1S77. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



2S9 



of goiiiff straight into the hive with his load, 

 as the veterans do, a vast amount of circling 

 round the entrance must be done, and even 

 after he has once alighted he takes wing 

 again, rushes all through the hive, jostles 

 the nurses, drones, and perhaps queen too, 

 and says as i)lainly as could words, "Look 

 liere ! This is I ; I gathered this, all myself. 

 Is it not nice V " 



We might imagine some old veteran who 

 has brought thousands of such loads, an- 

 swering gruffly, "Well, suppose you did; 

 Avhat of it y You had better give it to the 

 nurses, and start after more, instead of 

 making all this row and wasting time, when 

 there are so many mouths to feed." I said 

 we might imagine this, for I have never 

 lieen able to find any indication of any un- 

 kindness, inside of a bee hive. No one 

 scolds or finds fault, and the cliildren are 

 never driven off to work, unless they wish. 

 If they are improvident and starvation 

 comes, they all starve alike, and as I do de- 

 lieve, without a single hard feeling or bit of 

 censure toward any one. They all work to- 

 gether, just as your right hand assists your 

 left, and if we would understand the econo- 

 my of the bee hive, it were well to bear this 

 point in mind. 



Shortly after the impulse for pollen gath- 

 ering, comes that for honey gathering; and 

 the bee is probably in his prime, as a worker, 

 when he is a month old. At this age he can, 

 like a man of 40, " turn his hand " to almost 

 any of the duties of the hive ; but if the hive 

 is well supplied with Avorkers of all ages, he 

 would probably do most effective service in 

 the fields, see age of bees. 



If a colony is formed of young bees entire- 

 ly, they will sometimes go out into the fields 

 for pollen when but 3 or 4 days old. Also 

 M'hen a colony is formed wholly of adult 

 bees, they will build comb, feed the larvae, 

 construct queen cells, and do the work gen- 

 erally that is usually done by the younger 

 bees, but it is probably better economy to 

 have l)eps of all ages in the hive. 



EUCK^17HEAT. We have liad reports 

 from three different kinds, the black, the 

 gray. ;ind the Silver Hull. The two former 

 are old varieties, and are much alike; the 

 latter is new, and as usual, great things are 

 claimed for it. We have had a piece near 

 us this season ; it has given about as much 

 honey as the common varieties, but so far 

 as we can discover, but little if any more. 

 It bids fair to give a greater yield, and is 

 therefore, perhaps, somewhat preferable. It 

 will certainly pay for bee-keepers to raise I 



buckwheat, and if they are not land owners, 

 they can furnish the seed to the adjoining 

 farmers free, or pay them a dollar or two 

 per acre for the honey it yields. Although 

 this is not a buckwheat country, I think it 

 pays me, taking seasons as they come, to 

 pay $1.()0 per acre for all that is sown witliin 

 li miles of my apiary, and if there should be 

 50 acres sown, it would i)lease me all the 

 better. Some such plan as this, is i)robabiy 

 the safest investment we can make in the 

 way of artificial pasturage. The hioney is 

 dark, and but few people like the flaVor bt' 

 it, after tliey have used it a little time, but' 

 it seems perfectly Wholesome' for winter.;' 

 saves purchasing sugar, all trouble 6t feed- 

 ing, encourages brood rearing in the fall,, 

 and keeps the bees away from the groceries 

 and dwellings, to a certain extent' / 



CULTIVATION. 



Buckwheat will ^-ow and blossom on al- 

 most any soil, but if you want it to pay. for 

 either honey or grain, it should have good 

 rich land. It is sown broadcast, about 3 

 pecks of seed per acre. The best crop of 

 buckwheat honey we ever had here, was 

 from a piece prepared for and planted with 

 corn. The corn was so nearly killed by cut 

 worms that it was harrowed over nicely and 

 sown to buckwheat in the latter part of 

 June. This is almost a month earlier than 

 buckwheat is usually sown here, but the 

 yield was such that from the two acres, we 

 had at least 200 lbs of comb honey, besides 

 the large amount that must have gone into 

 the brood apartments. 



The bees that gathered the largest part of 

 this, were dark hybrids ; the pure Italians 

 were at the same time storing white honey 

 from red clover. It was amusing to see 

 hives side by side both working in the sec- 

 tion boxes, one of which made white combs 

 and honey, like that in June, while the other 

 built combs of a golden yellow, and stored it 

 with the dark rich looking buckwheat 

 honey. As the hybrids gave quite a large 

 crop of this dark honey, I began to be a lit- 

 tle partial to them, but after the boxes were 

 all removed, I found they had put it all 

 above, and left their brood apartment almost 

 empty, while the more prudent Italians, had 

 filled the brood combs until they were in ex- 

 cellent condition for winter. It has been 

 several times advanced that the blacks and 

 hybrids are ahead, when nothing but buck- 

 wheat honey is to be found in the fields. 



DXVZSIOIV BOAZIBS. Make a frame 



of lath, precisely of the dimensions outside 

 of the frame you use in your hive. As ordi- 



