1883 



GLEANIKGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



i8i 



seed and opportunity to give the " silverhull " a fair 

 trial. I make it a point to sow buckwheat so that it 

 will come into blossom just as bass wood closes, and 

 I consider it useless to sow earlier, either for seed or 

 honey. 



Last year the sesison was very late. The 6th of 

 July I sowed five acres. The soil was properly a 

 sandy loam, f put on V^ bushel to the acre. Bass- 

 wood honey closed the last of July. About a week 

 later, honey began to come in from the buckwheat; 

 but with something over IGO swarms to work on the 

 five acres, the surplus could not be expected to be 

 very great; yet they filled up their combs, finished 

 off quite a good many sections, and I extracted 

 some. The honey is not nearly so dark as from the 

 old kind, neither does it have that disagrecableodor. 

 I cut the buckwheat, and when it was dry I drew it 

 into the barn, as no machine was nigh, and thrashed 

 it this winter with the flail. When I got it partly 

 thrashed I estimated the crop at 80 bushels; but 

 when it was done and measured I had 110. From 16 

 bushels which I had ground up I got 103 lbs. of mid- 

 dlings, 103 lbs. bran, and 365 lbs. of the nicest buck- 

 wheat flour I ever saw, being very nearly 23 lbs. 

 of flour to the bushel of 48 lbs. S. C. Perry. 



Portland, Ionia Co., Mich., Jan. 25, 1883. 



Perhaps we might say, that about 60 bush- 

 els of the above crop is now in our granary, 

 waiting for orders, and we are going to try 

 and not get cornered on buckwheat in the 

 way we have been on alsike this season. I 

 am very glad indeed to get so good a report 

 from the silverhull. The amount of honey 

 indicated is far above what I would have es- 

 timated. 



HALF-POUND SECTIONS, AGAIN. 



WILL THE BEES WORK IN THEM? 



SUPPOSE you are almost tired of this; but now 

 that the subject is being discussed, I have 

 taken the liberty to send you a sample of some 

 sections that I used last season — as an experiment 

 — and also to write a little about them. They are 

 simply the prize section divided into four equal 

 parts, with fdn. starter in each part. I first thought 

 of this style of section when desiring to have a card 

 of honey that could easily be used by a small family 

 at one meal, and not have to be set away, until 

 " next time," to run all over plates, etc. 



I was afraid at first that the bees would not work 

 well in them. But ray doubts were soon dispelled 

 when I had half a dozen all filled with white-clover 

 -honey, and nicely capped. Everybody who saw 

 them exclaimed, "What handsome honey! where 

 did you get it?" etc. I found it to be the neatest 

 and handiest honey for table use that I had ever 

 raised; and the coming season I Intend using about 

 half of this kind of section, andhalf of prize sections. 

 If any of the readers of Gleanings have tried any 

 thing similar, I should be glad to hear how they suc- 

 ceeded. Chas. H. Smith. 

 Pittsfield, Mass., March, 1883. 

 Thanks, friend S. Your experiment seems 

 to decide that bees will work well in a sec- 

 tion as small as 2fx2|xlf at least. It may 

 make a difference, having them separated 

 by only one thin partition, instead of two; 

 but I think not very much. Your experi- 

 ment, friend Smith, suggests also another 

 tning : It is quite a task to handle so many 



small packages ; and in merchandise, we see 

 every day that they avoid this by first mak- 

 ing packages of a dozen, and then having 

 the dozens also packed in packages of one 

 dozen each. VV' ell, now, if we could have 

 the bees fill these small sections in a little 

 frame of four, eight, or twelve, and handle 

 them only by the frame until they get to the 

 retailer, we should have got ahead quite a 

 little ; but perhaps it would be better still to 

 adopt friend Walker's plan, and handle them 

 only by the case of 16, 24, or 28. 



" DAN WHITE." 



HIS EXPERIENCE WITH CHAFF HIVES. 



e BEING I have given my 120 colonies a good 

 looking-through after their long confinement, 

 — I will report how I found them. One hundred 

 colonies in chaff hives in my home apiary are in as 

 fine condition as I ever saw bees at this season of 

 the year. One drone-laying queen is the only thing 

 wrong with the entire lot. I was very thorough last 

 fall when I put them in shape for the winter, using 

 division-boards in every colony, tucking them up ac- 

 cording to the size of the cluster, and in every in- 

 stance I gave them as close quarters as possible; 10 

 colonies were on four frames, and the remaining 90 

 were on from 5 to 7 frames. 



Bees is this section stored considerable honey-dew, 

 or black honey, and I took this as well as most of the 

 old combs containing bee-bread, or pollen, from 

 them, not leaving more than one comb containing 

 pollen, in each colony. All the rest of the combs 

 were well filled, and sealed with the best clover and 

 linden honey. Every colony handled as above is in a 

 healthy condition, and 1 believe would not have suf- 

 fered for a fly for four weeks longer. 



I experimented with 6 colonies, taking pains to 

 leave some late black honey, and combs with pollen; 

 and these are the only ones out of the hundred, that 

 daubed entrances. They were very strong colonies, 

 and will go through; but had I experimented with 

 my weaker colonies I could have reported a loss of a 

 share of them at least. 



I hear of heavy losses of bees all around me. One 

 man will save only four or five out of 30, and several 

 others report their bees all dead and dying with 

 cholera. I have taken pains to ascertain from each 

 one of them if they put them in good shape for the 

 winter; and in every Instance they say they neg- 

 lected them. Now, my own report of 22 colonies, 2;i 

 miles from home, 20 in chaff hives and 2 in Simplicity 

 hives, which were neglected lasi fall. But few were 

 tucked up with division - boards, late stores were 

 not taken away, and consequently I can report a loss 

 of 6 colonies already, and several more will need 

 careful nursing to get them through all right. The 

 two in Simplicity hives were tucked up with a divi- 

 sion-board on each side of cluster. I took pains 

 with them, because they were in single-walled hives; 

 put a stoiy on each, to hold chaff cushions; but for 

 all this they are both dead. I believe that, in most 

 instances where losses are reported In chaff hives, 

 they have been neglected. Guesswork with bees 

 will not winter them successfully in any hive; but if 

 put in the best possible shape in chaff hives, on their 

 summer stands, they will winter, no matter how 

 long or severe the weather is; at least, I believe so. 



New London, O., March, 1883. Dan White. 



