760 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Mr. Doolittle himself, whose com- 

 petence canuot be questioned. 



Mr. Doolittle had 40 colonies, 13 to 

 rear queens, and 27 to produce honey. 

 Twenty-five of the 27 colonies were 

 devoted to the production of comb 

 honey ; the remaining two, being 

 weak ones, were worlied for extracted 

 honey. The 25 good colonies gave an 

 average of 119 pounds of comb honey; 

 the 2 weak ones gave 188 pounds of 

 extracted lioney for sale, and 200 

 pounds of honey in 40 combs, sealed 

 and preserved for feeding any needy 

 colony in the fall. The whole amount 

 was therefore 388 pounds, or for each 

 colony 194 pounds, which, at 8 cents 

 per pound, amounts to $1.5.52 for each 

 one of these " weak colonies." If we 

 divide $1.5.52 by 119, the number of 

 pounds produced by every one of the 

 stronger colonies which were worked 

 for comb honey, we find that 13 cents 

 is the comparative cost of com b honey. 

 But we will show that there is some- 

 thing to be added to this cost for 

 expenses and work. 



!Now every bee-keeper has noticed 

 that in a lot of 27 colonies, the weak- 

 est would produce at least 50 per cent, 

 less than the average of the others. 

 But as we fear of being charged with 

 exaggeration, let us suppose tliat the 

 difference between the production of 

 the two weak ones, and the produc- 

 tion of the strong ones, was only one- 

 third. The production of each one of 

 these two, if as strong as tlie average 

 of the 25 others, would liave been in- 

 creased to 2.59 pounds, which, at 8 

 cents per pound,would have amounted 

 to $20.72. If we divide $20.72 by 119, 

 the number of pounds produced by 

 each one of the stronger colones, we 

 have 17 2-5 cents as the value of a 

 poimd of comb honey, when compared 

 witli extracted honey at 8 cents per 

 pound. 



But our calculations do 

 there. In the washing of 

 pings of extracted honey, 

 some honey to make good 

 the cappings also yield us some bees 

 wax ; and these products pay about 

 all the expenses of extracting. There 

 is no sucli surplus in producing comb 

 honey, but on the contrary Mr. Doo- 

 little had to provide his bees with 

 sections, and with comb foundation ; 

 he had to fasten this foundation in 

 the sections ; bend the sections and 

 arrange them carefully in the surplus 

 apartment; one cent per pound of 

 honey cannot cover these expenses 

 and the work. 



Now, after harvesting, Mr. Doo- 

 little had to clean every section ; 

 packed them in crates glassed on bijth 

 sides ; and incurred the risks of 

 moths, of leakage, of breakage, etc. 

 Furthermore, to produce comb honey, 

 Mr. Doolittle uses small hives, and 

 his bees swarmed so much that now 

 he has 9-5 colonies— which, on Oct. 20, 

 appeared rather liglit in bees— from 

 40 colonies in the spring. We would 

 prefer 00 good colonies for winter to 

 95 light ones. 



If all this surplus work is not worth 

 one cent more per pound for the honey 

 obtained, it is not worth anything. 

 Do you not see that we are very near 

 20 cents 'i It is true that we have 



not stop 

 the cap- 

 we find 

 vinegar 



put in account all the expenses and 

 all the work, while such expenses 

 seems to be too much neglected by 

 the bee-keepers at large. 



It can be objected that Mr. Doo- 

 little made .55 light swarms, and that 

 these swarms should be put in the 

 account. Yes ! but he had 13 colonies 

 to rear queens, and bees, of course ; 

 he had combs and honey from his 

 bees that died during the last winter, 

 and it is probable tliat the 2 colonies 

 used to produce extracted honey, 

 contributed their share of brood and 

 bees to help the new colonies, since 

 their queens having more room than 

 the queens of the colonies crowded to 

 produce comb honey, they had cer- 

 tainly more bees and brood to spare. 



Hamilton,*© Ills. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Poultry vs. Bees— Shade for Hives. 



W. A. FKYAL. 



One of the questions that arise 

 every few years is, '' Do heps eat 

 bees'i"' Several times have I seen 

 statements in different apicultural 

 papers to the effect that they do eat 

 bees, and that fowls thus caught in 

 the act and immediately killed gave 

 proof that sucli is the case. This past 

 spring and summer 15 watched the 

 turkeys, chickens and ducks that 

 spent much of their time about the 

 bee-hives, and as a result I found that 

 the ducks would eat all the dead bees 

 that they found lying on the ground, 

 and such live bees that chanced to 

 fall or alight on the ground. 



