3Si 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Dec. 



I suppose I ou^ht to make a report of doings in bee cul- 

 ture this season." I started with 11 stocks in Lana;stroth 

 hives, transferred (>, sold 1100 lbs. of hone.v and have on 

 hand 500 lbs. The bees are still tcatherin^ from fzolden 

 rod and buckwheat. I now have U swarms, all in good 

 condition. I like the lueens gotten from Nellis first r ite. 

 I Itahanized 10 in Sept. and will Italianize the remainder 

 in spring. . 



I like the extractor much, it has doubly paid for itself. 

 Comb fdn. does ttnely for starters in bo.xes. I expect to 

 make a better report next season, but I think I hive 

 done pretty well this season considering it is the first. I 

 have a good market in Houston and Galveston. 



J. W. BCKMAN. 



Richmond, Texas, Oct. 25th, 1S77. 



If the above is the report of your first season, 

 friend E., I do not kaow but we would all beV 

 ter commence back, and learn over again. 



Our honey season, which closed the (Uh of September, 

 was scarcely an average one. In the spring it was too 

 cold and wet, and in the fall too dry. I wintered without 

 loss and had no disease, except scarcity of honey. [ made 

 no increase except a few nuclei, in order to keep the orig- 

 inal numt)er of queens, yet I averaged only about 110 Ihs. 

 per colony, or about 14,500 lbs. from 130 colonies. I sup- 

 pose I might a,5 well try to be content and see if 1 can't do 

 better another year. The above is all extracted honey. I 

 use 2 story hives, winter in a house above ground, never 

 lose any in wintering and have no spring dwindling. All 

 sprinir (Iwinlling is due to bad management or bad honey ; 

 usuallv, the former. E. C. L. Larch. 



Ashland, Mo., Oct. 2(;th, 1877. 



TUKNIPS FOR BEES. 



Last spring I found my bees gathering more pollen 

 from a turiii ). I hat we sow in August for winter and 

 spring greens, thin from anything else. Landretli calls 

 it the "Seven Top Turnip." I enclose a few seed tliit 

 you may, (if you have not already the sime kind) try in 

 your garden. Bacon and- turnip greens oorae in "niij;hty 

 well" in March and .\pril. Should .i ou like to get more 

 seed this summer, I have plenty, and would be ;'.lad to 

 send some fre^. Turnip seed are so easily raised, that 25 

 cts. per lb. would pay better than wheat. Two l'')s. would 

 sow an acre, if you have the turnip please excuse thi* ; 

 my reason for writinu:is that Landreth mentions this va 

 riety as a Southern kind. A. "W. Kaye. 



Pewee Valley, Ky., Aug. 22d, 1877. 



The seed was sown about the 1st of Oct., 

 and now we have a patch of most beautiful 

 luxuriant green foliage ; in passing by tliem, I 

 have often broken off and eaten the leaves, and 

 they have a very pleasant taste, even in their 

 raw state. We sowed them wiiere the early 

 potatoes had been harvested. As very few 

 weeds make their appearance so late in the 

 season, it will be a comparatively easy matter 

 to have a nice plot of turnip blossoms to fill 

 the vacancy between fruit blossoms and clovcr. 



EMBOSSED COMB HONET. 



You were entirely wrong, in your explanation of how 

 the designs were wrought on the section of comb ; see 

 Oct. No , page •17Ci. I have tried the method you describe, 

 but it does not succeed well ; it is done much more easily, 

 by simply uncapping the design you wish to raise, or 

 around the one you wish to depress, and moving tlie 

 comb, giving space to carry out or raise the part thus un- 

 capped. They will not, ordinarily, uncap combs once 

 sealed until they want the honey ; althoujrh they may be 

 moved apart much farther than usually built. Now, I 

 am led to reflect that there are many errors among bee- 

 keepers— the result of wrong conclusions. Don't you 

 think so ? H. R. Boardman. 



East Townsend, Ohio, Nov. 8th, 1S77. 



