740 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



away and taking a bite of sealed honey. He is 

 just two years old, and has often been found in 

 different parts of the apiary with a hive open 

 and a frame out, eating honey without smoke 

 or veil; and when asked what he was doing he 

 would say, '' Awful good honey." 



Just behind little Ives stands Mr. Atchley, 

 who has been in bad health for many years, not 

 being able to do any hard work; still, he is able 

 to help keep up the correspondence, and works 

 about the house at any thing needing to be 

 done. While he has opened but few hives this 

 year, he is thoroughly posted, and is a great 

 teacher in apiculture. You will notice his left 

 hand resting upon an A li C book, which he 

 thinks stands without an equal as an instructor 

 on bee- matters. 



The next is your humble servant, with right 

 hand hold of a type-writer, and left hand rest- 

 ing on " Doolittle on Queen rearing," to which 

 we are indebted forgiving ns the inside track 

 on raising queens on a large scale. It is useless 

 for me to try to tell you what part of the work 

 I perform, as I do some of all, going here and 

 there pointing out things to be done, then, after 

 the day has faded, I often hear the clock strike 

 eleven before I lie down, and have gone to 

 sleep with pen in hand. I looked a little care- 

 worn the morning the photo was taken, as it 

 was on the morning of July 14th, about 8 o'clock 

 (my birthday). I had been going at breakneck 

 speed to get the house set to rights before the 

 artist came. I am now 3(5 years old. 



The next person, and standing close by my 

 side, is little Rosa. She has a queen-cage in 

 her hand, and she carries queens from the apia- 

 ry to the hou'^^e, where they are fixed up for the 

 mails. While she does not take to the bees as 

 does her sister Leah, she has her own bees also, 

 and is said by Willie to have the best luck of 

 any of the children, with her queens, as she 

 seldom loses one in mating or' otherwise. 



The next is Amanda. She makes the most of 

 the queen-candy, and she has become an expert 

 at it too. as we liave lost only a very few queens 

 this year. She has bees of her own, and helps 

 at any thing that comes up. including the cook- 

 ing and housekeeping, and sometimes helps 

 Willie dip cell-cups, grafting, etc., and is a fast 

 hand at the extractor, she and Willie going 

 three miles to an outyard this year and taking 

 in one day a barrel of honey, besides doing oth- 

 er work in the yard. She is one of the best 

 bee-keepers I have; and from the correspond- 

 ence I have noticed lately from New York, I 

 am getting a little scared, as I can not afford to 

 lose one of my best bee-keepers just at this 

 stage of the game. 



The next is Napoleon, standing by the baby- 

 carriage, with a frame of bees in his hand, 

 resting it on the corner of his wheelbarrow. He 

 does nearly all the hauling, as well as attend to 

 his bees. He has raised quite a lot of queens 

 himself this year, and has now just come up 

 from his bees, and set his smoker on his wheel- 

 barrow. He can place a hive of bees on his 

 barrow and carry it to Charles, to be made into 

 nuclei, and then scatter the nuclei quickly, or 

 can do almost any thing that is to be done. He 

 is going to be a bee-man some day, if he lives, 

 notwithstanding he loves chickens. He sent to 

 Mrs. Axtell last spring, and bought him a sit- 

 ting of fine Plymouth Rock eggs; and out of 

 thirteen he has raised nine fine chickens. 



Last and least is little Thomas York, two 

 months old; and his advent into the world 

 made but little check in the queen-yards, as 

 his mamma lay on the bed and grafted 200 

 queen-cells when he was but two days old. be- 

 sides changing and recaging some queens that 

 had come in by mail. He is trying to see how 

 loud he can cry while the artist is trying to 



catch him quiet. He has good lungs, so says 

 the artist. 



Now I have given a part of the work that 

 each performs; and when any branch of the 

 work is getting behind, any or all take hold of 

 it and help up. We can all be seen around a 

 table at times, some making queen-candy, some 

 fixing cages, some dipping cells; and while 

 each one usually knows his line of work, he 

 is often called on to perform any duty that 

 comes up in the yards. 



That part of the house shown is the south- 

 west corner of the front gallery, and a portion 

 of one room, with a cluster of running rosa- 

 vines and morningglories for a background. 

 While we have bought only about GOO queens 

 this year, we are above the 4000 mark, and shall 

 likely reach .5000 this year. There has not been 

 a single day's work done in the yards by any 

 one except the family: but we hired a man to 

 transfer two days. So, dear readers, I leave 

 you to judge as to whether we have worked or 

 played. Jennie Atchley. 



Greenville, Texas, Aug. 16. 



[The following is a letter from a correspond- 

 ent who had visited the Atchley yards:] 



I have just come from Mrs. Jennie Atchley's. 

 the greatest queen-breeder in the world, and I 

 saw the boy that raises the most queens of any 

 one in the world. Willie Atchley is the best 

 and most extensive queen-breeder in the world. 

 I saw him dip his cell-cups, and saw him ex- 

 tract the larva from the comb, and place it in 

 the cells. He puts up, on an average, 150 cells 

 a day, and grafts and removes as many ripe 

 cells, besides caging a large number of queens, 

 and does other work. Mrs. Atchley has be- 

 tween 800 and 1000 hives. All are run for 

 queen-rearing. I visited all of their yards. 

 They have five out-yards and one at home. 

 They have 500 or 000 hives at home. They re- 

 ceive orders from all parts of the globe. They 

 received two ordi-rs on the lutli from New 

 Zealand and from Queensland — one for half a 

 dozen, and the other for 30 pounds' worth. You 

 ought to see little Rosa and Leah cage queens. 

 Miss Rosa is 8 and Leah (1 years old. 



Ozan, Ark. J. W. Taylor. 



EXPERIMENTS IN APICULTURE. 



SOME VALUABLE WORK DONE KY .). H. LARRA- 

 UEE, FORMER APICULTURAL EXPERIMENT- 

 ER AT THE MICHIGAN AGRICXTL- 

 TURAL COLLEGE. 



A few weeks ago we received Bulletin No. 30, 

 of the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture, containing in the latter part of it the re- 

 port of the experiments in apiculture by J. H. 

 Larrabee, at the Michigan Agricultural College. 

 We intended to make notice of it before; and 

 now having read it over, at least the apicultu- 

 ral part of it,?we have decided to publish it 

 entire, although our space is, as usual, crowded. 

 Mr. Larrabee made an excellent experimenter: 

 and we hope the department will see its way 

 clear some time to engage his services again. 



We commend the following report to the 

 careful attention of our readers: 



During the season of 1893 the branch station for 

 experimenting- in bee culture at the Michigan Ag- 

 ricultural College was continued at the expense of 

 the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Division of 

 Entomology, and of the Michigan State Experiment 

 Station. 



An effort was made to undertaken a line of experi- 

 ments closely connected witli tlie practical work of 

 the apiary. While all of the experiments under- 

 taken have not given results of practical value, 

 some have. Especially gratifying are the results 



