130 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



traded. One colony gave 204 lbs. box honey and a 

 .strong artificial swarm. We have no losses out-doors 

 in winter, no disease whatever. The honey is from 

 Blue Thistle and White Clover— of the former there 

 are hundreds of acres near us. O. M. Bkown. 



Winchester, Ya. Sept. 29th, 1874. 



Those who advertise for honey in our col- 

 umns, will we think take all you can produce. 

 The "Blue Thistle" must be of considerable 

 value, especially if it furnishes honey four 

 ■month* in the year. Even if it is a bad weed, 

 so long as Virginia farmers continue to grow 

 it, we hope the bee-keepers of that section will 

 endeavor to utilize the honey it produces, as 

 far as possible. 



FRIEND NOVICE:— I have thought for some time 

 I woidd send you a report of this season's operations, 

 and as we have got through extracting and looking 

 over the bees preparatory to winter, have now got at 

 it. We (I say we, for my wife and I are in company 

 in. this business, she does the work while I superin- 

 tend, being disabled,) have 52 colonics, just what we 

 had one year ago this time, and twelve more, than live 

 months ago. We put upper stories on 34 of our Lang- 

 stroth hives, put two colonies in Long Idea hives and 

 four at making box honey. When white clover had 

 done blossoming we had just one box of honey (0 lbs.), 

 and that was over half full from the year before. 

 They did better on buckwheat however, for we have 

 about 150 lbs. now. The thirty six we extracted from, 

 brought in about 4250 lbs., and all have enough to 

 winter on, perhaps more. From the clovers we got 

 1300 lbs., we have several acres of Alsike, and it is 

 splendid for bees, but Catnip for the amount of honey 

 per plant, beats anything I ever saw. If all the cat- 

 nip within range of our bees were gathered together, 1 

 don't think it would cover more than an acre of 

 ground ; but be that as it may, from what there was, 

 our bees gathered sixty gallons that weighs over 12 

 lbs. to the gallon. I carry a little of the seed in my 

 pocket all the time and when I see waste places oh 

 my farm that I think might as well lie raising some 

 honey as not, I scatter a pinch of seed. It will grow 

 in fence corners or brush heaps lirst rate, and we are 

 going to make such places useful. If it will pay to 

 raise any plant for bees exclusively I think that plant 

 is catnip— have so much faith in it that I shall try 

 some next year at any rate. 



The clovers are good, and catnip is good, but for a 

 sure thing give me buckwheat. It has not failed to 

 give a good crop of honey for seven years in success- 

 ion to my personal knowledge. The honey crop is 

 more certain than the seed; this year both are good. 

 We have on hand now over a ton of honey from that 

 source, and they gathered all their winter supplies 

 from it, which would be about 1500 lbs. more. Buck- 

 wheat honey is dark colored and is not worth quite as 

 much as clover, mine is for sale at 12 cts. per lb. here, 

 barrels included. Catnip 14c. It is as light colored as 

 clover but not of so good a flavor, at least in our opin- 

 ion. 



And now Mr. Novice if you think we have done well, 

 take a good share of the credit to yourself, for I verily 

 believe if it had not been for your so persistently ur- 

 ging bee-keepers to extract "their honey we would 

 have been "fooling with box honev" vet. 



J. L. Wolfenden, Adams, Wis. Oct. 13th, 1874. 



May continued prosperity be the lot of both 

 you and your wife friend W. To you in your 

 misfortune 'twould seem that she is a "help- 

 meet" truly. May we take the liberty to kind- 

 ly suggest that she in her ambition be not 

 allowed to do too much of the heavy work in 

 the Apiary. A few men in our laud show the 

 effects of too much hard work, but far greater 

 is the number of wives and mothers that even 

 at an age that should be the prime of life, show 

 unmistakable evidences of too much care, and 

 alas too often also, the effects of work physic- 

 ally beyond their strength. Who has not oc- 

 casionally contrasted the happy girl of 20, 

 with the worn out woman of 40 or 50. 



