1877 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



329 



From Different Fields. 



HOW 1 CURED FOUL BROOD. 



MY bees ha't foul brood last year, and I tried Hy- 

 posulphite of soda. This summer, I tried sall- 

 cylic acid, and the same with borax, but all 



would not do. About the mldille of June, when hon- 

 ey was plenty. I took all the comb out and put in emn- 

 ty frames, leaving ihem 24 hours; 1 then shooli the 

 bees into a hive that had been Bcaldcd with lye (left 

 from making soao), and filled with new frames and 

 fdn. The brood 1 put into aqueenless stock till it was 

 nearly all out, then melted the old combs and scalded 

 all the frames, hives and honey boards. In the lye. 

 They are now doing finely. The fdn., I found 

 stretched, although it was pure wajr, but I found a 

 simple cure for that. Whan I put the fdn. In the 

 frame with a solderinsr bolt and a piece of wax, I run 

 a strip of wax about U Inch wide down the middle of 

 the sheet on one side. After awhile, thev will work 

 it all into comb. James McKay. 



Madison, Wis., Sept. 2-2d. 1877. 



CATNIP SEED, AGAIN. 



I notice in Nov. Xo. of Gleanings, page 3C8, the 

 statement of C. F. Muth, Cincinnati, O., and Stair & 

 Kendel, Cleveland, O., in regard to catnip. 1 have 

 never cultivated, nor seen any person cultlvat(i catnip. 

 Las; year, I let all the seed stalks stand. This year, 

 the great difficulty, with me, was to keep the catnip 

 out of my garden beds. The place whero 1 cleaned 

 the seed, of which I sent you a sample. Is covered with 

 young stalks as thick as they can aland. I have some 

 stalks that have blossomed Irom the parly seed of 

 this year. P. Graham. 



Johnstown, Pa., Nov. 5th, 1877, 



All my hives are painted In li^ht colors; while the 

 paint is green, I have them hold up and smoked with 

 a lamp or candle, which clouds them very prettily. 

 My handsomest are pearl color and brown. How 

 would those color < clouded, do for your packing or 

 shipping case? The honey would look white, thus 

 contrasted. Marv H. Mills. 



Alexandria, Pa., Sept. 11th, 1877. * 



CROSS BEES. 



I had some of the crossest bees this summer that 

 were ever heard of. Thev would fight the top of a 

 stovepipe that runs up through a shed roof; there 

 would be 50 or 100 bees at once, just Wiiacklng against 

 that pipe, and very many fell into it and burned to 

 death.. They would dive into my 8moke-i)an, and 

 burn up in that, and sting folks along the road. What 

 the cause was I could not imagine, but at last I hap- 

 pened to think. I had been destroying drone brood, 

 and when it was In a milky state I could not shake it 

 Gilt of the combs; the bees would eat it and It just 

 made them crazy and ugly. Well, I always want to 

 be sure about anything, so 1 left it off for a while and 

 they became peaceable again. On again giving them 

 access to the milky brood, the same result followed. I 

 suppose you will laugh, but 1 am well satisfied that 

 this and this only, was the cause of the fierceness of 

 the b'jes. Have you ever known or heard of anything 

 of the kind ? D. Gardner. 



Carson City, Mich., Nov. 9th. 1877. 



To be sure you are right frieud D.; the milky 

 food given the drones, will be more readily de- 

 voured by robbers, than honey even ; and after 

 it is gone, you will have just such a demora- 

 lized set of bees, as when they get a little taste 

 of new honey during a scarcity. In cutting 

 out queen cells, I have often had robbers get 

 at the pieces of brood taken out to make room 

 for the cells, and if these pieces are not kept 

 out of the way, you will very likely get some 

 pretty severe stings btifore you get through. I 

 hardly know why bees get into such an insane 

 frenzy, after having had a taste of new honey 

 or unsealed larvae, but I have seen them, at 

 such times, stiug almost every thing and every- 

 body : even posts and stove-pipes, as you have 



mentioned. The remedy is to be neat and tidy 

 about your apiary, and leave nothing in the 

 shape of combs or honey lying about. Do not 

 throw even so much as a discarded queen cell 

 on the ground. 



