288 



GLEANIKGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



take cheer my friend, and practice a little with 

 cheaper queens, before you get another im- 

 ported one. I have long been wanting to say 

 somethinG; in regard to handling bees on the 

 Sabbath day, and I thank you friend S., for in- 

 troducing the matter in a way, that comes 

 right home to all ©f us. On the whole, I think 

 I will step over to Our Home department with 

 the whole matter, by your leave. 



FDN., ITAIilANS AND HYBRIDS, HIVES, 

 HONEY, &c. 



flHE fdn. you sent me was fitted into frames in 

 different ways; some were filled out in full, 

 — , in others from )i 1o 1 inch space was given be- 

 tween fdn. and sides and bottom of frames. I find X 

 incli at sides, and 1 incli or luarly this amount, is ad- 

 visable for bottom, givin? ample room for sagging. 

 Eggs were lound in cells 12 hours alter given to the 

 bees; such a nice eight, so perfect, so smooth and 

 level when sealed over as tjrood or honey. Some 

 frames of fdn. were placed in an empty hive and a 

 large swarm put on them, which by their great 

 weight and the t.eat generated, caused one comb to 

 sag giving the cells in the upper part of the frame an 

 ni)loiig shape: yet the queen depoGited eggs in these 

 clip, which I expected would be developed as drones, 

 but they were sealed up as worker brood and matured 

 as euch, being no larger than bees from ordinary cells. 

 Possibly there would be no sagging at all, if fnd. were 

 placed in hives alternately with filled combs, and the 

 hives shaded and well ventilated for a few days. If 

 8.'.0<i worth of fdn. will fill the frames in the brood 

 apartment and put starters in the section boxes, and 

 a swarm be hived on them, we shall have ^.CO worth 

 ol surplus honey ready to come off before a swarm 

 would fill the brood apartment when no start is given ; 

 making a clear gain, at once, '.f $3 00 for $200 invest- 

 ed in the (du., to say notMng of the satisfaction of ev- 

 er after having a beautiful set of combs free from 

 drone comb, save such quantity as the apiarian may 

 see fit, under the varied circumstances, to give his 

 bees, in the aggregate, thousands of dollars are an- 

 nually lost to bee-keepers by the useless hordes ot 

 drones allowed to be reared and tolerated in the 

 hives. Instead ol our bees consuming so much time 

 and feed on these "dead heads," they would do iirt- 

 ter to turn their whole attention lo rearing workers 

 that will fill the combs instead of emptying them. 



HIVES. 



I have been experimenting nearly all my life, with 

 different styles oi hives, antl liave tried nearly all 

 shapes of Irames. To sum up, my conclusion is that 

 the Langstroth hive, or tt;e same simplified as you 

 now make them, is for all purpose? the very best. 

 Tills hive question is not my hobby, but the kind of 

 bees to put in tlie hive for large vields— tons of honey 

 —is what I think of most. Bees should be first 

 considered, hives second. 



BEES. 



You will agree with me that there is a vast differ- 

 ence in the honey gathering and comb building pro- 

 pensities oldifl'iTent colonics, and different strains ot 

 liees; some strains ot blood will show their superior- 

 ity for several generations, it matters not whether of 

 black bees, It:ilian or their crosses. We think there 

 are more poor colonies produced in a given number 

 by the black bee?, among the Italians a smaller per- 

 cent of poor workers, and in their crosses but few col- 

 onies will be prcdirced that are indifl'erent workers. I 

 reared some queens last fall, a iew of whicli were 

 retired from an impure mother, and they produced 

 one half black bees. For the s^ike of testing the mer- 

 its Ol these miserable looking things I sufl'gred them 

 to take their chances with my pure bees, and as you 

 have "been there" with bees of this stripe, it is 

 scarcely necessary to say they were able to "hoe their 

 own rovv." 



They were equal to any emergency : none of the 

 " bright beauties," net even the bees Irom my im- 

 ported quc":ns could "getaway" with them. They 

 got off as "big" swarms as early, made as much hon- 

 ey, and filled up empty space just as last as anybody's 

 bees. I know a few of thetn would always be ready 

 to sing a fine, very fine, song close up to my nose 

 \?henever 1 took a walk in the bej yard ; more espec- 

 ially would they get pressingly familiar with my vis- 

 itors, and y u know how annoying this is to one who 

 Uses to have folks enjoy a " look at the bees." 



