l88^ 



aLiiANlNGS lis iJEE CUI^TUliE. 



S68 



Friend G., I do not know that I ever be- 

 fore heard the idea suggested, of starting 

 the bees first on a set of combs in the up- 

 per story ; and without having tried it, it 

 seems to me it is at least, in some respects, 

 wasteful to have the bees suddenly stop aft- 

 er they are well going. You know, when 

 the tiering-up process first came out every- 

 body was telling what a saving it was, com- 

 pared to taking a set of sections right away 

 and making the bees commence on a new 

 set. Different writers suggested that prob- 

 ably the bees got disappointed, for some- 

 times they woulil not start a new set at all. 

 even when they had been working heavily 

 with the old ones. By putting an empty 

 case under the one nearly filled, however, 

 they passed right through" to their old one, 

 and kept on at work. Now, if we use the 

 shallow frames for extracting, why not raise 

 up this set of shallow frames and leave 

 them on the hive until they start in the one 

 containing the sections ? Ileddon's shal- 

 low brood-frames would work nicely in this 

 way. I should suppose.— Your phui of les- 

 sening the number of unfinished sections at 

 the close of the season is certainly a very 

 desirable one. — In regard to getting nice ex- 

 tracted honey by letting the bees do their 

 own ripening with a large number of combs, 

 it accords exactly with my own experience ; 

 and the honey was beautifully ripened when 

 I had three Simplicity hives full of combs 

 standing over the brood-chamber. 



A GOOD REPORT FROM TEXAS. 



IS.nnO I.BS. OF HONEY FROM 154 COLON IKS, IN 

 SPITE OF THE POOR SEASON. 



fHIS has been a poor season for honey in this 

 part of Texas. I had 154 colonies (in two api- 

 aries) to start with, 'and increased to ITO col- 

 onies, and took about 13,000 lbs. of honey. 

 This is about half an average crop for my 

 location. The cause of the failure was winter and 

 spring drought. We had scarcely any rain for 22 

 months, previous to the 15th of last May. As our 

 best honey-flow is in May, the rain came too late to 

 do much good in the way of making surplus honey. 

 My bees are in better condition than at this time last 

 year. They are strong, and have one or two thou- 

 sand pounds of honey— more than they will need to 

 winter on, if the spring is as early as usual. 



THE DISTANCE BEES FLY, AND WHAT RACE OF 

 BEES FLY THE FURTHEST. 



1 see in a late number of Gleanings that some 

 of the fraternity do not think bees will fly very far 

 for stores. I have had some experience in that line, 

 and will give it for what it is worth. In the first 

 place, my apiary and the Pafford & Edwards apiary 

 are about 8 miles apart, and the bees always work 

 as strong half way between the two apiaries as they 

 do near home. These apiaries were started in 1883 

 with black bees, and have been Italianized since; 

 and when we knew there were no other Italians in 

 the county we have found them working five miles 

 from home. The black bees are hardly ever found 

 over one and one-half miles from the hive here. 



There has been a sharp flow of honey from a spe- 

 cies of sage this week, none of it nearer than two 

 miles of my apiary. The bees all went in one direc- 

 tion, and in such numbers that a neighbor and my- 



self started on their trail to see what they wore 

 working at. About a quarter of il mile from home 

 we met u lady who told us that a swarm of bees 

 passed over her house, going the way that we were. 

 It was the bees going to work, and we followed them 

 and found the nearest ones two miles from home. 

 I am as well satisfied that] they went five miles as if 

 I had followed that far and seen them at work. The 

 prospect for a big crop of honej' next year is good. 

 We have had good rains this fall; and with one or 

 two winter rains, the crop will be almost a sure 

 thing. D. M. Edwards. 



Uvalde, Te.xas, Oct. 19, 1887. 



Friend E., your report is indeed refresh- 

 ing after liaving had^'so many poor ones this 

 season. I am glad to know that you have 

 enthusiasm enough to follow the bees, and 

 see where the honey comes from. 



PREPARING FOR WINTER. 



E. FRANCE 8 METHOD. 



]^* ETWEEN the 1st and the 15th of September 

 |2l we inspected all of our apiaries, to find out 

 '^^1 if they were all in good condition to winter. 

 ^^ We have been having some fall flowers in 

 most of the places where our bees are locat- 

 ed, and, as a result, we found five of the six apia- 

 ries with plenty of honey to winter on. One apiary 

 we fed 300 lbs. of honey. We use the pepper-box 

 feeder, quart size, putting two feeders on a colony 

 at once, which will be six pounds of feed. Usually 

 they are emptied in 24 hours. A few colonies will 

 take another day. We like those feeders the best 

 of any. We have a honey-board 'i inch thick, over 

 each colony, with two U/i-inch holes through them, 

 over which we place the feeders. The bees come 

 up through the holes in the honey-boards, and take 

 the feed down into the hive. The feeders are nev- 

 er in the way of the bees. They don't need to be 

 taken off as soon as empty, as they are not in the 

 hive but on it, and don't in any way interfere with 

 the working of the bees inside of the hive. Of 

 course, we have an outside cover to our hives, un- 

 der which the feeders are put. No outside bees can 

 get at the feed unless they go into the entrance of 

 the hive, which they are not allowed to do. We can 

 feed any time of the day, no matter whether the 

 bees are fiying or not, and no robbing will bo start- 

 ed in consequence. The year 1885 we fed 6000 lbs. of 

 honey through the last of August and first of Sep- 

 tember. One yard of 100 colonies we fed 1800 lbs. 

 at 3 feeds, giving each colony two feeders at a time. 

 If the bees are flying we put up our extracting 

 house, or tent, in which we fill our feeders, then 

 take them in a box, 13 at a time, and set them on 

 the hives under the top cover. If we have fed be- 

 fore, and there are empty feeders on the hives, we 

 exchange the empty feeders for full ones, taking 

 the empty ones back to the tent to be filled. We 

 can open one of our quadruple-hive covers, ex- 

 change feeders, and close in half a minute, so there 

 is no time for outside bees to steal. We carry our 

 feed in kegs holding 160 lbs. Each keg has a large 

 faucet, or honey-gate, with which our work is facili- 

 tated. One man fills while another puts on or ex- 

 changes. When we have got around, all being fed 

 in that yard, we pick up our traps and go home. 



We usually ascertain if there is feeding to be 

 done, by the last of August or first of September, 

 when we feed immediately if necessary all that we 



