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36

GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE.

ADVANTAGE TO

INTRODUCE ITALIANS
IS IT AN
AMONG BLACKS, PAYING THEM NO ATTENTION?
Do you think it a good plan to add a few stands of

Italians to the apiary, all the others being blacks?

into the common kind?

was supposed to have contained Paris green. If I am correct, they warmed the cages over the stove for some purpose, and the fumes from the Paris green permeated the wood Will the blacks, in a short time, run the Italians out G. G. KENYON. and candy, so as to kill every bee that was tried, very soon after being put into the Central Square, Oswego Co., N. Y., Dec. 15, 1880. cages. We have discontinued the tinned I should consider any admixture of the wire cloth, because it is too bright for the eyes in trying to see the bees through the Italian blood an advantage, and I do not meshes. The best thing we have found is think the Italian blood would be apt to run the blued wire cloth. This is so dark, the out, from the fact that almost all the bees in meshes so large, and the wire so fine, that the forest are now getting to be more or we can see the bees almost as well as if noth-less Italianized; and some of the prettiest ing intervened at all, to cut off the view. marked Italians I have ever found have This is the same wire cloth as that used for come from bee-trees in the woods. Unless the blued-wire dish-covers. At present, it you take pains to rear queens, or get queencan not well be obtained at less than about cells from your Italian stocks, the work of 5c per square foot, while the painted is only Italianizing would go on slowly; and if the blacks greatly outnumbered the Italians, and 34c per square foot. all were left to swarm naturally, the Italian blood might run out entirely. Inasmuch, however, as Italians often gather enough to survive the winter where blacks would starve, the chances are greatly in favor of the Italians running out the blacks, in the course of time.

NUMBER OF STOCKS THAT CAN BE KEPT PROFITABLY

IN ONE LOCALITY.

I have about 60 swarms of bees, mostly Italians, and I have them scattered in 4 places, and desire to know how many are profitable to keep in one place, and how many will thrive in the area of their flight. It has been not much more than starve the past season in this part of our State. The Italians have proved their superiority as honey-gatherers in most instances, but the honey harvest is quite small.

AMBER CANE.

Just at this time there is quite an excitement upon the subject of raising Amber cane for sugar and syrup. Some persons have experimented quite largely, and produced a very nice article. Now, I desire to ask, through GLEANINGS (if any of your contributors have experience), how an apiary would flourish near a mill where this cane is ground and made into syrup, or how a sugar manufactory and apiary would be likely to work in proximity to each other. An answer through GLEANINGS Would be gladly received. How would this syrup answer to feed bees? This Amber cane is not the old sorghum, but seems much superior in every respect.

"FAIR" TREATMENT.

We obtained the first premium on our honey at the Bradford Co. fair, probably one of the largest fairs ever held in this part of the State.

BELA COGSWELL.

Silvara, Bradford Co., Pa., Nov. 22, 1880. Locations differ; but, on an average, it is found that about 100 are as many as it is well to keep in one place, where honey is the object. If one is rearing queens, he may keep as many as three, four, or even 500, in one apiary; but, of course, he will have to feed more than if they were scattered more widely. If it were not for the advantage of having all your bees right under your eye and hand, I presume more honey would be obtained by scattering them in apiaries of not over 50 each, and as much as four or five miles apart.-Early-Amber sugar-cane has been pretty fully discussed and reported on in our last year's volume. At times, the bees trouble the sorghum mills, and at other times they do not. I believe no trouble has been experienced where proper precautions have been taken to keep the bees out of the syrup when they were not getting stores from other sources. If a nice article, it is as safe for feeding bees as cane sugar.

PREPARED PAPER FOR THE BASE OF COMB FOUN-
DATION.

As there is a lull in business just at the present moment (although I am liable at any moment to be called on to show dress goods, weigh out groceries, fit a pair of stoga boots to a customer, or wait on the post-office), I thought I would drop you a few lines in regard to your observations on paper sepabees cluster in boxes more readily, we think, with rators, and paper as base for comb foundation. The paper than tin separators; and our experience is, they do not attach wax to the paper as much as to tin. Our prepared paper does not absorb any of the wax as does a wood base; and, as the paper forms the base, almost all of the wax is placed in sides or contour of cells, thus saving the bees much labor. It will not sag nor crack while extracting; and if I succeed in making it a success, I think it will be the "boss" for shipment.