It is this peculiar dash of wicked ugliness that 



makes this class of bees distasteful to me. Happily 

 we liave discovered a class of bees that are equally as 

 good honey producers and comb builders, without 

 this fearful propensity for stinging and nosing into 

 other people's business. I allude to the progeny of 

 our imoorted queens and the progeny of their daugh- 

 ters. The workers can not be surpassed in any res- 

 pect and will seldom volunteer to sting unless driven 

 to do so by rough treatment. The bees stick tight to 

 the combs while frames are being handled and sel- 

 dom require to be smoked to keep them down while 

 an examination of their " wares" is going on. 



We do have some trouble in getting them off the. 

 combs for extracting, but since the advent of fdn. and 

 section boxes lor comb honey in such desirable and 

 salable shape, it is a question whether or not much 

 extracting will be profitable. 



OUK OWN APIARY. 



We started the season with 40 colonies ; increased 

 to 70 and have taken over 3000 lbs. honev ; about ojie- 

 half extracted and one-half in boxes. The extracted 

 was mostly obtained by extracting from the outside 

 frames which were not covered by boxes, and I think 

 1 got almost as much hcney in boxes as I would have 

 done had I not taken any with the extractor, as the 

 em- tying of the two outside frames from each colony 

 did not stop comb building in boxes. My crop is near- 

 ly all sold at 18 to 20 cts. for comb, and"l6 cts. for ex- 

 tracted. 



My friend Richard Reynolds, of East Springfield, 

 had all his honey built In section boxes which he 

 soon found sale for at 20 to 25 cts. per lb., while his 

 neighbors found it difficult to sell honey in old style 

 boxes at 16 to 18 cts. 



EXTRACTED HONEY. 



Some complain that their honey sours on their 

 hands; I have no trouble. When extracting 1 throw 

 the honey, just as it comes from the machine, into open 

 hrai ed barrels; and as there is always, during a 

 yield, some tliin or unripe honey, this will rise with 

 all other li?ht substances, as bitsof comb, Ac, to the 

 surl.-^ce, vv'hich must he skimmed off occasionally, 

 leaving only the good honey which will not sour if 

 left uncovered till cool weather. Good lioney will 

 get fearfully thin in very warm weather, but will get 

 thick when the temperature falls ; so do not be hasty 

 in concluding all is going to sour. 



NUCLEUS HIVES, 



should be seen in operation in every well conducted 

 apiary, as early as weather will permit in the spring. 

 It will ))ay largely to have laying queens ready to 

 give stocks that have cast swarms. The secret of suc- 

 cess in getting box honey is a laying queen on the 

 briod comlis at all times. Sec a hive queenless and 

 not ivo. king in boxes, just give them a plump laying 

 qu: en nml note how quickly the bees will be seen 

 "chawing" out the. co;i)l)S from the place where they 

 left oft" bluntly. This is a good way to get your "dol- 

 lar " lor a queen if no customer is alter licr who is 

 sharp enough to see the point. 



J. A. Buchanan. 

 Wmtersville, Ohio, Aug. 2Cth, 1877. 



I agree with our friend, almost entirely, and 

 this particular point in regard to hybrids is 

 one that really troubles me. My best yield of 

 comb honey, both this season and last, was 

 from hybrid stocks; and in selling off all my 

 hybrid queens, I have more than once felt, that 

 I might be selling my most profitable ones. 

 They are vehement in stinging, but they are 

 also vehement in honey gathering and brood 

 rearing, and I really admire their energy, while 

 I lament their — want of common sense, J. guess 

 I shall have to term it, when one tries to look 

 over their " v^ares ," say in the fall of the year. 

 While preparing our bees for winter, I at first 

 thought I had found the key to their extra 

 amount of comb honey, because several of them 

 had almost nothing in the brood chamber, 

 while the Italians had the brood comics filled 

 and the honey stored round the cluster, in a 

 most provident way. Now, only last evening 

 we found a full blood Italian colony that had 

 stored in the sections, with almost nothing in 

 the brood combs, wl^ile the worst stock of hy- 

 brids in the apiary had enough in the brood 



