662 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



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An Experience in Keeping Bees 

 on Shares. 



Writte7ifor the American Bee Journal 



BY DR. E. GALLUP. 



The second season after coming to this 

 State, I took 48 colonies of bees on 

 shares. The proprietor had two young 

 men carry them that were not very well 

 posted. I found the bees in very bad 

 condition, only about 4 or 5 colonies out 

 of the 48 in any way fair condition ; 

 but the proprietor had lots of empty 

 hives and spare combs where the bees 

 had died. The combs were in good con- 

 dition. I furnished foundation to offset 

 against his ready-made combs. He also 

 had two or more hundred pounds of dirty 

 honey that he said I could use if it would 

 be of any use to me. I found out from 

 him about what time the bees usually 

 commenced storing for extracting, etc. 



He had what he called some excellent 

 pure Italians, light-colored, gentle to 

 handle, etc. But at the same time he 

 informed me that the best two colonies 

 he had for business, and the best two in 

 condition, were what he called impure. 

 He had procured the queens from some 

 party, but they were not light-colored 

 enough to suit him. I selected those 

 two to breed from, and commenced stim- 

 ulating in February. I had two rousing 

 swarms from those two colonies in early 

 March. I saved all the queen-cells — 

 some 30 — made good, strong nuclei of 

 one comb each, and managed to get the 

 queens all saved and fertile. 



In the meantime, I reared queens 

 from those two colonies, and superseded 

 all my old, worthless queens (and the 

 larger proportion of the old colonies had 

 worthless queens in them). 



Sometime in the latter part of March 

 the proprietor lool<ed through the api- 

 ary, and examining the large number of 

 " small swarms," as he called them, re- 

 ported to a young man that his apiary 

 was ruined. " Why," said he, " the old 



fool does not know the first principles of 

 bee-keeping. All writers say that 

 ' small swarms ' are worthless, and here 

 he has divided them up until there is not 

 a full colony in the yard !" Mind you, 

 I then had 2)4 months before extract- 

 ing time, and had foundation, and ready 

 made comb, and the dir:y honey, to 

 manufacture into bees. But to the facts. 



I secured 63^ tons of honey, and had 

 108 colonies of bees in the fall — all with 

 extra-prolific queens, and all in two- 

 story Langstroth 10-frame hives, with 

 abundance of honey to last them a year 

 (if it was required) left in the hives. 

 Then we had quite a laugh over his 

 calling me a " fool," etc. 



The following season was one of our 

 California poor seasons, but I made a 

 fair increase, and got S}4 tons of sur- 

 plus, when my immediate neighbors got 

 nothing. The following winter I divided 

 up and sold out to Mr. Mclntyre. 



The way I obtained my surplus in the 

 poor season, I never put on a super until 

 I filled up the breeding apartment to 

 overflowing with bees and hatching 

 brood. I took one comb of sealed brood 

 from any colony that was strong enough 

 to spare it, and inserted it in the hive 

 that I was to extract from, until I had 

 the whole 10 combs completely filled 

 with bees and brood ; then that colony 

 was ready for business when the short 

 flow of honey came. Of course 1 in- 

 serted either a ready-made comb, or a 

 frame filled with foundation in the hive 

 that I took the comb of b^ood from. 



Here allow me to remark that the two 

 queens that I selected to breed from 

 were dark, leather-colored, ertra-large 

 and prolific. I superseded his extra- 

 light pure queens, as he called them, for 

 it would take at least two of them to 

 keep a colony populous enough to store 

 any surplus. 



Santa Ana, Calif. 



Proper Care of Honey— How to 

 Ripen and Keep It. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY GEO. F. BOBBINS. 



I read the article of C. W. Dayton, on 

 pages 470 and 496, with much inter- 

 est. My interest in the subject was in 

 fact considerably aroused by some of his 

 utterances. I agree with him that 

 much more attention should be given to 

 the care of honey after it is stored, but 

 as to what is proper care I think he 

 misses the mark. He seems to think 



