1883 



OLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



535 



try about six miles and see a colony of bees said to 

 contain foul hrood. I opened the hive, took out ev- 

 ery frame, and looked it throug-h carefully, and 

 found on one or two frames plenty of larvae that had 

 died and decayed before being capped over, but no 

 capped cells that showed the usual signs of foul 

 brood. The owner told me that the colony had been 

 dwindling- all summer, and finally he had run a 

 second swarm into the old hive, which seemed to 

 give new life for a time. 



MRS. cotton's hive. 



While I was at this place I was shown one of Mrs. 

 Cotton's Controllable bee-hives, with a colony of 

 bees already in it. He paid S8.00 for the hive, and 

 something over $3.00 for getting it here by express, 

 making between eleven and twelve dollars for a 

 hive that I should think could be manufactured for 

 $2.50. 



IS THE GOLDEN AGE DAWNING UPON US? 



If not, the Golden bee-hive certainly is. T am in- 

 formed that there has been a man in Hudson, in the 

 western part of this county, selling the Golden bee- 

 hive and farm-rights this spring and summer — one 

 hive and one farm-right for $10.00. Cheap enough, 

 if a tenth part of the claims made for it are true, 

 and I don't know but they are, for I haven't seen it 

 yet. D. G. EdmistOn. 



Adrian, Lenawee Co., Mich., Aug., 18S3. 



^ m 



BEES AT PUBLIC PARKS AND MUSE' 

 UMS. 



AN INTERESTING LETTER FROM OLD ENGLAND. 



I AM surprised that our Parks Committee do not 

 keep these interesting creatures in our parks 

 and museums, to instruct and interest the thou- 

 sands of our men of toil, many of whom do not know 

 what a honey-bee is. The expense to the Parks 

 Committee would be very trifling, as I proved by the 

 swarm of bees I took to our Red-Park Museum on 

 the 3d of July, 1862. The bees were in one of my im- 

 proved observatory bar-frame hives; the four sides 

 and the top were composed of glass. The hive was 

 placed near one of the windows over the principal 

 entrance to the Museum, a hole being cut in the 

 bottom of the window-frame, for the bees to go out 

 and in. The energetic curator, Mr. Plant, took 

 charge of them, and he will confirm my statement, 

 that during the 293 days the bees were in the Muse- 

 um they were a source of endless amusement and 

 attraction to thousands who visited the place. 



The bees did very well in their new home, and I 

 brought them back to Newton Heath to swarm, Apr. 

 22, 1863. The consumption of food was more than 

 the usual average, amounting to 1 19-100 oz. per day; 

 rather less than 1 1-5 oz. perday for the 293 days they 

 were at the Museum. This I account for by the bees 

 being in a warm room all winter, which made them 

 active, and caused them to consume more food. 



When the Royal Agricultural Society of England 

 visited Manchester in 1869, 1 exhibited some bees at 

 work; and one stock gained in weight 9 lbs. 9 oz., 

 whilst at the show at Old Trafiford. Bees will go four 

 miles to col'ect honey; so they must have worked in 

 the gardens around Old Trafford, much to the bene- 

 fit of the owners of these gardens, as bees are the 

 principal agents in the production of nearly all kinds 

 of fruit and vegetables; so that it is not only honey 

 we get from the bees, but nearly every thing we 

 grow. 



The great Mr. Darwin tried a number of experi- 

 ments proving the fertilization of plants by bees. 

 He covered over a quantity of beans with a very 

 light net that prevented the bees getting to them; 

 and where the bees worked on them they produced 

 on an average four times the quantity of beans. 

 Again he covered over a quantity of white clover 

 {Tiifolium repcns), and where the bees got to it, it 

 produced on an average ten times the quantity of 

 seed. About ten years since I was going through 

 the grounds of the President of the British Bee- 

 keepers' Association, the Baroness Burdett Coutts, 

 at Highgate. In going icto the peach-house her 

 head-gardener said, "See what a quantity of peach- 

 es I have got set." I turned around and said. " You 

 have, indeed; how do you account for it?" He said, 

 " I have always kept b^es to produce my fruit; but 

 last autumn I got a stock of Ligurian bees, and they, 

 being hardier than the common black English bees, 

 got into the house when the peach-trees came into 

 bloom, and T have more than double the number of 

 peaches set I ever had before." 



A large Lincolnshire farmer went to the Lincoln- 

 shire Bee-keepers' Association show at Boston, 1880. 

 and he heard them say that bees were profitable, if 

 properly managed, in bar- frame hives. So he thought 

 he would try them, and got some in 1881. In Sept., 

 1882, he exhibited at the Association's bee show at 

 Lincoln, 894 lbs. of honey that he had taken from his 

 bees that year. He had also sold several hundreds 

 of pounds. He got several sovereigns in prizes, and 

 I awarded him the silver cup of the Association. He 

 had also several acres of fruit-trees, and he was the 

 only one in the district who had a large crop of fruit 

 last year. 



Bee-keeping is rapidly becoming a national indus- 

 try in England. We have now thirty-four different 

 County Bee-keepers' Associations, and four of the 

 Queen's children are preside-nts of four different 

 county associations. We have a Lancashire and 

 Cheshire Bee-keepers' Association, with the Earl of 

 Latham as president; and as patrons, the Duke of 

 Devonshire, the Duke of Westminster, the Earl of 

 Derby, the Earl of Beetive, Lord Egerton, the Bish- 

 of Manchester, and the Bishop of Liverpool. Why 

 should we send thousands of pounds annually out of 

 the country for honey and wax, when we have it 

 running away for the want of collectors at our own 

 doors, doing nobody any good? William Carb. 

 Newton-Heath Apiary, 



Near Manchester, England, August 10, 1883. 



Many thanks, friend C.,for your very kind 

 letter, and the many valuable facts you give 

 us. I most heartily agree with you, and it 

 seems to me nothing can add to the beauty 

 of any garden or residence as do a few hives 

 of gentle Italians, managed in such a way 

 that visitors can easily inspect the workings 

 of the interior of the hives.— May I take the 

 liberty of saying," Long live the Queen, and 

 all her royal household " V and may God be 

 praised that they set such an example in the 

 way of encouraging rural industry by taking 

 right hold of the subject of bee culture in 

 the way you have mentioned. I am glad, 

 too, of the fact you mention, of the agency 

 that the bees have in this matter of fruit- 

 raising. I hope the time will never come 

 again when superstition shall induce people 

 to declare that bees are antagonistic to fruit- 

 growing. 



