G^LEAJyiiNGS iN BEE CULTURK. 



Jan. 



broodrtiest, and the upper case can be left on until 

 the sections are finished, with no danger of the 

 combs becoming' trav^elstained. 



With Mr. Doolittle's hives and fixtures, separators 

 are undoubtedly a necessity. In fact, I fail to see 

 how he could, as he claims to have done, given the 

 non-separator business a fair trial; becau.se it is 

 only upon the tiering'-up plan that separatoi's can 

 be abandoned with any hopes of success; and I be- 

 lieve that Mr. Doolittle's hives do not admit of this 

 function. 



I heartily agree with Mr. D., that we should do all 

 we can to maintain decent prices for honey; and if 

 any one can not secure straight combs without sep- 

 arators, by all means use them. 



Rogersville, Mich. W. Z. Hutchinson. 



ANOTHER REPORT IN FAVOR OF HY- 

 BRIDS. 



T COMMENCED last spring with 38 Rood swarms 

 ^ and 7 lig-ht ones, making 4.5 in all. 1 had to 

 ^l transfer 31 of those into movable-frame hives. 

 ■^ After this was done I built them up so when 

 white clover came in bloom they were all in 

 good condition, and ready for business. 



I commenced extracting about the 10th of June, I 

 believe, and closed, or stopped the extractor, .iust 

 after basswood-bloom. During- July and August I 

 increased, by artificial swarming, to 91 swarms, with 

 the exception of 7 or S that I got by natural swarm- 

 ing. I got, during the season, 4774 lbs. of extracted 

 honey, and 250 lbs. of comb honey in one- pound sec- 

 tions. I sold the entire lot in my home market, 

 with the exception of one barrel shipped to Mil- 

 waukee, besides buying SJa barrels of my brother, 

 M. M. Rice, in order to supply my ti-ade. I have i-e- 

 ceived, on an average's cts. per lb. for the extracted 

 honey, and 1.5 cts. for the comb honey. 



It will be five years next fall since I commenced 

 keeping- bees, and all I have to regret is that I did 

 not commence 30 years before. My stock of bees is 

 well-mixed Italians, hybrids, and blacks (and they 

 are black too). I have been trying to find out 

 which are the best workers for all kinds of work 

 (laying all argument aside). I had rather have good 

 hybrids for all work than any Italian bee I ever 

 saw, and I have some as yellow-banded as any one 

 else. My queens are from A. I. Root. I have a 

 number of them. I have one very large swarm 

 of hybrids that gave me by weight, this season, 385 

 lbs. of honey, besides 3 good swarms of bees. If 

 any one should offer me flO.OO for that hybrid 

 queen I should be obliged to say no, for there was 

 no end to her laj'ing propensities. Whenever I 

 want a lot of foundation drawn out quickly, I am 

 sure to put it into a hive where there are hybrids or 

 blacks. 



During- the last two years I have received more 

 stings from my Italian bees than from the blacks. 

 I will admit, that the blacks and hybrids are more 

 irritable, and will run and leave the combs more 

 than the Italians will, and it is harder to find their 

 queens; for instance, when you want to clip their 

 wings, or supersede them. But, putting up with 

 all this trouble, I know the blacks and hybrids will 

 make more comb honey, draw out more foundation, 



PROM 38 TO 91, AND 4774 LBS. OF EXTRACTPJD, AND 

 250 LBS. OF COMB HONEY. 



do less swarming- (by my own experiments) than all 

 the Italians I have got. B. E. Rice. 



Boscobel, Grant Co., Wis., Dec, 1886. 



Friend li., this question in regard to hy- 

 brids vs. pure Italians came up at tlie Mich- 

 igan State Convention ; and when I told 

 them I had for a long time been fearing we 

 were making a mistake in getting out every 

 trace of black lilood, it made something of a 

 sensation ; and more still when I added that 

 we were ready to furnisli hybrid queens 

 whenever our customers asked for them. It 

 has many times given me pain to see a bee- 

 keeper destroy a queen that was a magnifi- 

 cent one in every respect, because her bees 

 were not all three-banded. Perhaps it will 

 be necessary for us to start another apiary 

 to furnish a choice strain of hybrids ; and I 

 begin to think that such an arrangement 

 will meet the wants of a great many. The 

 price of (lueens reared from our best hybrid 

 honey-gathering stocks will be the same as 

 untested (jueens reared from our best im- 

 ported mothers. We shall be glad to have 

 orders early in the season, so we may know 

 what preparations to make. I have before 

 mentioned that we have a few customers 

 who order hybrids every season ; and if we 

 happen to be short, and send untested Ital- 

 ians in their stead, they sometimes object. 



MRS. COTTON. 



HER CIRCULAR FOR 1S«7. 



E are very much pleased to note the 

 great improvement in the above cir- 

 cular, and in Mrs. Cotton's mode of 

 doing business in general. Our read- 

 ers will remember that we have pub- 

 lished several favorable reports from those 

 using her hive and fixtures. We are very 

 glad to do this ; but in justice we can not 

 refuse to publish the unfavorable ones as 

 well. We have, however, consented to for- 

 ward them to Mrs. Cotton before publishing 

 them, in order that she may have an oppor- 

 tunity of making satisfactory any mistakes 

 or misunderstandings. 



Mrs. Cotton still recommends feeding 

 sugar syrup to bees just before the harvest 

 opens, and, indeed, to such an extent that 

 they store some of this syrup in the surplus- 

 boxes. She says this feed, when stored in 

 the combs by the bees, can not be distin- 

 guished from the best wliite-clover honey 

 by the most delicate taste. Now, while it is 

 true that a great many might not notice a 

 little sugar syrup mixed in with some clover 

 honey, I think she is gixatly mistaken in put- 

 ting it so strongly as this :* 



The feed I use costs only about seven cents a lb., 

 and, when stored in the combs by the bees, can not 

 be distinguished from white-clover honey by the 

 most delicate taste. 



Again, on page 8, she says : 



Under my system of management, I, by a simple 

 process, su'bdvie the anger of the bees, so that they 

 can be handled without the least danger of stings. 



And further along : 



The members of ray family are seldom stung- by 

 the bees (not one case in a year), notwithstanding- 

 I sometimes have fifty hives or more where we pass 

 within twenty feet of them many times every day, 

 while the bees are fl.ying in thousands about each 

 hire. 