The female chickens, young and 

 old, seemed to shun the bee-yard, 

 while the roosters, especially the 

 younger ones, or those just learning 

 to crow, would spend the greater 

 part of their time among the bees. 

 The worker bees I found had no 

 attraction for them, in fact they did 

 not appreciate tlie attempts of these 

 warriors as they tried to drive them 

 off. For the drones these roosters 

 had a great partiality. They would 

 take a position a little to one side of a 

 hive, and with their heads not far 

 from the hive-entrance they would 

 pick off the drones as they would 

 appear. They discriminated admir- 

 ably between workers and drones. 

 Occasionally a worker bee would get 

 its ire aroused and make for the fowl, 

 and if he did not kill the bee as it 

 hovered about on wing, he would run 

 off a short distance into a bush ; or 

 if the bee would get into liis plumage 

 he would pick it off, and return to his 

 place beside tlie hive for more drones. 

 After a wliilp some of these roosters 

 learned to catch the drones as they 

 were flying about tlie hive. As other 

 bee-keepers liave doubtless seen 

 chickens catch drones, I need not 

 give a further description of how they 

 do it. 



I have learned that it does not do to 

 have chickens in the bee-yard when 

 rearing queens, for they will, I think, 

 be liable to catch and eat the young 

 queens as they emerge from or return 

 to their hives. Besides, those of the 

 drones which are considered valuable 



for breeding purposes, will be de- 

 stroyed. 



If chickens are to be given free 

 access to the apiary, I am sure the 

 better way to do, where one has 

 young queens that are about to make 

 their nuptial flight, is to have the 

 hives containing such queens raised 

 high enough from the ground so that 

 the alighting-board will be out of 

 the reach of chickens ; and likewise 

 treat in the same way those hives 

 containing choice drones. Welcome 

 indeed will be the chickens to the 

 drones of spurious mixture. When 

 chickens can be in this way made to 

 exterminate all useless drones, it is 

 apparent that the honey crop will be 

 greater. 



SHADE FOR HIVES. 



When vines are not wanted nothing 

 is better than the pepper- tree {Schinus 

 Molle) for shade for hives during hot 

 weather, which belongs to the same 

 natural family as the sumacs, the 

 mango, and the cashew tree. This 

 tree is now quite common in Califor- 

 nia, having been brought to this State 

 many years ago from its native Peru. 

 Around San Francisco and Oakland 

 it is used as a lawn tree, and is as 

 graceful a tree for this purpose as 

 one could desire. In the vicinity of 

 San Francisco they grow from 10 to 15 

 feet in height, while in the southern 

 part of the State they attain to double 

 this size. In that part of the State 

 it is one of the principal shade trees, 

 and it is said to be as common there 

 as the maple is in the Eastern States. 



The flowers of the pepper-tree are 

 small, of a greenish white color, in 

 loose panicles, and are succeeded by 

 coral-red fruits which are quite orna- 

 mental. The branches have a grace- 

 ful appearance, and cause tlie tree at 

 a distance to look like a weeping- 

 willow. The flowers, which are in 

 great profusion in September and 

 October, are mnch sought after by the 

 bees. I have lieard that the honey 

 gathered from them has an exceed- 

 ingly peppery taste, so much so that 

 it is disagreeable. However, as it is 

 gathered at a time wlien it does not 

 interfere with the commercial honey 

 of California, it must be quite an 

 object to the apiarist to have these 

 trees in his vicinity. I understand 

 that they are being largely planted in 

 the lower part of the State, some 

 landed owners setting them out 

 closely in rows around their property, 

 and trimming the trees into the form 

 of hedges. Tliis also constitutes a 

 good wind-break. 



When it is desired to use them as 

 shade for iiives, I would recommend 

 that a number of trees be planted in 

 rows, say two parallel rows ten feet 

 apart in the rows. In a few years 

 these trees will have attained the 

 height of ten or more feet, and the 

 branches of the adjoining trees will 

 have interlocked, and those branches 

 all around the outside of the two 

 rows will be touching the ground. 

 The branches on the south side are to 

 be trimmed about five feet from the 

 ground, which will let in all the light 

 from that side. Any branches that 

 may be hanging down inside this 



