1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



587 



1882 I had (50 colonii^s. I increased to about 100. 

 and got fJOOO lbs. extracted and 1000 lbs. comb 

 honev. In the spring of ISSiJ I had 150 colonies; 

 increased to 184. and got 19,.500 lbs. extracted 

 hone}'. 



From the foregoing it will be seen that I got 

 the largest pro riitu yield when I had the larg- 

 est number of bees. Of course, the larger 

 amount of bees did not augment the pro rata 

 yield, but. rather, it was my better facilities 

 and management. Hut I always noticed that, 

 when bees did well anywhere in that region, 

 mine did as well or better, and I was utterly 

 unable to see that my pro rata yield was at all 

 affected by the numt)er of bees I kept. 



Since I removed to this place, bees have done 

 very poorly until this season. Last season near- 

 ly all in the country died of starvation, but it 

 was no worse in large apiaries (of which there 

 are very few) than in small ones. This season 

 honey is quite plentiful, and all are doing well. 

 Of course, it is possible to overstock a given 

 location; but when the area of honey-produc- 

 ing flowers is large, the apiaries may as well be 

 large; for poor seasons do not so greatly lessen 

 the area of pasturage, or the number of flowers, 

 as the amount of honey secreted in each little 

 floweret. I think that bee-keepers oftener un- 

 derrate the capacity of their locality than oth- 

 erwise. Suppose a scjuare mile of white clover 

 would yield one drop per day to each square 

 foot of land. That would amount to about 1600 

 lbs., or 11.300 lbs per week. Of course, this esti- 

 mate may be far from correct: but has any one 

 ever overstocked a good white-clover locality 

 In an average season, and how many did it lake 

 to do it? From what I have seen and known 

 of the yield from white clover in that part of 

 Iowa where I lived. I should feel safe in keep- 

 ing at least 300 colonies in one yard, and I 

 should not be surprised ir the number could be 

 still further increased. The question is still oc- 

 casionally asked — 



"ARE DKOXES FKOM A MISMATED QUEEX 

 PrRE?" 



I should say no — not any more so than the 

 workers. Fifteen years ago I had about twenty- 

 five colonies of blacks and one Italian. I raised 

 lots of drones from the Italian, and suppressed 

 those of the blacks, and requeened them all 

 with young Italians. About two-thirds of the 

 queens were purely mated; but as I was in- 

 formed that the mismated ones would produce 

 pure drones I let them raise them the following 

 season, when I was astonished to find that vei'y 

 few of my queens raised that year were, purely 

 mated. After that I suppressed hybrid drones, 

 and then could get about 90 per cent of the 

 queens purely mated. Some say that 



DRONES FROM A MISMATED QUEEX LOOK AS 

 PUKE AS AXY. 



They don't to me. I can see that peculiar 

 dusky luster of the black drone on some of the 

 drones of a mismated queen, quite as often as I 

 can see a black worker among her workers. 

 But it still remains true, that drones from vir- 

 gin queens are potent. 



One season I had a number of hybrid colonies; 

 which I undertook to Italianize late in the sea- 

 son. I raised a lot of Italian drones late — after 

 other drones were all dead^and then placed 

 Italian queen-cells in each of the hybrid colo- 

 nies; bat before the queens got mated the 

 weather turned cold and remained so all win- 

 ter; and in the spring all of those queens were 

 drone-layi'rs. As soon as I discovered that, I 

 killed them; and when the bees started queen- 

 cells I grafted them with larv« from an Italian 

 colony, and thus raised about 13 queens very 

 early — before my bees had any other drones 

 than tliose from the virgin niothers. These 



queens all showed pure mating, and it must 

 have been with these drones, foi- there were no 

 other Italian bees but mine in that vicinity. I 

 thought I could notice that the queens laid a 

 little irregularly at first, but could see nothing 

 else remarkable about them. 



BEE-ESCAPES. 



I am pleasc^d to see those improvements in 

 bee-escapes coming forward. There ai'e many 

 good hives already in use. Now, if we had a 

 perfect non-swarming race of bees should we 

 not have things pretty much our own way? 

 and would not those "hundreds of thousands of 

 tons " of honey that Mr. Clute used to talk 

 about be in sight pretty soon ? 



By th(^ way. why don't some of our enter- 

 prising queen-breeders get up a strain of bees 

 that will never swarm, but just stay at home, 

 and work and behave themselves generally as 

 bees should? 1 believe it can be done, and "will 

 be. even if I have to do it myself. lam sur- 

 prised that the readers of Gleanings do not 

 all know 



HOW TO STICK LABELS TO TIX WITH HOXEY. 



Some years ago I read in Gleax^ixgs that a 

 little Orleans molasses added to common paste 

 would make them stick; and as I had none of 

 that I put in a little honey, about a teaspoon- 

 ful to the pint of paste, and found that it an- 

 swered the purpose perfectly, and I have used 

 it a great deal. T. W. Livixgstox. 



Dalton, Ga., June 18. 



[There may be some localities that would 

 easily support 20<J colonies, but they are few. 

 We are pretty well satisfied that our home yard 

 has been for years overstocked. Why ? Be- 

 cause smaller bee-keepers starting up around 

 us soon decided that their bees didn't make 

 enough surplus to pay them to keep th(»m. and 

 now every one here has given up the keeping of 

 bees so neai- us. We have from 1.50 to 3.50 col- 

 onies, from fair to strong, in our locality, on the 

 average. We do not run for honey, but for 

 bees, and so overstocking is not as serious with 

 us as it might be. — Yes, it is possible to do 

 something at a non-swarming race of bees, if 

 bee-keepers only concentrate their attention on 

 the matter longenough. If the same thought 

 and painstaking skill were put upon a non- 

 swarming race of bees that there is put upon 

 five-banded bees, we should have something 

 practical instead of something that pleases 

 the eye: but it's easier to breed for color 

 than for a non-swarming propensity. It takes 

 a whole season to tell whether the bees of 

 a queen are non-swarming, or but little inclin- 

 ed to swarm; but it needs only about a mouth 

 to determine the number of yellow bands on 

 the bees of a certain queen.] E. R. 



OTJK CHINA LETTEE. 



FRIEXD WALKER GIVES US SEVERAL GOLDEX' 

 RULES. 



Friend Root: — Last week I saw a carp that 

 measured 37 inches in length, and was said to 

 weigh about 18 lbs. It was a wild one, which 

 had just been caught in the river. Last winter 

 I spent a Sabbath at a mountain village where 

 they had a score or so of pet cai'p in a small 

 pond just below a spring that supplied the vil- 

 lage with water. The carp were a foot oi- more 

 in length, and a few of them were of a bright 

 yellow, like goldiish. 



Last week I also saw a dead leopard that 

 measured 47 inches in length, exclusive of its 

 tail, which was 31 inches long. It was a mag- 

 nificent sight. It was some distance south of 



