688 



GLEANINGS IN BKK CULTURE. 



Sept. 



other hive. The corners are then set out so as to 

 tighten the cloth. The pins are driven in as before. 

 If there is a strong wind, the tent is stas'ed with 

 some stout string. We used some of the tarred 

 twine so common in the stores. 



With the tent we worked all the bees over, clip- 

 ped the queens, and made new colonies, filling out 

 the old colonies with combs from the dead ones, as 

 long as we had them. This gave room for the 

 queens to lay more eggs and raise more bees, which 

 they did; but as long as there was no honey coming 

 in they would not build new combs. When our old 

 combs were used up we filled out the old colonies 

 with empty frames with lii-inch starters of founda- 

 tion. But until the basswood blossomed they would 

 not build combs. They swarmed; but as the queens 

 were clipped they could not go off. They would go 

 back, and perhaps two or three swarms would come 

 out at the same time, when they would be quite 

 sure to all bunch together on one hive. I think I 

 have found this summer a full barrel of bees hang- 

 ing on and under one of our large quadruple hives. 

 They were the worst about that soon after the bass- 

 wood commenced to blossom. At that time we got 

 over them as fast as we could, which was about 

 once a week. We would find from one to two hives 

 in that fix in going about once around. Such a 

 sight, and so many bees, I never saw before. If I 

 could have sold them by the pound I could have 

 made a fortune. I went to work and divided them 

 up into new colonies, making five or six colonics out 

 of the bunch of bees and brood-combs from other 

 hives. The bees appeared to h^ tired of fooling, 

 and they accepted a homo, stayed where I put them, 

 and went to work. When 1 saw we were not going 

 to get any honey except what we could get from 

 basswood, T decided to make just as few new colo- 

 nies as possible. But the bees had nothing to do 

 but to raise bees. The^- had plenty of their old fall 

 honey to feed the young brood. We had a pretty 

 fair run of basswood honey for about 12 days. As 

 soon as the bees got at work on the basswood we 

 started the extractor, and emptied out seven barrels 

 of (about 2500 pounds) the old dark last year's hon- 

 ey-dew. We now wanted the bees to fill up on bass- 

 wood honey to winter on, but there was too much 

 brood in the combs, so wo exti'acted most of the 

 combs the second time, and get out seven barrels 

 more. This last was basswood honey. We took it out 

 to give room for more, expecting to feed it back. I 

 don't know yet whether it will be wanted for feed 

 or not, as we have not examined latelj' to see how 

 well they are off for honey. 



Now, had 1 known just how the season would have 

 been I would have had all the combs full of honey 

 at the close of the basswood season. If I had taken 

 all the queens away just before basswood came 

 out, there would not have been any more eggs laid; 

 and what brood they had on hand would have been 

 about all hatched out, and their places in the combs 

 filled with honey. Then they would have been in 

 good shape to winter. As for (lueens, I would have 

 let them raise a young one while they were filling 

 up, or I could have kept some of the old ones in 

 nuclei to fill vacant places. Then I should have 

 had no trouble about the bees swarming and bunch- 

 ing up. 



I don't know just how much our bees have in- 

 creased, as there are three yards not counted up. 

 The other three yards had 198 colonies in the spring. 

 They have now 2t9— an increase of .")!. I think per- 



haps the other three yards have increased about 

 the same, which will just about make up our win- 

 ter loss. I don't know whether the bees have as 

 much honey now on hand as they had at the close 

 of the basswood flow or not, as I have not looked 

 lately. But, such a call for honey ! Orders come 

 with every mail. Last year we had a big crop, and 

 worked hard to get rid of it at low figures; but 

 this year we got none and everybody wants to buy. 

 The dry weather this year, I think, will cut clover 

 crop off for next year. But we are not in Blasted 

 Hopes yet. We have lots of bees, and are going to 

 try hard to winter them. We had a good rain last 

 night for the first time since July 3. E. France. 

 Platteville, Wis., Aug. 11, 188V. 



May be your plan of a bee-tent might ans- 

 wer the best of any thing that could be de- 

 vised, for your own use ; but I should object 

 to it in our own apiary for several reasons. 

 First, whenever it becomes necessary to re- 

 move the tent to another hive you are oblig- 

 ed literally to " pull up stakes ; '' second, to 

 use it to any advantage it requires four men 

 (or boys) to handle it ; third, it would take 

 too long, it seems to me, to put it together 

 ready for use, and slip over it the cheese- 

 cloth sack. While it is a great convenience 

 to have the top as large as the bottom, yet 

 we prefer to have a tent with a gable top, for 

 this reason : The bees inside will keep work- 

 ing toward the central line ; and having 

 reached there they will escape through the 

 openings at the top. Different apiarists 

 may have different ideas as to what a tent 

 should be ; but here at the Home of the 

 Honey-Bees we prefer to have one weighing 

 not over five pounds — a tent that one man 

 can handle easily — one which can be folded 

 quickly, and opened out just as quickly. 1 

 believe it is no more trouble to use our tent 

 over the hives than it is to work the hives 

 without a tent. I believe if I had quadru- 

 ple hives, as you have, I should make the 

 same kind of a tent that we advertise, but 

 perhaps two or three times as large. How- 

 ever, as 1 said before, each one has his pref- 

 erences and his own ideas of convenience. 



— ^ — I ^ 



FLORIDA. 



HOW W. S. HAHT ANli HIS NEIGHBORS SUCCEEDED 

 THIS SEASON. 



fHE honey-season in this part of Florida closed 

 about the last of July, and left us with about 

 one-fifth of a crop, as a rule. My own re- 

 port is, nine 400-lb. barrels from about 100 

 colonies. The bees in my immediate nelgh- 

 boi'hood have not done as well as those a few miles 

 either north or south of here. To the north and on 

 the peninsula, they had a fall flow that we did not 

 get, and that helped to keep the bees there in bet- 

 tor shape for the summer flow. To the south, the 

 black mangrove was not hurt as badly as here by 

 the great freeze of 1!^86, therefore yielded more 

 freely. In fact, bee keepers from that way tell me 

 that the blossoms often hung full of honey from 

 morning until night, and that their bees being in 

 poor shape was the only reason for their not get- 

 ting a full crop of mangrove honej'. 



The season of 1886 proving an almost total failure, 

 from the etfects of the big freeze early in that year, 

 then all the first part of this season proving equally 



