:87G 



aLEANINUS IN BEE CULTURE. 



$ 



ixct a jar or two by express of Mr. Long. The 

 lioney is tlie mountaiu sage of California, and 

 if every one can not agree with us in regard to 

 the flavor, they certainly must in regard to 

 appearance. 



The comb honey is of a delicate whiteness 

 iind regularity, that makes one wonder wheth- 

 er the California bees are not a notch ahead of 

 •our own in mechanical skill. Mr. Long also 

 isends us some beautiful cakes of bleached wax 

 for ladies work boxes. 



We are also indebted to friend Muth, for ta- 

 king the lead in using honey in cookery; in 

 fact he has made Blue Eyes a present of a 

 whole box of "honey cakes." They are made 

 •ciuite rich with linden honey, and prove quite 

 Acceptable as confectionery. 



We have also had a pleasant talk with Mr. 

 Lindley, who reported in regard to Mi. Gallup's 

 bees, and his»8500 lbs. of honey, on page 181, 

 Vol. III. The beauty of the whole matter is 

 that friend L., has sold all but about 1500 lbs. 

 of the crop right at home, of at least in the vi- 

 cinity of Mitchell, Iowa. The secret of it is 

 that friend L., has been in the market garden 

 business, and has been putting his honey before 

 the people where he is known, just as v,'e have 

 no long advised. He has nothing to do with 

 selling honey on time to irresponsible parties, 

 .lud has not sold a pound iess than lo cents — 

 HI fact has had 20 cents for all sold in less 

 <iuantities than a barrel at a time. At present 

 he is selling by far the lai'ger part of it in its 

 candied state, cutting it out of the barrels 

 with a clean spade. 



^£j?R. LINDLEY, is decidedly in favor of 

 JL\tEi Gallup's larger hives, but says he would 

 have them in one row of frames, and that from 

 35 to SO Gallup frames are as many as can be 

 «sed to advantage. As the Gallup frame is so 

 "jnuch smaller than our Standard, such hives 

 would l>e of very nearly the capacitj' of our 

 ^Standard, or our two story Simplicity. Out- 

 door wintering Mr. L., thinks to be quite un- 

 wise, even with the large hives, and states that 

 Gallup had losses enough during his last win- 

 ter with them, to satisfy him that tlicy had 

 better be housed in that locality. The double 

 walled hives that Gallup recommended, Mr. L., 

 also pronounces no better than those with sin- 

 gle walls, and in regard to the long hives being 

 non-swarmers, he states that they have been 

 the very first to to swarm. If we remember 

 correctly, the whole 18 large hives that he 

 purchased of Gallup, swarmed before any of 

 his smaller or 10 frame hives. Wiien we state 

 that the large hives almost invariably built 

 drone comb, we believe we have gone over the 

 whole ground ; unless it be to state that the 

 labor of nncapping was much greater in the 

 small hives, for the large ones ripened their 

 honey equally well and left it unsealed, while 

 the others would have the combs sealed clear 

 to the bottom. Of course it is a task to put 

 the heavy hives in the cellar, requiring two 

 fitrong men to lift them ; but when we bear in 

 mind the prodigious yields of honey they give, 

 it is not so hard after all. In regard to ma- 

 king use of artificial heat in the spring, Mr. L. 

 thinks the very cheapest way to keep up the 



proper terapei-ature is by these same powerful 

 colonies, for no frost can by any possibility 

 penetrate to the center of their brood nest. 

 As an illustration, he narrated how he had put 

 a good colony near the kitchen stove, allowing 

 them to fly through the wall, but although 

 they worked well all through the spring 

 months, they were beaten in swarming by one 

 of those irrepressible, long Gallup hives. When 

 wc bear in mind how much easier it is to let 

 the bees do the work themselves, we confess 

 there is not very much to encourage this fuss- 

 ing with artiliial heat, even if it does succeed 

 occasionally. It is true we must have extra 

 queens to keep up such a population, and we 

 must also have a supply of food in proportion, 

 for them to winter on. Our visitors all have 

 expressed themselves much pleased with the 

 house apiary, and Mr. L. thinks it u ould be a 

 grand place for the "big" colonies. These large 

 hives are in striking contrast with tlosmer's 

 "quarts and pints," and perhaps it were well 

 to mention that visitors report Hosmer's apia- 

 ry to consist of more hives containing moth- 

 eaten empty combs, than tho.se containing 

 bees. As both Hosmer and Gallup refuse to 

 be classed with bee men at present, we shall 

 have to content ourselves by drawing such in- 

 ferences as seem warrantable. 



KATIi: GKIMitI NOT OUXDOIVE. 



^ff^ EAR XOVICE :— We are surprised to find that you 

 JB|J jaj) and some of your kind readers think 12000 ll)s. of 

 *— ^ honey an extraordinary day's work with one ex- 

 tractor. Mrs. Lareh did only the extracting, while I 

 worked only in the apiary, the hired man carried the 

 fram&s back and fortli, the hired girl did the uncappins? 

 and deserves credit for the rapidity with which she did 

 her work. 



Our method of ojierating may be described thus : we 

 had two buckets and two wire strainers made for the pur- 

 pose, one tine one to lit the buckets, the other a little 

 coai-ser to tit the top of this, the honey toeing perfectly 

 strained as it ran from tlie extractor. The barrels were 

 provided witli a, fiumel of the largest size so tliat very lit- 

 tle time was consumed handlins the honey. We com- 

 menced operati<jns at 8 a. m., the hi^'es containing 18 

 J^angstroth frames hunsr It inches apart from centre to 

 centre, the cells l)oing all lengthened out clear to the bot- 

 tom. Combs having much brood were not extracted, as 

 the honey was too thick to extract without injuring the 

 larvfe. Combs were borrowed from the first hives until 

 we got enough to replace the lull combs witli empty ones, 

 as fast as removed, a!id keep all hands at work. Several 

 very light bnxes Iioliliiiir ten each were used for carrying 

 frames. Wc intend another year to run the honey direct- 

 ly into the b.arrels, by the aid of a funnel made to tit the 

 strainers, and if our bees do not die but gather honey as 

 in former yeaj's, you may hear of something still more 

 wonderful, ])ro\ided you will send us an extractor with 

 larger molasses gate. We had to wait for the honey ti:> 

 rmi out. We used the Winder extractor last year and got 

 only TfiS lbs. in one day, it did good work but rmis heavily. 

 Mi's. Larch will not use it at all. 



It might be well to inform you that our location is a 

 poor one, according to Amateur, only a short distance 

 from one abandoned liy him in Jlissouri, and that our 

 ai)iary was built up while his was being sadly depopulated. 

 And should he obtain the largest average of anyone in the 

 United States in 1876, we will promise to beat anything he 

 ever did in Missouri by ZO per cent, and yet we know but 

 little about bees and their management, but according to 

 our experience wc had rather be at a little trouble to win- 

 ter and spring our bees without loss, than to abandon our 

 cheerful home with schools and churches, with the best of 

 society and all the comforts one could wish, for that des- 

 olate region in California adapted only to bee-keeping. 



E. C. L. Larch, Ashland, Mo. 



As our friend "Katie" not only did all the un- 

 capping, but removed all the combs from the 

 hives, and in short, took entire charge of the 

 whole apiarv meanwhile, we shall have to think 

 her yet ahead. Skq page 111, Vol. III. 



