1877. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



237 



GLEASiNGS m BEE CULTURE. 



Published monthly. 



-A.. I. ItOOT. 

 EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR 



MEDINA, OHIO 



Terms: sSl.OO Per A.imxini. 



[Including Postape.] 

 For Club Rates see First Page. 



IvTEIDIlSr-A., JDEC- 1, 187"r. 



Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel 

 of the unororJly. nor standeth in the way of sinners, 

 ■nor sitteth inthe seat of the scornful: But his de- 

 lig-ht is in the law of the Lord ; and in his law doth 

 lie meditate day and nig-ht. And he shall be like a 

 tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth 

 forth his finiit in his season ; his leaf also shall not 

 ivithcr : and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. 



Psalm, 1 ; 1, 3. 3d.. _ 



There isn't a doubt of it my friends ; whatever we 

 do will prosper, whether it is bee-keeping-, farming-, 

 manufacturing or anji:hing else, if we only do it -with 

 our hearts tilled with a spirit of obedience to the 

 commands God has given us, and that broad love and 

 charity toward all around us, that follows as a nat- 

 ural consequence. 



"OrB Folks" have succeeded in making some 

 very nice gingerbread with the 3'i cent grape sugar. 



Next month we shall commence printing Glean- 

 ings with an outfit of " bran new " type throughout, 

 Are't you glad ? 



OCR turnip patch, menlioned on page 332 has given 

 us a tine " mess of greens," already. Of course we 

 cannot tell about the pollen yet, but they are excel- 

 lent for greens, anyway. 



Remember that the §30, 00 fdn. macliine is to be 

 *35.00 after Jan. lit. If you wish to save the S5.00, 

 j'ou must have the money in our hands before the 

 year is out. I dislike to advance the price of any- 

 thing, but we very soon disco verd after lixing the 

 price at $30., that it would hardly pay expenses, ^^ith 

 the extra nice work we put on the machines. 



Now we cannot very well send jou one of the 

 steam engines for hive making, as a premium for re- 

 newing before Jan. 1st, because we couldn't get it 

 into the post office, and besides, you might take the 

 Journal for the sake of the engine, and not for its 

 own intrinsic value. If you subscribe for Glean- 

 ings, I v>-i?h you to do it for its sake alone, just as 

 ,vou would buy a spelling book— because you wanted 

 oue. It would be quite convenient for us to have 

 your name before our list is taken down, for there 

 would then be no danger of mistakes in setting it up 

 again, but I think on the whole I will let you do just 

 as you please about it. If I should buj- anj-thing of 

 ,vou, I should buy just what I wanted, and when I 

 wanted, and therefoi-t; I think you should have the 

 same privilege. 



To tell the whole truth, I feel a little guilty about 

 that article on pollen, and will try to own up to all I 

 have "stolen.''' The grains of pollen, were copied 

 from "Carpenter on the Microscope." Had it been 

 possible to find the pollen wanted at this season, I 

 should have taken it from nature. The tongue of a 

 bee, I copied from Prof. Cook, and Carpenter, but 



before so doing, I examined a tongue from a living- 

 bee, while sipping honey, and made some alterations 

 and additions of my own. The curious machine on 

 the fore leg of the bee, was discovered about a year 

 ago, by Miss A., (one of our clerks) but I was not 

 satisfied of its office, until the British Bee Journal 

 dropped a hint in their Nov., No. of its being use^l to 

 clean the pollen from the tongue. Some bees were 

 procured, and set to work, and I soon discovered 

 what I have told you. Now how shall I do justice to 

 all ? If I take the space to credit every body as I go 

 along, in the A B C, it will almost double its size. 



The addition of flour to the candy, is a very im- 

 liortant item indeed, for the queen cages, as well as 

 the candy L. blabs. A colony in one ot our clialT liives 

 is now hatching out dowuy young Italians by the 

 thousand, and the quee:i is going round filling the 

 combs with eggs, as if it were June ; and this has all 

 been brought about by a single Irame of candy con- 

 taining the flour. The queen was liatched out about 

 Oct. 1st, commenced laying on the 12th, and it is now 

 the I3th of Nov. Of course this could only be done 

 with the aid oi the chaff hives. 



H. IvKUPi', of Warren, Pa., reports a queen that laid 

 eggs which hatched into larviB all right, but none of 

 the larvaj ever became so large as to be sealed over. 

 It is quite common to have queens that will not lay at 

 all, and a few have been reported as laying eggs 

 which never hatched ; but we never before heard ot a 

 case like the above. I presume tbe larva; must have 

 been removed by the bees just belore it was ready to 

 seal over; but whether it died or not. we are unable 

 to say, as our friend declares he found plenty ot un- 

 sealed larvas for several weeks, but never any sealed 

 brood. 



OUK report. 

 OUK apiary numbered May Ut, about 75 colonies. 

 We have sold bees, honey and queens, to the amount 

 of about Sl.OOO as near as we can get at it. Have paid 

 out for labor in the apiary, peihaps SlOO. On account 

 of the dry weather, the i^enboii l,as not been an aver- 

 age one, but the net yield ptr colony, Sr2, is peihaps 

 about as well as we aveiagc. At the price we are re- 

 ceiving for our honey in section boxes, it would 

 doubtless have prid better to bave raised honey ex- 

 clusively. Several timpf, we took tested queens from 

 full stocks at work in the sections, and the result was 

 invariably, a loss of honey t-mouiairg to mich nioie 

 than the value of the queen. Notv.ithstaudinp these 

 drawbacks, I think it well tor all bee-keepers to pre- 

 pare themselves to sell both bees, queens and honey, 

 to all who may want them, as a general thing. We 

 shall go into winter with about 75 strong colonic s, 1 c- 

 sides a few more that we bave rrservtd i r e.\)'<ri- 

 raenting on chaff cushions, trajjc tugar, flcur cfciidj, 

 virgin qneens, &c. 



OUR LAST IMPORTATION. 



Well, our queens came along a little quicker this 

 last tinle. Our order was sent Tremontani Sep. 28th, 

 and 12 boxes of queens were received Nov. 1.5th. 

 Three were found dead, and a fourth was lost intro- 

 ducing. So I have lost one imported queen. She 

 was stung by a bee that got into the cage by mistake, 

 when I wasrccaging hor. All required caging more 

 than 48 hoiu-s, except two, and one has lieen caged 

 over a week. The balance of the invoice will be sent 

 early in the spring. 



Now perhaps I am in danger of praising imported 

 queens too much, since I keep them for sale, and I 

 ^\ill therefore try to give an unbiased report. These 

 were very dark ; se\-eral were small and inferior 

 looking, "and many of the boxes were peopled 

 with large and more active moth womis than any 

 we havein this country ; at least, in our apiary, and 

 I saw two bees having the Braul.n ,or Italian bee 

 louse on their backs. I do not fear these parasites 

 any more than I do tlie moth, for I think plenty of 

 bees in the boxes would have routed both. Friend 

 T., doubtless feared starving the little fellows ; 

 ho has shii)iied them pretty suocessfully. The <iuecns 

 were all stout and active, and will doubtless improve 

 mucli in appearance by spring. See Tremontani's 

 a<lvortisemcnt. 



