brood as in iniitinz, transferrins, or extracting? 



J. H. Parsons, Franklin, N. Y., May 26th, 1877. 



Brood will stand about as much expqsure 

 as a mature bee, unless left out of the hive for 

 some time, we have never had brood chilled so 

 as to die, unless it was left away from the bees, 

 during a very cool night with a light frost 

 for instance. Frames of brood may be taken 

 out, handled and replaced, even during freez- 

 ing weather, without injury, but if left out 24 

 hoars or more, they are chilled beyond recov- 

 ery even at a considerably higher tempera- 

 ture. In making artificial swarms, or raising 

 brood into the upper story before the season 

 will warrant such work, beginners frequently 

 have lessons, on this point, that are usually 

 remembered. During warm summer weather, 

 say not less than 80-^ sealed brood may be out 

 of the hive until it hatches without being lost, 

 but it seems to thrive best when kept from 90 

 to 10(P. Very small larvaj, if well supplied 

 with food, will last 3 days, or until they starve, 

 and it is by taking advantage of this fact that 

 we are enabled to send larvse for queen rear- 

 ing by mail. 



T rec'd the two hives all rii^ht — much pleased with them. 

 I have transferred and my bees are quite proud of their 

 new quarters. I also was proud when I transferred to 

 see the comb so full of fino healthy brwd. My bees are 

 in fine order. I have not lost one colony this winter. I 

 intend to devote ranch attention to them this season. 



.1. J. White, Clinton, Mich., Slay iGth, 1S77. 



FIGHTING PATENT EIGHT Mi:N. 



Slung 87i5 lbs. sealed poplar honey yesterday from 30 

 colonies, tha first I have taken this seasot;. 

 I return your book by to-daj 's mail. Accept my thanks. 



Have routed Gillespie— "horse, foot and dragocns." H«5 

 has "vamoosed the ranche" and departed for parts un- 

 known. I tfot an order from Mr. Gould, properly execu- 

 ted, to dismiss the suit from court, as it was broujtht un- 

 authorjzcdly in his name. It cost nie .?78.00 cash^ and if 

 you could set bee-keepers to help me a little 1 would be 

 wider obliiratioas. 1 made the (i.s'ht for all and a little 

 help would be thankfully received. 



J. F. Montgomery, Lincoln, Tenn., May 23d, '77. 

 It may be well to inform our new readers 

 that Gillespie sued our friend M., for using a 

 tico story hive, claiming that his patent covered 

 all two story hives in existence, and made him 

 the trouble and expense above narrated. Such 

 fellows almost deserve treating as highway 

 robbers, and so far as we can learn the whole 

 patent right business is almost all in the hands 

 of just such thieves. Have we been too rough 

 on them ? 



On 3 of my old queens does not lay any ejn^s. Wliat is 

 the cause ? I have to jfive the swarm brood from other 

 hives. The queen is a tine looking queen. 



Wii. St. Martz, Moonshine, Ills., May 21st, 1877. 



We occasionally find a queen that does not 

 lay, but such cases are not very common, 

 without the bees rearing another before she 

 fails entirely. The remedy is to remove her 

 and substitute another, for they will probably 

 never take steps to rear a queen, so long as 

 they have one in the hive. We have several 

 times found colonies badly run down, from 

 this very cause, but we usually found defect- 

 ive wings or something of the kind, if the 

 queen had never laid at all. Cases where an 

 old queen ceases laying, without a young 

 one being reared, are still more rare. 



I found a swarm of bees in our woods and I with the 

 help of another man mit the tree down and we put them 

 into a movable frame hive with the transferred comb and 

 now, three days later, they are working splendidly. They 

 were in a ctooked tree at about the height of 80 feet. 



Geo. Rosbkelly, Huron, Ohio, May 17th, 1877. 



CLIPPING QUEEN'S WINGS BEFORE THEY BEGIN 

 TO LAY. 



I receive Gleanings very regulaily and read it care- 

 fully, j-et I go wrong sometimes. I had a swarm with a 

 young queen to run oil early this spring, and cropped live 

 others to be sure of them, and I found after that neither 

 of them were fertilized and tried to have them fertilized 

 in confinement, but failed. I think it can't be did so I 

 lost them. I would recommend you to tell your A BC 

 boys not to crop any till they are sure they are ready to 

 lay as some are ready mu('h sooner than others- 



My bees swarmed here by the first of April and some of 

 the swarms will be i-eady to swami again by the first of 

 June. 



I wish to trj' your comb fdn. but think the hot sun hero 

 in this dry hot climate will cau.se it to melt and fall, but 

 if it does not on a fair trial I will order more of you in the 

 fall. Thos. H. Miller. 



Crawford, Texas, May 20th, 1S77. 



We entirely agree with you friend M., that 

 "it can't be did," (fertilizing the queens in con- 

 finement), but you certainly did not read j'our 

 journals with sufficient care, or you would 

 never have clipped the wings office queens be- 

 fore they had commenced laying. Thanks for 

 your note of warning to the A B C bojs. If 

 natural combs do not meltdown withyou^ou 

 need have no fear of the fdn., for it is beeswax 

 and nothing else. 



I have been reading the back numbers of .vour valuable 

 Bee journal, beginning with Vol. I and going regularly 

 through to Vol. IV. ft lias opened a new world of inter- 

 est to me, and such literature in connection with a few 

 hives of bees which we have lately secured, will bo an 

 abiding .souree of pleasure. I hope, with practical advice 

 from your jiaper to make a profit on bees next j'ear. Our 

 place is covered with white clover, the old garden in 

 which the hives siand, is knee deep with it in full bloom 

 UR'I the bees are giving us beautiful honey. We also have 



