394 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



fields of alslke near, Avhile the otliev apiary, 

 five or six miles away, wiiere no alsike uas 

 near, gave hardly any honey. 



LETTE3E. FROM SOUTH AMERICA. 



CAN THE BEE-BUSINESS BE PURSUED PROFITABT^Y 

 FROM THE SALE OF WAX ONLY? 



fHE honey - business is worth nothing- here. 

 You couldn't sell large quantities at 2 ets. 

 per pound. My sole hope is the vinegar and 

 the wax. Can modern bee culture be pur- 

 sued to advantag-e by raising wax only? 

 Beeswax is worth here"_30 ets. per i)Ound, and still 

 more in candles. It' an apiary can be maintained 

 with profit lor the wax principally, please give me, 

 in your next issue, full particulars of the method 

 best suited for this design. Do you think some 

 honey mixed with the cow's beverage would im- 

 prove milk or butter? Is there any book about the 

 uses of honey? Can candy be obtained from honey 

 in hot weather, by artificial iirocess? 



MiouEr, RiBEiRO LisnoA. 

 Barbacena, Brazil, April S, ISSIi. 



Here is something else in the same line, 

 from one of our friends in Mexico: 



As bee-keeping in Mexico is an afl'air conduct- 

 ed in a manner entirely without skill, El Indiishial 

 Mczicana, a monthly cyclopedia of which 1 am the 

 editor, is now giving the first information on this 

 subject. As wo have neither use nor demand for 

 honey, we are compelled to get all tlie profit on b.oe 

 keeping from the sale of wax, \\hich ranges in 

 price from 16 to 17 and lOcts. |)er arroba (3.5 pounds). 

 Wax has a very large demand in this country, and 

 one could sell as much as he could get. Now, Mr. 

 Root, does your ABC book give esjiccial informa- 

 tion for stimulating bees to build ccmb instead f)l' 

 gathering so much honey? You know folks don't 

 eat honey in this country. J. Gaudida. 



City of Mexico, April 1.5, 1S8C. 



Dear friends, we are very glad indeed to 

 get letters from so remote points, and we 

 shall be very glad indeed to make Glean- 

 ings a medium for helping in the produc- 

 tion of wax instead of honey, as far as it 

 may be possible to do so. Tliis matter Jias 

 been discussed in our back volumes. The 

 principal experiment we now think of is the 

 one by friend Hasty, somewhere in our back 

 numbers ; also see A B C boqjt, p. 12S8. Also 

 see Gleanings for 1883, page ()7. 



While wax was worth from oG to 40 c., and 

 we we were obliged to import it from Eu- 

 rope in order to get enough to supply the 

 demand for comb foundation, it was consid- 

 erably talked of. The market i)rice now. 

 however, is only from 20 to 2") els. Still, as 

 the price of honey has declined in about tlie 

 same ratio, it may be well to consider the 

 production of wax in our apiaries, as well as 

 the production of lioney. One thing we 

 may do with safely, in any event, and that 

 is, take pains to save every particle of wax 

 the bees produce, allowing not an ounce to 

 go to waste. 



We sliall be very glad to get reports in 

 the matter from any of our readers ; but so 

 far I believe experiments have not resulted 

 very encouragingly. With a mild climate, 

 however, and an iininterrtipted fiow of honey. 



no doubt the chance might be much greater 

 for success. I htive never heard the ques- 

 tion discussed as to making cows eat honey. 

 I suppose it is because it costs too much here. 

 Cows are very fond of maple syrup, or sap, 

 however, and no doubt it might augment 

 the quantity and quality of milk and butter. 

 Friend Newman of Chicago, 111., has a little 

 book called"' Honey as Food and Medicine." 

 We mail you a copy. The ABC book tells 

 something about bees building comb. We 

 have sent you a copy, and hope you will find 

 it helpful. 



CLOSING THE ENTRANCE OF HIVES 

 DURING WINTER. 



HOW TO KEEP A CELLAR COOL. 



1|. LTIIOUGH but a novice in bee culture, yet I 

 Q&Vi have often wondered why apiarists did not 

 jRJf recommend the closing of the entrances to 

 ■^^ the hives when putting them into winter 

 quarters, so as to prevent their flying out. 

 Last fall I put 11 colonies, carefully prepared, into 

 my cellar, with the entrances open as directed. 

 The collar was well ventilated, and quite dai-k; yet 

 the bees would come out by the hundreds, and, of 

 course, perished. Now, 1 s-hould like to know what 

 evidence there is to show that a large proportion of 

 those lost would not have lived to protect the young 

 brood in the s-jiring if they had been prevented 

 from flying out. Two of the colonies died before 

 March, and I fear that several of the others are 

 quite weak, and that spring dwindling will follow. 



Now, Bro. Root, T should like to ask what evil 

 could result by keeping the entrances closed with 

 wire screen, or something of that kind, at the same 

 time being careful to keep the openings clear of 

 dead bees, and giving them a good fly once in a 

 while on fine days. The weather becoming very 

 warm for several da3s, after the middle of April, 

 the bees became uneasy; but having obtained some 

 snow and ice during the winter I placed a pailful 

 once, each warm day, in a tub on top a barrel in the 

 cellar (17X3v)), and made the place totally dark, and 

 the bees became as still as mice. 



Last fall a neighbor of mine put 13 strong colonies, 

 with lots of honey, into a warm cellar; but they 

 were exposed at times to the light of the sun; and 

 the result was, the bees came out by the thousands, 

 and were chilled to death; and before the first of 

 March, 9 out of the 13 were dead, leaving from 13 to 

 33 lbs. of honey i)er colony behind. JJow, who 

 will venture to say that, if the entrances had been 

 closed, as suggested above, the bees would still 

 have perished. I for one must acknowledge being 

 very skeptical in the matter. W. C. White. 



Hamilton, Out., Can., April 36, 1880. 



Friend. W., the matter of closing the en- 

 trances in winter has been very fully dis- 

 cussed in our back volumes. Sometimes it 

 succeeds very well, and at other times the 

 bees crowd about the entrance, become ex- 

 cited, and may be smother the whole hive in 

 their frantic efforts to get out. I believe it 

 has generally been abandoned. We practic- 

 ed it several winters ; but instead of trying 

 to confine the bees by fastening wire cloth 

 over the entrance, we put wire cloth over 

 the Mhole top of the hive. Those fastened 

 in their hives wintered about as well as the 

 others. We noticed very little difference. 



