1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



*G ( J 



When you get away east of the Jordan and Dead 

 Sea near the desert, where sometimes there are no 

 hives for twenty miles, you can easily tell the dis- 

 tance they go for honey. I have also found some 

 very line honey plants, and am trying to sret the na- 

 tives to save me some seed and send it to my agent 

 at Jerusalem, who will forward it to me. 



The flora of the country here is very different 

 from that of America, and is also very changeable; 

 especially from Jerusalem east to the desert. I 

 don't think This country equal to America as a honey 

 country. Some of the natives claim that the bees 

 of Palestine are far superior to any others, as they 

 are holy bees, and endowed with wonderful knowl- 

 edge and powers. They have some very distinct pe- 

 culiarities, and arc probably as pure a race of bees 

 as now exists. I am wonderfully pleased with their 

 appearance, and, if they prove as valuable in Amer- 

 ica as I anticipate, I shall not be sorry for my large 

 expenditure, which has so exceeded my expecta- 

 tions that I had to cable home from Jerusalem for 

 £400X0 more, to carry out the project. But as the 

 guide has sent on our pack animals and says we 

 must start, I must close. I hope this will reach 

 you. It will be pasted at Jerusalem or Jaffa. I will 

 write again when I have something besides a saddle 

 for a writing desk. I hope to be back to Canada by 

 the first of June. D.A.Jones. 



AJay God speed you, friend Jones, in your 

 explorations lor the benefit of the bee-keep- 

 ers of the world. Give us more of just such 

 notes as this one. for I value it, and some- 

 how I rather think we all do, far more than 

 a studied article. Give us just such sketches 

 of real life, written on the saddle; and if 

 you want more help, we will try to furnish 

 it. "We place to your credit $10.00 for the 

 above letter. 



?l\ FIRST ATTEMPT WITH BEES. 



No. 1. 



WWAVING worked for an experienced bee-keep- 

 j»[[j[[ er for the last three seasons, I considered 



— ' myself sufficiently posted to venture in the 

 uncertain business "on my own hook." 



Having heard of a hundred swarms that were to 

 be let out on halves, I went to consult my old em- 

 ployer as tothe propriety of my takingthem. After 

 talking over the matter, we went to work and fig- 

 ured up the amount of material necessary for hives, 

 sections, etc. I then made a bargain for having 

 them cut. We then figured up the amount of honey 

 that the bees world be likely to make, and the 

 amount that I would be likely to obtain for it. 

 After subtracting my estimated expenses from my 

 estimated profits, we concluded that it would pay 

 me. I then went to consult the man who owned the 

 bees, and made a bargain to take them. 



The bees, however, were in charge of a man who 

 had had them on shares for the last year, who lived 

 about 15 miles distant. I then went back to my old 

 employer, and offered to work all 1 he following day 

 for him providing he would go with me to examine 

 the bees, which offer he accepted. 



On the day following my work, we started, and ar- 

 rived about seven o'clock in the morning. We asked 

 the man having charge of the bees as to their condi- 

 tion, and were informed that they were in excellent 



I condition; also that he had had two large swarms 



the day previous, but had not noticed them until 



] it was so late and chilly that he could not get them 



| into hives. In the meantime, he l^ad the way to 



where the bees were. We found a small swarm on 



ihe back of a hive completely chilled. Next came 



the two swarms which were on two corners of a rail 



fence, and. as we should judge, the bees from about 



twenty swarms. We then went and examined the 



hive, and found, to our infinite surprise, that the 



bees had surely swarmed. We came to the conclu- 



i sion that they had not only swarmed, but swarmed 



; out by the wholesale, some leaving nothing at all 



in the hives, and some leaving the queen with about 



a dozen bees. Out of about two hundred swarms, 



wc found 40 left. 



We now wished to know the cause of this, and so 

 asked the man, and were informed that some of 

 them were not set out until the 12th of April, this 

 being the Hth. We then inspected the place where 

 they were wintered, and found a room aJbout 10x12, 

 with no chance of ventilation, as I could see, and 

 you may imagine the odor of the air, which was so 

 sickening that we could hardly bear it. We con- 

 cluded to try to save the bees on the fenco. So we 

 got some hives with honey in them, and put the 

 bees in, in the best shape we could. 



We then started on our homeward journey. I now 

 felt that if this was bee-keeping, it was not 

 what it was "cracked up to be," and made up my 

 mind that hereafter I would look for more certain 

 business. It. J. D. 



CRITICISMS SUGGESTED BY APRIL 

 GLEANINGS. 



ET is not fully recorded that Mrs. Dunham's fdn. 

 will not sag without wire in our latitude, is it? 

 I shall wire my frames. Foundation is taking 

 its proper place in bee-culture.— Tke Growlery has a 

 good occupant this time. A man's worth in busi- 

 ness is shown up by what he does, and success is at 

 a premium in business estimation everywhere; but 

 the thing is open to any one.— Doolittle's observa- 

 tion about introducing queens gives me some new 

 thoughts, and reasonable ones.— About stealing il- 

 lustrated ideas: Taking that view, what shall we 

 denominate our literary effusions? The thoughts 

 of others impress us, and, under like impulses, we 

 retint their expressions, shading their ideas with 

 touches here and there, imparting a chiaroscuro 

 suggested by our own natures. Well, whose aro 

 they then? and must we run all about in the corri- 

 dors of our minds to see whose name and super- 

 scription hangs over these expressions, and give 

 credit after credit?— Marking the queen: good; can 

 you do it?— Our Homes: If Mr. G. K. W. can not be- 

 lieve the drone theory, will he accept th° proposi- 

 tion that an egg purposed by natural surroundings 

 to hatch a worker bee can be changed and hatched 

 out a queen? But somehow I am impressed that 

 his mind is not like the old woman's, whom I once 

 told of having seen flying fish. She blurted the lie 

 in my face. I think G. K. W. but jokes. How can a 

 man shut his eyos and disbelieve the testimony? A 

 true history of any man's inner life will move tho 

 emotions of many a fellow -being. None but Jesus 

 ever taught to give good for evil and make of it a 

 fair exchange I Wsi. L. Gobdex. 



Shreveport, La., April 10, 1880. 



