1897 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



(l.-U 



lias the two end jiicot's iiKuk- U inch wider, so 

 that, when the hive-cuver is nailed on, it leaves 

 '» inch space hetween the screen and hive- 

 cover, so in case one hive is set on top of an- 

 other, ventilation will not be cut off. 



The hives are nsually loaded at night, and 

 the teams lie np durins^ the day if the journey 

 is to be too lonj^ for one nit,dit. 



.This is yi. 11. :Mendleson's plan, and I 

 think he has made the subject a study, and 

 has the best moving-appliances I have seen, 

 and makes a success of it where the distance 

 is not too great for one night's journey. But 

 I am inclined to tliink that, where the trip is 

 too far for that, the present aiTangements are 

 inade(|uate. Too many colonies crowd the 

 entrance full of bees, and thus cut off upward 

 draft, which smothers too many bees — not 

 that INIr. M.'s loss of colonies has been great 

 (only about 10 out of 400 moved), but the 

 weakening of colonies has been too great to 

 leave them strong enough for good work until 

 more bees are hatched, and then it is too late 

 for the honey-flow. There seems to be greater 

 loss than would appear by simply looking at 

 the dead bees at the entrftnoe, so I came to the 

 conclusion that many that apparently came 

 through all right were so weakened b}- worry 

 that they soon sviccumbed when put to work. 



There seems to be another difficulty in the 

 wa}' of migratory bee-keeping being a brilliant 

 success ; and that is the fact that colonies at 

 the close of a long and abundant honey-flow 

 are not as strong in numbers as at the begin- 

 ning. Of course, this can in a measure be 

 overcome by giving particular attention to 

 breeding bees during the honey-flow. Good 

 ventilation and a circulation through the hive 

 are essentials. In two instances have I known 

 of disaster for lack of these two essentials. 

 One man lost a third, and the other much 

 more. This was loss outright, to saj^ nothing 

 of injury to others. 



I rented bees this season, first, because I 

 was a "tenderfoot," and did not know how 

 much my Wisconsin bee-keeping would avail 

 me here ; and, second, because I wanted to be 

 free to go when the honey season was done. 

 I ran one apiars- for Mr. Mendleson, consist- 

 ing of 233, spring count, and 27') at the close 

 of the season. From these we extracted 48,500 

 lbs., and then removed to the bean-fields, 

 where the prospect is fair for getting 4000 lbs. 

 more. 



Bean honey is fine-flavored and white, but 

 inclined to candv quicklv. 



Montalvo, Cal., Aug. 10. 



.AMONG THE BEE-KEEPERS OF MICHIGAN. 



The .Advantage in the Use of Bottom-starters ; De- 

 veloping the Home Market; Hives for Mi- 

 gratory Bee-keeping. 



BY A. L. BOYDEN. 



Reaching my old home at Saline for a few- 

 days' vacation I found that the season there 

 I Southern Michigan ) had been better than 

 for a number of years past. White clover, 

 which had almost disappeared, has returned, 



and a fair crop of honey had been secured. 

 Looking over the cases of comb honey I had 

 to compliment my brother on the appearance 

 of it, as the combs were built down .so well, 

 and so securely fastened to the bottom. He 

 had used bottom starters, and declared him- 

 self very much in favor of them. I believe 

 that much of the breakage in .shipping might 

 be avoided if combs were well built to the 

 bottom of the section ; and perhaps the best 

 if not the only way to secure this is by using 

 bottom starters. 



A day or two later we had a very pleasant 

 call from Mr. W. D. vSimonds, of Whittaker, 

 Mich. Mr. Simonds formerly used chaff 

 hives, I believe ; but, being annoyed with 

 foul brood, and for other reasons, he has giv- 

 en up their use, and now uses a house-apiary. 

 He is very enthusiastic over it. believing that, 

 for ease in handling, freedom from robbers, 

 and safety in wintering, it is all that can be 

 desired. I believe he mentioned only one 

 difficulty; viz., an occasional loss of queens 

 in mating. 



vSaturday, Aug. 7, found me at the home 

 and apiary of a Lenawee County bee-keeper, 

 Mr. A. Middlebrook. He reports a fair sea- 

 son, showing me a nice lot of choice extract- 

 ed and comb honey. I asked him where he 

 sold his honey, and he replied, " In the home 

 market." I then asked him what price his 

 extracted netted him. He said, "About ten 

 cents per pound." It seems to me that bee- 

 keepers make a great mistake in not doing 

 more to work up their home markets. Mr. 

 Middlebrook has used frames about 10x14; 

 but having tried the self-spacing Hoffman, he 

 proposes to adopt this style in regular L. size. 



IX THE WILLOW-HERB DISTRICT. 



Leaving Wa.shtenaw Co. for a few days' vis- 

 it to Central Michigan I stopped first at Mount 

 Pleasant. This is a pleasant little town in fact 

 as well as in name. I had heard that the wil- 

 low-herb never fails to yield honey, so I ex- 

 pected to find the bee-keepers of that section 

 in the midst of the flow. Very unexpectedl}-. 

 however, and almost unaccountably, it is 

 yielding but little this year, and in some cases 

 the bees were robbing. I called to see Mr. T. 

 J. Fordyce, a suppl3r-dealer who has quite a 

 large .apiary within the limits of Mount Pleas- 

 ant. He was away from home, .so I chatted 

 with Mrs. Fordyce for an hour or more, learn- 

 ing much of interest to me aboiit the willow- 

 herb country. A puncture in my bicycle-tire 

 delayed my departure for the out-of-town api- 

 aries, so I passed the time very pleasantlv 

 with Mr. Wm. Bamber, proprietor of a plan- 

 ing-mill. He also keeps a few bees, and is 

 making some supplies. Evidently the Dove- 

 tailed hive is as popular there as elsewhere, as 

 I noticed with interest a machine he had made 

 for dovetailing them. 



After dinner I started on my wheel for the 

 apiaries of H. S. Wheeler, Walter Wing, and 

 H. S. IMorrison, w^hich are located down the 

 Chippewa River in the tracts burned over by 

 forest-fires three \-ears ago. I found neither 

 Mr. Wheeler nor Mr. Wing at home, so I 

 pushed on over sandy roads to Mr. NIorrison's 



