GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



SOMETHING PROM THE B. AFRICA MISSION. 



Gleanings has come to i his mission regularly 

 lor two years. Native honey abounds in all locali- 

 ties; in nearly every Iree you see large bark boxes 

 put there by the oativ< s. mid many of them are full 

 of honey. From 35 to im tons of wax is shipped 

 from this port every year to Europe. 



R. H. Richards. 



Mongwe, Inbamibame, E. Africa, Oct. 80, 1888. 



JAPANESE III i'KWHEAT A SUCCESS. 



I got :.' lbs. from yon last spring-; sowed it on 20 

 rode of good ground. I harvested 7'4 bushels of 

 nice bueku heat. Bees worked on it the same as on 

 other. They worked sparingly on goldenrod; they 

 worked very industriously on prideweed. You 

 could see from 4 to 12 on one bead. They seemed to 

 be crazy for it when in bloom. I suppose it is one 

 of the goldenrod family. Bees got honey enough 

 to winter on. and some swarms gave considerable 

 surplus, mostly from basswood. 



Chardon, O., Dec. in, 1888. W. McBkide. 



Repbiws ENcetfRflGip. 



FKOM 36 TO till, AM) -*250 WORTH OK HONEY, SOLD 

 PEDDLING. 



f^HE first of May found me with 36 colonies, 

 Sji" some very good and some very poor, 8 of 

 which number were so weak that it took 

 them all the season before they sot built up 

 to good swarms. From the 28, good and 

 fair, 1 sold honey, both comb and extracted, to the 

 amount of $2. r >ii. I have a little over a barrel left 

 on hand now. I increased them to 60 good swarms. 

 They are in good shape, with plenty of honey to 

 last them till fruit blossoms. 



PEDDLING HONEY A SUCCESS. 



I sold most of my honey in my home market. I 

 had some friends in a little town 8 miles from my 

 place, and my wife and 1 were going to see them. 

 I told her 1 would take some honey along, and 

 may be we could dispose of some. We took about 

 100 lbs., both of comb and extracted. It went like 

 hot cakes; and the consequence was, I made 6 trips 

 and sold $140 worth in that town. M. M. Rice. 



lioscobel. Wis. 



FROM 8 TO 16, AND PLENTY OF HONEY. 



Last spring- I had 8 colonies, and increased, by di- 

 viding, to 16. 1 bad plenty of nice section honey to 

 supply my table. 1 have raised and introduced 

 Italian queens into each colony. 



D. C. McCampbell. 



Harmontown, Miss., Nov. 27, 1888. 



PROM 511 TO 811, AND 8011 LltS. OF HONEY. 



I commenced in the spring with 50 colonies of 

 bees, and they increased to 80. I got 800 lbs. of 

 honey. 1 know the most of them had each nearly 

 LOO lbs. left in the hives to winter on, because for 

 the one that made comb honey I left all in the low- 

 er box, from 8 to 1:2 frames, almost solid full of 

 honey. I clip all of my queens, and then let them 

 swarm. I think this is much better. 



Senecii. Kan., Dei- 5, 1888. M. A. Wilkins. 



pound. I sold at from 14 to 18 cts. per lb., in De- 

 troit. I sell all my unfinished sections that weigh 

 not less than 6 oz., and so on up to 12 oz., some be- 

 ing wholly unsealed, and I find ready sale at from 

 8 to 12 cts. per lb. 1 think it better than keeping 

 them over. Benj. Passage. 



Stark, Mich.. Dec. 14, 1888. 



FROM 30 TO 70, AND 1000 IBS. OF HONEY ; ARTI- 

 FICIAL PASTURAGE ; ALSIKE CLOVER FOR 

 BEES AND STOCK. 



The honey-flow in this locality has been bounti- 

 ful the past summer, and those who had their dish 

 right side up caught the golden harvest. My bees 

 did as well as could be expected, considering the 

 amount of care given them. From 30 colonies, 

 spring count, I received about 1000 lbs. of honey in 

 1-lb. sections, and increased to 70 colonies; and I 

 think if I had hived every swarm that issued I 

 should have had 100 colonies at the close of the 

 honey-How. One colony of Italians first swarmed 

 out. This was on June 1st, and it made 49 lbs. 

 of clover and 24 of buckwheat honey in 1-lb. sec- 

 tions, and they had their brood-combs well filled for 

 winter besides. In providing pasture for my bees I 

 had 10 acres of alsike, 10 of Mammoth, and the 

 pastures were white with white clover; and %, of a 

 mile from my apiary were basswood-trees and 40 

 acres of buckwheat, where the bees could go if 

 they wished to, and they did gather so much buck- 

 wheat honey that it is hard to get 10 cts. per lb. 

 for nice 1-lb. sections. White-clover honey sells 

 readily at 15 cts. per lb. in 2-lb. sections. 



I cut my alsike clover, and had it thrashed, and 

 got 8 bushels of very clean seed. I shall depend 

 upon the alsike clover hereafter, not only for bee- 

 pasture, but also sheep-pasture and for seed. On 

 one side of my sheep-pasture there are three acres 

 of alsike clover. It was sown 4 years ago, in the 

 first part of the season. The sheep feed on the 

 other portion of the pasture; but when the other 

 portion gets short and dry, the sheep run and put 

 their noses into the clover, and it shields them 

 from the gad fly. and gives them good feed also. 



I have 35 swarms in the cellar and 10 in A. I. 

 Root's chaff hives, on their summer stand. 



L. N. Chapman. 



River Falls, Wis.. Dec. 12, 1888. 



I^ep@i^ Di£<30ai^/iviiN<j. 



A POOR YIELD. 



T MADE preparations last spring for a good crop 

 |If of honey, and received only about 140 lbs. of 

 W fall honey (in comb, no extracted), as surplus, 

 -*■ which sold for 12& cts. per lb. to apply on a 

 grocery bill. You see the bee-business has not 

 been very profitable for me the past season, con- 

 sidering that I ran over 200 colonies for honey. I 

 had only 15 new swarms during the season. I am 

 not one of the class who can get a crop whether it 

 is in the blossoms or not. O. H. Townsend. 



Alamo, Mich., Dee. 11, 1888. 



FROM 30 ll> 40, AM) 1300 I. US. OK HONEY. 



I began the season with :in swarms -25 fair and 5 

 weak. I increased to 40, and took a little over 1200 

 lbs. of comb honey; 4 colonies did not give a 



ALL LOSS. 



There has been a failure in the honey crop in this 

 locality for two seasons. When we figure the prof- 

 it and loss, it's all loss. As I read in Gleanings 

 recently, 1 hope for a "whopper " next year. 



Damascus, O., Dec. 8, 1888. Evan Shreve. 



