298 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



OUR OAVN APIARY. 



■'AY 10//i,.— Although fruit-trees are not 

 yet in bloom, we have, for nearly two 

 weeks past, had quite a flow of light- 

 colored honey. I have been a good deal 

 puzzled to tell where it came from. Very 

 likely it is from dandelions, early cherries, 

 and soft and hard maple— principally from 

 the latter, I am inclined to think. We have 

 been tiansferring right along, and the bees 

 build combs and fasten them into frames 

 just about as well as dwring fruit-bloom. We 

 have about 40 colonies now, and more are 

 coming every few days. Yesterday we sold 

 about $35. 00 worth of bees and queens from 

 the 40 colonies, and they were still working 

 very fairly before G o'clock this morning. 

 Selling bees by the pomid is proving to be a 

 great success, and a great blessing— this 

 spring especially. A great many are now 

 keeping bees who are professional men, or 

 men in business. Well, these men have nice 

 hives, nicely arranged on their grounds, and 

 they are just as nicely arranged now as they 

 were last fall, except that the hives have no 

 bees in them. They do not want any more 

 hives nor any more combs ; neither do they 

 want to buy bees in box hives, and under- 

 take the troublesome job of transferring, as 

 professional bee-men do. What shall they 

 do to get going again, without any trouble 

 or bother except to hand over the money? 

 Simply buy one, two, or three lbs. of bees 

 witli a queen, turn them loose at the en- 

 trance of their hives in May, and the work 

 is done. In fact, the bees can be put in the 

 hive within five minutes after getting them 

 from the express office, and in an hour you 

 will have a nice w'orking colony. With the 

 tunnel described in the August number last 

 year, the task of putting up a pound of bees 

 and queen is but a little more than letting 

 them out. Go to any good stock, and raise 

 the combs until you find the queen. Place 

 the frame she is on otf a little to one side, 

 and then proceed to shake the bees from the 

 remaining combs. You will get a pound 

 without trouble, by shaking a few from each 

 comb ; but if you wish to get 2 lbs. or more, 

 or many bees are in the fields, you may need 

 to brush all the bees oif ; and the very best 

 implement for this purpose we have ever 

 found is the California yucca brush on our 

 5c counter. A bunch of grass is always let- 

 ting blades slip out, which drop into the 

 hives aiid bother the bees to get them out. 

 Asparagus tops are but little better, and al- 

 most any kind of a brush broom will hurt 

 the soft young bees. If you have no assist- 

 ant to liold the tunnel, lean it against the 

 hive, holding it with your knee. This idea 

 I got from neighbor II. While Favorite 

 scales are by far the handiest, almost any 

 scale will do to weigh the bees. The 10-cent 

 scale will do very well if used with a little 

 care. Weigh your cage first, and then make 

 a mark Avith your pencil where tlie index 

 should stand. Set the cage near tlie en- 

 trance, with the tunnel in the top of it, as 

 explained. You will soon be able to tell 

 when you have about enough, and you can 

 then shake it while on the scale until enough 

 fly out to have the index just right. Now 



put on the cap ; but before fastening it with 

 tacks, put the queen carefully under one 

 corner. You can then tell your customer 

 you know she was in, for you put her in the 

 very last thing yourself. 



We often hear of a single colony of bees 

 furnishing $25. (JO worth of honey, "and it is 

 my opinion that a good colony and queen, 

 worked for bees, would give full as much, if 

 not more, and the demand now for bees by 

 the pound is far in excess of any demand I 

 ever knew for honey. \Ve have already sold 

 bees and queens from single hives to the 

 amount of over $10. 00, and they are fair 

 colonies yet, and the season is before them. 

 Wake up, boys, and do good and get paid 

 for it. 



M(uj 24//i.— Well, I tell you, my friends, we 

 have had a busy time during the past two 

 weeks. IJees have come in by the wagon- 

 load, besides what the friends have sent in 

 by express, and they have gone out, too, by 

 the wagon-load. All orders have been filled 

 pretty well, except for dollar queens and 

 pounds of bees, and for black queens and 

 pounds of their bees. This latter feature a 

 little surprises me. In putting black and 

 hybrid queens into our price list, I did it, re- 

 marking we could supply the demand only 

 when we happened to have them ; but this 

 spring, it w^ould have required an apiary run 

 for each to supply the call. I presume it 

 has been owing to the anxiety to get bees on 

 the empty combs, and because these are so 

 much cheaper. Well, to fill this demand I 

 purchased 34 box hives of blacks. Ernest, 

 John, neighbor IL, and myself, all went in- 

 to the task of transferiing. They are all 

 done but 10. Said I to my wife at supper, — 



" I do not believe I will ever buy any more 

 box hives of bees at any price." 



'' 'iVliy, my dear husband, how can we be- 

 lieve you? You have said tlie same thing 

 almost every year ever since you have had 

 bees, and yet you always keep buying them 

 whenever anybody offers you any." 



" I tell you what, pa," said Ernest, " I 

 would not take any more of the pesky mean 

 things as a gift. The combs are all twisted 

 and crooked, and full of holes, and the great- 

 er part of them nasty and black, and good 

 for nothing. Then the bees tumble right off 

 their combs, scatter around and get stepped 

 on. They won't defend themselves from 

 either robbers or moth worms, nor do any 

 thing else but crawl up a body's trousers 

 legs and sting. One of the Italian stocks 

 tliat you get of Rice or Dean is worth a 

 whole half-dozen box hives, and I am sure 

 yon lost money on them, even if you did get 

 them for $4.00 apiece." 



" Gently, my boy ; you know we filled 

 orders by buying them." 



" VV^ell, I wouldn't have any such orders. 

 I wouldn't advertise them " 



I think Ernest is about right, my friends ; 

 but for all that, I like to furnish what the 

 people ask for. Perhaps I might remark, 

 these black stocks were all wintered in a 

 cellar. The owner is to have the old hives 

 back again, and he says he is going to put 

 more bees in them. If I were going to buy 

 them, I would furnish him frames of fdn. 

 almost free of charge, to save another such 



