We do not know that we are able to give any advice in the matter. Would
not the law like many others be dropped and forgotten because no one
would enforce it? It seems to us that the great work is to educate
consumers to know _honey_ and to demand it. This is all that we have to
rely on in a great variety of goods, and that establishment that once
gets a name of dealing only in _genuine_ commodities, has its fortune
made. People are learning rapidly. If any one likes the _cheap_ honey
let them use it.
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I have given my bees some rye flour, they take it first rate, for
the last two days they have been carrying it in pretty freely. It is
bolted flour such as the bakers use. Is it as good as the unbolted
or not? I have not lost a colony yet and they all have sealed honey
enough to spring them I think, but I have commenced to feed for
brood rearing; feed syrup made of white sugar.
Now friend Novice, I want some advice. I want to adopt some other
hive than the Buckeye, but I want a two story hive that I may
procure, not box honey, but frame honey, and I want the frames in
both stories alike so I may use them interchangeably.
T. B. PARKER, Goldsboro, N. C. Feb. 1st, ’75.
The bolted flue flour, is just as good as the unbolted, except that the
bees sink down in it. If mixed with bran or sawdust it does very well.
When they can choose, bees always prefer rye and oats, to wheat flour.
Use the Langstroth frame by all means, if you are going to have a two
story hive. If you have not seen the L. frame you had better have us
send you a sample by mail. We should also use the Simplicity hives to
hold them, for then you can have both stories also, just alike, and
perfectly interchangeable. We can furnish a one story hive, frames,
quilt, and all complete for $1.75, and _two of these_ makes a complete
two story hive. We decidedly prefer the L. frames for two story, on
account of their shallowness, any of the other frames loom up so tall
when placed one above the other. We think we have ample evidence that
the Langstroth hive winters equally as well as any deeper frame in any
climate.
Our only reason for giving a preference to the Standard frame over the
Langstroth, under any circumstances, is that more than 10 L. frames,
placed side by side, make a hive inconvenient to make and inconvenient
to handle. Therefore if you are going to get your surplus _above_ the
brood combs, use the L. frame every time. The Quinby would come next to
it, as it is much the same thing on a larger scale, but the American,
Gallup, or Standard, are not suitable to be used two stories as a
general thing. Single instances ’tis true, may sometimes seem to point
otherwise, but we have _gleaned_ the above from a large number of
reports extending over several years. Any of the frames will we think,
work very well on the plan given on another page by friend Joiner, but
the last three mentioned would stand a little the most compactly.
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Do you believe a pure Queen fertilized by a black drone will produce
pure drones? and do you believe pure Queens fertilized by such
drones, will produce pure stock, and do you allow such drones in
your Apiary? What would you charge for—say 3 cards 4×5 inches each
of drone comb filled with fresh laid drone eggs from your imported
Queen, with bees enough to keep up the heat, and send by express in
May next?
GEORGE K. HUFFMAN, Effingham, Ills.
So much time has been wasted in discussing this question that it is
questionable whether it be best to hazard an opinion, until we can be
_sure_ of solving the question positively. If a black Queen could be
fertilized, _beyond mistake_, by an Italian drone, we might readily
decide the matter, for we should then have one or two banded workers,
and black drones invariably. Will those who are equal to this task, if
any such there be, please experiment and report. Will. R. King, of
Franklin, Ky., did claim to have made such an experiment, but evidence
was brought forward almost immediately, showing that his statements were
only a series of falsehoods. [See page 93, Vol. 1.] We see no reason at
present to doubt the experiments of Langstroth and Berlepsch; besides we
find Italian workers, in almost all Apiaries of black bees in our
vicinity, but the colonies producing them show only black drones.
So long as our object is honey, and we only procure Italians because
they gather _more_ honey, we cannot see that the question matters
particularly either way. Every Apiary of 50 colonies should have at
least one Imported Queen, and all colonies should be made with Queens
reared from this one. You will then have good bees in every hive without
bothering about drones at all. All Apiaries of less than 50 stocks can
have an Imported Queen’s daughter—as they cost but $1.00 each, you can
buy 4 or 5 if need be, until you get one whose workers suit you. Every
one who rears Queens _for sale_ should _certainly_ have an Imported
Queen. At the low price at which they are now offered there is no excuse
for such blundering, and if our readers would decide to patronize none
but those having _bona fide_ Imported Queen mothers, advertisers would
make haste to supply themselves. The plea that Imported Queens do not
always produce three banded workers, we think a mistake. All the reports
from Queens of the Nunn importation agree without an exception that the
workers are not only three banded, but that they are quite superior as
honey gatherers. James Bolin’s letter just at hand is a sample of one of
them.
The idea of judging a Queen by her _looks_ and granting a diploma
etc., on the strength of it, is simply ridiculous. Concerning
Imported Queens, I would say that I obtained one of friend Nunn and
if there are any better ones anywhere I would like to know it. Her
progeny and those of Queens reared from her are the very best
workers I have in my Apiary.
JAMES BOLIN, West Lodi, O. Jan. 7th, ’75.
Friend H. had better have sealed drone brood instead of eggs, it can
then be sent safely by mail without bees. We can send it at the same
price we do eggs from our Imported Queen, viz., 25c for a piece 2×3
inches. We have little faith however that the drones can be made
available.
* * * * *
I have a hot-bed and my bees are doing well in it. I have about 60
plants in it, I think they help the atmosphere a great deal.
A. N. DRAPER, Upper Alton, Ills. Feb. 1st, ’75.
* * * * *
My boy had when we came here a small box of sun-flower seeds, which
he kept as one of his playthings, last spring he accidentally spilt
them down in the garden by the fence, and, old as they were, they
came up profusely. They looked so thrifty, I took it into my head I
would transplant them. I went to work and set them all around in the
fence out of the way where there would nothing else grow to
advantage, and if you will believe me, I had an enormous crop; and
behold when they blossomed the bees went at them in earnest, and
after the bees got through with them, there were several quarts of
seed. I sold a dollar’s worth to my druggist, and the balance I fed
out to my hens, and as a writer of old has said, I found nothing so
good and nourishing for laying hens as sun-flower seeds. Then I cut
off the heads and place them near the bee hives, fill them with
sugar and water, and that suits the bees to a T. So you see I was to
no expense, and they paid well, I write this that others may be
benefitted as well as myself, by so doing.
Common sense, philosophy and religion, alike teach us to receive
with becoming reverence, all undoubted facts, whether in the natural
or spiritual world; assured that however mysterious they may appear
to us they are beautifully consistent in the sight of Him whose
“understanding is infinite.”
DR. R. HITCHCOCK, South Norwalk, Conn. Feb. 2nd.
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_ADVERTISERS’ DEPARTMENT_
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