1875. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1-5) 



PRO.M DIFFERENT FIELDS. 



-1 n'J;151-l^NJ> NOVICK :--'J'lus lias proved Uvc poorest 

 ;?ri season for honey 1 have known in luy cxperi- 

 — '. enceol's years." W'liite clover is our main ile- 

 ;iendencc lure; Ihero v;is an alumihuH'e of il. as usu- 

 al, hut it 'lid not appear to yield honey ol' any uc<'oiint. 

 One cause, however, ol iny small yield is the amounl 

 ol' black hloud iniroduecdinto my slock— having )tur- 

 <hased largely in my anxiety to become a bin bee man. 

 However, ihrowing'asidc luy ideas ot visionary proJits, 



I shall make a fair summer's work of il. INIy leisure 

 time in <.'on.se<iuence of lack of lioney. 1 am improving 

 by Italianizing my bees, and making changes in every 

 direction. 1 am full of hope for the future, and shall 

 not knowingly omit .any necessary iireparation for 

 Jicxt season's "campaign." 



1 too am JiaU-hing Queens by lamplight ; aint it jolly 

 fun ? Give us a picture of "the '•Octagonal Apiary' 

 when veil get everything arranged lovely. Go on aiid 

 j>rosper in every way, but don't, more than you can 

 hel)>, li.K uj) nice, cosily affairs lor your pets, find then 

 tell us how charming they are— it makes us feel bail to 

 Jhink we can't liave such". G. C. Millek, 



Mt Hanley, Annapolis Co.,N. S. Aug. 12th, '76- 

 Just as soou as it is decided that "house 

 Apiaries" are really a success, we shall try to 

 see how cheaply they can be made. Perhaps 

 by clipping ott" all needless expenses, and bring- 

 ing it down to the very closest figures, we raa}', 

 <is with the .$1.00 hive, find that we are really 

 better ofl", in having all that is needful and noth- 

 ing more.^ 



Please permit me to talk to you in a friendly way, 

 the way in which all true bee-keepers should address 

 each other; and first, I don't like you to use the old, 

 hackneyetl term '"Xovice", when yoii are iiot a novice 

 ill bee-culture; a moment's careful thought will show 

 you that 1 am right in the position here taken. The 

 lerm "Novice" Is liable to deceive, whi(;h I know and 

 leel you have no desire to do. 



Although you and 1 difler on many points, we agree 

 in the main. I must sav' that your suggestions in i-ela- 

 lion to Queen raising, "in the Sept. number, are tlie 

 best 1 have ever seen ;— there maj' be a little sellish- 

 ncss on this point, for your experience and mine agree 

 almost exactly. 1 have bri'd the Italian bee since 1861, 

 and very carefully loo, changing blood every two 

 years, and my experience with Queens is similar 

 10 your own. 



And now again I must scold you a little, do you not 

 think the dollar Queens have a tendencv to depreciate 

 pure Italian stock '' I cannot raise j^Mce tlalian Queens 

 at Sl.OO each, neither can you; audit forced to com- 

 ])ete with Sl.OO Queens I shall most surely buy them of 

 j)artics who are willing to insure them, as it woukl not 

 l>ay me '-' ijer cent on money invested, to raise and sell 

 them at that price. 



For every Queen 1 sell [insured] I get SS.OO, to those 

 who introduce themselves I sell at ift-OO each ; and 1 

 •shall put my bees to honey gathering when I cease to 

 realize these figures, as "it will pay me much belter 

 t.han Queen raising. I have taken as much as 113 lbs. 



II o/. of honey and an artificial swarm from a single 

 colony, so you need not wonder that I do not take any 

 stock in the one dollar Queen business. "15." 



Thank you, friend "B.", we like plain letters, 

 above all things. In regard to "Novice," it 

 seems to us that so long as we lose bees at the 

 rate we have done for several winters past, we 

 all might with equal propriety be termed "nov- 

 ices." Again, it is our friends who seem to 

 prefer to address us thus, and as we dislike to 

 put into our contril)utors' letters anything they 

 do not say, we cannot well do otherwise than 

 let them say "Dear Novice," if they wish. ''Vox 

 populi, etc." 



As to §1.00 Queens, alas for theorizing ! the 

 time for discussing the matter has gone by. 

