7 



138 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



they were, in truth, /oo warm. Certainly the chaff 

 packing- is the thinf^ with young bees and heavy 

 swarms. What is your price of a Cyprian queen? I 

 want a Cyprian queen to try in this "land flowing 

 with milk and honey," as one man calls my locality. 

 I shall say no more about my honey yield, as I see 

 many doubting it ; but I like to jingle my money for 

 it all the same. I have offered to bet that I could 

 double it next season; and if I don't make a cent I 

 have enough of this year's product to carry me over. 



Arcadia, Wis., Feb. 7, 1881. E. A. Morgan. 



I am very glad indeed, friend M., that you 

 found the chaff hives too warm this cold win- 

 ter, for I guess " too warm " must have been 

 just about right this time. I am sorry to 

 say we have but one Cyprian queen now, and 

 no Holy-Land queens at all ; so I think you 

 will have to go right to friend Jones. *We 

 are glad you have got the money to jingle, 

 but don't bet, please ; for if you should, I 

 should feel pretty sure that next year would 

 not be as good as the last one ; and, indeed, 

 I am afraid you might never have any more 

 good years ; not that I think the seasons 

 would be bad, necessarily, but I am afraid 

 you would not work with the honest zeal you 

 have shown in the past year. 



A OOOD REPORT FROM ONLY SEVEN COLONIES IN THE 

 SPRING. 



I have 14 stands of bees, all of which seem to bo 

 wintering all right. I use the Quinby closed-end 

 standing frame, packed on all sides, and on top with 

 loose chaff, and I like them very well for my use. I 

 will give you my report for 1880, which I think is not 

 bad for the season, and a new hand. 



From T swarms in spring. 



Honey sold, 470 lbs., $70.18 



Bees ". 8.00 



Honey kept for use, 90 lbs., .... 14.40 

 Increase, 7 swarms, - - - - - - 35.00 



$137.58 

 Expenses, including 100 lbs. sugar fed in fall, 44.00 



Balance, $83.58 



Section-box honey, 



Best black swarm, 100 lbs. 



Poorest black " 90 •' 



Best Italian swarm, 90 " 



Poorest Italian " 20 " 



My experience with Italians does not place them 

 ahead of the blacks for comb honey in this locality; 

 but for raising bees, and swarming, they can't be 

 beat. D. O. Sweet. 



Rockport, Cuy. Co., O., Jan. 34, 1881. 



INSTRUCTIONS IN BUILDING UP AN APIARY. 



I should like to build up an apiary. 



1. Will begin with 3 stocks; one best Italian, two 

 blacks. 



2. Can buy perhaps 200 empty combs. 



3. Will buy all the fdn. necessary. 



4. Will set out in chaff hives as early as weather 

 will permit. 



5. Will use sugar every day for feeding that is 

 economical for the whole season. 



6. In honey season, I want stocks strojif/. When 

 it ctast%, then /ecd. 



Please give instructions in your next issue. 



Albany, 111., Jan. 25, 1881. Z. D. Paddock. 



Why, friend P., you do not need any in- 

 struction, that I see. Your head seems to 

 be "level," all the way from first to sixth- 

 ly. Just go ahead, and do so. As to buying 



those combs, do so, by all means, unless you 

 will have to pay more for them than you can 

 get frames tilled with fdn. for. Unless the 

 combs are extra nice, I think I should pre- 

 fer the fdn. 



SELLING BEES. 



We have a hard winter on bees. My bees in chaff 

 hives are almost all dead, so we will have a nice time 

 for increasing in the spring. I should like to sell 

 you some bees by the pound. I would like to bring 

 you a load every teri days from about the middle of 

 May. 



ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 



Now I Will tell you my way to increase bees. I 

 take 3 strong stocks, which I call No. 1, 3, and 3. 

 Now I drive all the bees out of No. 1 and put in a 

 new hive with combs, and call it No. 4, and put it 

 where No. 1 is, and move No. 3 to a new stand, and 

 put 1 in its place, and give 1 a queen, and in 5 days I 

 drive No. 3 and put them in a new hive with comb, 

 and put it where No. 2 stood, and give 2 a queen, and 

 move 1 to a new stand, and so on every 5 days as 

 long as you wish. C. J. Yoder. 



Orrville, Wayne Co., O., Feb. 3, 1881. 



I would suggest to friend Y., and many 

 others who propose to sell bees, that by far 

 the better way would be for them to adver- 

 tise the bees by the pound, and then ship 

 them direct to those who -want them. If I 

 buy them, it will be only to sell again; and 

 with the experience I have had, I should 

 have to buy them at about half what I sell 

 them for, to cover expense of shipping- 

 cages, and losses in transit, etc. If you send 

 them direct to the consumer, all this will be 

 saved. As bees must always go by express, 

 there will be none or but little advantage iu 

 having them sent with other goods. I think 

 it likely that, with a good allowance of 

 Viallon's candy, we shall be enabled to dis- 

 pense with the troublesome water-bottles; 

 but this yet remains to be proved. I can fur- 

 nish you boxes for sliinping bees, at a small 

 price. It is my impression that the food 

 should be placed above the chister, and that 

 the bottom of the cage should be of wire 

 cloth. Your plan of increase is virtually the 

 one Langstroth gives in his book, and is one 

 that was practiced for artificial-swarming 

 box hives. The advantage of it is, that in- 

 stead of dividing a colony into two, you only 

 make one new one from two old ones. It is 

 a very safe way of increase, but I think it 

 has been mostly abandoned, because it is 

 too troublesome. 



TALKING TO BEES. 



Do you think a person can injure bees by talking 

 to them? A man told me that he sold two swarms 

 of bees, and then he asked the owner's consent to 

 talk to the bees. The man said he might, and so he 

 talked to one swarm. He said,— 



"I want the first swarm that comes out of this 

 hive to run away to the woods, and the second 

 swarm I want the millers to destroy." 



Well, when the first swarm came out, surely 

 enough they did run away to the woods, and the sec- 

 ond swarm filled the hive two-thirds full of comb, 

 and then he said that one day the bees were all lay- 

 ing on the outside of the hive. Then the owner 

 asked him if he could tell him what the matter was 

 with that second swarm of bees. He told him that 



