1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



475 



THE HONEY CROP IN WESTERN MIS- 

 SOURI, ETC. 



UK yield of honey has been solely confined to 

 the linden, or basswood. Fruit bloom and 

 early flowers only afforded food for the bees 

 and young brood. By judicious distribution of sur- 

 plus in some of the hives, we were able to keep the 

 queens busy and stocks flourishing- without much 

 extra feeding during the month of May. Sorao few 

 colonies cast swarms, but white clover yielded only 

 a scant subsistence, and, up to the 10th of June, our 

 best colonies showed a daily increase of only a sin- 

 gle pound in weight,— the very strongest only V/i lb. 



THE VALUE OF BASSWOOD AS A HONEY PLANT. 



On the 10th of June, the linden flowers opened, 

 and for ten days furnished the most abundant yield 

 ever known. The average increase of each one of 

 my 80 colonies during that time was iy 2 lbs. per day. 

 After June 20th, they at once dropped to-l 1 * lbs., 

 then to 3—2—1—0 of increase, and have added noth- 

 ing to their stores since; indeed they have actually 

 fallen behind,— a favorite colony weighing to-day 10 

 lbs. less than it did July 1st. In short, the basswood 

 has furnished our only surplus. I have extracted 

 upwards of 3,000 lbs., and taken 565 lbs. of section 

 box honey. The sections have all been sold for 15c 

 per lb., and some of the extracted for 12! ic. Here- 

 tofore, the home market has been partially supplied 

 with honey from farmers, or fence-corner honey 

 raisers; by which I mean those persons who set 

 their bee hives in some out of the way place, and 

 never look to them except to rob them. The sad 

 experience of the past two years has removed that 

 source of competition, and nice, comb honey sells 

 readily to dealers for 15c. 



Some years we have a good yield of honey in the 

 fall, sumac, golden rod, and Spanish needle being 

 the source of supply, each in its turn, in favorable 

 seasons, furnishing excellent forage for a couple of 

 weeks. Buckwheat never amounts to much in this 

 latitude, while catnip, smartweed, and the late as- 

 ters always furnish something. During the grass- 

 hopper year, our bees did not swarm until Aug. and 

 Sept., and then collected sufficient stores for win- 

 ter. I notice inquiries about honey from corn, and 

 my testimony is adverse to it. Hundreds of acres 

 of corn now in bloom are around us, and are full of 

 bees, but still no surplus comes to the hives. If 

 corn tassle produced honey, surely some of it could 

 be found. 



SECTION BOXES AND SEPARATORS. 



Surely the 1 lb. section box is a perfect success. 

 Our dealers give united testimony to the beauty and 

 ready sale of the honey. And here let me say that I 

 have entirely discarded separators. Out of nearly 

 six hundred boxes, I have only had two united by 

 the comb, and that was when one of the starters 

 had fallen down. Heretofore, I have been troubled 

 by bees building one comb thicker than another, 

 and causing it to project or bulge into the adjoining 

 section; but such has not been the case this year. 

 The great activity of the bees during the abundant 

 yield of linden honey undoubtedly had something to 

 do with it, but I was careful to have my starters 

 reach from the top» very nearly to the bottom of 

 each section, cutting them in the shape of a key- 

 stone, and attaching them to the top piece with wax, 

 before putting the section box together. I use no 

 rosin and have had but a single one out of GOO fail. 

 The machine for inserting starters is simply the fin- 



gers; the receptacle for the melted wax, a tin pie- 

 plate adjusted at a convenient height in front of 

 you, with a burning lamp underneath; aboard on 

 your lap with a few dozen starters arid an equal 

 number of top pieces thereon completes your outfit. 

 You can just touch the top of the starter to the 

 melted wax, and place it erect and firm on the top 

 piece in a "double quick." It is surprising to note 

 the short time required to adjust 100 of them. I be- 

 lieve, if bees can reach the starter without climbing, 

 that they will make the combs equal. In upwards 

 of 500 out of nearly 0C0, they have furnished sections 

 weighing a little over 1 lb. ; a few, 1 lb. andloz.; 

 and a very few a tritie more; not one weighed 1)4 lb. 

 I glassed a few for samples, but could not glass all, 

 and the only advantage of a separator would be to 

 enable them all to be glassed; while the disadvan- 

 tages are expense, trouble, and diminution of 

 product. 



DECOYS FOR CATCHING SWARMS. 



I noticed in one of your numbers a device for in- 

 ducing swarms to alight in a gourd shaped log, cov- 

 ered with refuse wax and rosin, and suspended in, 

 or under, a tree in their vicinity. As this looked 

 feasible, I took a couple of Indian clubs which my 

 son had brought from the academy, and besmeared 

 them as directed. I adjusted them conveniently in 

 my apiary, and felt sure they very much resembled 

 a clustered swarm. Of course, I expected every 

 new swarm to go straight to one of them and clus- 

 ter. Your correspondent had so written. But my 

 bees were not so simple. 1 have had nearly fifty 

 swarms issue,— sometimes eight or ten in a day, 

 and sometimes two or more at a time, but "nary" 

 swarm went to either of said decoys. So please 

 mark said derice unsubstantiated. 



S. \V. Salisbury. 



Kansas City, Mo., July 21, 1880. 



Vfaty" 



This department was suggested by one of the clerks, as an op- 

 position to the Growlery. 1 think I shall venture to give names 

 in full here. 



AKE me right out of Blasted Hopes at once, and 

 put me in the Smilery, or some other cheerful 

 place, for I have to-day had a genuine, Simon- 

 pure, bona-fide, natural swarm of bees, the first one 

 for two years; and it was from a stock, too, that I 

 divided only last week. I could not believe it was so, 

 until I had fully examined the parent stock. The 

 cultivated honey plants begin to tell sure. 



A. A. Fradenburq. 

 Port Washington, O., Aug. 17, 1880. 



Novice! you old beeswax! what did you put me in 

 "Blasted Hopes" for? I've not "Made Bee Culture 

 A Failure." Honey crop a failure, not me. Since 

 that date, the bees have filled their hives, and 

 stored considerable in prize boxes. It has been 

 rainy for the last ten days, but, should it clear up 

 warm, we may reasonably expect more honey. 



Mrs. L. Harrison. 



Peoria, III, Sept. 8, 1880. 



I humbly beg pardon, my friend, but you 

 know we must have somebody in the Blasted 

 Hopes, and I thought the rest might feel 

 better, to have so distinguished and capable 

 a person as yourself in their company. "Mis- 

 ery loves " you know. I think the re- 

 port you send this time will do very well for 



