1877 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



331 



WINTKEINO ITALIANS. 



I commenced last sjiiing wiih 1-5 swnims niid iiK-reased 

 4o 28. Six lelt lor ilio woods and 1 Kot 'M Uis. ol oAtnicted 

 honey. l''rmii ilie lOth of AuKtist iJie (low of honey stop- 

 iped Jii [K'count uf drouth, luid we liiid no fsill lioney. I 

 diave kept iiiiliiin bets for 5 or <l winleis, in Minnesota, 

 'i'hey wintered as well us my blacks. 



BEE HCJNTINO IN TME MOUNTAINS. 



Your bee- luinlinp is gocd, tut anitnjj mountains you 

 would be cjfien Kieatly mii-iaken if >cu "xiecttxl to lind 

 5hem on a .straight lU'io fioin jour bi.il, for they willlly up 

 a canon, down a side canon and up aiKJlher, making 

 angles ;.nd ciook.s, and always ciotf-ing the ridges where 

 ihey are lowest. John Beckly. 



Cannon City. Minn., Oct. 18th, 1877. 



I am fnly a beginner in bee culture, ha\ing commenced 

 ithis ^pli^J^ with ti (olonies of black bees. Have increased 

 to 14 colonies, stiorip and well pro\i!-ioned lor winter, and 

 have laKen .^00 lbs. extrae'Ud honey, which I find ready 

 jale iovat lome, at LX)cts. i-erlb. i Italianized my bees 

 Irom a tlo(k loii(;la (f J. M. liitoks & Bro., and think 

 ihey are decidedly better in s<;veial particulars. Have 

 had' :i good honey seascn here. If 1 had known how to 

 manage my bees' at the beginning of the season 1 could 

 have had a larger yield of honey. 1 hoie to profit from 

 the study of jour A B C in Bte culture by anoiher season. 

 G. M. COVEHT, M. D. 



Sellersbur«, Ind., Sept. 27th, 1877. 



I commenced last spiing with swarms of bees— ti 

 blacks aid 3 hybrids— and increas-ed to c5 by naiuial 

 swarmin;;. ] have taken about lOCO lbs. box hont j , w hi( h 

 1 sell rei.dily at iO cts. per lb- This was neaily :dl gaih- 

 ered from linn, buck v^heat and golden rod. wiih a lilile 

 white clo\er. 1 think my locality one of the bevt hi the 

 country, there is an abundance of willow wiihin a half 

 mile ol'my apiaiy and hur.dieds of acies of linn, eini and 

 maple on e\eiy side ; also fall floweis glow in abundance. 

 White clover Lcgins to glow quite ihi(kl.\ ah iig the load- 

 sides ar.fi in pastures. 1 mean to Italianize in the spring. 

 Hbw early could jou ship yn inipt.iteu (or diiughter of an 

 impoi ted) queen V 1 think if 1 can get one f ai ly enough, 

 I will raise ray own ciuttns. J. A. fevvAN. 



Claiksville, Iowa, ISov.-lih, 1877. 



Queens can be sent in full colonies, anj' 

 month in the year. A two frame nucleus 

 hive could be sent safely in March, and oiuetns 

 can be tent in our large sized candy cages, 

 about as soon, probably. We are now — INov. 

 7th — SLndin^ out quite a number, although 

 the weather is somewhat wintry. 



The bees have filled every cell in two sits of boxes in 

 the case you sent, and are now storing Irora Canada 

 Jhistle. Geo. B. Peters. 



Council Bend, Ark., Aug. 2Ed, 1877. 



CONTRARY BEES. 



On the 15!h of May I divided a colony of bees that had 

 «io queen, giving half to one coli'iiy and the other half to 

 another. They seenud to get along amicably lor a day or 

 two, when, oil opening one of the hives, 1 found the bees 

 were li.ving to tmother the queen. As fast as 1 would 

 liberate her, they would gather round her Egain lorniing 

 a ball the size ot a hen's egg. I dipped her in honey and 

 returned her to the hive, as soon as thej ate all the honey 

 olT her, they clustered round her agai'i, and kept this up 

 for a day or two, when I fount! her in I'lont of the hive 

 dead. 1 then gMV(! them a frarce of comb with eggs to raise 

 a queen, and they started queen cells immcdiatly. On 

 the 11th of .June," the queen come out. On the 17th, I 

 opened the hive and found th(y were trying to smother 

 Jier. 1 n leased her. and as soon as they saw her, they 

 again encircle<l her. How long they had been at this, 1 

 am unable to say, rs I did not examine them from the 11th 

 to the the 17th" Now, I have read and heard of bees 

 smothering queens under conditiuns similar to the 1st, 

 above mentioned, but why they should smother a queen 

 of their own raising, Is btyond my ken. There are no 

 fertile workers in the hive. 



