843 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1. 



I^^^^^^^^R 



rods of my bees, and I was not interfered with 

 at all. W. F. Bragg. 



Topolobampo, Mex., Sept. 10. 



WINTER case; the ADVANTAGE OF PROTEC- 

 TION. 



Four colonies in Dovetail hives, without any 

 protection, consumed last winter from 12 to 13 

 pounds of honey each. One colony, protected 

 with winter case, consumed 5 lbs. only. All 

 colonies were about equal. A swarm from a 

 protected hive has now tilled 4 supers (96 lbs.). 

 None of the others have filled two supers. I 

 should like to hear, through Gleanings, from 

 those who have experimented on this line. 



Rum ford, Va. R. F. Ritchie. 



a bee keeper's heaven. 



This is the bee-keeper's heaven. I will state 

 that I am a member of an American colony 

 located on Topolobampo Bay, which is 300 miles 

 south of Arizona, and on the eastern shore of 

 the Gulf of California. I was in the bee-busi- 

 ness in Southwest Missouri and Arkansas for 

 15 years; but this country excels any thing I 

 have ever seen or heard of. There are no bees 

 kept by the natives, so we have the field all to 

 ourselves. We shipped our Italian bees from 

 the States; and such rapid increase I never 

 heard of before. I commenced last spring with 

 seven colonies, and up to date I have taken 4,50 

 lbs. of extracted and 100 lbs. of comb honey; 

 and up to this writing 1 have an increase of 30 

 colonies — 37 in all — and they are still swarming. 

 I expect to obtain 400 or .500 lbs. yet this season. 



As there is bloom here every day in the year, 

 I can extract all the honey they have the latter 

 part of November, and they will gather enough 

 to take them through the winter, and be strong 

 to gather the cactus and mesquite honey, which 

 excels any I ever saw before. In fact, all the 

 honey that I have so far is of a superior quality. 



Extracted honey sells here readily for 35 cts. 

 per lb., and comb 30 to 40. 



I can not help feeling sorry for persons in 

 your cold climate, where you have to winter 

 your bees in cellars, and often feed a great deal 

 of syrup to get them started up in the spring, 

 while here all we have to do is to keep our bees 

 well shaded, and nine months of the year they 

 are producing a surplus, and the other three 

 they are self-sustaining, without any of your 

 chati' cushions or any thing else. 



The bee-pasturage here is almost unlimited. 

 There are seven species of cactus (all honey- 

 producing), and some of them are in bloom nine 

 months of the year. One variety, designated 

 acho, which grows to be quite a large tree, and 

 the mesquite-trees, furnish more honey than 

 any other two varieties. There is such a con- 

 stant flow of honey that we are not troubled 

 with robbers; in fact, all the extracting I have 

 done so far has been in an open shed within two 



SWARMING a habit; BREEDING OUT THE. 

 MANIA. 



Perhaps the facts I wish to relate in this com- 

 munication will be interesting to your readers. 

 I am a strong believer that almost any natural 

 trait, or even physical structure in the animal 

 or insect world can be changed after a few 

 generations. That is, cows may be dehorned 

 until their calves will all come hornless; dogs 

 '"detailed" until puppies all come tailless; 

 bees prevented from swarming until they 

 cease swarming entirely, etc. I have a practi- 

 cal illustration in this line this season in my 

 bees. I have been in the habit for the past 

 eight or ten years, with the few colonies I keep, 

 of preventing spring swarming; and in August, 

 after the spring flow of honey, to " divide up " 

 or artificially swarm them. My bees have al- 

 most ceased their attempts to swarm in spring. 

 This year only about two attempts were made 

 in 30 colonies. The honey season being a total 

 failure, I concluded not to increase this Aug- 

 ust; and being busy with my farm work, I paid 

 no attention to my bees, supposing they were 

 all right, as I had built them up very strong. 

 I could hear of swarms now and then since 

 August 1st, hanging out on trees near my 

 apiary, but thought little of it, as I would 

 glance through my colonies every day or two, 

 and find all stands occupied. Finally last week 

 a fisherman came where I was at work and 

 reported two swarms on the creek-bank, hang- 

 ing on bushes. I went as promptly as possible, 

 expecting to find a "poverty " swarm or two, 

 and. hastily looking through the apiary, I 

 found bees in every hive. I was completely 

 puzzled. One swarm had flown to parts un- 

 known before I arrived. I hived the other, 

 and it is doing well, apparently. I see now 

 clearly I have lost many swarms, and they are 

 still swarming, or trying to. How else can 

 this late swarming be accounted for, except as 

 above stated ? H. A. Hai.bert. 



Colenaan, Tex., Aug. 36. 



[We do not know about dehorning cows and 

 detailing dogs, and what the probable conse- 

 quence would be; but we have faith in the 

 possibility of breeding out the swarming mania 

 to a very great extent. James Heddon and 

 others are sanguine of good results in this di- 

 rection, and, indeed, something has already 

 been accomplished. — Ed.] 



wii,i>iE atchley's cell-cup plan a success 



AGAIN. 



With Willie Atchley's cell-cup plan I have 

 had some success. When I was nearly through 

 rearing what queens I needed this summer. I 

 concluded to give Willie's plan a trial. Liko 

 Mr. F. Low (p. 731) I made a stick by Willie's 

 directions, except that the worker-cell was a 

 little larger. I gave to a colony which had a 



