840 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15. 



Reading in a bee-paper that honey is an ex- 

 cellent remedy for a cold (and as we were thus 

 afflicted), we procured a large piece of beauti- 

 ful white-clover hone}', and ate it, drinking 

 with it some hot mint tea, and retired, expect- 

 ing to hear from that honey. We did not, 

 sleeping well all night. From that time until 

 now, more than a score of years, all the fam- 

 ily have been eating honey, without the least 

 discomfort. The Creator intended honey as 

 food for man, but not bee-bread,«or pollen. 

 When a bee-tree is cut down, the pollen, or 

 bee-bread, and honey, are all mixed up to- 

 gether, and that is what makes people sick, 

 and not the bees running over it with tails 

 elevated. 



FARMERS WRONGFUI.LY ACCUSED. 



It's a mistaken idea that farmers lower the 

 price of honey. The little they sell does not 

 affect it. It's like the fable of a gnat on the 

 horn of an ox. Last winter the price of honey 

 was fair until a carload was consigned to a 

 commission house from California. This hon- 

 ey was pushed upon the market — had to be 

 sold to get it out of the way. The more a 

 customer would take, the lower the price. 

 Honey had been bringing 12^ cts. per lb. 

 Dealers could then buy it for 8 to 10 cts. per 

 pound. We are never out of honey, good sea- 

 sons or poor. People know that our honey- 

 house has a supply. 



CRAYCRAFT'S BEE-SHED. 



I've taken much comfort in looking at the 

 picture of Mr. Craycraft's bee-shed, Astor 

 Park, Florida, as he looks so restful sitting on 

 a stool by his hives, with a chinaberry-tree 

 near him. I should like to take a walk with 

 him between the rows of hives, and then on 

 the outside in the sunshine, any time from 

 November until April or INIay, and ask him 

 where he felt the best. I never saw a place 

 where there is so much difference in sunshine 

 and shade as in Florida. The rooms on the 

 sunny side of our house are genial and warm, 

 without fire, while on the shady side they 

 would be uncomfortably cool. 



While visiting the apiaries of the firm of 

 Alderman & Roberts, the largest in ihe State, 

 at that time consisting of 1300 colonies, I was 

 walking around one of the apiaries in compa- 

 ny with Mr. Roberts, when he said, pointing 

 to a grove of jack-oaks, " When swarms clus- 

 tered on those trees I hived them, and, being 

 ver} busy, I left them there. They have done 

 much better than those under the sheds. 

 When I get the gro'and grubbed out I am go- 

 ing to put more bees there." 



I should like to have Mr. Craycraft keep a 

 few colonies in the sunshine during the win- 

 ter, and note in the spring if they are not 

 more populous than those in the shed. 



It would be well for all who care for bees 

 or other animals to put ourselves in their 

 place, and consider in what way we should be 

 most comfortable, and in what way we might 

 accomplish the most work. Bees in Florida 

 work all winter, and rear brood. If they are 

 in the warm sunshine they can work more 

 hours than in the shade. It appears to the 

 writer that under the shade of a scuppernong 

 grapevine would be a good place for bees. A 



resident remarked that this vine should be 

 named " Good Sense," for it never leaves out 

 until all danger from frost is passed. This 

 vine could be trained to run up so that a per- 

 son could work comfortablj' under it, and its 

 nature, is to spread out flat. Colonies would 

 swarm before it leaves out, and then, during 

 hot weather, be in dense shade. The boards 

 of the shed-roofs yield no fruit; but the vines 

 would yield delicious grapes. Thus the 

 ground would be a producer of both honey 

 and fruit. 

 Peoria, 111. 



SNAP SHOTS. 

 A Bit of Experience. 



BY SIDNEY K. CLAPP. 



Mr. Root:—M.y reading has been wide and 

 varied in apiculture ; but, supplemented by 

 Gleanings, my experience, and that offered 

 by others, it has become one of real pleasure 

 and profit. I inclose a little group of photos 

 that will show to some extent my interest. 



No. 1 shows my experimental apiary con- 

 taining eleven hives in winter quarters under 

 large fruit-trees, sheltered by a high boxwood 

 hedge to the northwest, giving the hives an 

 exposure to the southeast. Other hives ex- 

 tend right and left. 



Photo No. .3 will show the grading of my 

 surplus. The first four boxes to the right I 

 call No. 1, and the four to the left No. 2 ; and 

 then, again, I might divide each group into 

 two others. I have found it far more profit- 

 able to sell only No. 1 at a good price, and 

 distribute gratis the second grade, or use it at 

 home. The two boxes at the left, while cap- 

 ped evenl}', contain dark honey, and are trav- 

 el-stained. 



Photo No. 2 shows a type of frames used. 

 One, marked " old method," was made entire- 

 ly by the bees with no starters (contains 30 

 per cent of drone comb). The one marked 

 " new method," built at the side of the fir.st, 

 was from a full-wired foundation, and con- 

 tains not one drone-cell. Both were used for 

 the whole season in the same hive. 



Photo No. -1 shows a group of drone and 

 queen traps of my special construction. 



On page 888, 1897, Mr. Doolittle speaks of 

 submitting our mites for the good of all. Al- 

 low me to suggest a remedy for the fear of 

 burning from a smoker hanging by a hook, as 

 suggested on p. 880. I have found it a great 

 advantage, in more ways than one, to have my 

 smoker-barrel covered with a sheet of asbestos 

 paper ; then if, in a hurry, your fingers touch 

 the hot barrel, you do not receive worse than 

 twenty stings in a bad burn, and perhaps up- 

 set your plans besides. The asbestos paper is 

 held snugly around the barrel by means of 

 copper wires. 



South Boston, Mass. 



[ We did use asbestos for a couple of years 

 as a lining for a smoker barrel ; but later 

 found that a supplementar}' cylinder or shield 

 with air space was lighter and better. — Ed.] 



