1?>T!5 



'GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



27S 



uitid^ last sprin;^. They ai'3 my own iuveiitiou, but A. G. 

 iHill,-*! Kendahille, ladiana, was feoi-e Ibis su^:iiiaei- with 

 ■:i vers similar hJv-2. 



Bees did very well An ffee sprcng, but ^wai'nied too 

 aiii'.cli, as 1 was iwt wall enougk to k«ep the honey ex- 

 tracted 'from Ib.em. They have ircFeased to 100 now. I 

 jiave sold -some, aud a number wep.t oft when I was 2iot ' 

 nvateluiig. Had a number of sesoad swarms that threw 

 swarms again in Jii^y. In oae such I put an Italian 

 ■queen the day it swareied^ and in just three weeks fi'om 

 the time I let her go, there was a swarm out that went 

 'back, and ok openiH^;; it I found young queens just featclt- 

 dug; showing it had swarmed, aud my nice "bough ten" 

 queen had goKC to the woods. In siitroduoing Queesis, I 

 jue day let OHe g<3 out of Ihecageon aframe that I had 

 Jiad hangiug out of the hive, to see kow she would be r<j- 

 xjeived, aiid in about a minute <si4caj/ ihejletc-; I watched 

 ther imtil she got lM,:;h up in the air, and made up iny 

 -.iiiud that slie was gone. But I imiueJiateiy took out all 

 tlie frames, shook ihe bees down in front c^ the hive, and 

 kept them making a noise for i5 or 20 minjites. I-n the 

 e\ening I examined the hive, a!id to iny aKiazemeut 

 ibund her dl O, K, and the bees are uow yollow and puro. 

 1 found a Queenless hive about the 28th of July, and put 

 ;iu a frame J^K?^ of eggs.; on looking in a few dajs after, 

 there was not a thing in the frame, tliey had eaten every 

 eug. I put u\ a.nolher frame with «ggs and lar\:a?, and 

 ^hey commenced <j[ueen cells at once. 



HOW I EAISE& (?) ITAilAN QUEENS. 



I had one rather choice queen and I divided the swann, 

 seeing the "old iady" at the time— and \^hen the cdls 

 were re My, used about 15 or 20 of tliem in a.s maay hives, 

 ■nnd they aid turtied out Ji:ijbrids. Ow examination I 

 found my "iaix-y" quee-n had been replaced by another, 

 ."just as nice ; but her progei\y were only— iijiirids. Did 

 not say any naught.y words, for I wa.s ziot comiietent to 

 io the subject justica 



I had expected to get 2 or £000 lbs. of box liossey this 

 ■fall— as we usuaily get most of our honey from golaen rod 

 in Septemlser— but alas, it is so cold, and raiuinfj ever^ 

 'hill, they caii't work, and the out look is bad, decidedly 

 bad. 



And now one other matter; Iseejxxi rather try to fix 

 51]) "John Lon{j's" trickery. If he is tlie party the A. B. J. 

 says he is— Wui. Hoge former'y of the "Chicago Honey 

 <Jo.," I pronounce him a scoundrel. In the fall of 1873 I 

 r*hipped liim eny honey, worth §125,00, on the recommeiid- 

 -ition of Adam Giimm — jxKir man is gone now, and he 

 never heard of it — and said Wm. Hoge has never paid a 

 dollar of the claim. The honey was sent about the time 

 ilie formed the partnership with Mi-s. C. O. Perrine, soon 

 <-ifter her name was changed to S. E. Spaids. She paid 

 .:?25,O0 on tiie account the next spring, and made many 

 promises, even after she went to New York city ; but 

 ""nary red" did I ever get. I understand she has left 

 there, and gone South ; to what place I was not informed. 

 3She said iie ran away taking all the money, and left her 

 to paj' the debts. Now if he is not a &cQv.Hdrel pray 

 what would 2/o« call him ? I was then, as now, m very 

 j;o<)r health, and that honej' represented my year's laboi. 

 V. M, Chatlin, Piereeton, Iiid., Sept. 13, l,S7G. 



Two yenrs ago iny b( es gathered in Sept. 100 lbs. of nice 

 Golden Rod. Some would call it clover, 



Lyman Legg, Rose, N. Y. Oct. 8th, 1870. 

