582 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



foot under the lower en<\ of the pitman, and yet es- 

 cape with badly jyinched Instead of crushed toes. 



MY REPORT. 



Two or three weeks ago the editor of one of our 

 county papers, while driving throug-h the country, 

 called upon, chatted with, and quizzed me a tew 

 minutes, and the next issue of his paper contained 

 the following: — 



" Mr. W. Z. Hutchinson, of Rf^gersville, who a 

 year or two ago wrote for publication in the Ghihc a 

 series of exceedingly interesting articles upon bee 

 culture, gives us the following in relation to his ope- 

 rations in that line the present season. He com- 

 menced the season with 25 swarms of bees, and 

 closes with 6.5 swarms, all having sprung from the 

 original 25, and all supplied with sufficient honey to 

 winter them. He has sold 528 Italian queen-bees, at 

 an average price of 7 shillings each; 800 lbs. of light 

 honey at an average price of 14 cts. a pound, and 500 

 lbs. of dark honey at an average price of 11 cents a 

 pound. Estimating the bees that he now has on 

 hand at f 5.00 per colony, Mr. H. has, the present sea- 

 son, received from his bees, in clear profits, the 

 snug little sum of $050 — exactly $2(5.00 per colony. 

 We have strong hopes of inducing Mr. Hutchinson 

 to prepare a paper on the subject of bees and honey, 

 to be read at the winter meeting of the Stare Horti- 

 cultural Society, to be held here in December." 



FROM 3 TO 30 IN ONE SEASON. 



I started last spring with the determination to in- 

 crease 3 colonies to 50, and, by furnishing the new 

 colonies with laying queens, and supplying the old 

 colonies with empty comb or comb fdn. in place of 

 the combs of honej' and brood that were removed 

 in making up new colonies, and had, upon the open- 

 ing of the buckwheat-honey harvest, increased them 

 to 30, when somebody carried off all of my empty 

 hives. Now, don't be alarmed: the hives were not 

 stolen. Last spring I had in my possession 25 empty 

 hives belonging to a bee-keeper living a few miles 

 distant, who gave me every assurance that he would 

 not need the hives the present season, and that I 

 was perfectly welcome to use them. About the mid- 

 dle of August he called upon me and said that his 

 bees had increased altogether beyond his expecta- 

 tions, and that he would be obliged to have the 

 hives. Of course, I let him have them : but it put an 

 end to ray " increase experiment." As my time was 

 wholly occupied in the apiary, not a minute could I 

 spare for hive-making. The 30 colonies remained 

 undisturbed, and became very strong in numbers, 

 and heavy with honey. Perhaps it is all for the best. 

 W. z. Hutchinson. 



Rogersville, Genesee Co., Mich.. Nov. 15, 1882. 



Your invention to avoid pinched toes is 

 quite an important one, friend II. In foot- 

 power printing-presses, and other similar 

 machines, the same thing is accomplished 

 by having the pitman turned into a hook at 

 its upper end, and this hook catches over the 

 cranlc or cranks. If any thing gets under 

 the treadle, the pitman simply unhooks— It 

 seems to be quite the fashion nowadays for 

 both the l)ees and their keeper to see how 

 many can be made from a few, as this num- 

 ber of our journal abundantly testifies. Had 

 you not run out of hives, I presume you 

 ■would have easily doubled the 30, and so 

 made 60 from three. Am I right, friend H.V 

 Well, if you winter the 30, I presume that 

 will be much better than to have had 60 and 

 lost half ; so, now, let us see you winter 

 them 



THE IWOST EXTKAORDINARY RESULT 

 YET. 



ONE COLONY AND A NUCLEUS INCREASED TO ;^7, 



OAVE 1662 LBS. OF HONEY, AND THREE SWARMS 



RAN AWAY BESIDES. 



f 



WILL give you some of my success in handling 

 bees this summer. Last May, a year ago, I 

 "^ b(. light an Italian queen of you, and in getting 

 it here it was crippled Svj it died, and you sent me an- 

 other, and from this queen I built one strong colony 

 and one nucleus during the summer, and the nucleus 

 had only about one pint of bees when they went in- 

 to winter quarters (as the summer was very poor 

 for bees here), but I brought them through all r'ght, 

 having to feed the nucleus, and they commenced 

 swarming April 8ih, and from those two colonies I 

 now have 37 stands of Italians, and I let three 

 swarms get away from me, making 30 stands in all 

 from the two stands. You may open your eyes at 

 such a statement, and say "bosh!" but I have the 

 bees as living witnesses, and have taken from them 

 1662 lbs. of honey. To show the contrast between 

 the blacks and Italians, I would say, that in the 

 spring I had five colonies of blacks and now I have 

 15, and gave them the same treatment. You can 

 publish this if you think it worthy a place in your 

 journal. Pend the journal, for I have tried doing 

 without it for a year, and find it up-hill business 

 when I want to know any thing, and don't know 

 where to find it. J. W. McKee. 



Southland, Camden Co., Mo., Nov.. 1882. 



I don't say " bosh " at all. friend M., but, 

 on the contrary, thank ycut for telling us of 

 it; and I congratulate you on your success. 

 We should be very glad' to have a fuller re- 

 port of the way they did it. The wliole se- 

 cret of it \vas the swarming, or commencing, 

 rather, in the fore part of April. This year 

 has given us results showing possibilities we 

 hardly dreamed of before. 



A VISIT AMONG THE BEE FOLKS 

 AROUND OBERLIN. 



SKETCHES BY E. R. ROOT. 



, EAR PAREMTS:— Last Saturday I took a gen- 

 jT) erai stroll around the immediate vicinity, to 

 visit bee friends whom I had never seen, but 

 who knew us indirectly. I had a grand good old 

 time, as you might expect. Mr. Fowls was along 

 with his team, so that we had an opportunity of see- 

 ing a great many more bee-keepers than we would 

 otherwise have done. We first went to Mr. Jump's. 

 This gentleman, as you know, has the Diamond hive, 

 after his own pattern. It possesses some good 

 features over other hives; but on the whole I do not 

 think I should like it. His hives were all arranged 

 with neatness and ordei'. numbering upward of 150. 

 A strange fact is, that his bees, with one or two ex- 

 ceptions, are all blacks, and Mr. Jump says he would 

 not have any other race. But what Interested me 

 more was his large collection of stuffed specimens, 

 including all wild species, both bird and quadruped, 

 within the surrounding district, besides many others 

 gathered from different parts of the U. S. In my 

 estimation his collection in taxidermy was much 

 more extensive and better tbaujthat contained in 

 the college museum. When you make me another 



