UMASS/AMHERST 312066 0333 2694 5 ?€^ «Bi|B VOL. VI. 1878 mo^^^^^'Wi^^m' WW}r^^'\vM' ■ ^^\t>l\ took wing, and 2 of the queens were ouicklv fertilized. We do not learn whether the nuclei contained the drones as well as queens, but p-esume such must have been the case. A full accourt was given, of the discovery, in the A. B. J. several years ago. It 's the 27th of Dec., and yet we have had warm April weather, with scarcelv a bit of frost for the past two weeks. Those whn have their bees in the chaff nacked hives, can see them fly with perfect sat- Isfpction, white those who have them in houses and cellars, would better get all out, or expect to suffer the c'mseouerces. Look out that none are starving, for they will start brood, and sometimes use up hon- ev at an unheard of rate. Two years ago we had a similar wi-iter, and some of our bees doubled their numbers in the middle of winter, and then starved. Look out ! My friends, it "aint a mite of use" for you to kee-i asking- how soon we can furnish dollar queens. If you should ask whether I thought it would rain next 4th of .Tuly or not, I could toll you, just about as well. Wo will notif V you in Gleanings when they a'-e rerdy, a^d that is about all I can say. If you choose to send in your money, we will fill your order In its f'TV b"t as I lik" to m^ke promises" that I can keep, I d-'.-r- not ])rimise before .July. If we could inako ui> (Hic-ns and tie them up in neat little bun- dles dui in.-: ^he winter as we do bee-hives, I would not be afraid. . One of our customers ha« ordered some Simplieitv hives wilh ihe sides, as well as ends, rabbeted to hold frames. Small frames hnngii-g crosswise, are to be used in these, nn'i I confess, they look as if they would be "snlend'd" for rearing (uieens, and build- ing up colonies. The Irames will be a little smaller than the Gall;>p, f ^r they are tbf^ usual depth of the L.. and onlv rbout i:'' ; wide. Thev ha'ppen to be ex- actlv right for holding 6 instead of 8, of the reirular 4'.i.\;i.i section fra>nes. As the hive is in no \vav in- jured for the regular long frame, it mav be best to use the.se two sizes. They would be very nice for 3 framed nuclei, and for shipping bees, but it must not ]\c forgotten that it would make much the same kind oftnnible as two sizes of frames, even if they cUdi l>oth go in the same hive. In the B. B. J^, for Nov., we are told of some "Yan- kee honey" that was analyzed, and the jar found to contain over .50 per cent of glucose. Our friend Per- rine suggests that the name attached to the label on the .far should have been given, that we might know wliDtu to t)lame, instead of having the stigma rest on our whole nation. If the jar had no name on the la- bel, and but the simple statement "American honey," the probabilities are that it never came from Ameri- ca at alL Spurious goods, the world over, are labeled whatever is in most demand, but those circulating them are very careful that no responsible name is attached. American honey is now being sent to Lon- don in such large quantities that it would not be strange at all, if counterfeits began to appear. Weed them out by all means, and hold up the offenders: without mercy. In our Dec. No., we quoted from the N. T. JJtica Ohscrver, to the elTect that Capt. Hetherington had 3(X)0 colonies of bees, and that the.y had given, on an average from 4.5 to .501bs. per colony. There have been several remonstrances from his vicinity in re- gard to the matter, and it has been reported that he really owns but about 800. We have written twice to the Capt., to know the truth of the matter, but al- though we enclosed stamps, no reply comes. Thur- ber's report in regard to Doolittlc's crop has also oc- casioned unkind expressions. I think our fiiends are a trifle hasty ; Doolittle did soil 20.000 lbs, to Thur- ber, but neither he nor they stated that it was all of his own raising. He purchased perhaiis more than % the amount of his neighbors, or rather it was ship- ped in his name. May not such have been the case with Hetherington's V Shall we not all be a little more careful in giving statements that may get into, print ? Material readj' to nail for standard Langstroth hives. Portico, 10 frames, (beveled top bar) bottom board and cap, in prices ranging from T.5c to ^1,00 each, according to quantit.v wanted. Sample hive .$1..50. Our fai^orite the "Modest" at same prices. We are prepared to beat the world on Honey and Section Boxes. Harbison section, 5 to 10 M. per M §6 .5f> " " Less than 5 M, per M T .50 1 " 8 .50 Dovetailed sections, any size from 414x414 to 5x6, 5 to 10 M, per M 8 OO " " Less than 5, per M 8,50 1 " 9 00 Circulars for 1878 will soon be ready— Send for one. J. OATMAN & SONS, Itfd Dundee, Kane Co., Ills. TAEJILE ©F FKEIUIUMS. %>§ The first column is for iiinse only, a-, s ■who setid 5 or more names. *"g Names of Premium Articles. ^k Any of them .lent •post-paid on rec'pt of price ■ \~A B C of Bee Culture, Part First 25 i — Lith nf/raph of Apiary, Implements, etc. 25 ■i — Ph ntonrnph of Ilotise Apia ry 2.5 ■t — '■'■That Presi'iit.'^ Novice and Bine Eyes 2.5 5 — Emerson's IJiuder far Gli:ani>gs, will hold ^ Volumes 5f (> — " " l>rtt<-r quality 60 7 — P icket Mafinifyiiiq Glass 60 8— First or second Vol iime of GlTLAfHUGS. .75 9 — Best quality Emcrsau's Binder for Gl,F,.A.NI NGS 75 \0— Double Lens Mncinil>e>\on .■? brass feetX.W) \\—Pho!o Medley. Bee-Keepers ofAmerica^.^)0 ]■>— First and second I'ol. e/GLK.VNlNGS..l,£0 13 — A reol Compound Microscope, bca?tti- fidly finished, and. packed ivith linj>le- nteuts in a Maho;i-'ny Bo.r 315 l-l— Opera. Glass for Bee Hutitinr) £5.001 Number ot Sub- scribers rr qui red at or at 7.'c.l l.Oi) CO :i 3 4 10 Di: VOTED TO I5e:e:h aisi> iioi?fE5r, AT«ifr> hojue: ii^tii: rests. Vol. VI. JANUARY 1, 1878. No. 1. A. I. ROOT, ^ Published Montbly. rTKKMS: %1.00 Per Annum in Ad- Publisher and Proprietor., > ■< vance; 3 Copies /or S2.50; 5/or*3.75; medina, O. J Estatolishecl in 1873. ClO or more, 60c. eacft. Single Number tOc. WIY EXPEMfSRNCK. NO. 1. PREPARATION FOR BEE-KEEPING. KEPT bees last season, and, if Mr. Editor will al- low me, I am g'oing- to tell you something about it. For several years, I had been contemplating- bee-keepins:, and had prepared myself for it in the following- manner: I sub-scribed for a periodical devoted to bee culture ; obtained the back numbers of the same ; boug-ht and siti'lh'l books on bee culture ; made a scrap book, in- to which I pasted bee-keeping- articles cut from iig-ri- cultural papers ; and carried a note-book in my pock- et, into which I copied articles that could not be cut out. I visited aTiiarists, saw how they manasred their bees, discoursed theories, plans, &c. ; and whatever I learned of them, that I considered valuable, I wrote In my note-book. In fact, I learned all that I could about bees, from every available source. After I had been about two years collecting "bee matter," I made an inde.x, by sewing together twelve sheets of legal cao, each page being devoted to a sub- ject. Thus, the first page was "Wintering," the sec- ond "Artificial Swaraiing," the third "Queen Rear- ing," &c. I then read and looked over every book and paper that I had, the title of each article or item v\'as written upon the apnropriate page of the index, and the page and name of the book or paper in which it was found, was written after it. I found it vei-y convenient. I also kept a record of the time when most of the honey producing plants and trees were in bloom, and the length of time they were in blossom, so that T could manage my bees accordingly, when I should commence keeping them. After I once commenced bee-keeping, it sometimes almost made me tremble, to think of the mistakes I should have made, if I had known little, or nothing, about bees. You open a hive and find the st-itc nf af- fairs different from what you expected. "What shall I do '?" is the question : and it is a question that must be answered immediately. You have not time to go and "read up" on the subject, therefore you must be "posted" at all times. Lack of bee-keeping knowl- ' edge is, I think, one of the greatest causes of "blasted hopes." BUYING BEES. Dec. 23d, 18V6, 1 bought six swarms of a man, who gave me my choice out of eighteen. He told me that he had lost nine swarms the previous season, by their going to the woods. I chose those which were heav- iest, and in hives that had an old appearance ; he hav- ing told me that each one of his old swarms had swarmed the previous season. After I had selected them, he said^with a chuckle— that every swarm but one, was an old swarm. I told him that I had just as soon have them as young swarms, which seemed to surprise hi;n some. I saw he did not know these old swarms would have vigorous young queens. I told him that, in the spring I should transfer them to movable comb hives. He thought I was foolish ; said one of his neiurhhovs had a swarm transferred and divided, and it dwindled away and died. I told hin they were not properly managed ; and if his bees had been in such hives, and managed in the right manner, he would not have lost his nine swarms. Aftei- all my "talk," however, he still thought that keeping bees in the old-fashioned way, was best. W. Z. Hutchinson, Kogersville, Mich. I earnestly recommend the above course to all our ABC class. With the flood of bee, matter that is now before you, you have it in your power, to make yourselves mast- ers of almost all that is known on the sub- ject. If you use your own common sense, you can very soon learn to sift the wheat from the chaff. A pije:a for the: toads. ^T is to be regretted that bee-keepers can find no J?|| way to deal with the few bee-eaters, but to des- T^ troy them. Man is a disturber of the balances of nature, and is alwavs, himself, sooner or later the greatest sufferer by the disturbance. Of all our en- emies, none can compare, in the amount of injury they inflict, with insects. Only two of the class di- rectlv minister to our wealth and our wants (the bee and the silk-worm), whilst thousands prey upon our industries. It behooves us to seek every ally that can aid in ke'>phig them in cheek. It is admitted on all hands that if we could have left the bird=: und reptiles undisturbed, as we found them on this continent, we would not now ha^"3 to flcrht the ijugs and worms. Of all these natural allies of man, the most harmless, and one of the most efficient, is the toad. Instead, therefore, of "going round with a hoe every morning and burying every one— and not alive," take you a corn-popper or some convenient trap, and carry every one you can catch, into your garden. One toad domesticated under a squash vine, will insure you a crop. The toad is the only thing that readily eats the squash bug, and potato beetle. 1 ou say yes,— because he will eat anything that mnves —and bees too. Exactly so ; but it is so easv to pro- tect the bees, and still hav » hundreds of toads for the garden. My plan (a(lii)t''d also by my neighbors) is very simple. It lus capacity of about 45 lbs. if I am correct ; we use from 50 to 80 1 lb. sections at one time. If you give too much room, you hinder the bees by making their chamber too cool. If you do net give enough, they are very apt to swarm, umess they have constant supervision. For extracted honey, much depends upon the season. Some seasons it will do to extract the honey as fast as gathered; at other times, their hives may be full clear do\m to the lower outside corners, and still the hon- ey will be like sweetened water. In such a case I would raise up the upper story, and put a third under it; they will ripen and seal it uj) nicely in this position, and the empty story between the two, Avill be filled with a rush. Even where a colony is bent on swarming, this will start them at work. Friend Betsinger who has just paid us a visit, insists that we lose much Ijv giving them so much room, which woidd be true, v/ere we working with section boxes, and advises that the honey be all extracted, ev- ery other day if need be, to give them room. To get the thin honey ripened, he would let it stand in shallow vessels protected by gauze or some thin fabric. I have tried both ways, and am inclined to think that honey ripened artificially, will never have the pure rich flavor of that which is left in the care of the bees. I grant that he will get more, but I think ours will be much nicer. You see my friend, how much is to be consid- ered, before we can decide upon the amount of room needed for surplus. TEASEIi CUtTXIKE. ^^plKpE are requested by several to give the mode VP^I ^^ Teasel Culture. The plant is biennial as a \* t'/ rule, although a part of the plants (the small- er ones) may net produce hoads till the third year, and in that case they are called "Voors." The ground is prepared much the same as for corn, being marked but one way, the rows being from 3 to 3' i feet apart. The seed is then sown, and as a rule, left for the rains to wash the dirt over it, as it is sown as early in the spring as the ground can be worked. Some, how- 1878. GLEANmGS IN BEE CULTURE. ever, slightly brush the seed in. The plants when they first come up are very small, and the tirst hoeing- is a tedious operation being about the same as that required for beets or carrots. The plants are hoed, or .s7(oitW be, three times. Farmers usually raise a part of a crop of beans or turnips with them the first year. One hea%T draw-back on Teasel Culture, is that they are very liable to winter kill by ha\ing a thaw, and the weather turning cold suddenly, so as to freeze the plant when there is water in the crown, which entirely destroys it. An open winter is very bad for Teasels. The second year, during the month of May, they are passed through with a cultivator, and slightly hoed, when they are left to run, as it is termed. The "'kings," as they are commonly called, are heads at the top of the stalks, and commence to blossom about July 10th, continuing in bloom about a week or 10 days, opening first in the center of the head, blossoming toward the tip and base, and ending off at the base. As soon as the blossoms fall off they are cut, cured, and shipped to manufacturers for the purpose of taking the nap from cloth. The "mid- dlings," as they are termed, commence to blossom when the kings are about half through, and the "buttons" come last, making from 30 to 25 days of bloom from the commencing of the kings to the end- ing of the buttons. The middlings and buttons re- ceive the same treatment as the kings, and all are mixed and sv)ld together. They are sold by the thousand, 10 lbs. making a' thousand. An acre will yield from 100 to 250 thousand. At present they bring about 75c per thousand, but years ago the pi-ice was from $2. to $5.00. Bees work on them all hours of the day, and no matter how well basswood may yield honey, you will find them at work on Teasel at all times; and I have never known Teasel to fail to se- crete honey except in 1876. The honey is very thin, and much evaporation is required to bring it to the consistency of basswood honey when first gathered. We have many times thought, if Teasel could come just after basswood, it would be of great value; but, coming as it does ivith basswood, it is of no great advantage, except that it usually lasts from 6 to 8 days after basswood is past. G. M. DOOLITTLE. Borodino, N. Y., Dec. 10th, 1877. m *»•—«»■ — ■ ASTEK HONEY, MICE, AGE OF BEES, ^kc. ^^E are studying economy here in good earnest. Ml! The locust destroyed our crops, and there was nothing raised in this country, worth naming. From about the middle of May until the 3d of July, bees could not get a drop of honey nor a pel- let of pollen. Some allowed their bees to starve; I fed mine enough to keep them alive. Basswood opened the 16th of July. From that time till Oct. 1st, there was a continuous flow of honey. We got honey enough to help us over the hard times. My hives are hea\'y with honey, and my bees are X>erfectly quiet. Say to J. W. Murray, one of my neighbors has had Italians 7 years and he told me he had lost but 3 swarms, and those through careless- ness. My River Styx queen is now going through her third winter. 1 wintered 13 last season and have never lost an Italian; the only trouble we have had in this region, is mice, and honey from the aster; the aster honey candies at the bottom of the cell, while at the mouth of the cells it is very thin and watery, and ferments, standing in drops on the outside of the combs. Our honey, this fall, was mostly from the aster. The goldenrod was destroyed by plant lice. The way I winter my bees: I make my shelves on posts with a pan, bottom up, on top of the post, that ends the work of mice. I leave the entrance open % of an inch square. I then lay a stick across the frames, under the quilt, so as to leave a half inch space open at the end of every frame. I then exam- ine, once every two weeks, by smelling of each hive; it I find one that is sour or damp, I roll back the quilt so as to give more ventilation. In that way I carried them through last winter just as nice as they were when put in. I am inclined to think that bees can be wintered better here where there is continuous cold weather, than where there are so many changes. I pvit away a swarm of black bees last fall, that were queenless. In the spring I gave them an Italian queen. The 16th of July they Avere nearly one third black bees, and on the 26th day of July there was not a black bee to be found. Now suppose the locusts had stayed longer. O. W. Parker. New London, Minn., Dec. llth, 1877. AVe have had several reports of honey candying in the cells, but I believe you are the first, friend P., to suggest that it comes from the aster ; if it is the case, we shall have to add the item to aster, in our A B C. Has anybody else had a similar exper- ience with the asterV We have been troubled with mice in our honey house, but keep it shut up so closely, that none can get in, and to make assurance doubly sure, we always keep a trap baited with toasted cheese. The inverted pans are effectual, but do they not make your house a little awkward? Smelling of the hive to see if anything is amiss, I think would be a pretty sure test; I guess we shall have to give you the credit of the invention. If the locusts had stayed long- er, I think your bees would have stayed longer. In other words, I think that bees will live a year or more, if they can be kept from doing any work. The bees of a new swarm are soon gone, because they work so severely, while if they remained hanging on the outside of the parent hive, they might live months and remain young, so far as their ability to work is concerned. • Does not this agree with your experience? BEE HAITKS. fAsUus MissouriensisJ. SI ENCLOSE a fly (I do not know the name) that kills bees. I have seen them often, about my — I hives, and several times seen them sucking the juice from the bodies of bees. They kill other insects and sometimes their own species; they do not eat the bodies, but thrust in their bill, quickly suck the blood, then drop the lifeless body and go in quest of other game. This one was sucking the body of a bee, in my melon patch, which angered me and I stole on him with catlike steps and knocked the life out of him with an empty sack which I had in my hand. They are very quick in their movements and it is very ditflcult to kill them. I have watched them very closely, for two summers, and have killed what I could; but doing my best, I do not kill one in ten. They are not numerous here, as in Kansas. There, I have seen hundreds in a day. Will you please say something about the fly in Gleanings, and give name? He is a villain of the darkest dye. D. G. Parker, St. Joe, Mo., Sept. 4th, .77. The insect is the same you sent before. The bee hawk, or bee killer ("Asilus MUisourieimsJ, a ferocious two winged fly, which will be a serious pest if it ever becomes numerous enough to do great harm. I refer to it in my Manual. It is too quick to catch with a net to advantage, yet I know no other way to fight it. I have even known them to subdue the fierce tiger beetle in a square fight. I have caught several al- lied species here, but none seem to molest the bees. A. J. Cook, Lansing, Mich., Dec. 14th, '77. The North Eastern Bee-Keepers' Association will hold its eighth Annual Meeting at the City Hall, Syracuse, N. Y., on the 6th, 7th and 8th of February, 1878. First session at one o'clock, p. m., of the 6th.' Papers on important subjects are expected from some of our own members as well as from eminent apiarists abroad. Among these may be mentioned an essay on "Recently Discovered Parasites of the Honey Bee, and their Connection with Successful Wintering." The Marketing of Honey will receive special atten- tion, and it is expected that initiatory steps will be taken toward supplying each member of the Associ- ation with reliable data from which he may judge of the market value of his products. Other changes are suggested of much importance to Honey produ- cers. To secui'e satisfactory results a full attend- ance of this class if especially desired. We hope you win attend, also, please see that this notice is pub- lished in your local papers. Canajoharie, N. Y.: December 17th, 1877. P. H. Elwood, J. H. Nellis, President. Secretarv. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Jan. AlSTRAI^IA. HT is !i loiij;- time sinc!C I wrdte you, and I am sorry to say that I have no {rood news to send yon. I The whole conntry is parohcd up by a drouth, and when it will end, God onlj' knows. Thousands have already been i-uined by it. Cattle and .s/iccp are dyinjr in hundreds of thousands. It is a sight to trav- el through this eountry at this present moment ; liardly a blade of grass is to be seen ; and the water hnles'fillod with dead and dying- cattle. I am one of the suffering ones, and unless it breaks up very sho'.t- ly. T see nothing but ruin for me and mj' family. " What puzzks me more than all the rest, is where the bees me getting honey from. 1 have never had more honey from my bees than I have had during the drought. So yovi see friend Notice that bees are to be depended upon, when many other things fail. I am sorry that I have not more of them. They beat cattle keeping In every way that I know of ; in fact they have supported my cattle to a considerable ex- tent. By the way, 1 must tell you that I have received a colon j" of bees from San Francisco, California. They sold for pure Italians, but when they arrived at my place I found the bees to be hybrids and bad ones at that. Not one bee in five had a single band on it, and the price paid for them was §^00,00. So you see, after waiting for 6 years, I am doomed to disappointment at last. J. Carkoll. Bee-Master. Queensland, Australia. Oct. 15th, 18T7. I fear friend Carroll you are too hasty in deciding in regard to the Italians. After so long a voyage, the bees could not well look other than poorly, but after some young brood is hatched out, I think you will hnd them quite different. It seems that our Cal- ifornia friends are far better off than you, af- ter all. We sincerely sympathize with you botli, in your severe trials with the drouth, and hope ere this, you are rejoicing in plenty of rain. BOX KITE DEPARTMENT. fT is some time since we have found any- body who would advocate, much less sus- — ' tain, this department. Otu" friend Peters of Council Bend. Ark., has given up, if we are not mistaken, and as friend Heddon has at last "owned up" on Italian bees, we pre- sume he has also on box hives. We have been waiting patiently for over a year, for his lirst installment of articles from practic- al experience with box hives and black bees, but as they don't come, I know of no better way than to take the task of keeping up tlie clei)artnient. on my own shoulders, with the occasioi.al lift tliat I may chance to get from some kind friend Avho wiU sym]iathize with me. Will you })lease, dear friends, collect and send me all the good rejiorts you can possibly collect from box hives. We can have no Blasted Hopes here, for nobody ex- l)ects anything, and therefore no one is ever disappointed. Here is one letter, already. J^isten : You say in Gleanings, that you will send one sec- tion box for .5 cents which you will ])lease find en- closed, as T wish to see one and would like to ha\'e you g<'t me up something that I can use on top of my box hives as they are so much less trouble than the frame hive. I have used the frame hive for many years, but T have very poor health and a large stock of bees and can take care of them with less trouble than the frame hive. I do not see why the section boxes ('" f' j■ ^ FRAMES MADE ENTIKE1.Y OF li'OOD. ■^EOF. COOK, of the :Michigaii Agricul- J^ tural College, has just paid us a visit, — ' and if he always carries as much sun- shine. pCcice and goodwill, wherever he goes. I earnestly hope he may keep on Aisiting. I ■do not mean that he ap]»roved of all he saw. nor that he told me I had done right in ev- ery particular, for he gave me a somid talk- ing to in regard to conventions, and althongh I can not feel just as he does in regard to them, I have promised to aid in tlie matter so far as I can consistently, u The chaff hive, he ijrc nounced a ''hum- bug ;'*but I believe it was before he had seen one. I ventured, "In what respect, friend C. V' "•On the ground of expense." "IIow do you prepare bees for out-door wintering at the college V" "We drive down four stakes, board them up, take off the covers to the hives, pack in the chaff, and then put on a cheap roof of boards.-' I said nothing more at the time, bnt when in the apiary, I pointed out a chaff hive. He pronounced them handsome, jvs every- body does, and when I lilted the light cover with one iiand, and the chaff ciielncn with the other and exposed the bets, in a little more than a second, then shi t them all up in nice wmtcring trim almost as cjuickly, he — well I can not remember just what he did say, but he pretty soon asked. "How miicli more does tl:e Chaff hive cost, than the Simplicity ?"' "Just on<' dollar more than a two story Simplicity, and the upper story has a, capac- ity for four more frames." ~"Is that all; why I supposed they were a great deal more exi)ensive." "The secret of it is, they are made of \evy cheap lumber; the greatest part of the ex- pense is the work, and that should be done by the bee-keeper himself, during the win- ter season." He also pronounced the Bingham smoker a better one than ours, because it was larger, and had a more pointed tube, the very reas- ons why I should not prefer it. He had never tried one of oiu- lirger sized ones. Now you must not suppose we looked cross because we did not agree ; on the contrary, we had seme of the most hearty laughs, as we went over our different experiences. Friend Betsinger, of ^Marcellus, was with us, and it was funny, to see how differently we had each of us honestly decided, on many points. We passed a lot of metal cornered frames, and fi-iend Cook remarked, "There is another 'hrunbug'." "In what respect ?" "They slide about in the hive too easily. We can not carry a hive from one part of the apiary to another, without having the frames slide all over to one side. The metal rabbets are a splendid invention, but they are enough. Our boys at the College like the wood frames just about as well." "You object to the frames then, because they are too 'movable';" "Ye^, and because they are expensive; besides, they cut one's fingers in handling them.'" •'Now I like a frame so movable that we can at any time pick it up with one hand ; to have it thus, we must have it rest on knife edges, or we shall have it fastened with propolis. With new colonies, the frames do slide about, unless fastened, but combs 3 or 4 years old, will always have at- tachments that will hold strong enough, un- less the hives are to be shipped. I much prefer to have my frames loose ; it is so sel- 10 GLEAXIXGS IX BEE CULTURE. JAN. dom we move them, that the exi>ense, as a whole, is but trirtin?, to fasten the fri'nes when we want them fast. The woo:! slides easily on the metal vabb?t. bat h\ setting the fiMuies down, bees will be cut in two in great numbers, if we attempt to handle them as rapidly as we do the metal frames." I believe my two friends made no reply to this ; one of them afterward admitted that he and Doolittle did kill some bees, but seemed to think it but a small matter com- paratively. Xow Jam not going to kill my bees, no matter how slowly I am compelled to work. You all know how much I like to cheapen the articles we use about the apia- ry, if we can have them good ; well, I know there are a great many of you, who, like friend C, would prefer a nice nailed frame, if it was very much cheaper. It is not a new subject to me for I have studied for years, on some plan of making a strong and stiff nailed frame, of thin strips of pine without any of the clumsy triangular corner blocks, so generally used. After my friends had gone, I —I shall have to explain that when the boys see me walking round our central stairway, they say a new bee hive, or honey extract^^r, is under way. Well, I walked round the stairway, and woke uo and planned frames in the middle of the night, until I worked out the frame below. I think I deserve a little credit here, for I knew while working at it, that if I succeed- ed, it would spoil, in a measure, part of our business — the manufacture of our metal cor- ners. You that have the foot power saws, can make them yourselves, very readily. A represents a finished frame, and inside of it. our engraver has shown you an en- larged view of the top of one of the side bars C, and one end of the top bar B. The nar- row neck of B is simply driven into the end of C, and fastened with the slender brad shown in the cut. The engraving is so plain, that you will all doubtless know how to go to work. Get some nice straight grained pine, and have it dressed accurately to i. You had better make a brass gauge and send it to the planing mill ; tell them to plane the stuff so the gauge will just crowd over it. The lumber should be the best sea- soned you can find. We pay about S30.00 per M., for ours, already dressed. For the top bars, cut off lengths exactly 19i inches ; for the bottoms, 17|, and for the ends, 9i. These dimensions must be exact ; thev must not vary the tiiickness of a sheet of 'paper. It is just as easy t-o cut them exact as to do it any other way. if you only ''attend to your business." and if your saw is not inclined to go just right, make it your business to make- it go just right, before you commence cut- ting up your boards. I think the best way to out boards all of a length, is to fasten a smooth bar just as far away from, the saw, as ctie boards are to be long. First cat your boards off short enough to handle them; make the end stnught and square, and then hold it dose up to tliis gauge, wliile you cut off the lengtlis. Now for the notches; this looks very for- midable, at first, but it is very e^xsily, and quickly done. We will sort out all the boards for the end pieces first. Make a gro^^^ve clear across the end like C, with a wabbling saw, such as I iiave told you how to fix, several times. This groove should be about i inch wide, a little less if any thin^; the depth should be just i inch, if that is to be the thickness of your top bar. Of course, we are next to cut the four grooves in each of the top bar boards. Your saw is to be set with less wabble, that it may cut just the tiiick- ness of the end bars. We decided on a lit- tle less than i of an inch for this. The depth is to be so as to leave j ust enough wood in the center for it to drive hard, into the end bars. Raising and lowering your saw table, will gauge this to a hair's breadth, if you are only careful. When your pieces "are all grooved, you have notliing to do but rip otf the strips just the right thickness. I have said nothing about the bottom bar and bot- tom corners, but you can make them in the same way, or as we do our section box stuff and metal cornered frames. Such frames can be made for 2i cents each, and the work should be nice and exact, for that price, DEPOSITORY OF Pmh Or Lietters from Those ^.Vho Have Made ♦ Bee Culture a, Fciiture. ^"^^OU will have to put me in "Blasted Hopes." I ir have about 3.000 lbs. of thick well ripened hon- ^ ey, and ean sell it for 10c only, at retail. I will hare to advertise you in GcHANTNas, for humbug^iaa" me; you recomTiiendod cheese cloth for strainer? and T could not force my honey throuarh with my hands, but it was all sealed. W. B. Coluns. Ar-ow Rock, Mo., Nov. 20th, 1877. You might put some water with it, the way milk men do, friend C, but on the whole, I think it would be a better way to keep it in a warm room, until it will run through the cheese cloth. Make j^our cloth into a deep bag, and the weight of the honey will force it through. It just occurs to me that we do not quite belong in this department, but I can find nobody else to put here. I wonder if it is true that people who make failures don't say anything about it. Some 5 or 6 years ag'o I was badly affected with fever. It was what 1 call B. fever. Well you see, I boug-ht up all the bees I could, and in my first exper- ience in transferring- 1 g-ot wounded on the end of my nose. My j?ood wife, on being calleil, broug-ht me- some water in a tea cup, and I plunged my nose as near the bottom of the cup as was possible, so my nose, for the time, was out of the reach of bees. This was an evil omen. The second year I had about 50 stands, and then commenced the seourge among them. The next season I was able to put only 33 into winter quarters, and but 3 came out in the spring. In the fall I had but four, the next spring.O. Tliis, with all the stings, and trials of poor Italian queens, trjnng to get the strij>e on my blacks, and returning symp- toms of fever from time to time, coursing through my bones deserves to me a place in "Blasted Hopes." 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 11 But I have purchased 3 more stands, and want to be- gin my A B C, which please send to me for the 25c inclosed. One who likes honey. H. F. Philps. Faribault, Minn., Dec. ITth, 1877. I enclose ?1,00 for Gleanings, but that is more money than I ha'se made from my bees this season. I have 23 hives, but my report is onlj' "Blasted Hopes." Thanks to golden rod, however, they stored up nicely for winter, thus saving me the expense of feeding, for which I feel grateful. E. W. Griswold, Essex, Conn., Dec. 5th, "Tt. \% BAT KIND GF SKCTION BOXES SHAL,£. \%EUSE. fJHE statement made on page 317. Vol. 5, perhaps requires a little explanation from me. Novice , s:ivs, "A crop like Doolittle's could easily have been sold for 25c." By turning to page 212, same Vol., the reader will see that the best Novice could get of- fered for his honey at that time, in Chicago & Cincin- nati was 15c. New York offered 18. Now within a week of the time that he was offered the 18c, we sold our honey for 20c, here, Thurber & Co. paying the transportation and taking all risks, thus showing that our honey brought at least 2c, and the transportation more than Novice was offered for his. On same page (317) C. R. Isham says, "Thurber paid Mr. Doolittle 20c, per lb. for the honey to which was awarded the f 50.00 Gold Medal. They paid me 2.5c, for the 90 lbs. i exhibited in competition." To this we Avill say our crate of honey put up to compete for the medal was stolen off the cars in transportation, so was not on exhibition ; but we had another crate there of 31 ^ilbs. for which Thurber & Co., were offered SI. 00 per lb. crate and all, before we left N.Y. We charged Thur- ber & Co. no more for this crate than for any of the rest, as they bought our whole crop. V,'c make this explsmation that the readers of Gleanings may not get the impression that a crop of 9,000 lbs. of honey could be sold for as high a price as a crate or two se- lected out of 9,000 lbs. would bring, when selected to compete for a Gold Medal. G. M. Doolittle, Borodino, N.Y. The sample cases we sent Newman, King and ]SIuth. were, as I have said before, to test their shipping qualities, and not espe- cially to get prices. Rather than be to the expense of shi])ping them back, we told them to give us credit for whatever they could af- ford. At this same time, we had a standing offer for 2 tons or more, at 25c. and the calls we had from different parties from the city of Cleveland alone, would have taken all of friend Doolittle's 9.000 lbs at 2oc. Avithout trouble, had it been in 1 lb. thin light pine sections. Now there is something to say on the oth- er side ; it is really more profitable, (or rath- er we get more money) to sell honey at 20c. in the Betsinger box (the one Doolittle uses) than to sell it for 2oc in our sections. I have just taken a section box at random, from a lot purchased of D., and although we put in thin glass, it weighs 11 ounces. I believe the boxes do not average over 2 lbs. each, so you see we get 1 lb. and 5 oz. of honey for 40c. This would be over 30c. per lb. for the honey when ready for the table. Our sec- tions'weigh 1 oz. At 25c., the honey on the table, costs near 27c. therefore if people will pay the same for a 2 lb. glassed section, it is more profitable to let them have it. rriends Betsinger and Doolittle claim they will, and peihaps such is the case, in cities.'but in our OAvn town and Cleveland, the 1 lb. sections in our glass retailing case, would leave the other untouched. Perhaps the 1 lb. sections nave not found their way yet into the cities. The following seems to look that way : We have had a consignmtnt of honcA' this year in cases, or rather 1 lb. frames nnd crates made accord- ing to your directions. This honey sold quickly, and we have had enquiries for more. We would show' like a pattern crate filled with 1 lb. frames to bee men seeking desirable packages. H. K. & F. B. Thurber & Co. ; New York, Dec. 12th, 1877. After the sample case was received, the following came to hand : We are very much obliged to you for the crate, and feel sorry it was not on exhibit ion at the American Institute fair. There can be hardly a doubt but it would have been favorably received. The idea of doing away with so much unneccessary tare in the way of glass is a great advantage. Had all the honey we purchased this year been crated in your style of crates, it is our firm belief we would have paid for 50,000 lbs. less weight. Please excuse a suggestion; and that is, reduce the size so as to hold 24 frames. With this alteration it will no doubt be the best, i. e., the most acceptable crate on the market. H. K. & F. B. Thurber & Co. New York, Dec. 19th, '77. "We have the 24 box cases on hand, as well as the 48, and just such a one was sent to the Ohio State fair by one of our friends. I really do not know whether it took the pre- mium or not, but we have had many letters of inquiry, in regard to it. Some niay ask why I did not send a case to compete for the gold medal. Well, the real truth was that I was afraid to. I would of course think that mine was best, and if I didn't get the medal, I would perhaps get jealous, and quarrel Avith my best friend ; if I did get the medal, judging from what I re- member of myself dm-ing past similar expe- riences, it would do me still more harm. That is rather a humiliating confession to make, is it not V "Well, I rejoice that there is a very safe place for me in such matters, and for all who are unfortunately like me. It is to give God all the credit, for all that we may succeed in doing ; then we are at peace with all the world, with our own selves, feel pleasantly toward everybody, and it matters very little whether Ave get all the credit Ave deserve or not. if our efforts have been the means of doing good and helping mankind. If you are undecided in regard to the sec- tion boxes, just place a fcAV of each kind in the market. The people Avill very quickly tell you which they prefer. HO'W BOOLETTI-E GOT 566 I.ES. FKOM AliSO SOMETHING ABOUT RAISING LOTS OF BEES. E are requested to give particulars in regard to the way we managed the stock that gave us the 566 lbs. extracted honey, the past sea- son. The stock was selected on account of being near the house, and was no better than »/» our stocks. They were built up on the plan we have so often given, of contracting the hive by means of a division board and then spreading the brood from time to time, as they Avould bear it. About June first, they were changed from one of our standard hives to a hive four feet long holdiug 32 Gallup frames, but were not given the whole number of frames until a- bout June 20th. V»'e supposed we v/ere going to keep the queen on about 16 to 20 combs, but found we could not do It without a division board of some kind, so at t he height of the season, about July 15th, we had brood in everj' one of the 32 frames, or to the amount of liOO square inches, which the reader will see wculd give 70,000 bees in 21 days. This was the best, by far. 12 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTX^RE. Jak. we ever had a queen do. We extracted when the bees ba^an to seal over the cells at the top of the combs. The haney was absut in the proportion of 15 lbs. apple blossom to 185 lbs. white clover, 290 lbs. bisswood and teasel a:id 76 lbs. buckwheat. At the end of the season there were no more bees thim in manj' of the other hives. They were helped in no way, exeapt by g-ivin? thsm empty combs enough to fill the hive. Novice says on pag-e 283, Vol. 5, "Before we put j^ou clear at the head of the class we want you to bring- the 152 c3lonies through to next May, iiylthmil losing (I siwjle c)li)n>)." This we do not expect to do, for we never have wintered our bees without loss since the winter of 1870-1 ; and if we should succeed in doing so, it would be only to double them back in the spring to 100 colonies, as that is the highest number we ever wish to commence the season with, and all I believe one persDn is'capable of taking care of to secure the best results. We find it more profitable to double up bees in the proper way, than to sell them at present prices ; and 100 colonies is the height of my ambition to commence the season with. We would rather do less and do it well, than have 300 or 400 stocks and not half do the work they would re- quire. G. M. DOOLITTDE. Borodino, N Y. Well, I declare friend D., if you have not gons ri^ht back to the "Long idea'' hive. If one works for extracted honey alone, there are some very pleasant features about the Long hive, especially if you have a col- ony of bees that will keep on raising bees as fast as we spi-ead the frames. From the ex- perience I have had, I am inclined to think all colonies cannot be profitably worked in that way ; at least, after thousands of such hives have been made and used a few sea- sons, they have, almost without exception, been abandoned sooner or later. As the 582 lbs. obtained by friend Elwood fx'oni a sin- gle colony in 1874, was with a two story hive, I think we can conclude that the Long hive had little if anything to do with it, and that friend D. could have done nearly, if not quite, as well with a two story hive. These are important matters, for we do not want to waste our money as we have done, by buildiuff new fangled hives only to throw them aside in a year or two. AND HOW HE "TALKS" ABOUT IT. ^ HAVE neglected, so long, my correspondence to |Sl|| Gr,BANiNG3, that I am almost ashamed to cime »=!J again. I have had a great many things to say to your readers, but before I was ready to say them, some one else had said them better than I could. I promised to give my experience in section boxes, and fdn. I m I'le 15 swarms early in June, in Simplicitj' hives, on'' story, 7 frames empty and 3 frames of sec- tions with starters, by shaking all the bees from the combs of a populous colony into the L. hive on old stand. Eaeh new cilony was then given a frame of brood; they soon filled the empty frames and the 2 frames of sections. I then put on upper stories with fJ frames of sections, and one frame of brood, and raised the two frames of sections from below and re- placed them with empty ones. They at once began work aViove. and by .July tth, I began to take off nice- ly filled sections of clover honey, and then they began to swarm. They were all well shaded. I returned! tlie swarms and moved the stands to the other side of the yard and they swarmed again; I dipped the- queens' wings, destroyed aU cells and still they swarmed; I destroyed the queens, and they swarmed' and entered hives that had queens, and then swarmed and some of them, "went West." When a swarm would come out from some colony that had a queen, as soon as my simpleton bees heard them, out they would come as many as five swarms at a time and "jine in." I was the laughing stock of the neighbor- .hood; every T>c^;. that was old enough to fly would leave. I took all their honey and still they would swarm; they would in some mystei'ious manner coax virgin queens into their hives, and next day they would come out aU. ready to emigrate. After I had exhausted all my ingenuity, 4 or 5 swarms held a camp meeting one day on an apple tree and departed, taking the strikers with them I suppose, as I had no more trouble. All hands went to work, and during the short season that followed I got about 600 lbs. of section honey. Now, among all these, there was one colony that did just as I wanted them to, and there were two colonies that, after I rruwecl them, did all right. What in "Sam Hill" possessed the others I don't to this day understand. I found out that tin separators are a necessit.t for keeping the combs straight, and for keeping the queen and pollen out of the two fi-ames below. Pollen \\nll still be put in below if you do not close the entrance in front of the frames of sections. Another thing you want to be careful about, is to have the frames of the upper story hang scant % inch from the lower frames, or comb will be built there that will bother "amazin." Keep your tin separators bright and clean, or section honey will be attached. Now about side sections in American or other tall hives. The"Corporal," my neigh!*or, has American hives; he removed tvt^o frames next the door and put in a wide frame filled with sections. When they got nicely started he would stack them up on top with wooden separators, and he got some nice honey. Well, [ had some tall hives, the "National," and / tried it, and I'll be "switched" if the bees didn't comi- into the section frames and eat up the fdn. When I opened the door and looked in, they peeped at me through the slit in the separators as much as to say, "That's too thin old chap, pull down your vest and wipe off your chin." But "nary" a section did I get. Well, to sum it all up, I calculate that I got 600 lbs. section box honey in place of 1500 lbs. I might have extracted, and lost 5 or 6 swarms, by emigration. But you know, if a fellow never goes into the water un- til he learns to swim, it's a slow business. I am de- termined to learn how to raise section honey. Any- body can raise extracted honej', and any farmer that does not have what honey he needs for family use, does not live up to his privilege; but when you come to box honey as a crop, in any considerable amount, notmthstanding D jolittle, Harbison and Hcthering- ton, and even Novice, why, it just "gits" me. The trouble is swarming fever. I'll toll you what I am going to do next year, if they will swarm, why I'll let "em" and put "em" into one story Simplicities; and when they get done I'll double "em" up and pile on the sections. I've asked Doolit- tle, several times, how he keeps his bees from swarming, and he won't tell. I motion we expel him for contempt, and when he asks to join again, make it a condition that he tells "all he knows" about the 1878. GLEANmGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 13 swarming fever. Well ! of all the long winded yams! and I ain't half through. R. L. Joiner. Wyoming, Wis., Dec 18th, 1877. We linve heard reports of such swarming times, tiieiid J., bixt they h.ave never yet come into onr own ai)inry. If you remem- ber, friend Doollttle Irad just ahcnt such a time in 76, and if I am correct, he didn't know what to do, any more than you did. It strikes me that I should turn my whole apiary to queen rearing, or at least the rest- less stocks, and then hive every swarm, even if there Mere no more than a pint, and let them raise queens. Would not this -course have satisfied them ? I agi^ee with you in regard to having the space a scant t between the upper and lower frames, but if you don't look out, they will put bits of wax in the way even then ; the result will be that hees will be pinched, if the combs are very heavy. This is to me, perhaps, the most diflicult point in a two story hive. In spite of all that Doolittle and his neiglibor Bet- singer have said in favor of comb honey, I believe they both say they would work their iipiaries entirely for extracted, if they could be assured of 10c per lb. When questioned closely, Mr. B. said one great inducement would be that producing exti-acted honey Avas ."0 much le^s urjvli-. Prof. Cook, also, strongly insists that extracted honey is going to be the great staple eventually. Let us liave hives that will admit of working for •either vdthout any expensive changes. SIMPSON'S HONEY PI^ANT. AGAIN ask permission to use the colums of Gleaninh'S to answer a host of innuiries about thflt honey plsnt ("S. NodcsaJ. The plant, as found here, ncrrly always grows among other weeds, or in hrush or prrtiallj' shaded words. I think it will always he fourid more abunripnt in the vicinity of an old apiary than elsewhere. The cause is that it must Ije fertilized by the tec or insect in search of the sweets it jielc's. The iTiot hears transplanting well. It commences blcrmirg from the first to the tenth of .July, or about the time that linden and clover close and continues until fiost, yielding honey, be the "weather wet, warm or cold, during bloom ; but not being fi-equentrd at all times bj' bees. As soon as hearts-ease or buckwheat begins to yield, it is for- saken until they cease, when they go back to it again. I feel pretty well satisfied that one acre thoroughly set with it, would keep up breeding and some honey storing for .50 or ICO colonics during the tiying months of July and Aug. 1 have tried mustard, catnip, mel- ilot, and this season mig-nonette ; the trouble with them is that when honey ceases elsewhere, caused by atmospheric changes, it ceases with them; but not so with the horey plant. It may not yield so TDUch but it will still present its cup brimming full of nectar every moniing-. Tlie honey is of excellent ouabtj': as clear as clo- vei", making beautifT.ll comb, but lacking any distinct aroma, as linden cr buckwheat. It 's excellent for ■cooking pTirposes, leaving none of the honey taste when used for sweetening tea or coffee, and it bakes eoual to sugar. r do not know how far North or South it would flourish but I have sent seeds to every state in the Union, and roots as far South as Mew Orleans, and North as Wiscousin. We shall hear in due time. The above are as correct answers as I know how, at the present time, to give to questions that have been asked me through the mail. This may he old to some of you, but there seems to be a goodly num- ber of the 2Sf!8 subscrfbers (it should be double that) to whom it will be new. Jas. A. Simpsok. HONEY REPORT FOR, 1877. I had 27 stands May 1st, about half pure Italian, the balance except 4, hybrids. I closed the season with ',8 stands in good condition. My apiary is now % pure :'■ f r . Ihe result of introducing young queens of my own rearing. Extracted hcney, 4,2£'0 lbs. Ecx honey, 21 lbs. All sold in heme market and mcie wanted. Average price. 12c per lb. Jas. a. Simpson, Alexis, Ills., Dec. l£th, "l?. The plants were fourd growing quite plentifully in our nei^LLcrhood, alter we once started out to look lor them. It seems that they are easily broken down by cattle or stock, for although we found none in the open fields, they were fornd quite plentiiul- ly in old tree tops, piles of brush, fence com- ers, and most of all, in tie edj-e of hedge fences. We secured quite a lot of the seed, by simply breaking oft the stalks, and laying them in a basket having a p?.per laid inside. By the time we reached heme, quite a quan- tity of clean seed was found en the paper. The quantity of honey found in a single blossom, is certainly astonishing, and as it blooms profusely, I cannot pee why it will not prove of great valve. We ht.ve re- ceived a sample ot the Lorey licm fiiend S., and should unhesitatingly \ k nounce it clo- ver, both frcm looks isnd li ste, unless it be that it lackf- tl e mild flavor tl at seme spec- imens of fine well ripened clover pos&ess. T7ie A B C of Bee Cvliwe. CILTTSIT. {Nepata Cutaria). This is a near relative of gill-oyzr-the-geotjnd, which see. Quinby lias said that if he were to grow any x>lant exclusively for the honey it produced, that plant would be Cat- nip, and very likely he was not far from right. But as we have never yet had any definite report from a sufficient field of it to test it alcne, either in quality or quantity of the honey, we remain almost as much in the dark in regard to it as we were at the time he made the statement, several years ago. Several have cultivated it in small patches, and have reported that in a state of cultiva- tion, it apparently yielded more honey than in its wild state, for bees are found on it almost constantly, for several months in the year; yet no one, I believe, is prepared to say positively that it would pay to cultivate it for this purpose. Seeds have been adver- tised and sold through our Journals for several years, but, as many complaints have been made that they did not grow, and as we have entirely failed in getting several different samples to germinate, we are a lit- tle doubtful about the feasibility of sending out seed. The only person who has raised cultivated plants from the seed, that we re- member of, is M. Nevins, Cheviot, O., and he advises sowing it in Jan., Feb., and March. It is veiy likely that this, like many of the seeds of forest trees, requires the agency of the frost, to make it gemiinate. Such would seem to be tlie case from the reports of several, to the effect that they had caused it to grow in fence corners, brush heaps, and many waste places, by simply 14 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. Jak. sprinkling tlie seed on the ground as they passed along. Mr. Nevius, and J. Wolfen- den, of Adams, Wis., both speak of the honey as being equal in quality to either White clover or Basswood. Since the above was written, we have had several reports from those who have raised the plants in great profusion ; and as one of the parties said the seed came up very thick- ly on the plat of ground where he winnowed the seed, we are iirclined to think the trouble has been in saving the seed, or in sowing it. It seems that the seed should be gathered about as soon as it is fully ripe, and if the weather is favorable, it may be sowed im- mediately. Samples of seed gathered as above, have germinated without any trouble. The plant does not usually blossom until the second year, but if sowed very early, on fine soil, it may make quite a bloom the first sea- son. GIBZSB. Airi} CS9£S. H^X^EaS. Not only are many of bur bees drowned in the cider, in the vicinity of cider mills, but the cider if gathered late in the season, is yery apt to prove very unwholesome as a diet for our little friends. Probably much of the dysentery that causes such havoc is the result of this unsealed cider stored in the cells when winter comes on. If the col- ony is very strong, and well supplied with winter stores, the cider may do but little harm, but where they are weak and obliged to use the cider largely, they sometimes die even in the fall. We at one time fed a col- ony about a gallon of sweet cider, and they were dead before Christmas. At another time a barrel of sweet cider was found to be leaking, but as the bees took it up greedily as fast as it ran out, their owner kindly al- lowed them to work away. They all died quite promptly, after the experiment. The bees of a Ira-ge apiary, will take sweet cid(;r frf)m the mill, nearly as fast as it can be made, and we at one time had quite a se- rious time "oith the ownier of such a mill, because the Italians insisted on '' going shares," whenever he made sweet cider. After paying quite a little sum in the way of damages, and losing our bees every season there was a large apple crop, besides buying sugar in the vain attempt to call them away by counter inducements, we, at the sugges- tion of one of the other sex, hung white cloth curtains over all the openings to the mill. Some strips of pine, S2.o0 worth of sheeting 2^ yards wide, and a couple of hours time, fixed the mill so that scarcely a bee was to be seen inside. In a very short time they gave up flying around the mill, and appar- ently forgot all about it. D. DANDE&ZOZir. {Taraca^.um). This plant, I am inclined to think, is of more im- portance, than is generally supposed, for it comes into bloom just after fruit blossoms, and as it yields both pollen and honey, it keeps up brood rearing, when it is of the ut- most importance it should be kept going. I do not know that it would pay to raise a field of Dandelions expressly for the bees, but as they grow to a great size and luxuriance when allowed to stand and blossom in the garden, I feel pi\^tty sure that a cultivated plat of them would furnish a great amount of honey. What a pretty sight it would be on our honey farm. They do not ordinarily blossom until the second season, but per- haps, like catnip and clover, they would do so, if sowed early and cultivated. As Dan- delions seem to be much on the increase in the fields and about the roadsides in our vi- cinity, I think we can safely conclude that the more bees there are kept, tjie more such plants we shall have, for they, by fertiliziug each blossom, produce an unusual amount of good sound seed. I do not think of any other purpose for which the Dandelions can be i;sed, except as greens in the spring ; if we allowed stock to forage on oiu- yellow flower garden. I am afraid it would mar its beauty, if not its usefulness for honey. I really cannot say much in praise of the Dandelion honey, for we extracted some that we called Dandelion on account of the taste, and we could not use it at all. It was so dark colored and strong, that we ^vith diffi- culty gave it away. The honey may have been from the shell bark hickory, however, as that comes in bloom at about the same time. BZSSASSS or SEES. I am very glad indeed, to be able to say that bees are less liable to be affected with disease, than perhaps any other" class of animated crea- tion. It is perhaps because the individual members of a colony, are so constantly giv- ing way to other younger members, as they are hatched out, and come on the stage of action. Nothing but a really contagious disease, could do very much harm, where vigorous and youthful members are being added to the family circle almost daily, and for a great part of the year, by hundreds or thousands. Therefore, if your bees lack thrift, all you have to do is to start brood rearing briskly, and if the queen is in any Our rath Edition CF iBphffiects for B» Cultare with Directions for their Qse, A. I. ROOT, IVfEDINA, O., JANUARY 1st,. I878~ GLEANINGS LN" BEE CULTURE. . Ja^, 2 shr)W3 the way in which we contract the entrance withsa'.Vfliist, oiilyit neeilsstamninsf do^/n alittl-^mire. Cover ami boltun boarti ara alwivs used samp aide III). I5>tcoTi board ahiiil I rest on four half Uricli-. N'o 3 i3 a'2-8torv hive, being simply tvo i)')diesoiieov-'i- ilif! othyr, with'tha cover re Tio.'eil, rhe covers and bot- tom board ■* l)8iT T O'lp, and the sa ne thing. In th« fore- irround are seen the four simple pieces of which the hive i^ cimno^ad. Toe t^-" liv-gg i>ne-!. are of course the side ami end of Mhiv?, aid the strips lyin? 0'\ lh».m are the pie ;i^s t.hi', ir ; niileil nad3r the c ^'J■■T, a^ will t)e readily nn Ifrstnod b/ looking ac the diagra>n on oage 7. The iroi frame loaning a? linst Vo.;?, is the gtnge to be slinpe I over tie hives -vhiie they are be- ing nailed. It is, inside, li^K by 16 inches, and is slio ii'' 1 ovp,r ih^i hive both top and bocton, lifee a hoop. This holds them square and true, and shows when the stuff i^ju5t right. If tiey just All the hoips, yjucai lie surfl'chat my hiva you h;\'.'o will just lit any otlier, and that it ^viU be exactly right for evi-ry frame in the apiary, it they are also made on a gauge, as they cer- tainly shoul I Hp, or at least the stuff should be cut to fit a saiige. No 1'2 is a trara-T containingS section boxes filled with with fdn., aad >fo. 13 is the same with the tin separa- tors added. At No. 2 we see one of thsse frames of sections at each outside of the hive ; this is the way in which we arririge a single story for comb honey, leaving the brood ii the middle. At No. 3 the whole iinper story i^ supiiosed to be tilled with these frames of sections. No. 11 is a metal-cornered frame filled with fdri., and a transferring clasp, Nj. 23, is shown pushed (lovvn on thT top bar, as ihey are us^d. At No. 14 we have a frame of fancy sections. The fdn. is put in these by pushin; them apart, and catch- ing it bet veen the tvi%boarils of which thev are made. No. 16 is the Quiaby smoker, and No. 17 is he Doolittle smoker. No. 19 is a quart febder. We should have aildsil. in the proper place, that the artist has put (cnf-^ a number of wires on the gripe vine trjliis, while but 3 are te. ill V needed. Tli>, grape vino-i are also heavy with fdiage to A'anl the top of the posts, during the hottestjvveather. OUR PRICE LIST POR 1878. Bse keepers who are ready and willing to work for their honey, we believe are all busy, and are all so far as we l;no\v, realizing as fair a reward for the time and capital invested, as in other kinds of business. A few of the most keen and enterprising, are, as in all kinds of business, far outstripping the rest, and il rests with you alone, my friend, to determine what place in the ranks you will oc- cupy. Just one piece of advice : However attractive the wares may seem that we are about to describe, we would say, don't get in debt for them; if you haven't the money to purchase, don't buy until you get it. Be humble and satisfied with little, and let your .apiary grow of itself, and Vie self-sustaining. I say this because I really do not wish you to be disappointed. If you study the subject and be- come thorous^hly familiar with the bees by actual work among them, both capital and bees will come as fast as you can handle either. I want to see you all prosper, and to do so, you must be cheerful, courageous and indepen- dent ; above all, don't get crazy and extravagant if you should happen to get S25 or 550, as the proceeds of or\'i colony in a season ; prosperity is sometimes harder to he;ir than adversity. IMPLEMENTS FOR THE APIARY. We have carefully thrown out or remodeled every- thing in our list found in any way defective, and we offer nothing that wc do not approve of and use in our own aniary. We c 10 shippromptly, by Freight, Express or Mail, (none mailable except those designated.) sroids men- tioned in the list in every number of Gleanings. Hives, Extractors. &e., can be sent much cheaper by Freight, but in this case they should be ordered three or four weeks before needed, if the distance is con- siderable. During the months of April, May and .June, orders may sometimes be delayed several days, but our customers may rely ujion receiving notice at once on receipt of all remittances. At the prices given in this list, cash immt accom- paiiji every order ; as the sending of goods, C. O. D., entails an additional expense, and goods sometimes fail to be taken, we really dis'ike to send them thus, but if you are content to jiav from 2.5 cents to $1 to the Evpresi compmv to bring us the money, (which •■>uld he sent ly P. (>. Order for 10 cents,) we will send them C O. D. wh3n eeiaily du- ring the 'dijiiey months." PREPAYING EXPRESS AND FKEIOHT CHARGES. E\'press charges are so variable that it seems diffii- cult to estaolisU a aviiform and satis aotory rate: yet if y^iu ch^oae to leave th ; matter to us, w can urepay charges a' about the rates given in the f'lllowi ng ta- bl% If yoii can make a bette.' arrangement with your ag^nt do s ) by ad meaiis; if not, send the ineney tO' us and we will prepay express ■.fh^n goods are s lipped. If your exjiress ofH>3 is not on a main line, fr.im 2n fo 5i censs more must be uddel. This is rath- er iiid,-,fl lite, we a^'e aware, bu"^ i: is tii3 best we can do If goods are not wanted a' once, the/ can be Sent by freight at one-half, or stiil less ra'^es; bat it is. ver>' unwise to wait until they are wanted and then oirdev by freight. As an illustration, we have taken a- cover, a whole hive and an extractor, they weigli respectively, about 5, 15 and 25 pounds. BATE AT WHICn WB CAN PKSPAT EXPRESS- CTI.4.IKJES. Cover. Hiv^. Bxtractor. New York $.00 $.75 $100 Cliicaw 55 .65 .90 San Pranci> oo 3.00 4.00 5.75 New Orleans 1.60 2.0f> 2.75 Galveston 1.90 2.35 3.20 now TO SEND BIONEY. If you do not wish to ta-ks any risk oflo?s, K'!:id P. O. Or'ler, registered letter, or get a JV. V. Dra,ft. Bat as all theseways are expensive, espeeialy forsm-^ilam-oioUs. I will make a siiyfjestion. Probably not mrire than, one l^etter in a thousand, is lost in the miil hiU to be on the safe side, we loill assume that one in a hitndred will be lost. The cheapest way is to get a Money Order,' bnf even at tlie low price ofVd cents, we pay 310. to have the one hundred letters safe, besides tlie troiMe of gettintj the Order. Had you put 310. in each of the hundred let- ters, and lost one of them yotc looidd have been no more Old of pocket. This ivould show that it only pays to 7'eff- ister amounts e.vceedi.m SlO. To nta-ke it a little s'^ifer, call it .55.. and toe have for years seit all sums of less than ?5., in the letters, and toe h%03 saved in fees, fif more than the amount lost, besides sauing our friend ■ ivho recived it. the trouble of rjettirig it cashed. Thir plan only applies to persom of knoion integrity, for wlten the money is sent, they miy if disposed, say they never received it. If you do not knoiv me. you Juid bet- ter not send msany loose money, for I may be only writ- ing this t" get the advantage. Do you ask tvhy 1 do not stand, the loss myself if it is only one letter in one hun- dred.^ I would cheer.fully do this, were I not in danger if doinr/ harm by making such a proposal in a public cir- cular, for it would be too much like lei-ving tlie door to one's store open all night. Besides. I should have tit charge a little more for goods, if I stood AX.L losses. I would advise all to do business with as much economy as possible, but ichen losses come, I think it bist that we each bear our share of them, cheerfully. For fractional parts of a dollar, postage stamps are alivays acceptadle, and we can use them of any denom- ination. We always consider it an- especial favor to have cus- tomers ivform us by postal card whether goods are sat- isfactory; lohether our mode of packing is efjleient; time taken in transit; whether Express or Freight charges were reasonable, etc., etc. Respectfully, A. I. ROOT, Medina, O. IMPLEMENTS, AND SUPPLIES FOR THE APIARY. To (iToul useless repetition, this price list contains only furilier explanations of the articUs r/icen al- pJiaheticdlly, in every No. Gleanings / therefore if you wish a list of all tlie articles ice keep for sale, you are to look there J'or it. Mailable articles are designated in the left hand col- umn of figures; the figures giving the amount of postage required. 1878. GLEANIXGS m BEE CULTURE. ALIGHTING BOARDS. AtlGIITlNG BOAKX), DETACIIABLK. ThPFG rre intfntUrt pspeciallj' for hives with a loose ^x ttoni, l.iit CPU he used on almost any Mve. They «ie tVslened lo the bottom boaiil a\ iili a couple of sciews. The cnlraiioe is cW sed or enlaige'i at ]ileas- urc. Iiy niovlnir the hive backwaid or toward. They look rather pretty on the Siniplicitv Hive, but I do not tliink them at all essei.tial. See hivks. P:ice 10 els., tiy mail, 25 cents. BAE,H,EI.S FOK HCNEY, Prire. $2,50; 'he ssrae waved and pointed, S3,50. For direciions si;- waxing and paintinjr. and all about harrtls and bairelirK.; hcne\, see A B U, P;iit FiiSt. BASSWOOD TB,£ES. Youn? Bass-ivood or Linden trees, securely packed -vvitti some of their native soil adheiing to the routs ' " " " . " " .. .50c 50 00 TiOO " " " " ■* '• . . 48c 240 00 SOOO " " '•■ ■• " " . . 45c 450 00 White wax, 25c per lb. extra, if wnntfd. but we consider ihe yellow in every respect prefeiable; even for comb honey. The (dn. is kept in steck, in sheets 12x18 inclies, and SslOJi' inches [exact size needed for L. brood frames] packed in boxes of 3, 5, 10, 25. 50 and 100 lbs. each, and shipped only in these boxes at the above prices. There are 5 cells to the inch, and one pound of wax makes from 4 too square feet of surface. The thinnest will be u.'Cd h} the bees, but is not made into comb as quickly as the heavier, which has a ti eater depth tf cell. If CO lbs. are wanted, send money for a 10 lb. box and a 50 1b. box, &c. The diil'erence in price is only eriouah to cover the dilference in cost of boxing, packing, &c.; five 10 lb. boxes, and packing, handling :'.nd iiailinii tp five box- es, cost much more than one JO lb. box, and packing, handling and nailing up one box. As these packages are all put up and kept in stock, there can le no variation, unless at an adc'ititnal price. Now, my fi lends, if you want all sons of ^ or .5 to the inch. If drone size is wanted, add SIO, ?.5 and &3 lecpectivelv to above prices. The machines are all ready lor use, and lull irstructions will be sent to each purchaser. We have sold f35.00 machines for making comb foun- dation to Rev. J. Van Eaton, York. N. Y. ; Lewis Walker, Ventu- ra, Cal. i G. M. Dale. Border Plains, Iowa ; G. W. Gates, Bartlett, Tenn.; A. Salisbury. Camargo Ills.; C. F. Lane, Koshkonong. Wis. ; Wm. S.Hersperger. Jelferson, Md. ; Wm. Riatt. Liff. by Dundee, Scotland ; W. S. Boyd, Beth- any, O.; W. R. Bishop, Sherwood. Wis.; Dr. J. B. Hawkes. Arlington Heiirhts. Ills. ; A. W. Foreman. M. D., White Hall, Ills. : Mrs. M. D. Minor. Port .Tackson. N. Y. ; C. M. Joslin. M. D , St. Charles, IMich.; Geo. B. Wallace, San Bernardino, Cal., C. L. Johnston, Danville. Pa.; J. F. Florv, Modesto, Cal.; W. H. Stewart, Orion. Wis.; C. F. Dielnielt. Milwaukee, Wis.; ScuoMer and Palmer. New Boston. Ills.; A. Potter. Eureka. Wis.; R. Quinn, Shellsburg, Iowa. ; J. B. Keeler, Carlinville. IHs. A §:-:8.00 (5 inch drone comb) machine to J. H. Neilis, Canajoharie, N. Y. • Nine inch 850.00 machines, to C. R. Carlir. Baycu G( ula. La. ; Jno. Hunter, 5 Eaton Rise, Ealing, Enghnd ; J. B. Stevenson, San Bernardino, Cal.; J. E. Crane, Brid- port, Vt. Twelve inch SICO.OO machines, lo C.O. Pen ire, CLicapo. Ills.: D.A.Jones. Prttoi. Cut.. Cauda: J. Msdcij, Lo? .Uiirelcs, Cal. : J. H. Ndlis, Canajtl-.aiie, N. Y. GLEAXIKGS IX BEE CULTUEE. Jan. HOW TO FASTEN SHEETS OF FDS. BROOD FRAMES IX THE The melted rca.v plan. Set n common small lamp in a tall hox with one open pUle. having coarse wire cloth nsiled over tUe top. Place on the wire cloth a cup containing wax. Keep the wax iust melted, l>v turning the lamp wick up or down. Now, with a pencil brush you can put the mel- ted wax noatl^ just where vou want it. Fit a board so that it will slip into vour frame just half way, and lay your slieet of fdn. on thi^, with its upper edge close against the top bar; brush the wax along the joint, slip out the board and hang the frame in a hive. After a little practice vou will do them quite rapidly, and think it is iust tun. It is said that the tdn., to prevent sagging, should go in the frame in such away that the walls of the cells run up and down, instead of diagon- ally. Our sheets are all made for the L. Irames in that way. The "plan ice prefer. If wax is rnbbed hard against a piece of dry wood, at ordinary temperatures, it will adhere almost as well as if put on in a melted str.te. Therefore, all we have to do to fasten it in the frames, is to lay it in place, and press the edge against the comb guide with the fingers, until it sticks moderatelv. Nosv take a knlfeor screw- drirer, and rub it down hard. To prevent the wax from sticking to the tool, dip it in either starch or hon- ey : we use the latter because it is handier. One corner of the tool should go clear down to the wood, at the last stroke to make a " sure thing" of it. The fdn. shou'd reach within V inch of the end bars, and with- in J. as a general rule, of the bottom bar. This space is needed to allow the sheets to stretch as It Is being workod out, which it al>vavs does more or less, s-.me lots of wax will stretch scarcely perceptibly, v.hile others will to the extent we have mentioned; and as it is desirable to have the sheet hang clear of the bot tom bar when the cells are drawn out full length, we thin'c b'st to si'-e the amount of space below we have mentioned. The reason is, that the combs will bulge it there is any stretching after they have touched the bottom bar. To put the sheets in rapidly, you will need a board cut so as to just fit inside the frame, and reach up as far as tne comb guide. Lay the sheet on this, c'ose up to the top bar, and stroke it down to the comb guide, as we have directed. If your frames are made without a comb guide, you can fasten the sheet to the topbarin the same way, and then give it a quarter turn, ^o tbat it will hang straight down. As fast as the frames are filled, they should be hung in a hive, to be secure from injury. If vou do not make the above plan work to suit vou, you can faster the sheets by tacking a strip of wood about }& by % into the top bar, ■while the iipper edge of the sheet is between them; this strip shouUl be put on in such a way that the fdn. hangs straight down under the center of the top bar. For putting tdn. into the section frames or into boxes, make a saw cut nearlv through the stuff of which the top ismade, where yovi wish the sheet to hang. Before this piece is fastened in place, bend the wood back- ward in such a way as to open the saw cut, slip in the edge of the sheet, close up the cut, and it is secure. COMB BASKET, Holds five frames, secure from dust or robbers, aud catches all the drip; price §-2,50. EXTRACTORS. One important point is that all machines, to work to the best advantage, should be so made that the frame may hang in them just as it hangs in the hive, it we except the L. and Q. frames, and all having a length un- der the top l)ar greater than 14 inches. It may be im- possible for us to give all the reasons for this now, but we hope you will take our word for it when we say there are very good reasons f r standing a frame oh end in the Extractor when the length is much greater than the depth. We have before explained that we have our castings made to fit two different sized cans, viz., 17 and 20 in- ches, and we will now farther state that we make the cans also of two different heights. To work nicely, the frame needs about the same amount of room to hang In the Extractor, that it has in the hive; to do this there seems to ba no other way than to make every Extractor to fit the hive it is intended for. Of course you can use ti.em otherwise, but we are well satisfied that the cumbrous machines now in use, are many of them destined to be soon laid aside for the more mod- ern kind. diagtEam of peixcipax feames in use. Figures given are outside dimensions in inches. Sus- pended frames have % inch supporting arms, or an equal prolongation of top bar. nyi Gallup. C The following table is for the convenience of tho^e ordering machines, and is intended to enable any one to decide for himself exactly what he can use to the best advantage. PRICE LIST OF EXTRACTORS. [The figures in parentheses, just before the prices, give the exact inside v-Idth of the revoiving frame of the Extractor, in inches.'] 1S78. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. A honey tnlfe l8 Included with each machine; the price will be Sl.OO Ipfs If no knife Is wanted. No. 1.— For the Gallup frame, or anv frame 11^ Inches wide and not more than 12^ deep.. (12) 68 50 No. 2.— For the American frame, or any one 12 Inches wide and not more than K\ deep. (121) 8 75 'So. 3.— For anv frame 12* Inches wide and not more than 12^ deep (13) 9 00 IJo. 4. For the Adair frame or any frame. 13f wide and not more than 12i deep [Mi) ft 00 The above are all In shallow cans, 17i inches high, and art' very convenient for placing at such a height as to allow of running the honey directly Into the bar- rel or anv other receptacle, and still not too high for anv one to worit conveniently. The following ■numbers can also be used In the same way, unless the operator Is short in stature; in that case, a shallow box may be Inverted to stand on, but is somewhat in- convenient. Ko. 5. This Is made expressly for the Lang- strotL frame, which is to be used standing on end: It will take any frame whose top bar dofs not exceed 20 "inches, and depth 9K inches (W) 89 CO No. 6. The same except that it will take a frame oflOa' Inches in depth (11) 9. oO No. 7. This Is made expressly for the Qulnby suspended frame, and will take also the other kind when the end bars have a depth not greater than UM inches (12) 10 00 No. 8. This Is for all Qulnby Irames. and all American frames having a depth greater than 12X inches, and can be used for all the frames in onr diagram, but 1» much more inconvenient than the smaller ones where they can be used (12M) 10 00 No. 9. This machine is like Xo. 8. except that it takes a frame H inch wider, and Is suitable for American frames that are 12>^ wide and more t.hanl2>< Inches deep (13)10 00 No. 10. This is the largest machine that we keep In f tock. and will take a frame as wide as the Adair, and as long as the Quln- by (UK) 10 00 For frames having a top bar with an extreme length of more than 20 inches, we shall have to make an extra charge of 81. 00, and we shall have to make the same ■extra charge for frames that exceed 14 Inches the nar- rowest way. There are few frames of such extreme large size in use, ypt we Pold perhaps a dozen such last fceaeon. Also, we'flnd a few who insist on an extractor that will hold i frames at once ; unless the frames are ■very email, we cannot think such will he liked as well, yetwe will turnish them w hen desired, at an expense of Jl-.M) e?:tra. If yon look into the matter, you will see that a very niuch larger and heavier revolving frame will be needed, and every ounce in weight ad- ded to this, hinders rapid work. Any of the above tciU be made mth the tctre cloth in a slanting position,for $1.00 -extra , biitwe do.not consider it of any especial advantage. All of the last six— tall cans— have a support at the bottom frr the frames to rest upon, and also to hold broken pieces of comb, should it be desired. The four first have nothing of this kind, for it is not needed, and would in reality only make them heavier, and be in the way; we advise purchasers alwavs to take the smaller machines when they will take tbelr frames. Tor instance, we would much prefer the No. 4, to the No. 10. even if offered at the same price, provided we Lad nothing but the Adair frame in onr apiary. Although cur machines are now made much lighter and stronger, the gearing very much improved In looks as well as in strength, an improvement added whereby once oiling will last for vears, a cover and strainer added, and the prices reduced, vet we will make the proposal that we will, to anvone, who has purchased one machine, give 10 percent off on all he •may sell after that; and this is all we can do In the way of furnishing them at wholesale. To dealers who advertise our Extractors, we will give 25 per cent off. Thia offer refers only to Extractors and honey knives. It may be there are valuable features found in the hish priced Extractors, not found in our own, but if such is the case, we are unable to appreciate them. We have added every improvement sugrgested that we thought would prove valuable, all things considered, and yet we find no great ditficulty in furnishing them all crated and ready to ship, for the price named. Any one who has carefully studied the matter will see that to make a mnchine capa- ble of receiving four combs instead of two, will recpiire an incr^ee in size and weight, without very materiallv aid- ing in rapidity of work, among the masses. Reversing the combs inside the can, making the inside frame three-iom- ered, running the machine by gearinsr or belts placed un- der the bottom, etc., etc., have all had their advocates. but we think have generally been, alter a time, discarded like the revolving cans. Our friends cnn res'! assured, that we shall spare no pains in promptly adontinsr any real im- provement that may come up. Please do tell the dimen- sions of the frame orframes you use, in ordering. Any kind of a machine that rerolres the honey after it is ihrotcn out of the comb, or that rerolres tin cans with the combs, is a most serious bltttideT, as ycu mil see by trying both kinds. IN8TKUCTIONS FOR LSTMG AS EXTKACTOK. Many of our new friends have asked for directions for using these machines, but really they are so sim- ple, that It seems little advice need be required. They are all ready for ute when received, and most that' is required Is to screw them fast to seme bcx or bench just high enough to allow the gate to run the houfy Into the bung-h«Ie of a barrel. Do not under- take to work unless the bees are gathering hf^ney, or you will be very likely to have trouble. The best time is when they are busy in the fields, rnd if ilte yield Is good, you will hardly need any smoke. Curt- fully remove a frame from the hive, and then with a series of sudden jerks shake the bees In front ol ihe hive or on top of the frames, as you may find most convenient. When you have shaken off as many as you can, take a bunch of asparagus tops, and gently brush off every bee In front of the hive. Now wirh the honey knife carefully cut the cappings from all capped cells: to do this quickly you wi!l slide the knife under the caps In such a way as to have them come off in one entire sheet. In regard to strainirg the honey, we know of no way that answr rs so well, all things considered, as to hang the llitlc bf g sent with the machine, in the bung of the barrel; tils keeps it all close and tight In^m flies and dust, and when you stop work for a little while, it, is all safe, withovit the necessity of covering anything up. Two such bags are really reeded, so that cine can be kept clean snd ready to take the place oi the other when U becomes filled with impurities. As the sei im'.nt j1- wavs settles to the bottom ot the basr. the sidts work well as a strainer for a long time, Clrth strains Y oney more perfectly than the finest wire cloth can. When the comb Is uncapped It is to be placed in the Exirs*- tor; although you can extract one ccmb at a time If yon choose, It'ls much better to have two, as they then balance each other, and the friction is lets on the bearlnas. though our machines will stand the i^irain of the heaviest combs, one at a time, if need lie. Turn just fast enough (and no faster) to throw out the hon- ey, and there will bo no (^anger of throwing out the brood ; you will scon k am this by practice. Combs so full ot t rood that there is.brt little rorm Irr honey had better l>e left In the hive ; there is little to be gained by woi king very close, and shoulil the honey sesson siiddenly close, there is danger of the bees starving, as we have known them to do, even in July. On this account Itcofild extract from the frai»^s in the upper story omly, after the bees get once well into thetn. If your hives are kept close to the ground, and no weeds allowed to grow around the entrances, there Is very little danger of losing queens while extracting, yet it is a very good plan to keep them carefully in mind, and if you fhould not fee them, we think it a little safer to shake the combs that contain much brood, so that the l>ee8 fall directly into the hive. Losing queens while extracting is rather expensive business. After the honey is taken ficm one side of the comb it is ol course, tohe turned, and the honey taken from the other side. When the combs are very heavy and the honey very thick, it may be best to throw it out only partially the first time,' and then reverse, to avoid crushing the comb into the wire cloth by the great centrifugal force resulting from such a weight moving at a rapid speed. rOOT-POWlER BUZZ-SAWS. These machines are very handy in the apiary indeed, and as we warrant them to cut common inch ])ine boards at the rate of 8 feet per minute, line measure, and other thicknesses In proportion, they will answer to make framef , hives, section boxes, and almostevery thing wanted about the apiarv. The table can be raided and lowered for cutting' different depths, for rnbbe'.ing, grooving, joining and other work. Price GLEAKIXGS IN BEE CULTUEE. Jan. with two 6 inch saws, all needed gauges, etc., 835.00. The buzz saws, will reach through 2^ inches. FOOT-POWEE BUZZ SAW AND SCEOLI, SAW COMBINED. These answer very well, for making hives for your own use, but if yon think of making them for sale, you will need power of some kind. If the ma'-hine is iill in excellent trim, saivs sharp, and every thing nicely oiled, the labor is not very fatiguing, for saw- ing inch lumber, but if you let the saw get just a little 'tall, or your lumber is hard, or if you attempt to cut very much 2 inch stuff, you may wish pretty " severe- ly," you hail a little engine. Although we have steam 'lower, we find the foot power saw so handy lor odd jobs, that we could hardly get along without It. We turnish with them, at the price, two books on saw fil- ing and the care of saws. FRAMES FOB BEE HIVES. CORNERS, METAL, TOR FRAME MAKING. Perhaps the readiest way of understanding all about these, will be to order a sample frame, which we send by mail with a bit of rabbet and sample transferring clasp, for 15c. For the convenience of those who do not get the idea at once, we submit the following diagram: Also see Engraving on front cover. METAL CORNER, AND ITS POSITION IN THE HIVE. The engraving is full size. The % board B, is supposed to be the end of the hive. A is a section of the metal rab- bet, and C is the comer, raised a little from its place as it rests on the rabbet. The space E between the frame and the end of the hive, should be about % of an inch, as explnin(Hl below. F shows the bevel and shoulder, shown on the front cover and also under section boxes; this is to prevent wind or rain from getting through, when the hives or covers are piled up two or more stories high. It will be obser%'ed that the frame is supported entirely on knife edges crossmg each other at right angles, making it impossible for the bees to wax the frame fast, and al- most impossible for you to pmch a bee in putting the frame down, even if you take no pains at all, to get them out of the way. We prefer to have the tin i-abbet reach ui> above the end of the comer as at A, because the bees are so much less disposed to try to propolize the bright tin; also when leplacitig the frames, the comer arms glide smoothly into place as soon as they strike the rabbet. The ra')bet may be used without the corners, or the comers may be used without the rabbet, but neither of them alone give u> a frame so perfectly movable ; and as wood is al- ways giving more or less, they can not hang perfectl.y true. Neither can a frame be slid on the rabbets up to its place as quietly as when all the bearings are of metaL HOW TO MAKE THE PHAMBS. Our frames were first made of strips of straight grained pine, only /j of an inch in thickness, and it is surprising to see how well such combs have stood. On one occasion a number of these heavily filled with honey fell from the top of a barrel, yet not a corner was injured, and not a> comb broken ; these were Gallup frames, however, only lliXllJ. For the Langstroth frames, we now make the top bar about 10-32, and all the rest of the frame 7-.32. Adair, American, and Gallup frames are all made of 7-32 stuff throughout. The Quinby size may have a f top bar, but the bottom bars might all be not more than j, were it not that the frames miy be sometimes used for transfer- rins, and that the weight of the combs would sag the bottom bar, which is a very bad feature, if we wish to work closely and avoid killing bees. The top bars would not require so much wood were it not that honey boxes are sometimes placed on them, and it is advisable to be on the safe side. When we depend entirely on the use of the extractor, we would prefer a space of half an inch be- tween the ends of the frames ; but for box honey, small bits of comb will be built in this space, moro than will be the case if | only is allowed. It requires a very careful operator to work fast, and avoid pinching bees, when only J or I inch is allowed. The two following cuts may assist some in putting on the metal corners : Fis. 1. Fig. 2. Figure 1, represents the points ready to be closed down and clinched itito the wood, ■■> hich is represented by the dotted lines A. A. Fi<. 2, shows a point badly clinched at B, and one perfectly driven d nvn at C. The line D. shows the direction in which the finishing blow of the hammer is to be given ; in fact this blow should sink the metal slightly into the corner of the wood, drawing it up tight at the side C, and on no account letting it bulge out at B, nor allowins: the point to curl up. A light, properly made hammer and a little practice will enable any one to make every pomt like C. Should you get one done badly, you can with apairof plj'ers fitraightenit outand mateitgo rierht. The objection has frequently been made that this takes more time than to nail them; even if this were so, we are enabled to employ girls or other cheap h. lp(we beg pardon ladies, but we never .vet saw aco'nmunity that did not furnish more or less females, who would he glad to get some such light work), who could not possibly nail good frames; then after they are done, their superior strength and lightness compared with nailed frames, fully make up the difference in pnce. We will send you a sam- ple frame b.v mail, just as we would have it, for 15 cents. (American "and Gallup size 12 cts.) including sample of rabbet and transferring clasp and you can test it by the side of your own frame in your hive. If the nailed ones do not seem awkward after using it, you, of course need not invest any further. The metal corners were patented June 18th' 1872, but we have "repented,"' and hereby give the invention free- l.V to our readers. If any one can make them cheaper than we do, we will try to rejoice, because it will benefit the people. I Frames with melal corners, per hundred... $5 00 20 I Corners, metal, per hundred 75 20 I " " top only, per hundred 100 15 1 " " bottom, " " 50 On 1,000 or more a discount of 10 per cent will be made, and on 10,000, 25 per cent. The latter will be given to those who advertise metal cornered Irames. I Corners, Machinery complete for making $250 00 1878. GLEAJ^INGS IN BEE CULTURE. FRAMES ENTIRELY OF WOOD, dimfn8ion8°S-''fo''"Th^°''^= ^'^^'t P«^ hundred, any fi Sed iV thP ;hnT^^ regular Lanpstroih. will be iiiriiisnea at tne above price In any oiiantitv hut ruiri sizes must be ordered in lots of jTof/m 'than im sample L. frame of the above kind mafled lor 7c HIVES. If filled with fdn. starter* fin^'if'^i'^'ci; '■,••■: ^ 75 sepa..tors 40c. rnakinflr^.f^llo^'f^.f 'Jed^wUh tin 20c each, and a thick one on top 30c ^°"*^ P""" hriJl^H "i® *° ^'^"^e size of above hives anrl tn hold them true when nailing, size 2of xl6 ?nside . .? 50 AJ^n o f SIMPLICITY BEE-HIVE. thfi'euis.'"'''' "' ^''"'' "'' ^"^ ^^^V attached to One body and 1 cover in the flat, as sample to work from-one sample frame and sheet of duck in- cluded , yg One story hive for extractor (body SOc-'i "covers fiOc-nai ing and pamtmg 20c-quilt 25c-10 frames 60c— cra!m,g 10c) 2 25 One story hive for comb honey'is'preriselv'the same as the above, substituting 2 frames of sections for 4 metal cornered frames o 2B The above 16 sections will be fitted with'fdn! " and starters ready for the bees, for 15c, and the tin sepa- rators added for 10c, making whole complete. ...... 2 50 Ihe above two hives contain everything used in a 2 story hive. We simply use another body filled with frames or sections, for a 2 story hive. o I^Jr^ '\ ^'"""y ^'^® ^^^ ^'^^ extractor, add (to 1 story i 25) body 50c— nailing and painting 10c— 10 frames ^0 ifraSe'"^ Sc, making complete 2 story containing For a 2 story hive for comb honey add (to Vstory CHAFF OK LAWN HIVE. ^^^i^ojiqa^f--- above ^'|o^^^^[iin"o.^rafovtre,f;:^ii,te'.j^a^rfiri^ Ished complete, (Lawn hive Si. morel 5 on np'^!i^«^%*' \i^ '""PP'iedwYth'stores; wiil"we"ho^wf Two frame nucleus hive, neatly painted?. 50 rni , , HIVES BY THE QUANTITY. fla? hl^'^""'^ ^"'•J'^"' Simplicity and Chaff hives in the SIMPLICITY HIVES IN THE FLAT. 3 1-story hives, noinsidesor botton/ "^60c. 10 25 50 100 58 b6 53 52 50 Per pckg. 61.80 2.90 5.50 13.25 -26.00 5000 Metal rabbet!^ are inchuUd ttWi all the above and hive^ are all made of seasoned ivhite pine lumber ov,!""^-''" "^"^ •^■^"'' ordinary L.angstroth frames in thp much more ; that is. the frames ^ 10 to c4Thh-/ani"tH co^t precisely the same that the hives do Two c^ be above hives make a complete two story h ve the cover nf w]!hl^'r!"' '^"" '^'^"'^' "^^'l "« ^ bottom board 1? you w sh comb honey insteac. cif extracted, fill the upper storv w ^ ,f ''IT' S"**L®='^^ ^f ^'••■'™e«- The 56 1 lb sicli ns with the 7 broad frames and separators, includin" fdn' starters will cost ihree times as much as he 10 "■metai hntThTL ^'T;'- ^^"^ ,^*^''''°"^ «"d Wn- cos but itt e ^„m !^u ^l^""^ ^™™'^« to hold them are pretty exi,en"ivp with the tin separators. However, as a set will la^" n- definitely, sve have only to purchase the sections after we once get started. The all wood frames cos jutt half II much as the metal cornered frames. CHAFF HIVES IN THE FLAT. . A Ohaff hive is always a tvvo story hive, .-^nd can be used in no other way; as the walls are double, the expenii will ne (-/nw times that of a one story Simplicity 'r?! nishing the lower story will cost just the ^ame -s the Simplicity, but as the upper story is wider, it will cost one-h alf rnoxe. i' "in iut,i, No nails are figured in the above price, but we can fur- nish them for 5c, per lb. A single Story needs fbou" \%. 8 GLEA^'IXGS IX BEE CULTURE. Jax. to make it good and strong. A pair of Kauare frames are needed to nail the Simplicities conveniently, price Sl.OO I have thouirht best to give you this list thus early, that you may decide in time, about hives for another season. If yu have never seen a Chnffhiv^. perhaos you had better order yourfrst one made up, Cii.XJ for there are a great many pieces to them. HONEY. EXTRACTED HONEV. By the barrel® 13 " s " " 1* In tin cans of 10, 25, 50 or ICO lbs 15 Packages included at above prices. COMB HONEV. Inl lb. sectionB, per lb 30 Case Included with iS sections. /" JA.KS FOR EXTRACTED HONEY. 1 lb., square, per gross S5 CO Corkslorsame " 75 1 qu self sealioi? fruit jars, (holds 3 lbs. honev) Mason's patent, per gross ".. 15 00 CANS FOR SHIPPING EXTRACTED HONEY. 100 lbs. S1,00. 50 lbs. 50c ioUbs. 250. SHIPPING AXD RETAILING CASE FOR C0:MB HOXEY. This contains IS of the 1 lb. sections and so far as our experience goes, may be shipped safely anywhere by express, without injury, for the express men can see just what it is. I presume they could be shipped as freight In the same way, on direct lines. The case, if kept clean, and treated to a coat of new paint occasion- ally, makes a very pretty case for retailing from, for the grocer has his honey neatly cased, and always in plain sight, and when a cake is sold, all he has to do is to raise the cover, and hand it out. Price of the case complete, 60c ; without the glass, 40c ; stuff in the flat, ready to nail, 30c. HONEY KNIVES. ' mailed anywhere free, at the above prices, or a half I dozen for S5.00: they will be furnished by express, tor 59,00 per doz. Our honey knives are beautifully rinisbed, with a solid ebony handle, are ground thin and sharp on both edges and have a long thin sprlney blade that is just as handy as can be, for a multitude of purposes about the apiary, aside from their legiti- mate purpose of uncapping. No hot water or any- thing of the sort is needed, to enab'e the blades to slice the caps right off in one entire sheet. Our Tpref- erence is decideily in favor of the straight blades. LARV2: FOR QUEEN HEAHING. 5Iany failures are reported with this, just because it is ordered from too great distances, or at an unseasonable time of the year. It should be lx)rne in mmd, that if it is out of the hive more than 4S hours, or if exposed to a tem- . perature lower than 30^, the larva? will be pretty sure to Honey Knives, price, S1,C0, either bent or curved ; be dend. If the bees remove it from the cells, you maj be blades as shown in the cuts above. Thev will be • sure it was either chilled or starved. Send to some one 1877. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. near you who has an imported queen, do not have the larva; out of the hive more than two days, and you will lie pretty sure to get good nice queens. As soon as received, vim are to insert it in the center of acomhinthe middle of the cluster of a queetiless colony, and if it is ;ill ri:-iht, jou will see them starting queen cells around it at once- V)f •cnurse there must be no other eggs or laiseal^d brood in the hive, but it will be a very good idea to have some sealed brood. 1.AMF NUKSERT. This is simply a hive made nf thi, with double walls; the space letween the tv/o walls which may be from 4 to 1 inch, is filli-d with water, and this water is kept at an ■even temperature of alxjut lOO'', by a lamp undi-r the hive. The lamp is to he enclosed in a box to avoid dr.- fts, and tht- whole should be in a close room, to save the expense ■of oil. The til : hive is to be placed a foot or more above the top tf the lamp chimney. When the oil is purchased by the barrel, the expense is but little more than one cent per day. Get your queen cells on the i»l;in given in A J! C, and when capped civer. they may be taken aw^y f.om the bees entii-ely. and the frame containing; tiiem hung in the nursery. If you have followed the instructions given, the ■quetns will all hatch out long before the worker.', and all you have to do is to place them in any queenie^s hive or nucleus, as soon as they are hatched. You need not open the hive to introduce them, but you c;in just let them ■crawl in at the entrance, and the loss will certainly be no greater than that of inserting queen cells. You can if you choose, have several combs containing queen cells in the nursery at the same time, and when we can have queens batching every day for weeks, we really enjoy the fun. It is easy keeping a supply of cells on hand, when we •once get started, and we do not examine our nursery of- tenei' than about five times a day. It will be observed that with the lamp nursery, we have no cutting, nor mutiiatiny; of our nice combs, as we do where we cut out queen cells. When the queens are old enough to begin to gnaw out. they can easily he heard by holding the comb ■of cells, next to the ear, and as they are ready to introduce as soon as they begin to cut out the caps, they may be safely taken out with a sharp pen knife, and put at once where wanted. They sometimes kill each other when crawling about in the nursery, but not often unless there are bees present. We have found a half dozen or more crawling about peaceably together on first going out in the morning, but they would be certain to kill sach other, if left until a few hours older. Price of nursery with lamp large enough to burn several days. So, 00. IiASELS FOB HONEY, ■ In blue and gold, dark bronze and gold, or in white printed in two colors, furnished with your own address, and source from which the honey was gathered, already gummed, post pnid by mail. No order rec'd for less than :i50. At these low rates, the full number mentioned must be ordered without the change of one sinale letter of 1 he type 1000, 63,25 ; 5W), 82.40; 250, 61.80. Same as above except that source of honey, and name of bee-keeper is left blank, put up in packages of 100, as- sorted colors, for both comb and extracted honey. — Per package post jjaid, 25c. MICBOSCOFES. These are real compound microscopes, and quite a dif- ferent thing from the double and smgle magnifying 2:1ns- ses so often called br that name. The one we offer at -53. , is a very neat instrument carefully packed in a mnhogniiy box, with implements for the work of taking regular les- sons in the insect world. You will find with it. that a single bee will make a study for a long time. Sent by mail for §3.15, and if you are not pleased with it, yott can return it at cur expense, nnd the money will be refunded. FRICE LIST OF QUEENS. ImiX)rted queens will be 6. n b ■ ^ees them and thinks of the insignificant price." 1 f.'o li^e losee fifce work at low piices, hut 1 alvr"ay.s leel "awuilly miserable" when I am chaigeu, or am i bllgecl to charge anybody else, high prices for work ihat i^ not " nice." Now 1 will show n ou tne cage and feeder, and try to stop "gossiping." OUR 5 CENT SniPLIClTV BEE-FEEUEK. No directions are needed lor using the queen cage, and almost none for the feeders. Fiil it with honey, syrup, sweetened water, or even sugar with water poured on it, and then stt it in one side of the hive, rn the frames, in the portico, in Irort of ihe hive, or In the open air anywhtre, and the feed will ail be laken without a single bee getting drowned, hince the abc\e cut was made, we have made the feeder* icrger nnd narrower, having two grooves iusteave jiipe. I have taken pains to look this matter up in regard to these small engmes, and those we offer are I think, fully equal t) anything made for anything like the ))rice. They .ire I urnished at the above prices, at the factory in Corning, X. Y. Although engines of 1 horse power are otfered for sale, we thiuk it will be much better to purchase one of not less than two horse power as above. The one horse power Ennrines are no cheaper. WAX EXTRACTOR. Clamps for erooving stuff for section boxes, made of heavy wrought iron, price 75 cents. SPRING BALANCE, Is shown at No. 15, on the cover, a nice article SS 00 These scales are made weather proof, and when arran-cd to suspend a moderate sized colony, may be left outfall summer. As the figures on the dial are" larse and nlaiii we can see at a distance the average yield of honey per Price S:5,50. This machine is very simple, for we have only to throw our refuse comb into the basket B. and set it inside the cm A. Xow put on the c iver, and jilnce it over a pan orketile of boiling water: the steam will as- cend all around B, and the melted wax will run down and ilow out of the tube O. Under the end of this tuVje, is kept a pan to catch the wax. As fast as the comb sinks down, more can be put in, and so on. The machine re- quires no attention, except to rill the tias'cet B. £t you have no kettle that is 12 inches across the to:i inside, we can furnish a copper bottomed steam generator for ?1,50. 1S78. GLEA^^INGS IK BEE CULTURE. 11 A SECTIOir BOX FILLED WITH nONET. SoMK of yo'x have asked so many questiotis in regardto th3 S-cti^)?! Boxes of honey I thought I w nild a:ive you:*' really "rood picture of one; hive I not siiccej led? You can have tlis frame as a modf'l to work from, and you may show th=! honey to your bees tellin? thfui you \rish th,; honev built clear up to the wood, lik-^ this one. T'l^v nro ■1 ?i square, 2 inches thick, and weigh just 1 ib., and wh-ni you can produce packa'JCes like the aiiove.vyoM can sii in .1 our apiary and work as inleoendent as ^Ood honest folks like weara (?) ou7ht to he, wliili custo'ti^rs inqaire for and hunt us vip, just for the ^rivile'^o of takiivi^ all we can raise, at 250. per 1 >. Several ton'! of such Koney could now . ha sold i:i the city of Cleveland alone, a", the above price. N 2 -+Xc: ' 72 :tag22 w S3- o erg S Mr* S P ^ p o o w o m -J S< -! i-b '3 «|2SS§ p »' d 5'^2 2«' ® a: i o P S'SSPq 1^ o '^ <^ '"'5 r ;; 3 o r* ^ O O 3 3* a a CO > o o cy2 ^*S1 H-» fcrjiS $m ^m m m GO ^ 0 ^ it?i 0 0 r a .♦ *.»-»'*«^^^^, mi o %, 'ergvn-^^'^ THE 13 INCH COJrS FOUNDATIOKT MACHrWE. " Miiny have asked why these are $100.00 while a 9 inch machine is only $.50.00, and a ,'> inch, only .f35i,00». When we Increase the Icn^h of the folletS, we must also increase their diameter, or they will spring- apart in the middle, and not produce perfect work. Increasing' their size, makes them turn much harder, because the surface of the wax touch- ing- at once, is much g-reater, and this necessi- tates back g-earing, as shown below. By using- shafts of steM, we can use a very small roll, for the short distance of 5 inches, and it is (|uite difficylt Indeed, to make as thin and per- fect f dii,. with the 13 inch machines, as we do with these small single geared ones. It is the rolls, that make these machines so expensive, and as each cell must exactly match vxtiiy other, to within a hair's breadth, or less, 4lie "work is necessarily very expensive if w.e would have thin and accurate combs. It is true we can make rolls that will indent thick sheets of wax, which will be used bj' the bees, 'at a comparatively small expens?, but my friends have you ever figured up what \h-\ wax costs for such combs.? Almost every eld hive, contains more than enough wax to make a complete set of new combs, if it is only put in the right shape, and you need not have a drone cell in the hive, unless you wish. FOUNDATION MACHINE WITH 12 INCH KOLLS. CHAFF CUSHION DIVISION BOARD. 12 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. JAX THE SMOKER I PREFER. THETSIMPLICITY SMOKEK. It don't tip over, never "^oes out," makes nice rings of smoke to please the chiMren, and there ai-e "lot? '" of othc^r nice things about it that 1 can not think of now. When yoti get one, you will know all about them. It is, in f^c'. such hard work to make it go out at all, that we have been obliged to add a damper to it since the engraving was madp. You can burn anything in it, chips, "patent right hives" that you do not want, stove w">od, corn cohs, &c., &c. The nicest material I have ever used, is peat, but ours is all gone, and I don't know -^vhere to get any more. Very dry cornTiobs, make a spleniid smoke and last a long while, but it is somo tr mblo to light them tho first tine. After yau have been using the-n. it you extingui-h them by means of ihe damper, you can liiiht the ch:irr2d fragments next time, wiih a match. You can chon the cobs in pieces with a hatch°t, or let the children do it, and then keen them with some matches in a box wh?re th^y wilt always b3 dry. Your smoker shoul 1 als "> be kept in-doors out of the rain, but if you are sometimes careless, a=i I am, and "get some part of it broken or injured, we will sell you the different parts at the following prices : The postage is given lu the left hand column. Smoker complete 75 A Largor size will be furnished if wanted, for 25c more. Bellows complete 40 Tin case for fuel 35 3 I Leather for Be Hows 15 3 I Pair of steel springs 10 5 I Ton of tin case 10 A.fl'cr vou have bought one smoker, if you w:;nt another for your neighbor, we will erive you 10 per cent oflf. If you will buy a whole dizen, and take them all at one time, you may have them for 50c each, and that is the very best we can do in the way of wholesaling. P. S — If you wish ti see the revolving rings, get something that will make a perfect cloud of smoke, peat is best, ,ind tap briskly on the bottom board. Wlien vou can get the knack of it, you can have the air full of ihem, all spinning a^av like There! I almost forgjt one more idea. Whenever the children get stub- born and really need punishing on a second thought, I think I won't tell it after all. 1878. glea:n'ings in bee culture. 15 way at fault, you can simply remove her and substitute another, without even so much as disturbing the regular daily routine. So long as this is the case, we have little to fear from any disease that does not attack or interfere with the brood or young hatch- ing bees. Luckily we have but one such disease. This is termed foul brood, and the subject will be foimd fully discussed un- der that head. The disease next in impor- tance, is DYSENTERY, and many seriously doubt whether this should be called a dis- ease, at all, unless, forsooth, we should say a boy had some disease when he ate green apples, or went about with his feet wet on a bitter cold day. The difficulty seems near- ly allied to what has been, for the past few years, termed, for want of some better name, SPRIXG DWnSTDLIKG. In olden times, and up to within the past ten years, bees seldom died with honey in their hives, and when it was announced that good colonies of bees were gone, leaving their combs filled with honey, many were incredulous. Very soon however, some of our best bee-keepers, began to lose in the same way, and ere long, whole apiaries of hundreds of colonies, were swept off in a few weeks, during the months of Eeb., March, and April. If I am not mistaken, as soon as the bees began to get new honey from fruit blossoms or other som-ces, they began to build up, and tlien ever jibing went along as usual. The blame was first thrown on the extractor, because some bees died in hives from which the honey had been extracted, and others in the same apiary that had their combs left undisturbed, came through healthy as usual. This undoubted- ly made a difference, for the honey gathered in the fore part of the season is often more wholesome than that gathered late in the fall ; but it was by no means all the trouble, for apiaries having only box hives were in many instances devasted entirely. Expos- ure to the weather was suggested as the cause, and fine wintering houses and cellars were constructed, and for a while everything seemed prosperous, but very soon they died in these repositories also ; the bees coming out on the floors in the dead of winter, be- smearing their hives, and deporting them- selves in almost any but a satisfactory way. Some succeeded so well ■^ith bee-houses and cellars, that they have all along adhered to them, but so have others with out door wintering, and in many localities, bees have wintered under almost all circumstances, if only supplied witli plenty of food. In a great majority of cases, it has seemed pre.tty conclusive, that the trouble was caused by bad food ; the Italians may have been somewhat to blame for tWs, for during unfavorable seasons, they stored up large amomits of honey from the aphides or honey dew, or from other sources that bees are not usually wont to frequent. The use of the extractor has many times, without doubt, aggravated the trouble, as we have mention- ed, where all the combs in the hive have been repeatedly emptied, for in such a case, the bees are driven entirely to the late gath- ered and often times unsealed stores, for their winter supplies. To remedy this mat- ter, it was suggested that their honey be all extracted, and that they be wintered entire- ly on stores of a good quality of sugar syrup. This course proved successful, in the gi-eat majority of cases, but by the time we got well into it, the dwindling mania had parti- ally gone by, and those that were left with their own stores, wintered all right also, so that very little was proven. Besides, it was a great deal of trouble, to do this feeding at a time when the bees wei-e much disposed to rob, and so, it, like all the other remedies, was gradualy dropped. This was especially the case when extracted honey became so cheap that it was no object to extract and sell it. Again, this bad fall honey that killed the bees one spring almost as sm-ely as fly poison kills flies, if kept over until the next, could be fed to them with perfect impunity. This may not have been always the case, but it was in some quite well authenticated in- stances. "Of course then it was a disease," said many, "and it is a disease that is catch- ing too," said others, "for after it got among my bees, they 'jest al! went'." Well, my friends, I really do not know whether it was a disease or not, and I do not knovv^ that it matters very much. We learned pretty thoroughly, that what- ever it was, it usually came in the spring just about the time the bees began to rear brood considerably, and that the old bees were genera lly gone, just after a bad spell of spring weather. . Also that the very "bad- dest" honey, if I may be allowed the expres- sion, did no harm at all, if fed in very warm weather. One more fact, and I am done. Colonies that were queenless, or that were by any means entirely prevented from raising brood, seldom if ever caught the the "dwindling." I declare there is one more fact after all, that I had almost forgotten. It is that very strong colonies with tough old brood combs almost invariably pull through, especially if they have a good live- 16 GLEAXIXGS IX BEE CULTURE. Jan. ly queen. Such colonies will stand like the sturdy oak, year after year, while the nf w stocks that are so rapidly built up, vanish like the smoke, from their new combs and small clusters of brood. In view of the above facts, and after try- ing almost everything else, I, at the sugges- tion of friend To^^^lley of Tompkins. Mich., began to experiment by making the bees fill their brood chamber, and surroimding them with chaff, brought up close to the bees. My first experiment was made on a pretty strong colony. The chaff packing was about 4 inches thick, on all sides. These bees did not connnence brood rearing as soon as the others, but about the time natural pollen ap- peared, they commenced to gather it brisk- ly, and when fruit trees bloomed, they began to send a stream of hot air out at the en- trance that would melt the frost in front of the hives for several inches, after a cold night. Do you suppose sudden changes of weather affected them V or that they caught the •'dwindling''? Of course they did not, and what is still more cheering, I have never had a case of dwindling in a single hive thus prepared, although I have pr; cticed the plan for the past three winters. Cf course some- thing may happen yet, to upset all the chaff experiments, as has repeatedly been the case with other things, but I feel pretty sure that a good chaff packing close to the cluster of bees, will do away with all the troubles we have experienced with cold and backward springs. With the chaff cushions and chfff division boards, you can very easily make the experiment on any colony that has be- gun to dwindle down just about the time they commence to rear brood. When I first stocked our house a])iary, I was much taken up with the idea of having the hives simply covered with a single thickness of cloth, that we might more easily open and work with the hives. As the house was to be kept free from frost, I thought there Avould be no necessity of any other covering, even in winter : I had the worst form of spring dwindling I ever knew, and lost every col- ony except a few that were in old tough thick combs. The next winter I prepared them just the same, but placed heavy cush- ions of chaff, at the sides and above the bees. They all wintered without a ])article of dwindling, and by pushing ones hand under the cushion, directly over the bees, it was fomid to be as warm as if you were touching a living animal. X(.w all this heat had, the winter before, Iteen passing off into the air, almost as fast as the bees generated it. Do you wonder their little bodies were exhaust- ed in the attempt to rear brood and keep warm, and that they "got sick V" OTHER DISEASES. I believe I do not know any other, luiless it be one that I can give no name for. It af- flicts the bees in warm as well as cold weath- er, and the inmates of heavy hives, as well as weak ones. The symptoms are a sort of quivering and twitching motion, and final- ly the bee becomes so much emaciated that he looks like a shiny black skeleton of what a bee should be. I have seen bees thus affected, in perhaps a dozen or more colonies, but it all disappeared after a time, except in one colony. That one I broke up, by destroying the queen, and giving the bees to other colonies, after they had become pretty well reduced. A neighbor has also lost a colony from the same trouble. I have noticed it moreor less, for the last four or five years, but have seen it only in the two apiaries mentioned. It may be well to mention that when a bee is crippled or diseased from any cause, he crawls away from the cluster, out of the hive, and rids community ot iiis presence as speedily as possible ; if bees could reason, we would call this 'a lesson of heroic self- sacrifice for the good of community. If your bees should get sick from some other cause than I have mentioned, I would advise putting enough together to make a good lot, surrounding them with chaff cushions, close up to the cluster, and giving them plenty of sealed honey, also close to the cluster. If you have not the honey and the weather is cool or cold, use candy. If the cluster is small, give them a small piece at a time, right over the cluster, under the cushions. Weak colonies sometimes get a mania for destroying their queens, in the spring ; this can hardly be termed a disease, and yet the colony has become to a certain extent de- moralized, and out of its normal condition, much as when they swarm out, as given in ABSCONDING SWARMS ; they will generally come out all right if fed carefully and judi- ciously, as we have described. Bees are al- ways prospering, Avhen they are accumula- ting stores, and they are very apt to get astray in some way or other, when they are very long without some way of making dai- ly additions to their ''stock in trade,'" imless it is during the winter, when they are as a general thing mostly at rest. Almost all sorts'of irregidar vagaries, may be stopped, by regular daily feeding, and I would advise the candy, for it furnishes both honey and 1878. GLEAXIXGS IN BEE CULTURE. 17 pollen, if made with the addition of flour, as we have advised. 'B1V2B1M&. This term is usually ap- plied to the operation of increasing the number of stocks, by putting half the bees and combs into a new hive, just about swarming time ; and is really one method of artificial swarming. If you have an ex- tra laying queen to give the queenless por- tion, it may do very well, but otherwise, it is a wasteful way of making increase, and has mostly been abandoned. If the bees are just ready to swarm, and have queen cells pretty well along, it may answer very well ; but even then, it would pay better to take but two combs with the queen cell, and get a laying queen before making the actual division, as advised in artificial, swarm- ing. S5!^0^3S. The^e are large noisy bees that do a great amount of buzzing but never sting anybody, for the very good reason that they have no sting. The bee-keeper who has learned to recognize them both by sight and sound, never pays any attention to their noise, but visitors are many times, sadly frightened by their loud buzzing. We will commence as we did with the worker bees, at the egg, and see how much w^e can learn of these harmless and moffensive inmates of the bee hive. If our colonies are prosperous, we may find eggs in the drone comb of some of the best hives as early as March, but not, as a general thing, until April. You can tell the drone cells from the worker at a glance, (even if you have never seen them) by the size, as you will see by looking at the cut on page 24. Whenever you see eggs in the large cells, you may be sure they are drone eggs. I do not mean by this that the eggs that produce drones look any different from any other eggs that the queen lays, for in looks they are precisely the same. They are al- most the same in every respect, for the only difference is that the egg that produces the worker bee, has been impregnated, while the others have not ; but more of this, anon. The eg^, like those producing workers, re- mains brooded over by the bees, until it is about 3 days old, and then by one of nature's wonderful transformations, the egg is gone, and a tiny worm appears, a mere speck in the bottom of the cell. This worm is fed as be- fore, until it is about a week old, and is then sealed over like a worker, except that the caps to the cells, are raised considerably more ; in fact they very much resemble a lot of bullets laid closely together on a board. They will begin to cut the caps of these cells in about 24 or 25 days ; the caps come off in a round piece, very much like those from a queen cell. Well, we have now got a real live drone, and I would show you a picture of him were it not winter time so that none are to be procured for oxu- engraver. I have examined all the pictures I can find, but they are far from being truthful and ac- curate. The body of a drone, is hardly as long as that of a queen, but he is so much thicker through than either queen or worker, tliat you will never mistake him for either. He has no baskets on his legs in which to carry pollen, and his tongue is so unsuited to the gathering of honey from flowers, that he would starve to death in the midst of a clo- ver field. I presume the young drones are ready to leave their hive after they are about two weeks old, and they do this shortly after noon, of a warm pleasant day. They come out with the young bees as they play, and first try their wings, but their motions are far from being as graceful and easy, and they frequently tumble about so awkwardly that as they strike against your face, you might almost think them either driuik or crazy. I do not know how we can very well decide how old a drone must be, to fulfill the sole purpose of his existence, the fertil- ization of the queen, but should guess any where from three weeks to as many months. Perhaps they seldom live so long as the last period named, but I think they sometimes do. Many facts seem to indicate that they, as well as the queen, fly long distances from the hive — perhaps two miles or more. I be- lieve we have never had any very satisfactory evidence that the meeting between the queen and drone, was ever witnessed by the eye of man, but for all this, there can be but little question in regard to the matter. The drones go out of the hive, circle about, and finally vanish out of sight in the heavens above ; the queens do the same. In fi'om 15 minutes to an hoiu-, or possibly a couple of hours, the queen returns with an appendage attaclied to the extremity of her body, that microscopic examination sliows to be the generative organs of the drone. These facts have been observed by hundreds of bee- keepers, and are well authenticated. In at- tempts to have queens fertilized in wire cloth houses, I have, after letting the queens out, seen the drones pursue them imtil both parties vanished from my sight. Still anoth- er fact ; if you take a drone in your hand 18 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. JAK. some warm afternoon jnst as he has sallied from the hive, and press him in a certain way, he will burst open something like the popping of a grain of corn, extruding the very san^.e organ we find attached to the queen, and dying instantly. It is generally conceded that he dies in the act of fertil- ization, but it is not, I believe, as yet ex- plained in what way the queen frees herself so completely from him. If both fall to the ground as some other insects do, it does seem as though somebody would have seen tliem, ere this. I believe w^e have had re- ports through our Joiur.als, of queens and drones falling to the ground, but they took wing and flew av/ay, before a close and care- ful examination could be made. In the fall of 1876, 1 saw a swarm of black ants sporting in the sunshine. A close look showed them to be both males and females, and as pair after pair fell to the ground, I had ample opportmiity of noting all circum- stances. In this ease the drones at first seemed paralyzed, but after the queens flew away, they revived and afterward flew away also. One point here, particularly impressed me ; the ants of both sexes were in such countless thousands, that they must have come from all the ant hills for, I should say, miles around ; the result was as you see, that there was hardly a possibility of insects from the same family meeting- Now is there any other way in v/hich the strain of blood could be so effeetually crossed with that of some distant colony, as by this huge jubilee of both sexes V Queen ants, like queen bees, seldom if ever come out of their homes at any other time, and, as if by some preconcerted ar- rangement, they meet and mix up apparent- ly for the very pui'i)Ose of effectually pre- venting "in and in breeding," as it is usual- ly termed when applied to stock. Do queens and di'one bees, meet in the same way, in vast numbers ? Many circumstances seem to indicate they do, yet it lacks, like many other things, positive proof. Drones have been seen in out of the way places, in larger numbers than we would think could possibly come from one hive, and many have heard their loud humming, who have not seen them. T!ie fact that a queen should, in so sliort a time become fertilized, after leaving the hive, would seem strange, unless it real- ly were a fact that she was called to -the swarm of drones by their loud humming, ( wfiich she would instinctively hear from a long distance) flew among them, fell to the ground and tore lierself loose from her dead mate by her strong limbs, and then returned to her hive, having been absent only a few minutes. I have ventured to theorize thus much, hoping that our friends will aid in corroborating or contraverting, as the case may be, the facts as given above. Grape suj?ar is made of corn, and not potatoes, as a corrcflpondent sug'gests. One edition of the ABC book, is sold already, and the second with some improvements will be out in a week. Price 35c., or neatly bound in leather and cloth, 60c. post paid. The Baron of Berlepsch, the Great German bee- keeper who verified and gave to the world the Dziei^ zon Theory, died Sept., 17th, '77, so we learn from the A.B.J. Fdn. with very fine copper wires rolled into it has been suggested, to prevent the sagging of the brood combs, and we can make such without any trouble, but I am sure no such thing is ever needed, if we use good firm wax, and manage properly. Several are talking about chaff hi res with the up- per story movable; these cannot well be made as warm, are very unwieldy to handle, and much more expensive. The permanent 2 story as wemakt them, are I think much the easiest and best, to make and handle. Did you ever I We have this morning (Dec. 29th), had several letters from our own State and from N. T., stating that the bees were bringing in huge loads of pollen, from the dandelions, which are in full bloom. Friend Roop of Carson City, Mich., says his bees are bringing pollen from the witch hazel. Brood will be started, but if the hives are well pro- tected, and have abundance of food, it will only make the stocks stronger. It will do no harm. I Feel that I must say a word to the host of kind friends who have spoken in such strong terms of ap- proval of the Home papers. When T first took ut) the work, I felt that there was something for mo to do in that direction, but could only dimly see whore duty was calling. In the outset I was almost fright- ened out of the pro.icet by one or two who did not believe in mixing bees niid theology as they termed it; and to feel that I was trespassing on no one, I enlarged the Journnl, .-ind made these two leaves gratuitous. Since then, no one, that 1 know of. ha.s ever complained that Gleanings was not of itself worth the money; and to my surprise and joy, I very soon bcgnn to get most earnest and encouraging words from friends in almost e^cry remote corner where Gleantnos made its way. .Tust now, a letter has come all the way from Australia, urging me to keep up the Home papers, find^mentining the good they were doing away off there. As the new sub- scriptions come in, one after another seems to bid me tie of good cheer and doubt not; telling me that I am not alone, and that ray words have not been unheeded. May God bless and guide >'ou all, and may he help us to feel how much we noedthe help of each other, in striving for that straight and narrow path. Po Tiot forget to pray for me; that neither praise, Dnftery nor prosperit.v, should God see fit to give it me, may lead me astray; but that I may feel that even Gleanings, belongs to him, and not my- self: !ind lliat to him belongs all the praise for what- ever it may accomplish. For sale at 11 cent's, net, lOOfl lbs. white honey, ex- tracted, in two large molasses barrels. Samples sent on apjilication. Jos. Duffeler. Wequiock, Brown Co., Wis. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 19 From Different Fields. ^ HAVE kept bees for 15 years, in box hives most W of the time. I now have 65 swarms; 60 in mova- t^ ble comb hive, and 5 in box hives, which I shall transfer next spring- if all goes well. I boug-ht 3 Italian queens and introduced them all right. I have tried the fdn. and like it first rate. I have the right to use the Isham box and like it pretty well. Do you think I am on the right track? Bees have not done very well this year; I had 44 in the spring, increased to 65, and took about 500 lbs. of box honey. Weather Is very dry. Enclosed please find the view of my place. Benjamin Palkner. Wyoming, N. Y., Dec. 11th, 1877. Well, really friend F., I should think you were pretty nearly on the right track \f I were to judge from the excellent stereoscop- ic view you have sent. Your picturesque location, on the side hill, with your hives aiTanged in terraces tier above tier, is very pretty indeed, but I would suggest that you place the hives a little farther apart, and the rows a little closer together. You would then get them a little nearer your honey house, and thus save much laborious carry- ing, if you should happen to get 100 lbs. of honey from each hive some season. I should rather think you had been patronizing pat- ent hive men from the numoer of different styles of hives we see. It seems to me there would be a fine place for a Sabbath school over among those trees on the top of the hill, friend P., and if I were sure that were the place where you were at work every Sunday, I should not have the least doubt in the world about your being on the "right track," nor would you. May God bless and guide you and all who call that pretty little spot "•home." I started 1st of May with 60 colonies have 87 now; made 6,000 lbs. surplus mostly extracted. Have sold the same for $10. per hundred; I put it up in butter- firkins, charging $1,00 for keg, then it did not make much odds to me whether people took a full keg or not. The month of May was a hard month here for bees, mine were killing their drones when fruit ti-ees were in bloom. Jas. Scott. Epworth, la., Dec. 13th, 1877. The grape sugar will prove a sure and ef- fectual remedy for killing off the drones during a dearth of honey, for it will keep brood-rearing going nicely, and the bees do not like it well enough to allow it to incite robbing. As soon as honey from the fields is to be obtained, they will abandon it alto- gether. What do you think? N. C. Mitchell was in the south- eastern pnrt of this county this summer and got up a class. Even W. Meadows took lessons after reading Gleanings. I had warned some of the bee-keepers in that locality to beware of him, for I had heard he was to be there. About 3 weeks ago a Mr. Lehman, from Missouri, was in our city with the Lehman hive. I told him I would call at the hotel and see his wonderful hive, that even Mr. Langstroth admitted was a better one than his. When I called on Mr. Leh- man, he was not in. Though he was in our town two weeks, he did not again call on me till the evening- before he was to leave, and that night he had an en- gagement. He ga\'e practical bee men a wide berth. I put my bees in the cellar on the 3d inst. Temper- ature out door 40^, cellar had stood at 50^ and the bees are buzzing and carrying out the dead. This is en- tirely too warm, and some of these freezing nights I will bring the temperature below 40^ if I can. T. G. McGaw. Monmouth, Ills., Dec. 15th, 1877. INTRODUCING QUEENS WITHOUT BEES WITH THEM. Your reply to Lawrence Johnson, (see page 230 Dec. No.) does not seem to me to meet the case. When I commenced Italianizing I lost several valu- able queens in just about the same way. I watched proceedings and discovered that the bees would try their best to sting the bees in the cage. I made up my mind that if the workers were left out they would be less vindictive. Since then I have taken out all the workers, i. e., left only the queen in the cage and have lost none in that way. This method gives the new queen a better chance to take care of herself. In one case bees and queen were all killed in about two hours. Another queen was immediatley put In the same cage alone and introduced successfully. G. B. Replogle. Unionville, Iowa., Dec. 12th, 1877. We have often introduced queens alone, but never thought of its making the differ- ence you mention. From what we have seen of their ways of doing, we are somewhat in- clined to think it not always the case. Should careful exi^eriinents verify your posi- tion in the matter, we will give it a place in the A B C, and we thank you for calling at- tention to it. There was a bee tamer here some lime ago who was going to teach me to tame bees for 3f2.50. I told him if he didn't want to be put in the humbug list he would better not say anything more about bee tam- ing. Some of our neighbors paid him for teaching them the trick, but I don't know how it is done nor do I care to; I went "through the mill" with patent hives. They can't get me any more on patents nor bee taming nor anything of the sort. I sold my hon- ey for 20c per lb. in St,Louis, Mo., John Boerstleb. Gilead, Ills., Nov. 11th, 1877. I started in the spring of 1877 with 10 stands of Ital- ians. I increased to 20 and sold 550 lbs. honey. I took no honey from them after the first of July, and they have plenty for winter. They have so much that it runs out of the hive every time we have a cold spell. What is the cause, and what the remedy? I would be glad to have some light in the matter. The past sea- son was mj' first in bee-keeping. I did not get as large a yield as some of my fellow bee-keepers but am satisifled with what I did get, and hope by the aid of your Journal to do a little better next season. I had 6 ovit of 11 of my queens, the past season, fertil- ized by the blacks. One of my swai-ms went to the woods, and I followed them to their new home. I thought they should not get the better of me, so I chopped the tree; took them home and clipped the wings of the queen. That did not suit their taste, and their queen was superseded by a hybrid. I shall dispense with the hybrids in the spring. If you can furnish me a half dozen hj^brid queens reared from imported mothers, I will send my order in as soon as they can be obtained. Joseph Hayman. East Ringgold, 0„ Dec. 14th, 1877. We think the honey runs out because the hive is so large they cannot keep the whole interior warm, and the frost cracks the combs ; their breath also condenses on the colder portions, forms icicles, and when a thaw comes, this mixes with tlie honey, and the sweetened water runs out at the en- trance. The remedy is to have the winter apartment small, and protected so tliat frost does not get in. At present, it looks as though we should be entirely unable to sup- ply the demand for queens ; and to avoid disai)pointing our friends, I think we had better m;ike no promises at all. If you send us your orders, we will do the best we can, but we shall, in all probability, have to pur- chase queens from North, South, East and West ; and you really must not scold, if we hand your order to some other person to fill, in default of a better way. Of course orders will be filled in rotation, as tar as possible. 