1876. 



GLEA.NINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



75 



TcctioJi and follov.cd them iielwoen four niul five miles 

 ti».a high hill wlicre basswood was in full bloom, and at 

 that time Ikeiv were not half as many with worn wiuarsas 

 there were in clover biooni. Our boxes also were being as 

 rapidiy iHled as they had been at any time when basswood 

 was plenty near hoiae. Wo wouJd very much like to 

 know how Mr. Herring gets bees to work on his bait when 

 clover or basswood is yielding plentifully. We have trkd 

 it sisvera! times but could not sueceeil. Bees have Ijoen 

 k anted in the fall and startwl three miles from .Sk;ineat- 

 <?!es l:ike, which ia two Kiiles wide, followed to the shore 

 Slid found to cross the lake to an apiary ncariy two miles 

 beyond it. Mr. Herring's "good places" he speaks of are 

 siiuply where the bees get a start or draw to. We have 

 seen basswood li-ees fairly alive with bees, while others 

 vifithin 10 rods (.j thorn would not have ti bee in them, 

 v.fhen you could easily shake the honey out of each. See 

 (jur post-script, pase l.'io, Vol. IT. 



•f. A. Buchanan, page 47, se«ms to be down on light col- 

 ored bees. Now wc never had any dark ones except those 

 raised from the queen we got from the eggs sent by Nov- 

 i."e. But we have had plenty of black and hybrids, and 

 with us the nearer pure they are tho better honey gather- 

 ers they laake. To illustrate : in 1872, when basswood 

 was gone we had not a box of honey tilled. After a week 

 ar so the seed eix)p of red clover came into blossom, and 

 ijur Italians and hybrids commenced to work on it, but 

 l!ie black bees did nothing but consume their own stares 

 and carry what little honey ll'.ey had in the boxes, down 

 into the hive. Our best and lightest Italians filled their 

 hives, and stored GO lbs. in hoses; and tho hybrids stored 

 just in pi-oportjon to the amount of Italian blood there 

 was in them. Those that were more than one-fourth 

 3t:ilian got about enough to winter, but all the blacks I 

 liid to feed. The past fall 1 found the hives that had the 

 liglitest bees, full of hoiie.y, and as some of my {worest hy- 

 brids (have r,o black bees now) were short, I <;hanged 

 li-.uiies nith them. If his "earthly possessions'' are of 

 much value he'd better back out of his assertion. 



Dear GLfCAjriXGS don't you think what Novice says on 

 jia.ge lt», about smokers, savors somewhat of willful igno- 

 rance ? Perhaps if he had given them a thorough trial, he 

 would have been as loud in his praises of them, as he now 

 is of the Quinby .smoker. Why did ho not try them? 

 Siin|)ly because they were made on the old plan of blow- 

 ing from the mouth. Now if we did not value our "earth- 

 ly possessions" we would— but stay, we will only say that 

 il an ajjiarian hxs plent.\ of time, lie can fuss with a bel- 

 lows smoker, a roll of cotton rags, or even do without any 

 smoke at all ; but we ha\e not the time to sjjare. When 

 we take off from 500 to 1000 lbs. of box honey in a day, wo 

 have to make a business of it ; and as wo do not want to 

 hire an assistant to smoko for us, (* la Quinby's book) we 

 iiavo one of these smokers thai are blown from the mouth, 

 ;iii(lso keopastreamof smoke on them all the lime. If 

 wc wish to handle frames rapidly, we can't wait to work 

 our lingers down amongst the ))ees, so our smoke goes on 

 to ihese self same bees at each end of the frame, and they 

 :ue out of the way in a jilTy. When our head is bent tho 

 Miioker hangs by the tc.'th, and when we stand up it is 

 held by the rim of the hat. (^cc lilhng will give us smoke 

 to lake oir 109 lbs. honey, and put on'empty boxes for the 

 same amount. This blowing a little smoke on tho bees 

 and then laying tke smoker down, won't work taking oil 

 sectional boxes, with a hive full of cross hybricLs ; say 

 nothing about our not wanling one h»nd tied up to a 

 smoker. 



