152 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



coramenting on Ouii Homes, saj'S, "There are 

 plenty of honest men who are not good Chris- 

 tians, and many more good Christians who are 

 not lioae.st men." It' c/ood Vhristinns are not 

 iionest men, what in the world is to become 

 of ns ally If mllli is not mill^, and honey is 

 not lioney, and Christians not Christians, our 

 people are in a bad state, certainly, and we 

 might come to the conchisiou that everything 

 iiad bettur be allowed to "slide," were there 

 not such an everlasting clamoring on all sides 

 for that which is genuine. "I am willing to 

 pay for gold, and / w<iiit gold," says a custom- 

 er, with an air that seems to imply, "Humbug 

 the world as much as you like, but Inmst and 

 will have Vie genuine.'" We Iiave been told that a 

 great bee-lceeper purchased the heaviest glass 

 he could get, for liis lioncy boxes, as he sold 

 box and all by the pound, and there was quite 

 a siunnrji?) by using heavy glass. You perhaps 

 don't do that, but are you snre you would use 

 the Urihlesc glass, if you found it to answer just 

 as well othervvise V If each one of us could be 

 brought to see that we are not perfect, and to 

 make a sincere resolve to try to be more hon- 

 est than we have l)een in the past — to be as 

 genuine as we would have others, would not 

 the result be re(d honey and feal Christians — 

 according to the dictionaries':' 



We have already retailed a barrel of clover 

 iioncy at 20c. In the city of Akron, 20 

 niiles distant, they retail it at 40c., in jars 

 without labels, and would sell it no less, if jars 

 were furnished, yet we otler them the honey 

 for 15c. by the barrel. Who is to blame hereV 

 Tliat such clover honey as we are now selling, 

 would sell in everj' towji at 20c., and that all 

 of our bee-keepers could not begin to supply 

 the demand if furnished to the consumer at 

 that price, we firmly believe. If you will read 

 over the honey column I'or the past year, and 

 (!.ci on its teachings, you certainly will sell 

 all you liave, at good prices. Teach the world 

 that hee-kccpem are honest, even if all the rest of 

 mankind persist in calling syrup and glucose, 

 honey ; and loypocHtes, ciiiiisxiAMS. 



I have on hand, about (100 lbs. of honey in caps, from 

 15 to 20 lbs. each. Wheib will 1 lind tho best nuiriict ■' 

 Wlicie do you sell your surplus honey ? \Vhcrc c:ui 1 

 buy :i, good work on boc culture? 



Wm. II. r.VGE, Bronsun, Mich. 



At 13 ct?. net, 2C00 lbs. basswood honey, hi lour bar- 

 rels, all ciai'lied. 



Joseph Duffelek, Wcquiock, Wis. 



VASEOfJS ITEMS. 



srjpj^ EAi: GLEAMINGS:— Do yc 

 JSJjjSJl little ileraufrod, inasmuch 

 »— -y has taken Jasper Ilazon a; 



% EAlw. GLEAMINGS :— Do you not think Novice a 

 as in years past he 

 jper liazon and others to task, for 

 clainxing that certain liulds were overstocked with 

 hees, and liOit' oil page 110, jircsenl Vol., he says, "we 

 liavo satisfied ourselves that our bees seldom work 

 more than one anil a hall miles from home :-" Jf this 

 is the case, why would not 10 or "21) stocks overstock a 

 held in a poor locality? Now, we do not believe iu 

 overstocking a liekl with '.;o swarms, lor the reason 

 that facts prove that bees go, from choice, at least four 

 miles. 



VV^e will give the facts and let the readers decide 

 who is right. Tho spring after the Italian bee was in- 

 troduced near us, (that being at least three miles in a 

 straight line) and belore we luxd any Italians, we were 

 watching the bees at work on apple blossoms, and 

 l)resentl> we saw an Italian. Upon examination we 

 lound that on an average, one bee in live was Italian, 

 and tliis, with ai»ple blossoms in profusion everywhere. 

