A gentleman in Vermont purchased of me, in the spring of 1881, a swarm of Italian bees in a Controllable Hive. He commenced feeding early, with the view of increasing his stocks by new swarms, preferring an increase of stocks rather than surplus honey for that season. The result was an increase of five swarms, all in good condition for winter, and also over seventy pounds of honey in glass boxes.
Another, a lady in Kansas, obtained sixty pounds of box honey from a swarm of Italians, which she obtained from me late in the spring of 1882.
A lady in Illinois purchased of me, in the spring of 1880, a swarm of Italian bees in a Controllable Hive. The first season she got one nice, large swarm and a good yield of box honey. The second season (1881,) she had two swarms to commence with, and obtained four new swarms from that two, and about five hundred pounds of nice honey in glass boxes. In 1882 she had increased her stocks to ten, and reported that she was meeting with perfect success.
A gentleman in Rhode Island purchased of me a swarm of Italians in the spring of 1883. They gave him in June and July of that year, two fine young swarms, and eighty pounds of honey in glass boxes.
In the spring of 1882, a gentleman in Maine purchased a swarm of Italian Bees of me, and that season they gave him five large swarms. They were managed with a view of securing as many swarms as possible, as the gentleman wished an increase of swarms rather than surplus honey.
Every one who has a place to set a hive of bees, would derive great pleasure, as well as profit, in keeping Italian bees in Controllable Hives. They are so docile, so very industrious and so beautiful in color, that one finds real pleasure in their care.
Some of my friends claim that the honey collected by the Italian is of better flavor and a nicer quality generally, than that collected by the common bees; and this may be the case in some localities, where there are certain varieties of flowers accessible to the Italians, but not accessible to the natives, the latter being smaller; yet in my location I see no difference in the quality of the honey collected by the two varieties, but a great difference in favor of the Italians, in the quantity collected.
But I do claim that by my New System of Bee Keeping, the surplus honey is greatly superior to that obtained by the old methods, both by the Italian and common bees, for this reason:
By the ordinary methods of bee keeping, the bees require the best part of the honey season to fill up the brood combs of their hives, or in other words to store a supply for their own use, but on my plan we feed the bees nearly all they need for their own use, then we get nearly all they collect from natural sources in the boxes. So we get the cream of the honey stored in boxes—the very best.