Xow what is Novice tryiag to set at on page K, about 

 two entrances 'i" How does kaviug an entrance near the 

 lop save travel i% the koney season ? The bees that bring 

 111 the honey, as a rule never iiut a drop into the cells. A.s 

 soon as a bee cosgs ia with a lo.id, she passes along until 



she meets a yowng bee that is empty, gi\"cs the load to this 

 bee, stojjs to rest a little while if tired, and goes immedi- 

 ately wit for another load. With jwllen this is different ; 

 as it is placed in the cell by tho l5e« that brings it. Jkit 

 she does not stop to pack it in tho coll. One of tho young 

 bees does it. E. Gallup says on piigc 172, Vol. Ill, A. li. ./.. 

 ■"When bees gather honey more than their honey sacks 

 can contain they (the young bees) dejwsit it in tho cells, 

 etc." .\lso on page '20i, same Vol., "Upward ventilation is 

 wrong for tho breeding season, and so is any contrivance 

 for the bees to pass directly into the surplus honey Ikjics 

 from tho outside of the hive ; for tho bees that gather tlte 

 nectar from flowers are not those that store it in tho sur- 

 plus boxes." Any one can satisfy himself on this point, 

 by having an observatory hive holding one comb, or by 

 placing an Italian queen in a black swarm. Abf>ul two 

 weeks after tho last black beo has hatche<l, you will see 

 none but black bees going out antt in at tho entrance, in 

 the forenoon, while if you look in the boxes you will see 

 none but Italians there, and .you wiB see them constantly 

 depositing honey in the evils. 



Although not from Michigan wo will answer the (jues- 

 tions asked on page 5(i. Comb will not be built in section 

 boxes true enough to glass, without some kind of a separ- 

 ator tetween each box ; for the honey will bulge out in 

 places, the same as you see it along tho toj) bars of frames. 

 These separators should be put iti so the heat can radiate 

 through each box at lx)ttom and tf>p, or in other words be 

 the same as one large box. Guides used should be comb, 

 (white) or comb foundations, and the more you use the 

 better. If you can till each box ftill, tho bees will lill them 

 in one-half the time ; but a piece one inch sqsarc answers 

 every purpose for getting just one comb in each Iwx or 

 frame. If you do not want to glass it, they will build true 

 enough for all purposes without separators. 



Bees wintering well so far. Have lost none yet. Con- 

 trary to egpectatitm for such a \rann winter I do not (ind 

 nearly the brood there usually is this time of year, and 

 strange to say those in the cellar have far the most. 



G. M. DoOLITl\LE. 



Borodino, N. T., March 10th, 187t>. 



If you don't .stop abusing us friend D., we 

 will get down from our stool and let you be 

 "school master" awhile. Perhaps we may as 

 well own up that it never occurred to us that 

 we might hold a smoker in tho mouth and 

 work with both hands ; and we really don't 

 know but you are right about it. The fact is 

 we have never worked with the boxes— shall 

 this season though, at least until we get tired 

 of so much fussing and go back to the easy and 

 simple extractor, as we have always before — • 

 and we have been in the habit of so construct- 

 ing our hives that they could be I'eadilj' ma- 

 nipulated with one hand, while we used the 

 smoker (when one was needed), with the other. 

 It was rather rough to assume that we had 

 never used them, for we made a very nice 

 mouth smoker years ago, and it is carefully 

 kept in a drawer yet. Wc never used it very 

 much, for when dizzy by frantic blowing, aside 

 from other trials of patience, we soon coh- 

 tracted a chronic dislike to it. Besides wheu 

 one ht'iS lady visitors, h®w undignified it does 

 look to poke a great knob of wood in cue's 

 mouth. 



We didn't say entrances at the top of the 

 hive, but part way up. Did you nerer have 

 the entrance closed by dead bees in the spring? 

 If it were two incites above tho bottom board, 

 this could not well happen. As Isees seem 

 much disposed to prefer such an entrance, is 

 it not well to let them have it ? Many thanks 



