isse 



GLEANINGS iN JBEE CULTURE. 



85i 



BEPORT PHOM O. M. BLANTON. 



From 425 to 475, and 31,000 Lbs. of Honey. 



HIS OPINIONS ON SOME OK THE NEW DEVEIiOP- 

 MENTS. 



fHE honey season just closed has never, since 

 I have been in the business, been more dis- 

 couragiug-. My entire crop is un.sold, and, 

 with the prospect of bavins' to put it on the 

 market at 3 to 3'a cents per pound, leads me 

 to wish I had never engaged in bee-keeping on a 

 large scale. I shall try it one more year before I 

 determine to abandon my favorite pursuit. 



The season just past has been by no means the 

 best. With a very wet cold spring which retarded 

 the secretion of nectar, and, in addition, a severe 

 drought in the month of Maj% extending into the 

 middle of June, caused but a moderate yield. July 

 and August were far better, and from late corn and 

 cow-peas the bees recovered much of their lost 

 ground. 



I closed my apiaries on the 5th of September, de- 

 termined to leave my bees an abundance of winter 

 stores, knowing that, as it was of but little Value to 

 me, it would be of great benefit to them. I com- 

 menced the season with 425 colonies, spring count, 

 and closed with 475. My yield was 60 barrels, or 

 about 31,000 pound?, of e.Ytracted honey, and 600 

 pounds of comb. This is about as poor a yield as I 

 have had since being engaged in bee-keeping. I 

 must admit, that if I could have been able to give 

 my personal supervision to my apiaries, the yield 

 would have been greater; but circumstances be- 

 yond my control prevented. 



I have read, in the different journals, many 

 causes for the low price of honey. There are three, 

 beyond a doubt: Overproduction, general depres- 

 sion of trade, and adulteration. The two first, in 

 time, will rectify themselves; but the great evil in 

 the last-named cause will always, in my opinion, be 

 a bar to the prosperity of the bee-keeper. The low 

 price of glucose, and the new discovery of saccha- 

 rine, will stretch " imitation honey " to an indefinite 

 extent. 



I have been engaged in bee-keeping for fourteen 

 years, and look back with surprise at the many 

 trials and losses I have sustained in my experi- 

 ments with varieties of hives and apparatus. How 

 fewlnowusel The LangStroth hive (although not 

 the only good one) I adopt, and most of them of 20 

 frames and one story. I find them more convenient 

 and rapid of manipulation, which is of great con- 

 sideration when working for extracted honey. I 

 never use more than one inch in width of comb 

 foundation as a guide for the bees on the top-bars 

 of the Langstroth frames, or the one and two pound 

 sections. 1 have abandoned full sheets of founda- 

 tion with wire. Honey-boards, bee-feeders, queen 

 and drone excluders, I find of no practical benefit. 

 As for moth-traps, I am astonished that any sensible 

 bee-keeper would use them. Kcversible hives and 

 frames, I will leave others to thoroughly test their 

 value before I use them. 



A wa.x-extractor I would not have; for with the 

 old process of melting in boiling water, especially 

 when two or three pure rain waters are used, there 

 will be very few impurities left; and more so, if the 

 flre is removed from the vessel containing the 

 melted max and allowed to cool extremely Mow in the 

 wafer in which it is melted. The impurities should 



be scraped from the bottom of the cold wax before 

 being melted again in another pu/r water. Many 

 things that I have discarded may be of value to oth- 

 er bee-keepers in their localities. 



As for packages, I find of value for me, for the 

 home market, one and two pound sections of comb 

 honey; and for extracted, one and two pound glass 

 jars and one-gallon tin cans. 



P'or shipment, I have, after many experiments, 

 found that cypress barrels, fresh from the cooper, 

 and made to order, containing from 525 to 550 

 pounds net, and with 16 hoops, are only to be re- 

 lied on. These are my convictions, after so many 

 yeai-s of experience. 



I hope a silver lining may yet appear on the 

 clouds now threatening our future prosperity, and 

 that we may be encouraged to continue in one of 

 the most agreeable ahd healthful occupations for 

 the lover of country pursuits. O. M. Blanton. 



Greenville, Miss., Oct. 12, 1886. 



Friend B., I am sorry to see you getting 

 "blue" over the prospect. I supposed the 

 low price of honey had about put an end 

 to adulteration. You speak of honey being 

 3 to Si cts. per lb. ; but glucose is quoted in 

 New York at 4i. Now, they might adulter- 

 ate the glucose with honey, but they could 

 not adulterate the honey with glucose, at 

 the above prices. If you sell your honey, 

 even as low as 5 cts. per lb., is it not at this 

 price going to compete with cane sugar ? 

 Eriend Dadant said, at the convention, that 

 he was not frightened at the prospect of only 

 5 cts. per lb. for his honey in quantities. It 

 is, indeed, true, that where one numbers his 

 colonies by the hundreds, he soon feels 

 obliged to dispense with many of the fix- 

 tures which the bee-keeper of a dozen colo- 

 nies thinks a necessity. We do not want 

 you to desert our ranks yet a while. 



BEES AND GKAPES. 



A REMEDY SUGGESTED THAT IS AT I,EAST SOMR- 

 TIMES PKACTICABLE. 



N your editorial notes on page 798 you mention 

 the wonder of visitors that the bees do not eat 

 your grapes. I have about thirty bearing vines 

 in my apiary, and visitors often ask me the 

 same question: "How is it that the bees do 

 not eat the grapes?" 



Some even suppose that the grapes are raised for 

 food for the bees. They are apt to look surprised, 

 perhaps a little incredulous, when I tell them that I 

 have never yet seen a bee eating a gi-ape, though 

 this is perfectly true. The reason for this is, no 

 doubt, that there is almost always honey to be gath- 

 ered here at the time when grapes are ripe. Bees 

 care nothing for grape-juice when they can get 

 honey. The chickens often eat our grapes, and 

 bruise and mangle them so that the bees are not 

 hindered from sucking the juice if they felt so in- 

 clined; but here they never have the inclination. 

 No doubt, though, there are places where bees at- 

 tack and at least partially destroy grapes that have 

 been injured by birds or other insects, or that have 

 cracked on the vines from overripeness or other 

 causes. 



It is superfluous to tell a person who has investi- 

 gated the subject carefully, that bees can not in- 

 jure sound fruit; but it is useless to deny that bees 



