542 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



1000 LBS. OF HONEY EVERY 10 DAYS 

 FROM 37 HIVES. 



A GOOD PLACE TO RAISE HONEY. 



FjERHAPSit would be interesting to a few of 

 you to hear from me again, although it has 

 ■ been a long time since I have written for a 

 journal. I would say, that I have located at last in 

 Fresno County, Cal., which I find to be as good a 

 place as I could And for a honey-producing locality. 

 One apiary of 37 hives, all of which were trans- 

 feri'ed and Italianized this season, since they began 

 gathering honey has turned off 1000 lbs. every 10 

 days, and they are full again. This is an irrigated 

 section, and, to the careful bee-keeper, there will 

 never be a dearth of honey. To the new comer it is 

 the barest-looking place a honey-man would be like- 

 ly to settle in. Every place that is not irrigated is 

 as dry and dusty as a desert. Alfalfa and Egyptian 

 corn are the honey -plants of our section. The 

 country is becoming better every year for bees, and 

 will, ere long, rival any part of the world for honey- 

 producing, and the quality is excellent. The Holy- 

 Land bees are the best for this section. They are 

 hardy, long-lived, strong-winged, and great layers; 

 all the points combined make them the bees for us. 



Selma, Cal.. Aug., 1883. O. S. Davis. 



Friend D., I am very glad to have you 

 bring out tlie fact that honey can be produc- 

 ed in abundance by artificial pasturage and 

 irrigation. When we get down to this we 

 have got pretty nearly a sure thing on a big 

 crop of honey every year. The alfalfa we 

 are familiar with, but the Egyptian corn we 

 do not quite understand. Who will tell us 

 a little more about it V 



HOW TO GET GOOD QUEENS. 



FRIEND HAYHURST'S VIEWS ON THE SUBJECT. 



fjjRIEND HUTCHINSOiSr, in reading your criti. 

 cisms of friend Alley's book I am led to infer 

 that you have overlooked a suggestion by me 

 on page 33, 1881, for I am quite certain that, if you 

 had tried the method there mentioned, you would 

 hardly advise cutting holes in combs to give the bees 

 a chance to build cells. I used the method during 

 the summer of 1880, and have used it ever since, 

 preferring it to any that has been described. Per- 

 haps I had better tell the story over again. 



Get some nice stiff basswood, and cut it into strips 

 JsXi^ in., and as long as the bottom-bar of your 

 frame; these are to be dipped in melted beeswax, 

 and then nailed to the end-bars of empty brood- 

 frames, one piece just below the top-bar, a second 

 one about two inches below the top, and a third one 

 four inches below the top. 



flave your breeding queens deposit eggs in new 

 foundation combs; and when they are just begin- 

 ning to hatch, cut out strips about eight inches long, 

 and containing one row of cells each. These strips 

 are to be fastened to the pieces of wood that are 

 nailed to the empty brood-frames, and on the inside 

 of the frame. They are easily attached by "pinch- 

 ing "them on. They should be so placed that the 

 septum will be below the lower edge of the strip to 

 which they are fastened. 



Your brood is now ready for the cell-building col- 

 ony, and the place in the comb from which it was 

 taken can easily be filled with f dn. 



When the queen-cells are well started, it is a good 

 plan to reduce the number by picking out the larvae 

 from alternate ones; the bees can then transfer the 

 feed to other cells, and thus give the " babies " plen- 

 ty to eat. I rarely have queens hatch from cells that 

 contain no surplus feed. When the cells are about 

 ready to hatch, I transfer them to the lamp nursery, 

 each cell in a cage by itself. These cages are made 

 in cases by boring l^s-in. holes in a 7i-inch board, 

 about the sizeof a Langstroth frame. Each case con- 

 tains four rows of nine holes each; one side of the 

 board is covered with wire cloth. On the other sifle 

 I have narrow strips of tin folded V-shape, and nail- 

 ed just below each row of holes. These are to sup- 

 port pieces of coarsely perforated tin, cut as long as 

 the case, and wide enough to cover one row of holes. 

 They are kept in place by buttons made of bent pins. 

 The queen-cells are fastened in the cages by " pinch- 

 ing" them to the wood in about the position they oc- 

 cupied in the hive. A moment's inspection shows if 

 any queens are hatched, and it is not necessary to 

 visit the nursery more than four times daily. 



The idea of the case of cages was suggested to me 

 by friend J. D. Meador, of Independence, Mo. I 

 have used them with success three years. 



E. M. Hayhuhst. 



Kansas City, Mo., Aug. 8, 1883. 



SOME SUGGESTIONS FROMC. P. DADANT. 



THE DADANT HONEY-PAILS; VENTILATION FOR COMB 

 HONEY. 



^IJpltEAR MR. ROOT:— In regard to what you say 

 WM 'in Juvenile for August about the tin pails 



' we use for extracted honey, allow me to say 



that there is one advantage with them which you 

 do not consider. It is, that the 10, 5, and 2'/^ lb. 

 pails can be used by the purchaser after the honey 

 haj been taken out, and this is quite an item in the 

 sale of honey in pails. They are not very conveni- 

 ent for liquid honey, indeed; but as honey is han- 

 dled mainly in winter, after it is granulated, they 

 are then as safe as any thing else, and much han- 

 dier. We have shipped honey in them as far as 

 Montana, and had no trouble, whenever the honey 

 was granulated. 



I should also like to put in a hint in regard to the 

 matter spoken of by Mr. Langstroth; i. e., ventila- 

 tion in summer. There are two risks to run in sum- 

 mer—too much ventilation, and too little. In June 

 and July we have had numerous cases of comb 

 melting by want of air, and extreme of heat. For 

 the last 3 years we have been in the habit of raising 

 the hive 3 inches from the bottom-board, and of 

 leaving a space of an inch at the junction of the up- 

 per and lower stories, by setting the upper story 1 

 inch back. This leaves a chance for air to circulate 

 in extremely hot weather. 



We consider that, whenever bees lie out of the 

 hive in clusters, they are too warm inside, and they 

 need air. So this for us is a rule; and if any colony 

 clusters outside we give them more ventilation, and 

 keep increasing the ventilation until they manage 

 to tlnd room for all inside. Of course, the other ex- 

 treme is as bad. If you have too much space, and 

 the bees lose their heat, it will be injurious. But I 

 would rather see them with plenty of ventilation 

 than have them cluster outside, because the hive is 

 too hot for them to remain, and I often pity the poor 

 bees that belong to some of the old fogies. They 



