794 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



Winter ftueen-Kearing in Cuba, etc. 



A. W. OSBURN. 



As many have written me regarding 

 the rearing of queens liere in winter, 

 and siiipping them North in early 

 spring, I talse this way of answering, 

 as it is quite impossible to give per- 

 sonal answers to each letter that I re- 

 ceive. In the first place, the thing is 

 impossible ; for after Oct. 15 there are 

 no drones to speak of. There are a 

 few, and it is barely possible that 

 after Oct. 15 until Feb. 15, we might 

 get one queen in 15 mated ; but you 

 see that it would never pay as a 

 business. 



Now, in relation to Cuban bee-keep- 

 ing : What I know of it is, that the 

 management of bees for surplus is so 

 different from that in the North, that 

 whether it shall finally prove a success 

 or not, depends upon judicious man- 

 agement. As you know, the surplus 

 season comes here in the winter ; and 

 although it does not freeze, the flowers 

 bloom, and the bees gather honey. 

 Yet it is winter ; It is winter time, and 

 it is winter with the bees. Although 



I will report further when I have had 

 more experience. Our efforts during 

 this winter will be to secure all the 

 honey we can, instead of increase, as 

 we were doing last winter. 

 Cuba, West Indies, Nov. 27, 1884. 



Prairie Farmer. 



A Familiar Talk About Bees. 



MRS. L. HARRISON. 



A sprightly, energetic, old lady 

 called to me to have a talk about 

 bees. She said : " My old man is so 

 quare, he never wants to change, 

 wants to do just as his father did. 

 When we begun house-keeping, his 

 father gave us a swarm of bees in a 

 •gum,' and said to me, now Liddy be 

 sure and salt these bees on AVasliiug- 

 ton's birthday, or they will do no 

 good, and if Jesse should die, rap on 

 the hive and tell the bees about it." 



As the bees were given to me to 

 " salt," I took an interest in them, 

 and I wanted .Jesse to get some patent 

 hives. But he said, " father never 

 spent one cent for his bees, except to 

 buy a quarter's worth of brimstun in 



they are in a tropical climate, their i the fall, and I'm not going to, either. 



nature is not materially changed. He melted the brimstun, and then 



They kill off their drones, the queens 

 lay sparingly, they seal up every 

 crack in their hives, they are cross 

 and hard to handle, and when dis- 

 turbed are liable to ball their queen, 

 and everything goes to show the close 

 observer that they are preparing for 

 a season of rest ; if not to "hibernate," 

 to suspend all, or nearly all operations 

 until the next spring. 



But the long, cold winter of the 

 North does not come with the severity 

 that it does in New York or ^lichi- 

 gan ; but instead, a temperate, cool, 

 fall weather, during which there is 

 plenty of honey to gather, yet the 

 colonies are not strong like they would 

 be in May or June, and, of course, 

 the amount of honey cannot be gath- 

 ered, as the days are short, and the 

 nights are cool, thus making it hard 

 to properly evaporate honey. All 

 conditions seem to be unfavorable to 

 great success, or to securing a large 

 honey yield at a season of the year 

 when, to my mind, nature had de- 

 signed tliat the honey-bee should be 

 asleep. Our surplus season is near at 

 hand now, and were it the first of 

 June, instead of December, large re- 

 sults could be expected, for the honey 

 is here, but tbe workers are few, and 

 the time of the year is against them. 



For the first six or eight months 

 that I was here, I was told, by the 

 native bee-keepers, great stories about 

 Cuban bee-keeping, and the honey 

 resources at all times of the year ; but 

 I have not found their statements 

 "to pan out" worth a cent. From 

 July 1 to Nov. 1 we had four months 

 of honey dearth, when the bees did 

 not make a living. I will not say that 

 the business will not be made a suc- 

 cess finally, but I will say this : I 

 know that there is much to learn 

 about the winter management of 

 bees, in order to make them profitable 

 at this unseasonable time of the vear. 



dipped some dry sticks in it ; then he 

 dug a hole in the ground, made a fire 

 with these sticks, and set a ' gum ' 

 over it. In a few minutes the bees 

 had all dropped into the fire ; he 

 hefted all the gums, and all that he 

 tliought was too light to winter, he 

 smothered. Mother strained the 

 combs, and when she could not get 

 any more honey, soaked them in 

 water and made metheglin. At last 

 she boiled the comb, and made wax, 

 and always had a cake of it, to put 

 with the taller, when she made dips. 

