1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



595 



weather being warm, and the force of bees 

 strong, the queen is soon forced up into the 

 second story, the bees gluing the two bodies 

 together so tightly that there is no crack 

 from the bottom to the top. The hive is 

 carried into the cellar in the fall in just this 

 way. Heavy? Yes, almost as heavy as a 

 house. 



We winter the colonies thus in the two 

 bodies glued together. When they are car- 

 ried out in the spring they have an abun- 

 dance of stores and jilenty of bees. No cold 

 air gets in at the joint b . tween the bodies, 

 because there is no crack. I find that s^ich 

 colonies are the equal of those in twelve- 

 frame hives for the honey-flow; however, 

 the larger body is more satisfactory, and it 

 is handier. In view of this, as I said before, 

 1 think I would choose the twelve-frame 

 size were I starting with bees anew; but if 

 one has eight-frame hives he can get strong 

 colonies if they are managed as above de- 

 scribed. A single body of eight or ten 

 frames is not large enough for the average 

 queen; but the twelve-frame hive furnishes 

 capacity enough, except in rare instances. 



Randolph, N. Y. 



RAISING AND SELLING EXTRACTED 

 HONEY. 



BY C. A. BUNCH. 



For the last twelve or fifteen years I have 

 been trying to produce fine table honey, and 

 I thinli that I have been successful. We 

 extract the white honey about the last* of 

 •July, and store it in tanks which hold 1500 

 lbs. each. We usually sell all the light hon- 

 ey soon after it is off the hives, except about 

 1000 lbs., which we keep to mix with our 

 light-amber fall honey, which is largely 

 from the touch-me-not. Our ripe basswood- 

 clover honey is a ready seller; and the clo- 

 ver, basswood, and fall honey mixed make 

 a blend that sell«i for the same price as the 

 light honey. We extract the fall honey 

 about the 15th of September. We got our 

 first crop of honey-dew last season, and we 

 sold it to a bakery for 3>^ cts. a pound. We 

 sell most of our honey direct to the consum- 

 er, my son and myself being the salesmen. 



For the grocery trade we usually buy from 

 oOO to 800 one-pound square bottles with 

 corks. We get 15 cts. each for these bottles. 

 By this plan we keep our name before the 

 public. The bulk of the crop is sold in nine- 

 pound friction-top tin pails at $1.00 each, 

 and also in one-quart Economic glass jars 

 at 45 cts. each. We sell both the nine-pound 

 pails and the quart jars direct to the con- 

 sumer. 



We have a one-horse wagon, with a board 

 tacked on each side of the box, which reads, 

 "Honey for Sale." Jn the city my son 

 sells direct from the wagon while I visit the 

 meat markets, express offices, barber-shops, 

 clothing-stores, etc., with the large packages. 

 We usually make another trip with bottled 

 honey only, for the grocery sales. 



My son and I made two trips to the city, 

 each of which took a day's time. In all Me 

 sold 83 nine-pound pails, for which we re- 

 ceived $83.00, and 46 quart glass jars for 

 $20.70, the whole amount received being 

 $103.70. We think this is far better than 

 buying the square 60-pound tin cans and 

 selling the honey at 8)4 cts. a pound. We 

 live in the country, and sell produce; and 

 my son usually takes the $1.00 pails right 

 along with him, and he sells from one to 

 five each day. 



Lakeville, Ind. 



BEE-KEEPING IN ALABAMA. 



The Possibilities of a New Part of the Country. 



BY ERNEST RANDALL. 



I started out last February by buying one 

 swarm. I have divided, until now I have 

 seven, all doing nicely. I use Danzenbaker 

 hives. I also bought ten colonies six miles 

 west of me, and now have thirteen there. 



I am in the southwest corner of Alabama, 

 six miles from the coast. I believe this 

 will be a bee country in time. We have 

 large titi swamps here that yield a large 

 amount of honey early in the season. Then 

 comes gallberry ; and the bay-trees along all 

 the streams bloom for several weeks; and 

 now our clover will blossom till November. 

 There will also be several hundred acres of 

 oranges set out this winter. They will be 

 four miles from here. We also have black- 

 berries in all the swamjis. The country is 

 thinly settled as yet, but it is settling up 

 fast by northern people. 



I have a lot to learn; but some of the dif- 

 ficulties of the North, like wintering and 

 spring feeding, will not worry us here, 

 where bees fly every week in the year. 



Grand Bay, Ala., July 23. 



Sweet Clover in Washington. 



This is an unusual season — very cloudy all spring 

 until July 4; no lack of honey when it was clear for 

 bees to gather it. The best honey-producers at 

 that time were willows and a water-plant that 

 grows best in two feet of stagnant water. After the 

 Fourth comes alsike, which did well this year, out- 

 doing the small white clover. Sweet clover will 

 grow here on the dry spots of ground. It will nev- 

 er be a pest here if cattle can get near it, for they 

 go for it in preference to other grasses or vegeta- 

 bles. They do not have to learn to eat It — not rnuc/i 

 — nor to be starved to it either. 



1 sowed a small piece of it in front of my house by 

 the roadside. It did little more the first year than 

 come up and be seen. The second spring it came up 

 nicely, growing all right till the cows came along 

 and chewed it down close to the ground. I intend- 

 ed to save a few plants by throwing an old Scotch 

 harrow over a few shoots that failed, but the cattle 

 ■'cropped it off" between the bars and killed it 

 out. From my point of view the reason why cattle 

 do not eat it in the East is because, under the cli- 

 mate and soil conditions there, it is seasoned too 

 strong for their palate — a case of too much " pep- 

 per," if you like to call it so. Mix it with other 

 grasses in the hay, and it will part with some of the 

 " cumarin " and improve the other. 



Lowell, Wash., Aug. 13. Wm. Belshaw. 



