GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



Apr. 



minus the boes. He owns it was a cruel trick; he 

 would .not repeat' It, now tliiit he is older, wiser, 

 and better; but he thought then, if the minister 

 was naiigbtj' enough to get him to watch his bees 

 on Sunday, while he was preaching-, he deserved 

 some punishment. Mr. Lewis has lately remarried, 

 after a long- period of widowerhood. As we sat at 

 the tea-table, he remarked that he thought he would 

 start bee-keeping- again, to which a soft and gentle 

 voice responded, " No, you won't;" and I don't 

 think he will. 



Mr. Hoot is a quiet, unpretentious man, liJse his 

 lamented father-in-law, but thoroughly up in bee- 

 lore, and well maintains the family reputation in 

 apiculture. . He is a good citizen, a warm Prohibi- 

 tionist, and his care in bruiging up his children is 

 evidenced by the fact that he never allows them 

 to go to the public school, from fear that their 

 minds might be unfavorably affected by the evil 

 inlluences of undesirable schoolmates. A black- 

 board._on the sitting-room wall, with a problem on 

 it, gave proof of the assiduous care and pains taken 

 in the home school. But not every family has a 

 mother, once an effective schoolteacher, able and 

 willing to add to househould duties the task of 

 teaching the little ones. My visit was all too short; 

 and, if practicable, I shall certainly accept the cor- 

 dial invitation given to repeat it some time, and 

 stay longer. W.m. F. Clauxk. 



Guelph, Out., Mar. 1.5, 1880. 



HOW TO PREVENT ROBBING. 



SOME GOODHINT.S'ON HOW TO TET.T. WHEN TO 

 STOP EXTKACTING. 



EVERY one who keeps very many bees will 

 sometimes have some trouble from robber- 

 bees; but considering the amount of work 

 that we do with bees, we have had but very 

 little robbing-; We do not raise queens to 

 sslli and do not have to open hives when there is 

 a dearth, of honey. We raise extracted honey onl.v, 

 and never extract when the bees will work on hon- 

 ey to any extent. We get the most of our honey 

 from white clover and basswood. Clover comes 

 first,* aild lasts until the basswood commences. The 

 latter is Uhe last from which we get any surplus. 

 During this t'vme we are traveling the roads ev- 

 ery day, ^oingfo our different yaiids, and are pass- 

 ing the'bftsswood-ti-ees. We keep close watch of 

 the blossoms, i;^nd can tell very nearly how long it 

 will last,' and we know that in good weather the 

 bees will fill a full set of combs in five or six days. 



Now, when the end of the season is within a week 

 of its close we commence to leave in full combs of 

 honey. The first day we leave in on the back side 

 of the hive one comb full of honey. The following 

 day we are at another yard, and we leave intwo or 

 three full combs of honey— putting them in the back 

 side of the hive; the next day we are at another 

 yard, and we leave three or four, or perhaps five, 

 combs ot' honey. It depends on how fast the bass- 

 wood is giyihg out. Our aim is to have the hives 

 full of honey when the basswood flow is over. Our 

 hives hold nine combs, and wc keep on extracting 

 until the bees begin to steal; but just as soon as the 

 bee^ liegin to crowd into the house we cease extract- 

 ing, and our 'liivcs are by this means full of honey 

 and'bi-pod^ fiiit when honey is coming in rapidly 

 from basswood, the queen' idces not get a chance to 



put in much brood. The bees usually gather 

 enough honey after the basswood is over for their 

 present needs, but no surplus. We always guard 

 against gettingthe bees to robbing. When we have 

 to open hives out of season, we do it just before 

 sundown. 



HOW TO STOP ROBBING BY ME.\NS OF COLD WATER. 



In this connection I will tell the best thing I ever 

 found to stop a hive from being robbed; i. e., use 

 cold water. I raise asparagus for market, and al- 

 ways have a large quantity of it in the fall. Now, 

 if I have opened a hive and got the bees " on the 

 steal," I cutalai'ge armful of asparagus and bank 

 up the hive with it. I then sprinkle on water. The 

 asparagus holds so much water that the bees can 

 not get into the hive, and the bees inside seem to 

 think that it is a wet daj', and they stay at home. 

 Wet the asparagus two or three times an hour, and 

 the job is done. If you have not the asparagus, 

 use straw or a blanket, or something to wet the bees 

 in their endeavors to get in. The idea is, to make 

 the robbers crowd their way in through water. 

 They won't do it. Try it. 



HOW WE .MARKET OUR HONEY. 



Our home market takes about 10,030 to 1.5,000 lbs. 

 We have our honey all graded as to quality. Our 

 first extracting- we retail at 8 cts. ))cr lb.; our sec- 

 ond extracting-, about!) cts.; best white-clover and 

 basswood, at 10 cts. ; in 100-lb. lots, one cent per lb. 

 less. We put up considerable honey in tin pails, 

 and sell at the above prices, with the additional cost 

 of the pall. Wekeep two stores in town stocked with 

 pails of honey— allowing them lOpercent for selling. 

 We give our customers the privilege of returning 

 pails when empty, if they wish, but so far we have 

 had but few returned. We sell from 6000 to 10,000 

 lbs. to the cracker-factories, who take our darkest 

 grades, four or Ave barrels at a time, paying- from 

 6 to 7 cts. We get our barrels back again from the 

 cracker-men at Dubuque. Our old neighbors who 

 have gone west, send back for 100-lb. kegs for their 

 own use; the rest is sold to dealers in Iowa, Minne- 

 sota, Dakota, etc. We sell our best grades of honey 

 at 8 cts. by the barrel of about 360 lbs.; no charge 

 for the barrel. In 1001b. kegs we sell for 9 cts. per 

 lb. Last year we sold 21 barrels to Messrs. Thur- 

 ber, AVhyland & Co., of New York, at S^i cts., deliv- 

 ered. After deducting freight and cost of barrelT,- 

 we had a fraction over T cts. for the honey. We did 

 not send any east this year, as the demand and 

 prices were better west. We have worked ofl' the- 

 bulk of the crop, having on hand now about 7000 or 

 8000 lbs. not sold, and that will be gone by the time 

 we get another crop. W^e usually keep over a few 

 barrels, in case our bees should want feeding, as we 

 never feed sugar. No, we have never fed a pound of 

 sugar to our bees yet, and don't want to. We find 

 it no small part of the bee-business, to work off so 

 much honey and olitaiu good prices and get our pay 

 for the honey. Last year we got caught on 13 bar- 

 rels of honey, amounting to $345.60, sold to Geo. W. 

 House, of Manlius, Onondaga Co., N. Y. The hon- 

 ey Avas shipped Nov. 6, 1884. Dee. 9, I received his 

 note by mail for the amount, due in a month. Time 

 passed, no pay. I wrote to him; no answer. I wrote 

 three or four letters. Once he replied, " Pay soon." 

 I made inquires about him, and found it was a bad 

 job. He has never paid a cent. I have his note for 

 ,$345.60, for sale cheap. Who bids'? 



Now I should like to ask our large honey produc- 



