1883 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



241 



OUR OLD FRIEND I. R. GOOD. 



WHAT HAPPENED, WHAT HE DID, AND WHERE HE IS 

 NOW. 



bees. 



CHATTANOOGA, TENN., MARCH 15, 1883. 



!JELL, I have been to see J. H. Thornburg's 

 apiary. It is about half way up Lookout 

 Mountain; found him at home among' the 

 He is getting ready for queen-rearing. There 

 is considerable new honey in his hives, and drones 

 are flying as in mid-summer. Friend T.'s apiary Is 

 on the battle-field of Lookout Mountain. He has 

 found many relics of the war, in the shape of shells 

 and cannon-balls. Friend T. thinks his health has 

 Improved very much since he moved to where he 

 now is. He is consumptive. We are going to Ala- 

 bama from here. 



TULLAHOMA, TENN., MARCH 21, 1883. 



This is a thriving town of three or four thousand 

 inhabitants; quite a manufacturing town; from gen- 

 eral appearance I believe it to be a good place to es- 

 tablish an apiarj'. I am thinking very strongly of 

 locating here. I have been out to see T. A. Gunn. 

 He lives three miles from Tullahoma; found him at 

 home in his shop, getting readj- to commence mak- 

 ing hives and sections. He Is a gentleman whom it 

 is a pleasure to meet — full of bee talk. He keeps 

 but few bees at present, as his time is much taken 

 up in his shop. He thinks this is the best place for 

 bees in the State. He has taken 100 lbs. of aster hon- 

 ey to the colony — comb at that. 



INDIANAPOLIS, IND., MARCH 23, 1883. 



Stopped to-day seven hours with our friend J. M. 

 Brooks, Columbus, Ind. Friend B. has had splendid 

 success wintering his bees this winter. I believe he 

 has not lost a single colony this winter. He has been 

 in the habit of wintering in the cellar until this win- 

 ter. He thinks bees wintered in the cellar year aft- 

 er year are not as hardy, and will not work as well 

 as those wintered on their summer stands. He also 

 thinks that those beautiful light-colored Italian bees 

 are not as good workers as the dark or leather-color- 

 ed ones. He says he is not going to breed for " yal- 

 ler stripes," as Judge Andrews saj-s, any longer; but 

 from this on is going to breed for business. 



THE HOLY-LANDS FOB WINTERING. 



I think I have told you before that I put about one- 

 half, or about 115 colonies of bees in my cellar last 

 fall, the other 110 colonies in chaff hives. In taking 

 my bees out of the cellar a few days ago I found live 

 bees in about 30 hives. The rest were dead, and the 

 combs moldy and in bad shape. Out of the 235 pre- 

 pared for winter in the fall, I have now remaining 

 about 80 colonies, good, bad, and indifferent. You 

 need not ask me what I think was the cause of the 

 bees' dying, because, candidly, I do not know, unless 

 it was on account of moving them last fall after 

 cold weather. 



Again the Holy-Land bees have proven themselves 

 to be the most hardy, as the Italians are all dead ex- 

 cept a few very weak colonies. I had about 80 colo- 

 nies of Italians last fall. I have a brother who has 

 a Holy-Land apiary of 30 colonies only 40 rods from 

 my own apiary. He wintered his bees on their sum- 

 mer stands, and lost but one out of the thirty. The 

 rest are nearly all in good condition, and very strong 

 also. 



In a letter from friend H. Alley, March 30, he says : 

 " Have not the Holy-Land bees wintered best with 

 you? They have with me. The Italians are tbe 



poorest race to winter we have, and I am going into 

 Cyprian and Holy-Land bees largely." At another 

 place he says: " I tell you, the new races will sweep 

 the board sooner or later." 



I shall not breed any Italian queens for sale this 

 year, as I have lost all my Italian bees. If nothing 

 happens, I think I shall be able by next spring to 

 help furnish you early queens. We are having snow, 

 frost, and ice here yet. Our bees have not had a 

 smell of pollen this spring. I. R. GOOD. 



Nappanee, Ind., April 9, 1883. 



IS IT PROBABL.r; THAT BEES EVER 



FI.Y 18 MIIiES TO FIND A NEAV HOME* 



SOME CURIOUS FACTS ABOUT RUNAWAY SWARMS. 



THINK not, nor half that distance. Bees often 

 locate in queer places. 1 have found them in 

 chimneys of old forsaken houses, and even in 

 chimneys that were used in winter; In the attic of 

 an old building, beneath the floor; in a hollow log 

 lying on the ground. 1 once followed the " bee-line" 

 about two miles to find the swarm building comb 

 under a rather small tree that had fallen into the 

 crotch of another, at an angle of about 45 degrees. 

 It had no protection, and yet had been there for 

 months, I judge, from the amount of comb they 

 had. One swarm was lined by a number of bee- 

 hunters to a swamp of brushes, where there were no 

 large trees or old logs in which the bees could find a 

 home, and sought for in vain, till the idea popped 

 into my brain that somJ^thing had been left on the 

 ground whish furnished them a retreat. With this 

 thought as a guide I took the trail and found them 

 in a large rabbit-trap, or box, which some boy had 

 set there years before and forgotten. As it was en- 

 tirely filled with old comb it must have been there 

 two or more years, sending out its new swarms. 



I do not think I ever lined bees more than about 

 three miles from their home. I once went upon a 

 hill and caught quite a number of bees and set them 

 at work upon the bait, and from that one spot lined 

 five colonies to their hiding-places. But one of the 

 five was over two miles away, and most of them 

 were within one mile of this hill. 



HOW TO TELL HOW FAR OFF YOUR BEE-TREE IS. 



It is easy to determine the distance of any swarm, 

 when you once get the be^s well at work. Take 

 some bees from near a hive, and carry them a mile 

 away from their home. Set them at work upon 

 their bait; and when they get well settled down to 

 their business, take a bit of chalk and scrape a bit 

 into your hand; moisten it, take a minute globule 

 on the end of a small straw, or bit of grass, and touch 

 a bee on his back, and it will stay there for days. 

 When he starts for home, take out your watch and 

 put down the exact time he left. When he comes 

 back into your box, note the time of absence. Test 

 this a number of times, and you will be surprised to 

 see how slight a variation there is. Then strike an 

 average, and you will get very nearly the time it 

 takes bees to go a mile, unload, and return. You 

 will soon learn how far away, or nearly, your swarm 

 is. Or course they will not be twice as long in going 

 two miles as in going one, for it takes no more time 

 to unload in the one case than in the other, and will 

 fly two miles while he is crawling into his tree and 

 depositing his honey. 



I have no doubt many c Ionics exist in these out- 