 Again, in haying, as we were crating a Held ol clover, 

 one mile i'lom home, or lour miles IVom these same 



Italians, we saw bees at work on the clover. Having 

 heard so nnieh about Italian's working on red clover, 

 we got off our machine and to our surprise counted 

 live Italians to two blacks, with iields red with clover 

 everywhere. Once more and wa have had our say. 

 One year ago hist August, there was not a piece of 

 buckwheat in sight of our apiary, and the nearest of 

 any amount was hv» and one-half miles in a southerly 

 direction, where there were from -20 to 30 acres. We 

 sold 1)00 lbs., and our bees wintered on at least ioOO lbs. 

 buckwheat honey. We will say, using the words quo- 

 ted above, we have satislied owrselves that bees go 

 from five to seven miles from home for honej', and 

 that when honey is plenty everywhere. 



On page 111, we see Ben. S. Cole, had trouble with 

 his excractor. We found ourselves in the same dilem- 

 ma when we rec'd our extractor, but to think of short- 

 ening 1000 frames ^^■as more than we could endure for 

 one extractor, so we took off the arm and filed it off 

 just above where the frames revolve, and all went 

 well. It seems strong enough lor aught 1 can see. Of 

 course the hole made lor the screw had to be soldered 



Why does not L. C. Whiting give us the number ot 

 colonies he keei)s, and the avcraye amount of honey 

 obtained from them ? It is quite an easy matter to get 

 a large yield of honey from a single colony, but quite 

 anotiier thing to secure 2C0 lbs. box honey from each 

 of 100 colonies. 



We see that J. N. Elliott recommended putting pie- 

 ces blcomb in top of boxes to start the bees working 

 in them sooner. No one shou'd attempt to get box 

 honey, without a starter for each comb that is to be 

 built,' and one jjiece at least, for each hive, should run 

 to the bottom, 11 not more than one inch wiile, that 

 the bees may go to the top ol' box without having to 

 travel around by the sidos. We use from 21 to 30 box- 

 es to the hive and put in, usually, three boxes full of 

 empty Borab to the hive. 



Has any one tried our plan of introducing queens, 

 given on page 51, and failed ? We have not had a sin- 

 gle lailure alter three years trial, and think it the 

 least trouble olany way we have tried. 



We have had about 20 inches olsnow in this sectioiT, 

 but it is mostly gone now, the bees having a line Hy 

 yesterday. G. M. Doolitxlk. 



Borodino, u\\ Y., yov. VMh, 1S75. 



A radius of l)o miles would cover an area 

 of nearly 5000 acres ; are not you the one who 

 is deranged, friend J)., when you intimate that 

 20 colonies might overstock such an areaV 

 When Avhite clover and linden are in bloom 

 we have not found many Italians more than a 

 mile from home, Ijut late iu the season when 

 forage is scarce, we have found them as far a> 

 8I4 miles. Friend Shaw lives about o miles, 

 we think, from a swamp that yields much fall 

 honc}', but he has for two seasons past found 

 them to do so much better within one mile, 

 that he has made a suitable wagon and now 

 moves them the two miles into the yard of 

 Mr. Daniels, of Lodi; will the parties correct 

 us if we arc wrong V In our own vicinity we 

 cannot find that the yield per hive is any less 

 in apiaries of 100 stocks, than where only 

 a half dozen are kept. We have reports iu 

 our back numbers, of linden honey having 

 been brought over G miles, but it was decided 

 we think, that such long flights vv'cre rapidly 

 destructive to the wings of the bees— you have 

 all observed how they get worn down to jag- 

 ged stubs during the linden bloom. Those 

 who have been moving bees can i)robably give 

 us light on this, which is really an impoMant 

 subject. ISo long as there is such diversity iu 

 the size of frames it is reallj^ diflicult to avoid 

 an occasional blunder, but friend D's plan is 

 much the easiest where there are many 

 frames all alike, and toe will try to leave a 

 larger margin in future. 



Mr. Whiting has only ai)out a dozen colo- 

 nies now, as he was obliged to destroy his 

 whole apiary to rid it of foul brood; it has 

 rp.ge'.l fearfully "n '^ome pi.rts of Mich. 