 It is now quite a large and profitable industry, 

 ^profittible alike to the purchaser and pro- 

 ducer, and we fear you have not kept pace with 

 the times, or you would see that every $1.00 

 Queen rearer is of late using only imported 



mothers. Do you mean that we could not rear 

 1000 Queens in a season with lOOstocksof bees •' 

 If ice cannot, we liave many readtrx who can. 



Last year I I'xiieiimentcd. feeiiing .'! slocks svru)) 

 of coffee A. sugar lor tlie puipose of comb build- 

 ing. I used the tea-kettle leeder, and was but 

 a short time feeiiing a barrel of .sugar. I <-onc.iiid(d il 

 didn't pay. This summer 1 tried iceding lor the same 

 l)urpose, again, using about a pint of svrup a <lav. 

 made of brown sugar costing from 8 to '.) cents per lb. 

 The result has been very salislaciorv. One slock la 

 late swarm with a young l^ieen) (ronsuucled !* worker 

 comb.s and i drone coinbs. Another, (also a late swavm 

 with a young Queen) after constructing 2 or ;! worker 

 combs, commenced drone eouil). 1 llien took away all 

 tlieir combs but one, gave them two empty combs, and 

 they made worker comb again. 1 tliought 1 woubl 

 try a slock witJi an old Queen, that Jiail not swarmed, 

 and was <juile strong; (by the way, i call lliis my lazy 

 stock as it did not gather half a"s much honey" as i"t 

 should considering its size), lint they built "drone 

 comb almost from the first. This may have been ow- 

 ing partly to the fact that I fed Diema ipiart jier day, 

 instead of a pint as I ditl the others. 



The cost, leaving out of the account the drone comb, 

 was about 3.!)c. per square loot, from which Is lo be de- 

 ilucted the syrup storeti in the ujjper paiT of some of 

 the combs and the value of the brood with which the 

 combs were well lilled ; this would reduce the expense 

 considerably below o.")c. As to how mu(di honey was 

 being obtained from the fields you can judge Irom the 

 fact that one of my stocks got "out of slores, and com- 

 menced to drag out the immature brood. 



1 have been trying somt; of Mr. 'Limg^s, foundations. 

 To fasten them 1 just slijjped out the guiilo of a Stand- 

 ard Irame, bent about a ijuarter of an inch of the upper 

 edge of the foundation at right angles, covereil il with 

 the guide, and lacked it in the centre of the top bar. 

 Of course the guide is shortened enough so thai tliere 

 will be room lor it between the two end jiieces, and is 

 lai<l tlatwise on the one fourth of an inch or more of 

 comb foundation bent at right angles. The founda- 

 tions are verj' nice, but I am satisfied thai I can get 

 combs constructed cheaper without them, than 1 can 

 with them at a cost of &l.u(i per pound. 



E. KiMPTON, Cedar Creek, N. J. Aug. KJtli, 'T.'). 



All experiments of our own, result quite sat- 

 isfactorily in favor of the i^oundalions, ;ind 

 particularly, because the bees will draw up the 

 wax of the foundations into lieautiful cells, on 

 an amount of feed that would not induce them 

 to build comb at all. In one case they raised 

 cells in a comb, — or sheet of foundations, rath- 

 er, — that was placed in an empty upper story, 

 and this at a time when they were getting so 

 little honey that they would not have built 

 combs even had an empty frame been placed di- 

 rectly in the centre of the lu'ood. 



Again, in the experiment mentioned else- 

 where, we gave two colonies 5 lljs. sugar each, 

 and a third one a much less quantity ; now the 

 latter finished one most beautiful comb from 

 the foundations, and the one having the yellow 

 sugar made two similar ones, while the one that 

 had the 5 lbs. of coffee A. sugar did u(jt build 

 new comb to the amount of ly of a frame full. 

 Now although we feel sure we are right, yet 

 we may be mistaken, there are so many circum- 

 stances to be taken into consideration, and we 

 shall be verygladtohear from others who have 

 made like experiments. 



Sept. ia;7j— The Mag. for Sept. is just at hand, 

 and in it we see that Mr. D. M. Quiuby has 

 made a great blunder in supi)osing that the 

 bees uselhe foundations, leaving the wax of 

 the thickness that Mr. F.mig makes it; where- 

 as, it is all brought to the most delicate thin- 

 ness, before any honey is dejiosited in it at all. 

 Some of that furnished by Mr. L. was so ex- 

 tremely white and delicate, that we Avrote him 

 asking if it were not something besides wax, 

 but his reply was that it was pure wax simply 



