BEGINNING WITH BEES. 



69 



BUCKWHEAT. 



Having the hives all in readiness, five or 

 ten, as the case may be, one can, with his 

 two or three nuclei, build them up by feed- 

 ing, and then divide as recommended under 

 Nucleus and Feeding. 



If the beginner is successful thus far, he 

 may then, with some assurance, purchase of 

 his dealer one or two Italian queens, which 

 he can easily introduce to the nuclei. See 

 iNTKODUCiNG. In dividing or forming nu- 

 clei, one should, of course, give the new 

 queen he just purchased to the bees that are 

 made queenless. After he has had a little 

 more experience in watching and studying 

 bees he may then be able to do something at 

 queen-rearing. See (Queens and Queen- 

 reaking. To avoid trouble with robbers 

 he should then read very carefully the sub- 

 ject of Stings and Bobbing. Toward the 

 close of the season he should next take up 

 Wintering, as found in its alphabetical 

 order, reading this carefully; for more disas- 

 ters in apiculture result from failure to win- 

 ter bees properly than from any other cause. 



Nuclei, or, better, pounds of bees, can be 

 purchased of some of the dealers. These 

 will be placed in light shipping-boxes, and 

 usually contain .500 to 1000 bees, one or two 

 frames of brood, and a little honey. As the 

 express charges on nuclei will be double first- 

 class, it is always cheaper and better to buy 

 in pound packages, or common bees in one's 

 own vicinity where possible, and, after trans- 

 ferring, introduce Italian queens. 



BELLriiOWEB.. See Campanilla. 



BLACK BBOOD. See Diseases of Bees. 



BLACK LOCUST. See LocuST. 



BLEACHING COMB HONEY. See COMB 

 Honey. 



BOX XZIVZiS. It seems as if any de- 

 scription in a work designed to teach modern 

 apiculture would be entirely out of place ; 

 but since many have never seen any thing 

 but a movable- frame Jiive, and the old box 

 hive is occasionally referred to in various 

 portions of this work, perhaps a brief de- 

 scription should be given. 



These hives, as the name indicates, are 

 merely boxes containing neither brood- 

 frames nor any movable fixtures. They 

 usually consist of a rude rough box about a 

 foot square, and from IS to 24 inches high. 

 Through the center there would be two 

 cross-sticks, the purpose of which was to help 

 sustain the weight of the combs built in ir- 

 regular sheets within the hive. 



At the close of tlie season it was the cus- 

 tom for the apiarist to go around and "heff 



his hives. Those that were heavy were 

 marked to be brimstoned ; and those that 

 were light were left to winter over for next 

 season if they could. The bees of the first 

 named were destroyed with sulphur fumes, 

 and then the bee-bread, honey, and every 

 thing were cut out. 



In the more modern box hives there were 

 glass boxes that could be drawn out from aji 

 upper part, leaving the lower intact. In 

 this case the bees were not destroyed. In 

 any case there was no opportunity to inspect 

 combs, hunt queens, divide, or perform any 

 of the hundred and one operations of modern 

 apiculture. 



When one compares the crudity of these 

 methods vvitii those that are described in 

 this book, he sees what wonderful progress 

 has been made in apiculture. 



BB,ASSIC A. See Mustard ; also Rape ; 

 also Seven-top Turnip. 



BROOD. See Bees; also Diseases of 

 Bees. 



b.b.ood, spreading. see spreading 

 Brood. 



BOTTLING HONEY. See EXTRACTED 

 Honey ; also Peddling Honey and Can- 

 died Honey. 



BUCKUTKEAT. (Polyyomon.) This,^ 

 in certain sections, is one of the most im- 

 portant honey-plants. It is grown princi- 

 pally on the hillsides of Eastern New York 

 and Pennsjlvania, and in these localities, 

 where are thousands of acres within a ra- 

 dius of a few miles, immense quantities of 

 buckwheat honey are annually produced. 

 On one hilltop in Schoharie Co., N. Y., near 

 Gallupville,where we stood,we were told that 

 within a radius of three miles the bees had 

 access to 5000 acres of buckwheat, all of 

 which was within the range of our eyes. So 

 great is the acreage of it in New York tliat 

 anywhere from 2000 to 3000 colonies can be 

 kept in some counties ; and this means hun- 

 dreds of bee-keepers who are specialist 

 honey-growers and farmers, almost all of 

 whom keep at least a few colonies. The 

 latter class reason this way : That the grow- 

 ing of buckwheat as a grain is one of the 

 most profitable branches of farming; that 

 the nectar in the blossoms properly belongs 

 to them, and if they keep a few colonies 

 they will virtually get two crops from one 

 field — honey and the buckwheat grain. 



We have ridden a bicycle tlnough the 

 buckwheat region of New York, traveling 

 all day, without k)sing sight of buckwheat- 

 fields that seemed to cover every available 



