228 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15. 



adjust the entrance to suit the size of your 

 little colony. 



When you wish to make more little colonies, 

 get your box, now free from bees, shut tight 

 by driving up the nails, and proceed as before. 

 A little later in the season you can form a lit- 

 tle colony from each decent colony wintered 

 over, twice every week, and take the same 

 from your colony raising queen-cells too. 

 Keep a good lookout for your combs, using 

 those each time that may show any signs of 

 moth-worms, and in this way you will not 

 need to sulphur them if they are hung two 

 inches apart so the light and air can freely 

 penetrate between them. When the honey- 

 harvest arrives keep plenty of combs on the 

 strongest colonies so that plenty of stores can 

 be stored in these for winter; and as the sea- 

 son advances, use more bees each time in mak- 

 ing the colonies; and when fall arrives, if you 

 do not have all the colonies you wish, and 

 have plenty of sealed combs of honev for 

 stores left, take bees from several hives, thus 

 forming a strong colony at once, and hive 

 them on these frames of sealed stores. I have 

 so formed colonies in September, many times, 

 and had them prove the best of any the next 

 st ason. If you have some honey in your combs 

 from which the bees died, and you are "sharp" 

 in securing honey when the flow is on, you 

 can increase 10 colonies in the spring to 100 

 in the fall, easily, by this plan, without any 

 feeding or any outlay in cash for queens, feed, 

 or any thing of the kind; and if the season is 

 a really good one }^ou can secure some surplus 

 be sides. The whole secret is in not commenc- 

 ing operations till the colonies are strong, 

 nearly enough so to swarm, and then not rob- 

 bing them of bees till they are too weak to 

 work to the best advantage, using few bees 

 for each little colon}- the fore part of June, 

 and more and more as you go along, thus hav- 

 ing all come up to full colonies in August and 

 September. 



I have had to be brief with this in order to 

 get all in one article, but I think I have been 

 sufficiently explicit so all can understand. If 

 not, I am open for more questions at any time. 

 Half a dozen nucleus-boxes and a funnel have 

 become an absolute necessity with me in mv 

 apiarv ; for with them I can handle bees as I 

 would potatoes, and make them stay where 

 put every time. 



[On reading the foregoing I am reminded 

 that I left out a very important point ; name- 

 ly, that, when I practice dividing to form nu- 

 clei, I put into each nucleus more bees than 

 they require, because I know that some of 

 the old ones will go back home. The parent 

 hive is sometimes robbed of all its bees. 

 Those that return shortly, go back on to emp- 

 ty combs, after which they are given a comb 

 of honey. By proceeding on this plan I nev- 

 er have any trouble but that bees enough will 

 remain with the nucleus to take care of the 

 brood. The Doolittle plan spoken of above 

 will work, because I tried it when we were 

 selling bees by the pound, and when we had 

 the big funnel he speaks about, and cages pre- 

 pared with food. But it seemed to me that at 



the time it involved a good deal of labor — 

 much more than the one I practice. — Ed.] 



W$° l 



mSSSk 



ISxVls 





APIS DORSATA IN THE PHILIPPINES ; A 



CHANCE TO GET THEM TO THE UNITED 



STATES. 



Dear Sir : — After reading the above address 

 perhaps you are wondering who it is that is 

 sending you a letter across 11,000 miles of 

 ocean and land. Well, to explain who I am, 

 and the object of this letter, I will say that 

 my residence is in Dallas, Polk Co., Oregon, 

 and at the breaking-out of the Spanish-Amer- 

 ican war I was a law student in the office of 

 Daly & Hayter. For several years I have been 

 a very enthusiastic student of bee culture; in 

 fact, it has always been my pet hobby. I have 

 read Gleanings and your A B C of Bee Cul- 

 ture. When the war against Spain was de- 

 clared I enlisted with the 2d Reg. Oregon Vol. 

 Infantry, and we came with the first expedi- 

 tion to the Philippines. Our regiment was 

 the first to land on Philippine soil. 



I have read of the "giant bees of India," 

 and the unsuccessful attempts of Mr. Frank 

 Benton to get them to the United States on 

 account of the exposure to fever in the jun- 

 gles of India. Well, I write you this letter to 

 inform you that the largest species of Apis 

 dorsata is in the Philippines. Their colonies 

 are numerous in the mountains. They build a 

 comb five or six feet long, four feet wide, and 

 from % to 1% inches in thickness. In ap- 

 pearance the giant bee is a smoky, glittering, 

 irridescent, black, wasplike figure with orange 

 bands encircling its body. 



Now, what I want to do is to get some of 

 these bees to the United States, either by send- 

 ing queens or swarms. Knowing your long 

 experience in shipping bees and queens, I 

 write to you, asking for information in regard 

 to sending them — the cages, etc. It takes 

 from 20 to 30 days to make the trip from Ma- 

 nila to San Francisco; and as I have read of 

 your sending queens to Australia I don't think 

 we should experience much trouble in sending 

 from here. I have talked with several natives, 

 and they have agreed to bring the bees from 

 the mountains to Manila, for a small amount. 

 Will you kindly help me out by sending ad- 

 vice, cages, and instructions for using? In 

 return I will send you several queens for your 

 own use. John C. Uglow, 



Manila, Philippine Is. 



Co. M, 2d Reg. Oregon Vols. 



[This is indeed "a streak of luck," as the 

 boy said, that we have actually a modern bee- 

 keeper within so easy access of Apis dorsata. 

 We have sent him full instructions how to send 

 them by express, requesting that he send them 

 to Geo. W. Brodbeck, of Los Angeles, Cal. 

 The latter gentleman is to forward the bees 

 on to us after he has given them a cleansing 



