188S 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



11 



liEABNINO TO KEEP BEES. 



AN A B C SCHOLAR OF LESS THAN A YEAR'S EXPE- 

 RIENCE. 



S BEGAN to keep bees last spring. I had read 

 about them in a general way before: but about 

 that time I began to read Gleanings; and, as a 

 natural consequence, I soon had a very bad case of 

 "bee-fever," and determined to keep a few myself. 

 I did so with many misgivings. I live in the city of 

 New York, but well above tho thickly settled por- 

 tion. There arc no farms within miles of me, and of 

 course no buckwheat. There is very little bass- 

 wood, and not much white clover. I thought that a 

 few colonies might manage to live; but what trou- 

 bled me most was the fact that T would be away from 

 home during July and August. 1 have since found 

 out that bees do well, even down in the heart of tho 

 city, on the roof of a store, but I do not know of any 

 that are left to themselves during two whole sum- 

 mer months. 



BUYING SUPPLIES, ETC. 



I wrote for prices to various parties, and in due 

 time had lots of circulai-s. Not knowing any of 

 these dealers, I thought I would establish a sort of 

 competitive examination, and order bees to the 

 same amount from several, and so find out which 

 did the best; but the bees reached me at such irreg- 

 ular intervals that the test did not amount to much. 

 I would advise my brother-beginners, before order- 

 ing from an unknown party, to find out two or three 

 points: 1. How large a " frame" is; 3. Whether it is 

 to have brood and honey in it, or not; 3. Whether 

 the seller is going to keep your money long enough 

 to raise the bees after he gets it, or until the price 

 has fallen considerably. 



D'ln't understand me as meaning that bee-men do 

 business in this way as a general rule; but the be- 

 ginner will not be any worse off for knowing that a 

 three or four frame nucleus from one dealer is some- 

 times a good deal larger than a so-called "full colo- 

 ny" from another. 



ALBINOS. 



For the sake of variety I ordered one nucleus of 

 alb'nos. I don't know whether I got the right sort 

 of albinos, but I have received Italians from other 

 dealers which no one can tell from those sold as al- 

 binos. Is there any distinctive mark, or is it only a 

 question of a shade lighter yellow? 



I received my first bees on the 16th of June, and T 

 must confess that it was with a great deal of hesita- 

 tion that I began my first actual experience. I set 

 the shipping-box inside of one of my hives, and re- 

 moved the wire cloth. Of course, the bees came out 

 with a rush, and I sat down very suddenly. I ex- 

 pected they ivould come out: but when they did I 

 felt embarrassed. I concluded that they were coun- 

 try bees, and so I left them for a couple of hours to 

 get used to city life. 



After I thought they had settled down I opened 

 the box, took out the frames, and bung each of them 

 between two of mine in the hive. Then 1 shook off 

 the bees from one frame, carried it off a few rods 

 and transferred the comb, returned it, and took the 

 next. All this time I was expecting to get stung, 

 and was rather astonished that I did not. I knew 

 that all the authorities said that one need not be 

 stung, but I have found out that green hands in any 

 art are pretty apt to have these little needless 

 things happen, and I had counted on a dozen stings 

 "at least."' I will add here, that though it still makes 



me nervous to have a bee fly at me, and though I 

 have " fussed" over my bees continually, when they 

 were in a good humor and when they were not, I 

 have had only three stings in all. Twice I thought 

 the bees served me exactly right for my carelesS' 

 ne8s,and the third time I guess they did it only "for 

 fun." A bee-sting doesn't hurt me much, and I can 

 never find the place half an hour afterward. 



SMOKE FOR BEE-STINGS. 



I can not, however, agree with you in denying 

 that smoke may be a posftive relief for stings. I 

 once, while out camping, tore a good-sized piece of 

 the thick skin off the palm of my hand, making a 

 very bad sore. I was urged to try the smoke from 

 burning sugar for it; and though I had no faith in it 

 I did so, and was astonished at the relief it gave me. 

 Next time you hurt yourself. Just smoke the place 

 with sugar till it is yellow or brown, and see. 



GETTING A SWARM OF HYBRIDS, WITHOUT BUYING 

 THEM. 



My second nucleus came June 28th. The dealer 

 who sent them sent an empty hive with them to 

 make up for the delay. I was very busy that day, 

 and so I told the boy who brought them from the 

 express office to leave them in the shade near the 

 others, and not to open them. Now, it was nearly 

 dark before I had time to attend to them. When I 

 did go out I found lots of bees flying from the hive, 

 and thought at first they had got out, but found, on 

 examination, that one of the hives was closed with 

 wire cloth, and contained four full and one empty 

 frame, with a proper number of bees and a queen. 

 After transferring them it was so dark that I could 

 only see that in the other hive were four empty and 

 one full frame. I thought the full comb had been 

 put in there to give the bees in the other hive more 

 I'oom, and that my first bees finding it unprotected 

 had attorn ptfd to I'ob it. As it was so late I thought 

 I would not do any thing about it, but would como 

 out early and see that their robbing stopped with 

 that one comb. Next morning the hive seemed full 

 of bees; and on noticing them more closely I found 

 they had only two band'', and were darker than tho 

 others. This set me to investigating, and it was not 

 long before I found out I had a flue swarm of hy- 

 brids. Where they came from I do not know; but 

 there they were already hived, and they have been 

 doing well ever since, raising a pure queen for 

 themselves from brood given them this f»ll. If the 

 empty hive hnd been there for several days I should 

 not have thought it so strange; but the bees came 

 the same day the hive did. Now, what do you think 

 of it? I wrote to the man I boughi the bees of, and 

 he Slid he sent only one colony and an empty hive. Is 

 it pos-ible. that in the few hours that hive s^ood UU' 

 occupied, the bees fouud it, concluded that it was a 

 good place to keep house, and moved in, bringing 

 their queen along? I thought the hive might pos- 

 sess some hidden virtue; but though I "set it again" 

 after transferring, I can not report any further cap- 

 tures. 



All of my " dollar" queens, and I have bought no 

 others, have turned out pure except one. That one 

 I am in d( mbt about. Most of her bees are beautiful 

 light Italians, with three bands; but once in a while 

 I see one that has no yellow at all. No one would 

 notice them unless looking specially for them. 

 Would you call that queen a hybrid? 



MELILOT, ETC. 



White clover bloomed here June 9th, and tho tulip- 

 tree (whitewood) on the 10th. I never saw a bee on 



