936 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE 



Valentine Uhrich, of Myerstowr. Pa., in the apiary wliere he spends most of iiis spai-e timu 

 weather. Mr. Uhrich has been a beekeeper for fully forty years. 



diiriu;r the warm 



nies of bees to nuclei. As the objective of 

 the occupation was to study bird life, the 

 remainder of the apiary was sent over to 

 the mainland, where it has since prospered. 

 Should an apiary be visited by these birds 

 it is advisable to take precautions. We 

 advise attention to the trees where they 

 roost evenings. They are gregarious in hab- 

 it, and crowd thickly along the branches, 

 so that a few well-directed shots should have 



a very chastening effect. In the other sketch 

 we have shown the carelessly constructed 

 nest of horesehair and small twig-s. Usually 

 three or four spotted eggs are laid during 

 the warm months, the young emerging from 

 the eggs about December. In Australia the 

 nests are mostly built in the eucalyptus- 

 trees,* that is, red gum, stringy bark,t or 

 box-trees. t 



Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. 



BY ROBERT PESCHKO 



Three years ago this month a colony of 

 bees was given me by a friend, and the 

 next spring I increased it to tlu'ee and took 

 off two half-depth extracting-supers of 

 honey from the parent colony. 



The next spring we still had the three 

 colonies, and I killed one queen because I 

 thought she was not doing as well as she 

 ought to, and let them raise another. That 

 mistake cost me a fine crop of honey from 

 that one colony. From the other two I got 

 100 quarts of extracted honey. I shall never 

 kill another queen unless I have one to run 

 in at the same time. 



That summer I increased to six colonies, 

 and last spring I bought three more so we 

 had nine colonies spring count. 



Our lot is 50 x 125 ft., so the bees are 

 quite near the house; but they have never 



annoyed any one, and they seem quite 

 gentle. 



This spring we got one nice half-depth 

 super of fruit-bloom honey. We use only 

 nine frames in a ten-frame super, and find 

 it is easier for extracting. We got no sur- 

 plus from white clover. There were plenty 

 of clover blossoms; but the bees did not 

 work on tliem. Basswood gave a surplus of 

 40 lbs. extracted honey per colony, spring 

 count. We put up all our honey in Mason 

 jars, both the pint and the quart sizes, and 

 retail them ourselves. Tor the pints we get 

 30 cts., and the quarts 60. I think the best 

 way to dispose of one's honey is to make a 

 house-to-house canvass. It is hard work; 



* Encali/l'tits rostrata. 

 t Evcabjptus eugenoides. 

 t Eucalyptus polyanthema. 



