is: 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Ill 



Just the point oxactlj', but iu our case the 

 opper story was full of boos too, and after we 

 hal earried enouiih away to make a uood eol- 

 ouy still they hunu; out. As there was no hon- 

 eylo be ijatliered or at least very little, they 

 were perhaps somewhat more exeusable, !)ut 

 it is our opinion that a surplus of bees ean al- 

 ways be jirolltably kept busy at somethiui;, 

 and this is the way we do it. Now these re- 

 marks are intended for every one of our read- 

 ers who have bei's loafin.u- on the outside of the 

 hives when this number reaehes them. To l)e 

 sure we eanuot set them to liathering honey 

 when there is none, but we can raise bees which 

 just now briujt;: money full as readily as 

 lioncy ; and whenever a s^ood colony of bees 

 can be sold for $^).(\0, we think it will pay well 

 to raise them durinjr the warm months of the 

 yea'r even if we have to feed daily to do it. 



As robbing is the ijreat evil to avoid at such 

 times, we will work a little dilierer.tly from the 

 plan iiiven on jiaire ST. Go to any colony having 

 t)ees on the outside of the hive, and after hav- 

 ing frightened them with a little smoke, brush 

 all these outsiders gently on the ground with 

 a quill ; now ({Uickly remove the hive before 

 they have time to crawl back again, and put 

 another in its stead. 



If you have empty combs with which to fur- 

 nish this new hive, the work is very quickly 

 done, for we have only to give them a small 

 piece of brood from our imported or choice col- 

 ony, and the work is done — no robbers being- 

 able to gain an entrance, for they are at home, 

 and neither can any trouble the parent stock, 

 for they are always full of brood and bees, be- 

 fore they begin to hang out. 



In case you have no surplus combs, you 

 should start the colonj^ much earlier, say iu 

 July or August ; it seems very probable that 

 the Comb Foundations would be a. great aid, 

 and we hope to report the result of some such 

 (xperiments before we go to press. Now 

 about the feeding: keep your brood or Queen 

 cells to the south side of the hive, and the 

 Universal feeder to the north side. You mt/i^t 

 tix the quilt so that no bees can get above it, 

 and get into the feed from above. Also, you 

 must get duck for them like the sample that we 

 furnish ; common sheeting will do for a little 

 wliile, but they soon gnaw through it, aud this 

 makes trouble. 



When the Qiieeu gets to laying if you should 

 lind that any of them have too few bees to care 

 for the brood, you of course must give them 

 frames of lu'ood — no bees — from such as can 

 spare it. Wliile w^e would give every colony a 

 piece of clioice brood (ind no oilier, we would 

 also give them Queen cells as soon as we had 

 them. Should they tear down these cells, or 

 any other accident happen to them, they will 

 always have this Ijrood to fall back on. and all 

 cells built will be good ones, if we waut to use 

 them. 



"KATIE CiKIBI.^I." 



M'K. A. I. HOOT, Dear Sir:-It seems as though 

 many doubt j-et t'nat I could extract so much 

 honey in so short a time, a;i'1 I blame no one 

 lor doubting:. I believe it would seem strange to mc 

 if I had not done it myself". I hardly think the ex- 

 tractor or myself deserves credit ;is inuch as mv dear 

 little bees, and the pood honey season do. 5ly ex- 

 tractor was similar to the Chaimian's improved lioney 

 Kx tractor, it was four cornered iu'stead of round, anil 



helil (pute a lot of honey in it below, so that I could 

 extract two full double hives without stoiipinjr lo lake 

 the honey out of the m:ichlne. It is not ro lijn-d tu dii 

 as you jierliaps ihiiik it is, and were 1 where 1 was 

 then, and had everything: just like then, it wou'd jtive 

 me great pleasure to do the same work over. 



Bees do not lind much honey in the basswood licre, 

 they work more at white clover, basswood is nothinj? 

 in comparison to what it was at Jelferson. 



Yours resi)ectfully. Mits. 11. Gieseleu. 



(ireen Bay, Wis., July -JOth. '7.5. 



We feel quite sure, Mrs. G., that no one 

 doubts your plain honest statement, unless it 

 be that class who are in the habit of judging 

 others by themselves, and perhaps they have 

 never felt the real jileasure of develoj/ing all 

 the latent strength and energy that they never 

 knew they jwssessed, until some praise-worthy 

 undertaking had called it out. 



To our new readers we would say that in the 

 year "?"!, our friend "Katie', alone and unaided, 

 extracted 10 bbls. of honey iu a little more than 

 2 wcjeks, and two barrels iu one day on one oc- 

 casion. See -1. B. J. for 1871, page 5o. 



Now although this was done with a station- 

 ary can extractor, she was obliged to empty it 

 every little while, and this :i.H alone ; and 'we 

 wish lo say here that we would under no cir- 

 cumstances be obliged to ytop work to pour out 

 the honey. Besides, if it is run directly into 

 the barrels as fast as extracted, there is no ne- 

 cessity of making our cans so deep ; therefore, 

 we can easily have tlieni small enough to stand 

 over a barrel or anything else convenient, aud 

 they are also much lighter and easier to han- 

 dle. It will be observed that the lower priced 

 machines in our list are of this description. 



^VHAT IS A S1VAI«I?I[ OF BEES "W'ORTH ? 



1 



OLLAR Queens are fully established aud 

 l' are proving a great blessing to thousands, 

 and now the principal want is bees, for a small 

 amount of money, to go with them. On page 4, 

 Vol. 2, we considered tliis matter, but since 

 tlien we think we can raise bees a little cheap- 

 er. We believe the price on Queens is pret- 

 ty well agreed upon, viz., |1.00 for untested 

 fertile Queen from imported motlier, and ?3.0() 

 for the same tested. Well we can build up a 

 colony with safety from two combs tilled with 

 brood, and covered with l)ees ; and the express 

 charges are verj' mucli less on them than on a 

 whole colony. Who will furnish them tlie 

 cheapest ? The empty combs can be furnished 

 with the aid of tlie foundations — even if we 

 liavc to feed to get them made — safely for 50c. 

 each, and then comes the great point to decide 

 what the bees and brood ai-e worth. If we 

 have to feed to get them it nniy cost altogether, 

 50c. per comb more, so that we start out with 

 the estinuite that a comb tilled with brood and 

 covered with bees is worth sl.OO. Now if we 

 put a test(Hl Queen with these two combs, we 

 have $!5.00 for the nucleus, or §i].00ifforan 

 imtested Queen. As it is some trouble to pre- 

 pare these for shij^ping, we will say .'?1.00raore 

 on each, unless 5 or more are taken at one time. 

 We need hardly add tliat thesi' nuclei are very 

 much safer iu the hands of new beginners, than 

 Queens that are to be introduced, for we have 

 many times felt that some who send olVand get 

 Queens are so utterly uninformed in regard to 

 the habits of bees, that it would be almost a 

 miracle if they were not lost, \rhcri as these nu- 

 clei would be comparatively x'lfc with them. 



