_Monroe, Iowa._
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Practical gardeners may find the management of bees, for their
employers, quite a lucrative part of their profession.
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When a colony of bees has become hopelessly queenless, then, moth or no
moth, its destruction is certain.--_Langstroth._
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“Bees work for man, and yet they never bruise
Their master’s flower, but leave it, having done,
As fair as ever and as fit for use.”--_Herbert._
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[For the American Bee Journal.]
Bee Letter from Middle Tennessee.
Some weeks since, in company with a friend, armed with a pint of
strained honey and a bee-box, we started for the edge of the cedars,
distant from my apiary, in a direct line, not less than 2½ miles, where
we found bees foraging. We boxed and coursed many, but found none that
did not belong to my apiary. It was a very warm day, and being wearied,
without pushing out a mile or two further, we returned home, to renew
our hunt in the fall.
All the trees I ever saw, having bees in them (and I have seen many) had
the entrance hole or crack on the south or southeast side.
Native queens of colonies five miles distant from Italian stocks, in two
instances that I know of, mated with Italian drones. And in this
connection, speaking of distances, I will mention the reception through
the mail of two Italian queens, accompanied by about one dozen workers
each, from Wenham, Massachusetts. Look on the map, and you will see it
is a long distance from here.
Very little surplus honey has been stored here this season, on account
of continuous rains during the spring and summer. Late swarms, not fed,
have _gone up_. I have endeavored to keep my bees breeding, giving them
repeated small quantities of honey, and have succeeded in doing so; and
buckwheat being now in bloom, I hope to obtain a dividend for my outlay
and trouble, leaving enough for the worthy laborers when nature shrouds
herself in snow.
This is a great country to raise bees in, and I would think more of them
if they would swarm less and store more honey. But swarm they will, and
they cannot be kept from it. Breaking up an old hen from sitting when
she has fairly made up her mind to sit, is an easy job compared to
keeping bees from swarming in this section. Swarming commences in Middle
Tennessee about the 20th of April, and becomes general about the 5th of
May. These new swarms often cast a swarm in thirty days. Swarming is
also frequent in August if the season be a good one. Our honey harvest
is divided in two seasons--the spring, embracing April and May; and the
fall, embracing August and September. Very little honey is stored
outside those two dates, except perhaps in the month of March, if the
spring is forward and fruit trees come in bloom; and in the month of
October, if we have a favorable fall and frost is delayed. There has
been no fall of honey dew this year.
Friend Novice’s allusion to air castles in his communication in the Bee
Journal for August, _struck our flint_. We read his communication to our
better half. “Don’t believe a word of it! Do you think that’s so?”
Exclaimed she. “I do. I have been following that Novice in print some
time, and always found him truthful.” Here’s what’s the matter. A spruce
old aunt was at our house a few days since, and something was said about
new dresses and the fall styles, when our better half broke loose
with--“Don’t expect to have anything new this year. Everything we’ve
made this year has been spent for bee-gums and paints; and now the
upstairs is stored so full, there’s no place for old carpets and lumber.
There’s never been any money in that here, yet, and I don’t believe
there ever will be,” &c., &c.