1885 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



267 



BEE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. 



SOMETHING ABOUT REVERSIBLE FRAMES; HOW IT 

 WORKS IN PRACTICE. 



p S I dould 



no cure for the Florida fever 



y\^ but to partake of the climate, etc., I came 

 J^l^ here the 13th of Jan., 1835, and it is truly won- 

 ^^^ derful to witness the chang-e from Maine 

 here. I can hardly believe it is below zero, 

 while here it is summer. Only think of oranges 

 fully ripe on the trees, and bloom now in full, and 

 one of the most delicious perfumes float in the gen- [ 

 tie breezes from the blossoms. Trees are putting- j 

 on a new g-rowth, birds are happy, and so are all the I 

 people. We often hear shouts of joy far away in 

 the open pines. 



I came here undecided as to a home, but I have 

 fully come here to stay. Of course, there are ' 

 thing's we must be denied, but we enjoy much that \ 

 we can not in a cold climate. Nearly the first thing 

 I did was to look into the bee-works. I found them 

 at work, strange to say, working lively; and on 

 looking into hives I found them strong in brood, 

 and some new honey and comb produced. Yes, in ' 

 January. I could not find an j' one who was up to 

 the times in improvements, to get actual facts 

 from; but all agreed that bees did well. Hees are 

 all inbo.v hives or large frame hives, two feet long, 

 and frames 12 inches square, with nothing but a 

 cleated board for cover. If they warp or shrink, so 

 bees creep in, and a wholesale robbery is the result, 

 they get no careful attention. These hives are sup- 

 l)osed to be for extracted honey; but, give me a 

 regular L. frame, and a hive that can be controlled 

 every way. The hives have no division-boards,»so a 

 light colony stands a poor chance to guard against 

 ants and robbers, as well as being obliged to warm 

 the large open spaces, and cold air that creeps in all 

 around the cover. 



I went to see a man who keeps quite a number of ; 

 colonies, but I was obliged to borrow a large net to j 

 protect myself from the bees. I found no one at ; 

 home; but he came soon, and, to my great surprise, 

 he fed the bees in a large sheet of shells, and also 

 went around and slopped some sugar and water 

 right on to the bees, by lifting the cover and turn- 

 ing it out on the frames. I told him I would not do 

 it for any thing, for it must make more mischief 

 than good, for the syrup ran right out of the front 

 of the hives, and, of course, there would be a gener- 

 al fight and uproar, which there was. I never saw 

 such a cross lot of bees; even the gentle Italians 

 came at me, about as a little boy would at his mam- 

 ma, after she had given him a bit of sugar, as if to [ 

 say, " I'll have more." 1 never could think of open- 

 ing a hive where bees had been fed in this way, for, ' 

 oh how some one would be overrun with the rob- 

 bers I This was in the early part of the day, so a 

 long day would lay out many a would-be good colo- j 

 ny, or, at least, lay a foundation for such. 



Another man who had seen me transfer a colony 

 thought he would do so with one of his, so he rigged 

 a hive as he thought best, and one morning did the 

 job right on the old stand, and I happened along 

 soon after, when they told me they guessed their 

 bees were fighting. Then I saw what they had 

 done— transferred out of doors, in a very warm 

 day; and as he knew nothing of the effect of honey 

 being where bees could get a free taste, they had [ 

 got the best of the colony. I told him never to 

 allow a drop of honey or swpettS where bees cowld I 



get it in the day time. I was afraid he would lose 

 his bees, and so he did. They were robbed,, and 

 queen killed, and finally they left and came over 

 into one of my hives, right among the bees. I 

 smoked and united them; and as soon as I found 

 whei-e they came from I paid for them. 



I have ten colonies. I do all my transferring in a 

 building; and as I have been on a jump ever since 

 I came here, I do such jobs in the evening, then by 

 morning the honey is all cleaned up, and no excite- 

 ment follows. I regulate the entrance-blocks and 

 division-board, according to the colony. I have 

 made long days; have done considerable in the 

 orange-groves, and other work, and have been 

 making hives. I have a few sections partly capped 

 now; they are over some frames that I reversed, 

 and I do believe when we reverse them in 

 just the right time that it is one of the greatest im- 

 provements ever made, to say nothing of full 

 combs. I think we shall drive the bees into the 

 boxes; at least, it works so with me. I always have 

 the combs down to the frame, and close them up to 

 not more than ' j inch; I think the closer they are, 

 the better the bees work in the boxes, for they have 

 not much room to bulge the honey in the frames; 

 and, too, it seems more to the queen like her own 

 home. 



We have here some dilfieulties to meet that are 

 not in a colder climate. The ants are iiuite bad, but 

 I believe there is a remedy for all troubles, and I 

 will give mine. To make it cheap and light, I strip 

 up barrel-staves about 1' j inches for large hives, to 

 1 inch for nuclei. I nail two on front of nuclei and 

 two on back, in a A shape, some like a sawhorse, so 

 as to set in old fruit-cans of water. On the large 

 hives I nail on each corner; I allow al)Out 10 inches 

 of legs below the hives, and i find, too, these dishes 

 make an excellent watering-place for the bees, and, 

 by the way, a hive 10 inches high works much easier 

 forme. 1 also heat quart cans and unsolder them 

 and straighten out; these I nailed under front end 

 of hive, and bend down a little to make an extend- 

 ed alighting-board for bees, all of which works in 

 practice as well as in theory. Shade for hives in 

 many places we can not have. Natural shade I 

 make in this way: Get out slats 4 feet long; cutout 

 a notch near one end. Now sharpen the other; cut 

 open the seam of old bran-sacks, and hind the cor- 

 ners to tlie four ends of stakes, and you have a 

 shade that you can fix just as you want; and when 

 you work on a hive, just pull up the two on one 

 side, and stand them on the other side of hive. The 

 sticks can be varied so as to shade the entrance 

 and any part o+' the hive, and bees will work with it, 

 when they will lie idle if not used. Try it, some one; 

 it is not patented. This all may look like work and 

 care; but, how do we accomplish any thing without 

 such? For want of shade, and where ants have the 

 run, many light and heavy colonies have deserted 

 their hives. E. P. CHURCHiLii. 



Tampa. Fla., March 24, 1885. 



I know, friend C. there are many pleas- 

 ant things about Florida; but at the close 

 of your letter you have suggested some of 

 the uiiph'asanf ones. After my visit in the 

 South, 1 came home with more of a disposi- 

 tion to thank (Jod for our frosts and snows 

 than ever before. Yes, I think I can thank 

 him even for our unseasonable zero weath- 

 er ; for these same apparent drawbacks have 

 been a large factor in making our Northern 



