1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



rs? 



FROM 9 TO 18, AND 406 LBS. OF KONEY. 



I will send you my report for 18S4. I began the 

 season with 9 swarms — 6 strong- and 3 weak; had 

 one old box hive. Increased by natural swarming- 

 to 18, and one absconded. Took 363 filled 1-lb. sec- 

 tions and 43 lbs. of partly filled ones. The old box 

 hive g-ave me 30 lbs., but no swarm; one new 

 swarm in chaff hive gave 56 lbs. ; it is all white- 

 clover; basswood was a failure here, as this is a 

 poor season, and this my first attempt at keeping- 

 bees in movable frames, and as I gave them not to 

 exceed two weeks' attention in all, I feel well paid 

 and well satisfied. J. S. Leonard. 



Cattaraugus, N. Y., Oct. 23, 1884. 



3003 LBS. OF HONEV FROM 40 HIVES OF BEES. 



Not much of a honey year in this section. I made 

 3000 lbs. comb honey from 40 hives, and about a 

 fifth of it candied in hives. 1 have read so much 

 about California sage honey, and Florida orange- 

 blossom honey, I should like to get a sample of 

 both. Could you tell me where I could get them? 



Kapidan, Va., Oct. 19, 1884. K. R. Cuyleb. 



You do not tell us liow much your in- 

 crease was, friend C. I have never had 

 more than a single bottle full of orange- 

 blossom honey, and this came from Joppa, 

 in Palestine, on the east coast of the Medi- 

 terranean. The honey was beautiful, as I 

 have told you. but there is not enough to 

 furnish samples. We usually keep the 

 white-sage honey in stock, but have not a 

 sample of any thing now that is nice. 



FROM 44 TO 61, AND 1200 LBS. OF HONEV. 



As small reports are the style now, and as bee- 

 keeping is only a kind of side issue with me, I will, 

 by your leave, hand in mine. I commenced in the 

 spring of 1884 with the same number 1 had last fall 

 (44), not having lost any in wintering or springing 

 since 1881. They increased by natural swarming to 

 61, besides 4 swarms that I sold, or gave away, rath- 

 er, in comparison to the way you and some others 

 sell bees. We can sell once in a while a swarm of 

 bees that will weigh from 5 to 9 lbs. for the precious 

 sum of $2.00, Italians at that. We can't sell swarms 

 of black bees for more than one dollar, and you can 

 buy cartloads of them here at that price. 



Well, now, I have obtained from all those little 

 busy bodies 1200 lbs. of honey —1000 lbs. comb, and 

 200 lbs. extracted, all dark, and some darker, though 

 it is all pretty good honey, and very thick. I got 

 not a drop of fall honey ; in fact, the honey the bees 

 have to winter on was gathered in .Tune, July, and 

 the first of August, and I should have extracted 

 that from them, but I waited till the honey-flow en- 

 tirely ceased, and then I saw that it would not do, 

 so now they have plenty of honey; but the bees 

 have been thinned out about a half by a cider-mill 

 close by, and I'm afraid. Jacob Copeland. 



Allendale, Ills., Nov. 6, 1884. 



2000 LBS. OF honey FROM 85 COLONIES. 



My report for this j'car is 20C0 lbs. from 85 colo- 

 nies of bees, mostly comb honey, and I am safe in 

 saying that is more than was obtained from all oth- 

 ers in the county; yet in 1882 I obtained 4C00 lbs. 

 from 32 colonies— about double the amount from 

 two-thirds less bees. If I had a full crop in 1882, 

 this year's would be about a sixth of a good crop. 



My bees were strong all summer— just honey enough 

 for brood-rearing, after the first flush of white clo- 

 ver; linn and fall flowers yielded no surplus, but 

 my bees are in their winter quarters with plenty of 

 well-ripened and sealed honey, with oceans of pol- 

 len, and I expect them to come out in the spring as 

 fat as pigs. Give me lots of pollen, if well covered 

 with ripe, well-sealed honey, and I will winter evei-y 

 one every time. I winter on summer stands, and 

 that is on the ground with a brick under the back 

 part of the hive. My hives are ventilated by boring 

 a ^8-in. hole at the front, just under the portico, 

 perhaps one inch below the top of the brood-frames; 

 thus they get plenty of pure fresh air at all times, 

 without regard to the lower part or bottom of the 

 hive, with half a bushel of ehaflf, or, better still, as 

 many dry leaves from the woods in the top story, 

 and over the bees. I have never lost a stand of 

 bees thus ventilated, with diarrhoea or any other 

 cause; not even a nucleus of bees can bring air in 

 as they need it in this manner of ventilation, with- 

 out a current through the cluster. Tell James that 

 he can never get there by the pollen route. Some- 

 body has said we are about to fathom our winter 

 troubles. Yes, I suppose there is a little hole in the 

 bottom cf the sea, so in the bottom of the sea there 

 is a little hole. John A. Williamson. 



Lodge Prairie, 111. 



from 25 to 121, AND VSIO LBS. OF HONEY, AND 

 "MORE TOO." 



Apiary of C. M. Drake, Ventura Co., Cal. Started 

 in 1884 with 5 very weak colonies in boxes— no 

 supers. Bought 10 more colonies; transferred the 

 15 to ?4 Langstroth hives; and when season was half 

 done, purchased 15 more colonies in poor condition, 

 and transferred them; increased partly by division 

 to 121. Bees were in the midst of blue-gums about 

 100 feet high, and no limbs half way up; and as I 

 taught school half a mile away I pi-obably lost many 

 swarms. I know I lost 6. I took out 3' 2 tons of 

 honey with extractor. Sold 200 lbs. in comb, and 

 have all my hives full, top and bottom. About 103 

 have supers on, holding 35 to 40 lbs. each, that I do 

 not take out because honey is so very low. Honey 

 sold for 5, 4, and 34 cts. net per lb. The 5-cent wa.s 

 as nice as I ever saw. 



FROM 19 to 72, AND 5000 LBS. OF HONEY, AND " MORE 

 TOO." 



Apiary of J. Stewart, Las Posas, Ventura Co. 

 Started with 19 colonies; increased to 72. Took out 

 about 24 tons of extracted honey; hives all full, 

 and could take out lU tons more, if honey were 

 higher, as bees are getting a living, aiid will do so 

 until next spring, in all probability. Bees received 

 almost no care. 



Other apiaries reported large yields, i-eaching up 

 to 100 tons in one apiary. One reports .500 lbs. to 

 the spring count, but I doubt the correctness of the 

 report. Many run over 200 and 300 lbs., however. 



Santa Paula, Cal. C. M. Drake. 



Well, friend D., it does indeed look as if 

 California had l)een having a boom. We 

 congratulate you. I wanted to i)urchase 

 some of the nice honey at o cts. i)er lb., but 

 the lots were all so lai'ge that I feared I 

 shouldn't be able to handle them; so I'll 

 have to grow somewhat, or else somebody 

 will have to come down to a ton or half-ton 

 before we can get some of that nice honey 

 aw^ay out here at a moderate price. 



