670 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1 



ey-flow for the bees to recover themselves 

 again to begin work. Then the brood, aft- 

 er it hatches, requires to be shaken again 

 at the old entrance; and this causes anoth- 

 er interruption, and possibly the loss of a 

 queen. If the brood is not shaken back 

 with the swarm after it hatches, then the 

 shaken swarm will, before the season is en- 

 tirelj' over, begin to feel the need of the 

 3'oung blood that would recuperate their 

 fast-waning strength when it is most (if 

 ever) needed in the whole season. But Dr. 

 Miller's ideal colony that never thinks of 

 swarming will at least keep right on work- 

 ing — keep all of its brood, save all the fuss 

 and bother of shaking frames with starters 

 in, the building of drone comb, and with 

 all its reserve strength will go on magnifi- 

 cently producing honey. But the never-think 

 swarm I think is still largely a will-o'-the- 

 wisp, and so we shall have to content our- 

 selves with shaking for the time being", and 

 occasionall}^ shinning up trees to bring back 

 runaway swarms. 



CUBA'S FIRST AND SECOND APIARIES. 



A Few Mistakes Corrected ; that Mammoth Steam- 

 driven Extractor. 



BY H. G. OSBURX. 



I beg permission to correct, through 

 Gleanings, a few mistakes I notice (Mar. 

 1, 1903), in reference to the apiary my fa- 

 ther established at Punta Brava in the late 

 fall of 1883. As your guide was no other 

 than that able bee-man, Mr. W. W. Somer- 

 ford, it seems strange to me that I should 

 have to correct his mistakes. A. J. King 

 came to Cuba in the spring of 1881 with 100 

 nuclei of bees for J. N. P. Casanova «& 

 Brothers. At the same time, he advertised 

 for a man who understood handling bees to 

 accompany him to Cuba. At this time my 

 father was working for some bee-man in 

 New York, and, being of a roaming dispo- 

 sition, the novelty of the thing induced him 

 to answer the advertisement in person, at 

 their office in New York; and so it came to 

 pass that, after all the purchases were 

 made for a complete apiary, they set sail 

 for Cuba. In the spring of 1881, arriving 

 here with but small loss, the bees were at 

 once shipped by rail to Casanova's large 

 farm at San Miguel de Jaruco. Here the 

 first modern apiary in Cuba was establish- 

 ed, and it grew so fast, and prospered so 

 well, that from this small beginning an 

 apiary of over 600 hives developed in two 



years, and a large crop of honey was taken 

 the second season; but I have not the fig- 

 ures at hand, much as I should like to re- 

 produce them. 



The mosquitos, fleas, and isolation, 

 coupled with the extreme heat here in the 

 summer, soon had a bad effect on Mr. 

 King's temper; and whenever he would 

 wish to walk it ofl^ beneath Cuba's blue 

 skies, this mud, composed of 99 parts of 

 '• stickum," com.plicated the bill, so it was 

 not many months before he decided "the 

 game was not worth the tallow," and, turn- 

 ing every thing over to A. W. Osburn, took 

 his departure for the States, never to re- 

 turn, to my knowledge. After making two 

 good crops, and equipping the apiary with 

 modern necessaries throughout, it was in- 

 deed a model apiar}', nestling at the foot of 

 tall mountains, vine-entwined and flower- 

 laden. Kept as clean as a kitchen floor, it 

 received its full share of admiration from 

 many wealth}' visitors who were often as- 

 tonished at the magnitude to which the lit- 

 tle bees can develop an industry. There is 

 alwaj's an ebb time in our lives, no matter 

 how perfectly we write our life's history. 

 So the climax came one early morn, and 

 for reasons not necessarj' to mention in this 

 place mj' father returned to Havana. A 

 few months after his departure, I believe it 

 was, " the man who talks " blew over from 

 Texas and eventually dropped anchor at this 

 pioneer apiar}'. For a few months from 

 now on the history of this place is varied 

 by many different bee-men, including in its 

 last days of declining glory the able bee- 

 man, Mr. Fred Somerford. There was 

 some 700 feet of running shed covered by 

 the palm thatch. In the same spot Mr. J. 

 H. Ellis now has a booming apiary of 300 

 swarms (in the last war every vestige of 

 this once beautiful and modern apiary was 

 consumed bj^ fire, as was also the beautiful 

 summer home of the proprietors. So ends 

 the history of this forerunner of an industry 

 that is fast assuming vast proportions. 

 APIARV NO. 2. 



There is an old adage that tells us to 

 "look before we leap." Have you ever 

 thought how true this is? If more of us 

 would heed the teaching of those four 

 simple words, how much better it would be 

 for us I On arriving at Havana the bleed- 

 ing wound was soon healed by a flattering 

 offer to establish another grand bee-ranch, 

 this time for a nobleman with a full purse, 

 and the string always ready to pull. No 

 expense was to be shared or spared in mak- 

 ing this the ideal bee paradise of the island. 

 So with this object in view Mr. Maurice 

 M. Dussaq and Mr. A. W. Osburn began 

 looking for a suitable location, with the 

 result that, after much travel, the farm 

 " Santa Cruz " was selected. At that time, 

 1883, pineapples were not grown to any ex- 

 tent on the island. Santa Cruz lies about 

 half way between Arara Aranas and Punta 

 Brava, on the government stone road from 

 Havana to Guanajay. At this time this 

 was a fine location for bees, being near 



