1878. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



ir.5 



From Different Fields. 



DOU^AR QUEENS IN MAT. 



^ HAVE shipped you, to-day, fifteen "dollar 

 Sl! queens," by American express. I left the 

 '-^ charge, which the agent said would not exceed 

 75c, for you to pay. If the queens are all dead, send 

 your bill to me. I feel quite anxious about them, 

 as I am a novice at candy making, and the weather 

 has turned quite cool since I shipped them, this a. 

 M. I think $1.00 a low price for a good queen ; it re- 

 quires no small amount of care and labor to be ab- 

 solutely sure that each one is all right and thorough- 

 bred, if I have usual success, I will send you more 

 shortly, and X hope all will give entire satisfaction, 

 to yourself and your customers. 



E. M. Hathurst. 

 Kansas City, Mo., May 9th, 1878. 



"Well, friend Hayhurst. if yon are a new 

 hrnd, I do not know what yon will do when 

 ytu get to be old. The queens came to 

 lif nd, every one alive, and what is more, 

 e"\ ery bee was alive too. The (;ueens were 

 of a beantiful orange color, and the bees 

 v<re downy and three banded ones, and so 

 c\ iet.one riiijiht think, from their behavior, 

 it was no nnnsual thing at all for them to be 

 a rted about the country shut np in a little 

 ci ge. The candy cages were in two long 

 st ips, perfect models of the cages we have 

 described, but if anything, a little better 

 n ade. I think they were clieap at SI. -50. the 

 ] ice we sold them for. If this looks like 

 iA vertising; for friend II.. the only excuse I 

 c: n offer, is that he deserves it. If you can 

 do as well. I will advertise vou. too. 



DRONES FROM VIRGIN QtTEENS. 



In answer to your question, on page 16.5, May No. 

 of Gleanings, about the value of drones hatched 

 from drone laying queens, for impregnating queens, 

 I will say that, at our Feb. meeting, our President, 

 Mr. J. T Mardis, of Lebanon, O., gave us his experi- 

 ence as follows: — 



One spring, he had a pure Italian queen which 

 proved to be a drone layer. He thought it would be 

 a good plan, to start several nuclei, which he did, 

 and have their queens fertilized, before the black 

 drones were out. To his surprise and disappoint- 

 ment, not one of his queens became fertile from the 

 drone progeny of his unfertilized Italian queen; 

 but, in this case, if 99 report failures and onlv one a 

 success, of course, we will all have to admit that the 

 thing can be done. It is like the question of fertili- 

 zation in confinement. W. S. Boyd. 



Hamilton, O., May 1.5th, 1878. 



advertising etc. 



Your advertising rates seem to he "upward and 

 onward," like the course of the erratic genius at the 

 head of vour establishment. J. P. H. Brown. 



Augusta, Ga., May 8. 1878. 



Thank you. Dr.. for your doubtful com- 

 l)linient. ' In regard to the advertising, 

 there have been comi)laints. every time we 

 liave advanced a "notch;"" but. my friends, 

 if it was worth 10c per line, when' Gleax- 

 INGS had less than 1,000 readers, is it not 

 surely worth a little more now? I do not 

 wish Gleanings to be tilled with adver- 

 tisements of all sorts of trash, and I think 

 you all agree with me. I wish it to contain 

 only advertisements of good, substantial 

 meii ; men AvKom we know to be sound in 

 every respect. To secure this, the ]nice 

 must not be too low. For every l.QOO hrma 

 fide subscriliers. I have decided to charge 

 10c i)er line. For the 1.000 or mi>re sample 

 CO ii.>;'L uvt given awav everv month, at 



a considerable expense. I charge nothing. 

 I pray that not only Gleanings, but all of 

 its readers, may continue to go onward and 

 upward, in the straiglit and narrow path. 



transferring and thick combs FOR extracting. 



I have transferred ten swarms lately, from Na- 

 tionals to Simplicities. For the benefit of those who 

 wish to transfer from one frame hive to another, I 

 give the "modus operandi." Smoke the bees pretty 

 thoroughly in the old hive, then take all the c6mbs 

 from them, lea\ ing the bees only in ihe hive on the 

 old stand. Take your combs to some suitable 

 building, cut them out ( f the old frames, and fit 

 them into new ones, fastening with clamps made of 

 's square pine sticks, or in any other way you may 

 prefer, only fasten them. Put them in the new hive, 

 keeping the brood together as much as possible, put 

 on your sheet, quilt, and caps, place the hive on a 

 bottom and carry to the old stand. Remove the old 

 hive, and set the new (sne in its place. Spread down 

 a sheet as for hiving a swarm, open ttie old hive 

 carefully, get a few handfuls of bees in a dipper, and 

 pour down in front, and as soon as they set up the 

 hiving buzz, shake them all on the sheet, and they 

 ■\vill go in. I, at first, put on an upper story anil 

 poured the bees into that; but I found it the better 

 plan, by far, to hive them, for reasons any one can 

 see by trying the two plans. 



A good frame for exti-actor may be made by brad- 

 ding two all wood frames together, with a sheet of 

 fdn. between them. R. L. Joiner. 



Wyoming, Wis., May 11th, 1878. 



Thanks, friend J., but I believe your con- 

 cluding remark is the most important thing 

 you have told us. for some time. I know 

 the bees will use such thick combs, and if 

 we can. by spreading, get the cells so deep 

 that the "queen cannot use them, there is 

 nothing to hinder our using drone comb 

 fdn. just think of getting a gallon of hon- 

 ey from a single comb. There is a honey 

 comb in our show case, that Avould hold 

 more than a gallon, were it the size of an L. 

 frame. 



One week ago to-day, I sent $3.00 to you for 

 queens to be sent to this place. None have come 

 yet. I hope the $^2.00 are not lost. Everybody 

 want? my smoker which you sent. I could sell many. 

 Suj.p' se you send "5 C. O. D.: or if you can send by 

 freight much cheaper, I will pay on delivery here. 

 Sell them just as cheap as you can, if yi u have to 

 send .50. I have made 2 trips of 20 miles each for my 

 queens from you iSat. and to-day); will wait nc w "a 

 day. 1 keep making .people promise to send for 

 Gleanings, will soon takf> it mvself. 



Fenton, Ky., May fSth, 1878. A. W. Bryan. 



The above illustrates many of the troubles 

 that come about in business matters. Our 

 friend dated his order for the queens at Hop- 

 kinsville. Ky.. which was not his home, and 

 neglected to tell us of it. so the postal card 

 we sent at once, he never got. He has neg- 

 lected to subscribe for Gleaninc^s. which 

 would have informed liim. all along, that 

 ([ueens could not be fiunished for a dollar 

 in the montli of May.and yet his two :our- 

 nies of 20 miles each' would" doubtless have 

 paid for it for several years. Do net take a 

 journey to the exiu-ess"oll:ce for yoiu- things, 

 until you have had some intimation by mail, 

 that your order is tilled: for it is almost one 

 of the impossibilitic s, to .send all kinds of 

 goons right back, in response to an order. 

 I thank liim for his kind words in regard to 

 the smoker: it looks now. as if we should 

 soon need a factory to suuply them alone, to 

 say nothing of other goods. 



I ha\e 500 lbs. of !■<')■!/ (iirr. golden rod, exl'd hon- 

 ev, which I will sell for 10c per lb. G. M. Dale. 

 "Border Plains, Iowa, April 12th, 187S. 



