GLEANINGS 



IN 



BEE CULTUI\E. 



Devoted to Bees and Honey, and Home Interests. 



Vol. IX. 



AUG. 1, 1881 



No. 8. 



A. Z. ROOT, 



ruhlishcr and Froprictor, \ 



Published Moiillily. 



Medina, O. 



r TERMS: Si. 00 Per Axxum, in Advance: 

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 I or more, 75 cts. each. Single Number. 10 cts. 

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\ Established in 1873. [^K^S'tLnSl.ttl^^ar"-^"*'"^^*^'"^-^^'''"^ 



NOTES FROITI THE BANNER APIARY. 



No. 21. 



^ULY 1.— I have never scon the basswood-trees 

 QrjJ so loaded with buds as (hey are now. 



Jid;] 6.— Basswood is in blossom, and the trees 

 are just one mass of s'ellow bloom. When I pass 

 thai large basswood in going- to the "spring-" after 

 a pail of water, I notice that the air is fairly laden 

 with sweetness. I presume an orange grove would 

 smell no sweeter. It is very easy to see that the 

 bees arc galheiiug honey very rapidly, because they 

 go into their hives with that " swish " and " wiggle" 

 that always shows that ihey are "scooping" in the 

 honey. AVhat a humming the bees do makcl Sev- 

 eral times today I have gone to the door to see if 

 they were not swarming. They arc so eager to 

 gather their harvest, that they are loth to stop, even 

 after dark; and at the first dawn of the morning 

 those that stayed in the tree-tops all night come 

 home with their loads. (I guess that is the way it Is.) 



Jnhi 16.— And the basswood harvest is almost over. 

 I have extracted about 300 lbs. from my 18 colonies, 

 and their upper stories are full again, ready to ex- 

 tract when I get around to it. Yes, and four of 

 them are three stories high. Oh, yes! and then 

 there are the 70 nuclei, and a good many of them 

 arc "chock" full. There are about 50 acres of 

 buckwheat sown within two miles of here. Some of 

 it is already beginning to blossom; so you see I 

 shall have a good time rearing queens the remain- 

 der of the season. 



To-day is the day when friend Root and other bee- 

 keeping friends are having such a good time in De- 



troit. How I did wish that I could go; but I have no 

 cleris nor boys to Ijave in charge of my queen- 

 rearing business, and it would suffer if I left it; be- 

 sides, I might belter take the money that it would 

 cost me to go, and use it to help pay my debts. 

 Never mind, friend Root; when the time comes 

 right, I am coming to see j'ou. I dreamed, the other 

 night, that lyou came to see me. 



AN HONEST BEE-KEEPER. 



T,ast May I sent S7.5.00 to friend Townscnd, of 

 Hubbardston, Ionia Co., Mich., for T colonies of pure 

 Italians. I thought the price pretty high; but when 

 the bees came I was satisfied. They came the first 

 week in .June, and the hives were full of bees, each 

 hive containing 12 combs with brood in 8 combs. If 

 friend T. does as well by every one as he did by mc, 

 he deserves to bo patronized. 



THIEVES CAUGHT. 



A year ago last August I had two hives of bees 

 stolen, and last spring mic of the thieves was brought 

 to justice. He was fined .SIO.OO and costs; all of 

 which amounted to about $60.00. At the time the 

 bees were stolen he could have bought 600 lbs. of 

 honey for S^'jO.OO. Rather expensive honey, consid- 

 ering that, as the thief remarked, they " didn't get 

 more than a teacupful of honey." They were hives 

 containing queen-rearing nuclei. 



BEE-KBEPERS, WRITE FOR YOUK PAPER. 



An old gentleman living near here, one who 

 doesn't believe in " book farming," says: "The ones 

 that know the least about farming are the ones that 

 write the most for the agricultural papers." Now, 

 while I do not entinlij agiee with this old gentleman, 



