444 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



of brood, go right on in the same way until 

 each one is separately built up to a full colo- 

 ny V If it Avere desirable to get ready quick- 

 ly for a yield of lioney that lasts only for a 

 sliort tihie comparatively, very likely the 

 doubling would do it ; for two colonies in 

 one hive would, without doubt, send more 

 bees right into the tield, and get more lioney 

 than the two in two separate hives. If I am 

 correct, friend Ileddon does not agree with 

 this : but it agrees with my experience. 



BUYING BEES BY THE POUND. 



HOW IT helps; and some suggestions in re- 

 gard TO BUYING NEAR AT HOME, ETC. 



TN reply to S. J. Y'oungman, page 308, 1 would like 

 ,^ to make a few remarks about buying- bees by 



|l the pound, that I hope will be for his benefit 

 '•*■ and that of many others; for in man j' parts of 

 the State the death-rate has been vei-y great, 

 and runs, in this county, about like this: One party 

 in Milling-ton went into winter with 44 on summer 

 stands; came out with 3 very weak ones; another in 

 A'assar, with 80 in cellar, and buried, 16 left; one in 

 Arbela, 25, nothing- left. They were buried all in 

 one pit, and, judging from appearance, they all 

 smothered. They had all run out of the hives, and 

 left the combs with lots of honey, bright and clean 

 as they were in the fall. Another buried six; took 

 out five alive and strong the first of March, and has 

 since lost two. My loss on all was one-third. Those 

 in the cellar, the loss was slight, caused by 

 starvation; those out of doors in ehatf hives, the 

 rate of loss was just two-thirds. 



Right here allow me to speak a word of caution to 

 the friends who use their old combs this summer. 

 Those swarms of mine that starved were put on old 

 combs without exti-acting- the honey, and I found 

 this spring- it was candied solid, so they could not 

 use it in the winter. 



BEES BY THE POUND. 



I would say to friend Y., don't think of sending 

 long: distances for bees. W^e have g-ood reliable 

 dealers in this State, and I would advise that, if you 

 have no bees left, buy one swarm, suitable to rear 

 queens from ; then make arrangements with your 

 nearest dealer who is reliable, and will ship the 

 very day he agrees to. I would recommend S. C. 

 Perry, Portland, Ionia Co. ; then find out by your 

 expi-ess agent how long they will be on the road, 

 then have your queen-cells built so as to have one 

 for every pound of bees you have ordered. Start 

 them so as to have them nine or ten days old when 

 your bees should arrive. This will give a chance 

 lor two or three days' delay, without fear of their 

 hatching; then to every pound of bees give a 

 ciucen-cell, a small piece of brood with three old 

 combs, giving more combs as fast as they can use 

 them. I would not advise buying before the 10th 

 of .Tune; and with an average season, all swarms 

 you stai-t in this way up to the 10th of July will be 

 booming swarms in the fall. This is the principle 

 on which I worked to build up on in 1881. 



WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH ONE POUND OF BEES, 



ONE FH.\ME OF BROOD, AND A SET OF 



OLD COMBS. 



June 22, 1881, out of bees received from S. C. Per- 

 ry, I took one pound, gave them a frame of brood 

 s\iitablo to Imild f|ueens-cells on, and nine old 



combs, and kept an exact account with them. They 

 built ten queen-cells. I removed nine of them, and 

 at the end of tife basswood honey-flow I had ex- 

 tracted 56'4 lbs. honey from them, allowing them to 

 fill up for winter on fall honey, and wintered them 

 successfully for two winters; but now they are no 

 more. 



But I must stop and give the figures, and close 

 this article: 



To 1 lb. of bees 81.25 



" 1 frame of brood 1.2.'> 



" 9 old combs 90 



'■ 1 hive 1.00 



Total S4.40. 



By 9 queen-cells 8 90 



" 56i4 lbs. basswood honey at lie. per lb 7.91 



" 1 swarm bees 5.00 



Total 813.81 



4.40 



8 9.41 



This leaves ^9.41 for an investment of S4.40, and I 

 think all I bought did just as well. M. D. York. 

 Millington, Mich., May 5, 1884. 



Friend Y., I like yotu- suggestions, espe- 

 cially in regard to getting bees near at home. 

 Long distances mean heavy express charges, 

 and more or less dead bees; and while we 

 are speaking alxmt l)uyiiig near at home, 

 why not get them of neighboring apiarists 

 who can he reached with a liorse and buggy, 

 so as to avoid any express charges whatever? 

 Almost any l^ee-keeper will make a deduc- 

 tion of ](> to lio per cent, or still more, if you 

 carry jour cages right into his yard, and 

 take" your bees away so he has no los.ses in 

 shipping, or expense out for cages. 



MORE ABOUT THE WONDERFUL YIELD 

 OF HONEY-DEMT. 



A C.VUTION TO BEE-KEEPERS. 



fLENTV of honey. I have just taken about 400 

 lbs. of hone.v, l)ut all dark. Too much honey- 

 dew, mostly on basswood. I have plenty of 

 white clover and alsike, but bees will hardly 

 notice the clover whenever we have honey- 

 dew. I never saw such heavy honey-dews in my 

 life as we are having- now. E. J. C. Troxeel. 



Ft. Seneca, ()., June 23, 1884. 



Neither did I. friend T., ever see or hear 

 any tiling ecpial to it. Our friend Chalon 

 Fowles. of (J)berlin, so Ernest tells me, has 

 extracted about four barrels; and Dan 

 White, of New London, whom many of you 

 know, says he has extracted the eiiormous 

 ! quantity "of two tons. In one little apiary 

 Of only "nine colonies, in the town of New 

 London, he extracted, during the latter part 

 of May and fore part of June, about 7U0 lbs. 

 The disagreeable part of it is, the lioney is 

 not tit to eat, although it makes beautiful 

 combs ; and when it is in the sections it is as 

 attiactive as the best wliite-clover. Unless 

 we are very careful, however, it is going to 

 injure the "sale of honey; for a customer 

 who has once been liumbugged by this nice- 

 looking but villainous tasting stuff, will 

 very likely decide that he never wants any 

 more honey. So, please be careful, friends. 

 By holding a comb up to the light you can 

 easily distinguish the dark from the liglit 

 honey. We liave seen some sections that 

 wei-e pretty nearly lilled Anth honey from 



