1874 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



110 



hatched at once and one killed the other. We 

 examined them hastily, morning noon and 

 night ; the survivor — when we could catch her 

 — was put in a cage with a few just hatched bees 

 from another hive, and mailed as above. On 

 receiving her he wrote as follows : 



Since writing: the above I have ree'd the Queen. I 

 must say I have never before seen so neat and conve- 

 nient a 'shipping; box as the one you use ; bees and 

 Queen clean and lively. The Queen looks to be fer- 

 tile; was she before mailed? She was introduced 

 safely immediately. 



The other five Queens were equally strong 

 and finely colored, — none of the small black 

 ones — and royal jelly was left in each cell. 

 The temperature was kept the whole six days 

 at from 90« to 100° , in fact "P. G." declared 

 they would all be baked, but they were not. 

 The workers of course did not hatch until four 

 or five days more, so we had nothing but 

 Queens in our nursery, unless for sooth the 

 moth worms be counted that hatched and 

 flourished with provoking vigor. We think 

 100« about the right temperature. 



By permission of D. Lyons Browne, of India- 

 napolis, we give the following extract from a 

 letter ree'd by him. 



I have been engaged in a number of industrial pur- 

 suits for 40 years and I must say to you frankly, that 

 bee-keeping is my favorite both 'for pleasure and profit. 

 I am now running 1200 acres of good land. Broad 

 acres of waving grain and grass, herds of cattle, sheep 

 and horses, are a source of pleasure, but nothing in 

 comparison to the apiary. To hear their busy hum 

 and behold their economy and industry, smell their 

 sweet perfume and share with them the proceeds of 

 their and our industry is a pleasure to me beyond des- 

 cription. 



I have realized over $10,000 in sales of bees and hon- 

 ey; more than in any other business in proportion to 

 the capital invested. Last year I averaged 181.00 per 

 colony. 1 do not expect to reach that amount this 

 year as I did not give the attention required to pro- 

 duce such results. 



Seth Hoagland, Mercer, Pa. July 11th, 1874. 



If the number of colonies that produced this 

 average was considerable, it certainly was a 

 great result ; too great for us novices to as- 

 pire to for years to come. 



My cellar ranges from 34 to 40°— when above 40° the 

 bees are restless. Until the past winter I have been 

 in the halMt of opening a window on north side and 

 door on south (at night) and leaving open till the tem- 

 perature reaches 32°— would close this once a week. 

 I think bees need pure air as much as humans. This 

 winter I think I will have a tube run from cellar to 

 stove pipe in room above, this will create a draught 

 and carry off the impure air. Where bees can be ta- 

 ken out and have a good fly— say in January and put 

 them back, they will then go to breeding and keep it 

 up. I know they will consume more iood but then 

 they will have bees to make it up when the flowers 

 come. There was less brood in my hives when I took 

 them out in March than there usually is in January. 

 I did not know how to account for it, unless it was 

 that their supply of honey and pollen was less in 

 quantity. It makes them feel good to have say 40 or 

 50 lbs. of honey in the hive, and if you intend to have 

 a big start by the 1st of June it will take about that 

 much to take them from Oct. 1st to June 1st. It is 

 very easy to start a home market for extracted honey 

 by putting it up in an attractive form— say in jelly 

 glasses with a piece of comb in; such as C. O. Per- 

 line wholesales at $1.00 per doz. The glasses hold 

 about % lb. of honey. I told my grocery man to retail 

 at 25 cts.— they go off like "hot cakes"— 3 lb. fruit jar 

 $1.00, and pay 10 per cent commission. Quart jars cost 

 $1.75 per doz., y z pint jelly glass, tin top $1.00 per doz. 

 The tirst I bought cost 75c, and were the neatest, but I 

 could get no more of them, they were sold too low, 

 but to buy at the factory and a gross or two at a time 

 is the way to buy them. "T. G. McGaw, Monmouth, 111. 



Please let me know through Gleanings, if the 

 quilt in winter in the cellar should lay flat and tight 



on the frames? if not how should it be? Two of tin; 

 quilts are all waxed over on the under side. Will 

 they do for wintering. ? C. Kendig, Naperville, 111. 



We use the quilts flat on the frames the year 

 round. Waxing, or covering them with pro- 

 polis seems to do no harm only that 'tis more 

 trouble to remove them, when opening a hive. 

 Laying a strip across the frame under the 

 quilt to give the bees a passage has been rec- 

 ommended for winter, and friend McGaw of 

 Monmouth, 111., lays an empty frame under- 

 neath the quilt. We have made some similar 

 experiments but discovered no especial ad- 

 vantage. 



Do you think bees can be taken from Detroit about, 

 the 15th of Sept., with no honey and little comb in 

 hive, put on cars, fed and watched on route, carried 

 to some good locality about the range of Northern 

 Georgia and after that gather honey and bee bread 

 sufficient to keep them through the winter? Can you 

 from personal knowledge recommend some locality? 

 M. H. Clements, Belleville, Mich. 



P. S.— Can you give P. O. of some bee-keepers in 

 that section ? 



We have had considerable correspondence 

 on the subject and would particularly refer 

 you to M. S. Klum, Sherman, Grayson Co., 

 Texas, and R. Wilkin, Oscaloosa, Iowa. Can- 

 didly, we fear it will not pay, still some exper- 

 iments might be advisable. Shipping bees is 

 as yet too risky a business to expect them to 

 be handled as they should be. 



Do you put anything into the syrup to keep it from 

 candying? Did you know any trouble with that that 

 you say you are now feeding to swarms you are buil- 

 ding up ? I mean those that you have wintered, and 

 partly summered. Will honey sour if extracted before 

 being sealed ? If so how do "those manage who ex- 

 tract once in three days ? Can it be evaporated to 

 make it thick without injuring the flavor ? 



Joseph Sinton , Ithaca, N. Y. Aug. 5th. 



Sugar and water only. The combs contain- 

 ing syrup fed last fall, even when used in Aug. 

 of the present season were appropiated for 

 brood-rearing without waste. It is seldom 

 that honey is gathered thin enough to sour, 

 even if you do extract every third day. Should 

 you happen to get any that is too thin it can 

 be ripened into perfectly good honey by keep- 

 ing it several days in an oven or other warm 

 place. The flavor is unchanged unless it is 

 heated to the boiling point. As this artificial 

 ripening is a slow job, we think it most profita- 

 ble to let the bees do it. A very strong colony 

 will get the honey ripened and much of it ready 

 to seal in three days. The only sure way of 

 telling when you should take the honey, is to 

 go over a few hives and see if the honey ob- 

 tained is ripe enough to suit you. Thick hon- 

 ey is heaviest and will eventually, if it does 

 not now, command the highest price in the 

 market. 



Gleanings came to hand on the 3rd and is full of 

 valuables. I notice you advise feeding sugar immedi- 

 ately for winter use. I intend to winter on sugar but 

 what shall I do? Nearly our best honey season is 

 coming yet. Golden rod and Iron weed are our best 

 honey plants after June. If the weather is favorable 

 will I" have to lose the crop or can 1 wait two weeks 

 longer to feed ? If it should not be sealed up until too 

 cold weather could I not take them in a warm room 

 to seal it ? A. T. Weidner, Bigler, Pa. 



We certainly would not want to lose any 

 yield of honey that might come any time when 

 bees could gather it. We know of no plan ex- 

 cept the one given on page 108 last month viz : 

 make them store the late honey in empty combs 

 placed on both sides of the central combs con- 



