414 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



DO BEES CAKRY INTELLIGENCE IN REGARD TO THE 

 WHEREAKOUTS OP TUEIR yUEENV 



I ought to say to yoii that, after the queen I got 

 from you died,! set the casje coutainins- their own 

 queen", on the bars of the frames, and the following 

 day, I found the bees of this hive earrj'ing in heavy 

 pellets of pollen. 1 turned her out, and they re- 

 ceived her with "songs." Perhaps they knew she 

 was alive all the while, and hence remained loyal to 

 her, and would have none other. I came tothiseou- 

 clusion, because several bees visited my wife's room, 

 where their royal madam was caged to keep her 

 warm, to look after her, or the candy in the c: re? 

 which? 



I have looked her up since she was given bac ■ to 

 them, and she has improved very much in size ■lUce 

 1 tirst removed her. I am now feeding this < jlony 

 for the purpose of testing her. I feared she might 

 not be fertilized so late in the season. She is a pure 

 Italian. G. W. Demaree. 



Christiansburg, Ky., Oct. 13, 1878. 



I think it very likely that tlie bees, by 

 some means, carried intelligence in regard 

 to the queen's whereabouts. I once carried 

 a qneen from a nucleus to a (jueenless hive, 

 taking along a great jiart of the bees. Be- 

 fore night, some of the bees liad gone back 

 to their old home, communicated, in some 

 way, the state of affairs to their comrades, 

 and all finally joined in carrying the stores 

 to their new home, where there were plenty 

 of bees; thus I was saved the task of getting 

 the honey out of some old Quinby frames in- 

 to a Simplicity hive some rods distant. I 

 think we shall sometime learn how to take 

 advantage of this — —shall I call it, sagacity 

 of bees? 



Ever since I read in "Our Homes," about your 

 troubles to obtain money to complete that factory, I 

 have been thinking how I can help you just a little; 

 if all of us subscribers should be of one mind and 

 send next year's subscription in advance, what a 

 great help it would bs. I will act upon the thought, 

 and that will take the matter off my mind, for I 

 can't stop thinking about it, if I don't; so find en- 

 closed one dollar for me. Furthermore, I came 

 across a young man from a neighboring town, 

 whose father owns some 60 swarms in old box hives, 

 and I induced him to send for Gleanings. 

 Enclosed And also one dollar for him. 

 Some day, I'll tell you all about my 

 doings with bees. I will say now, however, that I 

 have made a small factory and turned out some 70 

 Simplicity hives this year, most of which are full of 

 bees. When the "sign comes right" and I prove to 

 our people that this scientific bee-keeping is not 

 a liumhuo, I'll send you swc?i a list of new subscri- 

 bers. Geo. C. Green. 



Factoryville, Pa., Nov. 5th, 1878. 



God will bless you, my friend, for the xin- 

 seltishness which makes you think of my 

 factory and myself, an almost utter stranger, 

 rather than of your own factory and your- 

 self, who very likely are far more deserving 

 of lielp, than I am. I am very glad to hear 

 you are succeeding with your liive making 

 and bees; nothing gives me more pleasure 

 than to hear that my pupils are learning to 

 make their own su])plios, thus saving ex- 

 pensive freights, and learning self reliance 

 and independence^ 



OUR HOJIES. 



If any doubt should creep into my mind in 

 regard to the propriety of having ''Our 

 Homes" in a bee paper, "it would be ([uickly 

 dispelled by such little chapters from real 

 life as the following : 



The largest honey producer in this countj', Mr. 



" 1 h«rt never seen the sections, and was very 



much i)lcased with them. He lives about 3 miles 

 out of town, while I live in the city. About a week 

 a ter the tair, I was surprised at his coming to my 

 place, and taking dinner with me, and spending 



most of the daj' to post himself on bee matters. 



I am a young man, while he is a father of a family. 

 He is a college educated man, and one wliom it is 

 very hard to tell anything, as he ktiows it all; so I 

 was quite flattered iij' his oming to me to learn. 

 At first, I was a little inclined not t.i post him, as he 

 is my greatest competitor in selling honey in this 

 market: then I thought of '"Our Homes," and con- 

 cluded I would ilo just as I knew you would in my 

 place. So I showed him * * * * and sent him 

 home happy, Avith plenty of grapes, &c., for his wife 

 and children. E. B. B. 



May God bless and guide you, my young 

 friend, and may ym learn to look to Him, if 

 you do not alread ', rather than to my poor 

 self, for an example. 



WHERE some of THE BLAME RESTS. 



Enclosed you will find ?1.00, for Gleanings. I 

 thought it strange when Sept. came and went and 

 no Gleanings, but when Oct. also came and no 

 Gleanings, I knew there was something wrong; so 

 I took the boy to task, by whom I sent the letter and 

 money to the oflioe, when he confessed that he de- 

 stroyed the letter and kept the money; so that ac- 

 counts for my not getting Gleanings. Please send 

 Sept. and Oct. No's, and oblige Geo. Small. 



York, Pa., Oct. 1.5, 1878. 



I have given the above to show in what 

 ways mistakes may come, and to show the 

 need of going slow, before deciding where 

 the blame belongs. A postal cMine a few 

 days ago, with a peremptory command, to 

 send Gleanings, or return the money forth- 

 with. The money had for some reason nev- 

 er reached us. Although w^e may make mis- 

 takes here, we are trying very hard, all of 

 us, not to do so ; will you not give us credit 

 for so muchV I trust very few occur in the 

 way mentioned a bove. 



GRAPE sugar and CANDY. 



I reduced my bees to 40 stocks, in the spring, by 

 douliling weak swarms. From these 40 stocks, I 

 took ;i200 lbs. of honej% and increased to fiO stocks. I 

 ha^•e l)nught 20 stocks, making my present number 

 80, all of which are supplied with 35 lbs. of stores 

 and packed in chaff for winter, except one, which 

 has nothing but frames filled with grape sugar. 

 They have lived on it six weeks, and appear to be 

 doing well at this time, Oct. 30th. 



I consider it an experiment, and would like to 

 hear through the magazine the result of experi- 

 ments with grape sugar last year. 



I wintered three swarms last year, oti candy made 

 of A coffee sugar, melted and poured into the brood 

 frames, they not having an ounce of stores except 

 the candj\ J. B. Hains. 



Bedford, O., Oct. 28, 1878. 



I, too, have wintered bees on candy with 

 nothing else, and with the candy slabs in 

 frames, I have no doubt but that a. colony 

 could be wintered on it without combs even. 

 The candy with the dour in it furnishes eve- 

 rything needed for their sustenance. 



HONEY DEW ON THE OAK. 



We have had a very good season for bees in our 

 country. About the first of .Inly we had a honey 

 dew oii the oak trees. I did not observe it upon any 

 other trees or upon the weeds or bushes luider the 

 trees, and saw no bees working upon it. It re- 

 mained for a week or ten days, gathering moisture 

 at night and drving up in daytime. .Iohn Uaikd. 



Elm Grove, West Va., Oct. 17, 1878. 



Thanks for promptness. Queens are all intro- 

 duced safely. Bees are gathering some honey from 

 cotton blossoms. No sugar to buy. All in winter 

 trim. E. J. Atchley. 



Lancaster, Texas, Oct. 28, 1878. 



I have been trying the Simplicity hive this year, 

 and the bees have done well. Two swarms increased 

 to five, and gave a total of 107 lbs. of honey. 



O. Robinson. 



Ottawa, Kas., Oct. 29, 1878. 