 I tell you Liddy, the old way is the 

 best ; never had any one burnt up 

 with the pesky kerosene in those good 

 old days, and we had plenty of honey 

 for our buckwheat cakes, with only 25 

 cents spent for brimstun." 



One day Jesse was away and the 

 bees swarmed, and I put them into a 

 gum. that Jesse always said was too 

 small— not high enough. It was a 

 very large swarm, and the bees could 

 not all get in ; so I bored some lioles in 

 the top, and put on some starch boxes. 

 When I was fixing the boxes, the 

 hired man said, " Let me cut some 

 holes in the ends of them, and tack 

 pieces of glass over them, so you can 

 look in and see what they are at." 

 There was a splendid flow of honey 

 just then, and the boxes were soon 

 filled, and I removed them, and put a 

 large glass dish in their place and 

 covered it up dark and close. When 

 it was filled, I showed it to Jesse, and 

 told him I was goin^ to take it to the 

 fair. So I did, and it took the blue 

 ribbon. I was so pleased that I staid 

 around the honey exhibit, and I found 

 other bee-keepers did too, like flies 

 around a sugar barrel. A bee-keeper 

 (who did not know I brought it) said, 

 " That honey in the glass dish should 

 not have drawn the premium ; it 

 looks pretty, but it is not in market- 

 able shape." And then he pointed 



out to me little boxes that he called 

 sections, and showed me how nicely 

 tliey could be handled ; also a Lang- 

 stroth hive. 



I was delighted, and spoke right out 

 in meetin', " Jesse do come and see 

 this hive." He looked at it leisurely 

 and said, " What do you want me to 

 see it for, our hives are good enough ; 

 you can bore all the holes you want 

 to, and turn glass ware over them." 

 Jesse is so sot, I knew it was no use 

 to argue the matter further, and con- 

 cluded to buy some hives and say 

 nothing about them. 



When the owner of the hive came 

 around again, I asked him the price 

 of his hive, .and he handed me a 

 printed list. I saw hives in the " flat," 

 and they were cheaper than the other; 

 I did not know what this meant, so I 

 said, " Why are these flat hives the 

 cheapest 'f O ! you mean hives in the 

 flat ; they are the pieces of a hive all 

 ready to nail together. When they 

 are shipped more of them can be put 

 into a car in this way, and more can 

 be hauled in a wagon.' I told him that 

 I wanted to buy six hives all ready to 

 put bees in, and could I have them 

 the last of next May'i"" I did not 

 want to ask -Jesse to drive nails, and I 

 told the man he need not be afraid he 

 would not get his pay, because Jesse 

 wouldn't buy the hives, for I was 

 going to save the premium money 

 that I got on my honey, and add the 

 turkey money to it, and also whntl 

 get from poultry and eggs during the 

 winter. 



Peoria,© 111. 



For thG American Bee JoumaL. 



Wax and Comb Foundation. 



HOWARD U. ACICERMAN. 



The increasing demand for wax, 

 caused principally by the large quan- 

 tity used annually in making comb 

 foundation, has naturally increased 

 the price of this useful commodity, 

 and, of course, that of comb founda- 

 tion as vv'ell, until the price of comb 

 foundation has reached so high a 

 figure that niHiiy bee keepers are de- 

 bating whether they can att'oid to use 

 it during tlie coming season. 



There certainly is a point, beyond 

 which the use of foundation will cease- 

 to be profitable to the average apia- 

 rist ; but whether that price has yet 

 been reached, can liest be decided by 

 bee keepers whose experience covers 

 a greater length of time than my own. 

 I mean by that, the use of full sheets 

 of comb foundation, both in the 

 brood-chamber and sections, for we 

 could not well dispense with the use 

 of comb foundation for starters, at 

 any price ; although it would be so 

 much more desirable to use full sheets, 

 especially in the brood-chamber, for 

 by no other means can we secure 

 such nice, straight, all-worker combs. 



I think that it has been demonstra- 

 ted that practical American apiarists 

 cannot pioduce wax in any great 

 quantity, even at the price at which 

 it is now selling. Of course they can 

 produce some wax, which would 



