1878 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CTLTURE. 



217 



A BEGINNER'S TKIAIiS AND TRIUMPHS. 



^ PURCHASED, in Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, 

 W La., last Feb.. '2;> bee hives, 18 of which were of 

 '-^' the improved sort; but the movable frames 

 were nothing but slender strips of wood, fastened 

 together with very slender nails, and came apart on 

 the least strain, leaving- a portion of the torn honey 

 comb and brood in the hive. I was imposed upon 

 by the party, for he sold them to me for movable 

 frame hives. I went to work, in March, transfer- 

 ring from the old fashioned hiv'es. I did it in very 

 dry weather, and out of 7 swarms I lost 5. I also 

 lost 3 colonics out of the improved hives. Howev- 

 er, I ha\ (' caught 4 swarms of Italians, one of which 

 made about iJd lbs. of honey and brood in less than 4 

 weeks, besides hatching out a colony, and supply- 

 ing another hive with a frame of larviB, out of 

 which I have an Italian queen. I have made 3 Ital- 

 ian queens, with frames of larviP, as you directed. 

 I put an empty frame into an Italian hive, 

 about the middle of March, when my orange trees 

 were in full bloom, and in 4 days, it was full of 

 comb; on the 6th day from the time I put it in, I re- 

 moved it into a queenless colony of black bees, and, 

 at this present writing, fully one-half of the work- 

 ers are yellow. 



I owe you a thousand thanks for the new field of 

 pleasurable occupation that you have opened up 

 to me, in your Gleanings. I have learned more, 

 in the last 3 months, than I had in all my life before. 

 I ha\c also learned two things that you have not 

 mentioned in your paper: tirst, the most active and 

 industrious liees are those tliat sting the worst, in- 

 dependent of any other quality or condition; sec- 

 ondly, I have seen none of them stop work on Sun- 

 day. I am sorry that I live too far off to profit by 

 all the good things which you have to sell; even 

 your paper misses oftener than I get it. 



H. O. Read, M. D. 



Grande Chenier, La., May 10th, 1878. 



^ — 11^ • '^^ 



AUTOMATIC SWARMING. 



ANOTHER STEP IN THE MATTER. 



M YEAR ago the past winter, I lost all my bees. 

 J^^ In the spring, I heard of a swarm for sale 

 '^!!?r* about 7 or 8 miles from where I live, and 

 went and bought them. The man had 4 swarms, and 

 said he got them as follows. He male some box 

 hives, and fastened tliein in the tops of trees in the 

 woods. He had fastened up 4 hives, the year before, 

 and had got 3 of them filled with bees. He also said 

 that several of his neighbors had done the same 

 with like success. 



Another item I would like to mention; one day 

 last July, while in the woods. 1 heard a loud buzzing 

 of bees. I soon discovered them living about a hole 

 in the top of a tree. Supposing I had found a swarm 

 of bees, I went to my neighbor, on whose land the 

 tree was, and obtained permission to cut it, intend- 

 ing to transfer them to a movable frame hive; 

 liut, on cutting the tree, I found nothing but a hand- 

 ful of bees. On relating the circumstance to a 

 neighbor, he said that the bees which I had seen had 

 been sent out in advance of the swarm, to find a 

 place for them, before they came off. He had been 

 in search of bee trees, a year or two before, and 

 came to one where he saw bees flying in and out of 

 a hole, and supposed he had found a bee tree. He 

 went home and returned in a week from that day, 

 intending to cut the tree; but, on his arrival at the 

 spot, he saw a swarm of bees in the air. He watch- 

 ed them, and they all went into the tree where he 

 had seen the bees a week before. 



.'t would appear that bees do sometimes select 

 their place of refuge, before swarming. 



Channahon, 111., May 34th, 1878. E. West. 



