176 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 



But the next day they were on hand again ; so was I, 

 and I put them hack again, and destroyed the 

 queen-cell again. Not being satisfied with one trial 

 a day, they came out twice a day, and I would put 

 them back twice a day. Thus they proceeded, and I 

 was determined to conquer, until they came out the 

 twelfth time, when they united with a second 

 swarm, and T concluded to hive them together and 

 be done with them. So the honey season passed 

 around, and I did not got much honey. Swarm, 

 swarm, was all the go; the rest of my colonies were 

 nparly as bad, and so in the spring of 1880 I built 

 them up again in the same way, but took more 

 pains to give them room to keep down the swarming 

 fever, but they commenced to swarm as they did 

 the season previous, and I put some back till I was 

 tired; and, not having prepared as many hives as I 

 should have done, I commenced to run short, and it 

 was getting late in the season for swarming. I 

 would hive two and three that had come out and 

 clustered together in one hive, and as I was busy at 

 haying and harvesting, while I would be out of sight 

 they came out and left for parts unknown. In all, 

 there were six colonies served me thus. 



Now, I do not wish to increase, as I have as many 

 as I can attend conveniently with my other work, 

 but would like to run them for honey, and know 

 that a strong stock is worth two or more weak ones. 

 How shall I manage that swarming fever, and get 

 them to store honey? Aakon J. Weidner. 



Bigler, Pa., Feb. 21, 1881. 



I know this is often the case, friend W.; 

 but I would build them up, for all that. If 

 they swarm, put them in a new hive, and 

 get them to work in the sections as soon as 

 possible, and then, if you choose, make them 

 strong again with brood from the old hive. 

 A new swarm well started in the boxes will 

 seldom swarm again. If extracted honey 

 should be the thing again, as I half think it 

 will, you can easily hold them by taking all 

 their honey away. No, sir, 'ee, friend W., Ave 

 are not to be scared out of building them up 

 strong, on account of the swarming fever. 

 We can fix them in oiir apiary, by selling oft' 

 those by the pound that have the swarming 

 fever. Don't you see? 



ONIONS AS A HONEY-PJLANT. 



A NEW INDUSTRY TOR OUR BEE FRIENDS. 



WN March No. of Gleanings, page 117, 1 notice a 

 JSji communication from Mr. G. A. Willis, headed 

 "Onions as a Honey-Plant," in which he says 

 he knows that this does not belong to bee culture. 

 Although he may not know it, and perhaps many 

 others, the flowers from onions cultivated for the 

 production of seed form a great honey-producing 

 plant; and I claim that any honey-producing plant 

 belongs to and is identified with the interests of bee 

 culture. Although I may not agree with friend H. in 

 his reply, that they make a beautiful flower-bed, j'et 

 there is no accounting for taste in the floral world, 

 as in all things else. Having been many years an 

 onion-grower and a producer of the seed of this pun- 

 gent edible by the twenty-flve to fifty acres each 

 year, and a bee-keeper at the same time, I have had 

 ample opportunities to observe its honey-producing 

 qualities; and from thorough and careful observa- 

 tion have become satisfied that an acre of seed 

 onions is of more value to the bee»keeper than an 



acre of buckwheat and a larger area In a corres- 

 ponding ratio, and the honey is of a superior quali- 

 ty. The onion blooms at a season of the year when 

 other honey-producing flowers are comparatively 

 scarce. When in bloom, on all pleasant days it is 

 almost like walking through one continued swarm 

 of bees to pass through a field of seed onions; and, 

 like the Spider plant, drops of purenectar glisten in 

 the rays of the morning sun, and all Miss Bee has to 

 do is to walk from receptacle to receptacle and sip 

 the priceless treasure, there being from 100 to 300 

 of those receptacles upon each ball or flower; and I 

 consider any bee-keeper fortunate who has fields of 

 seed onions in proximity to his apiary. There are 

 annually from 50 to 100 acres cultivated within easy 

 reach of my bees, and if it is weather that bees can 

 gather honey during the bloom, I mark it down that 

 my bees are safe for stores. One would naturally 

 suppose that the pungent odor and taste of the bulb 

 and young plant might impart its flavor to the 

 honey; but I have never yet been able to detect any 

 ill effects from this cause. 



I apprehend that friend Willis does not contem- 

 plate going into onion culture for the production of 

 seed, from the way he talks, but proposes to grow 

 the bulbs for market or consumption, and inquires 

 for the best varieties. Now, this very much depends 

 upon the purposes for which he proposes to grow 

 this vegetable, whether to market in the green state, 

 tied in bunches, to be consumed by the purchaser 

 in that form, or retailed by the grocer to supply the 

 tables of his customers from day to day, or bring the 

 bulbs to maturity, and market in a dry state by the 

 barrel or bushel, or whether he grows them for the 

 production of seed. Were I going into onion cul- 

 ture, I should choose a different variety for each of 

 the different propositions; namely, for marketing 

 in a green condition, as above, I should by all means 

 plant the English multipliers; if for marketing in a 

 dry state, Yellow Dan vers; if for seed. Yellow Dutch 

 and Wcathersfield Ked, for the following reasons; 

 namely, if for market in a green state, the multi- 

 pliers come to maturity very earl^', suiHcient to be 

 sold in a green state, and at a time when other green 

 vegetables are scarce in the markets, and conse- 

 quently find a ready sale, and at remunerative 

 prices, if your land is clear fm* a crop of buckwheat, 

 or some other honey-producing crop or late garden 

 vegetables in the way of late cabbage, cauliflowers, 

 turnips, etc. I frequently raise a fine crop of late 

 tomatoes on my multiplier ground, setting the 

 plants in every third space between the rows about 

 the 18th of June, and, as the onions are cleared off 

 for market, cultivate and hoe in the ordinary meth- 

 od; if for marketing the bulbs in a dry state at ma- 

 turity. Yellow Danvers, on account of its producing 

 qualities and higher prices in the markets — gener- 

 ally reaching from 10 to 15c higher per bushel than 

 the other varieties. .Average yield on good land, 

 properly cultivated, from 400 to 500 bushels per acre; 

 if for seed, Yeflow Dutch and Wcathersfield Red; 

 for their productiveness in the growth and proper 

 maturity of seed, the Yellow Danvers — a strong 

 producer of seed. 



I have kept bees for over 20 years, mostly in the 

 oldQuinbybox hive, but have abandoned it — not 

 particularly from the result of my own experience 

 and observation, but from the result of the experi- 

 ence and investigation of others, connected with my 

 own thought and practice, and have adopted the 

 movable-comb hiveS) simply the plain Langstroth 



