236 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Oct. 



01:11 0\r^ ATIARV 



FRIEND suggests that if wo would vis- 



, ii the Centrnuial we would see much 



iiiachiiicry, and get mauy tew ideas. Now 

 the gRattst trouble with us, is that we have 

 (00 much machiuery, ai:d too mauy uew ideas 

 already. If we caa by siayiug at home, take 

 better care of, and develop those we have, we 

 think it will be mucli better ; and just at pres- 

 ent the flow of honey this Ist day of Sept., is 

 10 us more interesting than perhaps anything 

 else, ai;d our apiary contains more wonderful 

 things, things to be studied, and worked out, 

 and things we verily believe to be more prolit- 

 able to us, than any work of man, to be 

 found on the face of the earth. 



We have tried to foliov/ up the idea of giv- 

 ing bees bits of comb in front of their hives, 

 and tiud that if the distance is so great they 

 are compelled to take wing, they pack the 

 comb on their pollen baskets ; if so near the 

 hive that they can carry it on foot, they bite off 

 bits as befoi'e, and then stick them together m 

 a lump, holding this lump as it appears to us, 

 under the chin, with the aid of the tongue.. A 

 bee v,-ill be walking about with a huge lump 

 of this wax, without your being able to detect 

 anything of the kind, uu'ess it happen to need 

 readjusting, which the bee does dextrously 

 with the tore foor. With this lump of wax, 

 when the bee has about as much as it can car- 

 ry, it starts into the hive hurriedly, and goes 

 directly to where comb building is in pro- 

 gress, or may be to where cracks and crevices 

 are being stopped by propolis, for these bits of 

 wax seem to be used for cither purpose indis- 

 criminately. When packing it in their pollen 

 baskets, they use a kind of sleight ol hand 

 movement, that is quite puzzling until one 

 has studied it out. A bit of wax is pulled 

 from the comb as before, and is then stuck on 

 the side of one of the middle feet from which 

 it is "slapped" on to the rest in the pollen bas- 

 ket with a movement so quick that the eye is 

 unable to follow it, and it is only by observ- 

 ing the finishlug pats of this limb, that we are 

 able to divine how the wax got to the pollen 

 basket at all. 



The dark hybrids and black bees are gath- 

 ering only dark buckwheat honey, with rich 

 cream colored combs, the first we ever saw ; 

 while the Italians are storing clover honey in 

 white comb but little different from that of 

 June. This is another very great advantage 

 in having Italians. We really believe the 

 house apiary has especial advantages for comb 

 honey, and that the 3 or four colonies that 

 were strong, have certainly averaged better 

 than those outside. One has given over 100 

 lbs, and another very nearly as much. One 

 very important fact stands out strong and 

 clear ; viz, that more honey will be stored 

 •while the boxes are well protected from the 

 changes of the weather. The central row of 

 sections is alwaj's filled first, and of these the 

 very middle ones ; but in the house apiary, we 

 find the row next the wall, capped and ready 

 to come ofi", full as soon as the central ones. 

 If the honey boxes are packed with the chafi" 

 pillows just as we pack the hive in wintering, 

 l')erhaps it would add greatly to the yield of 

 honey ; and on this point we are now making 



soma experimtnts. Although the hoop hives 

 have given very fair yields of honey, we have 

 repeatedly found the side next the hoops, of 

 the outside comb, empt}% when all the rest 

 were vrell filled. 



5f/i — We bave just paid Mr. Blakeslee a vis- 

 it, and find him with over a ton of comb hon- 

 ey in the Universal sections, besides having 

 sold considerable. He has now 98 colonies, 

 and has sold bees and honey enough, with the 

 honey on baud, to amount to §1000.00. His 

 bees are in such excellent order and so well 

 provisioned, that we should call them worth 

 safely §1000.00 more. We estimated that the 

 hives now contain as much as 5000 lbs. of hon- 

 ey. Although he has had no fall surplus, he 

 has taken from a single colony, 200 lbs. of 

 comb honey. He considers the plan of feeding 

 extracted honey, a complete success, having 

 fed 2 barrels to 2 colonies after his honey sea- 

 sou was over, which they put in section boxes 

 in nice shape. He cannot tell exact!}- ihe 

 amount of extracted required to give 100 lbs. 

 of comb honey, but thinks perhaps from 125, 

 to 150 if fdn. is used. One more item ; the 

 colony that gave 200 lbs. of clover honey, he 

 says was kept from swarming by the use of 

 the Quinby smoker ; v/hen they commenced to 

 cluster on the outside of the hive, they were 

 driven in by smoke, and this was repeated un- 

 til they stayed inside and commenced work on 

 the fdn. We can readily credit this for we 

 had a large natural swarm, that persisted in 

 clustering out until we drove them in several 

 times with smoke, when they went to work 

 and kept at it. Mr. B. says if lie can have 

 just one half as much ready cash for extracted 

 honey, he will use the extractor ; otherwise he 

 shall produce comb honey. 



I am a new beginner in the bee business and don't 

 see Low I could get on without Gleanings. I started 

 June, '75, with two colonies; have increased them by 

 natural swarming to '29 colonies all in good working 

 order. W. 11. H. Denh.\m. 



• Lamar, Barton Co., Mo., Aug. 26th, '76. 



The statement above we were at first inclin- 

 ed to think pretty large but a little reflection 

 shows it to be quite probable. For instance 

 our Quinby hive (packed with chafi',) has giv- 

 en us four swarms, and all are now good 

 strong colonies. If the chafl' packing should 

 work as well next winter, why may not the 5 

 increase to 25 ? This would be 25 from one, in 

 two seasons. But this is not all ; the first 

 swarm stored full 50 lbs. in empty combs, and 

 since these were removed has give us about 25 

 lbs. in sections. The second swarm has made 

 about 25 lbs. of comb honey, and the third 

 about 10 ; all four as well as the old colony, 

 have their hive crammed with stores, and the 

 original stock has stored about 100 lbs. of 

 honey in the Quinby boxes. Think of it ! 

 Five colonies amply provisioned for winter, 

 and lt^5 lbs. comb honey, from one in the 

 spring. 



It will be remembered that we said in June 

 that yellow fdn. made white comb honey; 

 well, we had begun in August to use the yel- 

 low quite extensively, until on looking into a 

 hive toward the latter part of the month, we 

 found yellow comb honey, not only the sides 

 of the cells, but the caps also, just exactly as 