20 GLEAXIXGS IX BEE CULTURE. Ja>-. MAKING BEES PAY. I boug-ht 1 swarm last May, and now have 6 good swarms all packed in chaff hives with honey enough to winter. I have been watching the reports with regard to your fdn. So far every thing seems to move favorably, hut will it pay. is the question. I am not satisfied yet ; I believe in making the bees pay for what I buy. Friend Butler seems to. but a gi-eat many do not. " My bees have not given me anj/ sur- plusthis season. " I have not expected it. for It has not been a good one with us. J. A. Yocng. Parma, Jackson Co., Mich., Dec. 12th, IS. .. I perfectly agree with yon my friend, that bees shcnia pay their way : perhaps some of yonr neighbors say ycnr bees do not pay be- canse yen have got "no honey from theni. or received no cf'f/i. "Were yon to sell the six yon have made from the cue. vonconld show a good prolit very readily. Jiave not yoirr bees paid all the same, whether you sell them for what they will bring, or "keep them V "Where hcnej" and bets bring but a small price, it may'not pay everyone to purchase fdn.. but as a rew'swrini will fieonently pay for themselves the first week, if sup- plied with comb. I think it very likely they will pay for the fdn. in two or three days. The expense of fitting a hive, for a new swarm, with fdn. in every frame, is now less than^l.CO: they would "be rcfdy to store honey in them, "in 24 hours, and I have had new "swaims store 2olbs. of honey in a hive full of empty comb the first 2 days after hi- ving : what do you think about itV ITALIAN BEES WORKING IN BDXE^. Seme h.Hve complained that thtir Italian tees did . not work so readily in tcies as ihe blacks. It is a fact that the Italian tte dees rrt seem to cluster in hoses as readily as ihe black lee, while the Itslisn bee will commence storing surplus frcm cne v eek :o ten days sooner; but they are ir cloned tr trl^d ^bcir ccmbs upward. To avoid this we use the fen., which we have found almost an indispensable rrticle In the mani:gem€nt and success of bee ci^lti^re. We cut our jiec-es as follows : if cur hex ;s 6;r(hf sf'ecp, we cut fdn., two inches for top srd lur it iri a pc.nt within a half inch (f bottom cfbrx, V stared: It takes but little fdn. end the tees will cottiEtrce Fiid, form their clusters within a few hours, and by the time the black tees will commence in their?, with the same treatment the Italians will have their bo^es frcm cne half to two thirds full. Ihese aiefa(ts that cannot, and will not be denied by any pi fdical tee-keeper who has had experience with both kinds. A. F. Moon. Rcme, Ga., Eec. 15th, 1!:7T. AGE or BEES. I am a new hand at bees and want to learn as much as pcssible about them. I have 6 swaims of blacks, cne of which is oueenless and has teen since July 8th '3 months). How is that ? I see scmetody says a lee lives tut 4.5 days in the summer time. I tried to divide, or did divide the swaim July Sth, putting one-half the frames and bees into anotlier hive. Af- ter two weeks. I examined and there was no queen, brood nor eggs in either hive : the queen had taken possession of one of the small boxes and I think had been there a long time. I transferred the ce mts and queen to a frame, put them tack into the hive and they are all right : to the other hive I introduced twr queens and got them killed, and have put in two caids r f brord at different rimes and they wcn"t raise a queen. I think perhaps they have a fertile worker or they accept one as a queen, Xow this is my bad luck. I have another swarm that I thought did "big things" before I saw Doolit- tle's leport. I'Ut now. it looks small beside his : this hive gave fcO Its. of box hcney and 3 large swarms. I filled 3 I oxes with fdn. and set tbem over 3 boxes that the bees were at work in. and thev left the un- der rnes and filled the fdn. boxes first. " B. F. Prait, Dixcn, lU., Oct. Tth. 18T7. We say bees live but 3 months on an aver- age, during the working season, but bv this we mean uorkivg bees. Your bees without a queen, probably did very little work, and would therefore live, perhaps 5 or (3 months. Again. I suppose they had eggs in the combs atthe time of division : if so. you had bees hatching for 3 weeks afteiw; rcl. rnd these are but little more than 2 months old at the date of yom- writing. The better way to test this matter, is to give an Italian queen to a stock of blacks. If yen examine the hive 3 months after the 1; st "black bee is hatched, I think yon will find few. if any. left. i»rovi- ding you make the experiment in some of the spring or summer months. It is written, "Cast thy bread upon the waters and it shall return nnto thee after many days." Last April, I received a copy of Gleanings free, frcm you, (April No.), at2d cVw ecclcse ?1,C)0 for a year's sub- sCiipticn, beginnirg Jan. It". I bought rne hive of Italian tees cf Mis. Adnm Grimm, through her ad- venisement in Gi-iLAXiNG.^, got them safe May ICth, 1877, r.nd have I hives frcm them. I lost one while awry, and en 2Slh cf July, the oiiginal swarm went to the wooes. 1 g( t to Its. Kx honey and would have hr.cl -5 lbs. mc re, had not sc me showmen carried cne hive out, end pr.iily rcbbed it before I caught them at it and Grc\e them away. They can led off 10 to 15 lbs. box hcnev, pcd turned part c f the bees. G. W. V. HiTE, Victor, J a., Eee. 11th, 1877. I believe ■•showmen," are proverbially ad- dicted to this kind of business, and Avhile I woi^lcl by no means advise unnecessary harsh trenment. I would suggest that thej" simply minister to the wants of the people." If we paircnize grog-shops, they will increase and multiply : but if they do not sell enough to ! pay txperses, they will very soon engage in soneo.ler business, without feeling hard towaid anybody, ^Whenever we patronize ciicuses, I fear we encourage and help along, very bad men antl Avcmen. I have been to almost all that ever came along, through all my lite, until within the past few years, and I assure you I would much enjoy going now. with the children, did I think it were possible to separate the good from the bad. I believe it is generally agreed that a moral menagerie, would never pay iiavcling expenses. There are towns where circuses never step, because they say ihey never pay their " sail :"" now shall "we help to make our town cne of this class, and 8ave our bee- hives, buggy whips and curry combs, or go to the show and listen to profanity that is ut- tered on pui-pcse to make small "boys fairly tremble in their shoes ':* I now have over 50 hives, and over 90 under my management and will have a hard time to be ready frr the "spring campaign" in good order. I am ma- kirg chaft division boards with the thin stuff of straw- bet ry crates for sides, and they are splendid. I think this.Vne of the A. Xo. 1 modern improvements. Do you think I could sell my honey if 1 should send it North in good shape — in sections, in May'r I tell you hcney is a drug here at almost any price. I have seme" in Memphis, white and pretty as can be; it has been there for months. It was left on commis- sion, or they were to pay me -Cc. and sell for what they pleased. I have known them to offer it for the same, and still it is "no go;" this town does not use more than 200 lbs. in a year, even at 12^4 cts. for ex- tracted, and 16?3 for sections. "I just as soon have molasses"— thev sav. G.W.Gates. Bartlett. Tenn., Dec. 1st, 1877. Your market will improve, if you keep it supplied with nice honey. As soon as ever\"- body learns where it can be found any tirde it is' wanted, it will go off faster than you think. I would advise you to try the larger cities near you. if you have more than you can sell at home for 2cc. 1878. GLEAJ^I:N^GS IX BEE CULTUKE. 21 Why don't you groove the top bar of frames to hold fdn.? I think it could be done, and the fdn. fastened in with melted parafflne. "Why do you need ten frames in the lower story in summer, if you take out the outside ones for winter? We have placed our hives all in a row, and packed in chaff, for winter, as usual. Don't think we loose many bees in so doing. The operation so changes the appearance of the apia- ry, that ihe bees readilv find their own hives. K. M. Barbour, Alamo, Mich.. Nov. 26th, 1877. We do gi-oove tlie top bars to our frames to hold the comb guides, and if jou choose to take out the comb guide you will find that the fdn. will slip in nicely. We prefer how- ever, to fasten them to the comb guide in the manner given in our circular. Perhaps we shall not need more than 7 brood combs in the lower story at all, if we use the divis- ion boards for winter, and frames of section boxes in the summer time. I am well aware that bees liave been moved, in the way you mention without loss, but at other times, if a warm day comes soon after, they will go back to their old stands, get into the wrong hives, and make "no end of trouble."' OLD BEtS, WEIGHING HI^-ES, &C. I tried an experiment last winter on wintering' old bees that were queenless. Old bees will certainly ■winter and make good swarms in the spring, if kept healthy. My bees have built thick combs (not deep c^lls) in Aug.. and I have thought it owing to the kind of honey gathered, but I now think it the cool nights; it being cool they can't Tvork the wax out thin. Am I not con-ect? How about weighing hives in fall when put in to the cellar, without brood, and again in the spring when hea\'y with brood, and telling how much they have consumed in wintering? Lewis Kellet. Ionia, Mich., Xov. 27th. 1877. You are right friend K.. though I had hardly thought of it before. "We might say a colony had consumed only 10 lbs. were we to trust entirely to the steelyards, but if they had 10 lbs. of brood at the last weighing, ft would in rerlity alter the statement very materially. I knov%' from experience, that bees may' starve, when their hive feels quite heavy, in the spring. My experience with old bees has been the same as yours. earned $20. 00, In two days. We have a lot more to transfer in the spring. The others were done Sept. 34th, SKCcesffully. Bees can be transferred at any warm season without risk if honey is plenty, either in store or in the fields. Mrs. M. A. W. B. P. S. — For i of the colonies transferred we received 4 other colonies of black bees, valued here at from ^.5.00 to fS.OO. I am very well aware, my friend, that transferring can be done at any season if it is warm, providing the one who undertakes it will be prudent and careful : if all our friends who ask qustions in regard to the work, had a woman to help them, or rather svch a woman as you seem to be. I should have less scruples in ad^■ising that it be un- dertaken at any time. I congratulate you. but beg to claim a little credit for the very full instructions I gave in oiu* last year's price list. COMBS PAKTIALLY FILLED WITH TTN'SEALED HO.VET. WTien you pack your bees in chsff. the crmts that are taken away will sometimes have the honey work- ing out in drops all over the comb. Is it best to put them back ? Levi Fatlor. SuflBeld. O., Nov. 20th, 1877. "We have been somewhat troubled in the way you mention, but we set such combs back' in an upper story, or outside of the division boards of small" colonies, until the bees cany out the unsealed honey, and then they are all right. We have found the divis- ion'boards very convenient indeed, in get- ting the bees to put their stores all in a few well filled combs, instead of having them scattered through a dozen or more. ITntil the division boards were put in. we could not make them carry the honey from the outside combs up around the cluster. The fdn. I received from you last Sept. worked like a charm. I put a few frames in seme young swarms and in a few days they drew it all out "and had a per- fect comb. I tell you it made my eyes "bung out" when I saw such nice work. Nathan Hutches. Westerville O., Dec. Sth, 1S77. extracting thick honey. In extracting from my surplus combs, I could not get all the honey out, it being very thick on account « if the cold weather. Will it injure the combs to put them away with a little loose honey in them ? I can- not get it cut without breaking some f>f the combs. Oxford Mills, Canada. Nov. 12th, 1877. Had you kept the combs in a wann room, until tliey were warmed through to a sum- mer temperature, you could have taken it as nearly out as in summer: but I woidd.if possible, leave the combs in an up]ier story luitil the bees get them clean and di-y. The honey will do "no haiin more than' to dry do\\Ti hard on the combs, and possibly at- tract mice and insects. I had 2.5 stocks in the spring and took 1000 lbs. comb honey in 2 lb. frames, besides 200 or .300 lbs. of ex- tracted. I increased to .50 stocks which I am winter- ing on from 5 to 8 frames, according to strength of colony. I use chaff cushions over them, division boards and mats on the sides. I winter on summer stand. Have tried a cellar and bee house. J. B. Hains, Bedford, O.. Dec. 3d, 1877. transferring : what a "WOMAN DID. I sent to you in Aug. for a sample copy. It was promptly received, and after looking it over I set out for friend Butler's. I came away the possessor of his "crack" swarm of Italians, and "in 6 weeks I took off 24 sections of honey averaging one and one half lbs. each. The copy was accompanied by the e.xtra sheet containing the A B C, of Bee Culture and directions for transferring. My •'cara spoaa" came home from a business trip one day, and asked me if I could trans- fer bees. I looked him squarely in the face and said promptly, "Yes sir." 1 had never done it nor seen it done, nor had he, but we were in for it, for he had en- gaged to ti-ansf er 5 swarms. We did the work, and MAKING hives AND SECTIONS : FLAX CHAFF. &C. The hive has just come all riuht : the freight was 81, 9<'- My hive of my own rcake will just fit on as nicely as you could wish. I made a plane to cut the bevel on the top edge. I make sections out of 2 inch plank, cut grooves first, then saw off the right thick- ness. How would flax chaff do for packing ? We have tons of it, having two flax mills. B. F. Pratt. Dixon. 111., Dec. 7th, 1877. Thank you friend P.. for the idea of using a plane made so as to cut the shoulders and bevels on the hives : where hives are made by hand, the plan will I think answer excel- lently. The only objection to grooving the plank before the sections are sawed off. is that you can rip off but one little piece at a time, and then all these little pieces are to be Itundled up and counted, if they are to be made for sale. This bundling and counting really takes more time than it does to make theni by the plan we have given. A neighbor is trying the fiax chaff : I pre- sume it\Aill answer. t»ut fear it may not ab- sorb dampness like wheat and oat chaff. 22 GLEAJ^^mGS IN BEE CULTURE. Jak. THICKER SECTION BOXES, &C. I commenced the season with 74 colonies, 40 in L. hive and ;M in box hive. I transferred them from box to L. frame, increased to 94 and had 1200 lbs. comb honey and 3300 lbs. extracted as surplus. Have sold nearly" all as follows, at wholesale. Comb honey at 20c. and extracted at an average of about 13' jc; soraeatl2'2. Comb honey all in section boxes. Do you not think that if the separators are used it would be well to have the section boxes Hi to Vi inches wider, and so avoid the lean appearance of the combs? Do you intend to keep fdn. drone size for use in sec- tion boxes next season? If I succeed as well in wintering- this winter, as last, I shall want 100 lbs. fdn. next season. I winter in cellars, with quilts over frames, entrance small, temperature from 40^ to 45^, and ventilate by a 4 inch tube conecting with sitting room stove. ' A. B. Cheney. Sparta Center, Mich., Dec. 3d, 1877. We shall very soon be prepared to furnish ch"one Mn. thni enou.^h, Ave opine, to suit anybody'; but I am not at all certain that the usual worker size will not be preferred. The matter of thicker section boxes, is one that has been much experimented on, and if we try them much thicker than 2 inches, there is a liability of having two thin combs instead of one thick one. A sheet of fdn. it is true, is generally a remedy, but for all that, they will sometimes start a bit of comb at one side, and this Avill result in leaking and daubing, when the sections are removed from the hive. Again ; it has been pretty well demonstrated that a 1 lb. section sells for a better price than a larger one. Almost all kinds of groceries are now sold in lb. packages. If we should make our 4ix4i sec- tion tliicker than 2 inches, it would weigh more than a lb. If we make them much smaller than 4i square, we shall arive at a point where the bees object to such small work. Taking all these matters into con- sideration, I think 2 inches about the right width where separators are used ; if these are dispensed with. If or H will do very well. FDN. FOR COMB HONEY. In reading the article on page 317, Dec. No, on comb fdn. it recurred to me that I had used fdn. in surplus Iwxes this year. I filled 32 frames, 5x6 inches with fdn. and empty comb, over U being fdn. The fdn. was put in full size, except a small space at the sides and bottom. When I read the report of the National Convention, "Thinks I to myself," wonder if niiy customers got any "fish bone" in their throats; so I asked them how they liked the honev got of me; "delicious," "splendid," were among the answers given. "Hav'nt you any fault to find with it?" "Yes, a big one; there wasn't enough of it, I wish I had more of it." "Did you see any diflference in the comb of that I sold vou?" "No, why, was there any?" None of our customers seeming to get any of the "fish liones," we, at home, tho't we'd cut into a comb and see if ive could find any of it, knowing it was there. As the knife reached the center of the comb, we noticed a slight resistance more than the balance of the comb gave, but could discoA"er no difterence in eating it. At the top was a little "ridge pole" where we had run wax along to fasten it. We shall use it (fdn) in preference to natural comb here-after. I began last spring with 6 light stocks and 3 nuclei; inei-eiised to 20, and got 647 lbs. honey: 332 of comb and 31.5 extracted. My bees are piicked awav for the winter in a sand cave on the banks of "the Father of Waters" where I have been "bee-ing it" the past season. - Will, M. Kellogg. Oneida, Ills., Dec. 11th, 1877. T am a novice in bee culture. Began last spiing, ;vnd ha\e at present only 8 stands of "blacks" but wi^h to increase the number to several fntndrcd pure J(a?in/).s in the course of time. lam making prepa- ration to establish a vineyard, and apiary on the bor- der of a lake about 5 miles from my home. The place is an excellent one for bees, as the lake is very large and interspersed with several varieties of willow, cjTjress, honeysuckle, lily &e, &c. Hundreds of bee- trees are to be found, and always appear to be in a thriving condition, and hence I have decided to lo- cate a large apiary at that point. K. H. L.4.WSON. Kingston, La., Sept. 29th, 1877. HONEY CANDY'ING IN THE CELLS. I am but a beginner at bee-keeping; I wintered 3 colonies last winter, two of them in Am., hives; transferred them in apple blossom time, and made 3 of them, in Simplicities. I bought one truant swarm on a tree. 20 feet from the ground, and hived them nicelv. With my increase I have 9 to ^vinter, 4 of which are Italianized. I bought a second-hand foot- power saw and made a lot of your section boxes 4^4, square which just suit me, and every one I've shown them to. Honey season liere has been very poor. The 25th of July I took 80 lbs. box honey from 2 hives. It was very dark and strong; much of it was just grained sugar. Some of it would grain as fast as the bees put it in. Cells in new comb were filled v^ full of solid sugar. Do raspberries nroducs such honey as this, or is it the honey dew? How shall we account for it? Oar bees made no honey to speak of after July, I hn.d to put back 35 lbs. box honey in section frames, and fed some sugar to my latest swarms. In making quilts and cutting sheets of duck to put over the frames, I have been troubled by their shrinking and becoming too small. I shall wet the cloth, ia future, before I cut it, through I belive I've never seen it recommended. WTiy not paint hives 3 colors, say red white and blue, instead of using the pieces of paper or cloth of different colors to aid young queens in finding their own hi\-e? As I have not yet painted my hives, I would like vour opinion on this in Jan. No. W. D. Hinds, Townsend. Mass., Dec. 7th, '77. As raspberry honey is very fine, I can not think your grained honey" was from that source. We would be glad of a sample, if you have any left. I would incline to think your bees were stealing sugar somewhere. If hives are painted dark colors, the combs are liable to be melted down in simmer, and we have ])ainted such hives, wiiite, just be- cause they w^ouid become so hot the bees could not stay in them. After being made white, they give no farther trouble. If, af- ter placing the hives 6 feet apart, you find the young queens get lost, I would try tm"n- ing the entrances different ways, or making them conspicuous by some temporary device, such as a green bush, or the colored papers mentioned, rather than make them perma- nently odd looking, and without unifomiity. I am not much of a bee-keeper having but 7 colo- nies, 6 of which are good swarms packed up nicely on their summer stands, with chaff cushions &c. WTien put in their little beds for their Ion? winter's nap, the lightest weighed 26 lbs, and the heaviest 41. This included onlj' bees and honey, for I deducted even for frames and comb. One small swarm, I am trying to winter in the cellar; this swarm T got the last of Oct. WTiile passing through a piece of timber. I came across a tree from which they had been cut. and noticed they were hybrids. I "soon found the queen, which pro^•ed to be very large and seemingly pure Italian; and while I held her in my hand, I thought, "what a pity to let such a beauty perish, when I may possibly save her," so I procured a small box, put the bees in and started for home. I hap- pened to have a. small hive containing 3 frames, and perhaps 2 lbs. of honey, and into this I put my half starved little strangers. I am now feeding them in the cellar, and up to yesterday they were doing well, J. W. Keenan, Bloomington, Ills. Dec. 7th, '77. I love bee-keeping; I am delighted with my poultry and Berkshire pigs, but like my bees best; I am win- tering 39 stocks orLgummer stands. My best stock made 100 lbs. comDEypey from July 15th, to Oct. 13th, I am well pleased with the fdn. for brood chambers, and above all am I delighted with the section boxes. Shall use them altogether next season. M. M. Stover, Table Kock, Neb., Dec. 7th, '77. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE, 23 lur %cm§' Taken from concluding jxtges of the A B C of Bee Culture. "It is customary,"" said I to my wife, "to have several leaves in the back of every book, with nothing on them ; two or more leaves, of blank paper. Now it is almost as easy, to have something useful printed on these leaves, as to have them blank. "Why shall we not use themV" " But my husband, your book will look badly ; just think of having the reading mat- ter reach the cover. Will it not look strange and singular.-' " Does it look strange and singular to see advertisements on these concluding pages, in close contact with the reading matter V" " WeU no, I do not know that it does, but that you know is different." It is " different" my friends and I presume more than one of you have noticed the broad difference between the matter contamed in the book, and the character of the advertise- ments contamed in these last pages. I beg pardon for this little bit of fault findmg, and will try to remember that I am only respon- sible for the last pages of my book, and not for those of other people's. Now then, with the young bee-keepei-s, with the boys and girls, and perhaps also with the men and women, who have read my ABC, book thus far, and all who feel they are yomig in the art of keepmg bees, I would have a Uttle friendly talk. I wish you to let me feel as if perfectly well acquainted ; so much so that I might come in without knockiug, or any introduction, and talk about home matters, your bees and bee-hives, or any thing else, Avherem my experience might enable me to help you. I can almost imagine, akeady, that some bright yomig- ster who has been eyemg me keenly and curiously, thinks, if he does not say it out- right. " Haint you got something to sell, ]yir.? " " No my boy, I have nothing to sell ; at least, not to day. I keep things to sell, when at home, but now I am makmg you a visit, and what I wish to tell you about, is given away, ^^ithout money, and without price." " Ain't it a Chromo ?" " No, it isn't a Chromo. Come with me, and you shall see. Isn't that funny ? ' Come ^^'lth me and you shall see.' Tell sister to ccane, and if all the rest wiU come too, we shall be very glad to have them. Have you a hoe y Well, bring that, and have sister bring her little broom. We are going to build a little village. W^e will have sti-eets and houses in ovu" village, and we will have folks live there too. Oh such folks ! for ttiey not only work hard all day, but tliey come pretty near working all night also." "Is it the beesV" " You have guessed it exactly, ' Sis,' it is the bees, and their hives are to be the houses." " But they will sting." " Not if we get acquainted. How did you get acquainted with me ?" "We 'talked.'" " That is the idea exactly ; we are to talk with the bees, and get acquainted." " Bees can't talk V" " Oh, but bees can talk. They can talk in their way just as your old Kover talks to you, and just as the hens and chickens do. It is true, they do not talk with their mouths as we do, but for all that, they talk, and very plainly too, as I thmk we shall see. When Rover is glad to see you, what does he say V" " He says ' Bow, wow, wow, wow,' and wags his tail." " Very good. Now, when you are gather- ing the eggs, and you find one of the hens that sticks to the nest and won't get off, what does she say when you try to get her off '?" " I Jcnmo what she says, but J can't say it. She says, 'cr-r-r-r, cr-r-r-r-r,' and she pecks.' " " Well, you know exactly what she means do you not ? Does slie not say, as plainly as words could tell it, ' You go way off, and let me be, I tcill sit, if I want to. They are my eggs, for I laid ' em '?" " W^ell, now the bees talk just as plainly as the hen and dog, but as you are not acquaint- ed with them, I will go along and act as in- terpreter. That is, I will tell you what they say. As little folks are pretty easily fright- ened or discouraged, I think mamma had better fix some sort of a veil on your hats, until you get a little used to the business. Any sort of an old veil will do, or some new ones can be cheaply made, of a piece of tarle- tau. Now notice ; if I go up to their hives and stand in fi'ont of them, they will buzz all round me, and pretty soon, if I do not move, they will begin to ' scold,' very much as the old hen did ; and to me, it is just as plain, what they want. They want you to get away, so they can go on with their work. When you go up to the hives, always be careful to stand at one side of theh line of travel, and then they will be much less likely 24 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Jak. to try to drive you away. Almost every hive lias a particular ' path ' through the air, and we ai'e to watch and see where this path is, and let them have it, full width. "Now boys, for business; pull down all the old sheds there may be around the bee hives, clear away all rubbish, and if the hives are set on any kind of benches, clear these all away, and set them right on the ground ; or rather, raise them on 4 half bricks, laid down flat; if we ai'e going to have a con- venient village, we must have the houses on the ground, not up on stilts. " We have not called upon papa yet, but now we shall have to ask him for a load of nice sawdust, and then we are ready for the little broom and hoe, to make the streets, and lanes and alleys of our city. It may be a little city sometime, if we keep at work as the bees do, and do not get discouraged. Now I expect you will disagree with me, when I tell you how we are to lay out the streets ; for I am going to plan our city, just as the bees plan their rooms inside their houses. If you look at a piece of honey comb, you will see the cells are six sided, like this : DRONE COMB. WORKER CO>ir.. " There are several reasons why the bees cannot have square rooms, as we do, and one of them is that the bees are round, and would not fit in square cells. A young bee I im- agine would find himself quite uncomfor- table, in a square cradle, and if the cells were made round, they would not fit up against each other, as they do now, without waste corners. So you see the bee makes his cell six sided to save room, labor and material. Now we wish our bee village made six sided for the same reason, and to save travel, in working among them. If you have only seven hives, we will make them stand about like this ; one in the center, and six around it. "You see by the drawing, how the hives are to be placed, and where the sawdust is to be spread for the paths. On the south side of each hive, I have shown you the grai)e vine trellis you will probably have after a while. You can just see the tops of the posts, and the top strips. "As we must have everything exact in lay- ing out a city, we will cut a stick just six feet long, and an-ange all the hives so they are just six feet from the center one, and from each other. Make a nice walk of saw- dust from the hives to the house, that we HEXAGONAL, APIARY OF 7 HIVES. may not get mamma's floor muddy when we run back and forth ; now make a walk be- tween and around all the hives, and bank sawdust up nicely all round them, to keep them warm, and to keep the grass and weeds from growing in the way before their doors. If you will fix their doorways all nice and clean, they will get just as proud of their homes, as the old hen does of her chickens : you see if they do not. " If the hives do not stand just as y6u want them, or pretty nearly so, when you com- mence, you must move them into place a lit- tle at a time each day, or you will make serious trouble. If you move a bee's hive, even a few feet, he is as much lost as you would be, if your own house were moved a mile, for he always comes home to the exact spot fi"om which he started out. If you com- mence your improvements in the spring, be- fore the bees begin to fly, you can set the hives anywhere you choose, without making any trouble, but you cannot do this in the summer time while they are flying. When the sawdust is all fixed, sister is. to keep the paths all swept neatly with her little broom, and all hands are to contribute in keeping everything neat and tidy." " But we have not heard the bees ' talk ' yet." " Haven't you y Well, just go up to a hive on the back side, and rap gently, just as if you wished to come in." " They say Buzz-z-z-z-z." " Well, what do you suppose that means T''^ " I guess it means, 'Go right away, and let us be.'" 1878. GLEAI^INGS IN BEE CULTURE. 25 " Very good ; after we know them a little better, I think we shall be able to under- stand almost all they say, or at least all they wish to say. Now there is something funny about bees' talking, for they do it with their wings, and not Avitli their mouths. " I think each one of you children may choose which hive he will have, and tlien we can see who will get most honey from his or her hive. We have a little blue eyed girl at our home, and she has a hive that contains the prettiest queen, the prettiest and gent- lest bees, and they have made the nicest lit- tle cakes of honey, of any hive in our whole apiary, and there are nearly a hundred in all. If you will look at our apiary on the back cover of this book, you will see her hive right in front of the door of the honey house. She has a little broom, and sweeps the sawdust up around the hives, and stamps it down with her little foot, and she isn't afraid of the bees, one particle. She has never been stung at all, while at work among them. If you will turn over to the picture of the House Apiary, you will see where she and her sister Maud, have their play house. It is up stairs where the plants stand out by the window. You can see them both, standing on the steps, but the man who made the pictm'e, did not try very hard, I guess, when he made their faces, for it does not look very much like them. They have never liad any trouble with the bees in their play room, except one day when they had some very nice water- melon for tea, and the bees came to tea too, and liked the water-melon so well, that they went home and told the rest of the bees (don't you see bees can talk V) in the hive, about it, and so many of them came that the children came and asked me what they should do. You can see me in my camp chair down by the door of the house. You see I had a nice young queen that I wanted to have lay eggs, because I knew after she had commenced laying eggs, we should soon have a nice lot of young bees in the hive. Well, it was rather dark in the house where their hive was, so I took the comb with the bees on it, carried it out doors and sat down to look for the tiny white eggs. " After the bees get acquainted with you, they will not scold and tell you to go away, but will light right on your hand or face, and sometimes they light right on my nose. I suppose it is becaiise my nose is rather large, but it does not make me feel bad at all, if it is large, for I know that God made it so. When we come to die, I expect he will ask all about our lives, whether we have been good or bad, and whether we have talked bad and told lies, or stolen things, but I do not believe he will ever say one word about our noses. '' I almost forgot to tell you, tliat our ' Blue Eyes ' — her name is Constance, and we call her ' Conny ' for short,— always comes up to the shop to tell me when the bees are swarm- ing. Some days when I am writing with my type writer, just as I am now, all at once somebody will say, ' Papa ! bees is swam'in',' and I tell you I 'hustle,' for I do not want ray nice queens to go off and get lost. When I get home, I usually find that my wife has hunted out the queen, and has got her in a cage. We tie the cage on the rake, with a green bush, and pretty soon the bees all clus- ter all round her. One Sunday I had to go off to teach Sabbath school, and I Avas afraid some of the bees would swarm, so I told Ernest (he is our boy, 1-1 years old), that I would give him a dollar for every swarm he would hive while I was gone. When I got home I found a ' great big swarm ' had come out of Connie's hive, and he had hived it all just as nice as I could have done. " Do you go to Sim day school ?" " I am too little, and it is too far." " Do father and mother go V" " Ihey go to meeting." " Does brother go V" " I guess he don't think very much about it." "Do any bad boys live around here V" " O yes there is some that is ' awful ' bad. They shoot guns on Sunday, and sometimes they steal our bee-hives in the night ?'' " We would be really glad to have these boys become good and stop doing these wicked things, would we not ?" "But they won't never go to Sunday school.'' " I know they are not very apt to go, but sometimes very wicked boys feel badly and are sorry, and if somebody would talk with them, and help them a little, sometimes they will make really good men. Perhaps nobody has been kind to them, and sometimes they have no kind father and mother to take care of them, as you and I have. " Now I thinic it is just as nice to have a good Sabbath school, as it is to have a nice apiary, and I am not sure but tliat one helps the other. You go to school do you not ?" "Yes, and we have just the nicest school ma'am." " Well that is very fortunate, for I am sure she will be glad to help you start a Sabbath school. You can talk to her about it, and 26 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Jan. get her to ask permission of the trustees to hold it in the school house everj^ Sunday af- ternoon. If you can get the minister to come and help start it, it will be a very good plan, but if not, get the best man you know of, to come and ask God to help you all to go to work right. ^Ve must work in the Sunday school exactly as the bees do in the hive. We must work all together. Do you suppose the bees in the hives ever scold or get mad at each other? Sometimes their honey is all gone and they have to starve to death, but from what I have seen of their actions, I do not believe they ever blame each other, and say ' It was all your fault you might have worked better when honey was plenty, like v:e did.' On the contrary, they seem to work together just as your right hand works with your left. Did you ever have your right hand get mad at your other and strike it V " Why no ; one of my hands could not get mad at the other." " Did you ever get mad and strike your brother V" " Yes, but that is different." " It is different, that is true ; but why can- not you feel towards yoiu- own brother, just as you do toward your left hand V Do you not think we would all be so much happier ? Don't you think our mothers would be pleas- ed if we did that way V We would all stop finding fault, and what a happy world it would be V" *' But folks don't do that way. We can't always be good." " Trute,rue ; we cannot a Iways be good, but cannot we always keep trying V "• I guess we could, if God would wait a little sometimes when we are real ugly." " Well I think he will, if we do the very best we can. Now it is almost time for me to go home, but I hope you will get your teacher, your parents, and everybody else, from the baby clear up to grandpa, and grandma, to help start that Sabbath school. God will take care of you all, and tell you what to do, if you only ask him, and the bad bo>s will all come too, after a while, if you are all kind and pleasant, just as I told you the bees were. You will need some of the Gospel Hymns to sing frf)m, and you will need less-in papers, and some little cards, for tlie children who learn the Golden Texts, and some of the pretty Sunday school papers that are printed nowadays. Do you wonder where all these are to come from V Well if you ask God to send them, and keep work- ing as the bees do, they Avill all come pret- ty soon. Do you ask how you shall work ? Well I guess the first thing will be to be kind and pleasant to every one, and to ask them all to come and help the school along. God will tell you when you are working in the right way, by making you feel more happy and joyous, than you ever did before in life. You will like your bees better than you ever did before, the flowers will seem prettier, the grass greener, and all the world more beautiful, just because you have been trying to help the world to be good, instead of be- ing altogether selfish. Whenever you help anybody to do right, you have helped God, and he always pays folks for doing such work, by making them very happy. "There now I must go; remember the bees, do not let them starve, and oh, my friends do remember the Sabbath school, do not let it drop or dwindle down, but show God that, yoii, can be depended upon, even if it does storm and blow. He that is faith- ful in a few things, shall be made ruler over many." I have several times found colonies of bees so nearly dead from starvation that a great part of them were down on the bottom of the hive, and so weak as to be but jtist able to move. When honey was given them, the first ones would take a good load, and just as soon as strengrth returned, they would hasten to feed the rest ; they too would revive, and very soon all hands were as bvisy as they possi- bly could be, passing- it round and helping- the others, until all were ready to .ioin in one grand jubilee of thankfulness for the timely succor. Can not we learn of them, two lessons ;" first, to spread evei-y- thing- that is good, freely nnd unselfishly, and then to unite in a joyous thanksgiving- for the peace and plenty that wecnjoy as a people. GEAFE SlUGAR, ETC. M S T ha-\'e been an experimental bee-keeper for /£\ the last 1-.' years, I take a good deal of interest ^^~!j in your paper and experiments. I am now trying some of the g-rape sugai", of which I have as high expectfitions as yourself. I have heard that the sugar is made of potatoes and is used in beer and wine. I have tasted coffee sugar which savored very much of it. The fact that grape sugar candies in the uncapped cells, is enconrtiging- ; the bees will eat it out as nicely as they will eat candy in the stick. I have seen no ill eflfect from it as yet. My bees are on their summer stands, covered with a chaff box giving 4 inch space for chaff around the whole hive, both stories on. The bfix opens just where the two stories join, thus forming a cap of the upper half, which can he removed to get at the bees in winter, to pack and feed. If wc leave them on all summer, the bees can be worked, as fnr as I can see, Avith ease, after lifting off the cover. We lemo a 4 in. portico in front by shortening the chaff on that side. We crowd the bees on to 6 or 7 combs, with division boards, and if they need feeding-, feed till they have enough. Now in the spring carefully build up the swarms by spreading the brood, and there will be no danger from chilling in the chaff if not over done. Shall probablv run to comb honey next season, mostlv. Shall use fdn. and, by the way, why not use the elm or other bark right in the water the plates are ccoled in. ? .J. Butler's report is my report ex- actly, in regard to number of colonies, yield of hon- ey, season, &c. except inregaidto using- fdn. in brood chamber, which I consider an acquisition. Friend Koot, guess your idea of conventions is about right. Geo. H. Mackey. Milan, Ohio, Dec. i5th, 1877. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 31 IMPXiEMElffTS rOR EEE CTJI.TTJIIE ALPHABETIC ALLY AHEAIfGED. For cU'F-ciiption of the variows aiticles sec our Twelfth Edition Circular and Pi-ice list found in Jan. No., Vol. VJ,, or moiled on applicfition. For directions Hoiv to 3i«7ic all these various arti- cles and implements, see A B C of Bee Culture. This Price List to be taJsen in place of those of former date. Mailable articles are designated in the left hand column of ftgures ; the ligures giving- the amount of pOStailf VlquiKd. Canada ix.si-.ijre on merchandise is limited to SU oz., and nothing- can be sent for less than 10 cents. 35 See ABC. $ 10 Alighting- Board, detachable. I Part First I Basswood trees for planting, tor prices see I Price List I Balances, spring, for suspended hive (60 lbs.) 8 OO I Barrels tor honey 2 50 I " " waxed and painted. .. . 3 50 I Bees, per colony, frcm $7 to $16, for partic- j ulare see price list 10 I Bee-Hunting bo.\, with printed instructions 25 0 I Binder, Emerson's, for Gleanings .50, 60, 15 10 1 Blocks, iron, for metal ci^rnered frame ma- 1 king 15 One of the above is given free with every 100 frames, or lOCO corners. 10 I Burlap for co-\-ering bees; 40 in. wide, per yd 10 I Buzz-Saw, foot -power, amviAete; circular I with cuts free on application. Two saws I and two gauges included 85 00 0 I Buzz-Saws, extra, 6 in. f 1 60; 7 in. $1 75; 8 in 2 00 j 10 inch, !?o,25; all filed, and set, and mailed free of p(>stage. Buzz-Paw mandrel and boxes complete for 6 inch saws. No saws included 5 00 The same for 7 and 8 in. saws (not mailable) 8 CO Cages, wood and wiie cloth, provisioned, see price list C5 " " " per dcz 50 Larger size double above prices 60 32 £0 I Candy for bees, can be fed at any season, I per lb 15 I " li/i lbs. in Section box 20 Eight lb. slab in L. frame 1 15 CO 0 I Cards, queen registering, per dc z 06 0 i " " " per ICO 40 Chaff cushions for wintering (see Nov. No. t for 1877) SO 9| " " without the chaff 15 40 I Chaff c-usliirn di\ isicn lioards 20 2 I Cheese cloth, for strainers, per yard 10 30 i Clasps for transferring-, package of ICO 25 I Climbers for Bee-Hunting 2 CO I Comb Basket, made of tin, holds 5 frames, has hinged cover and pair of handles 1 60 I Comb Foundation Machines complete S.5 to 100 CO 20 I Corners, metal, i>er iCO 76 20 " " top only, per 100 100 15 1 " " bottom, per 100 50 On ],((0 or mere a discount cf 10 per cent will be >iiade, and en 10,(00, 25 per etnt. The latter will be 5;iven to those who advertise metal cornered frames. I Corners, Maehinei-y cr mplete fcr mckirg f2r.O CO 32 I Duck, for tectljng, andcovei ing the fian;os I — bees do not often bite it— per yard, (£9 I inches wide) ; Extractors, accoieling- to size of frame, 1 $': 50 to 10 CO " inside and gearing, including 1 honey-gate ^5 00 " Hoer bex style 10 The same, 6 qts, to be ustd in upper story 50 Files for small circular rip saws, new and valuable, 2Cc- ; per tloz. by Express.. 2 25 2 ' "3 cornered, for cross-cut saws 10 5 I Fram.es with sample Rabbet and Clasps... 10 18 i Galvanized iron %vire for g-raI>e^ine trellises ! per lb. (about 100 feet) 20 25 i Gates for Extractois tinned for soldering. . 50 50 I Grearing-feir Extractor with supporting arm 1 .50 0 I GtiEAKiKGS, Vol's 1 ard II, each 15 0 " Vors IV and V, each 1 CO 0 1 " Vol. in, sf cond-hand 2 CO 0 1 " first five neatly bound in one... (i (M) OJ " " " unbound 5 00 20 Hives from .5Cc to $6 25 ; for particulars see price list Honey Knives 1 00 " " ;4 doz. 5 25 " '* i^^ doz by Express 5 00 ." " Curved point 115 doz. 6 25 Labels for honey, from S5 to 5Cc per 100 I for particulars see price list Lamp Nursery, for hatching- queen cells as bufit...: 5 CO 0 Larva?, for queen rearing, from June to Sept 25 0 Lithographof the Hexagonal Apiary 25 0 Magnifying Glass, Pocket 50 0 " " -Double lens, brass on 1 three feet 1 CO 0 I Medley of Bee-Keeper's Photo's, 150 photo's 1 00 12 I Microscope, Compound, in Mahogany box 3 CO 0 j " Prepared objects for above, such 0 ! as bees' wing, sting, eye, foot, &c., each £5 7 I Muslin, Indian head, for quilts and cush- I ions, pretty stout, but not gccd as duck, I per yard 10 10 I Opera Glasses for Bee-Hunting 5 00 18 I Parafflnc, for -n^axing bai rtls, per lb 20 0 I Photo of House Apiary and improvements 25 0 1 Queer;S, 5Cc t o f 6 00. See price list 2 I Rabbets. Metal, per foot 02 j Salicylic acid, for foul brood, per oz 50 0 I Scissors, for clipping- queen's wings 40 6 I Section boxes, fjmcy, hearts, stars, crosses, I &c., each 05 j Section Hoiiey box, a sample with strip of I fdn. and p i-inted instructions C5 . I Section boxes in the fiat by the quantity, i $9 60 per thousand and upwards, accord- I ing- to size ; for particulars, see price list. 15 I Case of 3 section boxes showing the I way in which the separators are used, I suitable for any kind of hive, see cut, p. 8, 10 18 I Seed, A Isike Clover, i aised near us, per lb . . 25 18 I " Catnip, good seed, per oz. 20c ; per lb. 3 CO 0| " Chinese Mustard, per oz 15 18 1 '• Meliilot, or Sweet Clover, per lb 60 j " Motherwort, per oz. 3Cc; per ib S CO 18 I " Mignonette, per lb. (2Cc per oz) 1 50 j " Simpson Honey Plant, per package 05 I " '* " " peroz 50 18] " Silver Hull Buckwheat, per lb 10 I " •' '• " peck by Express 76 18 1 •' Summer Rape. Sow in June and I " July, per Ib A small package of any ( f the above seeds will be sent for 5 cents. 5 I Sheets of duck to keep the tees from soil- ing or eating the cushions I Shipping Cases for 48 section frames of I honey Smoker, Quinby's (to Canada 15c extra) " Doolittle's Bingham's $1 25 ; 1 fiO ; Our own, see illustration in price list Tacks, galvanized, per paper Thermometers Veils, Bee, with face of Brussels net, (silk) The same, all of taiietair (almost as gocd) Wax Extractor 3 50 Copper bottomed boiler tor above 1 50 Wire cloth, for Extractors, tinned per square foot 15 Wire cloth, for queen cages 12 Above is tinned, and meshes are 5 and 18 to the inch respectively Painted wire cloth, 14 mesh to the inch, per square foot 07 A li goods dell^•ered on board the cars here at prices named. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. 10 15 10 CO 1 60 25 2 CO 75 10 40 76 60 AVe will send Gleanings— With The American Eee Journal («2 CO) f 2 50 The Bee-Keeper's Magazine (1 60) 3 00 Both the above Bee Journals of America 4 00 British Bee Journal (12 00) 2 50 All Three 5 60 American Agriculturist (61 CO) 2 25 Prairie Farmer (2 15) 2 60 Rural New Yorker (2 iiO) 3 25 Scientific Ameiican (3 20) 3 TO Fiuit F.ecorder and Cottage Gardener (1 CO) 1 75 \_Ahcre rates fnchide all Postage^ 32 GLEAKINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Feb. TABLE OF PKJEMIUMS. The first column is for those only, i, g who send 5 or more names. S'a v 3 Names (tf Premium Articles. ^jj" Any of them sent post-paid 07i rec'pt of price. 1—A B C of Bee Culture. Part First 25 2 — Lithnfiriph of Apiary, Implements, etc. 25 .'J — Phntnrtrnph of House Apiary 25 4 — "^That Present,^'' Novice arid Bine Eyes 25 5 — Emerson's Binder for Glkamngs, tvill hold '^ Vo! nines 5f (>— " •' iM-ftt'r quality 60 7 — Pocket Magnifying/ Glass 60 8 — First or second Fo/wmeo/ Gleanings.. 75 9 — Best quality Emerson's Binder for Gleanings 75 10—T)otible Lens Mnrinifeo\on 3 brass feet 1,00 11 — Photo Medley, Bee-Kee.pers of America^, 00 li— First and second Vol. o/ Gleanings.. 1,60 13 — A real Compound Microscope, beauti- fully finished, and pacl-ed toith Unple- ments in a Mnhoijnny Box 315 14 — Opera Glass for Bee Iluntiny $5.00 Number of Sub- scribers required at or at 75c. 1.00 5 2 5 .> 5 2 5 2 6 .3 ti 7 3 i 8 4 9 4 9 4 10 6 20 ITALIAN QUEENS. All bred from imported mothers of my own im- portations. Dollar queens, $1,00. Tested queens before .June 1st, $3,00; after, i;2,.50. Full colonies of Italians from $7,00 to $10,00. Two frame nucleus with tested queen, $5,C0. Comb Foundation, Bee- Keepers' supplies., &c. 2-7d PAUL L. VIALLON, Bayou Goula, La. LME'S SEED GA* My annual catalogue (a complete garden and floral guide— 90 pages) of choice Northern grown seeds— 1000 varieties, bulbs, garden .ind apiarian imple- ments, supplies, agricultural books, bees, queens, &c., &c., is now ready — sent postpaid on application. Address, C. F. LANE, N. W. Apiary & 2tf Seed Warehouse, Koshkonong, Wis. Price List of Bees & C^iieeES for 1878. 1 Colony Italian Bees with tested queen (before July 10th) $14 00; (after July 10th) $11 00 1 Colony Italian Bees with untested queen af- ter July 10th 9 50 1 Tested Queen 2 50 1 Untested " 1 00 A discount of 10 per cent on all orders for queens of $10.00 or more. All queens raised from import- ed mothers. I have made arrangements to Italianize all the black bees within 3 miles of my apiary, and I think all my queens will be jnirely mated; all queens will be shipped in rotation, and I desire parties or- dering queens, to inform me whether thej' wish the mr>ney returned if the order can not be tilled at once. 2-8d Address, E. W. HALE, Wirt C. H., West Va. Material ready to nail for standard Langstroth hives. Portico, 10 frames, (beveled top bar) bottom board and cap, in prices ranging from 75c to $1,00 each, according to (juantity wanted. Sample hive $1,.50. Our favorite the "Modest" at same prices. We ai-e prepared to beat the world on Honey and Section Bo.xes. Harbison section, 5 to 10 M. per M $6 50 Less than 5 M, per M 7 .50 "1 " 8 50 DoAetailed sections, any size from 454.\4J4 to 5.\6, 5 to 10 M, per M 800 " " Less than 5, per M 8.50 1 " 9 00 Circulars for 1878 will soon be ready -Send for one. J. OATMAN & SONS, Itfd Dundee, Kane Co., Ills. Each Number contains Thirty-two Pages of read- ing, many fine Wood Cut Illustrations, and one Col- ored Plate. A beautiful Garden Magazine, printed on elegant paper, and full of information. In Eng- lish and German. Price, $1.25 a year : Five copies i5.(K). Viek's Flower and Vegetable Garden. 50 cents in paper covers ; in elegant cloth covers $1.00. Vlck's Catalogue,— 300 Illustrations, only 2 cents. Address, JAlVfES VICK, Rochester, N. Y. You can not look over the back No's of Glean- ings or any other Periodical with satisfaction, unless they are in some kind of a Binder. Who has not said— "Dear me, what a bother— I mu.^t have last month's Journal and it is no where to be found." Put each No. in the Emerson Binder as soon as it comes and you can sit down happy, any time you wish to find anything you maj' have previously seen even though it were months ago. Binders for Gleanings (will hold them for four years) gilt lettered, free by mail for 50, 60, and 75c, according to quality. For table of prices of Binders for any Periodical, see Oct. No., Vol. II. Send in your orders. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. We wtU send a sample copy of the Bee-Keeper's ITIagazlne, post-paid, to any person in any way in- terested in Bees or their Products, or in the ap- paratus so successfully used in modern management. Just send j-our name and address to A.J. K4I1VGA CS>., 8tf 61 Hudson St., Wew York. WA ^ T E D ■. A thoroughly competent man to take charge of an apiary. (A recommendation from this paper will be received). One with a small capital will be taken as partner. Cotton lands for rent. DR. P. G. McGAVOCK, 3 McGavock, Miss. Co., Ark. A small Portable Engine and Boiler in exchange for bees. HENRY PALMER, Hart, Mich. COMB FOtJNDATION, 45 TO 55 CENTS PER POUND. 1-3 C. R. CARLIN, Shreveport, La. Langstroth Bee Hives cut ready to nail including 10 frames and 6 honey boxes or two story hives of 20 or 31 frames. Price 80c to $1.50 each according to quantity and quality. Address R. R. MURPHY, 12-3 Garden Plain, or Fulton, Whiteside Co., III. ITALIAN BEES and FAHCY POUI.TE-T. For Italian Bees, full colonies or queens, also Fan- cv Poultry, including the leading ^ arieties of Land and Water Fowls, Addi-ess JNO. R. LANDES, 3-j Albion, Ashland Co., Ohio. doevote:!) to bee(-?s aini> Mo^fEiiT, Aivr> hom:e hvterestb. Vol. VI. FEBRUARY 1, 1878. No. 2. A. I. ROOT, -) Publisher and Proprietor, Published I?Io;] jSaly. Medina^ O. JDBstatollstifMl In 1 «7:$ ("TEKMS: «1.00Per Annum in Ad- < vance; 3 Copies for $2.50; 6 for ftS.TS; , ClO or more, 60f. each. Single Number lOc* JTIY EXPERIENCE. NO. 2. MOVING BEES. ^ SHOULD ha\-e left the bees until spring', but lij! they had no protection, and I thought it best to ^^1 have them at home under mv own care. To pre- pare them for moving, we spread a piece of cloth up- on a platform of board^i, set the mouth of the hive upon the cloth, turned the ed^es of the cloth up against the outside of the hive, and fastened them there by tacking on thin strips of wood. About 6 inches of straw was placed in the sleigh bottom, the hives placed upon it, and straw was packed between the hives, and all round them, to keep them in place. They were moved 7 miles and came all right. WINTERING. Before going after my bees, I built a long, large box. When I arrived at home, I set the hives into it side by side, three or four inches apart, and psicked straw all round, and between them. The boards, on the side of the box whert the entrances were placed, were raised four inches from the bottom, to make an entrance. Three blocks, 4 inches thick, were laid in the bottom of the box, and a strip of board laiJ upon them, which prevented the straw from coming down over the entrances; this left an entrance, 4 inches wide, directly to the entrances of the hives. I took the plugs out (if the tops of the hives, covered the holes with wire cloth, then covered the hives on top with a foot of straw, and put on boards to keep out the water. MAKING HIVES. "Once upon a time," when I was a "canvassing agent," I stopped at the house of a friend, who kept bees. It was swarming time, and he had neglected to have his hives ready. He worked hard every day, from daylight until dark, and yet the bees were gain- ing on him all the time. Some swarms had to be united, and some put back and the queen cells cut out for want of hives. He begged so hard of me to stay and help him make hives, that I finally con- sented to stay one day. Having seen the folly of not having hives in readiness, I made mine in the winter. I made, by hand, just such a hive as \ want- ed, took it to a planing mill, and had the lumber dressed and sawed up all ready to nail together. The hives were painted white. Before the last coat was dry, they were marbleized by holding a liorhted can- dle under the freshly painted surface, and moving it rapidly to and fro. My wife did this part of the work, and I must say she produced some very good imita- tions of variegated marble, as well as some very ' "fancifvil" ones. The hives being all alike, they could be used interchangeably, thereby facilitating many of the operations of the apiary. The caps were painted different colors, and each cap always used at the same stand. And while I am talking about hives, let me advise you not to choose a complicated one. Those complex affairs, with their hinges, doors, venti- lators, moth traps, &c, are very nice for patent right men to shov/ off and sell to some one who knows nothing about bees; but once get the bees into them, and these fine "fixings" will prove to be a nuisance in moi'e ways than one. W. Z. Hutchinson. Kogersville, Mich., Your plan of wintering, friend H., did very wellfor hives just brought liome, but if you were to tiike them out of your own yard and put them close together, they would be very apt to get lost and mixed up. Many losses of colonies, have been reported, under such treatment. Better protect each one on its permanent summer stand. APIS BORSATA, OR THE HONEY BEE OF BORNEO, CEYI-ON AND JAVA. Syjp HAD a letter a few days since from Mr. H. Alley. jSjl A friend of his received a Cyprian queen in Nov. -^ He says the queen is dead but the workers are remarkably handsome. My interest now is all cen- tered in Apt» JDorsata Jan. No. of Am. B. J. will contain a long article on this bee. The fact that they build in the open air is not against them, for they al- so build in hollow trees. I have known just such cases here, using the under side of dense evergreens. This would naturally occur more frequently in a mild climate. I desire to follow this matter up, and to get all the aid I can in obtaining information. Several of my friends are helping me in this matter through correspondence. Ehrick Parmly. New York, Dec. 3oth, 1877, It has always been my impression, that the Apis Dorsata, belonged to the family of wild Dees, that do not store any great amount of honey, other than they require for their own use. The natives, it is true, run great risks to get at their stores, but they are in the habit of eating both brood and honey, which latter 1 fear would hardly be relished by our American friends who complain of tlie least excess of beeswax in their honey comb. However, as I have a great fancy for new things too, I will pay $100.00 for "a colony of Api.'i Dorsata, sent to me in any shaj^e from which I can get them built up safely. The .1. B. ./., for Jan., has a very interesting account of the way the natives get the honey. As a great many of our readers take both Journals, it will hard- ly be best for us to give a reprint of it. I would suggest to beginners, that they had better be satislied at present, with the Ital- ians. The Cyprian bee for which so much was claimed a few years ago, now seems to be little, if any different from tiie ordinary Italian. The disi)osition to ransack this en- tire little earth of ours, for everything that it contains in our line of industry, is I think commendable, when one has the means to push sucli investigations. Columbus would never have discovered America, had he not burned to know more of this ball on which we live. We bee-keepers cannot well spare 34 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Eeb. time to make polar explorations^ but we cer- tainly can scrape up all the different varie- ties of honey bees, no matter it' we have to go to Cliina and the Indian ocean to get Qiem, can we not, eh ? -^ ■•« ^ — BOTANY OF BfONEY P1.ANTS. f ALWAYS look Gl,eaning8 over, though I am not a bee man. T ought to give more attention _. to bee plants, and think I shall. When you want any plants named send direct to me. They generally get to me before named. This will save one trans- fer for brother Cook. I am surprised at the growth ot bee culture within my recolleeticm. There must ■ be something in it, or there would not be so many Journals devoted entirely to the subject. M. J. BEAi, Lansing, Mich., Jan. 3d, "78. We are very thankful indeed to Prof. Beal for his kind otter of his services in naming plants. We would further suggest that our rriends mail their specimens direct to Prof. Beal, Agricultural College, Lansing Mich., with the request that he send them, with his reply, to us, or to either of the other Journals as may be thought best. We have now an engravor of our own, and will have the best honey plants, illustrated. We will cheerfully provide the Prof., with postage Stamps, in reserve, and boxes or envelopes adressed to us, so that we may not trespass too much on his good nature. Now friends please remember ; send all your plants and specimens direct to him, ?nd he will mail tiem, with his answer, to us. X^erlaLnliig to 35ec diltnire,. [We respectfully solicit the aid of our friends in conducting this department, and would crnsider it a favor to have them send us all circulais that have a deceptive appearance. The greatest care will beat all times maintained to prevent injustice being done any one.] fDO not know but we shall really be com- pelled to keep a standing note of warn- ing in this depnrtment, to prevent Mitch- ell and his clique, from obtaining money by fraudulent and barefaced claims, presented to almost every one who is so uninformed that there seems a prospect of their getting anything. For some time past, we have an- swered inquirers, by the simple statement that Mitchell is the ring leader of all the swindlers in the bee-business, and that he has been shown up almost incessantly for the past four years. Of late, it takes too many postals. The following letters tell tlieir own story. His claims are, if possible, more ridiculous than were Gillespie's on all hives used two stories high. As you solicit aid in exix^siug humbugs and swin- dles, and, as I judge some parties here, and elsewhere have been swindled, I write to asceitain. You say to your intjuiiing friends "Nr a farm right, and thev replied that I W(.uld got into trouble if 1 did. Willi? Send for their circular, and see for yourself whether or not they are swindlers. However, I will enclose a pos- tal for you to inform me immediately what you know of them, and whether the division board Is patented or not. A. Lewis, Taylorville, Ills, want's a specimen copy of Gleanings. He has an apiary of more than 100 hives, and paid $5.00 tor the "Mitchell patent." Wm. G. Brown. Breckenridge, Ills., Dec. 31st, 1877. Our friends have kindly sent us, I think, all the circulars Mitchell has frcm time to time published. If he, or they, have any ■patent covering divisien boards, lined with cloth or otherwise, the sheets of duck over the frames or anything else of like nature, I beg as a favor, that he prosecute me, as I am perhaps the greatest infringer. If he calls on you and threatens, show him this, and if that does not do, show him the door, and assure him that you consider it a Christian duty, to assist in driving him back to an honest life, if tie thing be possible. When- ever you lay them money, to get rid of them, you encourage others to, perhaps, leave an honorable and steady business, to engage in this species of highway robbery. You have no right to give such people mon- ey, even if you should tind it the easiest way of getting rid of them. QlEENCEIiliS, HOW TO GET THEM FOR THE LAMP NURSERY, &C. fr a comb of larvae, just hatcJ)ed, Is placed in a queenless colony, in how many days will the qucfn ard worker cells be sealed, so that it can be placed in a lamp nursery? Which will be sealed first, the queen or worker cells? I suppose the worker brood must be sealed up, when it is removed, as well as queen cells. Would you keep cnc coir ny queenless all the sea- son, and keep them rearing queens? If not, how many "batches" of queen cells would you have them build, befoie you would allow them to have a queen? WMll "lamp nurseiT" appear in A B C of bee cul- ture befoie it is time to tear queens? When you intrcdi^ce a newly hatched queen to a nucleus, do you usually let her crawl in at the en- trance? W. Z. Hutchinson. Kogersvllle, Mich., Jan. 3d, 1878. I confess I cr.n not tell exactly w'hen all the queen cells will be sealed over ; but as the worker brood is all capped inside of 7 days after the egg is laid, and the egg does not appear as a minute larvaj until the third day, I think we shall find all the queen cells sealed over as soon as four days from the time the larvae was given them. If young bees are added to a colony from time to time, you can keep them building queen cells all the season. As some particular col- onies seem to have a mania for starting a great number of cells, I think it would be a very good idea to keep them at it as long as they will do it well. All the worker lar- va? should be sealed over before the frame is put into the lamp nursery, or they will crawl out of their cells in a staning condi- tion. I have had just as good success in letting just hatched queens in at the en- trance, and when you are in a hniTy, it is (luite a saving of the time occupied in open- ing the hives. If we could only find a sure way of introdncing tlese young queens un- der all circumstances, and to' all colonies, weak or strong, the liunp nursery would be one of our greatest modern improvements. With nothing but young bees, or during a good yield ot honey', there is seldom a fail- 1878. GLEA^IKGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 35 ure , but when a drouth occurSj and robbers abound, the young queen is quite apt to get led out as an intruder, by some over zealous inmate of the hive. They do not seem to have any ill will to them, for I have often picked them up at the entrance and put them back a^ain, and had them accepted and fertilized. If we could furnish a pint of young bees with each newly hatched queen, there would be no trouble at all. Cxn any profitable way of doing this be de- vised ? SHADHVO HIVJES, E^NEIMIES OF BE:e:S, &c. TOADS, BEE MARTINS, AND BEE HAWKS. UHILE you and your Northern friends are constantly discussing the best plan for keei> ina- your bees warm through the winter, we are in doubt, whether or not wo should take some pains to keep our bees cool. We had a killina: frost on the 13th of November, which completely cleaned up all bee pasturage for the present; but we fre- quently have pleasant sunny days when the bees, la hives exposed to the sun, come out in considerable force, while those in hiv^es that are shaded and kept cool, are quiet. Now the question is, will not those in the shaded hives winter better and consume less than those that are flying out every sunny day? In considering this question, you will bear in mind that our sunny days are often followed by cool evenings, and that bees that do not return home before sun- set stand a good chance to become chilled and not get home at all. We notice that some of your friends still plead for the toads. Well, there is no doubt that toads are useful in the farm and garden, but the way they do eat bees is a ctfution; and I say that suitable stands do not seem to prevent them, for every poor fellow that comes in, "wf^ary and honey laden" and misses the alighting board falls into a toad's mouth. Now my plan is, to look for them occasionally around the hives, about dusk, gather them up, and take them to to the vegetable garden and release them. There they can feed upon flies and worms to their heart's content, and without doing any damage. We also notice a plea for the martins, and s- on the market; home m.ijket at that, with your ped- ler discouniged and trading old horses, ard finally coming down with a malignant form cf diptheria, with some danger of his non-recovery. Now, friend Novice. I sat down to wi ite for a coup- le of files, and will come to a close, for if I keep on, I verily believe you will think I have the blues. If this was written with blue ink I would call it a hhic lettrr. Ard if bee-keepers havn't a n;;/?f to have the blues, I d( n't know w ho has: ask Heddrn. J. H. Martin, Hartford, N. Y. Dec. 27th, "77. Now friend M.. if you have not forgotten all about your fit of the blues when this meets your eye, I shall conclude you are just the man we have long been looking for, to countenict the tendency of our ABC chiss to think bee culture is all sure and certain l>rofit. iind no h;ird work. I very much pre- fer that they simll start out with the idea tluit th.ey mr/y have to sell their honev f or o or lOc. i)i;ui ihat they will surely get 2o, without ;iiiy esjiecial effort on their i)art. I will uKKst cheerfully assist you in going into that other business that "is "clenn profit," witli no losses, by tnking all your l)ees. ;it .?8.00 per colony ;nul honey at Sc per lb. If tliey are in L. frames such';ts I use. I do not know but that I could lake them ail at i?.5.00. Are you sure, if I buy you out at these figures you will not set right to work and build up another apiary at a less expense and make money at it ? If you will write as clear con- sistent and jjractkal an article tor this de- partment every month, I will pay you as much for your articles, as I do your neigh- bor Doolittle for his. If honey comes down to .5c, I think we can all swing our hats and give three rousing cheers for the success bee culture has made, in making honey as plenty as milk, and placing it within the reach of every one. While a feu- lament that the prices of honey and bees are likely to go down, thousands will rejoice. Can we not be hai)py in seeing others happy, even if we do suffer a little V Money easily enined does not, by any means, bring hapi)iness. CATNIP. m HE best plan for raising catnip is to sow the seed very thickly, in March, on good garden soil, let the plants grow till fall and cover them slightly with litter, to prevent their being thrown out by the action of frost during winter. As soon as the freezing weather is nearly over, the next spring, the plants should be set out S}i feet apart each way, (4000 to the acre) and cultivated like corn. The plants will blossom the first season, but are so small as not to produce much hone}'. This transplanted crop will commence to bloom the latter part of June, and continue to throw out new shoots and branches which will be covered with bloom and with bees un- til hard frosts. During the summer of 1875 all sources of honey, except catnip, were cut off in these parts, and friend Hill, who lived about nine miles from where I was situated with my bees and catnip, had to feed his 84: swaims between two and three thousand lbs. of hon- ey during the summer and fall. I had H acre of cultivated catnip, besides considerable that I had sown in wild places, from which my bees gathered an abundance to keep up brof)d rearing through the summer and fall, and increase from Si to 33. During the latter part f f that season Mr. Hill paid us a visit and while looking at the catnip which covered the ground completely, and stood as high as a man's her.d, discussing its merits, I remarked that I be- lieved my bees had, during the three months they had been at v/ork on it, gathei ed at least one pound of honey from each plant. He said he did not doubt it in the least. I have no seed for sale at present but could furnish a few thousands of plants in the spring. Have not enough to make it an object to advertise. M. Nevins, Cumminsville, O., Jan. 5th, '78. > Hg» ^' FRIEND JOINER AN» HIS "CONVEN- TION.-' WHAT HE SAW, HEARD, AND LEARNED. ^ AST week I attended a Bee-Keeper's "Conven- w 1 tion." one of your kind, at the residence of ^~J W\ H. Stewart, Orion. Richland Co., Wis. He has lately bought a 5 inch comb machine of you. Mr. Stewart is a good mechanic, either in wood or metal .ird a genius generally. He has discovered, in a few hours experimenting, a much simpler method of dipping and rolling, than that described by j-ou in Dee. Gleanings; he uses no ice, is not particular about the temperature of his melted wax, or water tank, yet at one dipping he makes sheets of any thickness, and they come off in the water tank with- f/ut using anything to keep them from adhering to the dipping plates, or any ice. I was somewhat in- credulous at first, but we built a fire under his boil- vr, he dipj)ed and I rolled, and I had the satisfaction f f making seme of the most beautiful fdn. I ever saw. We went and looked at his bees: at the beginning of winter he dug a ti-ench and set his hives over the trenc'n banking them uv> with the dirt from the trench. The weather was very waim. sr.me days as high as £0^ in the shade, and of course his bees soon 1878. GLEANIN^GS IN BEE CULTURE. 87 became uneasy, and he was forced to return them to their stands. You should see his bees! He has swarms in box hives 17 inches each way inside, mostly filled with comb and bees, showing- between seven to twelve combs. Jlany hives are heavier than I can lift, and I can lift 200 lbs. He has one of the best locations I know of, but his large hives cause the white honey to be placed in the body of the hive beyond his reach, and the late buckwheat honey in his surplus bo.x:es. Mr. Stewart now proposes, with the aid of Simplicity hives, sections and fdn. and by the help of Glean- ings, to change all this. But alas! a most formida- ble dilficulty presents itself. To prevent swa'-ms lea\-ing new" hives, in place of cross sticks he has placed in each hive, before putting in the swarm, a quantity of oak brush ! This has answered the pur- pose intended, but they can not be transferred, it be- ing impossible to get the combs out in pieces larger than your hand. I think he will solve the dilficulty by drumming out all bees three weeks after the first swarm issues, when there will be the least brood in the hive, and putting the swarm into S. hives on fdn. comb, rendering up the old combs and running them through the ' ■mashe'en." Novice, let me congratulate you on the little fdn. machine. It is really a "gem," so simple, and so perfect. As bro. Stewart says, "It's onlj' fun to make fdn." While we were rolling it out nnd im- proving the time discussing problems in bee culture, Stewart declared he would give a ten dollar bill to have you drop in, as I had. Grooving sections for fdn., is a waste of work, in my opinion. Set a tin plate over a lamp and put some nice clean white rosin in the plate. When melted, dip the edge of the starter in the rosin and stick it in the section. "Mein vrow" will put them in at the rate of one a second; they cool instantly, and vou may lift a case of sections bv a starter. R. L. Joiner, Wyoming, Wis., Dec. 29th, 1877. Thanks for your ''report" friend J., but I wish to add just one word of caution, about that white rosin. .Nothing is more disagree- able in food, than a little bit of rosin ; and after a few customers have said your comb Iioney tasted of rosin, you would have a worse trouble on your hands, than did we when we used it for coating the honey bar- rels. Even if the rosin would hold secure enough to have the fdn. bear shipping, I think in the end, it would prove more troub- le, for not every one can handle melted wax and rosin as well as that skillful wife of yours, (begging Mrs. J"s. pardon). Some of the rosin usually gets on our clothes, and per- haps on the floor as well. If we have no groove, how are we to get the fdn. exactly in the middle of the top bar V Bear in mind that this groove only costs 2ic. per hundred boxes. CHAFF HIVES. HOW NOT TO MAKE THEM. ^J; NOW 18 inches deep, mercury 16= below zero yes- ^} terday morning, but pleasant to-day. Have just *>^' been out to look at my three stands of bees packed in 7(rt'/ chafl' hives; find bees in center dry and nice, but around the ends and sides where the upper storj' covers the lower, the snow had driven in and the warmth from the bees had melted it. caus- ing it to run down on the inside. As a result of this I found frost wherever these apertures were. So friend "Novice" I have concluded that this half chair idea wont do, and I want a saw that will rip those 3 inch strips for the regular chalf hive. Can such a saw be used on the foot power table and be run by one horse hooked to a "Ground Hog Power?" Would it be cheaper to buy mandrel, boxes and saws, and rig a table of my own? Inclosed find diagram; please tell me what you think of it. I dislike the idea of having to remote fourteen frames defore I can take one from the bottom. C. H. Deane. Mortonsville, Ky., Jan. 8th, 1878. So many have asked questions in regard to this problem of making chaff hives, I have thought best to submit the sketch our friend sends us ; not to show you how to make chaff hives, but to show you how not to make them. The hives made with the upper story removable, have turned out just as 1 felt sure they would. The plan given in the sketch, has the objection that the up- per frames are not interchangeable with the lower ones, on account of the long to]i bar. This seems a very simple matter, yet I know of no way of getting over it. I "too, would like some plan by which I could get out one of the lower frames, without taking all the upper ones out first. If any one of our readers will study up a plan suiiiciently simple. I will pay $2-5.00 for it. The conditions are that it allow of using frames all precisely alike ; that there be no loose valves or hinges inside the hive, for the bees to cover with propolis ; that the de- vice be cheap, simple and effectual. If I think well enough to use and advise it, I will pay the inventor, the $25.00. I will ex- plain to you some of the difiiculties. The space between the frames and the ends of the hive, must nowhere exceed | of an inch. This makes the projection at the end of the frames, as seen just above A, very short. The strap iron set in the side of the hive for it to hang on, is also much in the way, and if you are not careful, will scrape the ends of the frames and kill bees, when they are handled. Friend D. has siiown the chaff enclosed between thick boards. This, I think is an error, for the stuff should not exceed i inch in thickness, and the width not more than 2 inches, that the chaff may be constantly ventilated, and may dry out quickly should it ever get damp from the breath of the bees. As we have explained, this stuff is cheaply and quickly made from cheap pine lumber called culls ; it can be bought at almost any lumber yard, for SIO.OG per ^l. The 3 inch siding cannot well be split by foot power, but one horse would do it very well, if you feed slowly. For this work you will want our SS.OO mandrel, and a §3.00 ten inch saw. You had better make the table at home. I don't know about tlie '"Ground Hog" horse poAver, will you tell us about it ? Our bees at this date— Jan. 1.5tli, — are in beautiful or- der under the chaff cushions ; even the nu- clei, passed the late zero weather, as bright and fresh as could be. If I should succeed once in my life in wintering every colony, 38 GLExiXINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Feb. woiikl it not be grand V There are, nuclei and all. just fl8 of them. P. 8.— While writing the above a letter was handed in, that solves the problem com- uletely. except that the loicer frames cannot be used in the upper story. The re^fular chaff hive can be fixed in a few minutes, to take these short frames crosswise in the lower story, and if you do not like the ar- rangement, there is no harm done to the liive. Here is the letter: The section of country in which I live has never been fully tested as a honey producing- section. Bees are g:enerally kept in log- or box hives, from 2 to i) ft. hig-h, stuck up on a bench 18 in., or 2 ft. from the ground. How is that for '"high?" No use for saw- dust or danger of toads, eh? Last year, I secu-ed 40 lbs. of box honey and a fine swarm from one of the above described hives, so I conclude that ours is a honey section. I have been trying to make some improvement in bee culture, but was groping in the dark until I got hold of Gleanings. Then 1 beg-an to see lig-ht. I began immediately to make frame hives and last summer I got 2 Italian queens from Taylor, and 3 from NelUs. I introduced all successfully and they all proved purely furtilized. I began to feel r^eally proud of my success. I now have 31 stands; 15 in" frame hives, frames III4 by ]2'4. I intend to go slowly and want to go "sure." Many thanks toGLEANiNGS for in- structions. In Vol. .5, page 8, of Gleaning.s, you say in your description of chaff hives, that to have theframes in the upper and lower story both run the same way is impossible, unless we bring in loose pieces that can never be tolerated in a bee hive. Why not use a frame below, that will hold but 6 section boxes such as you spoke of in last month's Gleanings for Sim- plicity hive? I know you object to two kinds of frame in an apiary, but they would be so nice to handle and so easy to prepare for winter. I think I'll make a few in order to test them; my idea is to make the hives so that the space at the ends of the lower set of frames can be filled with chaff all the time, and by using a division board or chaff cushion at the ends and a cushion on top, the bees have all the protection they need. The top story will need no chaff, so your frames can reach the outer wall of the hive. A hive on the above plan will be neat, con- venient to handle, v/ell adapted to out door winter- ing and easy to construct. A. P. Conaway. Slannlngton, West Va., Jan. 12th, 1878. JWACHIIVE FOK PUTTING F»N. IN THE FRAMES. .nnge used to lubricate the buniisher D, we have a little tin trough F, holding a little honey. After a sheet has been fastened to the frame, the handle E, is pressed down gently, wetting D, ^^ith the honey, the full length. The other parts will I think be comprehended at a glance. The frame is laid ovc'' the board A, with the comb guide under tlie buniisher D. The fdn. is tlien laid with the edge on the comb guide, the wax being warm, as friend 8. sug- gests. Moisten the burnisher with honey as directed, press the foot on the treadle, and the job is finished. Although the machine works all right without any trouble at all, I confess unless I had a great many frames to do, I would not want so much machinery around ; the plan given in our price list, does very well for several dozen or a hundred. If you have a thousand or so, to put in, I think very like- ly a machine would pay for itself. As a powerful pressure is required to make sure work of it, the levers must be very strong. Ours are made of inch square bar iron. The expense, table and all, made in good neat shape, will be about $1.5.00. The spring that raises the burnisher, is coiled wire, around the rod C, above the table. A VERY neat volume of 3.50 pag^s, from Geo. Neighbor & Sons, London, is just at hand, entitled The Apiary, or Bees, Bee Hives and Bee Culture. The paper, printing, engravings, &c., are excellent, but our English cousins adhere with strang-e tenacity to old forms of hives and implements. The compli- cated and expensive structures they recommend for hives, lead one to wonder whether they ever keep bees to make money out of them. It may be we err in the opposite extreme, but so long as we g-et tons of beautiful honey, with our cheap and simple fix- tures, make our bees pay their way and get out of debt, can we be very far in the wrong? M^ »»»-<«» Our 7.5c smoker, it seems is answering- every pur- pose, and we are already selling rpore of them, than we ever sold of any other kind, early as it is in the season. If you are in doubt in regard to them, you can return any one at our expense, that does not prove perfectly satisfactory. One of our friends very innocently asks if they will "go" when turned over. In carrjing them about in the apiary, I gen- erally carry them upside down, or nearly so; they are then in position to shoot the smoke i-ight down into any hive. Prof. Cook objects to the obtuse noz- zle; this I especially like, because it is so easy to clean out the soot that always accumulates, more or less. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 39 (Drone. Continued from lust month.) One of the most wonderful things about the drone or male bee, is that it is hatched from an egg that is nnimpregnated. So wonderful indeed is this, that the matter has been for ages disputed, and is, by many who have not looked into the matter and ex- amined the evidence, even now. "What we mean by unimpregnated, is that queens tliat have never met the male bee at all, will lay eggs, and these eggs will hatch, but they al- ways produce drones, and never workers. Those who have had the care of poultry, are well aware that the hens will lay eggs right along, if no cock is kept in the yard at all ; and if I am not mistaken, a pullet would commence and lay perhaps nearly her usual number of eggs, if she had never seen a male bird. Now, nearly the same is true with regard to the queen bee. If she fails to meet a drone during the first 30 days of her life, she usually begins to lay eggs, but she seldom lays as many, or with the same regularity, as a fertile queen. The eggs the hen lays, if she is allowed to sit. never pro- duce any chicks at all. The eggs laid by the queen, under the same circumstances, as I have said before, always produce drones. There is one more fact connected with the common fowl ; if the male bird is put into the yard with the hen for one day only, good fertile eggs will be laid for many days, pos- sibly a whole Jlaying. If a black Spanish cock should get among a flock of white hens for only a single day, all the eggs laid for many days afterward will produce chicks with more or less black feathers on them. I give these statements from actual facts. The point I wish you to observe, is that the eggs, of even the common fowl, are fertil- ized as they are laid by the hen, or a few days before, possibly. "With the fowls, one meeting with the male bird suffices for the fertilization of an egg daily, for a week, or more ; with the queen bee. for her whole life of three or even four years. I do not know whether the hen has the power of laying fertile or unfertile eggs at will, or not ; perhaps not, but I do know that a queen bee lays fertilized eggs, and unfer- tilized, rapidly, and in succession, alterna- ting from one kind to the other. Skillful microscopists have carefully dissected eggs from worker cells, and found the living spermatozoa in inuiibers fi'om one to five. These living spermatozoa, were precisely identical with those found in dissecting a mature drone. Again; every egg a queen lays, passes a little sack containing a minute quantity of some fluid; the microscope shows that this fluid contains thousands of these spermatozoa. Is it not wonderful that these spermatozoa should live four years or more in this little sack, awaiting their turn to be developed into a higher life whenever they should be required to fertilize the egg that is to produce the worker bee V Very well ; now the egg that is taken from a drone cell, contains no trace of spermatozoa. Therefore it, like the egg of the common fowl, unimpregnated, should never hatch. But my friends, it does hatch, and produces the drone. The first glimpes we get of the little bit of animated natme, is the tiny speck alive at the bottom of the cell. Does he grow out of nothing, without parentage, at least on the paternal side ? If his mother was an Italian, he is also Italian ; if a black queen, he is also black. We shall have to conclude, perhaps, that he is the son of his mother, and nothing more. The egg that has never been impregnated in the usual Avay, must, after all, have some living germ incorporated in its make up, and this germ comes only from the mother. The great skill and proficiency with the microscope, required to make these minute examina- tions, is such, that but one or two have ever succeeded in exploring as far as I have men- tioned, and it is somewhat like our investi- gations in the polar regions. Who among us, will educate himself for the work and carry it along. Drones are also hatched from eggs laid by worker bees. These are usually smaller in size than from those laid by a queen, and the question as to whether they are capable of fertilizing queens, so as to be of some value, like other drones, is one that I believe has never been decided. Some facts have been brovight to light that seem to be pretty good evidence on both sides of the question, but so far as I know, nothing very definite. I confess, that I would not want to make use of them, even if they were good, for I want the strongest, healthiest, and largest drones I can get. For a further account of the mothers of these queer drones, see fer- tile WORKERS. After what I have said, you will perhaps see how clear it is, that the drones are in no way affected by the fertilization of the queen ; or. in other words that all daughters of a purely fertilized Italian queen, produce drones absolutely pure, whether iLey have been fertilized by a black drone or not. Until quite recently, we have had no eosy way of repressing the production of drones,, in far greater iiumbers than could ever be 40 GLEAXINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Feb. desirable. Since the introduction of the fdn., however, it is quite an easy matter to make almost every cell in the hive a worker cell. On the other hand, if we choose, we can have a hive filled entirely with drone comb, and a good queen could, I think, be induced to raise nearly, if not quite, a full peck of drones at one time. By this means we can have our drones raised from such stock as we choose, and we can save the vast amount of honey that has so long been wasted by rearing and feeding drones that we do not need. While extracting, I have found as many as several pounds of drone larvae in a single hive, and to save the honey they would consume as soon as hatched, we used to shave their heads off with a very sharp knife. This is certainly rather expensive business, for it must take more than a pound of honey, to say nothing of the value of the IwUen, t HOmSir. Liquid honey taken from the comb with the honey extractor, has now been before the world for 10 years, and much has been the discus- sion pro and con. in regard to its merits, and its desmibleness compared with comb honey, for table use. If I have made no mistake. I extracted the first tun of honey ever taken fi-om one apiarj* , with the extrac- tor ; and as it was put directly into market, and such honey has been kept in market con- stantly ever since. I have had a pretty good opportiuiity of knowing all about it. If all the extracted honey put ujwn the market were as good as some we have raised and purchased, there would, I am quite siu-e. be no trouble at all in deciding that it would di'ive honey in the comb almost out of the question. Much has been said about adul- teration, but I have very little fear in that direction. It is almost as impossible to imi- tate a really fine article of clover or linden honey, as it is to imitate fresh strawberries. Let the people taste of the honey they are asked to buy. and they will very soon say whether they want it, and what they can afford to pay for it. A really nice article of extracted honey will bring 20 or 2oc.. quicker than a poor article will bring 10 or 1-5 ; and I have seen some. aye. and have offered it for sale too. that I do not honestly think was worth over oc, if it was worth am"thing at all, unless to feed bees. Is all this difference on account of the source from which it was gathered ':* Xot at all. for all the honey we get here, in the great majority of seasons, is from clover and linden. Then where is the great differ- ence V It is, so far as my experience goes, simply because it is taken from the hive before it is ripe. I know there are many who do not agree with me, and I presume in some seasons, and in some localities, the honey may be ready to extract as fast as it is gathered from the flowers. I make this admission solely from what others have said, for J have never seen any honey I thought was fit to extract, until it was all sealed over. StiU farther. I do not believe it is nearly as nice, even when it is all sealed over, as it will be if left in the hive three or four weeks after it has been all sealed. I Avill tell you some of my experience to illus- trate the point. In 1S70. we extracted from our apiary of less than oO colonies, over 3 tims of honey. It was put up in 1 lb. bottles, and more than half was sold for 2.5c. per lb. Dnring the fore part of the season, the honey was al- lowed to get pretty well capped over, but 1878. GLEAXIXGS IX BEE CULTURE. 47 during basswood bloom, we, bees and all. [ got somewhat crazy, I fear, and they brought I in what was but little better than sweet- I ened water, and we extracted and put it in- , to bottles, and hurried it off to fill orders, hoping it would all get '-good."' as soon as the weatlier got cool. It candied when the weather became cool, for almost all honey will candy, or at least one portion will can- dy, leaving a thin watery part, which, if it does not sour, acquires in time a disagreea- ble brackish flavor, like that acquired by liquids standing in an old barrel. At about this stage, it shows that peculiar qual- ity of pushing the bungs out of the ban-els. and the corks out of the bottles, running ' over on the shelves and tables, to the dis- ■ comfiture. and disgust, of everybody who like to be cleanly in tiieir habits. When I tasted some of the honey in one of these bottles, 6 months afterward, I did not won- der it had stopped selling, and I made up my mind it should no more be offered for : sale. I believe it was all poured out of the bottles, and sold to a tobacconist. The con- tents of the jars were not all alike, for the thin watery honey has quite a tendency to ' swim on top. "We. one season, commenced to retail from a barrel of what all pronoun- , ced line clover honey : one day a custom- j er returned some, saying it was not like ! what he bought before. We assured him it ' was dra^^^l from the same barrel, and went and drew some, to assure him. Beliold 1 it ' was sweetened water, compared with the tirst. The thin honey having risen to the top, was the last to be drawn out. {Continu?d next month). C4. Pro3ii Different Fields. JAVA BEE, AKTIFICIAL F£ RTHIZ ATIOX, &C. Vjf' WILL write in a few day^ to Fiorini about the '5|| Java bee, and g-et all the information I can. It %a will not seem strange to you that I am constant- ly thinkiiig' over thU matter. I want to see that bee, dead or alive, without any unnecessary delay. It may prove like the bijr fowls from China, not of much worth, but I want to know just what its m.erits are, there and here. I hope you will keep the question in agritation. I know Newman will, and King- will, so if our Journals are read abroad, the bee-keepers on the other side will think wc are in earnest. I have considerable information, and correspon- dence on artificial fertilization. Those who say they have succeeded, give their processes requesting me to not publish. The.v are too tedious for practice, but prove that it can be done and seen. I want to see it, and to see just how the queen gets rid of the drone, as the attachment is pretty strong, as you must have noticed, if ever you tried to break the or- gans from the drone. I was unfortunate in the use of the word "Essay" in my offer of a pi-ize. Moon criticizes it, and others have written me. I ought to have written "for the best method" — care nothing for elegant writing. I simply want facts plainly stated, and nothing withheld. Ehrich Par.mly. N. Y., Jan. 9th, 1878. The above it is evident, was not mtended for print, but as it touches on several ques- tions, that are of late being much inquired about, we hope our friend will pardon the liberty. Perhaps it may be well to state to our readers that Dr. Parmly has offered a prize of S2.5.00 for the best essay on fertilization in confinement, and SlO.OO'for the best essay on rearing queens, or re-queening an apiary. This offer, to which he refers, was given in the Dec. Magazine. FERTILIZATION OF QrTTEXS, ASTER HO>rEr &C. I saw a queen take her flight with three drones fol- lowing her. After I lost sight of her, I seated myself beside her hive; in about .t minutes she returned, fertile. Just at the time that I saw her, I saw a drone strugs'ling on the ground a few feet away. 1 went to pick up the drone and found him dead. There was a white thread-like string hanging from the di-one; he was an Italian, and the queen raised pure bees. Xow. I believe that queen was fertilized by said drone. Twice I have seen drones chasing queens, and have seen the queen turn facing the drones for a moment, and thea off again; the queen flying in a very ia-egular line. My idea is this; when the queen turns facing them, if there is a drone prepared they mate; if not. off she goes again. The long chase is necessary to prepare the drone for the meeting, and that is the rea.son they cannot be fertilized in conflnment. I placed some of the C5mb« containing the aster honey that was partially candled, near the kitchen stove. It soon became liquid and is very pleasant honey. O. W. Parker. Xew Lijndon, Min.. Jan. 16th, '78. Thank you. friend F. you have certainly added a link to the chain of evidence ; the question now is. as Dr. Parmly stated above, how does the queen get free from the drone? If any one really /ja^; witnessed the meeting, now IS the time for them to "rise and ex- plain." bees coming out ox THE SXOW. Last fall, I bought one big "sum" hive with about 100 lbs. of comb, bees and honey; brought them home and set them on the south side of a fence with the entrance to the south, and put com fodder round them, except over the entrance. . The other day when the snow was on the ground, the sun came out, and so did lots of my bees; many of them became chilled and did not get back. WTiat ought 1 to do? Cover the entrance, or not? S. D. LOCKWOOD. East Enterprise, Ind., Jan. 10th, 1878. Your hive is very large, and the swarm of bees also, i presume, and there are therefore many old and feeble bees among them. Dur- ing weather in which tliey fly every day, these would have perished a few at a time. and would have been imnoticed. After be- ing confined to the hive, for some time, they came out in a body with the rest, and drop- ped aroimd the entrance. Unless the num- ber is very large, you need have no appre- hensions." They look as if there were a good many, being scattered about on the snow, but i think^if you were to pick them all up, you would find but a small handful. I do not think it makes any material difference, whether you let the sun shine on the en- trance or not. With a very large hive, many bees get frozen, by getting outside of the cluster on the back side of large combs; these are carried out, the first warm day, and tliey sometimes make quite a show. The reniedy is, to make the brood nest so small, that they All it completely. CALIFORNIA. The outlook now for a good season is good. We had over 4 inches of rain in Dec— heavier showers than before in yeai-s. The weather is now bright and clear, but colder than I have ever known it Jure. I saw ice this afternoon nearlv ^^ inch thick. G. F. Merriam. San Luis Bey, Cal., Jan. 3nd, 1878. 4S GLEA^sIXGS IX BEE CULTURE. Feb. ADVANTAGES OF A UXIFORM FR.VME. I see the advantage of ha^nnar a uniform frame. My first experience in bee culture was with the L. hive. I used them 5 years, but I must say that the hive I now use is preferable in the following- res- pects. First, for safe wintering and springing: sec- ondly, for rapid handling, queen rearing, nucleus swarming. &c., and you must admit that a weak swarm in spring crowded up on one comb 10x10 inch- es, with division board, will outstrip 3 times their number, oa an L. frame. Come to think of it tho', I am not School Master, please excuse me. Hiram Roof, Carson City, Mich.. Jan. 9th, 'T8. The above came in answer to a remark to friend Roop. that I should perhaps like to pm'chase some of his bees at the very low price for which he offered them in the spring, if it were not for his having an odd sized frame. The ABC class are calling for more bees than it is likely I shall be able to supply, but if I purchase. I must have them in L. frames, or at least in something that will hang in Simplicity hives. I agree partially, in regard to the' advantage of a small ffiime foi'building up, but not for rap- id handling. If a small frame is to be used, I think it had better be the one mentioned last month.-to hang crosswise in the Sim- plicity hives. FOUL BROOD. I have been very unfortunate with my bees, get- ting foul brood among them. Through the instruct- ion of Mr. Muth of Cincinnati, I succeeded in curing it. If, In Jan. 1877. I had known what I know in Jan. 1878 I would have been 83,000 better off. The knowl- edge may be of benefit to others, and if you wish, I will give vou the modus operandi. Geo. B. Batt.f.v. Mill Creek, Ttab, Jan. 8th, '78. Tell us how you cured it. by all means. While we are on the subject, it'may be well to mention that several complaints have been made of parties selling stocks affected with foul brood. This is a most serious mat- ter, and every offender shoald be dealt vrith to the fiiUesf extent of the law. There is a law for such things, if I am con-ectly in- formed. The injury done in some cases has been immense, almost beyond computation. Keep the disease within bounds, and as far as it is possible, endeavor to exterminate it. I will not attempt to describe my feelings, when, on a Sunday morning of last summer, I found that a rascal had been busy again among my bees, the pre- vious night, and carried off two large boxes of hon- ey, each containing between 40 and 50 lbs. Is not this sufficient to niake a person feel disgusted? I think nobody ^vill open one of your hives in the night and risk his thievish fingers" between the sec- tion boxes. Charles Klimitz. Batavia, X. Y., Jan. 7tli, 1878. made no difference, for they swarm while common ones do nothing in that line. My bees are mostly in the Am. hive; have some in the L. and what success I have had has been with them, by discarding honey boxes and putting on one and two stories filled with frames and starters, early in the season. Oli\-er S. Clark, Albia, Iowa, Dea 30th, '77. Tour postal is at hand; I may have appra-rctZ "blue" in that letter, but I ffiKs^ I wasn't very blue after all. Can't imagine what caused it, unless it was from reading some of Heddon's effusions, and then trying to out Heddon, Heddon. Please don't say anything about it in Gleaxixgs. J. H. M.artix. Hartford, N. Y., Jan. 7th, 1878. There now. your warning has come just too late, the matter is all in print, and aU our plans and projects for having you a '"Blasted Hoper," are at an end. Such is life. My wife says when Gleantxgs comes, there is no such thing as getting me to bed, nor to do a single chore, until I have locked and read it all over. I can't help it, for it is as much food for my mind, as honey, good light bread and sweet milk "are for my system. My crop of honev is nothing in compar- ison with such a report as Mr. Doolittle's', still I have a few boxes of honey, and many more partly full. It is nothing but swarming with my bees. I had two hives in particular, this seas.jn. that had plenty of room in the hive with two 20 lb. honey boxes, the up- per ones being half full of comb and honey, and they swarmed and swarmed again. I put the swarm back and cut down the queen cells: there was not much honey in the combs nor much room for any more brood. In the afternoon, while working in "the bee ! lot, on looking up I saw them swarming.^ I thought, "go in on your swarrning." Well, they did. for thev ! bid me and my oak grove, good bye. Some wicked thoughts c-ame into my mind for I was "out of sorts." ! They were a fine swarm of yellow bees, but that ' IT.^XJA^fS THAT PTTT ALL THE HONEY IX THE BROOD CHAiTBER. Bees haven't done much the past season.- From 65 stocks I took about 2.800 lbs. surplus, all in comb. Am much pleased with those little sections. What shall we call them? I projxjse that we call them the "Xovice section," what say you? You seem to find fault with those Italians that for- get to store honey in the brood nest; now friend Novice, don't you know that this "awful" propensity to store honey in the brood nest, is the only fault that I ever found with them? I have been thinking of sending to you next season for queens, and if I do, I want queens from those very stocks, that don't store in the brood nest. How soon could you send last season's queens by mail to this State?"and at what price? I don't care how small or dark they are, so they roll up an equal share of honey, with your best stocks. 1 want bees for hit-yiiiess first, then ptaceableness, then beauty. 1 keep an accarate account of each hive, how rnuch honey they make, and other good and bad qualities, and breed only from the best, destroying the poorest every spring. Jacob F. Flory. Modesto, California, Dec. 20th, 1S77. You have struck on a bright idea, friend F. I have no doubt, but that an apiary might be built up of bees that would, or would not, store all their honey in tiie brood nest, as we choose, by simply selecting tiie proper queens. We'havenad perhaps a half dozen stocks that would store all their honey in the sections, and have to be given frames of honey below, or they would starve. So far as I can now recollect, they were all hybrids, and were sold last fall for .50c. each. I sup- posed it was the strain of black blood, that gave them this tendency. I have just ques- tioned the yoimg man who took off the greater part of the honey, and he says it was these cross hybrids that filled the most sec- tions, both in the house apiary and outside : but some of them needed supplies from the more prudent Italians, before they were ready for winter. My friends, if we are working for honey. I do not believe a tinge of black blood does any great harm, and I do think dollar queens are really as valuable for all pui-poses. as those producing yellow bees invariably. We could easily ship our old queens as early as April or May. out how much dam- age would the colony sustain by so doing '^ After the experience I had last season, in taking queens fi'om fidl colonies, I should estimate a queen taken away in April or May. worth at least, half tlie price of the colony. Those who complain they can sell neither their bees nor honey, shoiild step to the front, and supply queens in May. You can have almost yoiir own price for them. 1878. GLEA^EXGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 49 Do you think I can sell all the queens I can raise from 20 nuclei, handled according to your method? I mean dollar queens, from an imported mother. Is It necessary that queens frr m Italy be over-hauled on ariving "at N. Y.. or will they go through to desti- nation nearly as well withf^uty 1 understand the queen rearing business and can furnish as good queens as any one. Black bees are quite scarce here now, so nearly every queen will prove pure. About 9-10 of mine proved pure last year. Do you send orders to your advertisers when you cannot till them yourself? I , shall furnish dollar queens next season if you think ; I can sell them. If I lear queens for sale, I shall ' want a queen nurssery as I do not think I can fur- nish dollar queens without one. O. H. Townsend. P. S. — It is very warm, with nothing but rain and mud. Bees are getting somewhat uneasy in the cel- lar, where I have all but one stock. Shall have to move them out if the weather does not change soon. . O. H. TOWNSEND. I Hubbardston, Mich., Dec. 27th, 1877. i At present I should say it was next to iiu- possiole to fiiniish more good dollar queens than will be called for next year. When we are unable to fill orders otherwise, we of course have to call on our advertisers. As this makes considerable complication. I would advise sending your orders direct to some one near you ; if we all use imported mothers, there should be no great difference between the queens of one apiary or another. I should be glad to sell you a lamp nursery, but there has for the last year or two been'a good many failures in introducing "just atched" queens. Xuclei when first made give no trouble, but after they get to be tol- erable colonies, many of the "young queens ! are not accepted, or turn up missing for i some reason or other. I Your P. S.. illustrates the difficulty of ■ housing bees with our uncertain winters. During the warm weather about the holi- days, we herird from great numbers who had been obliged to carry out their bees, and many of them had suffered severe losses, in trying to keep them in. I would not confine . bees to their hives in any way, and I do not believe I shall ever again carry a hive into a house or cellar. Excepting of course house apiaries, that allow them to fl}' otit at will, l^ueens are sent right through" from X. Y., without any changes, but if you are un- kno'ftii to the agents they may be held unti^ j you can forward the money. I CAUTION ABOUT FEEDING, ALSO SOMETHING OF MB. LANGSTROTH. I commenced with one hive, i years ago, and had everything to|leam. I increased them to upwards of 30. and reduced them by selling and doubling to about 24, without loss until this winter. Duringtthe warm weather I discovered that one had dysentery, and as an experiment gave it a pan of flour and syrup mixed, which they did not use up at once, so I left it in for a few days, and at the next visit I paid them found all dead; starved out and robbed; but the balance of my bees are all in good condition. I use the L., hive and prefer it to any other. I winter cut doors with the outside frames replaced with close fitting frames sided with picture frame back- ing, stuffed with chaff, and lined one side with old woolen carpet. Over the frames I place one or two peices of old carpet, and on top of them a chaff tick about 4 inches thick. I place the hives about 6 inches apart in lots of 4 or 5 and pack leaves between, under, and all round except in front, then set com fodder over the leaves to keep them dry, and in very cold weather put a little straw in the portiecs. I live within about 20O yards of Mr. Langstroth, i^nd am sorry to say that his health is very poor, and has been for some time. I have tried jour fdn. and am well pleased with it, especially for second stories, and the thinner it is, the better. D. A. McCord. Oxford. O.. Dec. 1st, 1877. Mr. Langstroth's heme is here but he keeps no bees; and is f cly occasionally able, on account of a difficulty in his head, to consult with Mr. D. McCord, a near neighbor, about bee-keeping. A. Gray, Oxfoid, O.. Jan. 2nd, 1878. Should the above meet the eye of friend L., we hope he will excuse us, for publish- ing what was probably sent us without any such intentions. I have taken the liberty, because there are so many inquiries in re- gard to him. and because we are all glad to get hold of even the simplest bit of informa- tion in regard to his health, whereabouts, &c. I began last spring with 20 gcrd swarms, extracted rver 6barrels of boney or 2J-';4 lbs. and increased to S6 swaims; have lost { ne since. 1 introduced some 45 queens, lost very nearly half in intrcducing. I am a new beginner, am told this has been a tad year here, do not know; I have ccmpaif d my doings with oth- ers and think I have done well. I have very nearly all Italians, and attribute my success to them. Would like to know if I am dcicg well. R. Marioneaux. Plaquemine, La., Dee. £Cth, 1877. You have done remarkably well my friend. ar;d I would warn you and other beginnere. not to base your calculations on doing so well continuously. Friend K. I would nr t take :85.00 for that one word I t)f informalif n you gave en clipping queens' wings. • I have had several big nice swaims do me no good after clipping 1 he wings of the queen, but I never un- til now. knew the leason, I shall hereafter watch out about clipping young queens before they commence to lay. j Please tell me how to make them swaim early. My neighbors cry humbug to me when I ask them to subscribe for GLE.\NiXGS; they have been swindled by patent hives until they are out of heart for any improvementin l)ee cultui-e. I tell them, time will prove all things; their answer is. "all right." My wife also can work with bees; one day when I was not at home, she put a ladder into a cedar tree, walked up and took a swaim down in her apron; you can tell whether she is afraid of bees or not. Some people think that everybody can't handle bees, but the reason is, they are afraid of them. E. J. Atchlet, Lancaster. Texas. Nov. 9th, '77. The very best argument with your neigh- bors will be perhaps, a huge crop of honey. And you can afford to keej) still awhile, "if you kee]) steadily at work. I am much in- clined to think your wife will demonstrate that bees will pay for intelligent care, even if you do not. I painting section boxes. &c. My bees are wintering very nicely in cellars, thus far, with less dead bees than last winter at this time. Have sold all my crop except about 700 lbs. around home. Had 4500 lb3. to sell, all in section boxes and 40 lb. tin cans. I use a case similar to yours for shipping, and for the use of retailers, paint them green, as the honey shows better by the contrast. Can't the section boxes be painted with advantage to the appearance of the honey; say a cherry or walnut color? Perhaps the expyens^ would be greater than the benefit. A. B, Cheney. Sparta Center, Mich., Dec, 29th, 1877. I do not think it would pay to paint the section boxes, for almost everybody has a fancy for the clean bright pine wood. It is true, that where they are left standing ex- posed to sunlight and dust, the wood soon turns to a disagreeable and tmsightly brown; but it must be otir business to prevent this. Open only 1 box at a time, and take the sections out only as fast as sold. If any are to be kept over/winter. leave them in the close fitting frames they are in when put in- to the hives, and keep the frames and all in hives piled up closely on each other. In this 50 GLEAXIXGS IX BEE CULTURE. Feb. way the pine w.^.^d will preserve its bright clean app?arance for a lona: time. If you see any on the market thit have become "old and diii^y. possibly fly specked, take them home, or cut the honey out and sell it in bulk, rather than have any poor looking g.'>'>ds with your labels on them, before the people. ' FRASIE VERSrS BOX HIVES. I hHve in all 4) swarms, one halt in the L. hive. I h-id 2J last year, oalv-i of which were L. hives. I put all mv incr?a»e in the JL. hives and got from every oae of thBin 51 lb?, of haney all in slats; from the remainder in oki l>ox hives I did nit a-et one lb. of suplus hoaev. I am ^■.•>in? to t^ansfe^ them in the sprin? as th?y are •"no a-j:)d" but to swarm. I put my second swarms in with the first, ?.:> I have very strong ^warrn? to winter. I winter in cellar and they all com? out strong and bright in the sprinar. I cover them with carpets a? I like them best, s.3 far. L. A. Foster. Sidaev Plains. X. T.. Dec. 16th. '77. summer but have never be?n able to cut S feet a minute: no. nor i feet a minute, I think it a very good machine for men weighina- 200 lbs. avoirdup:>is. I welsh but about 140, but still I like it first rate. F. J. Fark. P. S.— Tell Mr, Salisbury to e">me d:>wn to Tndepen- deac?. aad he miv se? an aoia^v that looks as well as Hayhiirsts. I refer to L. W. B ildwins 300 hives all in straight rows, n^t purest whit?, but several (x^lors. F. J. F-VRR. Independence, Mo.. Dec. 17th, ISTT. Our bees have ea-ried in pollen every day since the eth, of D?e. The weather has been very fine and bees are in fine coadiiioa, all wintering on their summer stands, none with even a honey board oa the hive. I examined several and found brood in two diflferent combs. Xo bees hive died in the hives up to this time Dec. 14th. 1877. A. F. Moox, Rome, Ga. I c >mmenced the season of ' . 4 . with 7 srvarms in ! box hives, which I transf ered to movable comb hive*, | and inererased t,"> 19 good strong colonies. I extracted j 525 lbs. of hon?y. and italianized them all. Xow. j would it not be better to change queens once in ; awhile to prevent their b-ecoming t«x) closely related? j WiU they "run out" the same as hogs or "sheep? I i never l>?ked into a bee hive until la^t sprine. The j season wa* verv noor. W. L. Dxxlels. ! Hubbardtoa. Mich., D«-. SOth. 1S77. Italianizing will be all the chansre needed I have 17 colonies all in chaff hives— guess they are all O. K. Many people here laugh at the idea of go- ing to so much exi>ense for the little "fellows," but I like h'lney: besides that, my principal expense was getting the first chaST hiv: from you. I made all the rest myself, so they did not cost so much after all. W. B. Shoemaker. NewviUe, Pa., Jan. 3d, 1878. 1 am sorry you said that I said your things were "humbugs;" I said it, true, but only used this word as friend B?tsinger hal just used it. It sounded harsh and mean? more than I do. or did. I have used long hives five years, and like them. I have sold colonies every year, bat never these hives; I like . them for extracting htney, and for sections too. Ij had b?tter success with sections, such as you use, i this ye^r. in "Xew Idea" hi\^es than In any other. No ] bnxKl nor pollen. A. J. Cook. , Lansing. Mich., Jan. 7th, ISTS. I b?^ pardon, friend C. for the liberty I j took ; I know that things in print often ■ s-^und differently from what they would if we could hear and see the speaker. So many have written strongly in favor of the chaff hives, I wished to give the other side, with equal faithfulness." , I am very glad to get your favorable re- port from section boxes in long hives. Those who have them on hand, can perhaps use them rather than throw them away. Has any one else, succeeded with them for comb hohev ':• I am a new beginner in bee culture, having com- menced 2 years ago. I started with three stands of black bees, and have increased to 41 stands, three of which are Italians: the rest are hybrids. Have them packed in chaff on their summer stands. Charles Shatfeh. Potsdam, O.. Dec. 12th, 1S77. Last spring was so backward and rainy that bees did n ithing until about the I'Jth of June. ' White clo- ver was never bener than this season, but the bass- wood, our main depend?ace. was an entire failure. It blossomed all right but yielded no honey. I put 41 stands in my cellar last 'winter. They came out aU right except some which were rather short of honey, and 10 which were rather weak : one of the latter swarmed out and left me with iO from which I ha\-e taken 25» lbs. of honey; 110i3 box and 14O0 ex- tracted, mostly white clover, the balance Spanish needle. I have now 72 stands ready for winter. I have used 10 or 12 lbs. of yellow fdn." mostly in boxes and like it so well that t shall get me a 9 inch ma- chine aad make fdn. to supolv mvself and neighbors. The S >x of hmer that t:)ok'the premium at the H. C. exposition was one that I had built from yeUow fdn. the fuU size of the box. and I will say that I never saw b ix hon°y that looked whiter or nicer. Th r--- r;'- in this little t.own 470 stands of bees, owned Mr. L. W. Baldwin, has 3u0. and took ; -ney mostlv box this sea«f- I. r». Meadows, has 2iO and took a* •■;• .^•' " me number in the spring, as Mr. B. Tl. --enc? in the amount of hoaev taken wa- .id>w'snot moving hi? bees. and partly fr •rn n .t giving them the proper care. I have a Barnes' foot power saw. and have had it all WABBLTNG SAWS, &C. I have bought a Barnes' saw and would like a little instruction in regard to 3etting the saw wabbling. I have sawed about 120 frames with it and like it very well. You got a little ahea i of me on nailed frames: 1 had just been trying to think of some way to mike a dovetailed joint, and put a small brad in. I shall use strips of tin to haa.2- the f r.imes on. This has been the warmest and wettest Dec. I ever saw. Bee folks who had put their t>ees in cellars and house? had to get them out for a few day?. I kept mine in tiU the temperature got up to 06^ before they made any fuss, then I sec them out f)r a few day's. It is some colder now, the thermometer has been standing at 40' and 42- for the last week, in the cellar. I have 2 rip saws, and for catting grooves in the ends of frames. I put on both saws with a paper collar be- tween, and it is just right. I made a pattern with a tongue that w.iuld run through the grooves easily and set it -3 inch from the saw, I run the grooves over that and it e':>e~ tiptop. V. W. Keeset, Shirland, Ills., Jan. 4th, '75. Although it is a very simple mitter, in- deed, to make a wabbling saw, it seems many of our friends do not get the idea. It' you lay two shingles together so that th? thick end of one is against the thin end of the other, and then cut a pair of washers out of b^th. you will have something like the cut here given. They are in re- ality a couple of thin wooden wheels, thick at one edge, and thin at the other. Now if you slip them on the saw mandrel, with the saw between them on the line A B, and then screw the whole up between the coUais. your saw will of course wabble. The amount of wabble, will depend on the amount of wedge shape you give the wash- ers. A very slight wabble will make a broad saw cut. while a broader one. will an- swer for the hand holes in the Simplicity hives, or for grooving out the -oc. feeders. For a broad wabble, an extra table top will be needed, unless you have Barnes" improved saw which has the halves of the table uAde to be moved apart. 1878. GLEAXLN'GS IX BEE CULTUKE. 51 lur %cimh Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit -within me. Psalms, 51-; 10. eXCE more, my friends, I shall have to ask your pardon for talking about my- ~-' self. You see, the trouble lies just here : if I should use other peoples' lives for illustrations, they would well, I do not want to use other peoples' lives, even if they should prove more charitable than I im- agine ; but if a few chapters from my owjt can be of any service, I cheerfully give them. "When I was about 10 years old, as nearly as I can remember. I asked my father if any piece of copper of the size and weight of a penny, was worth as much. The reason for this query was that I liad foimd an old piece of thick copper, that I thought might be util- ized in such a way as to increase the amount of specie in circulation ; and although I can- not remember what was my father's reply, at the time. I do remember very distinctly, that I soon had a penny rudely fashioned from one comer of the sheet. To make it look natural. I rubbed over the bright places, and soon started for the village store, to see if it would pass. I can very well remem- ber that as I trudged along w'ith it in my pocket, my conscience was not quite at ease, as I thought over the gentle remonstrances my kind mother had made to this latest pro- ject. The merchant was a kind old man, whom I had known long, and as I quietly gave my order for a "cent's worth of licorice root," 1 felt that I Avould give a good deal of hard work, for just one real genuine penny in place of the one I was at the moment finger- ing in my pocket. 'Sl\ conscience smote me still more, when he returned with one of the very largest "cent's worth," but there was no help for it thee stop ! there was a help. and there always is for evrry such contingen- cy : telling the plain truth'. Had I said. ''Mr. ]Mead I here is a penny I made my- self, out of an old piece of copper, if you do not wish to take it. I will leave my licorice until I go home and get a good one'" oh. how dilTerently I should have felt. I should have had to own up to my mother in a humilia- ting way, it is true, but she would have given me a good penny to keep my name good and untarnished, in an instant, and all would have been well. I was far too cowardly to do this, and as I took the nice bundle he "had fixed up lor me. I extended the fraudulent coin. He took it. looked it over, scanned the fi'esh marks of the grindstone I had used to make it round, and then loc»ked at me in- quiringly. Now I wish to stop long euougli. to say tliat everybody called me exceedingly honest. My mother, grandmother and the neiglibors iii general, had so often said that I was honest, that I fear I had begim to think my reputation was so good. I did not need to take any particular pains in regard to it. Well, something had to be said, as the kind merchant's eyes were turned full upon me. Did you ever notice now Satan blinds our l)etter judgment, when we are once enlisted in his service V I have some- I times imagined him shaking his sides with laughter, at the miserable subterfuges and j pretexts, that his victim tries to take refuge I imder. ! "Is not the penny a good one V" said I. ; trying to feign surprise. Xow this was an 1 indirect falsehood, and paved the way for a greater one, so it was nothing very strange : that I immediately added. "I took it for good, anj"way." "Have you not another cent my boy V" •'Xo.'' Dear reader, did you ever feel what an in- expressible relief it is to tell the truth after you have been driven into falsehood by Sa- tan or some of his allies V ""V7eU. you can take the penny and the licorice both, and bring me a penny when you get one. Will you not ?" I drew a long breath of relief, as I prom- ised, and walked out of the country store joining my companions. Why do we sin when sin brings so much trouble, and virtue makes everything so peaceful V I believe I fully intended to pay the money when I promised to. and was "glad to be let off so easily. As I look back through the j-ears that have passed since then, how I do "wish that some kind friend could have taken me in hand kindly and firmly, and told me what wicked strings of falseho'ods I had been tell- ing; what a dishonest, selfish and greedy spirit I had shown. I had taken the pooV man's goods, had told him falsehoods, and yet he had been so kind and lenient. Even iaow. when I hrd but just escaped, as the boys gathered round me and asked if "it passeel,'- 1 listened to the suggestion of one more hardened than the rest, when he said, "The old curmudgeon. I would never pay him. just for his being so mean.' My friends, you have a pretty good opin- ion of me, but "to confess the truth, that debt has never been paid. I did feel troubled about it, and afterward spoke of it to some boys who were older and better dressed than myself ; but when one of them laughed and said he woidd never think of paying it. and the other said he never paid little accounts like that. I dropped the matter and thought I woukl be like the rest of the world and save these little dribs. Since my conversion three years ago, these little things have been coming up. If God is to create in me a clean heart. I must make reparation for all these items, and I tell you there is no dan- ' ger that we shall ever do our part of the work too well. That was 28 years ago. and the interest on the amount "for that length of time, would be about 16 cents. If my old friend should still be alive and see this, he would do me a favor by dropping me a post- al card. X'cw. I cannot begin to tell how many falsehoods I have told and acted, in all these i^s years, but as soon as memory recalls one of them, I am making it a point to straight- en it up. so far as lies in niy power. At the time of my conversion. I saw a great task before me, but as I commenced weeding. I could look back and note the progress I had been making fioin time to time, and once in a while. I would look forward, and say. i "When I get that, and that, and that bad GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Feb. habit down, I shall have a pretty fair char- acter;" but behold, when they were out| of the way, another loomed up more hideous than any before. But as there was no other way, at it 1 went, trusting that with the help of that Great Friend, I could do something, at least, in the cutting down of those fearful hills. lu regard to the falsehoods, after some bitter experiences in which I did not get off as easily as in the one I have mentioned, I became afraid of telling anything but the truth, or rather, perhaps, I became afraid of telling anything that it was very probable would be found out. Perhaps I am censur- ing myself here pretty strongly, for I did go to Sabbath school, and for several years, tried in a sort of a feeble childish way to have the fear of God before my mind, rather than that of man. But after I had done a wrong, I liad a sort of way of very easily get- ting over it, without making any substantial atonement for the wrong I had done, more than I did to the man for his licorice. It was only a few days ago, that I remembered sub- scribing for the Scientific American for 6 months, when I was 16 years old. They made a mistake, and sent it for a whole year. It took me just 22 years, to come to the con-, elusion that I owed them a dollar, but I did send it as soon as I saw the matter clearly. I did not send them any interest because the mistake was of their own making and not mine. Twenty years ago, while in Wood Co. in this State, a young man of about my own age, very kindly loaned (or what amounted to the same thing) me 50c. I somehow got into a ''saving"' mood, and slipped out of town without paying liim. After my con- version, I wrote the P. M. there, inquiring for him, but had to give up the search. We have now, subscribers there, and possibly some one may know him. If so, it would afford me great pleasure to return that half dollar with compound interest. I am not really sure after all, that it is a pure motive that prompts all this vehement desire to straighten up these things, for I have often feared somebody would get hold of the story, and tell how I went off without paying my just debts. A very few days afterward, I helped to rob a strawberry patch in a quiet cottage garden, and let all the boys who went with me, out and back again, through the window of my room at the hotel where I was stopping. We succeeded in this so nice- ly, that I almost decided to get out through the same window, and go off with a board bill unpaid. I presume I shoiild have done this, but the landlady was a Christian and had been very kjnd to me, and although I had on one of my '"saving" fits, there was a little left of conscience away down some- where ; and besides, I happened to think of wliat my mother would say. if she ever heard of my doing such a thing. You see 1 had robbery in my heart, but I was rather afraid to do it, I should be glad to repay the man for liis strawberries too, but I fe'ar I shall never be able to do it. Perluips I am pick- ing u]) small and unimportant items, and making a great fuss about them, when there are hundreds of doU^irs left out of sight and unadjusted. I have thought of this, but I believe I am honestly doing the best I can, and though it were a sudden streak, or a new hobby of mine, I do not believe it would do any harm if we should all get a mania of paying up all the little debts we honestly owe, no matter of how long standing. As it is very difficult for us to see our own faults as others see them, it is quite likely that I have shown this "saving" disposition at times, scarcely knowing it; and my friends, please do not judge me too harshly, if you have seen it at times in your business rela- tions with me. I have told you once before, my streaks of honesty are very apt to come by sudden impulses ; well, I fear that streaks of selfishness come by impulses also, but I thank God, that he has pointed out a clear way for us to go pretty safely in all these matters. To illustrate : during our revival season last winter, a methodist brother pro- claimed pretty loudly in one of the meetings, that if he had wronged any one, he would restore seven-fold. Some of the skeptics took this up pretty vehemently, because, as they said, the speaker had wronged a great many, and obstinately refused to set the matter right. I went to him, and remon- strated gently, on such public statement in such strong language. "Why brother Root, I will restore seven- fold to any one I have wronged. Just point him out to meV" I mused a moment pondering what would be the best course to take, when a bright thought struck me. '•Brother T.,who is to be judge as to wheth- er you have wronged anybody or not ?" ''Why I am of course ; you do not suppose I am going to let any man help himself out of my pocket do you ?" I was obliged to indulge in a hearty laugh, for the sentence so completely showed up poor fallen humanity, and gave a view (if both sides of the picture at once. I did not scrape up wit enough just tlieu to point out the directions the Bible gives for such cases, but inasmuch as both parties to all these troul)les liave their eyes more or less blinded by selfish interests," I think it a Christian duty, to call in some good man or woman who is a friend of both, and a friend of all humanity; one who is a consistent Christian, and of course an earnest peac? maker. I would advise you to take all sucli^ troubles if you can, to your minister; and then comes the test of yowr Christianity, if you have any. If you are a Christian, or even a reasonable man, you can find some mutual friend ; and now let me entreat you, if you have any respect whatever for your word, after you have agreed to abide by his decision, do just exactly as he says, no mat- ter what it may be, and after it is over, do not let one single word in the way of a mur- mer, escape your lijis ; no, not even to your wife or family. If your opponent will" not agree to any kind of arbitration, it may be best to liave recourse to the law, if the mat- ter is of sufiicient moment. I have often been pained at the harsh words and comi)laints we so often hear against tiie railroads and express compa- nies. I know there is corruption among 1878. GLEANINGS IX BEE CULTUKE. 