328 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



and repeat— I have also noticed, what Huber de- 

 scribes in their piping-, the stillness of the workers 

 during- these performances. 



I was not aware until Gleanings reached me, 

 that this peculiarity was more noticeable in my 

 queens than others. I reared from 5 queens, chosen 

 and tested, the vear before, but 4-5 of those sent 

 you were from two very larg-e and litrht colored, as 

 well as prolific queens and industrious worker bees. 

 Neither of the queens mothers produced drones— 

 didn't allow it. 



SMOKERS. 



A neigrhbor bee keeper came over to buy a smok- 

 ei-— 1 exhibited four— offered yours for $1, what it 

 cost mc, and the others at a discount on cost. After 

 trial and thorough examination he chose yours, car- 

 ried it home, and is deligrhted with it. 



RED BUD. 



I send you a small lot of R'^d Bad seed, and two 

 seed pods of same. I could gather a peck or more 

 of the seed on my place, if they were worth anything 

 to any body. The tree blooms a little before the 

 peach in our section and remains in bloom much 

 longer, and is eagerly sought by the bees. 



W. P. Henderson. 



Murf reesboro, Tenn,. Sept. 14th, 1878. 



I, too, have noticed a hush among the 

 bees, when the queen's voice was heard. 

 Your friend doubtless preferred the Sim- 

 plicity smoker, but from reports through tlie 

 journals, others doubtless think differently. 

 We have heard the red bud often spoken of, 

 and will have the seeds planted. Thank 

 you. 



HOW TO GET A STARIT. 



CHAPTER SECOND. 



fWILL give you the result of that small swarm 

 of bees described under the heading, "How to 

 __ Get a start," page 136, Apr. No. of Gleanings. 



I bought a dollar queen of J. H. Nellis, and intro- 

 duced her on the 22d. day of Sep., 1877. By the 1st. 

 of May, the black bees had disappeared. The last 

 of them must have been 7 mouths old. On the 20th 

 of June, they oast their first swarm ; on the 30th of 

 June, they cast a second swarm. All went well un- 

 til the 14th day of Aug., when the first swarm, which 

 came out the 33th of June, cast their first swarm, 

 and, on the 34th, a second swarm, which I returned 

 to the parent hive, after allowing them to hang on 

 the tree all night, forpumshment. On Sunday, Sep. 

 1st, the second swarm, which came out June ;>Oth, 

 cast their 1st swarm. I retvu-ned them also, and the 

 next morning, found 3 dead queens. Now, friend 

 Root, I call this altogether too much swarming; it 

 looks as if they don't know when they are well otT. 



I would rather hive 4 black swarms than one Ital- 

 ian. Ugly is no adjective for them, when you shake 

 them otf tlie tree. If I had kept them all separate, 

 instead of returning them to the parent hive, I 

 should have had 5 new swarms from that pint of 

 bees. It seems that my blacks know enough, when 

 they have swarmed once, to stop ; for from 4 hives 

 of black's, I had 4 swarms, one from each. The Ital- 

 ians are good on swarming. David C. Brow. 



Stamford, Ct., Sep. 10 th, 1878. 



My friend, please do not be in too much 

 of a hurry to compare your blacks and Ital- 

 ians, but just keep hold of the "st;u-t'' you 

 have got, and give the Italians a chance. 

 It may be true that they swarm more than 

 tlie blacks, but they also get more honey. 

 Give them a chance, and you will have a fine 

 apiary, almost before you know it; and. if 

 you give them room before they get crowded, 

 I think you will find no trouble with their 

 swarming. We have had just 6 swarms this 

 season from over 100 colonies, but we con- 

 stantly had an eye on them all. One of the 

 above 0, was a truant swarm that came to 

 us. It is very likely true, that Italians are 

 Grosser in hiving than black bees, as a gen- 

 eral thing. Use smoke, make them behave. 



[This department is to be kept for the benefit of 

 those who are dissatisfied; and when anything is 

 amiss, I hope you will "talk right out." As a rule 

 we will omit names and addresses, to avoid being 

 too personal.] 



^K^OU "give diagrams for general purposes," do 



J</f you? A happy thought, isn't it? The Glean- 



<r^ INGS must certainly be a valuable affair, if for 



no other reason than that its Editor is a person of 



inexhaustive experience, and who cannot agree with 



facts, other editors, or anything else; he is so taken 



up in reforming miserable humanity, I suppose, as 



to make such a thing impossible. Five Langstroth 



frames, packed on all sides as in chaff hiA^es, will 



winter well enough, but only a few bee-keepers will 



adopt such cumbersome concerns. J. V. 



Adams Sta., N. Y., Sept. 10, 1878. 



Friend V., I just opened my mouth in as- 

 tonishment, when I read your postal, and 

 for the life of me, I could not tell what called 

 it forth, until the letter that you wrote last 

 was hunted up. You said my comoarison 

 of the Gallup and L. hives on page 299 was 

 was not a fair one. I penciled on the mar- 

 gin of the letter that I gave the diagram for 

 general purposes, meaning that it was an 

 approximate comparison ; the clerk, by mis- 

 take, wrote the word ''give'" instead of 

 "gave." Of course, I do not give all my di- 

 agrams for general purposes. Can you not 

 scrape up a little more charity? I am sorry 

 I make so many mistakes, and I am sorry, 

 too, to disagree with so many good peo- 

 ple, but consider, my friend, that if I agree 

 with everybody that comes along, you would 

 hardly think it worth while, to come to iiie 

 for. my opinion. I have tried the Gallup, 

 American, Adair, and other short frames, 

 as well as deep frames, and after going the 

 rounds for several years, I feel willing to 

 adopt the L. frame for the rest of my'life. 

 Especially, do I \vant a shallow frame for a 

 two story hive. I shall feel just as friendly 

 towai'd you, whether you agree with me, or 

 no. 



BEE Bt?TANY AND ENTOMOLOOY. 



fi SEND by the same mail with this, one of your 

 queen cages containing some bugs that are kil- 

 •^^ ling bees. They are found on the golden rod. 1 

 found 5 one evening, within 40 rods, each with a 

 dead bee. 



The bees have not done well here this summer, es- 

 pecially the latter part; and most singular has it 

 been, that the bees seemed to diminish very fast, at 

 one time, when they were gathering honey. 



I send two specimens of flies that have been very 

 numerous here this summer, and I have found some 

 with bees in their clutches. They are very strong. 

 They also catch other insects, such as millers and 

 mosquito hawks. Are they the same as described 

 in your Gleanings? 



I have not yet discovered the bugs in the act of 

 killing the bees, but have always found the bee 

 dead, and the bug would have hold of one of the legs 

 or the feelers, and hold him as if nothing had hap- 

 pened, the same as a boy would a cricket. My opin- 

 ion is that it poisons the bee. Let us know some- 

 thing about it in Gleanings, or I shall have to make 

 closer investigati )ns myself, although I am busy. 

 J. F. Zatterstrom. 



Spencer Brook, Minn., Aug. 33, 1878. 



The two winged fly is the Missouri Bee Killer, 

 AsUufi MissoiirknxU. the same as described a7td illus- 

 trated in the revised Manual, p. 36^; alsj In August 

 Gleanings, p. 25'). 



