296 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1. 



queens do not last as long- in Cuba as here 

 in the North. The strain upon them, con- 

 sequent on laying every day in the year, 

 uses them up in about half the time it does 

 here, where they have the winter for rest. 

 One of his apiaries near Matanzas is very 

 much like the one I have mentioned. A 

 bright young American boy has charge of 

 it. He showed me a hive that had given 

 322 lbs. this season, and the two upper sto- 

 ries were full of honey, and ready to ex- 

 tract. I have thought best to add a letter 

 received from friend Woodward after I left: 



Fn'end Root.— J have that last row of bee-hives put 

 up in fine shape, and the apiary is all cleaned up. and 

 looks nice indeed. I shall finish extracting in three 

 days more, and that will make 28 tierces (of 1200 lbs. 

 each) of honey up to date. I will keep you posted on 

 my own apiary the coming season. I shall do some 

 experimenting this coming season By the way, Bro. 

 Root, I see in the new ABC book, that the bees in ball- 

 ing the queen sting her to death. In all of ray expe- 

 rience with bees I have never known a queen to be 

 stung by the bees balling her; but instead of stinging 

 her they smother or suffocate her; but I have never 

 found a queen, after she has been balled, to be of any 

 value I have got foul brood all wiped out of my 

 apiary, and I hope it will never show itself again. 



The bees are getting a little honey at present. The 

 scales indicated one pound to-night, the first time in 

 several days. But brood-rearing has been kept up to 

 a high point; so you see again I'm not troubled about 

 my bees not having plenty o' brood. 



I am having young queens mated right along with 

 no trouble Of course, I do not save every queen, but 

 I save 90 per cent of them, and I did no better than 

 that in Ohio or Florida. C. E. Woodward. 



Guanabana, Cuba, March 5. 



In speaking of Mr. Woodward's apiary 

 I should have mentioned that he starts his 

 nuclei in little boxes that hold four regular 

 L. frames. He places these little boxes 

 right where he is going to plant his next 

 hive; and these boxes take the place of the 

 regular hive until the queen has filled the 

 combs with eggs, and the bees begin to be 

 crowded. Then the box is taken away, and 

 a one-story hive is put in its place. I saw 

 these boxes at Mr. Fred Somerford's, and 

 1 believe they are used considerably in 

 many apiaries. It not only answers the 

 purpose of a full hive until the four combs 

 are crowded with bees, but is lighter and 

 easier handled. They are usually made of 

 % or yi inch lumber. 



l_ Now that I have said so much about hand- 

 some and convenient apiaries, I feel some 

 hesitation — in fact, I ought to feel it — in 

 speaking again about "the best-arranged 

 apiary I ever saw." Can't help it, however. 

 When I got to Mr. Fred Somerford's I spent 

 two hours in his apiary, before he got home, 

 and I was obliged to conclude he had an 

 apiary that was at least in some respects 

 ahead of any thing else I ever saw before. 

 This apiary at Catalina was originally 

 planned and built by our good friend Mr. 

 de Beche, and he sold it to Mr. Somerford. 

 It is an old fruit-garden. There are orange 

 and banana trees, guavas, and ever so 

 many other kinds of fruit growing so thick 

 that the whole apiary is a dense shade. 

 There are two rows of hives about ten feet 

 ap^rt, and these hives are pretty close to- 

 gether; in fact, I found it hard work to find 

 an opening between two hives so I could 



readily walk through. You see I am tak- 

 ing back some things I have recently said 

 about having each hive with space enough 

 so one could walk all around it. There is 

 a purpose, however, in having the hives so 

 close. The alley between the back ends of 

 the hives is about ten feet wide, as I have 

 said, and it is kept perfectly clean, and the 

 ground is smooth and level, so you can run 

 a wheelbarrow or a cart without a bit of 

 trouble. The reason the bees do not get 

 mixed in regard to their entrances is on ac- 

 count of the dense shrubbery all around 

 the entrances. The bees have to twist 

 through nooks and crannies, each one to 

 find its own home, and this fixes its loca- 

 tion so it never misses it. 



Now, the " crowning " part of this apia- 

 ry is a shed of palm-leaves with the eaves 

 so low that they come down pretty near the 

 front ends of the hives, reaching beyond the 

 entrance so that no storm blows in enough 

 to wet the hives. His hives are perfectly 

 protected from the weather, hence they 

 need no paint; in fact, some writers have 

 said they are better off without paint. Why, 

 to get right down to it, this is almost a 

 house-apiary, and I believe it is the first 

 really successful one I have ever found. 

 One remarkable thing about it is that there 

 no bees under the shed in the alley. For 

 one thing, it is too 'dark; and another is, it 

 would be a little difficult for them to get 

 inside on account of the thick shrubbery 

 around the entrances; notwithstanding, the 

 rubbish is cleared away enough so the bees 

 have but little difficulty in getting in and 

 out of their hives. The advantage of this 

 arrangement is that the apiarist is always 

 under shelter from sun and rain; in fact, I 

 think he might extract right while it is 

 raining. It is so dark inside that the bees 

 hardly ever come in to sting the operator. 

 When they are shaken off the combs they 

 dart out under the eaves and go in at their 

 own entrance. I was all around without 

 protection, as I have said, for an hour or 

 two; and, even though the bees were busily 

 at work, not one attempted to sting me. 

 There are three sheds in all, with perhaps 

 50 hives in a row on each side, making 100 

 hives to each shed. The sheds are arrang- 

 ed in the form of a letter E. If he had 

 built one on the third side he would have 

 had a regular hollow square. 



The extracting-room is built at one cor- 

 ner. The combs are wheeled up an inclin- 

 ed approach so as to get into the upper part 

 of the extracting-room, letting the honey go 

 down through into a tank and then into 

 barrels by gravity. To understand the ar- 

 rangement better, I give a photo, taken by 

 our departed friend Rambler. It might 

 also be worth while for you to turn back to 

 page 734 and read the description. 



On p. 734, Sept. 1, Rambler tells us that, 

 although Fred Sometford has used four 

 and six frame extractors for a dozen years, 

 he has settled down on a two frame " Nov- 

 ice " machine. In fact, it is the very thing 

 that your humble servant, A. I. Root, de- 



