1878. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



349 



a good queen never does, unless she is cramped for 

 room. In this case, she will go over the cells a sec- 

 ond time, and lay two or more in them all. The 

 drone laying queen and fertile worker often put sev- 

 eral eggs in one cell, and none in the next; we gen- 

 erally recognize their work by this, even before any 

 of the larvjE are sealed over.] 



SITTING HENS VERSUS LAMP NURSERIES. 



Hang up your lamp nursery. I am hatching 

 queens in clam shells under sitting hens. Have 

 three hens at the business. Two do not take to it, 

 but prefer to sit standing. The one that tends strtct- 

 ly to business hatches out every cell. A. Jackson. 



Deposit, N. Y., Sept. 18th, 1878. 



Please send me a copy of Gleanings. I have a 

 copy of your A B C of Bee-Culture, that cost me f 1 ; 

 on the cover, the price is 25cts. ; please explain. 

 Have you agents in this county ? I think the book 

 is worth all I paid for it. Cicero Hancock. 



Morganfield, Ky., Sep., 3d, 1878. 



[The above transaction speaks badly for the man 

 who sold the book, but well for the book. Thanks 

 for your good opinion. As we sell them for 15c. by 

 the hundred, your agent can well afford to sell them 

 for the price marked on the cover. It was put there 

 purposely, to prevent such "speculations."] 



Your postal, of Aug. 16th, came to hand In good 

 time; but the queen has not arrived yet. I fear that 

 the express company have got her ladyship off on a 

 telephone concert somewhere. C. Thomson. 



Brighton, Mich., Aug. 19, 1878. 



P. S. Since writing the above, her ladj-ship has 

 a-rrived all right— a perfect beauty, without paint. 

 Thanks. C. T. 



WHICH IS cheapest ? 



If it takes 20 pounds of coffee sugar to winter a 

 colony of bees, how much grape sugar will it take ? 

 Or, in other words, how much cheaper is grape sug- 

 ar than coffee sugar for feeding bees ? I read Da- 

 dant in Sep. A. B. J. ; give me vour honest opinion. 



Martonsville, Ky., Sep. 18th, 1878. J. T. Wilson. 



[See article on another page. From the experi- 

 ence I have had, I would guess at it, in about this 

 way : if grape-sugar was 7c.. and coffee A sugar 10, 

 I would take the latter. If the grape-sugar was 6, 1 

 would take the grape. As it really stands in the 

 proportion of about 4 to 10, I think the grape-sugar 

 a great saving. It will not pay to order any kind of 

 sugar by express; sugar goes at a very low rate by 

 freight, in quantities of 50 lbs. or more.] 



now LONG will a swarm op bees keep two lay- 

 ing queens? 



This is the fourth season for a queen which I pur- 

 chased of M. Argo. About the first of June, I no- 

 ticed the bees had started queen cells, and conclu- 

 ded that they intended to supersede her. The latter 

 part of June, T found a young lajing queen in the 

 hive ; then in July, when extracting, I found the old 

 queen still there, and there she has been ever since, 

 as well as the young queen which was raised. At 

 least, they were both in the hive a week ago, when I 

 opened it to show a beginner the curiosity. 



Hudson, 111., Sep. 13th, 1878. Edgar Sager. 



Send me two copies of Gleanings, and one copy 

 to Jno. G. Buckland, Esq. Waikonaike, Otago, New 

 Zealand. 



^our ideas and work about bees are too elabo- 

 rate for this colony ; they are left out all winter, 

 and generally have to look after themselves all 

 the year round. John H. Every. 



Dunnedin, Otago, New Zealand. June 1st, 1878. 



[So, you see. Gleanings has got away off there.] 



The queen and racks came in good shape. I 

 like your bottle queen cages very much. I think 

 a queen could be kept any length of time in them. 

 Be sure and report how yours are getting along, 

 that you caged in July. Amos Johnson. 



Sugar Grove, Pa„ Sep. 16th, 1878. 