From 47 colonies In spring, I have taken .3,150 lbs. 

 extracted, and 1.3(0 lbs. comb honey. Total, 4,450 lbs. 

 Average for 47 hives. 94 lbs. I have Increased to 90 

 colonies. This report may be divided, thus: Hives 

 worked for cxtd. honey, 14, average 225 lbs; hives 

 worked for comb honey ana swarms, 31, average 41 lbs, 

 and 13 swarms; divided into nuclei, 2. Have sold 

 queens and bees for 823. and 3,200 lbs. honey, most of 

 It near homo. Sold comb honey at 20c, and extd., at 

 12X. The season for surplus begins here from the 20th 

 of May to 1st of June, and ends July 5lh to 10th. 

 Poplar and white clover are the main sources, with a 

 little sprinkling of basswood, which blooms here 

 July, Ist. Jonas scholl. 



Lyon's Station, Fayette Co., Ind., Nov. 12th, '77. 



I had 38 stocks, all black, last fall, had 15 this spring, 

 and now have 35. Out of five queens from Nellis, 1 have 

 one still, seemiuiijly well bred. One flew in the air, two 

 were killed after they had commenced laying, and one 

 more was lost by ^howins; her to every one that came 

 along. 1 took about 1,700 lbs of honey, all extracted, of 

 which about 150 lbs were from dandelions, GOO from clover, 

 and 950 from basswood. Some did not gather enough af- 

 ter extraciing for winter use, and had to be fed. I used 

 to wish I had some of your feeders. 



Samuel H. Kekfoot. 



Minesing, Ontario, Can., Oct. 26th, 1877. 



The bees bought of .you last April, seem to be doing very 

 well. They take to the foundation very kindly. Perhaps 

 the following statistics from the Kausas Ag. Report may 

 interest you and >our readers. 



Number of Hives 9.213 (inl875.) 



Honey 37.175 lbs. 



Wax 2.666 " " 



The report for 1876 is rot out yet. If a jar of candled 

 honey is set in a vessel of cold water, put on a slow fire 

 and the temperature kept at 212° F. till the honey is all 

 dissolved, it will not candy again; so says the " Druggist's 

 Circular.'' J. P. Barton. 



Chicago, Ills., Aug. 18th, 1877. 



If the report given is correct, it is certainly 

 very low, for honey. More than 3^4 that 

 amount is sold from Medina Co., alone, every 

 year. The Druggist's Circular has been rath- 

 er hasty in its conclusions. Some honey, after 

 being thoroughly melted, will not candy again 

 in a long time, but other samples will candy 

 just as many times as you expose it to a low 

 or freezing temperature, unless it is sealed up 

 hot like fruit, as we have before explained. 



MELTING CANDIED HONEY. 



The Druggist's Circular is in error again, in 

 directing that the honey be heated to the boil- 

 ing point; such a heat will injure both the 

 color and flavor almost invariably, and ISO'^ 

 will melt it just as well, although it may take 

 a little longer. 



CANDY MAKING. 



I have many hives eating framed candy. I think it like- 

 ly that the only thing I will have to complain aboutj 

 will be, that, long ago, when j'ou were thinking candy 

 bricks you did not think a little larger, and give us frames 

 of candy at once, It is rather a joke on one, to scorch a 

 batch of syrup, and keep on boiling and stirring in vain 

 hope that it will make candy. My "Golden C" sugar re- 

 quires 1 pint of water to 6 or 7 lbs. of sugar, but I put in 

 only 5 lbs, until it boils, and then stir in sugar until it is 

 of the right con.sisteney. I then get my wife to sift in the 

 flour while I stir. As I have 75 or 100 lbs. at once in the 

 wash-boiler, I draw the kitchen table up against the boil- 

 er in front of the stove, for understand we have full pos- 

 session of the kitchen at this time, and ladle the thick s.vr- 

 up into the frames, as they lie on newspapers spread on 

 the table. These papers will stick to the candj', if not 

 greased, except ,\ou remove them before the candy is cold. 

 In hopes of rain in this month, to cheer bee keepers and 

 others, I remain yours R. Wilkin. 



San Buenaventura. Cal Nov, 5th, 1877. 



