430 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1 



his eight colonies of bees, and what he had 

 in the bee-line, for $80, he assuring me that 

 there was 200 pounds of honey in the hives; 

 but when they were brought home I found 

 there was not ten pounds in the whole eight, 

 and they were already carrying out some of 

 their brood, which, by the way, was about 

 two to four frames in two full ten- frame 

 stories. 



As I think of it now it makes me think of 

 a man trying to keep warm in a tobacco- 

 shed. But that man believed in plenty of 

 room and the let-alone method. 



I at once sent for Mr. A. C. Allen, of Port- 

 age, Wis., a dear friend of mine, who came 

 to my assistance, giving me many pointers, 

 and helping me get the bees into small 

 enough space so they could control the heat. 

 I supplied them with honey and reduced the 

 number from eight to six. That year was 

 a very poor one. Nearly all the bee-keepers 

 fed, and that away into July. The result 

 was, I had to feed a good share of the sum- 

 mer; but it paid, for I put ^3 colonies in the 

 cellar that fall The next year I secured an 

 average of nearly 100 pounds of honey be- 

 sides getting a large number of combs built 

 with which to work. 



In my visit with Mr. Allen I made known 

 my desire to rear queens. Mr. Allen, being 

 a very prudent man, said all he could to dis- 

 courage me; but when he saw I was persist- 

 ent he advised me to obtain Doolittle's 

 Scientific Queen rearing and other standard 

 works; also to subscribe for some of the bee- 

 journals, which I did, and I thank God for 

 it; for my success was due largely to these 

 books and journals. Fourteen months from 

 the time I bought the bees I took an invoice 

 of the apiary, and here is one of the original 

 copies. It was these results that made me 

 realize there was profit in apiculture. 



FINANCIAL STATEMENT OF APIARY FROM MAY 23, 1902, 

 TO JULY 23, 1903. 



May 23, 1902, bought 7 colonies of bees, 33 ©Id 

 hives, 10 lbs. foundation, three-frame ex- 

 tractor, and a few other things, for % 80 00 



August 15, 1902, one colony bees 3 00 



1000 lbs. sugar at an average of $4.15 per cwt 41 50 



45 lbs. foundation at 45c, and 50 top stories at 45. 42 75 



1 queen for $8.00; lumber and molding, $7.00 15 00 



750 brood frames, $10.50; queen-cages and smo- 

 ker, $2.00 12 50 



$194 75 

 Sold 3200 lbs. honey for 262 00 



Increased to 105 colonies of bees worth $2.00 each 210 00 

 Sold 23 lbs. wax at 30c, and 29 queens for $19.00. . 25 90 

 Increased 750 good straight brood-combs, valued 



at 15c each 112 50 



Total income $610 40 



194 75 



Actual gain (personal labor not included) $415 65 



Actual gain per swarm in 14 months was $51.95. 



From this report you may wonder how 

 success came so soon after taking up bee- 

 keeping. Well, I studied the books and 

 journals, taking care of the bees the best I 

 knew how, and, as a result, I have never 

 lost a full colony and only three nuclei in win- 

 tering. If bee-keepers will see that their 

 bees are heavy with good food, and not sim- 

 ply capped pollen, looking after the tempera- 



ture and ventilation, bees will winter all 

 right. My cellar has been flooded an inch 

 or more two or three times, yet I have never 

 had a dozen moldy combs. Provide each 

 hive with a double thickness of burlap and 

 set the cover so there will be a crack for 

 moisture to escape. Remove the bottoms if 

 this can be done: if not, remove the covers 

 altogether, and just leave the burlap above 

 the combs. I have wintered a number of 

 two and three standard- frame nuclei, seldom 

 losing one. It was through a desire to win- 

 ter over some extra queens that I discovered 

 the two- queen method of honey-production. 



Early in my experience I learned that one 

 of the first things to be considered is a nice 

 lot of good straight all- worker combs. Many 

 persons with good hives and bees are still 

 clinging to combs with drone comb in them. 

 These are worse than none if used in the 

 brood-nest, for they occupy the space that 

 might be used by good ones, for a good share 

 of their profit is gone by producing drones. 



Having learned that success in apiculture 

 depends on the proper performance of many 

 details, I was Ud to consider each manipula- 

 tion recommended in the journals, and ask 

 the reason why. 



Here is where a great many fail: They do 

 things simply because some one else does it 

 that way. To succeed we must know why 

 we do a thing, and then see that it is done 

 at the right time and in the right way. 



In further articles I will tell how to pro- 

 duce more honey from a given number of 

 colonies, and also give a description of my 

 two-queen system. 



Madison, Wis., Jan. 29. 



[It will be remembered that Mr. Ferris is 

 the gentleman I introduced on the front cov- 

 er page of our last issue as the three- year- 

 old bee-keeper whom I thought would be 

 able to instruct some of the Gamaliels at 

 whose feet he had been sitting. We shall 

 see.— Ed.] 



»■« 



THE SCIENCE OF SUCCESSFUL WINTER- 

 ING OF BEES. 



The Effects of Moisture, and How to Dispose 

 of it. 



BY ALLEN LATHAM. 



The wintering of bees has ceased to be a 

 bugbear, and many bee-keepers are now as 

 confident of getting their colonies through 

 the winter as a dairyman is of wintering his 

 cows. This success is not due to a scientific 

 knowledge of the requisites for good winter- 

 ing of bees, but rather to the blind following 

 of methods which usually give satisfactory 

 results. It has seemed to me desirable to 

 write an exposition on the subject, and to 

 deal with it, so far as lies within my power, 

 scientifically. Such an article seems neces- 

 sary at this time when certain authorities 

 are staunchly advocating a method which ia 

 unsafe- safe, possibly, in certain winters. 



