1875 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



C5 



\liinf?s,' ami tliat if we throw a little sun-shiiic 

 iibout his path, it will cost us but little, and 

 may tend to inak'O his life average vvitli the 

 rest. 



We fc ai- an Editor many times loses sijjlit of 

 the Jaet, I hat it is a inueli easier matter for 

 liini to eonforin to the habits of a thousand of 

 his subseribers, than to have the thousand all^ 

 conform to some i)rojwt of his own. We have 

 many times ihought of makini; requests to our 

 subseribirs, sueh as askinir them not to send 

 lis cht eks for the small sum of 75c, when it 

 costs 20 or r)()c to j»et them collected ; that they 

 "would not ask us (juestions tliat were plainly 

 •answered on our price list; that they would 

 not expect \is to reply individually to all their 

 kind letters etc., etc.; but on the whole, we 

 will just say keep on in your accustomed way, 

 and we will try to conform to it. If you are 

 busy, and don't tliink, put jour money and 

 <[uestions both in the middle of a long letter, 

 icritten on both sicks, and then change your 

 raind in the post-script if you choose, or refer 

 to a former letter. We cannot promise posi- 

 tively, but we will try and preserve all letters. 

 We are going to try too, to remember the di- 

 xnensions of the frames that each friend uses, 

 ^o when he orders an Extractor, we shall not 

 be bothered if he don't tell. Thus : we remem- 

 ber that Rev. J. Van Eaton, is 12x12 inside, 

 whereas R, S. Becktell, is 12x12 outside. Prof 

 Cook, 11)4x1114, Dadant is somewhere near 

 12x18, and James Bolin, is IT^/gxOig, etc., etc. 



HOW TO BIJII^D AVORKER COIWBS 

 EVERY XIITIE AT A 2-40 RATE. 



^^RIKNDNOVICE:— Having a number of stocks 

 llN"' last fall, not lull of combs, and the buckwheat 

 "^1 honey failing, thus stopping all comb building, 

 and wi:-hing very much to get them full before going 

 into winter quarters, we set ourselves to thinking, and 

 as a result, we, a few da)-s after, hai)pening to meet 

 tliat good friend of ours "Squire Jesse," (one of those 

 <ip tc^ good naturcd bee-keepers you sometimes meet 

 \v\i\,— like vs for instance) I proposed to him that we 

 each should take one of our strong stocks and take 

 (ill their eavibs anay but ttco m- three, fill out hives 

 with emiity frames and feed, and see if we could not 

 get those much needed combs built. After delibera- 

 ting a while, the "S<iuire" replies, "i\^o Sir-ee, not any 

 of that for me— guess Til wait awhile before taking 

 my little pefs combs all away, leaving them in such a 

 Six as tliat, this time of year." 



"AH right 'Squire.' if you don't wish to experiment, 

 we will risk one stock any way." Afconlingly. one ot 

 owr stronf/est stocks wasseiected and dejirived of all 

 their combs but three or four containing the oldest 

 capped brood in the hive, which was selected to keep 

 up the strength of colony while at work ; used balance 

 of brood (6 or 7 combs) in strengthening up iveak 

 swarms, then filled out hive with empty Ivames inter- 

 spersed with the frames of brood, putting 2 frames 

 between each 2 frames of brood— put on feeding box 

 and fed them just at nipht a quart or more syrup made 

 of lib. sugar (Ex. C.) andl quart water. Being anxious 

 as to result (so late in season) we next morning 

 looked into hive and found to our pleasure, they had 

 a piece of comb about as large as your hand in each of 

 several frames and all rrorker. Being so much pleased 

 with result, we immediately set several more at it, 

 using extra brood as with lirst stock. In the coui'se of 

 :■> or 4 days the "Squire"' happening around, we propo- 

 sed to let him have a peep into first stock set to build- 

 ing. "When the hive was opened u)) and frame after 

 frame of beautifid worker comb was shown him, all 

 nearly completed, the "Squire's"' eyes began to open a 

 little, and after showing him through the other build- 

 ers, (all seeming to vie with each other as to which 

 should Jill their hives first) and getting up from our 

 knees and looking the "Squire"' in the eye, he as- 

 lounded us by saying, "Well Eddie if you are a mind 

 to, you may come up and start a few of my stocks in 

 'biz'."" Wishing to oblige so good a friend— "up we 

 went" and the result following was a nice lot of strait 

 worker combs. 



By above plan we got 12.'( nice worker combs, using 

 nearly 200 lbs. Ex. (J sugar, making cost tier comb 

 from l(i to 2(H;, (combs lOJtxllJi.). 