Bees are very quiet, with fair prospect of a long J. E. MOORE. winter.

Byron, N. Y., Dec. 13, 1880.

Be not weary in well doing, friend M. The trouble is not with paper and wood for fdn., that they absorb the wax, but that the bees are obliged to pile up wax on them, as it were, to get the proper shape for the base of the cell. This same objection holds good for any material that leaves a flat base to the cell. If you will weigh a piece of finished comb with a paper or wood base, and compare it with the natural-wax base, you will see the amount of wax that is wasted; or take such a comb and scrape the cells off, and then you will find the ridges of wax that have been saved by a convex and concave wax base. Wood and paper bases are a success, without doubt, only in this one particular: they are awfully expensive, when we consider the wax that is used by the bees in making them.

I write you in regard to Alsike clover. Is it a clover that will stand pasturing with cattle and sheep, and is it as good as our common red clover? I want to seed 60 acres in the spring with clover for

pasturing purposes. I have had considerable ex-
perience with the common; can't say it is very good,
especially if it is too dry.
LEE WARNER.

Allison, Ill., Dec. 8, 1880.

Here is an answer to the above by "Neighbor H.":

If your land is a rich, black, damp, or sandy soil, II know of nothing that will produce more pasture than Alsike clover. I think it would thrive on the prairies of the west (will some one report?) I would not recommend it for a dry clay soil, though it is said to grow luxuriantly on the Green Mountains of Vermont. If you are seeding for pasture alone, I would mix the common white clover, about onesixth part white, with the Alsike, and you will have bee pasture, or any other kind that will suit.

BEES THAT WON'T ACCEPT A QUEEN.

During the past summer I endeavored to introduce a queen to a hybrid colony of bees. I followed instructions in A BC; released her every 48 hours for 22 days, before the bees would permit her freedom. She commenced laying in a few days. In 6 days thereafter, the bees commenced building queen-cells; as soon as they were capped over, I destroyed them. In a short time they repeated the operation; I again destroyed the cells, but they were determined to outwit me, and so I repeated these operations. I then let them have their way. In due time the cells were capped, and within 4 days after capping the cells they killed the queen. The queen was a nice one, and a good layer.

Do bees act in this way often? If so, how can we tell when we have a queen introduced? WM. PARMALEE:

Bean Blossom, Ind., Dec. 8, 1880.

on. I cut the tree, and got them back home the next day. I fed them for eight days on melted sugar, and the eighth day they had their hive full.

I commenced on 3 swarms the 10th of May, and now I have 11 swarms with the 3 old ones, and 2 in the woods, making in all 13 swarms. The last swarm saved came out Aug. 23.

I did not aim to get any surplus honey this year, as I was after bees. GILBERT SUMME. Bringhurst, Carroll Co., Ind., Dec. 11, 1880. It seems to me, friend S., I should hardly advise feeding new swarms, because the bees seldom swarm unless they are getting honey from the fields pretty freely; but as you succeeded well by feeding, it may be all right. My experience has been, that feeding bees when honey is to be had, just makes them stay at home, and they very often fail to get as much out of a feeder as their comrades who are not thus fussed with get from the fields a mile or so away.

MILLERS ON THE SPIDER PLANTS, ETC.

I am a subscriber to GLEANINGS, and also have your A B C book. I have gained a great deal of knowledge from them. I had been keeping bees for fifteen years in the old box hives, but never got as much honey from 6 hives as I have from one colony in the Langstroth, with Italians, or, rather, hybrids. I purchased a dollar queen last season, and am Italianizing. I took 90 lbs. from one colony and 60 from another this last season, though I think the past season has been a poor one. I prize the Spider plant very highly. I could see the drops of honey on it early in the morning, though I had to fight the milthousands of them. I burn them with a torch of ler and the taripin bug every night. There are pine, at dark.

