1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



160 



I got a man to find a box and hive them, giving him 

 'i interest. Moving out of the village onto a farm. 

 I bought him out, took the bees with me, and set 

 them in the back yard. I got next season one 

 more, and made out to hive them, by putting- on a 

 hat and veil. Next season, I got one or two more, 

 hiving them in the same way, and letting them stay 

 out as farmers generally do, paying little or no atten- 

 tion to them, only to hive them", when they came out. 

 Xext, I bought another swarm that had been stand- 

 ing for several years, in a little 6x4 house, on a shelf. 

 Ti.eowner expected to get surplus honey in that 

 way, but did not succeed. On my way home, I bought 

 a large dry goods box, 2% x 24 x 3 l i , planed inside 

 and out, and matched tight. Borrowing the idea from 

 the man who had formerly kept them, I Ihought I 

 would try it on a smaller scale. I fitted the lid of the 

 box tight by putting stops nil around, hung it on 

 hinges and fastened it with a button. Ithenfasten- 

 ed slats on the inside just high enough from the 

 bottom to set my hive on them, and have its top 

 nearly touch the top of the large box, with no bot- 

 tom to the hive. I stood my large box endwise 

 about l l i; ft. from the ground, and made a shed for 

 it, leaving off one board on the back side. The 

 large box was close to the back side of the shed, 

 aud I cut a slot in it, about -tin. long and V»in. wide, 

 just opposite the bottom of my hive. I set the bees 

 in and closed the door. The bees went to work 

 and tilled one side, down to the floor of the large box, 

 with honey that season, and I took off as much 

 beautiful, white, comb honey, as 1 dare in the fall, 

 and leave them plenty to winter on. The next season 

 they increased so as to fill the large box about l A full, 

 from which I took all except what 1 thought was 

 enough to winter on. We had all we wanted that 

 season, and a little to spare of beautiful, white, 

 comb honey, cut off in large cards. The next sea- 

 son they tilled the box so full as to join the comb 

 on to the door, so that, on opening the door, 1 had 

 to break the comb, leaving- comb and honey 

 sticking to the door. I took a large dish-pan 

 full of large beautiful cards. About the time 

 I had filled my pan the bees began io make 

 their appearance and I quickly closed the door, and 

 went to the house rejoicing with my prize. In a 

 few days I looked in and found they had cleaned up 

 their house of all dripping-and everything was clean 

 and neat. Afterwards, I repeated the same opera- 

 tion in the same manner, and took another large dish 

 pan of honey in long and nice cards, tilled with beau- 

 tiful whitehoney. Having sold my farm, and be- 

 ing about to move into the village again, the ques- 

 tion was, what should I do with my bees? I brim- 

 stoned my box hives, except the large dry goods 

 box , and took all the honey out. About that time 

 came along a man with a patent hive, selling farm 

 and town rights, who pretended he could divide my 

 large box into several swarms; but who knew noth- 

 ing about bees more than I did. I foolishly let him 

 the job, and soon saw that he was wasting and de- 

 stroying my bees. The results were that the queen 

 was lost and the bees all dwindled away to nothing, 

 although I tried to save them. So endeth the first 

 chapter. A. M. Seymouh. 



Mazomanie, Dane Co., Wi3., Jan. 18, 1878. 



A COUPLE OF A B C SCHOLVUS. 



MY brother and I started last springwith 18 col- 

 onies and increased to 47, by dividing. We 

 — i made somewhere between 13 and 1500 lbs. of 

 honey, mostly comb honey. We put surplus boxes 

 on in July. 



A GBEAT YIELD OF BUCKWHEAT HONEY. 



Along the last of Aug. and through Sep., the buck- 

 wheat honey was so "numerous" that it created 

 quite a swarming fever among our bees. We no- 

 ticed 7 strong swarms that struck out for some oth- 

 er locality: likely where milk and honey flows. The 

 probability is, more absconded of which we have no 

 account; for we paid very little attention to them 



at that time. We have some Sept. swarms in a g 1 



condition. One of my neighbors has a late Sep. 

 swarm in a hive containing nine, 12x12 frames, jam- 

 med full. We also had some in the fall of '77, that 

 issued about the 20th of Sep., and were among some 

 of the best in the spring of '78. 