53 them, just as there is in my own heart, as I have been telling you ; but, my friends, kindness and gentleness, is so much the bet- ter M'ay, even if we have been wronged. I have had much business to do with them, and I know something of the overworked condition of many of their employes ; I also know how ready we all are, to accuse them of willful dishonesty, when the wrong has only been a mistake. You do not know what a pleasant thrill it gives one, to find tliat thei'e are soft and tender hearts amid the din and bustle of these great avenues of trade and travel. The first two barrels of grape sugar I got from Davenport Iowa, came by the way of Columbus O., by some awkward manage- ment, and the freight was nearly 1 cent per lb. I got our agent to look the matter up, and had the next lot shipped for only 40c. a h,undred. The freight bill on the 3d lot, was only about 20c. per hundred, and after it was all paid and settled up, I took another look at the bill, and found they had carried out the weight of the 2 barrels, as 400 lbs, instead of 400 for each baiTel, or 800 in all. As a matter of course, I kept very quiet about it, saying iuAv^rdly, "There ! that will help to make up for the amount I paid you for bungling the first lot away off around by Columbus,'' iind I, with much satisfaction, tucked the bill away in its proper pigeon- hole. During the day, and for many days afterward, my eye kept wandering toward that pigeon-hole. "Create in me a clean heart." David did not say a tolerably clean heart, but he said. -'Create in me a dean heart, O God." Well, I made up my mind that my heiirt would at least be cleaner, if I told the E. K. Co. that they had made a mistake of 400 lbs. in tlsat freight bill of sugar, no mat- ter how much they had overcharged me on similar bills. I sliovred it first to our friend Charlie, the draynipn. "Chsu'lie v.ill you please take this freight bill dov.ii to the agent, and tell him the sugar weighs 800 lbs.'' "Why Mr. Koot, you are foolish to say one word about it. I tell you, all you can get out of the E. E. Co"s, you are safe in tak- ing." I talked with him some about it. and he took the pa]>er. He soon returned it. saying the jigent told me to keep it; it was all right. A few days afterward I was at the >, depot, and stated the case to the agent. He looked at me in some svu'prise. "The Co. does not owe you anything V. "No; tliey have not had enough pay for Ininging the sugar." "Well let it go ; I will stand responsible, and take all the blame." "Will you tell them of the mistake V" "No, it is not our duty to do so ; they have had all the money their bill called for.'' Just about here, I begtm wondering if the agent was— well, I wondered if he was one that loved the Bible, for I feared if he were not. he might think I was wasting time foolishly. His clerk, 1 knew was in the habit of coming to our Tliursday evening prayer meetings, and I turned appealinglv to him. 8aid he. "Mr. Eoot, if they ever find it out, and send in a bill for the balance, we will pay it. That will make it all right will it not V" I explained as well as I could, that such a course would not give me a clear conscience, and at my request, they promised to sencl a tracer after the mistake. A few weeks af- ter, I enquired and learned no tracer had been sent. Said the agent, good naturedly, "Mr. E., I think it is all foolishness." But I prevailed, and the bill was returned for correction. A few days afterward, Char- lie came in looking very pleasant and know- ing, as he handed me some papers. The agent liad written simply, "Is there any mistake in this bill ?" The answer came, "None at all ; it all foots tip correctly." When I saw the agent I asked, "Did you explain on the tracer that the sugar weighed 800 lbs. instead of 400 V" "No; that was none of my business. I asked them if there was any mistake, and they said no." They had a good natured laugh at the trick they hnd played on me, and I began to think I should have to give up. A brother- inlaw, is a railroad man, and I appealed to him. Said he, "Yes, you can write to the Co., but the man who made the mistake will deny it, be- cause if found out, he will lose his place at once. You had better let it alone, and keep the $1.60." "Then the E. E. Co"s, do ivy to avoid mis- takes and inaccuracies V" "You had better try making mistakes while in their employ, if you have any doubt in the matter." Everybody seems to be down on railroads, and if they are wronged, too often, we do not stop to think it may be unintentional, but pitch into them in a way that will be al- most svu^e to make them feel they have to fight for every copper or they will be robbed en every hand. No wonder they looked as- tonished and thought I had lost my senses when I told them they had charged me too little for brinpjng my sugar. I presume nearly all of us 1 ave at one time or another been passed by the conductor, he forgetting to take our ticket. Is it right to give him the ticket to ride over the same route at some future time V From nearly all to whom I have propounded the question the answer has been, "Why of course it is ; the ticket is good until he takes it up V" Sometimes the conductor misses you entii-ely ; is it your business to tell him you have paid nothing for your ride before you get off V "Why no, certainly not, it is a rail road Co., and they always swindle you every chance they can get." My friends, I am afraid they will always keep on swindling us, if we treat them in that way. Our business with them and the express Co's is, as you know, of a nature and extent, that gives us a pretty good idea of affairs, but I do not think their mistakes are at all intentional. When we send two frame nuclei by express, the agent, instead of keeping the combs upright, will clap the hive down on its side, on the counter, with force enouch to break the combs out. it is GLEAXIXGS m BEE CULTURE. Fkb. true, but I do not feel hard toward them on that account ; I try to think they are th-ed and hiirried, and do not know that bees and combs are fragile. We now fix them so they cannot well be turned over, and label them in large iilaih letters. All the employes that I get acquainted with, very soon show an interest in our business, and seem really anxious to assist me. in every way tliey can. Is it not because I show an interest in their welfare ? As ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them. Did you ever realize how very hard it is to keep free from these selfish and sinful im- pulses y If one has but little to do with trade and traffic and many people, it seems to me it wt)uld be easier ; but where respon- sibilities are many and varied, and where one has all sorts of people to try to harmon- ize and all sorts of things to adjust, where money must be received and ])aid out. un- ceasingly, I see much in my own heart that reminds me of the penny transaction of my childhood. It is true I do not tell point blank deliberate falsehoods as I did then, but strive as I may, I cannot look back on a single day, and feel that I have, in every re- spect, had that clean heart that I get bright visions of, now and then. I am not des- pondent, nor discouraged, for often amid my busy cares when I have forgotten my own in trying to help some one else, or when I have in my feeble way tinned the other cheek also. 1 can almost hear in plain words, •'Well done, thou good and mitliful ser- vant.'" and as I lie down at night, how fer- vently can I thank God that even though I have done but poorly, there has been no set- tled purpose of evil as in the old life, but that I have earnestly tried all day to do right. There is now none of that heavy load of guilt there was then, and I am not afraid as I was then, because of the awful inconsis- tency, to say with bowed head, •'Create in me a clean heart, O God ; and renew a right spirit within me."" GlEAf^lIHGS m"BH£TuiTitai! .A.. I. K,OOT, EDITOR. AND PUBLISHER. MEDI2n"A, OHIO. If you should happen to have a friend vrho would like any particular No. of Gleanings, send us his name, and it will be mailed him without charge. Or should you g-i^e away any of your numbers to those who you think might subscribe, drop us a postal, and we will send you a new one in place of it. TERITIS: ?1. 00 PER YEAR, POST-PAIl*. Our neighbor Shaw, bought several barrels of grape sug'ar, but the weather became cold before he could get them fed. He tried lumps over the cluster, as we feed candy, but they preferred their honey; so he took all the honey away from a few colonies, and gave them dry combs, with lumps of grape sugar on top. They went up among the lumps, clus- tered on them, and did not die at all. Hear what he just writes: "Bees wintering rntircly on lumps of grape sugar are all right yet. and ha^■e been flying nicely for a few davs." F R. Shaw, Chatham Center, Medina Co., 0„ .Jan. 21th, 1878. Now it will not ci: st as much as 50c. to winter these bees, and peihaps not overdo; but wait and see. Soins complaint has been made about our price, of 2Cc. per line for advertising. If ICc. was all right when we had only about 1000 subscribers, ought we not to have more when we have double the No.? I fear you forget my friends, that it has cost me hun- dreds of dollars to give Gleanings its present circu- lation. Again; if I advertised patent hives, patent medicines, electric belts and "such like,'" I presume I could tike ads. at a much less rate; but if I make myself personally resprnsible for my advertiseis, examine and test their goods before their ads. are taken, I cannot do it at a less price than present rates. If it will nr t f.ay to advertise at these prices, then do not. by any means, advertise, and we shall have all the more room for "bee-letters." FiiiEND DooLiTTLE says in the Magazine, that if frames of sectic^n boxes are put in the lower story with nothing but the tin sepaiators next the brood, the bees will store pollen in the boxes. With his deep frame and large sized sections, Acrj- likely such will be the case, unless he uses his wood division boards, but with our small sections, and the shallow L. frames, we ha\ e never setu one cell of pollen; neither have we had a report of pny, so far as I can rt member, vfhcn used with the separatoi-s. The matter is veiy ensilj' tested by hanging a frame in your hive, and if y( u should, in your locality, find any pollen in the sections, you can easily put in a thill wooden division board. Mr. D. admits that the bees go into the sections much quicker without the division board, if I have correctly understood him. 3S^EIDI3Sr-A., FEB. 1, ISTS. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. Luke. 6 ; 33. « ♦ » Gr.vpe sugar. We can now furnish it here, at S'-Ac. by the barrel, 4c. in boxes of 50 lbs, or 5c. for a sin- gle lb. _ We can use postage stamps of any denomination. but just now it would be a favor if our friends would send us some 1 cent stamps, where they can just as conveniently. Wo use many thousands, in sending away sample copies. SojrEBODT scolds because he did not get his Dec. No., and tells us to keep our books straighter; an- other says we did not put as many pages in his Jour- nal as in his neighbor's, and asks why such partiality. Gently, good friends; sometimes the papers we mail with all faithfulness, fail to get into the hands of the owner, by no fault of our own, and if we left out any pages, no one could be more sorry than myself, for it is one of my keenest pleasures, to hand over to you all, the "very best Journal I can make. No matter whose fault it is, we are always ready to send another just the minute we are informed of the lack. In a large number of the complaints, we have found that some one of the same name, has taken them out of the oiBce. Do not hesitate to speak out, but re- member the blame may not be ours, and speak kind- ly. 1 will "scold" the folders and binders about leaving anything out, just as hard as I can, and do it pleasantly. Fret Sawing for Pleasure and Profit, is the title of a very pretty little book that tells all about the work, even to the making of a machine itself. Bv Henry T. Williams, of N. Y. We have added it to our book list. Price 50 cents. I wrote to N. C. Mitchell of Indianapolis. Ind. and all the satisfaction I received was the answer that the adjustable bee-hive was all I wanted for the wintering of bees. Accordingly I purchased one of his farm rights for five dollars, made six of them last spring, put in six got d swarms, and followed his directions strictly, to see if there was any good in the hives; but they proved to be the t-'iviitost humbug I ever met with, though, tit the same lime it may be a good hi^■e to winter in. G. G. Morgan. White Mound, Wis., Jan. 10th, 1878. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 55 ^ You hare sent me, my friendx, teward a tJiowt- (ind nuhncribers, diiriny the past month; Imir/ld K(iy '■iJinnk you,'''' and I do fi or 4 inch belt will be required to run these saws, and the pulley should be not less than 3+ inches in diameter. The sliaft should be about 1 inch in diameter, and should run in broad strong boxes. It may be fin., where the saws go on. As these saws must cut always the same width, exactly, it is best to run them Avithout set ; and to make them "clear'" in this shape, we have them ground thinnest in the center. Such saws 4i inches in diam- eter, are worth about $2.00 each; a steel Avasher 50c more, and a suitable mandrel and boxes $10.00. Therefore the whole out- fit with 8 saws, will cost about $30.00. I confess, I am not very well pleased with any of the grooving arrangements I have ever used. They answer very nicely at first, it is true, but they need so much hling or grinding, that it is quite a task. They all work nicely running with the grain, or a- cross the grain, but cutting into the end of a block, seems to be a different matter. If Ave wish grooves and tenons more than i, say 3-16, the Barnes' Cutter Head, is an improvement. These require sharpening frequently, it is true, for they are like a saw with but tAvo teeth ; but they clear so nicely, it is really a pleasure to work Avith them. Perhaps I should say Avhen they are in prop- er cutting order, for neither a saAV, cutter nor any tiling else is pleasant to work Avith, unless it is sharpened just as it should be. It is no use to say you cannot sharpen a saw, for you must do it, or you are not tit to l)e a bee-keeper. Perhaps I can help you a little. PUTTING CIRCULAR SAWS IN ORDER. We Avill take the Cutter Head, for an il- lustration, for it embodies nearly all the principles involved. CUTTER HEAD FOR GROOVING SECTION BOXES. The point or spur D, is of course, to cut a little ahead of the chisel shaped cutter C, and is to gauge the exact width of the groove, while C, follows after, and takes out a shaving of wood. Now suppose tlie tool be so carelessly ground that the heel B, is higher, or rather farther from the hole in the centre, than the cutting edge C ; it is very plain that the heel Avould only rub on the wood, get hot, and make things smoke, without doing any cutting at all. At about this stage, the operator of the foot-poAver saw, is in danger of losing his temper, es- pecially, if he has tired himself out, and worked himself into a perspiration, without stopping to examine into the matter. To illustrate, I will give a letter that Barnes Bro's wrote us, after one of our customers had complained of his Cutter Head. We mail yon this A. m. the cutter-heart that Mr. returns by our request, for our examina- tion. He has irrounrt it, or sharpened it from the outsirte, and spoiled 1t of course. It should be ground or sharpened from the inner edg-e. Please put it on the saw and you will see thiit the edg'e is gi-ound down so that the part back will not let it cut; hence the .iumpingr he speaks of. You will also see that it has never been sharpened on the inner edge, the temper color has pot been removed. We would as soon tell a man to li^iteh to the tongue of a wag'on, after selling- him cnc, as telling him to not griwl 58 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Feb. these cutters on the outer edge. You will find, on grinding' back and allowing the edge to be the high- est, as it was originally, that this same cutter will beat the best saw, (especially when gauged) cutter or groover you can get. We like fair play, especially when things are so pl;iin as to need no explanation. If you have tini'^, wo would like you to write him, and after grinding the cutter properly, return it to him to convince him W. F. & Jonx Barnes. Rockford, 111., Sepi. 11th, 1S;7. That the above is somewhat harsh, I am aware, but I have given it you to show that I think there is blame on both sides. Our friend was thoughtless, it is true, but had the cutter been sent him, ground just as it should be, at tirst, he Avould have succeeded and been pleased ; and if it afterward got out of " rig,'' he would have known the fault was not in the construction of the im- plement. I have purchased much machi- nery, and I am sorry to say, but little of it has been in really nice working trim when first received. The planers I have men- tioned were a pleasant surprise in that res- pect, for they were almost as sharp and keen as a razor, aiid every i)art was as carefully in order as if the maker had fitted it up for his own use. If all kinds of machinery were sent out in just this shape, it would save ever and ever so much trouble and bother, and hard words and feelings all round. I know it costs money to do this, and I know it is hard to find a man who will take pride in having everything just right, no matter what the cost may be ; but it should be done. There will be no difficulty in gettinc:; a price to cover all expense, after the work has once earned a reputation. About two years ago, I paid $120.00 (i in advertising) for a foot-power saw, thinking I would get something extra nice, and accu- rate. It was the most rickety and unfinish- ed piece of machinery, I ever saw ; and after considerable more time and money spent in trying to rig it up, I offered it in vain to the makers for $50.00. This machine was from the Combined Power Co., 13 Dey St., N. Y. The Cutter Head Avas received, as it was stated. The blue on the steel, showed that no file or stone, had ever touched it on the inner edge at A, but our friend had ground tlie outside, in the manner stated. I took the tool to one of our hands, who runs saws, explained the matter, and desired him to fix and try it. As it did not cut very well, I stopped it and looked, and behold, he had not even taken the blue from the steel on the inside. Friend Barnes, I fear there are a great many thick headed peoi)le in this Avorld, and I sometimes have reason to think / am "chief est'' among them. Then what shall we do y I guess we shall have to make everything very plain, and I guess our tools would all better DC sharpened just right, be- fore they are sent out, and then purchasers will certainly know how they should be. Alessrs. Barnes Brothers have just sent us a pair '»'■ their improved Cutter Heads. They re of much nicer finish tlian their old ones, and there has been some grinding done on the points of the knives ; but neither of them are ground as tliey should be to make the best s])eed in cutting. I think the gen- tlemen will excuse these criticisms, for I have always found them very ready to add any improvement, or suggestion I may have made, if a good one. AV e owe tliem a vote of thanks already, for having made such great reductions on the prices of almost all kinds of foot-power machinery. Tlie spurs on the cutters sent, were too long, and they were of such shape that the blocK of wood was shaken while being grooved ; wlien they are made so as to be thin sharp blades, cut- ting about the thickness of a sheet of paper into the wood, in advance of the chisels, with the steel ground back so as not to bump or rub against the sides of the finisherl groove, your block will stand as steady as if no cutting was being done, and your groove will be beautifully smooth and clean. Best of all. so little power will be required to do the work, that you will hardly know the tool is cutting. I know, for I have just stopped my Vv'riting tni hour, to be sure I could make them e:o. As I have said before, we use saws instead of these cutters, because, with tlie constant work we have for them, they would require sharpening so often. A saw has 50 teeth or more, where these tools have but two, to do the work. Before resuming my work, I must tell you that our sawyer is now , happy ; for we have a little blowing machine to IJlow the chips away, so that the little planer requires no supervision whatever. He says he can saw even faster than before, for the planer car- ries all the stuff away out of his reach. When I have occasion to use the Foot Power S:'w, I almost invariably find it needs oiling. I cannot afford to waste my strength, in trying to run a saw that does not run free. I found to-day, that some rubbish had been allowed to get under the treadle, so that it did not come clear down. "When this was fixed, I found the hickory spring did not bring the treadle clear up. After I had turned the spring over, the treadle came clear up promptly, and I could get up a speed that would make a cutter, saw or any thing else "hmn." It really makes me ner- vous, to see one who knows what the saw can do, try to work by giving the treadle a series of short stamps, as if it were an unru- ly sewing machine. If you are going to spin a top, you must draw off the cord, with a "full arm movement.'' and if j'ou are going to do work with the Barnes' saw, you must draw off the strap from the fly wheel in the same way : let the treadle coriie up as far as it will, and then send it clear down to the floor. If you practice doing this, yon will very soon, not only have the whole machine ^mder your thumb', but you will have it un- der your foot, which is still better. You are now all right, if your saw is shari>, and well set. Kememberthe extreme points of the teeth are to do the work, and no power en be spared in making the saw rub or stiueeze through the lumber. No part of the saw should ever touch the lumber, except th^'se extreme points, and they are to be of such sliape, and so disposed, that they pare off just enough to let the saw through, and nothing more. If you stand a chisel straight n\^ on a plank, and draw it across it, it may scratch the wood some, but it Avill not cut it smootlily. If you try pushing it forward at 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. -!9 different angles, yon will find there is a cer- tain position in "Which it will make a smooth cut. This is about tlie angle we wish to give the teeth of a rip saw. There is a rule, for getting this pitch, which yoii will under- stand from the diagriim below. SAW IMPROPERLY FILED. PROPERLY FILED. Let H represent the center of the saw, and F tlie circumference ; G is a line drawn just midway between the center and circumfer- ence. Now, if a straight edge is held against the under side of the tooth, it should lie on the line G. Hold your try square on the under side of the tooth of your rip saw, and you can soon see if the teeth are of the right "pitch. On the other side, you will see some teeth with a wrong angle. Some of them, would carry a line toward the center of the saw, and one of them, woidd go past the center on the other side. You need not say no one ever did as bad work as that, for it is not many years since I complained to Mr. Washburn that my saw would not cut well, and he, with a straight edge showed me just how badly I had been doing. I had commenced in a hurry, and had filed the saw just to make it do a little for the time being ; I had filetl both top and front of the teeth to get them to a point, "real auick.'" Filing a saw on the top of the teeth, is a fearful waste of time, files, and especially, saws. Perhaps I can give you some faint idea of the matter from the cut below. HOW SAWS ARE WAITED, BY IMPROPER FILING. Let A be-the point of the tooth when Ue saw is new, vrd C. the point where it would be after having been used jor a certain amount of work, the filing havine all been done on the under side of the tooth so as to leave the line A C u'st as it was when it was made, that is. it has been untouched by 1he file, and has only worn awry, in actual cutting on the wood. The saw lias been re- <]uced in this way by this amount of work, exactly from D to E. Bear this in mind. Now supT^ose we have done the shari)ening by filing the top of the tooth : in getting the sjime amount of rutting edge, we should file down from A to B. This would reduce the size of the sawfrrm I) to F. irstead of from D to E. For fling t};eee small saws, tn^m 6 to 10 inches in diameter, we need a file made of just the proper angle like this cut: The broad side of the file is to be laid on the top of the tooth ; it is never to be used for cutting downwaid, 1 ut tnly to pieseive the shape and angles of the top of the tooth, while the cutting is to be dene from the un- der side of each tooth. The top of the tooth being made while sharpening the one just after it. So much for the shape of the toolh ; our saw must be set, or it will not clear itself through the lumber, and lor this purpose, we have found the saw set shown below, as good as anything for circular saws, and if you cannot get them at your hardware store, we can mail you one for T-Tc. SAW SET FOR CIRCULAR SAWS. The thumb screw guagfsthe distance at which the tool goes over the tooth, and then bringing the hardies together the tooth is easily and safely bent, just where it should be— near the joint. The engraving is full size, but the whole xool, is about twice the length shown. The diagram, below will give you rn idea of the puipcse ci seit'rg t^aws. „...A.. K. THE PHILOSOIHY OF FETTIKG A SAAV. You wiH observe that we depend on the littic points A and B, to make a path along the dotted lines, for the blade. If these points get wcrn off, the saw will pinch, and a great part of the power will be consum.ed in making it soueeze through the wood. If your saAV does not cut easily, this is very likely the trouble. If your lumber is un- seasoned or tough, you will need much moi'e set than if you have dry clear tender lum- ber. Of course we wish to get along with as little set as we can consistently, for the more wood "we cut out, the greater is the ])ower required. Now. another considera- tion comes in. If we do not set the teeth all alike, and it is almost impossible to do this with any saw set, en account of tl;e tenden- cy of some teeth to spring more than others, we shall have occasionally a tooth sticking out more than the rest; this causes much friction, and makes our lumber look bad with grooves ploughed in it at intervals. For ]?rilso rough and unsightly. Now just here my friends, I am going to introduce to you, our friend N. A. Prudden, of Ann Arbor, Mich. Hear him : I send you a roug'h sketch of my foot-power for matching section boxes, as I wish to do aU the work possible for my bees, and make myself and them pay expenses. I am very much pleased with it, in fact it exceeds my most ardent expectations. Broth- er bee-keepers who wish to do their own work, save expense and freight, who have no power but man power, will find it just the thing-. It is all wood ex- cept the knife, die plate and rod, and any mechanic can make one. It cost but 50c besides my own work. The frani'c^ was built for another purpose; it can be built on a work bench; a more substantial one could be built with iron lever, bearing-s,&c. The knife should work very exactly through the die plate. I cut one piece at a time but it can be made to cut through t wo or more pieces at once, or the ,5 grooves at one stroke by having more lever power, it satisfies me to work single pieces. I can cut 4 per minute; say 2-t()0 per hour — .500 boxes per day and df) the cutting up in a mitre box. I have my stuff ripped up at the machine shop. After looking this over if you think^nei>er mind — do witat you please with it. N. A. Pk0dden. Thank you friend P. It is quite generous in you to take the trouble to describe it so well, for the benefit of others, and since you have given me carte blanche, I have conclu- ded to give it to our readers, with some im- ])rovements and changes that our engraver devised, who, by the way, is quite a natural genius. Below is the machine as he has worked it out. ''HOME made" MACHINE FOR MAKING SECTION BOXES. He has given us a side view, and a front view of the machine, and I am sure I need not tell you that putting your foot on tlie treadle, brings down the gang of chisels, with great power. This gang of chisels, is shown at figures 8 and 4, and any blacksmith should be able to make them for you, by looking at the illustrations. Fig. 2, shows a simitar piece of iron or steel, to be used for a bed-plate for the strips composing the section box. This bed-plate has two pieces screwed on the upper side, in such a way that they may be adjustable at different dis- tances from the chisels. You will bear in mind that the chisels, When cutting, will have quite a tendency to crowd the pieces, and this must not be allowed, or it might endanger brer, king the cutters. These stops are to be adjustable, for the purpose of making different sized section frames. Fig. 6, shows how the gate that holds the chisels, is made to work freely but surely, up and down. Fig. 5, shows how the end of the lever C, is made to work in the ;,'ate. Figure 7 shows the finished end of a section piece. Friend P. cuts just the number of mortises shown, in a piece 2 inches wide. Is it not an ingenious machine ? 1878, GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 61 Why not use this in place of the saws, do you ask V Well, because it is too slow, and <3annot well be made as nice and accu- rate. Friend P. says he cini cut 4 in a min- ute ; with the gang of saws in good order, our boys should cut a whole bundle of 100, in a minute. You need not be discouraged at this ; running a shop full of machinery is very expensive, and the profits must be pret- ty large to cover expenses. I have no doubt that you could do nice work, and mak $3 or $4.00 per day, witJi the machine Friend Prud- , den luis described. If there are not bee- keepers all round you who would buy the work, there very soon will be if you are a go ahead bee-keeper. At this date — Jan 5th, — we are receiving orders almost as if it were May or June, and an order for over $100.00 worth of hives and section boxes has been lianded me since I sat down to write. Good nice work is what advertises business, and we have sent out so much that has not been wliat I call nice, that I almost wonder that my friends patronize me so much as they do. I believe I have shown you all the pictures I have prepared for this ''visit,'' and I think, have pretty nearly said all I have to say. TKOUBLE. flWO of our family, that is, our "bee family," have g'ot into a quarrel, and, as they are both . very good friends of mine, I have tiied e\ery way I knew, to make them stop; and h;n e finally "scolded" them both, pretty severely. I blame them all the more, for they have both had excellent bring- ing up (they have had Gleanings to read for the past ever so many years, and it says on the front cover, "Peace on earth and good will towai'd men"), and yet they will quarrel. I know they have been exposed to unusual temptation, and on that account, we can freely excuse them if thej' will shake hands, ■and di-op it all, right where it is. "But Mr. Glean- ings, what has all this to do with us?" Nothing at ail, had not a part of the trouble, appeared in two of our Journals, in a way that does at least one of the parties, a grievous wrong. I have plead and entieat- . ed to have this righted with no interference of mine, but as it has not been done, I see no other way, but to do it ns best I can. In our Oct, No. of last year, I warned you to keep away from bee Conventions held in large cities. "Therefore Mr. NoA'ice it was none of your business what thev did there, and you would better let it a- lone." Well, I think you are right in the main, but for all that, I feel that I may do good just now, by speakinjr. A f50.00 Gold Medal was offered, as you know ; if I am correct, those who competed forthe Medal, furnished the money to pay for it, by paying $7.00 each for the privilege of competing. That our friend "John Long" of Comb Foundation notoriety figured largely in the enterprise, was one reason why I warned you to stay away. "What have I ag-ainst him ?" Nothing only that he has never paid back the monev that was sent him in all good faith. I could, perhdps, pardon his wrongingour own country- men, but his ttnisliing operation of keeping over ^100.00 that was sent him by our English friends has T fear embittered them against the whole nation of "swindling yankees," as they term us, and perhaps with justice. If Mr. Wm. Hoge, as his real name is, is poor and cannot pay it, it may be all right ; but even then we can, I think, find some one to represent the bee interests of our country, whose name is un- tai-iiished liy any such record. I care not bow many milliuns tlie comiiany he represents is worth, nor how high a pcsilinn in society the rest of the world are willing to allow him ; nor does it make any diff- erence how plesisiintly and kindly he has always treated me individually ; in behalf of the brothers he has wronged lidth here and in England, I demand that he psiv up, before we trust him or have confi- dence in him. A number of our bee-keepers put in $7.00 each, and then one draws the whole, or at le.ast $.50.00 of it in the shape of a Medal. IJIo not know how they con- duct raffles, and other kinds of gambling, but it seems to me this is not very unlike it. I'm afraid Satan recognized it as a raffle, if others did not, for he very soon put in his fingers. If I am correct, our hard working friend Doolittle, as well as his neighbor Betsinger, were verry soon asked to compete for the prize. In a friendly waj', iheya- greed, like neighbors, to "go in for it" together. As Doolittle has often said in Gleanings that his honey box was Betsinger's invention, Betsinger was to have the credit of the box, and Doolittle the honey, if they took it, and they felt sure they would. Satan com- menced his work in the matter, by having Doolittle's grize case of sections stolen off the cars, as friend D. as told us on page 11. Next, by catising Betsinger to turn against his friend and "neighbor, after his honey case was unfortunately stolen, and decide to try to get the prize all alon,e. He, also, while his friend was at home with his bees, as I suppose, changed the labels on Doolittle's samolo hive, adding his own name where D. had not put it. Mr. B. con- fessed this to me, and said he was sony he did it. so I think he will forgive me. Another case was selec- ted from the lot of honey thi^t Thurber & Co.. pur- chased of Mr. D., and the medal was awarded to it. Satan was still poking round, and stirring up jeal- ousy I fear, for a oreat many think tlitii ought in hon- esty to have had it; and I fear it was Satan who put it into poor Betsinger's head to look a little more critically at the cnte that "John Long" had selected from among Doolittle's lot. Perhaps it will be well to state here, that black bees will without question, make whiter looking comb honey than the Italians. The reason is that the blacks do not fill the cells clear up to the cap- ping, as the Italians do, during a heavy yield. The white cap, with an empty space back of it, is much whiter to look at, than when the honey is in close contact. I have explained, before, how Mr. D. shipped his neighbor's honey with his, and in his own name. The initial r.f the owner's name, and the fig- ures of the weights, were on each shipping case. Now Mr. "Long," had taken a case that came from one Mr. Kanney it seems, who kept black bees ; probably on account of its whiteness, as I have ex- plainpd. The whole matter was laughable, and would have ended in a big laugh probably, had it not been for the medal. Mr. D. accuses Betsinger of having known of the blunder, before the award, and of keeping- still pur- pof^elv. I think this ver\' unjust, and that he only discovered it by seeing- Mr. Ranney's initials, after the award was made. Mr. Betsinger made known his discovery at once, buit ?« it placed things in rath- er a mixed state, I believe it was decided to pass it all bv. During the Convention, the Question was a«ke'1. what race of bef^s mnde the Gold Medal honev. Betsinger stated truthfully, that it was made by bl-)ck bees. As this placed Mr. Doolittle in a queer situa+ion. without explanation, he thought lest to flatly contradict his neighbor's statement, in two of our .Tournals. I have waited two months, to have Mr. D. recall his unkind charge ; as he has not done so. I have tried to do it. Verv likely, 1 have not stated the matter correctly in all its minor points, but I think it is not far wrong. Mr. D. lays great stress on the statement that the medal was not awarded on this one case of honev th.at hanpened to turn out to be Mr. Ranney's, but for all this, he made a most desperate effort to make it appear that the honey in question was not Ran- nev's, but his after all. It is quite fashionable of late, to excuse almost all soi-ts of crime under the plea of insanity; and when I think of the miserable subterfuges and excuses that people make for their wrong doing, I begin to think we are all crazy, the minute we get into any controversy, or quarrel. The two friends did get to- gether and agreed to write and submit the mat- ter to; me. but it was a clear bargain, that neither shouM writo before the time, Betsinger, instead of wiitipfr. i^jiif] me a visit; and now he (in to-day's mail), cl'iims that he broke no contract, for he did not trritc^ he only made me a vMt. In the same mail cpire a letter from friend D. saying he does not sa- fiTid never said (in his card below), the Gold Med- al honey was not made b^' black bees, but only that he had no blnck bees in his own apiary. Here is a, copy of the statement that Mr. D. sent the Dec. Magazine, knowing the full facts as I have given them. a great mistake corrected. Mr. Editor.--The notice in the Bek-Keepeb's Mag- azine that Mr. Betsinger stated before the National GLEAyi^G'S IN BEE CULTURE. Feb. Convention, that th-^ be?s that made the honey for which the g'ol'i medal was awarded, were black bees, th-^rebv loavio? the Conventi )n and your readers to infei- that we kept black bees, is not true, as we have not had a stock of black b'^es in five years. We slioiild be very sorry ind ind to have it g'o out that blaik bens ciuld produce b'^tte- honey than the Ital- i ins, and that i heir honey was st miich superior as to draw the f^old medal, after we, as apiarists of the ninto-^nth century, have taken so much pains to im- po-t them. - G. M. Doolittle. Fir s'lime, f i- shame, rar friends. Must I remind men of your a^'e and standing, that it is not the words that we sav. but the impressions we purposely con- vey, that God will hold us accountable for ? I call upin you as me i, as neig'hbors, as CliriMianti, to shake off this a pell th.at is upon you both, and stop at onee and f irever tindia» f.'tnlt with each other. We will fT-sive you freely and God will forg-ive you, if you will only forgive each other. As a proof of your entire reo inciliation, g'ive us a letter in the Journals, with both your names 8ij»ned to it, and then let it drop f )rever. Forthesak? of the reliyrioa we pro- fess, do let the world see that Christians do xormtirn v g'iva wav, and that if we do quarrel, we do not quar- rel vd'-y lonjr. If T have wronsred either of yon please forgive me, for I did not mean to do so, and if neces- sary, b-^ar a little more than each ()ther's share of the blam \ for the sake of that S.avior who died for us all, and who took uneomplaining'ly, the sins of the whole world on His shoulders, even when He was g'uilty of nothing-. MoR\L. —Do not offer premiums or prizes, in anv wav that may stir up a feeling of rivalry. Pol- low the example of the Centennial and reward every thinerthatis praiseworthy, but have no strifes or contests. We have to-day. Jan. 30th, 3391 subscribers. Oh dear. Oh dear ! One of the 9:? are s'one alrcily : xtarmd. Got skipped— warm weather — talK warnimj. We will furnish electrotypes of any of the engra- vinTS that have appeared in Gleanings, for 35c. per squa-e inch. If you do not see your letter in this No. it is proba- bly be3aus3 there is a whole stack of them waitin™- their turn ; thev are all so good, T don't k.iow which to tak-» first, unless I take those that arc hrkf and to the point. QdekvTjESS colonies, if stronar, will come to no harm : let them alone, until April, and if griven some egg-s then, they will rear a qu^^en ond come out all rig-ht. If not stron? in bees, a laying queen will be needed instead of the eggs. We cannot furnish nuclei, before July first, but two of our advertisers. Gate's and Roop, offer them extremely low, and will shin them at any time, if I am correct. If you must have queens verv early, this will probably be your best chance of getting them. ' The discovery friend .Toiner refers to on page 36, for making fdn., is shnplv a revival of our old plan of using sheets of glass for dippsrs. It mav do verv well for making- the .5 inch sheets, in limited quanti- ti-^-s, but we decidedly prefer the metal plates, espec- ially when we take the loss by breakages into con- sideration. Friend Stewart's invention embodies nothing that has not lincn already given in our back volumes. At.l of our advertisers, a»'e a-ood responsible, and reliable people, or a+ least. T ha^'o good reason to think them so, and if in your d"al with them, yo>j find anv who do not prove so, yo\i are to report to me at on^e. How is it mv friends, we all agree to this, do we not ? I would like pnrch.asers, also, to tie courteous and civil, for since GfjEANiNOS has been the means of making you ac luainted with each oth- er, I feel somewhat responsible for the good conduct and bshavifir of both parties. If things get awry, let us straighten them, by all means, but do not write unkind lette-s. Remember there is a mighty power in gentle words. SEEIDS, Plants. Bulbs, &c.. for the Apiary. Flower and Veg- etable- Garden. Conservatorv and Farm. Catalosrue '">nt:iining miich useful information, free, or with .") Pac'iets sjed of Honev Produeiuff plants, 30c. 3-3 A. C. NELL IS, Canajoharic, N. Y. Italian Q'dssns aid Bees at 7erj Law Trices. Two framo nucleus, in April, with dollar queen $3 50 " May, " " " 3 Oa The same as above from Juna 1st to Aug. Ist. . . 2 0^ All well stociied with bees. I consider this the only safe plan for sending queens early. Dollar queens after May 15th, (as I do not consider it safe to send single queens sooner),— 80 cents. Whole colonies, after .Tune 1st, in single story Sim- plicities, with 8 combs, and two frames empty, with such Italian queens as I have, $.5.00. 1 will guarantee safe arrival, and that all shall be just as represented. 2inq G. W. GATES, Bartlett, Tenn. PLANING MACHINES. Cigar Box Planer. See cut on page 55. This Planer is designed expressly for planiing lum- ber for cigar boxes. It is small, strong and compact, has two speeds of feed, two feed rollers. The pres- sure bar holds the lumber firmly to within % of an inch of the cut of the knives. It planes very smooth, and pieces as short as 4 inches long without chipping the ends. We build two sizes, to plane 0 and 13 inch- es wide. The 9 inch planes from 4 to % inch thick. The 13 inch planes from la to -t inches thick. The size of driving pulleys on counter is 6 inches, and should make 1000 revolutions per minute. Price of 13 inch $~5 05 9 " 60 00 Counter Shaft 12 00 Lilliputian Planer. Sc« c!/f on page 56. We believe that we have accomplished in building this planer, what has never been done before, which is: being able to sell a good, complete two roll iron frame pl.aner, substantial in all parts, for the sum of $.50.00. It will plane from 800 to 1.5^X) feet of hard or soft wood lumber an hour, in the very best manner, and do its work with less power than any other pla- i ner. One horse with a good tread power will run it j to very good advantage. It is a very excellent Pla- ne" to plane Sash, Door and Window Blind Lumber, I Window and Door Casings. Bam and Fence Biiards, [ Hard Wood for Wagon Work, Agricultural Imple- I ments. &c. It has one feed roll before the cutter- head to feed in the lumber, and one behind to feed out. The small pinion between the large gears is made of steel and will l-i«t as long as the large ones. The Planer is belted and tested before being shipped. We build three sizes, to plane 13'/4, 15 and 18 inciies, and from '■b to 4 inches thick. Those without stand* can be set on a strong 'oox, a piece of timbtr, or on the end of a log. Price of 131/2 inch with stand $60 00 " " " without stand .55 00 15 " withstand 7100 " " " without stand 65 0 1 18 " withstand 83 01) " " " without stand 75 0.) Counter Shaft 15 O;) Orders accompanied with the Cash, $5.00 less. The Gem PSaner. This is a new p.attern of Planer, combining many points of the Pony, some of the Lilliputian, and some not possessed by either. It has two feed rollers, one before and one behind the cutter-head. The bed is lowered from the h'^nd. The position of the cutter- head is not changed for different thicknesses of pla- ning, thus giving the same tiglitness of driving belt, no matter from what direction it is belted. It has two speeds of feed, obtained by the use of cone pul- leys. It is very easily adjusted, requiring the tight- ening and loosening of no bolts or screws to chang" for ditterent thicknesses of planing. It works well on either hard or soft wood. We build two sizes, to plane 16 and 30 inches wide, and up to 6 inches thick. Price of 30 inch $115 00 16 " 100 00 Address all orders to A. I. ROOT, Medina, O. 1878. glea:nings in bee cultuke. IMPLEMEKTS rOR BEE CTJETUHE ALFHAEETICi^LEY ABRAlfGED. For description of the various articles see our Twelfth Edition Circular and Price List found in Jan. No., Vol. VI., or mailed on application. For directions i^ou' I Feeder, Simplicity, (see price list) 1 pint 05 T 1 Feedei-s, 1 quart, tin, pepper box style 10 25 I The same, 6 qts, to be used in upper story .50 0 j Files for small circular rip saws, new and i valuable, 20c ; per doz 3 00 3 ! " 3 cornered, for cross-cut saws 10 5 ] Frames with sample Kalibet and Clasps... 10 18 Galvanized iron wire for grapevine trellises I per lb. (about ICO feet) 30 25 I Gates for Extractors tinned for soldering. . ,50 50 I Gearing for Extractor with supporting- arm 1 50 0 I Gleanings, Vol's I and 0 I " Vol's IV and Vol. Ill, seco: first five neatl: (Ounbto^ld. 25 ; f^ p^rticul!^ see 15 Hives from 50c to price list Honey Knives '/o doz.. " " % doz by Expr " " Curved point Labels for honey, from 25 to for particulars see price list. . . ^ Lamp Nursery, for hatching queen cells built 5 00 Larvte, for queen rearing, from June to Sept 25 Leather for smoker bellows, per side 50 Lithograph of the Hexagonal Apiary 25 Magnifying Glass, Pocket 50 " " Double lens, brass on three feet 1 00 Medley of Bec-Kecper's Photo's, 150 photo's 1 00 Microscoj)e, ('(sniixiund, in Mahogany box " Prcpaicd oljjects for above, such as bees' wing, sting, eye, foot, &c., each Muslin, Indian head, for quilts and cush- ions, pretty stout, but not good as duck, per yard 3 00 25 10 Opera Glasses for Bee-Hunting 5 00 " ~ - - - - g^ 35 Paraffin e, for waxing barrels, per lb Photo of House Apiarj^ and improvements Queens, 60c to $6 00. See price list Babbets. Metal, per foot 02 Salicylic acid, for foul brood, per oz 50 Saw Sei for Circular Saws 75 Scissors, for clipping queen's wings 40 Section boxes, fancy, hearts, stars, crosses, &c., each 05 Section Honey box, a sample with strip of fdn. and printed instructions 05 Section boxes in the flat by the quantity, $9 .50 per thousand and upwards, accord- ing to size ; for particulars, see price list. Case of 3 section boxes showing the way in which the separators are used, suitable for any kind of hive, see cut, p. 8, 10 Seed, Alsike Clover, raised near vs, per lb. . 25 " Catnip, good seed, per oz. 30c ; per lb. 3 00 " Chinf's(> Mustard, per oz 15 Mellilot, or Sweet Clover, per lb 60 " White Dutch (.'lover, per lb 60 " Motherwort, per oz. 2Cc; per lb S 00 " Mignonette, per lb. (20c per oz) 150 I " Simpson Honey Plant, per package 05 I "■ " " " peroz 50 18 1 " Silver Hull Buckwheat, per lb 10 " " '* " peck by Express 75 18 •' Summer Rape. Sow in June and " July, per lb 15 A small package of any of the above seeds will be sent for 5 cents. 5 I Sheets of duck to keep the bees from soil- I ing or eating the cushions 10 I Shipping Cases for 48 section frames of I honey 60 1 50 25 3 00 10 Smoker, Quinby's (to Canada 15c extra) Doolittle's Bingham's $1 35 ; 1 60 ; 25 "■ Our own, see illustration in price list 75 Tacks, galvanized, per paper 10 Thermometers 40 0 Veils, Bee, with face of Brussels net, (silk) 75 The same, all of tarletan (almost as good) 50 Wax Extractor 3 50 Copper bottomed boiler for above 1 50 5 i Wire cloth, for Extractors, tinned per I square foot 15 Wire cloth, for queen cages 12 Above is tinned, and meshes are 5 and 18 to the inch respectivel.v Painted wire cloth, 14 mesh to the inch, per I square foot All goods delivered on board the cars here at prices named. A. I. BOOT, Medina, Ohio. 07 See engraving in this number. Price 10c. Two cents extra when sent bj' mail. A. I. ROOT, Medina. Ohio. 68 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Mar. TABLE OF PKEMITJIWS. The first column is for those only, who send 5 or more names. Names of Premium Articles. Any of them xent post-paid on re&pt of price. \—A B C of Bee Culture, Part First, 25 2 — LUhoi/riiiih of Aptary, Implements^ etc. 25 S^Phntof/raph of House Apiary 25 4 — "Thnt Present," Novice and Blue Eyes 25 5 — Emerson's Binder for Glkanings, tvill hold'^ Volumes 50 (5 — " •' better quality fiO 7 — Pocket Magnifying Glass fiO X— First or second Foh ' 20 S 25 10 Square Money Jars. One pound square Honev Jars, per gross |5 00 Two " " 7 00 Corks, Caps, Labels, Langstroth's Bee Hives, Muth's All Metal Honey Extractors, Alsike Clover seed, &c., at reasonable rates. For further particu- lars apply to CHAS. F. MUTH, Cincinnati, O. 1-3-5-7-9-11 Italian \mii m Two frame nucleus, in April, with dollar queen fS .50 '• May, 3 00 The same as above from June 1st to Aug'. 1st. . . 2 00 All well stocked with bees. I consider this the only safe plan for sending queens early. Dollar queens af^er May 15th, (as I do not consider it safe to send single queens sooner),— 80 cents. Whole colonif s. rfter June 1st, in single story Sim- plicities, with i- c mbs, and two frames empty", with such Italian qrcens as I have. S^5,C0. I will guarantee safe arrival, and that all shall be just as represented. 2inq G. W. GATES, Bartlett, Tenn. Each Number contains Thirty-two Packs of read- ing, many fine Wood Cut Illustrations, and one Col- OKEi) Plate. A beautiful Garden Magazine, printed on elegant paper, and full of information. In Eng- lish and German. Price, $1.25 a year : Five copies $5.(H). Vick's Flo^ver and Vegetable Garden. 50 cents in paper covers ; in elegant cloth covers $1.00. Vick's Catalogue,— aOO Illustrations, only 2 cents. Address, JAMES VICK, Rochester, N. Y. We will send a sample copy of the Bee-Keeper's magazine, jjost-jjaid, to any person in any way in- terested in Bees or their Prodxiets, or in the ap- paratus so successfully uscrlin modern management. Just send your name and address to A. J. KBNG «: €««>., 8tf 61 Hudson St., Bfevy York. LANE'S SEED CATALOGUE. My annual catalogue (a complete garden and floral guide — 90 pagcs> of choice Northern grown seeds— 1000 varieties, bulbs, garden and apiarian imple- ments, supplies, agricultural books, bees, queens, &c., &c., is now ready— sent postpaid on application. Address, C. F. LANE, N. W. Apiary & 2tf Seed Warehouse, Koshkonong, Wis. BEE HIVES FOR SALE CHEAP I will make good Langstroth hives, or furnish the stuff cut ready to put together, or other styles if wanted; state the number wanted and I will give prices. F. M. DICKINSON, 2-4d Whitney's Point, N. Y. SEEIDS, Plants, Bulbs, &c., lor tlic Apiary, Flower and Veg- etable Garden, Conservatory and Farm. Catalogue containing mrch useful information, free, or with 5 Packets seed of Honey Producing plants, 20c. 2-3 A. C. NELLIS, Canajoharie, N. Y. You can not look over the back No's of Glean- ings or any other Periodical with satisfaction, unless they are in some kind of a Binder. Who has not said — "Dear me, what a bother— I must have last month's Journal and it is no where to be found." Put each No. in the Emerson Binder as soon as it comes pud you can sit down happj% any time you wish to find anything you may have prcAiously seen even though it were months ago. Binders for Gleanings (will hold them for four years) gilt lettered, free by mail for 50, 60, and 75c, according to quality. For ta'de of prices of Binders for any Periodical, see Oct. No., Vol. II. Send in your orders. A. I. ECOT, Medina, Ohio. Material ready to nail for slandaid Langstroth hives. Portico, 10 fiames, (be veled top bar) bottom board and cap, in prices ranging from 7.">c to fl,00 each, according to quantity wanted. Sample hive fl.50. Our /aronie 1 he "Modest" at same prices. We are prepared to beat the world en Honey and Section Boxes. Harbison section, 5 to 10 M. per M 16 50 " " Less than 5 M, per M 7.50 • " 1 " 8 50 Dovetailed sections, any size from 454x4^, to 5x6, 5 to 10 M, per M 8 00 " " Less than 5, per M 8 50 1 " 9 00 Circulars for 1878 will soon be ready -Send for one. J. OATMAN & SONS, Itfd Dundee, Kane Co.. Ills. E. ^W. HALE'S Price List of Sees S^ (^weeiis for 1878. 1 Colony Italian Bees with tested queen (before . July 10th) $14 00; (after July 10th) $11 CO 1 Colonv Italian Bees with untested queen af- ter July 10th 9 50 1 Tested Queen 2 50 1 Untested " 1 00 A discount of 10 per cent on all orders for queens of #10,( 0 or more. All queens raised from import- ed mothers. I have made arrangements to Italianize all the black bees within 2 miles of my apiary, and I think all my queens will be purely mated; all queens will be shipped in rotation, and I desire pai-ties or- dering queens, to inform me whether tliey wish the money returned if the order can net be tilled at once. 2-8d Address, E. W. HALE, Wiit C. H., West Va. DEVOTi:i> TO 33EE« ATNX> HOIVEIT, AJVD H03MDB nVTEHEST©. Vol. VI. MARCH 1, 1878. No. 3. A. I. ROOT, Publisher and Proprietor, niediiaa^ O. Published. MosatSaly. (-terms: «i.OO Per Annum in AA- i. vance; 3 Copies for $2.50; 5/or t3.T6; lEstalallsliecl In 1873. ClO or more, 60c. each. Single Number lOc. HIV experience:, no. 3. SMOTHERED BEES. BURING the warm days of March, bees flew some. During- one of their "flying spells," I noticed that they did not fly from one hive, and a few days later I saw thej' did not fly from an- other one. Later in the spring- the sti-aw was taken away from the hires, the two dead colonies taken into the honse and the honey removed; I then dis- covered what I thought was the cause of their death. The man of whom I had purchased them had placed a pebble under each corner of some of the hives, which caused the bees to build the comb down to the very bottom. I had placed the hives upon a board with nothing: under the corners; this, of course, brought the combs in contact with the bottom board. As the dead bees accumulated at the bottom, the passag-es underneath the combs became completely closed, putting- an end to ventilation, and shutting- the bees in the hive. There was considerable honey left by the dead swarms, and, by some piecing-, I ob- tained seven frames of dry corrib. I raised the other hives, brushed away the dead bees, and found that the combs, in some of the hives, touched the bottom board slightly in some places. I raised the hives and put thin strips of wood under the edges. The lower edges of nearly all the combs, in the two colonies lost, were "smashed" against the bottom board. FEEDING. As soon as the weather was warm enough for the bees to fly nearly every day, I commenced feeding in the following manner: I made boxes 5 inches long, 4 wide, and SVi deep. I made the joints tight with beeswax, set the boxes over the holes in the tops of the hives, covered them with boards upon which had been tacked three or four thicknesses of woolen cloth, laid bricks on top to keep the covers down, and plastered up the cracks between the boxes and the hives with mud. I com- menced by putting- a piece of comb, an inch square, filled with honey, in each box, each night; the "dose" being gradually increased. This feeding was contin- ued until the bees not only stopped carrying it down, but commenced storing honey in some pieces of empty comb which were in the boxes. When swarm- ing time came, my bees were stronger than my neighbor's. It might have been the feeding, and it might have been something else. KEEPING A DIARY, SLATES, &C. As soon as I obtained some bees, I commenced keeping a diary, in which most of my bee-keeping "proceedings" were recorded; I have continued it ever since, and a good share of "My Experience" is taken from it. Let me give a few short items, selec- ted from it at random. "4p?-i?, 12th, To day is the first that I have noticed the bees bringing in pollen. Willow is the source from which it is gathered." "J((?,V, 13f7i, Extracted UO lbs." '"July, 32nd, Removed 25 lbs. honey in small frames. Basswood continued in blossom about 10 days." _ 'Sept. 6th, Extracted 33 lbs. Extracted from one frame in each hive, and placed it in the centre of the br(»od nest. Did it to give the queen room to lay." This kind of record was kept until I reached the busy season, when I found it becoming so lengthy, that, although my hives were numbered, it was sometimes a little difficult to find any particular item at a moment's notice. I then made a slight change by taking a page in my note book for each hive, hav- ing the number of each hive placed at the top of the page. The record of each was thus kept separate. Anything of general interest, that appertained to the apiary as a whole, was placed in the diary. I have seen small slates advertised, to be hung on the side of the hive, for keeping a record. I have never used them, but think I should like my way better. You have the record of your apiary all together, aad in a convenient shape for reference, and preserva- tion. Carry your note book in your pocket, and you can write in that just as well as you can upon a slate, fastened to the side of the hive. W. Z. Hutchinson. Rogersville, Mich., I do not think your bees smothered from want of air, but got into a fever and wor- ried themselves to death, because they could not get out. As soon as a day comes, warm enough for them to fly, yovi should see that the bees are out from every hive. If they are not, go at once, and see where the trouble is. If their entrance is clogged, open it at once, if yoti have to tear the hive all to pieces. Your plan of feeding was effectual, doubtless, but it would be a great deal of trouble with a large number of hives. Your diary is an excellent idea, but with 100 or more hives, it would soon get to be voluminous. We have used the same plan, of giving a page to each hive, but the book was soon neglected in the hurrj^ of the honey season. The time occu- pied in writing, is considerable, and with the queen cards, we have it already written, or what is still better, printed. All yoti have to do, is to turn the pins. For queen rearing, there are contingencies coming up, that make it very desirable, many times, to have a slate, but I am afraid I would al- ways be losing my slate pencil. We have taken some pains to see how low slates can be furnished, but at present writing, can find nothing but what I should call both unsightly, and expensive. If something for about $1.00 per hundred, light and with smoothly finished edges, could be procured, I think I would like them. D. D. Palmer, of Eliza, 111., first suggested and put in practice the idea, if I am correct. He described them in our journals 4 or .5 years ago. If pasteboard, wood, or sheet iron could be so coated with liquid slate, such as is used for making blackboards, as to be weatlier proof, it would probably be just the 70 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. *Mar. thing; but I have little hope that anything would prove as durable in this respect, as the slate itself. Are any of our subscribers near slate quarries? if so, will they please work the matter up, or give us the address of the proper parties? IN THE NICK OF TllflS:. MANY people have a habit of locking- the stable after the horse has been stolen, and no doubt , many bee-keepers try to save small or weak stocks in the spring-, and try to patch them up, when it's too late. Now, they did not do it in the "nick of time." As early as the middle of Sept. every winter, stock should be put in shape. W^e mean by this, that a colony should have plenty of honey and just as many combs as they can well cover, and no more. Don't be afraid to crowd them a little, for as the weather becomes cold they will find ample room. In this condition a colony will keep their hives warm, expel the moisture, and no frost will be found in the hive, even in the coldest weather, in well packed hives. The next "nick of time" will be the first day in spring that is warm enoug-h to handle them with safety. Now is the time to save weak stocks; crowd them onto as few combs as possible with division board, and tuck them up warm. In this condition, brooding will go on quite rapidly and the stocks will soon begin to increase in numbers. But if such weak stocks are left in a large hive containing double the number of combs they can cover, they are cold and can't raise brood fast enough to keep their numbers good, and dwindling is the result. Any stock that is worth the saving, can, every time, be built up into a good populous stock ready for business by the time white clover blooms. We do not much fancy the robbing of good stocks of their brood to build up a lot of weak ones, except it might be to save valuable queens, &c. I find, every spring, that I can put the A'ery best stocks I have on about 5 combs until nearly the end of April. By that time they will be crowded from top to bottom. Ni)w I spread the combs but not sooner, and by fruit blossom time they are very pop- ulous and ready tor action. Since 1 have adopted the plan above described, I have no trouble, either in winter or spring, with my bees; two per cent will cover the loss of re76 and '77. J. Butler. Jackson, Mich., Jan. 31st, 1878. EXTRACTED VERSUS COITIB HONEY. ALSO SOMETHING AEOUT LONG ONE STORY HIVES. f> WAS much interested in Doolittle's explanation of how he got 666 lbs. of honey from one hive. — I It seems to me, notwithstanding yoiu- opinion to the contrary, this experiment of his, has completelj- solved the hive question. Here, with a one story, simple frame hive, altho' it icofi a hnig idea anc, 566 lbs. of honey was obtained, which, if sold at 10c per lb., would bring 156.60; while if his average of comb honey had been 200 lbs. from each hi\'e instead of 166, at 20c per lb. it would have brought him but S!40.00. Besides, as he worked only two hives for extracted honey and 55 for comb, it is not all probable that he had the best honey makers in the hives from which he extracted. Be that as it may, it is evident he lost some $15.00 or more per hive by working for comb honey; this amount on 55 colonies would amount to the snug little sum of 1975.00. These figures of course are only approximate, not having Doolittle's repfirt at hand, to make verbatim extracts from. Again, all agree that extracted honey can be pro- duced with less than one-half the labor, and certain- ly with one-half the cost in hives, honey boxes and fixtures. Besides, extracted honey can be sold for more than 10 cts. per lb., while it is extremely diffi- cult to get 20 cts. per lb. for comb honey. Hence, I conclude it will not pay to raise comb honey; or rather it will pay better to produce ex- tracted honey. You speak of his "long idea" hive as though it were going back to antiquated notions, and mention another party who actuailv uot a few lbs. innie from a two story hive; and von Very iustly conclude, therefore, that the shape of the hive had nothing to do with his success. True enough; and here is the important point; if as much honey, or a little less, can be obtained from a simple one story hive, why be bothered with manipulating a compli- cated and costly two story one? I think a longer frame, like the Langstroth for instance, would be better for such a hive than the little, square Gallup, because we would get about as much comb in 20 such fi-ames, as in the 132 Doolittle used, and thus save nearly two-fifths of its length. Now, I want to tell you my plan of using chaff. I think I discount your chaff cushions for the sides of the hives. In order to do this, I must first tell you of my hive. My frames are 10x13 inches inside and hang across the hive, which is 16i/4 inches wide. I make four frames two inches wide and large enough, when hung in the hive, to fill the sides and touch the bottom. One side of these frames is covered with any thin wood, such as picture backing or lath, and the other side, after packing it full of chaff, is cov- ered with wire cloth, just such as people use for door and window screens. This wire keeps the chaff in and at the same time permits the escape of the mois- ture from the bees. They are used in this way: the top bar of two of them is rabbeted the same as the sides of the hive; these two are hung, one in the front end of the hive which one has an entrance slot cut in its boltom bar, and the other is hung in the rear, far enough back for the frames to hang be- tween. Enough frames are now hung in to winter the bees on, and the other chaff frames hung one on each side. Then a chaff cushion is placed on top and the bees are chaff bound completely, bottom except- ed. These frames I can make for less money than you advertise your chaff cushions at, they can't be eaten by either bees or mice and ought to last indefi- nitely. Of course this is for one story hives. I have two experimental colonies which I am try- ing to winter exclusively on glucose. I looked at them tc-day; they seem to be doing nicely so far. A. W. Foreman, M. D. White Hall, Ills., Feb. 4th, 1878. Pertaining to Bee Cnltiire. [We respectfully solicit the aid of our friends in conducting this department, and would consider it a favor to have them send us all circulars that have a deceptive appearance. The greatest care will be at all times maintained to prevent injustice being done any one.] I^UR industrious friend Mitchell has just %M issued quite a pretty little circular, and ^^^ if he would moderate his statements a little it might be the means of doing some good. A while ago, he estimated each colo- ny should produce $100.00, but he now gets it much better, although it should come down a great deal yet. We extract as fol- lows : Bees handled and worked as they ought to.be and as we direct, every such colony will give its keeper annually at the lowest estimate, .$40.00 cash, or 100 colonies will give the keeper f4000.CO, and in very many sections they will double that. Do you see how mistaken you were last month, friend Martin? and again : There are purchasers in New York City who are advertising for extracted white clover and basswood honey, and are buying all they can get for which they are paying 22 cents a pound cash, and they like it cul the hetter if it is cMulied. Well, really ! this is better news yet. Un- fortunately the address of this house was not given. We presume it is furnished his pupils who pay §5.00 for two hours school- ing. I infer from the next that lie has gone way past spring dwindling. Along in the month of February 1 he j'oung bees will be hatching out by thousands. Then is the time to aid your bees to increase in number. This you do by removing one of the adjusting boards a little, and frames, so as to be able to set one of the ^empty 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 71 combs in the center of the brood nest. The queen will at once deposit eggs in every cell, and the young' bees constantly hatching from the other combs, your hive is continually filling- up with bees and as they fill up the hive you ought to add an empty comb oc- casionally. In February ! why it is time to go and spread our combs now, and before this reach- es you, I fear it will be too late. I would not dare to advise such work before May, with our usual seasons. The last is the best news of all, and if our friend could only raise queens in Feb. all our troubles about getting queens early, would be at an end. Sandusky CtTY, Ohio.— About the first of May, 1878, we intend to remove to the above named city. We go there for the reason that it is a much better country for bees than this, and we there have the ad- A'antage of those beautiful islands in the lake out of the reach of black bees, where we can raise queens as pure as if we were in sunny Italy. We will take with us at least lOOvT stands of bees, which will be kept on the main land near the city, and all our queens will be raised in our Queen Bpeeding Apiary, and as soon as hatched will be sent to the Island to be fertilized. We have made preparations to raise 1030 queens per month. We can give you but an outline of the work before us, but that you may see the great work we are engaged in, we extend to you and every bee-keeper of the country, a cordial invi- tation to visit us at Sandusky, and see for yourself that our new system of bee culture is all that we claim for it and even more. 1000 GOOD AGENTS WANTED. This is all very nice and commendable, but the letters that keep coming, seem to indicate it may be well to continue to keep a watch over Kelley's island even if the foul broody stocks should all be removed. I notice you touch up N. C. Mitchell, or your cor- respondents do, occasionally. He sent me an adver- tisement stating that if I would call at his place of business in Indianapolis, I could see Italian bees in all their beauty. I called and he had two small col- onies of the scrubbiest kind of blacks; but before I left he insisted on selling me the right to his famous (?) hive. I did not buy. Last fall he had an apiary at Clermont, 5 miles from here, and I am told he ex- tracted so closely that nearly all the little innocents starved to death before winter was half over. He has printed a small pamphlet (.50 cts.) on apiculture. His chapter on keeping bees good natured is taken almost verbatim from Quinby. J. F. HiCKEY, M. D. Trader's Point, Indiana. He says in regard to Italians that will sting : This comes of selling dollar queens; and we have been told by those who visited the apiary of the fath- er or instigator of the dollar queen movement that they saw him go among his bees with gauntletts up- on his hands and a protector over both head and face and seemed to be in every way sting proof, and yet his bees drove himself and visitor out of his own apiary. If bee-keepers want Italian bees they want them in their purity or not at all, and that we may be able to furnish them in their purity, wo have de- termined to remove our queen breeding apiary to Sandusky City, Ohio, where we will have the advan- tage of Kelley's Island. Upon it we propose to have all our queens fertilized. Now, that was "awful naughty" in me was it not, brother Mitchell, to put rubber gloves among humbugs and swindles so long, and then wear 'em myself, when I wanted to show the bees to visitorsV I nev- er in my life had on a pair of rubber gloves, but my neighbors have, and after seeing them covered with the stings of the poor little martyrs, they decided, as I have so often said, that the bees would sting rubber gloves, when they would not think of stinging the naked liand, and so all have thrown them aside, as worse than useless,' and money wasted. I earnestly protest against their being offered for sale to beginners who do not know what is needed. The broad margin of profit, at $2.00 per pair, is I presume one secret of the per- tinacity with which they are urged on the inexperienced. To go back to our subject; if friend Mitchell will go onto Kelley's island and do an honest business, raising and selling queens, I will give him a nice standing advertisement gratis. The foul brood that now exists there, can easily be eradicated, and the island can be stocked with pure Italians, just from Italy. As Ave have a subscriber there, I can easily keep track of the project and will be extremely glad to help any such enterprise ; but it must be done honestly and squarely. I have never realized a cent of the money sent Mitchell for extractor, &c. Jas. McCook. Natchitoches, La., Jan. 3Vth, 1878. REPORT FROm NEBRASKA. ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT HONEY PLANTS. ^ SEND you my report of last year's results with Jb[| 97 stocks of bees. The season was very peculiar '-^ as no surplus honey was gathered until Aug. 8th. In March, I set out 97 stocks of bees; in the latter part of the month, pollen was gathered quite freely from hazel and willow bushes, and on the 10th of April they stored honey and built comb. The tiow of honey was from red elm, which, when the weather is warm, furnishes considerable honey for a few days. Rainy weather set in about the first of May and continued until the middle of June. We had drones by the middle of May and raised queens; but lost 9-10 of them, up to the 15th of June, when the weather became favorable and we met with better success. We had 14 acres of red clover, upon which bees, both black and Italian, work freely in this sec- tion of country owing to its shortness of growth, but some of them starved to death while busily working on it. It blooms the fore part of June. Then fol- lowed hot and dry winds which prevented any flow of honey from the basswood, but sweet clover fur- nished a scant supply and was worked on all day long with the greatest perseverance. It is apparent from the results of this year, that unless the conditions of the atmosphere and soil are right, there will be but little honey secreted by any plant or tree; but if all the conditions are favorable at any time in the season there will be a fair flow of honey from such honey plants as maybe in blossom: for, even dogwood, for a few days, furnishes a good flow of honey, circumstances being favorable. Lucerne is of no value for honey; in fact, is not worked on at all, and Simpson weed, which grows among timber all over the country here, is too scat- tering to be depended upon for a surplus of honey. The great honey plant of the West, is English smart- weed which blooms the first of August and continues until frost, furnishing light colored honey of good quality, without nauseating properties; and if not the equal of basswood, in other respects, it is far ahead in that. This, with buckwheat, from the first of Aug. up to the 8th of Sept., furnished us with 5iW lbs. of surplus honey (mostly extracted) and caused our bees to increase to 145 stocks; about 50 per cent of honey and 30 per cent of increase per stock on that of Inst year. My impression i-4 that sweet clover is a very val- uiible lioiicy plant. That, with English smartweed will furnish a supply in grasshopper years, in sec- tions tliiit are overrun by these pests, for they do not eat sweet clover the first year of its growth, nor smartweed to injure it at all; neither do they the Rocky mountain bee plant. Rulo, Nebraska. Jerome Wiltse. The Simpson honey plant needs some pro- tection, or it will be broken and trampled down by stock. While we found none in the open fields, wlierever there was a tree top, or something tliat kept the cattle away from it, we found it in great luxuriance. 72 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Mar. RAISING DOIil^AR QIEENS, &c. S all my bees are safely packed under their quilts and under the snow, I thoug-ht it would be a good opportunity to report for the past season. My bees here at my home apiarj- have net- ted me, as nearly as I can estimate, about $17,60 per colony, wintei ed, (24 in the spring:) in honej-, increase, bees, and queens sold; but it was an unusually good season after June 1st. The road of the bee-keeper who raises dollar queens is not altogether strewn with flowers, as you know and I can testify. Our spring was warm as summer for a few days and then cold and wet; and by the time my queen cells were ready to hatch they would be all torn down or chilled; then my customers would grumble and really when I had done all I could to raise the queens, and "the fault Avas in the weather, it was not pleasant to be abused for it. In several cases I sent tested queens. E. W. Hale. Wirt C. H., West Va., Jan. 9th, 1878. I wonder friend H., if we can not talk over the matter pleasantly before the season comes, and get onr friends to promise not to scold, even if the queens do not come as soon as they expect them. We got the worst scolding for sending queens from other apiaries ; but I really do not see why we should be blamed for so doing, when we had made no promises to the contrary. When one has more orders for any kind of produce than he can supply. I believe it is usually customarv for him to purchase of his neighbors, ;^fow the question comes in, are the neighbor's products just as desira- ble? If so, the orders may as well go direct to these neighbors. It is quite important to know just who among our queen rearers has a surplus on hand, that we may get prompt returns, for I tell you, nothing ad- vertises, like queens sent by return mail. I do not mean promises, but doing it. When any of you get a stock on hand ready to ship, I will mention the matter in print, free of charge. Now who will have dollar queens ready to ship, soonest? AUTOMATIC SITAROTING. A NEW SWARM GOrNG INTO AN OLD HIVE. Jr'M not a champion of the "boi hive," but I can I send you a good report of one, gi^en me by a _»! lady bee-keeper who has several kinds of hive's. In the winter, a weak colony died out of an old box hive, the bottom board of which is on the ground, and partially buried in the earth. The next season, at swarming time, a few bees were seen going out and in for several days. No notice was taken of their doings, it being supposed that they were hunt- ing for honey, as the old comb was still in the hive. In a few days a stray swarm was noticed in the air, which soon settled upon the old box hive, entered it and went to work. They filled the hive with honey and made enough box honey to sell for $30.00. Who can give a better report? A. B. Springfield, Ohio, Jan. 29th, 1878. Many thanks for your very valuable fact. Friend Martin spoke of locating hives in the woods, a few months ago, and several cases have been reported, of new swarms going into trees that had been previously occupied; but we have known but few in- stances in which the new swarm went into a hive in the same yard. Does not this, in reality, look as if the little fellows had an eye out for the main chances, very much as one with ^-eason, would have V Now for business: Can we not manage to have hives arranged in such an attractive man- ner, hidden among shrubbery, or in places for which bees are known by experiment, to havethe greatest preference, filled with nice combs, in such a way that the new swarms may take to them instead of going to the woods? Can not we offer "counter inducements'' as we do to get the street boys to go to Sunday school? Imagine a vender of patent hives, saying in his circular, ''The bees have unanimously given ray hive the preference by adopting it in place of any other, and they carefully examined every point in its construction several days before the swarm came out, as did thej' also, 2-5 other patent hives placed in the same yard under the same conditions. When the swarms came out, they took a bee line for my hive, and gave all the rest the "go by." We could scarcely claim the bees were influenced by any unfair motive, and if they should take a log gum instead of the chaff hive or Simplicity, we would have to conclude they had very little sympathy with modern "innovations. I verily believe we can fix hives so that a great part of the absconding swarms will go into them. If it is better to have them located in a tree top, I presume we can aiTange that part of the ])rogramme also. Who can give us more facts of a like nature? Box hives sometimes do well, any way; glad to hear it. Perhaps the large yield of honey, was be- cause they had secured a home after their own liking; and, by the way, it seems they made no objection at all to their hive being not only on the ground, but if I understand correctly, partially in the ground. LARGER BEES. AND 4 1-2 CEI^l^S TO TOE INCH. fDO not quite understand your remark as to ha»"- ing made a mistake in ordering Vi cells to the inch, bearing in mind you would not say so ex- cept as the result of experience. In one of my for- mer notes, I remember remarking on the quantity of drone cells your fdn. had produced in the hands of Mr. Cheshire; this was not borne out in my own experience afterwards. Last year I replenished all my hives with natural swarms giving fdn. 4'3 cells to'the inch. I scarcely had a drone cell throughout, except indeed where, as sometimes happened, the wax sheet had broken awa.v or did not fairly fill the frame. Mr. Cheshire's failure was no doubt through his putting the new sheets in the centre of the brood nest of strong stocks. I apprehend with or without fdn. the bees would build drone comb when honey comes in rapidl.v. Both Mr. Cowan (a very able api- arian) and myself feel quite sure we obtain larger bees from the larger cells, surpassing in size those cradled in cells of their own usual size. Indeed I think it quite possible, by gradually increasing the size of cells and working with swarms onl.v, we might breed up the workei-s to the size of drones. John Hunter. 5 Eaton Eise, Ealing, England, Jan. 15th, '78. It may be, friend H.. that larger bees -will be raised in the larger cells; but you cer- I tainly make a mistake in saying that drone comb will be built under some circumstan- ces, fdn. or no fdn. If 5 cells to the inch is I hung in a quccnJes.'< colony, there will not be I a cell of drone comb, and I have never heard i of a cell of drone comb being built in the j 5 to the inch fdn. We have a large num- j ber of combs in our apiary, on the 4i fdn.. j and it just now occurs to me, that this may j account for the very large worker bees I 1 have noticed and mentioned during the past 1878. GLEANIN^GS IN BEE CULTURE. 73 season. I gave the credit to the imported queen, but after all, it may have been a frame or tvo of the large worker comb. I did tell you my friends, that the ii worked all right ; it was beautiful compared with our natural combs. Of course we get a good many more bees, with o cells to the inch, but which is better? many small bees, or not quite so many, a little larger? I confess I donotkuov. lam well satis- fied that the bees raised in the 5 to the inch, are full as large as the bees reared in natur- al comb ; those reared in the 4i may be a little larger than natural. Who will tell us more about it? I once stood an L. comb on end, against the side of a tall Am. hive, for the purpose of making a nucleus. The comb sagged in, tovvard the side of the hive making one side concave, and the other convex. When the queen became fertile, and filled both sides with eggs, in due time, we had a shower of yellow Italians, but to my surprise a great part of the workers, seemed scarcely larger than a house fly. As tlie little fellows flitted about, they looked so comical, we shouted with laugh- ter, and when they commenced to bring pollen, much vvas the merriment occasioned among the children, at their queer appear- ance. An examination of the comb, show- ed very clearly, just what brouj:?lit about these small bees ; the concave side of the comb showed a patch of small cells, caused by the wall being contracted by the sag- ging, and small bees were seen biting their way out through the caps. Again ; one of our readers once sent me a piece of comb containing worker bees in drone comb. It was put in a hive, and the bees hatched out, but they were so much larger than the rest of the bees in the hive, that they could readily be picked out. I think there is little doubt, but that we can by this means get larger bees ; the small ones carried small loads of pollen ; why should not the large ones carry large loads? I do not know how we shall get up to drone size very well, unless we can get some of the queens to promise not to lay any drone eggs, even if the cells are large ; if "we can do this, perhaps ^ve shall not need the Apis Dorsata, at all. Thank you friend Hunter, for suggesting the idea. HOW TO MAKE TME SHEETS TO COVER THE FRA.?i[ES. ENAMELED CLOTH VERSUS DUCK. ^ NOTICE that you do not use the honey board (so |C|| called), on your hive; is it dispensed with now on ^ the Langstroth? I think the bees will wax the duck, or muslin, so that it will be difficult to take it off to examine them. E. W. Bowe. Tiffin, Ohio, Feb. 6th, 18V8. On page 330, of last year, I mentioned that I had been experimenting with en- ameled cloth, in place of duck, and that when the enameled surface was placed next the bees, they did not take the trouble to cover it with propolis. Somewhat contrary to my expectations. it answers excellently for winter also ; this is perhaps owing to the influence of the chaff cushions, for no frost ever gets to the sheet over the cluster, when used in the chaff hive. I am so much pleased with the enameled cloth, that we are now using it instead of the duck. It is so thin that it is less liable to kill bees than -the duck, and it is really a little cheaper, for we get it in bolts of 12 yards each, 45 inches wide ; this cuts up without waste. To have the cloth close the top of the hive perfectly, so that not even an inquisitive bee can push his "physiognomy'* out any where, is quite a little problem, and I will tell you how we have done it. SIMPLICITY HIVE. ENAMELED CLOTH. Let fig. 1, represent a top view of an empty Simplicity hive, and fig.2, the sheet of enameled cloth, with the strips of tin folded on each end. A, is the space cut out of the end boards, to hold the metal rabbets, and B B, are strips of tin i of an inch wide, folded twice over the end of the sheet of cloth. These strips of tin are cut just long enough to drop into the channels A. You will observe that a corner is left where the rabbet is cut out, that takes the tip ends of the tins, and holds them securely up against the ends of the hive. No'-v almost all kinds of cloth will shrink after using, and besides, it is difiicult to cut cloth to such exact dimensions as we can wood or metals. Accordingly, we make our sheet a little long, and to bring it straight and smooth over the tops of the frames, we roll the surplus over one of the tin strips one or more times. Tliis allows us all the room we shall ever need, and yet we can take up all the "slack ;'"' that fixes the ends bee-tight. Xow the sides are li- able to dravv in some, especially, when we stretch the cloth lengthwise. This could be fixed, by making the v idtli a little full, but if we did this, we should cover the ends of the tin strips that fit in the corners, and this makes it difficult to get them into place quickly. It can all be nicely arranged by making the sheet broader in the middle, as shown in the cut. Perliaps a i inch should be added to the middle of each side. With this arrangement, you can close a hive of hybrids in a second, and if any bees are left above, they are level with the top of the hive and have no cavity to get into, from vvhich they must be picked out ; there- fore if they do not get off and down to the entrance, of their own accord, they can be very quickly brushed off, before putting on the cover. As this thin sheet of cloth is but little protection, I vvould always have the thin chaff cushion in the cover to be placed over it, except in very warm weather. Re- member no bees are ever to touch the chaff cushions, under any circumstances. N^ow we have solved the problem of keeping the bees from building bits of combs on the top 74 GLEAJq^INGS IN BEE CULTURE. Mak. bars of the frames if we wish. Simply scrape the top bars clean, and when you close the hive, make all the bees get off them by pushing them along with your fin- ger, on the outside, over them; then put on your chaff cushion to keep them from pushing the sheet up again. As this takes considerable time, I think I would let them build bits of comb just high enough to keep the sheet from pressing on them, when it is put over the frames. i ^ •'Si* •f [This department is to be kept for the benefit of those who are dissatisfied; and when anything' is amiss, I hope you will "talk rig-ht out." As a rule we will omit names and addresses, to avoid being- too personal.] f|HE following card, suggested the start- ing of this department. No use in humbugg-ing- any more about it. I have your receipt, dated March 1.5th, 1877, for $1.10. I was to have Gleanings for one year. You g-ot me out of Feb. No. for 1877, and now, accDrding- to your statement, you intend to do likewise for Feb. 1878. "Dance up to the music," and when my time is up I will decide the matter. J. C. B. We have passed the above all round, friend B., but noue of us have the remotest idea, what called forth your complaint. If any of the clerks have written crustily or unkindly, perhaps we would better have tlvnn in this department. We would, by no means, keep back a single No. that is due our subscribers, for after we have all worked hard to make a good Journal, we take great pleasure in handing them over to you promptly. If a number is lost in the mail, or even if it is lost after it comes into your posession, we always make it a rule to replace it without charge, it you will only apprise us of the fact. With the heavy mails we now have to get through with dai- ly, it would be almost impossible for us to have a "spite" against any particular one, if we felt so disposed. We may be awfully awkward friend B., but I am sure none of us ever try to steal. FERTILIZATION OF THE QUKEN. A FURTHER DEVELOPMENT. HAVE not witnessed the meeting of a queen honey bee with a drone, but last Augrust I wit- nessed the meeting of a queen hiniil)lc bee and a drone of that species, and if we consiilcr how closely their habits in other respects resemble those of the honey bee, we, probably, will not be very far amiss, if we conclude that their habits in this respect are similar. W^hile busily at work on the porch at hon- ey, my attciitiim was ai-rcsted by two bumble bees, one in close i)ursuit of the other. 'I'hev ai>peared to be nearly cxhiiusted, and attempted to' lit:ht on the posts to the poich se\ enil times, but fiiilinu- would fly around and make the attt'nipt over, wliieli, owing to the close pursuit of the drone, and the i)erpendic- ular surface of the posts, was each time a failure. I soon saw by the light colored down on the forehead of the one in pursuit, that it was a drone, and be- coming- iiUerested, observed their actions closely. The drone kept \ cry close to the queen, and when she att<'n)pted to iight, struck against her with such force as to cause her to loose her hold on the post, and fall several feet, when they would resume their flight again with the same results. After se\-eral failures, while circling round, they struck my back and fell to the floor, where they mated and remained for a few moments, when they slowly resumed their flight coupled together. After they bad risen 4 or 5 feet from the ground, the queen by a series of revo- lutions of her body released herself from the drone and flew off. The drone continued his flig-ht for a few rods, and fell to the ground dead, and in the con- dition in which drones of the honey t>ee family are said to be found under similar circumstances. It does not look reasonable that a queen bee, whose wing-s are no more than sufficiently large to sustain her own weight conveniently, should be able to mate with a drone in flig-ht. The probabilities are, they mate while at rest, and release themselves from the drone by rolling themselves rapidly over, several times in succession, when a few feet from the ground on their return home. Queens seldom become fertile before the 7th or 8th day, and f have no doubt that they can be fertilized in confinement, if taken at about that age, and placed with drones under a frame a ftw feet high and covered with gnuze sufficiently strong- to confine them. It should l>e placed where the stimulating rays of the sun will fall on them, and be protected from all drafts of air. ProbaV>ly a feed cf)mposed of honey mixed with peppermint essence given to the colony containing- the young queen, on the day pre- vious" to the one on which the attempt is to be made, would help to bring- about the right condition. Jerome Wiltse. Rulo, Nebraska, Feb. 14th, 1878. I am inclined to think the above gives us the correct solution of the manner in which the queen frees herself, although it seems none of those who claimed to have witness- ed the meeting, ever suggested as much. If you allow a hee to sting your hand with- out molestation, he releases himself, in pre- cisely the way mentioned, by revolving his body around the point of att.ichment ; and it looks quite reasonable to suppose this is the mode that instinct teaches both queens and drones. I have no faith, my friend, in fertiliz-ation in confinement, for all the conditions you and others have mentioned, have been most carefully complied with, in hundreds of in- stances, by our most careful experimentoi's. Let them fly, as God intended they should. CARIilN'S FOUNDATION CUTTER. OAN you make me something- like the cut below, for cutting fdn., and if so what is it worth"' The cutter to be round, of steel, thin and very sharp. The cutter to turn when cutting so as not to draw the fdn. as a knife sometimes does. To be the size you think will best answer the purpose. C. R. Carlin. Shreveport, La., Feb. 11th, 1878. CARLIN S FOUNDATION CUTTER, Heigh-ho! friend Carlin, the machine works to a charm, and it does not need soap, slippery elm, nor starch either, on the cutter. Within an hour after your letter was received, we had made one, of a round piece of tin punched out with a round punch, flattened and sharpened with a file at the edges, put into a clieai» wooden handle, and found that fdn. could be cut as fast as you could wheel it around the sheets. If you will allow ns to manufacture them at 10c. each, I will pay you $10.00 for the idea. Now I think I have made an invention in connection with the cutter, and here it is. If you wish a great numuer of small 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 75 sized pieces, such as we use for section boxes, make a frame of thin pieces of wood, like the following cut : FRAME FOR CUTTING FDN. STARTERS. Lay it on top of your sheet of fdn. and run your tin wheel in each crack. Care- fully, lift your frame, place it at right angles, cut through as before, and you will have a great number of square pieces, ex- actly of a size, square and true, and yet they are all made by a few long cuts. If you wish your pieces oblong, make two frames, with the strips of wood of different widths. If you wish them triangular, place your frame at an angle the second time you cut. To cut sheets for the brood fi-ames, make a board just the size you wish, lay it on your sheet, and run tlie cutter round it. You can cut two or more sheets at once, but they are not done quite as nicely as when you cut but one at a time. I think we all" owe friend Carlin a vote of thanks. HO\r TO hiakb; a smoker. ET a soft smooth piece of sheep skin, IW' 2i inches wide, and 22 inches long. ^'"^ You will also want two narrow strips, i inch wide, and the same length as the above. The three should not cost over 10 or 15c., for a whole piece of the leather larga enough to make six smokers, costs only 50c. Two boards 5x6 inches, and about 5-16 thick, are all that is necessary to tinish the bellows. A strip of wood i inch wide, and the same thickness as the boards, is securely bradded to one end of each board, as shown in Fig 1. These strips are somewhat thinner at one edge, as shown. BOARDS FOR S3IOKER BELLOWS. Figure 2 shows the upper board, with the single i inch hole bored near one end. Fig. 3, show^s the tw^o in place, just ready to tack the leather on. The springs shown at Fig 1, are made of bits of clock spring, to be had of any jeweler. You can get a whole clock spring for 20c., which will make 6 smoker springs. Bend the springs to the shape shown in the cut, and rivet the end to the wood, by two secure rivets. Steel springs sometimes break, it is true, and you can use similar ones made of brass if you choose ; these never break, but they al- most alw^ays lose their elasticity sooner or later. For my own use I prefer the light springs called alarm springs, because they are softer, and it is easier to work the bel- lows. As others generally prefer a stiff spring, those we sell are made that way. Bend your springs so that the boards will come up promptly, as far as the leather will allow. To make a neat job, you should put on the leather with tinned tacks, about 7-16 in length. Put the boards as closely together at the end where the hinge is, as the two strips will allow them to come, and tack one end of your long piece of leather. The boards should be separated at the other ends, as far as the width of the leather will allow. Draw the leather close up to the wood, and tack at intervals. Now tack the i inch strip on for a binding ; if you wish a pretty job, use red morocco for these last. When your tacks are all in — I w^ould drive them a little more than i inch apart — you are ready to pare off the surplus leather with a A'ery sharp knife. Finish off everything neatly with sandpaper, and your bellows is done. The leather has cost us 10c, the two boards, possibly 5c, and the springs 5 more. Allowing 5c for your time in tack- ing on the leather and sand-papering, and you have a good bellows for 25c. It should be as good as anything in the market, for this price. The sample that I had to work after, was purchased from a bellows manu- factory, and they charged 40c each for them, by the hundred. Theirs contained a v^ilve, but after carefully trying those with valves and those without, for bee smokers, I have decided I can see no advantage in having a valve. Fasten the valve so it can not work, in your best smoker, and see if it does not answer just as well. As liquids or gasses flow more rapidly through an orifice that is made smooth, with the corners rounded off, the hole in the up- per board, should be rounded off on the in- side corners, or wiiat is better, a short tin tube with a slight taper and the inside end made flaring, might be inserted ; this may project through the board, J or t of an inch. I think you will lind it will blow "right smart," and it will probably look something like this : BELLOWS COMPLETE. Now, if you choose, you can have a tall tube made, placed at one side of the bellows, like Quinby's and Bingham's ; but I decided- ly prefer the compact, more nearly spherical form, as showai over the leaf. I And it easier to build a fire in, less liable to go out, and I like better having the jet of air go out of the bellows and through the fire, without having to turn a corner. The obtuse nozzle is easier to clean, and if the fuel is cut small, it may be fed without ta- king off the cap at all, wiiich is quite an item wiien the case is hot. The tin cup shown below, is 4 inches in diameter, and 2i high, and the nozzle is made to shut closely GLEAXIXGS IX BEE CULTTRE. JfAR. over it. I prefer about a i inch hole for the exit of smoke. Xow I take considerable pride in telling you how I attach the whole to the bellows, damper and all. for I consider it quite an invenrlon in the way of cheapness, strenath and simplicity. SMOKEK •■DISSECTED." Fig. 4 represents the bottom of the smoker cup. The large hole in the center is to allow the blast of air to come up through, and the smaller ones are for 4 common screws that attach it to the bellows. To prevent the fire from falling through the large hole, a piece of tin is cut as in Fig. -5. and punched full of holes. s«> as to leave a deep bur on the upper side. This allows the blast to pass through. but no fire ever gets down into the bello\\"s. The holes in the "extremities just match those in Fig. 4. s-3 that the same screws hold it se- curely in place. Xow we cannot screw the fire receptacle d. be- cause it would bum if; but I have found bv experiment that 1-4 inch space t»etween the bottom and the wockI. is all that is needed, if the wood is first covered with a sheet of tin. Accordingly, we cut another plain piece of tin. exactly like Fig. 4. holes and all: between the two. we put short tin tubes, made bv roll- ing up short strips 1-4 inch wide. These" short tubes shown at Fig. 7. are made so that a screw will just go through them. (Jne thing more, and we have all c^omplete. Our smo- ker bums so fiercelv. that we are obliged to have a damp»er for "it. This damper is made of a piece of tin. cut in the shaj^e shown at Fig. 6. When the smoker is put together. the hole ju the damper is put just over one of the short tin tubes and is thus held bv one of these same screws. When it cl«oses the central hole in Fig. 4. the end 6 is against one of the other tubes. It has been suggested that the screws would get hot. and bum the wood, but actual prac- tice shows that the small amount of heat that c»omes directlv on their heads onlv. never heats them at all. The constant stream of cold air that is c-oming out and going in. between the w.»d of the Jx-Uows and tt^ tin cup. is probably one reas^jn whv it never heats down- ward S") as to affect the bellows. The hole in the center. Fig. 4. should be sunk bv a suitable punch, so as to more perfectlv col- lect the entire blast from the bellows.* The tin cup will probably cost you. at a tin-smith's about -5c.. and the "funnel probablv as much more. The damper, short tubes' etc.. will eost about another oc.. and this will make your smoker complete, cost ab«iut 4o cents. Good strong boxes fortaailing win oost about -5e.. and this leaves us oc. profit on each when they are sold bv the dozen. The tin work can be made for even less, on the long tube QxiiQby style, even the largest sized tubes. Any dealer in bee-keeping supplies. shoiild be able to make them at the above estimate, and if machinery is employed, they may be made for a less amount. PATENTS 0>f S>fOKEKS. Mr. Quinby made the first bellows smoker- having the receptacle for fuel placed at one side of the bellows. It was pronounced by all. a very simple matter, after the idea was first suggested to them by our friend Q. . yet simple as it was;, it cost him a great amount of study and experiment. Friend Xellis re- marked that he had an old garret filled with models of smokers of different forms, before he first gave one to the world. Very soon after they came out. I wrote him the price was neevliessly high. He asked me how low I would make them: I replied I would make 100 for Toe each. He soon reduced the price. I wrote they should be made by machinery, and that the price could be reduced still low- er. For the purp-ose of doing this. I asked him how much money I should pay him for his smoker business." He declined to accept any monev. as did ^Nlrs. Quinbv. after lis death, and also Mr. L. C. Rx>t. * Under the circumstances. I. for some years, declined to interfere with the business, even though I knew I could benefit the t^»eople by making a smoker much cheaper. I felt that it ought to be dime, but yet it seemed hardly right to copy our esteemed friend's invention. Mr. Kmg of the Magazine, it seems thought dif- ferently, for he advertised an imitation, at $1.00. and called it the Quinby Smoker. .Sometime after. Mr. Bingham made what I called a Quinby Smoker. Itnd when he sent me one to try. I remonstrated somewhat. He replied it was not a Quinby smoker. It seems to me it was. and is yet. but I presume every t>ody will have theirown opinion ia regard to such matters. Mr. Quinby had never made any attempt to get his smoker paten- ted: on this account I felt all the more reluc- tance in copying him. Later, when 2»Ir. Bing- ham began to sell a great man v. I felt it my duty to try to furnish a good article at a lo\\ price: but rather than copy Quinby. as King and Bingham had done. Ibegan experi- menting with the form I have shown you above, never thinking anybody would "call mine a coi»y of the others. Binorham had omitted a valve: this I approved, for I would omit every thing about implements not ab- solutely necessary. In my experiments. I omitted the other valve also. I should be very glad to be able to omit the springs, for thev sometimes break, and I am not siu-e but that we shall soon do it. Perhaps we may omit the bellows too: and finally, who knows but that we can in time omit the fire, and just blow •• onion juice "" or something of the sort, in the bees" eyes when they get " ob- streperous?" I have already tried aqua am- monia, in a bellows smoker, and it drives them verv well for a little while. Xow about the patent: I believe Mr. Bing- ham has a patent on his smoker, and although I have not taken the trouble to hunt up his claim. I suppose it is on the arransrement that he calls the direct draft. On i>age 114 of Sept. Xo. of GtEAXiXGS 187-5. you will see that a subscriber writes that if a small hole is punched in the lower end of a Quinby 1878. GLEAXES'GS tS' BEE CULTUEE. smoker, the fire will not go out. I remarked that since mv o^nti had become rickety, it •did not go out. and it was loose just where the blast entere the tube that holds the tire, allowing a driift of air to enter there all the time. That old Quinby smoker is still in my possession. 3Ir. BinghanAwas one of our subscribers at that very time. His smoker is so made as to leave an opening at all times, in that very spot. If I am not mistaken, several of our readers sent in sketches i»f direct chaft smokers, before ilr. B. gave his to the public. The Bingham smoker is certainly an im- provement over the Quinby. in making Lar- ger tubes for the fire, but making a thing larger, can scarcely be called an invention. A patent was granted. Very true, but so was a patent granted on making honey comb artificially : as good a patent as ever was.and I stood out' of the way. and let our friend Per- line. carry off my "machine, and raise the price of fcLn. froni 7oc to Sl.i5 per lb. Our friend King of the Magazine, with commend- able zeal, hunted up some old volimies of the Bknfn Zfitung. and away went Perrine"s patent, like smoke. The patent office would without doubt give any one a patent today on artificial comb, or a Quinby smoker. It is utterly impossible for them to teU whether a thing is new or not. Worse than that, they seem, of late, to be utterly incapable of tell- ing what has already been patented, for pat- ents have been granted several times, on precisely the same thing. I do not wish to be stubborn, and I am willing. I think, to pay for aU I receive from anyone: but who will' teU us just what is right in these matters? I should willingly have paid Mr. Quinby a couple of hundred dollar's for the privilege of making his smo kers. just because I wanted to see them sold at what I thought would be a fail- price, and because I knew a large sale woiild f oDow such reduction in price." I am willing to pay Mr. Bingham for his invention if good judges in the matter say I am infringing: but I certainly think 1 ought to pay Mr. Quinby"s widow five dollars where I pay Mr. Bingham one. If. on the other hand." Mr. Bingliam is wronging our people by trying to make them pay Sii.tsO for a smoker "tha^ should be sold for less than one. having no patent that would stand law at that, as is the case with most of the l»ee-hive patents. I think it my duty to sift the matter by law. if it cannot lie done otherwise. P. S. Who will devise a bellows that will give us a constant blast? ."^ome sort of a double beUows. it seems tome, can be made, so that one will open while the other is clos- ing. Xo springs will then be needed: but the difficulty seems to be. to constrxict it so as to be easily operated with one hand. A little fan. to be run by gearing, would work nicely, btit it would taike both'hands to turn it. This would give a steady blast. It has been intimated that our smoker was inconvenient to pick up. As the beUows is only five inches wide, the thumb and finger will easily si>an it. and I woiUd call it even more convenient than the taU cues: but you must rll judge for yourselves in such mat- ters. DEPOSITORY OF Or Letters ficm Those T(bo Bare 5Iade Bee Culture a lailnie. BLASTZD HOPES. 'WITH SOKE GCCD LE£«OyS. ^ ET me beg an mtrcdtictlcn to the nQmeTcns ^ T readers of your excellent paper. I have kept 5^=1 bees S3 years, bctjght the light, acd used The first LaEgstrcth hive in McLean Co.. and still use the I- hire, thcngh not in the crrg^na! fcim. I have sometimes teen sncti-tssfuL and have often met with losses: The year 1>:2 wss the most disas- trous: tees made but little hrcey. and- though 1 bad no swarms, the seasc^n eksed with l"l> stccks. and few. if any. had enough hcney to eairy -.hem through the winter. Instead of dcu'tling- theiii. as I should have dene. I fed 126 dollars worth of sugar, and lost, during the winter. j-5c stccks. Suc-c-eeding Icsses reduc-ed my ntmter. and in May. 1?T6. I had tut s;i. and cce cf ihtm cjueenless. I have now oi stocks In gc<:d c-cndiricn. en their stunmer stands, well protected by placing 7 or S frames in the c-tntre cf the hive with divlsirntc aids, the sides filled with tow. tcps c-cvered with QUilts. and c-aps filled with chaff atd straw. Bees fiew V2 days in succession in Decemtier. acd two cf mice flew so far. they never c-ame back, taking hives and hcney with them. Last year I tocsk especial pains to fix my tees fo^ winter. They were light, having cnly at^ut 17 lbs cf honey to the hive: so 1 bought paper." such as is used to cover tuildicgs. cut it in pieces just large encrgh to cover the front, bottcm and tack of the hive inside, with »mall holes in frc^nt for an entrance, and trans- ferred the bees to the c-entre: thus trakicg with the division boards, a c-ompleie doutle hive: 1 was so well pleased with the way they were fixed, that 1 was preparing a report for GieaniEgs sc met hitg like this. '"Winteicd >'. stccks of tees, in paper lined hives, without loss," but finally er>ncluded to make a verbal repcMt. as I intended to stop at Medina en my way to to the Centennial. Now for the iest.h. I exsmincd thetives JarulCth and found the paper scaking wet: had to i veihai:! and take them all cut. and lest atf ct ^ cf the bees. I didn't go to the CentcuEiaL didnt visit Medina ic, but learned two thirgs. \Il. that t. These fellows usually copy each other veibatim. frcm year tc» year, but »his one has brains enr ugh to invent one new line, to the effect that the "Crystal He ney will neither conges! nor 'cander'." Dees anyone knew what "cander" means? The price cf the "right" has cc>me down to ?!.(>?. and if you tell anybody else, he says, "the law ciacts heavy penalties for the small- est breach or infringement."' 78 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Mar. GlEANmCS irB_EE CUITUHE. J^. I. I?,OOT, EDITOR AND FUBLISHUB.. MEDINA, OHIO. TERinS: $1.00 PER YE AK, POST-PAIB. IwIEIDIlSr-A., 1sj!L^A.:R. 1, IST'S. How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?— John, 5; 44. J. Oatman & Son's price list of supplies is at hand, and it is a real pleasure to look it over. That they are live, wide-awake, hard working business men, is plain to be seen; as their prices are low, and no pat- ents, I am sure they will have a large trade, and do much good. Whoever produces good work, at low prices, is a public benefactor. Dealers in Bee-Keepers' supplies should look out for W. R. Story, of Sunbury, Delaware Co., O. His specialty seems to be alsike clover seed. If he can not get it without pay, he orders it sent C. O. D., and then never calls for it. As we can get no letters from him, we take this method of asking him to "rise and explain," if he does not wish to go among "Humbugs and Swindles." I AM "just as mad as can be." It is because the A. B. J. has gone and kicked my smoker over, and then said all sorts of naughty things about it; that they would get fire into the bellows, and break, and that they had all better be put into the Are, &c. If they don't stop "abusin' of me," and saying that I infringed on their patents, when I kept out of their way, and tried ever so hard not to step on anybody's toes that ever made smokers, I will go and invent something better than them all, just for spite. We have just finished a fdn. machine having rolls of solid copper, for friend Betsinger. It is perhaps the finest piece of workmanship of the kind Mr. Washburn ha.s ever made, and was made after Mr. B's order, for the express purpose of rolling copper wires into the fdn. Several rolls had to be made, be- fore we could get a good clear solid copper casting. Mr. W. says he would want .?13').00, to make another like it. I do not think copper rolls have any special advantage over the soft metal ones, unless they are to be used for rolling wires into the fdn. Mr. W. thinks he can make a machine to roll thinner fdn., of the soft metal, than of copper, because the rolls will then wear to a perfect fit, sooner than they ! would with the hard metal. All machines grow bet- I ter with use. | ^ ■>■ ^ A. E. Manttji, of Bristol, Vermont, has sent us a I sample section, that for beauty of finish of the wood, ■ surpasses anjthing we ever before "sot eyes on." I He calls the lumber "Popular," and I ha^-n't a doubt j of it, for its beauty, after being finished up as friend ! M. has the sample pieces, must make it "popular" ! wherever it is seen. There seems to be Quite a mis- ' understanding in regard to the tree called Poplar. ! So much was said by our Southern friends about the ■ poplar honey, that I asked for samples of the leaf. ! Several sent them, but they were all our common j whitewood, or tulip (Liriodcndron, TuUpifcra). Bot- ' any describes the aspen, balm of Gilead, &c., as be- longing to the family of poplars, but gives no au- thority for calling whitewood poplar. My impression is, that the true poplar never beai-s honey at all, but has a round leaf that "quakes" in the wind; and per- haps it is this that gijes us lumber that is almost as white as white writing paper, as friend Manum des- cribes it. We thought our clear pine was nice, but this leaves us "away out in the cold." Hurry up boys, and do not let those "Down East" Yankees beat us on section boxes. Friend M. offers to anyone, a sample box free. If they were only dovetailed, in- stead of being made for nailing, this notice might almost swamp him, and I do not know but it will as it is; he should not be so liberal as to offer a sample free, for we are a great people, when one sends goods free, and pays postage too. A FEW days ago, somebody came up behind me, while I was writing with my type-writer as now; the gentleman looked very pleasant and smiling, but they always do when they come to ask questions, and so I am afraid I did not look very cordial, as I rose. I am really sorry my friends to be uncourte- ous, but what shall I do? We have now between 25 and .30 hands employed, our buzz saws are running day and night, without stopping, and still we are not getting ahead of orders. The compositors are ask- ing for copy, and piles of letters lie all round me, waiting for directions in regard to their contents. Yesterday I was unable to even so much as read my letters hastily. Down home there is another blue eyed little girl only 6 weeks old, and if I stop when I go to my meals to get a glimpse of her and to see that wonderful smile of recognition that the child- ren are telling so much about, I almost feel guilty because it takes so much valuable time. Last night I wrote until after 11 o'clock, and I am at work again this morning before 6. Now, I am not saying all this to complain, but only as an apology, for not answer- ing all the kind letters that are sent me. I have been thinking that you might get a number of Gleanings pretty soon, announcing that I was found "gone crazy" amid a heap of letters all cov- ered with interrogation points. Now, ask as many questions as you please my friends, but do not scold, if they remain entirely un- answered. I can not ad\ise you about going into bee culture; nor about buying queens instead of raising them; nor about the outfit you need for your capital; nor about choosing a location; nor whether you can make bees pay or not. Neither can T tell you the price of bees, hives, nor of scarcely anything else, unless I go and look at one of my own price lists. I once deliberately decided on what I could furnish all these things for, and had it put in print; and soon as I find I can decrease the price, it is done in print. I believe the price of Gleanings is §1.00, but I shall pretty soon forget that, at this rate. I know it is something of a task to hunt over the price lists, but what better can I do? You may ask the clerks all the questions you please, but I am afraid they will give you answers that are not nearly as re- liable as the ABC and price lists. We can not an- swer you safely, yes or no: the answers almost all need to be given conditionallj', and you will gener- ally find the conditions given In the proper place. A customer asks the price of a bee hi've; before answering, I want to know if he wants it for sec- tions, or for the extractor; one or two stoiy; with fdn. starters, or without; with tin sopavators, or 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 79 without, &c. Perhaps he says he does not know, and asks what I would advise. Now my friend I hardly know how I can advise, unless I know what progress you have made. It is by far the best way for you to study, and get some bees and go to work. You will very soon find out what you need, without asking advice of any body. Well, the gentleman I have kept waiting so long, did not ask questions; at least, not the samestero- typed ones that have been asked so often. He said bisnamo was J. H. Nellis. Did j'ou ever get really well acquainted with any-body in business transac- tions without ever seeing them, and then have some utter stranger come in and pleasantly tell you that he is the man? How queerly it makes one feel, especi- ally, if you have imagined a different sort of a person. ; The typo writer was laid aside, and I cannot tell you, j how much good his visit did me. Perhaps work got behind a little, but this time, Ihad a "powerful sight" of questions to ask, about queen rearing and other things, and you will probably hear about what friend ' Nellis said, for several monihs to come. May God | bless the York State bee-keepers. j After the kind visits of Doolittle, Betsinger, Nellis, ! and others, I have always felt that they did me ' much good. Friend Nellis expressed the idea, exact- ly, in saying "it takes the conceit out of a body, to visit somebody else in the same line of business," and i I really fear if you put it in that way, I ought to go 1 "visiting" all the time. After such friends go away, j I feel for sometime after, as lonesome as I used to when a boy, when my brother of nearly my own age used to be absent. I would dearly love to \^isit all my friends, but O dear me, who will answer the lettei's and postal cards, especially those that complain so bitterlj', because I do not answer a civil question? One more swarm of bees has starved, .iust because I wanted to look after the bees myself; but 1 was final- ly obliged to set somebody else at the task of looking them over, to see if any had used up their stores dur- ing this warm winter. I fear it will be of no use to ask for lower prices on goods, even if taken in quantities, for I shall feel happy if 1 am able to fill all orders promptly and carefully, at the prices given in our catalogue Extracted Honey. Continued from last month. Again; new honey, has, many times, a rank disagi'eeable odor and taste. I have been told that in the Eastern States much honey is sometimes obtained from the fields where onion seeds are raised for the market, and that tliis honey when first gathered, is so strong of onions, that it can- not be used. In a few weeks however, this rank and disagreeable flavor is all gone, and the honey is very fair. Eew persons can tolerate the strong aromatic flavor, of bass-Avood honey Avhen first gathered, and some of the jars I have mentioned, when opened, gave one an impression that some- tliing akin to turpentine had been mixed with the honey. This was because it had been closely corked when first gathered; but had it have been left until sealed, the un- pleasant taste would have been mostly gone. I say mostly, for even sealing does not seem to entirely remove the rank flavor, unless the combs have been some weeks in the. hive. A few days ago I took a beautiful looking piece of comb honey out of a jar that was found in the market. On opening the cells I found the honey had such a rank bass-wood flavor, that it was to me quite disagreeable, and yet I am fond of the bass- wood flavor. Very white new comb honey, is seldom of the fine pm-e sweet flavor, of honey that has been a long time capped over, such as is found in the dark looking comb. To which shall we give the prefer- ence, looks or taste? In 1876 we were so busy that we could not attend to extracting, and so we raised the filled stories up, and put those filled with empty combs just un- der them over the brood. This occupied little time, and the bees were not hindered in their work, a single moment. I have never seen bees amass stores faster. Some hives filled 4 stories to repletion, and the Avhole was left on the hives until the latter part of the summer. In fact, I left them on the hives to be safe from the depredations of the moth, intending to cut out the honey and sell it in the comb, or to extract it, whichever form should prove most market- able. This honey was cut out of the frames and sold the following winter, and it was the nicest and richest honey I ever saw or tiisted. To my astonishment, the liquid portions that ran out when the combs were cut, would not candy at all, even when ex- posed to a zero freeze. The honey was so thick, that a saucer full could be turned over, Avithout spilling, and it had a bright crystalline clearness, compared with ordi- nary extracted honey. Extracted honey, if taken otit while "green"' (as I have often termed the un- ripened state) has a greenish tinge, which well ripened honey has not. Some speci- mens have a turbid, or cloudy look, and I t)elieve such honey is never really fine flavored. I am well aware that I am con- demning the honey I have been selling, by these remarks, but I cannot help it. If I I ha* now, some extracted honey such as was fallen from those well ripened combs, I I would feel that it was preferable at 25c., to that which I am now selling at 1.5. Proper- ly ripened bass-AVood or clover honey, has a si)arkling clearness, like Avhite flint glass, ' and the flavor is pure and exquisite. I I lia\^e never seen any nice looking comb hon- ey equal to it, for tlie market ahvays de- j mands comb honey that is white, and has ' not remained on the hive, a long time. I 80 GLEANINGS IX BEE CULTURE. Mar. do not mean to say that extracted honey should be without color, like water, for it usually has an amber tint, or it may be quite yellow ; but it should be clear, so that you can read print without trouble, through a jar of it. After it has candied, if it does candy, it should be hard and free from any liquid portion, like that in unripened hon- ey. This thin liquid portion, is the part that usually changes and gives it the bad taste. In fact, if the liquid portion be drained off, as directed under candied HONEY, the solid portion may be melted, and it will be found very nearly like that ripened in the hive. HOW TO SELIi EXTRACTED HONEY. Get it well ripened, as I have just told you, and then strain it into clean tin cans, into barrels coated with paraffine, or bees- wax or into some utensil that you know will not taint it in the least. Honey is very easily damaged by anything that T\ill mar its pure flavor, or clear transparent appearance to the eye. If you are going to retail it, you can keep it in a tall can, with a honey gate at the bottom. Set it up at a convenient height, and have a pair of cheap scales directly under the gate, on which you can set the bowls, pitchers or pails, that your customers may bring. You can by this means weigh it out to a fraction, without any dripping or daubing. If it is to be sold in honey jars, set your jars in a basin, under the gate. I say in a basin, for unless you are more careful than people generally, you will get some over the sides, or run a jar over, and it is much pleasanter to have it in the basin, than on the table or floor. I have given the preference to the self sealing quart fruit jars, because every body has use for these, and will be likely to keep them. If the jars are purchased by the gross, they can be retailed with the honey, at a slight advance on ttrst cost, full enough usually, to pay all expenses of handling, and a good interest on the use of the money invested. The Mason jar which we generally use, costs $1-5.00 per gi'oss, and we charge for them with the honey, 12c. A quart jar holds about 3 lbs. One lb. jars, sell rather better, but we have to sell three times as many and consumers have little or no use for the jars when empty. I think it will be well to keep both kinds on hand, as well as some half lb. tumblers or jelly cups, for the multitudes who want "just a little" for one reason or another. If you commence giving a little without any charge, now and then, you will find the demand a severe task on yom- time as M'ell as honey, and if you have these small packages all ready at hand, for 10 or 1.5c., you will find a great many will be sold in the course of a year. If you wish your honey to keep from can- dying, seal it up hot like fruit, as directed in CANDIED HONEY. The self-sealiug fruit jars need no directions, but the bottles with . corks will have to be made tight with melt- ed bees-wax. Dip the corks in melted wax until they are perfectly coated on both sides, and then push them in place while the mouth of the jar is hot, and perfectly dry. If it is wet, or has the least particle of honey on it, you can never make it air- tight. To make a neat job of it, you can dip the mouth of the jar carefully, in some bright nice yellow wax, and then you will have it, as far as possible, protected from the air, with a capping of wax, precisely as the bees do it. This thin, watery honey, when heated to melt the candied honey, with which it may be commingled, even if it is exposed to a heat much less than the boiling point, will tiu'n a dark reddish color, and the flavor is something as if the honey was burned slightly. I, at first, was inclined to blame my wife for overheating it, when I desired her to make the experiment, but as the honey was Avhite when this liquid portion was entirely drained off, I finally guessed at the truth. We can get some beautiful pure ripe honey, out of a very bad lot, by di-ain- ing the candied portion for several weeks, and then melting it. To give you an idea of how extracted hon- ey sells in our cities, I give you a few notes from a friend on the Cleveland market, to whom we have sold several barrels of honey during the past six months. The honey was put lip in Muth's 1 lb glass jars. Each jar was labeled, wrapped in a sheet of clean pa- per and packed in sawdust, in the same box- es that the jars came in. To prevent the boxes from being "dumped," we nailed strips of wood to each side of the box, rounded off the projecting ends to make convenient han- dles, and shipped them as freight. The R. R. employes, I suppose looked at the smooth handles, knowing at once what they were for, read the label that kindly asked them not to "dump,"" and the consequence is, not a single bottle has ever been reported injur- ed. Were you a "R. R. man,"' you would probably do as R. R. men do. Here are the letters. 1878. glea:n^engs ln bee cultuee. 