134 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



Avinter should have bees clear up against the 

 sides of the hive, all up agaiust the quilt, ev- 

 erything Avaxed up tight, and covered with 

 propolis, etc., etc. If you will examine a pow- 

 erful colony, and theu one of these puny ones, 

 carefully noting the ditt'ereuce in the internal 

 aspect of affairs, you will get at our meaning; 

 even should you succeed in wintering the 

 weak ones, they arc so much of a task and 

 bother, that a dozen of them will hardly give 

 the profit of one powerful colony. To illus- 

 trate : on page 74 we mention having given a 

 weak colony '6 combs of brood and bees ft'om 

 u strong one, and as it saved them we thought 

 we had done a line thing. Well, the shock on 

 the strong colony before it was ready to bear 

 it, was so heavy, that it was almost ruined, so 

 far as hone.y was concerned, for the season, and 

 the one that was h-elped was no better. Do 

 you not see that it would have been policy to 

 let the weak one die, eveu in the middle of May ? 

 We have very little fear that our fellow '^nov- 

 ices will any of them have their colonies too 

 strong. 



Wliere bees are wintered in a frost proof re- 

 pository, we really cannot think it is worth 

 while to bother about the matter of ventila- 

 tion. If tiiey had enough on their summer 

 stands, they will certainly have plenty in win- 

 ter. We would have the house or cellar so 

 ventilated that the air is at no time unpleasant 

 to breathe. Cellars in a clay soil, are apt to 

 "be damp; the plan given in Oct. No, of last 

 year, we think the best remed}' for this. For 

 out-door wintering, we would use the straw 

 mats, or the plan given by Mr. Towuley ; in 

 regard to the straw ])acking, we thiuk we 

 would prefer to admit the sun to the front of 

 the hive occasionally, as some one during our 

 recent trip told us they had been doing suc- 

 cessfully, yet colonies such as we have tried to 

 describe, we think would winter safely almost 

 any way. We shall pack our Quinby hive in 

 the Avay Mr. Townley suggests, as an experi- 

 ment, and v,'ill try and do it to-day, yet as Mr. 

 C^. and his neighbors seem to have mostly aban- 

 iloned the plan of out-door packing, we cannot 

 feel a great amount of faith in it. Does not 

 the house Apiary embody the same principle 

 friend T., and at an immense saving of time 

 and annoyance ? 



liY OUK OLD I'ltlEND AMATEUR. 



^T^E.VTl KOVICE:— I think that you and I com- 

 |6|]lj|) niencctl bee-keeping about the same time. I 

 ^~^ was t'«-i/ en tliusiastic and quite successful Irom 

 tlie first, until several bad seasons in succession took 

 awiiy all piolits ol' Ilio business, and thereby cooRmI 

 my enlluL--iasn). ilowcver I conceived the idea tlial I 

 could do well with bees in Southern Oalil'ornia. I left 

 my native home in the Mibsissijipi valley and came 

 here. I used to read (lU your articles in the A. B. ,/:, 

 and it w;is not long alter you commenced writing tor 

 that journal, tliai 1 constituted myselt one of your 

 most enviable rivals, in practice I mean ; although I 

 used to do a good deal of theorizing in the journals 

 100, but liave long since, laid tliat aside. Many 

 liints have 1 received from your articles, and always 

 adoided them but have done away with all, I believe 

 except the iflea I got from reading your lii-st descrip- 

 tion of extractors. I still hold to that, with some im- 

 provements which you Avill notice in my description 

 in Sept. IS'o. of ^1. 7?. J. The hive 1 am now using, 1 

 commenced with live years ago, and it is more sim- 

 ))le :ind cheaper than your "Simi)licitv."' 1 have also 

 read your "GLKANi^iGS.'" Like it very well, but 



tliink there is rather too much '-Xovice" and not 

 enough '•'gleaninf/s.'''' 



What 1 was going to say was about the rivalry I in- 

 stituted against you without your knowledge. I al- 

 ways wanted to beat you in tlie l>ee business inuctic- 

 allij ana now I have "done it and come to boast over 

 you a little. In the first place, 1 liave handled more 

 bees and taken more honey in one season than you 

 ever did. Secondly I ijavo taken more honey per 

 hive all things considered, than you ever did, and 

 l)robably more without considerijig condition, time 

 etc. Did you ever exceed Ml,'- lbs. per hive on an 

 average throughout your entire apiary— weak and 

 strong? Thirdly, I have taken more lioney in one day 

 without an assistant, than you ever did. And 1 would 

 like to know tcliu lias beaten 1170 lbs. Fourthly, 1 

 have beaten you on the arrangement of honey house 

 and apiary. Mow as 1 have "tooted my horn" maybe 

 1 had as well stop; but no, I shcss I hail better tell 

 just what I have done and how 1 did it. 



