12 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTX^RE. 



Jak. 



we ever had a queen do. We extracted when the 

 bees ba^an to seal over the cells at the top of the 

 combs. The haney was absut in the proportion of 

 15 lbs. apple blossom to 185 lbs. white clover, 290 lbs. 

 bisswood and teasel a:id 76 lbs. buckwheat. At the 

 end of the season there were no more bees thim in 

 manj' of the other hives. They were helped in no 

 way, exeapt by g-ivin? thsm empty combs enough to 

 fill the hive. 



Novice says on pag-e 283, Vol. 5, "Before we put j^ou 

 clear at the head of the class we want you to bring- 

 the 152 c3lonies through to next May, iiylthmil losing 

 (I siwjle c)li)n>)." This we do not expect to do, for we 

 never have wintered our bees without loss since the 

 winter of 1870-1 ; and if we should succeed in doing 

 so, it would be only to double them back in the 

 spring to 100 colonies, as that is the highest number 

 we ever wish to commence the season with, and all 

 I believe one persDn is'capable of taking care of to 

 secure the best results. We find it more profitable 

 to double up bees in the proper way, than to sell 

 them at present prices ; and 100 colonies is the height 

 of my ambition to commence the season with. We 

 would rather do less and do it well, than have 300 or 

 400 stocks and not half do the work they would re- 

 quire. G. M. DOOLITTDE. 



Borodino, N Y. 



Well, I declare friend D., if you have not 

 gons ri^ht back to the "Long idea'' hive. 

 If one works for extracted honey alone, 

 there are some very pleasant features about 

 the Long hive, especially if you have a col- 

 ony of bees that will keep on raising bees as 

 fast as we spi-ead the frames. From the ex- 

 perience I have had, I am inclined to think 

 all colonies cannot be profitably worked in 

 that way ; at least, after thousands of such 

 hives have been made and used a few sea- 

 sons, they have, almost without exception, 

 been abandoned sooner or later. As the 582 

 lbs. obtained by friend Elwood fx'oni a sin- 

 gle colony in 1874, was with a two story hive, 

 I think we can conclude that the Long hive 

 had little if anything to do with it, and that 

 friend D. could have done nearly, if not 

 quite, as well with a two story hive. These 

 are important matters, for we do not want 

 to waste our money as we have done, by 

 buildiuff new fangled hives only to throw 

 them aside in a year or two. 





AND HOW HE "TALKS" ABOUT IT. 



^ HAVE neglected, so long, my correspondence to 

 |Sl|| Gr,BANiNG3, that I am almost ashamed to cime 

 »=!J again. I have had a great many things to say to 

 your readers, but before I was ready to say them, 

 some one else had said them better than I could. I 

 promised to give my experience in section boxes, and 

 fdn. I m I'le 15 swarms early in June, in Simplicitj' 

 hives, on'' story, 7 frames empty and 3 frames of sec- 

 tions with starters, by shaking all the bees from the 

 combs of a populous colony into the L. hive on old 

 stand. Eaeh new cilony was then given a frame of 

 brood; they soon filled the empty frames and the 2 

 frames of sections. I then put on upper stories with 

 fJ frames of sections, and one frame of brood, and 

 raised the two frames of sections from below and re- 

 placed them with empty ones. They at once began 

 work aViove. and by .July tth, I began to take off nice- 

 ly filled sections of clover honey, and then they began 



to swarm. They were all well shaded. I returned! 

 tlie swarms and moved the stands to the other side 

 of the yard and they swarmed again; I dipped the- 

 queens' wings, destroyed aU cells and still they 

 swarmed; I destroyed the queens, and they swarmed' 

 and entered hives that had queens, and then swarmed 

 and some of them, "went West." When a swarm 

 would come out from some colony that had a queen, 

 as soon as my simpleton bees heard them, out they 

 would come as many as five swarms at a time and 

 "jine in." I was the laughing stock of the neighbor- 

 .hood; every T>c^;. that was old enough to fly would 

 leave. I took all their honey and still they would 

 swarm; they would in some mystei'ious manner 

 coax virgin queens into their hives, and next day 

 they would come out aU. ready to emigrate. After I 

 had exhausted all my ingenuity, 4 or 5 swarms held a 

 camp meeting one day on an apple tree and departed, 

 taking the strikers with them I suppose, as I had no 

 more trouble. All hands went to work, and during 

 the short season that followed I got about 600 lbs. of 

 section honey. Now, among all these, there was one 

 colony that did just as I wanted them to, and there 

 were two colonies that, after I rruwecl them, did all 

 right. What in "Sam Hill" possessed the others I 

 don't to this day understand. I found out that tin 

 separators are a necessit.t for keeping the combs 

 straight, and for keeping the queen and pollen out 

 of the two fi-ames below. Pollen \\nll still be put in 

 below if you do not close the entrance in front of the 

 frames of sections. 



Another thing you want to be careful about, is to 

 have the frames of the upper story hang scant % inch 

 from the lower frames, or comb will be built there 

 that will bother "amazin." Keep your tin separators 

 bright and clean, or section honey will be attached. 

 Now about side sections in American or other tall 

 hives. The"Corporal," my neigh!*or, has American 

 hives; he removed tvt^o frames next the door and 

 put in a wide frame filled with sections. When 

 they got nicely started he would stack them up on 

 top with wooden separators, and he got some nice 

 honey. 



Well, [ had some tall hives, the "National," and / 

 tried it, and I'll be "switched" if the bees didn't comi- 

 into the section frames and eat up the fdn. When I 

 opened the door and looked in, they peeped at me 

 through the slit in the separators as much as to say, 

 "That's too thin old chap, pull down your vest and 

 wipe off your chin." But "nary" a section did I get. 

 Well, to sum it all up, I calculate that I got 600 lbs. 

 section box honey in place of 1500 lbs. I might have 

 extracted, and lost 5 or 6 swarms, by emigration. But 

 you know, if a fellow never goes into the water un- 

 til he learns to swim, it's a slow business. I am de- 

 termined to learn how to raise section honey. Any- 

 body can raise extracted honej', and any farmer that 

 does not have what honey he needs for family use, 

 does not live up to his privilege; but when you come 

 to box honey as a crop, in any considerable amount, 

 notmthstanding D jolittle, Harbison and Hcthering- 

 ton, and even Novice, why, it just "gits" me. The 

 trouble is swarming fever. 



I'll toll you what I am going to do next year, if they 

 will swarm, why I'll let "em" and put "em" into one 

 story Simplicities; and when they get done I'll double 

 "em" up and pile on the sections. I've asked Doolit- 

 tle, several times, how he keeps his bees from 

 swarming, and he won't tell. I motion we expel him 

 for contempt, and when he asks to join again, make 

 it a condition that he tells "all he knows" about the 