 The only way we can make a report avoid- 

 ing a complex list of cktails, is to state the 

 amount of liouey, and the increase. We can- 

 not see that it matters whether the honey is 

 •all made by tiic old stocks, or the new ; the 

 ietea is, we commence with so juany hives, and 

 get so mucli honey. In Mr. D's case, very 

 ]ikely the new swarms made half of the eight, 

 ibs, which would leave but 4 l])s. per day. 

 There is one otlier matter, which we fear i9^ 

 much over-looked. Mr. Doolittle's honey box 

 or section is made with hard wood ends, 

 which are quite heavy ; add to this two sheets 

 of glass to eacli comb, and it would be noth- 

 ing strange if nearly a half ton of the 299-i 

 were ^\<iO<^ and glass. If his customers are 

 willing to pay for all this with their honey, it 

 is certainly all right, but we fear they will 

 stand a poor chance when placed by the side 

 of honey put up in sections of very tkin light 

 wood Uke the Universal, unless it is for a 

 fancy city trade. Honey in small fancy glass 

 boxes like that d(scribcd in P. S. to honej" 

 column, on page 49, would not bring half cost 

 in our market now. 



3Ir. Doolittle saj's his bees gathered his surplus in 8 

 vlays which woidd be, a little over <5 lbs. jx-r day, 

 counting G8 old stocks, say nothing about surplus 

 f:om young colon ie.s. I have had some exi>erience in bee- 

 kee]ung, but never ha^e reached that amount from old 

 stocks that swarmed, lly greatest surplus has been from 

 .young swarms that came out early in the season. Bees 

 in this section of country have gathered a small amount 

 ' f lioney. Jly .surplus this j'ear is mostly buckwheat or 

 dark honey. Golden Red has been a failure this season. 



\rould it Ue profitable to comsnence bee-keeiiins with 

 Oiie hive, in a smalJ yard in a city of 30000 inhabitants} 

 T. S. Ctossos, Trenton, N. J. 



Bees will thrive in the heart of the largest 

 city, and we have many favorable reports 

 from sucli colonies. Our friend Muth, who is 

 one of our most successful honey raisers, has 

 his apiary on the roof of his large store in 

 Cincinnati. 



From 41 L. hives packed in chaft last winter, I have 

 taken 2250 lbs. extracted, aiid 1211 lbs box honey; aR 

 average of alwut S(» lbs. to the hive. Have taken 32 lbs. 

 of way, and sold S25.00 worth of l>ees. It cost me 

 afcout §00.00 to put them in good wintering condition. I 

 have sold about half the honey, J. W. TJttee. 



Amity, N. Y. Oct, ith, 1870- 



This summers experience with movable frames has 

 somewhat shaken my faith in the old fashioned manage- 

 ment of bees accoi-ding to my plan, except for small 

 apiaries of 20 to 50 colonies. For these I am firmly com 

 vinced there is no hive equal to the triangle with comb 

 guides lengthwise with th3 tup. But for the pur> 

 poses of a larger apiary, where a man devotes his whole 

 time and attention to Apiculture I am inclined now to 

 believe there are no improvements thus far to equal the 

 mo^•able frames and the honey extractor, I thus con- 

 clude from the array of riieu of character who advocate 

 these improvements, men whose positions forbid the 

 idea of their being either knaves or fools, that the ssystem 

 of bee-culture and the hives they adopt must possess in- 

 trinsic merits not yet known to b(e-keeiJers who have 

 not fairly tested both plans. I also arrive at the same 

 conclusion from my past experience with frames. Y'et I 

 am fully satisfied th.at a small apiary and a triangular 

 hive with suitable section boxes is infinitely preferable 

 for the senior Apiculturist. K I ever should be con- 

 vinced to the contrary I will readily "throw up the 

 sponge," for I can bear a beating as coolly as any man iu 

 the world. I accept the couplet of the late Dr. Arm- 

 strong. 



"Be not the first by whom the new is tried. 

 Be not the last to Iny the old aside."' 