Well first, I commenced here the 5th of last May 

 with 141 swarms in old box and Harbison hives, many 

 of them new swarms. As the swarming season here 

 is in March and April you can imagine how much of 

 the season had jiassed before tlie .'>th of Maj'. After 

 that time 1 had to send to Los Angeles and have ma- 

 terial cut for my hives, etc., so tliat 1 did not get 

 through transferring before the lirst of June. Oh yes ! 

 I should have said that 1 have transferred more bees 

 in less time than you or any other man. I transferred 

 in one day with one assistant liveni,ij-jivc colonies from 

 box to movable comb hives. Well, I liave increased 

 from these 144 hives to 3U5 and have taken 20,375 lbs. 

 honej'. I expected to have reached 30,000 but calcula- 

 ted too much on honey dew this fall. However there 

 are four or live thousand lbs. in hives now that I will 

 take out. So you see 1 have taken on an average 141)^ 

 lbs. per hive throughout the whole apiary, and 1 as- 

 sure you that many of them were in any thing but 

 goodcondition when they were transferred. Thirdly, 

 as 1 stated, I have taken in one day— without an a"s- 

 sistant 1170 lbs. honey, and with an assistant 1800 lbs. 

 Fourthly, my apiary is arranged on a smooth piece of 

 grouud constituting a bench about 1'2 feet above the 

 land below. The bee house— or honey house- is built 

 on the edge of this bench— or in the bank &o that we 

 go from tlu! ground of apiary into the second story of 

 building, where are the extractor, stove for lieating 

 water, a small tank holding 75 gallons, etc. In the 

 lower story are kept the carpenter's tools, bench, etc., 

 the large tank, framed in one corner of building stout 

 and strong, boarded up and lined well with zinc. 

 This tank holds about 1000 gallons, is in south-east 

 corner of building and is exposed to the sun by win- 

 dow on south side of upper story. It is covered with 

 line wire gauze, and is jirotected by a partition in the 

 upper story, from dust, dirt, etc. The honey is llrst 

 put into the small tank where it stands until the trash 

 that naturally gets into it when extracting, all rises 

 to the top, wlien it is well skimmed and honey drawn 

 olf into the large tank below. The object of tlie gauze 

 cover and exposure of the large tank" is to evaporate 

 the honey thoroughly before putting up for market. 

 The honey is drawn "from the large tank into cans, 

 barrels, etc., for market. The arrangement of the 

 ai)iary is in parallel rows S feet apart, with hives U feet 

 ajjart in rows, 50 in a row, 25 each side ot the door to 

 honey house. My intention is to have an arbor of 

 grape vines for each double row of hives, the rows of 

 posts for trellis 8 feet apart, and vines (i feet apart in 

 each row and each double row— or eaeli arbor to be 

 10 feet apart. The rows running north and south, 

 and hives setting just under the edge of arbor with 

 openings outward, or, the hives on the east sivle open- 

 ing to the east, and those on the west Ojiening to the 

 west. Then I can go under the arbor and between 

 the rows of hives and be behind each while I work 

 with it. This 1 like better than your arrangement, for 

 1 am always mider shade and aMay from the bees. 



1 have tnis season had a temporary shed made by 

 throwing brush overhead, but I intend that the vines 

 shall take the place of tlie brush. 31y intention is to 

 provide for .500 swarms, this you see will take 5 double 

 rows with 100 hives in each, or 50 hives in each arbor 

 on each side of the avenue leading to the door of hon- 

 ey house. Thus you see I have an apiary of 500 hives 

 in a spa<;c of JiOOxDO feet. The apiaiy being on higher 

 ground than tlie front part of lower room of buikiiug, 

 I am not troubled by the bees in thiving a team up to 

 the door to load and unload. If you had a big lot of 

 liees and honey to handle, you would readily perceive 

 the advantages I have over your arrangements. My 

 intention is to keep not over 500 colonies in one place. 



Although I have beaten you so badly this season, I 

 expect to go far ahead of tliis year's results next sea- 

 son. This has been a i, cry poor season, i/icy say, and 



