1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



737 



account of the w;iy in which a daughter 

 eleven years old managed an apiary is real- 

 ly wonderful. I presume that, of course, 

 friend Davis will watch carefully to see that 

 the child is not overtaxed, either mentally 

 or physically. She is just the age of our 

 daughter Caddie.; and while we were talk- 

 ing it over at the breakfast-table, Caddie 

 thought it was a pretty big undertaking. 

 As a rule, where children do show special 

 gifts in such matters, they ought to be al- 

 lowed to have vacations quite often, and of 

 pretty good length. Any little girl who 

 loves* her father, and who also loves bees, 

 can oftentimes do surprising things in this 

 line. It reminds us of the story of Katie 

 Grimm, and the wonderful feats she per- 

 formed in the way of extracting honey in 

 one of her father's out-apiaries. Some of 

 the younger ones might very naturally want 

 to know how big pay Miss Davis received 

 for her share of the work. The accounts of 

 your visits have been very interesting in- 

 deed. 



CUBA AND ITS HONEY RESOURCES. 



THE NATIVE CUBAN APIARIES AND HIVES. 



Tip NATIVE Cuban apiary usually consists of 

 qflk from 50 to several hundred log gums, each 

 j""~W 10 to 18 inches in diameter, and 6 to 6 feet 

 long, lying flat on the ground or on poles, in 

 rows about 2 feet apart, and open at both 

 ends, from which the combs often protrude a foot 

 or more. The shell of these palm logs being very 

 thin, dry, and free of limbs or knots, is easily and 

 quickly split open in transferring. The tools used 

 in this operation consist of a smoker, long-handled 

 ax, whisk-broom, and a long iron rod with a handle 

 at one end, and flattened at the other into a broad 

 gouge, sharp and circular in shape, to conform to 

 the inside surface of the gums. Two blows with 

 the ax, directed between two long rows of combs, 

 usually suffice to divide the hive into halves. We 

 now remove with knives all the large and heavy 

 combs of honey and brood, and, after jarring off the 

 bees, finish up with the long gouge, leaving the 

 shell as smooth and clean as though the bees had 

 never occupied it. When the day's transferring is 

 done, all the brood-combs are gathered into one 

 place at the entrance to the hive of a strong 

 stock; here it is carefully arranged into a long pile, 

 and covered with palm bark and coffee-sacks. We 

 now close the other end of the strong stock, and 

 thus compel the bees to pass through this pile of 

 brood in leaving and returning to their hive. In a 

 couple of weeks the hrood is all hatched, and we 

 have millions of bees to use when needed, besides 

 plenty of old combs to turn into foundation, which, 

 by the way, I prefer to any very old combs, no mat- 

 ter how straight and nice they may appear. In this 

 manner we have, with an assistant, transferred an 

 apiary of 86 gums into our hives in i l / 2 days, which, 

 when we consider that the gums will average in 

 their contents twice as much as the old box hives of 

 this country, must be regarded as rapid work. The 

 honey-flows at this time of the year, January and 

 February, are so plentiful and constant that no 

 trouble is experienced from robbing. 



THE TWO MAIN SOURCES OF HONEY. 



While most of the trees, shrubs, and plants, bloom 



profusely, and the larger part furnish honey, yet 

 the apiarist in this part of the island re'ies for his 

 large crop of surplus mainly on two sources — cam- 

 panea, or bellflower, and the cam peachy (logwood). 

 The former is a vine, much resembling our morn- 

 ing-glory, and blooms profusely from December 

 till in February. It is considered a perfect pest by 

 the Cuban farmer, as it grows almost everywhere, 

 and is difficult to kill out. The latter is a beautiful 

 wide-branching tree with a most peculiar body, often 

 nearly square instead of round, like an ordinary 

 tree. It blooms three times during the year; and 

 each time, for the space of about two weeks, it af- 

 fords large quantities of rich golden nectar, in 

 quality and color much like the honey from the 

 pumpkin-bloom. When in bloom the hum of the 

 bees among its branches can be heard quite a dis- 

 tance, and reminds one of the basswood forests in 

 this country, except the large tresses of flowers, 

 which are yellow instead of white. 



NO WINTER PROBLEM TO CONTEND WITH. 



Here in the North the great problem of safely 

 wintering and " springing" the bees occupies the 

 thoughts of our apiarists, while in Cuba the prob- 

 lem is, " how to have our hives overflowing with 

 bees at the commencement of the great honey- 

 Hows," commencing in December. August, Sep- 

 tember, and a portion of October, are probably the 

 worst months in the year for the Cuban bee-keeper. 

 There are flowers in bloom, but they do not seem to 

 afford much honey. The Italian queens diminish 

 wonderfully in their laying capacit y, and the blacks 

 to a less extent. To solve as nearly as possible this 

 problem we use hybrid queens; and as our hives 

 are large we place a close-fitting division-board in 

 the center, and as good and prolific a queen as we 

 can find in each part, adjusting the entrance so the 

 bees will not mingle on the alighting-board. We 

 now give them a very little thin feed each evening, 

 continuing till near November, when we remove 

 one queen, take out the division-boards, and place 

 all the brood in the lower stories of the hives; and 

 as honey is now coming in moderately, feeding is 

 discontinued: and by December we have, say, on 

 an average, from 60,000 to 80,000 bees to each hive, 

 and this means an average, at least, of from 350 to 

 500 lbs. of honey. I know of one large hive contain- 

 ing a Syrian queen, which gave an average of 600 

 lbs. of honey for three successive seasons. I will 

 now give our method of wiring foundation. 



ANOTHER PLAN OF WIRING FRAMES. 



Punch two holes in the side-bars of the frame, 

 equally distant from the top and bottom. Place a 

 small tack on the outside of one side-bar, near each 

 hole. Now, facing your work-bench, with frame in 

 left hand and wire reel fastened to the bench on 

 your right, insert the wire in the upper hole, across 

 the frame, parallel with the top-bar, through the 

 upper hole On the left side, then back through the 

 lower holes. Now securely fasten the wire to the 

 upper tack, and pull the lower wire very tight, and 

 fasten to the lower tack; clip them off and drive 

 home the tacks, and you are ready to insert the 

 foundation, which should have a play of not over v ' n 

 inch from side to side. Tack a board on your bench, 

 which fits the inside of your frame, and of half its 

 thickness. Place the sheet of foundation on this 

 board and bring the frame down over it so that the 

 wires rest tightly against the foundation. Now 

 with a small awl, with groove in the point to ride 

 the wires, imbed them in the foundation; and if the 



