GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May. 



I*IE01sr,E.lI NO. 21. 



- r 1 WISH you would include in my former order a 

 !» box or "hive, whatever you may be pleased to call 

 — ' ir, for carrying frames of honey from the Apiary 

 to the Extractor and back. I think oh the whole u 

 svi i be best to have two small ones, rather than one 

 large oue— to hold live frames each. 1 want the tops 

 so thev can be fastened tight, with the idea of having 

 a handle in the centre of each cover, so as to carry 

 them like two pails of water. I think perhaps it had 

 better have a movable bottom-board to be fastened by 

 hooks, for convenience in cleaning it of the drippings 

 of honey. You must have the idea now of what I 

 want and you may make to suit yourself. Make them 

 of as thin lumber "as you can and have them strong 

 enough, so that they may be as light as possible, For 

 lie' same reason they had better be made of white 

 lane, or basswood. 

 Oedar Creek, S.J. E. Kimpton. 



Our friend seems to have a clear idea of 

 what is wanted. At first we thougttt of ma- 

 king something such as we described in Vol. 1, 

 page 52, but after studying on the matter, 

 finally had our tinner make two, square, tin 

 pails, with a ledge to hang the frames on, and 

 a hinged cover that would open under the 

 hails. Mrs. N. says nothing can be cleaned of 

 honey drippings so readily as tin, and as they 

 were soldered tight they can be used to hold 

 honey etc., in an emergency; if properly cared 

 for they would last a life time. On the other 

 hand, although they were made of the lightest 

 tin, with cover and all they are rather heavy, 

 and still worse the expense of the two was 

 about §4.50. Have we no basket makers 

 among our readers who could make us a light 

 square basket for the purpose? 



A shallow tin dish might be placed in the 

 bottom to catch drippings, and a cloth to be 

 thrown over the top, could be sewed to the 

 back edge. The handle should be very high 

 to allow of lifting out the combs readily, or 

 might "he made to turn over ; we rather think 

 the former, as it would not necessitate so 

 much stooping. Perhaps something arranged 

 entirely of wood and cloth would be the thing. 

 Who can get up the lightest, strongest and 

 •h apest implement, and one readily kept 

 clean, to hold five combs? 



combs are emptied with a machine." An average of 

 20041)8. oocb honey /should think too much, but if I 

 can't average 150 lbs. comb honey in small framen 

 placed in the large frames at the sides of the" brood, 

 combs (with black bees too) then it is because it is a 

 poor season, the average of Extracted I will put at 

 300. Last year was about an average season here. 

 not a good season by any means; clover. Poplar and 

 B; is— wood yielded verv little honey. Buck-wheat and 

 (.olden rod' did not do very well. I commenced the 

 first of June, with ten weak stocks in box and Amer- 

 ican hives; transferred them to Simplicity hives. 

 frames about 10 deer) by 14 inches long, inside meas- 

 ure. I averaged 200 lbs. ext'd honey, at least \ of my 

 honey was Duck-wheat and Golden' rod. Besides the 

 •2000 lbs. of honey, 1 increased to o0 and saved 27, three 

 of them swarmed before I commenced using the Ext. 

 and flew away, so I lost at least 300 lbs. there, besides 

 the bees; so much for box and Am. hives and poor 

 management, but I've got my eyes open now, though 

 not so wide open but that I intend to see more and 

 learn more of this interesting and profitable pursuit 

 each year, as long as health permits me to keep bees. 

 I suppose the seasons have been so very poor with 

 Novice of late, is one reason he is so "modest" about 

 giving the average yield of honey per stock at 50 lbs. 

 il know we should not expect too much and ought to 

 be satisfied if we only average 50 lbs., but Novice cer- 

 tainly can average 300 lbs. ext'd honey in a good 

 season ; if he can't then the trouble is in "4c. Queens, I 

 don't know what else. I only had one Queen that I 

 could call poor, and I got one hundred lbs. of honev 

 from it, (the stock of bees) and a lot of drone comb 

 and drones in August. Theory says bees build less 

 drone comb with young Queens than older ones, but 

 I have, had the most drone comb with voting Queens. 

 New Buffalo, Mich. Mar. 10, 1S71. R. S. Becktell. 



OIR OWN APIARY. 



BOTH SIB.ES OF THE QUESTION. 



i|«y«| our communication for publication. We have 

 ~ J '— * discovered that some of our hives to which we 

 had uivt n Italian Queens last summer, contain this 

 spring, crossed Queens. Our native Black Bees very 

 seldom cast swarms in the fall, and hardly ever cast- 

 in,' more than three swarms. Some of our hives had 

 : '■ ih d drone brood the 1, of March. The expenses of 

 our Apiary are as follows: 



I. ingstroth s book on bees, $"2.00 



i iiox hives 12.00 



80 L. hives, canno: be made here less than $5.) 150.00 

 1' tinting, Hinges, and Locks, [Local aecessitv,) 12.00 



H Italian Queens '.J-.ll.50 



Royalty 12.50 



1200.00 

 1; alized only 450 lbs. of honey, we used the Honey 

 I. T factor on 30 hives last June! the average yield, one 

 •.:;; ion to the hive. We extracted. all the combs- have 

 bought uo i ai. in hives. So far as we have read Api- 

 arian writers, we -elected the best hive- our error 

 is in changing the Native Bee for th< Italian. 

 Macon, Ga. .). A. Nki.sdn & son. 



FRIEND NOTK E: Vou are righl in your state- 

 ment tl I Mr. Qu'inby asks Lwo prii es for hi b';< 



1 bul hi certainly pul ' he a- erage very low 



i. Qninby says. " il is safe ih H;pood season 



i i eragt of (..... i .■. . .■ in u .... . 



Bey. or two or thrte h 



jX LTHOUGH the weather has been quite 

 Jq^,, cold, and the season backward ; although 

 we have not as yet, seen a bit of natural pol- 

 len, and we never remember a season before 

 when it was not gathered abundantly by April 

 1st; and although we have lost 27 colonies and 

 have only 28 remaining, this 13th day of April 

 1S74, yet we cannot give up that bad weather 

 should be any excuse for such losses. We have 

 nothing to reproach ourselves with in the way 

 of carelessness or negligence this spring ; but 

 on the contrary, have done the very best we 

 knew how. 



Many are the kind letters of sympathy we 

 have ree'd, (and we heartily thank you all for 

 it) and many are the reasons suggested for their 

 dying ; a few have said it was just as they 

 expected, when we started into winter with 

 so many weak colonies. But the weak colo- 

 nies, some of. them, are doing well, and our 

 strong ones have perished, why is that ? Some 

 have suggested that the manure kept them too 

 warm ; such may be the case, for we ofttn And 

 only a dozen or two bees guarding the en- 

 trance, and the dead colonies are found almost 

 invariably to contain only a very small clus- 

 ter, scarcely larger than an egii, or an apple, 

 and strangely we have not found a particle of 

 brood in any of those deceased. They died in 

 the midst of clean white combs, and sealed 

 stores. No trace of dysentery. 



It is true some of the strongest have worked 

 on the meal during weather that bees do not 

 usually fly, yet we have seen no bees dead on 

 the snow, and they have flown many days 

 when it covered the ground. 



We do not believe artificial heat alone, will 

 help the mutter, for to test it more carefully 



: p] teed a Queen with what was left of her 



jusl 82 bees in all — in our Lamp 



of la . cl they have now 



