1S92 



(JLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



013 



hont'V foasos, oitlitM- hocauso tht> flow in tlio 

 iioltis stops or hci-ausi" tho liivt> has liccn riMiiov- 

 ed so as to lose its Held foii-(>, tlic hi'cs }^ivt> up 

 all idea of swarming, altliongii Iho iinrsc-hoi^s 

 HP' just as nuK-ii suiviiargod as ovci-. It luifjiit 

 lio answcivd. iioweviT, that, when th<> (low 

 oeasos. the uufscs do not cat so niiii-ii. and that 

 stops tin' ifoiihlc. l?ut Willi aluindant stoivs 

 in tho hiv<\ may the nurses not oat just as 

 much as if it woro coining in regularly ? 



Hut litMv's an objection that-I can't so readily 

 get over. Dadant vV; Son, with their large 

 hives, have almost no swarming. Now. is 

 there not the same chance there for the nurse- 

 b(>es to get out of balance with the larviO to be 

 fed as there is in smaller hives? 



If anv brother knows. I hope he will please 

 rise an^ answer the QU(>stion. just this one 

 question. '" Wlidt is the rrju.se of swarming f^' 



Marengo. 111., July 23. C. C. Miller. 



EAMBLE NO. 65. 



A pkovidence: rambler at home. 



There are times in our lives when it seems 

 that some hidden influence is guiding our foot- 

 steps: and it is so plainly felt, and the results 



viousjy mentioned premonition waned: and 

 when I arrived in Kedlands, nearly twenty 

 luiles away, though iu)t extinct, it was very 

 diiu. Kediands is the liead<(uarters of the 

 honey-producing lirni of Wheeler i<: Hunt, who 

 own many apiaries, and to whom I had been 

 directed, with the assurance that thev wck^ 

 generous and square-dealing m(!n, all of which 

 I have since found to be true. 



Mr. Hunt is the lield-marshal of the honey- 

 gathering hosts, and Mr. Wheeler superintends 

 the Rose gold-mine up in the mountains be- 

 yond the Cajon Pass, in which he has a large 

 amount of capital invested; so if the honey- 

 mine is a failure, the gold-mine makes a awnl 

 backing to the business. I found Mr. Hunt 

 and one of his helpers, Mr. Curl, who, by the 

 way, was formerly a workman at the " Home 

 of the Honey-bees." at work in liis shop, sur- 

 rounded by a wilderness of hives, section-cases, 

 and the hundred and one traps found in all 

 large apiaries. After the usual salutations, 

 and the comparing of notes on the delightful 

 weather, and as to how we all were impressed 

 with the beauties and advantages of California. 

 I seated myself on the end of an up-turned 

 bee-hive and proceeded to business by asking 

 him whether, among his numerous apiaries, he 

 had one for sale or to rent that was worked ex- 

 clusively for extracted honey. 



uivKiisiDK apiai:y, operatei* by i;amhli<;h. 



soclearly defined for our good, that it has been 

 variously termed as "chance," or to the power 

 of a spirit, or to Providence. The last term 

 seems to be, the broadest, and to include all of 

 the rest: and though the Rambler may be un- 

 worthy of it. he feels many times the guidance 

 of a Providence, and the promptings of a con- 

 science in thi^ small affairs of life, and especial- 

 ly so in this search for an apiary, as the sequel 

 will show. 



When I had strayed beyond the bounds of 

 Riverside in my search for an apiary, my pre- 



" No,"' said he: " we hire men by the month, 

 and have better results that way than to rent. 

 If we rent an apiary of 200 swarms, and it is a 

 good season, there; is a chance for the jjerson 

 working the apiary to make a thousand dollars. 

 The average yield in a good season is not less 

 than 20(J lbs. per colony, while we sometimes 

 get three and four hundred from an occasional 

 colony: and we have never had a season that 

 has failed to give us enough to pay our help 

 and have some to spare." 



This strain of talk was very encouraging in 