Cannot make an exact estimate as we allowe<l all 

 stocks fed to make up their winter stores from amount 

 fed ; but alter estimating amount in hives an<l ueduct- 

 Ing trom whole amount led, arrival at above result. 



rerhajis some of our bee-keejiing li lends may sav 

 'tis most too risky a jol) at that ti«ne of year, (la"st of 

 Aug.) if .so, try one colony to begin with and our word 

 for it, all being favorable, they will become a convert 

 —as the "Sfjuire" did. 



As our honey dei)endence is on white clover mostly, 

 and ending lirst of July, witli nothing more lor our 

 little friends to do till blooming ol Buckwheat, \ou 

 will readily see how much we can gain bv keeping 

 them busy in the interval, at comb buil<iing", thus Ris- 

 ing us all the combs we need at smaller cost than in 

 any other way, and the stocks building (as well a» the 

 weak ones, receiving the benefit of the added coiidts 

 of brood), are in belter condition when through ti.au 

 they otherwise would have been. 



Out of 1.5 to '20 stocks used as described only two 

 made any efl'ort to build drone comb, and they only a 

 small amount; stocks having Queens eitlier youw) or 

 old, liuilt worker comb the same, saw no dillercnce. 



Trusting this may help some of the "fraternlij" in 

 their time of need as much as it did us, we remain 



Yours truly, J. Uatman & Co. 



Dundee, Ills. March loth, 1875. 



Tlie above, which it seems to us is only car- 

 rying out the plan of our friend Dean, we think 

 will work without doubt, and it will most 

 certainly contribute much toward getting the 

 colony in good wintering condition. In using 

 the Universal feeder last season, we had a sim- 

 ilar experience, only that we aimed to prevent 

 comb building, having a fair supply. 



TENNESSEE AND THE ITIIGRATORIT 

 PEAN. 



BEES never wintered better. Not a single colony 

 lost in this vicinity, and all wintered on their 

 summer stands. Commenced gathering honey 

 and pollen the last week in March from the •'Vesica- 

 ria Lescurii'''' (Bladder Tod) a small yellow bloom (see 

 specimen enclosed) and said to be found no^\here ex-- 

 cept in central Kentucky and Tenn. The honey is 

 light and very nice. 



We shipped 7o colonies to Indianapolis, Ind., on 13th 

 inst, where we expect a better yield of honey during 

 the summer. They had gathered about ten lbs. per 

 hive belore ship]jing, i)arily from the fruit trees, and 

 swarming liad (•<jniuieiiced. >Ve expect to return them 

 to Tenn. in Soj)!., in time to get the Aster honey. The 

 cose of transportation by freight is 50 cts. jier colony, 

 one way, and we think the increased amount of honey 

 will pay it, and the security of wintering here will be 

 amjiie pay for trouble. The late Dr. Ii;:mlin has never 

 lost more than one in one hundred at this Ajjiary lor 

 10 years, in wintering. Bakni;:.: & X'k\"jon, 



Edgefield Junction, Tenn. April 17th, iS'io. 



EABEES, CtUEENS, AND CAEIFORNBA 

 HONEV. 



fjRIEND NO"VICE :— Your gilt labels are the finest 

 "' I have seen and very cheap. I think we shall 

 not disagree on the standard label even if we do 

 on the Standard hive. 



The Queen you refer to in March Gleanings, came 

 trom Aaron Benedict. 1 am pleased with his bees, 

 but his jiacking was not uniformly good. I shoidd 

 rather have a Queen from some reliable American 

 breeder, who has worked for a series of years to se- 

 cure the peri)etuation of desirable characteristics (as 

 Davis of Penh, and Benedict of Ohio claim they have 

 done) than to have an imported (^)ueen at tlie same 

 price. And I say this without taking into considera- 

 tion the various diseases and enendes of bees now 

 found in Europe, the introduction of which is now 

 only a question of time. We undoubtedly have better 

 Queens in this country than can be obtained fiom tlie 

 peasants of Europe. Then why send to the Continent; 

 and take such risks unless in exceptional cases? 



I have seen the bee louse of Italy at work in our 

 own Apiary under circiun-tances tli.it seent to indicate 

 its having survived at least one of our winters. Ju<lg- 

 ing from what I have seen and read of its habits 1 do 

 not consider it possible for a colon}" considerabh' lousy 

 to live through a winter in the Northern States. It 

 would be kept in constant agitatation, a condition 



