124 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



IIEES AND THINGS "AWAY OVER 

 THE WATER." 



Prom <>nk of our number in Australia. 



BEAR NOVICE :— I rec'd four Nos. Gleanings, 

 two packages Queen Registers, and King's Text 

 book, all in good shape. I must certainly com- 

 mend you for the manner in which .you send your 

 goods out. 



1 see you are about to have a Standard frame and 

 hive also. J think it about time; now, the "horizon- 

 tal" as you call it, has been in use at my Apiary just 

 three years. I have only worked six of them as vet, 

 but I am about to have my Apiary composed of hives 

 holding 40 frames each, the frames are 18x10, which I 

 intend to keep to. 1 have hives at the present time 

 working frames of the following sizes: 23x8 }£, 12 ' 3 x 

 l;'. 1 ,.. L8xl0, 16x10, and 13^x8. The different frames 

 have been brought into use just by way of trial, 

 And of all the frames I ever did see, 

 Eighteen by ten is the frame for me. 



Adair is right in saying that a large hive will pre- 

 vent swarming if properly managed. 



Your Queen Register is a first-class affair, but for 

 this fair hind of ours, we should require every month 

 in the year. I thought I should have had some use 

 for the cards by the time they arrived, but alas! I am 

 doomed to disappointment. "I told you about Quinby 

 sending me two colonies of bees, in my first letter, the 

 bees were not ordered in my name, but Novice I 

 must not forget to tell you that it was my money that 

 paid for them. And what do you think the charges 

 were? just 13j6. 5s. 7d. (about 8*70.00). Now the only 

 thing that I blame myself for is this, I ought to have 

 written to Mr. Quinby stating full particulars. We 

 have now a Royal mail from San Francisco which 

 makes the run in about 30 days, thev wont refuse to 

 take bees now- If Mr. Q. or any other bee-keeper in 

 America will try their hand at sending a colony of 

 Italians, and the Queen is only alive when I receive 

 them, I promise to forward by the return mail $25.00, 

 and if it proves a failure I will pay the usual, charge. 

 I refer them to my Banker in Queensland, any mem- 

 ber of the Legislature, any Newspaper Editor, or to 

 the Governor himselt. Money is no object providing 

 we can get the bees safe, and for my part I see no 

 difficulty whatever in sending them. I have tried 

 from Neighbor & Sons, Loudon; some bees arrived 

 but the Queen was lost shortly after leaving England. 

 I wrote them about it and thev expressed their sor- 

 row at the failure and said that if I could devise a 

 better plan they would send out another colonv. 



it is mid-winter with us, and our bees are gathering 

 honey and pollen at a good pace. We have something 

 blooming all the year round in this fair and happy 

 land. I wish poor old Mr. Langstroth were here, 1 am 

 sure he would live much longer. 



1 have sent the Blue Eyed baby a photograph of one 

 of our Natives. J. Carroll, Mohawk Valley, 



Ennoggera, Queensland, Australia. Via San Fr'isco. 



Who will send friend Carroll the bees and 

 thus successfully introduce the first Italians 

 in Australia? Quinby, and Neighbor <fc Sons, 

 have failed but with better facilities now, we 

 think it can be done. Observe he offers to bear 

 all expenses, and run all risk, whether the bees 

 arrive alive or not. Those who are willing to 

 try had better drop a letter to him. The let- 

 ter must be prepaid 10c. Perhaps Dean can 

 send him a Queen by mail. He has never failed 

 yet to our knowledge. The Photo, mentioned 

 Kill make a rare addition to our "Medley." 



HONEV RESOURCES, REE-KEEPERS 

 ETC., OF THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY. 



1!Y M. II. TWEED. 



- -njlilKM) NOVICE- The following week after re- 

 infJ turning from your place, 1 started for Virginia, 

 *=pJ was away six days and had a verv successful and 

 pleasant trip. 1 called at the little "towns between 

 Harper's Ferry and Winchester, and from there I 

 drove up the beautiful valley of the Shenandoah, was 

 on the road with my horse for four days. I found a 

 great deal of honey in the valley and lit reasonable 

 prices. I bought some in large caps— beautiful honev 

 at what they call a shilling per lb., a Virginia shilling 

 is 10 ;1 cts., and we are getting considerable at 20cts. 

 there. I do not think there is so favorable a place for 



bee-keeping east of California as the Shenandoah 

 valley. The principle reason Is that the Blue Thistle 

 abounds in the whole valley. Then the climate is 

 most favorable. The Blue Thistle makes rich white 

 honey, is in bloom fully four months of the year, each 

 plant has from 25 to 50 blossoms on it. One great ad- 

 vantage it has over white clover is that in pastures the 

 cattle cut down the white clover while the thistle is 

 never molested. A blue field looks handsome though 

 it is a great pest to the farmer. I cut a sample ami 

 brought it home as a curiosity and if you have never 

 seen one and care to look at the great honey produ- 

 cing plant of that valley, drop me a postal card and I 

 shall gladly send it to" you. There is great room for 

 such a man as Novice down there. With the excep- 

 tion of about a half dozen, the bee-keepers of that. 

 valley know very little about bee culture. I saw two 

 extractors and they had not been used to any extent. 

