342 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



practiced, for one colony in ten might 

 liave enough pollen from last season to 

 last until new pollen comes in, but the 

 other nine should require It. I would put 

 the unbolted rye-flour in shallow pans, 

 with some cut straw for bees to light on, 

 for we well know that a bee breathes un- 

 der the wings, and if they get down in the 

 flour they cannot get out, and will 

 smother. , , ^ 



Mr. Blauvelt : 1 have had hard work to 

 get my bees to take flour, and at times 

 have sprinkled it on them at the entrance, 

 and found that in tliis way they would 

 take it from the pan. I have used both 

 rye and wheat flour, and like one as well 

 as the other. 



Mr. Tucker : My bees carry pollen in 

 the fall, and store It with honey, and can- 

 not see that there is any need of feeding 

 meal. . .. 



"Queen fertilization" was next dis- 

 cussed. „ 



Mr. King : I believe that Mrs. Tupper 

 was the first who had queeus fertilized in 

 confinement. She takes a wire-cloth box 

 6 inches square and about 6 inches deep, 

 then takes about half a dozen drones trom 

 favorite colonies and places them in the 

 box, and places the box in the cap of the 

 hive, in place of the surplus honey boxes. 

 Tliis, of course, is about the time that 

 queens are ready for fertilization, and 

 leaves them there about 36 hours ; and 

 when removing the box she finds one 

 drone dead, and then knows that the 

 queen is fertilized. 1 tried this in severa 

 cases, and did in one case find the dead 

 drone, but that is the only time ; then 

 there is the Kohler process, which is to 

 confine the drones of the colony from 

 which you want your queen fertilized, 

 and when, after 4 o'clock, the drones stop 

 fljing, then release the queen and the 

 drones of this colony, and generally you 

 will receive gratifying results. Again, I 

 can mention parties who have had queens 

 fertilized in the cells. 



Several members took part in this dis- 

 cussion, but had nothing definite to ad- 

 vance on the subject. 



" How does bee-keeping compare with 

 other pursuits, and what are the essential 

 qualities to make a bee-keeper ?" 



Mr. Treadwell : I believe it is just 

 as essential to have energy, perseverance 

 and intelligence in bee-keeping as any 

 other profession ; for profession it is, and 

 the man who has not these qualities has a 

 very small chance of being successful. 



Mr. Tucker : Let the bee-keeper have 

 an education in the bee-line, and he is very 

 sure of success, and could do as well, if 

 not better, than in other pursuits. 



President Cook then called on Mr. J. N. 

 Casanova, of Cuba, for his opinion as to 

 the bee-business. He said : 1 went into 

 the business to make money, and for no 

 other reason. 1 started with 100 colonies, 

 and by my superintendent's not being 

 used to keeping bees in Cuba, we lost a 

 great many ; so that they decreased from 

 540 colonies to 113 that could be counted 

 (in for honey. From these U3 colonies we 

 ohtained 43,000 pounds of honey, from 



To persons unacquainted with the nat- 

 ural history and habits of the honey-bee, 

 their scientific management, and also the 

 flowers— their natural counterpart and the 

 source of their bountiful supplies of de- 

 licious honey— to such persons we say, the 

 idea of keeping bees in cities is simply 

 preposterous, associated with syrup- 

 soaked street-garbage, sweepings from 

 candy-factories, the refuse of sugar-houses 

 glucose-mixing establishments, etc. But 

 to persons scientifically and practically 

 familiar with this subject, the cleanly 

 habits of the bees and their decided pref- 

 erence of the nectar of the flowers, to all 

 other sources for their supplies— to this 

 class "city bee-keeping" presents no in- 

 superable barriers. 



When we consider the tireless vigor of 



peratures necessary to bring out the nec- 

 tar from the numerous species and va- 

 rieties of flowering forage we have re- 

 ferred to. Now, we claim that all the 

 above conditions logically put together, 

 sufficiently accounts for the fact, that in 

 our city there are very few days between 

 the blooming of the willows and soft 

 maples in early spring and the appear- 

 ance of Jack Frost late in the fall, but 

 that the ever-watchful and industrious 

 bees gather some honey ; and at the same 

 time it disproves the vile slander of their 

 being street scavengers. Fiirther, it 

 proves beyond successful contradiction 

 the truth of what we have asserted on 

 other occasions, " That in the country 

 where the honey-flows are few and tar 

 between, because the sources are com- 



the bee, the wide range of its flight, far paratively tew, if they would flU up the 

 excelling in swiftness the fastest express gaps occurring between the honey-yield- 

 ..._!., .„=,„i„,i ...;4.i. „ i,.,„„,i„.i.,^ of H,u <.^. ing periods of those they have, with some 



of our city species, that instead of a few 



Dec. - - _ 



one colony being 0.50 pounds. They aver- 

 age about 400 pounds per colony. I use 

 the two-story eclectic hive, frame 10x1.5 

 inch&s. I made $a,000 over all expenses, 

 or 100 per cent. ; and now that we have 

 had one year's experience, and know how 

 to treat the bees at the proper time, 1 ex- 

 pect, next season, to make SOO per cent. I 

 sent 20 tierces of honey to New York, 

 and received 6 cents per pound. 1 can 

 send honey here, and make money on it 

 at r> cents per pound, but 1 will send no 

 more to New York, as we can get more 

 money for it in Germany. 



The following essay was read by Mr. 

