338 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



June 3, 



Florida. Mr. Hart is also proprietor of the Bellevue orange 

 groves, and has for some time held a high official position in 

 the Florida Horticultural Society. His characteristic enter- 

 prise is in evidence in every department of both fruit and 

 honey branches of his business as well aa elsewhere in Volusia 

 county, of which he is a public-spirited and prosperouscltizen. 



The large and commodious packing-house in which the 

 crops of oranges from the Bellevue groves are prepared for 

 shipment is provided with an ingeniously devised arrange- 

 ment which automatically grades the sizes without injury to 

 the fruit, and greatly facilitates the handling of large crops. 

 The honey-house is one of the largest, and is in appointment 

 the most perfect that I have seen anywhere. The extracting- 

 room is upon the second floor, and is reacht by an incline, 

 after which the power of gravitation is utilized to perform the 

 work entirely from the time the honey leaves the extractor 

 until it is barreled for market. When necessary the honey is 

 turned into the solar evaporating-room on its descent, and the 

 desired specific gravity — which is ascertained by hydrometer 

 test — is obtained by regulating the incline of the evaporating- 

 pan. 



Mr. Hart's uniformly high averages, resulting from his 

 skill and thorough methods, are in a measure responsible for 

 the present over-stockt condition of the range. Bee-keepers 

 in and adjacent to Mr. Hart's range, are Messrs. Mitchell, 

 Whitaker, Barber, Wilkinson, Sheldon, Galbreath, Turner, 

 Abbott, Moore, et al. This locality, in 1894, shipt about 200 

 tons of honey. The nectar-secretion along the Halifax river, 

 is gathered by the apiaries of Messrs. Case, Robinson, John- 

 son, Joees, and other small bee-keepers ; whUe Messrs. Marsh, 

 Clinton, and Hewett, care for the product in the vicinity of 

 Oak Hill, at the head of the Indian river. Mr. King, located 

 at Indian River Narrows, has extensive apiarian interests, 

 with some opposition, in the way of smaller yards than his 

 own, in the field ; and indeed they are strewn the entire 

 length of this picturesque little sea — over 100 miles long — 

 which teems with numerous varieties of fish and oysters. 



At its southern terminus— about 260 miles south of Jack- 

 sonville — the Indian river is intercepted by the St. Lucie, one 

 of the most charming of the many beautiful rivers for which 

 Florida is famed. Here is the home of Mr. O. O. Poppleton, 

 who needs no introduction to readers of apicultural literature 

 in the English language. Overlooking the river, nestled amid 

 the foliage of tropical trees, vines and shrubs — some of which 

 were brought from the island of Cuba by Mr. Poppleton upon 

 his return from that land of insurrections, several years ago — 

 is his cozy little home ; to which picture a luxuriant growth of 

 pineapples and rows of neatly-painted white hives, beneath a 

 sunlit sky, form a harmonious background, and the scene is 

 one to remind the beholder of his proximity to the torrid zone. 

 Mr. Poppleton has also an out-aplary, and, like the majority 

 of Florida bee-keepers, produces extracted honey exclusively. 



Mr. Benjamin Parks, on the St. Lucie, is another progres- 

 sive and successful keeper of bees, who believes in supplying 

 the home market before shipping to the cities. The apiaries 

 of Messrs. Simmons, Fultz, Winter, Hankins and the writer, 

 all assist in gathering the honey crops of this vicinity. 



An accompanying engraving will g'ive a glimpse of our 

 apiary near Spruce Bluff, about six miles north of Stuart. 

 Each hive is provided with a combined honey-board and 

 feeder, having cleats one inch square on top, upon which the 

 lid rests, giving thorough ventilation. A groove cut part way 

 across the end cleat, with a shorter one to catch the other 

 end, holds a framed record-slats upon each honey-board, tho 

 it Is easily drawn out and replaced when making notes. The 

 apiary Is shaded by arbors built of poles to which palm leaves 

 are nailed ; each arbor covering two rows of hives. This 

 feature is perhaps appreciated equally by the bees and their 

 keeper during the heated term. 



The view of our New Smyrna apiary was taken shortly 

 after the unprecedented freeze of 1894, when all our re- 

 sources were thereby temporarily cut down, which accounts 

 for the absence of upper stories and supers. 



Brevard Co., Fla. 

 [Concluded next week.] 



Introducing Queens— One Way to Do It. 



BY .J. E. rOND. 



I have received several letters of late asking my method 

 of introducing queens ; as this Is a matter that may be of gen- 

 eral Interest, I will briefly state the method I have success- 

 fully used for years, that Is, with hardly the loss of one per 

 cent. 



On the morning of a clear day, when the bees are flying 



freely, I remove the old queen, placing the one I propose to 

 introduce in the top of the hive caged as ordinarily sent by 

 mail, and there leave the cage so that the bees can have access 

 to it till the time to let her out. In the evening of the same 

 day after the bees have all returned from the field, and are 

 quietly settled at home, I blow a little smoke in the entrance 

 of the hive, wait a few moments till the bees have filled them- 

 selves with honey, then remove the cage and queen from the 

 top of the hive, open the cage, and allow the queen to run in 

 at the entrance, as though she had always had her home 

 there. 



The above method Is simple and easy of accomplishment, 

 and with myself, as I have stated, is a thorough success, so 

 much so that I never use any other when honey is being gath- 



ered. It is a saving of time also to the bees, as the new queen 

 is sure to be laying freely within a few hours after introduc- 

 tion. 



One thing I will mention, tho, I do not open a hive for 

 three or four days, at least after, such iiitroduction, for fear 

 that by so doing the new queen might be injured by being 

 " balled." 



If any who adopt the method desire to know at an ear- 

 lier date whether or not a queen is accepted, they can by the 

 use of a "drone-trap " ascertain at once, for if rejected, the 

 queen will be found In the " trap," which can be examined at 

 any time. 



Any one who can open a cage and let loose a queen, can 

 introduce her as above, as it does not require any special skill 

 or experience. Bristol Co., Mass. 



Purity of Italian Queens and Drones. 



BY .lOHN M'ABTIIUR. 

 [Continued from page :VZi.\ 

 Another point toucht upon by tho Doctor, Is " the impor- 

 tation of queens from Italy." The results are " a conglomera- 

 tion of colors, from black to mottled, with bright yellow, both 

 queens and drones. Because of this, variation is no sign of 



