34 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Eeb. 



time to make polar explorations^ but we cer- 

 tainly can scrape up all the different varie- 

 ties of honey bees, no matter it' we have to 

 go to Cliina and the Indian ocean to get 

 Qiem, can we not, eh ? 



-^ ■•« ^ — 



BOTANY OF BfONEY P1.ANTS. 



f ALWAYS look Gl,eaning8 over, though I am 

 not a bee man. T ought to give more attention 

 _. to bee plants, and think I shall. When you want 

 any plants named send direct to me. They generally 

 get to me before named. This will save one trans- 

 fer for brother Cook. I am surprised at the growth 

 ot bee culture within my recolleeticm. There must ■ 

 be something in it, or there would not be so many 

 Journals devoted entirely to the subject. 



M. J. BEAi, Lansing, Mich., Jan. 3d, "78. 



We are very thankful indeed to Prof. Beal 

 for his kind otter of his services in naming 

 plants. We would further suggest that our 

 rriends mail their specimens direct to Prof. 

 Beal, Agricultural College, Lansing Mich., 

 with the request that he send them, with 

 his reply, to us, or to either of the other 

 Journals as may be thought best. We have 

 now an engravor of our own, and will have 

 the best honey plants, illustrated. We will 

 cheerfully provide the Prof., with postage 

 Stamps, in reserve, and boxes or envelopes 

 adressed to us, so that we may not trespass 

 too much on his good nature. Now friends 

 please remember ; send all your plants and 

 specimens direct to him, ?nd he will mail 

 tiem, with his answer, to us. 



X^erlaLnliig to 35ec diltnire,. 



[We respectfully solicit the aid of our friends in 

 conducting this department, and would crnsider it a 

 favor to have them send us all circulais that have a 

 deceptive appearance. The greatest care will beat 

 all times maintained to prevent injustice being done 

 any one.] 



fDO not know but we shall really be com- 

 pelled to keep a standing note of warn- 

 ing in this depnrtment, to prevent Mitch- 

 ell and his clique, from obtaining money by 

 fraudulent and barefaced claims, presented 

 to almost every one who is so uninformed 

 that there seems a prospect of their getting 

 anything. For some time past, we have an- 

 swered inquirers, by the simple statement 

 that Mitchell is the ring leader of all the 

 swindlers in the bee-business, and that he 

 has been shown up almost incessantly for 

 the past four years. Of late, it takes too 

 many postals. The following letters tell 

 tlieir own story. His claims are, if possible, 

 more ridiculous than were Gillespie's on all 

 hives used two stories high. 



As you solicit aid in exix^siug humbugs and swin- 

 dles, and, as I judge some parties here, and elsewhere 

 have been swindled, I write to asceitain. You say 

 to your intjuiiing friends "N<it},i)i<j ig inti iitcd iii tlie 

 sticipe of Iriren or imphmmt^;, ihat irr (ulvrrlixr." 



N. C. Mitchell of Indianapolis, had an agent 

 through here selling the right to use division boards, 

 and the sheet over the; frames, claiming a patent on 

 it. I sec you use the division board and tell others 

 how to make them, and also the sheet. I have told 

 parties that I could use the division boaid without 

 paying S:r).(i(i f(>r a farm right, and thev replied that I 

 W(.uld got into trouble if 1 did. Willi? Send for 

 their circular, and see for yourself whether or not 

 they are swindlers. However, I will enclose a pos- 



tal for you to inform me immediately what you 

 know of them, and whether the division board Is 

 patented or not. 



A. Lewis, Taylorville, Ills, want's a specimen copy 

 of Gleanings. He has an apiary of more than 100 

 hives, and paid $5.00 tor the "Mitchell patent." 



Wm. G. Brown. 



Breckenridge, Ills., Dec. 31st, 1877. 



Our friends have kindly sent us, I think, 

 all the circulars Mitchell has frcm time to 

 time published. If he, or they, have any 

 ■patent covering divisien boards, lined with 

 cloth or otherwise, the sheets of duck over 

 the frames or anything else of like nature, I 

 beg as a favor, that he prosecute me, as I am 

 perhaps the greatest infringer. If he calls 

 on you and threatens, show him this, and if 

 that does not do, show him the door, and 

 assure him that you consider it a Christian 

 duty, to assist in driving him back to an 

 honest life, if tie thing be possible. When- 

 ever you lay them money, to get rid of 

 them, you encourage others to, perhaps, 

 leave an honorable and steady business, to 

 engage in this species of highway robbery. 

 You have no right to give such people mon- 

 ey, even if you should tind it the easiest way 

 of getting rid of them. 



QlEENCEIiliS, 



HOW TO GET THEM FOR THE LAMP NURSERY, &C. 



fr a comb of larvae, just hatcJ)ed, Is placed in a 

 queenless colony, in how many days will the 

 qucfn ard worker cells be sealed, so that it can 



be placed in a lamp nursery? Which will be sealed 

 first, the queen or worker cells? I suppose the 

 worker brood must be sealed up, when it is removed, 

 as well as queen cells. 



Would you keep cnc coir ny queenless all the sea- 

 son, and keep them rearing queens? If not, how 

 many "batches" of queen cells would you have them 

 build, befoie you would allow them to have a queen? 



WMll "lamp nurseiT" appear in A B C of bee cul- 

 ture befoie it is time to tear queens? 



When you intrcdi^ce a newly hatched queen to a 

 nucleus, do you usually let her crawl in at the en- 

 trance? W. Z. Hutchinson. 



Kogersvllle, Mich., Jan. 3d, 1878. 



I confess I cr.n not tell exactly w'hen all 

 the queen cells will be sealed over ; but as 

 the worker brood is all capped inside of 7 

 days after the egg is laid, and the egg does 

 not appear as a minute larvaj until the third 

 day, I think we shall find all the queen cells 

 sealed over as soon as four days from the 

 time the larvae was given them. If young 

 bees are added to a colony from time to 

 time, you can keep them building queen 

 cells all the season. As some particular col- 

 onies seem to have a mania for starting a 

 great number of cells, I think it would be a 

 very good idea to keep them at it as long 

 as they will do it well. All the worker lar- 

 va? should be sealed over before the frame 

 is put into the lamp nursery, or they will 

 crawl out of their cells in a staning condi- 

 tion. I have had just as good success in 

 letting just hatched queens in at the en- 

 trance, and when you are in a hniTy, it is 

 (luite a saving of the time occupied in open- 

 ing the hives. If we could only find a sure 

 way of introdncing tlese young queens un- 

 der all circumstances, and to' all colonies, 

 weak or strong, the liunp nursery would be 

 one of our greatest modern improvements. 

 With nothing but young bees, or during a 

 good yield ot honey', there is seldom a fail- 



