77 S 



(JLExV^l.NGS ixN liEE CULTUilE. 



Nov. 



on, and proceeded to open the hive. In opening it 

 I found the bees had absconded, leaving neither 

 queen-cells nor bees behind, and the j'oung bees 

 would run out of the hive and drop on the ground 

 in front of the hive as fast as they would hatch. 

 After looking the hive through I looked for my 

 queen cells; but not seeing them I asked the man 

 if he had picked them up. 



" What," says he, " were those queen-cells? I 

 picked them up and ate them, thinking it was 

 honey." 



His little son, who stood by, suid, " Father, was it 

 good meat?" 



He said it was sweet. This was in the midst of 

 bass wood bloom. 



My nearest neighbor, George Stuckman, who is j 

 one of your subscribers, purchased, on the 13th day 

 of August, a swarm of bees that was the largest 

 swarm [ ever saw, and I think the largest I ever 

 hear.l of. They weighed 13'^ lbs. I helped weigh 

 them; and the funniest part of it was, this was the 

 sixth swarm out of the colony they came out of. 



Nappanee, Ind.. Oct. 26. 1885. I. R. Good. 



Friend G., you know I told you some time 

 ago that I didn't believe you would find as 

 good a locality for honey in Tennessee as 

 you have in Nappanee^ Ind. The above 

 corroborates my opinion. A swarm weigh- 

 ing V.M lbs. is a tremendous one, to say noth- 

 ing about the six swarms from that colony, 

 and as late as the 13th of August at that.— 

 I have sometimes got brood in my mouth, 

 when eating honey carelessly, and "although 

 I found it somewhat " sweet," as your neigh- 

 bor did, it was almost too rich for my taste. 

 If the cells you mention had queens' nearly 

 ready to hatch, I should have supposed he 

 would have found the honey a little peculiar. 

 — You know our good friend Langstroth 

 says, in his book, he could increase from 10 

 to 100, by judicious feeding when it is need- 

 ed ; but you have done considerably better 

 than that. 



but I can say that I saw the bees vcrij thick on red 

 clover for two weeks, while I could find scai-cely 

 a bee on hundreds of acres of buckwheat in full 

 bloom near my apiaries. 



I commenced the season with about 135 colonies 

 in three .ipiaries; obtained 11,030 lbs. of houey— 5000 

 lbs. e.vtracted, and 6000 lbs. in one pound sections; 

 increased to 210 colonies, in good condition to win- 

 ter. 



D.\ILY RECORD OF ONE COLONY. 



FROM 135 TO 210 COLONIES, AND 11,000 

 LBS. OP HONEY. 



HOW SOON BASSWOOD, CLOVKR, AND BUCKWHEAT, 



YIELD HONEY AFTER A RAIN; RED CLOVER 



AS A HONEY-PLANT. 



NCLOSED you Will find my record of the daily 

 yield of honey for 1885. In your remarks fol- 

 lowing my report for 1884, p. 092, you ask, "Did 

 you keep a record so you can tell us if the tem- 

 perature and moisture of the atmosphere alone 

 produced these results, or is there a large flood of 

 honey one day and but little the ne.vt, without any 

 one being able to give satisfactory reasons why it 

 is so?" 



I was unable to answer your question then; but 

 as I have this season kept a record of the weather 

 in connection with the honey-record, 1 observe that 

 white clover and buckwheat yield but little honey 

 for several days after a hard rain, while basswood 

 and red clover yield honey as soon as the rain 

 ceases. In fact, some of the largest yields from the 

 above were obtained the day following a hard rain- 

 storm. They also gather honey very fast for a few 

 hours preceding a very hard thunder- storm, when 

 it is very hot and glill. 



As the record shows such a large amount from 

 red clover, some may think that I am mistaken; 



Summary: Total gain, white clover, G2!4 lbs.; bass- 

 wood, 111 lbs.; red clover. 115 lbs. Total, 288'/2 lbs. 



There was also a small daily gain from buckwheat 

 later, and also from white clover previous to Juno 

 24th; but I kept no record of it. 



Mauston, Wis., Nov. 1, 18C). Frank McNay. 



Many thanks, friend M., for your very val- 

 uable report, and the facts you give us. Our 

 older readers will remember tliat E. E. 

 Hasty, s.iiue years ago. gave us figures show- 

 ing pretty conclusively that the increased 

 (low of luiney was almost always an indica- 

 tion of coniing rain, and that a rain could 

 be foretold bv the sudden increased yield of 

 nectar, indicated by the scales holding a sus- 

 pended hive.— We have long been aware, 

 that a hard rain stops, for the time being, 

 the yield of white-clover honey ; but I have 

 never noticed that this same rule didn't ap- 

 ply to red clover. A\'e presimie your great 

 yield from red clover was majle from the 

 common, ordinary kind, although you did 

 not say so. It seems to me to be a fact, that 

 red clover may yield large quantities of hon- 

 ey occasionally, but that only occasionally, 



