t^TTy 



IxLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



iv: 



JfCc*) H d S' CO f CCr 1» SI ill ,, 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS. 



AN OLD KKK HIVE. 



JV]tirjit) 1)AV, Jisly 'iTth, ]S75, while makiitj; a joanioy 

 ' •] ' thvoujrh tlic coiuitrv I nolioeil a lur^a iiee hive 

 ■•^ ill !i yanl, and <-on<-"hi(ioil to s^lop ami sice it. I 

 iDiinil iltUus: c'i};ht lH)Kt's inlvd on top oioach other, 

 ami tile hivi' was throe I'eet lii^h, -<) ?iuhes livoad and 

 :1- ini'lu's Irosii iVont. to rear i'lside nieasuretiieul. The 

 •;>\viH'r had li«il it -Ji years, aud every spriiiir tool; 

 Iroin two to Uiree buckets I'lill ot hone'y out. lie told 

 me that the lieos always had th<.'\r main Isrood eluster 

 in the ri^ht band side, and so he did not take much 

 ■Ciimli out of tliat side, ami they never had swarmed 

 «li'.rinjr the 'whole period ot of i'-.* ye:irs. This mani- 

 lunth eolonv liad rolibed several "swarnis whieli he 

 ^cui-ilit at lUflerent times, and he tohi nte that he 

 thouifht this swarm was the real cause of his ni-ish- 

 lior"s liees having dwindled down to nothing, and that 

 Jie would feel Iiaiipy if he had it out of the old hive, 

 iind in a ffood frame hive, but he could i;et no one to 

 <lo it for him. I told htm that 1 thought 1 coedd do it 

 next s|)rin}r«f the colony should outlive the winter of 

 l.s7."i-7<). I would be very thankful if j^ou would give 

 t!ie a little iuiviec about it. 



L). if. Kkkn, ShiniersvJlle, Ta. 



I fit were our hive it would be tninsferred 

 l)ei<)ro uight ; and we do not see that any s^per- 

 aal (Ui'ectious are needed. Our Standard hive 

 wonkl, V* e think, give ample roora. See i)age 64. 



I started with a few colonies of blacks and Italians 

 Jn all sorts of hives. I liavc now discarded them all 

 but the Buckeye with my own- improvements, and 

 lind it tiie best hive so l"ar,"of any I have ever seen or 

 t'.ied. As regards in-door wintering. I have ha<l very 

 jndillereut success. I have wintered in the cellar anil 

 lost nearly one-half by dysentery, owing, as I siii)pose, 

 to long eoniiuetnent, for I think bees should liave a 

 ilig)it nearly eveiy good day in winte'' or spring. I 

 am now wintering on the summer stands, and lost last 

 winter only 7 out" of *)0 hives, all the others coming 

 out in gooil order. 1 have this summer taken 70 lbs. 

 <if box honey from one colony that was divided a year 

 ago the tenth of last May. Others liave yielded from 

 40 to 00 lbs. each, so in my case building a wintering 

 house would be incurring useless and unnecessary ex- 

 l)ense. As for the Italians, I consider the black bee 

 almost as good when }3ropeiiy treated ; the secret of 

 rtuccess, owing .ilways more to the management than 

 To the kind. I have "black bees in my own Apiary aud 

 Jilso some from home, that gather fully as much lionej" 

 as do the Italians. 



The answer I always give to those who are desirous 

 ■of having their Old black bees (kept as a good many 

 do now, and also handled in the old style) Italianized, 

 is this : "If you get Italians and treat them just as you 

 are now treating vour old servants, you will get no 

 more from them ; hut flrst learn the art of bee-keeping 

 and then try Italians." I have also reare<i Italian 

 <)ueens for sale, aud would have made it a specialty, 

 but owing to a ]iress of other business I was obliged 

 to discontinue it. I think the Italian (Queens are 

 much more i)roliric, and breed earlier in tlie spring, 

 tlian the blacks, the' I do not think their worker bees 

 less apt to sting, for I have had them as cross as Tar- 

 tar.-). Nor can I recommend them as working more 

 ou retl clover, than the blacks, for I have never seen 

 it. As reganls dollar (Queens, I bought on several oc- 

 casions, quite late in the season, and they being un- 

 fertilized. 1 ruined the colonies 1 put them in. 



Now for extracting : 1 am a beginner in thai branch. 

 31y first oi)ciation was in June when honey was Hush, 

 then my bees were docile, and were easily handled, 

 but since honey is scarce it is almost impossible to 

 oi)en the hive.r. As our brother bee-keepers have 

 never given much of their experience in extracting, 

 will not some of them give us their modus operandi? 



S.\.MI;EL jVlfMMA. 



llighspire, Dauphin Co., I'a., Aug. 2d, ".'i. 

