344 



GLEANINGS m BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



A YOUNG QUEEN WITH A FIRST SWARM. 



Did you ever know a hive to cast a swarm, when a 

 yOung-" (lueen accompanied the swarm, while the old 

 queen remained in the parent hive? On Aug. 9th, a 

 hive of hybrids cast a buckwheat swarm with a 

 j'bung- queen fertilized and laying, leaving a pw>- 

 ilfle old queen and several queen cells capped over, 

 IQ the old stock. I am certain about this, for I had 

 clipped her wings six weeks previous, and she had 

 njKde no attempt to swarm. 1 destroyed the cells 

 and both swarms are doing well. C^AS. Dodd. 



Colborne, Oat., Canada, Aug. 31st '78. 



Although such «is©s are not very fre- 

 (jut^nt, they do liai>i7en now and then. I 

 win suggest that it comes about in this way. 

 The pasturage is good, and queen cells are 

 stiirted ; tefore they are ready to hatch, the 

 yield slackens, and, inste-;Kl of destroying 

 all the cells, one is allowed to hatch and be- 

 come fertile. I judge this to be the case, 

 because I have fretjuently found two laying 

 ([Tteens in a hive, after cells have been torn 

 down from a cess^ition of pastm-age. Now, 

 if honey should start up again, the young 

 queen would be as likely to lead out the 

 swarm as tlie old one ; perhaps, more so. 

 ^Vnd after swarming you would tind queen 

 cells in th« parent hive. 



Since we have had a lull in business, we 

 have been sending statements to everj'body 

 that owed us, so we could build tlie factory, | 

 Vou know ; aml^ that we miglit have no one i 

 sided work on it, I also instructed the clerks 

 to send sUt-ements to all those to whom a ] 

 Ijsilance was due. Below is a sample of some 

 (rf the replies. We shall never put anything 

 in the '■coriKjr stone" fund, unless desired 

 to do so. 



I only wish the balance was $W, instead of 20c. 

 If I had money, t would order immediately 5 queens, 

 and 'ZO or 2.5 chaff division boards with one side loose, 

 so 1 could fill them with chaff myself. Then I want, 

 tWs fall, 10 more chaff hives in flat, and fixtures for 

 s;ime, and next spring, will want ever so much fdn., 

 and sections innumerable ; yes, and "Gleanings" 

 runs out in December and. Oh, my! don't put it in 

 to the "corner stone" fund just yet. G. W. Gamble. 



Fredericksburg, Wayne Co., O., Sept. 4, 1877. 



ODOR FROM BUCKWHEAT AND KEEPING HONEY 

 FROM "SWBATINO," 



The perfume of our apiary is delightful, and is 

 dlBpcernible at some distance. Some think it is from 

 buckwheat, but the honey is so light that we think 

 it is from golden rod. We have put our honey up 

 stairs and down stairs and in "my lady's chamber," 

 yet it will sweat. How can it be kept dry? 



Peoria, Ills., &ept, 2d, '78. Mrs. L. Harrison. 



The dlor from buckwheat is very un- 

 pleasant to most people; at times, it has 

 something about it almost approaching the 

 (Xlor of carrion. I think it fur more likely 

 tliat your honey is from the golden rcxl. If 

 it is in an upstiirs room where it does not 

 freeze, it sliould keep free from dampne^ss. 

 We li ive kept it the year mund in our store. 

 ^^thout any unpleasant '-manifestations.'^ 

 ]i|ossil)ly, the source from which it was gath- 

 ered may liiive something to do witli it. 



QUICX WORK IW REARINS QUHENS. 



I had yonnsr queens hatching from the brood of 

 njv new" imp<irtcd queen, oa the 17t^ clay after she 

 wiis reoeivofL They are k\rge and yellow. 



B. M. HATiruBSE. 



Kansas City, Mo., Sept. 3d, 1878. 



Well done, friend II. If you will t«ll us 

 just when the tirst eggs were laid, we can 

 tell whetlier it is possible to Ivitch a queen 

 in less than 16 days, or no. 



bee-killer. 



