1877. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



293 



Ihe following hos been added to aimahy. 



Tliere is still Jinother julvantage in the 

 house apiary, and it is i)eihai)s the most im- 

 portant of all. It is that the bees, honey and 

 all the implements, can be easily kept under 

 lock and key ; a very important item where 

 thieving is very prevalent. Where the api- 

 arist becomes the owner of more colonies 

 than can profitably be kept in one place, he 

 can establish house apiaries at almost any 

 l)oint, and I have long had visions of a large 

 central apiary, with (5 house apiaries ar- 

 rangetl hexagonally all about it ; say three 

 miles from the center, and three miles from 

 each other. I think they could be so man- 

 aged that a visit once a week during the 

 honey season would, as a general thing, be 

 all that would be needed. Some loss would 

 result from unexpected swarming, but this 

 could in a great measure be obviated by the 

 use of the extractor, or an abundant supply 

 of sections furnislied with the fdn. If loca- 

 ted near a dwelling, some of the inmates 

 would soon learn to hive the swarms, and 

 look after things that might turn up. No 

 one should think of undertaking this, until 

 he has the ability, of first caring well for one 

 ai)iary ; and it can never be made a success, 

 until we have entirely got over all such 

 foolishness as allowing bees to starve, to re- 

 main a long time queenless, or to dwindle 

 down from any cause, as too many of us 

 now do. 



With a good horse, and a trim light buggy, 

 it would be very i)retty w^ork, riding about 

 and overseeing these apiiries ; but who 

 among us lias the ability to do it successful- 

 ly V Instead of answering aloud, go to work 

 quietly, and let your works be the answer. 



WHICH STYLE OF APIARY TO ADOPT. 



By way of summing up, I will state that 

 Avith my i)resent experience I would choose 

 the Chalf hive apiary, for honey alone. For 

 raising bees and and queens for sale. I would 

 use the vineyard apiary and Simplicity liives, 

 lifting the bees into Chaff hives to "winter. 

 If I were in a neighborhood where honey 

 and bees were very likely to be stolen, or ff 

 I were going to locate an apiary away from 

 home, I would choose the house apiary. Ob- 

 jections to the latter, are the inconvenience 

 of handling hives that you can not walk all 

 around, and the expense of the building. 

 For general ])urposes I would use a vine- 

 yard apiary, with both Simplicity and Chaff 

 hives. 



AddUon to cages fqr queens. 

 Since the above was written, we have given 

 the candy queen cages the most severe tests 

 in the way of sending bees Ijy mail, to all 

 l)arts of the U.S., and while we have had 

 some failures, we have succeeded in sending 

 them safely, to Colorado, Canada, Miss., &c. 

 At first we i)ut only 8 or 10 bees in the cage 

 with the (lueen. but it finally transpired that 

 the more bees there were, the less was the 

 mor'tality. We now put in from 20 to 80, 

 and succeed, almost invariably. It seems 

 that bees cannot use candy to good advan- 

 tage, unless there is quite a cluster of them 



to furnish the necessary warmth; and when 

 there is ()uite a little crowd in tiie cage, the 

 moisture exhaled from their bniath, seems 

 to soften the candy, just about as they need 

 it. If we have a very valuable (|ueen. or the 

 distance is great, we" have Ix'cn in the habit 

 of giving the bees two cages fastened togeth- 

 er. No loss has ever been reported, when 

 l)ut up in this way, and we therefore have 

 made a cage of U inch lumber, with a 2i 

 inch hole, that we think would keep the bees 

 and queen safely a month, and we h()i)e will 

 enable them to go safely across the ocean. 

 These large ones, can be made for about 

 twice the price of the others ; I think both 

 should be kept in the ai)iary. 



now TO CAGE TIIK BEES AND QUES:N. 



Open your hive without smok(? if you can ; 



if you cannot, use as little smoke as i)ossible. 



When the bees have become (piiet, lift out 



i the frames until you hnd the one containing 



j the queen, and stand it in the hive in the 



j position shown in the diagram on page 211. 



Set the frame so that the (jueen is on the 

 part projecting out of the hive. Oj)en the 

 cage just as you see it in the engravnig, and 

 i hold it in yo»u- left hand, while your thumb 

 I covers the entrance. Now i)ick the (jueen 

 i up by both wings, or by lier shoulders, while 

 you put her into the cage. Fut your thumb 

 over the entrance at once, or she will craw^l 

 out in a twinkling. Now we want none but 

 I young bees to put with her, so we will look 

 on the frame, for those that are dipping their 

 noses into the unsealed honey. As their 

 bodies are bent, we have an excellent oppor- 

 tunity to ])ick them up by the wings, and 

 with a little practice you should be able to 

 put them in the cage about as fast as you 

 would grains of corn. Young bees will nev- 

 er sting your thumb, unless they hajjpen to 

 be very bad hybrids, but old ones will some- 

 times venture to do so, if you ha])pen to 

 handle them too roughly. We mail them by 

 tying around the cage a strip of stout paper, 

 with a hole about the size of a lead i)encil 

 cut through over the wire cloth. This is for 

 ventilation, and cannot safely be omitted, 

 as we have found to our cost. 



B£2£S-BRZ!SS. Before the advent of 

 the Italians, and the convenient smokers we 

 now have, it was thought best to have a dress, 

 or sort of " jacket " attached to the veil, 

 Avith sleeves, for the protection of the op- 

 erator, while working among the hives. 

 Such things are I believe now' almost out of 

 date, with the exception of veils, and the 

 gloves that are used to some extent. The 

 veils, are many times, without doubt, useful; 

 but I am so well satisfied that even a begin- 

 ner will get along better and with less 

 stings, with his bare hands than with any 

 kind of gloves, that I have no hesitation in 

 advising him to have nothing to do with 

 them. Have your smoker in good trim, and 

 tiiere is hardly a necessity of your being 

 stung at all. While I cannot tliink it best to 

 advise a dress i)articularly for bee work, I 

 feel that it is a very wise precaution to have 