[AH of those caged in July are sold, except 3 or 

 4 hybrids ; these are all right yet. Fresh bees 

 have been given them, once or twice. One that 

 stood near my type writer was chilled during a 

 cool night, but the rest were kept in the house 

 apiary, the even temperature of which keeps them 

 perfectly safe. 



queens that won't lay. 



A friend of mine had two queens, reared in full 

 colonies, which never laycd either drone or worker 

 eggs. One being small, he removed her, and gave 

 the bees brood to rear another queen. Thinking it 

 might be the fault of the bees, lie sent her to me to 

 introduce into a nucleus, and try her among other 

 bees. I introduced her, and she has been reigning 

 supreme about 13 days; I have made two examina- 

 tions, and nary egg has she layed. She is an Italian 

 queen, large size, fully developed, with perfect 

 wings, and is in every respect equal to a laying 

 queen in a large colony. 



Both the above queens were reared in June, by 

 swarms that had swarmed naturally. Did you ever 

 hear of such queeus before? S. Dillman. 



[Several such have been reported, and I have 

 owned one, fine, large queen that would not lay.] 



sweating honey— .4. live drone trap. 



I have more trouble with my honey, on account of 

 its leaking and running out, than ever before. Sec- 

 tions that have been off 6 or 7 weeks leak very 

 much; what is the cause? taking off too soon? or 

 thin cappings? It is oozing out now. I have not 

 taken any off since July 1.5, until the other day, I 

 took 20 sections, and it is running the same as the 

 other, and I know that it is white clover honey made 

 in July. 



The honey season this fall was short and light. I 

 took 48 sections 4\t by 4Vi that weighed COlbs. strong; 

 they were well finished, but bulged. 



I had one chicken. H grown, that caught and nte 

 more drones than is reasonable to tell; it stood in 

 front of the hives, and took them on the wing and 

 off from the front of the hive, until it was satisfied. 



John A. Jarret. 



West Point, Iowa, Sep. 2, 1878. 



[I fear your honey Is kept In a damp place; I 

 would give it to a swarm of bees to clean off, and fix 

 up. You will need to feed them heavily first, or 

 they will go to uncapping it. It is possible there is 

 a kind of honey that absorbs moisture from the at- 

 mosphere. Try keeping it in an upper room, pro- 

 tected from frost. Your chicken is certainly ahead 

 of drone traps.] 



The last lot of smokers came to hand all right, and 

 were all engaged before I got them from the exp. 

 office. Thanks for sending more than ordered. I 

 will give you a report of what my bees have done 

 for me, this summer. 



My outlay is as follows : 



Four swarms in spring, @ ^10.00 S40 00 



Queens from you 4 50 



Imported queen from Blood 5 50 



Total outlay $49 50 



My credit is as follows: 



To increase of 10 swarms $100 00 



350 lbs. box honey @ 12^0 45 73 



Queens sold 11 00 



Total credit $15* 75 



So you can see my profit is $105.25 from 4 stands 

 of bees, and they are gathering honey very fast 

 yet. I think my honey will exceed 400 lbs., but I 

 have made a safe calculation ; I count my bees at 

 $10. a stand, because they are all Italians, and In 

 the spring, they were not ; they are worth that 

 clear of the hives. I took some of my honey to 

 market the other day, and they thought it the ni- 

 cest honey they had ever seen in their town. 



James Parshall. 

 Union Valley, Mo., Sept. 9th, 1878. 



»■^g<aag!.a^ss^gzg g^r^^^"■'^»'i^r^^^,.'.ll■'|^|^-|| ^ l ■ l »^^ ■■ 



DEPOSITORY OF 



Or letters from Those TV^lio Have Made 

 Bee Culture a Failure. 



f5j)LEASE stop Gleanings. My time is not out 

 -^ till Mar., *79, but you can send me 50c. I will 

 — . only keep a few stocks of bees for farm use. 

 I can make more money on the farm. 

 Vermont, Ills., Sep. 18th, "78. Hardin Haines. 