81 That honey sold quickly this morning-. It you can furnish me that quality, I can sell it. Send the oth- er as soon as possible. L. B. Oviatt. Cleveland, O. Aujr. 16th 18V7. We received the one lb. bottles last Friday; put them on the stand Saturday, and retailed 44 of them that day. If you can furnish me that kind of honey I can se'll it. The small bottles I have just g-ot from the depot, all in good shape. Please send 12 doz. lb. bottles as soon as possible. Get them here Friday if vou can. L. B. Oviatt. Cleveland, O. Sept. 3rd '77. I shall want some honev in a few davs. Have about 30 of the lb. bottles left yet. The lb. bottles sell best. I am o-etting- very nice comb honey now for 19c per lb. which is hurting- the sale of bottled honey. I do not think that will last long-. Your hon- ey g-ives good satisfaction. I scald a few bottles at a time and it makes it look very nice. I will order in a few davs. L. B. Oviatt. Cleveland, O. Nov. 8th '77. Please send me a case of honey if you can send it like the last shipment. That is thicker and better flavored than the other and sells rapidly. Send it in the lib. souare bottles. I want it the first of the week. T did not know I was so nearly out or I would have ordered before. I am about done with comb honej' and I can sell bottles fast after this, if it is nice. What is your price for those tin cans for fill- ing- bottles? L. B. Oviatt. ' Cleveland, O. Feb. 22nd 1877. Mr. O. paid us 16c for the 1 lb. bottles, put up in the way I have mentioned. The one lot that he did not like, Avas some unripened honey, that we purchased of a neighbor. Some attempts have been made to get hon- ey into a marketable shape in its candied state, but so far, have been unsuccessful, so far as I know, although candied honey can be drained out so dry that it may be done up in a paper safely, and we have had some specimens, nearly as white as loaf sugar. EXTRACTOR. The advantages and disadvantages of using a honey extractor in the apiary, are considered under head of ex- tracted honey. That more honey can be ob- tained by the use of the machine than by having it stored in section boxes in the shape of comb honey, all are agreed; but all are not agreed, as to hoiv much more. If it is nicely sealed over, as it should be before being extracted, I do not think more than twice as much will be obtained, on an aver- age, although the amount is placed by many, at a much higher figure. A beginner will be more certain of a crop, than if he relies upon having the bees work in boxes; he will also be much more apt to take away too much, and to cause his bees to starve. This last, is a very disagreeable feature, attendant upon the use of the implement, especially, where the bee-keeper, is prone to carelessness and negligence. To secure tlie best results with the extractor, plenty of empty combs should be provided, that ample room may be given, in case the hives should become full before the honey is ripe enough to remove. If a second story does not give room suffi- cient, I would add a third for a heavy stock, during a good yield of honey. Full directions for using extractors, are given with the price lists that manufacturers send out; therefore I will not repeat them here. HOW TO MAKK AN EXTRACTOR. Although it will not usually pay to make your own, there are circumstances under which it is very desirable to to know how. In places so remote that the shipping rates are very high, it would be well to have some bee-keeper of a mechanical turn, make them to supply those in his own vicinity. As the manufacture of implements and supplies is getting to be quite a business, the ma- chines can probably be manufactured at many different points. Whoever does the best work, will probably get the most orders. Experiments have been made, almost with- out number, and the general decision now seems to be in favor of a machine made en- tirely of metal, with everything stationary about it except what must be revolved. The momentum of heavy metal, revolving cans, or honey after it has left the comb, defeats the very object we have in view, and noth- ing will so effectually convince one of the difference, as an actual trial of the two ma- chines side by side. With the light, all met- al machines, the comb is revolved at the speed required almost intsantly, and as soon as the honey is out of the comb, the operator is aware of it, by the decrease in the weight of it as he holds the crank in his hand; but with the heavy, unwieldy machines, the stop- ping and starting, takes more time than do- ing the work. The same objections apply to making machines for emptying four combs at once. They require to be made much lar- ger, and are correspondingly heavy and un- wieldy. A reference to the engraving of the ex- tractor with its inside removed, will enable almost any tin-smith to do the work. The gearing had better be purchased from a deal- er in supplies, and if you should have any to make, it may pay you to have them cast, using the sample for a pattern. The shaft of of the inside part, is made by rolling up a tin tube, double thickness. This is quickly and nicely done with the machine the tinner uses to make the bead on the edge of eave spouts. The frame work, is made of folded strips of tin. For a Langstioth frame, we make the shaft the full length of a 14 by 20 sheet of tin. The corner pieces are made of a strip 2 inches wide, by 14 long, with a seam folded on one edge, and a square fold of i on the other. The bars that support the wire cloth, 82 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Mar. are six in number, including the top and bottom ones, and are made by folding one inch strips of tin, three times, so as to make a stiff rod of metal. Thej^ are 10 inches in length, and our revolving frame is 10 inches one way, and 11 the other. Eor greater se- curity against sagging, we rmi a similar rod of metal, up and down, across the middle of these bars, and still anotJier lies flatwise across this, to brace the whole, something like a truss bridge. This gives a surface very stiff, and yet very light. The wire cloth, which should be tinned, like all the other metal work, is made of stiff wire, 5 meshes to the inch. It may be well to remai-k here that neither zinc nor galvanized iron should ever be used about honey utensils. The acid principle in the honey, quickly acts on all oxidizable metals, and galvanized iron though bright in ajipearance, quickly poisons the honey, or even pure water, as has been proven by experiment. Two sheets of wire cloth, 15 inches long by 10 wide are needed for an L. extractor. They are simply laid inside agamst the metal bars and tacked with solder. To cover tlie ragged edges at the top. and bottom, we fold a strip of light tin 10 inches long by i inch wide, at a right angle, so as to make a square trough, as it were; this is soldered on tlie top rod, so as to cover the upper edge of the wire cloth. A strip of wire cloth, 15 inches long, and 4 wide, with the edges hemmed by folded strips of tin, is put across the bottom, to sup- port the frames. Two inches from each end, it is bent at right angles, and then i inch from each end, still again, that it may catch securely over the lower bar of the frame. The frame is completed by the cross pieces at the top and bottom, to hold the two wire cloth frames at the right distance apart. These are strips of heavy tin 14 inches wide, by 11 inches long. A seam is folded on each edge, so that the bars are left only 1 inch wide when finished. At each end, a i inch is folded square, to catch over the outside of tlie frame where it is soldered. Kow to attach this frame to the shaft, is a matter somewhat important; for if we use too nuich of a broad surface, with our arms, they will "blow" like a fanning mill, and we shall have a current of air, that will carry with it a fine spray of honey, over the top of the can. This is a most grievous fault, for who likes to have honey daubed over his ' clothingV Oiu- first machine was made so ' that tlie combs revolved only i inch below the to]) of the can, and yet we never had a ! particle of honey thrown over. Tliis frame ' was made very light, indeed, and when heav- ier and stronger machines were made for sale, we were much puzzled to hear an occa- sional complaint, that the honey was thrown over the top of the can, in a fine spray. I soon found by experiment, that it was caused by the braces being placed flatwise to the line of motion. How to make them strong and stiff, without catching the air, was the prob- lem. We do it nicely, by using 12 braces, made of heavy tin, with a seam folded as just mentioned. The 12 are formed of six pieces. The 6 pieces are laid across each other in pairs, forming 3 letter X"s. Each letter X, has a hole punched at the crossing, large enough for the shaft to be driven through; when it is soldered securely, the ends are bent down, and attached to the cor- ners of the frame as shown in the engraving. The lower X, also supports the M'ire cloth that the frames rest on, by being tacked with solder where it passes them. The gearing is attached to this revolving frame, by driving the small gear wlieel, into the end of the hollow shaft, and soldering it securely. The casting is first well tinned by a soldering iron, that there may be no slip- ping loose. MAKING THE CAN. There is nothing difficult about this, except the bottom of the can. It had been for a long time, quite a problem to get a strong stiff bott'^m, without some kind of a wooden support, but I struck on the idea, while try- ing to devise some kind of a bottom that would let the honey all out, the gate or fau- cet being the lowest part. I will tell jiou, presently, how I did it. The top edge of the can, must be stiff and rigid; more so than we can get it, by any kind of a wire or rod. I found some very stiff hoops, that were made for milk cans, and it is these I would advise. They are so made as to give great stiffness, with but a small amount of metal. We present a view of a cross-section of the hoop. The concave side, of course being inward. A, is the hoop and B, is the tin, of which the can is formed. The can is made of four sheets of 14x20, IX tin. For an L. frame, we need a hoop just 17 inches in di- ameter. For large sizes, we use 20 inch hoops. The two sizes mentioned will ac- commodate almost any frame used, and we tlierefore furnish gearing for only these two sizes. After you have made the body of the can, and ha'S'e your hoop nicely soldered on. you are ready foi- the bottom. Lock two of the sheets together, r.ul cut a 1878. gleani:ngs in bee cultuke. 83- circular piece 18 inclies in diameter. From one side, cut a wedge shaped piece, as shown in the cut below. HOW TO MAKE THE BOTTOM TO THE CAN OF THE EXTRACTOR. The space A B should be about 2 inches in width, and after cutting it out, you are to fold down the edges A B about I inch. Draw the edges A B toward each other, and you will make the bottom concave, as shown in Fig. 2. They can be held in this shape for the time, by a slip of tin tacked with solder across the gap, temporarily. Turn over the edge and put this bottom on the can, in the usual way. The opening left is for the channel that leads to, and holds the honey gate. Cut a piece of tin similar to the wedge shaped piece you took out, but some- what larger. Fold this up trough shaped, as shown in Fig. 3, and fit it over the opening. We are now ready to solder in the gate, but we must have something for our canto stand on. This is fixed by a tin hoop, with a heavy wire at its lower edge, made just large enough to slip closely over the lower part of the can, as seen in Fig. 4. This hoop, or band rather, shoidd be about 4 inches wide, and in one side you are to punch a romid hole, just large enough to take in the gate. Solder it securely in place, put in the gate, and then be sure to try your can by pouring in some water to see if it will "hold."' We do not want any leaking after we counuence ex- tracting honey. Now, in the centre C, on the inside, we solder a ])iece of steel saw plate; over this, we put a blank iron nut, with a i inch hole drilled in it. This is to hold the bottom piv- <)t,w]iich is made of refined Stub's steel, nice- ly rounded and polished oiT on the point. As the bearings for the gearing are all cast steel, our machine should almost run of itself, if everything is made just riglit. The steel pivot at tlie bottom is soldered in the end of our tin tube, by rolling some thin tin around it until it will drive in tight. You should never attempt to use an ex- tractor, and I niiglit almost say any piece of iiiuchinery, until you have it securely screw- ed down to the lx>x or platform on. which it is to stand. The screw holes are made in the Ijottcm ring just above the heavy wire tliat rests on the floor. The screws are put ill a little slanting. It should also be at a convenient height for easy woik. The ma- chine could be made heavy enough to stand still from its own weight, it is true, and it might be made perched on legs, also, to save the trouble of building a box or platform on which to stand it, and if you are making them for home use, it may be well to do so; but if making them to ship to customers, 1 woidd never think of sending them anything that they could procure at home; thus saving heavy shipping expenses. I would say the same in regard to making cans large enough to hold 100 lbs. or more, of honey, below the revolving frame. When the extractor is be- ing used, the honey gate is supposed to be open, an(i utensils can always be supplied to hold the honey, nnich cheaper than to have tlie extractor thus enlarged. Those I have described, can be very conveniently worked over the bung of a barrel, or you can have a tin can made on purpose to set under the honey gate. The gearing for the extractor, including a tinned honey gate, will cost about $2.00. The materials and labor for the inside, should not cost to exceed $2.50. Seven sheets of tin for the can, would be 70c; a half day's work in the making, $1. 25; hoop for the top, 50c, and perhaps the solder and other items, 25c. This would bring the whole cost up to $7.20. Your own time in "bossing" the tinner, and the liabilities of making mistakes, and doing a bad job on the first one, would probably bring the expense up to about the usual sell- ing price, viz., from $7..'0 to $9.00. Machines for different sized frames, are made much in the same way; for the American and Gallup frames, we can make a short can, only the height of the width of a sheet of tin, instead of the length. Of course these can be made more cheaply. Where the frames hang in the extractor the same way that they do in the hive, no wire cloth support is needed across the bottom of the comb basket, unless it is preferred for extracting small pieces or bits of comb. No cover is ever needed over tlie extractor while at work, for it would be greatly in the way; but after we are through, or only stop temporarily, the macliine should be covered to keep out dust and insects. The most con- venient thing for this purpose is a circular piece of cheap cloth, with a rubber cord run in the hem. This can be thrown over in an instant and all is" secure. When honey is coming in, in an abundance, it may be safe to carry the machine around to the hives, located on a suitable platform, es]!ecially if the apiary is nuich scattered about. But if 84 gleani:ngs in bee culture. Mar. the bees are disposed to rob, all such attempts will come to "grief," very quickly. F. r^RTIIiS WORKSRS. These queer inmates, or rather occasional inmates of the hive, are worker bees that lay eggs. Aye, and the eggs they lay hatch, too, but they only hatch drones, and never worker bees. The drones are rather smaller than the drones produced by a queen, bvit they are neverthe- less, drones, in every respect, so far as we can discover. It may be well to remark that ordinary worker bees, are not neuters, as they are sometimes called; they are con- sidered undeveloped females. Microscopic examination, shows the imdeveloped germ, of nearly every organ found in the queen, and these organs may become, at any time, sufficiently developed, to allow the bee to lay eggs, but never to allow^ of fertilization by meeting the drone as the queen does. CAUSE OF FERTILE "WORKERS. It has been over and over again suggested, that bees capable of this egg laying duty, were tliose reared in the vicinity of queen cells, and that by some means they have re- recieved a small portion of the i-oyal jelly, necessary to their development as bee moth- ers. This theory has, I believe, been entire- ly disproven by many experiments; and it is now pretty generally conceded that fertile workers may make their appearance in any colony or nucleus that has been for some days queenless, and without the means of rearing a queen. Xot only may one bee take upon herself these duties, but there may be many of them, and wherever the bee-keep- er has been so careless, as to leave his bees destitute of either brood or queen, for 10 days or two weeks, you may be pretty sure he will find evidences of their presence in the shape of eggs scattered about promiscuously; sometimes one, but oftener a half dozen in a single cell. If the matter has been going on for some time, you will see now and then a drone larva, and sometimes two or three crowding eacli other, in their single cell; some times tiiey start queen cells ovei this drone larva; the poor motherless orphans seeming to feel that something is wTong, like a drown- ing man, are disposed to catch at any straw. HOW TO GET RID OF FERTILE WORKERS. I feel very much like saying again, that prevention is better than cure; if a colony, from any cause becomes queenless. be sure they have unsealed ])rood of the proper age to raise another: and wlien this one is raised. be sure that she becomes fertile. It can nev- er do any hanu to give a queenless colony eggs and brood, and it may be the saving of it. But suppose you have been so careless as to allow a colony to become queenless, and get weak, what are you to do? If you attempt to give them a queen, and a fertile worker is present, she will be pretty sure to get stung; it is in fact, often almost impossi- ble to get them to even accept a queen cell. The poor fellows get into a habit of accept- ing one of the egg laying workers as a queen, and they will have none other, until she is removed; yet you cannot find her, for she is just like any other bee; you may get hold of her, possibly, by carefully noticing the way in which the other bees deport themselves toward her, or you may catch her in the act of egg laying, but even this often fails, for there may be several such in the hive at once. You may give them a small strip of comb containing eggs and brood, but they will seldom start a good queen cell, if they start any at all, for a colony having fertile workers, seems perfectly demoralized, so far as getting them into regular work is concern- ed, in the majority of cases. My friends, you have allowed them to get into this condition, by being negligent in supplying brood when they were on the verge of ruin for the want of a single egg or young laiwae. and the remedy now, is to give them a fresh invoice of bees, brood and combs from some other hive ; if you wish to make a sure thing, give them at least three good combs, of brood and bees. This is almost start- ing a new colony, but it is the cheapest way, when they get so they will not receive a fiueen. If the stock has become very weak, it may be best to unite them with some other colony for it certainly does not pay to have them killing queens, and tearing down queen cells. If the fertile workers are discovered when they first make their appearance, before you see any of the drone larvae scattered about, they Avill often accept a queen cell, or a fertile queen without difficulty. I have, before, advised giving all colonies or nuclei, some eggs and brood just before the young queen is old enough to take lier flight; when this is done, there can be but little chance of fertile workers, for they will always have the means of rearing another queen, if their own is lost in taking her flight. Sometimes a fertile worker may be disposed of, by mov- ing the combs into an enii)ty hive, placed at a little distance from the other; the bees will nearly all go into their old hive, but the queen, as she thinks herself to be, will remain on 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 85 the combs. The returning bees willthenac- cept a queen or queen cell. After all is right, the combs may be returned, and the fertile worker will be — well, I do not know just what does become of her, but I suspect she either attends to her legitimate business, or gets killed. HOW TO DETKCT THE PRESENCE OE FER- TILE WORKERS. If you do not find any queen, and see eggs scattered around promiscuously, some in drone, and somein worker cells, some attach- ed to the side of the cell, instead of the cen- tre of tlie bottom, where the queen lays them, several in one cell, and none in the next, you may be pretty sure you have a fer- tile worker. Still later, you will see the worker brood capped with the high convex cappings, indicating clearly, that the brood will never hatch out worker bees. Finding two or more eggs in a cell, is never conclu- sive, for the queen often deposits them in a feeble colony where there are not bees enough to cover the brood. The eggs depos- ited by a fertile queen, are in regular order, as one would plant a field of corn, but those from fertile workers, and usually from drone laying queens, are irregularly scattered about. See that every hive contains, at all times, during the spring and summer months, at least, brood suitable for rearing a queen, and you will never see a fertile worker. FOnZg BB.OOB. I know of nothing in bee culture, so much to be feared, as foul brood ; and I believe it is pretty generally agreed that all other bee diseases together, and we might almost say all other draw- backs, are as nothing as compared to it. It is not a disease of the bees, but of the scaled brood. The symptoms are a dwindling down of the colony, because the brood fails to hatch, and when the capping of the sealed brood is examined, it is found to be sunken, instead of slightly convex, as with healthy brood. A little later, the caps are found to have a minute hole in the centre, as if a pin had been pricked through it. It is quite likely that the bees bite these holes through, with a purpose of cleaning out the cells as they do ordinary chilled brood, but becom- ing disgusted with the sickening sight and smell, they abandon the task in despair. If you take a pin or the point of a knife, and move the matter out of such a cell, you will perceive a strange sickening smell, which is sometimes perceived in simi)ly passing by the hives, when the malady has assumed a A'ery dangerous form. The worst featvu^e of the business seems to be that the disease is communicated to other stocks, by simply carrying honey from an infected hive. This makes sad havoc among bee-keepers who are inclined to be negligent, and various remedies have been given for the malady, many of which are claimed to be perfectly successful, but as the years pass by, one af- ter another of them seems to have been dropped, and the apiarist has been obliged fo feel the the truth of the old adage, that prevention is better than cure. Many who have had a trial of its ravages, mnong whom are some of our best bee-keepers, ad- vise destroying both bees and hive, by fire or burying, and commencing anew with healthy colonies. This remedy is, I believe, sure ; and even if the disease should reap- pear, by promptly destroying all diseased brood, the very minute it is discovered in the hives, it seem finally, to become totally eradicated. Where the disease prevails, there should be the utmost diligence exer- cised in guarding against sending it to other localities, either by selling honey, bees or queens. To be continued. STiLii late:r about smokers. f' HAVK no time and less inclination to write you, but feel that a word is needed on this patent question, and I fear no other person will speak. I feel that you are wrong on the matter of patents, and, as in case of smokers, this becomes a practical subject, I am impelled to write. A man has an inventive genius, and by hard labor labor and thoug'ht, day and night gives the world some implement of great value. The world is en- riched. Now, if the patentee is rich, he may give the invention to the world, yet it is ,inst as much a gift, as the honey or supper he gives a friend. He has the same right to his creation, that you have to your bees or honey. If he is poor, especially if he has a family, he has no right to give away his invention. To secures his rights he prrcvires a patent. Now to make such an instrument without leave, or to force the inventor to litigation, is, I think, the same in principle as to take his bees. Again, the patentee is proud of this child of his thought and labor. He wishes to monopolize or con- trol the manufacture, that the ai'ticles mav all do him honor. He knows that competition will lessen the price, but surely at a corresponding decrease in style and durability. Hence his patent if respected, will mosf surely give good articles. Thus a man has a perfect right to procure a patent. It is his property, and the paper is the deed, or se- curity. He desires the paper to secure his own, to insure good workmanship, and to protect his patrons against sham work. Now as to the public. They need inventions, and to promote their growth they should respect patents. They should frown upon any attempt to depreciate their value. Had Langstroth's patent been respect- ed, how much better off bee-keepers would be. It patents are to receive no respect, or if they are to face costly litigation, then what inducement has a man to strive to bring out an Improved tool or ma- chine? The patentee is a man of inventive genius. He is proud to make a superior article. Men not so inter- ested will make cheap imitations, and all who buy these are defrauded. Now, to the case in hand; Mr. Bingham has im- proved the smokers. The bellows, the valves, the style, the finish, the form. In fact his smoker is just admirable. He charges very reasonably for it; you have imitated, so I think, in a poor way. Now while 86 GLEANIN^GS IN BEE CULTURE. Mar. you have the best extractor, I know, I am frank to say that, I would rather pay three times as much for the Bing-ham smoker as for yours. Four cheaper phin is no advantage, and if bee-keepers knew the real Bing-ham smoker, you would have, 1 believe, to take back a g-ood many of yours, as per your promise. Mr. B. has spent much thoug-ht and labor on his smoker, and I am sure every bee-keeper will say his charges reasonable. Now he has no paj>er to aid him to sell his wares, no chance to receive fair compen- sation except we stand by him. I believe you will agree with me, as you think of the matter, that we should not only sustain Mr. B., but that if he is to be treated as was Mr. Langstroth, we should, for him, for the public, and for justice frown upon such theft. I hope the matter may not suffer litigation. If such a course is taken I think bee-keepers generally ought to be the defendants. I hope you will teach all to honor patents. This is koepina- the law. " Keader to Ciesar, &c."' Teach all to be wary how they buy. Never buy except they kaow the article has value and is needed. But reas- on dictates that we should never ignore a thing-, simply because it U covered by letters patent. I be- lieve the words of the Book which we both revere will be no uncertain guide, if we catch its spirit while interpreting its words. I write this onlv from a sincere desire that right, aye, and righteousness should prevail. Lansing, Mich. A. J. Cook. I cannot think it my duty, friend Cook, to encourage patenting such slight changes, in the invention of another. A patent was granted it is true; but according to the A. B. J., at least three patents to as many different persons, cov^ering the same points, li'.ive been granted on the section honey boxes ; does the A. B. J. respect such pat- ents? I am selling a great many Bingham smokers and they are giving good satisfaction, and as Mr. B has no paper in which to advertise, I will give him i a column for one year free, and he may advertise in it as he chooses. If his smoker is the best, the people will be sure to find it out. If I am continually puff- ing my own wares for the purpose of gain, the people will be sure to find ine out. May God bless you all, in any event, and help me to better deserve the kind words you have given me all along. OUH friend Snell, of Mill3dgeville, 111., also sends out a neat circular of hives, &c. That is right, let the people h-ave nice work, at many different points, that the expensive shipping may be avoided. Frcevd Dadant has come to the front, and offers imported queens for $t.OO. With his large experi- ence in the matter, he can probably do this as well, or better than anybody else; but friend D., I am afraid those who happen to get the very dark col- ored queens, will complain even at that price. ^ ■■■ ^ Tin for separators and extractors. As we buy in larg(! (luantities, I can perhaps give you better rates than you are getting at home. Price per box of 113 sheets, size MxSO, $6.50; price per sheet, for less than a box, 7c. IX tin for making extractors, 14x30, per box, $9.50; price per sheet, 10c. We will ship it from Medina, or from Philadelphia, as may be most con- venient. ^ >»' m Multum In Parvo. To-day is the first of March— We have 3697 subscribers— The bees are working beauti- fully on oats and corn ground togethei-, and grape sugar -To feed grape sugar, fill a large wooden pail, or even tub, with thin svriip, and place some bits of dry shingles on the surfac- of the liquid. Tip the pail until the syru-o just begins to run over one side, and as thev lower it, tip it more ; they will soon take a pailful -Chaff hives have all wintered beautifully I again ; no dead bees at the entrance, but very little j stores consumed and no "tending" needed until the I section boxes are to go on. I A NEW ruling of the P. O. department is that knives and scissors, as well as queen baes, are un- mailable. But our P. M. says if tbey are encased in I a solid block of wood, so that it is impossible for , them to do any injury to the mail matter, we have complied with the spirit of the law, if not the letter, and that tioods thus put up may be m;iiled until there are p;)-iitive or'2ers to the contrai-y. Tiiat there is. abundant noe/i of strict regulations in tliis respect, 1 am well aware, for we often have sticky packages of honey, sent us by maiL I would never think of sending honey by mail, unless soldered up tight, in a strong- box, or encased in a block of wood. LTse can- dy for queens, and never honey, and there will be no trouble. My friends, you are certainly doing the R. R. and Express Co' s, a wrong, in one respect at least. It I has been our habit, to submit all complaints of over- , charges, &c., directly to them, as fast as received: j and in no case, have they failed to hunt up the whole i matter, and give bills of each separate charge. A i few daj's ago, a customer wrote he had been swin- ! died, by an express charge of $3. or $4.0!). After a lalK>rious tracing on the part of the Co., as it was I quite a distance, a whole bundle of papers came, ] showing that he had paid less than half the amount. i The whole were mailed him for an explanation; hi? I answer was, that a neighbor got the goods, and told I told him of the excessive charge for a joke. The I charges are, almost invariably, found correct, or at ; their usual rates, but the difficulty seems to be ia passing over so many lines, to out of the way places. We have sent tracers, many times, when the party t had not called for the goods, but only sent by a I neighbor, and the goods were on hand all the time. I Please be sure the cause of delay is not all your own ; fault, before you trouble over-worked employes of ! these great corporations; and when there is error, or i even the appearance of fraud, state the case plainly, I but gently. j AN APOLOGV. ! It has been said that editors never make apologies. I Perhaps I am not an editor; if being one would pre- vent me from frankly owning up when I know I have done wrong, I sincerely hope I may never be one. I When I wrote the article last month entitled "Troub- I le," I honestlv thought it would do good. Perhaps it I has done good in the way I intended it should, but I j am sorry I did not leave it out, as I came very near I doing, several times. I was looking for an illustra- tion to show how foolishly i^eople acted, when quar- I reling. 1 thought I had found an excellent one, and in my zeal to make my illustration a strongone, I had so little mercy on the feelings of my friends, I am afraid thev will never forgive me at all. I had no unkind feelings toward them, for they simply acted just as we all do, when we get into a strife. I thought they would see it as we do, and let it drop, forgiven and forgotten. I thought, too, I should have a letter with 1 loth thoir names signed to it, for this issue. I did get a litter from each of them. There is certain- ly no doubt in my nlind in regard to that part of it. But their letters agreed in so few points, I really cantutt iniblish them. If they will both sign their rames to the paper, they may have all the space they I choose, even if I have to enlarge Gleani.vgs; and they may say all they wish about my poor self too, but I do' not wish tliehi to blame eadh other any more. In three point* they agree exsictly. Both say they have not quarreled; both say that the card on the'Doolittle hiv(> was not changed, only a printed one put beside the other bv Mr. B.; and both assui-e me that the competitors did not pay any *T.()0, as I stated it, but that Messrs Thurber & Co., paid (dl ex- penses. I humbly beg pai-don of the above gentle- men, and offer as an explanation, that the circular they sent me reads: "One fee ($7,00) only will be charged." In my usual blundering way, I g-ot this mixed up with the $5/ the cold severe oties past. Which is the better way to winter our bees — out of doors or in cellars— I do not wish to discuss at this time. Those wintering in good cellars, I presume will find a good many dead bees on their floors. We account for it in part this way; it has been warm this winter and consequently There has been more breeding in the hives than usual; the old bees were distuj-bed- came out and died. 8ome of those win- tering ovit of doors, tell us that they have no dead bees, to speak of. The reason no doubt is, the bees carry off all that drop on the bottom of the hive, while the old ones fly away and never come back again. Those of us who are wintering our bees in good cellars, "let us possess our souls in patience"— let us not be in a hurry to get out our bees; although our out-door wintering bee friends have had the pleas- ure of seeing their pets fly almost every week this winter, it has been at the expense of their precious stores; the more flying, the more honey used up; while ours will have their stores intact, and "where it will do the most good" for future breeding. R. H. Mellen. Amboy, Ills., Feb. 9th, 1878. GRAPE SUGAR. In Dec. No., page .318. Mr. D. C. ITnderhill says, that he had made a svrun of about .5 lbs. of grape sugar *'and one of water." Is this«not a "big mistake?" What manufactory makes grape siigar that can be tlissolved in 1-.5 of water? Please explain it. Dr. Wm. Leers. Sigel, Ills., Feb. 13th, 18*78. No mistake at all. friend I^. Grape sugar is queer stuff, and you can make a syrup of it without any water at all, if you warm it up a little, it solidifies something as does liees wax. When it gets about so cold, it gets solid "all of a sudden."' This is ow- ing to tlie large amount of water of crystali- zation it contains. It does not make syrup, as does cane sugar, but seems to change from sweetened water, as it were, to solid stigar, almost at once. Something has been said in the papers, of grape sugar being unwholesome. I would think some of the samples I have received were so, for it was almost sickening to try to eat them, es])ecially that received from X. Y. ; but the light yello'v sugar that vve have been using, I fiiid almost as pleasant as maple sugar, and I have eaten it freely for months past. The following from the manufacturers may give some light in the matter : In regard to the prejudice of some people, as men- tioned in your letter, I would say that it is totally unfounded. There used to be made some very poor grape sugar which contained considerable sulphuric acid, which may have been unwholesome in cases where lars'c quantities of the sugar were consumed. Fai-ther, the sugar was badly refined or totally crude, in which state it had a bad taste and disgusting ap- pearance. Bees will not take a sugar which contains the slightest trace of sulphuric acid, and this is the main reason why we manufacture an article express- ly for this purpose. I consider it really wholesome and in case of light cold, give it my child as a remedy. Louis. P. Best, Sup't. Davenport, Iowa, Feb. 9th, 1878. APIS DORSATA. On page 40, Feb. No. of ^4. B, J. you will find a no- tice begining "The Dutch government &c." T lately received a letter from Mr. Gravenhorst in which he stated that Mr. Rykens sailed by steamer from Hol- land, early in Oct. arriving in Java by way of the Suez canal, in 7 weeks. He took with liim bees from Austria, also Cyprians, and Italians. Rykens says apis dorsata is of no value for domestication, as it propagates slowly and builds its cells after tho man- ner of wasps, the wax being inferior and but little of it. Honey also inferior and in small quantity, so it appears to have no desirable qualities for the apiarian. Later we will hear of Mr. Rykens success. Mr. Gravenhoist can furnish Cvprian queens in Ai;gust .at f 10 each. No losses thus far. One ci lony queenless, I will have to feed soon owing to active breeding and the mild winter. Ehrich Parmely. New York City, Feb. 11th, 1878. And thus ends, I fear, our cherished hopes, of "-apis d.ormta.^'' Thanks friend P., for your frank statement of the overthrow of your hobby. I fear v. e shall have to breed up large bees on friend Hunter's plan, after all. NICE SECTIONS. T was about to write to you lo^ee if you could not get up something more perfect than thf^se you sent me last year. 1 -n ant to say ore word abrut s-iwing the dovetail of the sections. The saws should run j against the planed side of the sections. Take up a sawed section ard you will observe a slight pro- I jpct'on, made by The saw: these projections should j .ill come on the inside of the sections. Among those you sent me last year, some were sawed right, but most of them had a projection or both sides. To make this smooth was srme work, which can be t avoided by having the aranjr of saws run against the planed surfaces at each end. j 1 lost about 3c. per lb. on some of my honev last year by having it imperfect Iv put up.' I think you I are on the right track. What we want is a neat ; section, planed on one sir'^e and both edges, with the top and bottom pieces enough narrower for the glass to come very nearly fiufh with the wide part and yet be free, so that in packing, the sectiot'S can be nressed together without endangerintr the plass, if the market demands glass. L. C. Whiting. Epst Saginaw, Mich., Feb. 4th, 1878. I omitted to say in my description, that we have the grooving all done in such a veay as to throw the burrs on the inside of the box. IMPORTING QUEENS. 1 What lig-ht has any oflicer of the custom house to j keep f> packngo and seiid word, in place of the pack- I age, that "all the bees are dead?" M-"- second invoice I of queens. I never srw, btit rrreived a dispatch sta- tins- that all the bees were dead. With the third in- voice, the same trick was tried. l>\it I ordered the i package to be sent anyhow, and T found two queens j alive. Paul L. Viallon. Bayou Goula, La., Jan. 3d, 1878. DANDELIONS. I notice in the ABC that you assign to the dande- I lion no use excent for honev and greens. I must in- I form you that tho roots, if dug, washed, out into 88 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Mar. small pieces, dried and browned, make the most de- licious coffee obtainable; far ahead of Java or any substitute for coffee that I have ever seen. If sown after the seed fall in the spring-, in a rich bed in the garden, you will have fine roots the spring- following. Try it, and please inform your readers. We find the honey from dandelion darkish yellow, and rather strong- but not unpleasant. A. A. Lewis. North Duxbury, Vt., Jan. 10th, 1878. EARLY QtTEENS. Since looking- over Gleanings I have been think- ing about your suggestion concerning rearing early si.OO queens down south. Our springs are early. A\ e sometimes have swarms the first of April. The first colony of Italians I purchased, three vears ago, swarmed April 6th. Think I could furnish a few queens by May 1st. I have a few fine home-bred queens, but shall want an imported one if you think 1 could sell enough queens to pay for her. There is but little interference here from black bees. Please let me know what you think of it. ^ Jno. W. Beatt. Decatur, Ga., Feb.loth, 1878. I think all the queens that our Southern friends can raise, can be sold readily for $1.50 each, in the month of May. As I shall sell them for this price. I cannot offer over SI. 00. If you think this is too much margin, you can buy directly of the pro- ducers. With the great amount of business now on my hands, I would prefer to have you do so, yet if I can in any Avay ''go betAveen"' purchasers and producers, and get you better acquainted. I shall be glad to do so. Much hard feeling has been en- gendered by advertising queens and receiv- ing money, and then being uu;tble to fill orders. I would recommend new hands at the business, not to advertise until they have queens on hand, and then they are oil the safe side. The business is beginning to assume considerable magnitude, and I am rejoiced to see our young friends build up a business and prosper. Look out for Blasted Hopes, and work carefully. In regard to imported queens: every customer Av;;nts one of the finest ; in fact, I cannot remember a single order, for a §5.00 one. Now there are but a few of the finest ; what shall I do Avith the rest? I do not know I unless I raise the price of the best ones. The greater part of them, are pretty dark, and these you will not be pleased with; Avhat shall I do with themV FROM FRIEND DOOLITTLE. We intended, at the beginning of the present year, to write an article each month for all three of the Bee Journals of the United States, and also to an- swer all correspondence, but find ourselves unable to do so, on account of a severe attack of rheuma- tism. Our correspondence has grown so large as to occupy from 2 to 3 hours of our time every day, and although it is a pleasure to us to answer all questions pertaining to bee matters, vet our time and health will not permit us to do so. We shall therefore have to say good-bye, to our much loved Journals and correspondence, for the present. „ G. M. DOOLITTLE. Borodino, N. Y., Feb. 19th, 1878. I can readily appreciate your difficulty friend D.. and although we can not blame you, Ave trust you may give at least a brief report to some of the Journals, now and then. I have been told that Capt. Hether- ington, some time ago, came to a similar conclusion, and that he noAv does not even ansAver letters at all, nor send reports for publication. It is something like this, my iriends. Suppose you Avere to go into one of. our large city stores, and ask to see the pro- prietor ; should you find him kind enough I to drop his business, to attend to you. sup- pose you Avere to tell him you Avould like to talk over the dry goods 'business. Avith a vieAv of embarking in it. You. an utter stranger, Avish him to tell hoAv much money he makes. &c. Perhaps I have stated the matter pretty strongly, but there is much truth in the illustration. "We all tender thanks, friend D., for the much you have done for us. and Avish you and your bees, as good a summer as your last one. DOUBLING CP IN THE SPRING. Can two swarms he united in the spring and the spare queen be saved by forming a neuclus? and how? j.c. Dickinson. Hudson, Mich. Feb. 4th, 1878. There is no difficulty at all, in doing as you say. but Avhat is gained by such a coursey Which is of most value ; tAvo fair colonies, or one very strong and one very weak one? I think I Avould prefer the former. If you Avish to make a great report from a certain number of colonies, you can do it, Avithout a doubt, by doubling up your stocks in the spring, and making nuclei to save the extra queens. Reports from apia- ries managed in this Avay. have been giAcn in our back volumes. The honey yield is usually immense, if sAA'arming can be pre- vented, because the stocks are all very strong Avhen the harvest opens. WUTH'S CASE OF SECTION BOXES. Of course he has one and it has some rath- er nice points about it too, but the stuff is uuplaned. he uses no. separators, and has no groove for the fdn. If I am correct, the sections are lifted from the hive all at once, just as they are built, into the shipping case. We can do this Avithout trouble, if we omit the sei>arators. and Avnit until all are filled, before we lilt them off. In this case, the honey is all stored on the top of the frames, and none at the sides. I wrote him my ob- jections, and below he replies. Friend Muth is excellent authority. I can raise straight combs in these sections of ours without separators, and Hill's lot of 4CG0 lbs. of ccmb honey in such sections (in '76) proves that he can do it. No evener lot or straighter combs could be pro- duced. But I should try these separators were 1 raising much comb honey. I had slats in the top bars of my small frames, l)ut quit them, because fdn. can be fastened just as easily without them. I consider your sections rather small, because I can just as readily sell 2 lbs. of honey in a frame as 1 lb.; and as the finishing part occupies the bees, ap- parently, the most time, I believe also that we car- raise more honey in larger frames. Your shipping cases are neat, but they cost more than they ought to, and they should be stronger for the general busi- ness. Shipping cases are, generally, used only once. With my cases you will notice that about '^c per lb. more for the honey, pays for the cases and sectional boxes. Please give us your criticism without fear or fa%'or. Chas. F. Muth. Cincinnati, Ohio. Feb. 20th, l.«78. Please to inform me from what the paraffine with which you wax your barrels, is made. Some say it 4s made bom lard after the oil is pressed from it, and others that it is made from coal oil. I can not get the refined paraffine in New Orleans for less than Z6 and 45c in large quantities. The saw files, such as you give an illustration of in Feb. No.. I consider the best made filPS for a circular rip saw that I have ever pern. The half round files put too thin a point on the tooth; they will not stand our cvpress lumber. F. F. Fell. Allen P. O., La., Feb. 9th, 1S78. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 89 Paraffine is made from the products of the oil refinery, and if properly retined. has nei- ther taste nor smell. That which we offer for sale, was juarchased at ton rates when we contemplated using it for fdn. It is now worth more than we have been selling it for. While I think of it, I paid the money that Avas sent us for parafflne and wax fdn. all back, yet it is well worth 2oc for waxing bar- rels. And while considering the subject, it may be well to remark that Capt. Hether- ington uses this same condemned paraffine and wax for his brood combs, the copper wires eifectually preventing tlie sagging. As the paraffine is much softer than wax when warmed gently, he says the bees work it out much faster than natural wax, which I can readily believe from my experiments. I can, now, buy square gums, about 2 feet Ions' by 12 Inches square outside, with bees and honey, for $3.00 to :S4.00. State in your Journal the best way to manag-e such jruins, and how to keep the worms out. Sometimes a man will lose 10 to 30 of such g-ums of bees in one season. D. J. Sanders. Harmony Grove, Ga., Feb. 4th. 1878. Your concluding sentence would indicate pretty strongly the importance of getting your bees oiif of the "gums," as speedily as possible. I should buy them at that low price, and transfer them. Before you can Italianize them, or do anything Mith them to any advantage, they must be transferred into movable comb hives. HOW TO MAKE CHAFF HIVES CHEAPLY, ALSO "OATS" FOB BEES. I wish you could see some two story chaff hives that I have made, for which I have had "to purchase only the nails. Nearly all the lumber in them is "rived" oak boards, about 60 of which, togt?ther with a few feet of good lumber will make a hive and roof, the value of materials not exceeding 75 ets. For "chaff cushion division boards" I use some of the same made thin, with laths for a frame. I use South- ern or Spanish moss (from an old matress) to stuff the cushion around the sides; I "know" I have some good ones. You said a man could start an apiary with very little besides an axe (not quite your exact words): I have almost done it, and intend making it pay its own way. Early in Jan. I had no rye meal, but as my bees were flying pretty freely I put out a pan of cow feed, e^ivial quantities of corn and oats ground. From one hive the bees used it freely. Next mill day I had the rye which I had saved, ground and placed by the corn and oats; they would use it but sparingly. I changed the position of the two pans and the bees followed the corn and oats wherever it was placed. Never ha\-ing seen oats recommended I pounded some alone in an iron mortar, and renewed the experiment with corn, oat and rye meal, and wheat flour in four different pans; the "oat pan had ten bees in it where the others had one. A. W. Kaye. Pewee Valley, Ky., Feb. 14th, 1878. Rye and oats, have long been recommend- ed and used, as you ^viW see by back vol- umes, but it seems you have demonstrated that the bees greatly prefer the oats. CHAFF HIVES ; THE $2.5.00 OFFER. Novice, do you not put your "foot in it" when you preach to them for offering premiums on the best honey, and then offer a premium yourself for the best chaff hive, instead of asking 'your readers to send in their views of different hives? J. Dreav. Bunker Hill, HI., Feb. 1st, 1878. I fear you are right my friend, especiallv, since the flood of plans that liave been sent in, showing so much la])or botli in invent- ing, and writing descriptions. I have been astonished at the inventive genius of om- people, and many of the plans are beautiful- ly sketched. I only wish, my friends, I had started you at work on some worthier ob- ject. All the plans submitted, so far. have objections that I think worse than the one they have sought to remedy, and I feel sorry to tell you that I think the chaff hive, as we make it, the least trouble of all, because I know some of you think mv judgment at at fault in the matter. One or two have been displeased when I told them the ob- jections to their plans, and one man has wi-itten quite unkindly, because I would not give him the 82-5.00. A great many have not complied with the conditions, and several have sent plans for removable upper stories ; others have introduced loose boards, and still others, a great variety of side openers. Bear in mind that j^ou have to take out 3 or 4 frames anyway, and after this, it is about as easy to take out the remaining ones, as to fuss \Yith any loose device, or ex- tra piece of furniture. A friend from Cali- fornia, sends us a very pretty little model, filled with native raisins and "figs. His long kind letter is almost worth the monev, even though I can not approve of his chaif hive. Many of the plans I had thought of and discarded some time ago. Many had over- looked the matter of propolis, altogether. Several have come so near it, that but a very small thing stands in the way, but this small simple item, I judge to be fatal to the whole. Please do not think unkindly, my friends, for I stated plainly, the conditions, that I must think well enough of the plan to adopt it. TVliatever I adopt, vou will all know through GLEAisnxGs, for I have no secrets in the world to be kept, from you. One very desirable feature of the chaff hive as it is, is that we have a shoulder bevond the ends of the lower frames ; that is, the upper story, is longer than the lower ones, and this is quite convenient in handling the lower ones. I am somewhat inclined to think it impossi- ble to have a permanent two-story hive, more convenient than this, all things con- sidered. I regret that I can not pay you aU, for yom- kind efforts in the matter. I am glad some one has "gumption" enough to get material in good shape for section boxes, or racks, cut to a fraction and pLnied only on one side. J. W. KA.YARD. Athens, Ohio, Feb. 4th, 1878. I commenced bee-keeping one year ago the 27th of Aug.; I found a swarm on a little cherry tree in my yard, which had hung there all night. "l procured a hive and some comb and bv feeding, kept them 0veT winter. In the fall I bought 2 more and increased the 3 last summer, to 15. I made most of the swarms, although I had never seen it done, but had read of it. I had no trouble whatever. Mark Hurd, Chicago, 111. KELLEY'S ISL.AND. Ha\-e made some inquiries, but can not learn of anj-thing being done, or application being made to raise queen bees here the coming season. If I do, I will post you. Chas. Carpenter. KeUey's Island, O., Feb. 14th, 1878. Bees have been having a "big time" the past week; carrying flour fi-om around the ventilator on top of the grist mill, some 20 rods away. It is the first time I ever knew them to do so in December. James Boion. West Lodi, Ohio, Dec. 26th, 1877. 90 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. Mar. HOW BEES 'EVAPORATE" THE WATER, FROM THIN HONEY. I One morning in the month of Sept. as I was stand- i ingr about ten rods from my apiary, looking partly | toward the sun, I noticed that most of the bees on \ their first flight in the morning- (to a piece of buck- [ wheat) exuded a watery substance from their ' bodies. What was it? Was it caused by the rapid i accumulation of excrement in the working season, or was it water obtained from the honey in the ripening process? Although it may not be of prac- tical importance for us to know, yet it would add one more link to our knowledge of the insect. My bees have been bringing in pollen from dandelion for the last four days, and are apparantly breeding considerably. F.C. White. Euclid, Ohio, Dec. 38th. 1877. I feel assured it was the water they had by some means (doubtless well known to themselves) separated from the thin new- ly gathered honey, in the process of ripen- ing. On page 125, vol. 2, you will tlnd an account of some experiments in the matter, wliile Hying bees in the green house. SIMPLICITy FEEDERS. Make your wooden feeders hot, pour melted par- afline into one, put another top of it, face to face, shake them until mside is coated— rery nice. I made tops of frames same way 4 years ago— good feeders but clumsy frames. J. M. Shuck. Des Moines, Iowa, Jan. 11th, 1878. EQUALIZING STOCKS IN FEBRUARY. On going down cellar to look at my bees to-day, imagine my surprise at finding bees hanging out over the entrances of some hives in bunches from a handful to two quarts, like a warm July afternoon. I thought it would be a good time to divide and equalize. Taking a two quart dipper, I dipped them ott' and poured them into the top of the hives of some weaker stocks; what do you think of the oper- ation? My bees are mostly in Langstroth Simplici- ty hives, with chaff at the sides and on top. If the cellar were not dark they might swarm. 1 wouldn't be surprised if, on looking, 1 should tind queen cells started. Chaff if rightly used is the greatest bee medicine known. Last season was not a very extra one here; we had so much rain. One day, in particular, it rained very hard (i hours without stopping. 1 had to go out three times and drag my hives up hill out of the water. As it was, they averaged about 75 lbs. each. Some sneak thieves stole 7J lus. in frames one night; poor fellows, if it will do them any good I'll let them have it. "Father forgive them, they know not what they do." Richard Hyde. Alderly, Wis., Feb. 4th, 1878. I have never tried mixing them, but I had bees cluster out of two hives when pla- ced on a shelf in the bee house, and cluster together. In the spring one was queenless, and several vveeks after, I found two queens going along peaceably in the other hive. They may unite without trouble un- der such circumstances, but one of the queens is very likely to be "balled'' and frequently, killed. WINTERING FIVE STOCKS IN ONE HIVE. I commenced last spring with 11 colonies of blacks and hybrids, and one colony from Dadant with im- ported mother. I transferred all combs, putting them into a uniform frame. I extracted liott lbs, took 100 lbs. c :)mb honey in sections, and uuTcased to 30 stocks, raised and introduced 38 young (lueensfrom imported mothers, and sold 6 to my ncijrlil>;>rs. I had 32 swarms out for a fly (wintering in cellar) on the 5th and ti>uiid them in excellent condition. Found a good many dead bees on the bottom boards, but lots of eggs, lav\ a* and sealed brood. I must tell you how I undertook to winter 5 swarms in one hive. In Nov. I made a "long idea" hive and put a good swarm in one end of it on 5 combs (my frames are 10x15 inside measurement) then put in a division board littinu- "bee tight" (said division board had a v:rii large hole cut through it. and wire cloth tacked over it to prevent the bees irom passing through), then another swarm, placed in and so on, until the 5 were in one box. All were then covered over with blankets folded up, and over all, were laid wide boards. On examining them on the 5th. I found that my "hive" had "sprung," and let all the frames drop oft' the rabbets ancj onto the bottom of the hive leaving a fine passage every way for the bees at each upper corner of the divis- ion boards. To my surprise, I found every queen alive, and brood in all stages in every apartment. Fearing to trust them until spring in that condition I removed them to separate hives. Now No\ice, cannot we winter neuclus colonies on this plan? I shall try it next winter. T. T. Delzell. Hersey,Mich. Feb. 11th, 1878. You can winter colonies in that way, and perhaps nuclei also ; but it is a great deal of trouble, as you have experienced, to put them all into one such hive ; and then it is a great deal of trouble to get them out into some other kind of a hive when it comes spring, besides the risk of losing the queens. I am glad to see you progressing some. Some time ago, j'ou recommended sugar alone for feed; now you add flour which I know to be an improve- ment. I have used starch for 30 years. 1 was troubled for some time by something dis- turbing my hive at night ; moving the blocks at the entrance, and the sawdust and coal ashes, that I use instead of sawdust. I set a trap at last and caught a skunk, and have not been troubled since. Do skunks eat bees? Would it answer to extract till the harvest begins to fail, then feed back, for box honey? Would a little propolis injure wax? J. Winpield. Hubbard, Ohio, Dec. 3nd, 1877. You have, yourself, given us excellent evidence that skunks do eat bees, and other reports agree with your statement. If you can buy extracted honey for 10c, and sell your comb honey for 15, it will pay to feed it, but I think it will pay better, to have the honey stored in the section boxes, at first, rather than take the trouble to ex- tract and feed back again. Propolis does no harm, for it is readily separated from the wax by melting, or with the wax extractor. I am a victim of "blasted"— "earelessnesis" in one respect, and "hopes" in another. The Jan. No. of Gleanings came to hand all right, but I lost it on the road home before I had opened it. That is wherein I am a victim of carelessness. Pray don't draw any bad inferences, I belong to the Murphj's. My "hope" that was "blasted" was this: I built up a swarm last summer from about a pint of bees; they became quite strong, and I set them apart for the minister, intending to give it and all its proceeds and increase to the support of the minister (axtra), in the future. Well, they filled nine frames (Prof. Cook's style of frame) and I was overjoj-od at the prospect; but, alas! one day, late in the fall, I no- ticed an unusual activity about two of m.v hives, too much so I thought for "honest bees." On looking into matters I found the two had overpowered the hive in question, and had taken, not only most of the honey, but all the bees but about a teacupful, and they principally drones. I put a stop to their opera- tions, and in a day or two afterward a rather weak swarm of Italians found there was something there that they would like, so I let them take the remain- der. Don't accuse me of carelessness in this, for I had been out to that hive two days before iuid saw nothing wrong; they did it up in a hurry. I have 6 left; they are doing well so far. The win- ter has been very warm, bees flying in all directions for a week at a time. My three Italian swarms are out about an hour earlier than the blacks, every day that they ttv. B. Robison. Schell City, Mo., Feb. 3d, 1878. I am afraid my friend, that if your min- ister should see this, he would reprove you for using the term "blasted'', as you have 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 91 done, and myself for publishing it, but as it would spoil your story to leave it out. a'ld as we neither of us mean any harm by it, (as the boy said of his dog when he bit folks) I hope we are excusable. I think it a grand idea, to make your minister a present of a bee-hive. The hive we gave our minister made so much honey that he gave some to the rest of the clergy in our town, and thus encouraged a union senti- ment among them. It is true he did get stung one day so as to be kept from meet- ing, but I never mention that part of his experience. STILL LATER, ON THE $25.00 OFFER. I am getting hives ready for another campaign. As I saw an article in Gleanings, "How not to make them" (chaff hives), I thought I would tell you how I have mine made, thinking I might perhaps learn how they ouglit to be done. The front and rear of the hiveare double, with a three inch space between, for chaff. The upper story is permanent, and of the same width as the lower. The frames of both stories are interchangeable, and all run from front to rear of hive. The frames of the lower story hang on a rabbet or groove in the side of the hive, one inch wide, and '4 inch deep. The metal rabbet may be used without making an objectionable projection. The upper frames hang on a rabbet of the same depth, and the hive is long enough to admit of chaff cushions at the ends. The cushions may be moved back to make room to turn the frames diagonally to take them out, and when it is desirable to fill the lower story with frames, a few may be removed by means of a vertic- al groove in the sides of the upper story two inches wide and 'i inch deep, near one or both the ends, and opposite each other. The vacancy in the upper rabbet caused by the groove, is filled by a piece of wood of the right size. This may rest on the frames below or hang on the rabbet above, and to keep the bees from fastening this block it is covered by a piece of tin, cut in such a way as to protect the exposed parts. If a hive can not be made two stories so as to have the frames interchangeable, to be used to build up other stocks or to prepare them for winter, &e., I do not see that they are of any especial advantage, when we can have our surplus honey stored in sec- tion boxes, which are nicer to sell, as well as to keep. Milton, Pa. Wm. G. Follmer. The above comes nearest to solving the problem of any yet recived, but I would not want the vertical groove, nor the loose stick covered with tin; it would always be getting lost, if our boys had it, and they would push the frames along and let them fall down that groove. The citshions, perhnjif!, may be made to answer. They must not be made to lift out, for the bees would run over into their places, and then how would you get them out againV If there is a recess'back of the cushion, a heavy colony would get over into it, and you would waste time in getting them out. If the cushion would shut up like a pair of bellows — there! I will tell you; we shall have to tack a piece of the enameled cloth to the top of the chaff cushion, and then to the side of the hive. This will allow the division board to move back and forth, and still prevent bees from ever getting back of it. But how about the ends of this strip of cloth? Candidly, I don't know. Since the above was written, I have given it some thought, and fear that propolis will spoil the working of all such machinery, in si)ite of us. Enameled cloth is the most se- cure from it, of anything I have seen. I have just been examinmg a double-story hive with the frames all the same size and running the same way, in both stories, with lower frames remov- able by taking but a part of the upper frames out. It is accomplished by means of pins with a hollow underside of the projection of the top bar, and no rabbet in the hive. The top bar is lain, short at each end, and the pins are =^ in diamater by IVi between centres. The ends of the top bar are only '4 in. wide. Mt. Zion, Ills. J. s. Hughes. Many such plans have been submitted. One objection is that the frames are at fixed distances from each other; when combs vary in thickness, even slightly, it is a serious ob- jection. The other is, that if one side of the comb is heavier than the other, which is of- ten the case, the comb will swing over against its neighbor. Nails or staples at the bottom have long been considered objectionable. I hav^e about 300 lbs. of honey in sections, for sale. We can get but about 13e here. If you can tell me where I can dispose of it to better advantage, you will confer a favor. Most of our honev in this sec- tion is unsold yet; it is principally fall honey. G. G. Large. Millersville, Ills. Feb. 33rd '78. We were so unfortunate as to lose one of our best stocks during the heavy snow storm. Thev smother- ed. They had sealed the cover tight, and the snow melted, afterward freezing and closing them up air tight. Such is bee-keeping! J. W. Barclay. South Oil City. Pa. Feb. 32nd '78. I do not believe such a thing could happen, either to the Chatf or Simplicity hives, and I am inclined to think you mistaken as to the cause. I always feel safe about the bees, when under a deep snow. I have two swarms of bees in my cellar. Last week I transferred one, and yesterday the other, into mov- able comb hives, one similar to the American. Both swarms take to their new homes very contentedly. Both had brood in all stages. The work was done in a warm room. E. M. Baldwin. Saratoga Spings, N. Y. Feb. 12th IS78. DRONE LAYER AND FERTILE QUEEN, BOTH IN ONE HIVE. As Mr. Vosbei-g and myself were once examining his bees, we each found a queen on adjoining frames. Upon looking closely we discovered the brood had a strange appearance; there were a few cells of work- er brood with sealed and unsealed drone brood scat- tered throug-h each comb, and drones and young workers hatching, all from worker cells, such funny little drones! One queen was large and the other quite small; of course one was a drone layer. Both were in the hive long enough to hatch brood. There was but little honey. Now, Mr. Novice, if bees man- age their own business s.i well, why did they leave the drone brood and dnini' laving queen unmolested? Why did not the queens battlei' One word in regard to e.xtracttd honey. Why are you looking for a method to keep it from eandj-lng? Why, take some w;u-m biscuit and candied honey; "nuff eed." 1 don't want anything better. Educate the people to eat candied honey and see what will become of gi-ape sugar. J. J. Swartwout. Union Citj% Mich., Feb. 6th, 1878. The small queen was the mother of the otlier, and the drone layer. She had passed her useful days, and was tolerated, as they usually are, mother and daughter, together. I presume they depended on the queen to furnish the brood, and as she laid the eggs in worker cells, they thought they must be all right. I like candied honey with my hot biscuit, too, but unfortiniately, but few others do. After a jar of honey has become candied solid, it is always rather slovv sale. I also like grape sugar, on hot biscuit, and I am 92 GLEANINGS m BEE CULTURE. Mar. not a bit frightened about its being unwhole- some when it is as nice and pure as tliat made by the Davenport ( 'o . My small bee business does well. Eight stocks last sprin? and a starved swarm that came to me in April or May, produced 63 lbs. of beautiful thick honey and twelve swarms ; making- in all 30 stocks in good condition. John Fothekinoham. St. Mary's Oat. Canada. EIGHT FRAME HIVES, AND "TANGING" BEES. 1 think you will soon talk 8 frame Langstroth, for the brood chamber. Het-e is a chance to make that fortune in a com- bined smoker and tanger. One day, last summer, as 1 was crossing the road with my Quinby in hand, I was accosted by an old "fogy" friend, who claims to have kept the "varmints," ever since the time when Michigan wore her "baby clothes." "How's your bees getting on lately? " said he. "O they keep me quite busy," I said. "You see. there is one swarm in that little 'cedar,' and another In that cherry, and I have just been raking one out of those blackberry bushes." "Wal! that's a biar 'skip' hanging up there," said he, "but what on airth is that machine you've got there?" "That is a 'Quinby Smoker,' sir," and I pinched the bellows, while the pipe was quite close to the old man's nose. "Lawks!" said he, "I thought it was some new fangled patent right, to 'tang* 'em down with when thev swarm." What they call "tanging," blowing horns, ringing bells, &c., is practiced by those who have their "bee education" handed down from one generation to an- other, and, who ridicule practical books upon any subject. It is amusing to hear the superstitious sto- ries they will tell about their bees. Alonzo Borden'. South Lyon, Mich., Jan. 34th, '78. I am already converted to 8 frames for the brood nest, or perhaps 7; but I would want my hives wide enough to contain a frame of sections at each side of the brood, and this would bring it just as we now make them. For wintering, we vvant just 7 combs or less; we therefore replace the frames of sections with chaff cushion divis- ion boards, until honey comes again the next season. It is, many times, very con- venient to have 10 brood frames " in a single story, and for this reason, and the others mentioned, I would not make hives to hold less than 10 frames. Mv bees came through all right last winter, altho' we had a hard spring; rhauy lost heavily. Mr. Aug- ustine lost 30, out of 34 swarms; he wintered on sum- mer stand=!; I wintered in house apiary, and increased by natural swarming, 300 per cent. I took 443'^ lbs. of honej' from 4 swarms, comb and extracted. From one, I took 60 lbs. comb honey, and S4 lbs. extracted, and it cast 4 swarms; all are doing well to date; they had no assistance from other hives. I bad 3 swarms, that showed signs of dysentery, after being confined two weeks in their hives; this was on the 14th of November; two of them appear all riyrht now; from the other one. the bees come out with their bodies very much distended; of course, I do not e.xpeet them to survive the winter. All the rest are "slick and slim" to date. Oh. Se3! what a height friend Novice has reached with his climbers, on the ladder. Now, Mr. N. when you g "ft up to 4 or 5 thousand steps--say, won't we subsc:-ibers look very small down here? eh? M. Richardson. Port C jlb^no, Canada, .Jan. 1.5th, 1878. Four swai-ms, and 144 lbs. honey, nearly half comb, is certainly pretty well, and I guess we shall have to admit that your lo- cality is good enough for anybody. Was that colony chaif packed, or in the house apiaryV Friend R., wlienever subscribers or any cause else, makes me forget that I am one of you, I hope the "ladder," and the "climb- ers'" too, will be taken away from me until I come to my senses again. I alvvays want to be a bee-keeper, and vvhen it is my turn to go into blasted hopes I want to be a "blasted hoper" too. r wrote you last summer, enquiring the best time to transfer bees from an old box hive to one of mov- able frames. I am sorry I wrote anything about it, for I have none to transfer. Some scamp carried off bees and hive, leaving me only the bottom board ; that is my first "Blasted Hope." E. B. Blackman, Hudson, O. Feb. 2d, 1878 Truly my friend, your prospects are not of the most encouraging nature ; notliing but a "bottom board.'' We all tender our "sym- pathy, I am sure, and if you lived near by, I do not know but we might tender something a little more substantial; but then, you have the "first principles" on which to build again. THE KOHLER PROCESS. I notice on page 4 of Gleanings, a reference to the Kohler process of getting queens purely fertil- ized. I would like to have a full explanation of the process, and your opinion in regard to it. Wm. C. Smith. Warsaw, Mo. Feb. 6th, 1878. The Kohler process was given in the Aug. No. of the A. B. J. for 186S. It is substan- tially, keeping the young queen, with a suffi- cient number of drones. "from flying, until so late in the afternoon that the common drones have all ceased flying. The hive or nucleus is then opened, and a teacupful of warm di- luted honey, poured, a little at a time, direct- ly on the cluster. This sets the workers cra- zy, and very soon the queen, drones and all, sally fortli for a flight. If of the proper age, say from a week to ten days old, the queen is almost invariably fertilized within a half hour or less. The iiive containing the bees, queen and drones, may be placed in a cel- lar, after the queen is 3 or 4 days old, and kept there until the age given above. I am inclined to think the plan has never been much used, because it is too "much machine- ry." You can readily start a young queen out to take her flight, "by simply giving them the warm honey, as you can easily demoii- s tr ate . RABBETS WITH NOTCHES IN THEM. Prof. Cook objects to the metal cornered frames "because they slide about in the hive too easily." it occurs to methat this objection can be entirely ob- viated by cutting small notches in the tin rabbets. These notches, too, would space the frames, so that all would hang at the exact distance apart which might be decided upon. O. Clute. Keokuk, Iowa, Feb. 7th, 1878. Your idea has been very often advanced, but the objection is that we cannot slide the fraines along when we wish. The great advantage of the metal rabbets, is that they allow the frames to be moved easily close up, or apart when handling them. Besides, the notches would prevent the frames hang- ing straight downward, and would not al- low of their being placed at any exact point chosen. I have never been troubled by the frames slipping about, after the bees had been at work long enough to fasten the combs with tlieir slight attachments. Af- ter trying combs fixed at exact distances, for many years, I decidedly prefer them movable at pleasure. 1878, GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 93 FLORIDA; MOVING BEES IN HOT WEATHER, &C. Soon rtftcr we came here, we bought one colony of bees, thinking- to make a "small beg-inning-;" they liad to be moA'ed some distance and were nearly all smothered by the time they landed, but the owner came along- and without our complaining-, said he would bear the loss, as it was too warm, to move beee. We then engag-ed 4 first swarms; they will be ■coming in the latter part of Feb. or beginning- of March, as bees commence swarming here about that time. Bees are very profitable here I think, unless honey comes in very slowly as they work s' me in every month; but I fear the moth will be the great- est trouble. Dragon flies are also very plenty here and our hot sunshine may melt combs down. Would like very much to see an article on Venti- lation adapted to "the South." I think Gleanings greatly improved with its drawings, for you know there is nothing like "pictures" to make one under- stand. Clara Slough. Daytona, Florida, Jan. 18th, '78. The Simplicity hive moved forvrard on its bottom board, will give yon all the ventila- tion yon need, I think. We shi})ped bees last summer, in the very hottest part of the season, in these hives, by tacking v. ire cloth both on the top and bottom, giving them a constant draft thvfAigh the hive. Where v^ire cloth was put only over the top and en- trance of the old style L. hive, the comb melted, and the bees were drowned in liquid honey. Another item in favor of the light plain Simplicity form of L. hives. trials of advertisers. I think I must tell you the result of mj' adverti- sing. I paid you and Newman lf8.20 and sold two swarms of bees. One of them I sent with my horse and wagon P;9a miles, and after 3 days, received a postal saying that I must prepay the freight or they would not be shipped. So I had to send my boy again through the mvd, for muddy it was. and most fearfully so. Considering this, with all the corres- pondence I have had to answer, you may guess how much I made. Albert Potter. Eureka, Wis., Dec. 8th, 1878. You have proven pretty conclusively, friend P., that it does not jiay to advertise bees in the fall ; but if you were to offer them in the spring, after safely wintering them, I think you would make many more sales, even if you cluirged much higlier prices. In the fall of '76 I put up 40 swarms of bees. At the commencement of the honey season of '77, I was reduced to 16 swarms in not very good condition. I considered myself in the company of "Blasted Hopes" but did hate to give up and be placed there, so 1 said nothing rnd let my subscription expire with the .June No. But fortune has favored my ef- forts and frf:m my 16 swarms, I had. at the close of the honey season, 85 swarms in good condition, with 1500 lbs. of extracted, and 100 lbs. comb honey. I found quick sale at frcm 9 to 12c per lb. for the e.x- trncted. L. Webster. Winneconne, Wis., Jan. 14th, 1878. I have been keeping bees for more than 40 years, and have used every hive of any note that has been manufactured, commencing with the patent hives about 1840. at which time I purchased my first indi- vidual right from a Major Koberts, of Kentucky, which hive cost me $.57..50- a bee palace — carpenter's bill, ^50.00— painter and glazier, *2..50, and right *5.00. 1 may safely soy that $2000.(X) is about the amount I have in\ested in patented bee hives. I was then liv- i:ig in Biclnnond, Va., and came to this part of Va. to go into the business largely. I was unfortu- nate in my location and became iather disgusted. A. S. Maddox. Cleek's Mill, Bath Co., Va., Jan. 22d, '78. days. The piece that is capped is a fair sample of all our surplus this year, except that much of it is grained, I think it impossible the bees stole sugar, as we are 2 and 3 miles from any store. Bees worked on peaches consideialily and we had a great deal of honey dew. If you can tell what is wrong please do so. By the way, do bees ever puncture the skin of peaches or grapes? or do they work where other in- sects have commenced? Some peach growers about us set traps and destroy a great many bees because they work on their peaches. From my own observa- tion I fail to catch them breaking the skin, but they hunt round till they find a hole or crack in it. In making your candy with flour, do you use fine flour, or wheat meal, or graham? Would it not be good policy to put in a frame of candy about the last of March to stimulate brood rearing, so as to be ready for apple bloom? W. D. Hinds. Townsend, Mass., Jan. 22d, 1878. It is candied honey, of some kind, without any question. It resembles, when seen in the cells, grape sugar; and it is quite probable that it is a kind of giiqie sug- ar produced by fiiiit, or perhaps by aphides. Several letters received of late, seem to indicate that tliis form of grape sugar, is quite common, during some sea- sons. All honey, it should be remembered, is the greater part of it, grape sugar, and it is this that makes honey candy. The grape sugar of commerce, will often turn solid in 24 hours after tlie bees have placed it in the cells, but this does no harm, for they can use it about as readily one way as the other. I think bees rarely puncture peaches, but I have no doubt they would, if they learned how ; the Italians are quite equal to the task. If your neighbors get an idea the bees are injuring the peaches I would pay them for the damage done, or remove the bees. Such matters can almost always be arranged pleasantly. We have tried different kinds of flour, but prefer the common white flour for candy. The flour candy will start brood rearing at almost any time, and we shall give it a thorough test this spring. In Jan. No. of Gleanings, 1878, page 7, you ask concerning expeiience in wintering with aster hon- ey. We have found that it will always candy very soon, and when granulated after extracting makes a beautiful and very palatable honey. The grains are sometimes so fine that it is soft like butter. It makes poor winter food because there is not time, after gathering, for it to ripen well. Where aster abounds, large amounts of it may be gathered by furnishing empty comb or fdn. to receive it and re- placing full combs of summer honey put away du- ring the aster season. Thus, large amounts of aster honey may be gotten and good wintering secured. •James W. Shearer, Liberty Comer, N. J. I extracted from 7 young swarms last season, .580 lbs. 1 extracted none after Oct. 18th. They gath- ered plenty for winter, after that time. Bees are now bringing pollen. I have, for the last two months, been making hives and transferring from log gums to L. hives. Bees are very rich. I have over ICO more to transfer this winter; our swarming season comes in March and April. R. Devenport. Richland Spring, Texas, Jan. 20th, '78. HONEY THAT CANDIES AS FAST AS GATHERED, AND BEES AND PEACHES. I send you a sample of honey which my bees pro- duced lust season. The sugar was grained in the new comb that is partly filled, when I took it out. and it was built in where I left a vacant place 2 or 3 MARTINS AND BEE MARTINS. Protect the martins that come from the South, they will not harm bees or anything else. They come in spring and leave in the fall. I have three martin houses. There is a bee martin that comes in the spring that does not build in boxes like the other martins, and kills thousands of bees if left alone; they sit on fences and trees near where the bees have their crossing and catch them, and then light on the fence again, and will stay around the apiary the whole season. I frighten them away by shoot- ing at them with powder two or three times "a day. John Boerstler, Gilead, Ills. 94 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Mar. TttlEVES. The thloves had bsen at work at my bees, the first of Nov. I then put halt' of my 30 stocks in cellar, the other 15 I packed with hay in boxes thinking they would be safe in that way. All appeared to be rig-ht for two or three weeks, but one day the bees were flyin? in and out of one box. On examination I found it all open, half the covers gone from some and a half dozen others disturbed more or less. That made me sick; 1 did not know what to do for I did not want to put them all in the cellar after I had been to the trouble and expense to pack them up, S3 I fixed them up, nailed down some of the covers and piled cord wood and lumber on the other, and thought perhaps they would not come again, as they had such bad luck in getting honey; but the next morning as I went to the door I looked out on the yard and, lo ! and hehohl there was a hive lifted out of a box 4 feet high standing on the grass, with half the covers out scattered around; one heavy comb stand- ing beside a tree and indications of a contest with the bees which probably drove them off before they got ready to go. It was a sickening sight to see mj' pets slaughtered in thal^ way after my hard work and anxious watching. I found some frames and cover on a vacant lot a quarter of a mile away. I am satisfied who the thief is but can not get proof, so 1 shall h ive to content myself by fortifying my prem- ises with telegraph wires around and through in ev- ery direction attached to an alarm. They had better get out of the way of the old musket for I shall shoot. N. A. Pbudden. Ana Arbor, Mich., D>c. SJth, 1877. It is really too bad, friend P., and it is hard to imagine ho ^ anybody can be so de- praved; I can not tliink they realize what they are doiiif?. For the good of commnni- ty, and for the sake of setting an example before others, I would advise punishing such offenders, to the full extent of the law, when found out. A tall tight board fence, adjoin- ing your dwelling, will be more efficient than your wires, and will save bees by keeping off the cold winds, as well as thieves. I have 30 colonies, a few of which are pure Italians, 2 blacks and the rest hybrids. We had a poor season, scarcely any natural swarms issuing. The blacks gathered very little honey above their winter sup- plies. My largest yield was 80 lbs. from an old stock of pure Italians, and 15 lbs. from a swarm of Italians. My 3 blacks furnished me "nix." Geo. B. Replogle. Unionville, Iowa, Dec. 17th, 1877. hurrah! for the floating apiary. I am busy fitting out 3 large fiat boats 100 feet long and 23 feet wide for Mr. Perrine & Grabbe, to accom- modate 1000 or more bee hives, to operate on the Mississippi river, leaving here soon after the swarm- ing season is over, in April, and when the first bloom has passed away from the willow and tallow trees, they will move about 200 miles and lay up 10 or 13 days, just as the various blooms may open, up to St. Paul. The running will be done at night. Two large bee boats and a steamboat for towing is rather a costly experiment as well as a novel one. I believe the idea is taken from the ancient Egyptians who floated their bees on rafts on the river Nile. Edward Notlee. New Orleans, La., Jan. 28th, 1878. CAGING LAYING QUEENS. How long can I cage a queen in honey season with- out injury to her, in or out of a colony? I bought 4 colonies last spring in bo.x hives. I divided one in transferring it; the one that had no queen made more honey than any other stand, and it is the heav- iest now. Robert Butler. Lewisville, Fnd., Jan. 30th, 1878. I presume you could cage a queen all sum- mer, without doing her any particular inju- ry, if she were among the bees where they could take care of her. It would be a loss however, for she would better be somewhere, laying eggs. Your queenless colony, prob- ably reared a queen very soon, and that was why it prospered. Caging the queen may sometimes give a temporary increase in hon- ey, but it must be a losing business in the end, if one cares to increase in bees as well as honey. Will the duck you use to cover the frames, answer in place of a "honey board," upon which to place boxes for comb honey? W. N. Trimble. Concord, Mo., Jan. 7th, 1878. It might be so used, but as you would have to cut lioles through it for the bees, it would be spoiled, wliich would make it more expensive than strips of wood. If you must use boxes, put them right on the frames. If you object to that way, make a honey board by nailin^ some long thin strips (such as we use for section boxes) placed i inch apart, to proper cleats at each end. This will be light, and will allow the bees to get very close to the brood. Would you not better adopt the section boxes, letting the bottom bars of the 2 inch frames that hold them, form the honey board when the boxes are on, and the en- tire sheet of duck, the covering for frames when they are off V COMBS crosswise. I commenced bee-keeping last season, procuring two swarms of blacks and patting them in common box hives with movable frames. Aug. 16th, one hive sent out a swarm, which speedily tilled their new home, but to my dismay, instead of following the comb guides the^' built right across them so that 1 am unable to get in to see what they are about. Can you tell me the cause of their doing thus? and what am I to do about it? H. M. T.vylor. Parsons, Kan., Jan. 25th, 1878. You should always watch a new swarm when put into an empty hive, my friend, and not let them build cross vise. Had you given them a couple of good combs for a pattern, they would probably have gone all right, or had you simply elevated the back end of the hive, it would most likely have started them straight. If vve tind a swarm going wrong, we can tvist the combs right with the lingers, in a very f e v minutes ; as it is, you have a job of transferring on hand. If you cannot get out one comb in tolerable shape, cut along the sides with your honey knife, and then turn the hive over on the top of another one. Lift the hive from the frames, and you can then easily cut out the combs and put them in straight. After you have finished, you will probably conclude it is the best way, to make the bees build them right in the first place. putting AN upper STORY ON "PATENT HIVES." I have 8 hybrid swarms, 5 in Buckeye hives, the other 3 in Hazen's Non-Swarmers. Do you think it would pay me to get the 3-story Simplicity or chaff hive? I*have to winter on the summer stand. I got but about 60 lbs. from the Non-Swarmers. From the Buckeyes 0. If I would take off the top of the B. hive, I could probably fix on an upper story Sim- plicity hive (with section boxes) so as to answer tol- erably well. It would of course be a troublesome job and no very tight fit. Henry Keller. Wrightsville, Pa., Feb. 6th, 1878. I do not know that eitlier the Simplicity or chaff hive, would give you any more hon- ey than those you have, so far as the hives are concerned, but they are so much simpler to manage, you would" probably take better care of your bees. I have tried putting up- per stories on odd sliaped hives, but think it less trouble in the end, to transfer them. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 95 ur %€m(ii- Therefore, if ttou bring- Ihy^tt to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought ag-ainst thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.— Matt. 5; 23, 24. f;HERE is one portion of the text above, that I \%ould call attention to; it does — ■ not say, if you remember you have ought against your brother, but it says, "if thy brother hath ought against thee." A pleasant letter from one of our readers, speaking of the Home papers, contains the following: I can't deal with men as you want me to do. [f a man deals honestly with me, I'll do the same by him, and with eA'erytody, but if a man willfully cheats me out of my just rights and 1 can by any means get back what is rightfully my own, I'll rto if, but 1 want no more from him than is my own. If one man cheats me, I will not cheat another to make it up. If a man hits me on one cheek, I'll give him one on Ms if I can. 1 know you try to teach a diflerent spirit from that, but I can't agree with you there. As the writer is a jolly good natured sort i)t a fellow, I presume he gets along very well vvith his code of morals, more es- pecially, as he is generous and liberal heart- ed. We will suppose that he is so fair, in all his dealings, that he could be trusted to take just what is right, and no more; are you sure his neighbors would all agree with him in respect, of what is right? of course they woidd not, and then, the thing for them to do, is to watch for an opportunity, and fix it according to their ideas of w hat "it should be. Our friend might take the very common attitude, saying, "All right! let them drive on; they are welcome to all they can get. The one that gets ahead the farthest, is the best fellow." This state of affairs does very well for iiwhile, but the narrow line between sharp dealing and downright theft is soon ap- proached, and pretty soon one party steals— they always call it by some softer name, at such times — from the other. Perhaps it is in such shape that you can not well prove it, and therefore the only way you have left, is to steal back. iSoon somebody gets into a lawsuit, and very likely into jail. Worse than all, many times the one who is least guilty, gets into jail. The reason is, that the officers of the law, are often of that class who hate those who hate them, and love those who love them, as we had it in our text last month. If the offender has, at some time, done them a service, they screen him, but if he has wronged them in some way, in times past, he is now in their power, and they can easily make matters "square." Do you say that a man ought to be ashamed of himself, who would thus abuse his priv- ileges and station? Perliaps he would not state it in quite that light. Put it this way; "I am sin-e that man is a bad man, from the way he treated me w hen w e had that trouble yeai-s ago, and I believe it is right, and my -er or some connecting link between our humble selves and the great pui-poses of the creation of the universe. A brother of mine says this is nothing but plain common sense; that anybody ^vill be happy \'. Iio goes to \\ ork unselfishly for the good of mankind. Then why do you not do it? My sceptical friend in jail, admits that the work of civilizing and educating barbar- ians, has almost all been done by Christian people, and says he does not understand why it is. He says farther, that he thinks it quite likely th{\t they ^' ould never make much progress had they not some univers- ally recognized standard, some flag that they might all rally round, or some solid rock which could not be swayed by the conflict of differing opinions. At our last Bible class in jail, a man who has just this very morning gone to tlie pen- itentiary for an attempt to marder, inter- rupted by asking what I thought about eternal pimishment. I told him it was something beyond my comprehension, but that I was willing to trust God to make it all right. He said he did not think it all right by considerable. As the lesson clos- ed, I had a few words with each individu- ally, and as I came to him, I asked him if he could not, in his o^'^n mind, form some idea of what God ought to do, to be just to him, and to every one else. He said he thought he could. "Will you not consent to abide by the decision of a God who is just and impartial? one who is exactly as ymi know he ought to be?" My prayer had been answered ; the sim- ple question placed him before God, not be- fore myself, and it placed him before the God he had himself acknov ledged. In other V ords, the man saw himself as God saw him. I was out of the question, and as he spoke quietly and low. as he gave me his hand, with a softtned look in his eyes, I felt that this poor brother in jail, \^ith the stain of murder on his soul, \^as perhaps nearer the gates of heaven, than some o ho proudly })rochum their good moral lives, a.nd their indilference to a hereafter almiist in the same breath. Your ideas of God may not be like mine, but willj'ou submit, and obey God just as you think he should be? It you have com- mitted murder in your heart, w ill you say. give me the punishment that I deser\e but let not the laws God has established lor the good of the universe, be suspended? Can you say, "thy v- ill be done.'' and commence the long V eary years of servitude as has oui- friend, because you know it is just that you should? SUMFI.IOTV HIVES, IINTKOIJICING Ql^EENS, &€. M S our pets are hiid awaj, for their winter nap, >CTV ^ conclude to give you a beginner's experience ^^j for tlie season. We (my "major half" and I), commenced in the spring- with 17 colonies, and in- creased to o'~, 13 of which were natujal swarms and 2 artificial. Two others took French lea^e. Seeing so nuich in Gleanings about sections and Simplicity hives, we concluded to send for one to try them. We put a first swaim into it and took 85 lbs. of hen- ry from that one; others no doubt have done better, yet we are very well satisfied wiih that, even if the hive did cost ST.65 before it resched home: and we think for comb honey there is nothing like sections, with starters, and tin separators. We have taken lOGO lbs. of comb honey, and intend to Italianize next season. We sent after two, dollar queens, and what a time G. G. had trying to introduce them. We took the old queens from two hives (caging them for reserve), GLEANINGS m BEE CULTURE. Mar. but they died; we gave those received from you, on- ly to be' slain. They built queen cells, concluding, as 1 suppose, to raise their own, but G. G., not willing to let them have it all their own way, sent again for a queen, and through some mistake it was mailed to Pana, instead of ( )w;iii( eo as ordered. This made so much delay that ihey hatched queens. Then came the tug of war. G. G. with bee hat and smoker In hand, prapaicd to catch her majesty. He took out one frame after another, carefully examining each side until all were removed, then back again with the same care; then he tried shaking them off on a sheet, placing the cap on it for them to cluster un- der. By this time the robbers gathered round so thickly he had to close the hive and leave it for awhile. Part of the bees went in and a part re- mained very contentedly under the ci)ver; so, think- ing that the queen was in the box, he gave them some frames of sealed honey, supposing there would be no farther trouble in introducing your queen. He waited for them to start queen cells, but they would not. Upon examining them again, he found them paying their respects to— I don't know what to call it, it was not a bug — it did not look like a bee; we wished Novice ano faculty would name it. Next morning they had started queen cells and tinally she was liliciatcd to attend to her maternal duties. If C(in\ enicnt, please State in somefutiire number of Gleanings, what would be your plan for the speediest and safest mode of increase, and you will oblige the "minor half" of G. G. Large. Millersville, Ills., Dec. 20th, 1878. I think it must have been of one the qneer half queen, and half worker bees ve have mentioned heretofore, that you found. Your experience introducing, is like that of a great many other beginners, and perhaps some veterans, now and then. You have done nicely, so far as honey is concerned, and you can scarcely hope to do as well ev- ery year. I shall have to refer you my friend, to the ABC book, for information on artiticial in- crease, it would be wronging our old sub- scribers, to go over the same matter again. This answer will apply to a great number of other queries of similar nature. ONE KUI^DRED COLDNfES mi ITALIAN mm m ehsap, Queens all bred from Imported mother. QUEENS AND HONEY IN SEASON. Send for circular. Address C. C. VAUGHAN, 3-Sd Columbia, Tenn. mmm mmi uMmmm, MANUFACTURERS OF SUPERIOR DOUBLE REFINED GRAPE AND MALT SUGAR, CRYSTAL GLUCOSE SRTUP. Sup>erior Double Refined Grape Sugar for feeding bees, at S'/ic per lb. in barrels of 375 lbs., and 4c in boxes of 50 or 110 lbs. Crystal Glucose Syrup 5c per lb., by the barrel. Samples of the Grape Sugar will be sent prepaid, by Express, on receipt of 10 cents. 11-ly LOUIS P. BEST, Sup't, Davenport, Iowa. We will furnish the above delivered on the cars here in Medina, at V, cent in advance of the above prices. Or we will have it shipped from the factory, at factors- prices. Any amount less than 50 lbs., will be 5c per lb. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. HAVING more Bees than I can well attend to, I will sell about 100 nucleus colonies. Two frame nuclcvis with pure Italian Queen, from the 1st of April to .lune I'rth, 1^4.00, and each additional frame of comb and bees 50 cts. extra. No orders attended to after June 15th. Safe arrival guaranteed. 3 JULIUS HOFFMAN, Fort Plain, Mont. Co., N. Y. ROSES. SEEDS. The Garden. Ki^ht beautiful Eve r-b loom i n g- It OSes. re:idy lor immediate flowering, and ! •• 'S'be (Jj«r«ieii," lor one year, sent post- | paid, by mail, on receipt ot $iM). 25 THrletics of I Choicest Flower [ Seetis, and " The Oarden," sent post- paid, by mail, on receipt of Sl.OO. The Garden is | an elegant quar- terly Magazine, devoted to tke culture of I Flowers and Vegetables. It is printed on ' line book paper, profusely illustrated, and | contains a splendid Colored Plate of Flowers. Pi-ice, 25 cents a year, and 25 cents j worth of Seeds free. ^pleudidly Illustrated Cata- logue of Flowers and Vegetable Seeds and Plants for a 3 cent stamp. Special Price 1-ist to Market Gar- deners tree. Wlxtlesale Catalog^ne to dealers, on | application. Address: Benj. A. Elliott «& Oo. 114 Market St.. Pittsburgh, Pa. ee¥ET£ELED SECTION HONEY BOXES. IN THE FLAT, PRICE PER 1000 BOXES. Any dimension not exceeding 2x5x5 $10 00 The above is 50 cubic inches, for larger sizes add 10c per ]((0 for each additit nal cubic inch, outside measure. Extra price for less than 500. Just right to fit in L. frames 2x414x414 |9 50 If the grooves for holding the fdn. is omitted 25c less per 1000. Broad L. frames to hold 8 sections, per 100, in the flat $4 00 The above are made like all wood frames; if sec- tions wanted in the flat without dovetailing, per lOOO, $1.00 less. Sample boxes bv mail 5c. SMITH & BUELL, Manufacturers. Union City, Bianch Co., Mich. CAITADA. Ontario Bee-Keepers and others intending to pur- chase Foundation or Foundation Machines, Hives. Section Boxes, &c., will do well to hear from me, be- fore purchasing elsewhere. H. TENCH, 3-4 Pottageville, Ontario, Canada. One swarm, 18.00, five or more, $7.00 each; all in 8 frame L. hives. Are to be sold between April 1st, and May 10th, '78. 3 ALBERT POTTER, Eureka, Wis. Queens Wanted, And Queens For Sale. I will pay Sl.OO for all the Italian queens any of our Southern friends may find it convenient to send me during the month of May. These same fjueens, I shall sell for -SI. 50; you are to guarantee safe deliv- ery, and I shall ito the same, but nothing farther. I have made this arrangement to answer the great number of (luestions in regard to buying and selling early ijueens. In June, I will pay 90c, and sell for f 1.25; after July 1st, 75e, and sell for $1.00. A. 1. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. LANGSTROTH FKAMES AND SECTION Htmev Boxes cut ready to nail li r j;6,50 to $UM per K;00. Also Honey Extractors. 2-od Address, R. R. MURPHY, Gaiden Plain, lU. 1878. GLE^V^mGS m BEE CULTURE. 103 IMFEEMENTS FOR EEE CULTUHE AI.FHABETICAL1.Y AKKANGED. For description of the various articles see our Twelfth Edition Circular aiid Price List found in Jan. No., Vol. VI., or mailed on application. For directions How to Make all these various arti- cles and implements, see A B C of Bee Culture. This Price List to be taken in place of those of former date. Mailable ai-ticles are designated in the left hand column of figures ; the figures giving the amount of postage rcQuirod. Canada postage on merchandise is limited to S%, oz., and nothing can be sent for less than 10 cents. See A B C, $ 10 16 I Alighting Boai-d, detachable. I Part First I Basswood trees for planting, for prices see 1 Prioe List I Balanees, spring, for suspended hive (60 lbs.) 8 00 I Barrels for honey 3 50 " " waxed and painted... . 3 50 . 1 Bees, per colony, f ix)m f 7 to $16, for partic- I ulars see price list 10 I Bee-Hunting bort. La. 104 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. April "^^s TABLE OF PREMIUITIS. The first column is for those only, », § who send 5 or more names. oS Names of Premium Articles. ^ ^ Any of them sent post-paid on rec'pt of price. 1—A B C of Bee Cultwre. Part First 25 2 — Lith^raph of Aniary, Implements, etc. 25 3 — Photofirnph of Itouse Apiary 25 4 — '■^That Present,^'' Novice and BUie Eyes 25 f>— Emerson's Binder for Glean ings, ■will hold 3 Volumes 5f K — " •' better quality 60 7 — P icket Magnifying C/lass 60 f<— First or second Volw»w of GhEAyitiGS.. 15 i)—Best quality Einerson's Binder for Gleanings 75 \erienoe in Bee -Keeping and Queen breeding. Satisfaction guaranteed or money refunded. Send for prices. Eggs and chicks from high class land and water fowls. 3-7 VALENTINE & SON, Carlinville, Ills. ITALIAN QUEENS. All bred from imported mothers of my own im- poriation. Dollar queens, .$1,00; ready in April. Tested queens liefore June 1st, $.3,00; after, $3,.50. Full colonies of Italians from .$7,00 to *10,(X). Two frame nucleus with tested queen, befn-e June 1st, $5.00. after, $4.50. Comb Foundation, Bee-Keepers' supplies., &c. 2-7d PAUL L. VIALLON, Bayou Goula, La. We are headquarters for Italian Queen Bees. Our sales average double those of anv other dealer. Have had 16 j^ear's experience. Send for price list of Queens, Section Boxes or other kinds; fanc.y Crates, Hives, and Bee-Keepei-'s supplir's generally. 4d H. ALLEY, Wcnham, Mass- l>I3VOTE:r> TO BE^Ei!^ A.NX> MOISEY, AIVI> K0»£E: INTERJEST^. Vol. VI. APRIL 1, 1878. No. 4. A. I. RO«t>T, ~) Publisljed MoMlhly. ("ffKESITSS: $l.UO Per Anniiist in A*- Pubtisher and Proprietor, > -J vaiic«; 3 Copies /or »2.50; 5/or S3. 75 ; Medina, O. j ESstaljlislaecl in 1H73. (.lO or more, 60c. each. Single ISnmber 1 Oc. MY EXPERIENCE. NO. 4. TRANSFERRING. SI HAD never seen bees transferred, and I confess, I rather dreaded the job. I had lately had a talk J with a "bee man," and his "opening' remarks," were not very encouraging-. He said the bees would run all over, the honey would drip from the combs and stand here and there in puddles, the combs would be thick and crooked, and before the job was finished 1 would be completely discouraged. After talking a while in this strain, he made the following encourag- ing remark: "I'll comedown and transfer your bees for $.5.00." "Oh ho!"thought I, "and so that is why you have been talking in this doleful strain; I'll transfer my own bees now, if for nothing more than to show you I fan; and, after all, if I am going to handle bees, whv not commence nowT' May 14th, I transferred my bees. Sugar Maple was in blossom, and the yield of honey was quite Inrge. If I had waited until fruit trees were in bloom, I do not think it would have been so well, as there was but little honey gathered at that time. About 10 o'clock, on a pleasant day, I tried to drive the bees from a hive into a box, but did not succeed. T presume I did not drum long enough. After drum- ming a few minutes, and finding they were not in- clined to leave their home, I carried them into the kitchen, and set them, bottom side up, upon the ta- ble. I then put a box, about 7 inches deep, 6 inches wide, and long enough to reach across the hive, on the top of the hive, on the opposite side from which I wished to commence taking out combs. I kept them down among the combs with smoke, cut the combs— by running down a hand-saw— from the side that I wished to remove first, sawed off the cross sticks, and pried off the side of the hivo. Whenever the bees would show themselves I drove them down with smoke, always drivinsrthem towards the small box that spt on top of the hive. After prying off the side, T commenced cutting out the combs, and piit- ting them into the frames. I fastened them in with thorns, using strings when It was necessary. After I had one or two frames in the hive, I had my wife brush the bees from the combs, at the entrance of the hive, as I ttok them out. By the time I had ta- ker- out all the combs, most of the bees were cluster- ed in the small box. One swarm was so large that it hung down from the box as a swarm does from the limb of a tree. When the combs were all in, I closed the hive, spread a newspaper in front of it. shook the bees from the box upon it, and directed them to the entrance with a quill, managing them just as I would a new swarm. After the new hive was placed upon its stand, the windows were opened, and the bees that clustered upon them were driven out. While I was transferring the first swarm, I was considerably excited; I worked as though my life de- pended on it, and the perspiration dropped down in small showers. When I commenced upon the second colony, I resolved to take matters a little more cool- ly; and, to my delight, I found that it occupied about half as much time as the first one. To transfer a col- ony now, would be nothing but fun. SHADE, I think a grape vine shade, as described in the A B C of bee culture, is the nicest an d most Profita- ble; but as 1 had neilher time nor money to make such a shade, I will tell j-ou what I did do. I plant- ed a row of sunflowers, a foot from the south side of each hive. When ihcy were about a foot high they were thinned out, leaving three, eighteen inch- es apart, in each row. This gave ample shade; and the "clouded" hives, with their different colored caps, nestling among the green leaves and yellovr blossoms, made a very pretty picture. W. Z. Hutchinson. Rogersville, Genesee Co.. Mich. Y'ou did a very wisethinaj when you trans- ferred your own bees, and I am inclined tx> think 'i great many of our new beginners would come out all right if they would only push ahead just as you did. Your plan is exactly what I would have recommended, only I would leave the hive near its summer stand, moving it perhaps a yard backward. I would never try to drum the bees; pry open the hive and go to work, and you will have them transferred, bees and all, almost as quickly as you could drum them out. Be careful about depending much upon strings, for the bees sometimes bite them olf before they have fastened the combs. Strips of wood, wires, or the transferring clasps, are, I think, safer. The sunflowers do very well^ but they are not as substantial, and do not bear grapes. It is true, tliey bear some hon- ey, and the mammoth Russian, has been considerably talked of as a honey plant; a sunflower a])iary, would be rather a pretty sight, would it iiotV ^ lOi w PUTTING A CIKC^JLAR SAW IN OKCKK. S]Sr my directions for putting circular saws in order, I forgot to say that the teelli, — ■ must all be made of exactly the same length. To do this, and to keep them so, you must have your saw fit the mandrel cx- acth/, and must, when putting it on the man- drel, always observe to put it on in the same position. To insure this, you will need a mark on the saw, and a corresponding one on the mandrel. Tut your saw on just as you want it, and then screw the table up so high, that the table will just clear the teeth. Lay a piece of emery wheel— a whole onf^ will do — on the table right over the saw, and gently screw down the table until the points of the teeth begin to be cut. Stop at inter- vals and see how you get along ; when the points of the shortest teeth are just touched, you are to stop. Now file it as directed, and 100 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. April be sure you i)ut it on the same way every time when the saw is used. HOU^ MHJCH DOES IT TAKE TO WIN- TER bees; ^^ffJAY 1st, 1877, I had 20 colonies, and increased to iw!^\ •**'• The tirst of the season was very poor; un- s/i!^ til the middle of June bees did not g-ather half the honey they ate; little was gathered before July 15th, when linden beg:an to bloom and from that time, the season was good. I extracted 1750 lbs. and took 34 lbs. box honey from one colony. 1 bought 4 colo- nies in Oct. and "wintered them in a cellar made in a side hill. The cellar was 8x14 ft. and 7 ft. high. I put my my bees in the cellar Nov. 28th, taking them out two days in Dec. for a tly. I took them out March 7th, all in good order except two. One died and one (lueenless stock swarmed out the tirst daj' after ta- king them out of the cellar. 1 weighed each hive when tirst put into the cellar, and when taken out in March. The following is the shrinkage. 1 lost 10 lbs. 1 4 ' 11 ' 13 4 ' ' 1254 1 ' V2U 5 ' 13 1 ' 1314 5 ' i3;'2 11 ' 14 each 1 lo St 14 Vi a ' i4y2 3 ' 15 1 ' 1514 5 ' 16 1 ' 1714 2 ' 201/2 lbs. Average shrikage about 14 lbs. per colony for 100 days in cellar. The entrances were open 5 by Vj in. covers laised % inch at one end for the escape of moisture. Temperature from 42^ to 4(5^— cellar %-en- tilated at bottom and top. My strongest colony lost but 12 lbs. while in the cellar. How is this, Novice? There aie some black bee-keepers living 3 miles from me, and one of them has some pure Italians; some are two banded, some 2;4, some 3, some 3!4 and 4 banded (so he says). A good place to get a new kind of bee, but don't let N. C. Mitchell know of them. One bee-keeper thinks the Italians will starve the black bees out. He saw my Italians round his bee pasture and sayS that his bees were driven off the flowers by the Italians, they taking the honey. A good recommed for Italians is it not V" W. A. Eddy. Easton, Wisconsin March, Ilth, 1878. The above result is just about as the gen- eral average seems to run, and I have not been able to discover that the chaff packed colonies wintered on their summer stands, consume any more than those wintered in cellars, as a general rule. L. C. Root has given some reports in the Am. Agricidhirist, that seem to show a great advantage in this respect in favor of cellar wintering, but I think taking the winter and spring throu, we shall find very little difference. Colonies in thin hives, with but a thin protection over them, often consume enormously, as I have carefully demonstrated ; but we agree, now, I believe^ that this is not the way to winter bees. Why there should be a difference of as much as 10 lbs, in colonies of almost equal strength, is something that I think has nev- er been fully explained. There is a vast difference in the amount consumed by dif- ferent stocks, whether in-doors or out. The report that Italians chase black bees away from the flowers, etc., is current in our own vicinity, among those not conversant with bees. SOI■ "AUTOMATIC" SWARmiNG. another step. ^ BEGAN the winter with 31 hives of bees on their Jsji summer stands. Have sold'3, and to-day, March ?s 8th, have 29 stands in good condition. Th£y are bringing in pollen to-day. As I have stated before, 1 never had a swarm of bees abscond. Now 1 will give you (what I think) the reason. 1 have generally had, in the spring of the year, from 5 to 10 hives in the apiary, full of empty combs that 1 left on their usual summer stands so that the bees could have ac- cess to them at all times. Now don't be too fast and say the moth miller will eat up your combs. No danger in the fore part of the season ; the bees will take care of that. Now, some 8 or 10 days before the bees swarm they will go to work in earnest cleaning out the old combs making readj' to move in as soon as their sovereign says go. I am always on hand when the bets swarm, in person or by proxy, to hive them immediately, and they always stay, whether put in the hive they have prepared or in some other. You see they have selected their residence in the apiary and in the apiary they are going to stay. I believe bees select a home before they swarm. Friend Martin is right ; we can have hives fixed so as to catch absconding swarms. In fixing them, don't omit the comb because comb is an important factor with bees. I'll try the plan this season if I induce some of my own bees to leave the apiary. A. F. CONAWAY. Mannington, West Va., March, 8th, '78. It is a well known fact that bee trees where bees have once built comb, are very sure to be appropriated by new swarms ; and hives properly arranged, I think, will be chosen and occupied much in the same way, if we can only study up all the conditions. GRAPE (CORN, OR POTATO) SUGAR. eRAPE sugar, so called, has been extensively 1 used by the wine makers in the lake Erie grape ^ „ growing district for some years, to supply the deficiency in saccharine matter in grapes grown in such a cold climate; some of them, until very recent- ly, importing it in large quantities from Germany. But now it is made here cheaper and of better quali- ty than the imported. Learning through Glean- ings the existence of the Davenport factory, we im- mediately ordered some from them and found the quality better than any samples that we had ever seen. My experience in feeding grape sugar to bees has beeii the reverse of that reported by friend Shaw, and we must not be hasty in deciding anj'thing posi- tively about it. For the first time since I have kept bees here — ten years, they failed last fall to lay up a good winter supply of honej' from golden rod and other wild flowers. Late in the season I found many colonies with a very scanty supply. I united a num- ber of the most deficient with others that had more, and gave all a good supply of grape sugar on top the frames— filling all the old hats 1 could find with it and inverting them over the cluster, covering well with quilts and cloths. I was in hopes that they 110 GLEAKIKGS m BEE CULTURE. April, would get through, but a number died of starvaticm with plenty of grape sugar left on the frames. All those that had us"d up their honey died. In all cases they had used some of the grape sugar, while those that had ?ome honey left were alive and had not used any of the grape sugar. Two hives that were entirely out of honey I fed by dissolving grape sugar with about one-f mirth honey and filling empty combs with it. They r.re alive and doing well. 1 have re- cently, taking advantage of the mild weather, fed all my remaining hives the same way — giving each from 0 to "i") pounds. This grape sugar or glucose will no doubt, on ac- r-oiint of its low price comparatively, and its pecu- liar adaptation to the purpose, be e.Ttensivel.v used in feeding bees, both for spring stimulating and for vviutering, and I have no doubt that it will be used for other purposes not quite as commendable. With glucose, that will not harden, at .5c per lb. and comb fdii. at 50c per lb., we may expect to hear of larger yields of comb honey next season than ever heard of before. For how easy it will be to have this cheap artificial comb filled with cheap artificial honey, of any tlavor that you may like, in quantities limited only by the capacity of the bees for carrying it in and sealing it up? Truly we may expect the price of comb honey to come down — if not to .5c per lb., somewhTe approximating to it. Most people think that wlieu honey is put into the comb and sealed up by the bees it is positive evidence of its being pure honey from the flowers. But this is a delusion and I would reluctantly dis- pel it, for it would be a consolation to know that there i? one thing that we can get pure and unadul- terated. It has been known by many bee-keepers that bees will store and seal up such sweets as are fed to them, and I have but little doubt that some of our repKjrted great yields of comb honey has been produced in that way, but, for the want of a gootl cheap f ' f^d, which glucose now supplies, it has not been expensively practiced. In imagination, I already hear you protest that this would be deception — wrong, very wrong, and I agree with you, but I fear that there will be many a v/eak brother who will not be able to resist the temptation. I see from Gleanings that some wiseacre in Eng- land has been analj'ziiig Yankee honey and found it to contain glucose or grape sugar. I wonder if he ever analyzed honey gathered from the flowers? And if he has, did he find no grape sugar in it? The saccharine principle of honey is essentially ffrapi: ougar as distinguished from ffmc sugar. We had in an early volume of the A. B. J., when under the management ofithe late Mr. Wagner, a very exhaust- ive analysis of honey by a German chemist, and glu- cose or grape sugar was given as one of the promi- nent constituents of pure honey.* I made a syrup of two parts grape sugar and one part light brown sugar, which we have been using nil winter, and we all like it better than any molas- ses we can buy, and find it a good substitute for hon- '^y. We find it healthy, not producing biliousness like molasses. It does not harden— whether the brown sugar put in it prevents it, or whether it is so good that we don't keep it long enough, I am not able to say. The grape sugar and honey mixed, that 1 am using to feed bees upon, is better than buck- wheat or golden rod honey, or any that I ever ate unless it be clover or bass wood. March 2d. 1878. Thaddeus Smith. Pelee Island, Lake Erie, Ontario. According to the statement given on page 43 of the first volume of the A. B. J., honey is ])rincipally grape' sugar, and I think the matter has long been recognized ; but the glucose that has been used for adulterating coney, is probably so impure, thfit a chem- ist could detect the spurious addition read- ily. A few days ago a sample ot'honey in glHss jars«\as sent me. The jar contained ;■, very nice piece of comb, in liquid honey. The label bore tlie name of C. O. Peirine. The wliole outfit, looked beautiful, and ^Such is my recollection of it. As you have the A. B. J. bound with index, I would like for you to refer to it — and confirm or correct nie— it may bo a matter of some importance to know whether honey adulterated with glucose can be detected by analysis. somewhat to my surprise, as it was sent me to taste, I think it tasted beautifully, if I may be allowed the expression. If I had purchased the honey, I am sure I should have been well satisfied with it. although the contents of the comb, were different from the liquid portion, and none of it was crys- tixlized. This was by no means a proof that all was not pure honey, but whether it was or not, I should pronounce it both good and wholesome. A pure article of glucose, is ex- cellent food, and we would like it just as well as honey, did it not lack the flavor of the flowers. * While I really think strong bass wood hon- ey is improved for table use by being mixed with the finest quality of glucose, I would under no circumstances, approve selling it as honey. If the jars are labeled honey and glucose, and people are willing to buy it un- der that name, I see no possible harm in it. Perhaps the better way would be to buy the two separately and mix them yourself, ac- cording to taste. I think the manufacture of both glucose and grape sugar one of the im- proved industries of the age, Botwithstand- ing some of the sensational newspaper re- ports in regard to the matter ; but it certain- ly should come out into broad day light, and not be marked and sold under an assumed name. If carefully freed from all trace of sulphuric acid and other chemicals used in its manufacture, as done by our first class factories, it is, I am sure, just as wholesome as honey. Call things by their right names, and no one will be harmed. STINGS, GI^OTES, AND Sl^OKERS. fN reply to your statement on postal card that you furnish rubber gloves "under protest," I will • grive you a short sketch of my experience in bee- keeping, to justify me in wearing them. I have been keeping bees about five years and have at pres- ent 16 colonies of Italians in good condition. Previ- ous to Sept. 'T6, 1 used no protection on my hands, although they were, occasionally, nearly double their usual size from the effects of stings; thus showing that the poison effects me more than most others. In Sept. '76, I purchased my first Italian queens. They arrived late in the evening, by mail, and as I was under the imprtssion that they should be intro- duced immediately, I took them home, and having no experience, had some difficulty in getting them into their cages. As it was then getting dark, I con- cluded to put both queens into one hive until next morning: I opened one of the hives (the black queens having been removed in the morning) and put the queens in. As soon as the cages touched the bees they made a "zeep" and in less time than it takes to write it, the cages were black with bees running up the wire which I had in my hand and attached to the cage, also flying in my face and stinging fearfully wherever they came in contact with my face and hands, I however succeeded in getting them closed up in "bee smashing" style^and went to the house wishing I had never seen a bee. As I felt rather sick, I seated myself and asked my wife to bring in a pitcher of fresh water. By the time she came in I had fainted, my face, as she said, presenting a very unnatural appearance. She gave a few shrieks and also fainted. Our daughter being in the parlor with some lady friends." of course came out "double quick" and you can imagine what a flur- ry this created. Well, I woke up, as I thought, and you can imagine my surprise when I saw our family physician in the room and some 8 or 10 women in the sitting room and kitchen with ammonia and cam- phor bottles. I asked the physician what all this meant, and he said i had fainted. I told him I tho't not, that r never fainted before, but had probably fallen asleep, and rubbing my hand over my brow 1 found drops of perspiration — well, not quite as large as a ten cent piece, i concluded he was about right. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Ill My wife aBd daughter both made me promise to get rubber gloves and a good bee veil, or sell the bees; and as I could not think of selling them I was led in- to making this promise, (as it were) "by the ear." What say you, keep my promise or not? Samuel Dillman. New Holland, Pa., March 11th, '78. Not only you, but others, my friend, do a most foolish thing, in attempting to open a colony of bees under such circumstances, without having- your smoker in readiness to give them a puff, the very instant the frames are uncovered. You had them fully aroused by removing their queen, had let them stand with the quilt off very likely, and then just at dusk, the very worst time in the whole 24 hours, you opened the hive with nothing to drive them back, and ventured to lay in the cages, which they would be sure to construe as the most unpardonable insult. The mo- ment you heard that "zeep, zeep," you should have "made" out of sight in double quick, and gone for smoke. No wonder you fainted ; the worst part of it is, that we have accounts of similar mishaps, in our let- ters every few days. If you have no mercy on yourselves, my friends, do please have mercy on the little workers who throw away their poor little lives by dozens in every such encounter. Worse than that, they are so stirred up, and roused to fury, that they will probably be a terror to everybody, for a month afterward. Friend Bingham," if I do not stop, I shall be accused of advertising your smokers, but I am surely not adver- tising gloves, for I cannot see that a veil or gloves either, are needed at all, for such an occasion. When robbers are troublesome, I think a veil a convenience, but I should never want one for opening a hive when the smoker would enable me to be perfect mas- ter of the whole colony. A roll of rags or a smoking chunk of rotten wood, would an- swer almost as well, if you have no smoker. I thought, when I commenced the article, we should have, finally, one favorable report from gloves in actual use, but it seems we have none yet. If you are careful, and nev- er let the bees get the upper hands, there is hardly a necessity of getting a sting on the hands, once in a month, for bees are almost always in a demoralized condition, when they will sting the naked hands, unless they are pinched. Bear in mind, also, that a col- ony that has just been deprived of its queen, or that has started queen cells, is very much more disposed to make such furious attacks, as have just been mentioned. BARNE'S HAND CIKCUI^AR RIP SAW. e,NE of the above machines was sent us ) to try, about a month ago, and we have ~"' used it daily, first by hand and lately, by power. The machine is all of iron, and not particularly well finished, as in fact it could not well be, at so low a price. But the saAv, and the saw mandrel, the most vital points, are excellent. The most beautiful feature of the machine is that the saw, man- drel, and balance wheel, slide all together, on planed ways, something like a lathe ; this part of the mchine is made to work so nicely that you can set the saw to cut any width, without turning a single screw or bolt, yet it is made fast where wanted, in less than one second. HAND CIRCULAR RIP SAW. To rip a board, you have only to set your saw where you want it, put the end between the feed rolls, as in a planer, and tiu-n by the crank F. If the board is very hard, or 2 inches or more in thickness, you can get a greater purchase— but with less speed — by turning by the crank E. One thing that as- tonishes me about this machine is that it matters not whether you turn fast or slow- ly. It is, in fact, just like having a hand saw in a circular form., so that there is no drawing back to it, but it is all pushing ahead. As the rolls draw the stuff along, it matters not if the board have uneven edges, for the saw will take a straight line through it, just in the direction it is started. The foot power saws are excellent for inch stuff, but cutting stuff as thick as two inches, such as we use for section boxes, by foot power is rather laborious, unless the number of boxes wanted is but few, such as a moderate bee- keeper might need for his own use. With the above machine, it is quite an easy task to rip out 2 inch pine, but the large saw — 10 inches — leaves the stuff rather too rough, unless it is planed afterward, which it ;;1- ways should be, for really nice work. To show you how convenient these ma- chines are, 1 will describe the way we are making packing boxes for fdn. "The foot power saw, and hand ripper are placed side by side, both running by power. From our pile of cull lumber, that costs SIO. per M. (by the way the i)rincipal fault with this cull lumber is the worm holes which do not in- jure it at all, for packing boxes, crating, and a great many other piu'poses) we take boards and cut them in two in the middle, that they may be easier handled. They are then put through the hand ripper, and sized to 12i for our largest sheets, or 8i, for the L. frame sheets. Tliey are then taken to the cut off table again, and cut off 181, and lOI, respectively. They are now taken to a split- 112 GLEANINGS I:N^ BEE CULTURE. Apbil ting saw, and each board is split into two pieces; or for very light packages, say 3 or 5 lbs., they are cut into three pieces each. Af- ter splitting, they are all put through the Lilliputian^planer and made smooth, and of an even thickness. They are now turned over to the boys in the wax room, for we have a wax room now, where there is noth- ing but wax and fdn., and one Of the boards is placed under the pile of sheets, which may be 3, 5. 10 or 25 lbs., then when the sheets of paper are put between all the sheets of wax, the boards are pressed down and a piece of the same stuff is put on for ends. The box is. tinished with three six- teenths stuff. This makes a strong cheap box. and it is always an exact fit. for the quantity of fdn. ordered. The lumber costs but Ac, per square fo6t — if split in 3 pieces, only i — and if a lot are done at once, the cost of the labor is but a tritle. It is just fun to work with nice machinerj*, but it is "orfur' to try to work with machinery that "aint nice," as we OKf/ht to know, after all the trials and troubles we have had in figuring all these little items out, one step at a time. HOW TO 3IAKE S310KER BELLOWS-'^ES'' BY THE QUAXTITY. Get a pile of nice inch basswood boards, ciit them in two in the middle, as before, and rip the pieces by the hand ripper, into strips 4 inches wide : since our improvement in bellows, we can get a better blast from a 4 by 5i pair of boards, than we could before, with boards 6 by 6. After the boards are split up, split them edgewise, and plane tliem nicely. Xow put 50 of the strips in the clamps, just as we did section boxes, and eut off bolts. 5* inches long. When they are all cut up— by the way our liands said I could not cut off boards'4 inches wide bim- dled lip in that way, but before I got through, I cut off some that wei'e 5 inches wide, for the extra large smokers — you are to run the whole bolts along a beveled plat- form, in such a way as to take off a corner on one end of the ooards, leaving each smoker board something like this. BOARDS FOB SMOKER BELLOWS. Now plane and sand paper the bolt, so as to have the edges finished nicely, and bore a ij hole into the end of each bolt I as shown in the cut. This hole should be bored 'deep enoxigh to go through i of all the boards ; if bored in at each end, we have holes in half orf all the pieces, just as we want them. In this way. it takes but a short time to get the boards ready for a thousand smokers, for thev are never handled singlv at all. BOX HITE DEPARTMENT. ^ ASKED how I could get my surplus honey from H my old fashioned hives, in 1 lb. section boxes. ~ Tn reply you kindly send me Gleaniscs, and say that it gives me the desired information. 1 am sorrv to say it does not. You say "Pry off the top of the hive." Now with my hives having- no movable frames, and the combs all fastened to the top of the hive, it will be impossible to carry out this plan. Charles Coutant. Kifton Glen, N. Y., Feb. 19th, 18T8. You can take the top off your box hive without doing any injury to the comb, by splitting it and taking off a piece at a time, unless it is a new swarm ; and I took it for granted that no one would put a new swarm into a box hive. If there are no cross sticks to support the combs, perhaps you will have to content yourself by cutting several large holes in the top, but you will get better re- sults by taking the top off entirely. Old and tough combs will be in no danger of break- ing down, even if the whole top is taken off. SCRE^fr DRIVERS. S PRESUME you all know how handy these implements are about the apiarj'. — ' especially, those of you who use the all wood frames. When I used the closed top Am. frames, I carried a small screw driver in my vest pocket all the time, and it proved handy for a great variety of purposes. Well, did you ever feel annoyed by having your screw driver come loose, or "wiggle"' in the han- dle ? ^Nothing makes me feel much more impa- tient, than to have tools that are loose in the han- dles, and wheii, a tool comes entirely out of the handle, and sticks fast in the work, I always feel ready for a "'fight"" if I could only find the man who made it so careless- ly. Now. this screw dri- ver, the picture of which is right ''along side"' of what I am ■UTiting, can never come out of the handle, for the handle and blade are all one. If you get out of cold chis- els, you can take a ham- mer, drive on the end of yoiu". screw driver, and there is nothing that will break ; and you can use them for chiseling wood, or anything else, if they are ground sharp. But they are patented ! Well I don't care if they are. so long as they only cost 10c. , and by the way, just to show you how nice they are, I will send , you one,' and pay postage j too, for just 10c. , or a| size larger if you wish,' for 15c. I almost forgot to say that in the handle, is a WTench, very con- venient for many purpo- ses. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 113 A CAIilFORNIA BEE RANCHE. F ROB ABLY a great many of you, have a curiosity to see the bee ranches of — C/iilifornia. we have all heard so much about ; and as our friend Archer has sent us a verj' fair stereoscopic ^iew, I have been at the expense of having it engraved. You I'an see, at a glance, that he uses something like the Simplicity hive, for he has them piled up two, three'and even six stories high. What cool shady places the abundant i^hrubbery affords, and what fim it must be, during sw^arming time, to have the bees hanging all roimd on the bushes. In the distance, we see those wonderful hills, that get it, the next best thing seems to !>e a let- ter on introducing queens, which we give. I send you an article on introducing queens, and also a view of one of my bee ranches about one mile out of the city. The p«st year has been a bad one in S. California, for bee keepers sts well as others, but the new setison is entering very promisingly. • IKTRODUCING Ql'EENS. As I see so many inquiries in Gleanings about in- troducing- queens, I will give you my experience. The first thing is to have the light kind of a hive, next, to have the right cage, and last but not leaet. to know how to do it. My hive is on the principle of the Langstroth, has frames 17x10 inches, and a loose top and bottom so that a dozen or more may be put together, if needed. Two or more swarms may be put together, so there is no need of haing a queen- less stock of bees. :^ ONE OF THE APIARIES OF J. ARCHER, SANTA BARBARA, CALIIORNIA. SO much is said about, and the fraginents of i-ocks strewn abont, seem to indicate the t'Jiai'a.cteristics of the wonderful volcanic country. Friend Archer, we would detirly love to" pay you a visit in your cosy retreat, and even if "you have no "^ very large houses in view, we "think we could "stand it. if. as Ave have heard, it never rains in the summer time. Mi\\ nnich wholesome prosperit\% and happiness attend you and youi-s. in j-our i shady bee ranche. " i I would have preferred something desci'ip- 1 tive in regard to the spot, but a.s we did }iot The cage is made of wire cloth, 13 meshes to the inch, and is one by '4 inch, and 3 inches long. The ends arc stopped 'with movable wooden plugs. On one end is soldered a little strip of tin bent in the shape of a hook, allowing the cage to be hung close to the brood in the hive. Always catch the old queeit before putting in the new one. Pnt the new one in at the same time the old one is taken out, and leave it two or three days: th^n pull the lower plug out of the c;ij?e and sulislitute a piece of comb. The bees will eat her out. If there ai-e any queen cells, cut them out. It is not best to examine the bees too often when a new queen is in. 1 don't lose one queen of a hundred inti-cdueing in this manner Jefferson Akcher. gSanta Barbara, Crl.. V,ec. iTSlh. U:7. 114 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. April BERS i:^ CUI^OI£AI>0. M S bees are rare In this section, we obtained a £<^ colony from the apiary of Hiram Roop, Car- tJcLj son City, Mich. They arrived May 18th, 1877 in 8'ood condition, after their 1500 mile trip. In the latter part of June we started two nuclei from them; one queen escaped over the division board, and kill- ed the other, so but one was a success. The two col- onies worked along' well, giving a few frames of nice honey. Had no extractor until middle of Sept., but then took out 50 lbs. of good honey; in Sept. queen cells were started and another nuclei formed, but owing to carelessness one swarmed naturally; this made 4 colonies in all, which, after being equal- ized in both bees and honey, were put up in one large box, divided into 4 compartments with chaff all round each hive, cushion around inside, also a cush- ion tacked in top of cover of each hive, and no ventila- tor in top. Conscijueiitly the frames got mouldy by Jan. when by lea\ ing top of each hive partially open it nearly all disappeared. Early in the fall* the" honey all candied in the combs left in the hives. Feb. 28th, bees in excellent condition, the two Sept. swarms have been given some of the frames of the two older hives; no eggs in sight. Bees have flown every sec- ond or third week all winter. Last fiill 1 took one colony in an observatory hive, to the county fair, where they attracted great atten- tion. We have no buckwheat, clover or basswood here, and old bee-keepers from the Eastern States asked "What do you feed these bees on?" If we had only known how to manage, we could have extracted nearly all summer; as it was, got two swarms and 50 lbs. in month of Sept. from wild flowers. Bees are looking up in this section now, we have the only Italians in this part. The following is proven by this winter's experience: that our extremely dry air, as well as light rain fall, obse/TC— California has damp air and light rain fall, — is no protection from mould on combs if bees are packed warmly, and no ventilation given. Candied honey comes from lack of sufllcient water in the honey to hold the sugar in solution from too great evaporation, and the remedy is, to melt it up with just enough water to hold it, and not too much. All the honey extracted last fall, candied; by melt- Irg it with water it remains fluid and is not injured. I will remark that you sell your Simplicity hive, frames, &c. cheaper that we can buy the; lumber, here. I had your Journal tacked to an observatory hive at the fair, as an advertisement for you. It takes time to work up such things, but the bee question is now started, and in future will, out here, make its own way. C. A. Ambrook. Boulder, Calorado, Feb, 28th, 1878. BOTANY OF HONEY PLANTS. f' ENCLOSE herewith some blossoms of a tree that we have here that the bees cover when in bloom. _ I If the specimen reaches you in condition to know ■what it is, I would be very glad to have you name it. It blooms before leaf buds are open. T. L. KiNSEY. Savannah, Ga., March 12th, 1878. This is Judas-tree or Red-bud (Cends Canarlensix,) This beautiful plant or small tree is found as far north as Michigan. The specimen was pressed and dried and came in good order. Tlie sample was placed between delicate paper and then two pieces of paste-board was tied over the whole to protect the specimen. In all cases where it is possible send leaves as well as flowers and seeds or fruit if they can be found. The best Botanist may spend an hour or a half day in working over a poor specimen or a fragment and still be in doubt as to its name. The plant is closely related to the pea bean and locust W. J. Seal. Agricultural College, Mich. , If all those to whom John Long is still owing fdn., will send in a full account of the amount still due them, I will fill the order. I do this, because I have reason to think T was a little harsh in my statements In regard to him in -the Feb. No., and that he is try- ing to pay up all old scores. EDITOR AND FUBUSHIIR. MEDINA, OHIO. terms: ^1.00 per year, post-paid. 3sj:EIDIlSr.A., .AJPI^. 1, ISTS. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: —Matthew, 7, 7: I AM sure that the above text was intended to ap- ply to bee-kespers as well as the rest of humanity; and if you are a beginner, and feel that you have much to learn, besides going to the books and jour- nals, I would advise going to the bees themselves, and thoroughly studying their habits. Seek and you shall find; knock at the door of Dame Nature's hid- den stores of knowledge, and it shall surels' be open- ed unto you. From everj' state, we are receiving cheerful re- ports of the unusualy early spring. In my mention of friend Perrine's speculation in buying the Wagner patent, last month, I had no in- tention of saying anything that would hurt his feel- ings, but used the case, simply by way of illustration of the folly of bujing patents. Mr. Perrine did nothing more, perhaps, than any of us would. Mitchell really has commenced paying up those he has promised so long, but instead of paying mon- ey, he gives them territory in his pretended patent hive. It is true his offers are liberal, for he puts in counties at half price; but even then, some are not satisfied, and insist on the bees, (jueens or extractors that he promised them when they sent] him their money. Everybody wants the yellowest bees I have, and at the same time they want them from the daught- ers of imported mothers. It is true we can get a stock occasionly, that will be almost, if not quite, as yellow as any of the home bred ones, but I have been picking out these to fill special orders all along, and now 1 have nothing but rather dark bees left. I have tried to buy some lighter colored ones of our neighbors, but they too have but very few real j-el- low bees with daughters of imported mothers. What shall I do to accommodate all ? I do not know, unless it is to ask an "awful big price," for such stocks, and as I cannot think them any better, I do not like to do this. I AM well aware, my friends, that a great many of your requests have been almost unheeded, and that many of your questions remain almost unanswered; but I have done the very best I could. Jn coming to me as you do (in such a kind and pleasant way too), for advice, I fear you are giving me credit for a great deal more wisdom than I really possess; and I often lament that it is not in my power to give you more help than I do. There is very much in bee cultin-e, yet to be learned, and while we talk over matters and compare experiences, we can guess at the truth, but we very seldom settle any very im- portant point, beyond the possibility of a mistake. Be patient and keep on experimenting, is the best advice I am able to give, many times. 1878. GLEANINGS IK BEE CULTURE. 115 [Foul Brood. Continued from last month). Microscopic investigation has revealed the fact, that foul brood is a species of minnte fungus, which when once started growing, increases with astonishing rapidity, and on- ly ceases to extend, wiien the supply of ma- terial that it feeds on gives out, or the tem- perature is either raised or lowered to such a point that the vegetation is killed. It is on this account that honey from diseased hives is rendered perfectly wholesome for feeding bees, by being scalded, as this is fatal to the seeds of all such microscopic vegetation. As severe freezing produces the same result, we may suppose that hives that have contained foul brood stocks, would be rendered safe, by being exposed to severe winter weather, without bees in them. Great care should be exercised in this respect, however, and perhaps it will be safest, all things considered, to burn up all hives that have ever contained the infection. The name of the microscopic plant, is Cryp- tococcus Alveario ; you know we alw^iys feel a great deal better, to know just what a thing is. I have never possessed a colony having the disease, but -pieces of comb con- taining the diseased brood, have been sent me several times, an«l I have examined hives in the State of Michigan, that were slightly affected, and feel somewhat ac- quainted with the disease. I do not know that it now^ exists in the State of Ohio, un- less it is on Kelley's Island, in Lake Erie ; it was brouglit there, by a simple piece of comb, several years ago, and has existed there ever since. REMEDIES. I believe the most successful remedy, all things considered, has been in shaking the bees from their combs, putting them into a new hive without combs, and leaving them contined to it luitil they have consumed every bit of honey in their honey sacks, which will take from 24 to 48 hours. They must, in fact, be almost starved to death. After this, they can be fed and allowed to build comb, and when the queen lays in this new comb, the brood will usually be found healthy and natural. If it should show dis- eased cells, go through the same operation again, being sure that other bees do not, by any means, get a single taste of the honey from the infected hive, and you will be pret- ty sure to find them all right. Much has been said of late years, of sal- icylic acid ; and our German neighbors a- cross the water, who gave us tliis discovery, with many others, claim to^ have been per- fectly successful, as well as quite a number who have tried it in our own country. The acid is used in solution, and even if quite w'eak, it seems to have the property of kill- ing the germs of the disease, wherever it touches. To make a sure thing of it, it seems that every diseased cell should have its cap opened, and some of the solution sprayed into it ; but quite a number report having succeeded by simply spraying the combs. Mr. Mi;th, of Cinciimati, O., reconj- mends using borax with tlie salycilic acid ; about i of an oz. of each, is dissolved in a pint of pure soft water. With this, he has been perfectly successful in ridding his api- ary of it by a single application. As some of our English correspondents failed, using the most thorough measures with the acid, I am inclined to think there are several phases of the disease, although I have no doubt at all, but that it will yield, like al- most everything else, to thorough and faith- ful treatment. If there are many diseased stocks, it is a saving of time to put all the combs having infected brood in them, into a single large hive, without any queen. All brood that does not hatch out, may be then treated without having far. to go, or many hives to look after ; and as no more brood is reared, the disease cannot go farther. Our German friends recommend giving a weak • solution of the acid as a feed to the bees. This may be a good idea, but as I am rather opposed to doctoring either bees or human beings with drugs, to any great extent, I hope you will pardon me if I am a little in- credulous in regard to the propriety of such measures. For spraying the bees and combs, a spray diffuser, kept by druggists, is a saving of time and labor. Those used with a rubber ball, are handiest. CAUSE OF THE DISEASE. Many reasons have been given for the ap- pearance of foul brood, and it has been sometimes claimed that the dise;;se might be generated by the decomposition of con- siderable quantities of chilled brood, if left in the hive. I can but think tliis a mistake, and while on the subject I think a great many cases are call-ed foul brood that are nothing like it. The real virulent foul brood, does not usxuilly yield without pretty severe treatment, and it is claimed by some, that the worst type of the disease, can only be eradicated by a total destruction of the hives, combs and bees. Very likely there are several types of the disease, and it may be that the milder forms yield without mucli 116 GLEA^fLN'GS IX BEE CULTUEE. April trouble ; but if we admit it to be a fungoid growth, as the best authorities tell us. I do not know how it can originate without the germs or seed being brought by some means, from some locality where it prevails, like small pox. and other diseases of like nature. The theory of spontaneous generation of either plant or animal life has, for ages, over and over again fallen to the ground, when the experiments were made with suflBcient e ■ ^ Some of our friends have lost money enough to pay for Gleanings many years, by ordering from old price lists, or by not being posted in regard to recent improvements. I am veiry sorry, but I do not know how I can help you, if you wiU not keep up with the times The idea advanced in another column, that honey candies because it is too thick, I think a mistake. Some very thick honey never candies at all, and some of the thinnest linden honey that we ever ex- tracted, was quickest to candy. I think unripened honey, especially given to candying. There is no advantage, as a general thing, in pre- paying freight or express on goods, and many times we have, by prepaying, increased the charges. We are now making arrangements to have an agree- ment made and stamped on everj' package, that the charges shall not exceed a specified sum. This charge can then be paid at the destination, and save all dissatisfaction or misunderstanding. Nine-tenths of all the hives ordered, are now for L. frames, and as we are selling hives by the thou- sand, it is pretty fair to presume that all odd sized frames will soon be at a discount. We cannot, with our present rush of business, make odd sized hives nor frames, unless at least 100 are ordered at a time, nor odd sized section boxes, unless 500 are taken. The changing of machinei-y makes much delay, and it is quite difficult to make the exact quantity want- ed, without much waste of material. — ^ i»i ^ As we are not allowed to write on queen cages, more than to say from whom, I would suggest that we have the following signs. X for a black queen : X X for a hybrid ; x x x for a dollar queen ; x x x x for a tested queen and x x x x x for an imported queen. If she produces very yellow queens and workers, you might put on some more x's. Now bear in mind that a great part of the queens you send me, will be tested in my own apiary, so I shall be able to test both you and your queens, at the same time. ■ lei » How TO FEED GRAPE SUGAR. If you must have the exact proportions, I would say 1 lb. of sugar to a pint of water. If you make it thicker, the bees will get so "logy," with their hea^-y load, that they will fall about in the grass, before they can go home. If in the proportion named, they will go right to the I hive, and the sjTup will not be very likely to candy in the feeders. The wood feeders will do verj- well, or the pail arrangement mentioned last month, but as both these are liable to get the bees daubed, I just now rather prefer the tin feeder described this month. To fill it, dip it all over in a pail of sjTup while held in a horizontal position, turn it upright, and then lift it out. Set it any where you wish, and the bees will get the feed to your perfect satisfaction. This syrup may be fed safely in the open air. for thej- do not care enough for it to fight over it much. They will not trouble it when they can gather honey, therefore you need be in no fear of its getting into the section boxes, or in with your extracted honey. 122 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. April PERRINE'S FLOATING APIARY. THE FIRST FLOATING APIARY ON THE AMERICAN CONTINENT. SI PROMISED to g'ive you some description of my bee boats, &c., &c., and will now do so, but par- I don me if it i^i not full enoug-h, as I have only a few hours each evening- to attend to my correspond- ence, having- to look to my apiarian interests throug-h the day. I bouprht two gainwale barges, each about 110.Y34 ft. and decked them over 7 ft. from each side inward- ly lea\'ing- 10 ft. open space, deck about 5 ft. from bottom, roof over open space about 7 ft. high form- ing a cabin, thus making roof 2 ft. above deck. I first have a space at each side of boat, on deck, of 3 ft. for outer gallery, to pass before the bee hiv^es, then 2 ft. space for the hives, then 3 ft. space behind the hives for inner gallery; this takes up the 7 ft. There are 6 tiers of bee hives, one above the other. I have an upper outer and inner gallery 7 ft. above the deck, from which we are to work the upper 3 tiers of hives. This describes the outer tiers of hives; the inner, start from the top of the cabin roof and are .'5 tiers high. The back end of the hives are flush with the cabin roof, or say the eaves, so that the inner gal- lery of 3 ft., spoken of, is between the backs of the outer and inner hives allowing both tiers to be worked conveniently between the fronts of the inner tiers of hives. There is 6 ft. space all the way up to the top of the boat, 13'/4 ft. high, and this space is not roofed, allowing the bees to fly freely up and down through this space to and from their hives. The outer tiers of hives allow of free horizontal flight of bees. There is a roof 14 ft. high at the eaves, over the whole boat, except the 6 ft. space running through the middle. The arrangement at the ends is the same as at sides with tritlihg variation. The whole structure is svipported by over 300 stanchions running from the bottom of boat to roof firmly secured by spikes, bolts and braces through stringer and carling. The hives are placed, as it were, on shelves firmly secured and easily removed. The hives are not perfectly shielded from sun and rain on the outside tiers, but rain will not hurt them and the sun can onlv strike the fronts; and as I have nailed on upper half of the space of the porticoes wire cloth and door to confine the bees below this, which when opened covers over the wire cloth and shields the f rort from the rays of sun, I have little to fear from the sun. Each boat will hold over 900 swarms under cover, and if I choose, I can put a few on the roof, making it over 1000. I have now between 400 and 500, I will buy a few hundred swarms here and a little further up the riv- er, which in all, with my own swarms, will give me by the middle of April— the time I propose to start up the ri\-er— about 1200 hives, or 600 on each boat. I expect to have, at least, fifty per cent increase go- ing up the river. I am not counting on too big things. I hope to reach St. Louis early in June, and will continue my trip, arriving at St. Paul, Minn., about the last of July. Bees are now and have been working on the differ- ent ^'arieties of willow, so abundant in swamps in the South, ever since early in February, and will continue to do so, with some other tree bloom for a month yet, say 8 to 10 weeks on willow, and working hard every day they can get to work. Bees are all in good order in my apiary and have just begun to swarm. Of course some are stronger than others, the strongest have gathered within the past 10 or 12 days, 30 to 50 lbs. of honey, some in sec- i tions and some in large frames for extracting, and this before swarming time, with hives not full of h&'s. Four to 6 lbs. of honey per day is pretty good I think, I and such beautiful honey too, not strictly white nor of a high boquet. but a smooth pleasant honey some- what like peach bloom honey. Now and then some ona objects to a slightly bitter aft'^r taste that is no- ticed when the honey is eaten by itself, but at table it is not noticed. It wear» better than any honev I ever ate or gave to friends. I expect to work on willow for the first 600 or 800 miles, and perhaps get some white clover for a short time about the last of Mav or first of .Tune, and to wait for basswood which I expect to follow from b'> low Cairo to St. Paul, nearly 1000 miles and nearlv two months. Those who know what basswood yields, can perhaps imagine my expectations as to quantitv to be gathered by my then 2j)00 hi\'e3 of bees. My intention is to return from St. Paul to some point above St. Louis and stay during Aug. and Sept.. returning south in October, when I think I have a reasonable exnectation of having 3000 to 4000 hives of bees, probably more than were ever managed b>- one person. I will have a good tow boat of my own so as to con- ' trol its movements. I will do my moving at night, j stopping every day, probably, as it would not do to 1 lose a day of work. 1 In my experiments, labor and purchases, I have I spent money liberally— nearly $15,000 since I first I came down here^andif I succeed in demonstrating I the practicabilitv of a floating apiary will you feel j badly because I have made some money in the honey I business in years past so as to be able to take a lit- i tie monev from my business to do this? But sup- pose 1 fail, will you say "foolish man. I could have told him so?" or will you give me credit for the 18 months of unremitting toil of brain and muscle, and try to encourage me to try another season to make a success of it? Towing boat by steam— up stream, is expensive: one party proposes to tow me up to St. Paul and back to New Orleans for $6000.00 but 1 can do it much, cheaper owning a steam boat myself, perhaps for half that sum. There will be a crew of 15 or 16, or perhaps 20 per- sons on the fleet, and as I expect to accompany the enterprise, "Commodore Perrine" as some of my friends here insist on calling me, will have bis hands full. We are extracting from nearly 100 hives, and shall ship to Chicago, in a few days, between 3 and 3 tons of txtracted and section box honey, and soon after- ward, a shipment to Europe where my customers are awaiting netV honey with their mouths open. Mr. Fred (Srabbe formerly of Kansas and Illinois, has been with me over a year, and has the immediate management of the bees, a man of large experience, practical, energetic and an untiring worker. I can not close without a word about the pleasant winters here — no snow — a few frosts, a little show of ice once or twice during the season, not too much rain, and in February flowers: and now all in full bloom, and to crown all, the air is now full of con- densed orange bloom; some 20 trees about my house fill all space with their fragrance. Well, I have written more than I thought I would. If your readers don't understand my description, or have curiosity to see, I hope to see all who will take the pains to come to see us any where along the riv- er. Will try to keep them posted where to find the boats as we go along. C. O. Perrine. New Orleans, La., March 20th, 1878. Many thanks, friend P., but have yon not "mixed" something? somewhere, when you intimate that I might feel badly if you should succeed, and say, "I told you so,'' if you should fail V I fear you did not read what I said about floating apiaries a couple of years ago, when I asked who would lirst volunteer the money for the experiment. If anybody attempts to say "I told you so," Gleanings will be the very first one to square off for a fight — a friendly one — for whether you make a success of it or not, I am sure some one will. We certainly are as smart as the ancient Egyptians oil bees, even if we never did build any pryamids, and now friend Perrine I want you to get just the very best photo of your fioating api- ary, that ever you can, and we will get the best engraver in the country to engrave it for May Gleanings. I do not believe in saying very much about what great things we are going to do, for it is much better to do thein first and then tell about it ; but I hope Ave may both be excused a little this time. I wiIjTj pay 15c for black queens and sell them IVir 35c until further notice. Purity (?) and safe arrival guaranteed. These will be nice to practice with. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 123 From Different Fields. TAKING BEES OUT OF THEIR WINTER REPOSITORIES. eN the 20th. of this month, it being- very warm, I thought best to set the bees out for a fly. I had 3 colonies in the cellar, which I set out firsts and then started for neig-hbor Rice's, where 1 had 16 more in his bee house. I set them out as quickly as possible, and soon the air was nearly black with bees. 1 had a young- Italian queen in one of the hives, hatched late in the season, and 1 thought to show her to Mr. Kice; but on opening the hive I found about as many black bees as yellow ones, and saw at once what was wrong; a wad of black bees were clinging to the (jueen and trying to kill her. I got her away from them and closed the hive so that but a single'bee could get in at a time. They soon cleared the blacks out; I then closed the entrances to the other hives and started home to see to the other 3. When 1 got there I found two of my hives empty; one swaim had killed the queen and the bees were helping carry the stores from their own hive. 1 opened the hive to find it completely full of bees. I shall, here-after, keep their entrances[small. Jas. S. Cole, Amherst, Wis., Feb. 22nd, 1878. When bees are wintered in-doors, such troubles are not unusual. Had you set them oirt in the evening of the day before, all would have been right, in all probability ; but I am very much better pleased to have bees always on their permanent summer stands. QUESTIONS FROM A BEGINNER. I want a little advice and very naturally I come to you. I have 7 hives of bees, no two alike. I am im- mensely interested in bees and honey, so much so that I have spent about ^500. in the business with but little profit, unless it is experience; so please don't scold me for having such hives, for 1 too am a Novice and a "green" one at that. I am strongly in the notion of adopting the L. frame, and Simplicity hive. 1 think I can "swop" my hives and bees for box hives, and new swarms put into new hives which I will furnish. Now would you advise this course to get rid of my troubles, even if I have to do so at a considerable discount? I would, by all means, advise using only one sized frame in your apiary, and I think you will save much trouble by adopting the L. frame. This season, our orders are more entirely than ever before, for frames, hives, extractors, sections and almost every thing else, of the L. size ; and the convenience of uniformity is now being realized, as it never was before. Several times we have had im- ported queens ordered, to be sent in nuclei, of Gallup, Quinby, or American frames. To do this, we would have to make such a niicleus hive to order, then the combs must be transferred, and after all was done, it wOidd be very unsafe to ship combs that had just been transferred. I have often talked of purchasing bees of neighbors, but unless the frames ^\^ll hang in our hives, we must consider the expensive task of transferring the whole lot. A neighbor near me, has now over a hundred colonies, and when asked tJie size of his frame, he said he never measured them. When he started, he might have taken the L. frame, or even some other regular size, just as well as not, but now, if his bees were to be sold, they would bring at least $100.' less, just because they are in a frame like no body's else. Will it pay me to furnish hives to my neighbors and give them $1,00 for all now swarms (especially 1st, swarms) they put in them? I should think it would pay, at three times the amount. If I use the Langstroth Simplicity exclusixely for box or comb honey, will I need an extractor? Being a young physician, of only moderate means and practice, but industrious and hopeful. Will it pay me to make above change of hives? My am- bition is to have 30 two storj' Simplicities all in full blast for comb honey in sections, so that I will not have to look after them so closely as for extracting. You say you do not wish to be obliged to look after your 30 two stoiy hives so closely as you would if you used the extractor ; when swarming time comes, you may conclude that the easiest way will be to get an ex- tractor and take their honey away, to stop that "everlasting swarming.'' You cannot evade the responsibility by using sections. In last December I put a candy and flour slab into my weakest colony and in 3 weeks they bad plentj' of brood, but 2 weeks later after a cold spell 1 found "nary" sign of brood. How's that? The brood got chilled, and was carried out, as is often the case, after sudden changes, with a weak colony. Why is it that I find eggs all through the winter but never see any sealed brood? Some of the brood spoken of as resulting from candy and flour was large, but not sealed. N. C. Steele. Kossuth, Miss., Jan. 19th, 1878. For the same reason; the warm genial weather induced the queen to lay, but the bees would not nurse the eggs into brood, until they had all the requirements, such as warmth, fresh stores, etc. The eggs are either removed, or eaten by the bees, I have not been able to discover which. A Mr. McDaniels, of New Carlisle, Ind., is selling, through here, a hive (and territory) called the Cot- tage Bee Hive. He threatens to prosecute me for using nails between the frames in the hive I am making. What do you think of his claim ? I know that nails have been used to separate frames, a long, time. C. A. Russell. Plainwell, Mich. March 18th, 1878. , I am afraid if Mitchell or some of his kin should come along and say he had a patent on using pine boards for bee-hives, many would hand over the money, especially, if he threatened prosecution, ^o long as peo- ple will hand over their money in response to such ridiculous claims and thre-its, so long will these fellows continue in the busi- ness. Nails have been used for spacing frames for the last 20 years, and accounts of them are given in the very first volumes of our bee-journals. I feel that we are all wasting time, in discussing anything so ab- surd, saying nothing of the money wasted. Ovn- experience in trade with bee-keepers has been very pleas.int. We find them intelligent, gene- rous in their ideas of trade and fnir honest dealers. We wish every class of jjeople were as true to the right. W. F. & J. Barnes. Rockford, 111., Feb., -ith, 1878. I think the above speaks very favorably of the writers, for when a. man feels pleasantly toward those about him, he is generally on good ground ; but when he has a lot of grievances to unfold, of how one after an- other has wronged him, I ,of late, begin to fear he is the worst one of the lot he has been talking about. I take the lesson home too, for I am a "tremenduous" hand to grumble and find fault with folks, and the way they do things. It is early in the morn- ing now. and I am in a good natured mood. 124 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. April It just now occurs to me, that the above was iu a private letter, but I thiiik they wont • mind." THE FIRST REPORT OF NEW HONEY. When winter set in 1 had 41 stocks in good condi- tion, and 10 ordinary ones. Now 1 have 50 in good condition. 1 lost one from robbing. I have extract- ed as much as 24 lbs. from some of my hives, leaving at least 15 lbs. in the hive. The spring has opened very favorably here, several swarms filling boxes. 1 jjut in some section boxes a few days ago, and yes- terday J divided one swarm. I opened some Italians this morning and found 8 frames in a hive, full of brood, i am Italianizing bj* making a stock queen- less, putting in Italian brood, then cutting out the queen cells and inserting them into black stocks. I suppose some of your readers will be curious to know what bees can gather honey from at this time of the year. Mustard blooms here all winter. Peach trees are in full bloom now, also elm and plum; and ou" prairies are covered with a species of wild clo- ver now in full bloom. I like the section boxes and shipping case first rate. J. W. Eckman. Kichmond, Texas, March 13th, 1878. I wonder if our friend Perrine had not better start his floating apiary, somewhere in Texas. If he should commence extract- ing in the middle of March and keep it up until Aug., he ought to get "right smart," of honey ; and even if he didn't get more than 5c. — hold on ! it would take a good many 5c. pieces to pay for a steam boat, wouldn't it? WHAT KIND OF CHAFF AND HOW TO USE IT. Chaff hive rec'd all right. As I have no chaff, will ohafled (cut) straw answer? 1 also have clover chaff, which of the two is preferable? How will saw-dust cio in comparison with the above? Should the chaff be packed in tight, and must it be put in from below? U. P. Friend, East Paris, Mich., March 18th, '78. I presume cut straw will ansAver nearly as Avell as chaff, but as it is usually in longer pieces than chaff, I do not think it will make as good a non-conductor, nor absorb moisture as readily. It should be remem- *l)cred that wool, feathers, chaff, etc., owe their non-conducting properties to the amount of air they entangle mechanically, thus preventing a circulation. There would be a greater circulation of air through the cut straw, less through the chaff, still less through the wool, and least of all through the feathers. Wool and feathers are not so desirable for bees, because they would get damp and not dry out as the chaff does, and I am afraid the same objection would ai)ply to clover chaff. Which will dry out quick- est after a rain, be least likely to pack down and decay, and at the same time be warmest in Avinter, is the question to be decided. Invert the chaff hive to fill it, taking out the bottom which is lightly nailed in the sample hive. Pack the chaff enough so it will never settle away from the top, but no more. Sawdust is not as good chaff. FROM KELLET'S ISLAND. 1 .iust received a postal, and letter from N. C. M. asking for names of all bee-keepers here, in view of getting them as subscribers. I gave him my own as Ihe only one. 1 also received one fi'om A. Grav, en- MiiiringaboutN. C. M. and as to prospects for start- ing a (]ueen nursery here with a Mr. Hughs of Bi'ody, Ills. Chas. C.4.rpenter. Kelley's Island, O., March 18th, 1878. Thanks, friend C. with your kind aid, I think we shall be able to keep a shari) look out on Kelley's Island, and I think we can l^retty effectually prevent a repetition of the frauds that have lieretofore been practiced by claiming that queens were reared and fertilized there. If they start an honest business, we will help them all we can. Does the queen lose her sting when she stings a tough substance? If so does it injure her? I have neve yet been stung liy one. You say a queen never leaves the hive except for the purpose of fei"tiliza- tion, or with a swarm attending her. Well, last sum- mer one of my queens eame into the house; 1 was attracted by the loud buzzing against a window frame, and looking to see what It was, lo and behold, her Majesty! The window is at the side of an outside door— about 6 inches between the two. We showed her the door, and she immediately took a B line for the hives— about 20 feet from the" door. By the way. how long would it take for bees to change their lines 2 or 3 rods? I must move mine. My little girl (7 years old) went out bare-foot last summer, stepped on one, and it nearly killed her; she had to be carried about. Now don't get mad at this long epistle. A. N. Griswold. Naugatuck, Conn., March 18th, 1878. I can readily believe you never have been stung by a queen, and I feel pretty sure yon never will be, although a few instances are on record, of the stinging of the fingers of tlie operator by the queen. When queens sting each other, they always withdraw the sting, and I presume they would, if allowed to, when they sting a person. One case has been reported in which the sting was torn from the queen"s body, and she lived and laid eggs afterward. The case you mentioned was a rather sin- gular one ; I feel quite sure that the queen was a virgin queen out seeking the drones, or she would never have got on the window. You had virgin queens in the apiaiy at the time, had you not V If you move your whole apiary, at once, and let the hives all preserve their usual position in regard to each other, you can perhaps do it without any loss ; much depends on the suiTOund- ings. In all such experiments, you must however keep watch, and see what the bees are doing. Instead of asking me, "pitch in," find out how it answers and then tell me the result. Not that I shall get mad if you ask questions, but that it will do you more good ; for there is a great deal about bees that I, as well as you, have not learned. BLUNDERS— INTRODUCING AND TRANSFERRING. I, in the midst of the honey harvest, transferred into movable frames, several hives with success, and our drouth set in about July 1st. My good neigh- bor came to me to transfer a colony for him and I promised to be on hand early in the nioming Jnly 21st. I took the old box gutn into the house and they were the slowest to drive of any I ever tried, but I finally got them out, the comb placed, and all fixed up nicely. Now for the blunder, I set them out on their original stand and in less than an hour the robbers had taken the whole thing. My friend's loss taught me never to transfer at a time when no honey was eominar in. The queei] I purchased of you, I lost ; wishing to introduce her to a populous hive, I took out crcry frame and examined them closely, twice. I could find no queen nor brood, and coming to the conclusion they wei-e oueenless, I went through my process of introduction (^caging the queen I wish to introduce, 48 hoiu-s before re- leasing) and never saw her afterwards. S. P. Capehart. St. Albans, W Va., Feb. 11th, 1878. Both your blunders are quite common ones, and your idea of warning others by your experience, is veiy commendable. The reason why I have so "often advised trans- ferring during fruit blc:>ssoins, is that bees will seldom rob at such a time. Never let a queen loose in a hive, thinking tliey are 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 125 queenless simply because you cannot find the queen : give them some brood, and see if they will start queen cells, then you are sure. STARTING AN APIARY, BEE CANDY, COTTON SEED FOR PACKING ,ETC. If I have made any advance in bee culture it is owing to youi- advice. Not able to afford the pur- chase of colonies, 1 could only get a start by taking a few swarms off Ihe hands of those who were going- to kill or neglect them, in this way, T obtained 14 old gum hives. All except 3 however, were on con- dition ; the owners were to get the honey, 1 the bees, empty comb and brood comb. They were recieved and transferred during summer and fall from 15th, of Aug. to 15th, of Nov. One' hive transferred and robbed at the latter date, have done remarkably well. This fact I thought worth notice, for it was a mere experiment. I could barely fill 4 frames with combs and pieces. There was no brood at that date, not 4 lbs., of honey in all and it was a very large swarm. Of course I fed ; at first on A. J. Cook's plan, within the hive, with syrup in a sack supported by a brood frame. This did very well until the weather became very cold. Then the bees neglecting it, it dripped a little and did mischief. Resort was then had to candy poured out H inch or so thick on paper 6x16 ; this was laid on top of the frames under the duck. The success seems perfect so far. I packed my hives on their summer stands in cot- ton seed. For your southern disciples who often cannot get chaff, you ought to know the virtues of cotton seed ns a non-conductor. I have long used it for packing around temporary ice boxes and bins for sweet potatoes, and find it the very thing for top cushions and winter packing. You published, last fall, my contribution on honey producing vines with initials S. G., instead of L. J. It is of no consequence only that some of your soiithem readers might find it convenient to know they have a lover of Botany near them who will take pleasure in answering any inquiries concerning our natural plants. Lawrence Johnson. Holly Springs, Miss. Feb. 28th, 1878. A REPORT IN FAVOR OF ARTIFICIAL HEAT. The imported queen I received from you, I have in my parlor hiA e, placed in the window to the South with a chance to fly at any time they see fit. A heater stove is kept burning with a coal fire, about 10 feet from the hive. They have not lost two dozen bees, nor have they consumed 5 lbs. of honey, thus far. I have kept a swarm of bees in the same place for the last 5 years, and it has always come out with flying colors. The first to swarm, pnd giving not less than i'O to 75 lbs. of box honey each year, while it contains but 5 frames. Should I ever build a bee house I would build it so that the bees could fly at any time, and would have the front made movable, so that in summer it could be taken away, letting hives remain; and in the winter I would have, in the middle of the house, a self feeding heater with pipe running along the rear of the house toward each end of the bee shed. Then the bees would not get the dysentery nor dwindling, nor get uneasy; and if they" should, a bee would go to the outlet and when it found the weather cold out side, it would say "whew!" and all- would cool down again. And my belief is that bees would winter on one third the honey they would otherwise use. H. H. Brown. Light Street, Pa., Feb. 12th, 1878. The above sounds very favorable, it is true, but even sliould we always succeed as well as our friend, I hardly think it would pay expenses, generally. ' My commencement in bee culture, consisttd of one swarm, which 1 found on a limb of a beech tree about sun rise on July 3d, 1876. Last year I bought 4 swarms ; the first went to the woods,! transferred the old one to a frame hive. I got one stock from the woods, and now have 5 pretty good stands. They have been cari-ying natural pollen for the last three daro. J. H. Thornbury. Winchester, Ind., March 11th, 1878. The secion boxes came safely yesterday, and are beautifully made. The freight charges on the 1.000 amounted to f3..55. J. B. Bedell. Franklin, St. Mary's Parish, La., Feb. 27th, '78. MITCHELL'S PATENT, &C. Mitchell claims a patent on division boards, and especially the little strip of rag tacked on the ends to make it fit tightly. I got the idea from some of Mr. Langstroth's old hives, (made some 10 or 15 years ago) divided in that way for making nuclei. 1 think the public cannot be too well warned against im- positions by way of patents, for as soon as Mitchell conceives an idea or hears of one, he breaks for Washington in such a hurrv as to almost leave his coat tail. Thfen somebody has got to be humbugged. P. S.— I send you a circular which Mitchell's agent left with me, but perhaps you have seen them ere this. D. A. McCoRD. Oxford, O., March. Ist, 1878. It is true that Mitchell has claimed very boldly, having a patent on all division boards with a strip of cloth round the edge, but an examination of the patent othce re- ports shows he has no patent on the hive at all, and none on the division board as he uses it. His patent is on a combination of "fixins" attached to the division board, that I believe has never been used by anybody. Mitchell is not much worse than the general run of patent hive men in this respect, but he has obtained so much mony by his false pretences, that I almost feel it a duty to keep a standing warning in print. The pat- ent office Gazette is sent gratis, into almost every town, and people could easily look up these things for themselves if they would only take the time. Such an examination shows that even the Bingham smoker, is one of the '•'combination" patents, and among the things claimed as a new invention, is the tapering nozzle that Mr. Quinby always used, and the steel springs that has been for years shown in the advertising pages of the British Bee Journal. I can dicover noth- ing in his claim in regard to the direct draft, and nothing that would make my smoker an infringement— I think I will stop, or friend Martin might think I am quarreling again. Once more ; do not give Mitchell nor any- body else, any of your money, but just at- tend quietly to your own affairs, and this patent business on bee-hives will all pass away of itself. I presume I have seen all the price lists that Mitchell has ever sent out, and I have seen all of his ''clips'"' at me. I can freely forgive them, because it is noth- ing more than what 1 expected, when I first undertook the Humbug and Swindle depart- ment. HARDENING WAX BY BOILING. I once gave a small cake of wax to a dentist, who soon wanted to buy seme, saying it was very soft, and very good for his use. He said wa.x ought not to be boiled much, as boiling hardens it. Seeing the complaints in regard to the sagging of comb fdn., 1 thought boiling the wax might be an advantage. Calvin Otis, New Holstein, Wis., March, 9th, '78. It hardens wax to boil it, especially if you overheat it, but as this also destroys its elas- ticity, and makes it brittle, it would not an- swer for fdn.; to prevent tliis, wax should al- ways be melted inside of a boiler of water, or rather, the tn^iler should have double walls, with a water space between the wax and the fire. Bees-v/ax seems to contain some kind of a volatile oil tliat makes it soft, and some specimens contain much more than others. If the wax is exposed to the air in thin sheets, this passes off, and the wax becomes much harder. It is for this reas(Ui, we always allow the sheets of wax to stand at least one day after dipping, before 126 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. April rolling them. It Is quite likely that heating the wax, also tends to drive off this element. Bleaching, almost entirely frees the wax from this substance, and this is why white wax is too hard for starters for comb honey. If some one can tell us how to bleach wax, and still leave it as soft as the yellow, we would like to hear from them. Nothing but an actual test in the hive in the hottest sum- mer weather, will demonstrate its fitness for the purpose. thie\'t;s. Tliieves are plenty this season, ns I wrote you last month. They robbed mine 3 times, destroying near- ly 3 swarms. After I arranged wires around my yard I was alarmed one night and went out and "blazed away" with the old musket charged with gravel stones. I did not find any gone next morning and have not been troubled any since, but do not feel safe to have my bees exposed. I think of building a house or something to keep out thieves. N. A. Prudden. Ann Arbor, Mich., Jan. 13th, 1878. I wonder if those who steal bee-hives, re- ally know how much damage they some- times do ? Our friend Crall, of Ashland, O., stated a few days ago, that the hive contain- ing his imported queen, had been stolen, al- though he had them all safely, as he sup- ix)sed, in his bee-house. The house was not locked, as he thought it unnecessary. If their plan was to carry off the hive, they would find it a hard matter, in a house api- ary, like ours. Can we not do something toward showing humanity that it does not 2jay to steal V AGE OF WORKER BEES, AND EXTRACTORS THAT THROW HONEY OVER THE CAN. Mr. Bass of Toulon, who has kept bees over 20 years, says he knows that bees live longer than 45 days in the summer, for he put a new swarm into a new box hive in June, and in Oct., the hive was full of new comb, honey, and a good swarm of bees, and he and his wife said they knew there bad been no bees hatched in any of the combs, which was proof that those bees lived about 4 months, and he didn't know but they might have lived 3 or 4 years if he had not killed them. He says there is too much "fool nonsense" in the bee journals. I was in the A. B. J, office last Dec. looking at ex- tractors &c., and was suprised to find there was no tin cover over your extractor. I asked Mr. Newman if the honey would not fly over the top, when turn- ing fast enough to throw it out of the combs, and I understood him to say it would. D. Tyrrell. Toulon, Ills., Feb. 1st, 1878. If there was no brood in the hive during all this time , of course they had no laying queen, and therefore the bees were not in a normal condition. It would be a little sin- gular that such a swarm should fill the hive with honey, and that there should be none of the small workers from a drone laying cjueen, nor from fertile workers. I once found a hive that had a queen with bad wings; they built comb, and filled the hive with honey, and the bees held out much longer than they do ordinarily, for they had not exhausted themselves in nursing and rearing young bees as an ordinary swarm does ; but the hive contained brood and small di'ones, though no worker brood. I am inclined to thuik the hive mentioned contained brood of some kind, or the bees would not have staid and built comb. Either you sadly mismiderstood friend Newman, or else he has sadly misunder- stood the purpose of an extractor. Manu- facturers who would send out extractors that would throw honey over the top, on to ones clothing, ought to be dipped in honey all over, until they know just how nice it is, to have it daubing round. A tin cover would add gi-eatly to the expense, and would be very unhandy ; if I had to shut down the cover to keep the honey in, every time I wanted to extract a couib, I am afraid I should be tempted to put the whole machine into the rubbish heap. The wire cloth and smoker came to hand in good condition; tried the smoker and was well pleased with it; do not see how you can make it for the price you ask. Wilmer Gibson. Warsaw, La. Feb. 7th. 1878. HOW TO GET "A START." I want to tell you of a little experiment I have beea making with a small swarm of bees, not enough to fill a pint measure. They came out on the first day of July, on Sunday, and were hived by a neighbor. He did not think thorn "any good" and gave them to me. During the first 5 days they built a piece of comb 2x4 inches. I fi.xed 3 pieces of comb in the frames for them and put the bees in ; they clustered in one comer of the hive but did not get "on the oth- er combs, until I fed them some honey which seemed to start them to work. On the 11th day, the queen began laying, and they increased quite rapidly. In Nov. I gave them more comb honey and wrapped them up for winter. I think they are all right yet. D. C. Brown. Stamford, Ct., Feb. 23d, 1878. I felt a few days ago as though I was "Big Injun" on wintering bees, for I thought I had got them through the winter without losing a single stock; but upon looking them over, I found one queenless, and only about % pt. of bees left, so I suppose I shall have to count that lost. However, I feel much better than I did three years ago when I lost every one, of dysentery. I had last fall 29 stocks and of these. 2S are now in good condition. They were all packed in txjxes, with chaff around the body of the hive, and straw around and over the cap, with chaff cushions over the frames. I enclose you a card which a neighbor of mine has just handed me, showing a cut of a new stone ware hiv-e manufactured in Missouri. Of all, "patent hive humbtigs," it seems to me this is the greatest. 1 think one might as well try to winter bees on a cake of ice as in this hive. Jas. Mattoon. Atwater, O. March 11th. '78. combs breaking down WHEN FEEDING, &C. We, that is my wife and I, are studying bees ; we bought one swarm last year, aftei- the season wa? nearly over and put them in a common box hive. In the fall we found that they had a good deal of •comb, but very little honey. Hence we ha\'e had a pretty good opportunity to experiment with them by way of feeding. A few weeks ago, the center comb ifell to the bottom of the hive, and we felt com- pelled to transfer them to a movable comb hive. This was successfully accomplished and they are busy every fine day. Every step that we take is a new one. We do not propose to increase the stock faster than we are sure of our ground. Will it pay to get an extractor for one swarm? Also, how many swarms cjin we get from the one we have, and have good stocks and some honey? We study Langstroth diligently, but as yet have only theory. H. S. Bennett. Fisk Unvcrsity, Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 25th, 1878. When bees are fed rapidly, the combs are quite apt to break down. It is, probably, because they do not have time to build the comb as strong as they would with a natural yield. If you were never going to have more than one colony, I hardly think I would advise an extractor, since we have section boxes that can be used so simply. I cannot tell you how many good stocks you could get from one. Some bee-keepers, in some localities, might secure a dozen, by artificial 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 127 swarming ; others, in other localities, would have hard work, to increase to even two. It depends very much on how much honey you take away frolu them. One swarm, and .50 lbs of honey, would be a fair average, if they were well cared for. CLIPPED WINGS AND SWARMING. If queens wings are clipped wont the swarm some- times cluster atnjhotv? Wnen returning could they not be hived by covering the old hive, and placing the new one close beside the old, eatsicr than to have them cluster on the rake? Bees are doing nicely so far; plenty of young bees, and sealed brood in three eoml>s, a circle 3 inches in diameter. Good enough, eh? J. A. Ward. Madisonville, O., Fed., 23d, 1878. The swarm will sometimes cluster "any how," but they will not remain clustered A^ery long, unless some kind of a queen is with them. You could, without doubt, get them into the new hive by covering the old one and putting the new one with the en- trance very near the old ; but it would be a surer way, to remove the old one, as soon as most of the bees are out, placing the new one in its stead. If you have a place ah'eady fixed for the old one, and some one is near to help carry it, it is a very quick and easy way of taking care of swarms. If you cage the qtieen as she hops out, and lay the cage at the entrance, you may go off and leave them, even while they are in the air. I know of but one thing that could prevent their coming back, and that is another swanu coming out at the same time : they might possibly join with this. After you have the queen safely caged, you can tie the cage to the rake, with a bush on it. or move the pa- rent hive away, whichever operation you find easiest, in practice. You will remembsr we bought two colonies of bees of you over one year Ego. Well, we lost one; the other, we think, did well; it is still living with plenty of honey to spare this spring. If it swarmed the young swarm got away from us, we cannot say as totiiat. It is the only colony in the whole Territory of New Mexico. If we make a success, will keep you posted. It is still a question whether bees will do well in this Territory. M.W.Mills. New Mexico, March 5th. 1878. To-dav my bees are bringing in heavy loads of pollen, but I notice the Italians bring more than two loads while the Blacks bring one. E. E. Smith. Lickley's Corners, Mich. March 7th., '78. I purchased 2 swarms 3 years ago next Julj-, pay- ing $10.00 for them, and I can truly say I never in- vested money so well before or since. Having kept a strict account with them, I find the money has tripled, and I have 9 swarms to begin this season with. Joseph H. Strong. West Hertford, Conn. March 8th. 1878. A beginner's first season. Last spring I started with two colonies; one In an American hive, and one in a common box hive. Each gave me i swarms and over 300 lbs. of surplus honey. My first swarm came out of the box hive, on the 18th of May, and went to a tree, without stopping to clus- ter. Next day I took a hive to the woods and tried to drive them into it, but they would not be driven. The next move I ma'le was to cut open the body, with the intention of scooping them into the hive, but I found them in such a position that I could not reach them. I next placed a shingle over them, and by stirring them up and keeping them in motion, I succeeded in getting about }i of them to cluster on the under side of the shingle. I shook these in front of the hive and they went in. The rest followed, by keeping them "stirred up." Since all this woriy and trouble I have taken quite a fancy to the method of dividing. I let the box hive send out one more swarm, then trans- ferred them to a frame hive. This was my first job of transferring. In July I purchased one Italian queen, and introduced her to this colony. I left them on their summer stands with boards around and over them to keep off the wind and storm. They have upward ventilation and are at the present time brooding. Last spring I knew nothing about bee- keeping. Now I can divide, transfer, raise and in- troduce queens, and do all other work that pertains to bee culture. James H. Prescott. Gobleville, Mich. Feb, 18th. 1878. It has been intimated that I give great prominence to reports from beginners; is it not well to do so? These new hands enter into the business with such vigor and en- thusiasm, that they often do better the first few seasons, than when it gets to be an old story; and their reports point a clear moral to us all, on the importance of giving each colony the care and attention they need, at the proper time; also that bee-culture is not very difficult to learn, when one studies and pushes ahead. Some of our young men with a few years experience, are beating our vet- erans who have spent a life in the industry. Do not forget "blasted hopes,"' but study well the causes of success and failure. On page 210, Aug. No., you give dimensions in full for the end board of packing box but for nothing else. Length of strips above and- below, also of end strips, and length and width cf top and bottom would be appreciated; also the size of the glass. Do lumbermen out your way keep % in. boards to sell, or do you split inch boards? B. Lunderer. I omitted giving the remaining dimen- sions, for fear of guiding you into error, thinking the safest way would be to set as many sections together as you wished the case to contain, and then to cut your thin strips to the proper length ; and the same with the glass. See w^hat sized glass you can purchase to best advantage in your stores, and then saw the rabbets to allow them to slide in, accordingly. I have never found any I lumber kept in stock, but have been obliged to have inch lumber split and dressed. Very cheap lumber will answer for this purpose, if we sort it out a little. Re-sawing lumber, is rather too heavy work for the foot-power saws, but the hand-ripper described on another page, answers beauti- fully for ripping or re-sawing anything not more than 3f inches through. SPRING DWINDLING. My bees (Italians) are dying in considerable num- bers; they crawl out of the hive and do not seem to have life enough to get off the bottom board, but die at the very entrance. They have plenty of good white honey nicely capped. It does not appear like dysentery as you describe it. It may be the old bees, but I would think they would fly away. What do you think is the matter? The hive is clean, in a good warm place out-doors and shielded from the cold winds, on the south side of a building. D. W. Starkjey. Batavia, 111., March 7th, 1878. The case you mention is, without doubt, one of the phases of the old bee disease or spring dwindling, as it is called. If only a few of the bees are affected, I would not mind it, but if so many that the stock gets seriously depleted, it may be well to feel alarmed. The remedy is to imite to keep up the strength of the colonies, but this, some- times, seems to do but little good. I have never seen a case of it where tlie bees were packed in chaff, but as I have had but few cases of late in any shape, it may not be due 128 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. April to the chaff entirely. Yesterday, we found a colony that h;ul been skipped, in the fall chaff piicking ; nothing was over the cluster, except a sheet of duck, and that had several holes through it. The outside combs were full of ilead bees, and the bottom board was covered with heaps of them. More than half the colony, which was quite strong, had per- ished, and yet the chaff packed ones all round them,' many of them quite weak, had lost scarcelj"^ a bee. No bees were found dead in the cells, among those that were closed down to a few combs, although some were so weak that they wintered on but 3 combs. I am inclined to think the trouble you have mentioned, friend S. would not have occurred, had j^our bees been similarly packed. PITRCHASIXQ "RIGHTS." What do you a?k for the rig-ht to manufacture Sim- plicity hives, to sell? I think I ean make wood work as cheaply here or cheaper than it can be done any- where, and can ship also at low f reig'hts by river to many points. Of course, friend. Root 1 know you are not a patent man, but I am willing' to pay you some- thing-. Reinhard Stehle. Marietta, Ohio, March 6th, 1878. Thank you my friend, for your kind offer. You, and everjHt)ody else, are perfectly wel- come to copy every thing I have made or in- vented, and the satisfaction of knowing I have helped my fellows, is all the pay I shall ever want. I hope. Even if I should not get all the credit I deserve, it matt^ei-s very little, for I have full faith that He who careth for the sparrows, will take care of and provide for His children, who are of more value than many sparrows. Do not be afraid I shall ever consider your business an opposition one, for I am learning now, if I did not know it before, that the world is amply wide for us all. Do good work, and at a low price, and I will give you all the aid I possibly can; whenever I have done this with a pure un- selfish spirit, I have always found plenty of kind friends to com3 forward voluntarily, and I have had plenty and to spare. It is in this way that God shows His care and love for those who are deserving, as I understand Him, and I have no fear, my friends, of your not giving me all the credit, aye and money too, that I deserve, for I am sure you have, so far, given me more of both. THIN FOU>fDATION. I think you say, fdn. will measure from 4 to 9 square feet per lb. Can you send me 100 lbs. of fdn. (worker) that will measure 800 square feet? If so, at what price? Bees had a good fly to-day. One stock didn't fly worth a cent, — honey on one side, bees on the other — dead. Looked in a few hives — brood in one — no brood, no poJUn in the others — bad shape — with one or two warm still days, we'll flx 'em. Carried in a few lbs. of flour to-day. J. H. TOWNLEY. Tompkins, Mich. March 2nd, '78. We can make fdn. with very slight walls, as thin as 9 square feet to the lb., but it would be very difficult to get the hands to put up a hundred lbs. so thin as to cover even 800 ft. With our present methods of working, we cannot make sheets roll of a uniform thick- ness, and I cannot see that it is at all impor- tant. We tried rolling the sheets of wax through plain rolls, to give tliem an even thickness, more than two years ago, but those who undertake the task, will probably find where the trouble comes in. If you had put your bees on as few combs as they could cover, friend T.. I do not see how the honey could get on one side, and the bees on the other. You should understand how to work chaff hives, if any one does. YELLOW QUEENS, AND BLACK QUEENS THAT HAVE- MATED ■SVITH ITALIAN DRONES. Which do you consider best to rear queens from, a dark, or a deep yellow Italian queen? If there be any difference, please explain. How far apart should Blacks and Italians be to prevent crossing-? Did you ever have a black queen mate with an Italian drone? I bought a stand of Blacks last summer,(the nearest Italians being- six miles awayi, the queen of which mated with an Italian drone. How are they for hon- ey gathering, &c. ? Bees have been wintered so far without loss. Queens commenced laying Feb. 14th, three weeks later than last year. I now have almost all kinds of bees,— blacks, Italians and hybrids. I think I will Italianize most of them next season. I have two black queens which I do not think can be outstripped by any race of bees, as far as bees and honey are concerned. R, H. A. March 4th., 1878. I do not know which is best, a dark queen or a light one, but these eager questioning new beginners, will very soon ttnd out, at the rate they are now pushing their research- es. I am inclined to think color has but lit- tle to with their value. I have had black queens that have met Italian drones, and have reported in regard to them. I can- not see that the workers differ, either in looks or "zeal,'' from ordinary hybrids, being very much ahead of common black bees. I think bees as far apart as the dis- tance you have named, rarely mix, yet the Italians seem to spread very rapidly. Last summer, in hunting bees 10 miles from our apiary, I found beautifully marked Italians, and could not iind that anV were kept within at least, 5 or 6 miles from the spot. Of com'se, we have occasionally black queens equal to the average Italians* and we have, also, Italians not up to the average of the blacks; but taking the genenil run of the two races, the Italians are almost immeasur- ably ahead. In regard to yellow queens, I believe they are more likely to produce yel- low bees, and bees that are more gentle to handle; but as a rule, these gentle bees are not as good honey gatherers. VARNISHING HIVES INSIDE. Would it be any advantage to give new hives a coat of varnish inside, as bees collect around furni- ture and carriage bodies on the platforms in the spring of the year when they are put out-doors to dry; would it hot save them the gumming over the' sides of the hives, or help them a good deal? If not, would it annoy or hurt them? Sam'l R. Lippincott. Indianapolis, Ind., Mar. 4th, 1878. It would doubtless save the bees some trouble, but the hives would be more liable to dampness, because the dry wood absorbs moisture in a way the varnished surface j Avould not. I do not think it would do any I perceptible harm. ! I feel like a "burnt child" in this "bee business" as i I bought a farm right and sample gum for $18.00 of i N. C. Mitchell. I paid 50 cts. for the first lessons in I Bee Culture or "Bee-Keeper's Guide" and I don't consider that I made much in that deal with him, so I I will move slowly after this. I am 63 years old and I served three years in the federal army. I had three wounds and can not use my right hand; I write with mv left. James E. Skeen. 1 Witts' Foundry, Tenn., Feb. 26th, 1878. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 129 lur %cnjm' And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye?— Luke, 6; 41. nMrUST back of where I sit writing, we used d'l to have a pencil case, with a glass over the top. Occasionally, some customer ox friend wliile talking^ would lesm careless- ly on the glass, and it would be broken. They would of course apologize for their care- lessness, and hand over a sufficient amount of money to make the case good, generally remarking that they ought to have known better than to lean on a glass in that way. In a few days the case would be broken again, in tlie same way, and I, finally losing patience, spoke something in this wise, "I do wish people had sense enough to keep their elbows off a glass case.'' But still they broke them and felt badly about it, and I took their money to pay for having a new glass put in. What do" you think about it my friends? The fact that good people kept leaning on the glass, began to make me feel, especially Avhen I was not in a complaining mood, that l>erhaps I ought not to ask them, or rather to expect them not to lean on the case, situ- ated exactly as that one was. In one of these better moments, I moved one case ti way, (there were two of them) and had a heavy plate glass, at an expense of $7.00, put in the otlier. Of course there was no more breaking. Do you not think I felt better about it? And is it not well for us to look carefully at home, and see if the fault is not ours, before we blame poor humanity for doing something that a great many peo- ple would do, especially, when they do it in- nocently, as was the case in breaking the glasses, and to consider whether there is not some unnoticed beam in our own eyes, be- fore we are too severe on a brother, or many brothers, because there are motes in their eyes? In Mr. Langstroth's last writing for Gleanings, he seems to have struck on the same line of thought, and although for years he thought that the world had been treating him unkindly, \\iis he not in a bet- ter and happier spirit, when he wrote the following, that I liave taken from page 79, of our volume III? Now a few words about patenting- devices which, however valuable, can be easily made, and without a large investment in machinerj-, &c. Such patents will be largely infringed upon and the patentee will usually find himself without any redress. The pat- ent laws do not, and cannot protect him. He may commence legal proceedings in the United States Courts against infringers. But few have the means to do this, even if it would pay to hunt up and pros- ecute small infringers. The patent is like a good pasture, with weak walls or fences, and hungry cat- tle all around it— sure in due lime to be trampled down and eaten up. If a patent is upon something which requires much skill, and considerable capital for its manufacture, it is far less likely to be infring- ed. Men are not apt to invest largely without care- ful inquiry as to the rights of others— they have too much at stake and by their large investments can be too easily reached for damages. Does it not approach, in spirit, to the sen- timent expressed in, ''Father forgive them, for they know not what they do?" I have, before, mentioned as an illustra- tion, the experiment of hanging out a bas- ket of fine apples, and requesting by a card, that all who take an apple leave a penny. There is no question about it, all who take one of the apples, should leave a penny in its place; but so Jong as we are well aware that humanity will not do it, shall we censure them too severely? My friend, are you quite sure that you would always leave the penny? and you? and you? and you? 1 think it very likely that nearly all of you say you would; now please do not get angry, but my friend I am not quite sure you would. To come right home, unless I made some strong resolution, or unless I had some particular motive to make me vehement in the matter, I am pret- ty sure I should, after a while, get to taking the apples without leaving a penny. I should have a good excuse, no doubt, for we always do; I think it would come about something in this manner. I would feel in my pocket for a penny, and being very tired and thirsty, I would make up my mind to take the nice apple, and put in a penny when I came back; or to make it all very fair, I would sometime put in two pennies. This I would do for a while, andtheni would get more careless, and take a half dozen without remembering how many, and to make itup, put in a half dime, thinking I had more than paid for all I had taken. If the owner of the basket should ever call me to account, I would protest that I had put in more money than I had taken apples. If proof were brought to bear that was un- questionable I would in great astonishment say, "Why, I cannot think it jiossible, that I havereallj^ taken so many." At another time, I might Claim the apple was a miserable little affair, and that 1 did not think I ought, in justice, to pay anything for it. Again the complaint would be that I did not have it, it was somebody who was going along with me. At another time, I miglit say I had entirely forgotten the mat- ter, and if censured for my forgetfulness, perhaps I would claim I had done no wrong at all, for I honestly meant to keep it all straight, but it was forgotten, and therefore I was not really to blame. The excuses would be almost endless, for the disappearance of the apples, and the lack of pennies in their stead. At the same time, no one would be willing to be called a thief. If you complained of yoiu' losses, and ap- pealed to— to — well I hardly know who you could appeal to, for you would be told oii all sides that you must be a fool, to think you could sell apples without standing hj_ your basket and watching it. Is humanity to blame because they will not pay for every thing they have, without being watched? All you that think they are to blame, please raise the hand! Very well; now all who think they are not to blame, please raise the hand! If you want a little more time to study the question, think of it a while. Again; should people be blamed for doing just such things as we ourselves do? Be careful now, or I shall have you in a ''tight place." If you say they are, then you admit there is a great iieed of reformation, and that it should include your owii self. If you 30 GLEANmGS IN BEE CULTURE. April say they are not, then I ask, why do you cen- sure and find fault with others? Don't you find fault with anybody you know? Get some friend to watch jrou all day, and see if you do not; especially if you are leading an active business life. We are all careless and heedless, awfully careless and heedless of the rights of others. How do I know? Well I will tell you. Since I have been engaged in the Sabbath School work, I have been obliged to make humanity a study, more or less, and I have tried to terke an outside view of things, and to de- duct general principles, from seeing what the grea,t majority of individuals would do, under the same or similar circumstances. I tried experiments on humanity, if you will pardon the term, not solely with a purpose of seeing how much evil there is in us, but with a view also, of bringing out the good. The water tank at our door, has been one of the experiments. I really do not like to tell you all the results, for it will sound like find- ing fault with my fellow men, or fellow boys, rather. Kind words we have had from many, it is true, but careless indifference from by far the greater number. The best water in town has to be carried quite a dis- tance, and as I found by experiment that the greater part of the people preferred wa- ter from that particular well, we have kept the tank supplied from that source for the past year. As a drinking cup of anything but metal was out of the question, we were obliged fco keep the cups chained to prevent their being lost. Could they not hang up a cup after slaking their thirst? Well it would seem they could, but in actual practice, we find a good many will drop the cup on the f round, as soon as they have had enough, confess that seems rather a hard statement, but try it, and see how it works, on a busy street. During one time in the hottest of the weather, some of the street boys got a fashion of turning the faucet, so as to let the water all run out on the sidewalk, obliging us to go and bring more. What was to be done? The patience of our most patient hands was worn threadbare, and many times did I decide to take away the water tank, and give up the experiment; but as often did the disappointed looks of^ thirsty humanity, when they found the tank empty, soften my heart, and I prayed that all beams might be taken from my own eyes, in a way that would enable me best to labor for the good of those provoking street boys, and to say in sincerity, "Father for- five them, for they know not what they do." "walked round the central stairway," and besides studying bee-hives and bee-feeders, studied on some plan of giving thirsty people pure water, out on the street, without tempt- ing the boys to such deeds of mischief. Per- haps I should remark that they started their first fun, by fixing a long string to the cups in the evening, watching until some in- nocent pedestrian had raised it just to his lips, then jerking the cup out of his hands. Of course, we scolded the boys for this; they replied back, and then I am afraid we — some of us— threatened them. It did seem, as if a little wholesome "pounding" would be just what these "street Arabs" needed to bring them into a sense of the "fitness of things," and it seemed also, as if such a course would be particularly "soothing" to the one who had to bring the water and ice. l3o you suppose I could ask God to help me, when I had aay such thoughts towards these poor boys. I used to be one among j ust such boys, when I robbed strawberry gardens. I tell you I find a "great big" mote in my own heart, if not in my eye. I mentioned the matter in the Sunday morning Bible class, and we decided to pray for these boys who were troubling us. The young man who carried the water was present, and he, like our young friend of last month, doubted the wisdom of trying moral suasion with any such boys, as these in question. Do you wish to know how it came out? Well, I'll tell you. A bright new tin cup now hangs beside the tank, without even a chain to it, for the boys broke off all the chains and carried them away; yet the cup has been there some time, and it is very seldom drop- ped on the pavement, as before. No one wastes the water as they did, and no one leaves the faucet turned. Of course I shall h,ave fresh battles to fight, for Satan or "evil impulses" are always at work, but the same weapon is always ready for all of us, and it is always equal to any emergency that may turn up. The two edged sword of prayer, will always conquer, if we honestly pray that the beams may be taken from our own eyes that we may see clearly. If you should ever undertake any kind of mission work, my friend, be careful you do not get provoked oV even annoyed, no matter what may come up; very provoking cases will do you good, if you only keep the beams out of your own eyes. "Blessed are ye when men shall per- secute you, and say all manner of evil things against you, falsely, for my sake." This is true, without any question, if we could only rise above these trifles, and make a practical application of it. I believe it, in my better moments, and I resolve to have more faith next time; but how far, how very far, I fall short in practice. Oft-times I can only say, "My Father, I am a poor blind stumbling child, stubborn and headstrong withal. I have tried to do better so often, and failed so miserably, that all I can do, is to come to Thee just as I am. Take me. this journal, my business, and all, and use it for tlie ben- efit of this busy throng of humanity, of which I am but OMC." You may say that such prayers are only plain common sense after all, for when the boys saw there was no fight in me, they stop- ped bothering me. I agree with j^ou, for the religion that lielps me through this world of trouble, is plain common sense and noth- ing more. There is a kind of beam that gets into our eyes in trying times, that seems es- pecially hard to get out; and to illustrate the l)oint I will narrate a little incident from real life. A man who was much in the habit of going to God in prayer with all his business troub- les, discovered that some one in his employ was, in spite of careful watching, robbing his cash drawer. The matter went on for weeks and months, until a year had ])assed, and yet the mystery baffled all his skill and 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 131 research. As usual, he made up his mind to discharge the offender without mercy, just as soon as he could put his hand upon Mm. After the amount had reached a sum that woiild send him to the penitentiary, the evi- dence seemed to point in a certain direction, but our friend could hardly think of the idea of laying traps or playing the spy on any of those around him. Any one or you who has ever in life been in a similar predicament, can understand how painful such a task is. One evening, after the footing of the books showed the cash sliort an unusual amount, lie started out with the determination of sifting the matter to the bottom, whatever the expense, and no matter how disagreea- ble the task might be. As he meditated on the task before him, and felt how utterly ig- norant he was of the means usually employ- ed by detectives in similar work, and how totally inadequate he was to the task, it oc- cui'red to him that if his errand were a just one, he had a right, nay it was his duty to ask help of that Great Strong Friend who had lifted him over his troubles and trials so often. It was dark and rainy, and the pave- ments were wet and sloppy, yet for all that, down on his knees he went, and as the street was, for the time, deserted, he prayed aloud that God would give him wisdom and show him how to keep his little property from the hands of those who so luiscrupously appro- priated it. I wish to digress here, just a lit- tle. What is the use of praying aloud? Does not God know^ our inmost tlioughtsV These are questions I have asked myself many times, and it is not imtil within the past few months, that I have felt any veiy strong desire to get away by myself, where I could tell God my thoughts "out loud." I can pray while walking along, or while sit- ting here at my work and I often do ask God to help me when confusion and cares seem to multiply, but it does not ''make me ovt?r new," like going down home into the honey house where the sawdust walls prevent the slightest sound from being heard outside, and where I can tell Him all my troubles. When we are in deep distress, and so much In earnest that we can bow ourselves on the wet pavement, and talk aloud to tliis friend in need, we may be i>retty sure oiu' prayers will be answerecl, if our requests are proper ones, and not altogether scljish. I lay partic- ular stress on these lavSt two words, for earn- est prayer, is pretty sure to show us the beams in our own eyes. As he knelt in the rain, the question came very soon, "If you are given wisdom to hunt up the offender, what will you do with him? Is it the loss of your money that troubles you, or the loss of the soul of a fellow being? Will you forgive him if he asks to be forgiv- en, and lend a helping hand, to one in more distress, perhaps, than you?" Our friend had Christianity enough, to turn about at once, and pray, not for him- self, but for the guilty one, and to promise God if the opportunity were given him, he •would pardon all, and do his best to help a- bout a reformation. As he rose up, through the rain and darkness, new light seemed to be shed on the matter in question, and the difficult problem was as plain as A B C. I will relate the course he took to show you liow, even an ignorant man, may have wis- dom given him, that, it seems to me, will compare very well -with that of a skillful lawyer or detective. He knew the young man had been paying out money, more than he had received, and it took but a few minutes to get facts that could not easily be contraverted. He then went straight to his lodging place, called him out, and in a frank straight forward way spoke to him as follows : "Joseph, have you taken any money from the drawer to-day ?" "No sir." "Not one copper ?" "No sir, but I put in a copper, and took a postal card." "You are perfectly sure, you took no mon- ey out?" "Yes I am perfectly sure I did not."' "Now^ do not hesitate, but answer the full truth, promptly. Where did you get the money you paid H. this morning ?" "A man sent it to me in a letter." "You have the letter ?" "No, I biuTied it up." "Come with me to the telegraph oftice, and we will telegraph to the man." One moment of irresolution, a quiver of the lip, and then a great sob, as he broke forth, "Oh stop, don't go any farther; I have ta- ken your money, I will own up all, but do give me another chance, do let me try once more, to be a better boy. I have tried not to do so any more, and I have felt so badly about it. But somehow I would get bad, and I do not know what made me do so." As the hand of the employer took that of the unliappy boy, do you know how fervently he could pray, "forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors?" The boy is now at work in his old place, paying the just debt he owes, and the employer learned a lesson about having a beam in ones eye even while calling "stop thief" to one who is robbing him. I do not mean to say I would screen the guilty from the penalty of the law, but I would be very careful that ail other means were tried, before sending any boy to the penitentiaiy. It may be that the young man will go back to his old habits yet, but I think if he is watched over and cared for, there will be little danger of it ; and who can com- pute the value of an immortal soul ? As the employer went to his home that night with a light heart, do you not think he could feel, "blessed are ye when men shall persecute you," and that truly, "all things shall work together for good, to those that love and fear the Lord?" ALiiraoST TTUE ft26. CHAFF KIVE. SOMETHING VERY INGENIOUS AT LEAST. p^HE following device, comes the nearest Jl^ in my estimation of what is wanted, of — ' anything yet submitted, and although I have not yet decided to use it at all, our friend has pennittedme to have the illustra- tions made, and to describe it. Let E, E, represent the end boards to a 132 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. April Simplicity hive, with the frame in place. It will be observed that this frame has the top and bottom alike, and that there are no projections, for it to hang on. The only supports the frame has, are the bent wire staples, shown at D, C, and on a more en- larged scale, at A. These are made of a scovell's suspended frame. large size of tinned broom wire, which is so elastic as to give considerable spring. I need hardly state that they are to Ibe hung on a nail head, in the end of the hive. These nails are all driven in the exact spot, by having a strip of iron, with a notch where every nail is to come. Drive the nail tn the notch, until the head just comes down to the iron. Move your gauge away, and it is all done. These nails a-ie cheaper than the metal rabbet. If the bees do attach pro- polis to the polished wire, it will snap off, almost as soon as the wire is touched. To fasten on these wire loops, two holes are pricked at onoe, with a two pronged instru- ment, or several end bars may be pierced at once, by having a foot power punch. The wire should go through just about as hard as it can be pushed, and then clinched on the inside. I need hardly say that these holes must all be pierced at exactly the same spot, or we shall have much trouble. To get out the frames, you have only to lift them, until the loops are raised from the nail lieads, and then lift the frame out. The upper story, will not be in the way at all, and we can lift the frames from even the lower story of the Simplicity hive, without taking off the upper one. If we wish to use chaff cushion division boards, we shall have no rabbets to plug up or make tight, but on- ly a plain square board; and the sheet of cloth covering the frames, will go clear up into the corners, anywhere, with no calcula- tions to make for the rabbet, as before. Is it not beautiful V But now we will take the other side. OBJECTIONS. The one great objection, in my mind, is that the frames are at fixed distances, and cannot be slid along on the rabbet, nor used interchangeably, unless the combs are pret- ty nearly of a thickness. This difficulty, since the 11S8 of fdn., isnot so great as be- fore, for combs built on the fdn., are pretty much alike, or at least they can be made so. The other great objection is, that should the bees get more honey in one side of the comb than the other, which they often do, the comb would be likely to swing out of true. This could be remedied, by liaving two nails, and a square ended loop on the wire, but this plan, for several reasons, I think untenable. We also might have nails, staples, or a wire "zigzag'' at the bottom of the frames, to keep the bottoms in place, but all such contrivances, have been over and over again discarded, for various rea- sons. I have used them all, and have exper- imented much, besides hearing from many others who have used them ; and I am sure I would prefer just the simple wire loop and nothing more, if I used it at all. Now we will listen to the inventor; of course he is sanguine, for who ever knew an inventor who was not. He has wisely chosen one of the most shallow frames, for hi»— what shall we call the hive friend Scovell ? I heliev^ that I am the orig-inal inventor of the methori of suspending' cr)mh frames. I have also in- vented a machine for bendin°r the wires, on which they can be made for a trifle per thousand ; a pwund of wire m'^ke^ 800 loop^. I will take the liberty of answering- the objections In your letter, I run 70 hives last- season havinar double sets of frames of 10 each, and in no instance was I troubled by having- the bees fasten the wires to the nails. A few of them did fasten the quilt to the wires and nails when they happened to oome in contact with them ; but I be- lieve that if the top of the wire was % or ?£ of an inch from the top of the frame they would not at- tempt to fasten it. Nails without heads would have to project too far inside of the hive, in order to keep the frames from falling off ; nails with heads can be driven in close, leaving- just room for the wire to pass over. I have had hives brought 6 miles this winter on a lumber wag-on, without having- a frams f-astened and not one jumped fron its place. I, too, did not like frames at exact distances. But by hav- ing- a hive that oblig-es me to place them in. I find that r have the straightest lot of combs that I have ever had. I use no wire at the bottom to keep the frames plumb ; if the frame is made true and hung- true it makes but little ditfereace whether it is sus- pended by a nail driven into the end— as hundreds use them— by a projecting tip bar, or by a wire loop. You say the wires would get twisted but of shap^ with awkward handlin:?. I extracted 4.000 lbs. of hiney last fall, 70 hives out of 110 having frames with wire loops, and not one was twisted out of shape. It would make this letter too long, for me to attempt to tell you the advantages which i think one gains by using the wire loop. I have a plan for ma- king the hive double walled which [ think is just the thing. Bv to-day's mail I will send you a sample, showing the bond of mv wires and the manner of hanging the frame. For large frames like the stan- dard Langstroth, I would use No 18 or 19 tinned wire. My frame is just 7^ inches deep. As you have had a great deal of experieneo with different kinds of hives. I would be glad to have you give mv plan a trial and see how you like it. If you conclude to adopt the plan in whole or in part, I will do what I can toward making it a durable hive. H. Scovell. Columbus, Kan.. Feb. 33d, 1878. Over 1000 February No's were given away, and now we are obliged to offer lOe. a piece for 'era. Isn't it sad to contemplate? Never mind, send us a Feb. No, and we will send you the 10c. There! I have got all the pateijt office Oazetten right at my elbow, in anTEmerson binder, and whe-n anybody tells about his patent, I can read it for my- self. The patent on Bingham's smoker is for a ma- chine for "destroying insects by fumigation," per- haps that is all right, but why does he not sav some- thing about bees somewhere, if it is a "bee" Imple- ment? ^ t»* •■ Our friend .1. M. Brooks, of Elizabethton, Ind., makes a specialty of selling bees, and his circular is well worth sending for. His bees are all yellow bees and he says you do not have to put them on the win^- dow to see the thi-ee yellow bands, either. I am well aware, friend B., that if the bees are all a nice yel- low, cnstomers are prettv sure to be satisfied ; if yon can get just as large yields of honey, and have just as good success wintering, as with the darker beos, we shall all be satisfied 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 133 CYPRUS ISLAND QUEENS. Having wintered our Cyprian Bees successfully, we shall be prepared to furnish Queens the coming season at $10. each. These bees were forwarded to us direct from the Island of Cyprus, and as no other bees will be bred in our locality, we can guarantee the purity of their Queens. That we may give satisfaction to all, we shall fill orders strictly in rotation, no order being booked un- less $1. be forwarded. Safe arrival of Queens by mail or express guar- ° Tipo^TEs mum queens. Previous to the arrival of our Cyprians we con- tracted for a large number of Italian Queens. These we will sell at $4. each— if they can be forwarded .iust as received. If we are to select the largest and lightest colored or retain them until their worker progeny appear, we mast ask ^5. each. We will de- liver at express office here in box as received, or forward by mail, as requested. No circular issued. Kesistered letters, or money orders at our risk. C. W. & A. H. K. BLOOD, 4 P. O. Box 2;M. Quincy, Mass. See engraving ia March Huniber. Price 10c. Two cents extra when sent by mail. A. I. ROOT. Medina. Ohio. 500, Ten Everblooming U\\(m IVises for $1.00. Plants and Evergrecsts* sent Free bv Mail. Catalogues Fre*. Address, I. C. 'WOOD & BSSO.. i Nurserymen and Florists, Fls^liklll, IV. Y. ITALIAN QUEENS FOR 1878. The increasing demand for our choice Queens has induced us to breed them the present season at the following prices : Pure Tested Queens in April, May and June, each $3 00 July, August and September 2 00 Nucleus Hives with pure Tested Queen 5 00 Full Swarm " '• " 10 00 A discount will be made on large orders. Safe arrival guaranteed. No circulars sent. l^-Our book, "THE APIARY," describing the nature and habits of the Bee, sent post-paid for Fifty Cents. 4-6inq A. F. MOON, Rome, Ga. I have a few very fine queens, wintered in strong nuclei, that will be promptly shipped to parties in need of such "furniture." All bred from imported mothers. I shall continue the importation of queens froin Italy during the season, and sell the same to old and new patrons at live and let live prices. Address JOHN A. BUCHANAN, ^ Wintersville, Jeff. Co., Ohio. Tin for Separators and ^tractors. As we buy in large quantities, I can perhaps gi\e you better rates than you are getting at home. Price per box of 112 sheets, size 14x20, for Separators $6 25 " " sheet, for less than a box V IX tin for making Extractors, 14x20, per box 9 00 " " per sheet 10 will ship it from Medina, or from Philadelphia, a" : ;iy be most convenient. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. Electrotypes. We will furnish electrotypes of any of the engra- vings that have appeared in Gleanings, for 25c per square inch. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. PRICES REDUCED ON MATERIAL FOR MY GliASS HONKIT BOXES. 4 C. R. ISHAM, Peoria, Wyoming Co., N. Y. 'ANTED—Situation by a bee-keeper. Addref-s, stating terms and requirements, I. M. KAUFFMAN, Smithville, Wayne Co., O. W Try SV!e! Italian Queens, Nucleus and full Colonies, Hivrpi, White Holland Turkeys, and Plymouth Rock eggs. Satisfaction guaranteed, or money refunded. Ser.d for prices. WILSON HARVEY, 4-6 Brownsburg, Bucks Co., Pa. FROM the 1st of April to June 15th, I will sell Itol- ian nucleus colonies of 2 frames, with testerl queen, at $4. and will transfer them to any kind of frame desired, by giving me outside measure of such frames. When ordered with my own size frame (Hi in. high by 10% wide in the clear) 3 combs will be sent instead of 2, for same price. 4 JULIUS HOFFMAN, Fort Plain, Mont. Co., N.Y. SOLOEiilG liPLEiENTS. For f 1.00, I will send by mail, a full sized soldering ijon ready for use, with a box of rosin, box of sold- ering fluid, bar of solder, and full printed instruc- tions for use. If sent by express, I will add a solder- ing board, all rigged, ready for work. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. i^l ? f In Canada you can get anything in the wav of Apiarian Supplies. Section Boxes grooved for fdn., from 5x5x1^ down, at 75 cents per 100 in the flat, hy the quantity. Wide Frames for sections, in ihe flat, $2.00 per 100. Hives, 2 stories complete, f;2.6i) tn $3.00, according to what frames wanted. Extractor-, 15.00 each, all metal, will take anv frame from 18 1: . down. Address M. RICHARDSON, 4-5d Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada. 1878. BEOS' Circular and Prices of Italian Bees sent free. ' 4-9d Elizabethtown, Ind., Box 127. 18'7S. FOE, SALE ! tueeiis. Propagated in populous colonies, pure and prolific. Tested queen, .?2.00. The same grade < f queen so soon as fertilized and laying, .fl.OO. Also full and nucleus colonies. Safe arrival guarantc od. Address W. P. HENDERSON, 4-*inq Murfreesboro, Tenn. Queens Wanted, I will pay $1.00 for all the Italian queens any of our Southern friends may find it convenient to send me during the month of May. These same queens, [ shall sell for $1..50; you are to guarantee sale deliv- ery, and I shall do the same, but nothing farther. I have made this arrangement to answer the great number of questions in regard to bu^^ng and selling- early queens. In June, I will pav siOc. and sell for $1.25; after July 1st, 750, and sell for $1.00. Tested Queens double alii>ve prices. All are to be daughters of imported mothers. I will pav 25c for hybrids, and sell them for .')()c, if I can. If you semi queens, write on the cage whom they are from. AJl to be sent by mail. Send in April, if ?/ou will risk them. A. I. ROOT, Medinti, Ohio. 134 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. April E. AV. HOLE'S Price List of Bees & Queens for 1878. 1 Colony Italian Bees with tested queen (before July 10th) $14 00; (after July IDth) $11 00 1 Colony Italian Bees with untested queen af- ter July 10th •. 9 50 ITestedQueen 2 50 1 Untested " 1 00 A discount of 10 per cent on all orders for queens of $10,00 or more. All queens raised from import- ed mothers. I have made arrang-ements to Italianize all the black bees within 3 miles of my apiary, and I think aU. my queens will be purely mated; all queens will be shipped in rotation, and I desire parties or- dering queens, to inform me whether they wish the money returned if the order can not be tilled at once. 3-8d Address, E. W. HALE, Wirt C. H., West Va. One swarm, $8.00, fire or more, $7.00 each; all in 8 frame L. hives. Are to be sold between April 1st, and May 10th, '78. 4 ALBERT POTTER, Eureka, Wis. Material ready to nail for standard Langstroth hives. Portico, 10 frames, (beveled top bar) bottom lx)ard and cap, in prices ranging- from 75c to $1,00 each, according to quantity wanted. Sample hive $1,50. Out favorite the "Modest" at same prices. We are prepared to beat the world on Honey and Section Boxes. Harbison section, 5 to 10 M. per M $6 50 " " Less than 5 M, per M 7 .50 1 " 8 50 Dovetailed sections, any size from i^ixiyi to 5x6, 5 to 10 M, per M 8 00 " " Less than 5, per M 8 50 ' 1 " 9 00 Circiilars for 1878 will soon be ready— Send for one. J. OATMAN & SONS, Itfd Dundee, Kane Co., Ills. JUST RECEIVED ; CHOICE NEW CROP Alsike Clover Seed. A fine new lot of Alsike clover seed, very clean and raised near us. Price per lb., 25c; per bushel, (60 lbs.) $13.50; ]'^ bushel, $7.00; peck, $3.75. If want- ed by mail add 18c per lb. for bag and postage. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. For further particulars see our Illustrated Cata- logue, mailed on application. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. MANUFACTURERS OF SUPERIOR DOUBLE REFINED GRAPE AND MALT SUGAR, CRYSTAL GLUCOSE SRYUP. Superior Double Refined Grape Sugar for feeding bees, at 3'/4c per lb. in barrels of 375 lbs., and 4c in boxes of 50 or 110 lbs. Crystal Glucose Syrup .5c per lb., by the barrel. Samples of the Grape" Sugar will be sent prepaid, by Express, on receipt of 10 cents. 11-ly LOUIS P. BEST, Sup't, Davenport, Iowa. We will furnish the above delivered on the cars here in Medina, at Va cent in advance of the above jn-ices. Or we will have it shipped from the factory, at factory prices. Any amoimt less than 50 lbs., will be 5c per lb. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. POPLM SECTIONS CHEAP. Harbison sections per 100 $1 00 " 500 4 00 " 1000 7 .50 Dovetailed sections any size fi'om 414x414 to .5x6, per 100 1 3.=> " 500 4 50 " 1000 8 00 Liberal discount given on large orders. Send p)OSt- al card for special prices. Address REINHARD STEHLE, Marietta, Washington Co., Ohio. 4d Lock Box 193. Comb Foundation MachineS $35.00 TO $100.00. SAMPLES OF FOUNDATION WITH OUR ONE POUND SECTION BOX BY MAIL FOR FIVE CENTS. For illustration and complete description of how to use the machines see our Illustrated Catalogue of Apiarian implements and supplies, mailed on ap- plication. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. FREE! FME! FREE! We will send a sample copy of the Bee-Keeper's ITEagazine, post-paid, to any person in any way in- terested in Bees or their S^rodncts, or in the ap- paratus so successfully used in modern management. Just send your name and address to A. J. KING & CO., 8tf 61 Hudson St., Ifew York. AND I am overwhelmed with letters asking "which siae smoker is the best?" Mr. J. E. Hetherington ordered eight of the large lor his aqyiaries and for coarse fuel they are the best. The Standard is what its name implies and consti- tutes the bulk of sales so far. The small is a pretty implement answering nicely for a few colonies of bees, and to kill liee on house plants, it is larger, however, than the Improved Quinby. The first "Direct Draft" smoker ever sold has been used one year and sold for one dollar as the gentle- man wanted a large size. It was a Standard and he paid $2.00 and says "be would not be without one a single day in the sea^ni for the price." They go all the time and jfntm sound or rotten wood, txihaero or sulptmr. Dirretions srnt with every smoker. These snii ikcrs are a necessity in modem bee eultntre, and are iudisptnsahlc in the easy, profitahlc and plea,'>- ani manaiiemrnt of bees in any hive — ancient or mod- ern. Sent bv mail, post paid, on receipt of price. Extra Large, per Express.. $175 Mall.... $2 00 Standard " ... 1 50 " . . . . 1 «0 Small, " . . 1 00 " . . . . 12.') Patented Januarj', 1878. Manufactured oiUy by the inventor, T. F. BINGHAM, 4tf Abronia, Allegan Co., Mich. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 139 imFLEMENTS FOU BEE CULTURE ALFHABETICAI.LY AKRANGED. For description of the various articles see our Twelfth Kdiiion Circular and Price List found in May No., Vol. \ I., or mailed on application. h or directions Hoiv to Make all these \arious arti- cles and implements, see A B C of Bee Culture. This Price List to be taken in place of those of former date. Mailable articles are designated in the left hand column of figures ; the figures giving the amount of piistaue required. Canada postage on merchandise is limited to 8?^ oz., and nothing can be sent for less than 10 cents. 15 1 Alighting Board, detachable. See ABC, 1 I'art First $ 10 I Basswood trees for planting. For prices ! see Price List I Balances, spring, for suspended hive (60 lbs.) 8 00 I Barrels for honey 3 50 I " " waxed and painted... . 3 50 I Bees, per colony, from $7 to $16, for partic- I ulars sec price list 10 I Bee-Hunting box, with printed instructions 25 0 I Binder, Emerson's, for Gleanings .'SO, 60. 75 10 I Blocks, iron, for metal cornered frame raa- i king 15 One of the above is given free with every 100 frames, or 1000 corners. 10 I Burlap for covering bees. 40 in. wide, per jd 10 I Buzz-Saw, foot-power, compJeh'; circular I with cuts free on application. Two saws I and two gauges included 35 00 0 I Buzz-Saws, extra. 85c, to $8.50. See price list. The above are all tiled, and set, and mailed any where CO i Buzz-Saw mandrel and boxes complete for I 6 inch saws. No saws included 5 00 ; The same for 7 and 8 in. saws (not mailable) 8 00 1 I Cages, wood and wire cloth, provisioned. See price list 05 13 1 " " " per doz 50 I " Larger size double above prices.. . 20 Candy for bees, can be fed at any season, I per lb 15 0 I Cards, queen registering, per doz 06 0 " " " per 100 40 fiO I Chaff cushions for wintering (see Nov. No. i for 1877) SO 9 I •' " without the chaff 15 40 1 Chaff cushion division boards 20 2 I Cheese cli )th, for strainers, per yard 10 10 I Clasps for transferring, package of 100 25 I Climbers for Bee-Hunting 8 50 I Comb Basket, made of tin, holds 5 frames, I has hinged cover and pair of handles 1 50 1 Comb Foundation Machines complete $35 to 100 00 20 I Corne'^, metal, per 100 75 20 I " " top onlj-, per 100 100 15 1 " " bottom, per IWI 50 On 1,000 or more a discount of 10 per cent will be roade, and on 10,000, 25 per cent. The latter will be given to those who advertise metal cornered frames. 1 Corners, Machinery complete for making $250 (X) 15 1 Enameled cloth, the hest thing for covering i frames, l^ees do not bite and seldom ! propolize it. Per yard, 45 inches wide, I 25c. By the piece, (13 yards) 22 i Extractors, according to size of frame, I $7 50 to 10 00 i " inside and gearing, including I honey-gate 5 00 I " Hoops to go around the top 50 per doz 5 00 5 1 Feeder, Simplicity, (see price list) 1 pint — 05 7 I Feeders, 1 quart, tin, (see April No) 10 4 I The same, half size, 05 25 I The same, 6 qts, to be used in upper story 50 0 1 Files for small circular rip saws, new and 1 valuable, 20c; per doz. by express... 3 00 j " Tlie same, large size, double above I prices 2 1 "3 cornered, for cross-cut saws, 10c; doz 1 00 5 I Frames with sample Habbet and Clasps... 10 18 i Galvanized iron wire for grapevine trellises 1 per Ih. (about 100 feet) 20 25 I Oates for Extractors tinned for soldering. . .50 .50 I Oenrinir for Extractor with s\ipporting arm 1 50 0 I Gleaninos. Vol's I and TI. ench 75 0 I " Vol's TV and V. oaeh 1 00 fli " Vol. Ill, second-hand 2 00 0 I " first five neatly bound in one. . . fi 00 C " " " unbound.... 5 00 I Hives from 50c to f 6 25 ; for particulars see I price list 0 I Honey Knives, straight or curved blade. . . 1 00 I ',' " % doz 5 35 I " " '/4 doz by Express 5 00 I Labels for honey, from 25 to 50c per 100 ; I for particulars see price list I Lamp Nursery, for hatching queen cells as 1 built 5 00 0 I Larvae, for queen rearing, from June to I Sept 25 15 I Leather for smoker bellows, per side tO 0 j Lithograph of the Hexagonal Apiary 26 0 i Magnifying Glass, Pocket 50 0 1 " " Double lens, bi-ass on I three feet ICO 0 i Medley of Bee-Keeper's Photo's, 150 photo's 1 CO 12 I Microscope, Compound, in Mahogany box 3 CO 0 i Prepared objects for above, such 0 1 as bees' wing, sting, eye, foot, &c., each 25 7 I Muslin, Indian head, for quilts and cush- I ions, pretty stout, but not good as duck, 1 per yard 10 10 1 Opera Glasses for Bee-Hunting 5 00 18 I Paralfine, for waxing barrels, per lb 30 0 I Photo of House Apiary and improvements 25 0 I Queens, .50c to 16 00. See price list 1 I Rabbets. Metal, per foot 02 I Salicylic acid, for foul brood, per oz 50 8 I Saw Set for Circular Saws 75 0 I Screw Driveis all tiietal (and wrench com- I bined) 4'4 inch 10c; 6 inch 15c. Very nice I for f oot-po we r saws 0 i Scissors, for clipping queen's wings 40 6 1 Section boxes, fancy, hearts, stars, crosses, 1 &c., each 05 Section Honey box, a sample with strip of 1 f dn. and printed instructions C5 I Section boxes in the flat by the quantity, I $9 50 per thousand and upwards, accord- I ing to size ; for particulars, see price list. 15 1 Case of 3 section boxes showing the I way in which the separators are used, suitable for any kind of hive, see price list 10 18 I Seed, A Isike Clover, raised near %ts, per lb . . 25 18 i " Catnip, good seed, per oz. 20c; per lb. 15 CO 0 I " Chinese Mustard, per oz 15 18 I '■ Mellilot, or Sweet Clover, per lb 60 18 " White Dutch Clover, per lb 60 I " Ml therwort, per oz. 2(.c; per lb 2 00 18 I " Mignonette, per lb. (2.5c per oz) 1 75 I " Simpson Honey Plant, per package 05 I " " " " peroz 50 18 I " Silver Hull Buckwheat, per lb 10 I " " " " peck by Express 75 18 I ■' Summer Rape. Sow in June and I " July, per lb 15 A small package of any of the above seeds will be sent for 5 cents. 5 I Sheets of Enameled cloth to keep the bees 1 from soiling or eating the cushions 10 I Shipping Cases for 48 section frames of I honey 60 j The same for 24 sections, half above i prices. This size can be sent by mail in I the flat, for 75c 10 I Smoker, Quinbv's (to Canada 15c extra) — 1 50 5 1 " Doolittle's, tobeheldinthemouth 25 I " Bingham's '.....$125:160; 200 25 1 " Our own, see illustration in price 1 " list 75 2 I Tacks, tinned, per paper, (two sizes) 10 5 I Thermometers 40 0 I Veils, Bee, with face of Brussels net, (silk) 75 I The same, all of tarletan (almost as good) 50 I "Wax Extractor 3 50 I Copper bottomed boiler for above 1 50 5 1 Wire cloth, for Extractors, tinned per I square foot 15 2 Wire cloth, for queen cages 12 I Above is tinned, and meshes are 5 and 18 I to the inch respectively 3 I Painted wire cloth, for shipping bees, 14 I mesh to the inch, per square foot 07 All goods delivered on board the cars here at prices named. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. 2E FANCY CARDS, vour name & a Morocco Card S5 Case, 10c; Schell, Bros., Smith's Land'g, N.Y. rTAliIAN QUEENS from an imported mother. Full stocks, and nuclei for sale cheap, with sat- isfaction guaranteed. Send stamp for price list. O. H. TOWNSEND, 5 Hubbardston, Ionia Co., Mich. 140 GLEAl^J^INGS IN BEE CULTURE. May TABLE OF PREIUUIUS. The first column is for those only, ^ § who send 5 or more names. S"i Names of Premium. Articles. C^-r Any of them sent post-paid on rec'pt of price. \—A R C of Bee Cidlitre, Part First 25 "2 — Lithoc/r iph of Apiary, Implements, etc. 25 'i—Ph'>ti)rirfiph of House Apiary 35 ^—•^Th'it Present,'''' yovice and Bltce Eyes 25 ^—Einerson's Binder for Gleanings, will hold 'i Volumes Sf' •i — " " better quality 60 7 — Pocket Magnifying Glass 60 S— First or .lecond Volume of QL^KX^sl^s(iS..^5 9 — Best quality Emerson's Binder for Glbajtings 75 IQ— Double Lens Maf/ni/i.er, on 3 brass feet 1,00 W— Photo Medley, Bee-keepers of A merical, 00 12 — First and second FoZ. o/ Gleanings.. 1,50 13— /I real Compound Microscope, beauti- fully finished, and packed with Imple- ments in a Mahogany Box 3 15 1-t — Opera Glass for Bee Hunting §5.00 Nu nber of Sub- scribers required at or at 75c. i.OO 5 2 S 2 ft 2 ft 2 6 3 3 7 3 4 8 4 9 4 9 4 10 6 20 8 25 10 ae My annual catalogue (a complete garden and floral guide— yo pages) of choice Northern grown seeds— 1000 varieties, bulbs, garden and apiarian imple- ments, supplies, agricultural books, bees, queens, &c., &c., is now ready— sent postpaid on application. Address, C. F. LANE, N. W. Apiary & 2tf Seed Warehouse, Koshkonong. Wis. MANUFACtURERS OF SUPERIOR DOUBLE REFINED GRAPE AND MALT SUGAR, CRYSTAL GLUCOSE SRYUP. Superior Double Refined Grape Sugar for feeding bees, at S'^^c per lb. in barrels of 375 lbs., and 4c in boxes of 50 or 110 lbs. Crystal Glucose SjTup 5c per lb., by the barrel. Samples of the Grape' Sugar will be sent prepaid, by Express, on receipt of 10 cents. 11-ly LOUIS P. BEST, Sup't, Davenport, Iowa. We will furnish the above delivered on the cars here in Medina, at 'i cent in advance of the above prices. Or we will have it shipped from the factory, at factory prices. Any amount less than 50 lbs., will be 5c per lb. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. For further particulars see our Illustrated Cata- logue, mailed on application. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. You can not look over the back No's of Glean- ings or any other Periodical with satisfaction, unless they are in some kind of a Binder. Who has not said— "Dear me, what a bother— I muxt have last month's Journal and it is no where to be found." Put each No. in the Emerson Binder as soon as it comes and you can sit down happy, any time you wish to find anything you may have previously seen even thoiu^h it were months iijro. Binders for Gleanings (will hold them for four years) gilt letterecl, free by mail for 50, 60, and 75c, according to quality. For table of prices of Binders for any Periodical, see Oct. No., Vol. II. Send in your orders. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. JUST RECEIVED ; CHOICE NEW CROP Alsike Clover Seed. A fine new lot of Alsike clover seed, very clean and raised near us. Price per lb., 25e; per bushel, (60 lbs.) .?13.50; Vj bushel, *7.00; peck, $3.75. If want- ed by mail add 18c per lb. for bag and postage. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. E. AV. HALE'S Price List of Bees & (Queens for 1878. 1 Colony Italian Bees with tested queen (before July 10th) S14 00; (after July 10th) $11 00 1 Colony Italian Bees with untested queen af- ter July 10th 9 50 1 Tested Queen 2 50 1 Untested " . . l 00 A discount of 10 per cent on all orders for queens of $10,00 or more. All queens raised from import- ed mothers. I have made arrangements to Italianize all the black bees within 2 miles of my apiary, and I think all my queens will be purely mated; all queens will be shipped in rotation, and I desire parties or- dering queens, to inform me whether they wish the money returned if the order can not be tilled at once. 2*d Address, E. W. HALE, Wirt C. H., West Va. Italian Queens— Nucleus and full colonies — Comb Foundation — Hives and Section Bo.xes complete, furnished on short notice. Ten years' experience in Bee- Keeping and Queen breeding. Satisfaction guaranteed or money refunded. Send for prices. Eggs and chicks from high class land and water fowls. 2-7 VALENTINE & SON, Carlinville, Ills. ITALIAN QUEENS. All bred from imported mothers of my own im- portation. Dollar queens, $1,00; ready in April. Tested queens before June 1st, $3,00; after, $2,50. Full colonies of Italians from $7,00 to $10,00. Three frame nucleus with tested queen, before June 1st, $5.00, after, $4.50. Comb Foundation, Bee-Keepers' supplies., &c. 2-7d PAUL L. VIALLON, Bayou Goula, La. We will send a sample copy of the Bee-Keeper's Iflaorazlne, post-paid, to any person in any way in- terested in Bees or their Products, or in the ap- paratus so successfully used in modern management. Just send your name and address to A.J. D4ING& Crt., 8tf 61 Hudson St., afew York. Material ready to nail for standard Langstroth hives. Portico, 10 frames, (beveled top bar) bottom board and cap, in prices ranging from 75c to $1,00 each, according to quantity wanted. Sample hive $1.50. Our favorite the "Modest" at same prices. We are prepared to beat the world on Honey and Section Boxes. Harbison section, 5 to 10 M. per M $6 50 " " Less than 5 M, per M 7 50 1 " 8 50 Dovetailed sections, any size from 4Mx4i4 to 5x6, 5 to 10 M, per M 8 00 Less than 5, per M 8 50 1 " 9 00 Circulars for 1878 will soon be ready— Send for one. J. OATMAN & SONS, Itfd Dundee, Kane Co., Ills. OEVOTEO TO 13EEH Al\r> KLOIVEY, A]VI> Ht>M:E ITVTEREST©. Vol. VI. MAY 1, 1878. No. 5. A. I. ROOT, ^ Published Monthly. rXERMS: «1.00 Per Annum In Ad- Publisher and Proprietor^ > •] vance; 3 Copies/or *2.50; 5/or »3.75; ITIedina, O. ) 3Esta,l>lislied. In ISTa.ClO or more, 60c. each. Single Number 10c. MY EXPERIENCE. NO. 5. ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. Ml AY 26th. I divided the strongest colony in the following' manner. The queen, a frame of I brood, a frame of honey, and a frame of emp- ty comb, were placed in a hive upon the old stand. The old swarm was carried to a new stand and left queenless. Tliis was done to obtain queen cells to give the queenless parts of other swarms, when I should divide them. I wanted them to build at least 4 or 5 cells; but as most of the bees returned to the old stand, leaving them rather weak, they built only two. I have since learned that in order to obtain a large supply of good queen cells, the colony in which they are built must be strong. June ith. I divided two swarms in the same manner that I did the first one. I gave a queen cell to the queenless part of one swarm. The two queens hatch- ed all right, and if they had not been killed by enter- ing the wrong hive, I should have been well pleased with my success; but 1 will tell you about that far- ther on. July 5th. A swarm that had not been divided cast a swarm. It was hived and given a frame of brood. In the afternoon it came out and started for the woods. I followed with a looking-glass. The sun did not shine very brightly, and the best I could do was to confuse them some. We soon came to a small stream. I went ahead and "scooped" up the water on the glass, and when the bees attempted to cross they were met by a small shower. They soon hung themselves up on the branch of a thorn bush, and 1 cut off the limb and carried them home in triumph. A few bees remained with the frame of brood, which had been placed in the hive when the bees were hived, and more kept coming in loaded from the fields. 1 went to the old hive, took out a frame of brood, —upon which was a fine queen cell,— and a frame of honey, and placed them in the hive which contained the frame of brood and cluster of bees. I now cut out all the remaining queen cells, and re- turned the fugitive swarm to its old hive. After this they stayed at home and worked with a "will." In 20 days I opened the nucleus that was started, in such a peculiar manner, from this hive, and found a laying queen. It was built up, by occasionally giv- ing it frames of brood, and did good work during buckwheat bloom. In Aug., when I was Italianizing ray apiary, there was one swarm that would not accept a queen. 1 had "fished" the queen out of a ball of bees, caged her a day or two, released her again, fished her out again, and then repeated the operation, until I was tired of it. As my bees wei-e all strong, and I expected another Italian queen in a few days, I concluded to make up a swarm, give the rejected queen to it, and try another queen with the obstinate colony. So I gave them a frame of brood and eggs, to strengthen with, and to let them be building queen cells, that I might not be troubled with fertile workers. I will tell you how I succeeded with this swarm, when 1 tell you about italianizing. I can best tell you about the swarm that I made up, by quoting from my diary. "No. 11 was formed, Aug. 29th, by taking frames of brood and honej' from other swarms, moving No. 5 to a new stand, and placing this hive in its place. The queen that No. 6 would not accept was caged and placed in this hive." "Sept. 1st. Cut out queen cells, and exchanged places with No. 5. Did this because the old bees would return to their old stand, leaving mostly young bees among which to liberate the queen." "■Sept. 2d, Released the queen." "Sept. ith. Found eggs. Exchanged places again with No. 5." The only rule, in regard to artificial swarming, that I can give, is ''undcrstaiul the principles of bec- Iteeping." The condition of the colony, the time of the year, pasturage, use of the extractor, the bee- keeper, in fact, everything, should be taken into consideration. W. Z. Hutchinson. Kogersville, Mich., PAINTING HIVES INSIDE. MAY IT NOT BE DESIRABLE AFTER ALL. ^N the last number of Gleanings, one of your jl|| correspondents asks if it would be any advan- —^J tage, to give new hives a coat of varnish inside, etc. If he will give his hives a good coat of paint inside, he will find, they are less liable to be daubed with propolis; they can be more readily cleaned; and, best of all, they will be free from dampness and mouldy combs after a protracted spell of cold or wet weather. The painted surface prevents the absorption of moisture, and causes it to collect in drops, and run down and out. I have for a number of years past, practiced giving my hives a good coat of paint inside, as well as two or three coats outside; and I would now as soon think of letting them go unpainted outside as inside. In fact, if forced to omit either, I would give the paint to the inside. Some ten or twelve years ago, I was led to doubt the generally received opinion, that bees were averse to occupying a newly painted hive: and that they would not build comb on a painted sur- face. I then experimented considerably, and even went so far as to paint my frames and honey board, just to see what effect it would have: and were it not for the trouble and expense, I would practice painting these, except where the combs were to be attached. But we cannot afford to let the inside of our hives go without a good coat of paint. I wish to have my hives painted some weeks before needed for use ; but I have been forced to use them within three days after being newly paint- ed inside and outside, and have never had a" swarm leave me in consequence. This matter of pninting hives inside is something I have practiced for years, and know it to be of much advantage. Please give it atrial if you have not alreadv done so. W. W. Hipolite, M. D. DeVall's Bluff, Ark., April 8th, 1878. I am inclined to think yovi are rii?ht, at least in a part of your deductions; om- bot- tom boards are always painted, and I liave fre([aently noticed their freedom from pro- polis, cofiipared with the unpainted ones. If proi)olis is attached, it readily cleaves off, and this is quite an item. I, too, have de- monstrated that bees will work on i)ainted frames, and I have often thought of paint- 142 GLEAi^LNGS IN BEE CULTURE. Mat ing the top bars, to keep them free from bits of wax. Another important item; we use no tin separators against tlie side of the }iive, and, once in a while, the bees will at- tach a section to the wood, where they would not to the tin; if the side was painted, I am sure it would answer even better than the tin. It just this minute occurs to me, that we might have separators made of wood, if very thin and painted. It is true they could not be made as thin as tin, nor would they be as strong and convenient; but they could, doubtless, be made to answer a very good purpose. Many thanks for your timely hints. DO BEES SEI^ECT THEIR TREE OR PliACE OF REFUGE BEFORE SWARMING? eOME j-ears ago, in passing through a wood, I dis- covered a few bees flying about a tree, some . _ 20 or 30 f t et from the ground. Further exam- ination showed a hole in the trunk of the tree near which the bees were flying. I thought I had discov- ered a hce tree, and, with great exultation, hastened to climb a smaller tree adjacent for particular in- spection. After gaining the desired position, I saw no further evidence of the expected colony than what appeared to be a good place for one. The bees flying about the hole had disappeared. I cut a stick and thrust it into the hole, to make sure, and out came two or three frightened bees, who left without ceremony. I, however, got a distant view of them, and know they were worker honey bees. Failing to find further developments, I descended, and went on my way, not even suspecting the ob- ject of so few bees visiting that particular tree. My only suspicion was that possibly some swarm had previously occupied the cavity, and these bees were searching for unconsumed stores. About two hours afterward, between one and two o'clock p. M., I was returning by the same i-oute, and thought I would take another look at the same tree; and, pr'sfo.' what did I behold? the tree was black for a large space all around the said hole. Another ascent up the adjacent tree was quickly made, and the pleasant sight of a large swarm of bees enter- ing the tree for actual residence was witnessed. They stayed there, too, and collected a large amount of honey, as several persons who partook of it, beside myself, can testify. Now I have no doubt, but that the bees had actually swarmed out, and were still clustering until the hunters which I first saw, should return and lead the entire colony to said tree. Sometimes bees remain clustered all day long, and until next day, before leaving; and this, I have no doubt, because the hunters failed to find a place of refuge sooner. Should the hunters designate an empty bee hive, as suggested by some of your correspondents, of course, the colony would follow them into it, if permitted. But let not your readers deceive themselves with vain hopes: there are ten chances to one, that the hunt- ing bees will select some other hive than yours, iin- less yovi give them a hive after they have clustered, and before their huntei'S return. It is better still, to hive them so soon after settling as not to allow their hunters to start at all. Then, should they swarm out a second time, they will surely settle a second, which mjght not be the case, if the hunters, after returning from a successful search, find the new colony where they left it, or even on their old stand. BEES IN WESTERN MISSOURI. Bees have, in the main, wintered splendidly; they are six weeks ahead of last year in condition. Only those who neglected placing them in winter quar- ters, in proper condition, have lost, and the most negligent ami cai-eless have lost only their weak or quccnlfss cdldnics. Fruit bloom is now at hand, and now colonies will he expected this month. The prospect of a good honey season is, consequentlj', first rate. The fine imported Italian queen you sent me, last October, did not disclose her ])rogeny until about one niontli ago. They are hi itntifiiJ indeed and work like beavers. Nearly hall' the v.'orkers are Italians already, and, by May' 1st, I think a black will seldom be seen. By the way, as you offer to purchase queens so liberally and indiscriminately, 1 don't see any use of my advertising at all. I think I'll just send you all the queens I have to spare. S. W. SALISBURY. Kansas City, Mo. April 3, 1878. Thanks for your facts given; I think your deductions correct. In regard to purchas- ing queens indiscriminately; I know my of- fer is leaning rather that way, but I cannot see any other way of accommodating all i-.ar- ties, and getting the business into any kind of a regular channel. I shall test a great part of the queens, and my customers will test all of them, and he who fails to do bus- iness on the square will run the risk of be- ing shown up. FRIEND BOOT:— A. F. Conaway's communica- tion in April Gleanings reminds me of an experi- ence I had last year. About the first of June, as I sat writing in the director's room of our bank, I no- ticed bees on the windows, and, after getting up sev- eral times to let them out, discovered they came from the grate, and bending over heard a loud buzz- ing in the chimney. I supposed a swarm had crme unnoticed, and taken up their abode there, but was surprised an hour or two after, to find that they were gone. Supposing it might be a reconnoitering par- ty, 1 set a hive with two or three sheets of comb on the cap of the chimney, and about a week after a swarm came and took possession. I have known several similar incidents, indicating that bees, some- times at least, select a place before swarming. This I scratch off hastily for your private eje. James E. Dean. Fishkill, N. Y., April Sd, 1878. Friend D., I have taken the liberty to pub- lish this in spite of your concluding remark, and plead, as an excuse, that these facts are very valuable ; tliey point plainly to the idea that bees often, if not always, look out a home before, and sometimes many days be- fore, they swarm. By having nice homes provided for them, I am sure we can catch a great many runaway swarms, and where we most want light now is in relation to preparing these liomes so as to attract their notice, and prove most acceptable to them. Who will succeed, this season, in arranging a hive so that new swarms will go into itV I do not know but that I could afford to offer ;?]()00 for such a device, but the trouble would be that the invention, when it came, would prove to be the result of the investi- gations and experiments of a great number of people, as is usually the case with all that is valuable. Our poultry friends are all familiar witli the c|ueer behavior of a hen, when she is hunting a place tor a nest ; she is not look- ing for food, and, in fact, she will hardly no- tice corn when thrown to her. but she looks about in a kind of -an inquiring way, and, as she tips her head meditatively on one side. while she considers this location and that, it seems almost as if she was endowed with powers of reasoning similar to our own. Well, these scouting bees that are to be seen hovering around about swarming time, —just Avatch them yourself, and see if you can fix a hive so it will please their fastidi- ous little heads. ^ I < I f A GRAFE VINE APIARY OF 19 HIVES. H' DID not quite like the hexagonal apiary that our artists drew for the A B C\ so — ' they have made another which we show 1878. GLEAKINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 143 you above. In the foreground, you can see the plan by which we get strong grape vines, just wliere we want them, and in a much shorter time than they would grow in the ordinary way. The fence is not really es- sential, but I tliink it pays all tl>e expenses of building, by keeping off cold winds alone ; and, if it is 8 or 10 feet high, as it should be, it is quite a protection against thieves, as well as dogs, chickens, &c. The straighten it up, and you M'ill get hapjiy by and by. There is no excellence without great labor, and there is much discontent with laziness. I guess I know, for I have tried both ways, and it is ever so much more fun to have a nice apiary, all the M^ork of your own hands. I wonder if any of the rest of you have made this discovery, i^ow, about those gra])e vines; they look very well, when nicely tied up to the wires A GllAPE VINE APIARY OF 19 HIVES, ALSO "SWARMINU" THE GliAl'E VINE. bees may be wintered in the house, if that way of wintering is preferred, or they may be wintered on their summer stands, and the house may be used simply as a honey house. Make your apiary nice, neat, pretty, and tidy, and then keep it nice, neat, pretty, and tidy, nil the time, ivhethcr you feel like it or not. If you find it is getting weedy and disorderly, luake yoiuself "pitch in" and and posts, especially, when loaded with ripe fruit ; but, if you neglect pinching off the tender shoots, and training the young tendrils in the way they should go, they will, in a few weeks, get to "be about as distress- ing as anything I know of. "A thing of beauty is a joy forever;" especially, if you have to get up at 5 o'clock every morning, to preserve its beauty. 