The fall bloom is splendid, but the "bee-killer" 

 has about ruined our chance for a surplus. Colontes 

 which were verj- strong 3 weeks ago look as though 

 they had swarmed; but they harn't. It makes a 

 body feel rather blue. W. J. Willajid. 



Jonesboro, 111., Sept. 6, 1878. 



I am incline<l to think, my friend, that 

 you exaggerate the danger from the bee-kil- 

 ler, and that the depletion of your stoclcs is 

 due ratliea- to the usual cessation of brood 

 rearing, in the k^tter part of the summer. 



mishaps in inthoducino. 

 I examined on© of my hires 3 times, and there wa3 

 neither brood, eggs, nor queen, that I could see, so 

 I introduced the queen you sent, and then found 

 that they had a miserable thing of a queen, which 

 killed the one I sent for; no blame to you. 



John Daws^an, Pontiac, Mich., Sept. 2, 1878. 



The above illustrates the danger of intro- 

 ducing a queen to a hive, without linding 

 and removing tlie old queen. The fact that 

 you can find no queen, or even the absence 

 of eggs and broo<l, is not a sure evidence of 

 queeulessness. 



ITALIANS AND SWARMING, 



I have created some e.xcitement here with my sec- 

 tion boxes of nice honey. Have worked 43 hives 

 this seas<in, with satisfactory results. 



Last August, I put an Italian queen into a bla«k 

 colony; from that hive I saved seven swarms, and 

 two went to the woods. All were natural swarms. 

 I And them harder to manage, during the swarming 

 season, than the blacks, often having to hive them 

 two and three times. One left young brood that I 

 gave it. I put blacks in the same hive, and they re- 

 1 mainecL No black swarms went to the woods. 



L. G. RuCKSB, Patrick C. H., Va., Aug. 29, 187S. 



CHAFF WINTERING, ETC. 



Last winter, 1 tried different ways of wintering my 

 bees; I put 20 hives in a cellar, lined 3 with old car- 

 pet, put straw around 3, and packed 5 in boxo-«, sur- 

 rounded with chaff. Those packed in chaff did, Dy 

 far, the best. By the way, 1 have kept bees for 20 

 years, but have lost more or less in winterin:^-, or in 

 the spring, every year but one, for 17 or 18 years. In 

 the spring of '7(5, I lost 30 out of iG; in the spring of 

 '77, 2j out of 30; I then bought 12 hives, and made 

 out of them and my 7 weak ones, almost twice 

 enough to pay for them. It is very necessary to ex- 

 amine hivos that hare cast swarms; also all aftier 

 swarms, after it is time for the young queen to lay. 

 I toYind two of my hives that had swarmed queen- 

 less, and would surely have lost them, if I had not 

 furnished them with'means to rear a queen. 



B. Finch, Gallupville, N. Y., Sept. 6, 1378. 



REPORTS ON QUEENS. 



I receiTT?d my queens all In good condition. You 

 put them up in a better way than some other par- 

 ties who send them, and I am thoroughly satisfied 

 with them. Adam Klippbb»> 



Waterloo, Ont., Canada, Sept, 2d, '78. 



The queen bee I ordered from you came prompt- 

 ly, and I successfully quartered her in her neV 

 liome, altr>ough It was my flrst effort in that busi- 

 ness. I thought her to be a nice queen, but ha^wj 

 awaited derelopments before writing you. 1 sux>- 

 posed I was going to hare golden colored bees, su^ 

 as I could pride myself on; having a queen from Jjji 

 imported mother, what should hinder me, wh<m 

 such a good bee man as Mr. Itoot sent her? I must, 

 confess my disappointment in her bees, as they asD 

 only hybrids, and not marked well, even for hy- 

 brids. I have better bees and more proliflc queenjs. 

 I took my chance, but if foreign mothers can not 

 Italianize better than this, let us stay at homo. 



JONT. W. Leuuen. 



Pendleton, Ind., Sept. 9th, 1878. 



It gives me pleasure to inform you that I intro- 

 duced my queen successfully, and I now ha'Sfe 

 spl(-ndid yellow-backs. 1 also must say that she 

 dime to hand in the very best condition, and every 

 bee was in good shape. Isaac 11ummki.l. 



Warren, Ohio, Sept. 9th, 1378. 



