58 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Jan. 24, 1901. 



has a small patch of pineapple, giving from 25 to 100 bar- 

 rels of fruit annually. He will increase the acreage of 

 this fruit in the near future. 



CZ- Mr. Poppleton's wife died about five 5'ears ago. His 

 remaining family is a married daughter and her two child- 

 ren living in Florida, about 70 miles north of where Mr. 

 Poppleton's home is in Dade County : he has also an unmar- 

 ried daughter living near his old home in Iowa, taking care 

 of her aged grandfather. 



Referring to his migratory bee-keeping and methods 

 employed, Mr. Poppleton wrote us as follows: 



MIGRATOKT BEE-KEEPIXG WITH A GiSOLIXE LALXCH. 



Movinj^ bees on the water has been a favorite method since ancient 

 times wherever migratory bee-keeping was practiced. Nearly all the 

 different kinds of boats known have been in use for that purpose. Of 

 late years a favorite plan has been on li,»rhters lowed by steam-tugs. 

 These are all right if one could always secure them just when needed. 

 Some {use sailboats, which are quite cheap to use. but quite uncertain 

 and unsatisfactory. I have used both methods within the past ten 

 years, but found them faulty for the reasons given. 



About two years ago I had built for me the launch ■■ Thelma." 

 probably the first gasoline-power boat in America that was designed 

 and built especially for general apiary work, such as moving bees from 

 one location to another, carrying honey to the railroad, going from one 

 apiary to another, etc. .She is 2* feet long. i> feet S inches beam, and is 



\ Questions and Answers. ^ 



Introducing Queens— Supers on in Winter. 



1. Will it do to introduce queens during the winter 

 j months where the old ones are too old to be of any use, or 



where the queen has died and left no brood ? I am a be- 

 I ginner, have 30 colonies, and fear that there are some that 

 I need new queens. 



2. The.v are outdoors, but all have double hives packt 

 with dry leaves all around. I left the supers on all that 

 are partly tilled with combs, as I have no place to keep 

 them. Have I done right ? If not, what shall I do ? 



K.\XSAS. 



An'SWERS. — 1. Better not do anj-thing about introducing 



queens till spring. It will be very hard for you to tell now 



whether a colony has a queen or not. for there will be on 



brood in the hive in most cases, even with the best of queens, 



and you maj' lose queens by trying to introduce 



now. 



2. They are probably all right so far as the 

 bees are concerned. But if you mean you have 

 left on supers with partly tilled sections, it will 

 be rather rough on the sections. They will 

 likely be darkened too much for tirst-class sec- 

 tions. But it will be hardly wise to disturb them 

 now. 



A Question on a Honey-Deal. 



Mr. Poppleton's Gasoline Launch "Thelma." 



driven by a 3 horse-power ■• Globe " electric gasoline engine. She is 

 what is known locally as a •' Skipjack " model, giving for a boat of 

 that size a low and large floor space, some SO square feet of the latter 

 aside from the engine space. She will carry at a time about three tons 

 of honey, or about 60 colonies of bees in single-story Langstroth hives. 

 Her speed is about six miles an hour on an all-day's run. The engine- 

 power is smaller in proportion to the size of boat than any other boat 

 I know of. To have put in the next larger size of engine would have 

 cost .*300 more, first cost, and 50 percent more per mile to run. and 

 added not to exceed "35 percent to the speed. It costs about 2' j' cents 

 per mile to run for gasoline, electricity, and oil. or less than the aver- 

 age railroad fare for one person. At least 20 people can ride in the 

 boat at one time with comfort. 



The picture of the boat shown herewith was taken last summer at 

 Fort Pierce, while on my road home from Indian River Inlet with a 

 load of bees. 



The boat can also be used for pleasure-trips. Within the past 

 month a nephew and niece from Ohio were visiting me, 

 and the three of us spent nearly two weeks in cruising a hundred miles 

 down the coast and back, stopping along as we pleased, to hunt. fish, 

 view tropical scenery, etc. "O'e had a gasoline stove, cooking utensils, 

 dishes, and beds, in the boat, and made it our home while gone. 



The boat is iiuite a different model from any other heretofore in 

 these waters, but has been so generally successful for an all-purpose 

 boat that already one other has been built of the same style, and 

 others soon will be. It would be very unpleasant for me now. if I 

 should have to go back to the use of a sailboat or hired steam-tugs. 



Dade Co.. Fla., Dec. 18. 1900. O. O. Poppletos. 



"We might add in concluding this sketch of Mr. Popple- 

 ton, that we have had a personal acquaintance with him for 

 some years, and count him as one of the best in all beedom. 

 "VS'e have often tried to get him to contribute regularly to 

 the columns of the American Bee Journal, but on account 

 of his eye-trouble and general poor health he has been un- 

 able to undertake the work. 



We hope that he may be spared many years to the re- 

 maining members of his family, and to the host of bee- 

 keeping friends who appreciate his character and his efforts 

 in behalf of advanced and progressive methods in apicul- 

 ture. 



A sold to B 20 barrels of honey, B to pay 

 A prompt cash on board the cars at A's railroad 

 station. A delivered the honey at the station in 

 good condition. When the honey arrived at 

 B's station one barrel had the head knockt out, 

 and the contents all gone. B made claim on 

 the railroad company for the barrel of honey, 

 and insists on A waiting for his pay for that 

 barrel until he gets it from the railroad com- 

 pany. A insists that the honey was B's as 

 soon as it was delivered at the railroad station, 

 and that Bshould pay A for the honey, and not 

 wait for the railroad company. Who was right, 

 A or B ? In other words, if the railroad company does not 

 pay for the barrel of honey, who should be the loser? 



Subscriber. 



AxswER. — Unless there was some specific agreement to 

 the contrary, it would seem that if B was to pay cash for 

 the honey delivered on board cars at A's station, that A's 

 ownership of the honej- would end at A's station, and hav- 

 ing fulfilled his part of the contract he should be paid the 

 stipulated price, no matter what the railroad company 

 might afterward do with the honey. [As our opinion is 

 askt on this question, we would sa^- that we agree with Dr. 

 Miller's answer. — Editor.] 



Judging ttueenlessness and Winter Stores Externally— 

 Management with More than Two Stories. 



1. Is there any way of knowing from external appear- 

 ances if a colony is queenless ? 



2. What is the best way of determining if a colony has 

 sufficient winter stores ? As my hives are all of the same 

 pattern, it might be done by weighing, if known what the 

 bees weighed. Can you tell me what an average colony 

 will weigh ? 



5. How is a colon 3- run with more than two stories — a 

 body and a super ? Does the queen circulate between the 

 first and second, and a queen-excluder on top of the second, 

 and the honey stored in the third story ? Or should there 

 be an excluder on the top of the first, and honey stored in 

 the second and third ? If so, is there any advantage in it? 

 Why not use only the second story for surplus, and extract 

 as often as is necessary ? K.^^nS-^s. 



Answers. — 1. Xone so good as looking into the hive, 

 and at this time of year it may not be easy to tell them, for 

 queens are not likely to be laying now in the North. But 

 j'ou can judge something from the outside. If there comes 