A. C. LlTTLEJOHN. 



New Orleans, La., June l.'ith, 1877. 



Occasionally, a colony will act just like the 

 one you have mentioned, but I have never 

 failed to make them civil, by giving them a 

 good lot of brood, and then a regular feeding. 

 I say regular, for one or two feeds often 

 amount to but little; but if you feed every 



day, for a week, you will see everything begin 

 to prosper; queen, workers and all. Almost 

 all these troubles, show themselves during a 

 scarcity of honey; for. when bees are losing 

 every a ay, they are pretty apt to ftel cross, 

 like " other lolks." Make them good naturtd, 

 and then go on with your quetu introducing. 



Many thanks for A our promptness in scndiriK the fine 

 queen. She came to hand on the Iblh, eleven days from 

 the date of my order, as fiesli and li\ely as though just 

 from the hi\e, and would have stood a jouiney to Caliloi- 

 nia; only a [■mall poition of the candy v%as consumed. She 

 is now la.Aing. 1 liave now ! ooloiiits and propose ma- 

 king her the mother of them all next spring. 



J. D. Bedell. 



Franklin, St. Marys Paiish, La., Oct. 28th, '77. 



In giving place to SrO many letters similar to 

 the above, I presume I shall be censured by 

 some, as using these pages to advertise my 

 cages and queens. Very likely there is some 

 truth in the idea, but my friends you can make 

 the cages and raise the queens just as well as 

 I can, 1 am sure, after the very full directions I 

 have given you, and as we are all interested in 

 tiny new discovery like the candy cage, 1 leel 

 that we can all rejoice in its success. Were 

 there a patent or any considerable profit on 

 the goods, 1 confess I should feel some hesitan- 

 cy in making public such approving lelteis. 



The picceeds of 17 celeries cf lees for the pieunt sea- 

 son ait i)40 ILs. hontj, mostly sold at 14c, or lathtr, told 

 at iOc, but 1 pay 2c lor selling. 



940 lbs.(a 18c «1C9 20 



li' J ouiig swai ms(a<i5.(K) each i)5 CO 



n&i 20 



Except 2 stocks, 1 extracted from the brood chamber 

 only. Intenu to use two story hi\es next jear. Am sure, 

 with them, 1 could ha\e secured much more this season. 



The labels leceivetl fiora .^ou look bright and brisk, and 

 give the jars quite a holiday appearance. 



S. T. Pettit. 



Belmont, Ontaiio, Can., Aug. Slst, 1877. 



imported queeks, 

 1 have been buying imported queens, for some years 

 I past, fiom parties who ha\ead\ertistd this cla.ss of queens 

 tor sale, and in most cases, think 1 got what 1 paid for. 

 I But about the 1st of Sept. last, 1 decitled to do my own 

 importing ; so I firetl oft an order to L. Tiemontani, Cre- 

 mona, Italy, for two queens, 1 lequtsled sent me one 

 light, and one dark queen, the extremes m both colors as 

 I bred in Ital^. A lew evenings since, the express agent of 

 our town sent me two little boxes direct from Itali. Not 

 { much time was lost getting them inloaclcsed loom, by 

 I the window, where 1 could see what kind of luck 1 had on 

 j hand. The first box opened, revealed a pleasing sight to 

 I my vision. A splenditl large bright queen, as lively as a 

 I pricket. Good enough ! 1 said, slipping her carefully and 

 j securely into a queen cage. Now lor the other box, which 

 I seemed still as death ; and sure enough, "nary" live bee 

 or anything else "riz" out of that box. All daubed with 

 1 honey and dead in the bottom; and as there were three 

 ! little trames of honey with scarcely a cell of it eaten, I 

 i suppose they were all dead shortly alter shipment. The 

 j weight of the solid cakes of honey hatl pressed down on 

 j the bottom bars of the frames, causing so much honey to 

 : run out as to destroy the bees. Two combs in the box 

 ! containing the living queen, were without honey, or near- 

 I ly so. 1 think if these little combs were placed in a hive 

 o'f bees, all welded to the frames and cleaned up nicely 

 j before btes and queen were put in the shipping box, they 



would come through with more safety. 

 I I think it all a notion that queens from Italy are not as 

 bright as home bred queens. This queen I have just re- 

 ceived, is about as yellow as any 1 have ever seen bred 

 here. The dead queen was very dark as well as the bees, 

 but they were so honey soaked I could tell but little about 

 them. "l have my queen safely introduced into a ten 

 frame Novice hive, with plenty of honey and the c?iaj[jt 

 attachment. Now, 1 am sure I have a real imported 

 queen. There is .some satisfaction, in being the first man 

 to see a queen walk out of the shipping box, on this side 

 the big water. 



J. A. Buchanan, Wintersville, Ohio. 



