1881 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



595 



call you from this life you may be permitted 

 to die without being troubled by very much 

 medicine. 



FRIEND MCNEILL'S KEPORT. 



BEES AND BEE SUPPLIES AT FAIRS, AKD HOW TO 

 FIX THEM. 



I herewith hand in my report 

 fnr 1881. Number of hives in thespring,9— all 

 — ' weak; four so very weak that I believe I 

 could have held all the bees in each of theni iii one 

 hand. The others would average perhaps a quart. 

 The honey season opened early. Indeed, I found 

 my bees doing a rushing business befoi-e there was 

 any bloom whatever. One of my box-hive neighbors 

 lost about 20 during the winter, and another 10; and 

 I found that this early flow of honey was due to this 

 fact, and to the negligence of the afore-mentioned 

 neighbors. 



First pollen was gathered Apiil 20, and from this 

 time till after buckwheat bloom there was a contin- 

 uous growth in my little apiary. It was my pur- 

 pose to build up my only two hives of blacks into 

 strong colonies as early as practicable, and then 

 break them up into nuclei; getting my increase 

 from these and my honey from the other seven, 

 which I intended should not swarm at all. But my 

 purpose did not seem to be in accord with their ideas 

 of how their family affairs should be conducted; for 

 while still having plenty of room for brood and hon- 

 ey, I found them starting queen-cells early in June. 

 They soon began to swarm, and they continued to 

 swarm regardless of my efforts in their behalf, till, 

 by natural and artificial increase, I bad 25 colonies. 



With such an increase I looked for little honey, 

 and visions of sugar buying to build them up, and 

 give them sufficient stores for winter, floated un- 

 pleasantly through my brain. But the honey season 

 held on bravely, and my colnnies, big and little, 

 grew and throve. Early in August I emptied my 

 surplus combs, and found, greatly to my surprise, 

 that my crop of early honey amounted to 650 lbs. 

 mostly extracted. The empty combs were replaced 

 just in the beginning of buckwheat bloom, and they 

 were filled again with this aromatic sweet. A 42- 

 gallon barrel has failed to hold my buckwheat crop. 

 I reckon my honey crop for the season at 1125 lbs., 

 or an average of 125 lbs. to each of the original nine 

 in the spring. 



Beginning a year ago last spring, with three col- 

 onies of blacks, the fall found me with eight and 

 $60.00 on the debtor side of my bee account, and not 

 a cent on the other. This season has added about 

 $100 more to the debtor side; but when my honey is 

 all sold I expect to have mj' bee account balanced. 



As there is little known of advanced bee culture 

 in this section, I thought I would be doing the com- 

 munity a service which they would appreciate, by 

 making an apiarian display at our count j* fair. My 

 exhibit consisted of a two-story Simplicity hive com- 

 plete; a frame of fdn., one just drawn out into cells, 

 and one full of honey; a brood frame of sections 

 with fdn. starters, and one with sections filled with 

 honey, and a frame with queen-cells and hatching 

 brood. Then, of course, I had my extractor and 

 honey knife; also a Peet introducing cage, a smoker, 

 samples of extracted honey, and a frame of Italians 

 with queen in the two-frame nucleus hive, which I 

 got from you last year. I cut out the sides of this 



hive, and fitted in two 8x16 panes of glass. This 

 gave a complete view of both sides of the comb, and 

 as 1 purposely left but few bees on the comb, it was 

 not a difiicult matter to get a view of the queen. 

 And just here let me remark to any of our bee-keep- 

 ing friends who purpose making a display of this 

 of this sort, don't neglect to have a queen in the bill. 

 She will prove a star, sure. 



Ithink 1 have been well repaid for the time and 

 trouble which my exhibit cost me, in the expressions 

 of pleasure and satisfaction which it called forth 

 from the many to whom I explained the wonder of 

 the bee-hive, and the methods of advanced bee cul- 

 ture. Jamks McNeill. 



Hudson, N. Y., Nov. 1, ISSl. 



FRIEND TIMMEItJtJA.N'S IDEAS ON SEV- 

 ERAL FOINTS. 



EHAVE been keeping bees 21 years in New York 

 and Iowa; have used Quinby's old-style box 

 hives; have been invited by patent-right men 

 to invest in movable frames, but I "got bit" on a 

 patent right years ago in New York State, and 1 

 would never hear of nor look at one again. 



I have 61 stands of bees. Last winter and spring I 

 lost 31 out of TO. In box honey my bees average 

 from nothing up to 50 lbs. It seems Strange to see 

 others in Gleanings have such large yields. In fu- 

 ture I will adopt the Simplicity, but 1 don't like the 

 idea of transferring. 



HOW far will bees go for honey? 



I once disputed with Hammond, a bee-keeper in 

 Fayette, as to whether his bees were flying past my 

 house, four miles out of town. He came up, and he 

 owned up. We investigated, and found they went 

 three miles further, working on a large field of 

 buckwheat. I live on a prairie, two miles from tim- 

 ber on the north-west; east, timber is five miles off. 

 Now, in basswood time my bees circlQ about until 

 they are 50 feet high, and more go east than any 

 other way. 



where do absconding swarms go? 



In swarming time, timber bees come out of tim- 

 ber, fly across the prairie, and cluster in artificial 

 groves. White clover is plenty on the prairie. In 

 basswood time my runaways go to the timber every 

 time. 



WILL BEES gather HONEY FROM CORN? 



Yes, and lots of it too, sometimes. They gather it 

 from the tassels at the same time they gather that 

 dark-green pollen. I always know what my bees are 

 working on. It is not every year they get a large 

 amount, say about as often as one year in four oi' 

 five. I have had them average from 5 to 10 lbs. per 

 swarm of the nicest honej'. It comes after bass- 

 wood. 



WILL BEE-MOTH LIVE ON CLEAR WAX? 



Yes, and come to maturity in a box of honey; eat- 

 ing the cappings (but not so as to daub or get in the 

 honey), spinning their web all over the honey, the 

 same as in a hive. No miller ever got in said box, as 

 it was pasted up tight and placed in a dark and tight 

 closet. 



Last year I helped a brother-in-law extract honey. 

 He had six swarms in movable frames; one was a 

 double swarm. It gave 20 lbs. at five different times; 

 first, clover honey; next, basswood, corn, goldenrod, 

 buckwheat. We could tell what it was at each ex- 

 tracting as easily as we could tell basswood honey 

 from buckwheat. 



