1884 



GLEA_NINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 







ing my nuclei as early in the season as possible, and 

 building them up during the entire season by giving 

 them foundation, empty comb, or brood, from other 

 hives, as they may need either. This is a much bet- 

 ter plan than either dividing or natural swarming, 

 as it allows of keeping the original colonies in 

 strong populous condition, ready for any yield of 

 honey when it comes. For rearing surplus queens 

 for replacing poor ones in the apiary, I divide some 

 of my standard long hives into three or four apart- 

 ments by the use of tight-fitting division-boards, 

 making small entrances to the apartments on differ- 

 ent sides of the hive, and putting a two-frame nu- 

 cleus into each apartment, using standard frames. 

 By the close of the season, these three or four nu- 

 clei in each hive are strong enough to be united, and 

 make one good strong colony for wintering. 



As soon as white clover fairly commences to 

 bloom, each colony must be supplied with from two 

 to six more frames of empty combs. Some of these 

 want to be placed at the side of the brood-nest; but 

 I usually prefer to place as many of them in the cen- 

 ter as it is safe to do. 



As soon as some of the best colonies have about 

 25 or 30 lbs. of surplus honey in their hives I com- 

 mence extracting. This is a little sooner than I 

 would like to commence; but if the first of our ex- 

 tracting is done a little too quick, the last of it will 

 be just as much too late; and if wo keep anywhere 

 near up with our bees, we are forced to start a little 

 ahead of them. I do not know how other localities 

 may be, but here we rarely ever see .SO lbs. of honey 

 in a single-story hive without at least Jj to '/i of it 

 being sealed over. O. O. Poppleton. 



Willlamstown, Iowa, Dec. 10, 1883. 



[Continued in our next numbcr.'\ 



SHIPPING-RATES OF FREIGHT ON EX- 

 TRACTED HONEV. 



A MOVE IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. 



»N Juvenile for December, page 7T6, Edwin 

 France writes of his troubles in shipping honey 

 by freight. We have been in the same "boat," 

 and the way we got the matter righted may help 

 him or others laboring under the sam6 difficulty. 

 Our railroad is the Milwaukee, Chicago & St. Paul, 

 and their freight schedule puts honey as 1st class, 

 which from here is 58c. per 100 lbs. to Chicago. Mo- 

 lasses goes as 3d class, at 35c. per cwt., and if in 20-bbl. 

 lots, Ith class, or 30 cents per cwt. Until last year 

 we always paid Ist-class freight; or if we shipped a 

 large lot, the station agent telegraphed for special 

 rates, and then we could get rates at 3d class. This 

 was quite a gain, being 18c. per 100 lbs., which on a 

 crop of 10,000 lbs. would make S18.00 saved. But we 

 could not always get the rebate, for sometimes we 

 did not want to ship our whole crop at once, or to 

 the same market; then we had no htlp, but had to 

 pay the other 18c. and look happy. 



Thinking there might be some way of righting this 

 wrong, I determined to first try the general freight 

 agent of the company; and then if that failed, to 

 complain to our State Railroad Commissioner, for 

 we have such an officer, whose business is to hear and 

 adjust all differences. Well, I wrote a letter to D. 

 W. Kyes, General Freight Agent, explaining the 

 grievance, and also explaining the great change in 

 manner of handling honey that had been made in a 

 few years, stating every thing in as clear and com- 



pact form as possible, and requesting him to consider 

 the matter. By the very next mail, if I am not mis- 

 taken, came an answer, saying, " You can ship at 

 molasses rates hereafter," and an order was issued 

 to all station agents on their road near here to that 

 effect. This year 1 wanted to ship about 5000 lbs. at 

 one time, and a neighbor (S. I. Freeborn) wanted to 

 ship part of his crop, so we made one shipment of 

 the whole; and as it made over 20 bbls., we got 4th- 

 class rates to Chicago, which is 30c. per cwt., or a 

 saving of 28c. per 100 lbs., or almost half of old 

 rates. 



There is only one trouble now remaining; and that 

 is, the printed schedules furnished for station agents 

 remain the same; and if the agent forgets, or you 

 forget and do not see how the honey is billed, there 

 is a show for j'ou to pay old rates. We hope to get 

 that changed yet. C. A. Hatch. 



Ithaca, Wis., Dec. 3i, 1883. 



REPORT FROM AN A B C SCHOLAR 

 DURING HIS SECOND YEAR. 



FROM 1 TO 21 (CYPRIAN), AND 123 LBS. OP HONEY. 



J\ I. ROOT:— I shall now submit my second 

 !^ jj year's experience in the bee business: For 

 — ^*"' an A B C student, I did much better than I 

 expected. If the business holds out as well in the 

 future as it has so far, I don't regret the time I have 

 spent in the business. I commenced in the winter 

 of 1882 with 12 colonies, which increased in the 

 spring by natural swarming to 50. I put back 16 

 swarms, and two left for the woods. I have taken 

 out 3000 lbs. honey — half comb, the other extracted. 

 I sold down to 49 colonies in my home apiary. I 

 have another apiary away from home that I worked 

 for another man on shares, consisting of 39 col- 

 onies. As I took them late in the season, I got only 

 about 400 lbs. of honey. All my bees are in good 

 condition. I had one colony of Cyprians ; the 

 queen 1 got from Mr. E. T. Flanagan, in August, 

 18*^2. This colony was the first to swarm; it sent out 

 a swarm the 18th of May, and about the last of May 

 they sent out the second swarm, and they kept it up 

 until they sent out four swarms, and would have 

 swarmed again, but I prevented them. The first 

 swarm from them swarmed three times, and the 

 first from this swarmed twice. From this one col- 

 ony they increased to 20, but made no honey from 

 clover, but from fall bloom. I took from one colony 

 60 lbs. comb honey, and from another 63 lbs. of ex- 

 tracted. These were my best colonies. They would 

 breed up a swarm while other bees in the yard 

 would scarcely live. The imported queen and bees 

 you sent me built up a strong colony, and are doing 

 well. These are the principal points in my experi- 

 ence. I feel well satisfied so far, and have bright 

 hopes for the future. CM. Dixon. 



Parrish, 111., Dec. 24, 1883. 



Why, friend D., your tigures almost take 

 away one's breath. I thought when friend 

 Jiliss.on page lil, reported 14 from one, and 

 •200 lbs. of honey, that it was almost too 

 large a story to put in print ; but you come 

 bucking him up with 21 colonies from one, 

 and VS6 lbs. of honey, without mentioning a 

 good deal more that you did not tell of. No 

 wonder you feel satisfied. Perhaps it won't 

 do any harm to whisper to our readers, that 

 along with his report friend L). asked for an 

 estimate on a carload of supplies for the sea- 



