192 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



lar^'e persimmon orrhanls (n-itural ones) which the bees 

 have attacked very eaiforlv. Will thflt make stood honey ? 

 Our hives are double story Lanf?stroth. Will it be safe to 

 take every thins from the upper story, leaving the whole 

 lower story for supplies ? 



Your correspondent Dr. Peters interests me greatly. 

 Mrs. S. D. Thurmond. 



Dry Grove, Miss., May 22d, 1877. 

 We have heard but little said of the quality 

 of persimmon honey; will our Southern friends 

 please tell us about it ? We consider it per- 

 fectly safe as a general thing to take all the 

 honey from the upper story at any season of 

 the year. Should the bees however take a no- 

 tion to move into the upper story, brood and 

 all as they sometimes do, it would be unwise 

 to take their honey, without first looking to 

 see if the lower story were well supplied. 



FOUL BROOU AND SALICYLIC ACID. 



I am sorrv to say I have (practically) lost all my 

 bees since February bv a virulent attack of foul brood. 

 Salicylic acid was utterly useless. althouRh I used it 

 much more thoroughly than the Germans direct. I 

 took endiess pains ami went to great expense to cure 

 the iilague, but it ran its course and now I have about 

 two quarts of bees divided among four hives. All the 

 rest are dead and their combs melted down. I>igiiri- 

 ans, Hungarians and blacks sulTered alike. I have 

 had ex))erience enough to know there is foul brood, 

 and foul brood— get the right (or rather wrong sort) 

 and salicylic acid is of no use. John IIlintek. 



5 Eaton lllse, Ealing, England, May 17lh, 1877. 



I wintered on summer stands, with no protection, 

 and have lost fully 60 per cent. Wm. Payni;. 



Spencer, Medina Co., Ohio. 



Our bees have wintered very well, as the winter in 

 Germany was very mild and the bees have had some 

 tine days for a cleansing flight. But tlic weather du- 

 ring the months ot March, April, and even in May 

 was thus dreadful, that our colonics diil not thrive be- 

 cause many a bee nerishcd in its search for water and 

 honey. The fruit frees are now in full blossom but 

 vain and cold weather do not allow the bees to gather 

 honey or pollen, and so we shall not have so many 

 and early swarms as in otlier years. 



C. Ti II. GUAVENHOKST. 



Brunswick, Germany, May 19th, '77. 



A WORD IN FAVOU OF THE LIGHT COLOKED BEES. 



We have never had sucli a demand or rnadc as many 

 sales of colonies and queens, as this spring; although 

 our prices are liipher than the average asked by oth- 

 ers, we must say that we have all we can do so far, 

 tilling orders. The strangest thing about it is that 

 our bees siiould be so much in demand, as they are 

 those light colored ones, you know, that so»ie breed- 

 ers call lazy bees. It seems to us that many want just 

 that kind, from the way the caah comes in. The fever 

 for the " imported " will wear off after we all learn to 

 keep our colonics in good condition, and not keep di- 

 viding them merely because they are so gentle and 

 easy to handle. Is not tliat the trouble to some ex- 

 tent, friend Novice? A colony of cross hybrids gvn- 

 crallij have their own way, are not divided, and tink- 

 ered to death ; hence the great amount of honey ihey 

 gather, more than those lazy light colored bees we 

 rcufl of. 



We confess that we keep bees for the dollars and 

 cents as wcdl as i)leasure, and so long us our yellow 

 pets continue to do as they have ilone in tlie past, ive 

 really can not say aught against lliem. 



J. M. Dkooks & Biio., Klizabethtown, Ind. 



1 hu[C never had l)«tter success with my bees than 

 this ^ar. Tlie yield is simply astonishing, and as a 

 conseiiucncc I am devotedly attached to my pets. 

