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924 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



BEES IN THE SIDE WALLS OF A GRANARY. 

 Some Large Combs and Big Colonies. 



BY H. C. SEARS. 



Mr. Root: — I send you a photograph, of 

 which I wrote you some time ago. The 

 bees in this part of the country have had 

 difficulty in finding places to locate. They 

 have been found in almost every place you 

 can think of, from a bee-hive to the twine- 

 box on a binder. I took five out of a neigh- 

 bor's granary, and have four or five more 

 to take out of the sides of houses yet this 

 fall for other neighbors. 



The ones shown in the photograph were 

 located in the east end of O. V. Hill's 

 granary. The building is 20 feet wide, 

 and 10 feet high to the second floor. We 

 put the hives right over the bees on the up- 

 per floor, and made openings down to the 

 combs, and drove the bees right up into the 

 hive. The swarm in the left-hand corner 

 had not been there as long as the other two, 

 but had a nice start. The one on the right 

 hand had done very well, but about ten 

 days before we took them out, a quantity 

 had melted off from the bottom, and dropped 

 down; but they had rebuilt it, and got it 

 quite crooked. 



The one in the center was the greatest 

 sight in the honey line I ever saw, and we 

 have been in the business thirty years. 

 The first comb, as you see, does not run 

 clear across the space; but the second and 



third ones do. They were 22 inches wide 

 and 60 inches long. The studding were 

 six-inch, making a space 22X6X60, or 79->o 

 cubic inches, if they had built it dovpn 

 square at the bottom, which they were 

 working very hard at when taken out. 

 There was not a stick or cross-piece excent 

 the little inch block that shows on tlie 

 right hand side about a foot from the top 

 We have taken Gleanings almost ever 

 since it started; and if you have ever shown 

 larger combs I do not remember it. 



The picture on the left is that of my fa- 

 ther, who was 84 years old the 14th of this 

 month, and he has worked at the bee busi- 

 ness to a considerable extent for nearh 

 thirty years. He holds in his right hand a 

 honey-knife, and in his left a smoker. The 

 one on the right is the writer. 



Thornburg, la., Sept. 19. 



[You have given us quite a remarkable 

 exhibit, friend S. After all, I suppose the 

 only way to get combs out from behind 

 clapboarding is to take the siding off, and 

 cut them out just as you are doing in the 

 picture. Somehow these great combs make 

 my mouth water. Their very irregularity, 

 and being built just as nature builds them, 

 suggests a delicious sweetness that we do 

 not think of when we see the same comb 

 nicely built in the regulation man-made 

 brood-frames. It would be a great thing 

 to have a honey-harvest picnic on an occa- 

 sion of this kind. 



If any one can show up larger or longer 

 combs than are here presented, let him 

 hold up his hand. — Ed.] 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



925 



A MODEL CALIFORNIA APIARY. 



Extracting from Sballow Combs; bow the Plan of 

 Shaking Swarms Enables a Man of 60 to Take 

 Care of 300 Colonies, his Two Apiaries being 23 

 Miles Apart; Stamping Honey with the Produc- 

 er's Name. 



I send you to-day a photograph of Pomo- 

 na Apiary, which is situated just outside 

 tne limits of Pomona, on San Bernardino 

 Ave., 1''2 miles southwest of Claremont Col- 

 lege. The apiary is run on strictly scien- 

 tific principles, and consists of about 200 

 colonies of bees, half of which are run for 

 comb honey and the other half for extract- 

 ed. That means that I select every spring 

 the strongest stands for comb honey. 



The house in the picture is the extract- 

 ing-house, containing one large four-comb 

 extractor with twelve-inch pockets, to take 

 two half-depth frames each, or eight half- 

 depth frames all together, as I use mostly 

 the Ideal supers of ten-frame size for brood- 

 nest and surplus-supers. I find this ar- 

 rangement much more convenient for the 

 many different manipulations used in an 

 apiary run for both comb and extracted 

 honey, besides not having to do such heavy 

 lifting as when using full-depth supers, 

 which is rather hard work for a man 60 

 years old, especially when one has to take 

 care of over 300 colonies of bees all by him- 

 self in two apiaries 23 miles apart, my out- 

 apiary being located in Etiwanda, San 

 Bernardino Co., consisting of 100 stands of 



bees, all run for comb honey. Of course, I 

 use the " shook swarm " plan in both apia- 

 ries, or else could not do the work all by 

 myself. As it is, I have to " anticipate " 

 {a la Doolittle) my work during the winter 

 months by having my sections and ship- 

 ping-boxes ready when the season begins, 

 in order not to be hampered with extra 

 work outside the regular apiary work, as 

 so many bees will make one step lively 

 sometimes. 



Although we have had quite poor seasons 

 for the last six years, I have managed to 

 make a living out of my bees so far, besides 

 being much healthier now than I was be- 

 fore coming to California. What I know 

 about bees I have gleaned from Gleanings 

 mostly, being a subscriber since 1882. Lat- 

 er I have added the Review, and lastly the 

 Ame7'ican Bee Journal: and I must confess 

 I should be lost without any one of them. 



I have built up a fine honey trade right 

 here in Pomona, and stamp my name on 

 every first-class section of honey, Mr. York 

 notwithstanding, as the merchants here do 

 not object to it, and as I intend to advertise 

 my honey and not have it mixed up with 

 other products sold as "just as good." 



Pomona, Cal., Sept. 21. 



[Inhere is quite a strong tendency toward 

 shallower frames; and prominent beekeep- 

 ers, notably Geo. W. Brodbeck, of Califor- 

 nia, are using frames shallower than the 

 Langstroth. By using such frames in the 

 brood-nest as well as in the extracting- 

 supers, we simplify hives and frames, and 

 atthe same time secure other advantages. 



OK M- K. ''""^''S. POMON-., 



