316 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



many more, who are working for me indi- 

 rectly. 



12$.. — We have to-day received, from 

 Italy, 25 queens and every one alive. They 

 were from Bianconcini, who advertises with 

 us, and has for some time past. Friend B. 

 is a bright, wide-awake bee-keeper, and, as 

 he writes our language, we feel more ac- 

 quainted with him than with those who do 

 not. His boxes were no larger than those 

 used by other Italian breeders, but they 

 were very neat and clean. Two little combs 

 were used for each box, and the honey was 

 nice and clean, lie had evidently let the 

 bees clean off all drip, so there was no daub- 

 ing. If our friend Charley can do as well as 

 this every time, he will have a great business 

 growing up on his hands. I am somewhat 

 anxious to have the sugar and water tried 

 for ocean voyages, either in connection with 

 honey or without it. With honey, bees so 

 often come through with their bodies dis- 

 tended as if with dysentery, and the cages 

 smelling badly ; but. with pure sugar and 

 pure water, this is seldom or never the case. 

 Here is a card from friend Doolittle on this 

 subject : 



Although I have received many queens from va- 

 rious breeders, yet I never received, by mail or oth- 

 erwise, from any person before, a queen which came 

 in such perfect order as the red-clover queen just 

 received. Not a bee was dead, and their bodies were 

 not distended in the least. They would have stood a 

 journey of two weeks with ease. 



Borodino, N. Y., June 12, '80. G. M. Doolittle. 



Our boys complain that it is a great deal 

 of work to put up a pound of bees with a 

 queen, in the cage I have figured in the price 

 list, and so I told them to make such a pack- 

 age as suited them. They now use a rough 

 nucleus hive large enough to hold one frame. 

 To get the bees in, this hive is set on the 

 scales, and bees shaken from frames right 

 into the hive or box, until the pointer on the 

 scales shows a pound. Now, after we have 

 got thus far, the very handiest and easiest 

 way of giving them food is to give them a 

 frame of comb containing honey. Well, 

 once or twice, the bees have starved because 

 a pound of bees consume honey so much 

 faster than one would suppose. As a queen 

 is almost always ordered with the bees, she 

 will lay on the way, if a comb be furnished, 

 and the young brood take still more honey; 

 but the purchaser has besides his bees and 

 queen, a frame of brood as well, or at least a 

 frame with some brood in it. A pound of 

 bees may consume nearly a pound of honey 

 in a week, and, of course, we wish to make 

 provision for such delays and contingences 

 as are always likely to occur; therefore, after 

 one or two lots had been reported starved, I 

 gave orders that they should have a great 

 deal more honey than they could possibly 

 consume, and yesterday neighbor II. told 

 me they had been giving every pound of 

 bees, on an average, 4 lb. of honey. I 

 thought this was away to the opposite ex- 

 treme, but they said they had only obeyed 

 orders. Come to think of it, I see no objec- 

 tion to this only that the expense of a good 

 wired comb, and 4 lb. of honey is a little 

 more than I can afford, and sell the bees at 



$1.00 per lb., the price advertised in the ta- 

 ble for July. Perhaps 4 lb. of honey is used 

 now, when the combs are all so full, but very 

 likely not more than half as much will be 

 used ordinarily. Even in that case, the comb 

 and honey are worth at least 50c, which is 

 more than half the price we get for the bees. 

 Mr. Gray says we cannot well make even 

 rough nucleus hives, for much less than 15c, 

 including the wire cloth, etc. 



In view of the above mentioned difficulties 

 in sending bees by the pound, I shall, for 

 the present, be obliged to raise the price to 

 $1.50, instead of $1.00, for a pound of young 

 Italians. This will make i of a lb. an 

 equivalent of a SI. 00 queen. I hope some 

 one of you will be enterprising enough to 

 run opposition, and sell them at the old 

 price. Both Will and neighbor II. say, if I 

 will give them the pound of young bees I 

 have been selling for a dollar, they will raise 

 a queen with them every 15 days, while the 

 season lasts. Will tried it, just to prove to 

 me that the price was too low. 



l(\th — We have had beautiful rains lateiy, 

 and white clover is at its height. Our bees 

 can not well store honey, because the colo- 

 nies have been divided so much, queens ta- 

 ken out, and above all those pounds of bees 

 removed from every one that had a whole 

 pound. The combs are being bulged, and 

 their tops show that snowy Avhiteness that is 

 so cheering to the apiarist. I know by the 

 looks of things, and by the hum of the bees, 

 that we are having an abundant flow of hon- 

 ey; also from the letters that come in. 

 What do you think of the following?— 



June 9th, the hive on scales gained 1 lb.; 10th, 5J£ 

 lb.; 11th, 13 lb. ; 12 th, 10 lb. ; and 13th, \V 2 lb. 

 Norwalk, O., June 16, '80. S. F. Newman. 



Just think of it, you excitable ABC 

 children, and some of you that are older, 

 who have got the bee fever. Thirteen pounds 

 of beautiful clover honci/, from a single colo- 

 ny, in just one dan ! and about as much the 

 next day, and so on. Why, a gold mine 

 wouldn't be a "circumstance" to so much of 

 nature's nectar ; all gathered from the little 

 flowers by our winged pets too. Who 

 wouldn't be a bee-keeper— and have a colo- 

 ny hung on spring scales to tell you how 

 much honey they were getting per hour? 



11th.— The Alfalfa is now in full bloom, 

 but no bees are seen on it. This is not 

 strange, as the white and red clovers are 

 now in their prime. For all this, bees are 

 humming very thickly over the motherwort, 

 which is now in full bloom. The melilot clo- 

 ver is higher than my head, but it only just 

 shows, now and then, tiny embryo buds. I 

 look forward to its blooming with consider- 

 able anxiety. It had clean cultivation from 

 the start, and now covers the ground with a 

 mass of dark green foliage that is a beauti- 

 ful sight to look at. Bees are now seen at 

 all hours of the day hovering over the early 

 Simpson plants, in spite of the counter at- 

 tractions of clover. The old plants begin to 

 look almost like trees, but yet they show no 

 signs of budding to blossom. We have an 

 acre or more of small Simpson plants, be- 

 sides our patch of large ones, but we have 

 not succeeded so well with the spider plant, 



