1S8^ 



GLEAJ^INGS In bee CULTUtlE. 



5fi 



weak; one of these was devoted to queen-rearing 

 part of the summer. They have increased to eleven 

 good colonies, and have made 1500 lbs. of extracted 

 honey, 630 lbs. clover, 435 lbs. basswood, and 445 lbs. 

 fall honey. I fed them 163 lbs. of granulated sugar 

 in Sept.; this, with the honey they had left, makes 

 them, I think, an abundance of winter stores. My 

 best colony gave one swarm and 476 lbs. of honey. 



My brother has not flnished extracting yet; but 

 his yield will not be quite equal to mine, although 

 his best colony gave one swarm and 616 lbs. of hon- 

 ey. These two best colonies are hybrids, their 

 queens are sisters, and were our best queens last 

 year; they were raised in Aug., 1881, from a dollar 

 queen purchased of W. Z. Hutchinson. We sold our 

 white honey^at from 10 to 15 c. per lb., and our dark 

 at 7 and 8 c. per lb. J have just sold three bives of 

 bees at 16.00 each. I thank God for the bees and 

 for Gleanings, and pray that Our Homes may do 

 good. G. H. PuNi>. 



Bloomlngton, Minn., Oct. 4, 1888. 



Why, friend P., your report is wonderful, 

 even if you are an invalid. But there is one 

 point which you do not make quite plain. I 

 presume you mean that these great yields 

 came from the colony and the swarm ; and 

 even then the yield is immense. If, on the 

 contrary, you do mean that a single swarm 

 gave, besides the swarm, 47« and 61B lbs. 

 respectively, it would be almost equal to 

 any thing on record. (Jiir great Texas re- 

 ports, I believe, were from a colony that did 

 not swarm. Will you please enlighten us on 

 these points, and give us very full particulars 

 in regard to the great yield — how often did 

 you extract V how much at a time V how 

 many combs did the colony have V and were 

 they two stories, or spread out V chaff hives, 

 or Simplicity V—1 am very glad indeed to 

 know that bee culture has been of benefit to 

 you ; and we thank you for the kind words 

 in regard to Gleanings, and our work at 

 the " Home of the Honey-bees." 



FOURTEEX SWARMS FROITI 01NE"GII]?I," 



IN ONE SEASON. 



AND ALL BY AN OLD-STYLE BEE-KEEPER TOO. 



WAS riding along the road one mile from home, 

 and a swarm of bees crossed the road over me. 

 I watched them a little distance, and they set- 

 tled, and I hived them in an old log gum I got from 

 a friend near by. I carried them home that night, 

 and kept them until March 30,1882; they swarmed, 

 and in two weeks Ave swarms came out from that 

 one, and in about three or four weeks two more 

 swarms came out of the same old gum; all were 

 natural swarms, but were small ones, and during 

 the summer I had seven swarms from the young 

 ones — all natural swarms but one, all making 14 

 swarms I had in 1883 from one gum and the off- 

 spring. But they made very little honey. I was at a 

 loss how to winter them, but I let them stay on 

 their summer stands, and I came through the winter 

 with six live stands, and this year I have had 14 

 swarms, all natural but two, and they are all very 

 rich. I have got about 100 lbs. honey, and will get 

 75 or 100 more. I could have robbed more, but I was 

 afraid of losing my bees this winter, not being ex- 

 perienced in wintering them; so when I get the 



book I am ordering from you, I will study some- 

 thing about bees. 



I am using a box gum, with racks, some six and 

 some seven racks below, and honey - box above. 

 Some are very slow about working above. I use no 

 artificial comb, nor any thing of the kind, not be- 

 ing acquainted enough with bees to know what to 

 do for the best. 



I am a stranger, and my bee-swarming is a big 

 tale, so I will give you some testimony; to wit, the 

 names below: W. L. Harris, W. L. Cornelius, H. B. 

 Turner, Robert Holland, Walnut Grove, Ala. 



J. W. Amberson. 



Walnut Grove, Ala.. Sept. 5, 1883. 



Friend A., you need not have taken the 

 trouble to send along the names of your 

 neighbors. Your story has the stamp of 

 truthfulness on the face of it. The princi- 

 pal point brought out is, that you have a 

 most excellent locality, and 1 hope that you 

 will roll up your sleeves and go in for it next 

 year with the aid of improved facilities for 

 taking care of the bees and honey. 



APIS DORSATA. 



AN EXTRACT FROM HISTORY. 



A I-'T'IIOl'GiH ^pi!> cZorsa^o has been for 

 Jl^ some time by general consent dropped, 

 ' perhaps the friends may be interested 

 in the following: 



While reading Wallace's "Malay Archipelago" I 

 came across the following concerning ^4p(s dorsafa, 

 which I thought would interest the readers of 

 Gleanings: 



" The beeswax is the most important and valuable 

 product of Timor. It is formed by the wild bees 

 (A))is dorsata) which build honey-combs suspended 

 in the open air irom the under side of the lofty 

 branches of the higdest trees in the forest. I once 

 saw the natives take a bee's-nest, and a very inter- 

 esting sight it was. Jn the valley, where I used to 

 collect insects, I one day saw three or four Timorese 

 men and boys under a high tree, and, looking up, 

 saw on a very lofty horizontal branch 3 large bee- 

 combs. The tree was straight and smooth-barked, 

 and without a branch, till at seventy or eighty feet 

 from the ground it gave out the limb that the bees 

 had chosen for their home. As the men were evi- 

 dently looking after the bees, I waited to watch 

 their operations. One of them fastened his cloth 

 tightly around his loins; and producing another 

 cloth, he wrapped it around his head, neck, and 

 body, leaving his face, arms, and legs bare. Slung 

 to his girdle was a long thin coil of rope; and while 

 he had been making these preparations one of his 

 companions had cut a strong creeper, or bush rope, 

 eight or ten yards long, to one of which the wood 

 torch was fastened, sending forth a steady stream 

 of smoke. Just above the torch a chopping-knife 

 was hung by a short cord. The bee-hunter now 

 passed the bush rope around the tree, taking an end 

 in each hand, the torch hanging just below him. 

 Jerking the rope a little above his head, he set his 

 foot against the trunk, and, leaning back, began 

 walking up it. It was wonderful to see the tkill 

 with which he took advantage of the slightest irreg- 

 ularities of the bark to aid his ascent, jerking the 

 stiff creeper a few feet higher when he had found a 

 firm hold for his bare feet. It almost made me gid- 

 dy to look at him as he got higher up from the 

 ground. Still, however, he kept on with as much 

 coolness as if he were going up a ladder, till he got 

 within ten or fifteen feet of the bees; then he stop- 

 ped and swung the torch toward these dangerous 

 insects so as to send up the stream of smoke between 

 him and them. Still going up, in a minute or two 

 he brought himself under the limb, and, in a man- 

 ner quite unintelligible to me, seeing that both 

 hands were occupied in supporting himself by the 

 creeper, managed to get upon it. By this time the 



