1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



ol5 



TAKING BEES THAT ARE TO BE BKIM- 

 STONED. 



WILL IT PAY, AND HOW SHALL WE GO ABOUT IT? 



ILL you please tell me whether, in your 

 opinion, it would pay for me to take bees of 

 people that are taking them up in the fall, 

 bees to cost nothing'? and how shall I get 

 them in Simplicity hives, and prepare them 

 lor winter, without empty combs, and with founda- 

 tion? If it would pay, I could g:ot lots of bees. I 

 am building- up. Frank Wade. 



N. Chemung, N. Y. 



Friend W., if you want bees it will i)ay 

 tiptop ; in fact, I do not know of any way 

 in the world yon can get bees clieaper thaii 

 in this way. " The only reason I have for dis- 

 liking- to recommend "it is, there are so many 

 people wlio are shiftlcHS and half-liearted'; 

 and if they set about it, they would neglect 

 them, and so waste their tiihe and money. — 

 I wotild not use tlie Simplicity hive at" all 

 at this season; that is, I would not commence 

 with the Simplicity, because if you do you 

 will need to change in a montli or two ; and 

 for building up destitute colonies, getting 

 them to build comb, and fill and seal it, a 

 chaff hive is, on many accounts, the best. 

 Wlien you are feeding regularly, they are a 

 much better protection against rol)bers. A 

 colony that is being fed will often get care- 

 less, and the bees will fail to defend tliem- 

 selves. The reason is, that where the stores 

 come naturally, all colonies are busy alike, 

 and therefore* no robbers are about: but 

 when we feed to get them to build the combs 

 by aililicial stores, the case is different. I 

 think empty combs would be a little better ; 

 than foundation for this purpose, or frames ' 

 of fdn. partly built out. If you have not 

 got them, j'ou can do very well without, but : 

 I should try to give at least one comb of un- 

 sealed brood to hold them together and start 

 tliem to working. If the bees you purcliase 

 or get for what the wax and lioney are 

 worth have already got ])rood and stores, the 

 best thing Avill be to get them home and 

 transfei- tliem according to directions for 

 transferring in tlie A I> C book, tlien till out 

 with frames of fdn. so as to give each colony 

 about six combs. Unless tliere is a very 

 great quantity of bees indeed, I would not 

 have over six combs. Put them up to the 

 south side of your chaff hive, and put in a 

 division-board; the chaff-cushion division- 

 board is best. Now commence feeding, giv- ; 

 ing them a Simplicity feeder full every night. ; 

 Fold back tlie enamel sheet so as to expose | 

 perhaps half an inch along the ends of the i 

 combs, and set the feeder close to this open- ! 

 ing. Have the ])ees take the feed all down [ 

 every night, if you can. A Simi)licity feed- 

 er filled once a day will make comb-building 

 and brood-rearing go on with a boom, and 

 will enable them to accumulate sufficient 

 stores for winter, if you commence now. 13y 

 feeding at night, ail the Hying bees will be 

 at liberty to gather ))()l]en and wliat honey 

 there may be, during llie day. I would feed 

 nothing but granulated-sugar syrup. If fed 

 as mentioned above, pouring dry sugar into 

 the feeder, and wetting it witli water, will 

 do as well as any way, only it may not be all 

 taken up clean each night. On this account 



it would perhaps be best to make a syrup by 

 boiling slightly 20 His. of sugar to a g'allon o"f 

 water. If done as directed above, I should 

 say it was a very safe way to get bees to 

 start an apiary. Black bees are about as 

 good as any for this purpose. If you can 

 give them an Italian queen in place of their 

 black queen, by winter you will have a chaff 

 hive full of ye"llow bees. The question now 

 arises. How much can you afford to pay for 

 bees for this purpose? Of course, it depends 

 on whether you want bees or not. If you 

 want to stock an apiary, I should think you 

 might afford to pay 50 cents per pound "for 

 tlie bees ; if you get them for 12-'), your in- 

 vestment would be a still safer one. I have 

 ligured, in the above, that it would be all 

 outlay and no income ; tliat is, no income 

 until anotlier season. If you are in a locali- 

 ty where they have fall pasturage, however, 

 you might do quite a nice thing this fall with 

 them ; but in such localities you would not 

 be likely to iind anybody wlio is going to 

 destroy his bees at tliis season of the year. 



WHAT THE OUTSIDE WORLD THINKS 

 OP US. 



A CUPPING FROM THE N. Y. SUN. 



E give the following, not because Ave 

 indorse it, but because there is con- 

 siderable information in it, and. some 

 good points made. Tlie l)lunders the 

 writer or reporter fell into are 

 enough to provoke a smile, especially the 

 matter in i egard to honey from red clover. 



"While PriJiforiiin is the "reatest beo ranching or 

 honev-iiiakinu- rcuion in the w<iii<], owing to the ex- 

 cellence (,C its climate and the ciiilless variety of its 

 hone>-->ieiilin2-tio\vei-s, the (niality of its hoiie.\' does 

 not e.xcel, e\cn if it ei|uals, that of the honev made 

 inNew-Voi-k State," said a lai-yc wholesale dealei-. 



"One of the most e.xter.sive bee eulturists in this 

 oranv other coiniti-\-," he continued, " is Caiitain 

 Hetherington, whose ai.iaries along (he Cherry- 

 Creek A'alley, in Selioharie County, anniuilly turn 

 out over one huiidied thousanil ]ioiinds of tlie 

 choicest honev. It takes nine men and two st(>am 

 saw-mills live w«'eks to )>rc|)are the InmI.er lot- the 

 boxes in which Ihe honey is made by tlie liees. 



arc used in these lio\es. " Caiitain Hetherington 'has 

 at work this season nearly :.>5(KI swarms of bees. 

 These arc not all on his own )ii-emises, but arc scat- 

 tered among the oivliards and ticldsof lai-mers along 

 the creek, to whom he pa\s a i-cnt for the jtrivilegc 

 of his bees working in the clover, buckwheat, or 

 whatever blossoms arc in season on the fai-ms. Tlie 

 care of these bees does not fall uiion the owner of 

 the land. Captain Hetherington keeps men and 

 teams constantly employed looking out for them. 

 He has received as much as f'.J5,000 for one season's 

 crop. 



"Another large York-State bee-keeper is C. li. 

 Ishain, of Peoria. I'p to I87'.l there was no market 

 in England for American honey. The English d<'al- 

 ers would not handle it, and th('' periodicals .Icvotcd 

 to tiK' iiiK'rests of bcc-kcepeis in that coiintrv criecl 

 it down in .-very possible way. The reason lor this 

 was. lITevkncw tlu' sniieriorit\- of American honey, 

 both in Uavorand apiiearancc,' over the British arti- 

 cle, and were aware that if it were once introduced 



in the home sntiply. Thi're was a shrewd Yankee 

 name.l Hour working for a grocery in this city, and 

 he assured his eiuidoyers that, if they would give 

 him the commission, he would manage to place 

 American honey on the Englisli market. A lot of 

 Isham's hone.^•, which the tirm was then handling, 

 was iiacked, .just as it came from the hive, and Hoge 

 was sent to London with it. He found he needed 

 all his Vankee ingenuity tnid acuteness, for he met 



