594 



GLEANINGS IN IJEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



condition. This is not mere theory, but something 

 any one can prove tf) his or her satisfaction in one 

 year by working a few colonies on each of the two 

 plans. This seaFDn I have been working' some bees 

 five miles from home; and as the party where they 

 are helievtd that the bees should not be robbed too 

 close. 1 left the whole number of combs in these 

 ten-frame Langstroth hives, to please him. The 

 result proves just what I have said above; for after 

 a short honey-season I have about 50 pounds of 

 honey in the brood-chamber of the hive, with per- 

 haps an average of 10 pounds in the sections. If 

 these combs had been cut down to about seven, 

 and those W( II filled with brood at the commence- 

 ment of the harvest, the result would have been 

 about 45 pounds in the sections, and 15 pounds be- 

 low, had the bees been Italians; or if blacks or hy- 

 brids, 40 pounds in the sections and 5 below. 



One of the many things about the Italian bees 

 which please me is their desire to store honey in 

 the brood-chamber; for if rightly managed they 

 will give a good crop in the sections, and at the 

 same time generally have stores enough, or nearly 

 so, below to winter upon. .Just as soon as they be- 

 gin storing honey in the sections they begin storing 

 to a limited extent in the brood-chamber; and as 

 the honey-season draws toward a close they seem 

 to be on the aleit as to their own interest, and the 

 queen ceases to lay as prolificly as at first, which 

 allows of their storing the later honey in the brood- 

 combs for winter storrs, while their keeper has 

 plenty of the most salable honey as his share of the 

 season's work. With the Germans, Syrians, and 

 Carniolans, the case is different; for they continue 

 to raise brood right along at a rapid rate so long as 

 honey comes in from the field, so that, at the end of 

 the harvest, we have no honey to speak of in the 

 hives, and a host of useless consumers on hand as 

 the result of this out-of-season breeding. 



I wish to go on record as saying that one of the 

 greatest secrets of successful bee-keeping is hav- 

 ing the brood-chamber full of brood at the com- 

 mencement of the white-honey harvest. I would 

 certainly have it thus, even if I had to take all the 

 combs out of the hives but three, leaving the bees 

 but three combs below till after harvest, when I 

 would at once supersede a queen that would not 

 keep a greater number than that filled with brood 

 thrie weeks previous to the harvest. If lack of 

 brood is caused from weak colonies in the spring, 

 then I would unite all colonies which were thus 

 weak, three weeks before the honey-harvest, even 

 if I had to divide afterward, considering that I 

 would be a gainer by so doing, should I wish a 

 greater increase than this doubling would allow of. 



Borodino, N. Y., Aug. 3. G. M. Doolittle. 



Friend D., you have misunderstood us 

 this time. We had no idea of recommend- 

 ing that the space for brood in the brood- 

 chamber should be tilled with honey ; nei- 

 ther did we think of having more room in 

 the brood-chamber than is needed. You 

 know that, for some time back, 8-frame 

 hives have been taking the place of 10- 

 frame. Now, after these 8 frames are as 

 full of brood as we can manage to get them, 

 there will be some space for honey left 

 around the corners ; that is, when white 

 clover opens there is generally room to put 

 quite a little in the brood-nest without at 

 all interfering with the brood. And this 



space is usually filled before honey is stored 

 above, especially if they are Italians. Er- 

 nest made the answer you allude to ; but his 

 idea was simply this : That we should man- 

 age to get the white honey into the sections 

 as much as possible ; and in this you are in 

 perfect agreement with him. No one nowa- 

 days would recommend any method of man- 

 agement that would fill the brood-combs 

 with honey in place of eggs and brood at 

 the commencement of the season. In fact, 

 the great effort and aim all along the line 

 has been to get our clover and basswood 

 honey into the sections. When it comes time 

 for the bees to till up for winter, of course 

 we have a different matter to consider ; and 

 if we can so manage as to have only one 

 pound or less in the brood-combs, and all 

 else in the sections, all the better. But 

 with us. there will probably be a pound or 

 more scattered around near the pollen ; and, 

 of course, the pollen is to be all in the brood- 

 combs and n(>t in the sections. 



CALIFORNIA RUNAMTAY SWARMS. 



AN INTERESTING ACCOUNT OF HOW THESE SWARMS 

 WILL LOCATE IN QUEER PLACES. 



The strange homes that bees sometimes take up 

 with in California make an interesting feature of 

 study to the eastern visitor. In Los Angeles I saw a 

 large swarm busily storing honey in the cornice of a 

 large building on a principal street. Although 

 there is a fine of $50;) for keeping bees within the 

 six miles square of the city limits, yet this " hive " 

 did not seem to fear it much, and the police did not 

 arrest them in their lofty home. Perhaps it was 

 these same bees that I saw working away on the 

 ripe fruit in the stalls in a crowded street when in 

 the city the other day. Do you have city bees in 

 the East? There are more 



QUEER PLACES FOR BEES TO LIVE 



here. A man plowing a vineyard told me he 

 found a swarm in a vine, and they had quite a bit 

 of comb built. I myself have seen comb in a bush 

 where a swarm had evidently started a location, 

 but had become discouraged, and left. I have also 

 seen a swarm hanging in a bunch while some of the 

 members were bringing in pollen and depositing it 

 in the center of the mass of bees. At such times 

 they would defend their branch like a hive, and I 

 like to be careful in handling a chance swarm until 

 it is discovered whether they have located or not. 



Bees often deposit honey in the rocks in Cal- 

 ifornia. Quite often it is in almost inaccessible 

 places. Several have told me of seeing it run down 

 the rocks in hot weather. There was a newspaper 

 account, last year, of 60 tons being taken from one 

 place in the rocks. Much of this may have been 

 old honey that would bring but a low price. Per- 

 haps what would strike the eastern bee-keeper as 

 being as novel as any thing would be to find 



A DESERTED BUIL,DING ALIVE WITH BEES, 



under the shingles, in the cornice, between the 

 chimney and wall, and odd spaces wheiever they 

 could get. We once came on a large frame farm 

 building that had for occupants ten or eleven 

 swarms of varying sizes, accordicg to the fpace 

 they could get to build in. We tried to take some of 

 them that were in particularly exposed positions, 

 but it was too near sundown, and we had to give it 



