Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1873-01-23
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A Chapter on Bees.
For the Fayetteville Observer.

may prove interesting to some OF
your readers at least, and az am
not accustomed to write for news
papers | hope you will look over
all imperfectiors.
The business of Bee keeping,
when rightly attended to, is
source of both profit and pleasure;
but when person puts a swarm
of bees into a log gum or box
hive and leaves them to take care
of themselves, he need not expect
them TO yield him much profit.
know a goodly number Of bee
keepers in our own county of Lin
coin, vino, if they would lay aside
the old fashion gum or box hive,
and adopt the improved hive with
frames, would receive from their
bees a greater income than from
any other business they could 60
at, with the same amount Of cap
ital.
Any person who is not afraid
of being stung, can take a hive
of bees and, with the assistance
of a honey extractor, get one I'M
dred pounds of honey during the
honey season, and in a great many
localities could get even more
than that.
If ms bees had been in q prop
err condition last May when the
poplar bioomed. | am sure would
have exceeded that amount, from
the poplar bloom alone, but NOV
ing them in February a distance
of forty miles so reduced their
number, that when the poplars
doomed | only had three colonies
that were strong enough to store
much honey, and from these three
l took over three hundred pounds
Of nice extracted honey, and that,
too, in less time than three weeks
| only had seven colonies that !
took honey from, and four of these
were weak in numbers when the
poplars bloomed, and by the time
they got strong enough to store
honey fast the blooms were more
than half gone. From the seven,
/ took 524{ pounds of nice honey
as you ever saw from the poplar
bloom alone. Now if this locali-
ty had been like some others In
the county and linn trees been a.
bundant could have taken fully
as much or more. from the linn
blooms, but here we have no linn,
and the drought setting in the
other honey producing plants,
yielded scarcely enough for the
bees to live on.
] use hive Of my own getting
up which | greatly prefer to any
of the patent hives. The comb Is
built in frames, which hang In
rabbets, cut in the sides of the
hive. When the bees have filled
the frames with honey, | place
them in the extractor, two at a.
time, and throw the honey ont,
then return the comb uninjureG
to the hive to be refilled with hon
ey. To take their honey in this
way, and return the comb seems
to excite the bees to greater en-
ergy, but the old fashioned way
of cutting aud MASKING the comb
has a tendency to discourage
them. l keep the Italian bees,
and like them much better than
our common black bees for several
reasons. They are more gentle
than the black bees, they are
more industrious and will protect
themselves, from the moth and
robber bees better than the blacks
They will increase faster, swarm
earlier and gather more honey in
the same length of time than the
others, and are a much prettier
bee, having three beautiful yell
low bands around them,-
Every person in early spring
should stimulate their bees by 4
feeding, in order to have them
strong in numbers, when the first
blooms appear. Honey, diluted
with water, or syrup made of
sugar will do for this, and can be
fed in various ways. And right
here, | wish to make a suggestion
to the bee keepers of our county, g
or any others who may see this {
Let them make platform in the !
yard, near the bees (say 5 or 10 a
steps distance) on which place a a
Hat box Is or 20 inches square t
and 3 or 4 inches deep, fill this f
box with unbolted wheat or rye n
Jour, put some honey or sugar Ii
IN a rag and place on the flour to
,nce attract the bees to it. They
will roll the -four ju little balls on n
heir legs and earryit 10 the hive h
which answers every purpose of il
'ee.bread, and greatly facilitates al
he rearing of brood. Now is the d
Al Il