 A. J. King, on the subject of " Bee-Keep- 

 ing in Cities :" 



train, coupled with a knowledge of the ex 

 tent and variety of the honey-producing 

 flora abounding in the yards, gardens, 

 parks, and in all the suburbs of our city, 

 the subject not only looks possible of ac- 

 complishment, but it is perfectly feasible 

 and inviting. It has been repeatedly 

 demonstrated by men whose integrity no 

 bee-keeper doubts, that in times ot the 

 best honey-flows, single colonies have 

 stored 10, 20, and 30 pounds per day, and 

 that the amount stored during the season 

 was apparently limited only by the short- 

 ness of the period of bloom of the flowers 

 affording the honey ; yet in many in- 

 stances these sources have held out until 

 300, .500, 700, and in one instance 1,000 

 pounds were secured from a single colony. 

 Thus it is proven beyond a doubt, that 

 were it possible to keep up the bloom, the 

 flow would continue and the crop of the 

 season would be limited only by its length 

 and the number of bees employed. 



The honey secreted to-day, if not gath- 

 ered, is lost by evaporation, and a fresh 

 supply is furnished to-morrow. In esti- 

 mating the amount of honey which any 

 given city would produce, it would be 

 necessary to multiply the number of 

 flowering trees, shrubs, bushes, vines, 

 plants and grasses, by the number of 

 blossoms on each, which one will readily 

 imagine would be a hopeless task, as it 

 would doubtless run far into the thou- 

 sands ot millions, and this would have to 

 again be multiplied by the average amount 

 of nectar each blossom contained. In the 

 country where clover and basswood are 

 yielding nectar, there are few localities 

 where more than one in ten of the blos- 

 soms are visited by the bees, simply be- 

 cause of the disparity of their numbers in 

 comparison with the number of blooms to 

 be visited ; while in and around a city 

 there are probably not more than one- 

 tenth the number of blooms, so that with 

 the same number of bees all flowers would 

 stand a fair chance of being visited. 



All the large cities of our seaboard are 

 made up ot a population embracing nearly 

 all nationalities on the face of the globe, 

 and each person would be likely to cul- 

 tivate in his own yard or garden, and give 

 his influence to have cultivated in our 

 whatever was familiar and 



ned 43,000 pounds or honey, from p„i,lic parks, whatever was familiar and 

 1 to Feb. 1, the largest amount from diiightful to him in his native land. 



Hence, the almost numberless species and 

 varieties of the floral kingdom everywhere 

 seen in our visits through the parks and 

 gardens of our cities. Now, as this diver- 

 sified flora came from all habitable lati- 

 tudes of the world, so each Would nat- 

 urally require as nearly as possible the 

 same atmospheric conditions in order to 

 bring out its nectar-producing qualities in 

 the greatest perfection. Any one at all 

 familiar with meteorology, knows that we 

 are living in a climate noted for its rapid 

 variations in temperature and moisture, 

 embracing in its wide range a difference 

 of more than 100° from one extreme to its 

 opposite ; that between these wide ex- 

 tremes are embraced all the various tem- 



huudred pounds of honey per colony being 

 deemed almost fabulous. 1,000 pounds per 

 colony would become a reality not so rare 

 as it is at the present time. 



It is well known to practical apiarists 

 that bees seldom visit the flowers in the 

 immediate vicinity of their own home, 

 preferring apparently to exercise their 

 wings before loading up with the precious 

 nectar. Just how far they could be in- 

 duced to fly, was long an object of specu- 

 lation till Anally numerous experiments 

 have proven beyond doubt that where no 

 forage is nearer they will fly 7 miles for 

 their stores, and that they will lay up a 

 surplus at distances from the source or 

 supply varying from 3 to 6 miles ; and 

 further, they will forsake the best arti- 

 flcially-prepared food whenever the flowers 

 are yielding even a moderate supply of 

 honey. In the light which our subject 

 now stands, it is easily seen that where 

 colonies are located on the tops of build- 

 ings, where their flight is unimpeded, they 

 will store quantities of fine honey in our 

 largest cities. Happily we are not left to 

 theory or conjecture on the subject, as it 

 has long since been put to the test of prac- 

 tical experience, and always, so far as we 

 know, yielding results surpassing the ex- 

 pectations of the experimenters. 



For the last 15 years, Mr. W. J. Petitt 

 has had an apiary of from .50 to 75 colonies 

 only a few paces from that busy thor- 

 oughfare, Snargate St., Dover, England. 

 At vast expense he has scaled the high 

 cliff at the back of his residence, by means 

 of stone steps, and built on its top one of 

 the finest apiaries to be found in England. 

 There are very few inducements in the 

 immediate vicinity for the bees, as the 

 place is devoted largely to manufacturing, 

 but away to the southeast, and northeast, 

 are the tall white cliffs of Dover, where 

 the industry of man has not yet pene- 

 trated, but innumerable flowers of many 

 varieties have found a lodgment, and Mr. 

 Petitt's army of workers have found them, 

 and the rugged and apparently sterile 

 cliffs which few people have ever re- 

 garded as of any earthly use, except to 

 frown defiance at the foreigner, now yield 

 bountiful harvests of nature's purest 

 sweets. This apiary has all the modern 

 improvements. 



Neighbour & Sons, of London, have for 

 years carried on an apiary with profit. 

 The Halls in New Orleans, and Mr. Muth 

 in the centre of Cincinnati, are examples 

 of successful bee-keeping. 



In 1874 we placed one colony of Italians 

 in a window on Barclay street, this city, 

 and were surprised at their storing us 75 

 pounds ot delicious honey. We repeated 

 the experiment the next year with an 

 apiary averaging about 40 colonies on top 

 of the American Express building, where 

 we were still more surprised at the 

 marvelous performance of our little pets. 

 One swarm hived in June in a new Iiive 

 without foundation or help of any kind, 