 Am considered by half the town to have bees on the 

 brain ; nevertlieless, 1 never Iiesitate to explain and 

 exhibit the mysteries of tlie bee liive to all my coun- 

 try friends, wlioEC astonishment and keen apprecia- 

 tion give me the greatest satistaction. 1 am a disci))k! 

 of Bro. Moon and for a time was a contributor to hi-) 

 Journal, but business cares prevented me from being 

 as regular as I desired. I have Italianized my stock 

 from the progeny of one of Mr. Moon's celebrated 

 "Albinos" so called. No matter, however, what tliC) 

 are called, no belter blood exists in Georgia. 



II. J. Petek, Macon, (ia., May 31st, 1877. 



The white fdn. yeo'd of you last year, I P'Ut in upper- 

 story this season. ITie bees worked it out beautifully 

 and filled it with honey. I was proud of it, showing- 

 It to all my frienrJs and thinking, what is there that 

 man can not accomplish in the world of art? Goi5 

 created all and then gave man "dominion"' over all. 

 But yesterday, 1 found from tenderness and weight, 

 it had drawn down against the bottom of the frames 

 and made a sag just above. The natural combs arc 

 all right. Neither were they as thick as the natural 

 comb. I mention this because I thought yon woukJ 

 like to know. 



H. 0. Herspergek, Keene, Ky., June Gth, '77. 



Almost all specimens of wax will sag more 

 or le^s, but the white worse than the yellow. 

 Had you cut your sheets so that the comb 

 when finished would have not quite touched 

 the bottom bar, we think you would have had 

 none of the warping. A half inch space at the 

 bottom usually suffices, but 'f,^ is safer as a 

 general thing. We want all our combs fast- 

 ened to the bottom bar, but they should not 

 strike it before they are finished. We can not 

 discover that it makes any diflerence which 

 way the fdn. is put in the frame. 



INTRODUCING QUEENS. 



You saj' that before you liberate a queen, after be- 

 ing caged for 48 hours, "you see if the bees are good to 

 her, and if they are not, you still leave her caged un- 

 til tbey get good to her. Well, what I want to know 

 is, how do von tell when thej- are good to her ? 



Wm. T. Seal, G'hadd's Ford, Pa., June 11th, '77. 



If the bees are clinging lightly to the cage, 

 knotted together, and making that peculiar 

 hissing noise that plainly indicates to one who 

 is used to it, the presence of a strange queen, 

 it will not do to release her. If, on the con- 

 trary, they are clustered around the cage about 

 as they are usually seen around the queen ou 

 the combs, caressing her with their antenna?, 

 and offering her food, it will be safe to let her 

 out, even though she may have been caged 

 only an hour, or perhaps not at all. A few 

 days ago we got an imported queen from Da- 

 dant by mail, and as our customer was in a 

 great hurry for his. colony, we decided to try, 

 or rather to run the risk of letting her out at 

 once. The hive was opened very quietly with- 

 out any smoke, and when the bees — very cross 

 hybrids — had become tranquil, a comb was 

 lifted out and placed against a post securely 

 that we might have both hands to work with. 

 Smoker was right at hand, in good trim, and 

 the queen was then allowed to crawl out of 

 the cage onto the comb of brood. They ap- 

 proached her, offered her food, and as soon as 

 she was walking quietly about on the comb, 

 the frame was returned to the hive. In about 

 an hour, she was hunted up again, and once 

 more after about 5 hours. As eggs were found 

 in the comb the next morning, the hive was 

 shipped. 



When honey is coming in daily, perhaps 3 

 queens out of 4 could be safely released in the 

 same way, and it is quite likely that hundreds 

 of queens arc caged 48 hours that could have 

 been laying all the time just as well or better; 

 and I should feel much safer in lettinir a queen 

 loose .among the bees in this way, than in ca- 

 ging her the usual time and then letting her 

 out without paying any attention to the be- 

 haviour of the bees. The colony above men- 

 tioned had been queenless 5 days. The cells 

 were all torn down in a few hours after the 

 (lueen was put among them. 



