For the American Bee Journal. 



The Raspberry as a Honey Plant. 



THOMAS J. WARD. 



I commenced the season last spring 

 with 9 colonies of bees, increased to 18, 

 partly by artificial and partly by natu- 

 ral swarming. Last season was a very 

 poor one here for bees. Fruit blossoms 

 yielded but very little honey, except the 

 raspberry, which I find by 10 years' ex- 

 perience, to be the best honey produ- 

 cing plant here, in its season, which is 

 from about 20th of May till about the 

 last of June. 



The raspberry is also very profitable 

 to cultivate for its excellent and deli- 

 cious fruit. There is always a ready 

 market for the berries, at from 40 cents 

 to $1.00 per gallon for black caps and 

 from 75 cents to $1.25 per gallon whole- 

 sale for the red varieties. The Mam- 

 moth Cluster (black cap) and Twiner 

 (red) are the most profitable varieties to 

 cultivate. They are very hardy, never 

 winter kill, and prodigious bearers. 



They will, under proper care, yield 400 

 gallons per acre. I have a large planta- 

 tion of them now, and will plant 2 acres 

 more of them this spring. The honey 

 gathered from raspberries is equal to 

 linden or white clover. 



Bees refuse to work on anything else 

 as long as raspberries remain in bloom. 

 There are a great many linden or bass- 

 wood trees in this locality, but they 

 yielded no bloom nor honey last year, 

 which very seldom occurs here. There 

 are also a large number of tulip trees 

 which never fail to bloom and furnish 

 large quantities of pollen, and a very 

 good quality of honey. We had a very 

 fair share of white clover bloom last 

 season, which produced very well while 

 it lasted, but after that was over, I may 

 say the " jig " was up forgathering sur- 

 plus honey. Buckwheat and fall flowers 

 did not seem to yield much honey, but 

 afforded plenty of stores for the bees to 

 winter on, but no surplus. 



I put into winter quarters 13 strong 

 colonies and 3 weak ones, (I sold 2 colo- 

 nies in the fall). Two of the weak colo- 

 nies went to the happy hunting grounds. 

 The other weak colony promises to come 

 out all right in the spring.- All of the 

 strong colonies are in excellent condi- 

 tion at this writing. I am wintering 

 on summer stands. I could not be per- 

 suaded again to winter any where else. 

 I have tried in-door wintering to my 

 satisfaction or rather disatisf action , 

 always with the worst of success. 1 

 always lost over half and sometimes 

 nearly every colony by in-door winter- 

 ing. I have never yet lost a strong 



colony by wintering on summer stands. 



It has been 25° below zero here this 

 winter, and have had 7 weeks of 

 intense cold weather at one stretch. 



My bees are mostly hybrids, have 

 some Italians. I got 275 lbs. of comb 

 honey in 2 and 4 lb. boxes and about 50 

 lbs. extracted honey, last season. I am 

 using the American, Langstroth, Far- 

 mer's Friend, Nos. 1 and 2, and Elvin 

 Armstrong's Centennial hives. I re- 

 gard the American hive as a moth 

 breeder. For nice comb honey, Arm- 

 strong's Centennial hive is the " boss." 

 The Farmer's Friend No. 2, is next in 

 favor with me. I have no pecuniary 

 interest in any hive. 



St. Mary's, Ind., Feb. 18, 1879. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Prom November to May. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



As I am to commence a series of arti- 

 cles telling you how we (that means my 

 wife and myself, as my wife helps much 

 about the bee business) conduct our 

 apiary during a year, we shall have to 

 commence with the month of Novem- 

 ber, as that is, or should be, the com- 

 mencement of the season with every 

 practical apiarist. 



Then we will suppose that you have 

 your honey all disposed of, and your 

 bees all prepared for winter on October 

 31st, and are ready to go to work for 

 the next season. Our first work is to 

 get our cases and boxes which have been 

 in use the past season, in readiness for 

 the next harvest. Get them around, and 

 scrape off all the propolis adhering to 

 the tin separators, and all the bits of 

 comb that are fastened to the bottoms 

 of the cases. All these bits of comb 

 should be saved, and to best save them 

 you should have your wax extractor 

 close at hand, and all waste pieces of 

 comb put into it during the whole sea- 

 son. As often as it is full, get out the 

 wax and have it ready to fill again. All 

 boxes that are partly filled with honey 

 should have the honey extracted from 

 them (unless you think you will need it 

 to feed in the spring), as the honey will 

 not correspond in color with that which 

 the bees will put in to finish out the 

 boxes the next season. To extract this 

 nicely, we fix a shelf close to the ceiling 

 of our room, put the honey thereon, and 

 keep the room so warm the mercury will 

 stand at 90 to 100° for three or four 

 hours before we extract. By placing 

 the honey near the ceiling, we do not 

 require near the fire to heat it that we 

 would require if placed on the floor or 



