194 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



April 



bees, S queens, and 2 frames of brood of you about 

 the 1st of June, and started 2 hives. The season 

 was a poor one here last summer, but both colonies 

 filled their lower stories. In all, they gathered 

 about 100 lbs. They are doing well now. I exam- 

 ined them about 4 days ago; the weaker of thetwo 

 has Drood In three frames; the stronger has none as 

 yet. There is ajelly-factory near us where the bees 

 get stores every warm day. I believe that a few 

 colonies can be Itcpt to profit in almost any city. 

 There is one question I would like to ask you: We 

 use your chatf hives, but no division-boards; both 

 colonies cluster on the left-hand side of the hive 

 where the wind is the strongest; what is the reason? 



Fred C. Tygaud. 



Pittsburg, Pa., March 10, 1882. 



I think it onlv accident that tliey cluster 

 where they do, Friend T. 



AN OLD AMERICAN BEE-BOOK. 



I send you a little work on bees. Perhaps you 

 have seen the same work before now. I am well ac- 

 quainted with Mr. Kelsey. He is a very old man, 

 but still ieeps bees. This book was priuted two 

 years before I was born. I think he is one of our 

 oldest American bee-keepers. I think he would be 

 glad to get a copy of Gleanings. He still has box 

 hives. Ben. Franklin. 



Franklinton, Scho. Co., N. Y., Feb. 2, 1883. 



The above-mentioned book is dated 1837, 

 and was written by Francis Kelsey, Durham, 

 Greene Co.. N. Y. In it he speaks of keep- 

 ing a moth miller on some honey -comb 

 under a glass ten days. In that time she 

 produced, he thinks, as many as 500 moth 

 worms. In 22 days some of these worms 

 had produced full-grown millers. If there 

 should ever be a demand for such, couldn't 

 we raise them fast, boys ? 



FLORIDA. 



I have been spending some time in Florida, look- 

 ing up the bee business and orange-growing; the 

 latter is a big thing. I visited W. S. Hart's apiary. 

 His orange-grove is young yet, but looking well. 

 His bees arc doing well, carrying in pollen and honey. 

 One or two years from this time he will have a tine 

 place. I visited another apiary, owned by Mr. O. 

 Olson. He opened one hive, and showed me 13 

 Langstroth frames, any amount of honey; 7 of the 

 frames nearly full of brood. How is this for the 20th 

 of February? Nearly all of the hives seemed to be 

 equally strong. There are 140 hives of bees at this 

 place, which will commence swarming about the 1st 

 of March. I have seen some good locations for bees; 

 but I think this the best that I have seen. It is 

 only a small portion of Florida that is good for 

 orange-growing, and I have seen places where I 

 think bees could hardly make a living. The climate 

 here is delightful. C. F. Hopkin.s, 



New Smyrna, Fla., Feb. 21, 1882. 



REPORT FROM FLAT-RIVER APIARY. 



As I do not see many reports from this section, T 

 will send in mine for 1R81. I am one of your ABC 

 scholars, and I thought last spring my place was 

 very near the foot of the class at that, as I lost 

 about 4-5 of my bees last winter. I can not give the 

 big report that some have for the season, but I am 

 satisfied with the results. Commeuccd the season 

 (when the bees had settled down to business, about 

 the first of May) with bees in 10 hives -" two of them 



good fair swarms, the rest all light; some a mere 

 handful of bees and queen. Two of the best queen- 

 less succeeded in raising queens for themselves, 

 which I think were fertilized bj' drones wintered 

 through with a queenless colony. I had also an 

 abundance of combs saved from the wreck (thanks 

 to Gleanings, for if it had not been for that I should 

 have melted up at least half of them.) Now for re- 

 sults: I worked for increase; have 40 good swarms, 

 and extracted last year 500 lbs. of honey. 



A. L. Entrican. 

 Westville, Montcalm Co., Mich., Fob. 11, 1883. 



WHAT A queen AND ]i LB. OF BEES WILL DO, 

 STARTED THE 18TH OF JCNE. , 



Yours of the 21st is at hand. I do not think I will 

 need any queens this year, and I have no bee-keep- 

 ing neighbors who believe in Italian bees. You ask 

 me how that half-pound of bees are getting along. I 

 received the bees on the 18th of June. I put them 

 into a hive with 2 frames of comb and no brood. On 

 the iith of July the young bees were hatching, and 

 were pure Italians. By the first of September they 

 had 10 frames of brood, and by the 20th of Sept. they 

 had made 40 lbs. of comb honey, and robbed 3 hives 

 of black bees in box hives, for my neighbor. I put 

 them into winter quarters on the 20th of Oct., and 

 am feeding them now to stimulate brood-rearing. I 

 want to see how much honey they will make this 

 year. I will let you know how they do this summer. 



John Dallas. 



Sharpville, Mercer Co., Pa., Feb. If!, 1882. 



The above was sent us by friend Burridge, 

 and we do not think it particularly extraor- 

 dinary, especially if the bees robbed neigh- 

 boring hives, as stated. I would infer these 

 neighbors' hives were queenless, or badly 

 managed in some way, for the Italians are 

 not given to such work, on good strong colo- 

 nies. This report may send a good many 

 customers to friend B. ; but if it should, "I 

 hope he will be more prompt than he was 

 last season, not only in sending bees and 

 queens, but in returning the money when he 

 was unable to send them. 



TRANSFERRING IN THE NEW WAT. 



I have got some transferring to do this spring, and 

 would like to do it by the easy method recommended 

 in A B U. You say, place a Simplicity hive on top, 

 and make all perfectly tight. Now, what I want to 

 know is, whether you mean to leave no entrance to 

 Simplicity hive, except through top of the box hive. 

 I would suppose that, to stop the entrance in box 

 hive, and leave one open in Simplicity, would cause 

 them to go up sooner, as the other plan would be the 

 same as adding a second story for extracting pur- 

 poses. Would putting on hive too long before 

 swarming make any difference about bees accepting 

 it? D. S. TvLER. 



Clio, Mich., Feb. 11, 1883. 



My remarks, friend T., were with a view 

 of leaving the entrance as usual; but since 

 you suggest it, I think very likely opening 

 an entrance at the top of the old hive might 

 be instrumental in causing the bees to grad- 

 ually work entirely up into the new hive. I 

 do not think it would make much difference 

 when you put this upper hive on ; but per- 

 haps they would go up quicker, if you Avait- 

 ed until just about the time we generally 

 put on boxes. 