144 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. May ONE PRICE, AND NO DEVIATION. DEMAND AND SUPPLY. ^a^OW Mr. Gleanings, I want to suggest that you j^H write an article for Our Homes explaining- why s^^ a poor person has to pay 25 per cent more for Ills supplies, than one who is able to buy by the quantity. Thos. F. Wilson. Milan, Ind., March 10th, 1878. I hardly see, my friend, how it should come within the province of our homes, this question of demand and supply. If you were to come here and order a snigle section box of some odd size, we could not well af- ford to make it for less than 2-5c.; should you order 100, Ave could make them for perhaps 3 cents each ; if 1000, at 1 cent each. Now if you were rich, as you express it, had a thousand colonies, and should order 50,000 sections, all at one time, I could get very nice machinery for doing the work, set all the idle boys and girls in our town at work, and make them without trouble for a half cent each. This same feature is manifest in almost all kinds of business ; the larger the order, the cheaper can the work be fur- nished. Suppose we have the hives all made up ready to sell. The man who buys 100, should have them at a less price than the one who buys but a single hive. It is often as much work to sell a single hive, as to sell 100. When one of our customers keeps extractors for sale, and advertises them, we sell to him at a less price, even if he buys a single machine, because he must have some pay for his services ; and tliis is a recognized law in trade, the world over. The mere fact of a man's being rich, does not give him better prices, but it is the quantity he buys ; or at least such should be the case. One other i>oint comes in just here ; friend Doolittle has advertised Gleanj^stos for 7.5c., and every year somebody wants to know why I cannot furnish it at 7-5c. as well as he can. Some have sent T-lc, saying if we could not send it a year at that price, we must return the money. Of course the mon- ey was returned, for I'had no right to charge you $1.00 and then let another have it for 75c., even if others did do so. To illustrate: a friend works hard and gets a club of 10 ; I have worked hard to get up a good Journal, and he, to introduce it. Should not the ijSlO. be shtued between us V I think so, and I feel it is about right tliat my friend should liave .f 4. of it for his trouble. Very well ; now if he sees that he can get many more names by under-selling me, that is taking 75c. for single names, can I prevent his so doing V I do not know how I can, and yet I cannot do the same, for 15c. would be such small pay, that people generally would not try to get subscribers for so small a margin. I might reduce the price to 50c. in clubs of 10, but then some one would undersell again, and— ad infinitiuii. Now is it not best for me to stand to my advertised \)rices and conditions V Otherwise, I would soon ' be a "jockey." I^)or i)eople oftentimes pay more for goods, because they buv in small amounts at a time, when by ;i little foretliouglit, they could just as well buy in (juantites, and that too, without having any more money. : AU^IOSX THE $25. CHAFF HIVE, AGAIN. WHAT A NATION OF INVENTORS WE ABE. tN accordance with your kind offer I present the following plan for a two story chaff hive, hoping — that it may meet the present want. The lower story is to be about 6 in. wider than the i upper, inside, thus giving more room for section boxes at the sides of the brood, which I consider an advantage In Itself. FOSTER S CHAFF HIVE. To remove the lower frames, take out the trough shaped piece which is beveled on the upper edge to fit water tight under the side of the upper story. The first frame or two can be lifted directly out. Slide the others along the rabbet to the opening. By means of the wire hook the lower frames may all be removed without even taking off the cover, while with a few frames out above, they can be handled easily. I think there is no necessity for chaff at the sides Of the frames. If you make your division boards 4 inches thick, they will answer every purpose, and give you room for tliirtii-two extra seetioji boxes. However, my plan will work with chaff at the sides. 1 think I have improved a little on your division boards, especially where they are made 4 In. thick. I nail my thin side boards, the size of my frames, to the top bar, which is 4 in. wide, and as long as my frame top bar. 1 tack a strip of tin across, at the bottom, to hold the side boards the proper distance apart. The cloth or duck is tacked to the edue of the side boards, by turning under the edge, laying on a thin strip of wood or tin. and tacking through both. I leave the cloth U inches wider than the space, and full at the corners. Fill with chaff when the cloth is nearly on. These boards fit the hives better and are more easily moved, because they have the advantage of the elasticity of all the ehaff. They are also more easily made. Olivkr Foster. Mt. Vernon, Linn Co., Iowa. Well, my friend, you certainly have struck on something very ingenious, and were it not for some objections, I should adopt it at once. The possibility of being able to re- move all the brood frames, without disturb- ing the section boxes at all, would be a line thing, as it would also, when the hive is used for the extractor. Side boxes, and tof boxes, would be perfectly accessible, and we could remove either without interfering with the other. Now, for the objections. We have three places to be covered, and we must have three well fitting covers, to exclude rain, snow and frost. All three must be closed by some kind of a cushion, and the cushion should be protected by some kind of enamel sheets. Tliese will make trouble in o])ening and trouble in closing, and it will be almost impossible to keep frost out as securely as we do in tlie ustud chaff hive. It may be that these disadv.intages can be so far over- come, as to have tlie advantages over-bal- ance them, but I am much in doubt in re- gard to it. (_)ne roof could be made to cover the wliole, by making it a very deep clumsy 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 145 affair, but this brings in other complica- tions. I can not think of adopting any cov- er, that I can not readily lift off with one hand. One object I have in giving these ingeni- ous devices, even if I do not advise them, is to prevent the unscrupulous from making capital out of them, by pretended patents. The objection to your division board, is that the thin lumber will warp by the damp- ness of the liive, unless it is securely cleated. In view of this, I have as yet found no cheaper or better way, than to make them as I have directed. Pertaining to Bee Oviltnre. [We respectfully solicit the aid of our friends in conducting this department, and would consider it a favor to have them send us all circulars that have a deceptive appearance. The greatest care will be at all times maintained to prevent injustice being done any one.] fpIERE are two persons, whose names, for aught I can see, I shall have — ' to keep standing in this department all the time. It takes too many postal cards, and too many back numbers,' to give appli- cants the particulars of their different games and dodges. Both have been shown up ev- ery few months, for the past live years, and yet they find new victims, year after year, among tiiose who are just commencing. These two notorious thieves and swindlers, are Mr. N. C. Mitchell, of Indianapolis, Ind., and Mrs. Lizzie Cotton, as slie calls herself, of West Gorham, Maine. Of the former, enough has been said, and enough of his letters, and those of his victims liave been printed. Both of them receive money, but it is only at rare intervals, that they return any equivalent, of any kind. AVe sent Mrs. Cotton money for a wonderful book that told how to do great things with bees, over two years ago. She acknowledged the re- ceipt of it, and has promised several tinies to send the book or send the money back. Others have sent her money for hives and other things, but with just about the same •'luck." They never get any back again. She too, like Mitchell, deals in wonderful receipts. In a flaming circular full of false- hoods, without date, but I suppose sent out recently, for it looks new, she winds up with the following : If any of the patent bee hive fraternity doubts my ability to perform what I promise with my hive and system of bee manairement, I invite them to deposit one thousand dollars with some responsible bee- keeper, and I will deposit a like sum, and if I fail to verify my statements after a fair test, I will forfeit the amount deposited; but if 1 prove my statements true, then the amount ilrpcisitcd sliall be forfeited to me. Now let these patent l)ee hi\ e speculators cease their slander against me, and if they believe I can not perform what I promise with my controllable hive, and new system of bee management, let them deposit the money and test the matter. I challenge them to a trial. All right, Mrs. Cotton, we will finnishthe SIOUO.OO, but one of the conditions must be. that you are first to pay back our hard earned money that we sent you. I rather think I would prefer to have that part "ad- justed," before Ave go into the larger specu- lation. .Mrs. Cotton claims that her hive will make the bees give 380 lbs. of comb honey in a season. She says : "For many years I have written articles on bee cul- ture, for the leading Journals, and my success with bees has become known throughout the country." We are only too well aware of it Mrs. C, and the worst feature of it is that many of these "leading journals" do not know enough about bees to know that your im- reasonable statements, are only a bait to in- duce the unsitspecting to send to you for more information, that you may beguile them out of their money. Still farther we read : In 1874, I purchased a stock of bees in an old box hive. They had not given their owner a single dollar in profit for years; some seasons they would not swarm or make any surplus honey, but cluster idle on the outside of the hive in large numbers, while in other seasons they wrmld swarm and fly away to the woods. I changed these bees in April to my con- trollable hive and they gave me that season over forty dollars worth of surplus honey in glass boxes, and they have done as well or better every season since, and are now in a healthy, prosperous condition. It was the hive that did it, and nothing else sure ; for, else, why did they not give such results in their old hive ? I tell you, my friends, it is not the hive, that secures the honey ; it is the bee-keeper. You might as well "expect a fancy pocket book to make yoii rich, as that yoti could have a hive that would insure, of itself, a profitable crop of honey. In the A. B. /., for both March and April, a Mr. William Thompson, of Detroit, Mich., advertises a patent hive with the following statement : This is the cheapest and best two-story hive ever invented, and merited the $25.00 premium offered by "Novice" in Gleanings. As our readers are all well aware that no hive has ever yet merited the $2-5. according to the offer, I can, with justice, call Mr. Thompson a humbug and swindler. If the editor of the ^1. B. /., never reads the adver- tisements sent him, we can, I presume, ex- cuse him on that grotnid. As many other publications allow their advertisers to tell aU the falsehoods they please, providing they pay the advertised price per line for the privilege, I presume we had better not be too severe on friend Newman. On page 104 of the Ajnil A. B. J., men- tion is made of making fdn. on linen or a similar fabric, and the editor says a i)atent has been applied for on the same. The idea has been suggested in the Journals at differ- ent times during the past 10 years, and a fine kind of tracing linen was used in Ger- many, almost as long ago as tlie fdn. was invented, ily own experiments in the mat- ter were giveii in the ]Marcli No. of Glean- ings, over a year atro. I would let this all pass, without a word, but tiie blackmailing business seems to be breaking out with a new vigor of late, and if Gleanings has any influence at all. it shall be used in try- ing to check this fashion of patenting well known devices, and of obtaining money from the unsuspecting by threats of prose- cution. Right in my drawer, is a letter nar- 146 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. May rating how the man Gillespie, the one Avho claimed a patent on all two story hives, is obtaining money from those using the metal corners, claiming that he hgis a patent on them. On i^age ISO of the A. B. J.,a correspon- dent intimates that I jnit Mitchell in the Immbugs and swindles, because he charges SIO. for a right to use his hive. I fear my fiiend forgets himself ; it was because Mitch- ell received money for which he returned no equivalent, and demanded money from those who used a sheet of duck over the frames, claiming he had a patent on it, and such like work. The editor of the ^1. B. J. will tell you the same, I think, even if he for:Tot to say as much, in a note at the end of the communication. BEWARE OF LAND PIRATES WHO DEMAND MONEY, ON THE GROUND THAT YOUR HIVES ARE AN IN- FRINGEMENT ON THEIR PATENTS. I confess it is a hard matter for me to deal with this class of peojile in a christian like way, and, if I am too severe, and an excuse is needed, I hope the outrageous falsehoods tliat they tell, may be taken into consider- ation. I give below the letter I have alluded to above. You M-ill find pnclosed 75 cents, for which please poDcl me 100 metal corners for bee hives. I would like to try them, if wo can be allowed to nse them here. A "great" bee man who claims the patent rifrht for them, one Gillespie, has been here lately, pnd sold the right for this (Johnson) Co. We do not wish to infringe on his rights; but if we can use thom, we will probably want more, as my husband IS a carpenter, and makes a good manv hives. Mrs. S. B. Dobtks. Coliimbus, Mo., March 35th, 1878. At one place, these fellows claim they lave a patent that covers all two story hives, i'iid get their 5 or '$10.; at the next, they claim a patent on the sheets of cloth used over the frames ; again, on a cloth cushion; and now, the notorious Gillepsie has the lirazen imjuidence to claim the metal corn- ers. It is he who collected large sums of money from all who used two story hives, claiming that his common sense hive cov- ered all. (See page 138, Vol. IV.) The com- mon sense, the adjustable, the cottage, and fu^veral others, are being "run," just now, on this same i)lan, and we are constantly re- ceiving letters asking us, if the agents can enforce their claims. The whole story is s'lch utter nonsense, that one wonders peo- ple will hand over their money, on a claim so ridiculous; but the fear of law suits, which they always threaten, is so great, that, many hand over the money, without even sto]i''>ing to question. The papers and print- ed ('ocuments which they show, purporting to come from the patent office, are the most barefaced frauds. The . J. _B. /., by giving iilace to their strings of false statements, as in the item last mentioned, is lending itself to their nefarious work. If the editor is do- ing this through ignorance, I can think it scarcely less excusable. It is his business to keep posted. If their patents are valid, let them prosecute me ; for I am probably tlic greatest infringer. As a matter of course, they will try to injure me in every way possible, but I will freely forgive this, if I can in any way, be the means of stop- ping them from robbing the innocent and unoffending people. There is one thing more, and as it is not a very pleasant matter. I would rather let it alone entirely ; but I think it best to speak plainly, and have a fair understanding. In 1872, J.P.Parker, of Alamo, Tenn., sent J. W. Winder, §30. for two imported queens, according to his advertisement. The money was acknowledged, and the queens prom- ised at different times, but after a year or more, friend P. demanded either his money or queens, and threatened to have him ]mb- lished, if he did not send it. Mr. W. replied, if he made a fuss about it, he would never ])ay him a copper, which threat he has faith- fully carried out. A few weeks ago, Mr. Winder sent me an advertisement. I wrote back the reason why I could not accept it. He rei)lied that he was much surprised that I should bring up a matter of so many years ago, that he had been unfortunate and lost his property, and that the way of the world was to give a man a push, when.once down. Perhaps he is right, but how about the S30. that friend Parker sent him in good faith ? Is it not hard to save money to send off for queens that you need badly, and then be de- layed and annoyed in this way, tinally losing it altogether ? 'Mr. Winder is not the only offender of this kind, and it may be a com- mon thing for a man to fail to pay his debts ; but so long as you choose me to conduct this journal — by your patronage— no one shall have space as an advertiser who refuses to pay an honest debt ; and if he fails through bad management, he must take the conse- quences. I do not think it right that inno- cent people should suffer because other peo- ple are careless, any more than can be avoided; and if you will keep out of debt, you will never become bankrupt. I know many of you will call this course very harsh and hard, but if Mr. AVinder will do his best to pay friend Parker, I will pay half of the S30. myself. KEPOKT FROM TEXAS. I HOW BEGINNERS GET ALONG. ! ^!p5»XEASE hurry up the last bill of goods ordered, ■ fer^ especially the comb fdn., as I have used up the ! ^J 10 lbs. sent. I like it flrstrate. It is now full of brood, and I need more to build up my young I swarms, and those that 1 have divided. My first ! natural swarm came out March 16th. My plan of dividing is as follows: 1 hare a large musquito bar made about eight or ten feet square; drive four good I smooth slakes Into the gi-ound, and leave them 7 or 8 feet high; put my bar over them, smoke my hive, I carry it under, and go to work. Then I am not an- I noyed by robbers, which are pretty bad at this sea- son. (It is a good place to transfer). I look for the i old queen ard lea%-e her with about ^a of the bees, I and half of the frames in the old hive; place the new hive where the old one sat, and the old one on a new I stand; put two frames of comb fdn. in each hive, \ and division board. In 6 days, (if they are black bees) ] open the swarm with no queen, cut out the (lueen cells, leave them two days, then look over my Ital- ians, find a queen cell, and insert it. After this, I ' open them every few days, and spread the fn'mcs, I and fill up, and, in a short time, 1 have all my hives full of frames and bees. 1 have been busy for sev- eral days, opening hives and cutting out queen cells from these that I do not want to swaim. Several j swarms are working now in bo.vcs, with S frames 1 full of brood. If any of the readers of Gleanings can make a 1878. GLEANINGS EN BEE CULTURE. 147 better report, at this date, I would like to hear from them; espeeiall.v from those that have just com- menced, two years ag'o, as I did. I wintered 51 swarms on summer stands, and lost but one. I will just say that it is of no use for a lazy man to think of bee-keeping, for, to succeed, and keep ahead of his bees, he must be up and doing all the time. J. W. BCKMAN. Fort Bend, Texas, March 3Sth, 18T8. REPORT FROin A YORK STATE BEGINNER. MAYING done so well last season, I am going to give an account of my bees, since I com- . menced to keep them. " In the first part of July, 1875, I purchased a swarm of bees, and had them hived in a L. hive which 1 furnished. They did nothing but partly fill their hive with comb and honey, and I thought I could not winter them; but they came through all right. I also purchased, in Dec. of 1875, a colony in a box hive, and they came through in excellent condition. So I had two colo- nies to commence the season of '76 with. I trans- ferred the colony in the box hive. I used 6 lb. caps for honey and I found it was hard work for me to sell it. report for 1876. Cr. 57?:£ lbs. of honev@l7 and 18c ?10 06 2 new swarms@$5.00 10 00 S30 06 Dr. 2 swarms bees $ 7 50 Italian queens 6 76 Incidentals 13 94 $28 20 In the fall of '76, I packed my bees in chaff, "a la Townley," and they not only came through the win- ter, but in spring were as strong as they were in the fall. In April of '77, I purchased of A. I. Root, 10 colonies of hybrids. I then had 1-i colonies to com- mence the season of '77 with. They commenced to swarm June 3d and continued till July 5th. I put on sections the 18th of May, and did not take off any full ones till June 18th. f took off all sections the 14th of Aug. The 1 lb. sections of honey sold like hot cakes. Some of the bee-keepers here said, I would get sick of the small 1 lb. section boxes, because they were too small and not glassed; and grocers would not have them in the store because everybody would be sticking their lingers into it, and they could not sell them either. But it turned out to be just the oppo- site to what they said. When people find out that they pay 25c. a pound for glass on the old style boxes, they will take a section that is not glassed in prefer- ence to the other. report for 1877. Dr. 10 colonies of bees f 73 75 Sections, frames, separators, &c 51 85 Lumber 45 73 Hired work „ 10 87 Barnes' saw 41 65 Incidentals 24 05 Total $247 90 Cr. 1384 lbs. honey@18 and 20c S339 70 4 " of beeswax@26 1 04 1 quart bees sold 1 00 10 new swarms@$5.00 50 00 $291 74 Frank Sai^isbury. Geddes, Onondaga Co., N. Y., Feb. 4th, "78. ^ ■>■ ^ PUTTING CIRCTJLiAR SAWS IN ORDER WITfir AN EmERV WHEEL. when new, use an 8I4 inch round edge emery wheel, grind the underside of the tooth on a line M of the distance from outside to center, and, ^vith a little practice, anv good mechanic can grind a saw to an edge as perfect as it can be filed, leaving the throat perfectly round. It will clear much better, and, the teeth being so short, it will not dodge in knots, or follow the grain as long teeth do. You will save, at least, one-half the time spent in filing, and one wheel will save $25 worth of flies. John Vandervost. Laceville, Pa., Feb. 22nd, 1878. Many thanks, friend V., for your very valuable suggestions. We have used emery wheels more or less for the past five yeare for sharpening saws, and sometimes we can get the saw to cut beautifully with just the emery wheel alone; but, for some reason or other, our hands generally get back to files unless the saws need gumming. I think your estimate of the comparative expenses rather strong. We have not used the teeth so short as you advise, but I have no doubt you are right, if you can obtain durable wheels, small enough for the very fine teeth- ed saws used for cutting smooth, fine work. The wheels are very apt to draw the temper of thin saws, unless they are kept wet with water, and this treatment is very apt to make the wheels crumble and break, when so thin. _ _ _ FREEZING BEES. WHO IS RIGHT? ^ SAW your instruction for filing circular saws, p(| and, as I sharpen saws differently, I will give ^ you my plan. I think if you give it a fair trial, you Avill not do any more filing. I have not used a file, except on fine cut off' saws, in six years. Make the teeth not to exceed H the length that they are ^ MAY get up a little "reaction" with you, by ffl calling up a matter upon which you and I dif- ?M f er materially. In reading up back numbers of Gleanings, I find in January number, 1876, you claim that a bee that has been frozen never will come to life. Yours is a reply to a letter of J. L. Davis, Holt, Mich. I see one diflBcult point to solve, as in the case of a drunken man. When is a man drunk? when he reels and staggers, and occasion- ally falls in the gutter, and is p().s-.si7j?i/ ahU to get out, or must he he "that far gone," that he can stir neith- er hand nor foot, to be considered drunk? and in the case of a bee, to consider him frozen, must he lay out all winter under the snow, one month, a week, or how long must he lay dormant to consider him frozen? The case I am about to refer to is this: I set out 2 swarms of bees Feb. 28th, and from a "Bee Journal" I keep, I find the following record: "Set out the bees in the afternoon; thej' had a good fly for about two hours; it bid fair to be a very cold night, so I covered them up with rugs and blankets." There was snow, water and clay mud in the yard where they were kept, and many bees fell in the snow and water and did not get back into the hive that night. My next days record is as follows: March 1st.— "It froze hard enough last night to nearly hold up a llOOIb. horse; a light horse would have traveled without breaking through until 9 or 9: 30 A. M. This day I went to Geo. E. Walkers and to Pewomo. In the morning, by my instructions, the little girls gathered up several handfuls of what was supposed to be dead bees which had fallen on the ground or snow the afternoon before, and had lain out over night through the freeze above men- tioned. The bees were brought in the house, and in iv^ hours \l or '-<: of them came to life and were carried back to the hive. This may seem incredi- ble, but the wife, children and neighbors are willing to vouch for the fact." The above is a copy of the circumstances as re- corded at the time. I can't help saying that these bees were /ro0t'n, being out through a night when the ground was frozen hard enough to hold up a horse; and they su rely came to life. Now %vlll you admit that these bees were frozen? or was I drunk? that's the question. O. R. Goodno. Carson City, Mich., April 5th, 1878. I guess we are none of us drunk, friend G., but we are sometimes a little too posi- tive, and, if that is my fault, I beg pardon, 148 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. May ancl will try to be careful. I know that bees will revive'after having been left out during a frosty night, but I have never been able to revive one. after it had been out one day during a zero freeze, nor have I been able to revive a bee that has been out as many as 4 days even during very moderate weather. It is my impression, that they starve to death just as quickly, in this state as in an animated one. To sum up. I would ■•sug- gest''^ V) that bees will starve in about 48 hours ; that they will also freeze dead in a zero temperatxire, .(perhaps less ; but we know they will stand enough to "hold up a horse and revive"") in a few hours. Friend Davis suggested that they would revive after a zero temperatm'e for over a week, outside the hive, but, as no experiment has yet corroborated this. I still think he put it ii little to strongly. ^A'hat facts have others to bring forward? I once thought I could Avinter bees very cheaply, by spreading them out on a shelf, and keeping them just "cold enough." That speculation was a faihu-e, although it will work with ants, frogs, and animated nattu'e of that class. The bellows is 20 in. long, and i in. vride across the top. It rests on a board 12 in. wide bv 20 in. long. The board lies on the ground, so that vou can put your foot on it, when you wish to operate the bellows. The fire pot is "a half joint of 6 in, stove pipe, open at both ends. The spout is made of leather, so as to be handled over the hives. The end of the spout is movable, so as to turn the smoke anywhere. Xow you will be ready to say that the leather spout will burn. So it will, if vou let the fire blaze out at the end of the leather: but, as I use corn cobs for fuel. I can fill the fire pot full, and it will last half a day, and do all the smo- king that I want, without the trouble of making fire at every other hive. At the very time, when I most want smoke, the little things are apt to be out, or clogged with ashes and dirt. This smoker can be carried by the handle, and set down anj-where in the yard, and the fire will burn very slowly, as the handle stays just where you leave it". H. F. Cakpester, Polo, 111. SOTOKEBS. ^ FEW days ago I thought all the invent- ^A, ive genius of our bee folks was concen- trated on the chafi hive question, but of late it seems about equally directed to the subject of smokers, and the number of sketches, and models, that liave been sent for mv inspection and api)roval. Avould be sufficient to start a shop almost. The one our artist has pictured below. I give just as a curiosity, and I have no doubt our friend can not only drive the bees clear down to the bottom board, but I should think they would get clear out of the hive as shown in the cut. if that vicious looking handle were worked many times. I should not want my bees abused that way I fear, fi-iend C. A short time ago I attempted to open a hive at a neighbor's, but found them cross hvbrids. and so looked about for something to smoke them : the handiest thing seemed to be a bit of cord, but little larger than candle wicking. and with this lighted. I drove them back so that I had all the oppor- tunitv I wished, for making a full examina- tion to see if they lacked stores for winter. About smokers; can't one be made to be blown by compressed air in a small tin receiver? The air to be released by pressing a spring valve with the finger? A small pump can be attached to one side of the chamber to work up the pressure when it gets low. 1 think if you will walk around the stairs a few times on this, j"ou will get it. James E. Dean. Fishkill, N. T., April 3d, 18T8. I long ago thought of compressed air for smokers, but feared it would require "too much machinery."" There is one item that. I think, would' be valuable about it : Ave could turn on a A'ery small amount of air, by a suitable cock, when Ave wished a tire started, or Avhen we wished only a very lit- tle smoke. I fear the size of the reseVA'oir Avould be the greatest objection ; it would also re(|uire a A-ery strong pump, to con- dense tlie air. and this would be expensiAe. Notwithstanding all this. I think the plan simpler than tliat of using a clock movement with a spring, to bloAv a fan. r.s has been so many tinges suggested. A ITII]VISTFR'S KXPERIEXCE. -«i^=^^ H. F. CARPENTER'S SMOKER. I send you a sketch of my little engine smoker. It is not "quite as "little" as most of the smokers in use. but is large enough to send a stream of smoke that will blow the bees down into the bottom of the hive if need be. I can send a stream of smoke into the air the distance of 10 feet without any very hard pressure on the handle. Try one and you will be surprised at its force. I should make it still larger in place of smaller. If you think you can make any use of them do so: make and sell as many as you please. No patent on them. ,^ BOUT six months ago, I saw your advertise- jUvi. ment in a magazine, and immediately sent 4*^^" for a specimen of Gleanings. It came to hand at once, and was eagerly read. It was just what I needed. I am a minister, but find I need seme out door exercise, especially during the sum- mer season. During the winter I have my hands full: hence this business promises to answer the purpose exactly. About the first of August. I pur- chased two colonies of black bees in common box hives; these swarms are now in good condition and quite strong. I also purchased a late swarm which would have'died of starvation, if they hart not been fed. I gave them about one dollar's worth of sug- ar in svrup. and thev also are in good condition; so I have" already made a start. I intend to transfer and Italianize as s ion as I can. I have gained some little exiwrimrnfaJ knowledge already. I went, soon after purchasing, to bring home my bees; but. ha\ing to bring them in my buggy, could only bring one hive at a time. I took with me some wire cloth to tack over the bottom, &c. I found mv man at home. who. by the way, cl-.nms to have "quite a fund of knowledge in bee culture, ha^■ing te^tted the question of Italian su- premacy, and vrritten "TekeV' isee Daniel 5; 27) on everv Italian hive. In order to prepare them for removal, he turned the hive upside down, expect- insr to place the wire cloth over the bottom and tack it down, before the bees found out what was gt'iiiff on: but the bees, having about as much wit as The Aeteran bee man, sallied forth by hundreds, and, finding the cause of the sudden upsetting standing over them, proceeded to execute summa- rv vengeance on his head. &c.. &c. Xotwithstand- ing the darkness, the bees found a rent in his shirt nleeve, and, entering in bv dozens, soon made him tlv, while we stood at a little distance, "laughing in (•'ur sleeve." At last, we had to take the matter in hand, and soon had the cloth fastened over them; 1878. GLEAXINGS IX BEE CULTURE. 149 however, we didn't laugh much when the bees be- g'an to "pepper" us. 'VN hen we went for the next hive the "bee man" wasn't at home. We lifted the hive just sulBciently to let the cloth glide beneath, tacked it around the edges, turned it upside down, lifted it into the buggy and got home, without a single sting. I don't think I'll hire that man to take care of my bees. Not long since, I was looking about my hives, and accidentally struck my foot against a board upon which the hives were sitting; out they came, and, as I didn't retreat immediately, I got a "bite" above the eye which closed it for a few days. I don't think "l looked very clerical the next day, as I drove to New Philadelphia, to meet the President of Wittenberg College, to take him home with me. Don't you think the Simplicities will soon be dis- carded for the chaff hive? L. S. JoxES. New Philadelphia, O., Jan. 22d, 1878. Your speaking of stepping on the board on which the hives sat reminds me that I have had many similar experiences, and for this reason have discarded every thing to set bees on. that projects beyond tlie bottom board. The sawdust gives no jar and neith- er yourself nor the bees are annoyed, if you walk about among the hives ever so much. Your friend who turned over the hive cal- culating that he could move quicker than the bees, was almost as unwise in his calculations as our friend of last month who was stung so badly that he fainted. I do not think the chaff hive will ever take the place of the simplicity, because the latter is almost a necessity v:ith the chaff hives. Working with new swarms and nuclei, shipping bees, and many other ope- rations, require a hive light, plain, and sim- ple, and when we get them built up to "rousing big stocks. ' all ready for comb honey, then we want a chaff hive to put theni in. THE ABC CL.4SS. ^^-OUR A B C, received. It might be Greek for ' ^( all the good it does me. I know nothing of ssk bees: have hardly ever seen a hive: and all talk of "hybrid queens," "neucleus colonies," etc.. is totally incomprehensible to me. But wishing some honey for family use and for sale, and seeing that you advise to commence with two hives, I en- close a P. O. order for 826.1X1, for 2 Simplicity hives and bees, in the desperate hope of finding oiit from the hces the first principles about themselves; for the bee books don't even tell whtther a hive requires one queen or twenty, and I am sure I don't know myself. I don't think I require any "winter packing" what- ever that is. I have nice grape vines, and will prepare sawdust as directed in your A B C. And now, Mr Root, as I hrve bought two hives of you, 1 do not think it will be imposing on your or your clerk's valuatih: time, to ask as consise answers as possible to the following questions. Please ans- wer just as if you were talking to one who never saw a bee. Any hints will be thankfully received. How am I to treat the bees on their arrival to set them to work? Set them on your sawdust pile, and fix it up nice around the entrance, and then move the hive back and let them fly, as directed last month. How long before I can have honey to eat? I cannot tell you when you will have honey, any more than I cotikl tell you how soon you would have eggs, if you 'bought a lot of poultry: but if you take care of them, and spring' flowers "are in bloom, you should Iiave honey almost as soon as you get them. In this locality, if I should i)urchase a colo- ny of Italians'duringthe white clover bloom, I should expect them to give me some sur- plus honey for the table inside of a week; if taken with the extractor, you might have some the next day after they aiTived. Am I in danger of ha^^ng bees decamp imme- diately? You are in no danger of having a full colony decamp, unless they swarm ; and they will not do this, as a general thing, un- til they get their hive full of honey, and full of bees. You are to get acquainted with them, and keep acquainted with the condi- tion of affairs inside the hive, and then you can take away their honey, and give them more room when occasionVequires it. Very few bees are lost by swanning where the apiarist is prompt and on hand. Do 1 have to shut the bees in, on the approach of cold weather? We have flowers everj' month, but frosts in Nov.. Dec, Jan., and Feb. Never shut the bees in the hive under any circumstances, unless you are obliged to, to move them. How much honey must be left in the hive for win- ter? Geo. Wolf. Jackson%ille, Duval Co., Florida, Apr. 1st, 1878. Enough honey must be left so they will not stai'S'e ; if" you will tell me how' much haj' and oats your pony needs. I can tell you how much to leave for the bees ; ordinarily about 1.5lbs., but 201bs. will make it safer. Look at them occasionally, and see that they have a plenty. ^ f I m ' VAIiUABIiE SIGGESTIOINS. FASTENING IN FDN., SEPARATOKS, ETC. sugges that "Novice" made while "walking around the cen- tral stairway," has been of more value to me than the price of Gleamngs for a year. I now make my frames of lath with little or no waste, as good as I could wish, and much cheaper than ever before. With a slitting gauge. I take off "« of an inch, which makes the sides and top pieces: the narrow strip makes the bottom piece. I put my frames together, then with my knife, I cut off the corners of the top piece and sides. This makes the triangular piece that the bees follow so well in making their comb. Excuse a few suggestions 1 rom me. To insert fdn. into section boxes; lay the grooved piece on a nar- row strip of wood on the table, press the sides down on the table, (no danger of splitting it) insert the fdn., then slip it off the strip, and press the middle of the two ends down to the table, and it is ready to be put together. To insert fdn. into frames: why not make a saw- cut through the top piece, then push the fdn. through this cut, and clinch it on top? Why not use enameled cloth for separators be- tween section boxes. In place of tin ones? Bees hare wintered well in this section: very few have died. I transfei-red a swarm on the sixth inst. that were very strong and had dr< nes. Am using grape sugar: my bees go for it equally as for honey. I think it solves the question of bees starving. Colo, Iowa, Apr. lOth. 1878. D. Howard. I at first did insert the fdn. in just the way you have mentioned, but soon found tlve girls would insert it much quicker in the wav I have directed. If you saw through the" top bar of your brood frames, you weak- en it, besides wasting quite an amount of wax. AVood is much cheaper than wax. and as a good strong comb guide isay ^ thick, and i wide) adds much to the strength of the top bar besides saving considerable wax. I would alwavs use them. There is no 130 GLEAXLS'GS LN* BEE CULTURE. Mat troubl? at all in the w.iy I h iv^ directed, in j f isteniau the fdn. so it' will never com? off. j Eaimeled cloth would l>e pretty sur^^ to bulge or s iz in such a way as to sive your j cornb hone^ an uneven surf-ace. Tue beauty j of a tilled s-ecri ">n depends oa :b.e eveness i and smx^thiiess of the co:nb. \ GLHA^I.^IG3 m BEE CULTUaH. i I. -ROOT, EDITOa AJTD nrBLISHES. MEDINA. OHIO. #1.00 PER YEAR. POST-PAID. 1, ISTS. TEHTIS; CUlun'o me. anl I ■^v-ill aas-^er th-?e, and shew ; theegre^r aul mirttj" things, waicb tiija fcao west ! not-^er. 3S: 3. : A'S oar circuHrl r; n "'^ ex>?-?'i5 SiJ), our price per t line for sdverOsiris wiit oe s;c We n iw print, e loli j m^ath. ->rO) C5piesr Al! eonrracts made for a ; S?d ttme will- of courfe. 1>? at the old rate, until ex- j piration of the cintraet. E=iH A.TA- il>n page 1-iT for size of emery wheel for ' p-imtnin? sas-?, read ^-i inches, instead of SV*. The size is rather Lirser thin we use. on acor^unt of the daas^r of breaking' s'i Nellis enmes out with a catalogue of ±1 pig-es, and as it is almost a treatise on bee cul- ru-e.~in some respects, it may be worth your while . t"> seni for i:. even if yoa do not purchase. As i hive-, sectioa boxes, etc., of ahn^st everv m^.-*k'=' are ; d ered. tb=' tendency is rather to c infuse the be- ginner, a- it migbt. m fact, even an old head, as to what is best. ^ ■■! * At present writing. April Sth. I hardly know what is g-oing t"> become of us here, my friends, if you keep sending' money as you have. Almost every dep-irtment is running night and day. all the «p«re rooms in the vicinitv are occupied with han'is. and we are just now putting up a she>i oat of dc>ors, to nail up and paint hives in. Forty-seven hands are at work, and m ire -ire being added aim ist daily. What shall I d-> with all this m ^nev and busine^s'- Wait d > yiiu wish me to do with it? Of one thing I am -luite =ure. and that is I should give you better w ir\. We are itnpn^vinsr dailv, and we have al- rendv selecte-i I* acres. ri?ht cl->se to our depot, where a brick f ;ictory. l>X)iij fe^t, i~ to be ouilt just a- s-x^n as our rush is over: and when wo get there, with plentv of roo-o. 1 hive vis: ^ns r f beautiful wirk. plane-i on all sides ave. and perhaps painted too' and made to fit accu-Tate steel gauges so eiact- Ir. that '=-ren a variation of a thickness of tissue paper will be notic-ed. On this 1^ iiCT*»s. which has a stream of water on it, and a grove of forest trees, are to b^ oarg-irdens for experimental honey plants and seeds: and when yoa com=' to pav me a visit. I h^pe to b? able tt have s 'ine pleasant individual to =h 'W you irrini. and to let vou see whether or no I h;-ive been faithfuL with the few things God has. throueh v.->u. given me. May be. when I get old and ?-ev hei ted. if God spares me so long. I shall not have mv brtiin nlwavs teeming- s^ busily with new sciKmes and invention*. TCajfrPS P'JB BEES. O.x pa@^ -?2 of oar Be-:-. Xo„ I spoke of the «even top turnip, th- ^-^.e-! :f ^hich was given me by A. W. Kavti. ^ , - The tiiniips are n'lw a sea of V. - -, i I have never seen so manv b--- - ■ .itch of blossom's of anv kin '. as is - :r :.:. i^ i^.ea from davligfat till dark, on ■•'h'^se turnips. They seem very hardy, and the folia re !s mo-* luxuriant, mneh more so than either the rap3 or Chinese mustard, which latter plant it much resem'jles. onlv ha'vins' laraer blossoms. As our patch ■was so'wn after the first of Oct.. and the crop could easily be cleared from our land by the middle of June, a crv>p >-f honey could be secured without interfering with the use of the land for other purposes. Friend K. recommended the plant particularly for jyiUen. but besides this. I am in- clined to think it ■will give more honey to the acre than anything that has heretofore come under my notice. We have much trv^uble here, in raising rape and mustard, with the small turnip beetle or flea, but this turnip patch has never been touched; whether it is on account of so^wing so late in the fall or because the flea does not fancy it. I am una- ble to sav; but this I do know, that if I cmld get a 10 acre "lot coverd with such bloom during the month of August, I should not hesitate an instant to hand over the money for the necessary expenses. Of course I will save every particle of seed, and friend Kaye will do all he can, and if that is not enough to supply the demand, we ■will call on Land- reth. who can probably furnish more seed of the same kind of "seven top turnip." If we cannot get the b;^ss»^ms in August, we can certainly have an abundant supply between fruit bloom and cl-jver. Who ■will tell us more about itl- Our own was sowed in drills about a foot aoart. and Master Ernest. I presume, sot tired, for I told him to sow all the seed, and in order to get done, he put them less than an inch apart, but for all that, it is now the prettiest ■•posy bed." I believe. I ever saw in my life; and the music of the bees, humming over and among^ the branches is just "entrancing'," to one ■wtio has an ear for such music. m ■»■ ^ THE S25.00 CHAFF HIVE. .^■J IXCE our List. I cannot begin to tell you how ^1 many sketches, samples, and models have '^^ teen sent, of a frame whose supp-irting arms were hintred. or made to spring' out and back, or some such device. The most promising thing of the kind, whijh we aive bel' 'W. was sent some month? ago, by fri-^nd Martin, of Hartford, X. T. The ob- jection I should make to it will apply to all or neajv ly all of them. This has the merit of extreme cheapness and simplicity, and it is extremely ingen- ious, if you ■will allow me to judge. XARTTS WIKE I •-. SUPPORTTSG ARM FOB BEE HIVE FKAJCES. The frame is made in the ordinary ■way. except that the top bar is nut prolonged: " from rather hea^vy ■wire, he then bends a fixture, like ABC: a single hole i« now drilled or bradded tbr^ugh the upper part of the end bar, and the part B is spr'ing- to one side, and pushed through, as shown. Now you ■will notice that all that holds the loop A from slipping hack against the comer of the frame, is thn^ projecting endof the ■wire C. an I that this tud makes a kind of a torsion spring. The lo<'>p make* a good secure rest for the frame, and at the s^me time, it can easily be sprung track out of the wav. whenever the frame is to pass the upi>er rabbet. The attachment can be made by machinery, so as t.> c-i^st but little, and it can be very quickly added t<> any kind of a frame, by sa'wing off the projecting en>is of the top bar. The objections land the same will apply to almost all of the similir devie»-s that have been sent in> are prop^'^lis, which in very strong st<:"Cks, will soon cover the whole surface of the wire, and rabbet too: killing bees, when the end of the wire l'X>p fmches the hive or rabbet, for they w:il almost always mar.age to get some where. where th«^y ■will get pinched or bumped : and lastly the jarrine that results from having any part of thf» frame toi:ch cr scraoe any part of the hive. If we ■wish to lift a frame so quietly that the queen does not even stop laying, no portion of it should even STazea-y part of the hive. This arrana-^ment un- like the metal cimers. fidds nothing to th'"' strength ""•f the frame, but for all th-it, it is most remarkably insenious. and will, very likely pr<: ve very useful with many of you. as it does wtth friend Mnrtin. or "Scientific." as many of yon have learned to knew htm through the journals. 1S7S. GLEAXEN'GS IN' BEE CULTURE. 151 mViJ TVrATTTIffG. Although it is ven" iiufKjitant to have good, nicely fitting, well made hives for the bees. I would, by no means, encourage the idea, that the hive is going to insure the crc)p of honey. I think. as Mr. Quinby used to say. that a good swarm of bees would store almc»st as much honey in a half barrel or nail keg. as in the most elaborate and expensive hive made, other things being equal. This is. suppos- ing we had a good swarm, in the height of the honey season. If the colony was small, it would do much better, if put into a hive so small that the bees could nearly or quite fill it. thus economising the animal heat, that they might keep up the temperature for brood rearing, and the working of wax. Also, should the bees get their nail keg full of honey, unless more room were given them, at just the right mo^Jlent. a consider- able loss of honey would be the result. The thin walls of the nail keg would hardly be the l>est economy, for a wintering hive, nor for a summer hive either, vmless it was well shaded from the direct rays of the sun. Hives with thick walls, made of some po- rous material that is a good non-conductor of heat, as well as an absorbent of moisture, have been well proven to have decided ad- vantages over hives made of a single thick- ness of boards, especially for wintering: bnt. a* they are hea^-y to move aroimd. and rather more expensive in the start. I think it well to have both winter and summer hives in the same apiary. The single walled hive which we call the .Simplicity, on ac- count of the simpleness of its construction and management, answers almost as well as the winter hives for summer use. and can al- so be so arranged as to do very well for win- ter; the winter hive which we call the chaff hive, because the walls are made about four inches thick, and packed with chaff, are much the safest for winter and spring, and are also very convenient for summer use. ex- cept that they are not easily carried al>out. These chaff hives are permanently a two sto- ry hive : that is. the upi:>er story is not re- movable, as is the case with the Simplicity hive. On this account, the latter is much the cheapest hive in an apiary, for a single story can t>e used for small swarms or nu- clei, and answers every purix^se of a full hive, until more room is needed, and then an extra story can be added or even a third, as the ease may require. For these reasons, the Simplicity hive is the one most used. and is always needed, no matter how many chaff hives vou mav have. HOW TO XAKE A SIMPUCITT HIVZ. If I were going off on a journey, and should desire a lot of new hands to make some hives in my absence. I should talk to them about as follows. Boys. I want these hives good and nice, and. to have them so. you mugt be c«refuL The first thing you are to do is to get some lumber, and. if you can. you would tetter get white pine. If you cannot get this, you would better use whitewood. If you cannot get that either, get the best lumt«er that they have for house building, in your loc-ality. For the body of the hive, you want boards just one foot wide. For the cover and bot- tom boards, which are one and the same thing, you want l:>oards not less than 16* inches "wide. For the narrow boards, we get best bam boards, and we pay for them, at this date. S21. per M.: for the wide boards, we have to pay about $2s. As soon as you get your lumber home, have it nicely •"stick- ed up." I say nicely, for I do not t»elieve I ever had a boy that would put up limibex safely. Tinless he was told a great manv times. Yoiu: lumber would better t»e 16 feet long, for this length works with less waste than any that is shorter. Xow. before yon stick it up. you are to prepare a level place for the first board : or rather, yuu are to have the first board lay straight and flat. If it is to be left out of drs. it should have slant enough to cany off the water. If you have shop room, you can put it in dtx>r5. Do not lay. the first board on the floor, but have some sticks under it. These sticks for stick- ing up lumber should be of an exact thick- ness, and I think it will pay to provide some that are just right. If you are making many hives, you will have refuse sticks, thr.t will come very handy for this purp<:»se. The sticks shoiild be about 1? inches wide, exact- ly 4 thick, and 1-5 or iXi inches long. A stick; should be placed at each end of the l-oards, and two more between them, so as to make the spaces about equal. Put the sticks ex- actly over each other, or you will, if you have a large pile, have the boards bent or warped by the weight of those above. "Wlien they are all piled up square and true, you can feel sife in regard to them. Even if the luml-er is to be used within three drys. I would put it up in this way as soon r.s it :s unloaded. If you are going to make accurate work, you must have your lumber all of an exact thickness: and hs it is much easier to talk and write about having it exactly * than it is to make it so. I will explain to you a kind 152 GLEANINGS .LSr BEE CULTURE. May of gauge that I had to give the planing mill men. before we planed our own lumber. Below is a picture of it, full size. GAUGE FOB PLAXINQ LUifBER. "When you carry them the lumber, tell them, if it is planed so that the "too large'' notch just fits it, it "Vfill have to be planed over again ; and that, if it goes into the "too small" notch, it is spoiled. This will soon get them into the habit of having it "just right." every time. Their planers must also be so adjusted, that both edges of the board aTejiist right. Since the 18 in. Lilliputians cost only S77., if you have much work to do, it is, by far. the most lirofitable way, to have a planer of your own. Then you can set it just as accurately as j'ou choose, and it will pay for itself, where tliere is work to do, in a few weeks. The usual price for planing is Sl.OO per M., and we can do that amount without trouble per hour, with our 4i horse power engine. If the lumber is not well seasoned, it may be well to have it planed to the too large gauge ; but this is a very bad way of doing, on many accounts. Get your lumber seasoned as well .as it possibly can be, before you commence work, and, if you are obliged to use that which is not well sea- soned, cut your stuff to the exact length, then stick it up. and leave it until the very last moment, before you take it to the exact width you wish it. This is, perhaps, one of the surest ways, especially when the work is not all to be sent off immediately. We frequently leave covers in this way, and only bring them to the finishing width the very day they are to be shipped. It is espe- cially needful that the covers be well season- ed, for a season check would let in water, and endanger the life of the colony. A great many of Barnes' Foot Power saws are in use ; therefore I shall give my direc- tions for them, and, if you have different saws, you can modify the directions to suit your conditions. We will first talk about making the body of the hive. Your pile of one foot boards is to be cut up in lengths of 37 inches. Re- member, just one inch more than a yard. To avoid making mistakes, you can cut a stick of just that length. If you have quite apile of stuff, a gai^ge that you can push tiie boards against will be very handy. Al- waiys commence at the best end of the boards. If the end is checked or bad, allow a little - for waste. Cut off 5 lengths, and leave the surplus of half a foot or more on the last piece ; that is, do not cut it off. Pile these last pieces by themselves. You will need an assistant to do this. ■ If you have a boy or girl 10 or 15 j-ears old. they can help "papa" a "big lot,"' in making hives. The table of the saws, tis it comes from the factory, is hardly large enough to make hives on conveniently, and so we will piece out the stationary side by a sort of a le^af about 1 foot wide. This leaf is easily • fastened on securely, by a couple of hard wood strips screwed on the underside of both leaf and table. After your boards are all cut up. you Avill proceed to bring them to an exact width and straighten one side. As we want the boards to finish Hi, we will trim them, the first time, to about llf : those that will not hold out this A\idth, can be saved to make frames of . To bring one side straight, you must set the parallel bar at the left of the saw, at just the right distance from it, and then push the boards through, holding closely up to the gauge. Yery like- ly, when you start out, your saw may "run," as it is termed ; this may result from two causes. If the teeth are filed longer on one side than on the other, and insufficiently set, the saw will be very likely to run either into, or out of the lumber. This will not do' at all, for we can never have an accurate hive, unless we get a straight edge, in the first place, to work from. Give the saw set enough to make it rim clear, as explained in SECTION HONEY BOXES, and have the teeth so that the cut ahead of the saw shows as in the diagram below. IMPROPERLY FILED. PROPERLY FILED. A second cause of trouble may sometimes be found in your parallel bar, which must be just parallel, or you cannot have a trae straight cut. The diagram will show you the consequences of having this bar improp- erly set. c SETTING THE PARALLEL BAR. In fig. 1, the bar is set so that the board between the saw and the gauge wedges, as it were ; and, when this is the trouble, you 1878. GLEAis^rxGS i:n" bee culture. 153 Anil see the svirface, at A, shows as if it had been planed ; this is done by the face of the saw, which rubs or burnishes the wood, as it squeezes past. The remedy is plain ; move the end, D, away from the saw a little, or, the other end nearer to it, as may be nec- essary to preserve the proper distance. In tig. 2 we see the opposite extreme, and, when tills is the trouble, you will find it al- most impossible to keep your board up against the gauge, for the saw is all the time crowding it off. The piece, B, will constantly be getting too narrow, and the strip that comes off, too wide. Before you attempt to do any work, and thus spoil your lumber, you should test your saw and gaug- es, on some refuse pieces. When it is all right, the saw should run clear and smooth- ly in the center of the saw cut, and the stuff should easily be kept close up to the gauge. While you have been doing this work, the movable side to the table should be taken off, as it is not needed, and would only be in the way. After one edge is trimmed, set your gauge so as to cut exactly 111, and bring the boards all to this width. Now, before going further, you are to sort tlie boards, so as to have the heart side of the lumber come on the outside of the hive. If you look at the end of each board, you can see, by the circles of gi'owth, which is the heart side, as is shown in the cuts below. ^robably have not made any mis- tai:es, tlius far; but now, before you com- mence cutting off the pieces to the exact size, be careful. As you will need a pair of iron iVaines for i)utting your hives together, I think you liad better have them on hand now, to take your measurements by. if you attempt to measure with a square, you will get it wrong side up or something, and get yoiir gauges set wrong. It was but yester- day, that one of the boys cut up a whole pile of boards to the wrong length, because he looked on the wTong side of the square. For fear he would do something of the kind, I had given him a board just right, for a sam- ple, but some one else wanted it, and so he took the dimensions, and it turned out as I have said. Go to your blacksmith, and get him to make two iron frames like the pic- ture below. They are to be made of i inch square iron, and the dimensions, inside, are to be as exactly 16 by 20i as you and he, both, can make them. When you have, with some trouble, got them nearly right, do not say, that is near enough, but make them ex- act. PAIR OF IKON GAUGE FRA3IES, FOR HIVE 3IAKING. The corners, you must finish out with a file, so that they are sharp and true. For convenience of slipping them over the hives, they are to be made a little flaring, like a barrel hoop ; if they are i inch larger, each way, on the large side, it will be about right. Now, for the buzz saw. You will observe that the sliding half of the table has a bar bolted to its top, for a square cut off gauge ; this gauge must be set accurately, like the other, or you will have much trouble. It is to be so set, that, when you cut off a board held closely against it, it will be exactly square across the end. You can test this with a good square, but I think I would pre- fer to take a board with true straight sides ; cut off a little, say a half inch; now turn it over, and cut off again ; if the strip cut off is of exactly the same width at each end, your gauge is set true. For fear you may not get the idea, I give you a picture. HOW TO SET THE CROSS CUT I!AR. If your gauge is set right, the slices, C, will be exactly straight; i. e., not wedge shaped, even if you tiuai the board over so ; as to cut from the opposite edge at every ; cut you make. When you are satisfied Avith I this, set your parallel bar, so as to cut the , side pieces of the hive to just go into the ! iron frame length wise, and the end pieces, , to just go in cross wise. The 37 inch boards will just make one of each. If you Avant to SVPPLE3IENT TO MAY GLEANINGS. I Our [2th Edition UluslraM ^afalegu^ | f^^ff $k% OF 5i|lerAciits for Bee C^lti^^e withPirectiQiis for their Use. A. I. ROOT, MEDINA, O., IV3AY Jst, 1878. No. 1 shows a Simpliciry Hive, single story, with the Enameled Cloth removed, so as to show the 10 iVan.es iu |>lacc. The Chaff Ciihhion is shown in the cover, where it is fastened hv g or 10 tacks arrnnd the edge. You v.ill observe that when the Cushion is thus fastened in the cover, we jire oblig-fd to have the Enameled Cloth, shown at No. 8, fitted closely over the irames that the lees ma> not. get to the Cushion, or it \vo\ilcl he stuck so tightly to the'frames that we could never pet the hive .>'"n. For winterinis. a much thicker cushion is »ised, unquilted, and placed in au upper St' vy. This Hive is shown witii the entrance closed, bv inishing it back squarely on the bot- tom bo:ii'i, while Nos. 2 and 3 .ire pushed forward so as to give a % inch passage for the bees. No. GLEANINGS m BEE CULTURE. Mat ■2 photva the wav in which we contract the entrance with sawlnst, only it nee'ls stamning do.vn a littl(»more. (;>veranil l>ottini board are alwavs used Knm^ side un. Bottom board shoul 1 rest on four halt' brick''. \.-i. •? isH-3-st,ory hive. belnffPimplv two bodies one over the other, with the over removed, the covers and Ik t- tom board-* being one and the same thing. In the fore- ground are seen the fonr simple pieces of which the hive U compo«pired. Orders for frames or hives of dlmeiiil n-s dltTiring from those namery ; whether our mode of packing m efficient; time taken in tran-sit; whetlwr Ejrpress or Freight cliarges icere reatonable; ete., etc. Respectfully, A. I. BOOT, Medina, O. IMPLEMENTS, ABTD SUPPLIES POR THE APIARY. To avoid u)*ekiis re]>eti(!on, thin price lint contniriH onlfi fitrth^r expltiruitions of the articles fjiveii al- phibeiicuUy, mec-ery iVb.V^/Gi.EANiNGS ; therefore if 7/oti wish a li.st of all tJie articUa we keep for sale, you are to look tJiere for it. MnilahJe articles are designated in the left lumd col- umn of figures; thefljares (jiviwj the amount ofjxjstaae lejuircJ. 1878. GLEANmGS m BEE CULTURE. ALiaHTING BOARDS. ALIGHTING BOAKD, DETACHABLE. These aro Intended psneciallv for hives with a If^ose Initom, liiit ran I'O used on almost any hue. They are l:istene<1 to the bottom hoard wiihacou).lo of ecrews. The entrance Is closed or enla.ped at jileas- ure. I)v moving the hive backward or forward. They !ook rather j)retty on the Simiilicity Hive, l)Ut I do not think them at all essential. See hives. Price 10 cte.; b3' mall, 25 cents. BASBEIiS FOR HONEY. Price, S2..')0 ; the sjinie waxed anun;es, when as many as 'iO or 25 bees were u.^ed in the snir.ll ones, and twice as many in the larger ones. The prices are 6 and lOc, or by the do'/en, 5tc, and Sl.CO. J r wanted by mail add Ic each for the tmall. and 2c each lor the large. See cut on next to tLe last page. CANDY FOR BEES. This is made of Coflee A sugar, with 1-5 part wheat lloiir. It can be fed at any seascn, and will start l>rood rearing nicely even during the winter months, when the weather is not too severe. As it is put into the regular brood frames, one of tl em can be hung in tlie hive as readily as a frame of sealed honey, and it is almost im- possible fur bees to starve when thus supplied. During a drouth in the fall or summer, brood rearing cati be tept up, and queuis can be rai.Mr-d, by the uta of this candy, just as well as during a yield of honey. As bees lick it off slowly, it will not start roblniig, evt ii if fed in the open air. Price, 15c. per Ih.; an L. frame holds, on an HVerasre, about 8 lbs. 1 have not yet succeeded in Qjakiiig good candy from grape sugar. (See feedei s.) CHAFF CUSHIONS. We make and keep in stock two sizes of H-efe ; tie thin quilted one> to be tpcked inside the cover to lill just the spnco above the sheet of enameled cloth, aim the thick uiiquilted ones that are u.'-ed for winierin?, and that entirely till the upper sio>y. Tl e forn er ^re 2Cc.. and can be sent by mail for '.;.'c add^tioiud Tl e l-iTire ones are worth :><)c , and cannot be sent by mail lor less than 6Cc. postage. CIRCULAR SAWS FOR MAEING BEE HIVES. After bavins tested saws of mf>ny difTerent makers, we have decided that the "Simcnds'' saws, made without hanmeriny, are decidedly superior to saws made by any other process. The temper is perfectly even, and While they hold an edge beautifully ihe.v tile nicely, and stand up to their work. In spite of knots or cross grained stvdf. better than any other. They give m6re work, better work, and do it with I«ss i)ower. Saws, as menticwed below, can be sent by leturn mail ; if you wish a difl'cirerit sized hole, there may be some delay. § Extra foi- each a Diameter. Thirknese. Size of Price addition TO Hole. each. jauge (heav 3c ! I inch 19 gauge ?4 eo.s5 §0 0(? .-c ! 5 •• 10 '• % 1.(^0 .07 5c 1 fi ■• 18 '' % 1.25 .t9 7c 1 7 " 18 " % 3.f0 .10 lie I 8 " 18 " % 1.75 .11 15c 1 9 " 17 " Jk 2.25 .14 2C>c 1 10 " 16 " 1 2.75 .15 ;;oc i 12 " 15 " 1 3.50 .20 Please state whether you wish rip.'or cross cut saws, and if you want them set and sharpened ready for use, 6end 5c., additional, for every inch in diameter. CIECXLAE SAW MANDEELS GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. May For the 3iniH saw'^, 4, 5, (>, find 7 imh, we sell a f^ieat mitiy of the Birne<' foot power saw rnaiidrels. These !irc "not bibbetel, have a jj inch steel shJifc 12 inches 1 >iiir. .-i ;i inch Kroove I itully, i}4 inch llmire, and are to h )1(1 suvs with a \' inch hole in the ce:itre. Aithoimli the*' run surpri-iitifly e isy, a;id are rajJels of simplicity, I would prefe.- the he kviei- mundrei, where anv other nower i« to be use I than the foot po' c^n be ,'e it bv mail for 60c. mote. The larsier muidrei. ot wnich we give an enirravintr, h^lds s'l vs with a I inch ho e in the centre, and has a '2}i inch puUev'. with a 3)<> inch fice; !i shafr I inch in diameter, and H inche^i Ions ; and » fl in^e 2 '2 inches in diameter. This mandrel rnns in bibbet metal and is so littel, thU the''e is absoUitely no e nl shake. The price is $7.0J, and ii can be se.it by eiihe.- express or freight. SAW SETS. The saw set show.i below, we think best for all gen- eral purposes, espec ally for those ine.xperienceJ AVith rricc 7.")c; if wanted by mail, add 8c. CLASPS, Ifl ; For trans^e.Ting, packace of 100 ... CLIMBEIIS, Fir Bee HunHns 2 .'^0 COMB FOUNDATION. PljRE BEESWAX. A lb. of wax wdl make abont l.SO «tar'e"s snc'i a<= we n,«e in onr tecMon b -.^es. or abint 0 sheets for the L. frames, or about 4 sheets l-l by 18. Packed in neat wooden boxes— paper between ev^ry two sheet's. per lv>. per pcki?. 1 Ih. T.if23^ orS^ifi'^ by mnil 1-2x18 or 8x16;^, by mail by freight or exp . 80-^ SO . 80c ■^2 40 . .58.? 1 75 . .55? 3 75 . 55c 5 .50 . me, 13 25 . 52c 26 00 . 50c .50 00 . 48c 240 00 . 45c 450 00 .3 .3 .5 10 25 .50 100 .'■.0') 100.) White wax, 2Sc per lb. extra, if want^-d. but wc consider Wvs ye'Io-:v in every respect preferable, even for comb honpy. The fd'i. is tent in stock, in sheets 12.\18 inches, and 8xiR!^ inches fexnt si/ze neefied for L. brood fr.njnes] 1 % by 2?g (size we u«e for our sections) packed in box- es of 1, .S, 5, 10. 25. 50 and 100 lbs. each, and shipped only ill t'.ese boxes at the abfjve prices. There are 5 cells to the inch, and one pound of wax mnkes from 4 to 9 .square feet of surface. The thinnest will be usefl by the bees, but is not made into comb as ((uickly ,as the heavier, which has a greater depth of cell. A bix contains different thicknesses; we can not well make it all of one thickness. If 60 lbs. ;n-e wint.ed. send mone.v for a 10 lb. box and a 50 lb. box. &c. The difference in price is only enoneh to fX)ver the difference in cost of boxinir, packing. &c.; live 10 lb. Iwxes, and packing, handling and nailine un five box- es, cost much more than one 50 lb, box, and packing, handlins and nailintr up one box. As these packages are all put up and kept in stock, there can be no txtriation, unless at an additional price. Now, my friends, if you wnnt all sorts of quantities, or ■w.ant it cut nil sorts of sizes. I will accommodate you with n.11 the pleasure in the world, for ten cts. vrv. lb. extra. AV'ax will be worked up to order, and cut into sheets of any siz^ desired, for 25c per lb. in quantities of loo lbs. or more. For smaller lots, you will have to sell us your wav. aid buy fdn. at above prices. We will pay 30c per lb. cash for bright yellow wax, or «e!l it fjr35c. .\t above prices we cin pay no express or freight chirges either way. FOUNDATION MACHINE WITH 5 INCH ROLT>S. COMB FOUNDATION MACHINES. Machines for making sheets 1 loot "Me - $100 00 Expressly for L. frame. 9 inclies wide - 50 00 For makinsr 5 inches wide for section boxes- ,35 OO Double Boiler for aliove machine.s - ?8.00. 3..50 and 4.00 Dinning nlate.s per pair. - - $1.00, 1.50 and 2.00 The above prices are for cells 4)^ or 5 to the inch. If drone size is wanted, add SIO, ,5,5 and .■>:{ re.i-linville. Ills.; M. H. Adams. Fort Ann. Wash. Co.. N. Y. : M. Wvrlck, Cascade. Dnb. C.i.. Iowa; W. W. Gary, Oolerain, Frank. Oo . Mass. ; C. R. Carlin, Shreveport. Ea. A $10S.00 (12 inch drone comb) ra.achine to J. H. NeJlis, C'lnajoharip, N. Y. A seven inch copper roll, worker machine, to N. N. Betsinger. Marcellus. Onon. Co., N. Y. Nine inch $.50.00 machines, to C. R. Cnrlin, Shrevt*- port. La. ; Jno. Hunter, 5 Eaton Rise, Entinar, EngUnd ; .1. B. Stevenson, Sin Bernardino, Cal. ; .T. E. Crane, Brid- port, Vt. ; J. B. Rapp, Owensville, O. ; Peter John- ston, Grass Vallev. Nevada Co., Cal. Twelve inch $100.00 machines, to ('.O. Perrine, Chic«»»o, Ills. ; D. A. .lones. Beeton. Ont., Canada ; J. Madory, Los Angeles, Cal. ; .1. H. Nellis, Canajoharie, N. Y. HOW TO FASTEN SHEETS OF FD^. IN THE BROOD FRAMES. The melted wax plan. Set a oommnn small lamp in a tall liox with one open pide. ba^^n^ coarse wire cloth nailel over the top. Place on the wire cloth a cup containing wax. Keep the wax just melted, by tiirniner tlie lamp wick up or down. Now, with a pencil brush, yon '' a t^ nut the mel- ted wax neatl^ .iuet where vou want it. Fit a board so that it will sHp'into your frame just half wav. and lay your slie«t of (dn. on this, with its upper edge close hgainstthe toi> bar; brush the wax alone- the. joint, slip ont the board and hang the frame in a hive. After a little practice yon will do th^m unite rapidly, and think it is just inn. It is said that the Idn., to prevent 1S78 GLEAN^GS IN BEE CULTURE. sapgiug, Rhoulil go In the I'^ame ip Mich away tbatthe ivjiiis Of the cells run ud and down. Instead of diago- uaUy. Oiirshtets are all made lor the L. Iramee lu that v\ ay. The plan we prefer. if wax if! nibbed ^^ erf against a piece of dry wood, .It oniluary tempera Hires, 1i v\ (II ad hi re almost as will a- if put on In a melteit 8t;-.ie. Theieior*'. all we have I ) do to ijisten It in ihe iranies. i- to lay it in place, and ) ress the edge against the cmU guidn with the tingere, until It sticks moili'rately. No>vfal;ea knifeor screw- driver, anoo<<. at the last stroke, to make a " sure thing" nf it. The fdn. shi uid reach within k. Inch ot the end bars, and with- in |. a'^ a general rule, of the bottom b«r. This space i- i.eedeercepti'ily, while ofliers v.\\- to tho extent we have mentioned; and as it i^ ! a l>oard cut so as to just lit inside the Irame, ano reach up aj= far as tiie couib guide. Lay tlie sheet on this. cItXM- up to tlie top Viar. ami stroke itdo'^n to the «',oml> g\ii ou. you c.mi lasi< n tlie sheets by tacHtig a ^trip oi wood about ^^ by ^g into the top bar, w hile ihe upper ei ge of the sheet is lietween them; 'hi- strip should be put on in such a way that the Idn. hangs slraigiit down under the c^nteroftlie to)) bar. For putting fdn. into the section frames or into boxes, make a saw cut nearly thiough the stiU'ot wliicli the '")> ismwle, where you v' i-li if;e sheet to hang. Before this (lii-ee is fastened in jdace, bend the wooti back- ward in anch a way as to t^pen the saw cut, slip in the etige of the sheet, close up the cut, and it is secure. cahlin'8 pdn. cuttee. Smf-ll si7e, with tin wheel, ]0c.; la'ge si;e, wtih sieel wl'.eel, 7-"e. If wanted by mail, add '2c. for the forrrer, !Hid .'c. for the latter. Although these sre very con- venient for cutting a greit number of smtll pieces, our hards hhve rather preferred tor lirt'er woik. to cut a botrd tl e size wantetl. i.nd I'y it on a pile of a eo^e'i she^t'-- or moie. then with n ve^~y sfuirp, io*ind poll ted, butcher knife, they cut with repeated !:tiokes tliro'iifh the whole at once, clear lound the board. If the w -x IS reitber too cold nor too hot. you cin. with pr ct ce. do it rtipiuly and nicely. >"oi e ef tl e scraps I eed be wasted, tor you can uie, in tlie sectioa boaes, p;eceis of all shapes and sizes. DEONE COMB. Althonark it world f-eeni that drot^e con b woi Id be p.-Cierable for suiplns boie«, it is at pieei t nicie the- ory than tactual practice. We can iutnis.h veiy thin drore cor-b at the same p;ices, and you cm all tiy it for yoi;rselves. COHSB BASKET, Holds five frames, secure from dust or robbers, raid catched a.l the drip; price §l,.'iti. EIVISION BOAHBS. FOUNDATION MACHINE WITH !„' INCH ROLLS. i CHAFF CUSHION 1>1VISI««J BO.^PI). ! Tl)e€e are made of thin wood, packed with chaff, t and have cloth cushim boitf m and ercs. that tbey ' may lit closelv in ,any 1 ive. and bo eas ly removable. i Price, 20c; if wanted" by ma;!, 4i c must be fe«t lor ] jjostage. EHAMELZD CLOTH. ' Thi-J we now tife in piefcence to anything elfe. fo- c<.verine the frames, before the chaff cushions I ate put over tl^e bees. I have never known the bees i to biie through it. and the suifare is so smooth and glosfv. thev pnt very litile propolis on it. It is also So thin and ligl'i., that, if it is spread over a bee. he can lendily crawl out from nncer it without injury. j Price ler yard, 4.'j inches wide. '25c; if a whcle ])iece ■ f f 12 yards is ta^pn, •2'2c : if ordered by mail, send 25c per yard c:tra for postage. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. May TIN LINED SHEEffS OF ENAMELED CLOTH. These are just ristht for the Simplicity and chaflf hive-); price, 10c each. If sent by mail, 5c more for postage. Per hundrei, by express or freight, 5i^.OO. ELECTROTYPES. We can f uraish electntypes of any of the engra- vings in this price list. Gleanings, or the A B C, for ■2jc per sijuare inch. If sent by mail, add 10 per cent to the price, for postage. To measure an engraving, you are to take the dimensions of the blank paper around it. None faraishei for less than-ioc. EMERY WHEELS FOR GUMMINO CIR- CULAR SAWS. The?e are very valua.ble for a ^reat variety of other purposes, such as sb irpenina; all kinds of wood cutting tools, cutter hea Is, grindlntc and polishing, cutting temperel ste^l, etc. e^c. We give below the prices of such wneel* as are most de:ir.ible for the above mentioned uses for the Barnes' saws. PRICE I<1ST OF EmERY TirHEEIjS. Thickness of Tl/^lieels in Inches. if )4 % 1 14 i;/2 C M 3 40 50 .55 60 (55 70 a 4 60 65 70 85 1 IW 1 25 5 70 70 90 1 06 1 25 1 50 8 6 90 90 1 25 1 55 1 90 2 25 If wanted by mail, aid 10 per cent to the prices for posfaze. The best wheel for the small circular saws is 3x?it- X3-16, aild is made to order especially for us. Price, 40c; by mall 44c. EXTRACTORS. One Important point is that all machines, to work to the best advantage, should be so made that the frame may hang in them just as It hangs in the hive, 11 we except the L. and Q. frames, and all having a length un- der the top bar greater than 14 inches. It may be Im- jiossible for us to give all the reasons for thi-? now, but we hope you will taUe our word for it, when we Ray there are very good reasons for standing a frame oh end in the Extractor, when the length is much greater than the depth. Our cistings are male to fit two difTerant sizel cans; viz., 17 and 20 inches; and we make the cans also of two (liflferent heights. To work nicely, the frame needs about the same amount of roim to hang in the Extractor, that it has in the hive; to do this thf»re f eenis to bt» no other waj' than to make every Extractor to tit the hive il is intended lor. Of course vou can use triem otherwise, but we are well satisfied 'hat the cumbrous machines now in use. are many of vhem destined t) be soon laid aside for the more mod- ern kind. MATERIALS FOR MAKING EXTRACTOES. IXtin.l4»20, per box of 112 sheets $9 00 Castings for tlie geiring, and siipp ir'lng arm that attaches it to the cnn, in the rough, just as it comes from the factory 50 The same tinished, coraple'e, varnished ready f )r use 1 .50 If the latter is wantel by mail, send 50c more f'lf pOStHgC. Hoijcv Gatei, tinned, ready to solder into the can .r,o By the dozen 4 .^o If sent by mail, add 25c each, for post tge. Wire clnh rr\ni\e expressly for extractors, per s'l mre f .ot 15 tf w inied bv mail. 5c per foot extra. Hoop< to g 1 armnd (he top^ of t;ie extrictors. verv >itntiQr and FtifT. nicclv tinrie 1, and drillelforthe castings, 50c; per doz 5 no DIAGRAM OF PRINCIPAL FRAMES IN USE. Figures given are outside dime)isio>is i}i iticlies. Sus- pended frames have % inch supporting arms, or an equal prolongation of top bar. ll>i Gallup. tJ The ''nllowinar table is for the convenience of those ordering machines, and is intended to enable any one to decide for himself exactly what he can use to the best advantage. PRICE LIST OF EXTRACTORS. [The figures in parentheses, just before the prices, give the exact inside width of the revolving frame of the Extractor, in inches.^ A honey kn"n is included with fjich machine; the price will be 8l.'»0 Ipss if no knife is ivanted. No. 1.— For the Gallun frame, or anv frame IH inches wide and not more than V2| deep..(12) 8S 50 No. 2.— For the American frame, or any one 12 inches wido and not mr>re than T2\ deep. (12^) 8 75 No. .3. — For a:)" f'-iime 12.^ inches n ide and not raorf than 12.} r(ei-.i> (13) 9 00 No. 4. For thi( A lair Irarop or any frame. 13' wide and not more than 12| deep (14?) 9 09 The above are all In shallow cans, llh inches hieh, and ar" vrrv convenient for placiiisr at s'lch a height as to allow of rnnninsr tho honey dirrctl v intn the bar- rel or anv other receptaclp. anil still not too high for anv one ti work convpniontlv. The following numbprs can also be used in Me s<(me way, unless the operator is short In stature; in tbnt case, a shallow box may be inverted to stand on. but Is somewhat In- conveni<^nt 1878 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. No. 5. This is madfi expresslv for the Lanp- etrot'ij frame, which is to be used standing on end. It will take anv frame whose top bar dofs not exceed 20 inches, and depth 9X incheR (IH) S9C0 No (i. The same except that it will take a frame of !(>;; inches in depth (11) 9. 50 Nf>. 7. This is made expressly for the Quinby suspended frame, and will take also the other l-iiid when the end bars have a depth not gnater than 11)^ inches v. (12) 10 00 No. 8. This Is lor all Quinby irames. and ^ll American trames having a depth greater than T.'X inches, and can be used for all the frames in our diagram, but is mudi more inconvenient ihnu the smaller ones where they can be us^Ml (12^^) 10 00 No 9. 'i liis machine is like No. H, except that it talcs a frame M inch wider, and is suitable for American frames that are 12>^ wide and more than 12X Inches deep (13)10 00 No. 10. This is the largest machine that we keep in ftock, and will take a Iranie as wide as the Adair, and as Icng as the Quin- by ai>i) 10 00 For frames having a top bar with an extreme length of more than 20 inches, we shall have to make an e> tra charge of $1 00, and we shall have to make the same extra charge lor iranies that exceed 14 inches the nar- rowest way. There are few frames ot such extiemf ly large size in use, yet we sell them occasionally. Also, we find a few who insist on an extractor that will hold 4 frames at once ; unless the frames are v( ry Fmall, we cannot lliink such will be liked as well, Yf t we will lurnish them wlien desired, at an expense ot SI.. "^-O extra. If you look into the matter, you will see that a very much larger and heavier revolving fiame will be needed, and every ounce in weight ad- ded to iliip, hinders rapid work. An;/ of ihe above will he made tvith the tvire cloth in a slaniivtj position, for 81.00 extra, buttve do not consider it of any especial advantage. All of the last six— tall cans— have a support at the biittom i< r the framts to rest upon, and also to hold bifiki n pifccs of comb, sliould it be desired. The first )o\ir liavi I oihing of this kind, lor it is not needed, and would in reality only make them heavier, and be in tlie way; wc advise purchasers always to take the sniallci machines when they will take their Irames. For iiii-tance. we would much prefi r the No. 4. to tlie No. ](i. even if oDeied at the same price, provided we had rolhirg but the Adair frame in our apiary. Altliough tiur machines are now made much lighter .ind stronger, the gearing very niucli improved in looks as well as in strength, an improvement added whereby once oiling will last tor yeais, acover and strainer added, and the prices reduced, yet we will irahe the iiroposal that we will, to any ore who has purdiased one machine, give 10 per cent off on all he may sell alter that; and this is all we can do in the way of furnishing them at wholesale. To dealers who advertise our Extractors, we will give 2.^ per cent ofl'. This ofl'er refers only to Extractors and honey knives. It miiy be there are valuable features found in the hi?h priced Extr.'ictors, not found in our own, Lut if such is the case, we !ire unable to appreciate tbem. We have added every improvenirnt suKgested that we tiiought would prove viduable, nil thines considered. Anyon<' who has studied the matter will see that to make a machine capa- lile of receiviiiK four combs instead of two, will r* quire an inrrf ase in size and weight, without very materially aid- ins: ill rajiidity of work, among the masses. Reversing the coiphs inside the can, making tlie inside frame three-corn- ered, runnins the machine by gearing or belts pl»ced un- der the bottom, etc.. etc.. have all had their advocates, Viut we think have generally been, after a time, discarded like the revolving cans. Our friends can rest assured, that we shall siiine no pains in promptly adopting any real im- provement that may come up. Please do tell the dimen- tions of the frame or frames you use, in ordering. Any lind of a machine that revolves the honey after it is ihrmcn ovt of the con,b, or that revolves tin cans tvith the combs, is a incst serious blunder, as you will see by tryivr/ both kinds. INSTltUCTIONS FOR USING AN EXTRACTOK. Many of our new friends have asked for directions lor using these machines, but really they are so sim- ple, that it seems little advice need be required. They are all ready for ube when received, and the most that is reciuirrd is to screw them fast to seme box or bench just high enough to allow the gate to run the honry Into the bung-hole of a barrel. Do not under- take to work unless the bees are gathering honey, or vou will be very likely to have trouble. The best time is when they are busy in ;he fields, and if the vleld is good, you will hardly need any smoke. Care- fully remove a frame from the hive, and then, with a series of sudden jerks, shake the bees in Iront of the hive or on toji of the frames, as you may flntt most convenient. When you have shaken < fl' as many as you can, take a bunch of asparagus tops, and gently brush off every liee in front of the hive. Now wlih the honey knife, carefully cut the cappings from all capped cells: to do ihis quickl\,you wid slide the kniie under the caps in such a way as to have them come off in one entire sheet. In regard to strainii g the honey, we kneiw of no way that answtrs so well, all things considered, as e&ulting from such a weight moving at a great speed. FEESIIKS. At present, we make and keep in stock 3 kinds; the simplicity shown on last page, the pepper box feeder, and the one shown above. The price is the same on all : 5c for a pint, and 10c for a quart feeder; by the hundred, S4.G0 for the small, and J8.00 lor the large; if sent by mail, double the above prices. To use the one shown above, dip it in a pail of syrup or honey, while held in a horizontal position; you can do this conveniently by taking hold of one corner. When full turn it upright, as shown in the cut, apd lift it out. It may now be placed in front of the hive just at night, so as to allow the bees to get a "sup" to start them, and they will quickly take every drop. If you wish to feed in the day time, place it in the hive at one side of the combs, on the top of the frames, or on the top of a honev board with one of the boles open. The pepper box feeder is intended especially to be set over a hole in tlie quilt or honey board. Any of the cheap boxes GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. May witha perforitelcner. such as repper issoli in, will :i;i^wep the same nurpose We al-io furnish what we htve foryeirseillel the tei-kettle leeJer, b ciuoe it i> 'ne sr2e of a conraou lei-kettle. ;uil h< las bout •JUlbs. Oi- c;iou-rh for a cA >riy to winter oa. &t one ••■lo c." Thep.-ieeof these is Sl.uo. or tiluOOpe -uozen They are to bd use I \". the upper story; if deiirel they c m l>e m vie imn oblo u or snu-tre ffr n, hO as to be u-el in ihe lower s;ory. To avoid killing bees, they 'n ly be ntwcbei to a t .1 bir. and be luiuit on tlie rab- be's like a frnue. Wu I3 we are :ibmt it, I wotiH re- in ir< imt I eji>ider the iriuie oi floar cmdy. :.lre.viy me itiore I, as incjmp riblyahewi <■! tuv leeler. for afer ihe ci'Hy is eii-e 1 oac, you h*Te.i frime alreadv for t ie u tj b nil conb 1 1. and vo I :ire at no expense for lee ler at alL.and iuve nf^ne to re nove Irjm the h've at.er it is e notie I. The c md v -.Iso furnishes p 1- le:i. fn well as noie.-. and y.iu hive no bother with liquids ind sticty s\rjpi. The feelers j.ie neeied lor feeding gnpe sugar. PILB5 roa CIHrCUT.A-R, SAWS. The above is tie ver/ bi-it thin; we hsve ever fo lud. and as the skp2 i^j i-^t rhe pitch of the teciii, al n >sf any o le c ri le ir i to p ii a saw in order wiih o:ie of theia. in a very snort uoie. Fr 03 of the 5 inch 20c or f2 ne per dozen. •• '• •• 10 '• 40c '• 435 •• If wmtel bv mail, add Ic for eich snaall one and T.t for e iih 1 ir^e one. P'^e lar -e si^e has a "O c'l in the 'o > tha' cat be use 1 f o • >-e:tii^ s-aws. This size is just right for the hand ripper. POOT-POWEB BTT23-SAW3. The =6 m'^'".hin*^s are verv han ly in the apiarv indoefl^ anil IS 've 'ramnt them to cur (vvmnon. inch. iiir« ii i-t'iU at th'' ra'e of 8 i«t't i>er minute, line rae isuro, an 1 other thic«ne-ses in ;rop.vt1on, th. t^ - i 1 .iiswrr 10 n itie rram3.'. liives, section loses, and almostevery t'lin^ uantdd about the aiiiary. 'I'Ue aule can bo r.u.-*ed an I ' >>Te-ed f-r cuitinsf 'different dep:hs, f"i' T'lDie-insc. ffioovins, joining and other .vork. i'-ioe, »yiLh two fi inch sa > s, all n-^pde I ^ n ir s ^- >■.. Sl^.. i . The hn7.7, saws will reach thrinr'i -.'Js inches. A RiTf 11 sj.w attachment is adre I f ir S-i.Ou mi re, > r S40 f r coja^le e machine as shown below. These answer very well, tor mahin? hives for yonr own use, but if yon think of makin»f iheai for sale, you will need t>iivv( ■• ot some kl id. If the machine is all in excellent trim, s nvs sfuirp. and every thintc tiicely oiled, the la'iir is not very latlffulnEr. for saw- big inch him ber, t ut ir\on let the ?a^v gi>t just a lit'le a«U, or your Inraiier is hard, or If you niteinpt 10 cut ii»ery much i inch stufiE, you may wish pn-ttv "severe- ly,'" you hiki a \\ti\v en;»nc. Alihoueh we have -iteani power, we find th* foot oovrer sa^v so handy for odd jobs, that we C'luld har Jly get alone without it. We furn»h with thetn, two ItCMjks on saw lilhag and th-3 care ol saws. POXTNTAIN PUMP, OB SWARM AB,- BliSTIIB. This is a ver? pretty little brass f irce pump, or fire engine, with a rubber Los^ attachepec- i.illy for ttiat piirpo-e. If \oii can >;et within a rod or ; two oi the i-warin. come down tiiev muft. for \o.i ca i wet me win^:s of each imiiviiiiial bee, ^o that heis as helpless as if wimre were iiiiki own. ami then }o.i I are "boss" of proceedings, witoout anv qne-t'on '• Fr'Ce 01 pump is now but SS.'tO: t- ev bare f-rn^rly I been clo. If wanted by mail, add 60c for postage. I PIS.AMES POB BSE HIVES. I COKNEit?, MET.\L, K^K FK.\MK MAKING. Perhaps the readiest way of understanding all about ' Siese, will be to order a samile frame, which we send b.y I rnail with a bir of mboet and sample transferrinif clasp. : for 15c. For the convenience of those who do not eet the srtea at once, we submit the following diagram. AIko see engravini? on Iron; cover. FOOT POWER Brzz 3.*.W AND SCROLL SAW COMBINED. METAL COEXER, AND ITS POSITIO.V IX THE HIVE. The enirrivins is full size. The '3 hoard Bis snpncsed to >ie the pnd of th" hive. A is a seciioii of the meia! rah- l>et, and C is the corner, raised a liitle from ir.s place ns it rests on the rahhet The space E, between the frame (hid the end of the hive, .should he about % of an inch, as erxplained t elow. F shows the bevel and shoulder, shown on the front cover, and also under section boxes; this is t" prevent wind or rain from gettinirtlirouirb, whenthe hivts or covers are piled up two or more stories high. It will he observed that the frame is supported enti-ely on knife edtres crossinc each other at riirht am-'lfs, making it impossible for the bees to was the frame f.wt, and al- most impossible for you to pinch a bee in pnttinir the frame down, even if you take ro pains at all, to vrct thun out of the way. We prefer to have the tin rabbet reich i:j' above the end of the comer as nt A, bpfause the bees »v so much less disprwed to try to protK^lize the brisrht tin; al.so when lepacirir Xh-^ frarae^s, the comer ani!s trlide smoothly into place a« soon a« they strike the rabbet, Ihs rabbet may be used without the corners, or the c< rners may he used without thenbhet, but neither of thfni a!on>? gives 11- a frame so r'^rf<»c;ly movable: find .as wood is al- ways iri vin J more or less, they can not hanir perfect ly i ni. ; Neither can :■ frame He slid - ple frame by mail, just as we woiild have it. for 15 cenn*. (American and Gallttp sir.e 12 cts.) iiirluding R:tinpleer hundred... $S (>n 20 1 Coiners, metal, per hundred 75 20 I '• •' 10)1 only, per hundred 100 15! '• " bottom, *• •' 5u On l.OCO or more a discount «( U> I'Cr cent will )>»■ made, and on lO.OCO, 25 p< r cent. The l;im-r discount will also be given to those who advtitiee meta: cor- nered Iramee. 10 I Blocks, iron, for metal cornerel fr.ime ma- I king 15 Ore of the abjve is given free witn every lOO frames, or lOuU corners. I Corners, Machinery complete tor makinc S25<) 00 GLEANINGS, BACK VOLUMES. Vol's 1 and II each, post-paid, by mail 75 Vol. Ill is out (f print, and we can or ly j.et second hand c )pieB by advertising for 'I em, ai jl.so per f^'py. We will eell such fur c2.00, an'i pi} postage. V( Fe IV and V we can famish ai i.W e cb! We can farnlfih the whole five volumes real\ b iird ii, one. f>>r 85.00. They are too heavy to go by m;iil The^e back volumes are very valuable as b'ioks cf refer- ence, and In the matter of patents alore. begiiiner-s would saTe hundre Is of dollars, by knowinii what de- vices have been tried and aband. ned. Every few days we fee accounts of patents on things that, have been fully discussed in the old bee journals; had ihe inventor been posted on what is already known, he would hare saved both time and money. All of the above volumes contain most comprehensive Indexes. HIVES. FRAMES ENTIRELY OF WOOD. Made as in tbp cut above, price per luindrel. any dimensions, S2,iii. Tie regular Langstroth will be furnished at the above prici- in any ((U.-mniy. but odd sizes miift be orderec. making comj lete 2 story cont lining 20 frames 3(0 10 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. May For a 2 story hive for comb honey add (to 1 story §2.00) body ;-tOc— nailiiii? and painting 10c— 7 frames of sections iilc— crating 4c, making complete 2 story containing 7 frames and 73 sections 3 35 If filled with fdn. starters t;Oc— if slso filled with tin sepaiat)rs 40c, making a 2 story hive for comb honey corapktj all reidy for the bees 4 35 An upper story (no (•,r>\ e*-) filled with sections, fdn. starrevs and al', ready to bi set over any L. or Simplicity hive 2 15 To prepare the above hives "or winter, put in place of the 2 ontside frames, chaff cushion division boards, price 20c each, and a thick one on top, 30c. £0 Iron frame to uauue size of above hives, and to bol.l them truj when nailing, size 20£Xl6 mside CHAFF OR LAW^f HIVE. The Chaflf hive i^ prcisely the same as the above •<^ith the scroll work and hrackrts omitted. Thfv contain 10 frames below, and 14 traraes or 81 section boxes ahovp. are well paintfd and finished complete, (Laivn hive 61. morel 5 CO Tf filled with fdn. starters and separators. S1.25 more. Without frame.", chaff or paint, as sample to work from 2 .V) Those hive . if sujip'ied with store.'*, will, we hoiie. need no attfntion whatever, from the time honey ceases until it comes again the next season. Two fr?i me nucleus hive, neatlv painted .50 Three •' " '■ '• " " 60 HIVES BY THE QUANTITY. The demand for both Simnlicity and Chiff hives in the fl It, has been such as to warrant me in makins arranse- ments to furnish them by the quantity, at very lo'v prices. Now it is with thesp as with the fdn., we can onlv do it by hivins them made up in anantities ahead, all boxed or crated, ready to ship. To avail yourself of these low rates, yon )»?'.«/ send the exact amount of money snecified, -iwl order them in the r|U<)ntity specified. Printed instructions with illustrations, will be furnished for setting up each kind. SIMPLICITY niVES IN THE FLAT. Per hive. Per pckg. 3 1-story hives, no insides or bottom 60c. $ 1 80 5 " " ' 58 2 90 10 " " '•' " " .55 n 50 25 " " " " " f,^ l.S 25 50 " " " " " 52 26 00 100 " " " " " 50 50 00 Metal rahhets arc inchuJed uith all the above, andh ives are all made of seasoned u'hite pine lumber. You can use your ordinary Ijansrstroth frames in tire aV-ove hives, or we ran i'nrnisb you metal cornered frames, and n sheet of enameled olotli for coverincr the frames, for just as much more; that is, the frames (10 to einh hive) nnd enameled cloth Fheet co^ " " 14 In tin cans of 10, 2.5, 50 or 1(0 lbs 15 Packages included at above prices. COMB HONEY. In 1 lb. sections, pT lb 30 Case included with 48 sections. JARS FOR EXTRACTED HONEY. 1 lb., square, per gross 95 CO Corks lor same " 15 1 qt. self sealing fruit jars, (hold 3 lbs. honey) Mason's patent, per gross 15 00 CANS FOR SHIPPING EXTRACTED HONEY. 100 lbs. $1,00. 50 lbs. 50c 25 lbs. 25c. HONEY KNIVES. Honev Kiuves, price, S!,fn, either straight or curved blades as shown in the cuts above. They will be mailed anywhere free, at the above prices, or a half dozen lor S5,00; they will be furnished by express, tor S9,(io per doz. Our honey knives are beautifully linished. with a solid ebony handle, are ground thin and sharp on both edges arid have a long thin springy Ijlade that is just as handy as can be, for a multitude of purposes about the apiary, aside from their legiti- mate purpose of uncapjiing." No hot water or any- thing of the sort is needeii, to enable the blades to slice the caps right olf in one entire sheet. Our pref- erence is decidedlv in favor of the straight blades. Muth's Honey Knife, 50c; per doz. by Express, $4.50. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 11 SHIPPING AND RETAILING CASE FOR COJUB HONEY. This contains 48 of the 1 lb. sections, and, so far as our experience goes, may be shippedjsafely anywhere by express, without injury, for the express mm cm see just wdat it Is. I presume they could be ehippfd as freight in the same way, on direct lines. The case, if Kept clean, and treated to a coat of new paint occasion- ally, makes a very pretty case for retailing I'rim. for the grocer has his honey neatly cased, and always in plain Bight, and when a cake is sold, all hp has to do is to raise the cover, and hand it ont. Price of the case co'Tiplete, GOc; without the glass, 400: stuff in the tl it, reaily tr> nail, 30c. The same to hold only 24 boxes, half above prices. In lots of 100 or more, we can turnisli large size lor -loa, and small one for r2c each, in the flat. The small size can be sent by mail lor 75c. LAB,V.a: FOR QUEEN REABING. Many failures are reported with this, just because it is ordered from too great distances, or at an imseasonahte time of the year. It should he borne in mnid, that if it is out of the hive more than 48 ho\irs. or if exposed to a tem- perature lower than 30°, the larva? will he tiretty sure to be dead. If the bees remove it from the cells, .vou maj be sure it was either chilled or starved. Send to some oop near you who has an imported queen, do nfit have the larva; out of the hive more than two days, and .vou will he Itfetty sure to get good nice queens. As soon as received, .fou are to insert it in the center otacomh. in the middle of lie cluster of a queenless colonv, and if it is all risrht, .vou will see them starting queen cells around it at once. Of course there must be no other eggs nr unsealed brood in the hive, but it will be a very good idea to have some sealed brood. LAMP NTTBSEBT. This is simply a hive made nf tin. with double walls ; the snaoe between the two walls wbich mav be from 4 to 1 inch, is filled with water, and this water is kept at an pven temperature of about 100°, by a lamp uiKlinf? fjlass- es so often e 1 e 1 hv rliat nam-'. '1 he on ij we offer at S3. is a very n^.it nistrument carefully papke^l in a maliojtany box, with iintil^ments for the work *ens jist commencin? to lay, will be .sold for SI Ofl if you cnmi^ »m\ H't them ; if you want them sent h> mail, send us !()<', for ci^e and postage. Q\ieens thit hive been ^ sted and "' found wanting'' wIM he soM for 'O'". I also reserve the privilege of senc.in? out at\y kind i>f i queen that I do not like, as a ."500. queen. I h ive made ihe above conWitinjis that I may be enahletl t) ■• flick out " 'Oldens to order, without doiuff any of you an injustice. The d>Il:ir queens are alwH>s taken just as th'\v co!iie. If •ui\ of you can furnish them cheajwr, I will rpjoice wiih the rest. T rJn nr>t third: do'! ir queens can be furnislved snnner fhan Jv,ly \st\ lint if our friends in the smith cnnctude to "help ns out" in the matter, I tcill let yuii kuoio through Gleatiinps. FLAXES. cf 2 2 3 " 3 Co- 3 55 _ , 3- - ::2- 1-) ti* T 3 = OO 3 iSTSO^^ •i ^ ???l^ 2 = ~ :f 2 ^ Kj C ;3 3- O 3 •:, !__, 5"^ -i o ^^ " o O < o zn CO n PI 5E.13 a 2 w r* "-^^ > r- ~L,^ ■^ ■5 '-^ •H 'WiX ri ■— ' r/j O —iTS M i-2'4 a ^■"- ' CO ?t3 N-. . ^ 03 "i. a f" = 2 2 S '^ - s -• - o . • • *: r+^ rtj f/5 rt > > •-3 o (—1 ^ C*-2 t-3 y~t * c *-• g H a tt* 't- 1-" ® trf t-l ■-d • c:! W p t- o D3 O O ^ H ^'^ '>/ ■ , and the Simpliciiv Feeder. They answer the tinrpi?ce work at low pric-es, but 1 always feel "awiully miserable" when 1 am chargea, or am obliged to charge anvbody else, high prices for work that is not " nice." Now I will show you the cage and feeder, and try to stop "gossiping." OUR 5 CENT RIMPLICITT BEE-FEEDER. No directions are needed for using the queen cage, and almost none for the feeder. Fill it with honey, syrup, sweetened water, or even sugar with water poured on it, and then set it in one elde of the hive, on the frames, in the portico, in front of the hive, or in the open air anywhere, and the feed will all be taken without a single bee getting drowned. Since the above cut was made, we have made the feeders longer and narrower, having two grooves instend of 3. They'hold, just about 1 pint, and are sent safely by mall for 10c. postage included. See feeders. SALIC YI.IC ACID, FOB FOUI. BBOOiD. This is claimed to t>e a perfect remedy, but as it is a new thing, we would better, perhaps, make some allowances. Some of our friends in England say it has no effect on the real virulent foul brood. 1 have never had any experience with the disease, but my friend Muth, of Cincinnati, in whom I have much confidence, declares it made a perfect cure in his apiary, with only a single application. The method of treatment is to dissolve Si ounce of each, salicylic acid and borax, in a pint of pure soft water ; if so much will not dissolve, less will do; the exact quan- tity is not important. The solution is sprayed or sprinkled over all the combs, as well as bees. To make sure work of it, the diseased cells should all be opened, that the acid may have a chance to kill all the germs of the malady; although many report having succeeded by simply spraying the bees and combs. A spray diffuser worked with a rubber ball, such as can be had of the druggists, is very conveni- ent for the purpose. Price of salicylic acid per oz., .'iOc. Sent by mail, at the above price. SOLDEHING IMPLEMENTS. SECTION HONEY BOXES. SECTION BOXES IN THE FLAT, PBICE PEE 1,000 BOXI'S. Any dimensions not exceeding 2x5x5 ^10 00 ThejilKive is 50 cubic inches ; for larger sizes add 10c per 1,000 for each additional cubic inch or fmction of an uich, outside measure. Extra prices for less than 500. Just right to fit in L. fn.aies,2x4Ji^x4V 9 50 The above are crated in packages of 500 each, wtiBhing about 50 lbs. Sample by mail with fdn 5 If tlie grooving for holding the fdn. is omitted, 2£c less per 1,000. Sections weigh from 7 to 10 lbs per 100. 10 I L. frame made 2 inches broad to hold 8 sections 5 25 I The same with 8 sections 13 25 I The same furnished with fdn. starters all ready for the bees 20 Adding tin separators to either of the above will in- crease the price 5c, and the postage 6c. • Broad L. frames to hold sections, per 100, in the flat $4.(0 The above are made like the "all wood" frames. TIN SEPAKATOKP. For the broad L. frame, per hundred, £2.00. Sepa- rators for the 3 frame box, per hundred, Sl,tO. 1^ SECTION BOXES AND THEIE POSITON IN THE HIVE. The above cut and the cuts on the cover, will make everything plain, almost without explanation. As. we send a complete section box with rice strip of fdn.. nnd printed directions for fastening it in the frames, by mail, for 5c., we will not attempt any description here. The cut on the lelt, shows one of the broad frames containing 8 sections, and A, A, are the ends of the hive. B,- B. are the end strips that are nailed under the cover of the hive, and D is the cover itself, before being nailed on to B, B. C, C, shows the shoulders that hold the coVer on the up- per stories, while the bevels hold it securely in place, and exclude rain and wind. For SI. 00, 1 will send by mail, a full sized soldering iron ready for use, with a box of rosin, box of sold- ering fluid, bar of snider, and full printed instruc- tions for use. If sent by express, I will add a solder- ing board, all rigged, ready for work. CASE FOR THREE SECTION BOXES WITH SEPARATOR, A case of 3 section boxes, separators and fdn. com- plete, as in cut above. lOc ; if sent by mail, 2oc. This arrangement is intended for box hives, or for tail frame hives. If prelerred to the frames, they can also lie used on the L. hive. This airangement is cfsen- tially ihe same as the one used by Doolittle and Bet- singer. As the price is very close, no discount can be given on larger quantities. Section honey boxes, 8 in a broad L. frame, fur- nished v\ith fdn. starters, and tin sejiarators, the whole complete, ready to hang in the hiv(! as seen at No. 12 and 13 on the cover, 25c. By mail, 56 cents. 14 GLEAXLN'GS IX BEE CULTURE. May V^j hesTT vmugiii irMi, pnce 7^ oeau of HASD CIBCULAK REP SAW. This machine i? for ripping boards s'nd pHnks of hird r>T ?oft Inmber. into any width di*«ired It is 7u«t The Thin? for chaff hive inaking^. Price *.>•.(». For further particulars send for circular of foot power machinery. SISIDS or HONEY PLANTS. A brisk demand ha.s sprung up for these, and wh-ther or not they r* ally pay. for h^neij a2'>nf. is a riiesTioH up^n wh'ch I am not yet fully sstisfied. I hive no doubt but ibat buckwheat. raT>e and alsike «--;->ver. sometimes >ield honey enough t~> pay all •»x:_>*»n^=es of cultivari n. aside from ser-d. hay. etc.: ■feut T vi^rymuch duubt whether any "ne ever got enoiighfrom mignonnette. m''>th*'-w"rt. catnip, etc., tn T>av for the lab'">r of raising the cr>p. Xotwi'h- =trnding all this. I believe in raising honey plants ju-T for the fun of seeing the V «»es work on them, if n iThin? else, and I have now got a patch of tumif**. '*>even Top Turnips." in full bkibm. that are worth to me a full S5.i>i bill, just on account of their Wv.Tity. and bec-ause the t)^-* are humming over thi^n so constantly, and in =ueH very great numbers. T have f'"«r vr^^rs had dreams of a honey farm, wiih acres of flowers of different colors, blooming f^ different seasons, and keeping The be«^ away from the stores and groc-erif-s when we have a dry sp"ll in the fall. At the pvesf^nt writing, this dream tteems to bid fair to be realized, nnd if I do not suc- '•'"ed in raisins mn= of honey. ' think I can at l*^.st «-TipIy you with all kinds of honey plant seeds. I am g'ling to have a dandelion bf>d. and if we oan- To* r?ake them bear blossi">ms as iT^e as a lea-'mp. — w- 11. 1 think. Then. T shaU have an fcre or two of mammoth Russian sunflowers, and if nature does noT =Tr.-y^b-'^dlv with all the cf>lors of the rainbow. a=tV- "" - nelds c-omesuec-essively into bloom. it w; -e there is no such thing as making her - y. At>riut 6 years ag' .. I planted nf^ri'- -,.••'' '■ai--ir.-«;>d trees on a piece of liV, acres. !?Tid thovar*- n<^(w just l>'='8inning to bear bl'"»ssoms: the =i£rht of th<^m when they first leave out in the spring, is worth to me. well, all the speculation ever ej->st mf- so far I think, and if I should live 'o see a hons<» apiary— it is I'-i miles from our home, so you sp- have thf' hon- ey saff from depredation— in full blast amid the a?T*«ding tM->ughs. bending with honey, and roaring With myriads of yellow banded Italians. — well. I guess when that time comes I shall have faith in raising honey plants, for honey alone, if I have not now. Alsikk Clover.— Can be sown almost any time, but perhaps gives best results for seed, when sown in April or May. About -t lbs. are required per acre, and it does not blossom much, until the sec- ond year. Its treatment and cultivation are much the same as for common red clover, but the seed is saved from the first crop. Fresh seed raised near us. so that we know it is f --ee from dangerous seeds. price per lb. 25c; per peck. ?:i.(50: per half b'-shel. - not offer them for sale, but would recommend the small trees as described on page 3. Borage. — A strong, hardy, rapid growing plant. b<=^iring a profusion of blue flowers. It may be sown any titne. but will, perhaps, succeed best, at about com planting time. As it axows talL and branches o-,it considerably, it should have plenty of room. I know that bees are very busv on it. almost all the day lone, but I do not know how much honey an ^cre of it would furnish. It is easily tried, because it STOWS so readilv. Prices, same as for catnip. BtrcKWHEAT. — I think we shall have to regard This as the safest investment we can m;ike for arti- fioi-Al pasturage, although, in many localities, it yields honey only occasionally. About 3 pecks per acre a"^ usually sown, and it may be sown in April. May. .Tune. July, or even August, but in the latter month, it would furnish only blossoms for the bees, and no seed. The best results for b<"ith honey and seed are obtained by sowing in the latter part of June. If you want much honey, you must have E'ood soil. "VTe can furnish the common kind fo-^ ^1.50 per bushel. .tOc per peck, or he per lb.: the silver hull for S2..5rt per bushel, T-"c per peck, or lOe per lb. If wanted by mail, add 18c for bag and p>o stage. C\TXTP.— This has bf^n very much talked about, and we have record of some experiments with on sc^ or more, but if I am correct, no one has ever yet seen a barrel of catnip honey. Still, some one may raise catnip honey by the barrel, and make money at it. If you wish to try, we can ftimi=h you gotMj seed, that we have tested our«elve«. for?Oc per o7_. or $2.00 per lb. : ISc per lb. extra, if wanted by m-iil. Ci-ovet; — ^The be^t honey In th" world, nil things considers d, is. without doiibt. that obtained from white clover: but. unfortunately, there seems to be a diflSculty in saving the seed, so it is generallv allowed to grow spontaneon«ly. The nearest w- can come to it. is the TThitp T>utch clover, and a« I . have r>«»ve'' seen it grow. I (-nn tf»U you hut littb- nbont it. T think we will all have to sow some seed nt onr^. and sep how it i*. Price per lb., 60c. If wontod i.rmail. add 1^ for baeand postajre. Sw-TFT Cr.ovER. AJJ^o C.\L,I.ET> >TET,r.ir>iT. — Same P'ir'o !i« n^ove. Great things are claimed for thi'=. >>ut T hnvt> not found the bees particularlv fond of if. This T do know, it is awfullv hnrd work to pull th'' roots ont of the garden, when they come where you do not want them. DAxoTruoys. — I presume every body can get dandelion seeds and roots without buyine them, but for all that. I have almost as much faith in an acre of cultivated dandelion", as In the same arnount of e covered lightly. This plant seems to have a rare capacity for standing frost, and bees may often be seen "busy upon it clear into Oct. I should very much like to see an acre of it. on our honev farm. The seed is 20c per oz.. or il.V\ p*>r 1^. If wanted bv the lb., add 18c for iKistage. Parson's 1878. GLEAXIXGS ES' BEE CULTURE. 15 New Giant Mignonnette, we can furnish at 80c per oz. : Grandiflora. at 25c per oz. All the ani most, and Jdo Vou most good, and I am trying not to be selfish or stub- born and headstrong. More than KXiO of our own are nowin use, and only one has ever been returned. SPRING BAI.ANCI:, Is shown at Xo. 15. on the Cdver. a nice article fS 00 These scales are made we-Tther proof, and when arranged ■ to suspend a moderate sized colony, may be left out all summer. As the figures on the dial are lanre and plain, we can sei at a distance the avenii.-e jield bf honer per ' stock, each diy or ho-ir eren. Wh«-n wei^hins sti-cks for winte'-. they Khf.rtfn 'he wf'k \ f-ry rratf-i-ii'.r. STEAM ENGINES FOB, HIVE-MAKING. 2 Horse Power Engine and Boiler, $l.'iO 00 3 to 4 Horse ., 2.50 W These Engines are tested at 300 lbs, pressure, the dif- ferent parts are made interchangeable, the work and material is guaranteed tir-l claes, and It Is claimidthat it is iiractic,, except the smnke stack, which should be a H or S inch stove i>ip%. I hu\ e taken pains to look this matter up in repaid to these f^mall engines, and those we offer are I think, luUy equal to anything made for anything like the price. They are lurnishcd at ihe above prici-s, at ibe factory in Corning, X. Y. Although engines o! 1 Lor>e power are offered tor sale, we thibk It wi.i be much better to purchase one of not less than two h.-n-tj power as above- The one hon-e i ower Eiiciiies arv: no cheaper, WAX EXTHACTOR. Price 53.50. This machine is very sir.ple, i.i w.- bs\e only to throw our refuse comb into the basket B. smi s«-i it inside the can A. Now put on the cover, and j.l;-!^ it over a pan or kettle of boiling water: the steam will as- cend all around B, and the melted war will n:n dotrii and flow out of the tul>e O. Under the end of this tul^, is kept a pan to catch the was. As fast as the comb sinks down, more can he put in. and so on. The lUHchine re- quires no atfpiitioii, except to fill the basket B. I; y«.u have no kettle that is 12 inches across the top inside. \r« can furnish a copper bottomed steam generator fo. il.U). 16 GLEAXrXGS IX BEE CULTURE. May THE SMOKER I PREFER. TKE SIMPLICITY SMOKEIL It don't tip over, never "s^e~ cut," make? nice Tms= •!; .-Tioke to p'.eise the chiMren, and there are "lots'' of other nice thirss about it that I can not thint or now. When you ^et one, von will know all abont them. It. is. in fact, such hard work to make it go o;u at all, that we have been obli^er! to add a damper to it since the en^ravifff was mad*", "ion can bnm anvthine in i'. chips. "patT.t rizht hives" that vou do not want, stove wood, com co*)s. Ac. &c. The nicest material I have ever used, is peat, bnt oars is all gone, and I don't know where to get anv more. Verr dry corn cobs make a splendid smoke and last a lone while, bnt it is s^tre trouble to ligh' them the first dme. .\fc°r you have been using thPTi. it you extingni=h them bv means of the damper, yoa can ligh' the chirred fraements next time, with a match. Ton can chop the cobs in pieces with a hatchet. 'or !et the children do it, and then kpe.i them with some matches i" a box where they will always be dry, Yonr smoker should als> be kept in-doors out of the rail, bm if yon are sometimes careless, as I am, and "get some part of it hr-vken or injured, we will sell yon the different parts at the following pric«s. The postage is given ia the left hand column. Smoker com p' ere 75 \ 'arger size will be furnished if wante«i, for 25c more. Bellows complete 40 Tin case for fuel 35 3 j Leather for Bello-irs 15 1 j Pairof s*ee! springs 10 5 ■ Top of tin case 10 .A.fler vou have bought one smoker, if yon wf.nt another- for yonr neishbor. we will give yoa 10 per cent off. If yon will buy a whole dizen. and take'them all at one time, yon may have them for 50c each, and that is the very oest we can do in the way of wholesaling. P. S.— If you wish to see the revolving rings, get something thit will make a perfect cloud of smoke. r>eat is best, and lap briskly on the bottom board. When you can get the knac* of it., yon can have the air full of 'hem. all spinning away like There! I almost forpot one more idea. Whenever the children get stub- born and leally need pimlsbing on a second thought, I think I won't tell it after all. 1S78. GLEAXEN'GS LS' BEE CULTUEE. test the accuracy of your ^vork, pile the boards on each other, and see if they are all exactly alike all around. I should, right here, suggest that you have your work nice- ly piled up. all the time, and a couple of v.-illow clothes baskets, set near the saw. will be just the thing to toss all your odds and ends into. One of them should be set directly under the table, to catch all the sawdust. Do -iHA let a scrap or f^pUnter be ihrmcn on the floor. Always put them in the basket. It will pay well in dollars and cents, and then, when a \'isitor comes in, he will say. "Why. what beautiful work you are doing, and what a pleasant place this is.*' On the contrary, if you have your lumber aU scat- tered about, and sticks breaking and crash- lug under foot among your tools, he would be very apt to say. "Well. I'm glad I do not have to work and diosdge through life ps ihat fellow does." Another thing: if your stuff is scattered about, you will very likely miss some. and. after you have changed your gauges that were set so nicely and carefully, you will have to go and set them over, just to finish the few odd pieces: this second time you wHl be likely to do it in a hurry, because you are cross about having been so careless, and ; perhaps this will be the means of making a ; bml job of the whole lot of hives. Keep all \ yoirr pieces piled up square a7id i.-ue. and all ! together, so that none can be missed. ! Ton will remember that we had some \ longer pieces, that came from the extreme i ends of the boards. In cutting them up. ' you can save lumber, by making two sides '. cv 'hree ends of these pieces, or even two ! sides and one end. as the stuff may happen ■ to come out. While cutting ud stuff. I would have a ' gaxige of the length wanted, right handy. and every little while, just try a board, and see if it is just exactly right. If you have ; a board that you know is just right, stand it on end. beside the pieces yo'a are cutting. ; and then pass your finger along their tops. and yoTi can readily see which is longest, if there is :-ny difference. Our stuff is now all in two piles, and. if we wish to come out even, there should be inst as mraiy end boards as side boards: Ihat is. the tv\o piles should be of equal height : as you come pretty near the last, ; yon can manage so as to "fetch up" the pile that is lowest. You will remember that i these boards were cut off. so that the short ' one^ just fill the iron gauge frames cress- wise, and the long ones, lengthwise : well. now we are to miti-e or bevel the comers, so that, when four of the boards are set up in this shape — see cut — the iron frame will just drive over them. You yrill observe that the top of the hive shows that the boards are put to- gether just like a pic- ture frame : and to saw this mitre is our next job. Put on the beveling platform, as before, and. with your cut off saw keen and sharp, cut off a comer so as to leave a sharp feather edge on each end of eveiy board. You can tell when your gauge is right, by the way in which the iron hoop drives over the four boards. If the angle is just right, the comers should close up so as to leave scarcely a visible crack where the joint is. All the boards are. of course, to be mitred at the comers in this way, and then we are ready to take off the strips that go around imder the covers. If you will look at the cut of the beveling platform, you will see beside it. a 3 cornered bar with a couple of wires twisted in it. This bar is to be fast- ened, by the wires, to the planed iron track on which the movable side of the saw table slides, the movable side being removed. Xow set the beveUng platform so close to the saw. that you can cut the strip clear ofi, leaving the desired shoulder, as in the cut. TAKI^'G OFF THZ 5TEIP I":N'DEK THE COVER, In the above cut. let A be the stationary side of the saw table. B the square end of the parallel bar to said table, and H the saw. C is the beveling platform screwed to B. E the side or end of the hive lying on it. F the strip that goes under the cover, and G the 3 cornered piece that is wired to the iron track. This last piece is to rest the square edge of the Ixxird against while pushing it through, to cut off this strip. You will ob- serve that the table is screwed up high enough to allow the saw to cut just into the notch I. that we sawed in all the pieces be- fore they were cut up. Oiur side i>ieces are now finished, and the ends are all done, ex- cei>t cutting the rabbets for the frames to 156 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. ilAY hang oil. This operation is so' simple, it need hardly be described. In the accom- panying cut yon will see a cross section of B 1 one of the ends that has been rab- beted, and one that has not. We first saw in- I, and then saw down from B, to meet it. As tlie lumber is i, if we take out f , we shall have just a half inch of wood left. When the metal rabbet is in place, and the frame swung in the hive, the top of the frame should be just on a level with the shoulder C. As. our frame is just 9i deep, and we want just about- f under the bottom bar, making 9i in all, we want just 9i inches from the shoulder C to the bottom edge of the boards D. This Mill insure just | be- tween the upper and lower frames when the hives are used with two stories. If our metal rabbets are made to stand just i inch higher than the wood, and the projecting axm of the top bar is also i inch, the shoulder A will be just i inch lower than the shoulder C, You will observe that I have calculated for I between the upper and lower frames, and between the bottom of the frames and the bottom of the hive. Well, i inch would be still better than f , if we were sure the lum- ber would never shrink by after seasoning so as to make it any less than i ; as it will shrink some in spite of us, I think we would better calculate on |. This is also the dis- tance we need between the frames and the outside of the hive, all around ; not more than t, and not less than i. In cutting out your rabbet, you will, of course, hrst cut down from A, and I would gauge from D instead of from the sharp edge B, thus avoiding inaccuracy. When you cut in from B rest the stuff on the shoulder C, and you will have no trouble in getting the saw cuts to match nicely. If you have a rabbeting liead, you can take the wood all out at one operation, but then you have shavings in- stead of strips, and it takes a little more power. Tlie strips are of no particular use, it is true, but we find them very handy for sticking up covers, as you will see presently. While I think of it, in the absence of a foot poAver saw, you can make the bevels and shoulders by gi-inding a plane in the shape you wish ; in this way you can get very nice joints, but it is rather slow business. The body of our hive is nearly all done except the handles, or rather hand holes Unit you lift them by ; these are made with a wabbling saw. Sometimes our saws have a fashion of "wabbling,"' j'list when ^e would rather they wouldn't, and it would seem to be (juite an easy matter to make one wabble : so it is, but, with the Barnes man' drels, it is not quite so easy after all ; be- cause they have their saws run on a shoulder that is considerably larger than where the screw is cut. The way in which we make a saw wabble ordinarily, is by a pair of wooden washers like this cut. But tlie Barne's saw arbor requires that we, after making the washer as above, cut on the side of one of them a shoulder something like this, to hold the saw true. The idea is to have the saw securely clamped be- \3jm tween the two wooden washers; to have it clamped so it cannot really slip round, or out of true ; I mean by out of true, so that the teeth are just as long on one side as on the other. Unless you have it so, the cavity will be deeper at one side than at the other. The first washer should be thick enough to allow the saw to clear the table, and, as the movable side of the table is ad- justed, we can give the wabbling saw all the space it needs. Tou will need both the' parallel and cross cut gauge for this busi- ness, and they are to be so setthat, when the boards of the hive are carefully and slowly dropped down on the saw, one end at a time, a nice cavity for the fingers will be cut. To smooth out the bottom of the cut, you have only to move your board slightly side ways just before you lift it off the saw. ThiS' trims off the strings, as it were, left between, the saw teeth. I would have these handles made in the sides, as well as the ends, for it is often convenient to lift a hive, when the ends, one or both, are not convenient to get at ; for you must remember the simplicity hives can be placed tight up against each other, as there is nothing in the way of so doing. HOW TO 3IAKE THE COVERS. For those you will need pretty good lum- ber, and it must be of such width that, when fully seasoned and finished, it will be 16 inches; or, to make it plainer, each cover board, when done, must exactly fill the iron gauge frames we pictured on page 118. The length we can manage without any trouble ; but the width, taking into consideration how prone to shrink 16 inch boards are, is a little more difficult. If our covers are not season- ed thoroughly, they are very apt to split from end to end, after having the sides nailed as securely as Ave do it. 1878. GLEANENGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 157 I would first cut all the, boards in two, in the middle, using a measure, to prevent cut- ting in such a way as to spoil a . cover, and then rip off a strip so as to reduce all to 161 inches. This gives us one straight edge, and, shortens the boards so we can handle them. If you have no assistant, you can cut them in tw;o once more, and this will enable you to handle .them very readily. With the straight edge against the cut ofi bar, cut your boards up carefully , to 20i inches long, or just so as to slip in the iron frame. If your lumber is seasoned as well as you can get it, you may now bring it to 16 inches width, or so it will just squeeze into the iron frame sideways. After this, it is only to be rabbet-ed. That you may under- stand perfectly the purpose of rabbeting and cross nailing I will give you some cuts. You remember that we had 2 inch strips from both sides and ends, when we made the bev- els on the hive. Well, four of these strips phiced in the iron frame, and. nailed, will look about like Fig. 2. HOW TO MAKE THE COVER. Eig. 1 shows the cover board all rabbeted, ready to be pushed into Fig. 2. Fig. 3 is a cross section of the cover, and shows how the nails are to be driven. If the covers are I, you will have a half inch of wood to leave, as shown, after taking out |, to get the shoulder ; but, as much of the lumber will dress more than |, and some of it a full inch, I would plane it just enough to get a smooth surface, and no more. Now supposing you cannot get perfectly seasoned lumber (and, in fact, according to my ideas, the lumber as it comes from the lumber yards is never seasoned as it should be for covers) what shall we doV I will tell you ; get out your covers just as I have men- tioned, except you will omit rabbeting one edge. Pile the boards up, placing between them the sticks that came out of the hives when we cut the rabbet ; or, if more con- venient, use pieces of lath, or any strips of an even thickness. Put the sticks close to the ends of the covers, and pile them up clear to the ceiling of your room ; the higher the better. ISTow, when you wish to use some cover stuff, or fill an order, take down •AS. many as you want, and rabbet the re- maining edge until the cover justs slips into the frame. NAILING HIVES. We use 6 penny finishing nails, and put four nails in each side all around tlie hive. iSTail the corners securely, first, and drive yom- nails as close to the corner as you can, without having the nails split out. Never let the point of a nail show itself, under any circumstances, and do not have any split- ting or botch work, if it takes you a whole forenoon to nail up a single hive. To work to good advantage, a pair of iron frames are needed, although you can get along with but one. In your first attempts, it is hardly to be. expected that you have been able to get the hive stuff" so it will just drive into these frames, and I hope you have been on the safe side, and made your boards a little larger, if anything. , If such is the case, you are to have one of the neat, little, iron, smooth planes to be had so cheaply now a days, and plane off the ends, until they are just a tight fit. The iron frames will draw them up, so that you can hardly see where the joint is. Now nail them as directed, and cross nail. The cross nails should come so near each other, that they almost touch. We nail down through the cover with 4 penny nails, and cross nail into the end with 6 penny's, as before. You cannot very well get lumber that vnll make all the covers so as to be weather proof; therefore we sort out the poorest, and use them for bottom boards. By thjs means, we have the covers all good, and no lumber Avasted. It is for this reason, and that we may have as few separate pieces in our hive as possible, tliat I advise making the cover and bottom boards all one and the same thing. If you are out of the one, you can use the other, and vice versa. There- fore, the simplicity hive is nothing but this plain simple body, and the plain simple cover ; and, if we make these two pieces just right, we are all right. HOW TO MAKE THE CHAFF HIVE. This is all, except the corner posts, made of cull lumber, which can be purchased at any lumber yard ; we get it for $10. per M. Get it long enough before hand to have it piled up and seasoned, if you i>ossibly can ; if you cannot, you must manage to have the stuff piled up so as to season after it is got out ; it will season very quickly in these thin narrow strips, and so we often cut it up, im- seasoned, when we are behind on orders. Fix your table, as before directed, and cut your whole pile of boards, before being planed, into pieces two feet long. If yon 158 glea:n^ings in bee culture. May do not cut them all so exact, it will not mat- ter a great deal for this hive, as you will presently see. After your boards are all cut up, put on yoar rip siw, and split them up 3 inches wide ; but instead of cutting them square, cut them on about the angle shown below. HOW TJ CUT THE STUFF FOB SIDING. If you find any bad knots or shakes, do not split them, but pile them up nicely at one side, to be used as rough bottom boards. This ripping can be done either on the foot power saw or with the hand ripper ; we use the latter, and I think it does the work more rapidly. To cut the pieces on the bevel, you are to screw a bevel shaped piece on the saw table. PLATFOKM FOR GIVING THE SIDING THE PROPER LEVEL. Two Avedge shaped pieces, of which only one is shown at C,are used to give the board the proper inclination ; the other one is sup- posed to be where you see the nail lioles, at D. A is where the saw comes up through, and B is a square bar that the edge of the rough lumber is rested against. It is fasten- ed to the table by screws put through the table top from the under side into these pieces C. With the hand ripper, we screw the two pieces fast to the two light wooden bars tliat constitute the only wood about the machine. A B C The first piece that comes off. will be like A; turn it over, and run it through again, and it will be like B ; the next opperatiou is to split each piece, like C. This you Avill have to do with the hand ripper, for the foot power saw, would not reach througli so far. If you do not split the pieces exactly in the middle, it does not matter, and a very thick one occasionally will be all tlie better, to give the hive strength witliout extra expense. You can plane this siding by hand very cheaply, or it may be done on the cigar box planer ; if on the latter, you will be obliged to reduce them to a uniform thickness unless you choose to save out the thickest pieces, and plane them afterward with the planer a little higher. Plane only the one side just left by the saw. If you are not going to use this siding at once, pile it up crosswise, as coopers do their staves, until it is thoroughly seasoned and straight. Our chaff hive is built by nailing these pieces of siding to corner posts with planed side outward, of course. As nails have a fashion of drawing out when exposed to the sun, (some carpenters say the sun pulls them out,) we will drive them all from the inside, and then, if "Old Sol" tries to pull them out by the feet, he will have a tough job, and will only draw the heads up tighter. The corner posts that we use are made of solid wood, and are cut fi"om 3 inch plank. The plank should be so clear from knots and shakes, that there will be no danger of the pieces breaking while nailing into them. Cut your plank, which should be as wide as you can get it, into pieces 22 inches long. Now with the beveling platform that I showed you in hive making, you are to cut out the corner posts in this way : HOW TO MAKE THE COKNEK I'Ot^TS. You will observe that the saw goes in at each side until the cuts meet, so as to take out pieces like fig. 2. After you get them all out, you are ready to nail up the outside of the hive. Lay two of your corner posts, as shown above, on your work bench and have them 2 feet and 2i inches apart. To get these dimensions without measuring, I would nail a couple of strips to the beucli just the right distance apart ; also a tliird across the end, that we may always have the hive square and true. The chaff hive is not quite square ; it is 1 inch naiTowei' on the side where the entrance is, therefore, when EXTERNAL yilELL, AND CORNER POSTS OE CHAFF HIVE. you are nailing the back and front, you are to slip a strip of wood 1 inch wide between one of your posts and your stop. Our siding, you remember, is just 2 feet long ; well, the "pieces on both front and back go clear up 1878. GLEAJ^INGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 159 into the corners of the corner posts. Tliis will prevent the side strips from coining clear up by i inch, as shown below. A is the entrance, B, B, B, B, the corner posts, and C, C, C, C, the siding. Now after we have got the siding nailed securely with the beveled edges so arranged as to keep the rain out of the chaff, we will nail in each corner an incli strip, shown at D, D, D, D ; these are put in with heavier nails, and lock the whole structure most securely. As there is no need of uncovering the chaff part when we uncover the hive, we make the cover so as to extend over the interior only, and have a permanent cover over the space containing the chaff. This permanent cover is our next piece of work. Get out some long strips, just as you did the siding, only have them i inch wider, preserving just the same bevels on each side. Plane it on both sides down to 7-8, and then cut out a pai't as shown in the diagram. Fig. 1 shows the piece before taking out the strip, and fig. 2, after it is done. You are to cut in i inch at A on the same bevel as the sides, and then 2 7-8 at B to meet the other cut. Now turn your cross cut bar at an angle, just as if you were going to make a pictm-e frame, and make a picture frame in reality, of the stuff shown at fig. 2. The inside dimentions of the frame must be just 19i by 20i ; you must be very exact about tlie 19i, for the frames will not have the right play, otherwise ; That you may get the proper idea, I will give you a diagram of this frame. FRAME THAT HOLDS THE COVER. To make the joint waser tight at the mitres, a saw cut is made in each end of each piece as shown at A, and after the frame is nailed at the corners, a strip of tin is pushed in. The outside of this frame will proba- bly be a tride large To be Continw.d. Errata. On paere 153. middle of 1st column, read Ills inches, instead of Ufa- Jan., Feb., and March Nos. are gone, but the de- demand is such that we will pay Itic each for them, to supply those who want the" back no's. W^e will sell them for l.'ic each. Is not that a good specula- tion, to haye the reading of a journal, and then sell it for more than it cost you? From Different Fields. f|HE following is only one cf many sim- ilar letters. Allow me to enquire if N. C. Mitchell's patent March 9th, 1815, prevents persons from using j'our Simplicity beehive; especially your division boards or chaff cushions, as described in Gleanings for November, 1877, pages 299 and :J0O. Mitchell's agent (see enclosed circular) threatens all using your hive and division board with prosecution. Several bee keepers are beginning to adopt your hive, in this vicinity. Davenport claims to have papers to show you dare not use division boards, but failed to find them in his bundle of documents. If he or his hive is a fraud, let me knew, and he will be advertised. He is making a big thing out of bee men (mostly Ger- mans) in this part of Michigan. K. E. Shepard. Mt. Clemens, Macome Co., Mich., April 22nd, 1878. Mitchell's hive is simply the exploded Adair hive, or what we called the Standard hive, and had illustrated in our lithographs of the hexagonal apiary, several years before he got his patent. It is a direct copy of this, as you can see by looking at the picture. His patent is on a complicated division board, that he does not use, nor any body else, as you will see by examining his claim. The 8iiiii)licity hive was described, with di- rections for making, in the A. B. J., more than 10 years ngo. lie and his agents are in more despicable business than downright thieves, and highway robbers. The 75c smoker is splendid. M. L. Williams. Vanceburg, Ky., April 18th, 1878. I saw Harry Black's smoker that he got of you, and never saw anything to beat it. I told him that I must have one as soon as possible. You will And $1.00 enclosed, 75c for the smoker, and 25c for the postage. Please send as soon as possible, and oblige Thomas O. Durall. Spencerville, Mont. Co., Md., April 18th, 18;8. OUR FRIEND WINDER. The following came to hand enclosing tlie old letter from Mr. Winder, acknowledging the receipt of the S30. I send you this for preservation, so that, if Gray or Winder enters into the business of selling ?