1881 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



173 



pers. Remember, my article was written Sept. 6, 1880, 

 before surplus crates and upper stories were taken 

 off, and I said in the article, " Remove 3 or i frames 

 of honey from the brood-chamber (choosing the 

 lightest.) " Now, the fact was, when I came to pack 

 them the swarms were so heavy I could not remove 

 a»ii/ frames. I had 5 Modest hives, 11 frames each; 

 19 L. hives, 12 8-f rame and 7 10-f rame. I left all frames 

 la. I used a shade-board before each hive. It froze 

 up Oct. 26th for good. Nov. 13th, three inches of 

 snow fell, and we have had snow, more and more, 

 ever since. To-day makes 123 days that sleighing 

 has been good, and now the snow is 3'/2 feet deep on 

 a level, and in many places 25 feet in drifts. Trains 

 have been suspended many times, several days at a 

 time, during Nov., Dec, and Jan. The cold was in- 

 tense, three limes dropping to 40° below zero. I 

 have kept a diary of the weather, and can furnish it 

 if desired. It has thawed in the sun only 11 days 

 this winter so far, and only T days in the shade; but 

 bees have managed to fly on four different occasions, 

 and I hare examined them to-day. I find 20 filling 

 the hive with hatching bees in i combs, and cluster 

 coming down to bottom-board ; 3 I found no brood in, 

 and crowded them on 4 fram^^s, and one I crowded 

 on 2 frames. Inside of all hives are dry and clean, 

 with plenty of clean sealed honey. They seem to be 

 carrying in water very fast on warm days. I have 

 kept them shoveled out all the time. The snow is 

 banked up all around them 6 feet high. This I cover 

 in front of hives with straw litter. Thus I have lost 

 none, and consider them safe now; 20 of them are 

 as good as they are generally on Maj' 15th. 



ITALIANS AHEAD. 



My bees are all full-blood Italians, and- 1 think 

 them more hardy than blacks. On raising the cloth 

 in winter they lie as still and quiet, and look like so 

 much grain filled in between the frames. I think 

 this quietness saves them. My experience is not 

 confined to my bees alone. I have been appointed 

 specialist for 3 years in this township, and therefore 

 have superintended putting away many times more 

 bees than my own, and in no case have I found 

 dysentery with Italians packed on this plan, and no 

 loss, while all the blacks have died with it, or nearly 

 all. Bees packed after cold weather set In have 

 suffered as much as those unpacked. One writer 

 says those hives which are breeding in February he 

 counts worthless. These I count the best. Show 

 me one with no young bees hatched in February, 

 and I will show you a swarm that needs the division- 

 board, and to be given a fraixe of brood at once. 



Arcadia, Wis., Mar. 10, 1881. E. A. Morgan. 



GAIiLUP ONCE MORE). 



HIS IDEAS IN REQABD TO HYBRIDS. 



jf^ELL, Novice, and my numerous beekeepinj 

 fl friends, here I am back again among the 



-^ -^ bees, taking a mental rest ; and I can assure 

 you it is a rest in real earnest, after spending a 

 few months in caring for the sick and afflicted. 



Now about the bees. I never yet saw them in bet- 

 ter condition at any season of the year than they 

 are at this present time. The poorest stock I have 

 is in as good condition as the best was at this time 

 last season. I had last fall, when I left, 112 stocks; 

 now have 108; lost 4, probably from queenlessness. 

 I commenced the first of this month to raise queens, 

 and divide. In reply to George Grimm, in Nov. No., 



I will say that I certainly have found strains of hy- 

 brids that were as profitable as any pure Italians 

 that I ever owned, and I have always kept them for 

 profit. This accounts for my never advertising 

 queens for sale. But if a friend wanted a queen 

 from me he invariably received a good one, and one 

 that came up to my standard for excellence. Mr. 

 Grimm and Dr. Hamlin were the only parties that I 

 ever received queens from that proved satisfactory 

 in all respects. My experience has certainly verified 

 the fact, that certain strains of hybrids arc as good 

 in all respects as the purest Italian, for honey-gath- 

 ering. My practice has always been to keep weed- 

 ing out all unproductive queens or stocks that did 

 not come up to my standard. I aim to get them fair- 

 ly well marked; care nothing about their combative- 

 ness if the queen will only produce the eggs and the 

 workers produce the honey. 1 introduce new blood 

 by having one good queen of standard purity (never 

 mind the extra light color.) By the way, I opened a 

 hive on the 3d inst. where my imported queen died 

 last year, and I found 8 Standard L. frames filled 

 with brood in the main hive (a ten-frame hive), and 

 5 filled in the super. The bees are quite dark color- 

 ed ; a great many people would not be satisfied with 

 them. But they are just the kind that suit me. I 

 find that all my queens raised from the dark leath- 

 er-colored one are booming stocks now, and ready 

 to divide. I commenced to take off my supers, hut 

 found the bees storing new honey in them, and so 

 strong in numbers that it was not necessar}' to con- 

 fine them below in order to economize heat, and the 

 weather is extra warm. Last season, with one light 

 stock and cool weather, it was necessary, as it made 

 about three weeks' difference, on an average, in 

 swarming. Quite an item. Wc will need more rain 

 in order to secure a large yield of honey; but there 

 is plenty of time for rain yet, and a great deal de- 

 pends upon whether we have much of those terri- 

 ble drj' and hot Arizona-Desert winds. I am mak- 

 ing hives, and getting ready for the season, come or 

 not. Will try to let the readers of Gleanings hear 

 from me each month for the next a months, if noth- 

 ing prevents. Elisha Gallup. 

 Santa Paula, Cal., March 7, 1881. 



extracted HONEY, HARVESTING, HANDLING, MAR- 

 KETING, 



Is the title of a little pamphlet by our friends 

 Dadant, and is certainly a valuable contribution to 

 our bee literature. One of the principal points of 

 the little treatise is one I have many times urged; 

 viz., adding story after story to the hives as fast as 

 the bees fill frames, until the whole product of the 

 season stands tiered up, right whore it was gather- 

 ed. I have had four stories filled thus, with almost 

 solid frames of capped honey, and with us the honey, 

 when left thus on the hives, is always of superior 

 qualitj-. When all hurry of the surplus season is 

 over, take these filled combs into a room protected 

 perfectly with wire clot h, a nd extract at your leisure. 

 Put the combs back into the hives for the bees to 

 clean off, just after sundown, and j'ou will have no 

 trouble from robbers. Our friends will remember 

 that I have advised, in the ABC, taking away such 

 filled combs by moonlight, to evade all "onpleasant- 

 ness. " The little book is mailed to any address for 

 15c. It contains 24 pages of reading matter, and 8 

 pages of advertisements. We can mail it from this 

 office if desired. 



