1180 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15 



things I eat here I woukl walk over in the 

 United States. My natural weight in the 

 United States was 165 lbs. : but hei'e I very 

 seldom weigh 135 — only two meals a day. 

 and very poor ones at that. The Cubans 

 have a habit of drinking strong coffee to 

 stop appetite, and it does it. A tin can like 

 a corn-can is tilled half full of ground coffee, 

 and tilled with water, and then Ijoiled down 

 half, then that is good coffee. It always 

 made me sick, and now I refuse it always. 



Later. — The above Avas written in March, 

 last year: and as I can see nothing to change 

 in this time I will let it go. Last season I 

 got 40,000 lbs. of comb honey in all, and in- 

 ■ci-eased to 800 colonies by June 1. 1 would 

 •say that 40.000 His. of comb honey did not 

 nearly pay expenses. I lost money. My 

 ^•rop should have been 100,000 lbs. Help in 

 carting, living expenses, freight, etc.. cut a 

 very high figure here. In this district where 

 I kept l)ees every thing is lieing put into su- 

 gar-cane, and I was compelled to move my 

 bees twelve miles away, which cost $200, and 

 I lost about 300 colonies in moving. One 

 cartload of 60 hives went into the river at 

 one time, barely saving the six oxen. I 

 thought I coiild save some; l)ut when a comb 

 is wet the l)ees will not stay on it, and I had 

 to melt all the combs in two days, as the 

 bees were robbing. 



After the l)ees were moved, Aug. 15 the 

 honey stopped coming entii'ely, owing to dry 

 weather, it not having rained since April, 

 and the remaining honey in the hives was 

 consumed in a short time. Not being able 

 to feed 1000 lbs. a day, as some say they do 

 in Cuba, I lost l)y swarming out, from poor 

 queens, ravages of worms, etc., until Jan. 

 15, when I had only 350 colonies left out of 

 800 June 1. 



This season has been the poorest of all. 

 Up to this writing, Jan. 25, 1 have shipped 

 only four carriers and one barrel of honey: 

 but" the prospects are very good now. I get 

 more honey either in March, April, or May, 

 than I do from October to March 1. 



I shall discontinue the coml)-honey busi- 

 ness entirely as soon as I get my sections^ 

 tilled which! have on hand, as I am not able" 

 to do business with the only coml)-honey 

 buyer we have in Cuba; and, besides, ex- • 

 tracted honey at 40 cts. a gallon pays better 

 than comb honey at 10 cts. per lb. In Cuba 

 the present price of comb is only 9 cts. for 

 fancy, and from that all the way down, as 

 this "only buyer chooses to grade the honey. 

 Of course, there is no troul)le in finding fault 

 Avith comb honey, especially where the bees 

 fill a super in from 30 to 100 days. 



I observe that, occasionally, some one 

 Avants to try Cuba for honey. My advice is, 

 if he can tind any place in the United States 

 Avhere he can raise an aA^erage of 25 lbs. of 

 comb honey to the hive, and get 10 cts. per 

 lb. for it, to stay Avhere he is. The Avonder- 

 ful reports from Culia are fakes. Some one 

 has foul-broody ])ees he Avants to sell. The 

 average for Cuba is about 7 gallons of ex- 

 tracted or 50 lbs. of com!) honey to the hive. 



For that reason it is necessary to haA'e many 

 bees to make a liAing here, t do not lielieA'e 

 that there are ten specialists in Cuba. Neai'- 

 ly all Avho have bees have also farms or su- 

 gar-cane. Avhich pays far better than l)ees in 

 Cu))a. Havana is the only place for white 

 people to live here. It has a climate tem- 

 pered by the Gulf Stream. It never goes 

 beloAv 55 nor aboA'e 93. In my district the 

 thermometer Avent doAvn to 43 "the first Avin- 

 ter; 34 the second, and this Avinter it has not 

 been as low as 55 yet, lint Ave may yet get it. 

 The prcA'ailing wind here is east: but in the 

 Avinter A\-e get the northAvesters from the 

 LTnited States, Avhich cause the thermometer 

 to tumble from 85 at noon to 45 at six next 

 morning; and by noon it aa^II be in the 80's 

 again. 



NoAv, please don't think that 45 is Avarm 

 Aveather. for I use the same amoiint of coa'- 

 ering on the l)ed that 1 did in York State 

 Avith 30 beloAv zero: and I stay in bed until 

 the sun shines. Nine-tenths of the people in 

 Culja die of consiimption from cold they get 

 on these days. 



In another article I Avill give an estimate 

 of the crop in Cuba. So far there has been 

 A^ery little. I Avill also giA^e my method of 

 managing bees, and a description of the hiA^e 

 I use. I Avas a student in James Heddon's 

 class in 1883, and haA'e been a specialist ever 

 since. 



Nueva Paz, Cuba, Jan. 31. 1906. 



SAVEET CLOA'EK; LET BEE-KEEPEKS GET BUSY 



AND SHOAV THAT IT IS NOT A 



NOXIOUS WEED. 



I am feeding our horse on sweet-clover hay 

 that, Avith permission of section foreman. I 

 gathered off from a railroad right of Avay 

 Aveek liefore last, after the trac^k men had 

 cut it down seA^eral days before. When I 

 hauled it into the barn the horse Avould not 

 eat it: but after it lay in the barn a Aveek he 

 took readily to it. I saved a quarter to half 

 a ton, anil Avish I had saA^ed more. I haAe 

 saA'ed sweet-cloA'er hay for years for horse. 

 I think that, if bee-keepers Avould take more 

 pains to use it as it is cut doAvii along the 

 railroads and higliAvays. they would find it 

 well Avorth saAing, and SAveet clover soon 

 Avould be more popular Avith the farmers. 

 If bee-keepers Avould experiment moi'e in 

 curing and using it, more farmers Avould be 

 planting it. In one instance a former road- 

 master took lots of pains to dig up and de- 

 stroy a little of it along the street, at the 

 same time saying lots against it. I circu- 

 lated Avord among his neighbors that I Avould 

 giA'e the first one ten dollars Avho Avould 

 shoAv me an instance Avhere it damaged a 

 farmer any. and no one came after the mon- 

 ey. The plant is condemned through igno- 

 rance and through thoughtlcssnt'ss. Consid- 

 erable good but coarse hay is left to Avaste 

 that would save some one some money as a 

 feed for horses and coavs. Eaci'v bee-keeper 

 Avho is a farmer can experiment. 



Bedford, Ohio. Ed. Hains. 