J. D. COOPER.

This was one of the kind of stocks I mention in our directions, that won't accept a queen at all. I have estimated that we find such a colony about one time in a hundred. Travellers' Rest, Grenville Co., S. C., Nov. 29, 1880. You did the very best you could, I believe, I too, friend C., have noticed the great unless it was to have kept on destroying the moths on the Spider plants in the night; cells until your queen had some bees of her and as I saw them, by the light of the lamp, own hatched, and then she would have been fill their great bodies with the sparkling necsafe. When we meet a colony of bees like tar, while they buzzed about in such numthis, all attempts to introduce à queen by let-bers as to make it seem probable that not a ting the bees liberate them themselves, would be throwing queens away; and this is why I can not think it well to advise any style of cage embracing such a plan.

ADAMS' HORSE-POWER; HOME-MADE ONES, ETC.

I see a good deal about the Adams horse-power (see p. 393, Dec. No., 1878, and Jan. and Feb. Nos., 1880), that it won't work. I made me one last January, and I have used it ever since. I am not much of a carpenter, but I built that myself. I run a lathe with it; the wheel is 14 ft. in diameter, which is rather small, but does well, as I have proved by running it nearly every day since starting, and I make saw-arbors cheaper than the most of your readers. I make mine of wood, by screwing a piece of wood to the arbor of the lathe, and put a saw on that, not using the tail of the lathe at all. I don't get much room from the lathe head, but make my hives on it very well. H. L. B.

Palenville, Greene Co., N. Y., Dec. 14, 1880.

FEEDING NEW SWARMS, ETC. My bees, 3 hives in number, I commenced dividing the 15th of May. I divided till I got four, and then they began to swarm; the third swarm went to the woods, I suppose because they had nothing to store

sip could be left for the bees by morning, I too, thought of trying some plan to destroy them; but the only plan I could think of was to raise a field large enough so that bees and millers both could have a plenty. Perhaps your plan is cheapest, however; but somehow I rather dislike to lure the poor fellows with such a tempting floral feast, and then burn them to death.

A "PARODY" ON WINTER-AND BLACK QUEENS. The flowery months of summer have come and gone, and all nature is bound up in the iron grasp of winter, and the hum of the honey-bee is silent in the retirement of their waxen home, and the jingle of the merry sleigh-bell is the order of the day. I think it would be a good time to "pop the question," Where did my black queen come from? On the 28th day of May last, I had a very fine hive of Italian bees; and, to keep them from running away in swarming, I divided them, putting the new swarm in a hive with comb where a black swarm had died about six weeks before. Three days after they had been put into their hive I opened them up, and found them all right and filling up with eggs. I thought I was getting on lovely; but, to my surprise, when the young bees came out they were all

38

GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE.

black; and in the meantime I had raised two queens
from it which also proved to be black. Could it be
possible that a queen would live that length of time
alone among empty combs? There was no new
swarm at the time. I did not see the queen when
bive till September, when I found a dead queen ly
ing in front of it. Shortly after, I had bees of a dif-
ferent color. My bees came out very well this
spring, considering the condition they were in the
fall previous. Most of them are very light. Six of
them died from starvation, leaving 23 alive. About
one-third of them did not swarm this summer. I
have 43 this fall, mostly in very good condition.
One-half of them will average 80 lbs. each, and I have
taken 300 lbs. of box honey. I keep them in a cellar,
ranging from 25 to 50 degrees.
FRANCIS GRAHAM.
Delhi, Delaware Co., N. Y., Dec. 15, 1880.

they were divided. There was no change in the old

we are.

Why, friend G., I am really ashamed of you. Your "parody" on winter was very fair if you "hadn't went and gone" and upset it all in such an out-of-place way, and right before all this august company too. Just take a look at us,-sober, staid, and No wonder you respectable as turned it off, and wanted to know wliere your black queen came from. So far as I can see, the black queen must have come from some other hive, and got in there by accident. Did not a small swarm of blacks unite with them, shortly after your division? It would seem such must have been the case, if you found freshly laid eggs within three days. The change in September I should explain by saying the queen was superseded, and her daughter had met an Italian drone, and thus produced Italians. other explanation would be, that they had two queens in the hive all this time; but that is quite improbable. A queen would live in a hive alone without bees, scarcely

24 hours.

NOT "BLASTED HOPES" AFTER ALL.

