186 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



in the open iiir. There is only one trouble, 

 and that is, that the bees may suddenly 

 abandon the syrup, because natural stores 

 hive come ; tor, at such a time, they cannot 

 be induced to notice the grape sugar any 

 more. 



^ m ^ 



FROVi F«iiEivD Mooar. 



poRJlHE spring has been one 

 i I ones for bees, that has t 



SWARMING. 



of the most favorable 

 been known for many 

 ^^!^ years. The Italians commenced to swarm, in 

 these parts, the 15th of March; the black bees, not 

 until the 10th of April. Some of the first Italian 

 swarms have already cast other swarms. 



HONEY. 



Considerable honey has already been taken, and 

 bee keepers begin to see tlio importance of putting 

 up their honey in line market order. In fact, bee 

 culture in the South is moving on rapidly. 



IN THE GROUND. 



A Mr. Payne, living about three miles from this 

 ])l;ic(\ found a bee tree this spring, where the bees 

 entered the tree at the gi-ound. He felled the tree, 

 and found the bees nicely located in three large 

 roots that were hollow, the combs extending some 

 three feet below the surface of the ground. They 

 were a large swarm, and had, no doubt, en.ioyed 

 their domicil for a number of years. He placed 

 them in a hive, where they are doing well. 



Bees, after leaving the parent hive, and being 

 deprived of a home, will accept a habitation wher- 

 ever they can find one. We have known them to 

 enter dwellings, where they seem to live in perfect 

 harmony. ' A. F. Moon. 



Rome, Ga., May 10th, 18TS. 



GLEAMmCS irBEE QUITUHH. 



EDITOR AND PUBLISHER, 



MEDINA, OHIO. 



terms: $1.00 per ye ak, post-pajd. 



lVEE3DIlSr.A., JTJlSrE 1, ISTS. 



Thou wilt surelv wear away, both thou and this 

 people that is with thee; for this thing is too heavy 

 for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself 

 alone.— Ex. 18 : 18. 



If thou Shalt do this thing, and God command 

 thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all 

 this peoDl« shall also go to their place in peace.— 

 Ex. 18:23. 



^t »9 t WW 



We have looked anxiously for Prof. Cook's new 

 book, but it don't come, as yet. 



Friend Bingham has put the price of his smallest 

 smoker, at .$1.00, by mail, andOOc, by express. I am 

 very glad, for it is a very pretty little machine for 

 the pric3. 



Perhaps I should apologize for allowing a place, 

 this month, to so many letters in praise of the Sira- 

 nlicity smoker; but. you see, I thought my friend 

 Cook was a little mistaken in his criticisms of it, 

 and so I wanted to let others "talk." 



T'l'^.R'? ai-e 68 of us working for you, and I verily 

 believe w> are all doing about the best we can even 

 if things do move along slowly. We may be awk- 

 ward and blundering, but we mean to be honest, 

 iuid some of us are very tired, from working both 

 day and night, for so many week?. 



The weather was lovely, and the bees were 

 swarming in April, and every bee man and woman 

 was hap n': but the frost cime, and the bees starved 

 and robbed each other, and they all (ir ■ didn't have 

 anv starve in our apiary, 'cause we .iust kept 'em 

 raising brood right along until locust and clove-. 



by feeding grape sugar, in the open air) looked 

 sober, and thought of Blasted Hopes. 



In my opinion, no sort of a hinge is admissible in 

 a bee hive, and I have given the matter careful 

 study and experiment. This will have to be taken 

 for an answer, to a great number who are working 

 on the Chaff hive problem. Almost all the devices 

 sent will kill bees badly, and besides that, propolis 

 would, in time, prove a very serious obstacle to 

 their working. 



At the very last minute before one of the forms 

 went to press last month, our "youngest printer" 

 took the cut of friend Martin's frame suoporter 

 out, to raise it a little, and —put it back upside down. 

 As the correcting bad been all done, it was not 

 noticed until the whole edition was printed. When 

 looking at it, turn your .Tournal "bottom up," and 

 you will see it all right. 



"Do you like that cake?" said Mrs. R., as I help- 

 ed myself to the second piece. 



"I do. most certainly," said I, and I wondered why 

 she was so particularly interested. 



"Because I got the receipt for making it, out of 

 the little book that was sent you by the editor of 

 the Amrican Ji-e Journal, "Honey as Food and 

 Honey as Medicine." 



We mail fhe little pamphlet, to any address, for 

 10c. I am inclined to think it rather exaggerates 

 the value of honey as a medicine, but the cooking 

 receipts, alone, ought to be worth the 10c. 



Since writing the note at the end of B. Lunder- 

 er's communication, we have fixed several boards, 

 and, witii their aid, our .smart hitys put the sections 

 together just about twice as fast as they do without 

 them. I am inclined to think even the experts will, 

 with practice, work faster with them; very much 

 depends on having every thing arranged just right, 

 that there may be no false motions with the hands, 

 or waste of time in reaching farther than is absu- 

 Ititely necessary. Also, let me once more implow 

 you, if you would work rapidly, to keep your stuff in 

 neat piles, and not, under any circuinstances, let it 

 get scattered about in disorder. Our small boys, 

 aye, and girls too, have some of them a way of get- 

 ting their pieces down under thvir feet, in a way 

 that is excessively trying, to at least imc individual. 

 To tell the whole trutii, the "big" boys and girls are 

 not entirely free from this fashion, where they arc 

 at work at hives, frames, etc. Oh humanity! why 

 M'l'.? you be so careless, an<i heedless, and bring so 

 much trouble upiiii voursehes and tliose who arc 

 (ihJiaid to make good the coiiseiiiU'Uces of it. I beg 

 pardon for so often recurring to the one thing, but I 

 am led to feel that most of the "Blasted Hopes" in 

 bee culture, come from this one e\\\. 



QUEENS. 



The frosty weather, or something else, has "rais- 

 ed hob" with our queen speculations, during the 

 month of May. Quite a lot of our imported queens 

 we wintered over have been lost; some in transit, 

 and some by introducing, and all together, we seem 

 to have Blasted Hopes all ar.iund. I will stick to 

 my offers in my advertisement, just as long as • 

 possibly can, but please do not ask for any better 

 terms, or any deviation. If you should take a hun- 

 dred queens all at one time, I could not furnish 

 them a cent lower; neither can I promise to ans- 

 wer all your questions about them. If others offer 

 imported queens for $4.00, I am glad of it, but I can- 

 not undertake to be responsible for their precious 

 little lives, for any less than prices 1 have given. 

 ventilating queen cages. 



Quite a lot of cages have come to hand with the 

 queen and bees all smothered; and one friend from 

 Atlanta, Georgia, sent a box of tested queens by 

 express.'with a b^ard tight against the wire cloth, 

 and paper stuffed in the box besides; there were 

 small holes in the box. bvit none of them comm\ini- 

 cated with the wire cloth, and all but two of the 

 queens were dead. This is rather expensive exper- 

 imenting. 



A lot of queens came from the same State, the 

 same dav, by mail, and every bee and qvieen was 

 alive and active. Be sure that yoiir candy is not 

 too dry; even if it is quite soft, when put in, it will 

 soon harden enough, in th-:'.se small cafjcs fsJS 



