1889 



GLEANINGS IN 1 5 ME CULTURE. 



55 



bee-space between half-depth wide frames should 

 be f, the same as the sections, thus leaving- no lit- 

 tle line along- the edge, to be propolized. 



Once this summer my bees started booming- on 

 something. I could smell the honey ten feet or 

 more from the hive. I supposed it was red clover. 

 Upon investigation I found no bees on the red 

 clover, but found the common burdock in bloom, 

 crowded, roaring- with bees. 



I fixed my bees for winter November 3, and wore 

 my overcoat while doing so. I believe they have 

 had only one day's good fly since then. 



Philo S. Dilworth. 



Pittsburg, Pa., Dec. 10, 1S88. 



Friend D.,your point is a good one. Go 

 to your neighbors all round about you, if 

 you are located in the country, and get them 

 to sign a paper, agreeing not to keep bees 

 under a certain number of years. If they 

 have no notion of keeping bees any way, 

 the greater part of them will be glad to as- 

 sist you by signing the paper, without pay. 

 Those who keep bees already, and especial- 

 ly if they are not doing much with them, 

 will perhaps sell out reasonably, and, for a 

 small sum per year, give you the sole privi- 

 lege. You could easily make a canvass of 

 your vicinity — say covering the land within 

 two miles of yoii in each direction, to see 

 what it will cost you. If too expensive, 

 don't go into it ; but I think that many of 

 the friends could easily in this way secure 

 the right to keep bees, without any unpleas- 

 antness or unfriendliness. Where real es- 

 tate is transferred to a party, I suppose a 

 paper could be drawn up, making the same 

 regulation hold, even after the transfer. If 

 your bees boomed on burdock, it seems to 

 me it is something of a reflection on the 

 farmers in your locality. 



^ i ^ 



BEES AND CANNING-FACTORIES. 



A BEE-KEEPER OBLIGED TO GO OUT OF THE 

 BUSINESS. 



T RECEIVED the last number of Gleanincs a 

 jfflf few days ago, and I am sorry to say that this 

 W must be really the last number I shall get of 

 A my rno^t favorite journal, as I shall be out of 

 the bee-keeping business by next spring, and, 

 of course, shall have no further use for a bee-pa- 

 per. The business of keeping bees, at least around 

 here, is (to use a common expression) about played 

 out. The last two seasons were very poor indeed. 

 Last summer I got absolutely nothing from my 80 

 swarms; and when there is a good season (as we had 

 two years ago) I have to sell the very best of white 

 comb honey in pound boxes for 10 cts. a pound. 

 That is for less than I can afford to raise it. But 

 in spite of these discouraging prospects T should 

 have kept on, hoping for better times in future, if I 

 had been left undisturbed by outsiders, and if a 

 certain institution that lias sprung up in my 

 neighborhood had been built somewhere else. 

 The institution I have reference to is a factory for 

 canning fruit, that was built last spring, a few 

 rods from my home, and that turned out to be the 

 ruin of my bees. As soon as business was started 

 up (canning pine-apples in June), my bees went 

 there in perfect swarms, to be drowned in sugar 

 syrups, or to be killed in some way; and in a little 

 while my best colonies were so depopulated as to 



be perfectly useless. To prevent my bees from 

 getting into th>- building- by putting wire cloth be- 

 fore doors and windows was not possible, as part of 

 the rear of the main building, where they unload 

 fruit, is all open, and I had to try the next best 

 thing I knew of; viz., to shut them up in their 

 hives. I hurriedly made frames, covered them 

 with wire cloth, put those on top of the brood- 

 frames, shut the entrance-holes with wire cloth, 

 allowed the bees to rly about an hour before sun- 

 set, and shut them up again late in the evening; 

 but in spite of all this trouble 1 could not save 

 them, for great quantities of them worried them- 

 selves to death in the hives, and it proved .iust 

 about as disastrous to them as to allow them to go 

 and meet their fate in the factory. Although the 

 proprietors of the factory behaved to me like gen- 

 tlemen, at least this last season, there is no way of 

 telling how they might act if this nuisance should 

 keep on; and it was indeed a great nuisance to 

 them, as I saw myself. 



Aside from having my bees ruined every sum- 

 mer, I run the risk of being involved in a lawsuit 

 by and by; and as the canning-factory, to judge 

 from the large and substantial buildings erected 

 for the purpose, seems to be a permanent affair, 

 there is only one way left to me —give up keeping 

 bees in the future. I know I shall feel dreadfully 

 lonely without the dear little creatures; but I have 

 to submit to it. Chas. Kltmitz. 



Batavia, Genesee Co., N. Y., Dec. 31, 1888. 



Why, good friend K., why should you 

 abandon bees, because your locality seems 

 to be j ust now a bad place for them V Doz- 

 ens of the friends in California, have been 

 in the same predicament ; but instead of 

 abandoning the bees they simply moved 

 them to a locality where they did not annoy 

 anybody else, and usually they have suc- 

 ceeded in getting a place where enough 

 more honey can be secured to cover all the 

 expense of having an apiary away from 

 home. During the honey season, where the 

 yield is good you can arrange to have a sort 

 of summer residence with your bees. Then 

 you will be right in fashion. You can shut 

 up the house during the hot weather ; and 

 instead of going to the seaside, or to some 

 popular resort, jou can go and live with 

 your bees and get gocd pay. I would much 

 rather move the bees to some other locality 

 than to try fastening them up in their hives. 

 I am inclined to think the latter course will 

 always turn out about as it has with you. 



SECURING COMB HONEY. 

 miller versus doolittle on the matter. 



«S I am very much interested in the discussion 

 now going on between friends Doolittle and 

 Miller, 1 thought I would put in a word in 

 favor of them both. The subject they are 

 discussing is not exhausted, by any means. 

 but is, in fact, one of the most interesting that has 

 occupied the pages of Gleanings for a long time. 

 As to the real point at issue between two old and 

 experienced bee-keepers like Miller and Doolittle, 

 there will not be much left to quarrel about, I 

 think, when they fully understand each other's 

 positions. There is so much to be taken into con- 

 sideration, thai neither the tierjng-up plan nor Mr, 



