30 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



traordinary yield, friend N. It. is worth 

 something, any way, to know the capabili- 

 ties of silverhull buckwheat. We presume 

 you gave it every advantage of soil and cul- 

 tivation. 



SHORT REPORT FROM FRIEND HART. 



KOBBINO IN FLORIDA. 



Uf U. HARRY MITCHELL, who has been witli 

 rac for the past four years, and had full 

 ii|3 control of my bees for the past two, has 

 now left me, and g-one to his own place, 

 half a mile away. When he went away I 

 sold him twenty-flve colonies of bees to start an 

 apiary of his own with, and it's my opinion that 

 those twenty-flve colonies will never disgrace the 

 apiarian interests of this State while under Harry's 

 charge. This sale leaves me with 135 colonies to 

 start with next season, "if I carry them through 

 the winter," a Northerner might say; but that is 

 hardly necessary here, as I can work Avith them 

 almost any day, and can commence to raise queens 

 in February, if need be. I have just finished 

 looking them all over, having been at work on them 

 the past four days, Sunday excepted, and I find 

 them in prime condition. There are five out of the 

 lot that were sufficiently short of bees so that I 

 thought best to take off the top sections, to econ- 

 omize heat. I also have two very small colonies in 

 one-story hives, made a few weeks ago by uniting 

 four small nuclei, two nuclei to the colony. These 

 seven are in good shape, although small in num- 

 bers, and will no doubt be strong colonics early in 

 March. The rest are in two and three story hives, 

 and are as strong in bees as I have ever known 

 them to be at this time of year. I believe that they 

 will average from 30 to 40 pounds of honey each, 

 and some three-story hives have at least .50 pounds 

 each. 



It has been my custom, at the close of the main 

 honey-fiow, early in August, to leave twenty 

 pounds of honey in each hive, and I think Harry 

 has done the same. If so, the bees have done quite 

 well during the fall from small wild flowers. Mr. O. 

 O. Poppleton, from Iowa, who is now stopping on 

 his property here, and Mr. Storer, from Nebraska, 

 were both with me for a while this afternoon, and 

 both pronounced ray bees to be in fine condition. 

 They seemed surprised at my bein^ able to open 

 hive after hive, and handle the combs freely, many 

 of them containing considerable new uncapped 

 honey and pollen, and j^et not start robbing. Many 

 Northerners have an idea that bees in this State are 

 always ready to start a robbing spree on the least 

 encouragement, and some of the beemen near here 

 declare that this is the case; but I believe that 

 their trouble comes from educating their bees to it. 

 It is true, that robbers here, as anywhere else, have 

 to be guarded against for a while after a honey- 

 flow ceases; but my experience has never shown 

 any greater tendency in my bees toward that direc- 

 tion here than I am led to believe exists elsewhere, 

 although they have much more time dui-ing each 

 year in which to develop the trait. I have never 

 seen a case of robbing here among the bees that 

 could not be quickly stopped by placing wet cloths 

 at the hive-cntranccs, so that all bees going in or 

 out had to pass over and under them. To hasten 

 matters it is well to Sprinkle those that are flying 



about, with water from a fountain pump. The wet 

 hay used by some bee-keepers answers the same 

 purpose. 



While at work in the apiary to-day I have noticed 

 quite a number of wasps, or yellow-jackets, as they 

 are called, tearing the abdomen of the bees from 

 the thorax so that they could get at the honey-sack 

 and its contents. If I ever noticed any thing of 

 the kind before, I have forgotten it. A small 

 swarm came to me daj' before yesterday which I 

 hived on six frames. The queen is now laying, and 

 evidently intends to remain and raise a family. I 

 am liable to come out at the beginning of next sea- 

 son with more than I had at the close of last season, 

 as this is the second swarm to come this winter. 

 My oranges aro cracking quite badly on the trees 

 this year; and the bees, knowing a good thing when 

 they see it, are helping themselves to the juice. 



9-W. S. Haut, 125. 



Hawk's Park, Fla., Dec. 21, 1885. 



Friend II., I quite agree with you that 

 this whole matter of robbing depends upon 

 the management. During the past season, 

 although we have had between 800 and 400 

 colonies at one time, and many of them 

 quite weak, comparatively, for they are used 

 for queen - rearing, yet we had scarcely a 

 case of robbing. The bees didn't get once 

 started, and therefore it was but little work 

 to keep them from it. Attending to little 

 things at just the right time is the great se- 

 cret of avoiding such disasters. I have 

 sometimes, in utter discouragement, almost 

 concluded there were certain people who 

 could never learn to be successful with bees, 

 just because no amount of exhortation or 

 entreaty, and, in fact, no amount of disas- 

 ters and heavy losses, could teach them by 

 experience the importance of keeping every 

 drop of honey, or any other kind of sweet, so 

 carefully out of the way that not one bee ev- 

 er got one load, and got home with it. The 

 same rule applies to bees troubling candy- 

 shops on the fair-grounds. Tell the propri- 

 etor to kill the first bee that commences to 

 load up on his lemonade or pop-corn balls ; 

 and if he will do as you direct, a very little 

 time will make him master of the situation 



HUMBUGS AND SWINDLES. 



MOltE ABOUT nULLESS OATS. 



Ohio; 



HERE are men going around here selling Bo- 

 hemian oats at Ave doUai'S a bushel, and 

 agree to give one dollar a bushel for all the 

 farmers can raise from this seed. There is a 

 '■ Bohemian Oats" association some place in 

 do you know where it is? I did not take any 

 myself, but flve of my neighbors are in for flfty 

 dollars apiece. Hiram We.wer. 



Scircleville, Clinton Co., Ind., Nov. 7, 1885. 



Friend W., the swindles of the Bohemian- 

 oat men are now so thoroughly published in 

 almost all our agricultural papers that it seems 

 to me strange that a man can be found any- 

 where who is not well enougii posted to turn 

 a cold shoulder to them at once. A good 

 many associations have been formed in our 

 State ; and although a few men may have 

 got some money out of it, they have got a 

 bad name that will last them to the end of 

 their lives, unless they repent and restore 

 the money to its rightful owners. 



