1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



181 



they have plenty of stores, even if they are gather- 

 ing none; but I am quite sure they will increase 

 much faster, if a cake of sugar is left over them un- 

 der the cushions.] 



My bees are all hybrids. What is the cheapest and 

 bost way to Italianize a whole apiary? 



[[ cannot tell you the cheapest way to Italianize a 

 whole apiary much better than I can tell you the 

 cheapest way to manage your farm, friend S.; so 

 much depends on circumstances. The ABC book 

 considers the matter in all its points, I believe. Of 

 course, the quickest way would be to buy a queen 

 for each hive, but it would cost less money out, to 

 buy one queen and raise the rest.] 



1 want to know something about sourwood, —how 

 long it will take to bloom after planting, and, if I 

 could get plants, whether they would grow on lime- 

 stone land or not. 



[Who will tell us about the sourwood tree?] 



How long will it take basswood to bloom after 

 planting? D. F. Steele. 



Gosport, Owen Co., Ind., Mar. 7, 1880. 



[From 5 to 10 years; and it will probably take from 

 15 to 20 for them to bear large crops of honey.] 



EIGHT OR TEN FRAME HIVES. 



Why is the 10-frame Langstroth hive better than 

 the 8-frame? 



[Bees will be more apt to starve in an 8-frame, un- 

 less carefully looked after, because the 8 frames 

 will not hold as much as the 10 frames. Such hives 

 are also much colder in winter, because there is 

 scarcely room for a chaff-cushion division-board on 

 each side of the cluster, where the colony is large. 

 They have been discarded by the majority of bee- 

 keepers, if I am correct. Where one raises bees 

 principally to sell colonies, and his customers will 

 give as much for a colony in an 8-frame hive, it may 

 be the most profitable hive for the seller.] 



VENTILATION. 



When water comes running out of the entrance in 

 the winter, is it because the hives haven't ventila- 

 tion enough? and if so, how would you give them 

 ventilation? When do they need most ventilation— 

 in winter or summer? 



[When water runs out of the hives, I should say it 

 is certainly for want of ventilation. If the hives are 

 poorly ventilated in summer, the bees will come out 

 on the outside. They can not well do this in winter, 

 and therefore often die. There is no cold draft 

 through hives packed with chaff or similar materi- 

 als, because the air passes through it slowly.] 



If bees do not have a cold draft through their 

 hives, then how can they live in the old-fashioned 

 box-hives, without any protection all summer? 



[Bees do not live satisfactorily in the old box- 

 hives.] 



COFFEE SACKING. 



Can you furnish me coffee-sacks, of such material 

 as the sample in this letter? If so, how much a 

 piece? Jhii an Jackel. 



Bell Plain, Shawano Co., Wis., March 18, 1880. 



[I presume we could find coffee-sacks, but they 

 would of course come to more than the material of 

 which they are made. We will at once take steps to 

 see how low, per yard, coffee sacking can be fur- 

 nished. Later: Can furnish the material to in. wide, 

 at 12 cents per yardj 



TEXAS AND YORK STATE, BOTH IN THE SHADE. 



Editor Gleanings: — I have just seen the March No. 

 vf UuittxiiruH. A report; from Tvx«« which 1*/h 



"Doolittle in the shade" tempts me to make "a small 

 report from California." 



I commenced in the spring of 1878, with 65 colonies 

 in poor condition, having just passed through the 

 drouth of 1877. I increased to 145, took 17,300 lb. ex- 

 tracted, and 1,500 lb. comb honey. Extracted honey 

 was almost entirely from brood department. 1 did 

 the work alone, besides attending to one acre of 

 corn, and throe times plowing my one acre town lot. 

 If any bee man has equaled this report, by extract- 

 ing from brood department, let him stand up. 



Santa Paula, Cal., Mar. 11, '80. E. Barbodr. 



I have no bees as yet, but have the bee fever 

 equal to your New Zealand friend in March Glean- 

 ings. I have Quinby's new book, and, with the 

 ABC and Gleanings, hope to get ready to keep 

 bees by spring. I hope I shall not have to come in- 

 to Blasted Hopes; would much prefer to be in the 

 Smilery. Miss M. W. McIntire. 



Walpole, Norfolk Co., Mass., Mar. 10. 1880. 



SUGAR AND POTATOES. 



The bees here in Kansas have wintered well, con- 

 sidering their scanty stores of honey. I am feeding 

 sugar and sweet potatoes for early brood. 



Joseph Michael. 



Echo, Douglas Co., Kan., Mar. 11, 1880. 



CHAFF HIVES. 



I am highly pleased with those chaff hives I got of 

 you last Dec. It was not long after I received them, 

 before I put some colonies of bees in them, and af- 

 ter using them the past winter, I pronounce them 

 excellent for wintering bees. Dead bees have been 

 hard to find in front of them. If they are as good 

 for summer use, I shall be glad. 



SYMPHORICARPUS VULGARIS. 



Last season, before this plant bloomed, people 

 were talking about all of the bees starving; but 

 when it came into bloom, the bees drew out fdn., 

 made new comb, and gathered honey so fast as to 

 encourage any bee-keeper. It was fun to see them 

 humming over it from morning till night. Its com- 

 mon name here is "buck bush." J. P. Moore. 



Morgan Sta., Pendleton Co., Ky., Mar. 12, 1880. 



[We have some in our grounds, and shall be pre- 

 pared to report on it this season, I hope.] 



\cM-%ih f^prfoygnl. 



h 



^jp AST April, I boupht 2 hives of bees, and had a 

 present of one (they were box hives), and I 

 thought I would see what I could do. I did 

 not expect to do much, and intended to use the same 

 kind of hives, which I did, only making them better; 

 that is, putting on better tops and painting them. 

 My :f gave me 7 swarms; but, it being such a poor 

 season here that only 2 out of the 7 had honey 

 enough to winter, and not any of them having made 

 me the least bit of surplus honey, not knowing how 

 to feed, and not caring to increase my stock much 

 until I know more about them, I killed all but 4, the 

 '.i old and one new. These are doing very well so far 

 as I can tell. The honey I sold from those taken up 

 paid for those I bought, and for 6 hives I had made, 

 so 1 am nothing out of pocket, but have 1 good strong 

 colonies for profits. Alfred L. Day. 



Kbuvkhvluj, N. J., Feb, 10, lfe0» 



