The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1884-06-15
TIE BEE BUSINESS.
How tho Busy, Honeyed insect Improved
Each Shining Hour.

At recent trustees sale In Baltimore OF
an apiary the following interesting points
were elected by an American reporter !:
To the inquiry, "Is this your busy sea-
son 2" MIR. Charles N. Lake, the manager,
said
Eyes. the bees are bringing in honey
from every direction"
Glow much honey does hive generally
contain 2"
at contains all the way from 90 10 $50
pounds. There Is o man in Texas who has
a hive containing 1000 pounds OF honey.
That's the largest / ever heard OF. The
crops range actually from 10 TO 800 pounds.
Maryland's average is so pounds. had
eleven hives at 70 wson. however, which
produced over a ton. Mr.. Oliver hesi-
tatcd last year whether to feed the bees or
let them die. The cost Of feeding them or
OF buying new ones would have beer
about equal, but, on the ott er hand, by let
ting the bees die and buying new ones,
he would lose the honey crop and the in
crease. There is great difference between
a swarm brought here this spring, aud one
that has been stationed here year. II q
swarm brought here this season stores
enough to live on they are dong well,
while a swarm which has been established
here Will double, and sometimes triple their
number, and also store from forty to sixty
pounds Of honey"
"Those eighty colonies that died here
last season would have been worth Sl7 per
hive now, because they were Italians. Last
winter was the most disastrous one on bees
1 have ever seem"
"To what do you attribute thlsi"
81 attribute tito the poor stores. There
was what we call 'honey death last year
from about the 4th Of July until the 1st Of
September. The bees at such times rush
of to the markets. the groce:y-stores and
the candy-store., and yet poisonous honey,
which gives them the dysentery. Glucose,
for l. stance, is deadly poison to bees.
at i. a singular fact that IL half peck
OF bees are given Il certain amount OF honey
to live on, and a half bushel OF the same
kind OF bees are given an equal amount. the
half bushel OF bees wodld outlive the
others. This seems to be on account OF
tse better temperature the larger swarm
maintains. A weak colony Will certainly
die in winter. while a strong one, in point
OF numbers, Will come out vigorous. DyS-
EMERY is the great drawback among them.
They are feeding now on the best OF nectar,
on the tulip, raspberry, white clover, and
In rainy weather like this they prefer the
raspberry, because any flower or blossom
that stands up will catch the rain; those
that hang down. like the raspberry BIOS
som, shed il. and the bees have no water to
eyaporate from such blossoms, which they
do In the hives, whenever they obtain any
from other flowers, by regular distllllng
process"
Mr.. Lake afterwards exhibited several
hives OF bees. One OF the hives was a SUI
pcrb one OF Italian bees, estimated to num-
Der sixty or seventy thousand. In another
the bees were all dead or dying OF paray-
sis. One hive had no inmates, the bees
having all died. The combs, instead OF
containing honey, had in them substance
like wet sugar, on which the bees had tried
in vain to live.
"At what time is it necessary to feed
bees ?" Mr.. Lake was asked.
"In Maryland between July and Sep
TENDER. III this is done they will store
enough to last them until the next spring.
In winter they only come out to cleanse
themselves. Should the weather be bad
or too cold for long time, they remain in
side, without regard to cleanliness, and
cholera is the result. These old combs
that YOU see will be made clear by
boiling them, and the wax will be
melted up for foundation for the
bees to draw out into cells. Bees con-
sumo twenty-five pounds OF honey in
building one pound OF comb. BY supply
ing them with the wax and the foundation
for their cells, one half OF this, or about
twelve pounds Of honey, is saved"
Bookkeeping, then, ought to be rather
q paving businessy"
Properly conducted, the culture OF
bees ought to pay at least one hundred
cents on every dollar invested in it."