72 



TBF BEE-KEEPERS' REVi£jW. 



each. The rest of the cost is not all in fer- 

 tilizing, however: but holding the finished 

 queen till a purchaser heaves in sight cuts 

 some figure. For quarters he likes a tene- 

 ment with eight little subdivisions in it. 

 with a nucleus of bees in each, and on three 

 sections instead of frames. Each apart- 

 ment is to have its own cover, and a hive 

 cover goes over the whole. Of course start- 

 ing the thing to going is a matter of first 

 class importance. He hangs a caged lay- 

 ing queen in each compartment, and then 

 sets the outfit, minus bottom board, over a 

 powerful colony of queenless bees. These 

 will eagerly cro.vd in on account of the 

 queens. Just at night carry the tenement 

 where it is to stand, and put things in order 

 for business. E xcept for short periods, when 

 a young queen is ready for her flight, per- 

 forated zinc is kept at the entrances to nul- 

 lify swarming out, and prevent " going a 

 visiting. " 



Dr. Miller had a fine crop of honey this 

 year ; and he took it into his head to both 

 weigh and count the sections to the number 

 of over nine thousand. They are 4^4 x 4I4 x 

 I'g, and used with separators. The average 

 weight was a trifle over fifteen ounces — a 

 showing hardly likely to be made except 

 during a copious honey flow. But they va- 

 ried sadly. Some were over 17 ounces, some 

 less than 18. The exact pound section, alas! 

 is still beyond us. And as the over- weight 

 ones are very hard to sell, except at a loss, 

 we cannot bear down very hard on the boys 

 for scrimping down the size. Gleanings 

 811. 



Gleanings on page 817 reproduces photo- 

 graphs of wagon racks made to carry a 

 whole apiary at once. Quite a startling in- 

 novation. Certainly offers strong points of 

 advantage for migratory folks. The biggest 

 one shows six horses hitched on; and not 

 every bee man has six horses — or can com- 

 mand the attendence of a wagon fit to carry 

 five tons on a rough road — but these dilfi- 

 culties can in many cases be overcome. It's 

 the Californian, W. H. Mendleson that 

 carries sail in such a style as this. The 

 floor space of his biggest rack is 7 feet by 

 19}2. If your hives are not more than KI 

 inches wide over all, five of them will go in 

 side by side. And if the length of all is 23 

 inches, or less, ten ranks will go in, making 

 an even fifty on the bottom. If the upper 

 stories are off, three tiers can be carried, 

 or liJO hives. With the upper stories on, two 



tiers, amounting to 100 colonies is a load. 

 Makes a man feel like a Czar to see an apiary 

 of 100 colonies, all rigged for extracting 

 start off " en bloc " for honey Canaan when 

 he sings out " gee up there. " 



Dr. Miller in Gleanings 818 contributes 

 some valuable facts concerning the snper- 

 sedure of queens. Six colonies starting the 

 season with very old queens averaged very 

 poor work in the supers. Twenty-four col- 

 onies with queens of the previous year aver- 

 aged distinctly better than those with queens 

 any older. In a season which is very poor 

 throughout — e. g. 1864 — very few queens are 

 superseded, apparently because there is very 

 little rapid laying, and queens do not wear 

 out much. Per contra, in the early fall after 

 a lively spason's work the greater share of 

 superseding will occur. As to whether the 

 bee-keeper or the bees can best be trusted to 

 decide when superseding ought to occur. 

 Dr. Miller proposes a compromise. Let the 

 bees boss it. except in one definite line of 

 cases. See to it that every colony which 

 has made a poor score at honey storing goes 

 into the winter with a young queen. He 

 has a case of two queens in one hive which 

 are not' mother and daughter — carelessly 

 put in at different times when making up a 

 nucleus. One has been badly plucked of 

 feathers, and has but remnants of wings : 

 the other carries no visible marks of violence. 

 At last report they had been 3!) days to- 

 gether. 



A. F. Brown in A. B. J. 20 makes a 

 thorough exposition of the honey resources 

 of the numerous kinds of lands in Florida. 

 I had been getting rather obstinate in the 

 opinion that "orange honey," so called, 

 was always bogus — often indeed represent- 

 ing the ignorance of a well-meaning bee 

 man; but usually a taking term to move off 

 honey that never would be able to travel far 

 on its merit alone. Friend Brown kind 'o 

 makes me feel shaky in my shoes. So able 

 a man would hardly report 10,000 lbs. of 

 pure orange honey in one season in " pure " 

 ignorance of where the honey came from. 

 And when he says that his scale record of 

 the orange flow has been from 7 to 14 pounds 

 a day, and continued from 10 to 14 days, I 

 e'enymost have to believe him. Nevertheless 

 tell your city cousin not to buy orange hon- 

 ey unless the taste is good. 



Mrs. Harrison thinks that if you live near 

 a big city, and report a poor crop in the 

 journals, shippers on the watch will pile a 



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