1878. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



383 



BLACK BEES ON RED CLOVER. 



Your correspondent of Scott county, Va., Psiys 

 that his bees (the black breed) collected vast quan- 

 tities of honey, this season, from red clover. My 

 experience is that our common black bees never 

 feed on the blooms of red clover. How is the fact? 



J. M. Crockett. 



Pattonville, Texas, Sept. 25, 1878. 



I think the fact is that he lias seen black 

 bees on the red clover in liis locality, and 

 you have not seen tliem on it in y<nir locali- 

 ty; EliV I have, several seasons, seen black 

 bees on red clover to some extent here, but 

 it is not near as common as to see the Ital- 

 ians on it. 



RATES FOR ADVERTISING. 



I think your rates for advertising: are pretty well 

 up. I must say the A. B. J. is a better medium and 

 gives lower prices. You have always advised bee- 

 keepers to economize and patronize only those who 

 sell their wares at bottom rates. How can you 

 make this advice square with your adv. rates? 



J. H. Martin. 



Hartford, N. Y., Sept. 21. 1878. 



That is rio'ht. friend M.. speak out plain. 

 I am very glad to hear — at least. I keep try- 

 ing to be — that the .1. B. J. is a better me- 

 dium, and at lower rates, for I am glad to 

 see others prosper, even if they are in the 

 same bnsiness as myself. You are right. I 

 do believe in nice goods at low i)rices, and 

 in having everything reasonable. I had 

 based my plans on having 10c. ]ier line for 

 every 1.000 subscribers, and on having only 

 first' class, reliable advertisements, even 

 though there were but few of them. With 

 our present facilities, we can certainly print 

 a journal cheaper than we have done here- 

 tofore, and though tiie rate given above has 

 been one long established. I have decided to 

 put it at just one-half as much, or oc. per 

 line, for every 1.000 copies. As Gleanings 

 contains nothing but reliable advertise- 

 ments, and only those pertaining to bee-cid- 

 ture, I think tliis is liberal; donotyouV 6,000 

 copies are now jirinted every month, and 

 at least 1,000 are given away monthly as 

 sample copies. 



FOOT-POWER SAWS. 



Since sending you a sketch of a foot-power saw. I 

 have been walking- around not the "central stair- 

 way," but south of the north pole, and have g:ot up 

 another foot-power saw, of extremely simple con- 

 struction, with nothing- to wear out or get out of 

 order. 



It consists of a fly-wheel 40 in. in diameter, a 5 in. 

 crank, a pulley, 3 in. (it can be less), on a saw man- 

 drel, and a belt which goes right up over the pulley, 

 with no useless gear or friction. 



You state that the hand-power saw works well, al- 

 though it moves the saw slowly, simply because 

 there is power to move the saw; so this new rig 

 works well, although the saw only revolves 13 times 

 while the fly-wheel revolves once. The saw is 8 in. 



H. S-mith. 



New Hamburg, Ont., Can., Oct. 10, 1878. 



Now I come with a few questions and pei'haps 

 some ideas of my own, out of which you may 

 take the conceit if you can. 



Why not fasten strips of fdn., one or two inches 

 wide, to the top bar of the brood frames, instead of 

 filling them with an entire sheet at so high a cost? 

 Mind you, the bee family must make the wax at any 

 rate. This will insm-e good straight combs, at least 

 I know from experience that narrow strips of nat- 

 ural comb used in this way for guides, insure good 

 combs. 



What do you mean when you say the bees "draw 

 out the cells," when speaking of fdn.? Do you 

 mean to say that the bees draw the cells from the 

 sheet of fdn., using the wax contained in the fdn. 



instead of building out the cells with the wax secret- 

 ed from their own bodies? I "di^mur." 



Is there any "art" in hunting for a queen in a pop- 

 ulous hive, that is superior to mere perse\eraDce 

 and patient hunting for her? Are the bees likely to 

 cluster over her, thus keeping her hidden from the 

 eyes of the person searching for her? Is she likely 

 to forsake the combs and crawl down on the bottom 

 board with other bees, which may be driven there 

 by the smoke or by fright? 



An article from the pen of the editor, or some oth- 

 er experienced person, on this subject, would be 

 highlj- appreciated. I find it a very difficult matter, 

 at times, tfi find the queen; while at other times I 

 can "run upon" her without spendina: much time ; 

 but this is seldom. G. W. Demahee. 



Christiansburg, Ky., Oct. 12, 1S7S. 



The bees will be very likely to build drone 

 combs, below your strip of fdn. In fact, the 

 great ])urpose'of the fdn. is to absolutely get 

 rid of the chance of any drone comb. The 

 bees do use the wax put in the fdn. for 

 drawing the cells clear to the top. and if you 

 are not satisfied otherwise, color some fdn. 

 with indigo, and then you can readily see 

 where they begin to drop the colored' wax 

 and use the new of their own secretion. The 

 ex])eriment is an old one, and has been tried 

 many times. The best Avay to hunt up 

 queens is to -inint them u])."" just as you do, 

 and you will soon learn to know by the mo- 

 tions of the bees, pretty nearly where the 

 queen is. Practice makes perfect. The 

 subject is considered in part tliird of A B C. 

 Italians behave differently from black 

 bees; the queen of the latter sometimes 

 hides in a cluster. 



UNFERTILE QUEENS AND QUEENS TH.AT WON'T LAY. 



I see from Gleanings that others have been trou- 

 bled with unfertile queens, this season, as well as 

 myself. I have had 5 or 6 of them. They generally 

 come off with the 2d and 3d swarms. I suppose 

 when the queen hatches after the 1st swarm, she 

 takes her bridal tour, and the bees follow and clus- 

 ter, and we hive them as a natural swarm. 



I manage them as follows:, if I do not find eggs 

 in 4 or 5 davs, I insert a comb of eggs and brood. If 

 they do not start queen cells, I judge they have an 

 unfertile queen. I then divide the stock, giving 

 each division a frame of brood. The one that has 

 no queen will start queen cells in 24 hours. I then 

 hunt up the queen in the other division and kill her, 

 and again unite the two, and they will raise a queen 

 and do well. 



INTRODUCING BY ARTIFICIAL QUEEN CELLS. 



I have successfully introduced all the queens sent, 

 8 in number. I make a queen cell around a stick, 

 out of fdn., and lav it. with the queen, on top of the 

 frames ; in one hour, they will liberate and accept 

 her without any fuss or trouble. Try it. 



All the progeny of the queens received are 3 band- 

 ed, except of one, which are 2 and 3 banded; one of 

 the hybrids produces the best marked bees among 

 them" 



I have taken 1,000 lbs. of comb and extracted hon- 

 ey, about r>li0 of each, from 18 stands and their In- 

 crease. If I had transferred all in the spring into 

 the Simplicity, I would have got 500 lbs. more; 

 enough to pav for hives and trouble. 



I am well pleased with everything sent me, except 

 the ti-ansferring clasps; I cannot vitilize them, only 

 on broad combs. Much obliged for your prompt- 

 ness in shipping goods ordered, and as ordered. 



Geo. W. Forman. 



Ripley, O., Oct. 5, 1878. 



I feel pretty sure, friend F.. that your plan 

 of introducing by your artificial fpieen cell 

 will sncceed little better than letting them 

 loose at once. The greatest complaint has 

 been of queens that were attacked after they 

 had been ai)parently well received. I would 

 not trust to anii plan, unless it was followed 

 up by careful watching until the queen be- 

 gan to lay. 



