1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



377 





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If any of the reacers of this journal know 

 of a friend who can make use of a bee jour- 

 nal printed in the Lettish (Livonian) lan- 

 guage I shall be glad to get the address. 

 We get a journal of that kind here, called 

 Dlesilane. We have received many new 

 bee journals lately, and are trying to get a 

 copy of all published. A large amount of 

 literature has collected around the bee. 



That well-known bee-writer, Harry 

 Lathrop, of Monroe, Wis., not only dips his 

 pen in the apicultural ink-bottle but in that 

 of the muses as well. He has just publish- 

 ed quite a number of his poems in book form. 

 They are descriptive of Wis onsin scenery, 

 and of life in that region. His friends will 

 be well repaid by sending him 50 cents for 

 a copy of the book, as Mr. Lathrop sketch- 

 es right frcm nature. It is finely illustrat- 

 ed all through. The presswork is excellent. 



A contributor to one of our Russian ex- 

 changes, after reading what Mr. Doolittle 

 said in regard to combs never being too old 

 to be of service for brood purposes, takes 

 quite an opposite view. He found some 

 brood comb 25 years old. The queen, in 

 trying to laj' in this, was unable to back in 

 far enough to put an &^^ at the bottom of 

 the cells, and so she laid them near the sur- 

 face, on one side. E. R. R. doubts this — 

 thinks the queen was defective. 



A Russian bee-keeper took a rather novel 

 method to ascertain which of his queens 

 would develop the hardiest strain of bees. 

 He put two together, when one was immedi- 

 ately killed. The survivor was soon after- 

 ward pitted againtst another queen, which 

 she disoatched with neatness. Five more 

 were tried; and as she was victorious over 

 all rivals she was selected as the mother of 

 a new colony. Perhaps we shall hear some 

 time what kind of bees she produced. 



A writer in Bienen Zuchter introduces 

 queens in this way; and in the multiplicity 

 of ways some may find this a good one: 

 When I receive a strange queen I take ad- 

 vantage of the first fine day, and at noon I 

 open the hive which I wish to requeen. I 

 take therefrom a frame of brood, no matter 

 which, covered with bees, providing the 

 queen is not found there. I place this in a 

 little hive which I take to the cellar. It is 

 needless to say that I close the hive as soon 

 as the frame is taken out. About four or 

 five o'clock in the afternoon I give a good 

 dose of feed to my captives in the little hive, 



and then, about half an hour after, when 

 they are well gorged with honey, I smoke 

 them lightly and place m}' new queen on the 

 frame. I afterward close the little hive, 

 leaving the feeder in it. The next day. 

 when the bees are well at work, I carry my 

 little hive to the apiary, look for the queen of 

 the hive from which I took the frame of brood, 

 kill her, and smoke the colony moderately. 

 Meanwhile I take out the frame on which 

 was found the old queen, and put the frame 

 of my little hive in the place of that. I then 

 close the hive and the game is played. 



A German exchange, Praktischer Weg- 

 weiser, gives an interesting account of bee- 

 leeping in Siberia. The winter lasts seven 

 months, beginning in September and ending 

 in May, there being no fall and spring. 

 The snow is often ten feet deep. The prin- 

 cipal source of honey there is basswocd, of 

 which Siberia boasts 17 different kinds, 

 blossoming at different times. The wood 

 of it is used for all kinds of building pur- 

 poses, even for making sheds for the purpose 

 of protecting hives. Nearly all bee-keepers 

 there are professionals, and they select in 

 the forest, far from any town, a convenient 

 place for winter quarters. The hives are 

 nenrly all American pattern, set around on 

 four posts, provided with covers, and sep- 

 arated frcm each other in such a manner as 

 to afford easy manipulation. The colonies 

 are strong, about 15 lbs. each, only such 

 being kept. Swarms or seconds are united 

 to the number of five or seven, after having 

 taken away their queens and drones. These 

 are kept in a cellar for four or five days, 

 otherwise they are apt to desert. To catch 

 runaway swarms, hundreds of common hives 

 are suspended on the trees. The bees do 

 not go out between 11 o'clock and some time 

 in the afternoon, on account of the oppres- 

 sive heat. A good hive will furnish about 

 100 lbs. of honey which sells for about 25 

 cents per kilogram of 2 lbs. 3 ounces. There 

 are some apiaries in Siberia that certainly 

 have over 1000 hives each. 



BEGINNING IN BEE-KEEPING. 



"Is this Mr. Doolittle, the bee-man?" 

 "That is what some people call me." 

 "My name is Jackson; and I was told 

 that, if I would come and see you, you 

 would tell me how best to begin bee-keep- 

 ing. I have read an old bee-book by a man 

 named Quinby, and I have become nearly 

 crazy over bees — at least, my wife puts it 

 in that way." 



