20 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Fee, 



y^©p'C*i*'^-Lig^ E Ji©oiiii» ^^ ill ^® 



^E think it now demonstrated beyond a 

 jiyj doubt, that bee-keepin,:; on the avera.ite 

 pays well ; at least our subscribers are sending: 

 very cheering i-eports. That our new readers, of 

 which we have a large number, may see tliat 

 these larirc crops are not contined to any par- 

 ticular locality or persons, we submit the fol- 

 lowing reports : 



I f?ot 1400 lbs. of honey this year from 23 stocks, part 

 of them weak in S)>rin.u:. Have ii now. 



M. II. Mii.sTEK, Frolma, Perry Co., Mo. 



From a strength of six stocks last spring.' I got 400 

 lbs. beautiful thick honev and increased them to 18 

 stocks. liKv. John Fotiikuinguam. 



Woodham, Ontario, Canada. 



I had one stand of Italians in the spring, increased 

 1, and about .50 lbs. box and frame honey. Bought two 

 stands of bees fioni Mr. Nesbit, Cvnthiana. and rec'd 

 them in good condilicin. " Waltku ;*knK)U. 



Evansville, Preston Co., WcBt Va. 



[For Gleanings.] 

 VARIOUS MATTERS. 



nv G. JI. DOOLVrTLK. 



The past season in this vicinity was consiilered a 

 very poor one by all wlio use the old box hive. INIy 

 bees averageil 73 lbs. per hive, extracted. I am taking 

 44 swarms through this winter. I took from one 

 swarm 'ioS^j lbs. last season. Have not trieil raising 

 box honev yet, but shall another season. 



M. E. McMasxeu, Shclbyville, Mo. 



I use all Langstroth hives with ten frames and have 

 all half bre<l Italians. I had i> swarms last winter 

 and lo-it them during tlu^ spring down to 1'2. and in- 

 creased them through nat\iral swai'niing duiing the 

 summer up to :>4 colonies and get over lodo lbs. of box 

 honey and li>0 lbs. of extracted honey ami sold it all 

 from -20 to -Ajc a pound. 



John ItOLLEU, Waterloo, Wis. Nov. '26th, 1874. 



I wintered 70 stocks last winter. I used the honey 

 extractor on 10 coinmenciMg .July llth, and exti'acted 

 JSOO lbs. of honey wliile the basswood was in bloom. I 

 took from them Slu lbs. in eight ilays. Fi'om my best 

 btock 1 took 120 llis. in seven days, "during the season 

 i took from the same stock 2 to lbs. While from my 

 best stock that was working for comb honey 1 only 

 took 8i) los. during the wliol./ season. I am trying to 

 winter now SO stocks. E. lif.oWN, Port Uowan, Can. 



I have SI swarms of bees and they all ap))ear in good 

 condition. I winter on summer stands, have never 

 lost move than two jier cent in wintering. 1 )iad 

 about :i")00 lbs. of honey to sell this season besides 

 what I kept lor n)y oivn use. could have had more but 

 had the uiislortnue to break my arm in three iilaces 

 one year ago to-day and 1 have been pretty badly 

 crii)i)led ami coulil not have help as it is iuipossible to 

 get a num to lie p nie, my wife is my only help. 



GEoifOE I'AUitATT, Wiuuimac, lud. Jan. 4th, '75. 



I commenced last sjiring with 25 stocks of bees, half 

 of them were rather weak, the season was rather a 

 jioor one, clover and bmkwheat were a failure yet I 

 averaged Uu lbs. of basswood and golden rod honey, 

 about lonr-lifths of it was extracted, i increased to 50 

 stocks. It seems that few if any havt^ averaged 100 

 lbs. of comb honey from avi apiary ol ."id >t(icks or more. 

 I think I can a\ei;ige that nextyear with my improved 

 hives and section l)o\es. How many will average 

 more than 100 lbs. and double their stocks? 



i;. ^. l!i;('Kri:i.i„ New P.ulfalo, Mich. 



C'ALU'OUNIA. 



In 1S7:! I commenced in a mountainous region ol this 

 Count\- with l:! couunon box hives; these increased to 

 m, and made 10200 lbs. of hone\- and 2:;o lbs. of wax. I 

 sold honey at Idc and wax at 2.')c. In 1S74 1 started 

 with It:'. hi\' sand iitcreased to l.S2 b\ nalin;d swarm- 

 ing; 2.Jof the lirst swarms 1 i)ut in Langstroth hives, 

 is Iranu's, ITt'oXlO'i inside nu'asni-e, and I extracteil 

 from these oi\ an avei'age, .iio lbs. each during the 

 season. I maile altogether 22(iO0 lbs. of honey and (do 

 lbs. of wax and sold the h(me\ at and loc per lb., and 

 wax at 2()C. Uees are wtn-kiiig here the whole \ ear 

 exceiit wlu'u it is raining. The )ninci)ile honev 

 harvest is from middli^ of A|)ril till the nnildle o'f 

 .lulv, and the swarnnng Ironi nnildle of A'arch till 

 al'out tlie lh>t ol Jui.e. 



