260 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



Oct. 



you too my friends — can winter our bees with- 

 mit losing one colony. Let us sell or destroy 

 our surplus queens, and double up until all 

 are sironsc -colonies. Now crowd the bees on 

 to six or seven combs, put in your soft hay or 

 chaff division boards at the sides, put a foot 

 or more of the same over them, tuck them up 

 snugly, and feed until these six combs are 

 bulged with sealed honey, unless they are al- 

 ready bulged without the feeding. Make the 

 entrance small, and then just let them alone, 

 until next April or May, letting them fly out 

 and enjoy the sunshine, whenever they wish. 



One word in regard to 7 feet between the 

 hives ; we have always had ours feet from 

 centre to centre, and have never had any rea- 

 son to wish the distance greater. 



^ ■»■ m 



CAI.IFOKNIA. 



FEEDING, CANDY VERSUS SYRUP, THICK HONEY, &C. 



/ip|K UR bees have to be led largely, and from trial I 

 ll 1) flnd the same weight of sugar made into candy 

 ^^ lor them, will last more than enough longer to 

 ])tty tor the extra work— if it is extra— of making the 

 candy Instead of feeding syrup. Another thing aside 

 from cost, is the ease of feeding— and certainty of 

 knowing when the candy is gone by simply raising 

 the cover, or opening the door of the hive wiihout be- 

 ing obliged to take out the frames to txamlne. As we 

 do not want them to store an ounce of sugar in their 

 combs beyond just enough to carry them through 

 alive until new honey comes, we will let candy serve 

 us and it any be left not eaten when they begin to 

 gather lioney, we can quickly take it away and store 

 it safely until wanted again— if ever, it is almost an 

 impossibility to feed licjuiU food without setting rob- 

 bers at work, even when one does not open a hive 

 until near sunset and works until dark. 



Jn the proceedings of our county association, I no- 

 tice the impression seemed to be that the bets were 

 strong and the recommendation was made to sulphur 

 all the stocks one could not afford to feed. It strikes 

 us that if a thorough examination be made, there will 

 be enough weak and queenless stocks in any apiary of 

 any size this year, to admit of uniting dovi'n to a res- 

 pectable number. 



The season has been so very bad that bees went 

 contrary to all previous ideas of tlieir habits, which 

 lurnished a very uselul lesson. 



The most thoroughly learnt lesson, and the one not 

 likely soon to be forgotten here, is not to extract Irom 

 the main frames near the end cf the season, and not 

 to be caugiit without honey enough on liand all the 

 lime to teed if they need it. At the close of ordinaiy 

 seasons the hives are filled almost solid with honey, of 

 which little is used before the new crop begins to 

 come in, the result being that hivts are honey bound 

 and do not get strong until late in the spring. 



To obviate this, it is best to use the extractor as 

 soon as the manzinita— our fiiSt honey plant— comes 

 in bloom, and take the honey irom all the main frames 

 tl;at are free from brood. At that eeason of the year 

 bees work every day, but stocks are weak and the 

 honey cold— too cola to throv/ out without artificial 

 heat. Manzinita does not bloom until 3o days alter 

 the first /leai'j/ rain— usually December, so that one 

 gets at work extracting during Jauuarj', when the 

 heat at mid-day is about 05°. Oar honey can not be 

 thrown out unless the thermometer stands at about 

 75^ lor several hours, wliich we do not get often du- 

 ring the winter months. 



I have a large box arranged to hold £0 or more main 

 frames, as nearly air tight as may be, and deep enough 

 to apply heat at the bottom without danger of melt- 

 ing. I heat with hot bricks. Three or four tied to- 

 gether with stout wire and set on the bottom of the 

 oox will soon i un the temperature up to about 85^ to 

 !X)^, at which lieat it should remain about an hour be- 

 lore trying to extract. A common table, with a hole 

 2 inches wide and a foot long, cut out of the middle, 

 running lengthwise, is used for uncapping the combs. 

