§08 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JUNE 



ik^ "invkm" 



FRIEND FRADENBURG EMERGES FROM BLASTED 

 HOPES. 



OOCK-A-DOODLE-DOOOO-0 I Ila, ha, ha-a-a-a ! 

 Put me in the "laughery," quick, Ijel'ore you 

 forget it. You have had me marching up and 

 down the path of prosperity in apiculture for the 

 past 6 or 7 years, an(i jiow J am looking up, up, up, 

 and have got a broader grin on my " phiz " than an 

 Ethiopian ever dared to have, iltreis whatails me: 

 Last fall I put 20 stocks in chaff hives. All are good 

 to-day; 2 cr 3 divindled somewhat, but not seriously. 

 Then I put 11 in )'/i-story hives, with chaff cushions 

 inside, and corn fodder outside, and can slate their 

 condition with two letters — O. K. After getting 

 those fixed I had quite a number that I had used to 

 raise queens from. All had young queens, but they 

 were light. What should 1 do with them? I made a 

 hive about 5 ft. long, and wide enough to take an L. 

 frame ci'osswice. I put in three well-filled frames 

 of stores, natural fall honey; then the bees; then a 

 i4-inch wood division-board ; then three more frames 

 of bees; then another division - board, giving- en- 

 trances alternately from side to side. 



"When filled, 1 had in 7 3-frame nuclei. I do not 

 think more than one or two had much if any more 

 than a quart of bees, but they were mostly young 

 bees. They were covered first with enameled cloth, 

 then old cotton quilts; then a lid 5 inches deep, with 

 an auger-hole in each end; then a rough box out- 

 side, with a 4-inch space and chaff, with auger-hole 

 in the ends. And what is the result? To-day, May 

 7, I have taken out the two outside ones and put 

 them in regular hives to give more room, instead 

 of the 8 frames of honey that I put in last fall, I 

 took out 3 frames of brood, almost solid from end to 

 end, and all are in like condition. In short, some of 

 these are the very first ones to bang out this spring. 

 This proves a theory that I have had ever since I 

 have kept bees; viz., that queens may be wintered 

 through in small clusters of bees, it we can get the 

 conditions right. 



But, just hold you breath a little. I am not done 

 yet. After getting them fixed it was getting cold, 

 and I had yet 3 light nuclei with fine young queens. 

 What could I do with themV Kill one, and unite? 

 They would then be too light to winter. Kill the 

 other, and unite with some other stock? But what 

 a pity to kill such nice queens! This I did: I put 

 them in a hive on frames llxlJ, with a Yi-iuch divi- 

 sion-board between, with "No" sealed honey, and 

 not more than half a pound each in the combs; 

 cushions on top, and rough box with chaff space out- 

 side, and kft them on thtir summer stand, '"to 

 starve and freeze." Wicked, wasn't it? and what 

 about them to-day? They are both stronger than 

 when packei3, and are "gaining finely." But what 

 did they live on? Why, 1 just raised the cover, and 

 laid the contents of partly filled sections right over 

 the clusters every week or 10 days; that's all. 



But I have a di'^appointment. I went to all this 

 trouble on purpose to save a few queens lo give to 

 queenless colonies this spring; but I can not find 

 one queenless to give them to. Bad, isn't it? 



And now I am to the end. 



And from this rostrum I'll descend 



A. A. FRADENBURG. 



Port Washington, O., May 7, 1883. 



Well, I declare, friend F., is that really 

 your letter? Are you the same man who 

 wrote that "Blasted Hope" letter on page 

 2!J3 of last year's Gleanings V I presume 

 you remember the advice I gave you then. 

 It now seems that you took it, and more too. 

 It has of ten been said, you know, that there is 

 but one step from the sublime to the ridicu- 

 lous. In your case it seems rather to have 

 been a step from Blasted Hopes to Smilery. 

 It is too bad, that is a fact, that you were 

 disappointed in regard to finding a place for 

 those two queens. Couldn't tind a q tieenless 

 colony ! Now, why is it that you can't do 

 this same thing again ; or, rather, why can't 

 we all do it ? Was it the result of good care, 

 or did it j ust happen so V 



You may put me in the Smilery. My 71 stands of 

 bees are doing well, but I am more interested just 

 now in our blue-eyed girl, two weeks old, than in 



bees. J. W. liBADLEY. 



Columbia, Mo., May 13, 1883. 



I don't blame you a bit, friend B. 



FLORIDA, BY OUR OLD FRIEND WOL- 



FENDEN. 



THE UNDESIRABLE FEATURES, AS WELL AS THE DE- 

 SIRABLE. 



HAVE sold my farm in Wisconsin, and am locat- 

 ed at Geneva Lake, same State, for the sum- 

 mer, but am at present in Florida on an explor- 

 ing expedition. So far I am not favorably impressed 

 with the State as a location in which to engage in 

 bee-keeping as a business. The mangrove is doubt- 

 less the best honey-plant in the State; but 1 am in- 

 formed that it grows only on the low coasts where 

 the insects are very troublesome. The few bee- 

 keepers with whom I have conversed say it is an ex- 

 cellent place for bees; but they keep them in the 

 old-fashioned way, and can not tell how much honey 

 they get, but " reckon " they get a "right smart lot." 

 I may locate here, if I find a suitable place in 

 which to engage in orange-growing, in connection 

 with bee-keeping. The former is fully as attractive 

 as the latter, and perhaps more profitable. Groves 

 increase in value very rapidly, and one in full bear- 

 ing is valued at from one to three thousand dollars 

 per acre. One was visited last Saturday, only an 

 acre in extent, from which $1500 worth of oranges 

 was sold last winter. This, of course, is exceptional. 

 Vegetables are raised in large quantities for the 

 northern maikets. The stason is mostly past now, 

 as they are now ripe further north. Strawberries 

 continue in bearing several months. A friend has a 

 quarter of an acre, from which he commenced to 

 gather and ship fruit Feb. 1; there are still plenty of 

 blossoms, and green and ripe fruit in abundance. 1 

 am now writing under a magnolia-tree nearly three 

 feet in diameter, on which are many ble)SSoms 5 or 6 

 inches across, and the limbs beautifully draped with 

 Spanish moss, hanging pendant 6 to 8 ft. I paced 

 the ground covered by a large water-oak. Its di- 

 ameter was more than 100 ft.; its branches were al- 

 so covered with moss — the most beautiful thing I 

 ever saw, and worth many miles of travel to see. 

 This country is mostly sand; mosquitoes are plenti- 

 ful, and the thermometer stands at 92° in the shade. 

 Ocala, Fla., May 16, 1883. J. L. Wolfenden. 



