1878 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CTLTUEE. 



411 



From Different Fields. 



KEEPING A NUCLEUS IN THE HOUSH, ETC. 



HAVE been to you with questions before, imd 

 you have kindly answered, so I dare conic ag'ain, 

 ^j "notwithstandingr, I read every month on the ti- 

 tle page of Gleanings, abo\it its being' "a grievous 

 tax and burden on your health and time." I must 

 first explain the situation, before I ask questions. 



A neighbor took the honey from his hive of bees, 

 and left them with a few pieces of comb containing 

 brood, to do as they pleased die, or abscond. Af- 

 ter a time, he discovered that they had gone to rear- 

 ing queens; in fact, one large piece of comb was 

 covered with queen cells. The case came to my 

 knowledge, and I begged the bees to save their 

 lives. I found that a niunber of the cells had 

 hatched, or been torn off, and two were still capped 

 over. 



1 have put the bees, with their few combs, into a 

 glass hi\e of the Simplicity size, and am feeding 

 them. I intend to keep them in the house, shut in, 

 just for the amusement of watching them. They 

 are very gentle, and bear handling well. 



Now, what was the cause of their rearing queen 

 cells at such an unreasonable timeV Did they in- 

 tend to swarm out, or was their old queen destroyed 

 when the honey was taken, and so they felt oViligcd 

 to do something^ If they now have a young (jueen, 

 hadn't I better destroy her (if I can), and get an Ital- 

 ian queen? 



I would like to watch the change this winter in 

 Italianizing this little swarm. 



To come to a practical (piestion, can I get the Ital- 

 ian queen so late in the season safely? 



I find I must have two of your Simplicitj' feeders. 

 I have been feeding from a tumbler tilled with syr- 

 up, inverted on a plate, and set outside before the 

 hive. The bees crowd around the edge of the tum- 

 bler like pigs; but now the weather is cooler, and I 

 must have something I can place inside. 



I believe I shall not have to ask any more ques- 

 tions this year. Mrs. J. M. Squike. 



Redding, Conn. 



It was answering qneslions myself indi- 

 vidually, that was the grievous tax and bur- 

 den; your ()uesti()ns have all been answered 

 by the clerks, on postals, and I am very glad 

 they were satisfactory. Six diiferent clerks 

 do the work, and a part of them are almost 

 c<mstantly thus employed. During the past 

 year, they have used 12,(J0(J postals. It is 

 iny business to do such work, as it is the 

 business of any dealer to wait on his custo- 

 mers. 



The bees started cells, I think, because 

 their old queen was destroyed. We can fur- 

 nish queens at almost any time in Nov., 

 when the weather is not very cool. You can 

 winter your colony probably, if you take 

 them out for a tly, every day when bees kept 

 out doors are seen flying about. Be careful 

 about letting them out when it is too cool. I 

 Avould feed them only on white sugar syrup 

 or candy, until they fly considerably in" the 

 spring, and then give "them candy with flour 

 in it, to start brood rearing. Ask all the 

 <luestions you feel disposed, any of you ; I 

 think I shall be able to read and approve all 

 the answers sent you for some time to come, 

 even if I do not write them personally. 



The honey season is not near so good as last. 700 

 lbs. of box and extracted honey from ;K stands, and 

 40 swarms. John E. Jarrett. 



West Point, la., Oct. 31, 1878. 



an improvement frequently; so here it is. Put a 

 small hinge on one lide and a hasp on the other to 

 raise and fasten the top. How will this do? or Is it 

 too much machinery? If you can't hingi^ a round 

 barrel, just make it scjuare and put two hinges on, 

 and solder the funnel top to it; but this may be too 

 much work. J. M. Fa vis. 



Carrollton, Mo., Oct. 8th, 1878. 



Your plan is not new. The diflicnlty is 

 the exi)eiise of such an arrangement, if it is 

 made durable, an<l tliat the smoke Avill blow 

 out where your hinged joint is. A hinged 

 joint can not well be made as tight as one 

 that slips over. A plan is under way that 

 will, I think, give us a permanent opening 

 for putting in the fuel, and no smoke blows 

 out of it, eitheT^ 



HONEY FROM SKUNK'S CABB.VGE, ETC. 



Through reading your Vol., I transferred my bees 

 last spring, then I more than doubled them, and 

 took more than 100 lbs. to a skip, not counting in 

 the swarms. 



I have both Italians and black bees, and it does 

 not take much study to see that the Italians aro 

 ahead for working, but I am not so certain that they 

 are quieter and tamor than the blacks when you 

 want to work in their skip. 



I consider Orange Co. an excellent place for bees, 

 as we have willow and skunk's cabbage early in the 

 spring, anj- abundance of fruit blossomsof all kinds, 

 and locvists; tlx^ tields are white with white clovei-, 

 and red is plentiful; there is some basswood, and 

 the farmers are going in for buckwheat; so you can 

 see that I will have quite a chance to hold my own 

 among bee-keepers. H. P. Demarest. 



Warwick, N. Y., Oct. 18, 1878. 



I suggested a few days ago that I thought 

 honey was made from skunk's cabbage, but 

 the idea was taken as a joke. ^Mio can tell 

 us more about itV 



HOW to get the i'UEL INTO A HOT SMOKER. 



I notice in last Gleanings that J. B. Cooper asks 

 if you can*t improve the smoker so the top can be 

 removed and replaced when hot. I have thought of 



I have about a ton of fine extracted clover honey, 

 all grained now. I can find no market here. I pro- 

 pose to try heating and putting it into cans, and see 

 if I can't sell that way. 



We had the best honey crop that I ever knew in 

 this country, but the hot weather in July complete- 

 ly cooked tiie clover, and that was the end. Noth- 

 ing else produced any honey for surplus. 



About half of our bees aro already starved, or 

 have swarmed out for want of stores. Bees and 

 honey are so unsaleable in this country that wo 

 don't' see anj^ profit in feeding in the fall. 



1 am using N. C. Mitchell's patent (Humbug) Divi- 

 sion Board Hive, for which 1 gave him $10. I must 

 confess that it is a good hive lor the extractor. 



S. S. Fetheuolf. 



Palestine, Ohio. 



PATENT HIVES. 



Mrs. Harrison makes the following very 

 sensible remarks, in the Frairk Farm r. 

 Methodist, as well as other ministers, would 

 do well to be careful what they do, or who 

 they endorse. 



A novice can be easily deceived in a hive. Some 

 of them are like a patent churn that we once saw, 

 capital for churning water, but a failure with cream. 

 In looking over the hives of a neighboring apiari.st, 

 he pointed to a hive saying, "That one there was 

 sold to me by a Methodist minister. I thought it 

 was the nicest thing I ever saw; it was fun to pull 

 ovit the little drawers before there were any bees in 

 them, and I promised myself a great deal of pleas- 

 ure in pulling them out filled with honey. This I 

 have never been able to do, as the bees have fast- 

 ened them so tightly with propolis that they are 

 immovable." 



Most novices in bee culture think they can invent 

 a better hive than was ever made before, but after 

 a few failures they aro not so sanguine. The little 

 pets will have their own way, and pay no regard to 

 the wishes of an apiarist, who screws on one side of 

 their hive expecting to look into their private 

 apartments whenever he fancies. It is glued on so 

 tightly that if the screws arc drawn, the side will 

 remain just as tight without them. 



