1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



-149 



fine aromatic flavor, and smooth, sweet, oily taste, 

 of that thoroug-hly x-ipencd in the hives. The wri- 

 ter's experience in this matter would lead him to 

 decide the question in the negative. 



No doubt the above will answer the pur- 

 pose nicely ; but is it worth all the expense 

 of so much machinery after all ? AVill not 

 running the honey into a shallow vat, and 

 letting it stand protected from dust, but 

 having free access to air, during these hot 

 July days, be sufficient V Honey left uncov- 

 ered for any length of time, in almost any 

 kind of vessel, dries out and gets thick— the 

 only trouble being to keep dust out. If 

 friend Pettit has tried it, liowever, he proba- 

 bly knows more about it than we do, and we 

 should like to have something directly from 

 him, telling us how it works after an ex- 

 tended trial. I am not quite sure the hive 

 can produce ])etter honey than we can by 

 artiticial means, for I have seen candiecl 

 honey, after being thoroughly drained, so as 

 to free it from all watery matter, make, 

 when melted, about the finest honey I ever 

 saw produced by any means. I hope this 

 honey-evaporator will answer as well. 



PERFORATED ZINC HONEY-BOARDS. 



ALSO SOME OTHER MATTERS. 



fHIS is my second season with perforated zinc, 

 and with me it worlss finely. I am using the 

 old size, and as yet have had no trouble with 

 the queen in the upper story. I have given 

 it a fair and thorough trial, and would not 

 be without it. It is possible that some queens may 

 be able to pass through the perforations, but I do 

 not believe they will attempt to do so, if they are 

 not crowded out below. I find that there is but 

 little pollen stored in the upper story, where the 

 zinc is used, while without it the same colony will 

 store it above, in preference to the brood-chamber. 

 It does not prevent my bees from storing above, as 

 the colonies in which it is used pass as freely into 

 the upper story as those in which it is not. I appre- 

 hend that any who find difficulty of any kind in 

 using it, either do not fully understand bee-manage- 

 ment, or they have a different class of bees from 

 those found in my apiary. 



I have not experimented with the smaller-sized 

 perforations, from the fact that the large size works 

 so well that I can see no reason for changing. Per- 

 haps it may deter the bees from passing i-eadily 

 into sections; but as yet I have met with no trouble 

 of that kind. My bees are all pure Italians, not- 

 withstanding which they are ready at all times to 

 go into sections, as soon as I am ready to i3ut them 

 on the frames. 



My method for getting surplus honey started at 

 once in sections is, to cause the cells to be filled with 

 brood close up to the top-bars of the frames. This I 

 find can easily be done, either by extracting or 

 reversing the frames. I have tried ])oth plans to 

 some extent, and am in favor of extracting, as I 

 find it much less work to do so than to bother with 

 reversing; for it is a great bother to reverse hang- 

 ing frames by any method I have yet seen. 



REVERSIBLE FRAMES. 



This matter of reversing frames is one of the new 

 hobbies that I advise all to " go a little slow " in ro- 

 ijard to. Bee-keepers as a rule, I find, are a little apt 



to take to new things, and become quite enthusiastic 

 in recommending them, and that, too, before it is 

 possible to give them a fair and faithful test. Friend 

 Doolittle admits this in the matter of wintering, 

 and friend Hutchinson will also, if asked for an opin- 

 ion; notwithstanding, he is positive that separators 

 are not needed by bee-keepers generally, because 

 a test of one season i)roved that his bees gave good 

 results without them. Beginners as a rule, too, are 

 apt to follow the course laid down as the rule for 

 their own operations, by men of expei-ience, and 

 that, too, without taking into consideration the dif- 

 ference of location and flora. Friend Doolittle's 

 method of working an apiary is probablj' the very 

 best one for his locality; but if I myself should at- 

 tempt to follow it, I should come out minus, so far 

 as honey is concerned. His honey is all gathered in 

 a few days in Jul}% while the flora in the vicinity of 

 my own apiary yields nectar continuously (though 

 in small quantities) from fruit-bloom to fall flowers, 

 save and except about 10 to 12 days after the blos- 

 soms of fruit-trees drop oft'. Judging from my ex- 

 pei'ience dui-ing the last two seasons, colonies that 

 are strong, very strong, by the middle of May, will 

 gather at least one-half of all the honej' they will 

 get in the season, from fruit-bloom alone, provided, 

 of course, the weather is pleasant. Should friend 

 Doolittle, on the contrary, build up his colonies to 

 full strength thus eai-ly, he would simply have 

 reared up a large quantity of idlers, for want of 

 something to do, that would eat him out of house 

 and home before his honey-season commenced. 



From the above it will be seen at once, that no 

 one can safely follow in the footsteps of any suc- 

 cessful apiarist, and do so blindly, unless the con- 

 ditions prove exactly the same; for if it should so 

 happen tha"t they do not, disappointm.ent would fol- 

 low, and blame be placed where it most certainly 

 does not belong. J. E. Pond, Jr. 



Foxboro, Mass., June 2i, 1S84. 



FLORIDA. 



COST OF TRANSPORTING BEES THERE, ETC. 



y^ AST November I shipped by express 17 nuclei 

 1^1 of bees, so as to be sure to have some good 

 4^J Italians. I shipped from Bonair, in Northern 

 ■^^ Iowa; cost of expressing, about $3.00 per 

 hive; came through all right, except two 

 queens missing. Of the rest, 13 queens proved to be 

 pure Italians, and very fine. They were young un- 

 tested queens, raised last summer, mostly from one 

 of G. M. Doolittle's best, or $3.00 queens; a few were 

 from an Oatman queen. They have gathered pollen 

 every month since November, and in January and 

 February they filled combs with honey. In March, 

 oi-ange blossomed, and the bees gathered honey 

 again, and filled hives with brood rapidly. I had 

 combs to gi\-e them, sent by freight from Iowa, 

 whei-e I have T6 colonies in large chaff hives. I 

 shall have a fine place to raise queens, as there is 

 only one colony of black bees in several miles, and 

 I shall try to buy or Italianize them. 



Palnretto will soon be in bloom, which makes the 

 best honey here, I think. Wliat honey I have ex- 

 tracted, about 150 lbs., is quite a rich honey, much 

 lighter than buckwheat, but not so fine as white 

 clover. We are 18 miles from the coast, where the 

 mangrove grows. The orange honey is not as good 

 ag I supposed it wonH be, but piuch ahead of buck- 



