784 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1. 



ends, and about 8 on top, filled with dry pine 

 sawdust. In May I bought a colony of about 

 7 or 8 fianics. with queen, and lost a good many 

 in transferring. E. P. Ckanstox. 



Keating, Ore., Sept. 25, 1890. 



Friend C, you can succeed, ordinarily, with 

 even three or four fi-ame nuclei, where packed 

 as you suggest. But should you undertake to 

 winter weak colonies in this way on a large 

 scale, you would probably lose a good many 

 whei-e we have a winter of ordinary severity. 



FEEDING back; OXE WHO HAS PKACTICED IT 

 12 YEARS. 



The season has been one of the best. One 

 man took 200 lbs. of extracted honey from each 

 of two of his best colonies. He runs for extract- 

 ed honey, then feeds back. He has practiced 

 that for over 12 years. He keeps from 15 to 40 

 colonies. He is an extensive contractor, or more 

 would be kept. I told him yesterday he was 

 the only one who made feeding back a success. 



CHANGING QUEENS DUKING THE HONEY-FLOW. 



We have only white clover this year. The 

 season was poor from Way 25 to July 1. My 

 crop is 850 lbs. from 22 coioni(>s. spring count. 

 I increased to 28. I removed half the queens 

 from May 28 to June 5. I tried to get a young 

 laying queen by June 15, but failed. I missed a 

 cell in some, and in others they started cells on 

 very old comb, so many swarmed out. But they 

 invariably swarmed out in the afternoon of the 

 day before the young queen came. Of course, 

 they returned then. Should, we have a rainy 

 day it would break the rule. I never saw that 

 in print, or noticed it in colonies that had 

 swai'med and cast a second. I suppose, as they 

 were kept at home so long, they were so anxious 

 to take a trial flight. Three failed to swarm at 

 all that had queens. I am satisfied with the 

 system and the honey produced. It is regular, 

 and very fine in appearance. 



SELLING SECTIONS BY THE PIECE INSTEAD OF 

 BY THE POUND. 



Pottstown has nearly 15,000 people, and over 

 fifty grocers. One man sells by weight; the 

 forty-nine sell sections of honey by the piece. 

 The man that sells by weight sold No. 1 honey 

 from Muscatine. Iowa, for 11 cts. per section 

 last spring. He is no profit to the bee-men, be- 

 cause he beats down prices. 



About six or eight of my hives had about 45 

 lbs. in the brood-nest at the end of the harvest, 

 or my crop would have been 1000 lbs. Several I 

 contracted to five combs, then I got it all with- 

 out a queen in the hive. W. W. Kulp. 



Pottstown, Pa., Sept. 4. 



Friend K.. it is possible that the man you 

 mention makes a success by feeding back, pro- 

 viding he does it only to finish up sections 

 partly filled, providing he also gets a large price 

 for comb honey and a comparatively small one 

 for extracted. At the present time there is 

 quite a wide difference in the market, nice comb 

 honey bringing very neai'ly if not quite double 

 the price of the liquid. If only one man out of 

 fifty in Pittston sells honey by weight, I do not 

 know but that I shall have to give up; but it is 

 something that I had hardly ever heard of 

 when the matter was first mentioned. I am 

 sure there are very few places in our State 

 where sections are sold by the piece. Now, if 

 this is going to be the rule, we as bee-keepers 

 ought to do all we can to have our sections uni- 



form in weight. I know that, in many places, 

 there is a growing disposition to get rid of pen- 

 nies, and I do not know but that this is the right 

 thing to do. A few days ago I told our wagon 

 man to reduce the price of the small sugar 

 pumpkins lo half a cent a pound. He said, 

 after a while, however, that it was too small 

 business, and that people were just as well sat- 

 isfied if we told them that the pumpkins were 

 5 cts. for the small ones and 10 cts. for the large 

 ones. I have many times thought that the time 

 is coming when we can not afford to waste time 

 over pennies. The five and ten cent counters, 

 you know, have been a move in the right direc- 

 tion. Quite a few berry-growers have written 

 me that they are obliged to sell berries for eith- 

 er 10 cts. a quart or 15— that people would not 

 have any half way about it. In fact, we are 

 coming to this a great deal ourselves. We use 

 pint boxes altogether for berries, and sell them 

 at either 5 cts. a box or two boxes for 15 cts. 

 For very choice berries we sometimes get 10 cts. 

 a pint. Now, in view of this, our honey should 

 be put up in such quantities as to be sold at 10, 

 15, or 20 cts. a package. Perhaps the very thin 

 ones or flat ones had better be sorted out. If a 

 customer wants two sections, he might be given 

 a thick and a thin one, so as to make it fair. 



MOBE ABOUT WATEKING-PLACES FOR BEES. 



In answer to the inquiry of John Burr, page 

 713, I will say that, three years ago, when tliere 

 was no prospect of a honey crop, I rented a 

 large farm, and went to raising other crops. 

 On the farm was a large artificial pond; and 

 whenever the bees had occasion to carry water 

 they went to the pond for it, the soft mud being 

 at times almost covered with the striped Ital- 

 ians. They bothered nowhere else. This sum- 

 mer they were so thick around my watering- 

 trough that on some days the animals could 

 not be induced to approach the trough until the 

 bees had retired in the evening. We also had a 

 small out-apiary near a road that is much used. 

 At the road was a well and trough. The bees 

 troubled the neighbors very much, and attacked 

 a team that had stopped for water. The team 

 ran away, and the occupant (a woman) was 

 considerably hurt. Now, I have determined to 

 construct a pond on my premises, for the bees 

 to get water. The warm stagnant water seems 

 to be just what they want. 



CATFISH. 



When on the farm, as already mentioned, I 

 put some catfish spawn into the pond this sea- 

 son, and the occupants of the farm have been 

 catching some of those " cats " a foot in length, 

 and delicious as only catfish are. You see, I 

 shall make my pond answer a double purpose. 

 The pond will draw the bees from the well, and 

 raise fish for the family, and the presence of the 

 fish in the pond will prevent the \\ ater from 

 becoming stagnant to a degree of inihealthful- 

 ness. Besides, I can arrange it so as to be a 

 very convenient watering-place for my stock 

 without allowing the stock to go into the pond. 



Centerville, la., Oct. 4. G. B. Repi-ogle. 



Friend R., within a little distance from our 

 apiary is a pebbly brook, and in the summer 

 time the water stands only in holes and hollows 

 of the rocks a great part of the time. This 

 creek is out of everybody's way, and it is often 



