230 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15. 



quarters seems to harrow them up far worse 

 than opening up the hives. The alarm is giv- 

 en, and the bees rush out naturally to find the 

 intruder. — Ed.] 



CUBA, AND THE EXPENSE OF LIVING THERE. 

 I've been here but a short time, but I do not 

 doubt that it is a good bee country; but there 

 are other things to take into consideration, 

 such as the difference in customs; the living 

 expenses, the different values of money etc. 

 Honey, they tell me, sells for half a dollar a 

 gallon here; but a dollar of this money is only 

 60 cents in our money. Then the expense of 

 living here is considerable. Meat is 30 to 40 

 cents per pound; milk 10 cents a quart; eggs, 

 5 cents each; kerosene oil, 50 cents a gallon; 

 gasoline and alcohol about the same. This, 

 in a country where it has to be used for fuel, 

 is considerable. There is no wood about here. 

 I have hard work to get enough to run a bee- 

 smoker. C. F. HOCHSTEIN. 

 San Francisco de Paula, 

 Province of Havana, Cuba, Jan. 20. 



A GOOD REPORT FROM CRAWFORD CO., PA. 



Bees did well here last season ; had the 

 most honey for years, and of the best quality; 

 little swarming, and went into winter in best 

 of condition. Tell Mr. Dadant to hold his 

 head up. I have three sizes of hives — one 

 size very large — and my bees have always win- 

 tered best in the large hives, and made the 

 most honey. Times here are good. We have 

 had two of the best seasons here ever known; 

 barns and cellars are fuller than ever before; 

 every one who wants to work is at work ; very 

 few poor; no strikes; no tramps for the last 

 two years. It looks as if our people were try- 

 ing to do better, live better, and be better than 

 ever before, and that their efforts were being 

 rewarded from on high. 



Steamburg, Pa. John Baldwin. 



IV. IV., N. V. — If your bees have plenty 

 of stores I would not advise feeding as soon 

 as they are put out on their summer stand. 

 When settled warm weather comes on, feed- 

 ing to stimulate brood-rearing may be prac- 

 ticed to advantage. 



H. K. J., Ore. — You can begin to Italian- 

 ize as soon as the bees begin to fly — the soon- 

 er the better. President Lincoln once said it 

 is not wise to swap horses in the middle of the 

 stream ; so I would not advise Italianizing in 

 the midst of the honey season. It should be 

 done considerably before the honey-flow or 

 after. In late summer or fall, queens are 

 cheaper, and Italianizing can be done at less 

 cost. Transferring should be done as early in 

 the season as possible. We would usually say 

 about the time of fruit-bloom. 



C. E., Ark. — We know of no method of 

 preventing honey from candying in barrels. 

 The only thing to be done is to remove the top 

 head, scoop out with a common spade into 

 tin pails and liquefy it. This is a good deal 

 of work, but is the only thing that can be 

 done. When honey is put into square cans, as 

 we recommend, the cans themselves can be 

 placed on a coil of steam-pipes, or placed in 

 a tub of hot water. This will restore the 

 honey back to the liquid form. 



IV. L. C, Ky. — Propolis may come from 

 various forms of plant life, because it varies in 

 different localities. In one place it may be a 

 transparent red and in another a muddy 

 brown. The bees may gather propolis from 

 the buds of the cotton-trees, and, where these 

 kinds of trees are in abundance, may take it 

 from them exclusively; but nearly all buds at 

 certain seasons of the year have a certain 

 amount of gum which may be utilized by bees, 

 and the gum that exudes from the bark of cer- 

 tain trees may also be used at other seasons of 

 the year. 



W. F. B., N. Y. — There is nothing you 

 can plant on as small an area as 50 feet square 

 that would be in any real sense advantageous 

 to the bees. Why, it takes almost a square 

 mile of good clover-field to produce very much 

 effect in an apiary. A single acre, or even a 

 whole farm, of honey-plants would not keep 

 more than ten colonies busy, if it did that. 

 Years ago we had on our honey-farm some- 

 thing like five acres of honey-plants all told ; 

 but the bees in our general apiary robbed just 

 the same, or wanted to, at least, when clover 

 and basswood ceased to yield, thus showing 

 that our special honey-farm was as a mere 

 drop in the bucket. 



R. L. M., Fla. — After queen-cells are made 

 as described in Doolittle's book they must 

 then be grafted — that is, be supplied with roy- 

 al jelly and larvse. Queens will not lay in 

 them, and it is altogether improbable that bees 

 would be so accommodating as to do the work 

 for us. For further particulars see Doolittle's 

 book. Sample foundation is too heavy. Your 

 rolls should be screwed down tighter. Brood 

 foundation should run from 6 to 7 feet to the 

 pound, and surplus from 10 to 12; but on your 

 mill you will probably not be able to get bet- 

 ter than 9 or 10. It is desired to get the bases 

 as thin as possible, being careful, of course, 

 not to mash the faces of the rolls. 



B. M. W., N. V.— For reasons that I can 

 not stop to enumerate, there are many objec- 

 tions to a house-apiary. If you have plenty 

 of room in a yard, and are free from the dep- 

 redations of thieves and meddlers, I would 

 advise keeping the hives outside. It is pleas- 

 anter to work outdoors ; and then in the win- 

 ter, if the bees are put in chaff hives or in the 

 cellar, there is much less danger of loss. No 

 one has yet, so far as I know, ever succeeded 

 in wintering successfully, year after year, in a 

 house-apiary. There are many advantages, 

 on the other hand, in having bees housed all 

 the year round. For further particulars we 

 would refer you to the ABC book, under the 

 head of House-apiaries. 