As Mr. Conaway, in April Xo., and Mr. Dean, in 

 May No., have told what tliey know about catching 

 absconding swarms, or swarms running around 

 loose, I will tell you what I know about it. I have 

 practiced it pretty successfully, for the last four 

 years, and will give you what experience has taught 

 me to be the best plan. In the first place, make a 

 plain box, not a full sized hive, but lai-ge enough to 

 contain about liiOO or 1600 square inches, and of the 

 right dimensions to hold the frame you use in j^our 

 apiary; fasten the top board on with sci-ews; cut 

 the entrance long and narrf)w, and tack a piece of 

 tin on, so as to prevent squirrels or mice from gnaw- 



ing in to it. Now, take your frame and fasten on, 

 as a comb guide, quite a" small strip of old comb. (If 

 you put in much comb, the moth will take posses- 

 sion; comb fdn. might do ; I have never tried it.) 

 Now, put your frames in your box, adjust them at 

 the proper distance apai-t, and tack them fast, so 

 they will not jostle about in moving, and you are 

 ready for the woods. When you get to the timber, 

 select just such a tree as yon would be likely to stop 

 at, if you were hunting bee trees, — an old gnarled 

 and knotty tree. Take your box up among the 

 limbs, and place it so that it will be shaded at least 

 from 10 until 4 o'clock, and with the entrance as 

 close to the trunk of the tree as possible; fasten it 

 securely enough to prevent storms from blowing it 

 down, but so that you can get it loose yourself, 

 when wanted, and in such a way, that you can open 

 it when you please, without taking it down. In se- 

 lecting a tree, get one, if possible, that you can 

 climb easily, or provide an Indian ladder (a pole cut 

 with the limbs trimmed), since it will be neces- 

 sary for you to look at your box often, say every 2 

 or 3 days; spiders will enter and spin their web, so 

 that bees will not be able to get in. and you will have 

 to go up, and take the top ott', and clean them out; 

 again, should you go there in the middle of the day, 

 in swarming season, you will see so many bees fly- 

 ing around, and in and out, that you will conclude 

 you have a swarm sure, and 'twill be necessary for 

 you to go up and see ; but, after catching one or 

 two, you will be able to tell the difference. When 

 you have caught a swarm,— which will not be long, 

 if in the season, and bees are as plenty and hollow 

 trees as scarce, as they are here— go in the evening, 

 after the bees are all in, take your box down, and 

 carry it home if a mile from home, if not, carry It 

 to some neighbor's that is a mile from where the box 

 was, and a mile or more from home, so that you do 

 not lose the worker bees by their going back. 

 After allowing them to stay there for one or two 

 months, you can bring them home, take the frames 

 out, and put them in a hive, and return the box to 

 the tree; the oftener it i^ used the better. I have 

 never succeeded by using a full sized hive of 2000 or 

 2200 square inches, but succeed best with the size 

 given. 



The weather is cold and wet. Bees are doing no 

 good; in fact, they are starving, where not fed. 

 There is not one stand in 20 that is not killing their 

 drones. White clover is coming in bloom, but there 

 is no sunshine. The prospect is gloomy for increase 

 or honey. JAS. A. Simpson. 



Alexis, Ills., May 18th, 1878, 



Well now, boys, have we not had instances 

 enough, so that we can go to work, with a 

 reasonable expectation of success, and tix a 

 hive in some bushy tree, or secluded spot, 

 somewhere near the apiary, where the 

 swarms have shown a fancy for clustering, 

 in order to catch, at least, an occasional 

 swarm, and thus start the rest in the habit 

 of going there V you all know how swarms 

 in some unaccouiitable way get a fashion of 

 all clustering in the same spot. Well, after 

 we get them in the fashion of choosing this 

 same hive, we will have different ones, with 

 some tough old combs ready prepared, and 

 then, as soon as the swarm has gone in, we 

 will take it where we wisli it to stand and 

 put another hive in its place. Should a 

 swarm come out when we are away at 

 church or Sabbath school, they will be found 

 all nicely at work when we get home, tliat 

 is. if we can make the arr 'irr'mient work. 

 When we get all nicely tixed. if it succeeds., 1 

 will liave our artist at work to give you all 

 a view of it. 



A PI^EA IN FAVOR OF BLACK BEES. 



Ipffj DROPPED you a postal, a few days ago, saying 

 that I had not received yoiu" comb fdn.; since 

 then, I have received it in good order, and have 

 already used it must satisfactorily. 



I have now an lt:iliaii apiary of 56 colonies in full 

 blast, and one of black bees of 8r) colonies, and an- 

 other of 50 colonies of blacks. The pasturage for 