An

We expected to go into Blasted Hopes this year, but we had quite a "boom" during the fall months. We took off all the surplus the latter part of July, which amounted to but little. Upon examining them again, about three or four weeks ago, we found the hives to contain from 25 to 65 lbs. of very nice honey, and hence we feel encouraged to persevere. Where the honey came from is a mystery to me. There was no buckwheat within two miles of us, and, besides, the honey is much lighter colored and better flavored than that obtained from buckwheat. M. C. STEVENS.

LaFayette, Ind, Nov. 20, 1880.

PLANER SAWS.

The planer saw I got of you last week cut very nicely, but is entirely too slow. I got it for cutting off sections so they would do without planing. I do not like to buy a thing and then return it unless the person I bought of is perfectly willing to take back again; if you are, please tell me what you will allow me for it in trade; I do not want you to take it back at the price I paid you for it, but am willing to T. FOOTER. lose something for your trouble.

Cumberland, Md., Dec. 13, 1880.

The above seems to be the general verdict, that they cut too slowly, and we have taken

back nearly every one we have sold. They
are also quite difficult to file, compared with
the common saws; but in spite of these two
objections, there are many places where a
planer can not be used, where a planer saw
comes in beautifully, and on this account
Mr. Gray says he would not think of run-
ning a bee-hive factory without at least one
on hand. In regard to taking goods back:
I am always glad to take back any staple
goods that are in good order, you paying all
Goods made expressly to
expenses both ways, where it will be an ac-
commodation.
your order would be of no use to us. I make
no charge for trouble.

A GOOD SUGGESTION ON INTRODUCING QUEENS, ETC.
My bees did very well as to honey this year, al-

though I had but one swarm from 13 stocks, and lost
the parent hive. It become queenless after the
swarm left it, and, being in a box hive, I did not find
it out until it was too late to save it by transferring.
I made 3 stocks by dividing; have now 15–12 in Sim-
plicity hives, 3 in box hives; were all blacks until
August. I got 3 untested queens of W. P. Hender-
son, of which I lost one in introducing, saved the
other two, then sent for three more and safely in-
troduced all of them. They are all the Italians that
are near here. I have never showed them to any
one that had ever seen any before. The plan I suc-
ceeded with the best in introducing, was to feed well
while the queen was in the cage; then when
to release her I poured about a gill of strained honey
along on the tops of the frames, and when every bee
in the hive got his "bill" into it, I let the queen out,

went

and she ran down on the combs, and I suppose she
went all through the hive before she was noticed, as
I could not find the bees paying any more attention
born." My idea of it is, that by running through
to her than if she had been "native to the manor
the hive she gets the scent of all the rest, and is ac-
cepted as a matter of course.
Fredonia, Ky., Dec. 18, 1880.

J. L. BUGG.

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GOOD REPORT FROM RED CLOVER. As 1880 is coming to a close, I will hand in my re The season opened about ten days earlier port. than last season. The yield from fruit-bloom was When the best that we have had for a long time. the locust was in bloom, bees commenced swarming; we had several swarms during locust-bloom. Our hopes were then high, but they were soon to be blasted; for white clover was an entire failure in honey, and almost in bloom. Basswood furnished honey enough to start brood-rearing. The 20th of July I had a report ready for Blasted Hopes. Hark!

comes *

what does that hum of joy mean? why, honey from somewhere, and I must find out from whence it * from red clover! and how they do work! August 10th, still at work, and one hive has sent out a rousing swarm. I gave them 4 combs, containing brood in all stages; 4 frames filled with fdn., and 2 empty frames, and also 48 one-pound boxes. August 20th, still hard at work on iron-weed, boneset, goldenrod, and buckwheat. September 10th, Jack Frost settled the business on short notice. Result: 12 hives last spring, 22 at present, with abundant supplies for winter, with about 300 lbs. surplus. My August swarm filled ten American frames and 20 one-pound sections. November 19th, bees all in good winter trim, I think. This morning the thermometer indicated 10° below zero. I peeped into a hive, and found the outside of a cluster moving about, and concluded I have them in very good shape. I will tell you next spring how I succeeded in wintering them, and how many section boxes I

