622 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



hive, the queen having been lost. At present I am 

 trying the plan of keeping the queen caged for 

 some days after destroying cells the tenth day. You 

 thus see I am still anxiously seeking to learn how 

 to prevent, not increase, swarming. 



HOW TO LOAD HIVES. 



Yon think, Mr. Editor, I should load hives on a 

 wagon with the frames running in the direction of 

 the road, to prevent loosening frames when bump- 

 ing down off bridges. So I should, if the road were 

 largely made up of bridges, and it is possible I am 

 wrong; but the bumps of that kind are very few, 

 and the wagon box is constantly shaking from side 

 to side in such a way that the swing would gradual- 

 ly loosen the frames, so I always load the hives 

 with the frames at right angles to the direction of 

 the road. Last spring I hauled nearly 200 to the 

 out-apiaries; and although pretty heavy with honey, 

 not a frame was loosened, and the same was true 

 about hauling home the previous fall when they 

 were very heavy with honey. C. C. Miller. 



Marengo, 111. 



Yes, friend Miller, we do not care so 

 much about the cause as we do the preven- 

 tion of swarming. If the cause will give 

 us the clew to its prevention, well and good. 

 We would much rather have good strong 

 colonies— the stronger the better. It is true, 

 new swarms have a peculiar vigor; but th.e 

 parent colony loses sometimes four or five 

 days in serai-loafing in its preparation for a 

 swarm— days that are of utmost importance 

 so far as the production of honey is con- 

 cerned. We have one good strong colony of 

 imported stock that has not swarmed at all, 

 nor even built a queen-cell. It has kept 

 right on bringing iu honey while the rest 

 were getting ready for their picnic in the 

 air. Now, if we can make these restless 

 colonies behave like this one by caging the 

 queen, what a bonanza we shall have ! 



LETTER FROM ITALY. 



A GLIMPSE OF BEE-KEEPING AS IT IS IN THE NA- 

 TIVE HOME OF OUR ITALIANS. 



TH j DITOR Gleanings:— It is a nice thing to com- 

 °E|) municate to your brethren in bee-keeping 

 RpV your victories and the number of pounds 

 ■*■" harvested; but, American friends, what do 

 you think of 1889 up to date? Somehow or 

 other the pen does not seem to run so well. I'll do 

 my best, however. 



When upon the Alps to look over my bees I asked 

 an old woman near my yard, 76 years of age, "Do 

 you ever remember such a year as this one?" She 

 answered me, "Yes, but once when I was yet a girl, 

 when it rained for such a long time that corn was 

 being sold for 18 cents a kilogram." 



I wonder what honey will have to be sold for if 

 this weather continues. In fact, but a few days 

 excepted, this spring has been but a continual rain 

 —just enough to prevent bees from going out. A 

 warm temperature prevailed— just the thing want- 

 ed; fruit-trees were in full bloom, and the poor 

 bees inside nearly starving. Stores were used up 

 in a most wonderful way; but about the 20th to the 

 25th of May, brood-rearing came to a standstill, ow- 

 ing to shortage of stores, and scarcely any honey 

 coming in. About the 15th of June this year my 

 colonies had to be fed, and some at the Alp apiary 



starved on account of rain, with plenty of honey in 

 the fields. Out of the 102 colonies which 1 had this 

 spring at the home apiary down in the valley, only 

 about nine swarmed, owing to the bad weather pre- 

 vailing during fruit-bloom. April 25th to the 20th 

 of May I did not care to prevent swarming, wanting 

 to increase the number of my colonies steadily. In 

 the valley, however, the bee pasturage is very 

 scarce; in fact, my only resource for the present, 

 of any account, is chestnut. Notwithstanding the 

 very beautiful hills, having at the back the lofty 

 peaks of Italy's crown, my bees would nearly 

 starve, or at least give but little increase, even in 

 good years, were they not migrated in due time to 

 fields more profitable to myself and enjoyable to 

 my faithful workers. You see, I combine the Alpine 

 holiday stay with the occupation on which I am re- 

 lying for my "bread and butter." Like you, I am 

 engaged in bee-keeping, not as a pastime, but as a 

 regular business, in which pursuit Mr. Dadant was 

 my principal master, without, however, having ev- 

 er seen his face, and the one who decided my shak- 

 ing hand to cut the rope which tied my frail bark to 

 the land of hesitation; and Gleanings is the al- 

 ways long-looked-for fortnightly visitor; and, more 

 than that, the regular companion on the lofty 

 mountains and along the Alpine valleys while on 

 apistic rounds. I have taken, besides, a partner in 

 business whom I hope you all have already taken 

 too, who promised me that, if I were faithful to 

 him, "every thing I would undertake would pros- 

 per." 1 am trying hard to do so, dear friends. 



Mr. Dadant's controversy in the Apicultore of Mi- 

 lan, on the Berlepsch Italian small square frame 

 versus the Langstroth-Quinby frame, still enlarged 

 by Mr. D. himself, convinced me of the superiority 

 of the shallow-frame hive, with large brood-cham- 

 ber, with equally large surplus apartment; in fact, 

 the little experience I have had with them has al- 

 ready more than convinced me of the importance 

 of some conditions in preparing colonies for the 

 harvest, especially in moving them from one field to 

 another, which I have done for the last years, when 

 moving my hives from the valley to the pasturage 

 on the Alps; viz., migratory bee-keeping, which, 

 when done with care, and under certain rules, has 

 proven to me most profitable, about which I will re- 

 port later on if you care for it. 



But I should want the Rambler's pen, to draw 

 out a sketch of the writer, the donkies, and the car- 

 riers of the "alveari" (hives), when, a few weeks 

 ago, notwithstanding all the care taken, some of 

 the yellow-jacket ladies got out and went for them. 

 O Dr. Miller! come and help, please. 



SusernaS. Giovanni, F. Malan. 



Waldensian Valleys, Italy, July 7, 1889. 



And so, friend M., it transpires that the 

 great amount of rain through the spring 

 and early summer extended not only 

 throughout the United States, but even 

 across the ocean to far-away Italy. We are 

 glad to get this glimpse of bee culture from 

 you ; and we are more rejoiced than we can 

 tell, to know that you have taken Christ 

 Jesus our Savior as a partner in business. 

 Truly " we be brethren." If it should ever 

 be my good fortune to visit Italy, it will add 

 much to the pleasure of the trip to think 

 that I have real brethren over there— breth- 

 ren through Christ Jesus our common Lord 

 and Master, 