P. Piiii.t.ii'i, Jios Angelos. 



vr;]UIF,ND NOVICE: -Please read our weight 25;! 

 i^p" instead of 24:5 lbs., also in next to last line of post 

 •^r-"! scri))t read jairin.K Instead of joining. We think 

 you have liit the nail fight on the head in regard to 

 ilvsentery being caused by getting bees too Avarm. 

 We venture the assertion that cold never caused dys- 

 entery among bees where they were properly ventila- 

 ted so as to get rid of all the moisture from the combs 

 and still not cause a draft of air througli the hive. 

 We have tried to kill a swarm of bees by taking all 

 covering off of the top of the hives and raising the 

 hive six in(^hes at the bottom with a temperature of 

 from 2 to 10° above zero and we could not do it with 

 an experiment of four nights in succession. [We have 

 just made a similar experiment. Bees all right. — Ed.] 

 Bees kept drv, will stand any amount of cold we get 

 in this latitude but wet them" with the mercury at zero 

 and they perish at once. We had the privilege of 

 seeing some bees last Feb. kept as tjuinby recommen- 

 ileil a year ago, nearly at a temperature "of 50° and we 

 never saw dysenterv in its worst form before. The 

 hives were smeare(\ so that the tilth drop]>ed from 

 them. You ask why not keej) the i)acked straw on 

 the hives all winter? Simijly because it keeps them 

 too warm. [Leave 'em out-doors then. -Ed.] We 

 tried it one winter and every day when the mercury 

 would rise to 32° the)' would get uneasy and cover the 

 whole to|) of the hive, gnaw^ the quilt and consume 

 four times the honey they otherwise would. We came 

 near losing u ]iart of them with dysentery but tinally 

 took otr the straw and all was right after a few days. 



Our honey boxes are made to take a 5x6 glass and 

 hold when tilled about 2 'i lbs. They are arranged so 

 that the glass is not put on until they are lilled. We 

 jirefer side and top boxes both yet a part of our hives 

 were like Galluii's standard Id'ves and could be only 

 to|> boxeil. Bees will build condi much the fastest at 

 the sides and store tluir honey at top. Get them to 

 work if possible in the toji lirst "and when the top ones 

 are lilled rai.~e tliose irom the sides which arc nearly 

 fiUl of comb to the top juitting empty ones in their 

 places and so on as long as the honey season lasts. 

 Do not let them tinish any on the lower tier at the 

 sides for if you do it will be stained so by the bees 

 liassing over it as not to be salable. But Novice why 

 ask us any thing about box honey, etc. as, "certain 

 ))arts of York state have this season jivoduced great 

 results yet for three seasons )irevious they have not 

 reported at all or ;it least but little worth nientioning.'' 

 As this has been the lirst \ ear we have given an en- 

 couraging report ju-obably it will be the last but hail 

 you not forgotten that we reported SO lbs. (box honey) 

 per hive as an average last vear? 



Borodino, N. Y. Dec. llth, 1874. 



True friend D., you, to report we believe and 

 we beg pardon, but liow about tlie rest? 



— I > I wi — 



MOTIIER^VORT FOR HONEV. 



5V, IdTTIdO over two years ago I bought :in old 

 ij\ jilace of about two acres, rebuilt, tixed up etc., 

 —'—• and last spring I took it into my head to l)uy a 

 swarm of bees. lu a short lime 1 had two hives; ir 

 being a new bu-iness and a novelty to me, I 

 began to take gre;it pleasure in seeing the little fel- 

 lows work and talk among themselves. It so ha))- 

 l)ened that my place had on it plenty of catnip and 

 above id I, it has Motherwort. Now ti.ere was nothing 

 that (ileased the bees so well, as hmg as it lasted, as 

 the .Motherwort. They were both in blossom at the 

 same time, ami the blossoms are very much alike, but 

 there was not a bei' on the catiuii, where there were 

 hundreds and 1 nnght say thousands on the Mother- 

 \\<n'l ; I walked about aniong il.and they seeuu'd to 

 take deliuht in lollowini;- nu' and thanking me for tlu' 

 kiivd pro'tcclion and culture of the jilant. It was fun 

 tv see the lilt le fellows play backwards and forwards 

 to their luunes, so highly ii'leased. Now you can't talk 

 catnip to me when there is Molherwmt around. It 

 ipossesses some good medical pro|ierties and I am led 

 to believe it is invaluable to the luuuau landly. I 

 intend to iiu'rease thi^ cro)) teu-lolil next siu-iug. and I 

 am in hopes to write next fall th.al I have 20 hives 

 inste.id of 2. The Imsimss is ih'w to nu', but 1 think I 

 will like it mcu'c and more as I progress. 



1)1!. li. Ilri'ciK IKK, South Norwalk.Cann. 



TiiK glass cutter advertised in this No., cuts beauti- 

 full\ . Wcihave used one considerably. 