We should really like to hear from Mrs. W., 

 for we feel sure from the way you write that 

 she too has had a pleasant summer amid the 

 bees. Scatter the catnip seed by all means. 



We think it can never prove a troublesome 

 weed iu any event. 



Of course we can't help admiring the way in which 

 you keep things lively about that apiary of vours ; as 

 we look in from month to month, we are forcibly r. - 

 minded of looking in on a hive of busy workers, a"t tb<- 

 commencement of the warm season"; we never fliiil 

 things in statu quo, as the latins say, but And thai 

 great changes are made even in three days. We are 

 sorry yon have got cider mixed with your winter feed, 

 but if you had enough of those combs sealed up in 

 August with sugar syrup, you will be all right yet. 

 We think we can winter almost anything but from 

 your description we don't want any cider in our win- 

 ter stores. 



J. P. Mooke, Binghampton, X. Y. Oct. 12th, 1874. 



We thank you for your good opinion friend 

 M., but we can hardly feel that we deserve 

 very much credit, when so many are going 

 way ah ead of us in increase of stock as- 

 well as surplus honey. We try to console 

 ourselves by thinking if we do remain down 

 towards towards "the foot of class" we proba- 

 bly shall be nearer the mass of our readers 

 than if we were side by side with you and 

 Doolittle, who get more box honey than we do 

 extracted. 



Don't know but I ought to say something about 

 bees if it has been a poor season for honey, in conse- 

 quence of the most severe drouth ever k'nown, even, 

 by the "oldest inhabitant." From 21 colonies have 

 taken 1700 lbs. honey and increased to 45 colonies. 



Henry Palmer, Hart, Mich. 



Will not clean old rag carpets, if whole, do for bee 

 quilts ? say two thicknesses— a strip of quilt might be 

 put around the edges so that it would tuck dowiii 

 better and make tight, what think ye ? 



Wesley Brown, Homer, N. Y. Oct. 14th, 1874. 



Old carpet does ve^ well but they arc more 

 apt to be so hard as to kill bees, and in tearing 

 them loose from the frames the propolis some- 

 times pulls out pieces that may thus get into 

 the honey. The requisite qualities in a quilt 

 seem to be softness, pliability, porosity and 

 strength. We have made some experiments with, 

 various fabrics but none seem to answer all 

 purposes so well as those we have described. 

 Coarse woolen would many times do were it 

 not for the fibres pulling out and making the 

 hive untidy, to say nothing of its getting into 

 the honey. 



My report of Apiary is estimated at 2500 lbs. comb. 

 500 lbs. ext'd honey, and 0*i swarms natural and arti- 

 ficial. Started to winter 48 hives, lost in winter, one, 

 in spring, one, leaving me 4t> for the above result. 



J. L. Davis, Delhi, Mich. Oct. 10th, 1874. 



Now I am an old man verging on 72 and have, all 

 my days I may say, kept bees in different kinds of 

 box hives. I am now trying frame hives; my frames 

 are 12 inches deep by Ufi long, but the thing that 

 bothers me is, the bees work their comb across the 

 frames and also stick them to side of hive. 



John Dawson, Pontiac, Mich. Aug. 23rd, 1874. 



Have all combs built between two good ones 

 and also put a finished comb next the side of 

 the hive, if they persist in it. Some colonies 

 seem much more disposed than others to build 

 comb irregularly. 



I think we shall have to put (.leanings on the list 

 cf the tardy— I have not ree'rt the Oct. No. yet. 



"J. Pratt, Mallet Creek, O. Oct. 13th, 1874. 



Now friend P., and several others, we here- 

 by protest against being put on any such list, 

 for we have mailed every No. so far, promptly 

 on or before the <30th of each month, and we 

 beg you in future to conclude that the Post 

 Office Dep't has failed, that the cars are off the 

 track or that Uucle Sam has suspended busi- 