 One owned by Henry Slagle who understands bee- 

 keeping very "well, takes two or three Bee Journals 

 and makes money out of his bees ; he has 100 hives 

 and has this year 4000 lbs. comb honey, he lives in 

 Winchester. The other extractor is also owned by a 

 Winchester man— Oliver Brown, a verv fine old gen- 

 tleman. He knows all about Novice and had many 

 questions to ask about you. AVith the exception of 

 your Apiary, his is the finest I hate ever seen— 50 col- 

 onies in Langstroth hives. Slagle's are also in the 

 Langstroth hive. In wintering, they in the whole 

 valley scarcely ever lose any ; in nearly all cases they 

 winter outside. I found very few Italians, only such 

 men as Brown and Slagle know anything about" them. 

 The principal hive i9 the old box hive, where they 

 have anything else it is the Langstroth, and in a few 

 cases the American. The majority of them call any 

 kind of a hive a "bee gum" and many of them call a 

 colony "a bee." I found an old watch repairer in Front 

 Royal who had 00 hives, had been keeping bees for 2F> 

 or 30 years, and had never seen a Bee Journal or 

 heard of an extractor. Had heard of bee veils but 

 had never seen one. He took me out to look at his 

 hives anil when within 20 yards of them, he said we 

 had better not go any nearer as the bees were very 

 cross. 1 did not Wonder at that man not setting 

 much surplus honey. I left him two copies of Glean- 

 ings and bought what honey he had, some 500 lbs. 1 

 found one of your subscribers, Steed & Son, near Front 

 Royal. They have quite a large Apiary and seem to 

 be learning something in the way of bee" management. 

 I was looking at one of their hives which resembled a 

 coffin very much in shape and the old man told me 

 that Jamie put a "bee" in that in the spring, and now 

 he had it nearly full. There seems to be no question 

 but that they can with any reasonable care get a fine 

 quantity of surplus honey in comb, any season. 1 

 was well pleased with my visit and came away satis- 

 tied that the valley of the Shenandoah is the spot for 

 successful bee-keeping, and that we can always rely 

 on getting a large quantity of white clover honey for 

 our purpose and at reasonable rates. I was astonish- 

 ed at the bitter feeling they still hold towards the 

 North, it was very interesting to me to talk with a 

 bee-keeper who had formerly held his slaves. 



I have made inquiries about mustard seed and can- 

 not learn that any of the genuine seed is raised east of 

 California (it is raised profitably there in large quan- 

 tities), the seed used in this city is all imported from 

 England. There is a kind of mustard raised in thu 

 Eastern States but it is not of much account. If you 

 wish to try it I can get you some genuine English 

 seed at any time at 12,'<i cts. per lb. 



There is a party in California who has offered best, 

 strained honey ("as clear as water) by the car load to 

 cost about \i% to 13 cts. delivered here, we have sent 

 for four barrels as a sample. 



Have you ever heard of "Virginia wild honey?" I 

 had often heard of it, but never understood the mat- 

 ter thoroughly until my recent visit to that state. I 

 hail heard it spoken of as having an unpleasant taste, 

 and those who knew nothing about bees attributed 

 its peculiarity to the fact of its being gathered by 

 what are called wild bees. 



On each side of the valley extends a great range of 

 mountains, the North mountains on one side and the 

 Blue Ridge on the other, on these mountains a plant 

 or small bush grows called Laurel, it is poisonous in 

 itself but on it there is a pretty flower which yield- 

 honey largely; rank and bitter it is, and I was told 

 that a liberal "dose will always be followed by sickness. 

 I know the taste for I got some for breakfast at Shaus- 

 burg. Now as no bees are. kept that, are contined 

 entirely to the mountains, there is no Laurel honey 

 of any "account excepting such as is crot from bee trees, 

 and it is natural enough to suppose that the difference, 

 is caused bv the bees that srather the honey. 



Pittsburgh, Pa. Sept. 26th, 1S74. 



