GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



son why I ordered these smokers is because 

 the gi-ate at the bottom of th^ flre-oup is 

 stamped, leg's and all, out of one piece of 

 metal, and there are thus no obstructions to 

 the grate to interfere with the draft. 



The sample smoker that I received first 

 had a fire-cup 4I/4 inches in diameter, and 

 S% inches long- without the cover ; and the 

 bellows was 5% inches wide by 81/2 long, 

 the leather being 4 inches wide at the top. 

 This smoker was so superior in the estima- 

 tion of those helping me, that whenever I 

 was working with the bees I had to have it 

 plainly understood that this extra-large 

 smoker was mine. 



Brantford, Ont., Canada. 



BEE CULTURE AND ITS POSSIBILITIES 

 A Glimpse from One Locality in the South 



BY A. I. ROOT 



1 said to our people a few days ago that 

 it was no more than fair that the great wide 

 world should know what is being done and 

 what can be done in a wide section of ter- 

 ritory; and to commence with I sent a let- 

 ter to our good friend Marchant, asking 

 him some questions. Below I give you a 

 list of those questions and his reply. 



Friend Marchant : 



What I should especially like to know is, how 

 many colonies of bees you had to start with last 

 spring; your yield of honey, say in tons, and about 

 how many colonies you have now. If you have sold 

 bees to any amount, of course that would come in. 

 Then I should like to have a brief statement as to 

 the sources of honey, and, if you have no objections, 

 state the price you receive for it. I suppose you 

 do not produce comb honey — at least not to any 

 extent. We should like to know, also, how many 

 out-apiaries you have, and how many colonies you 

 find it best to keep in each apiary. Do you have an 

 extracting-outfit located at each apiary? or do you 

 carry your extractor around to each apiary? Any 

 other items you may think of interest we should be 

 "lad to get. One reason I have asked the above 

 is because I fear our people have been a little back- 

 ward about letting the world know the possibilities 



of bee culture. ,^ ,, . • j 



Your old friend, 



A. I. Root. 



Mr. A. I. Rout : — The number of colonies 

 of bees I started with last spring was 530. 

 This includes the hospital lot, which was 

 about 40 colonies that did but little toward 

 gathering any surplus. 



My yield of honey was about 30 tons. I 

 now have 700 colonies. I also sold 100 1-lb. 

 packages of bees with queens. These came 

 out of this lot of 530. Of course I have a 

 queen-yard independent of this lot. This 

 honey came from the ti-ti, black gum, and 

 willow, but the surplus came from the black 

 tupelo and the white tupelo. It brought me 

 f. o. b. here IV^ to 71/2 cts. During spnng, 

 or the main honey-flow, I had only two 



yards besides my queen-yard. At present 

 I have five outyards, but will unite them 

 into two or three yards next spring. 



I find that from 250 to 350 is best for 

 each apiary, but I have had 1000 in three 

 yards, and they did equally well. 



I have an extracting-outfit at each apiary. 



This lot of bees would have produced 

 several tons more of honey had it not been 

 for a fiood in our river during the main 

 honey-flow, and lasting all through the floAv. 

 This caused the bees to become demoralized, 

 especially during swarming, when lots of 

 them were lost in the water. Besides, the 

 apiary could not be kept up to the standard, 

 as one could not take care of the swarms. 

 In fact, you could not tell what hive they 

 came from; and, of course, the parent colo- 

 ny, not being operated to cut out all cells, 

 this caused afterswarms and crippled the 

 apiary a great deal. The yard that was 

 overflowed had 380 colonies. 



In some correspondence I had with the 

 company some time ago I wrote them my 

 crop brought .$3100. This was sold to one 

 man alone, and I forgot to mention the rest 

 I had furnished to my regular customers. 

 A. B. Marchant. 



Apalachicola, Fla., Aug. 25. 



[Perhaps I should say right here that 

 many successful beekeepers have objected 

 to printed reiJorts of their work, because 

 there are always a lot of foolish people 

 who will dump a lot of bees right into their 

 neighborhood, thinking, evidently, that it is 

 locality and not the man that " delivers the 

 goods." I heard this same thing in Califor- 

 nia. In fact, it lias been discussed all 

 around ; and our neighbor Rood in Florida 

 objected to reports of what he had done, 

 because several times his locality was over- 

 stocked by beekeepers moving into the 

 neighborhood or locality. Therefore please 

 do not think of moving bees where these 

 big reports come from until you have first 

 corresponded with the man making the re- 

 port. In this way he and you could arrange 

 a location that would not be likely to inter- 

 fere with his own field. See " Overstock- 

 ing" in the ABC book.— A. I. R.] 



Wintering Nuclei in One Hive 



I have several nuclei with queens that I wish to 

 winter if possible in order to save the queens. Would 

 it be all right to divide a ten-frame hive into two or 

 three parts with wire window-screen, giving each 

 nucleus a separate entrance? The hive is a double- 

 walled chaff, in protected location. 



Indianapolis, Ind., Aug. 2. W. E. Green. 



[The plan proposed might work, but it would be 

 our opinion that it would be better to use thin 

 boards, «»y 3-16 inch thick, in place of the wire 

 cloth. — Ed. ] 



