540 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15 



honey- flows; the chance for building up to 

 meet these flows; the swarming- problem, 

 and other conditions peculiar to the tropics, 

 combine to render a large brood-nest desir- 

 able. 



Our apiaries are run for extracted honey 

 entirely. The picture above was taken dur- 

 ing the honey harvest. Our manager (who, 

 with his assistant, appears in the picture) 

 was out of vessels to put the honey in, our 

 shipment of tins being a little late. Imag- 

 ine those upper stories filled, and honey 

 still coming in, and the pressing need of 

 vessels, and our manager's nervous impa- 

 tience will be obvious. 



At the left of the picture is a hive with 

 the cover badly warped, and the side of the 



away the drudgery from hardest labor, 

 and sweeten the cup of daily toil. 



In each apiary we keep about 100 nuclei 

 for queen-rearing, and requeen about two- 

 thirds of our colonies every season. Oueens 

 have no winter to rest in, but must be as 

 prolific in December and Januarj' as they 

 are in July; consequently they get worn out 

 early. Exceptionally good ones may be 

 kept for two or even three years; but on the 

 whole it is more profitable to weed out all 

 but the best every year, replacing with 

 3'oung vigorous queens. 



We use the Doolittle method of queen- 

 rearing exclusively, modifying the same 

 here and there as our experience and that 

 of others show such modifications advan- 



Apiary al Lhe Cross Clarendon. Mr. F. A. Hooper in the fori ground. 



hive covered with bees. Covers must be 

 well made in order to stand the heat of the 

 tropics without warping. 



Many and happy are the da}'s I have 

 spent working in the shade of those log- 

 wood-trees in "Auchendoon apiary." The 

 clear blue skj", visible through the foliage 

 overhead; the fresh sea-breeze stirring the 

 slumbering branches ; the gurgle of the 

 brooklet flowing hard by ; the beautiful 

 green "commons," spotted with grazing 

 cattle; the distant music of the ocean waves 

 upon the bleached sands of the shore; the 

 towering mountains, their bosoms decked 

 with tropical veqfeta'.ion, all uniting to take 



tageous. When our colonies are strongest, 

 cells are built between two frames of brood 

 in upper stories; and between August and 

 December we generally' use a ten-frame 

 hive, divided in the middle b3' a perforated 

 zinc division-board, the queen laying on 

 one side of the hive, and cells being built 

 on the other. 



A strange thing about Jamaican bee- 

 keeping is that no fear need be entertained 

 that bees will swarm during the heavj' log- 

 wood bloom. They swarm almost immedi- 

 ately after, however; and unless one knows 

 how to manage, supers of unripe honey 

 will be removed by the swarms to help 