 Now friend 31., to be frank, we should con- 

 sider your opinion of the liuckeye hive of 

 more weight, had we not olwerved "rights for 

 sale" on the envelope enclosing the above, es- 

 pecially since the hive mentioned has been 

 almost universally abandoned, at least in the 

 impracticable shape that it was when Mitchell 

 sold rights for it. Your admission that Ital- 



ian Queens are more prolifh- is alone a very 

 strong concession in their favor, and when yoii 

 adnnt Ijeiiiii unused to tlie exM factor, we aiv 

 iiol surprised that you do not give them Jus- 

 tice, tor it seems to us t/jc// particularly demand 

 the aid of the extractor; otiiervvise tlu-y may 

 .so cram their hives with honey, as to work their 

 own ruin, particularly, wlxu this same red 

 clover is iu bhjom, during t!u; latter part of 

 this month. We lind them on the red clover 

 here invarialiiy, Itut very seldom see a !»!ack 

 l)ee on it. 



It is a very dillicuit matter indeed to extract 

 after the How of honey has ceased, and we 

 would advise no one to undertake it, unless 

 the combs be removed from the hives by moon- 

 light, as we advi.se in another j)lace. Your 

 yield of box honey is certaiidy good, and we 

 wish more of our readers had e<|Ual skill in the 

 same direction. 



Ifanyonelius been guilty of sending out 

 utiferttie Queens as "dollar Queens," it is your 

 duty to give us their n;uiies and have then* 

 put)lished. 



We cannot publish a tenth i)art of letters in 

 favor of the Italians, but the one peculittrity, 

 mentioned in the following letter, places thcui 

 far aliead of the blacks. 



THI'; VALl K Ol llAt.lANS. 



The moths have been troubling my black bees very 

 much, and there are but few comhs iii even my strong- 

 est hives, that have not some moths in them. 1 rec'd 

 an Italian Queen with 4 or .t three lianded workers 

 and placed them o;i two combs with young bees gnaw- 

 ing out. These combs, though they "were taken from 

 the middle of hives over full of black bees, had a few 

 cells in each that were uncaijped by moths: next 

 morning I found these young bees on" the bottom of 

 the hive and the moths gone. The rol)bers were very 

 bad at the time, so I kei>t the hive closed three days, 

 then opened it and sat by to see. I let a robber'or 

 two in and kej)t the rest away; one was driven out 

 soon, and I let in others ; in a few minutes one of the 

 Italians came dragging out a dead robber, then sta- 

 tioned herself with a young bee that had lost one 

 wing, and had a large jjatch of moth web on its back, 

 at the entrance, aud these two kept the robbers out foi- 

 the rest of the day. Since then (5 days) there have 

 been two of the yellow workers and'several young 

 bee-s on guard all the time, keeping all robbers out. 

 These two advantages' would be sulllcient to induce 

 me to decide to Italianize mv whole Ajjiary, if no 

 other existed. " J. H. Oxkv, M. D. 



Dixon's Springs, Tenn., July 22<l, '75. 



Commenced 8 jears ago with one swarm, ran up to 

 40 in time, to lose every one two years ago last winter. 

 Sent to your friend Shaw for one swarm of Italians 

 two years ago last May. 1 now have -ih by natural 

 swarming. I have worked for box honey, but the 

 Italians don'c seem to be so goo<l for that. They are 

 great on the swarm. .My wife says, the lirst thing 

 they do after getting into a new "hive, is to start a 

 Queen cell. Wintered in the cellar last winter with 

 good luck. Cellar in dry gravelly soil. 



P. 8.— Just as 1 linished the other sheet, i iieard the 

 swarming hum again ; and while hiving tiieni I beard 

 a remark from a little boy that passed by. as he has 

 several limes with his mother tliis summer. "He's 

 tuk it down." "What?" said the lady. "^V'y that 

 pole with th;u 'ere bob on." 



You see 1 hail jnit up a swarmer according to 

 (iLKANiNc.s, mullein stocks, etc., and after 21 swarms 

 came out, circled around it and then settleil on the 

 cherry trees, I took it down. It may be a good thing 

 where there are no trees, but who wiints to live in tliis 

 country without a tree? 



T II A T S M E 1,1.. 



I-et me here remark that la~l winter one of my 

 swarms got uneasv in the cellar, and 1 notiiol that 

 jiarticular odor that I <lid before when 1 lost all my 

 bees by some disease. I took them out doors; it was 

 hardlv warm enouuh for them to come out well with- 

 out loss, but I thought best t.> let them tly. Perhaps 

 a third of them never got liack. At night when they 

 got ciuiet I carefullv raised one end of the hive aud 



