1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



733 



hivps camo through last winter in better shape, 

 and did better this summer, than those that 

 were wintered in the cellar. J. F. Mooke. 

 Rockaway, O., Oct. 1. 



We are very glad, friend M., to get your testi- 

 mony. We do not usually like to i>ublish and 

 illustrate any thing based entirely on theory; 

 but Mclntyre's reversible extractor is so unique 

 in its plan that we were constrained to present 

 it to our readers, tirst, that we might get sodic 

 of our mechanical geniuses to test it; and, 

 second, that we might ascertain whether the 

 thing has ever been actually tried, and here 

 you have tried it. In my recent visit among 

 bee-keepers I found there was a very strong de- 

 mand among the extractor men for an auto- 

 matic reversing machine; and while the one 

 you outline (Mclntyre's) may be no better 

 than the Stanley, in actual practice, theoreti- 

 cally it seems as if it were considerable of an 

 improvement by dispensing with the chains 

 and the flopping of the baskets against each 

 other, which 1 am assured they will do with 

 the best of management, at times. Extracting- 

 tents, with cloth part way up, and netting the 

 rest of the way, have long been in use. When 

 our tents were all made of wire cloth instead of 

 netting, we used to use cotton cloth part way 

 up, on account of economy, it being so much 

 cheaper than the wire cloth. 



^ — • — ^ 



REPORT FROM GERMANY. 



SOME VALUABLE HINTS FROM OUR GOOD 

 FRIEND GRAVENHORST. 



The report in Gleanings, Aug. 15, in regard 

 to the crop of honey in America, induced me to 

 send yon a report. We had also a very mild 

 winter, and our bees came through it without 

 any loss, therefore in good condition. As the 

 crop of honey the year before was a very good 

 one, we need not feed our bees in the fall nor in 

 the spring; they had more honey than they 

 wanted. The spring was lu-autiful in the month 

 of April, and our colonies iMuspercd so that we 

 could expect the swarming season in May. Eut 

 this month was not as favorable as April, as we 

 had only a few very good days when the bees 

 could tly and gather honey and pollen. Never- 

 theless, my first swarm issued on the 21st of 

 May. Most of the natural swarms issued on 

 the first days, say from Jiuie 1 to 12, and at the 

 same time I made my artificial swarms from 

 every colony that I intended to increase. If one 

 of my stocks casts off a natural swarm at the 

 right time, lam glad of it; and if it does not 

 swarm at the time 1 want it, then I swarm it 

 artificially. Thus I make; the increasing time 

 a short one. 



I have two kinds of colonies at the begiiming of 

 the season — those I intend to multii)ly, and sncii 

 as are d('ti'rmin(Hl to gatiici' only iioncy. Tiie 

 latter I make as strong as possiliic, to liavi^ them 

 early in good wc^rking ordn-. Swarming is jjre- 

 vented. If there is honey in the field, such a 

 colony will gather it. and then I need not feai' 

 their swarming. If they hav<' only a living 

 from hand to month, 1 must be on tiic \\atch 

 to prevent swarming. Hcfore the bees })uild any 

 queen-cells I take out tlie most of tlie brood- 

 combs witii capped brood, and insert combs 

 witliout brood and honey, or only foundation. 



To enable yon to understand nn^ bettcir, I will 

 say a word about my artificial swarms. I make 

 only two kinds. First, I hunt out the queen of 

 a colony just ready to swarm, and transfer lier 

 with some young bees, which I sweep from a 

 few brood-coinl)s of the same colony, into a new 

 hive, furnished only with guide-combs in 

 frames. Tiie new colony is placed on the stand 

 of the old ones, and this is removed to another 

 place. Second, I select a strong colony which 

 has many young bees, and sweep with a brush 

 every bee from the combs and the walls of the 

 hive into a new hive furnished with guide- 

 combs. I take care to do this, not for the queen, 

 as I know I shall get her in the new hive with 

 the other bees. If the bees have gorged them- 

 selves full of honey by this operation, as bees 

 always do when swarming, they will stay by 

 their queen. If there is no honey in the hive, 

 then I sprinkle the new swarm with a syrup 

 made of sugar and water, I then place the new 

 swai'm on a new place somewhat distant from 

 the old stand. I was the first bee-keeper who 

 made such swarms in Germany. They are made 

 in a few minutes, and many bee-keepers in 

 Germany prefer them to all others. The combs, 

 free from bees, I place in the old hive on the 

 former stand. All the bees that were driven 

 off by sweeping the combs will return to their 

 old liive, and some to the new swarm. As in 

 the old hive every minute will hatch many 

 young bees, it will soon be all right, rear a 

 young queen, and fill all combs that are not 

 occupied by the brood with honey, if there is 

 honey coming in. If such a hive, after having 

 swept the bees from the combs, does not contain 

 enough sealed brood-combs to fill it, then I take 

 from a hive just having swarmed, or one that I 

 have just artificially swarmed, as many brood- 

 combs as are necessary to fill the hive, which 

 will hold 16 frames, and give them, with all ad- 

 herins bees, to this colonv- 



iNow, only think of it! what a mass of bees 

 will be in such a colony when the first young 

 queen is hatched! There will soon issue a very 

 strong swarm. When this swarm is hanging 

 on a tree, or when I have it in the swarm- 

 catcher, lying in the shade of a bush or tree, 

 then I go to the hive it came from, and pull out 

 every queen-cell. Toward evening I then re- 

 turn the swarm. Such a colony will not swarm 

 afterward, although it will have probably more 

 than one young queen. A few days after, there 

 Avill be only one queen in the hive. As soon as 

 this is the case, such a colony will work to the 

 utmost capability, if there is honey in the blos- 

 soms. As long as I have built up such colonies, 

 I have never had a lack of honey, so that, in 

 the poorest season. I have never had to feed 

 such colonies. 



DFrom the end of May till the 13th of Septem- 

 ber we had a hard time for our bees. We have 

 had rain, and nothing but rain. Only a few 

 liours in a w(H^k did we have fin(> sunny weath- 

 er, and that was tlu^ only chance for our bees to 

 do any thing. In the worst time we had, I did 

 not have to feed a swarm. The most of our 

 German bee-k('c))ei-s were not so lucky as I, as 

 they had more rain, hailstorms, and cold days, 

 or their bees had no pasturage if th(» weather 

 was favorable. My bees did very well in the 

 month of April: some excellent days in June, 

 July, and August, and so I secured a good honey 

 crop from those colonies I have al)0V(' described. 

 I worked for extracted honey, as we have in 

 Gernumy no niaiket for comb honey. Ra])e, 

 fruit-trees, i)oplars. goos(^l)erries. acacia, linden, 

 and buckwheat were the honey sources. 



At the beginning of August I moved my bees 

 to the li(>atlier, some miles distant from here, 

 and tiiere we had only four or live days, from 

 the ir)th till the I'Jlh of August, very fineweath- 



