234 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Apr. 



BEES AND HENS. 



SH.VL,r, BEEKEEPERS HAVE OTHER BUSINESS ON 

 THEIR HANDS? 



LE thiak good bee-keepers have got stick-to- 

 it-ive-ness enough to make g-oofl poultry- 

 keepers. We flud it a very profitable busi- 

 ness, in connection with our bee-work; and persons 

 who have got the real hang-on enough to make it 

 profitable to keep bees can make the poultry busi- 

 ness very profitable in connection with it; and then 

 if your bees all happen to disappear wintering, you 

 will have a good business left. Seven years ago my 

 brother and I purchased a farm of 180 acres; be- 

 came interested in bee-keeping from reading Glean- 

 ings loaned us by a neighbor while teaching district 

 school the winter after. So the 20th of April, the 

 following spring, we paid neighbor Mason $20 for 2 

 swarms of Italian bees. My wife said, when I got 

 home with my bees, "There, you have lost that 

 monpy, for I never yet heard of any one making any 

 money keeping bees." 



We never have failed to make it a good paying 

 business, though we have met with quite heavy 

 losses in wintering. Three years ago we sent to A. 

 I. Koot, and paid $0 00 for an imported queen; re- 

 ceived her the 3d day of July; from that time on. 

 during that year, we reared and sold $105 worth of 

 queens; lost our imported queen in wintering; have 

 found it more profitable producing honey than rajs- 

 iae queens, and much less work. 



The past season was a very good one for bee-keep- 

 ers in our locality. A year ago last fall we put 

 into winter quarters 31 stocks, as we supposed in 

 good condition. We lost in wintering and by spring 

 dwindling, 15; bought enough to make our fall num- 

 ber good; increased to 50 swarms; took from them 

 4500 lbs. of the finest of honey, mostly basswood, 

 ZiOQ lbs. of which we extracted. Our bees gathered 

 honey 23 days from basswood last year; the year be- 

 fore, only 9. Our account with the bees for the past 

 six years shows a balance in favor of credit column 

 of 1950, besides the bee fixtures accumulated in the 

 past six years, and the 50 stocks now on hand, two of 

 which are dead. 



At the time we began trying to pay for a farm, we 

 had heard people say they had better pay 50 cents a 

 dozen for eggs than try to keep hens; so we kept an 

 accurate record with the 23 hens we then had for 

 one year. They gave us a net profit of a little over 

 $1 per head. We have^teadily increased our stock 

 and ability to care for them, and tested the leading 

 varieties, until we now have P5'J hens, nearly all of 

 which are pure-bred white Leghorns, and we find 

 we can turn a net profit of $2 per head yearly; the 

 business requires the least attention at the time of 

 year when the bees require the most; and for ihis 

 reason we think the poultry and bee business work 

 admirably together. In one building we have 150 

 white Leghorn pullets; and from these pullets, dur- 

 ing the three winter months of December, January, 

 and February, we have realized a net profit of $150. 

 These pullets were hatched during the month of 

 May. No smoker is needed in caring for poultry. 



Fdbius, N. Y., March 6, 1884. Knapp Bros. 



I confess I felt a little sad at the way in 

 which friend Ilutchiuson spoke of poultry- 

 keeping a little while ago. But then, ours 

 is not a poultry-paper ; and besides, is it not 

 the taste of the individual that decides 

 whether it will pay or not V I love the " bid- 



dies,"' and they have always paid a good 

 pro lit, especially as they utilize the refuse 

 from our barn and warehouse, as well as the 

 scraps and crumbs from the lunch-room. 



BEE-NOTES FROM THE BLUE RIDGE. 



EXPERIMENTS IN WAX-BUILDING. 



miJpK. E. E. HASTF, in No. 4, February Glean- 

 MjM, iKGS, gives an experiment in wax-building 

 ' —a subject which is likely to attract consid- 

 erable interest and experimenting in the near fu- 

 ture by bee-keepers. His manner of testing the 

 matter does not appear to me the best way to ob- 

 taih practical results. In place of the plan adopted 

 by Mr. Hasty, if a number of our professional bee- 

 keepers will each hive half a dozen or more first 

 swarms on frtimes filled with foundation, and as 

 many more similar swarms on empty frames with 

 only wax starters on the top-bars, and run these 

 colonies thi-ough the season for extracted honey, 

 giving them credit for all they make during the sea- 

 son, including all that is in their brood-chambers 

 when the time arrives for winter preparation, charg- 

 ing the colonies supplied with foundation with its 

 cost, then we would have something definite as to 

 the value of foundation. I am strongly inclined to 

 believe with Doolittle, that foundation may easily 

 become an expensive luxury, at the price it is mount- 

 ing to. The assertions of some enthusiastic founda- 

 tion bee-keepers, that foundation is worth one or 

 two hundred per cent its cost, will, I think, prove 

 a snare and a delusion when tested. 



SUGGESTION FOR IMPROVING SMOKERS. 



In one of Mr. Hasty's translations from Virgil he 

 speaks of the ancients ejecting a spray by holding 

 water in their mouths while blowing smoke from 

 the smudge on the bees. From this hint, could not 

 some of our ingenious smoker manufacturers ad- 

 just a spraying device to theirsmokers, which would 

 spray the bees along with the smoke? It would re- 

 quire but little damp smoke to take the fight out of 

 the crossest hybrids. Nothing will take the starch 

 out of a bee so quickly as ica'cr. 



HOW BEES WINTER IN THE BLUE RIDGE. 



Bees are wintering well here on their summer 

 stands, without any preparation other than reduc- 

 ing the size of the brood-chamber by a division- 

 board to best suit the size of the colony, and a few 

 folds of cloth over the frames, covered with a news- 

 paper or two to retain warmth. There has not been 

 a longer period than two weeks in which bees did not 

 find suitable weather to fly from their hives. These 

 frequent winter flights may cause the bees to con- 

 sume a few pounds more honey, but they are kept 

 healthy and hardy by frequent baths in the winter 

 air. Comparatively few die in winter, or are serious- 

 ly affected by the cool weather of spring, which con- 

 fronts them everywhere in their first excursions in 

 quest of honey. 



MAILING QUEENS IN WINTER. 



The two queens you mailed me this winter came 

 through safely, and were introduced on Christmas 

 morning to quoenless hives, by putting them in a 

 thimble wire cage, the upper end being closed, and 

 lower filled with Good candy taken from their cages. 

 Two days after, I opened the hives and took out the 

 empty cages. I trust they are safe, as I don't ap- 

 prove of overhauling hives in the winter to satisfy 

 curiosity, which is all that can be accomplished in 