 The caps and projecting bits of comb drop through 

 this liole in tlie table into a box with a coarse wire 

 cloth bottom, and this rests on a can to catch the hon- 

 ey. The cappings and bits of wax will drain pretty 

 clean in a lew hours and* may then be washed and 

 put into the wax extractor. 



AVax is extracted here by the heat of the sun and to 



do It, we make the same kind of a machine that is 

 used lor straining honey. A box with a V shaped 

 bottom, deep enough to hold two strainers and large 

 enough to have a 4 light sash 10x14 glass cover the 

 tops. The sash is the only movable part, imt a hole 

 with a spigot is put in near the bottom to draw clT 

 the honey. Two light frames are made to fit the in- 

 side of the box, over which common burlap sacking 

 is tacked. The strainers are fixed about 3 or 4 inches 

 apart. The wax is put on the upper strainer and sash 

 put on when in a few hours you will find the wax all 

 melted and gone from the upper strainer and resting 

 nicely cooked en tlie under one, while the honey 

 down in the bottom of the V is ready to draw ofi'. 

 Wax taken in this way is pretty well cleansed and 

 usually very bright and pretty. Of course it requires 

 re-washing and re-meltlng iuto moulds before it is 

 ready for market. 



\Ye have long had comb carriers, similar to the one 

 you make of tin, only ours are first made of a light 

 strong frame, covered with burlap sacking, the cover 

 being of the same, tacked on each edge, with a round 

 stick sewn in the other edge, the cover being wide 

 enough to go clear over, the slick holding the cover 

 down. Our carriers are made to hold 5 or 6 frames, 

 but about 4 Is all a man cares to carry at once. In- 

 stead of handles like those of a water pail, we nail a 

 strip of wood on each end to carry by. These handles 

 can be grasped by the full hand. 



Syrup made of two pounds of light brown sugar to 

 one pourd or pint of water boileil and skimmed. Is 

 pretty thick lood for our climate, but the water will 

 evaporate in the hive to a certain extent. 



The honey dew mentioned in a previous letter did 



not prove to be of much service as it lasted only an 



hour or two in the morning. Hives do not seem to 



get heavy very last where it is the most abundant. 



G. F. Mekkiam, San Luis llej, Cal., Aug. 1(5, 1877. 



UMTING BEES. 



^^^^OU often recommend uniting weak stocks. I 

 1if[ have some of that sort and wish you would 

 aj^i oblige me by giving, in next number, a good 

 bine as to your method ot doing it. Would not the 

 bees go back to the oid stand i Tbe only way I can 

 see, is to do it, and risk their going back. 



Ed. Notlee, New Orleans, La., Sept. 7th, '77. 



Uniting colonies, is much like introducing 

 queens, inasmuch as no flxed rule can be given 

 for all cases. It is a very simple matter to lift 

 the frames, bees and all out of one hive and set 

 them iuto another, where the two are situated 

 side by side. Usually, there will be no quar- 

 reling, if this is done when the weather 

 is too cold for the bees to fly, but this is not 

 always the case. If one of them is placed 

 close to one side of the hive, and the other to 

 the other side, and they are small enough for a 

 vacant comb or two between them, they will 

 very rarely flght. After two or three days, the 

 bees will be found to have united themselves 

 peaceably, and the brood and slorts may then 

 he placed compactly together, and your chafT 

 cushions put in at, each side. If there are 

 frames containing some honey, that cannot be 

 put in, they should be placed in an upper 

 story, and the bees allowed to carry it down. 

 You should always look to them 20 minutes or 

 half an hour after they are put into one hive, 

 to see if everything is amicable on both "sides 

 of the house." If you find any bees flghtiug, or 

 any doubled up on the bottom board, give them 

 such a smoking that they cannot tell, " which 

 from t'other," and after 15 or 20 minutes, if 

 they are flghtiug again, give them another 

 "dose," and repeat until they are good to each 

 other. I have never failed in getting them 

 peaceable after two or three smokiugs. 



If you wish to unite two colonies so large 

 that a single story will not easily contain them, 

 which by the way I feel sure is always poor 

 policy, proceed as before, only set one hive 

 over the other. If this is done on a cool day, 