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off the tare, much the same as the Family Favorite scales, and a small screw just underneath this quickly adjusts the scales, if it ever gets out of adjustnient. These scales are very nicely made, and I do not know but they are just as reliable as a beam scale, although there was a prejudice against them before the recent great improvements were made. The screw mentioned will take off tare to the amount of 25 lbs., and the makers say they can make them to take off still more, show just the weight of the bees and honey if desired; so you see we can set the dial to if need be.

of an article weighing 150 lbs., for the 25 lbs. By a little figuring, you can get the weight tare will make a little over that amount; but of course the pointer will not point it out as readily as it does any thing less than 128 lbs. The scale can not be injured by an overstrain, because the platform strikes the castings after it has been loaded down to the 150 lbs. or thereabouts I have mentioned. The smallest divisions on the dial are lbs.; but

A SCALE THAT WILL TAKE A COMMON with practice we can get at even 2 oz. pretty HIVE, AND REGISTER THE

I

AILY YIELD.

TOLD you last month that I had under way a scale that I thought would meet all requirements. It was made by our great scale man, Chatillon, and will weigh from lb. up to 128 lbs. One of them is now in the office, and, by setting it on the floor, we can weigh the girls (the most of them) as fast as they can step on and step off from the platform. Of course, it will weigh boys too, providing they do not weigh over 128 lbs. In

accurately, so it will answer for all practical purposes for weighing honey. As the whole imachine is only 33 lbs. in weight, it can be readily lifted by its convenient handles from floor to counter, and vice versa, as occasion may require.

There is a dial and pointer on each side, so if you are in any part of the apiary, or even off quite a distance, you can tell at a glance what the bees are doing. Now, as these scales cost me $11.50 at the factory, I can not well sell them, after paying freights, for less than $14.00, and I believe the usual price

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fact, it will exactly weigh me with coat and hat off, as I work at the type-writer. Where a great many things are to be weighed, such as hives of bees, or boxes of honey, etc., it will weigh them as fast as we can readily set the weights down with a book and pencil. Above, we give a cut of the same.

The scale has a marble platform that can be used, when not wanted in the apiary, to set a hive on. This marble slab is neat and convenient; for if you let a little honey drip on it, it can be quickly cleaned with a damp cloth; also in weighing any kinds of food or vegetables, you will not need to get a paper to lay on first, to keep the edibles from being soiled. A screw at the left of the dial takes

is $15.00. This sum is quite an item, I know, especially for those of us who are in the Blasted Hopes department; and if they were to be used for no other purpose than to set a hive of bees on in the summer time, I should hardly feel like recommending them; but, my friends, I do not believe there is one of you but would save a great part of the price of this scale, if you made it a point to measure and weigh every bit of merchandise you purchase during the year, and insist on having full weight and measure every time. I want you to do the same with me, and I expect to do the same with you. Let us check each other, and have every thing right every time.

40

GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE.

Ladies' Department.

W

E started bee-keeping only last spring, with one colony, and now we have three, and had about 100 lbs. of extracted honey. We feel very much encouraged with our bee-keeping, hoping we shall be able to winter our bees all right. MRS. R. BANGHAM.

Windsor, Ont., Can., Dec. 9, 1880.

NOT BLASTED HOPES (?) Guess you wonder where I have been all this time. Well, we are a large family, and we all do like sweet very much; and so, instead of selling any to get money to buy an extractor, or even keeping any honey on hand to feed in a scarce time, we "just ate all we had." I would here remark, that in three months I increased 9 to 19 good swarms; but I had no smoker, and no money to buy; the bees were mostly hybrid, and stung me rather badly. I wanted to earn some money, and saw no way of doing it with the bees. Having no extractor, no surplus boxes, no money, and being a poor carpenter, I just opened a private school, and now have the public school of this place. My experiment was not "blasted hopes," by any means, because I knew if we sold nothing we would have no income. The poor bees have all perished but 2 colonies; one of them had my pet queen, but she's gone. She was no imported one, but I thought as much of her, I think, as if she had been. Please excuse my haste; but, being "school marm," I have to be careful how I spend CLARA SLAUGH. time in writing letters.

Daytona, Volusia Co., Fla., Dec. 20, 1880. I think it was a "tip top" idea, your turning "school marm, "friend Clara; but I do not quite see my way clear to approve of your course of letting the bees starve. Even if it was fun for you," (and it wasn't fun either, was it?) it was death to them. You won't do so any more, will you, even if I do stop and not scold another word?