/c<>s a(/a(», he may be published. About the lime you put Winder in the Humbug and Swindle depart- ment, he sent me S5.U0 in a letter with the threat, that if I did not keep quiet, hr tvouhl not refund the ballance, which he has faithfully observed. J. P. Parker. Henry Station, Tenn., Dec. 38th, 1877. From this it appears that Mr. Winder has alreadv paid S5. of his half. Now, friend W., pay the other SIO., and we will have a receipt from Mr. Parker in full, and then I will accept your advertisement with ])leas- ure. Perhaps this sounds like dictating for another, but it is the only way out of the difficulty I know of. DIPPING WAX SHEETS. We had a good deal of trouble with th6 two dip- ping plates vou sent with the 5 inch fdn. machine. Tricil smalT piece of board; the wax slipped off so nicelv that I made two plates of pine, quite thin, same' width and length of others. To say the least they are "peelers." They need no starch or any other fussing. The sheets slip off almost too easily. Plane the boards (which must be of straight grain and not "caty") smooth, bring each edge and bot- tom to a thiii edge, leaving the plates or rather boards thickest in center. D. D. Palmer. Eliza, 111., April 1st, 1878. 160 GLEANINGS' IN BEE CULTURE. May A 17 YEAR OLD BEE-KEEPEU. I g-ot my start from a small swarm which father was ashaiiied to keep, and now have 11 swarms. 7 of them are in box hives, but I intend to transfer them soon; lis in the American, 1 in the Lang-- stroth, 1 in tiie Quinby, and 1 in a hive that father g-ot up. I have not lost a stand of bees tliis winter. I have .5 different bee books; viz., LanRStroth> Quinby, H. A. King-, A.J. Cook, and Mrs. Tapper. I am 17 years old. Wm. Lindon Willson. Baker's Corner, Ind., April 3d, 1878. The Fountain Pump came to hand to-day, all in order, as far as I am able to judg-e. It came via ChienKo. Milwaukee & Watertown, on the principle, 1 supposi', that the "farthest way round- is the surest way home." It is not a steam engine by any means, but it will throw water to the top of the house or over it, for that matter. Upon arrang'ing' the spray attachment, the first comment I heard, b.v Mrs. ii., was "how it would sprinkle clothes!" Please read over what you say about extractors, in Gleanings, page 126, and then imagine j/our/afc; for, sure as you live, my extractor (your make) does throw a fine spray of honey, in all that reg-ion round about, unless I submit to the annoyance of a coA'er. Too much wings. D. P. Lane. P. S.— Please don't worm over this sticky sixbject. Koshkonong-, Wis., April 10th, 1878. Peiliaps I should have added, when speak- ing of extractors, that the first we made had ''wings," instead of light rods, to support the revolving frame, and that these wings did throw the honey over the top. Although we sent tliose out some years ago, we will pay all expense of having a tinner make them over, so that they will not blow the honey over the top. This offer refers to all macliines we have ever sold. I know the express coini)anies frequently do just as you have said, but they have now given us the privilege of fixing the route, &c., ourselves, and I think we can do better. PROPOLIS AND FREIGHT ON HIVES. The 2.5 hives in the fiat, &c., which you shipped the 21st of last month, arrived all right. Freight charges were f6.5.'>, which we thought reasonable. I wish Novice would tell us how to take the pro- polis off our fingers, so we could shut up a hive and go in and make bread or pies. Hannah W. Williams. Springville, Iowa, April 9th, 1878. The freight on tliis lot of hives to Iowa was about 30c. per liive ; this seems pretty expensive, and, where they send from so great a distance, we certainly ought to fur- nish extra nice work. Although no one has com])lained, I have felt like complaining, a great many times, at the work we liave been obliged to 'send out. As we are doing a lit- tle better every day, perhaps I, too, shall be satisfied some day. I do not believe that propolis ever bothers you half as much about making your pies, friend Hannah, as it does me with my type writer. Yon see it makes my fingers' stick to tlie keys, and then the ideas that are al- ways Inibbling over in ray brain can't get out, and I get "hopping mad." I try to say nothing, however, but just get the benzine bottle, and this takes off tlie propolis, but it takes so much time, that I find it a real nui- sance. One of the girls who has some bees says she uses alcohol, and that it will clean lier lingers so i)erfectlv. that no soap or Ava- ter is needed at all. The alcohol is rather expensive compared with benzine, but, as it is clean, and has no bad smell, I think it will, l)erhaps. be cheapest where one's time is valuable. REPORT ON CHAFF PACKING. A year ago I bought 2 swarms of black bees; not liking the hives they were In, I transferred them, and increased to 6. I have 5 pure Italian queens and 1 hybrid; the pure ones are not all purely fertil- ized. In the fall I made cases of Vi inch lumber, large enough to allow 4 inches of chaff all around the sides, and from 4 to 6 inches on the top; I put the bees on from 6 to 8 frames, set the hives into the cases, packed in the chaff, and they have all come through in splendid condition, and, it seems to me, have increased from 14, to i4, since February; they are stronger now than last fall. A good many of the' frames are filled with eggs the second time already. V. Page. Kennedy, N. Y., April 1st, 1878. QUEEN NURSERY FOR HATCHING HEN'S EGGS. You say that your lamp nursery will hatch queens, eggs, &c. I tried to hatch some hen's eggs last spring while hatching ijueens, but not one out of 20 that I had in, would hatch, but they were all spoiled. The queens all hatched; what was the cause? Tem- perature of nursery 85^ to 90^. Don't say the eggs were bad, for eggs of the same sort hatched when put under a hen. [No name sent.] Auburn, N. Y., Feb. 27th, 1878. To hatch hen's eggs by artificial heat is a trade of itself, and the particulars would hardly come within the province of a bee journal. If you hatched one in 20, my friend, I think you did. well, for your first experiment. I believe the eggs have to be cooled oif once a day, about as they are when the hen goes out for food. JOINER. You are wrong about the green color of extracted honey being a sure sign of unripeness; we get a delicious honey here, from the male sumach, that is as green as bottle glass, even when it is capped over, and so thick it will hardly run. Don't con- demn glass dipping plates without giving your readers a chance to try them; Stewart of Orion makes them work perfectly, and has no breakages. The Simplicity hi've here is the favorite; 1 shall change my Nationals for them this season. 1 owe you a vote of thanks for the new all wood frame; 1 tell you candidly that metal corners and metal rabbets are too movable for me. I have had a strong swarm of bees cluster on the frames, all in the center of the hive, when first put in, and i never had one that did not slide the frnmes about in the hive more or less, when both corners and rabbets were metal. There is consideralile bee fever here now; no bees for sale and several buyers. People seem just to have found out that there is, at least, "sweetness" in the "beesness", if not richness, i expect to see some failures as new hands trj- the frame hive. Kejoicing with you in the success of Gleanings, and the abundant custom that keeps those saws running night and day, 1 am yours truly, R. L. JOINEK. Wyoming, Wis., March 15th, 1878. I did not mean to say that your honey was bad, or that glass would not answer nicely for dipping small sheets. We have tried the small sheets, but our girls much prefer the galvanized iron, though they can make both work. I have never known of the bees moving the frames about, as you suggest, but even if they do, I would not discard metal corners on that account. I^ast July a new swarm was put on frames filled with fdn., and I did not see the hive, and no one opened it until fall; yet not a frame was in the least out of place. Suppose they do get moved occasion- ally, cannot we open the hive, and replace them, easier than we can have our frames stuck fast every time we wish to open a hiveV or cannot we afford to give each new swarin a couple of finished combs, just to keep everything straight, rather than to go back to ?»auovable frames':' 1878 GLEANINGS IN BEE CTLTURE. 161 Bees wintered well, but it has been warm so much that there has been lots of robWn^; hundreds of stands have been robbed. I lost four before I could atop them. Wm. L. King. St. Joseph, Michigan. TRANSFERRING OUT OF SEASON. I have drones from tested queens, and queens ■which will hatch on the 8th instant. Do you think they will become fertile? i Yes.) I have tnuisferred bees every month during- the iast winter, and have not lost a sing-le colony. Some were transferi-od with their comb, and some on empty eomla, and were fed with "A" suf»-ar, S. W. Morrison, M. D. Oxford, Pa., April 2nd, 1878. There! you tliat ask so niaiiy questions about its being possible to transfer at any time of the year, would better take an ex- ample of your friend above. You can do it, if you are careful about your work; but, if you know by past experience that ,you are 3iot, you would better not undertake it. AN apology. To my surprise, last fall, in preparing my bees for winter, I found an Italian colony near where I in- troduced one of the Blakeslee queens, and am sure she left the hive that I put her in, and entered this one; hence my injustice to Mr. Blakeslee. The other one has only one band, but the bees are good workei-s. Please tell Mr. B. that I am sorry I can't see him in person, and offer him every apology that is due him, and that I am glad to take back every ugly word I said about him ; but I would be asham- ed to order a queen from him. M. L. Williams. Vanceburg, N. Y., March 37th, 1878. I am very glad to have you own up so frankly, my friend, and I have given tliis a place, because I fear that many others who sold queens, have been just as unjustly blamed as friend IBlakeslee. If you feel you have done wrong, do not be ashamed to say you are sorry, or to send him another order. The whole matter illustrates how much need there is of going slowly, when you feel like fault finding. artificial heat and house apiaries. Although I have kept qviiet for a long time, I have not been idle, but have been up and down several times. One year ago last fall, i started to \v1nter 5 good swanns; 4- ovit of doors, and one in the boys bed room. I made an outlet, so thej' could go out and in. as the weather would permit, and they came throufih splendidly. But the four colonies out on their summer stands all died with plenty of honey, although 1 had them packed well with straw on the sides and top. Well, my hopes were 4-5 blasted surely; but now, for the one I liad left. 1 extracted 153 lbs. of nice honey, and started in last fall with «i.r good colonies. One became queeiilcss, anrl one warm day went ^'isiting one of her sisters, and for- got to cninc l)afk: so their house is pretty full, and I have but .') colonies to day. I repaired my house last summer, iiiid made a bee room over my kitchen II by 23 ft., something after the style of your house apiary, and there 1 have kept my bees during the past M'inter. I have a register so I can heat the room from below, when the weather is cold, and shut it when warm. Not abit of dampness has ap- peared in any of the colonies, and very few of the i)ces ha\e died, and they do not consume more than half tlie hnnev thev would out of doors. Bolivar, X. Y., April 3nd, 1818. L. M, Raub. As friend Joiner suggests, bees seem to do well all sorts of ways of late, and is it not possible, that our former experiments with artificial heat were failures on account of the "•epidemic'' that might have been visit- ing us at that time? when I tried artiticial heat in the house apiary, I liad nothing over the bees but a single slieet of duck, and per- haps that was more the trouble than the heat that I tliought killed them. I have a queen raised late in October; she is now laying, but she produces nothing but drones ; that is, they are all raised caps. If they should hatch out, do you think they will do to fertilize queens? If they Avill, and she continues to lay, I shall cer- tainly be in good condition for some early queens. If you have any information to give me about it, let me have it. Tho. C. Stanly. Jeffersonville, Ills., Feb. 19th, 1878. It is generally accepted, that drones from unfertilized queens are capable of fertilizing queens, and are, therefore, just as good as any ; but we lack definite experiments in the matter, none liaving been made, if I am correct, shice those of Earon Berlepsch. given in the Dzierzon Theory. I would sug- gest that you, friend S., and others experi- ment, and give us the results. Berlepsch decided they were just as good. feeding grape sugar during a drouth. Would it be profitable to feed grape sugar to bees during spring, to insure breeding in our drouth of June, 1st to ]5th? Last j'ear, there was over one week in which my bees did not have any brood in any stage, or any honey in the hive. This occurred in June, and I would like to avoid a similar state of affairs this season. J. s. Wilson. Grinnell, Iowa, March 39th, 1878. We have seen precisely the same state of affairs that you describe, and there can be no question, but that grape sugar would be of great benefit. We, last fall, fully demon- strated its utility in starting brood rearing, and we have sold many tons of it for this purpose. HOW to use a smoker. Please explain in Gleanings how you get smoke into a hive. We find it convenient to blow down much oftener than up. J. E. Dean. Fishkill, N. Y., April 4th, 1878. Well, my friend, if we want to blow smoke down, we point the nozzle straight down and blow; if we want to blow ''slautin'dicu- lar'\ we turn tlie smoker ''slantin' dicular", and so on. A smoker that has to be held right side up, like a baby, I sliould find rather "distressing,'' under the various trials that bee folks are liable to meet. If you are afraid coals may fall out of llie snlall liole that forms the nozzle, you can push in a piece of wire cloth; but, as these soon get clogged with soot, they have generally been aban- doned. To clear tlie smoker of ashes, etc., that may have accumulated wliilst it has been standing still, we give it a vigorous puff or two before pointing it into the bee liive. I, as a general tiling, carry my smoker about nearly upside down. are stings IN.3UIUOUS. I sometimes think that it might be beneticial, for "the brotherhood" to know how far stings are in- jurious to the human system. In the A. B. J., Mr. Moon writes that he has lost a limb after months of lingering pain; and Mr. Anr moved them October 1st, losing- about \i of them, they look now quite scaly. I see some honey in sections and "prize cases." I am perfectly astonished that bee keepers, who take so much pride in getting honey in nice shape for market, are so very taste- less in the section itself. Their sections look as if gotten out with a broad ax. Wm. H. Kirk. Waterbury. Conn., Feb. 20th, 1878. The matter you have mentionetl, has been several times suggested, but I am quite con- fident that it is all a mistiike. to suppose the stings have an>i:hing to do with the troubles mentioned. Bee keepers have boils, paraly- sis, aches and pains, and sometimes have to submit to amputation; but do you thmk they have more such troubles than the rest of humanity? Our best physicians say the stings have the same effect "as blistering by the agency of Spanish flies ; acute, but inflicting no i>ermanent inj luy . Some mineral poisons leave in the system a foreign matter that may become the cause of very stubborn maladies, but I think nature has"^ wisely ar- ranged it, so tliat this shall not be the case ■with stings and the bites of insects. They sometimes produce death by acute inflama- tion, but I think leave no lasting poison in the system. HOW DID SHE GET THERE? About two weeks ago, I examined all of my bees, and found the Italian queens all right, also the blacks. In about a week, robbing commenced in good earnest, and we have had more than enough of it. They commenced on one of my swarm^ of blacks, and got into the hive before I was aware of it. I could do nothing but watch and wait for night. About three o'clock, however, in the afternoon, they dragged the queen out, dead, when I went for them in dead earnest. I drove out all that I could, into another stronger swarm, and when I had taken the racks all out, in one corner of the hive, in a bunch of bees about the size of an orange, I discovered one of those nice Italian queens you sent me, last summer. Now, the question is, how came she there. The rob- bers came from a neighbor's, 20 rods off. His hive, with a nice swarm of young Italians, was 30 feet away, with brood all the way from eggs to hatching. I escorted his queen home' and all was well. Nt)w, I wish to know if your Italian ladies are in the habit of taking up their bed and board in some other ladies' home. She looked rather sheepish and very yellow to be caught awav from home. Wm. L. King, Sodus, Mich., April 6th, 1878. I can only surmise that she swarmed out, and the bees clustered on the robbing hive, and followed in with the general melee; as soon as the bees lost sight of her, they mostly went back to their own hive, and she staid in the knot in the corner, until you found and released her. The case illustrates the general demoralization that ensues when robbing gets once started in an apiary. Mr. CONVENTIONS. says, the proceedings of the National Convention ought to be so%vn broadcast, especially among small bee keepers, wiio have but little honey; for they throw their honey on the market for just what they can get, and, in that way, spoil the mar- ket for large producers. 1 think the market which a small bee- keeper can spoiL is a poor one for a large bee-keeper. I wonder if these large bee-keep- ers were not small bee-keepers, at one time. I think that 1 got just as much per lb. for my small lot of honey, as some of the large producers did for theirs; and perhaps more than some did. The man who wants to buy hcmey does not look at the bee-keeper, but at the honey; and, if the honey is good, it will bring a good price; it does not matter where it comes from. I, for my part, set my price from 20 to 2.5 cents per lb., and if "they do not want to pay that. I keep it until they do pay it. Had I kept my honey at home, I would have got 2,5 cts. per lb. instead of SX) cts. I hope you are not afraid of small bee-keepers. John Boerstleh. Gllead, Calhoun Co., Ills. I assure you, my friend, I am not afraid of small bee keepers, neither am I afraid that the conventions will do any serious harm, even if they do waste a great deal of valua- ble time in tjilking. I confess it does seem a little funny, to hear of their reports, decis- ions and resolutions, in regard to the fdn., when tlie bee keepers of almost the whole world are using it successfully year after year. After every body has forgotten that the matter was ever discussed at all, they will probably swing round laboriously, and resolve that it is a success. Now I think of it, I am wasting my time, forgetting that the tons that are now being manufactured and sold, speak louder and plainer, than all the fine addresses or printed effusions could pos- sibly do. THE NEW FEEDER. When I noticed the feeder represented in the last No. of Gleanings, 1 supposed that I could lay my hand upon a similar one that I have used several years. All the difference is that mine is square in- stead of round. The step on which the bees stand to feed, is just wide enough, and deep enough, to fill the entrance of the hive, so as to exclude robbers, and to shut the bees in the hive, if desired. I think the square form is most conrenient, as it is just as easily mule as the round one, and occupies less room. Who the inventor is, I can not say. It was introduced into Michigan in connection with Gil- more's patent bee house and hives, and I am confi- dent that the same arrangement was also introduced into your state. I have not used it for some time past, and the children have mislaid it. Now I shall not hesitate to use it, whenever I need it, even if the unnamed gent should secure a patent, or have it take on his name. Your offer of .?10. is very liberal, but I am quite sure you can manufac- ture, sell and use the thing, and keep the SIO. in vour own pocket. L. W. Bodwell. Ann Arbor, Mich., April 4th, 1878. I quite agre€ with you, my friend, and I knew the style of feeder was not new ; but the one showTi was particularly easy to make, and I wished to reward our friend for calling my attention to it. The idea is not patentable, and any one can make and use either form, as much as they choose. warning to beginners about exchanging hives IN the S-\me yard. I saw it stated, that, if bees were moved to a new stand during very cold weather, they would not get confused, lost, &c. So during a pretty heavy snow for this climate, in Jan. last, 1 exchanged places with 4 of my hives, trying to get them in passa- ble order and arrangement: for Novice is always crying out for good looks in the apiary. I had differ- ent sizes and shapes of hives, and wanted to get all of a sort in a row. It turned warm in a few days, and the bees killed one another considerably, in spite of me; and when I came to examine them, three or four queens, which were there a short time before, were missing. The exchanging of hives did it, and I have learned one lesson. My best queen, Italian, was lost. Again, I had 2 hives, 6 feet apart from north to south, and moved them westward 2 feet each day, for several days. I noticed that a few Italian bees from one of the colonies moved, got into a hive of blacks, and they still are with them. The black queen was laying properly before the moving, but, when examined 3 or 4 days afterward, she was not there, as 20 queen cells and the absence of eggs pro\-ed. The strong Italians had killed her. I have adopted the Langstroth frame, and Sim- plicity hive, &c., and think 1 will hold on to it. I have tried 3 or 4 other kinds. N. C. Steele. Kossuth, Miss., March 15th 1878. 1878. GLEANINGS IK BEE CULTURE. 163 I have never advised exchanging stocks in the way you described, even to strengthen \\\y the weak, for the very reason you have mentioned ; it will often result in the death of the queens. Your hives being all sorts of sizes and colors, really made matters M'orse. Sometimes, they can be moved about, without any apparent damage result- ing ; but the reverse is so often the case, I would recommend moving bees about, in the apiary, as little as possible. SMOKERS. That smoker of yours is, in my opinion, a first-rate article. Prof. Cook to the contrary, notwithstanding-; and I think I would like it better, as it is, than with a long-er tube side to the bellows. I don't suppose that many would think yours an imitation of Bing- ham's, as soon as that his was an imitation of Quin- by's. As for the patents, they will, doubtless, soon w'ant a patent on our eating-. I don't know but it is all right for a man to g-et a patent on a new article, but patenting old principles turned over. I don't think is "the thing." V. W. Keeney. Shirland, 111., April 2d, 18T8. But you see, my friend, there are a great many of us, and we have a great many dif- ferent notions. I presume smokers will be much like hives and frames ; different kinds will be needed to please everybody. The following came in the same mail with your letter. The smoker came to hand. I have no personal interest in smokers, but must say that I much prefer the Bingham to others. Success to Gleanings. r. A. Snell. Milledge^-ille, 111., April 4th, 1878. . We have two barrels of the Bingham smokers right close at hand, a "big box'' of Quinby's, and the girls and boys are making our own by the hundreds, so, you see, we can give you just what you prefer. I wish to sell you just which will please you most ; but I make the most money in selling the Bingham and Quinby; so," you see, I can afford to be impartial. The smoker came all right, and 1 am much pleased with it. I can not speak of comparative merits, as it is the only rne 1 ever saw. My bee bonnet is a shaker with wire cloth sewed in front, and a deep cape all around; I can put on a sacque, if they are cross, and tuck the cape in, and feel very safe; they seldom sting my hands. I think j such a bonnet would be nice for beginners. I hope friend Joiner was as good naturcd when his bees j swaimed as in telling it. Hannah W. Williams. | Springville, Iowa, April 5th, 1878. I Xow, I sup-pose that shaker is real nice ' and comfortable, but. friend Hannah, you would not wish to see "us men folks'' pok- ing around oiu' beeyards with shakers on, would you ? There' is a strawberry patch ; close by our apiary, and — well, I always find j all sorts of veils -"'awfully" in the way, for : some of the strawberry vines have wandered j up quite close to the hives. ! I received the samples I sent to you for, and like them well. New I would like one of those frames that you "could not walk out around the stairway, but woke up in the night and planned." By the way, friend Root, I would like to ask if that is the way you usually sleep; walking around the stairway. I think I will tell you a little about my bees, as I wish to enter the ranks, as a bct-keepcr. 1 began about two years ago with two swarms; have since bought some. J keep an account of all my expenses and in- come. My expenses so far, including yard, hives, and all, are two hundred dollars; my income is one hundred and fifty: but we have, for the fifty dollars lacking in income thirty six colonies, nicely packed in chaff, as directed in Gleanings. If last summer had been as good a season as the pre%nous one, I should have had my bees all clear of expense before this time; but it was a poor season. In this section, many late swarms are already dead, I can hardly tell you how 'invaluable Gleanings IS to me. One of my friends talked of buying some bees, and I thought I would give him one of my numbers; but, -when I looked thtm over, 1 could not spare one, although I have read them over many times. A. W. Anderson. Cambridgeboro, Pa., Jan. 10th, 1878. temperature in bives, in winter. This winter, when the thermometer stood 8^ below zero, in the air, near my hives, I placed the ther- mometer just over the cluster of bees In the hive, and under the rat chaff that was in the top of the hive, and let it stny thtre half an hour. On looking at it again, 1 found it stood at 54- above zeru, showing a difference of 62^ that the bees were keeping up, and the chaff was keeping right with them. Last April, «-h( n the thermometer stood at 4.*^ in the air, 1 slipped it between the outmle of the hive and the ,straw that was packed around it, and it soon rose to • u'cr 60-. Doesn't that speak well tor chaff and pro- tection of hives? W. S. Boyd. Hamilton, Ohio, April 3d. 1878. I am wintering 172 good swarms, so you see that, if I double them down to about 125 in the spring, I will ha\e busy times. I think my method of disposing of natural swarms so as to prevent any increase, is about as effectual as any. Suppose No. 1 swarms first; if No. 2 swarms within ten days thereafter, I destroy the queen cell in No. 1, and hive No. 2 in No. 1; and so on through- out the season. This method will satisfy a great many swarms for awhile, and a great many it will not. This, Mr. Editor, is what we call running them on "high pressure"; but don't forget that we get box honey. Hiram Roop. Carson City, Mich., Feb. 5th, 1878. Never since we have kept bees have we ever be- fore seen them in such condition thus early. Most of the hives are crowded with young bees, and, early in the morning, you can sec the steam puffing out at the fly hole. All are yet in their chaff boxes, and we shall keep them there until the latter end of April, unless they should swarm before that time. We commenced the winter with 102 stocks. Two were found queenless March 1st. All the rest are No. I stocks. I do not mean all are equally strong, yet we have no weak ones. Natural pollen was gathered March 10th in great abundance. We have no fears of spring dwindling after this time. All of ovir stocks had an average of 40 lbs. of stores last fall, and we have not had the blues all winter for fear some might get out of honey and starve to death. Neither do we have any that clus- ter away on the opposite side of their stores, and then give up the ghost; and we do not believe in fill- ing the center of the hives with empty combs to cluster in, but put plenty of honey in the center combs, and then no trouble will be found about starving. J. Butler. P. S.— It looks to me as though bee-keepers had better let that grape sugar stuff alone, and not be feeding their bees with it; for extracted honey has nlresidy passed through quite an ordeal to establish itself, and just at this time, when it is gaining favor, this humbug ought not to be introduced. J. B. Jackson, Mich.. March 19th, 1878. If you will make some experiments with the grape sugar, friend B., I think you will agree with me. that there is but little danger ot its getting into the extracted honey. The bees will not touch it when honey is " in the fields, and, in its candied state, it can not be thrown out with the extractors. And now, I want to tell you about the bees, and see if you don't think 1 ought to be happy. I have wintered 84 colonies on their sunmier stands without loss, and do not think more have died, in the whole 84, than enough to make one ordinary swarm. My bives are nearly all 3 story L. hives. Last fall. T put on the honey boards, removed the blocks from the two middle holes in the Ixnivd, and laying a wisp of hay over the holes, filled the second story about half full of buckwheat chaff'. This is all the protection they had. but I do not attriVnitc mv success so much 164 GLEAJ^LNGS IN BEE CULTURE. May to my own skill nnd man;\,L'i,Mnent, as to the large colonies of boi-s, iiliiiinhuu'c of ixood sealed stores and the remarkable inildin's-^ of thij weather, i think my bees are fully as strong now as they were last fall. All stronjr stocks had brood in all stag'es and hatch- ing- the middle of Feb., and the weakest hatl brood hatching tlie 6th, of March. The bees began gathering pollen on the last day of Feb. and have been bringing it in at a lively rate every fair day since. 1 shall want something less than "10 acres" of comb fdn. soon. Let Messrs. King & Co. say what they please abont it, I know I had the nicest comb honey last year that 1 ever saw; it was built on comb fdn. too, and had no "fish bones" in it either. Alfred McMains. Chariton, Iowa, March, 19th, ISTS. CROOKED COMBS. What would you do with a hive of bees which had built its combs so "awful" crooked and irregular that mine would do for "decent" frames, if trans- ferred? L. S. J. New Philadelphia, O., March, 13th, 1878. The day for discussion of crooked combs has passed, for very much the cheapest and easiest way to do now, is to melt them np, and liave new ones built on fdn. WILD BEES Ilf THE SOUTH. I can get as many swarms caught in frame hives by the negroes, for 50c. and 75c. as I care to have. There is no end to the swarms flying around in the spring, as the swamps are full of bee trees. H. B. Shaw, Lake St. John, La., March. 27th, '78. CORN CRIB HOUSE APIARY, &C. Our bees have wintered nicely, and were bringing in pollen on the 8th, inst. The chaff hives are nice. I have made some with L. frames. Bees in all kinds of hives have wintered well. 1 don't like the corn house apiary, and will take them out this spring. Wintering in chaff is a success; this 1 knew before the bee Journals published it, but I like cellar win- tering as well; also for springing, there is little differ- ence. J. L. D.wis. Holt, P. O., Mich., March, 2Sth, 1878. QUEENS REARED OUT OF SEASON. On the 11th, of March I found an Italian colony of bees, (jueenless. I gave them a sash of comb in which were eggs and larvii^, from another Italian colony. On March ISth, a neighbor gave me a black queen which I introduced to the queenless colony to which I had given the eggs and larviB. And what do you think? To-day, March 27th, I found a dead ^•i^- gin Italian queen in front of the hive, which the black queen had killed. Now what I want to know is, can bees rear queens any season of the year? If so, can you keep them until drones are out? A. F. CONAWAV. Mannlngton, West Va., March, 27th, 1878. Queens can be reared at any season, but if they cannot tiy out before they are a montir old, tliey will, as a. rule, be only worthless drone layers. Your experience was exactly what might have been exi)ected. REPORT FROM A LADY. 1 began last spring with 15 swarms in improved box hives, frames below for brood and 4 drawers above. The merits of the S. hive having been noted we made 3 dozen with metal cornered frames, which were used for the new swarms on the two story plan. The result at the end of the year shows, comb honey in frames and boxes 900 lbs.; cash proceeds from sales ^81, 50.; No. of healthy stocks on hand at this date 32, with abundance of honey. t We now think section boxes are just what we j want, and are ready any time to take stock in a uni- versal S. box. Nice comb honey in small packages that can be shipped .kept and handled, is the shape to have it in, to make it profitab.e; at least, such is, at I present, my conclusion. Mrs. Eberman. I Merrimac Point, Ills., March, 14th, 1878. 1 HOME MADE HIVES, FRAMES, SECTIONS, &C. i T received your samples of small sections, comb ' fdn. &c. Being almost entirely without fmachinery, I I set my mind to work out sections, brood frames, I hives, &c. as best I could, and to do so had to deviate I somewhat from your original ideas. I am now fully prepared to transfer my bees from Harbison, to Sim- ! plicity hives, using the L. frame. Having but one saw, I cut the grooves in the top bars of brood frames with it, being 3-16 deep x}8 I wide; this lets the fdn. in quite loose. I then fasten it by pressing thin strips of wo(»d in the space be- , tween the fdn. and side of the groove. This makes } solid work. The small sections, I cut from bolts , three feet long, sawing them 3-16 thick. Smooth- ing on both sides reduces them to a trifle above }s. I then cut them of the proper length in a mitre box, ■ reversing the top pieces, and with a hand splitting saw, a stroke or two makes the groove for the fdn. I then nail them on a form, putting one ^i nail in each lower corner and two in the upper corners; this presses the fdn. into place. In handling the 10, 000 I have now prepared, not one, as yet, has fallen ! out. I The Feb. No. of Gleanings has been of more I value to me, than four times its price for one year. 1 consider your suggestions on sawing, and saws as j perfectly invaluable, and will ncNcr feel satisfied I until I have a foot power saw, and one of those Cigar Box planers, for making sections alone. Do you find it difficult to remove the first frame of sections in the upper story? Is it necessary to have separa- tors between the side frames of secti(ms and side of hive? Our prospects for a honey season are good all over the State. Geo. C. Doherty. Bakersfleld, California, March 6th, 1878. As bees very seldom attach comb to the side of the liive, separators are not really needed there. As the Simplicity hive is 14ir inches wide, and the 7 broad frames but 14, we have i inch to wedge up between the last frame and tlie side of the hive. As this last frame has the separators on the outside, no combs are ever built in the i incli space. I have to apologize to you for accusmg you of neg- lect in sending the saws. The saws were sent, but overlooked by my workmen. And found only yes- terday among the rubbish in the shop. A. X. Illinski. East St. Louis, Ills., March, 29th, 1878. I give tlie abcn^e a place because there have been several like complaints. One man said we had sent no rabbets with his hives. I ordered tlic shipping clerk to send tliem, with an apology, and to i)ay all ex- penses, lie was so certain that he had put all in. that we wrote again, and received answer that lie li:id found them after all ; they were taken out. laid aside and forgot- ten, lie very carf^ful that i/ou are not the (;ar;']ess one, and tlien state "the case gentlv. for remember it is but human to err. COMBS WITH iMOTH WEB ON THEM. I have several gums with full sets of frames, all filled with old conib that contained bees, in the fall, which died out during winter months. Some of these combs are literally filled with moth; in fact, some few are a solid mat of web. Would you advise me to use one or two of the worst ones in each hive of new swarms that I am looking for in a few days? Will they clean the web out of them and build to the old foundation that is left in them? M. M. Camp. Navasota, Texas, March, 18th, 1878. I presume a good colony of Italians would pull the webs all out in time, but it is quite l)robable they would build a new comb (juicker and easier. Cannot you afford to poke the webs out friend C ? It is (piite a task for the little chaps to lug and drag a web out at the entrance, even if tliey do sometimes do it. Since the advent of fdn., it is less of an object to save every bit of old comb. I would try some of tlie combs, and see how they work, but think I wouldj first pick all the webs off. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 165 \m gctmi' He that is slow to ani^tr w better than the mig-hty; and ho that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.— Proverbs, 16; 32. fJjRIEND ROOT :— Have read the chapter In Feb. Gleanings about yourself with much Interest. "-^ 'Tis rather a new way to talk and criticize ones self, but seems to prove the Scripture "And their works do follow them." Could we realize that our works follow us and that there is no "Salvation from sin" except bj^ "doing wnrhs" "meet for re- pentance," we could not afford to knowingly do wrong. If you are really in earnest in changing from evil to fe'ood, I would like to live near j-ou that we might try friendly "mutual criticism" and try to help each other. My besetting sin is a quick ungovernable temper which causes me much trouble. My first recollec- tion of mechanical work, is of trying to build a "box trap" from bits of lumber. When nearly completed an unlucky nail made a bad split; in an instant the angry hammer made splinters of the trap. In a few moments I was at work again on another trap, this time boring a hole for each nail, to make a "sure thing." Playmates of my boyhood could tell how easily I used to "get mad." After long years of hai'd trying I can generally keep cool and civil towards human associates, but my favorite horse, pet cow and gentle sheep are all liable to come in for their share of abuse, if I chance to think they knowinglj' disobey. The bees are a perfect checkmate; when they won't "down" there comes a sort of feeling that they won't scare easy— that kicking the hive over won't pay— that sticks, stones, loud talk or even "cuss words" won't do any good; so I quietly use smoke or sweetened water; now what i want and need is not simply to prevent an outward show of singer, but the spirit and self control that prevents the first feeling of anger; can vou help me? Mt. Airy, N. C, March 14th, 'VS. J. H. B. If my writing took liold of yrm, my friend, yon can hardly imagine lio\V your kind words have taken hold of me, -ind how my heart warms toward you, for the simple lit- tle confession you have made. May God help us both to conie nearer to that Golden Mean where the first feeling of anger may be re- pressed in tlie outset. I do not krioAV how it seems to you, but with myself, 1 feel that I have far, oh, so very far, to travel before I shall reach that point. At the very moment I am now writing, between 30 and 40 fellow beings are working for me. all about me, and I believe without exception, with wil- ling hands ; they are all willing. I am sure; for at different times in the past years, they liave come to me one by one, asking me to give them something to do. They have helped me and 1 feel indebted to them ; per- ha])s I have helped them, and they feel in- ilebted to me. 8ome of them are skillful naturally, and some are not. Now this sounds rather hard, for I have faults as well as they, and well they know it, but I liardly think there is one in the whole lot, that would speak as unkindly of me. as I am at this very minute speaking of them. I am often advised not to keep hands that do not prove trustworthy ; but some way when I kneel in i)rayer ;it night the thought keeps coming u]), '"inasmucli as you have done it unto the least of one of these, you have done it unto me,'' and I resolve to be kind and ])atient. Pretty soon I discover some very valuable trait in the very one who lias tried' my ]i:vtience so severely. Like the lesson of last month about the glass, I begin to think the fault more mine' thaii theirs. after all, and I assure you it is a much Eleasanter thought than to be all the time laming somebody. It was but yesterday that two of the younger hands, boys in their teens, annoyed me repeatedly by leaving their work and rambling over the premises, under one pre- text or another, until I had fully resolved that I would cut down their wages, temi)o- rarily, as a punishment ; but when I consid- ered how keenly they would feel such a re- ))roof, aside from the loss of the money, I felt that it would be at least a safe way, to talk to each one mildly, first. I waited un- til after dinner, when all were in a pleasant mood. In a quiet friendly way, I told them, each one by himself, that they had wasted their time, and that it was not fair, for me to pay them just as good wages as those who worked steadily all day long ; and although it might seem to them a small matter, I felt obliged to si)eak about it, on account of the intluence it might have upon others, as well as for their own good. Both of them re- plied to me in a frank manly way, and i)rom- ised to do better. Do you know how much better I felt than if I had scolded the poor boys V And yet it would have been no more than right to have told them "whafs what," as the world expresses it. When I have re- proved a hand in that kind and friendly i spirit, I believe I have never yet found one so bad as to refuse to comply with iny re- quests ; and yet over and over again, I have to fight the same battles, to resist the tempt- ation to indulge in "righteous indignation." Is not righteous indignation sometimes prop- er y Perhaps it is, but I fear God never in- tended to entrust me, with any such weapon, for I always hurt myself whenever I under- take to handle it. A few weeks ago a boy who, I knew, had been considered ratlier quarrelsome, applied to me for work. I was not very much ac- quainted with him, but from what I had heard, was rather i)rejudiced. Although I told him I was in need of no more hands, and rather evaded his request, he came to me the second time, and begged for S(uue- thiug to do. He said he would go to meet- ing, but he had no clothes fit to wear, and that if tiiere was anybody that really needed to be given something to do, he was the one. He said he would woik for whatever wages I might give him. This is a trilling thing to relate, I know ; want and suffering are common things in this world, and they are very apt to be trilling things, to those who have an iibundance. I gave him work, and he took hold so eagerly, that I fairly pitied the boy; when I discovered that he was rather slow to understand, and often made mistakes, I pitied him tlie more, for well I remembered the time when I was scolded and laughed at for my slowness of jtercep- tion,and my extreme awkvrardness, when asked tefore say- ing anything, and then spoke to him mildly, of his conduct. Somewhat to my surprise, he attempted no excuse. "Mr. Root," said he, "you do not know how badly I have felt about that. I can not blame you for discharging me, and I expect- ed you would, but I have got an awful tem- per, and I got very angry. If you would only try me once more, I would not say a word." "I will try you." "JSTow, may I ask one favor ?" "Yes." "Can you not give me something to do about the machinery where you are around oftener V" I granted liis request, and he is now at work with the saws, even if it is late in the evening, and I have never had any fault to find since. I pass him often, and sometimes speak a word of encouragement, but I fear I oftener speak slr.a-ply to him, when he does not hold liis stuff' up to the gauges so as to cut it accurately. It whs but a couple of luuirs ago, tliat some of the hands were putting up some heavy plank. While one of his comrades was lifting with all his might, and in a iw:)sition where it was really dangerous, our friend stood calmly looking on, as if it was nothing to him whether the plank slipped and fell on the man or not. lie must move instantly, to be of any assistance, and I could tliiiik of but one way of making liim move ; it was to speak loud and sharply to him. I did this, and he took holil just in the nick of time. Why will some i)eople stand idly looking on, when not only property, but life even, is at stake ? Perhaps it is just the way I used to do, when I got so many raps for not moving quicker. There seems to be a sort of inertia about humanity ; it takes a certain amount of time to get intelligence to the brain, and then, with some, it seems to take a great while, to get their bones and muscles under way. Although naturally one of the slowest of mortals, I have ac- quired considerable of a reputation jvs a rap- id worker in some kinds of work, but it has all come by making the matter a study. A sharp tone will sometimes make a body move, when nothing else will, but after all, is it well ? I remember being in a shop a few years ago where several hands were emploj^ed, and the foreman was constantly stirring the boys up Avith loud oaths. I looked to see if their feelings were not hurt by such lan- guage, but to my surprise they seemed to take it as a matter of common occurrence, and some of them even replied in the same strain. I am inclined to think not only that "he that ruleth his spirit is greater than he that taketh a city," but that such an one is capable of ruling those about him, should they desire him so to do. I once thought it was a great thing to be able to take charge of a hundred or a thousand hives of bees, but to take charge of the same number of human beings, and to encourage in eacli one a spirit of ruling himself, I feel would be a far grander work. And now, my friend, comes the work in hand, for you, and for me. 1 have no doubt at all, but that, if we are faithful in these few things, God will make us both rulers over greater things here on this earth than we liave ever dreamed of; but alas for tJie stub- bornness of the human heart. You spoke of being angry ; you acknowledged the fact, that you had'a bad temper to contend with. I feel from just this, that you have gained a victory, for the greatest sinners never ac- knowledge that they are sinners at all. When one becomes conscious that he is the victim of an evil temper, he has commenced to reform. Still farther; it is often the case, when one is very angry, that like the inebri- ate, he stoutly insists lie is not an;:-ry at all. I am very apt to insist that I have not been angry, and I will sometimes tliink so for a day or two, but the time comes, wiien I, in a softened mood, look back, and I'eel sorrow, for what I have done or said. If you can say while angry, "I am angry now, and am unfit to talk," and can stop there, and utter not another word, you are very near con- tjueror. Even if your face be fiushed, and the breath coming with diliiculty, if you can smile through it all, and reply quietly and gently, you are saying in actions, if not in M'ords, "get thee behind me, Satan." sit down an(l cry, if you wish, it may do you good, but resolve, no matter what transpires, that you irHl think gently and kindly, or every thing, and everybody ; that you will not blame and censure, for it is the way things have been since the world began, and will be, in all probability, until the end of time; and that you have no more to contend with thai! people in general. 1878. GLEANINGS LN BEE CULTURE. 167 "Forgive them, Father, they know not what they do." What gentleness, what kindness to the erring world, is expressed in these few simple words. Keep constantly this feeling in your heart, and you will be very near keeping out tlie least feeling of anger. Make up your mind, wlien you get lip in the morning, that trials are going to come ; that you will not only be disobeyed where yon have a right to obedience, but that you may be robbed of your money, falsely accused, treated patronizingly, and be tried in other unexpected ways. Make up your mind, too, that you are, with God's help, going to rule yourself, and, in so doing, show Him that you are capable of being en- trusted witli the ruling of all tliose about you that need careful and loving guidance. In last year's Gleanings, I told you, my friends, something of a young man that was converted from oiu* Bible class in the jail. I told you about his going with me to the mis- sion schools. Well, one Sabbath afternoon, as we were riding along on our way to one of these schools, lie spoke to me of his hav- ing no home, no money, and almost no friends in the world. I quoted to him my favorite text, ''He that is faithful In a few things sliall be made ruler over many.-' I pointed to a pretty residence by the roadside and said ; 'T., if you are faithful in the work God lias given you, he will give you a home as nice as that; an orchard, a house, broad acres, every thing you need ; and all will come pleasantly, and easily, if you will only be faithful." Not one year has passed since then, and yet God has given him all these. One of the teachers in the mission schools has late- ly become his wife, and for a few weeks he iias been at work on his father-in-law's farm. But a few days ago, he asked for his old place at setting the type for Gleanings, and. I am sure, we were all glad to welcome liiin back among us. He now takes charge of the farm, and sets type too. Do you see how God gives us more to do, as fast as we are "faithful?'' The F. of one year ago has ceased to exist, for he has, most truly, been ''born again." Do you not think it possible, that that mother who prayed for her orphan boy, as slie breathed her last breath years ago, now looks down from heaven smiling- ly on him , as she witnevsses his struggles, while he "battles for the right"? Can you Slot also think how fei'\Tntly I thank God for having put it into my heart to go to those boys in jail, and try to tell tliem, in my sim- ple way, that "he that- ruleth his spirit is greater than he that taketh a city?" Nearly two weeks have passed since the above was written, and, as I look back, I can see again that I have been veiy far from practicing what I i)reacli. Only day before yesterday, a friend came, who said he want- ed to imrchase some bee lixtures, but that, if he did, I must stop and Vv'ait on him my- self. He said he wanted to have a talk with me, and he did not want to be waited on by the clerks. It was Saturday afternoon, articular object with me, and that a man with nearly 40 hands in his em- ploy could not be expected to stoj) his work for evei'ybody. I did not know that I was doing something I should be so sorry for. and 1 did not reiilize how wrong I was when I replied, "Mr. , if you can not trade with those who are ready to wait uijon you, you will have to keep your money, for I have not a minute to spare," and I went on ^\Ti- ting vehemently, to show how busy 1 was. I very soon felt this was too rough, and so 16S GLEAXLJ^GS ES' BEE CrLTURE. May iried !«> exi''ain mauers a liule. but my tAce was riushed. and it was qiute out of the question for me to look pleasant^ Then. I knew I Wiis angry ; the plain way was to acknowledge, aiid' ask his forgiveness, but I was t<>T pr>ad t«-> do that, for I kept telling mvself th^t he should not have kept insist- ing that I should stop. He made a iiart of his purch tses and went away, but the "hurt" look on his face as I spoke to him so unkind- ly, has haunted me ever since, imd over and over again have I thoii^ht how much I would give, to have it recalled. It never can t>e fec^iHed entirely, for there is some- tiiing ab-iut these unkind words that, it seems to me. can not be entirely obliterated. It seems very hard to refuse' to talk to a man who wants to talk, or to refuse to write a postal, when you are politely requested to do sc>. and I hardly know what I ought to do. under all such circumstances, but I do know that all customers should be treated pleasantly, and courteously, no matter what the circTimstances may be. You have all been kinder and pleasahter to me than I de- serve, and may God help me. to fiU my little sphere of usefulness, in a better way than I have done. Truly, "he that ruleth himself. is sre-Her rhan he that taketh a citv." QUEER "I>OI>G«»"* r>F QrE£>'=<. ^ HAVE a 5?i!ie'!S"iLaT diSerent rernorr to mike •i from what I gave yoa last rear. After ^ losias' my bees lait spring- ' bv morins them ^HQ the car?. I pnrchoiied Vfo coloni?s of hy- brids in b .1 hives, for ?li. and transferred them to the L. Hive: increased x<-> 9, partly by artificial and partlv bv natural swaming': and ■Rrintered on sum- mer st.sDds packed in chaff. I put one swarm in a "ch-^S hire" ••rier*^ '-■f you last fall. There was tt:"- - '- - ■ > fact: the bees flew Ic-ss in the winter, ar -Tir ci^nsamed less stores than those ■^ ' " -"n either side and top: but I can't di^- • -- :- it they are any strnnsrer. The last of Feb. they were bringing in pollen at a are at rate: we consider ourselves aboat 4 or 6 weeks ahead of last year. We d< "n't l''^\ for bni-od. usually, until about the first of April: but this year they have raided brriod a?nw:i*f all winter. >o«- 1 have sc'inethina' strange lat least it is so to mei to telL I went Vt "Town meencff." which. I sup- pose you know, comes on the first Monday in April. an^ - —'- -^•jjni found there had been something tir_ . -_^ on: robt>er5 had t^een at work, but ^- " --n. Xeit morning. I found tliat Xo. ttt-^ -r^_ "rWng titles with Xo. 2. I closed the entranc-e nearly up and went to the woods to work. •>n ciming' up at noon I f'''und they had been ar [ work again. There was a string- of bees from Xo. 2 to Xo. L I fotmd the queen in a '•ball" of bees beside Xo. 1 ; I got my c^g-e. but before I had tim^ to secure her. she flew • ut of mv hand and started on a tour. WelL I told the fol -is she would s^-on L^ back, a statement which one of our neighbors doubted. In about two minutes she came and lit on the kitchen floor, but bef ire I got near her she ■ agalr. '^^•'•k w:r:2-. ?he finally lit on the house, clear Q? ■ I clambe-ed up. and this time ni dyship. Then I made an exam- i^ -h-?r V'., ; had a dead queen, \ " - -* -r 4 d'lvs. as no eggs ' : and that Xo. 2 had ';a— ?n l-elon:red to ; eivedher -en? they n ;-apTive. - - - from : him - - - nice 1- ;- it- 1 ^v-^r .^w; i^ he is ne 'S'> h? tells mei I'U not un- it. He dm't want any patent J. J. McWhorter. hi, ei.-- X d on rr enh The t>ees from a queenless colony fre- quently swarm out and unite with one that has a queen, if they are permitted to do so. but I do not know" that I ever heard of a queenless colony trying to rob one that had a queen. I do hot know how the queen that belonged in Xo. 2 came to be near the queenless hive ; it d>:>e^ look as if the latter had robbed the former, and the former, bees and all. had moved over. When a hive is robbed, the queen usually deserts the hive about the time her colony has ceased to re- sist, and she will often be found somewhere on the outside lunid a ball of her own bees and the robt>ers ; is it not possible that the queen only ceased laying in Xo. 1. and that the queenyou foundreally t»elonged in the hive she wji^ near, after all'r RUBBER L1>ED DIVISIO.X BOARDS. Pjio. April «th. !<:•;. SHAVE made some of the chaff division boards and sideii up with -j inch grape box material, and like them very much better than the quilt- ed ones. One great trouble has been the variable size of hives even from the same factory. A variation of -s inch in planing lumber makes a variation of -^ inch in the length of a hive . and 1-16. half as much. Your suggestion of a brass gauge for planing lum- ber is a goo«l one. A slight variation makes it im- >- ~s::: Ir to use the wooden dirtsion board where air •l^-it ; :-rs are desired, as in wioter packing by the - - 1~-..:: ;n of the brc-cd chanit>er. I have eDntrived a remedy, and believe it wUl be valuable to the whole fraternity, it is to cut the division board of ^z or ^5 inch material, and S inch sh jrt, and then slot the end. in the middle, \vith a saw. and slip in a strip of rubber packing 1 inch wide: or a -wider strip may be set in two slots made near tbe edses. Thus use»i. -Md inch packing is stiff enough to form a tight joint, and will press tne other end close to the wall. I think for m<5st purposes the sawed end will be tight encugh. if not. a face of elastic cloth or an- other rubber edge can be added. They are lighter, more easily stowei when not wanted, and cost much less than chaff boards, and are far less liable to in- jury. I have tried the single and bent rubber, and prefer the single thus far. as being just as g)X>d and easier made. J. W. Pobtek. Charlottesville. Va,, Feb. llth, 1S7S. If your division boards are made of t inch wood, they will warp badly : we had in our apiary over a hundred such and they were all discarded on tliis account. The chaff cushion division board was made thick to pi-event this, and also to secure warmth. In cold weather the bees cluster close out to the thin wood sides, and I found a tine patch of brood, one day in ilarch. right next to this ward, or even two thin boards with an air space, do not give anything like as good results. If I am cor- rect, both rubber and cloth are mentioned for this purpose, in the earlier volumes of the A. B. J. OcR bees have all wintered nicely, none having- been lost except the two that were allriwed to starve. Sinc-e I have given up trying to look after every thing myself, and set one of the boys at the task, they have done finely. The house apiary is far aherad of the bees out side, and I am now satisfied that it is an excellent place in which to raise bees, any ucay. 1878. GLEA^s'EN'GS IX BEE CULTTBE. 169 FOUNDATION GUTTERS. See engraving in March niunber. Price 10c. Two cents extra when sent by mail. A. I. ROOT, Medina. Ohio. ITALIAX QUEEXS FOE 1878. The increasing- demand for our choice Queens has induced us to breed them the present «ea«>n at the following prices : Pure Tested Queens in ApriL May and June, each *3C0 July. August and September 2 Oj N'ucleas Hives with pure Tested Queen -5 00 Full Swarm " " " 10 00 A disc-ount will t>e made on large orders. Safe arrival guaranteed. Xo circulars sent. ^"Our book. "THE APIARY." describing the nature and habits of the Bee, sent post-paid for Rftv Cents. 4-6inq A. F. MOON. Fu^me, Ga. Til for Separators asd Eztractors. As we buy in large quantities. I can perhaps give you t>etter rate* than you are g^erting at home. Price per box of 112 sheets, size 14x20. for Separators $6 25 •• sheet, for less than a box 7 IX tin for making Extractors, ItsiJO, per box 9 W •■ per sheet 10 ■We will ship it from Medina, or from Philadelphia, as mav be most convenient. A. I. ROOT. Medina, Ohio. Electrotypes. We will furnisk elec-trotvp*^ of any of the engra- vings that have appeared in GLEAyrsGS. for 25c- per square inch. A- I. BOOT. Medina. Ohio. Try Me! Italian Queens. Nucleus and full Colonies, Hives, White Holland Turkeys, and Plymouth Rock egg?. Satisfaction guaranteed, or monev refunded- Send forpric-es. WILSOX HARVEY. 4-6 Brownsburg. Bucks Co_ Pa. SMOKE AND SHOKEHS. SOLDERING IMPLEMENTS. For ?Lt.C. I will send by mail a fiKl sized S'-jlderine iron ready for tise, with a box of r^ sin. box of sol*- ering fluid, t>ar of solder, and full printed instruc- tions for use. If sent by express, I will add a solder^ Ing board, all rigged, readv for work. A. I. RCKIrT. Medina. Ohio. PRICES REDUCED!! In Canada you can get anything in the wav of Apiarian Supplies. Sec-tion Boxes grooved for fdn., from 5x5x1-5 dotm, at .o eintx fkr VjCj in the fat, hy the quantity. Wide Frames for sections, in the flat, f 2.00 per 100. Hives, 2 stories complete. f2-5on as fertilized aiid laving, ?LCw. Also full and nucleus colonies. Orders' filled promptlv. and safe arrival guaranteed. Address 'W. p. HENDERSON, ir9inq Murfreesboro. Tenn. Comb Foundation Machir.eS $35.00 TO $100.00. SAMPLES OF FCiUNDATI- 'N WITH OJTR ONE POUND SECTION BOX BY MAIL FOR FIVE CENTS. I am overwhelmed with letters asking "which size smoker is the best?" Mr. J. E. Hetherington ordered eight of the large for /ii4* apiarii-tt and for cv-arst fiul they are the t>e^t. The Standard is what its name implies and consti- tutes the huU: of $ahs so far. The small is a pretty implement answering nicely for a few colonies of beess and to kiU Uee on house plants, it is larger, however, than the improved Qulnby. The first "Direct Draft" smoker erer ^jM has been used one year and sold for one dollar as the gentle- man wanted a Jarg-s size. It was a Standard and he paid ?2.00 and says "he irouZd not be icithtmt one a single day in xhe'$easi.'n for the price." They go all the time and bum senind or rotten wood, tdhaceo or sulphur. Directions sent irith every smeiher. These smokers are a ni(<.<>3en\ ttee cxiltitre, and are indisptiisab}( in the easy, pirxiiitatiie and fiea.s- ant maua^|(m^nt of bees in any hive— ^ancient or mod- em. Sent by mail, post paid," on receipt of price. Extra Large, per Express. . 1^1 75 Mail #2 00 Standard " ... 1 50 "... 1 60 Small. •• . . fOO " .... 1 25 Patented January. IfTS. Manufactured only bv the inventor, T. F. BINGHAM. 4tf Abronia, Allegan Co.. Mich. For illustration and ct?mplete description of h9. you areto guarantee safe deliv- ery, and I shall do the same, but nothine- farther. 1 have made this arrangement to answer the great number of questions in re^rard to buvlns and selling early queens. In Jime, I will pav 9iTc,~and sell for §1.25: after Jtily 1st, 75c, and sell for f l.iVt. Tested Queens double above prices. All are to be daughters of imported mothers. I will pav Sc for hybrids, and sell them for .d'.V'. if I can. If vou send queens, write on the cage whom thev are from. All to be sent by mail. I will pay 15c for black queens, and sell them for 2.5c, if I can. All the above are to be fertHe iaminj queens. Virgin queens are of no ^alue. A. L ROOT, Medina, Ohio. no GLEAlfmOS IN BEE CULTURE. Mat New Quinby Smokers ! The Ortoixal Quinby Smoker has been recent- ly Greatly Improved, and is now equal to any in the market, in aU respects. I am prepared to offer them at Reduced Prices. For Circular of Geueni] lioe Keeping Supplies, ADDRESS, 5-t moliawk, Herli. Co., N. Y, !?L! Dr.etailcil Sections anv size from 414x414 to 5x6, 2 in. wide per 1000 ?S 00 Sections readv t 1 n:iil (same size) " 1000 6 50 C'lml) Finmdation, 45 to55 cents per lb. Sample Sections, bv mail 5 cents. Dollar Queens after June 1st. Liberal discount on large orders. For special prices. Address REINHARD STEHLE, 5d Lock Box 193. Marietta, Washing-ton Co., Ohio. Price of Doyotail Section Boxes. (414x41.1, 5».,x4i.i or 6x6 inches.) In lots of .500 B.-xed $n:2h " 11)00 " 6.00 Wi.V fiirnWi any .s/z-; Section Box, icithin 6.r6 inchea, aho Strawbcnij Boxes. WILLIS D. PARKER, P. O. Box 3:53, Defiance, Ohio. S-ind fori he new 3 stor.v Simplicity Hive, complete, •^nly $3. Sections planed. 4I4X4I4, one hundred, V5c. B'^e-Feeders by mail 10c. Send for Samples. Circu- lar f r-e to all. J. B. LAMONTAGUE & CO.. B.)X 6S5, Quebec, Canada. FOUNDATION COMB. I nm prepnred to supjily a limited quantity of worker comb fou'idation, cut any size, at 55c per lb., or will work al! wnx sent me, for 35c per lb. or half the wax. 5 F. J. FARR, Independence, Mr. Oil mmi miB esLiisis ll'S rA Queens all bred from Imp:/raph of Aniary, Implements, etc. 25 :} — P'loto'/ranh of Ho'ise Apiary 25 4r—'''Thit Present," Novice and Blue Eyes 25 n—E.r.erson's Binder for Gleanings, will holdii Volumes 50 H — " •' better miality 60 7— P icket Mar/nifyhn Glass 60 H^First or second Fj^wweo/ Gleanings.. 75 9 — Bsst qiiility Emerson's Binder for Glkanengs 75 \(^—T)-inhle Lens Maf/nifier,on 3 brass feet 1,00 11 — Photo Medley, Bee-Keepers of Americal,00 VI— First and second Vol. o/Glkanings. .1,50 13 — A real Compound llicroscope. beauti- fully finished , and packed with Imple- ments in a Mahogany Box 315 14 — Opera Glass for Bee Hunting §5.00 JUST RECEIVET) ; CHOICE NEW CROP 75c. 20 L {fitf »ees« I have propagated and sold Italian Queen Bees for the pa^^t 17 years. Will supply a larg-e number for 1S78. Send for circular. WM. W. CARY, 3-7inq Coleraln, Franklin Co., Mass. ISaOS.' Circular and Prices of Italian Bees sent free. ' 4-3 Elizabethtown, Ind., Box 127. Imported and home bred queens ; full colonies and nucleus colonies ; bee-keeper's supplies of all kinds. Queens bred early In the season. Send for catalogue. !)tf DR. J. P. H. BROWN, Augusta, Ga. R. R. MURPHY'S IMPROVED HONEY EXTRACT- ING HACHINE, AHEAD OF ALL COMPET- ITORS AT THE CENTENNIAL EXPO- SITION OF 1S7G. Catalogue Ni>. laj.^Group 3:?. R. R. MURPHY, Fulton, 111., U. S. Eitradfi^i: ^a^lii&i©. Commended for being well made and efficient. The success of the operation, which is to renioye the honey without injtiring the comb, depends upon the care exercised to take the comb before the cells are capped. The apparatus comprises copper cylinder tinned on the inside, with a vat for the honey at the bottom. Inside the cylinder is a rectangular revol- ^-ing frame, having its longer sides covered with sieve wire. The comb is placed in the box with the frames in which it was made, and the box is rapidly revolved by a handle and bevel gear. The centrifu- gal force causes the honey to discharge into the cyl- inder withovit the comb being injured, so that the latter is replaced in the hive, and the bees at onoe commence the process of refilling. Signature of judges : John Coleman, James Bruce, E. Oldendorflf, Pedro Paes Leme, Ekedd Kenzo, James S. Grinnell, Also, manufacturer of all kinds of Section Boxes, and Langstroth frames. ZW"'?ov further particulars, address, R. R. MURPHY, n-Sd Garden Plain, Whiteside Co., 111. 45 T8 55 GTS. PEl PSHHO, Accoriliiifi III (lU'intitii Ifitnilit af oiif time. For fui-- ther particulars sfc our lUuslratcil Catalogue, mail- ed on application. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. A fine new lot of Alsike clover seed, very clean and raised near us. Price per lb., 2.5c; per bushel, (60 lbs.) $13.50; 'j bushel, $7.0<3; peck, ?3.75. If want- ed by mail add 18c per lb. for bag and postage. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. MANUFACTURERS OF SUPERIOR DOUBLE REFINED GRAPE AND MALT SUGAR, CRYSTAL GLUCOSE SRYUP. Superior Double Refined Grape Sugar for feeding bees, at 3}4c per lb. in barrels of 375 lbs., and 4c in boxes of 50 or 110 lbs. Crj'stal Glucose Syi'up 5c per lb., by the barrel. Samples of the Grape Sugar will be sent prepaid, by Express, on receipt of 10 cents. 11-ly LOUIS P. BEST, Sup't, Davenport, Iowa, We will furnish the above delivered on the cars here in Medina, at '4 cent in advance of the above prices. Or we will have it shipped from the factory, at factory prices. Any amount less than 50 lbs., will be 5c per lb. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. You can not look over the back No's of Glean- ings or any other Periodical with satisfaction, unless they are in some kind of a Binder. Who has not said— "Dear me, what a bother— I miist have last month's Journal and it is no %vhere to be found." Put each No. in the Emerson Binder as soon as it comes, and you can sit down happy, any time you wish to flnd'anything you may have previously seen even thoirgh it'were months ago. Binders for Gleanings (will hold them for four years), gilt lettered, free by mail for 50, 60, and 7.5c, according to qualitj'. For table of prices of Binders for any Periodical, see Oct. No., Vol. II. Send in ybur orders. A. L ROOT, Medina, Ohio. U yi@@idiS I am now ready to fill orders for a few choice Queens which were reared last Sept. All from ini- ported mothers. Will make a specialty of importing Queens from Italy during the season. Address, JOHN A. BUCHANAN, 5-6d Wintersville, Jeff. Co., O. mi BUS m \m Italian Queens— Nucleus and full colonies— Comb Foundation— Hives and Section Boxes complete, furnished on short notice. Ten years' experience in Bee- Keeping and Queen breeding. Satisfaction guaranteed or money refunded. Send for prices. Eggs and chicks from high class land and water 3?7^ ■ VALENTINE & SON, Carlin%ille, Ills. ILIiN QUEEN All bred froni importeil mothers of my own im- portation. Dollar queens, *1.00; readj- in April. Tested queens before June 1st, S'5,00; after, $3,50. Full colonies of Italians from .'?7,00 to *10,00. Three frame nucleus with tested queen, before June 1st, $5.00. after. $4.50. Comb Foundation, Bee-Keepers supplies., &c. ^ 2-7d PAUL L. VIALLON, Bayou Goula, La. OEVOTEO To UEEH A.l^r> HOIVEY, AlVD I10M:E IlVTEREfciTS. Vol. VI. JUNE 1, 1878. No. 6. A. I. ROOT, Publisher and Proprietor •LJ PublisUed Monthly. rTFElins: Sl.OO Per Annum in Ad- I vance; 3 Copies for S2.50; 5 for »3.Tii; ■*tal>llsl"iecl 111 1 Hfii. ClO o? more, Wc. each. Single Numhei , 10c. OTY ii:xps:Rix:NCii:. no. g. QUEENS ENTERING THE WRONG HIVE. f-iyOjERHAPS the best way to tell you how I lost f^ my queens is to quote from my diarj-. "^^ JanelWi. This afternoon, as I was passing; in front of the hives, I noticed a small cluster of bees in front of the entrance to one of the hives that contained a young- queen. I distui'bed them, and found that they were clusterinof aroimd a (Uieen. [In all my readings, I never read anything about linding a queen in a clustei- of bees outside the hive.] I thouirht perhaps the queen had flown, was tired, and had stopped outside the hire to rest; so I allowed her to ent<;r the hi\e. June IWi. Examined the other young- (jueen'S, hive. Found no egg-s, but found the bees building fpieen cells, and droiu' comb. Went to the hive that I divided last, cut out a (jueen cell, and gave it to them. I related the above to a bee keeper, who told me that whenever I found a queen in a cluster of bees outside the hive, I might know that it was a stranso (jueen. The next day, I examined the hive into which I saw the yuiig (juecn enter, and founn would fit snugly between them. For liendiiig the top i)iece of the section ojM'ii enough to let the fdn. into the groove, I used a St ick (1 (ir S in. long, 1 in. wide, and '.i in. thick, each side l)eing beveled ofl' for part of its length. 178 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. June This stick I laid between tlie before mentioned cleats, which were nailed near the corner of the lap board, and placing- upon it the top piece of a section, pressed down the sides, thus opening- the groove. The tit was so snu}<, that it was held open by the cleats, and I then put the fdn. into the groove, holding- it in place with the left hand, while, with the rig-ht, I slipped out the beveled stick and pressed the section top down Hat. Then taking in each hand a side piece, I put them loosely into the dovetails and put on the bottom, taking no pains to make a close lit, as that would come afterwards. Then, taking a pocket knife which was kept lying on the lap board with the large blade open, I slipped tlie end of the blade under the section, and pried it up, and piled it with others ready to be framed. Of course, I kept constantly on the lap board a pile of fdn., also of tops, of sides, and of bottoms. For putting the sections into the frames, I had a -Very simple arrang-ement by which a frame was placed against a solid wall, 8 sections placed before it with their edges .iust started into the frame, and then a follower, so fitted that it could not fail to run true, with a single push, sen^. the sections home to their place, and at the same time, tightened all the dovetailed joints that had been loosely put together. I found it quite important, to put the right edge of the fdn. in the groove of the section top. If you >vlll look upon a piece of fdn., holding it si> that only the edge can be seen by your eye, you will see that two of the edges (on opposite sides) will appear corrugated or waved. At first I put into the grooves only the straight edges, and if the knife had cut in a particular part of the line of cells, the fdn. was held in the section all right; hut, if the cut varied a fraction of an inch from that place, the fdn. was thinner, and would drop out of the section. I also found that the fdn. would not always hang true, but was apt to slant toward one side. I sup- posed this made no difference, as I thought the bees, by their weight, and the weight of the honey, when the fdn. became warmed up, would make it hang plumb. This I found not to be the case; for the bees filled out the sections, with the fdn. wall hanging to one side, just as when first put in. Then I noticed the difference in the edges, and put the waved edge in the section groove, and found them to hang plumb without dropping out. I think you have stated that, if the top be split in two at the groove, it will hold just as w';'ll: Init my experi- ence has not verified this. If I split apart a top, I only feel safe in usini? it, Viy putting into the groc)\e an edge of fdn. doubled together. Of my 134 colonic^, I expect to run the larger part \rlth sections this year, and shall be very thankful for any suggestions. I shall want to put together several thousand sections, and it seems to me. I make very slow work. I wish I co\!ld tell you just how many I can put together in an hour. How many do your hands put together? Last year I used no separators, but think I nuist have some this year. My frames are 18 inches long, and the tin for sepa- rators 30 inches: shall I cut two inches olT the tin. or bend over an inch at each end upon the side of the frame? What kind of nails are best for nailing the separators on the frame? B. Lunbereh. Thanks for your liints. I have thought of an arrangement siniihir to the one you men- tion for bending the to]) pieces b:ick to let in the fdn., but objected to it, because I thought it unnecessary machinery, and tlie small boys and girls that I employ, would be sure to have some ])ortion of their machine lost, or out of order. Besides, after severai days practice, doing the same thing over and over, they acquire great celerity, in all these various kinds of iiandiwin-k. After tliey get used to it, they will open the groove across tiie knuckle of tlie fore linger, as giv- en ill the ])rinted directions, and jiut the sections together very ('uickly. It is only the older and most ex])ert hands, tluit caii put up 4 in a minute, as I liave mentioned 111 tile directions. We do not take pains to liave them all iiang straight down, but put tlie hive in the sun. where the wax will get pretty warm, and they very soon hang as straight as a wilted cabbage leaf. It will not do to let them get too hot. The same is I true with fdn. in the frames. At tirst we I made the groove that holds the fdn., with I too thick a saw ; now we have one that cuts [ just a thin slit, and if the wax is quite warm I and soft, as you mention, it will never drop out. If the toi)s get so dry that they are I brittle, dampen them a little with a sponge , on the back side when spread out on a table, j and they will not break. I I would cut off the surplus tin, until you have enough left to fold over and make an edge of about i or 3-32 ; fold it a little more than square, and then lay it on a table, with the folded edges up ; lay the frame on it, hook the tin over one end, and then, with the Hat palm of the hand on the tin to hold it to the table, spring in the other end bar. This, if the tin is cut and folded just right, will strain the tin enough, to take out all waves or bulges. The drawing on page 57, Feb. No., will make it all plain. The sepa- rators can be used witliout nailing at all, but after some experience with loose ones, I have come to the conclusion that they make additional loose pieces to look after, and put in place, and that loose ones are not to be tolerated. We use a f brad for nailing them on, 2 at each end. f /j^ %f€M^nir [This department is to be kept for the benefit of those who are dissatisfied; and when anji:hing is amiss. 1 hope you will "talk right out." As a rule we will omit names and addresses, to avoid being too personal.] vi^ AM very much dissatisfied with the fdn. you 5|; sent me. First, I wanted the fdn. nne inch —^ thick; I did not order the 1-lG inch fdn.. nor did I want it. That you sent me, we all consider as useless goods, for bees, in this part of the world, and would not have it as a gift under any circum- stances or conditions. You lailed to send it by express, as directed. When it arrived, one box was broken badly, th'^ other one hud two brakes on it, and every sheet of fdii. was broken to fragments; though, it 1 had ordered by the mail, that would have all been right, as I know the mail pitches and slings things any wav. If your purpose was to trap me, or to send mo an April-fool you have done it. Should Gleanings stoji coming, I will not be surprised. J. M. K. Ala., April 3Tth, 1878. Why, my friend, we would none of us fool you. for anything in the world; besides, we are all too busy, and hurried, in getting your goods ready, to even think of any such thing. I have had one of the clerks hunt up yoiu- letter, and you do not say a word about fdn. an incli thick ; if you had done so, I do not know what we should have done,, ior none of us ever heard of such a thing. You (7/(7 ask for, and almost insist on, white wax fdn., altliougli I have told you inevery price list, that it is much inferior to the yellow. Til is was why it broke in the mails, during cool Mandi weather when you ordered it. To the other charge, that we sent it by mail wlien you ordered it by express, I shall have to )>Iead guilty. The letter was brouglit me, and after giving it careful consideration, I 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 179 decided to the best of my judgment, that did you know of the heavy express charges you would have to pay, clear to Ala., you would certainly thank me for sending it by mail. It is not at all unusual for us to have orders for goods, directing them to be sent to dis- tant points by express, when they could be sent by mail for only a few cents, and in such cases I take the liberty of disobeying orders, and send by mail, just because I think you would thank me for so doing, if you knew the circimistances. Usually I do get thanks, but, some times, I fail in judg- ment, and then ''how I do catch it." Some- times, I think I will obey orders hereafter, and let them take the consequences of not lieing posted in regard to ex])ress charge's compared with mails, but, pretty soon, some poor innocent friend has, unwittingly, had an express charge to pay, so much more than the value of the goods, that I repent, and conclude I will, as before, try to consult the greatest good, for the greatest number. If you will return the fdn., by mail, my friend, I will return your money, and pay all expenses. TRANSFERRINO AND KOBBING. A BEGINNER S TROUBLES. f"BEE" in trouble, how I came to "bee" so, the following- story will tell. I always loved honey, ^ was always taught to respect the "busy little bee," and did so, until I learned that th« greedy lit- tle rascals work themselves to d^ath in about six weeks. To "bee" or not to "bee,—" that is the ques- tion that has been troubling- me this spring-. Last spring- I had 11 hives; they increased until they numbered about 30. The worms got into several, 1 was brimstoned, and carried off one nig-ht, ^ or 3 ap- pear to have been robbed by their fellows, leaving me this spring with 20 good lively swarms. Some are in rude boxes, some in box hives with caps or drawers, 2 in the "House" patent hive, and 1 in a "Buckeye." (The last, however, was one that was robbed by the other bees, and ns it is the second time I have lost the bees in that hive, I have thrown it away.) ' Well, I have had some experience in transferring ard handling bees, had read and studied bee books ' till I understood the theory of bee-keeping pretty well, and was considered, by my neighbors, as being able to do most anything with bees. My bees were promising a large increase this summer. So far, so Kood. But, I was afraid to undertnke the extra work, because we raise small fruit, and bees and honey come .iust when berries do; then, monev was scarce to fit up with. To "bee" or not to "bee," was considered a long time. Finally, I concluded to ' "bee." I thought I was cautious, but I had to lay out money to the amount of nearly S20. for bee ware. I sent to you for a sample hive. I purchased a "Novice" extractor, some comb fdn., a lot of frames, lumber, &c., in Cincinnati, and before I hnrdly realized it, I hadn't the dollar left with which I meant to pay for Gleanings. 1 hired a carpenter, and we made up about a dozen hives. Sweet visions of long rows of jars and bottles, be- sides ii barrel full in the cellar, to sweeten our buckwheat cakes with next winter, were before my \ eyes. 1 set apple blossom time for transferring. One day, I fixed up my transferring table, out of doors, as I had done before. I drove the bees out of a large box hive, heavy with honey, pried off a side, and began. Soon the robbers begnn to come. 1 tried smoke, more smoke, but alas! it did no good. Tt Was too "fat" a thing. The bees got excited; perhaps I did, a little; I thought I kept cool, but 1 remember I sweat some. Finally, I picked up my traps, went into the smoke house, and by liberal use of smoke, made a finish of it. I put the hive on the stand, put my bees in, and as soon as I could, <'ontracted the entrance; but hardly had I done so l)ef'>rethe robbers were after us. They rushed in and out the entrance, and explored everj' crack and crevice. I x^lugged up holes, covered the hive with a sheet, smoked, and with the aid of coming darkness, got matters quieted down. That was about 10 days ago. Now apple blossoms are gone, but the weather is pleasant and clear. To-day I made another attempt; I fitted up my carriage house for a transferring room, .and with the doors well closed, and a good fire smoking, and care to keep all honey neatly cleaned up, I got through the first one nicely. I think the work was well done. I carried the hive to its old stand, poured out the bees before it, and they had mostly gone in, when I was called to dinner. Before sit- ting down, however, I went to see if all was right. I found even their nearest neighJwrs rushing in, ail excited, and not even saying "by your leave." I smoked awhile, and then plugged them all in, rob- bers and all together. How they settled it in there, I can't tell. This is not all. After dinner I took off the cover of one of the "House" hives, and took out about a dozen lbs. of nice honey that was in the small frames in the top, as I had often done before. The broken honey drew the robbers there, and before I Avas done, they were in force; and they didn't quit when I did, but rushed en masse, for the entrance; so I had to "plug" it up. Pretty soon, I looked at my transferred hive. No. 1, and tjiey had "raided" it; so I plugged that up too. Now, wh.at can I do with such a demoralized set? Is there .any kind of a bee penitentiary, where I can put these robbers? Is there any way or any hope of reforming them? How can I outwit them, and get my transferring done? Will it be best for me to wait till clover blossoms, and finish when honey is plenty, or could I do any better after they have swarmed? I confess myself puzzled now. Lindale, O., May 1st, '78. Wm. C. Coombs. I think, my friend, it might have been bet- ter to have bought less wares, and more bee journals ; but as you have given us a very faithful account of your troubles, that may prove a good warning to others, we will send you our journal a year gratis. Your story shows conclusively, that the bees were get- ting very little honey from the fruit bloom, or they would not ifiave been so thievish. The remedy is, with bees, as well as humani- iy, "deliver me from temptation.-' As soon as you saw how things were working, you should have closed everything up, and ceased operations. To push ahead, under such circumstances, is very dangerous ; for when the bees once get demoralized and ex- cited, there is quite a prospect of your ruin- ing your whole apiary. After such a "raid," as you justly term it, you should not think of opening a hive, not even for a minute, for at least 2 hours ; and where they get very bad, it may be unwise to do so for sev- eral days. If something needs attention very badly, such as removing queen cells or the like, you should do it just at dusk, when the bees are all at home, or even after dark. AVith a good smoker, in good trim, you can handle bees after dark very well. Your idea of driving away robbers Avith smoke, is a very mistaken one ; it prevents the defenders from keejung their posts as sentinels, makes them all one scent so they cannot tell friend from foe. ower that they could not get otherwise. Wait until clover is out. so that they will not rob. and ao slowly ; if they get troublesome by the lime you have finished one hive, wait until all is quiet be- fore you try another. At any time when you are working among the hives, if you start the honey to running, and see bees loading it up, close, and clean every drop up, before they have time to get back for anoth- er load, and you will have no need of a bee penitentiary. 180 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Junk PROBL.E.TI ON SECTION BOXES. l|OULD there not be an improvement made in yi ij adiiisting- sections in the surplus chamber? <^' When you g-et all your section frames placetl 0 in, keyed and togKled up, you have, as it were, a box . tin of sections. 1 1 is a box full of joints, which are so many inlets fir air, and also just so many traps for bees; poor little dears! Now I propose making- a box with solid sides and ends, of thin stuff, and of proper dimensions; then ] will space it olT and put in dividing tins; next, I will nail on for the bottom just such strips as you nail on the bottom of each frame; and lastly, 1 will have a lid to shut down air tight. Now this hox for- Hcctyinx, as I term it, can be easily hungor set in the chamber, will be air tight (except the bottom) will have no toggling, no stray lieces, and, better still, no joints to crush bees. The sections can be set in from the top, and a little instrument, like wire tongs with short bent points, can be used for liftina: them out. From top and bottom a "peep" can be had at each section, giving one an almost exact idea of the state of completion without removing a single section. The most diffcult point for me was to decide just how to adjust the tins, to be sim- ple and effectual f but I l>eliuve that I now see it in the right light. I, for one, will give them a trial, and if they prove satisfactory, will, if desired, give theirconstruction in detail. Will you not give them atrial and report? Kollersville, April tth, 1818. D. B. Baker. You have struck a;>on a point that has troubles! me more thrin a little, friend B.. and I liave walked around the stairway, and rolled it over and over in my mind, "off and on," for more than two-years; but, all things considered, I do not see how we can have it any simpler than it is. At one time 1 had a ])lan so fully matured that I had even taken steps to get out the lumber, and I was going to dispense with frames not only for holding the sections, but for the brood apnrtment also, and see how cheaply a hive could be cective bottom bar. One summer I had quite a, quantity of honey stored in common frames, and one day, as I lifted out some of the heavy white combs, I made the remark that if I could get combs like that, built so they couTd be separated into square cakes of 1 lb. each, and still be lifted from the hives with the facility of these combs, I should be con- tent to produce comb honey. This wish has been fully realized, and I very much doubt Avhether we shall ever liave any easier way of getting sections from the hive than by lifting them out, in a suspended case or frame, precisely as we lift out our brood frames. To go back ; your box or case must flave a cover to it, other than the cover to your hive, and so, even if we do dispense with the top bars, we must have some sub- stitute for them also. This leaves us noth- ing but the end bars, and we certainly can- not get along without them, unless we at- tach our separators to the sections them- selves, or to the end of the hive. The form- er plan has been used, but, if the sections are to be handled, it is quite unsatisfactory; the latter, mutilates the hives, besides it has been well proven, that the bees build comb better in sections double cased from the weather than with only a single thickness of lumber. If all this be true, we need just as much lumber in your case as in the seven broad frames; in the case, we can lift them all at once, or each section singly ; with the frames, we can lift them in sets of 8 each, and 8 lbs. is about as much as one wants to lift out of a bee hive at once, and be sure of not killing a bee; with the case, you must lift 56 lbs., and it is a very hard matter to handle such a weight, without killing bees, or, if you attempt to take them out and put them back singly, you will i;nd it a te- dious task indeed, to say nothing of the slaughter of the little workers. All that seems to be left to consider is cheapening these 7 brood frames. Our price has been 4c each, but I really think they ought to be made cheaper. As you have taken almost all we could possibly make at that price, it has not been much of an object for me to think of lower prices, but I hope to be able to do it by another season. Four cents each for the frames would allow you 28c for your case, and I hardly think you could make one that would hold the separators and protect the sections much cheaper. In the foregoing, I have said nothing of the convenience of being able to hang this frame of 8 sections in either the upper or lower story ; this is a very important item, as it allows us to get nice comb honey at the side of the brood combs, or from a Aveak colony in a one story hive. In putting up j the sections, the girls lay them into the ! frames as fast as clone ; Avhen a frame is I tilled they hang it in a hive ; nnd when a j hive is tilled, it is put in a pile with thewoth- I ers. The work all goes on methodically, and if it is stopped at any point, everything is closed up, and out of the Avay. Your case of 56 sections Avith the loose separators, it seems to me, is a much more complierrted affair. I have used them both Avays for sev- eral seasons. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 181 ■RON FOK FASTENING IN STARTERS. 1 ise to fasten Mine is 314 in. rn^iRIEND ROOT;^Here is what I Wi "' the foundation in the sections. ■^ long-, '2 in. wide, •»' in. thick, at the top, % in. at the bottr>m. It will hold the heat a long- time, and works splendidly. I had it made of wrouffht iron at a cost of 35 cts; it could lie made of cast iron for very much less, and I suppose it would be just as good. I put 11 swarms In the bee room last fall, and all came out in good condition this spring. The tem- perature was from 26^ to 45^ above «). Let us hear from Mr. Perrino every month. Give us all the en- gravings you can afford to. They are a great addition to Gleanings. Horace Libby. Lewiston, Mo., April 29th, 187S. If heat is to be used, I think your arrange- ment, t'riend I.,., woukl be a splendid idea; but I would suggest that the irons be made of copper, and that you have a pair of them. For fastening natural comb stiirters, they would be just tlie thing. Just as soon as Mr. Perrine sends us the photo, the engraving shall appear in Gleanings. SWAR.'VIS AND SWARMING. HOW TO MANAGE. Yfr STARTED out to give you a little of my e.xperi- M ence about taking care of bees, in swarming ~) time. For the first two or three years of my l)oe keeping, when I had onlj' from 10 to 30 colonies, I lost by having swarms leave me, also by ha\'ing large first swarms go together when they came out nearly at the same time. After j-ears of experience and practice, I have learned that I can prevent both their going to the Tcoods and their going together; and for the last 5 or 6 years, though 1 have increased my number to 10(1 swarms and, some seasons, to 200, I have not lost a swarm, or had two large swarms iget together; but this result I could never have reached, except by the help of certain implements I have, and use in swarming time. With these, I can attend to 100 colonies as easily as I could to 20 without them, and, at the same time, be more sure of keeping them sepnrate. With these, I can hive all my swarms and stand on the ground; 1 cut no limbs off, and I brush no bees from bodies and large limbs strong colonies of black bees 182 GLEANINGS LN BEE CULTUEE. June in the olil fa?hii)iiefl "gum," and have bought 3 LangstroTh hives complete, tor !?5.()0. Now, Professor, some questions; shall I feeej) my black beesy if I rio, will they mix, if I keep my Ital- ians on one side of my orchard and Itlacks on the other? or had 1 better make frame hives, at once, and put all my black swarms into them, and sell them? Had I better let my Italians swarm naturally this season, while I am so iireen in the business? I can not understand how I am to get the svirplus honey in the "section lioxes" you describe, and so I have concluded to send to you for a Simplicity hive. My father, who is still living, has had bees for more thiin 50 years, 20 years before I was born. Often we had 30 "stands," as we call them, and often not more than 2 or o. We always used the "guta" hive. So, you see, I have been loohittfj at bees all my life, but, I confess, I have heard and learned more about the habits of the busy little fellows in the last 12 houi-s. (since receiving the "A B C," and Gleanings, and the hivr, itself) than I had learned in all my life before, thanks to you. Excuse my length this time. S. G. Hillis. P. S.— In answer to your notice on shipping tag, (which I overlooked at first) I take pleasure in sta- ling that the bees were securely packed, and ar- rived in perfect order, with every evidence that you take a proper interest in your customers. The people here are perfectlv delighteil with the Ital- ians, !.nd the looks of your hives, but none of us have any practical knowledge of the improved plan of managing boes. S. G. H. Concord, Ky., April Cth, 1878. Stop calling me ''Professor," and talking about compensation, and I will tell you all I know. Keep your black bees, of course, but ciiange the black queens for Italians, just as soon as you can scrape u\) bee knowledge enough to raise the queens. Your hives may as well be within one foot of each oth- er, as to have the blacks on one side of the orchard, and the Italians on the other. They often mix, when as much as 2 or 8 miles apart. With the A ]> C book, and the Simplicity hive, you will have no trouble in getting the "•run" of it all, especially, if you study the 6ee.s-. as well as tlie books. You are on the right track, and will very soon he able to talk brood combs, queen cells, larvte, and all that, with any of us. It seems but a very little while ago, that Nellis, Viallon. Shaw, and many others of our most expert queen rearers. Vvere asking just such (luts- tions as yours, and now they bid fair to leave even the veterans far in the rear. THE $5t). DAMAGES TO MK. BITRCH. WT seems from the May A. B. J., that this JT is not yet dropped, after all. It is true, I did, in a i)rivate letter, accuse friend Burch of falsehood, but the circumstances were such, that I felt it my duty to do so, and I tried to do it in a kind way, for his own good, and not because I had any ill feeling toward him. It was on a niattei- that did not concern fdn., at all. On learn- ing afterward that he was a Christian man. and, if I am cori-ect, an earnest Sunday scliool worker, I wrote liim an apology, feel- ing sure there was some strange mistake in the matter, and that I had erred in judg- ment, in the course I had thought best to take. I am perfe'^tly satisKed to pay him the $-j(). because I think'he is honest in thinking he ought to have it. and lor the sake of peace, if money would bring peace and good will, 1 am willing to i)ay even more. "But there is another sidi' to tliis, and one that. for the good of others, I mnst mention. The affair establishes a bad precedent. Seeds- men have invariably, I believe, declared they cannot be responsible for the crops raised from the seed they sell, even should it transpire that the seed was bad. They will furnish more seed, free of expense, in such cases, but this is all they can do. If the fdn. I send out is unsatisfactory, I will return the money, and pay all expenses botli ways, on leturn of the fdn. I received from Mri Burch pay for only 24 lbs. of fdn.. something less than $18. He did not use all of this, as appears from the card below. I think it was not right for him to ask for, or to take the $50., because it left the door open for similar demands from others, and in transactions I have had nothing to do with. Several cases have come up since, concerning bees that have been sold, and other things, and some of our readers have come to me, to settle cases of like nature for them. I would suggest that Ave make it a general rule, that goods, bees, or other things, that are sold, if the matter cannot be arranged by the payment of small differences, be returned, and the shipper pay expenses both ways. Of course both parties are to use all possible care in saving each other all needless expenses. Do not return the goods, until full explanations have been given, and both parties are fully agreed in the matter. Do it all pleasantly, and when over, remain friends. I do not wish to throw blame on friend Burch, and am willing to call it all errors of judgment, rather than intentional wrong. I hope he is a better Christian than I am; in one respect lie has set me a good example, for he has been laboring for the good of the young men of his town, and has been con- tent to say nothing about it, leaving others to tell ol his good deeds, if they are ever told at all. To show that he was, at least in part, at fault in liis judgment in regard to tiie fdn.. I append a postal card, that just came to hand. Pleasf^ send H. W. Rurkholder sample copj' of GfEAMNfJS, to Bear Lake Mills, Vantuiien Co., Miih. PI' ase send me your price list. Buckholder told me, 1 he other day, ho got 5 lbs. of fdn. of the man to whom you payed ^50. for making his wa.x up, and it worked all right. He wanted to know where he could buy it this year; so I write you in haste. D. Bdtton. Bloomingdale, Vanburen Co., Mich., April 27, 1878. BEES TO IL.OOK AT. Ac. /p-^lAN you furnish me with a four frame nucleus (!| J of Italians on fdn. started combs? I want *^^ them in standard L. frames, and would partic- ularly like the "yellowest" or lightest colored to be had. "Albinos," if there arc any such, would please me, as I want them to Inoh at. I would pay a high- er price for them than for dark colored bees. I am sorry to say we cannot send combs built on fdn., until they are 1 or 2 years old. because they would be pretty sure to break down in shipping. We, on this ac- count, usually select the oldest and toughest combs we can find. If bees to look at are what is wanted. I do not know but that friend Pike's Albinos may be a pretty good thing after all. There is so much call for the very yellow bees, tliat I confess I have hard work to keep a choice colony of this 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 183 description. Last fall, I sold the very light- est and yellowest for $18., and the purchaser took them to a State fair, and got $25 pre- niiiun on them, because they were so very gentle, as well as pretty. The best one we liave now in our apiary, we use to get bees from to put in with queens, before we re-ship them ; stiould I go to other stocks, they would be pretty sure to sting tlie queens, and that you know would be expensive bus- iness. If you keep raising queens, you will get now and then, one that will produce these gentle yellow bees. At present, I have none for sale. You invite criticism, and though it seems hardly proper for a newly fledged amateur to attempt it, on the products of an old professional, yet 1 think I will do so and disregard consequences. HEAVIER TOP BARS. In the first place, T consider the top bar, on your brood frames, much too thin and weak for a heavy comb to be suspended from it continually. 1 have seen heavier bars sag in the centre and become warped from this cause. You further weaken it also, bv cutting a groove in it for fdu. Your method of inserting the fdn. is not handy or very practical for those not having special conveniences; this I know from experience. Neither does the sheet of fdn. hang exactly in the center of the frame, as theoretically it ought to do. Metal hang- ers for top bars I consider a needless and expensive addition, when metal rabbets are used; in fact wood- en ones are preferable, as they move easily enough, and not too easily. Our top bars are made considerably heavi- er, and a much heavier comb guide is added, and I think them now strong enough. In transferring heavy combs, there is a much greater danger of sagging than where combs are built naturally, or on fdn. ; because in the latter cases, the comb, when it gets old and tough, adds greatly to the strength of the frame. We have metal cornered frames made of -Jr inch stuff, that have done excel- lent service. l)ut the combs were built nat- urally, and the honey was' for several years taken out with an extractor, before it could become very heavy on the frame. I dislike to have top bars unnecessarily heavy, because it makes the frame so unvvieldy to handle. F think the dimensions given in our circular, 11-82, about right, if we have a strong comb guide, to give additional support. We have, this season, sold a great many thousand all wood frames, and they are having a pretty good test, but for all that,, the metal corners are being called for in far greater (luantities than ever before. BEVELING THE ENDS OF TOP BARS. For your top bar, I would substitute one about, or not quite, twice as thick, with beveled ends; thus: The sides and bottom of yours are well enough, and also metal bottom corners. I have also used top bars with l)eveled ends, as you suggest, and have thought seriously of making all our wood frames in that way. It has not been done, because it would somewhat weaken the ])rojecting ends, and it woulil also add considerably to the expense. Our neighbor Shane, uses frames with the projecting arm sharpened on each side, instead of being beveled down from the top, as you have it. His plan admits of doing it in the board, before the strips are ripped off, but yotirs would require a sepa- rate handling of each piece. FASTENING IN THE FDN. The fdn., I should insert in a very different way from yours. If practical to manufacture, I would recommend strips of a triangular shape, with a groove nearly to the bot- tom, thus: Tack one side to the frame, with brads, then spring open the groove, insert the fdn., and tack down the other side; or, if the triangular shape is difficult J^g to make, use a strip like this: Mr. W. W. Gary, Jr., has made me several hives with|gJ'^^^| frames like above and suggested the im- provement. John D. White. Chicopee, Mass., April 17th, 1878. The device you mention for holding the fdn., is precisi?ly what we used, when we first commenced to make fdn.; but it is an additional piece to be added to the frame, it must be fastened on with nails, or brads, and although it is a ^reat deal more work, I do not see that it is one bit better than the simi)le plan of rubbing the fdn. on the comb guide, as I have advised. The strips of grooved lumber can be made at a little ex- pense, but it is some trouble to put them on. A WOITIAIN'S OPINION OF THE R. K. AND EXJ^RESS CO'S, AND SOME OTHER THINOS. WITH all your fault?, we love you, because you have a tender conscience; but pray, do not lacerate it any further, or add to your manifold cares, by looking after the inter- ests of the railroad and express companies. The following figures tend to confirm the general opin- ion, that they are abundantly able to take care of themselves. The little box of shipping cases, frames, &c., which you sent us hy freight, to ttnve expetise, reached us in 12 days, weighed 65 lbs., and cost $3.42, at the rate of $3.73 per hundred; while they freight from Chicago to New York, for 15c per hundred, and from St, Louis to New York, for 10c. Do they not play high? do they not play low? the game certainly is theirs. In Cincinnati, after smashing up a lot of light comb honey, so that it had to be dumped into but- ter jars, and reducing it from iiSO lbs. to 'Z'SIVt lbs., they said they were not to blame, and collected $9.00 expressage; while honey is carried from California to New York, for .?8.00 per hundred. FUMIGATION. I read Mr. Doolittle's statement as to the necessi- ty of fumigating box honey, with some disquietude; but your i-eport in April Gleanings, together with another year's experience of my own, has reassured me. 1 have never been troubled with worms, though I have had a supply of honey the entire win- ter for several years. Last Aug. and Sept., we put nearly 8,000 lbs. directly from the hives into the kitchen chamber, with an uncurtained south win- dow. It was hot enough in that room to hatch worms, if not to roast them. About that time, I saw a worm or two in an exjiosed glass box; but, from its rarity, it occasidiicd no alarm, and was so little regarded, that I did nut even watch the honey in consequence. Wc have sold honey all winter, and have not seen or heard of a worm, web, or dam- age. During the past month, we have overhauled, bo.ved, and shipped what remained, al)out ISOO lbs., and only found one small wnrm '4 inch lontr, which was dead and had done no harm. Uut, (I must con- fess it) I did lind one small web, and a few cells un- capped, perhaps a square inch or two altogether, which was the first and only thing of the kind I have ever noticed. CLIPPING QUEEN'S WINGS. While it may be easy for ;/oh to open the Simplici- ty hive, lift the right tin-cornered frame, and clip the queen before she knows you are around, I be- ISl GLEANINGS m BEE CULTUEE. June lieve most of your readers, espe3ially those who have other hives, other frames, and less steady hiiiids, would by some slip or jar apprise her ma^is- ty of (lans^'er, 09 times in a 100. Then, by following- your lulvii-e to close the hive and be more careful lU'xt time, I believe they would still fail 98 times in 100. At this rate of progress, how many times would 100 hives need to be opened to clip 100 queens. After the queen has taken alarm, she can be clip- pert, by following- her with the open scissors all about the comb, all over your lap, all up your sleeve &c., till, in some favorable instant, you dare to close the scissors upon the coveted lace wing'. But this operation is the most trying to the nerves, of any that ever I did, and 1 could not advise beginners to practice it. Because. my queens must be clipped, I had to tind a better way; and because I pinched and manned my first *0*< COITIB FDN.; SAGGING AND BULGING. "KEEP IT BEFORE THE PEOPLE." S' DO not remember seeing my remedy given b.v yoii or others who make fdn., for the bulgln/f I and sagging of same when being built out. I received 25 lbs. of you this spring, and now have a number of cards full of brood and eggs, and as nice as one could ask for. On the 4th day after they were placed in the hive, I made an examina- ; tion, and found a part of them just right; they ' could be no better; while another portion were dis- I torted, twisted and bulged. I used some of it last season, and had no such experience. One piece, in particular, was in such a horrid shape, that I at I first thought it utterly ruined; and if I had felt any '■ ways sceptical in regard to the success of fdn., I i would certainly have "tucked" it back into the hive, and rushed for my pen, to tell somebody what a I failure it had been "with me. But mn faith was not I so easily shaken, and instead of becoming demoral- t ized over the matter, I set about devising a remed.v ' for their uncouth shape. I will first give the shape j 1 found them in, that the remedy may be the more 1 intelligible. The bees alwaj's begin at the top to build them out, and, with me, always complete one side ahead , of the other. This will cause the sheet, sometimes, i to balance over toward the imcompleted side, and I as soon as the corner touches, or nearly touches the side bar, just so soon will it be fastened. Now 1 as the bees go on finishing- this side, of course it I stretches, (ind as the corner is fastened* a bulge will occur just above. 1 found mine not onl.v bulg- ed as stated, but the opposite side was stretched too long, causing another large bulge. My remedy was, to cut it loose from Uie bottom bar and takf i out about '2 inch; also to cut the corner loose and take out ^4, inch of the comb. This lets it swing- clear until completion. Then, with my hands, 1 I carefully stnrightend the comb, and now every one of thctn is a perfect specimen of brood cards. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 185 It has been said, "Up to this time, comb Mu. has not been a decided success." Now, pure bees-wax fdn., with proper manag-cment, can not he a failure ; and T verily believe that, if all who make it for sale, would keep Iho niaiiap'cinent I have !ii\<'n oonstaiit- Iv before the people, there would be no further com- plaint. I). U. Baker. KoUersvillo. O., May 2d, 187^. In addition to yonr kind suggestion, friend B., I would suggest that tJie sheet of fdn. be hung in sucli a part of the hive, that the bees be" induced if possible, to build out both sides at once. We generally secure this in our apinry. It is true, occasionally, a bad comb will be found now and then, but the worst cases can be brought out in good shape by the i)lan you suggest. A pocket knife, and a very little time, will be all that is ]ieeded. Wliile extracting, we can bring bulged combs into shape with a very little touching up with the fingers and honey knife. F2i;3^E?EnS. THE HAINS' FEEDER. ^^|OME time ag-o, I sent you a tin feeder, which ^*lj you noticed in Gleanings for April. In re- '^ sponse to your wish to know who sent it, I dropped you a postal card. After reading- my Gleantnos, I concluded this card did not reach you; -therefore 1 take this occasion to say you are wel- come to use it. I never had a thought of patent (as hinted at, by a correspondent), or of making' money out of it. I never saw or heard of it, imtil I made it for my own use. T like It better than any other I ever used. For inside feeding-, I use them long: enough to reach from honey board to bottom, and IVi inches in diameter, a row of them taking: the place of a frame. I also send you today a cover on the same principle, to fit the Mason .iar. I wintered .5U swarms; have reduced to 40 by uniting the weakest; all are in excellent condition. They consumed on on average, during- the winter, 11 lbs. 10 oz. of honey; the largest quantity used by one swarm, was 20 lbs.: the smallest, SI4 lbs. Win- tered on summer stands, in solid rows, protected on the north side, and covered with sacks of chaff and autumn leaves. J. B. Hains. Bedford, O., May 13th, 1878. Below we give an engraving of the device to be fa.steiied on a quart fruit jar. 1 nArsrs' feeder for a fruit jar. The jar may be filled level full, l^efore the cover is ptit on, and it is then to be inverted quickly, in the same manner as the pepper box feeders. The advantage it has over the latter is that it feeds more rai)idlv, the places of exit being larger, and the"^ holes never get stopped up and need punching out. Those who remember the article, "Water For Bees," page 74. Vol. V. will recognize the principle as being exactly the same ; friend Mains has attached the sliallow dish to the glass jar. so it may be inverted with it, and that is all. I have cheerfully paid him the §10. for the suggestion, and am willing to pay for any device which T tliink well enough of to adont and manufacture. THE DUNHAM FEEDER. This is simply carrying the idea that friend Ilains almost strikes on, in his letter above, a little farther ; instead of making the feed- er round, it is made oblong, and the depth of a frame, and is in fact made to liang in the hive, just like a frame. The lady v.ho invented it, uses it as a pepper box feeder; that is, she simply has the bottom perfor- ated. As tliis arrangement is much more apt to be leaky, especially, if the hive and machine are not ke])t exactly level, I would prefer the Ilains plan of having a shallow dish at the bottom, instead of iiertVirations. We give below a drawing of l)oth kinds. DUNHAM FEEDER. ]?.iY IMi MOVEMENT. Our friend writes as follows in regard to it. If you are willing to engrave and describe the feeder in Gleanings, naming it "The Dunham Feeder," and say that I am not going to have it patented,— which would only raise the price,— and that I hope all bee keepers will respect my right to it, T will be sincerely obliged to you. If you are not willing to do so, ; much prefer that you say notfcing whatever about it, for the present. You suggest what you think an improvement; I decidedly prefer it as it is, and, even if I did not, would not think it right to take, or rather steal anj- one else' idea. The only improvement I have made, is to make it 5 instead of 9 inches in depth. Thanking you for your kindness to a lathi, I remain yom-s truly Francis Dunham. Depere, Wis., April 23d, 1878. I think we will all respect your wishes, my friend, and as an encouragement of the in- ventive genius of yonr sex, 1 will offer you S25. for the privilege of manufactvu-ingyour feeder, with the Ilains' modification I have suggested, at any time when you may see fit to allow me to do so. There is one difiiculty with all these at- mospheric feeders, and that is, that they have all got to be removed from the hive to fill them, which is not the case with the Sim- plicity feeders, and all of like construction. As the.Dunham feeder, or even the other, can be made to hold 25 lbs., or sufficient for winter, at one feed, it does not very much matter, unless we wish to feed a little every day for stimulating purposes; I confess my experience in feeding has led me to con- clude that too much is far better than not quite enough. Still, it is not very good economy, to fill our hives with syrup or gra|)e sugar to such an extent, that it re- mains stored in the combs, and in the way. To sum up, I really do not know which kind of feeders I prefer, all t/iings consider- ed. Feeding gra])e sugar syrup, in the o])en air, in Ilains' feeder, seems now to be the least trouble, and to give best satisfaction ail aroimd. Just now, between fruit blos- soniH and clovej-, the bees are taking it with great avidily. Of course the Ilains' feeder, and almost any other, for that matter, can be made of any desired size, and I once used one made of a barrel. Where one has a, large apiary, it may be quite a saving of time, to make such a one, and then have no furtlier trouble with feeding. This of coiu'se. is to be used 186 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. June in the open iiir. There is only one trouble, and that is, that the bees may suddenly abandon the syrup, because natural stores hive come ; tor, at such a time, they cannot be induced to notice the grape sugar any more. ^ m ^ FROVi F«iiEivD Mooar. poRJlHE spring has been one i I ones for bees, that has t SWARMING. of the most favorable been known for many ^^!^ years. The Italians commenced to swarm, in these parts, the 15th of March; the black bees, not until the 10th of April. Some of the first Italian swarms have already cast other swarms. HONEY. Considerable honey has already been taken, and bee keepers begin to see tlio importance of putting up their honey in line market order. In fact, bee culture in the South is moving on rapidly. IN THE GROUND. A Mr. Payne, living about three miles from this ])l;ic(\ found a bee tree this spring, where the bees entered the tree at the gi-ound. He felled the tree, and found the bees nicely located in three large roots that were hollow, the combs extending some three feet below the surface of the ground. They were a large swarm, and had, no doubt, en.ioyed their domicil for a number of years. He placed them in a hive, where they are doing well. Bees, after leaving the parent hive, and being deprived of a home, will accept a habitation wher- ever they can find one. We have known them to enter dwellings, where they seem to live in perfect harmony. ' A. F. Moon. Rome, Ga., May 10th, 18TS. GLEAMmCS irBEE QUITUHH. EDITOR AND PUBLISHER, MEDINA, OHIO. terms: $1.00 per ye ak, post-pajd. lVEE3DIlSr.A., JTJlSrE 1, ISTS. Thou wilt surelv wear away, both thou and this people that is with thee; for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone.— Ex. 18 : 18. If thou Shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this peoDl« shall also go to their place in peace.— Ex. 18:23. ^t »9t WW We have looked anxiously for Prof. Cook's new book, but it don't come, as yet. Friend Bingham has put the price of his smallest smoker, at .$1.00, by mail, andOOc, by express. I am very glad, for it is a very pretty little machine for the pric3. Perhaps I should apologize for allowing a place, this month, to so many letters in praise of the Sira- nlicity smoker; but. you see, I thought my friend Cook was a little mistaken in his criticisms of it, and so I wanted to let others "talk." T'l'^.R'? ai-e 68 of us working for you, and I verily believe w> are all doing about the best we can even if things do move along slowly. We may be awk- ward and blundering, but we mean to be honest, iuid some of us are very tired, from working both day and night, for so many week?. The weather was lovely, and the bees were swarming in April, and every bee man and woman was hap n': but the frost cime, and the bees starved and robbed each other, and they all (ir ■ didn't have anv starve in our apiary, 'cause we .iust kept 'em raising brood right along until locust and clove-. by feeding grape sugar, in the open air) looked sober, and thought of Blasted Hopes. In my opinion, no sort of a hinge is admissible in a bee hive, and I have given the matter careful study and experiment. This will have to be taken for an answer, to a great number who are working on the Chaff hive problem. Almost all the devices sent will kill bees badly, and besides that, propolis would, in time, prove a very serious obstacle to their working. At the very last minute before one of the forms went to press last month, our "youngest printer" took the cut of friend Martin's frame suoporter out, to raise it a little, and —put it back upside down. As the correcting bad been all done, it was not noticed until the whole edition was printed. When looking at it, turn your .Tournal "bottom up," and you will see it all right. "Do you like that cake?" said Mrs. R., as I help- ed myself to the second piece. "I do. most certainly," said I, and I wondered why she was so particularly interested. "Because I got the receipt for making it, out of the little book that was sent you by the editor of the Amrican Ji-e Journal, "Honey as Food and Honey as Medicine." We mail fhe little pamphlet, to any address, for 10c. I am inclined to think it rather exaggerates the value of honey as a medicine, but the cooking receipts, alone, ought to be worth the 10c. Since writing the note at the end of B. Lunder- er's communication, we have fixed several boards, and, witii their aid, our .smart hitys put the sections together just about twice as fast as they do without them. I am inclined to think even the experts will, with practice, work faster with them; very much depends on having every thing arranged just right, that there may be no false motions with the hands, or waste of time in reaching farther than is absu- Ititely necessary. Also, let me once more implow you, if you would work rapidly, to keep your stuff in neat piles, and not, under any circuinstances, let it get scattered about in disorder. Our small boys, aye, and girls too, have some of them a way of get- ting their pieces down under thvir feet, in a way that is excessively trying, to at least imc individual. To tell the whole trutii, the "big" boys and girls are not entirely free from this fashion, where they arc at work at hives, frames, etc. Oh humanity! why M'l'.? you be so careless, ane packed suthciently to prevent it | from ever settling so as to leave the upper l)()rtions of the hive vacant. When the chaff j is all nicely tilled into the sides, you are to put as much over the bottom as possible and have the tarred paper and rough bottom l)oards go in. and then the wliole is to be se- curely nailed, both down into the strips J, and through from tlie siding, into the ends of tliese bottom boards. Now we are i-eady foi- the cover. To contrive a light cheap cover, that would be absolutely water proof, that would allow of being readily lifted with one liand. and still afford a tlat place on the top for setting a case of section boxes, or any other article used in the apiary, caused me more hard study and experiment than all the rest of the chatf hive together. There are a great many different i)ieces to the chaff hive, it is COVKR TO CHAFF HIVE. true, but these pieces are all made of cheap lumber, and one kind of pieces is made to answer a great variety of different purposes. For instance, tlie roof boards of the cover are all sorted out of the same siding that is used for the body of the hive. Before piling this siding away, yon are to select all of the straightest and soundest pieces for these cov- ers. For tlie sake of lightness, we will plane these down to I, or a little less. Wliere we get hold of very thick stuff among our pile of culls, we can often make 3 roof boards of a piece, thus saving lumber, and time in dressing it down. Now tliese boards or strips are to be bent in the middle, to get the slope to the roof ; and, to do this, we will make a broad saw cut nearly through each of them, as shown below. ROOF BOARD TO CHAFF HIVE. Make the cut so nearly through, that the board Avill bend along the line, without trouble. To keep them bent just right, and to make a solid ridge board with the flat place on top, we will get out a piece of i stuff, 22i inclies long, and 5 inches, wide. Fix a beveled piece against the parallel bar on your saw table, so that you can cut out this board thus: Let A represent tlie paral- lel bar, B, the beveled piece screwed to it, C. the ridge board we are making, and D, the dotted lines where we wish to have the saw cut. After going through on one side, the board is to be turned over, so that the piece, E, is taken entirely out at the second cut. Tliat the siding may make a close joint that will not leak, we groove the edges, and push into them a little trough shaped piece of tin. as shown below. ROOF BOARDS TO CUAFK IIIVK. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 189 These cuts in the sidhig are made with a very thin saw, and in such a way as to be least liable to break ont. The tin allows the thin pieces of pine to shrink and swell with- out any danger of checking, and yet no wa- ter can, by any possibility, get into the inside of the hive. The tins may be made of the cheap rooHug tin, or of scraps that tinsmiths would otherwise throw away. If tliey should tit so loosely, that there may be danger of their falling out, a slight bend in them will make them stick securely. As the rim that holds the cover is on a bevel, we wish the strip that goes under tlie eaves, as well as the gable end piece with the ventilating hole in it, to be beveled at their lower edges also ; the former we make of thick pieces of siding, by splitting them in two on the proper bevel. As these are to hold the nails along the eaves, they should be at least I thick. For the gable ends, we , adopt a little different line of management, and, as the principle is a very important one, I will take a little space to explain it. ; Much time is occiipied in handling all these little bits of lumber, and to employ a | strong man to handle little bits of pine, and | turn them end for end, when he could, I without fati'-;ue, handle a dozen or a hundred just as well, is something that should be avoided as much as possible. The same idea was brought out very strongly in mak- ' ing section boxes; but to make irregular forn^s is a little more difficult. Even if we oan accomplish no more tliau to have two of tlie pieces attached, so that tlie workman \ can perform two operations on them, while \ the stuff is right in his hands, it is quite a j saving. This gable end piece, you see below. GABLE EXD TO CHAFF HIVE COVER. | You will notice, that each piece has a | tapering cut at each end ; that it has a bevel j at the lower edge ; and that it has a hole j bored through it. To pick it uj) and lay it ! down for each of the four operations, espe- cially, if you are one of the awkward kind tJiat have to tiuii around and stoop over' every time they lay a piece down and pick ;inother up, requires a good deal of time. If we should take a piece of 3 inch plank, we coidd cut tlie tapers, and bore the holes, in at least si-x pieces at once, for tliey need not be over |, and then we could saw off the pieces after all was done. But 3 inch plank is pretty expensive, because there is so little demand for it. If we can buy 2 inch plank I at a low figure, it may do to use this, but, j even if we do. after boring the holes and cutting the tapers, we would better cut them in two in the middle first, so as to have about inch pieces, as you will see. Very likely, it will be best to use your culls, so we will get out a piece of inch stuff planed a thick as it will work, 5 inches wide, by 224 long. This piece will make 4 gable ends, by running your saw through tiie dotted lines, as shown below. HOW TO MAKE THE GABLE ENDS. First we take off the corners, A A : then bore the holes ; next we cut from B to ( ' and from D to E ; lastly, split them through the middle, and they are finished all but planing. The ventilating hole shoidd be about H inches in diameter, and should be covered with wire cloth, on the inside. It is never safe to omit these ; for a strong colony will exhale so much moisture from tlie breath of the bees, as to cause drops of wa- ter to hang on the roof boards, and large icicles to form in the winter. I have win- tered bees in the chaff hives, without the ventilating holes, but was obliged to open them occasionally during very severe weath- er, to let the roof and cusliions dry out. 1 am yrcaVy disappointed in '*^Directions for Mak- ing Hives": you had promised to give directions in the May number; imagine my disappointment on opening the paper, to tind that, if I made a hive ac- cording to your instructions. I must pay $150 for a two horse power engine, and about as much more for saws, planers, and other "flxins," before I could make a hive. I expected that your instruc- tions would inform me how to make a hive with hand saw, jack plane, and pruning knife. Not 10 in 100 of youro,0ed off. The top bar is al- so to be grooved on the under side, its ■whole length. Below we show you a section of both top and end bar, Avitli the groove to hold the comb guide. As the comb guide is 9-10, and the cut in the end bar f, Ave have o-Ki left for whole Avood in the top bar, as at A, and the table should be so set, as to leave just this amount of wood uncut. Even if the fdn. is fastened in the frames with melted wax, as many do, I would have such a comb guide, because it adds so much to the strength of the frame, and obviates the necessity of having a very heavy top bar. The bees Avill, in time, build their combs right over such a comb guide, and use the cells above the brood for honey. HOW MANY FRAMES IN A HIVE. You will remember that the width of the .Simplicity hive inside, as well as the lower story of the Chaff hive, is just 14i inches. Well, this space is just right for ten frames, bringing them a triHe less than H inches from each other, from centre* to centre. After we have our frames placed in the hive, and spaced with the eye and lingers, so as to have about the same amount of room for each frjime. we are to consider what is to be used to keep the bees dOAvn on the frames, and to ju-event them from build- ing their combs clear up against the cover, and fastening the lattei-down with propolis. Mr. Langstroth used a thin board, and call- ed it a honey board ; but as this is almost sure to kill bees, especially when covered with little bits of comb, I very much pre- fer some kind of cloth, tlint the bees will not eat through, or cover much with propolis. The common black enan;eled cloth, such as carriage makers use. seems to answer the purpose the best of anything yet tried. [Sec page 73.) HOAV TO USE THE KROAD FRAMES OF SEC- TION BOXES. For f'e one story hives, you have nothing to do, li'it to just hang the fr;uiie of sections in the hive. The separators, of course, will be turned toward the brood, and this will serve to keep the bees from putting i)ollen in the section combs, as well as to keep the queen out. I have never seen any pollen, or any eggs, carried into a frame of sections, where separators were used. Although you can get nice honey from a one story hive, I would not, as a general thing, recommend them ; because almost any swarm of bees will very soon need more room, and if it is not furnished, they will be pretty sure either to swarm or to lie idle, for want of it. With the extractor, we can get along very well with one story, for we can extract the honey ; but we cannot wel take off the sections, until they are capped over, and when the two frames are full and ready to cap, the bees will have little or nothing to do. This is why I would have a two story hive. If you have the upper story filled Avith sections, I do not knoAv that there is any particular adA^antage in having any sections in the loAver story at all ; for, after the bees once get to AA'orking Avell above, they Avill, as a general thing, rather neglect the lower ones. Different colonies Avork differently in this respect, but side storing, unless in hives Avith taller frames than the L., has been pretty generally abandoned. You Avill remember that the Simplicity hive is 14i inches Avide, and that the broad frames to hold the sections are 2 inches wide : therefore 7 of the latter, would fill the hive into about I of an inch. Well, as we wish the tin separators to lie as flat and smooth as possible, Ave Avill AA-edge up in this i inch, to bring the seven frames as closely together as possible, and then, AAiien the AATdges are removed, Ave can get out the first frame of sections Avithout any trouble. As the tops of thes? frames are tight together, we shall haA'e no occasion to use the sheet of enam- eled cloth, and this may be laid away until the season of surplus is over. It is true, the bees Avill get above through this I inch space Avhere our Avedges are put, but we Avill stop this by a thin slip of Avood, similar to our comb guides, only a little longer. Only tvA'o Avedges are required to hold the broad frames tight up to each other, and these are toAvards tlie middle, just opposite the u])- rights of the section boxes. betAveenthe seit- arators and the sides of the hive. The dia- gram below Avill illustrate it. irOAV TO AVEDGE UP THE FRAMES OF SECTIONS. 