You are right; we do often .iump at conclu- 

 sions hastily. I suggested the plan I gave, be- 

 cause I had done it in that way, but yours is 

 perhaps simpler. If I am correct, all we have 

 to do, is to cut a paper pattern of our design, 

 and laying it on a nice section of honey, uncap 

 all tliat the paper does not cover, and hang it 

 in a hive while lioney is coming in, moving the 

 combs a little farther apart, "than they stood 

 originally. The uncapped cells will then be 



lengthened out, and sealed over again, thus 

 giving a bulged appearance forming the design 

 first cut through the paper. With a full frame, 

 you could easily have the bees work your in 

 itials in sealed honey, just as oar candy Ijoy 

 makes an embossed "A. I. li.," on a frame of 

 candy. 



A PLEA FOE THE TOADS. 



I should think Gleanings a pretty good Bee Journil, if 

 it were not for its immoral tendency. The picture and 

 remarks on page 216 of the August No. is the immorak 

 portion to which I allude. I do not dispute the statement 

 tbat toads eat bees, but I do say, to-ids caiinot eat bees if 

 the hives are placed on suitable stands. If there wee no 

 way to prevent their e-iting bees, I should say the bees 

 were doing the farmer more injury, by tillin;? the toad's 

 stomach, to the exclusion of other insects, than the toad 

 could do to the bee-keeper by eating bees. 1 cannot be 

 said to be prejudiced against bee-keepers for I have more 

 bees than any of my near neiahbors ; and my income from 

 them is more than that from farm crops. Martins are 

 said to cat bees, but we have three large martin houses 

 close to the api-iry, and i have never yet seen a martin eat 

 a bee. The martins are the variety of which the males 

 are black and the females have grey breasts. 



All toads do not eat bees, neither do all 

 martins; just as, only now and then, we find a 

 colony of bees that learn to eat grapes. It 

 seems to be a sort of "'sport of nature," if we 

 may so term it. I would n'>t kill all the toads, 

 u-jither would I kill all the martins, or bees; 

 but when I found a toad gobbling up bees in 

 front of a hive, d lily. 1 would either " kill or 

 cure" him, just as I would a hen that had 

 learned to eat all her eggs. If you put your 

 hive upon 1l'.ts, where will you shake the bee.s 

 from the frames or sections, tlr.it they may get 

 back in readily V If you put up a broad board, 

 the toad 'vil! cUmb up this, just about as easi- 

 ly as a laden bee can. 



POISONOUS PROPERTIES OF ZINC 



In Gleanings for Aug. you say, truly, that the iX)ison- 

 ous properties of '/Atw and galvanized iron, are now pretty 

 well established; but you speak of h-ivmg decided, to 

 .■sour s itistaclioii, by a practical test. Now, as some peo- 

 ple require " line upon line and precept upon precept." 

 before tiny are convinced of anvlhing in a practical man- 

 ner, I think you would do well to give the particulars of 

 your experiment. H. A. Spbague. 



Charlotte, Maine, Aug. .31st, 1877. 



Our water tank, just by the door out on the 

 walk, is mads of galvanized iron, and I discov- 

 ered that, while drinking the water from it, I 

 was troubled with a very disagreeable taste of 

 copper -in my mouth. This, at times, almost 

 made me sick. Others did not notice it, so I 

 said nothing, but I finally had the water 

 brought from another well. This made no 

 difference, so I drank at the well, instead of at 

 the tan:i ; relief came at once, an:l I decided it 

 was the ice, and declared quite emphatically, 

 that ice water was unwholesome. About this 

 time some one spoke of zinc, and I purposely 

 drank some water that had stood over night in 

 the bottom of the tank, without ice. The dis- 

 agreeable taste was so nauseating, thatl felt it 

 during the whole forenoon, and our tinners 

 were directed to line the whole inside with tin, 

 at once. I can now drink of the iced water 

 freely, and have never since e.xpt rienced any 

 such symptom. Am I not right, my friends, in 

 deciding against galvanized iron or zinc for 

 honey extractors, or any of the untensils of the 

 apiary ? 



The 5 dollar queens you sent ine, were nil purely 

 fertilized. Geo. W. Gamble. 



Fredericksburg. Ohio, Oct. 21th, 1877. 



