164 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



and was well off and able to care for the family. 

 So, then, at the age of 33 I took to myself a wife 

 from the settlement that I left in New York, and 

 settled in Iowa on a 200-acre prairie farm. Here I 

 beg'an life anew, and here again T obtained a few 

 bees. 1 lived on the place in Iowa six years, farm- 

 ing summers and trapping winters, until the war 

 broke out. At first there was no price for farm 

 produce. Accordingly, wife and I with our little 

 boy, five years old, came to Platteville, on a visit to 

 some of my wife's relations. We intended to re- 

 turn as soon as times got a little better; but the 

 war kept along, and we did not go back. I wanted 

 something to do. I saw an advertisement in a pa- 

 per, •' Agents wanted, to sell patent bee-hives." I 

 wrote to the man, and was soon the owner of the 

 patent for the county I lived in. I made the hives 

 myself. At that time nearly every farmer had a 

 few bees, and the business paid very well. I soon 

 bought two more counties. In my trades I got 

 some bees, and this is the way I got into the bee- 

 business. I increased the bees until the winter of 

 1871, when I went into the winter with 12;J stands, 

 and came out in the spring with 35, and the next 

 spring with 14 colonies. I then made up my mind 

 that my hive was too small, and accordingly made 

 larger ones and learned more about bees. Since 

 then I have had better success. 



We use the Metcalf hive, with standing frames, 

 movable side, double-walled, chaft'-packed. We 

 have about 100 colonies in Langstroth frames. For 

 the extractor, I like the Metcalf hive best; but for 

 comb honey, the L. frame is the best. In my opin- 

 ion there is not very much difference in favor of 

 the Italian bee over the brown, or German bee. 

 Either, if handled right in a good season, is good 

 enough for me. I think of trying the Carniolans 

 next season. Myself and son have now 500 colonies 

 of bees; ti apiaries— one at home, and live out from 

 home— none out on shares. We hire help during 

 the honey season; all board at my house. We do 

 all the work ourselves, with the help we take with 

 us. In good average seasons we get 100 pounds of 

 extracted honey per colony, spring count. We 

 winter all outdoors on the summer stands. 



We sold our Iowa land and bought 11 acres here 

 inside of the limits of the city of Platteville, on 

 which we have raised largely of garden truck and 

 berries. Edwin France. 



Platteville, Wis., Jan. 39, 1888. 



Afterireceiving the above we wrote friend 

 France, usking him to furnish us a record 

 of his yearly yields, the number of colonies, 

 the number of out-apiaries, his winter loss- 

 es, etc., for a few years back. This he has 

 done, and we append the figures below. 

 These are facts, and the reader can see for 

 himself what one of our most extensive 

 apiarists has done in an average locality. 



FRIEND FRANCE'S YEARLY YIELD PER COLONY. 



In 1880 we had 134 colonies in the spring. We took 

 6000 lbs. of extracted honey, almost all basswood; 

 no clover that year. The average was about 48' ^ 

 lbs., spring count. We went into winter (juarters 

 with 178 colonies. The winter of 1880 was a hard 

 one; besides, we had extracted too closely. As a 

 consequence, we lost a great many bees. We 

 saved only 75, all told, many of them weak. 



The year 1881 proved to be a very poor one for 

 honey. From the 75 colonies we obtained 2000 lbs. 

 of extracted honey, njaking the averagp 36-,i lbs. 



We went into winter quarters with 157 colonies, all 

 outdoors, on summer stands. We made sure to 

 leave the bees plenty of honey to winter on this 

 time. The winter of 1881 was a mild one. We lost 

 43 out of the 1.57. Two of the last were queenless. 

 In the spring of 1883 we had 1.55 colonies distributed 

 in three out-apiaries, and one apiary at home. We 

 secured from the 155 colonies, 1.3,000 lbs. of extract- 

 ed honey, making an average of about 83 lbs. We 

 went into winter with 295 colonies, and lost very 

 few during the winter. But the bees deserted bad- 

 ly in the spring. We managed, however, to get into 

 working order with 311 colonies. In the spring of 

 1883 we had four out-apiaries and one at home. We 

 took, during the following season, 33,037 lbs. of ex- 

 tracted honey from the 311 colonies, an average of 

 10414 lbs. per colony, spring count. We did not re- 

 cord the number of colonies in the fall of 1883. 



In the spring of 1884 we had 290 colonies in six 

 apiaries, from which we took 31,487 lbs. of honey, 

 of which 306 lbs. was comb— an average of very 

 nearly 109 lbs. spring count. We went into winter 

 quarters with 455 colonies. 



In the spring of 1885 we had 330 colonies in six 

 yards. From them we extracted 36,193 lbs. of honey, 

 an average of 113 lbs. per colony, spring count. We 

 went into winter quarters with 516 colonies. 



In the spring of 1886, after selling 58 colonies we 

 had 395, of which the home yard had 61, the out- 

 apiaries respectively 73, 60, 73, 80, and 50. From 

 these we extracted 43,489 lbs. of honey, an average, 

 very nearly, of 108 lbs. per colony. We went into 

 winter with ,507 colonies. 



In the spring of 1887 we had 410 colonies, from 

 which we took .5000 lbs. of honey— an average of 13 

 lbs. per colony. We went into winter with 514 col- 

 onies— home yard 74, out-apiaries 105, 70, 91, 86, 88. 



All of the bees were in good condition for winter. 

 But this is a hard winter so far. If we get good 

 weather through March nnd .^pril I have no fears 

 for the bees. I have given you figures back to 1880. 

 Since that time I have been down to 75 colonies. 



Platteville, Wis., Feb. 9, 188.:!. E. France. 



Friend F., the above report is very valua- 

 ble, and I think it extraordinarily Irnge for 

 the number of colonies yon handled. I 

 doubt if we have a record this side of Cali- 

 fornia, for as many tons of honey and for as 

 many pounds per colony, for as many colo- 

 nies, owned by any one man. I think I 

 have heard it estimated, that oU lbs. of ex- 

 tracted honey per coloiiy, wliere the number 

 runs up into the hundreds, may be called a 

 pretty fair yield. 



^ I ^— 



HOAAT MUCH LABOR IS REQUIRED TO 



MANAGE A SERIES OP OUT- 



APIARIESy 



friend FRANCE RECONSIDERS QUESTION NUMBER 

 20, ON OUT-APIARIES. 



N question No. 20, in Gi.eanings for Dec. 1, I 

 was greatly surprised at some of the answers 

 Wi there given— especially the answer by Geo, 

 -^ Grimm. He puts the number of apiaries at 

 ten, each with 100 colonies— in all, 1000 colonies, 

 to be managed by one man with two assistants, 

 Now. I am not going to say he can not do it; but I 

 can not do it here in my location, and I don't be- 

 lieve any other man with two assistants can work 

 1000 colonies in my location, AU the honey we get 