We use :> kinds of hives, all of different sized 

 frames, to which you no doubt object vehemently, 

 and so do we, but will try and "wiggle along" the 

 best we can, until we get to a uniform frame. Our 

 bees are all in good shape except 3 colonies. One 



absconded for some cause unknown to us; perhaps 

 you can tell why. It had lots of capped honey and 

 a number of eggs. The combs were bright and the 

 hive was clean. One got robbed in spite of all the 

 ing-enuity that I could use. 



SOMETHING ABOUT BOBBING. 



I first dosed the entrance a short time entirely ; 

 to this you object, I know, but I have done it fre- 

 quently with no bad result. I got them checked in 

 this manner, and then opened the entrance large 

 enough to let but one bee pass at a time; but the 

 robbers soon made a raid on them again, and their 

 numbers kept increasing. I next covered the hive 

 with cloth, but to no effect. Finally 1 moved it 

 from its old stand some distance away. That 

 checked them for several days, but at length they 

 got trace again of the rich stores on which they had 

 previously enjoyed themselves so well, and played 

 havoc with the whole business. The colony rob- 

 bed was black, and when I lirst noticed them, the 

 robbing was done entirely by blacks; the weather 

 was rather cool, and no Italians were outside of the 

 hives. Are the blacks more rougish than the Ital- 

 ians? Can you tell? When the battle was pretty 

 nearly won, some of the hybrids and full bloods 

 turned in and helped, as though their conscience 

 didn't allow them to take part in the beginning. 

 This is the way the one colony went, and one died 

 for want of a queen. We knew it was queenless 

 last fall, but thought it might go through, and be 

 strong enough to buiUl up in the spring. So you see, 

 we have had pretty good success thus far. 



Wc got a tested Italian queen from Anderson, 

 Tenn., in the spring of '78. It was a tine one, ami 

 we had g od success in Italianizing. If I am not 

 mistaken, you don't approve of extracting from the 

 brood comb. If so, what is your objection. 



Morrisonville, 111., April 0, '79. A. D. Stutzman. 



Your account of your buckwheat yield, 

 friend S., is quite exciting to me. I do not 

 know that I ever saw such a yield here. If 

 1 had so many different sized frames in one 

 apiary IthinkI should "wiggle" them down 

 to one kind, in about one afternoon. The 

 stock you speak of, that would not repel 

 robbers could have been saved very quickly, 

 by giving them one frame containing your 

 Italians just hatching out. As soon as they 

 were a few days old, they would have shown 

 the robbers where the door way was located. 

 My objection to extracting from the 

 brood combs is that there is always a risk of 

 bees starving, if the honey yield happens to 

 cease suddenly. The sealed honey nearest 

 the brood neet is always in just the best 

 shape for winter, and I have not found it 

 good policy to disturb them after they have 

 it all around the brood, just as they are most 

 apt to need it. You and your brother have 

 done well very indeed, for beginners. I do not 

 object to closing the hive to prevent robbing, 

 unless the number of bees inside is very 

 great, and the weather very warm; in this 

 case, they often smother and melt down the 

 combs. The blacks are certainly worse to 

 roll than the Italians. 



A LARGE COLONY OF BEES AND WHAT 



< AME OF IX. 



tpjSjj KL1EVING that the following stould be put 

 lljiH on record, I write you. Among various col- 

 r — i> onies of bees I sold last year, I sold one to 

 neighbor T. In May last, he put the colony in a hive 

 6 ft. long, filled with frames of combs, each 10 3 .i by 

 12 inches. His plan was t>> prevent them from 

 swarming, and extract the honey. In the course of 

 time, his hive became so filled with bees and brood 

 and queen cells, that he destroyed -the queen cells 

 anil put on a second story of like size, supplying 

 them with .".:.' frames of comb, and enough more 

 empty frames to fill both stories of this ti foot hive. 

 About the middle of July, at the close of the white 

 clover yield, he reports to me, that he found 36 of 

 those cards of comb entirely filled with brood in 