66

Blasted Hopes,

Or Letters from Those Who Have Made
Bee Culture a Failure.

showed a gain of 79 lbs." Hurrah for Wisconsin!
This is the land that floweth with-with-that flow-
eth with honey. Well, hold on. I guess I have got
off the track. I started out to furnish you subjects
for Blasted Hopes; but the above don't look much
as though their hopes were blasted. I hate to do it:
it is very humiliating; but then, I will, and here it
goes: In the township of Fayette, LaFayette Co.,
State of Wisconsin, there are about 30 persons who
keep bees. They have all the way from one colony
to 75. There were, last spring, about 350 stands of
bees in the township, mostly blacks, and kept most-
ly in the old box hives. Some are beginning to use
the frame hives, and are Italianizing their bees.
From these 350 colonies, I think I can safely say that
there has not been 700 lbs. of surplus honey taken
this season; that is an average of only 2 lbs. to the
hive. There has been but very little increase. I
predict that there will not be more than two-thirds
as many bees in this vicinity next spring as there
was last. The past has been the poorest season for
honey for many years; there was but very little
white clover, which is the main dependence for
honey here. Notwithstanding this drawback, some
of our bee-keepers feel quite hopeful, trusting that
their luck will change, while others feel like giving
up the business in disgust.

Now, in conclusion, I wish to say that my hopes
are not blasted. I do not keep bees alone for profit,
but for amusement. I like to handle and fuss with
the little pets; and yet I should like to have them
pay expenses and furnish what honey we want for
Last spring I had 20 stands; increased
our own use.
to 35; bought two queens of you with 2 lbs. of bees,
from which I built up 2 very good stocks. My bees
are all in the cellar. I have 8 Italians, 29 blacks. I
got about 40 lbs. of honey in 1-lb. sections from one
hive, and not more than 40 or 50 lbs. from all the
DR. C. ABRAHAM.
others together. The most of my bees are in Sim-
plicity hives.

Fayette, Wis., Dec. 11, 1830.

FEEDING COMB HONEY.

I believe GLEANINGS to be a safe investment. My bees have done no good this year. I am feeding them nice comb honey at 15c. per lb.

GEORGE G. WADDELL. Troy, Doniphan Cɔ., Kan., Dec. 15, 1880.

I would not do it, friend W. I am fully satisfied that a like weight of granulated sugar syrup will keep the bees longer than GR RIEND NOVICE:-Should you run short of sub-honey, and, as a general thing, will prove 12-5 lbs. of syrup as thick as honey; and jects for Blasted Hopes, I can furnish you with healthier besides, 1 lb. of sugar will make as the sugar is now but 11c per lb., the more a big batch from this locality, right from the State of Wisconsin, from which State you have pub-wholesome syrup will cost but little more lished some of the most flattering reports of honey than half of what the honey will sell for in yield for the season; for instance, the report of the market. Frank McNay, in Nov. GLEANINGS, who reports 4700 lbs. of surplus honey from 44 colonies-an average of 106 lbs. and over, per colony. Then there are the reports of neighbor H. V. Train and C. H. G., of Mansen, Juneau Co., and Tibbets, of Downsville. These are all "wallopers." In the Oct. No. we have the report of our friend Morgan, "the ABC child that grew so fast," from Arcadia, who reports that there was one continuous flow of honey from May until the time he wrote, Sept. 3d, and still it continued to flow. It flowed so fast that the bees built combs on the outside of their hives, and stored honey under projections of hives in large quantities. "A swarm hived July 15th, and weighed July 31st,

My bees nearly all died last winter. I lost 70, out of 85 stands. The season was a very bad one for bees; a great scarcity of honey, and my health was bad all I have 15 summer and winter, consequently, bees were not D. NEWELL. cared for, and through neglect they died. stands left.

Phillipstown, Ills., Nov. 29, 1880.

The old saying, "In trouble to be troubled is to have your trouble doubled," seems to be literally true in your case, friend N. It seems to be a uniform report from the friends, that where their bees have not had the proper care, from any cause whatever,

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