246 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



making their nui^tial flight. I have tried 

 every plan suggested except hoisting flags 

 of difl'erent colors, but all to no purpose. 

 My hives are in rows of pairs, six feet be- 

 tween each pair, and nine feet between the 

 rows. Sometimes from a batch of cells I 

 get nearly all of them mated ; at other times 

 not half. The past summer I had three 

 eight-frame hives divided into three pai'ts, 

 each part taking two frames, with entrances 

 facing east, west, and north. Sometimes I 

 could get nine queens from nine cells mated ; 

 at other times not more than four or flve, 

 all raised, apparently, under the same con- 

 ditions. On page 324 the editor says that 

 during April at Pompano 90 per cent of 

 the queens are killed by dragon-flies. Wt 

 have millions of such flies here. The loss of 

 queens may be from the same cause. 



On page 345 E. R. Root describes the 

 Marchant scheme for transferring from box 

 hives. Our plan is as follows: Approach 

 the box hive, give it a little smoke; tear a 

 piece ofl' the top, the larger the better; then 

 place the eight or ten frame empty super on 

 top and smoke the bees at the bottom. In 

 a minute or so, up comes the queen. As 

 soon as she is safely on the sides with the 

 mass of bees, lift off the super, put an ex- 

 cluder over the old box, replace the super, 

 and fill it with combs. 



That's all. Easy, isn't it? no sawing nor 

 waiting days for the bees to go up when 

 they are ready. They go up when I am 

 ready. In twenty-one days remove the box. 



One more proof to that of Mr. Freeborn, 



page 723, that bees do discriminate against 

 black. On one occasion a number of angi-y 

 bees followed me to the house. As I neared 

 the back door, two eats, one black and the 

 other mostly white, laj' sleeping on the steps. 

 While I was some feet away the black cat 

 jumped up and made a lightning leap for 

 cover as though in a fit, while the white one 

 just opened its eyes and yawned. 



One of the best drinking arrangements 

 for bees I know of is a trough or iron wash- 

 tub. Put in a little sand or soil ; throw in 

 a few roots or slips of parrot's feather. In 

 a short time one has a dense growth of one 

 of the daintiest water-plants, and at the 

 same time it gives the bees a chance to get 

 a drink without drowning. 



That rain-barrel cistei^n for the beeyard. 

 page 909, may be ideal for Alabama; but 

 for California it is useless. We don't look 

 for rain from the end of March till the end 

 of October. 



A. C. Miller's wire bee-veil, page 810, 

 works well in violent wind storms, of which 

 we get many during the honey-flow ; but 

 with the temperature at 110 for weeks I can 

 better endure the stings than the weight of 

 the veil. Coming in from the apiary one 

 day with a severe headache, due to the 

 heavy veil, Mrs. Bowen's mother, a clever 

 woman, took a piece of cheese-cloth, put in 

 a black net in front for the eyes, and round 

 the whole veil sewed a light spring wire 

 about on a line with the lips. I never wore 

 any thing more convenient and sting-proof. 



Dixon, Cal. 



AN OUTLINE OF HONEY SUCCESS 



BY FRED LEININGER 



The question is often asked by beginnere, 

 " How shall I produce a honey crop — can I 

 make more money on extracted than on 

 comb ? " It is not a question to be an- 

 swered offhand. A number of things must 

 be taken into consideration, and then it 

 will generally be left to the beekeeper to 

 decide for liimself. 



The fact that there are exiDerieneed and 

 successful beekeepers producing extracted 

 honey is pretty clear proof that they find 

 extracted more profitable than comb ; but 

 there are also exiDerieneed and successful 

 beekeepers who produce only comb. Just 

 as clearly the'" deem comb more profitable 

 for them. 



It inay be well to mention some of the 

 items that are factors in the case, other 

 things being equal. Comb honey has a 

 preference because it brings a higher price 



— perhaps a half more. On the other hand, 

 it is generally believed that a half more of 

 extracted than comb can be produced, 

 though some say this difference is not so 

 gi'eat. The location of the market has 

 something to do with this, since there are 

 localities where a jDound of extracted brings 

 nearly if not quite as much as a pound of 

 comb honey. In some regions the nectar- 

 flow is of short duration, but comes in a 

 flood wliile it lasts; in others the flow is 

 light but long continued. The former is 

 favorable for comb, the latter for extracted. 

 The beekeeper must to some extent cater 

 to the wishes of his customers. Where the 

 harvest is mostly of dark honey of strong 

 flavor, the preference is for extracted hon- 

 ey. Such honey may be sold for baking 

 jiurposes while lighter honey is desirable 

 lor sections. It requires more skill to 



