1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



935 



pay in seed aside from the honey they fur- 

 nish. Instead of feeding a little bit at a 

 time, you had better feed a large amount at 

 once, as directed recently in Gleanings. 

 It is pretty late now to do very much with 

 them in your locality, so perhaps the cakes 

 of sugar' are as good as any thing you can 

 give them now. We have experienced the 

 same difficulty you mention with the pep- 

 per-box feeder. 



SECURING A SWARM FROM A LOFTY HEIGHT AT 

 NIGHT. 



When I was tiuite a youth I was very anxious to 

 own bees, but ray father i«uld not go near them; 

 and, being- in bad health, he would not trouble him- 

 self to procure me a colony. On the 5th day of 

 May, 1888, a very larg-e swarm came and settled in 

 the top ot a tall elm-tree near my residence (in the 

 city). They were viewed by thousands, curious to 

 see. I waited until 10 p. m. to take them, as the 

 streets were crowded with vehicles and people. I 

 procured a long ladder, saw, 8prinkling--brush, sheet, 

 etc., and soon had them in my yard in an old-time 

 box hive. They proved to be No. 1 Italians, and 

 are doing- finely. H. C. M<^>SELy. 



Charleston, S. C, June 7, 1888. 



THE LATEST BEE SENSATION. 



'J'he above is the caption of an article in 

 the Bee-Keepers' Record, page 209. We too 

 in this country have seen this same bit of 

 bee sensation. Although we have no facts 

 upon which to base an opinion, the whole 

 thing seemed like a pretty big story. Un- 

 like many other yarns that have been told in 

 regard to our pursuit, it seems to be harm- 

 less. W. B. Carr, one of tlie editors of the 

 Record, has a veiy happy way of commenting 

 on it. We therefore copy both his com- 

 ments and the clipping to which he refers, 

 entire. 



The following- is one of the latest "bits" with 

 which the press are pleased to enlighten the British 

 public reg-arding- bees and bee-keeping-:— 



A singular flying-match is reported from Hamm, 

 where the owner of a well-known establishment of 

 homing pigeons, who at the same time is largely in- 

 terested in agriculture, offered to bet that on a fine 

 day 13 of his bees would beat a like number of car- 

 rier pigeons in making the distance (one hour) 

 between Hamm and the town of Rhynern. The bet 

 was taken, and bravely won by the busy little bees. 

 Twelve pigeons and twelve bees (four drones and 

 eight working bees) were taken to Rhynern, and 

 simultaneously set free— a white drone arriving 

 home four seconds in advance of the first pigeon; 

 the remaining three drones and the second pigeon 

 arrived together; and the eight working bees pre- 

 ceded the ten pigeons by a length. 



The paragraph has appeared indozensof our daily 

 papers, and has been cut out and forwarded to us by 

 several readers of the Becoixl, one of whom asks, "Is 

 it worthy of credence ? " Surely our correspondents 

 have ignored facts known to all bee-keepers, or 

 they would at once set the whole paragraph down 

 as the veriest rubbish. Fancy, taking bees one 

 hour's distance (say 5 miles) to race home against 

 pigeons! and the match being very appropriately 

 won by a "■white dronr" ! Then the cream of joke, 

 so far as testing- the gullibility of readers, is reach- 

 ed when we are told that "the eight working 

 bees preceded the ten pigeons by alength." What a 

 pity the veracious scribe did not add, "The above 

 race clearly proves the immense superiority of 

 white drones over the ordinarj- kind, and we would 



therefore strongly advise all bee-keepers to go in 

 for piebald bees" I 



^EPei^Tg ENcea^^eiNe. 



39. 



FROM 20 TO 37, AND 2055 LBS. OF HONEY. 



COMMENCED this season with just 30 colonies, 

 mostly blacks. 1 had only 7 natural swarms, 

 and built up 3 nuclei that I had raising queens, 

 and they ai"e now all strong colonies, and have 

 plenty of stores for winter, so I have to wintei- 

 Honey taken from them, comb in 1-lb. sections, 

 finished, 13K9 sections; extracted honey, 786 lbs.; 

 total, 3055 lbs. Wax, 3(5 lbs. How will this do for a 

 three-year greenhorn? I mean this was my third 

 year with bees. Last fall I got a good flow from 

 Spanish needle and asters; this fall I got very lit- 

 tle. I have some blacks that have not swarmed in 

 two years. I now have 11 colonies of Italians, 3 hy- 

 brids, and 15 blacks. Total, 39. 



R. J. Mathews. 

 Riverton, Miss., Nov. 7, 1888. 



A GOOD KIND OF PARTNERSHIP. 



Since we have been taking Gleanings I got in- 

 terested in the handling of bees. I sold my hy- 

 brids, bought and traded for three stands of Italians 

 in chaff hives. I now have 19 colonies in flne shape 

 for winter, and have not fed one. I sold some also. 

 Our bees took the red ribbon for this section this 

 year. I say ours, as my wife takes as much interest 

 in them as I do. If I am away from home she hives 

 them, and helps me at all times with them. We got 

 800 lbs. or more of flne comb honey; while other 

 bees were clustered outside of their hive, idle, ours 

 were storing flne honey. They worked strong on 

 red clover. 



As regards the features of your bee-journal, we 

 have received the most benettt by the general in- 

 formation or experience of others, as to the man- 

 agement of bees under different circumstances, 

 and for the providing of surplus comb honey. Be- 

 fore we began taking Gleanings we had two 

 stands of hybrids; and about the only time we were 

 around them was when they swarmed or we wanted 

 honey. We knew nothing of their working. All 

 was a mystery. M. F. Styer. 



Medway, ()., Nov. 5, 1S88. 



FROM 47 TO 10.5, and .5000 LBS. OF HONEY ALL 

 SOLD. 



I send my report for this season. It is encour- 

 aging, after the total failure we had last year. I 

 had 47 colonies in May; have now 105. My honey 

 crop is .5000 lbs.— 1000 comb and 4000 extracted. T 

 sold every pound of comb honey for 30 cts. per lb., 

 and the extracted for 12i4 and 15, according to 

 quantity. I also sold $3.50 worth of bees and queens 

 in .Tune, and gave 14 colonies to my neighbors who 

 lost all their bees last winter. The honey is all 

 sold. Yes, I feel "thankful to Him from whom all 

 blessings flow." R. B. Leahy. 



Higginsville, Mo., Oct. 32, 1888. 



FROM A 2-FRAME NUCLEUS TO 3 COf/ONIES OF BEES 



j AND 55 SECTIONS. 



j I bought a 2-frame nucleus of Italians the 3.5th of 

 May. I now have 3 good colonies of bees, and have 

 1 taken oft' .55 1-lb. sections. They are well supplied 

 I with natural stores. Honey sells at 15 cts. per 1-lb. 

 j section. Milton D. Owen. 



I Douglas, Mich., Oct. 30, 1888. 



