?4(l 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUllE. 



Nov. 



ever had before. I remember one fall that 

 we extracted the upper combs quite late in 

 the season ; and to avoid robbers we did it 

 by moonlight. This honey was mostly bass- 

 wood, but it was so thick and rich that one 

 would hardly recognize it. It always makes 

 me hungry for honey when I think of that lot. 

 It was rather dark in color, from being so 

 thick, and we did not get nearly all the hon- 

 ey out of the combs. I am inclined to think 

 with friend Doolittle, the bees can ripen 

 honey better than anybody else. If comb 

 lioney were so thoroughly ripened, when left 

 with the bees a month or two it would look 

 so unsightly that few if any would purchase 

 it, but they would make a mistake, according 

 to my notion of things. For our own use I 

 like to take a brood-frame that has never 

 had any brood in it, after it has got old and 

 well ripened, and cut it up into nice little 

 squares for the table. It will be dark color- 

 ed, it is true; but I tell you, friends, it is 

 good honey to eat. 



m -"^ ^ 



MORE ABOUT THE HONEY-DEW. 

 Does It Really Fall from the Clouds? 



ALSO A CAUTION IN REGARD TO EXTRACTING 

 AFTER THE SEASON IS OVER. 



fAVING heard so much about the honej-dew, I 

 must g-ive you my experience and observa- 

 tions in the matter. I do not dispute its being 

 g-athered from fluid of insects; but my ex- 

 perience is, that it collects here in the atmos- 

 phere—sometimes, I think, from a sweet vapor aris- 

 ing from different plants and herbs. My expei-i- 

 ence is, that it commences to fall of an evening 

 about half an hour by sun; and how long it falls I 

 am not able to say— all night for what I liuow. 



About twenty-nine years ago, one evening I was 

 shooting squirrels. While looking up I saw a drop 

 almost as big as the end of my finger, falling 

 through the tree-tops. 1 went to where it fell, and 

 found it to be apparently pure honey. I have found 

 one or two years since, when heavy honey-dews fall 

 drops on the leaves. It shows most on hickory and 

 black oak. 



My bees gathered about 3.50 lbs. cf honey-dew hon- 

 ey this year, as fine tasted as I ever ate, but it is 

 dark. Almost everybody likes it better than the 

 clover honey. The honey-dew honey is so thick of 

 a cool morning, it will scarcely run. 



I will tell you of my success this season in api- 

 culture. I commenced in the spring with 17, all 

 very weak, some: not a quart of bees to the hive; 

 and by the time I got them built up strong, 

 while clover was pretty well over. I increased 

 to 30, all tolerably strong now, but they have been 

 doing little for nearly two months. Just as my 

 last buckwheat came in, the dry weather set in 

 and they made nothing from it. The last time I 

 looked in them, almost all had enough to winter; 

 but I am afraid they will be short of stores, as they 

 keep trying to rob all the time. The last extracting 

 I did, set them to i-obbing and fighting dreadfully. 

 They about destroyed the swarm I extracted from. 

 I have been afraid to look at them since. I got 

 only 700 lbs. of honey, on account of their being 

 weak at clover-blooming. Now, Bro. Itoot, would 

 you double up the weak swarms and feed syrup in 

 case of scanty stores? If not worrying you too 



much, I would like some advice through Gle.^nings. 

 I will close, for fear I shall worry your patience too 

 much to read all I have scribbled. I know you 

 must be one of the best Christians in the world, or 

 you could never have the patience to answer so 

 much, and I know God will bless and prosper you?, 

 for so doing, and great will be your reward ifi. 

 the future. Chas. L. GouOH. ,„,, 



Rock Spring, Mo., Oct. 10, 1884. 



Friend G., your concluding kind words al- • 

 most make me ashamed of myself, and 1 

 think they will do me good, for it hi. s stir- 

 red me up to resolve to be more patient and 

 more untiring in answering all sorts of ques- 

 tions that the many kind friends may care 

 to ask me.— I think' you are surely mistaken 

 in thinking that honey may ever fall from 

 the atmosphere. While sliooting squirrels 

 you were, of course, near large trees, and a 

 large drop of lioney, without doubt, poured 

 off from a leaf, or inay be there was a hive 

 of bees somewhere up in a limb, and a new 

 comb broke down, as is often the case, and 

 tlie honey ran out. If you will read what 

 has l)een said in our back volumes, especial- 

 ly Prof. Cook's articles on the subject, I 

 think you will agree with the rest of us.— It 

 is very unwise for any but an old experienc- 

 ed hand to undertake to extract after the 

 bees have stopped gathering honey. I should 

 expect just the result you mention, unless it 

 were one who had been through such scenes 

 till he knew just when to stop. In regard to 

 this matter of robbing, books or talk seem 

 to do but little good. One has got to lose a 

 few colonies before he can be thoroughly 

 taught, or taught so effectually that it will 

 be safe to intrust a gof»d-sized apiary to his 

 care afterward.— I think I would double up 

 the weak swarms, and feed syrup, especial- 

 ly as it is so late in the season. Had you 

 commenced sooner, you might have fed the 

 weak ones, and got them to raise brood.— 

 Thanks for the kind words. 



FROM THE FRUIT-DALE APIARY. 



REVERSIBLE B'RAMES, SAGGING TOPRAHS, AND 

 OTHER MATTERS. 



fHE season opened with a prospect of a boun- 

 tiful flow of honey, and I did all in my power 

 to help the bees. I got them up to as good 

 force as I could, and they made a good start, 

 and I gave the queen all the room needed by 

 extracting, etc. I crowded them on to 7 frames, 

 which was almost a perfect sheet of brood; and- the 

 way 1 gained this was partly by reversing fraihes. 

 We all have too many combs that do not fill the 

 frames by 1 2 inch or more. Where I had your metal 

 corners I took the top ones off' and exchanged with 

 the bottoms. This is reversing only once; but I tell 

 you that is one of the best things I ever did. It is 

 nice to have full frames; and if they are all full we 

 can use one less to a hive than we can as they are 

 usually used. On some of them I use a wire 

 sci-ewed on to the ends of frames, which run down 

 an inch, with an arm at top for a rest. These I can 

 change in a moment. I also sawed the top-bars 

 from my all wood frames, and nailed a top-bar in 

 place of the bottom-bar. If an inch space wasleft 

 between comb and bar, I fitted in a strip of comb; 

 and now I have every comb full and perfect. Of 



