L876 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



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From Different Fields. 



i=jJ(pS\Y knowledge derived from Gleanings, and my own 

 J^]svj judgment, I have U-ans/erred 8 swarins from old 

 box, to movable corab hives ; and through cureless- 

 ■noss, being una-ecustomed to such work liave lost two 

 •queens. Whale the feces aixs rearing new queens tiiey are 

 !!illing the brood chamber with honey, and in order to give 

 the young queens ixjom to do their work, when matured 

 *ind fertilJEed, I will have to extract that honey. I must 

 therefore have an extrasctor. 



David Waiujwell, Arlington, Ohio, May ICth, '76. 

 I received the extractor in good order, am well pleased 

 with it. It caused some excitement in the family, aH 

 wanting to soe it work. My son-in-law said we must have 

 •some honey for sujjjjer, though afterS o'clock. It worked 

 very satisfactoriJy. 



David Wakdwell, Arlington, Ohio, June Sd, '70. 



I have a few hives full of nice combs, honey and bee 

 bread (the bees left them last January). Can I put 

 queens into these hives, remove strojig colonies and put 

 these hives in place of the colonies that I remove ? 



Vai. D. Urich, Myerstown, Pa., April 15th, '76. 



The plan answers very well, but is not the 

 best economy, lor the old stock is robbed of 

 all its foraging bees, and the new one is giv- 

 en none other. Some brood combs covered 

 with bees taken from the old stock will be a 

 better way, and in this case the queen need be 

 caged but one daj' — sometimes not at all. If 

 the combs of bees be taken from several colo- 

 nies, you will have the popular way of artific- 

 ial swarming. 



I read the Gleanings that you sent me and think it 

 one of the most interesting books of the kind I ever read, 

 and I ha\e read many. I read till one o'clock at night. 

 Do you hear any thing about the "Combination movable 

 «omb bee house," as in use by H. Herman Fiick, Lavins- 

 ville, Somerset Co., Pa. ? 



E. M. FoED, Lunborg, Pa., June 2J, '70. 



Really friend F., we shall have to hold on if 

 you are going to sit up nights to read. Bee- 

 keepers should rise and retire with the sun — 

 especially the rising part — and keep "cool." 

 Mr. Flick is the man that sells "ambrosial 

 honey," and advises his patrons to drink whis- 

 key when they get stung, for which receipts he 

 charges $3,00 and something. And he owes 

 us the $2,00 that we sent him yet, and won't 

 pay it back, yet he promised to. See "Hum- 

 bugs and Swindles", Vol, I, and II. 



I have taken 7000 lljs. honey already from the 127 hives, 

 and still it comes. 



R. WiLEiN, San Buena Ventura, Cal., May 27th, '70. 



Yes, I'll take SlO.OO for Vol. Ill, Gleanings, to comfon 

 .your friend, but not S'.),'M cents, yet awhile. 



J. Van Eaton, York, X. Y., June 2d, '76. 



Your reply to my last needs some explanation. The 

 old swarm of bees I have had for some years vras a 

 ■vcrif sh-iiiirf colony. Last fall I took off one 20 lb. box 

 of honey and the other box was fllleti also; but I v.'as 

 so green that I forgot to smoke them and had no bee 

 veil; hence, when I pried the box loose, (it was open 

 at the bottom and stood on the frames) the bees came 

 out very strong and liercc, as soon as I lifted it up, so 



I let It back to its place, thinking I would try again 

 in a few days, but when I tried the second time the 

 bees had taken the honey from every comb into the- 

 hive below. I left this box on the hive all winter 

 and put a pieee of carpet over the frames where the 

 other box stood. Therefore they had only to 1111 the 

 combs, which they did by May 20th. You will remem- 

 ber that I have a pear orchard of lOO large trees, ", 

 acres of apple trees, i acres ot plum trees, and 5 acres 

 of peach trees, all of which blossomed very freely and 

 on all of which they worked constantly. I have 1 acre 

 alsike clover, 4 acres other clover, and *> acres rasp- 

 berries, all now coHsing into bloom. This hive 

 swarmed May 2eth; a very large swarm, and they 

 bave already made a large amount of comb in the 

 frames, all straight and right. The hive of Italians I 

 rec\l of Mrs. Grimm are doing well, and have all the 

 frames full, and a large amount of brood comb, capped. 

 i think they will give me a swarm. I also expect one 

 more from the old hive ami one from the swarm of 

 May 20th, which will be 6 swarms to keep over winter. 

 Now in asking when to put on the surplus boxes, 1 

 felt that it was not right to do so at once, but whether 

 to wait until the frames were full of comb or not, I 

 was uncertain, thinking perhaps they could not de- 

 posit in boxes if I waited for all the frames to be tilled. 

 Hence I wrote you. My Flander's hives I have al- 

 tered into the Langstroth with 8 or 9 frames, and ray 

 Kelsoy hives I cut down, using the Langstroth frames, 

 so that I have a good sui)ply of hives — all the sam 

 sixod frames, like those I rec'd of you. 



A. Faiinestociv, Toledo, Ohio, June 2d, '7«. 

 We are very glad indeed to hear you are so 

 pleasauted situated, and doing so well, friend 

 F. You will probably very soon lead us all, at 

 this rate. In hiving a new swarm we would 

 at least confine them to the frames of the 

 lower story until they were well started, 

 otherwise the queen might go into the boxe?« 

 at once. Keep the quilt directly on the top of 

 the frames for the first week after hiving, or if 

 they have a full set of empty combs given 

 them, they may be ready to work in the boxes 

 in 3 days, if honey is coming in rapidly. 



In Sept. No. of Gleanings, I reported season's 

 work up to Aug. 9th. Will state that I sold 70 tested 

 Italian queens, and got 3220 lbs. fall extracted honey, 

 in addition to the 1110 lbs. spring and summer honey 

 before reported. I sold my summer honey to grocers, 

 and others that wou'd buy several gallons at one time, 

 at 12/2' cts. per gal. By Sept. Gth, I had taken three 

 barrels, or 116 gallons fall honey, when I quit extract- 

 ing and doubled all weak swarms letting them fill and 

 seal their honey, as stores were coming plentifully at 

 that time. I marketed mo.'t of my honey by taking it 

 on the street in the barrel, and measuring it out by 

 the gallon to whoever would buy. I sold the fall hon- 

 ey at Sl,25 per gallon of eleven pounds. Many fami- 

 lies would take four, five, or six gallons. So you see 

 it was notadilllcult matter to dispose of a barrel 01 

 honey. I sold the only two full barrels I tried in that 

 way, in less than six hours each. I looked over my 

 stocks Oct. 20th, equalized bees and stores, doubled to 

 90 very strong stocks, witli one or two exceptions, and 

 let them stand till Nov. 16th, when I put them in a dry 

 dark cellar. D. K. 



Napoleon, Ohio, Dee. 25th, 1875. 



Bees are doing well. They keep wanting to swarm ; 



is there any way to keep them from it until after linn 



bloom? We have the queen's wings cut, and let the 



bees go back, but they came out again, in a few days. 



Lehman Bi;os., Delphos, Ohio, June 7th, '76. 



