1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



217 



twice before he leaps across the stream and 

 finds himself in a strange land which the dev- 

 astating hand of war has tried to destroy; 

 hut the experienced resident knows that fire 

 can go only surface deep. So it is with a view 

 to shielding the bee-men, or at least those of 

 them who expect to go to Cuba and pick up 

 gold, that I have decided to write a little on 

 the subject, hoping that, after they have read 

 what I have to sa}' on the subject, they will 

 be able to decide which is best, for I shall set 

 forth things just as they are, and not write 

 for deception in order to further my interests. 



First of all, the question is asked, Is there 

 any money to be made by keeping bees in 

 Cuba? I reply, yes, most assuredly there is — 

 more, in fact, than in any other country I 

 know of. Then, again, a thoughtless iel- 

 low asks, "Is it much work to manage bees 

 there? I shouldn't think it would be, for you 

 have no wintering to bother with." Well, I 

 suppose he knows how many days there are in 

 a year. If so, he knows just how many days' 

 work he has got to do in a year in order to 

 raise a crop of honey in Cuba. To all those 

 who have the foolish idea in their heads that 

 they can come to Cuba, and from 75 or 100 

 colonies take honey enough in a season or two 

 to make them rich, I would say, drop that 

 idea at once, and stay at home, for such will 

 only be doomed to disappointment. 



There is money to be made by raising hon- 

 ey here ; but remember there is never a rose 

 without a thorn. The larger the crop you 

 raise, the more work you have. There is no 

 season of rest for the bee-keeper in Cuba. 

 The tropical sun shines and the flowers bloom 

 the year round. Commencing with the first 

 of March you have your young queens to 

 raise as soon and as fast as you can. If your 

 apiary contains 500 or 600 colonies, you have 

 to raise 125 or 150 queens, get them to laying, 

 and built up as soon as possible. By the first 

 of May swarming is in full blast, and you will 

 have no time to take a nap between swarms. 

 Then between the first of May and the first of 

 September the busy little moth will furnish 

 \ou with ample employment, digging him 

 loose from the corners of the hive and comb 

 from Sept. 1 till Nov. 1, or sometimes the 

 10th. Feeding and preparing for the harvest 

 will keep 5*ou on the jump till the first of 

 April. Then you have got to step around as 

 if you had coals of fire in your shoe; for when 

 the weather is warm, and your 500 or 600 col- 

 onies get limbered up, if they are in ordinarily 

 good trim they will bring honey in at the rate 

 of from 2500 to 3000 lbs. a day; and if two 

 men are going to handle this amount of hon- 

 ey every day for a month at a time they have 

 got to get a move on them, and have a good 

 backbone, especially if they throw it out by 

 hand. 



So the stranger can see by these few notes 

 that there is no fun att; ched to bee-keeping 

 in Cuba unless it is when he is making $125 a 

 day as we did several limes. 



In my next letter I will describe some of 

 the many drawbacks in Cuba; how to pro- 

 ceed to establish one of these large apiaries, 

 and about what to expect the first year. 



LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN WEED 

 FOUNDATION. 



The R. L. Taylor Experiments; Wax in the Walls 

 and Not in the Base, a Desideratum. 



BY E. B. WEED. 



In the years 1893'94 Hon. R. L. Taylor 

 made some very interesting experiments with 

 foundation, and published the results in the 

 Review of December, 1893, and September 

 and October, 1894. His object was to com- 

 pare pressed (or Given) foundation, with a 

 thin base and heavy wall, with the various 

 other kinds then on the market. 



The first year his experiments were conduct- 

 ed with sections of ordinary width; and al- 

 though he found that the bees preferred some 

 kinds of foundation to othes, he also found 

 that, after the preferred kinds had been drawn 

 to about the thickness of a brood-comb, the 

 bees then turned to the less acceptable foun- 

 dation, and completed the sections filled with 

 it about as soon as the others. 



Mr. Taylor very ingeniously reasoned that 

 if, in the next year's tests, he would use nar- 

 rower sections, more decided results would be 

 obtained, as the sections built on the preferred 

 foundation would be better filled, and weigh 

 more; so for his tests for 1894 he used sections 

 measuring nine to the foot. This time the re- 

 sults obtained seemed quite decisive. In 

 nearly every instance the Given foundation, 

 weighing about 10 feet to the pound, with 

 most of the wax in the walls, produced much 

 heavier sections. For instance, tested with 

 the Van Deusen, 141 feet to the pound, an 

 equal number of sections weighed 15 % lbs. as 

 against 9}4 lbs. from the Van DeuFen. 



Mr. Taylor's conclusion was, " Heav) r foun- 

 dation has a decided advantage over light.'' 

 He also made very careful measurements of 

 the base of the combs built upon the different 

 foundations, and found that, where the 10-ft. 

 Given foundation had very thin bases, the base 

 of the comb built from it was, in many in- 

 stances, even lighter than natural comb, and 

 very much lighter than any of the seven other 

 kinels tested with it.* The cuts are reproduc- 

 tions of cross-sections of foundation, weigh- 

 ing respectively as many feet to the pound as 

 the numbers indicate. 



Figs. 5, 7, and 12 were marie upon the same 

 plates, with different thicknesses of sheeted 



wax. Of course, No. 5 required a heavy pres- 

 sure to form it, while Nus. 7 and 12 requireel 

 much less; and if there is any virtue in press- 



* See table on p. 295, Bee-keepers' Review for 1894. 



