384 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



lie would surely break it, but be declared, it' 

 there was any break to it, it would have 

 been broken long ago; and so we went on, 

 until we came down to the river. Golden 

 rod was just in full bloom, and beautiful 

 Italians, that might satisfy the most difficult 

 customer I ever had as to markings, hovered 

 in countless thousands among the blossoms. 

 The asters which were just coming out, as 

 well as the great masses of touch-me-nots 

 along on the low land, were also humming 

 with bees. Patsy went up to her accustomed 

 post, and H. was out of the buggy in a twink- 

 ling, and began pulling some queen cages 

 containing queen cells from under his vest, 

 and out of various hiding places. 



"What do you carry them there for?" 



"To keep them warm ; that is my 'lamp 

 nursery.' " 



Sure' enough a queen had hatched, and he 

 pulled the cover from a chaff hive, and laid 

 it on the weeds ; you see if the weeds had 

 been cut down as I advised, he would have 

 bad to stoop to pick up the cover. Next 

 came the chaff cushion which he keeps on 

 in the summer too. The enameled sheet 

 stuck to it, and both came out at once and 

 were also deposited on some more weeds. 



"Is that the way you open hives ?" 



"Yes; it 'saves time.' " 



A nice, yellow, laying queen was found 

 and put into a cage in a twinkling, and then, 

 to my astonishment, his newly hatched queen 

 was put right in her place. 



"Is that the way you introduce virgin 

 queens to full colonies like that ?" 



"Yes ; it 'saves time.' " 



"But do they not get stung V" 



"No. I take a laying queen from this hive 

 every week." 



"Why, do you get such queens to lay in a 

 week V" 



"Well, not always when a week old, but 

 the last one I put in was laying in just a 

 week." 



"You cannot do this with all your colo- 

 nies?" 



"No ; but I remember those that will al- 

 ways take any queen, and keep them for 

 that purpose." 



"Do you always smoke them ?" 



"Well, usually, I think it best to have 

 them all of the same scent as nearly as we 

 can, but it may be they would receive just 

 hatched queens without smoke. I smoke 

 them when the queen is put in, and then I 

 smoke them every time I pass, as long as I 

 stay." 



His queen cages are some old ones which 

 I discarded years ago, made with wire cloth 

 on both sides ; but he finds them just the 

 thing. Instead of a lamp nursery, he puts 

 queen cells in these, and then lays them 

 over the frames of a chaff hive, and puts on 

 the cushion. I discarded this plan several 

 years ago, but I did not have chaff hives 

 then. With these, and strong colonies in 

 them, such as II. has, I think they might 

 prove a success, even during the cool nights 

 we have had this fall. 



"H., how does it come you have all such 

 nice, regular combs, and of such even thick- 

 ness?" 



"Because I make them all nice, or throw 



them away ; I won't have combs in the 

 apiary that are not nice and even. - ' 1 



Just notice; he had his hives set down all 

 sorts of ways, and so covered up with weeds 

 you could scarcely see them, but he would 

 have no combs except good and perfect ones. 



"I have a customer who wants 10 chaff 

 hives with full colonies amply provisioned 

 for winter; he says he wants some that I 

 can stake my reputation on. What will you 

 take for 10 of the best I can pick out here, 

 in case he should send the money for them ?" 



"I would not take less than $100. for 10 of 

 my best stocks." 



"Will you take $100.?" 



"No; I won't." 



"H., how many colonies did you have in 

 the spring?" 



"Twenty-two." 



"You sold me every queen in the lot in 

 May, when I could not fill orders for tested 

 queens, for $2.00 each, did you not?" 



"Yes; and you said it would spoil my 

 apiary for this year, but you see it didn't. 1 ' 



"Do you know exactly how much I have 

 paid you for queens this summer?" 



"Yes, I have just counted it up. It is $225., 

 in round numbers. 1 '' 



"And you have now 60 colonies, all ready 

 for winter, both in bees and stores." 



"Yes; is not that pretty well for one who 

 commenced four years ago with just one 

 colony?" 



Yes ; it is pretty well, in spite of the weeds, 

 and his crooked apiary. The most of the 

 queens he has sold me brought him only 00c. 

 each, and it is no wonder they never get the 

 wrong hive, for they will surely never forget 

 the path through the weeds to the entrance. 

 Two years ago, his wife scolded (just a little) 

 because he paid so much money to me for 

 an imported queen; but be says now, it is 

 the best investment he ever made. Besides 

 the chaff hive apiary, which no one ever 

 touches except himself, the man has charge 

 of three farms, and he says he does not 

 know how he should ever get the money to 

 pay his hired men, if it was not for the queen 

 money. Patsy took us up town again, at 

 the same break neck speed, not, however, 

 before she had run around the fields with us, 

 and showed us the beautiful beds of his 

 Alsike clover, which was away ahead of any 

 on the honey farm. It was a perfect carpet 

 of green, and, although it was the 10th of 

 Sept., in some spots, the blossoms were quite 

 plenty, and covered with Italians. 

 »it' »i 



FEEDING IN OCTOBER FOR WINTER. 



f]iHE fall flowers have commenced blooming', and 

 as the bees have now something- to do, even if 

 I it does not amount to more than their "board," 



I have thought best to omit the daily afternoon 

 feedings of grape sugar. As open air feeders must 

 be used only in the day time, and as any kind of 

 day time feeding must divert the bees from their 

 legitimate business of gathering honey from the 

 fields, I am a little inclined to doubt their expedi- 

 ency, unless at a time when a drouth renders it ab- 

 solutely necessary that they should be fed to keep 

 up brood rearing. Even then, if the necessary 

 amount can be given in the nighttime, I think it 

 better. Put a Simplicity feeder right up against 

 the alighting board, buried in the sand and cinders, 

 and then fill it with thin syrup every night, just af- 

 ter all the bees have stopped flying, and they will 

 then lose none of their time. After they get used 



