1874 
GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 
119 
hatched at once and one killed the other. We 
examined them hastily, morning noon and 
night; the survivor — when we could catch her 
—was put in a cage with a few just hatched bees 
from another hive, and mailed as above. On 
receiving her he wrote as follows: 
Since writing the above I have rac’d the Queen. 1 
must snv I have never before seen so neat anil conve- 
nient a shipping box ns the one you use; bees ami 
Q„een clean anti lively. The Queen looks to be fer- 
tile; was she before mailed? She was Introduced 
safely immediately. 
The other live Queens were equally strong 
and finely colored, — none of the small black 
ones — and royal jelly was left in each cell. 
The temperature was kept the whole six days 
at from !)0<> to 10()«, in fact “P. G.” declared 
they would all be baked, but they were not. 
The workers of course did not hatch until four 
or live days more, so we had nothing but 
Queens in our nursery, unless for sooth the 
moth worms be counted that hatched and 
flourished with provoking vigor. We think 
100 - about the right temperature. 
By permission of D. Lyons Browne, of India- 
napolis, we give the following extract from a 
letter rec’d by him. 
1 have been engaged in a number of industrial pur- 
suits for 40 years and I must say to you frankly, that 
bee-keeping is my favorite both for pleasure and profit. 
I am now running 1200 acres of good land. Broad 
acres of waving grain and grass, herds of cattle, sheep 
and horses, are a source of pleasure, but nothing in 
comparison to the apiary. To hear their busy bum 
and behold their economy and industry, smell their 
sweet perfume and share with them the proceeds ol 
their and our industry is a pleasure to me beyond des- 
cription. 
1 have realized over $10,000 in sales ol bees and hon- 
ey; more than in any other business in proportion to 
the capital invested. Last year I averaged $81.00 per 
colony. I do not expect to reach that amount tills 
year as I did not give the attention required to pro- 
duce such results. 
Setii IIoagland, Mercer, Pa. July lltli, 18i4. 
If the number of colonies that produced this 
average was considerable, it certainly was a 
great result ; too great for us novices to as- 
pire to for years to come. 
My cellar ranges from 34 to 40°— when above 40° the 
bees arc restless. Until the past winter I have been 
in the habit of opening a window on north side and 
door on south (at night) and leaving open till the tem- 
perature reaches 32" — would close this once a week. 
1 think bees need pure air as much as humans. This 
winter I think I will have a tube run from cellar to 
stove pipe in room above, this will create a draught 
and carry oil' the impure air. Where bees can be ta- 
ken out and have a good fly — say in January and put 
them back, they will then go to breeding and keep it 
up. I know they will consume more lood but then 
they will have *bees to make it up when the llowers 
come. There was less hrood in my hives when I took 
them out in March than there usually Is in January. 
I did not know how to account for it, unless it was 
that their supply of honev and pollen was less in 
quantity. It makes them feel good to have say 10 or 
SO His. of honey in the hive, and if you Intend to have 
a big start by the 1st of June it will take about that 
much to take them from Oct. 1st to June 1st. Ills 
very easy to start a home market for extracted honey 
by putting it up in an attractive form— say in jelly 
glasses with a piece of comb in; such as C. O. Per- 
due wholesales at $1.00 per doz. The glasses hold 
about H lb. of honey. I told my grocery man to retail 
at 25 cts.-thev go oil like "hot cakes”— 3 lb. fruit jar 
$!.uo, and pay 10 per cent commission. Quart jars cost 
$1.75 per doz., >: pint jelly glass, tin top $1.01) per doz. 
Hie first 1 bought cost 75c, and were the neatest, but I 
could get no more of them, they were sold too low, 
bat to buy at the factory and a gross or two at a time 
is tlie way to buy them. T. G. McGaw, Monmouth, ill. 
Please let me know through Gleanings, if the 
quilt in winter in the cellar should lay fiat and tight 
on the frames? if not how should It be? Two of tin 
quilts are all waxed over on the under side. Will 
they do for wintering. ? C. Kendig, Naperville, 111. 
We use the quilts flat on the frames the year 
round. Waxing, or covering them with pro- 
polis seems to do no harm only that 'tis more 
trouble to remove them, when opening a hive. 
Laying a strip across the frame under the 
quilt to give the bees a passage has been rec- 
ommended for winter, and friend McGaw of 
Monmouth, 111., lays an empty frame under- 
neath the quilt. We have made some similar 
experiments but discovered no especial ad- 
vantage. 
Do von think bees can be taken from Detroit about 
the 15th of Sept., with no honev and little comb in 
hive, put on cars, fed and watched on route, carried 
to some good locality about the range of Northern 
Georgia and after that gather honey and bee bread 
snfiicTent to keep them through the winter? Can you 
from personal knowledge recommend some locality? 
M. H. Clements, Belleville, Mich. 
P. S.— Can yon give P. O. of some, bee-keepers in 
that section ? 
We have had considerable correspondence 
on the subject and would particularly refer 
you to M. S. Klum, Sherman, Grayson Co., 
Texas, and R. Wilkin, Oscaloosa, Iowa. Can- 
didly, we fear it will not pay, still some exper- 
iments might be advisable. Shipping bees is 
as yet too risky a business to expect them to 
be handled as they should be. 
I)o you put anything into the syrup to keep it from 
candying? Did yon know any trouble with that that 
you say you arc now feeding to swarms you are buil- 
ding up ? I mean those that yon have wintered, and 
partly summered. Will honey sour if extracted before 
being sealed ? if so how do those manage who ex- 
tract once in three days? Can it be evaporated to 
make it thick without injuring the flavor? 
Joseph Sinton , Ithaca, N. V. Aug. 5tli. 
Sugar and water only. The combs contain- 
ing syrup fed last fall, even when used in Aug. 
of the present season were approbated for 
brood-rearing without waste. It is seldom 
that honey is gathered thin enough to sour, 
even if you do extract every third day. Should 
you happen to get any that is too thin it can 
be ripened into perfectly good honey by keep- 
ing it several days in an oven or other warm 
place. The flavor is unchanged unless it is 
heated to the boiling point. As this artificial 
ripening is a slow job, we think it most profita- 
ble to let the bees do it. A very strong colony 
will get the honey ripened and much of it ready 
to seal in three days. The only sure wav of 
telling when you should take the honey, is to 
go over a few hives and see if the honey ob- 
tained is ripe enough to suit you. Thick hon- 
ey is heaviest and will eventually, if it does 
not now, command the highest price in the 
market. 
Gleanings came to hand on the 3rd aud is full of 
valuables. 1 notice you advise feeding sugar immedi- 
ately for winter use. 1 intend to winter on sugar but 
what shall i do? Nearly our best honey season is 
coming vet. Goldeu rod and Iron weed are our best, 
honev plants alter June. If the weather is favorable 
will t have to lose the crop or can 1 wait two weeks 
longer to feed ? If it should not be settled up until too 
cold weather could I not take them in a warm room 
to seal it? A. T. Wkipnek, Bigler, Pin 
We certainly would not want to lose any 
yield of honev that might come any time when 
bees could gather it. We know of no plan ex- 
cept the one given on page 108 last month viz : 
make them store the late honey in empty combs 
placed on both sides of the central combs con- 