1878 GLEAXINGS IX BEE CULTURE. 193 A and B are the wedges. When they are withdrawn, you can pry over and lift out the frame, ahiiost as easily as any brood frame, and the operation of taking out tlie honey is a very easy, and a very simple one indeed. At first thought, it seems a little singular, that the sections are much easier to take out when filled than when empty ; but such is, nevertheless, the cas3 ; for they are then rigid, solid blocks, instead of the frail structures which were put in. PAINTING THE HIVES. After the hive is nailed, the nail lieads should all be set in slightly with a suitable nail set, and then I would advise going over tlie corners and all rough places, with a keen and sharp smooth plane, set so as to cut a very light shaving. After this, rub off all rough places with some sand paper and a block, and you are ready to give it a priming. This priming may be simply boiled linseed oil, or boiled oil and ochre, or something of that sort. Clieap red paint is said to hold better than any other color, but, for the sake of avoiding the consequences of exces- sive heat, I would avoid all dark colors, even for a priming ; for somebody might be careless, and let the paint wear off until the priming showed thrt^jigh, and then, if the heat of the sun should strike right on the hive, the little fellows might be made very uncomfortable, to say the least. I once had a brown hive which got so hot that it melted the combs, and let the honey run out in front. I painted it over white, and had no farther trouble, although I allowed it to re- main in the sun as before. I once was quite a friend to a kind of chemical paint, but, since having a larger experience, and test- ing pure white lead by the side of other kinds of paint, I have come to the conclu- sion that the pure lead and linseed oil is much the nicest and most durable, besides being, probably, as cheap, in the long run, as any- thing else. Instead of putting on a great many coats of paint to commence with. I would paint lightly at first, and then give them another coat, as often as it will im- prove their looks or durability. Do not go by fits and starts, in fixing up your apiary, but keep fixing all the time, and keep it nice all the time. Perhaps the better way to paint and fix up is to lift the combs out, and set them into a hive all rigged and painted, nnd then, after that one is fixed, carry it to the next, and so on. This plan is very convenient where the hives need a nail or two, which could not well be put in while it contained bees. I do not think fresh paint is especially offensive to bees, nor do I think new swarms are often driven off by the smell of paint, but I should i)refer to have the hives dry, before the bees are put in. I have often painted hives containing bees, without perceiving any bad results, except that the bees sometimes stick fast to the newly painted surface, which is certainly annoying to the poor little fellows, if noth- ing more. CONCLUDING REMARKS ABOUT HIVES. Work carefully, and avoid mistakes and blunders by carefully measuring, trying, and testing every thing, as you go along. Do not get a lot of hives nailed up, and then discover that the frames will not go in them properly, but have a frame riglit at hand, and, before you drive a nail, put the frame in place and see if it is right. More than this, be sure that your frame is just right. Many bad blunders have resulted from picking up a frame supposed to be right, but which was found to be a little too large, or too small, in some of its dimen- sions, after a lot of hives were- made to match it. Have a good steel square, and keep it carefully, that it may not get out of true, or get rusty or injured in any way. To test its exactness, lay it on a broad straight edged board, and draw a fine line along the blade of the square, with a keen pointed knife; then reverse it, and see if the knife point runs in the same track. The drawing below will show you how. HOW TO TEST A SQUARE. Let A A represent the board with the straight edge. Do not say, "This edge is straight enough," until you have made it as exact iis you can. Lay the square on as at B, and draw the line D E, with your knife point ; now turn it over as at C, and draw a line in the same place, or so near it, that von can readily see if the two are exactly paral- lel. You can take your board to the hard- ware store, and pick out a square that is right, or you can get tlie one that is nearest right, and then make it right by filing. When you get a square that you know you can ])ut "your trust in", go ahead, but work carefully. Say over and over to yourself, when starting out, "suppose I should find after I get these done, tiiat they are all wrong"; and so measure and try your work, at every step. It is just as easy to cut boards in the right i)lace, as it is to cut them in the wrong one ; and it is just as easy to have all the different parts of your work nice and accurate, as it is to w'aste your time by careless bungling, and tlien trying to patch up the consequences of your own awkwardness. I know, for I have made a great many awkward mistakes in my life, and I also know, by exi)erience, that one so awkward and careless that he, at times, almost feels as if there was no use of trying to be a mechanic, or hardly anything else, for that matter, can learn to be careful, and to do nice work. I also know the thrill of pleasure that rewards one, after he has suc- cessfully fought these besetting sins, and come out triumphant. Once more, be care- ful ; work slowly, until you know your work is all right; have your tools air nice and sharp ; keep everytliing piled up in neat order ; l«ok pleasant, he pleasant, and thank God every day for being a great deal kinder to you than you deserve. 194 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. JUXK % TOWMiEY'S APIABY. 'Y fnends. I take great pleasm-e in in- troducing to yon om- friend Townly. -^^ not only becanse I think yon would like to know him., but becanse he has been so in- sti-nmental in bringing the idea of chaff packing on the summer stands, before the people. I was so prejudiced against all kinds of out door packing, that had it not been for his vehemently insistino^ that I should give it a trill (s^e page r^3. Vol. HE.). I might yet be fussing witli small colonies and spring dwindling. At my tirst meeting with him. he introduced himself as "chaff." and although he is not going to speak of chaff particularly to-day. we will just peep over the fence and listen, while he entertains a neighbor, who it seems has just dropped in to see the "bee yard." "These large, house hives are arranged nearly as: we intend to have them all arranged, as fast as we can make the hives. "Oyes: their being so far apart will make some extra travel, but we like them best that way; they not only look better, but they afford us plcntii of room to go among them; we have always lived in the country, and never liked to be crowded even by our neighbors. Again, you notice that row of win- tering boxes, with bees in them, on the north side of the yard. They are from three to six feet apart, from cerrtre to centre. The entrance to every oth- er one is reversed, part of them fronting south, and part fronting north; and yet the bees are constant- ly trying to enter this end of them all. There are no bees in the first large hive, in front of the shop door, and none in any hive mthin eight feet from it. but you see 'lots' of bees flying around and lighting near the centre of the south end of it, showing that they belong in a similar hive. They are heavily laden with pollen too, showing that thev are old bees and should have their location well marked. If there were bees in that hive, with an entrance t'» correspond with the other, the strange bees would go in there and might be destroyed. A young THE APIARY OF .J. H. TOWNLEY, TOMPKINS. JACIvSOX CO., MICH. "Come riffht up here, Mrs. Johnson; you need not he afraid of the b«es; they are Italians, and if they are kindlv treated they will not sting, and can be handled almost a« easily as so many flies. This hive is a two story, chaff packed, summer and winter hive. It is the invention of Mr. A. I. Root, of Medina. Ohio. He publishes a bee paper there, callei Gleanixgs, and through it has given us many useful and valuable implements for the apiary, among which we consider this one of his best. " There are now two colonies of bees in it. This smaller hive, sitting inside of the upper story, will be set out during the summer, directly in front re sample CO ii.>;'L uvt given awav everv month, at a considerable expense. I charge nothing. I pray that not only Gleanings, but all of its readers, may continue to go onward and upward, in the straiglit and narrow path. transferring and thick combs FOR extracting. I have transferred ten swarms lately, from Na- tionals to Simplicities. For the benefit of those who wish to transfer from one frame hive to another, I give the "modus operandi." Smoke the bees pretty thoroughly in the old hive, then take all the c6mbs from them, lea\ ing the bees only in ihe hive on the old stand. Take your combs to some suitable building, cut them out ( f the old frames, and fit them into new ones, fastening with clamps made of 's square pine sticks, or in any other way you may prefer, only fasten them. Put them in the new hive, keeping the brood together as much as possible, put on your sheet, quilt, and caps, place the hive on a bottom and carry to the old stand. Remove the old hive, and set the new (sne in its place. Spread down a sheet as for hiving a swarm, open ttie old hive carefully, get a few handfuls of bees in a dipper, and pour down in front, and as soon as they set up the hiving buzz, shake them all on the sheet, and they ■\vill go in. I, at first, put on an upper story anil poured the bees into that; but I found it the better plan, by far, to hive them, for reasons any one can see by trying the two plans. A good frame for exti-actor may be made by brad- ding two all wood frames together, with a sheet of fdn. between them. R. L. Joiner. Wyoming, Wis., May 11th, 1878. Thanks, friend J., but I believe your con- cluding remark is the most important thing you have told us. for some time. I know the bees will use such thick combs, and if we can. by spreading, get the cells so deep that the "queen cannot use them, there is nothing to hinder our using drone comb fdn. just think of getting a gallon of hon- ey from a single comb. There is a honey comb in our show case, that Avould hold more than a gallon, were it the size of an L. frame. One week ago to-day, I sent $3.00 to you for queens to be sent to this place. None have come yet. I hope the $^2.00 are not lost. Everybody want? my smoker which you sent. I could sell many. Suj.p' se you send "5 C. O. D.: or if you can send by freight much cheaper, I will pay on delivery here. Sell them just as cheap as you can, if yi u have to send .50. I have made 2 trips of 20 miles each for my queens from you iSat. and to-day); will wait nc w "a day. 1 keep making .people promise to send for Gleanings, will soon takf> it mvself. Fenton, Ky., May fSth, 1878. A. W. Bryan. The above illustrates many of the troubles that come about in business matters. Our friend dated his order for the queens at Hop- kinsville. Ky.. which was not his home, and neglected to tell us of it. so the postal card we sent at once, he never got. He has neg- lected to subscribe for Gleaninc^s. which would have informed liim. all along, that ([ueens could not be fiunished for a dollar in the montli of May.and yet his two :our- nies of 20 miles each' would" doubtless have paid for it for several years. Do net take a journey to the exiu-ess"oll:ce for yoiu- things, until you have had some intimation by mail, that your order is tilled: for it is almost one of the impossibilitic s, to .send all kinds of goons right back, in response to an order. I thank liim for his kind words in regard to the smoker: it looks now. as if we should soon need a factory to suuply them alone, to say nothing of other goods. I ha\e 500 lbs. of !■<')■!/ (iirr. golden rod, exl'd hon- ev, which I will sell for 10c per lb. G. M. Dale. "Border Plains, Iowa, April 12th, 187S. 196 GLEANINGS LX BEE CULTUKE. June Will you please explain of what blood a queen raised from a hybrid stock is, when she is fertilized by an Italian drcneV I have had six swarms up to date; three in April; all Italians. I have native bees, but no swarms from them vet. Wm. St. Martz. Moonshine, Ills., May 9th, 1S7S. I should call her bees f Italian, and yon will tind such bees are often the very best of honey gatherers. It is sometimes hard to tell them by the markings, from pure Ital- ians, but they are. usually, much harder to handle. ■OTien I wrote to you before, you said, "Tell me more about that swarm you got for logging, and its increase." Well, they were rather weak in the spring, and I transferred them into the L. frames. I concluded yovi knew best about the frames, so I c-hanged. They swai-med July 1st. I sent to H. Alley for a queen; she was dead when received. I sent back a card to that etfect, and he sent me another, which arrived safely. I had de- stroyed the queen cells in the parent swarm, and she was nceepted by them July 2od. I like her pro- geny very much. They are very lively workers. An old bee hunter followed them about five miles, to see where such funny bees lived or were owned. They are the only yellow bees in this township. So j'ou see I have two swarms. They are packed aroimd with cut straw and chaff, in a good box. Father says, he never knew bees to gather pollen in Dec. before. The black ones don't bring any. Jf I keep bees, I intend to keep Italians. Oris F. Bowen. Randolph, C'att. Co., New York, Dec. 2yth, 1877. do as I heard of a minister's doing because I his tlock would not come on rainy Sabbaths; abuse those who did come, for the faults of j the others. In regard to the extractor, I can : scarcely think honey is throA^ii over the can, j if the machine is the proper size for the I frames. Where the size of the frame is not i given, or is only partly given, we have many times no choice but to get at it, as best we , can: and. in such cases, there is sometimes j trouble of the kind mentioned. Xotwith- 1 st:\nding this, I can not think it best to make all machines so large as to take any sized frame, as some extractor makers do. any more than I would think of requiring ' all to wear boots and shoes of one size. EXTRACTED VERSUS COMB HOSEY. We have to raise some honey in section boxes, for customers; but, for our own accommodation, — our own table use, baking, and easy holding over \vinter, ^^•e prefer the iOO lbs. ban-el' of extracted honey, collected from white clover and linden blossoms, and well ripened by the bees before being extracted. This is the most splendid food for an old soldier, who had to undergo so many privations on long marches and charges, during the late war of our o'W'n national un^ileasantness, and who came home from the battle field without his right arm. Cer- tainly, I am the one who appreciates this most splendid food, and give God the credit for all suc- cess, the same as you do, according to your words on page 11, Jan. number. Cokkad Dippel. Watertown, Wis., Jan. 2iSt, 1S78. Tour smoker came to hand all right, and does its work "'tip top." I would not take §.5.1)0 for it. if I cr)uld not get another. I should like a few seeds of those big Russian sunflowers, if you think they will not capture all the Egyptians, in these parts. Let mo try them anvwav. " O. Grimsilvw. Ashley, Dls., May 7, '78. I have 11 stands of bees which I brought through the winter successfully. I have had 13 swarms from them this season: 8 first and 4 second. I had 2 on the 10th of April. By the aid of the A B C, I have saved them all, while "the most of my neighbor's swaiTns. (like friend .Joiner's) have "Gone West." The white wood or tulip and white clover are in bloom, and bees are making honey rapidly. M. A. HUFFAKER. Eiverdrlo, Tenn., May 1st, 1878. Perhaps, as I live in what is considered the best bee country in the United States, a few words in regfird to the prospect for honey may not be amiss. At present, our prospects are very favorable, and we expect a great crop of honey. Bees find honey so plenty now that they will not touch it when left around in dishes; they would rather go to the flow- ers for it. I have some working pretty lively in sec- tion boxes, at the present time; and" this, notwith- standing last season was the poorest ever known, as we made no honey, and one-half of the stocks died r.f want ; in fact, bee men here were a community of 'Blasted Hopes." I keep 130 stands, and expect, this year, to average 100 lbs. of comb honey to the stand. We do not ex- tract. If you have any good ideas in regard to in- ducing bees to store in' section boxes, anything to make them do the most work there possible, I wish you would put it in your May No., if possible, or in June. Our great yield of honey comes then, and the comb is as white as milk, and the honej' as clear as water. It does not candy. We have some big stories of great honey yields here in good seasons; one gentleman told me he took 18 section boxes, weighing 1.5 lbs. each, of comb honey, from one hive in a season: and 1 think he told the truth. If you wish any items of the coun- trv, 1 will write again. Wm. McCain. Bernardo. Cal., April 2d, 1878. You will please send me a specimen number of Gi.EANixGS. Bees are gathering honey rapidly from 1 he poplar. The honey extractor I got of yoii last season is not tall enough above the frame; the horev flies over the top like fine cobwebs, ma- king one's clothes sticky. Also, the handle is in the way very olt^n, hut this is not a serious objection. Bee-keeping is looking up in this countv, this spring. May 'Ah, 1878. E. K. KixG. Xow. my friend, as there v.as no sign of any Jiddrcss. of any kind, on your postal. Iiow in tlie world are we to answer youV As yon a.sk for a specimen copy, you are proba- bly not a subscriber, and so I do not know how we are to get at you at all. We might FEEDING CANDY IN FRAMES. I hnvc 3 swarms of black bees. T bought them in July last, transferred them from old box hives into movable frame hives, and they hnd to make all their combs, and winter stores, after that time. They did pretty well; but, when I fixed them up for winter, I filled a frame, for each hive, with candy made ac- ' eliding to your directions. It was as hard and j white :is ma'rble, yet, in a verj- little while, it all I melted nnd slid down in a heap in the bottom of the ; hives. We had a great deal of rain, and damp foggy '■ vreather, all the fore part of the winter. I gathered up the candy, heated it again (over hot water so it would not bom^, filled the frames anew, and put I ihem in. In a week or two, they were down in the j bottom again. I have wintered on summer stands, packed in chafif. We have had a warm open winter, ! and no snow. Warren Horton. I Waupaca, Wis., Feb. 28th. 1878. I The trouble is, without doubt, that your ; candy v>'as not boiled enough. I have never I had any such trouble, but liave had a simi- ■ lar complaint from one lot we sent away. I It seems there is a difficulty in getting the : candy just right, for. if it is boiled too much, it is burned, and if not enough, it is liable i to melt down as you describe. I think the I addition of the flour makes it stronger; that is. it will Jje less liable to liquefy, even though the weat4ier l)e damp. Some of our ' first make was so soft that ^ syrup leaked : from it, but our bees took care of it so fast, I that it had no chance to fall. It seems, 'then, there is a disagreeable feature about I candy feeding, as well as ii|»oi^t feeding liq- ' uid food. 1878. GLEA2^LNGS LN BEE CULTURE. I am a young hand in the bee business, but start- ed last season with 2 colonies, rather weak. They did well, and I extracted S'™ gallons of fine honey (618 lbs.) and increased to 5 good colonies. Friendsville, Tenn. S. L. Greer. MOVING BEES SHORT DISTANCES. In Oct., I fed up a weak and late swarm with sugar syrup. They had a young queen of my own raising,' with some Italian blood. She is large, but as black as jet. They had no poll»n, but I put a chaff cushion on top and put them in the cellar. They ate but little all winter, and when I moved them here, the first of March, not an egg was to be seen, until about the 10th day after moving. They had not a quart of bees, but with a division board and .5 combs, they are doing finely. Writers may say all they can, but give me chaff. Your head is level on chaff. This may throw some light on the length of life of the bee. I moved here, with my .55 colonies of bees, in the warm days of the first of March, three-fourths of a mile, in a spring wagon. As soon as I set a load down, I opened the hive and jarred it. They buzzed and whizzed around, but marked their new locality. I don't think a single bee went back. By pursuing this course, I think they may be moved any short distance, without loss of bees, but the day must be warm enough for them to fly. M. L. Williams. Vancebarg, Ky., April 8th, 1878. The plan you give, of alarming the bees just before letting theni out, after moving them short distances, willsometimesanswer. but not always. Perhaps the difference is in the different traits and dispositions exhib- itetl bv different colonies. FILLING COMBS FOR FEEDING. I have no fault to find with the division boards, nor can I see hut that you have give me my money's worth. I could not have had the hives as well built here. The one valuable feature is that everything is made to fit, which can not, or will not, be done by a mechanic who is not a bee man. I have a new patent for feeding bees: §100.CMI for farm right. Take the comb baskets you sent, fill nearly full with syrup, set in the combs, and return the filled combs to the hive, and the agony is over. The top of one chaff hive was broken in the transit; the shipment, on the whole, came through in very good shape. I am now ready for "beesness," and will not have to blow somebody up, to get whatever one wants at swarming time. Chas. J. Quinby. White Plains, N. Y., March 9th, 1878. Friend Q.. you see. sent his order to us sometime in the winter, and therefore had all he needed long before they were wanted. We gave him a special discount for the order, when our hands were many of them idle, and you can see how he has "been the gainer by it. 1 am sorry to dispel any of his fond illusions on the' feeding arrangement, but about two years ago when my wife and I were on our way to meeting one Sabbath morning, the following might have been overheard : ••Qh Susan I I have just thought of a feed- er that will be ahead of anything ever before invented, and will, I verily believe, work a complete "revolution in bee culture." " "What, and on Sunday':' it surely will not work."' "O. but it cannot help working, for it is just to dip the combs into a boiler full of syrup, and tlien hang them in the liive. I didii t try to invent it on Sunday, it just came of itself.^ "Well, you just wait and see." I did wait and see. although I was almost indignant, liecause she would not immedi- ately admit itsjn-eat value to "ctuning gen- erations." M^u I tried it Monday morn- ing. I foxuid that the honey or syrup would not get in the cells much better than it would "get out." without an extractor, and so it was abandoned. Friend Quinby "s tranquili- ty Avith all of his supplies ready at hand, contrasts pretty strongly with the' friend who AATites below, who. it seems, has had some real genuine experience in waiting and watching, although we can now find no trace of an order for fdn. at all. For lack of the fdn. I ordered, I have had to spend hours killing drones, and hunting up and fitting in odd pieces of worker comb, where I cut out drone comb, (that seems to be the only kind my bees will build now) and I have haunted the express and freight offices till they consider me a nuisance, and call out, "XothingI" before I get fairlv in-doors. Decatur, 111., May 6th. "78. L. R. S. Allen. SPOTTED queens AND CANDY CAGES. I have raised 7 queens from an imported mother, and they all have two small black spots on their backs. I have two other queens raised from a home bred mother, which have no spots, and are yellow- er than those from the imported mother. Which are the purer? these with i he spots, or those with- out':' I have 8 stands of bees, all Italians: .3 are in the Simplicity hives, and the rest in American hives. I like the Simplicity the best. The frames which you sent for D. G. Hister and mjself are at hand, and are satisfactory. I received the queen cages, but would rather have them larger. I have put six black and hybrid queens in them, and they all died. I am afraid to send queens away in them. I think the candy is too hard. I have one larger size, in which I kept a queen 3 weeks. D. K. Knoll. Boundary City, Ind., May 4th, 1878. Many of the imported, and daughters of the imported queens show these black spots, and they have been called a sign of purity ; but I opine that the color of the queens has but little to do with their purity, or value either. If the bees are well marked and good workers. I think that is enough. We. too. have had some trouble with the small cages, this spring, although they worked well last fall. Perhaps the candy'has hard- ened, so that it is not as readily taken by the bees. We have tried moistening it with honey, with good success. A new lot. that will soon be out. will have the candy macle of honey, tloiu'. and sugar, and the cage will be made considerably larger : although it is quite a ditticult matter to make them much larger, and still retain the price at cc. We use the 10c cages, for all our imported queens, and I believe we have never had a loss re- l)orted. where they were used as yet. Goods for last order to hand, and all in. except 2 porticoes which I ordered or intended to order: only 3 came. However, let that go for the present, as I see I was mistaken in the price. I have sent you, perhaps, a dozen orders, and nothing has come up wrong yet. Other bee men make mistakes sometimes, tnit always correct thf ni, unless I except Mitchell, and he will promise every time, but then he has so much business that he forgets it, you know(?). Screw drivers came to band; were very nice, but had found wife's before they came. Bee's are working in earnest on white clover, poplnr, &c., which have been flowering for 2 or 3 weeks. We do not have as much clover here as y< u do n( rth, I suppose from what you all say of it. It setnisto be increasing and spreading here. I think the reason, or at least one reason, of its scarcity here is the fact that we have no stock laws, and our hogs and cows oat and trample it down. We know nothing of basswood here, but it -grows in Tenn. and other states of the South, where it is known as lynn. We have two kinds of trees here which we call poplar: one has but little sap or white wood on it, while the bulk of the tree is a beautiful yellow wood much prized by the 1.-)-} GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. June lumbermen. Wc call that yellow poplar. The oth- er, we call white pnplar, because the sapor white wood i-< very thick. Havinur but a little yellow wood, it is not valued so much for lumber. Laborers on the farm, who have to cut up the Io It better than the other, as it is thicker. 'I'h" lirst lot sags and breaks dcuvn, caus- ing the cells, nyar tiie top b u-. to srrctclr out of shape. I have my hives well sir.ided und?r peach I I commenced last spring (1S77) with 20 stocks of bees in tolerably fair condition. I have at this time 29 stands in as good condition as ever I saw bees. I I wintered them on the summer stands, in the Sim- plicity hive, with chaff cushions over the frames. j The colonies are very strong, and most of them 1 have drones about readv to hatch. I extra«?ted i 1200 lbs. of honey from 21 stands, leaving the bal- I ance for box honey, which proved almost an entire I failure. L. Nigh. Sr. I Lamar, Mo., April 4th, 1878. I I GRAPE SUGAR. That grape sugar came all right; my bees took ! about 2 (juarts per day, at first. i Wesley Spangle. : Shady Grove, Franklin Co., Pa., April 1.5th, 1878. ' I like the idea of enameled cloth for covering i bees; but is there not danger of making the hives 1 too tight, so as to smother the bees in warm weath- 1 erV I have had a little experience with an old wagon sheet, made of tablecloth stuff, and my bees came I rushing out, even when they had plenty of honey. ' I made the sheets large enough to lap over, so that ! the cover rested on the edge of the sheet all around. I Daniel Howard. Colo, Story Co., Iowa. April 22nd, 1878. This is opening up an old (luestiou ; whether bees should b? allowed to seal u)) all the cracks and crevices, as they are so j much disjjosed to do at tiie aproach of cold weather, or whether they must be constrain- ' ed to leave openings. I shorild be a little i afraid to close the hive as closely as you did, 1878: GLEA^^INGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 199 especially, if they were not packed over and above the enameled cloth, with chaff, or something of that nature. In the experi- ments 1 have made, with the enameled cloth inider the chaff' cushions. I have seen no dampness, and nothing objectionable. I tried them clear through one winter, before ventm'ing to adopt and recommend them. BEES AnSCONDING FROM A BEE TREE. I cut a couple of bee trees the other day, with the Intent of hivinj; the bees; but as soon as the tree toll, the bees left brood, honey, and all, and cluster- ed high up in a neiirhborinL' tree, and finally swarm- ed and went off. Is that the way they commonly do? if so, what is the remedy to prevent them from g-oing off? C. A. Brigham. New Ijondon, Ohio, May 4th, 1878. It is very unusual to have a swarm go off in the way you ment'on. Probably, the queen was started out by the drumming whilechopi)ing the tree down, andtook wing; the bees would be very likely to follow her, and this constituted a swarm. I have seen one such case, where the hive contained young queens, it being near the usual swarming tiine^ I have a quantity of old sour honey, probably three years eld. Can I feed it to my bees without injury? Or can it be prepared in any way so that it will not do injury? M. H. Wolfax. Richmond, Vir", May 2nd, 1878. Sour honey, and every thing of that de- scription, may be safely fed in warm weath- er, but you should beware how you make such ex])eriments early in the spring, or late in the fall. The colony I fed on brown sugar last fall, did nicely during warm weather, and went into winter qunrters, full of brood and bees, but this spring, they showed signs of dysentery, and have dwin- dled so badly, tliat they are almost a fail- ure. As I use a ^ig saw a good deal, I thought I would saw you some letters frr your office. And, as you always give full instructions about your things, I will give my Idea about ihe letters. They are made of white holly, and I am thinking of making section l)o.\es of some of the same wo(^dr If you should put the letteis on some dark wood iblack walnut would be good) fasten them on with common pins and cut the points of the pins off, so they will just Ijo through the letter and the board you put tliem on, enough to clinch a little. D". S. BASSEa'T. Fainumsville, Mass., April 15th, 1878. The letters, wood, and w^orkmanshi]). nre beautiful. I have often thought of white Lolly for section boxes, but would it not be rather expensive, friend B.V Many thanks. straining honey. In .Ian. Gleanings, friend Collins complains that he couldn't strain his honey through your cheese cloth. I use cheese cloth for my strainers, and if my honey Is very thick, as it almost always is, I put it on the stove in a huge tin pail, with three or foi:r nails to keep the pail from touching the stove, and stir the honey with a big. long spoon. It soon gets so I can whip it aroinid the pail very easily, and when waim enough, goes through the cheese cloth "a kiting." Try it, bro. Collins. '. You can warm 3 or 4 pailfuls ,nt a time. Will M. Kellogg. Oneida, 111., Jan. 21. 1878. The hives and honej- boxes work nicely. The frame for surplus honey can not be beat. I am disap- pointed in the chatf hives; I expected much difficul- ty in getting at the brood chamber. I wish now I had ordered a\\ chaff hives. C. J. Quinby. White Plains, N. Y., May Sd, 1878. Thanks for your report, and criticisms. Yours, friend Q., were about the first, all wood frames w^e made, and we soon mnde ttie narrow neck of wood stron^'er, besides adding to the thickness of the top bar. I agree with you on the chaff hives ; there is hardly inconvenience enough in getting at the lower frames, to make it worth while, to consider a better way. Tell. us how much will make those weak top bars good, and we will remit. __^ TItANSFERRING AND TRANSFERRING IMPLEMENTS. As I have been tran^fcTring a number of swarms with good success, I think I wil' give you my plan of operation. Armed wiih a bellows smoker,"honey knife, and other tools which I will mention soon. I first smoke the bees which I wish to transfer. Pud move them away Trom the apiary, to a building where they will be free from robbers, and. as soon as they are removed, put a no>7 hive in their place. I then goto the bees to br> transferred, turn the hive bottom side up. and, with the snw knife of wh-'h you see an engraving, cut the cross stii-k each side of thelirst comb; then loosen the combat the sides, TOP BARS AGAIN. 1 fear travhTr with those wooden nailed frames, when filled with honey. I transferred a few partly filled combs: the frames bend and sag in some, and tlic tiid breaks c tf. 1'he top bar is entirely too light; when stiffened by the tin corners, it is all right. I fear the tilled combs will bend the frame until it reaches the bottcin beard, unless the end hnakt). TRANSFERRING IMPLEMENTS. aijd, with the pruning knife (see engraving) cut it loose from the top of the hive. I have reauy some sticks ',1 in. wide, laid on a clean folded cloth; on these 1 place the ec.mb, and put over it the frame, and then laj' on the top other sticks opposite those under the comb, and fasten the ends of the sticks together with wiie. This holds the comb in place in the frame, and it is ready to be put into the new hive. By using the smoke frequently I am able to keep the bees out of the way, and as soon as the comb is transferred, I take the bees which are in the old bo.v. to their new hive, which they readily enter. When they have fastened the comb in the frames, I remove the sticks. C. A. Brigham. New London, O., April 29th, 1878. Please send me a back number of Gleanings that has something about Gould's Common Sense Bee Hive. Gillespie, the agent for this hive, says you are a humbug. Re sold this county for $125.00. A. A. Potter. Columbus, Mo., March 28t h, 1878. I have no doubt he would be very glad to m;ike me out a humbug ; I freely forgive him. I return to you my April No. of Gleanings. I suppose some of the boys must have been sleepy when this No. was put up, but as I can't afford to lose any of the good things that it alwaj's contains, you will please send me a good one. Now, don't scold any of the fellows for this; mistakes will be made sometimes, and they usually get it lifjht. John D. Slack. Plaquemine, La., April 7th, 1878. Thank you, my friend, for yonr consider- ation. I feel the more ashamed cf having sent out a journal in the plig'ht in which yours was, since you pass over it so mildly. I lioi)e the boys (and girls too) will all read this. Mitchell (N. C. of Indiana) and his agent have been selling (juite a lot of farm rights to make and use a liive, which, to my notion, is a perfect swindle. I bought a farm riglit. and paid him $10.00; so I sent to Washington and got a copy of the letters patent. 1 can use everytjiing that is of any value without 200 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. JUN'E buyinsf a right. I have showed the copy of the lot- tei-s patent to some of my neig-hbors, and that stops the sale of some farm rig-hts; but he is making- some wonderful threats. I am not scared yet, how- ever, for doins as I would wish others to do; viz., eiilitfhten the people. G. W. Shinki.e. Hamersville, O., April 24th, 1878. DO SWALLOWS EAT BEKS? Please inform me throug-h Gleanings whether ea/ces or bank swallows will catch bees. En. Tucker. Mareng-o, Iowa Co., Iowa, April 32iid, ISTS. I think not generally, but they may, like some other birds and reptiles, occasionally learn the trick. TRANSFERRING BY A BEGINNER. The deed is done; I have transferred ^ swarms, without g-loves or vail, and received but 4 sting-s, and those throug-h carelessness. I must confess my heart was in my mouth, when 1 tried the first one. 1 had 5 more to transfer, but concluded to leave the balance until after swarming'. 1 have 8 colo- nies; rather more than Ilntended to try the first jenr, but [ was offered 5 stron-,' swai-ms. In barrels, at $1.(X) per swarm, and could not resist, the price being- so low. I have had the greatest difBculty in keeping- your pamphlets and xV B C f 'om being- carried off by my visitors, and finally had to g-ivc them up. Please send me some more, and some sample copies of Gleanings, and I will take pleasure in distributing them. Enclosed find ^'Sc for A B C, as that has been carried off too. Where is part second? Can't you hurr.y It up? The smoker is quite a success, but I would g-ive more flare to the top, so that it will g-o on more easily. Henry B. Shaw. Concordia Parish, La., April 31st, 1878. Part second of the A B C is now under way, and will be ready about as soon as this meets your eye. If you will leave the smo- ker to]) not pushed down quite so far, you will have less trouble in getting it off. I received a call from one of Mitchell's "patent hive and division board" men. He says, the reason of your calling- Mitchell a "swindle" is that you wore once ill partnership with him, Mitnhell, anil g-ot into some trouble, and eve;- since then you have said every thin^ ag-ainst him you could. He also said he had a book of 40 payos which told all about it; but I did not see it. C. G. Faxon. Piano, Ills. Apr. 30th, 1878. I have never been in company with Mr. Mitchell, have never seen him but twice, and have never had any trouble with him. I have made trouble with his business of ob- taining money by false ])vetenses, no doubt, but I liave no unfriendliness towards him at lace, and such a crowd, had all gone ; I was not even in the least embarrassed. I felt that God was with me. and that it was my right, and my duty, to admonish that it was the Sal)bath day." I talked to them i)leas- antly, and poor Simon, even there, while under the intluence of the beer, told how he had gone down, and down. ;ind he had lost all hope. He admitted that beer was killing him. and ai)])ealed to some of his comrades, who were attempting a defence of it, if it were not so, that he ought not to drink it. Not one wa's there, but said it was killing him, and then he almost piteously asked them why they had so olten urged him to drink, and asked why they could not let him remniii a sober man. I "saw a thin, slim looking, young man sli]) out of tlie room as we were talking, and when I asked for the brewer, Simon called him, but he only moved farther away; finally, as we went into an- other apartment after him, he tried to'get away by going clear out of doors, l)ut Simon pulled him back, and I talked to him. It was not very much money he was making in his business of jHjisoning his fellows, as lie admitted the beer was i)oison to Simon. and his wretched hovel seemed but ])oor pay in the barter for human souls. As I talked to him of a l)etter way of living, he, too. showed that better feelings lurked hidden in his human heart. As I turned to go away, many were the ''God l>less yous," and Simon plead ]>iteously to be rescued from tlie abyss that opened before him. lie promised to sign a pledge if I had one, and j then he said it woiild be of no use so long as j he staid there among his old associates. Even while he was talking, they i)assed tlie beer to him again, with the strange ])ervers- ity of humanity, but he told them, that with (iod's help, he was going to be a man yet. if he could. He plead that I would not leave liim, and begged to have even a hum- ble place in my employ, that he might be out of the way of temptation, and get encour- agement from the reformed boys he knew I had already. Is there any question of opinion, in regard to the work 1 have just mentioned? if you were to visit the Sabbath school, you might question our ways of doing things, but if the whole end and aim of the work was to do good, and if good followed, tliere could not be any great difference of oi)inion. Why not have the Home department in some oth- er paper? I have no intluence and weight in another paper as I have here, and I am not acquainted. If a man belieres in Christian- ity, the world says over and over again, he should sliow it in his daily life. These pages are my daily life. Besides bee keepers are quarrelsome ; I am quan-elsome (I am jiret- ty sure some of you think there is no nted of my telling it) and with the large amount of traffic that is growing u]) among us, there are a great many chances for misunder- standings, and disputes. A great many abusive and unkind letters are written. They are not always written to me, but they are very often sent to me, to have me help heal up some disagreement. The Home Papers have mixed themselves all througji and through the business nuittersof bee cul- ture. They have checked me over and over again, and I have multitudes of letters tell- ing me how they have checked those to whom the journal is sent, just in the nick of time, as it were. It is true, my work is poorly, and many times awkwardly done, butnotwithstiUiding all that, more cheering words have reached me for this department of Gleanings, thfui for all the rest together, and it is, I believe, generally liked ns a bee i)ai)er: were it not so, its circulation would not be so steadily on the increase. There is one point iii which I feel myself lacking, where I think I might get help from all of you. I will illus- trate it. Cases of intoxication have been so fre- (luent on our streets of late, that our i)eople have chosen a v^ommittee, who have promis- ed to faithfully prosecute, by law, all ctises that come under their notice. The marshal attends to this business, it is true, but it has been said, and I am afraid witli much truth, that it is only poor lost boys who are taken to jail, and that men of some standing are passed by. Be this as it iiiay, I am one of that committee, and just now, a man Avith quite a resiiectiible family is reported, and tliere is hardly a question but tliat he slK)uld go to jail. Now I do not want to be instru- mental in sending one of my fellow citizens to jail, without going to liim in a friendlv way about it first. Ji I go, I sliall fail in mv object, in one of two ways ; at least I fe.ir t shall. I can go to hinrand tell him what I think of his conduct, and i)erhaps make him a l)itter enemy forever, or I can so soften it, tliat lie will lilead and make promises that will induce me to give way. and not bring him to justice at all. I have not the faculty of combining Ih-niness and kindness. It looks as if my task, just at present, is to 204 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. June help iirrest a disorderly man and take him to jail, and after he is there and is sober, to sinj? a hymn and kneel in prayer with him. wliile he threatens to burn niy'buildinia:s and damage my property generally. I tell yon I havn"t "jjrowed big enough'" tor such a task yet, my friends. 1 suspect it is the same element that troubles me. in my work of holding up Mitchell and his class. I either fail to do my work thoroughly, or I swing over into a lighting mood, and one extreme is almost as bad as the other. I really do ho])e Mitchell will move down into our neighborhood, as he talks of doing ; I would give more to see him than almost anybody I know of. If we could get him started in some honest busi- ness (I know this sounds patronizing, but I cannot help it) what a glorious undertaking it would be. ''Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." in contact with the bees or combs. The greatest trouble I see with your rubber end division boards, is that you have made no provision to prevent wariiing. Where chaff is as expensive as it is with us, we can hardly afford to throw it away, to get a fresh supply every season. Nor would I want it loose, in a liive, or about the apiary, that it might be blown about at the sport of tlie wind. I hardly think oiu- readers will decide to disjiense with neat, well made, and nicely fitting cushions. GEORGE; GRIiniH. ppHE following will, without doubt, jn-ove "Jl^, interesting to many, because it seems ' to imply that, though our friend Adam Grimm has dejiarted, his work may yet be perpetuated, through that of his son, and that the end of bee culture, with the Grimm family, is not yet. About six weeks a^o I returned from Ann Arbor, Mich., where I had been attending: the law school. When I c:ime home, I resolved to srive my whole time to study, to prepare myself fitly for mv last year's course. But alas I for all human resolutions and endeavors! About two weeks a g'O I was com- pelled to look at one of my hives of bees, and since then, I believe I have had the "bee fever." Instead of selling- out all I had, as I intendr-d to do, I that day boug-ht out all of my mother, Mrs. Adam Grimm's, and a lot that twoof my sisters h^d. Still I have not enoug-h, and will start to-dav in search of more. Were it not that I have another year's course in colleg-e before I can graduate, T would at once buy up a larg-e apiary; as it is 1 must necessa- rily wait another year before going- into the bee business on a grander scale. I do not believe I could live happily without bees, brougrht up as I was, in thei- midst. Their busv hum is sweet music to me, and for hours I could sit and watch them at their work, some g-oing:, lig-ht and free, others coming, loaded with the sweet liq- uid that afterward graces our table and fills oiir purses. Bee business is a business that not only .vields the greatest amount of pleasure, but pays well for the capital invested in it. This I say from my own experience, as well as from that of my father before me. I think I have made no report, as yet, of my suc- cess last ye;ir. Well, I will only sav this mucli, that I Taore than tripplcd about 30 swarms, and got some box honey besides. During the winter, I lost two swarms. Geo. Grimm. Jefferson, Wis., May 10th, 1878. RUIS»EIl LINED T»E VISION BOAR».<«, ANO CHAFF. fWISH to suggest, as an addition to my article sent last week, that if the rubber strip bf put in both ends, and set with them both bent towards the cimbs, it will m:ike lui admirable holder f(u- loose eh I'f filling, for those who nse loose bottoms; for whi'ii the room is w.anted. by lifting thr^ hive Oil, the cliaff will drop out. This you see will do uwav with the cure of r-hitf cushions, as well as the exp -nse of them. The rubb^T will hold quite firmly and air titrlit. J. W. Porter. ' Ch irl >ttesville, Va., Feb. ISth, '78. Th inks for your ingenious idea of getting out tlie loose chaff without having it come W* Igl ^ mAKING HIVES EXTRA WIDE; AliSO, SIDE STORING, VS. TOP STORING. ^1 |HE Simplicity hive has width enough to allow jrji two frames of sections for box honey, which — " fact might be accounted for on the principle of compensation; but now comes Mr. Foster with his i/)(/)/(ir( //i'7?f on the Simplicity, which improve- ment consists in the enlargement of the space allot- ed to side boxes in the Simplicity, with the assertion, that section boxes at the xiiies af the hrood are an ad- vantage in themselves; that is, as I understand It, they have known advantages over section bo.xes on top of thr hriind. Now I would very much like to see these advantages concisely set forth in Gleanings. Would like to use them. S. F. SeedwitiI. Upper Montclalr, N. J., May 8th, '78. The idea of making the L. hive wider than 14i inches, that the surplus room may be all at the side, instead of in an up])er story, is a matter that has been not only discussed, but experimented on for years past. It is. essentially, the same thing as Adair's explod- ed "New Idea hive;'" the same that Mitchell patented, just about the time when every body had abandoned it. While good results may be occasionally secured by side storing, our bee keepers have, almost without excep- tion, abandoned the i)lan, sooner or later. While visiting bee keepers, in different States, I have found these "Long Idea" hives, almost invariably, tumbled away among the rubbisli, after Imving been in use a season or two, and some of them have been very nicely made, and at a considerable expense, too. Whatever may be the theories, practice has unquestionably decided, that hives made to be exclusively side storing are a failure. Hives made so as to be both side and top storing, are considerably used : but, even then, the greater part of the honey is "obtained in the upper portion of the hive, or that directly over the brood. If we give no room above, and not too much at each side, very good results may be obtained ; but, just as soon as a space is opened above the brood, it obtains a preference over the boxes at the sides, nnless we except comb building. Bees will often build comb faster at the sides, and store honey faster above. Many, on this account, get the comb built at the sides, and then remove the sections to the ui)per i)art of the hive, to be tilled with hon- ey. I have made a number of experiments with hives just a little wider than the Siin- l)licity. and, with extra strong stocks, there seemed rather to be an advantage ; but, tak- ing it all together, I do not think we can very much imju'ove on the dimensions of the L. hive, as Mr. J.,angstroth gave it to us, and as I have arranged it both for the Simplicity ciiid i^'nair i.ivej. 1878. GLEAI^INGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 205 Price List of Bees & rB Foxj]vr>ATrio:x. 45 to 55 cts. 'Pev foxind. For particulars see price list, or send for circular. I refer you to A. I. Root Medina, O. F. A. SALISBURY, 5-6 Geddes, Onondaga Co. N. Y. BARNES' PATENT FOOT POAVER MACHINERY! CIRCULAR and SCROLL SAWS. Hand, Circular Rip Saws for heavy and light ripping. Lathes, &c., &c. These machines are especially adapted to Hive Making-. It will pay every bee-keeper to send for our 64 page Catalogue. Ma- elijines ^>eMt oai Trial. W. F. & JOHN BARNES, Rockford, Winnebago Co., 111. Tin for Separators ant Sxtraotors. As we buy in large quaTitities, I can perhaps give you better rates than you are getting at home. Price per box of 113 sheets, size 14x30, for Separators $6 35 " " sheet, for less than a box 7 IX tin for making Extractors, 14x30, per box 9 00 " " per sheet 10 We will ship it from Medina, or from Philadelphia, as may be most convenient. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. Try Me! Italian Queens, Nucleus and full Colonies, Hives, White Holland Turkeys, and Plymoiith Rock eggs. Satisfaction guaranteed, or money refunded. Send for prices. WILSON HARVEY, 4-6 Brownsburg, Bucks Co., Pa. 1878. FOB, SALE ! 1878. Italian Queens, Propagated in populous colonies, pure and prolific. Tested queen, .f3.00. The same grade of queen so soon as fertilized and laying, .fl.OO. Also full and nucleus colonies. Orders filled promptly, and safe arrival guaranteed. Address W. P. HENDERSON, 4-9inq Murfreesboro, Tenn. And QiEeens F©r Sale* I will pay .'Jl.OO for all the Italian queens any ot our Southern friends may find it convenient to send me during the month of May. These same queens, I shall sell for $1.50; you are to guarnrteo safe deliv- ery, and I shnll do the same, but nothing farther. I have made this arrangement to answer the great number of questions in regard to buying and selling early queens. In June, I will pay !iOc, and sell for $1.25; after July 1st, 75c, and sell for $1.00. Tested Queens double above prices. All arc to be daughters of imported mothers. I will pav 25c for hj'brids. and sell them for 50c, if I can. If you send queens, write on the cage whom they are from and tell us by postal what kind they are. All to be sent by mail. I will pay 15c for black queens, and sell them for 25c, if I can. All the above are to be fertile laying queens. Virgin queens are of ?io value. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. 206 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. June New Quinby Smokers ! H^,, The Okiginal Quinby Smoker has been recent- ly Greatly Improved, and is now equal to any in the market, in all respects. I am prepared to offer them at Reduced Prices. For Circular of General Bee Keeping Supplies, ADDRESS, 5-4 Mohawk, Herk. Co., N. Y, Dovetailed Sections, anv size from 414X414 to 5x6, 3 in. wide per 1000 $6 00 Sections ready to nail (same size) " 1000 4.50 Comb Foundation, 4.5 to 55 cents per lb. Sample Sections, by mail, 5 cents. Dollar Queens after June 1st. Liberal discount on large orders. For special prices, address REINHARD STEHLE, 6d Lock Box 193. Marietta, "Washington Co., Ohio. KING'S DiEECT mm Is giving- unbounded satisfac- tion wherever used. It ccuv- omizes all the wind and smoke, Inirns all comlntstihlcs smd goes out oxLY wi}en. put out. It is the same size as "Bing- ham's standard," and is ne.vt and DURABLE. Price, $1.00; by mail $1.25. Address, A. J. KING & CO., 6tf 61 Hudson St., N. Y. S!MPLlClTy_6EE HIVES. Having fitted up my shop with new machinery, 1 am prepared to furnish Simplicity— Chaff— Lang- stroth f)r otlifv Hives— Metal Cornered Frames — Sec- ti ).i Bo.x'cs -Shipping Cases, &c. Also Italian Bee.s— Queens— and AiMavian supplies of all kinds. For particulars and price list. Address. G. W. MARSHALL, 2-7d 3ie, East 16th Street, Davenport, Iowa. JUST OUT. J. H. Nellis has issued his new 22 page descriptive, illustrated circular, which is one of the most com- plete of the kind ever published. It gives prices of Imported and home bred Queens, Nuclei, Full Colo- nies, Comb Foundation, Bee Hives, Section Boxes, Honey and Wax Extractors, Bee Veils, Gloves. Fountain Pumps, Smokers, &c., &c. It tells how to introduce queens, how to use foun- dation, how to manage bees to the best advantage, &c. It gives illustrations of prominent hives, and answers many questions. It is sent free, although we invite you to send 6 cents for postage and to par- tially cover cost of publishing. We send sample of our new drone comb with each circular. Our drone and worker comb mills, both, work sheets 12x24 or less in size. Foundation-Price List. Pure yellow wa.x, sheets cut to any size. 1 to 25 His., sheets larger than 5x6, per lb.. . 5.5c 2=. to .50 " " '• " "... 53c .50 to 100 " " " " "... 52e 100 to .500 " " " " "... 50c .500 to 1000 " " " " "... 48c 1000 lbs. or more " " " "... 45(; When sheets are 5x6 or less in size, add 10c per lb. for extra work in cutting and packing. By mail add 2,5c per lb. for postage. We can supply any quanti- ty at short notice. We are headquarters for foun- dation. Our circular devotes 3 pages to foundation. is-Pri©© Lis Dollar Queens, each §1 51) Warranted " " 2 00 Tested " " 4 00 Imported " " 6 .50 Wo can mail these p7-omptly, and guarantee satis- faction and safe arrival. F^!! S©teiiiii"Prices for Italian Bees, with Imported queen -513 .50 " " " home bred tested tjueen.. 10 50 " " " warranted queen 8.50 " " " dollar queen 7 75 These prices do not include hive«. If put in a shipping box, add 70c per colony. If in a hive add the cost of the hive vou want. Black stocks in box hives, each $6.00. Nellis Hive complete, $6.00; without boxes, $4.00. Doolittle hives, same price. Langst roth hives, fnim $1.50 tp $4.50. Simplicit.v and Chaff hives at Novice's prices; see his price list in January Gleanings, or our new circular. Novice's sections, at his prices. Prize boxes, planed on one side and on edges, 2.50 for $2..50; 5(10 for $4.60; 1000 for $8.50; .5000. per 1000. $8.00. Prize cases, crates, &c., at reasonable prices. Send for circular and have it all. Send money or- ders payable to me on New York City. J. H. NELLIS, 5tf . Canajoliarie, N. Y. Price of Dovetai! Section Boxes. (4i.ix4^, 5=.iX4J,i or 6x6 inches.) In lots of .500 Boxed $3.25 "1000 " 6.00 Il'i'W furnish any size Section Bo.r. within 6.r6 inchis, also St imvhemj Boxes. WILLIS D. PARKER, 6 P. O. Box 3*3, Defiance. Ohio. Italian Queens and Full B@!©nias« a Queens bred frfim Imported and select home bred mothers, warranted to be as pure as any In the IT. S. Also, Albino Queens. Safe arri\'al guavjinteed. Send lor p; ice !i?t, &e. ,-\ddres«, S. VALENTINT''. 6d Double Pipe Creek, Carroll Co., M 1. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 211 IMPLEMENTS FOE, BEE CUETURE ALFHAEETICAI.LY AREANGEE. For description of the \ arious arlicles, see our Twelfth Edition Circular and Price List found in May No., Vol. VI., or mailed on application. For directions How ^) 3i«7a' all these various arti- cles and implements, see ABC of Bee Culture. This Price List to be taken in place of those of former date. Mailable articles are designated in the left hand column of figures ; the figures giving the amount of pimtaqe required. Canada postage on merchandise is limited to 8^^ oz., and nothing can be sent for less than 10 cents. 15 i Alighting Board, detachable. See ABC, 1 Part First $ 10 i Basswood trees for planting. For prices I see Price List ! Balances, spring, for suspended hive (60 lbs.) 8 00 I Barrels for honey 2 50 I " " waxed and painted... . 3 50 1 Bees, per colony, from $t to $16, for partic- I ulars see price list 10 I Bee-Hunting box, with printed instructions 25 0 Binder, Emerson's, for Gleanings .'iO, 60, 75 10 I Blocks, iron, for metal cornered frame ma- I king 15 One of the above Is given free with every 100 frames, or 1000 corners. 10 j Burla jj for covering bees. 40 in. wide, per yd 10 I Buzz-Saw, foot-power, campletc; circular I with cuts free on application. Two saws 1 and two gauges included C5 00 0 1 Buzz-Sitws, extrji, F.'c, to f.S.,')0. eee price list. The above are all filed, and set, and mailed any where 60 1 Buzz-Baw mandrel and boxes complete for I 6 inch saws. No saws included 5 00 i' . The same for 7 and 8 in. saws (not mailable) 8 00 .1 Cages, wood and wire cloth, provisioned. • I See price list 05 12 i " " " perdoz 50 I " larger size, double above prices. . . 20 ; Candy for bees, can be fed at any season, I per lb .^ 15 0 I Cords, queen registering, per doz. ...... 06 0 " " " per 100 40 60 1 Chaff cushions for wintering (see Nov. No. I for 1877) 30 9 I •' " without the chaff 15 40 I Chiiff cushion division boards 20 2 I Cheese cloth, for strainers, per yard 10 Clasps for tnmsferring. package of 100 25 Climbers for Bec>-Hunting 2 50 Cfimb Basket, made of tin, holds 5 frames, has hinged cover and pair of handles 1 50 Comb Foundation Machines complete $35 to 100 00 Corners, metal, per 100 75 top only, per 100 100 " " bottom, per 100 50 On 1,000 or more n discount of 10 per cent will be made, and on 10,C"Ofl, 25 per cent. The latter will be given to those who advertise metal cornered frames. I Corners, Mnchinery complete for making f250 00 15 1 En.nmclcd cloth, the hest thing for covering I frames. Bees do not bite and seldom i propolize it. Per. vard, 45 inches wide, I 25c. By the piece, (12 yards) 22 I Extractors, according to size of frame. 10 .50 to 10 00 inside and gearing, including honey-gate 5 00 Hoops to go around the top 50 per doz 5 00 5 ! Feeder, Sitnplicity, (see price list)l pint. 7 i Feeders, 1 quart, tin, (see April No) 0 The snme. half size, The same, 6 qts, to be used in upper story Files for small circular rip saws, new and I valuable, 2rc ; per doz. by express. . . I " The same, large size, double above I prices 2 1 "3 cornered, for crnss-cnt saws, 10c; doz 5 I Frames with sample Habbot and Clasps. . . 18 I Galvanized iron wire for grapevine trellises per lb. (about TOO feet) Gates for Extractors tinned for soldering. . Gearing for Extractor with supporting arm Gleanings, Vol's I and 11, each " Vol's IV and V, each " Vol. Ill, second-hand 2 00 " lirst five neatly bound in one.. . 6 00 " " " unbound 5 00 2 00 00 10 20 50 .50 75 1 00 I Hives from 5Cc to $6 25 ; f er particulars see I price list 0 1 Honey Knives, straight or curved blade. . . 1 CO I " " '/2 doz 5 25 " " 54 doz by Express 5 CO Labels for honey, from 25 to 5CcperlC0; for particulars see price list Lamp Nursery, for hatching queen cells as built 5 CO 0 LarMe, for queen rearing, trom June to Sept 25 15 Leal lier for smoker bellows, per side ! 0 0 Lithographof the Hexagonal Apiary 25 0 I Magnifying Glass, Pocket 50 0 ! " " Double lens, brass en 1 three feet 1 CO 0 I Medley of Bee-Keeper's Photo's, 150 photo's 1 ( 0 12 [ Microscope, Compound, in Mal3C>gany box 3 CO 0 ■ Prepared ob.iects for above, such 0 I as bees' wing, sting, eye, foot, &c., each 25 7 I Muslin, Indian head, for quilts and cu.'^h- ions, pretty stout, but not good as duck, I per yard 10 10 I Opeia Glasses lor Bee-Kunting 5 CO 18 1 Parafline, for waxing barrels, per lb 25 0 I Photo of HoTise Apiary and improvements 25 60 I Pump, Fountain, or Swaim Airester 8 £0 0 i Queens, 2.^^-0 to $6 00. See price list 1 ] Kabbets, Metal, per foot 02 1 Siilic.Alic acid, for foul brood, per oz 50 8 ( Saw Set for Circular Saws 15 0 I Screw Drivers, all metal (and wrench com- I bined)4V2 inch, 10c; 5 inch, 15c. Veiy nice I for foot-power saws 0 I Scissors, for clipping queen's wings 40 6 I Section boxes, fancy, hearts, stars, cresses, I &c., each C5 I Section Honey box, a sample with strip of 1 fdn. and printed instructions Co Scctirn boxes in the flat bj' the quantity, I S'fl .50 per thousand and upwaids, accord- I ing to size ; for particulars, see price list . 15 I Case of 3 section boxes, showing the I way in which the separators are used, suitable for any kiftd of hive, sec price list 10 18 Seed, A Isike Clover, ?aisfd near W.S, per lb. . 26 18 " Catnip, good seed, per oz. 2Cc ; per lb. 2 CO 0 " Chinese Mustard, per oz 15 18 '• Mellilot, or Sweet Clover, per lb 60 18 " White Dutch Clover, per lb 35 M< therwort, per oz. 20c; per lb ..... . 3 00 18 " Mignonette, per lb. (2.5c per oz) 1 75 " Simpson Honey Plant, per package 05 " " pcroz 50 18 1 " Silver Hull Buckwheat, per lb 10 I " " " " peck, by Express I " Common " per peck 18 •' Summer Rape. Sow in June and I " July, per lb A small package of any of the above seeds will be sent for 5 cents. Sheets of Enameled cloth to keep the bees from soiling or eating the cushions 10 Shipping Cases for 48 section frames of honey ■ CO The same for 24 sections, half above prices. This size can be sent by mail in the flat, for 75c 1 1 Slate tablets to hang on hives 10 I Smoker, Quinby's (to Canada 15c extra) 5 1 " Doolittle's, tobeheldintbemouth Bingham's $1 25 ; 1 60 ; 25 i " OuK OWN, see illustration in price list 2 1 Taclis, tinned, per paper, (two sizes) 5 I Thermometers 0 I Veils, Bee, with face of Brussels net, (silk) The same, all of grenadine (almost as good) Veils, material for. Grenadine, much j stronger than tarlatan, 21 inches in I width, per yard Brussels Net, for face of vail, 29 inches 1 in width, per yard 1 50 I Wax Extractor 3 50 I Copper bottomed boiler for above 1 50 5 I Wire cloth, for Extractors, tinned, per I square foot 12 2 Wire cloth, for queen cages 10 I Above is tinned, and meshes are 5 and 18 1 to the inch respectively 3 I Painted wire cloth, for shipping bees, 14 I mesh to the inch, per square foot All goods delivered on board the cars here at prices named. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. 50 15 01 1 50 25 2 CO 75 10 40 75 50 20 06 212 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. July TABLE OF PRETIICinS. The first column is for those only, who send 5 or more names. Naines of Premium Articles. Any of them sent post-paid on rec'pt of price. \—A B Cof Bee Callare. Part First 25 2 —Litho.fraph of Aniary, Implements, etc. 25 :i — P'iifo/r'iph of House Apiary 25 i— •'■Th.it Present,''^ Novice and Blue Byes 25 a— Emerson's Binder for Gleanixgs, toiU holdi Volumes 50 H^ " " better quality 60 7 — Ptckef Magnifying Olass 60 H^ First or second Volume of GmkfUlSOS,. .lb i)—Best Quility Enerson's Binder for Gleanings 75 lO^Double Lens Miyniti^r,on 3 brass feet 1,00 ll-^Photo Medley, Bee-Keepers of Americal, 00 l-^^First and second Vol. o/ GLEANINGS.. 1,50 13 — A real Compound Microscope, beauti- fully finished, and packed with Imple- ments in a Mahogany Box 3 15 It — Opera Glass for Bee Hunting $5.00 Number of Sub- scribers required at or at 75c. 1.00 b 2 f> 2 5 2 5 2 6 3 7 3 4 8 4 9 4 9 4 10 6 20 8 25 10 Italian Queen Bees. I have propag'iited and sold Italian Queen Bees for the past 17 vears. Will supply a larg-e number for 1878. Send for circular. WM. W. GARY, 2-7inq Colerain, Franklin Co., Mass. B»OS.' Circular and Prices of Italian Bees sent free. 4-9 Elizabethtown, Ind., Box 127. ITALIAN BEES. Imported and home bred queens ; full colonies and nucleus colonies; bee-keeper's supplies of all kinds. Queens bred early in the season. Send for catalog-ue. 9tf DR. J. P. H. BROWN, Augusta, Ga. 4S T6 55 GTS. PER POUND, Aocordin/j to quantity hinnjht at one time. For fur- ther particulars see our Illustrated Catalogue, mail- ed on application. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. BAKNES' PATENT FOOT POWER IWACHINERYl CIRCULAR and SCROLL SAWg. Hand, Circular Rip Saws for heavy and light ripping. Lathes, &c., Scq. These machines are espocialfy adapted to Hive Mak.lnar. It will pay every bee-keeper to send for our 64 page Catalogue. M»- cliiiies Seut on Trial. W. F. & JOHN BARNES, Rockford, Winnebago Co., Ilk $1. QUEENS Now ready for shipment. Reared from imported and home bred mother as preferred. No bee dis- ease ever known here. 7tfd Address M. PARSE, Pine Bluff, Ark. G-rape_Siigar. Superior Double Refined Grape Sugar for feeding bees @ 3'Ac per lb. in barrels of 375 lbs., and 4c in boxes of 50 or 110 lbs. Crystal Glucose Syrup 5c per lb. by the barrel. We will furnish the above, at above prices, direct from the factory, at Davenport, Iowa, or deliver it on the cars here in Medina, at Vic in advance of above prices. Any amount less than .50 lbs. will be 5c per lb. A. I. ROOT, Medina, O. Square Money Jars. One pound square Honey Jars, per gross So 00 Two " " 7 00 Corks, Caps, Labels, Langstroth's Bee Hives, Muth's All Metal Honey Extractors, Alsike Clover Seed, &c., at reasonable rates. For further particu- lars apply to CHAS. F. MUTH, Cincinnati, O. 1-3-5-7-9-11 JUST RECEIVED ; CHOICE NEW CROP Alsike Clover Seed. A fine new lot of Alsike clover seed, very ctean and raised near us. Price per lb., 25c; per bushel, (60 lbs.) $13..50; Vi bushel, $7.00; peck, $3.75. If want7 ed by mail add 18c per lb. for bag and postfige. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. ! You can not look over the back No's of Glean- I INGS or any other Periodical with satisfaction, unless : they are in some kind of a Binder. Who has not J said— "Dear me, what a bother— I must have last ' month's Journal and it is no where to be found." ! ftit each No. in the Emerson Binder as soon as it oomes, and you can sit down happy, any timejyou I Wish to find anything you may have previously siJen i e%'en though it were months ago. I Binders for Gleanings (will hold them for four ( years), gilt lettered, free by mail for 50, 60, and 7.5c, according to quality. For table of prices of Binders for anv Periodical, see Oct. No., Vol. II. Send in ybur orders. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. P;ice List of Bees & (Queens for 1878. 1 Colony Italian Bees with tested queen (before July 10th) $14 00; (after July 10th) $11 00 1 Colony Italian Bees with untested queen af- ter July 10th 9 .50 ITestedQueen 3 50 1 Untested " 1 00 A discount of 10 per cent on all orders for queens of ^10,00 or more. All queens raised from import- ed mothers. I have made arrangements to Italianize all the black bees within 2 miles of my apiary, and I think nil my queens will be purely mated; all queens will be shipped in rotati(m, and I desire parties or- dering queens, to inform me whether they wish the m iney returned if the order can not be filled at once. 2-Sd Address, E. W. HALE, Wirt C. H., West Va. BEE.SEEFEIt'S 5Pf?LlES FOU M, Italian Queens — Nucleus and full colonies — Comb Foundation— Hives and Section Boxes complete, furnished on short notice. Ten years' experience in Bee -Keeping and Queen breeding. Satisfaction guaranteed or money refunded. Send for prices. Eggs and chicks from high class land and water fowls. 3-7 VALENTINE & SON, Carlinville, Ills. ITALIAN QUEENS. All bred from imported mothers of my own im- portation. Dollar queens, $1,00; ready in April. Tested queens before June 1st, $3,00; after, $2,50. Full colonies of Italians from $7,00 to $10, 00. Three frame nucleus with tested queen, before June 1st, $5.00, after, $4.50. Comb Foundation, Bee-Keepers' supplies., &c. 2-7d PAUL L. VIALLON, Bayou Goula, La. DEVOTEO TO BEEH A1SI> HONEY, AlVr> HOIMCE nVTEJRESTS. Vol. VI. JULY 1, 1878. No. 7. A. I. ROOT, *) Publisbed monthly. rTERMS: «1.00 Per Annum in Ad- Ptiblisher and Proprietor, > < vance; 3 Copies for S2.50; 5/or »3.75; Medina^ O, ) Estal>lisliexception of two, arrived in good condition. One cage containcnl a dead queen, Uircf dead bees, iin<: bee almost dead, and candy and honey enough to have lasted a cage full of bees, at least a month. The other dead queen was packed with a few bees, in an all wire cage about as large as my little finger. When we are obliged to deprive bees of their liberty, let us make their imprison- ment as comfortable as we can. W. Z. Hutchinson, Eogersville, Genesee Co., Mich. A BEGINIVER'S SUOCESSES AND KE> VERSES. ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT THE WAY WE DO THINGS. fjJHE metal corners came to hand last Saturday, and were all right. The ones received before I are on frames, and in hives, filled with comb built on fdn; and I think they are a grand success. In order to try the fdn., I removed 4 combs from an L. hive, and inserted 4 metal cornered ones with fdn.; in 3 days afterward, I found 3 of the combs worked out, and to-day, I noticed one of them filled with brood ; and even on the wooden rabbet of an L. hive, I never find them stuck. In regard to the colony of bees purchased of yoxL, I have been considerably disappointed; when they arrived they were a good strong colony, but [ failed to lind one cell filled with stores, and I certainly ei- pected, from your price list, that they would have stores enough to last until they could gather from the fields. I commenced to feed immediately, and fed' a little every day, until fruit bloom appeared, when I came to the conclusion that they could worK their own way, and stopped feeding.' The result was that, in about 4 days, I noticed a considerable number of dead bees in front of the hive, one morn^ ing, and on opening it, found the whole colony on the bottom board with not a sign of life in thero. About that time you could have bought for 35 cteu the whole colony, which I had paid you $13.00 for, a few weeks before. I hunted out the queen, brought her in the house, and placed her on a saucer, intend- ing to examine her with a magnifying glass, when I noticed one leg move. 1 then warmed some syrup an^ dropped a couple of drops on her head; in about 5 minutes, she was crawling about the saucet (About this time prospects l)riglitened, and value raised considerably.) I then removed the hive to the house, and sprinkled the bees and combs freely with syrup, and left them in the hyuse until noon, when I found the queen all right, and a few of the bees crawled up on the frame Vvith her. By night, a few more had revived, and the next morning, 1 placed the hive, with what bees would stick to the frames, on their regnlar stand. The remainder 1 put in a box, but could re\iv:e no more of them. Now thej' are doing well and the qneeu is laying all right, with l)ees enough to form ■<< ",' frame nucleus, where I expected, by this time, to have a colony strong enough to divide into two strong stocks. Hamilton, O., June 3d, '78. John T. Gardner. I am very sorry indeed, if our hands were SO careless as to put up the bees without sufficient honey. It was not beca,use we wanted to save the honey, my friend, please do not think that of us, but because \ye were careless. You were careless too, in leaving them to take care of themselves, be- fore they were surely out of danger. We all have to pay the penalty of such carelessness, 214 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. Jfly and I am willing to i)ay my part of it. if you Avill tell me what it is. It is a fact that should be well understood, that bees can be revived by warmth and a little warm, dilut- ed honey." after they have all ceased to move. I have known whole swarms to be resuscitat- ed, after they were all on the bottom of the hive. and. to all apitearanee. "dead as door nails." Xever be satistied by thinking they will get through, but try to have a generous surplus in the hive, all the time ; it will pay better than money in the bank. One fact lias come to our notice of late, in shipping bees ; they often consmne an incredible amount of lioney in transit. I presume this is because they hll themselves when alarmed, and. by some means, consume it unnatu- rally. We will try and provide for this in future shipments. WHERE TO HANfi THE FIRST FliAME, ETC. BSMI HE goods you sent two weeks ag-o hare at last Jsll come. They were nicely packed and came in *=kj excellent condition. But. do you know, I was dunce enough to suppose the frames were coming- all ready for the hive I I had been wondering- how you would do it, but hnd g-ot the idea that, with your ability to do wonders, you mtijht perform a miracle. How do you suppose I am ever to g-et them tog:ether? Didn't I tell you I was n numbskull, and no carpenter? well, I meant to. "What is that little iron anvil for? While I am working: over one corner of the frame the rest go all awry. Come up to dinner and teach me how. I saw something in Gleanings about putting- frames together once, but did not read it, I Ticver thouglit I would have to make frames. We thought you asked a great price for your extractor, and so got one made. Opinions are changed; you ask none too much. I don't expect you to answer this, or even read it; but 1 wanted to write it, so that you might know, if you wished to, that the goods are satisf.'ictorj'. M. L. Makkham. PljTnouth, Mich., June 3d, 1878. P. S.— That screw driver is the handiest article I ha^ e in my apiary, except a sort of easel 1 have for hanging filled frames directly over an open hive, when I want to study them. There now ! I have ever so many times thouglit it would be '"awful handy," to have some place to put the first frame after we get it out of the hive, so that we can slide the rest apart, and then examine them qui- etly and at our ease. I. generally, stand it on end near, or leaning against the hive ; and, to do this, I have to be very careful not to i)inch the bees that are always hanging to the lower corners, or at least should be there, on any frame taken from a good col- ony. If I set it too slanting, a tender comb is liable to fall out, or bend out of shape, and if I do not set it slanting enougli, it falls over, or the ^\ ind upsets it ; this, if it does not break the comb, kills the bees, and possibly the (|ueen. and if there is any one thing that I think is iiiexcusiibly •"mean", it is to open a liive w iicre the ))ees are all ([uiet and well behaved, and then to pinch or mash the poor fellows, when they have al- lowed you to tear open their home, and to lift their little selves about in all sorts of awkw'-d ways, without a single bit of pro- test, i have thought of having some nails on the Iron; of the hive, but they Avould be in the way; if they were put on the grape vine trellis, they would soon beoverrun with foliage, and it woi! Id be some trouble to fix them for every hive. Will our friend (who I guess is a woman, by lier quaint humor, although she does not say so) please tell us more about the easel. I should be most happy to come up to dinner, but the fact is I am only allowed 15 minutes for dinner, and '2i minutes more to kiss and talk to the new baby. We will put the frames all to- gether for the same price, if you can afford to pay the high rates charged for shipping- such "very bulky packages. If you follow the directions in the price list, it is a very simple matter to put them together. FRIEND ROOF'S FI^AN OF FREVENTIIVCJ STTARrrJINO. ^JjEVERAL of your readers have asked for a jj^j) more explicit explanation of our management ii^' of natural swarms; we, therefore, ask for space again. Frsf , one wing of all our queens is dipped. We hive the first swarm that issues, on the old stnnd, setting the old hive on a new stand several rods iiway, if convenient, and destroy all queen cells at once. It is then ready for thenext swarm any time within a week. We do not always find it necessary to destroy the queen cells, for the old queen sometimes saves us the trouble. Out of 100 swarms handled last season, as above, not over 13 or 15 offered to swarm again. You stated in March Gleanings that Roop could furnish queens and bees at any time. We wrote you correcting the mistake at once, but did not see it in Gleanings. Bad weather has delayed our op- erations fearfully, but we want to say here, that we will satisfy all tliose that have given us their or- ders, if it takes all the bees we have got. Have pa- tience is all we ask. The queen I got of you is splendid; better than I ever thought imported queens were. Hiram Roop. Carson City, Mich., May 20th, 1878. I think the success of this plan would de- pend much on the season, and the yield of honey. If these were very good, I think the bees would, sometimes, swarm over and over again. BEES CAN C05JNT. A VALUABLE ITEM. fi RECEIVED the smoker and comb fdn., in good shape. That smoker is "away up"; the bees _. ' fairly "get down on their knees before it." I accidentally learned, a few days ag-o, that bees can count. I had a row of hives arranged thus, C3 C3 C3 C3 O C3 CD 13 3 4 5 6 7 No 2. alone having bees in it; I rearranged them thus, C3 C5 O C3 O CD C^ 3 1 3 4 5 C 7 leaving No. 2 in the same place, in fact, not disturb- ing it at all. Now. it was just fun to see the bees coming- from the fields, and going into hive No. 1, which was then second in the row; when they found it empty, they were the most excited lot of bees you ever saw, marching around with their loads of pollen and honey, and no jilace to put it. You see, they had counted instead of taking a bee line home, iind they thought they knew that their hive M-as 2nd in the row. From this, 1 judge that hives could be moved several feet, and the bees would not notice it, if only we keep 11h> relative position of things the same. After all, p('rha])s bees are guided more like human beings than we think, and less by that bee line, instinct. T. L. Riggs. Portland, Oregon, May 28th, 1878. Tlie matter you mention, is one I have often ol)served. and the i)ropensity of bees to mark especially, the end of the row of hives, was what led me to have the house apiary so that only 3 hives Avere on a side ; one iii the centre, and those at each side, next to one of the corners of the building. 1878 GLEANINGS IN BEE CTLTURE. 215 CANDY FOR QUEEiV CAGES &C. f|IIE queens sent us by friend Ilayhurst seemed so much healthier and more — ■ lively than some others which we have received, that we sent to him for his formu- la for makim? the candy. Some of them were kept caged as much as 10 days after their journey, and not one queen, and scarce- ly a bee, has died. He answers as follows : I use granulated sugar for candy, and prepare It as follows. Wet it with a very little hot water, just sufficient to dissolve it, boil it until it will grain when stirred in a cold dish (it requires but very lit- tle boiling), then take it from the Are and stir it un- til it becomes slightly cloudy, and pour it into cages as fast as possible. If it gets cold before it is all poured out, I have to heat it up again with a lit- tle more water. What seems to be necessary, is to dissolve the sugar in as little water as possible, and then stir it enough so that when cold a slight crust will cover the surface, while the interior will be soft and creamy; in this condition the water evaporates very slowly. It is probable that the loss of so many queeps this season is more due to the character of the candy, than the size of the cage. E. M. Hayhurst. Kansas City, Mo. This plan seemed to answer excellently last fall, but after the ca.ges were wintered over, the candy seemed to have become too hard, and many of the queens were lost. I presume friend H. used his cages as soon as they were made ; but we cannot always be sure that our cages will be used while the candy is fresh, and so, in our last lot, we moistened the sugar with honey instead of water. It is well known that honey holds moisture for a long time, and our experi- ments, so far, seem to indicate that it will preserve the candy in just about the state we wish it. To get it ''cooked" just right, seems to be one of the fine arts ; for, after we had filled over a thousand cages, and had got it so that, after being stirred, it could be easily cut with a knife, but was not soft enough to get displaced in sliipping, we thought we had it all right ; but, on filling some odd sized cages for a customer, imag- ine our chagrin at getting the following. Smokers and queen cages received, with which I am hiqlilu pleased, except with the candy in the ca- ges. I presume the candy was prepared by one of your assistants, and you were not aware that such was shipped. The only candy from you that I ever saw, was in the cage with my" imported queen; I ex- pected to receive the same quality of candy. I do not wish anil remuneration for my disappointment, but as you invite all who purchase from you to re- port, I feel that I must inform you of the "stuff" now received, instead of candy. Every cage was daubed, and it was running out of the cracks of the shipping bo.x. I am making "queen rearing" a specialty, and ha^e now 100 queens, reared from my imported mother, for sale. I sent for cages with candy, to send the queens to you, according to terms stated in Gleanings. I send by to-day's mail a sample of the "candy" received. If you say this soft "candy" is all riijht to ship my queens safely, I will send them to you without delay, or as soon as I hear from you; otherwise, I will try to make candy from white sugar, and send queens by the middle of this month. An early annwer is desired. M. T. Rowe. Mock's Store, Jackson Co., Mo., June 4th, '78. Oh dear, oh dear ! what a world of trouble I do have. I told the clerks to write to our friend, that it' the candy was really so soft, the cages would not answer, we would send him a lot of new ones, at our expense ; and then I made up my mind to look doleful, for the rest the day ; but when I picked up the following, almost the next thing, I con- cluded I would do the best I could to have the candy just right, and not look doleful after all. Goods received, and all right. They suit me to a "dot". You can safely anticipate the favorable opinion of your customers, and sav "thank you" in advance. John W. Jones. Coral Hill, Ky., June 4th, 1878. TOWTV£.EY'S SITIOKER. LL bellows smokers that I have used are ob- y« j V Jectionable in this respect, that, when hand- ^=^ ling cross swarms of hybrid bees, they re- quire an e.xtra hand, or else the operator must use the bellows with one hand while he works with the other. For several years past, I have used an ash pail, setting it on a stand just high enough so that the wind would blow the smoke over the top of the hive; but as the hives were not all the same height, it was necessary to have several stands to corre- spond with the height of the hives. I now use a pail made expressly for the purpose, which will be readily understood by the following cut townley's smoker. Eight inches in diameter, by ten inches high is large enough. It is made of sheet iron, with the handle riveted on. The hook at the top is two inches long, so that, when hooked onto a hive, there will be the space of an inch between the smoker and hive, while the curved piece of sheet iron, the centre of which is riveted to the side of the smoker, near the bottom, will keep that part also away from the hive. Enough dry peat, or "marsh muck", or coarse, damp saw dust, or flue, damp chips, can be put into it, with some Are, to keep it smoking half a day at a time, and it is always ready for use. All that is necessary is to hang it on the windward side of the hive, stand on the opposite side, and go right to work. Tompkins, Jackson Co., Mich. J. H. Townley. I have many times noticed the same ob- jection to the bellows smokers that you men- tion, friend Townley, and this is one reason Avhy I have made the fire pot of ours large, so that it might be placed on one corner of the hive, and keep a small cloud of smoke in the air, over the hive. One great objec- tion to an open fire pot is that bees often fall into the fire; and to obviate this, I have ta- ken the liberty to add a wire cloth cover to the Townley smoker, as seen in the cut. To make the implement lighter, I would have it made of tin, instead of sheet iron, and if it is kept somewhere out of th3 rain^as, of course, it always should be in any case, it will keep nice, and last a long while. The greatest objection to these smokers is, as mentioned in the A IJ i\ tliat ones eyes are always liable to be smoked in a way that is, to me, more annoying than an occasional sting; for the wind is rarely so accommoda- ting as to blow the smoke just where want- ed, and no where else. For all this, 1 pre- sume there are many of you. who will prefer sucli a smoker to any other kind. 216 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. June HONEV DEW. «f?f SEND you some honoy dew insects. Last Sun- fe| day, I noticed my bees moving over a small ^ pophti- (tulip tree), and, upon examining- it, I found the leaves dripping with honey dew. Did it exude from the leaves? 1 saw no living insects, and yet the dew fell in a continuous shower. A closer examination showed mc the small limbs covered with scale like bunches, piled on each other like oyster shells. One end of the apparent shell or scale is larger and broader than the other, with a slight crease up the middle; about midway vip this crease is a small white dot; this dot is a small valve covering a hole through which the honey dew is thrown by the insect. As I stood and watched, I could seethe valve open, a few jets of fluid thrown out, and the valve closed again. This would be re- peated every moment or two, and as there are un- told numbers of there strange things on the tree, you can have some idea of the amount of dew thrown out. For a whole week now, these insects have been making honey dew; how much longer they will continue to do so, I can't tell, but intend to watch them. I never noticed any thing like it before, and thought that it might be of interest to some of your readers, therefore I write this account. I send you some of the insects to-day by mail; if it is anything new, let us all have the benefit of your opinion through Gleanings. 1 cannot yet believe the "Exu- dation Theory" of honey dew, but will wait till I find out more about it. W. J. Willard. Jonesboro, Ills. Many thanks, friend W. The scaly little fellows that cover the twig you send. I should scarcely have thought of calling in- sects, had you not mentioned it. The phe- nomena are truly wonderful, and, at least, demonstrate that honey dew is not the product of any one species of insects; for, in our vicinity, it is thrown off by a kind of aphide, as I have described in A B C ; and it seems to me quite possible, that those who have declared that no insects were vis- able, where the honey was ])lenteous, may liave entirely overlooked this animated scale on the limbs and twigs. Prof. Cook writes in regard to the specimen as follows: The bark lice are the first ones referred to in first edition of Manual, page o5, in second edition, page 318. It is a species of Lecanium, and a great pest, as it furnishes miserable stores for bees, a7id soon de- stroys the tulip tree. A.J.Cook. CALiIFORNIA. BID you ever try to hive a wagon load (,f bees? If so, and you had thom all in one mass, with — 6 or 8 old qvieens and l.'i or ii) youn^- ones, you had a taskthat tried your bc('-kctpi'ng(iualiHcations. I had such a time; they wouldn't sta.u put anjwhere, and after hiving 1.5 or 30 large swarms, each ^vith one or more queens and two emptj' combs, they woxdd peisM in coming out and flying back to the heap. At last, they started for the mountains, but Eddie (my 13 year old boy, who is my only assistant so far), with a looking glass, made them light, f nd they lit in good sized swarms, scattered over a dis- tance of 40 rods; so that, by gi^^ng each hive a frame of brood, all were saved and no trouble made. And right here, comes in the secret of hiving swarms with old and young ((ueens, or with any other, for that matt- r-o /rame of hrood iviU keep anuHwnrm. 1 have trcd it in more than 100 cases, without a single failure. This business of hiving bees is one to which little attention isjriven in your journals, ami .\ et it, and its following duties, are quite as important as fixing smokers, over which so much contro\ersy has aris- en. Hf' f. with .5 or 6 weeks of c\ery day swarming (I have J d over 300 this season so tar), the business becomes systematized, and we Ijccome so used to hearing the oft n pcatccl crv "Swarm out!" that it excites no feeling exci'pt that of work to be done, or of disgust 1 hat some swarm, alreadv partlv hived, must be hurried in, before the next conies and tries to go in or join it. All through April, we had cloudy, j rainy weather, pretty cold, too; but every day, even ! in light showers, one or more swarms would issue. I hived several swarms with my rubber coat on in the rain, and two swarms were caught, one day, in a , pouring rain and hail storm. With the thermometer : at 03-' and raining, it is simiething besides /jfcif which drives out a swann. Let some of those gentlemen who want to account for the fact of bees swarming, j lay it to the natural instinct of all animal creation, ; to increase their species. I There has been general complaint of swarms re- 1 turning, of (jueens getting lost, etc. Many of mine ! went back, but by a little management they can be [ hived just as well as any other swarm. Eddie usually secures the old queen, by finding her on the ground near the hive, while I replace the old hive with a new one, and as soon as all arc in, put the swarm where 1 want it, and set the old hive back. Swarming, with me, ended May 1st, but since then, we get from 3 to 5 a day. During April, I had 15 to 3-i a day. While that wet weather lasted, the flowers yielded no honey, the rain washing it all out; so that, from the L^th to 3tith, I had to feed the swarms to keep them from starving. On the 28th, it cleared up, and the blue sage then being in full bloom poured out the honey in such quantities, that in 3 days, all strong hives were filled full; and all at once they rushed for the section boxes, and began building- comb at a furious rate. Now I have them filling- some hundreds of section boxes; not your kind of frames, but 8 frames make a box here; some hives are at work in 6 boxes, which, when filled, will hold 80 lbs. net. Since the rains held up, we have foggy nights and by 6 A. m. it is drizzling a fine rain, mak- ing everything -wet. All the honey gathei-ed so far is thin as water,— so thin it will run out of the cells, if a comb is held wrong side up. They can't cap it and we can't extract any of this unripe sweetened water, and so we are waiting for it to get ripe, -while every cell is full to overflowing. Comb building is going on like magic. A good swarm fills its main frames full in from 5 to 6 days. I have about 75 fill- ing- t he 3d story main frames, in my new two stoi-y Simplicity hives. The combs are white as snow, and the frames are hea-v-y as iron wedges. Mr. C. J. Fox, president of our county bee society, called a day or two ago, on his return from his apia- i-y, some 15 miles north of me. He brought along a ease of new, blue sage honey, white as the driven snow. He reported any quantity nearly ready to come off. He has, by much labor, perfected a pack- ing case which, when you come to see it this fall, filled with our honey, I think you will adopt in place of your "Prize crate", with glass sides. This crate holds '4 boxes or whole ones, and has slides at the ends of the combs, acting like the covers of starch boxes. The case, holding 3 full Harbison section boxes, or about 45 lbs. net, is of fine size, 13x30x7, with holes at the ends for the ends of the fingers to carry by. W'e call this the "Fox crate", as he gives its use free to all. Our main honey plants, white sage, sumac, and greasewood, are not yet in bloom. All promise splendidly, for honej' and lots of hard work. G. F. Merriam. San Luis Eey, Cal., May 13th, 1878. I think you are right, friend M., in regard to the importance of the matter of swarming being more thoroughly systematized, but you certainly are putting it rather strong, when you say that a frame of brood will keep any SAvarm. EA'ery now and then. Ave have exceptions to the rule, as the folloAving note, just at hand, Avill attest. I would say that I have "Bee on the brain". I sent to you, in March, for A B C in Bee Culture, and you were kind enough to sendGLEANiNGS for March. At that time, I had 7 colonies in log and box hives. I went to work and put up 30 nunable frame hives, something like Langstroth's, I suppose, and I now haA-e 15 strong colonies. It is a "new departure" in this section, and some of the wise ones shake their heads ominously. I have had ti natural swarms, one of which absconded, after being hi\c 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 218 GLEAJq^INGS IN BEE CULTURE. July the Italians is very good from fruit and clover; that of the i^'y black colonies is most excellent with 5 acres of Alsikc clover; the 50 colonies have only fruit bloom. Now, from the Italians, I have not taken one drop of honey; but frcin the ¥5 black col- onies in the Alsike clover region, I have taken :J5 lbs. to the colony. From the 50 swarms among the fruit trees, I have also taken nothing, and the success of the season depends upon the summer and fall pas- turage. I can say farther, that G black colonies, at the Italian apiary, swarmed 'S weeks sooner than the Italians. The Italians were as strong, when they went into winter quarters, as the blacks, but the latter dwindled none, while the former dwindled fully 10 percent. Now, friend Root, I will not pass sentence until fall, but these premises seem to squint at the superiority of the blacks. My plan of getting good Italian queens, to com- pletely Italianize the apiary, is to select i or 5 of the best and purest colonies, and permit them to swarm the second time. The day before swaraiing you can detect 3 or more queens piping; when they swarm, a superfluity of queens issue; when I hive the swarm, I capture and cage all the queens but one (the bees would kill these, of course), and if pi- ping is still heard in the old hive, I open it and cage all the queens found except one. In this way, I have secured 3 and 4 beautiful, well developed queens, from one of these second swarms,— much tiner specimens than I can raise in nuclei, and raised more in accordance with nature. These I in- troduce immediately to other colonies. Please tell me, in next Gleanings, what becomes of the coloring matter of pollen, when fed to young bees. The paste in the cells is as white as milk. May not the drones till other offices, in bee economy, than that of fertilizing the queen? Geo. B. Petebs. Council Bend, Ark., May 25th, I8T8. Onr friend has written before somewliat to the same effect, lAit I have assured him that he would, sooner or later, decide strong- ly in favor of the Italians, as have all the rest who, at lirst, took the same position, he is now inclined to take. The one failing of spring dwindling, I believe, is generally conceded to be more prevalent among the Italians than among the blacks. BOTANY OF HONEY PLANTS. ^fj^ROF. M. J. BEAL:— I send you a bunch of flow- J?(p^ ers and leaves from a shrub or bush that grows ^=^ on the cliffs near my house, on which tlie bees are working more actively, I believe, than on the apple bloom, which is open at the same time. 1 would like to know the name of the plant. Please answer through Gleanings. M. E. Pakkeh. Somerset, Ky., April 16th, 18T8. This is Bladder-nut, Staplnilca trifulia. It is a clean, handsome shrub, growing on moist soil, from Canada south to Tennessee and Carolina. It is quite common in central Michigan. I have often observed that bees are fond of it, as they are of our maples, which belong to the same family of plants. W. J. Beal, Lansing, Mich. CHOOSING A HOMK BEFORE: S^VAKMING. ing around for some time, had gone back into the hive. On examination, next morning, I found they had swarmed for certain and left the "digins", al- though there was a hive, full of nice, clean comb, ■within six feet of theirs, that had been there all winter. The same queen swarmed 18 days before any other, last spring, and tried to run off then, but I brought her down to the fence about ten i-ods from her hive, by the aid r.f a mirror and a bright sun, and it was the only swarm I had that filled ten frames with comb last year. I forgot to say that they left 15 queen cells, 6 of which were capped. These cells I cut out and made nuclei. The first cell batched on the 8th of May, and the last one was not sealed over until that day. C. T. Smith. O'Fallon, 111,, May 21st, 1878. I am pretty certain they do not always se- lect a home before swarming, friend S., but do they not as a general rule'? and can we not manage to entice a large part of the swarms that come outV The swarms you mention, seem to have been unfortunate in selecting a location, and who knows but that they would have eagerly taken posses- sion of a convenient hive, had it been locat- ed near that brush heap or crab apple tree. You say you have had one swarm come out, and hive themselves in a hive in the apiary; does not this look encouragingV If they did pass by a hive that was tilled with empty combs, was it not because it was not as se- cluded as they would jjrefer to have a liome by choice? It seems the instances are quite frequent, where bees have chosen brush heaps, limbs of trees, or unsafe cavities be- tween fence rails and the like, for taking up their abodes ; now can Ave not furnish them something better than tliese, where they will be pretty sure to find themV FAIRS AND THFIR ATTARDS. ALSO A AVORD ABOUT CONVENTIONS. H' HAVE positive proof that bees do not always select a home before running off, and also that — I a hive in the apiary will not prevent their ab- sconding, though I orco had a swarm go into a hive that the bees had staiMd out of, some two months before. The first bees I ever owned, were found on a crab tree, some 25 years ago. They had settled on the fork of a limb, and had two combs about fi inches long, by 4 inches wide at the base. I hived them, iuid carri'd them home, a distaiu-c of over one-half a mile. -■ 1 they went to work innnediately and did well. '. ., V) years after, my son found a swarm in a pile of bxTish; they had also built some comb. They were both late and small swarms, probably second or third swarms. On Apr. 30th, I was away from home, and when I returned, my wife said that No. 1.5, Simplicitv hive, had swai med between 8 and 0 o'clock, and after tly- fHE state fair committee, I think, did me an in- justice, in their award of premiums for the — . greatest yield of honey from one hive of bees, and on this point, 1 would like to have your con- struction, as if you were a judge. Entry No. 2tt9 reads thus: i'Greatest yield of honey from one swarm of bees, with statement of arrangement, pro- tection against moth, &c.; 5 lbs. of the honey to be exhibited and quantity duly certified to. Premium SlO.Oli." It has always been held, since the progi-essive rec- ord in bee-keeping came in, that the bee-keeper is entitled to the credit of whatever he could make out of one swarm of bees, in the waj' of surplus honey, whether it was done by artificially dividing them, so as to increase the working stock, or by al- lowing them to swarm naturally. That does net matter, provided the products are from the start of one swarm, and produced in one season. Salem, N. C. W. F. Shultz. This point, like a great many others, needs to be plainly specified, in the award before hand, and I would suggest to county and state fairs, the propriety of liaving all these matters fixed as plainly as may be. now. before their premium lists are printed. With all the care they can take, to have these things plainly specified, there Avill still be room left for different constructions, and misunderstandings. To the progi-essive bee- keei)er, it does seem many times a little fun- ny, to say the least, the way things are done at fairs. At our OAvn county fair, last seas- on, tlie premiums on honey, both first and second, Avere aAvarded to veiy inferior boxes of honey, and no premium at all Avas given on a case of 1 lb. sections, tliat Avere the ad- miration of almost every body present. The 1878 GLEANINGS IN BEE CTLTUEE. 219 reason which the judges gave for so doing, was that the ghiss case of sections was not a box of honey, and tliat the list read for the "'best box of honey". Mine was a box of honey boxes, and nothing was offered for siicii an arrangement. I confess the temp- tation was very strong, to declare I ^\T»uld never go to a fair again at all ; but maturer reflection brings to mind that these judges are my own townsmen and women, and good lionest people. They may have had a little prejudice, perhaps, against the honey built on fdn., although no such reason was given, and if they have, what then? shall I stay away, and give as a reason that I got mad because they would not give me the premium? or shall I take some more honey and hives and extractors and, perhaps, a fdn. machine, with some of the girls to roll the wax where all can see, and thus help to make fairs a means of educating the people, as they really should be, without caring who gets the premium, or at least trying not to care? for I am full of fight, when there is any chance for rivalry, as I have told you be- fore. Well. I think I will choose the latter course, and if the fair gets to be full of cor- ruption and liorse racing, I will try and put my shoulder to the wheel, and help it along into a better track ; if my efforts do not amount to any thing, I will still do the best I can, and ask God to give me faith and pa- tience, so long as the people love fairs, and turn out to them, as they always seem to do. May God help me to feel the same towards conventions, and try to avoid being contra- ry, remembering that true worth will always be recognized, sooner or later, and if it is not recognized where we think it ought to be, it is a pretty sure sign that it does not exist. The expense of going long distances, to eith- er conventions or fairs, may be saved, by at- tending those in our own county, and trying to make them what they should be. P'his department is to be kept for the benefit of those who are dissatisfied; and when anything is amiss. I hope you will "tallt rii^ht out." As a rule we will omit names and addresses, to avoid being too personal.] ^iTSjiROM your postal of the 32nd ult., it seems that j?n you have some doubt alTout my telling the i^r* truth in regard to the frame stuff's not hav- ing been planed. I took the whole lot to the Me- chanics' Planing Mills in St. Louis, to have them finished, for which I paid them .f 3.00, The use of a team one day was $3.00. What my time is worth, away from home one day, in the swarming season, with .50 stocks of Italians, I leave to your own judg- ment. One swarm which came out tliat day, settled, in such a place that my wife could not hive them and In the woods they went. For fear that jou may think that I ought to have a notice in the "Growlery", I will send you, by mail, 3 pieces of some of your work. When you get them, call a counsel of your overseers (if you have any), and ask them why they allowed such work as that to pass. I think you will agree with me that it ought to have been put among the rubbish. No 1 is a fair sample of }i of the end pieces. About '/^ of them are cut ncarlij through the centre, but the worst of it is that they vary from 'a to 3-16 in length. Put your square on No. 3 and then imagine 3 of them on a hive leaning in opposite directions. About 'A of them are like the sample. I have put up about 500 of the sections, and have on my tables about 100 pieces like No. 3. How many more there are among the balance, I do not know. I cannot understand why your work does not come out all alike, after the gauges arc set. I would not use a single one of the end pieces, if I had time to make others, for I consider them a first class botch work. I don't expect you, or any one else, to pay me for any overcharge any R. K. Co. makes on goods ship- ped to me; I simply wanted to know if $8.00 from Medina to Cin. was correct or not, which you ought to know, or which you could, by a very little troub- le, find out. I would not be bothered with an other lot of stuff like it, if it were presented to me. The comb guides are just enough too short and too thin to be of no use. The top and bottom pieces of the two inch frames vary so much in length, that % of the end pieces have to be planed off on the inside, to admit the sections. From reading Gleanings, one would suppose that everything about your place works as accur- atelj' as a watch factory, but your work does not prove it. A. W. W. June 6th, 1878. I presume I should not have published the above, had it not been for the concluding remark. If I have given you an erroneous impression in regard to my work, through Gleanings, I feel like hastening with all speed to undeceive you. Our friend order- ed some closed end Q. frames, with section boxes to match ; something that neither I nor any of the hands had ever seen. Worst of all, the order was given in such a way, that it had to be "•figured out". It came at a time when almost every body was doing things wrong, because I was not omnipres- ent, and when skilled mechanics were standing still, because I could not find time to explain to them what was wanted. Amid the noise and roar of machinery that ceased not, either day or night, and of ever so many calling, I was obliged to figure out, as best I could, how the things had best be made; for as I could not tell what friend W. wanted, I could not very well explain to the hands what I wanted, and the whole atmos- phere, about that time, I remember, seemed full of floating interrogation points ; if the confusion at the Tower of Babel was half as bad, I pity them. Every body "want- ed to know, you know." When it came to directing the clerks about writing apologies, we had about the same state of affairs, and so, while I never dreamed of such a thing, our friend thought I doubted his word. Perhaps it is this unintentional sting, that has caused him to write as he has and the thought that he did not knoio that I would never doubt his word, stings me still more. I know I ought to have done better, but you see I am too "small" for such a rush of business, and you overloaded me. If a trutliful statement of my business would kill it, let it die ; for T had rather die an honest death, than flourish dishonestly. I have paid my friend for tlie above blun- dering, and I hope it is all pleasant now. If I have been giving only the better side in Gleanings of late, let us have tlie other side, by all means, so "here goes." Your buckwheat came yesterday; one month after the order. This is a fine way to do business! and then, instead of packing it in a box, and send- ing by freight as you ought to have done, you must send "by express with charges, ^5.30, making $7.30 for three pecks of buckwheat. Very cheap, eh? 220 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. July When you get another order from me or my friends, you wi'll know it. 1 ag-ree to everything that the A. B. J. says against you. F. D. L. Texas. May 30th, 187«. Whew ! I do not know how it is with oth- er folks, but postals like the above make me feel as if some one had struck me with a club. I can freely forgive our friend, for I kiiow just how one feels, when he is charg- ed dollars where he expected to pay dimes. We had a plenty of silver hull buckwheat raised, as we supposed, and the man who had it said he would bring it up town be- fore we wanted it, any way ; but when the order came, we were out, and a postal had to be dispatched to him. He came in and told some one he had no more to spare, and they forgot to tell me. The order was for- gotten until I hunted it up, and then we sent it at once to Lane, of Wis. Of course it had to go by express as it was so late ; in fact, if put in a box and sent by freight, the charges to Texas might not have been any less. He should have been notified of the facts in the case, but that, too, was over- looked. There is no use of twisting the matter about as I know of, for the fault all rests on my shoulders. Accordingly, I have written all the parties tJiat I will pay back all the money they have sent me, and let them keep the goods, too, if nothing else will make it pleasant. I could not stand this very long, it is true, but — you see it will teach me to do better, if anything will ; and if it does not, why, the sooner I get ''wound up," the better. Meanwhile, please do not be too hard on a fellow. I will try and do right, even if you don't come at me with ''pitchforks". If the A. B. J. did take me to task in re- gard to some of my short comings, I believe Siey did not accuse me of dishonesty, or a lack of interest in the good of my patrons. .^00. sections &c., to hand. Time 10 days, weight 97 lbs., charges, $1.,58. All right; but here comes the "rub." In ordering' the sections, I said that my frame to hold them was "exactly 11 ?s in. by '.'}i in. Inside". (See order May 13.) These would take box- es scant 45ix5 13-16. The long pieces are all right. The short ones, all but one bundle, are 4: 11-15 long, thus requiring a frame at least % in. deeper than mine. They areas they came, I measured at each end of the bundle. For proof , see end piece, also your bill, enclosed. What shall I do? Yours with kind sympathy, O. F. May 30th, 1878. Yours of the 4th is received. Having no machin- ery I cannot fix those sections (and make any kind of a .'/()?)) in the way you say. I sent all the way to you, in order to get extra^ nice work, but instead of that, thej' are rinmh, hroken, sappy, hlack, contain u'orwi ^()?(.s', and do not ((t all compare with your 5c sample. Please don't put me in "Growlery," as I did not mean to mention this, and should not had they been otherwise right. The f^nly way I see, is for you to send some more end pi: ces, mtt 'ri{iht, and I will re- turn these, if you wis-h. "Ro" will please hu:;(l this to the "Boss". O. F. I don't mean to try to excuse myself, but, my friends, if you will give the exact dimen- sifyns you wish your work, jiiid then not say anothf-r word "about it, it would help us amazi; ;rly. Do not leave anything for usto culculaTe. but make all your calculations yourself, if possible. We have paid from $30 to iS;82 per M., for lumber for our sec- tions, but have Iiad one or two lots that ran poor. I presume it was my duty to send it back to our himlier dealer, rather than to use it. but, as he had usually given us nice stuff, I hated to do it. We are now pur- chasing our lumber directly from the forests of Mich., and so that part will be remedied, I hope. If the sami)le we sent out was better than the average, I assure you it was accidental, and not intentional. I tell you, one has to be watchful, to have evciy thing all right, always. I received the goods that you sent me, last night, and they were all right. 1 am perfectly satisfied with them; they are better than 1 supposed they would be; I tltcmk you very much for sending me Ifi boxes more than I ordered. The expressage on them was only 8.5c. My bees are doing first rate; the old hive gave a very large swarm the 16th of May, and I am looking for another erery day. C. S. MlLLEB. state Hill, N. Y. June 5th, 1878. There now ! That last letter did not be- long in 'the "Growlery" after all, but it is so much easier (?) to publish such letters, it "sort o' slipped in'\ O, dear me ! there is just one more that lays heavily on my con- science, and then, I believe, 1 have given you all tlie very bad ones. I hardly know how or what to say to you. Ac- companying this I send to you a sample of the box- es you sent me. I have "taken a small part out of the box, and find that several bunches are cut like these; these are from two bunches. 1 have been setting up seme of the sections, that is, such of them as are dovetailed so as to go together. Each box is from 5x6 to .5x6 1-16 inches, inside measure; now, this lets the glass fall right into the box. They should have been 5 in. wide, as they are, and 6 in. deep minus the thickness of cittier top or bottom. As it is, my glass does not even reach to the top in- side when the boxes are put together. The boxes also varj' in size. It is more than they are all worth to get them into shape, so that I can use them. It seems from the looks of some of the bunches, that they were not held up to the saw gauge. You re- member two years ago when you sent out fdn., some of which the bees refused to use, that you asked each one to send in their bill for damages. You must remember that I wrote you it was consid- erable damage to me, but did not ask for any re- muneration and do not now, on the fdn.; but I think this is the worst lot of section boxes I ever saw. I would not go to the depot for all that I covild draw. The worst of all is, it is time we had bur sections ready to set on the hives, and here I am. I have ordered some from Syracuse. If this is a specimen of the work you send out, my advice is, vou had better save the money you intend to build that factory with. W. H. B. May 31st, 1878. To own up, the above letter did almost make me sick— sick of trying to build the brick factory, at least— and to make amends as far as I could, I have offered to send all the money (ovei- S30.) back, and let our friend keep the sections too. This order, also, was for an odd design, and after writ- ing the third time for particulars, our friend only said he wanted a clees are petted and fussed with, the more they will thrive. Just think of the idea of showing your friends such an apiary, when they come to pay you a visit. WIk) will send in a sketch of a nicer apiary than the above? Unless we have the Chaff hives, something is rather needed for shade, dur- ing the hottest days. m ■>■ » — FRAMES, FEEDING, DRONES, ETC. MAKING FRAMES AND NEEDED STRENGTH OF TOP BAK. ^OHN D. WHITE finds fault with your metal Qfjl comer frames, as beins too light in the top ^^ bar. When the frame is filled, the comb is fastened to the frame all round, making- a solid block like a piece of board. When I have bet>n out of comers, I have made frames all of wood, by nail- ing the pieces together in the siime position as when using corners, with fine 3 pennv rails, 2 to a comer. To do this I use all top bar stnfl^^. the sides and bottom being too thin to nail, I make the top bar long enough to take the place of the trp corner and slightly bevel it the contrary way frr m White's, find then, instead of sharpening to asirgle point as Shane does, I imitate the metal corner by cutting a notch in the middle. For a man like myself, having no machinery and few tools, this way of making aU wood frames is simpler than yours, and dees not weaken the top bar. 1 use lio comb guide, but fasten the fdn. to the under side of the top bar, by putting- on a coat of melted wa.x and then rubbing GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. July the edze of the fdn. into it with a stiff butcher knife. The w.iod of the frames I now plane smootli all around and aaint on the outside, the inside of the hive bein^' treated in the same manner. With the metal corners and rabbets and an enameled sheet over the frames in addition, I think we have little further need of improvements to facilitate the tnaiiipul itions of the interior of a Lawn hive. Feeding bees is like comb fdn. ; the more I see of it the bitter I like it. 1 use g'rape sug'ar for feeding'. Fruit bloom was very plentiful the pres- ent season, so I ceased feeding, thinking- it would oarry the bees to white clover; but the last of May I found two hives with an unusual number of dead bess at the entrance, and, on examination, I found them in a starving condition. I immediately gave them frames of comb containing honey. The rest of the bees discovered it, and were ravenous for a part of it. On a further examination, I found the rest nearly as bad off. They had killed off their drones, and instead of bein? ready to swarm, had nearly stopped breeding. If, as you say, they will not take sugar syrup when honey is plenty in the fields, it S3ems 1 1 me good policy to let them have access to it at all times. But I have not yet found a time, when they tlew freely, that they would not carry syrup of grape sugar to some extent. DRONES FROM VIRGIN QUEENS I have some interest in, having an Italian queen of that kind. W. S. Boyd's letter, on page 195. June number, casts doubt on their usefulness, yuinby siys (page 37), "I have frequentlj% since obtaining the Italian, reared (jueens intentionally late in the season, that I might have drone-laying queens for the purpose of raising early drones." Cook speaks of drones from virgin queens, in connection with others, as though he considered them equally effect- ive. If the generally received theory of their origin is cirrect, they should be as good as any. Yet, except for the purpose Quinby mentions, it don't seem good economy to have queens that can- n >t I ly a ly but drone eggs, when they can just as well lay both kinds. • OUR HOMES In the June number of Gleanings, leads me to tike your part, against White's suggestion of leav- ing all religious matter for sectarian or especially religious papers; as though honest Hebrews, Cath- olics, and Freethinkers did not, as a rule, do good works in their every day life. Sectarian questions may bsst be discussed in sectarian papers; but in all the home papers I have read, I think it would be difficult to come to a certain conclusion as to what particular sect or creed you believed in or belonged to. In this age and country, most of us are Free- thinkers, whether we belong to a religious body or not; and it is this free thought and the liberty of free action, so long as the actions do no positive harm to us or our fellows, that constitutes the great advancement this generation enjoys over previous ones. The main object of the Home Papers, it seems to me, is to have us so control and limit our acts that they shall do the least harm and the most good; and they show us how to do this in practice, not in theory merely. Many times this can best be done by associated effort among the masses, leaving speculative theories to take care of themselves. So far as my knowledge extends, "Our Homes" are read by all whether religious professors or not, without a word of objection to the place they are published in; and probably nine out of every ten of their readers would never see them, if published in a sectarian paper. D. C. LTnderhill. Seneca, Ills., June lOtb, 1878. The April, May, and June Gi/Eanings are now gone, and we are obliged to offer Kk- a piece for them, as we did for the Jan., Feb., and March No's. To prevent such a catastrophe again, we are print- inu- (iOOO of the July No's. For the whole of the abo\e six No's of this year, we will pay 7.5c, or sell them for .-pi.OO. You see you pay TjOc for them, and then sell them for 75c, after you have read them. Is not that a good speculation? "A NEWLY imported Hungarian, employed on a farm a few miles north of the city, lifted up a bee- hive the (»ther day to see what the bees were doing under there. He knows now. He says the v were making chain lightning and had 2,000 tons of it on hand, which exploded before he had time to let the box ilown." -Hawk-Eye. GLEANINGS tNBEE CULTURE. EDITOR AND FUBLISHEB, MEDINA, OHIO. terms: $1.00 per year, i»ost-paii>. I^/IE3DIlSr-A., J-TJUr^ 1, ISTS. Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.— Jeremiah 3;j; 3. "N.ARY a word," have we heard from, or of , our friend Perrine since he started. When everything is just right, hives all in readi- ness, plenty of frames, fdn., section boxes, and plenty of help to do the work, I tell you it is just fun, to take charge of 200 colonies in the month of June. And now, friend Alley offers to send queens, and you are not to pay a cent, until you get them. It" that is not fair, I don't know what is. Mj' friends, will you not be as magnanimous, and be sure that he has his money, just the minute you get your queen? even if she is not all you expected, and as large as some of you have seen, send him his moiicfj, even before j'ou get her introduced ; for a queen rearer has many a trial and disapjwintment which you may know nothing of. Think gently, and speak gentlj^ of —the man who raises queens for sale. Some one in the A. B. J. asks me to "rise and ex- plain" how that wax fell short. Friend Bureh sta- ted it exactly, in saying one of the clerks made a. mistake of 10 lbs. in weighing it, and as the shipper did not give the amount that there should have been, I had no means of discovering the fact, until informed there should have been 10 lbs. more. If I were obliged individually to weigh all the wax sent in, beside attending to my other duties, I fear I should go crazy sure. When a box of wax is re- ceived the gross weight is always marked on it. After the box is emptied, the weight of the box is written under and subtracted. In the case men- tioned, when the box was hunted up the figures showed a mistake had been made in subtracting. Thi? letter in our last number objecting to the Home Papers has called forth a great amount of correspondence on the subject. Three persons among the lot have taken the same, or a similar ground, with friend White; all the rest have ex- pressed a desire to have them continued. As the latter are greatly in the excess, and among them are many who do not favor religion or the Bible at all, shall we not consult the wishes of the greatest number, and go on? I sincerely thank those who have stated their objections, for the remembrance of their words will, without doubt, prove a whole- some check upon me, when I am disposed to get out of the narrow path in which I feel my work should be done. In case I should stray a little, unwisely, will you not all bo lenient with your friend? I feel free to ask this, because the Home Papers are, and always have been, given gratis; in computing how large a journal I can give you for $1.00, they are ncA'er taken into account. I trj^ hard to make the journal worth $1.00, aside from them. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 223 HOrJS'Sr COSUfflB.— Every body knows that the cells of the honey comb are 6 sided, and I presnme most people know why they are 6 sided. If they were siiuare, the young bee would have a much more uncomfortable cradle, in which to grow up, and it would take a much greater space to accommodate a given nimiber of bees. This last would, of itself, be a fatal objection ; for to have the greatest benetit of the accumulated ani- mal heat of the brood, they must be closely packed together. Tliis is not only the case with the unhatched bees, but with the bees of a whole colony in winter ; when each bee is snugly ensconced in a cell, they occupy less room than they could by any other ar- rangement. If the cells were round, they could be grouped together much in the same way as they are now ; viz., one in the centre, and 6 all aroimd it, equally distant from the cen- tral one, and from each other, like the cut, A, in the ligure below ; but even then, the circles will leave much waste room in the coi'uers, that the bees would have to till with wax. WHY THE CELLS OF THE HONEY COMB ARE MADE 6 SIDED. At B, we see the cells are nearly as com- fortable for the young bee, as a round one would be— of course I mean from our point of view, for it is quite likely that the bees know just what they need a great deal bet- ter than we do — and, at the same time, they come together in such a way that no space is left to be filled up at all. The bees, therfore, can make the walls of their cells so thin that they are little more than a silky covering, as it were, that separates each one from its neighbor. It must also be remem- bered that a bee, wiien in his cell, is squeezed up, if we may so term it, so as to occupy much less space than he otherwise would ; and this is why the combined animal heat of the cluster is so much better economized in winter, when the bees have a small circle of empty cells to cluster in, with sealed "stores all around them. But, my friends, this is not half of the in- genuity displayed about the cell of the bee. These hexagonal cells must have some kind of a wall or partition between the inmates of one series of cells, and those in the cells on the opposite side. If we had a plane partition running across the cells at right angles with the sides, the cells would have flat bottoms which would not fit the rounded body of the bee, besides leaving useless corners, just as there would have been, if the cells had been made rovmd or square. Well, this problem was solved in much the same way, by making the bottom of the cell of three little lozenge shaped plates. In the figure below we give one of these little plates, and also show the manner in which three of them are put together to form the bottom of the cell. HOW THE BOTTOM OF THE CELL IS MADE. Now, if the little lozenge plates were square, we should have much the same ar- rangement, but the bottom would be too sharp pointed, as it were, to use wax with the best economy, or to best accommodate the body of the infantile bee. Should we, on the contrary, make the lozenge a little long- er, we should have the bottom of the cell too nearly flat, to use wax with most econo- my, or for the comfort of the young bee. Either extreme is bad, and there is an exact point, or rather a precise proportion that the width of this lozenge should bear to the length. This proportion has been long ago decided to be such that, if the width of the lozenge is equal to the side of a square, the length should be exactly equal to the di- agonal of this same square. Tjiis has been proven, by quite an intricate geometrical problem ; but a short time ago, while get- ting out our machine for making the fdn., I discovered a much shorter way of working this beautiful problem. In the figure above, let A B C D represent the lozenge at the bottom of the cell, and A C the width, while B D is the length of said lozenge. Now the point I wish to prove is, that C D bears the same proportion 224 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. July to 13 D, that the side of a square does to the diagonal of the same squai'e. houey comb cell. A picture of the geomet- rical solid we have mentioned, is giveu below. THE MAT1IE3IATICS OF THE HONEY C03IIJ. .Supi)ose we have a cubical block, E B C G F. and that we pile small blocks on its sides as shown, so as to raise pyramids of such an inclination that a line from any apex to the next, as from A to D, will just touch the edge of the cube, B C. Now A C D B is the geometric lozenge we are seeking. Its width, B (', is eace ; and we, accordingly, find them of all sizes, from worker size all the w^ay up to considerably larger tlian i of an inch in width. Drones are raised in these extra large cells without trouble, and honey is al- so stored in them, but where they are very 226 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. July large, the bees are compelled to turn them up, or the honey would flow out. As the honey is kept in place by capillary attrac- tion, it the cells exceed a certain size, the adhesion of the liquid to the wax walls is in- sufficient, of itself, to hold the honey in place. Where drones are to be reared in these very large cells, the bees contract the mouth, by a thick rim. As an experiment, r had some plates made for producing small sheets of fdn., having only 3i cells to the inch. The bees worked on a few of these, with these same thick rims, but they evi- dently did not like the idea very well, for they tried to make worker cells of some of it, and it proved so much of a complication for their little heads, that they finally aban- doned the whole piece of comb, apparently, in disgust. Bees sometimes rear worker brood in drone comb, where compelled to from want of room, and they always do it in the way I have mentioned, by contracting the mouth of the cells, and leaving the young bee a rather large berth in which to grow and develop. Drones are sometimes reared in worker cells, also, but they are so much cramped in growth, that they seldom look like a fully developed insect. Several times, it has been suggested that we enlarge the race of honey bees, by giving them larger cells; and some circumstances seem to indicate that something may be done in this direction, although I have little hope of any permanent enlargement in size, unless we combine with it, the idea of se- lecting the largest bees to propagate from, as given a few pages back. By making the cells smaller than ordinarily, we can get small bees with very little trouble ; and I have seen a whole nucleiis of bees so small, as to be really laughable, just because the comb they were hatched from, was set at an angle, so that one side was concave, and the other convex. The small bees came from the concave side. Their light, active move- ments, as they sported in front of the hive, made them a pretty and amusing sight for those fond of curiosities. Worker bees reared in drone cells are, if I am correct, sometimes extra large in size, but as to whether we can make them permanently larger by such a course, I am inclined to doubt. The difficulty, at present, seems to be the tendency to rearing a great quantity of useless drones. By giving a hive fur- nished entirely with worker comb, we can so nearly i)revent the production of drones, that it is safe enough to call it a complete remedy. now THE BEES BUILD THE COMB. In this day and age of bees and honey, it would seem that one should be able to tell how the bees build comb, with almost as much 6ase as they would tell how cows and horses eat grass; but, for all that, Ave lack records of careful and close experiments, such as Darwin made many years ago. In our house apiary, there are dozens of hives, where the bees are building riglit up close to the glass, at this very minute ; and all one has to do, in order to see how it is done, is* to take a chair and sit down before them. But the little fellows, have such a queer, sleight of hand, way of doing the work, that I hardly know how they do accomplish it. In a little work, published by Prof. Agas- siz, about the year 1867, the renowned nat- uralist speaks as follows about tlie way in which bees build honey comb : "The bees stand as close as they can together in their hive for eeonomy of space, and each one de- posits his wax around him, his own form and size being- the mould for the colls, the regularity of which, when completed, excites so much wonder and admiration. The mathematical secret of the bee is to be found in his structure, not in his in- stinct." Notwithstanding the promptness with which the folly of such a statement was at once shown up in the bee journals, it seems it never came to the eyes of the Prof., or, at least, he never deemed it worthy of notice ; for, in 1873, he gave, substantially, the same thing in a lecture at Cambridge, Mass.. and it was praised and published in the Tri- bune and other papers, and sent broadcast all over our land. I believe all the bee jour- nals at once protested against giving the people such "twaddle" (if I may be excused for using the term), as science ; but, for all that, I believe the learned ptrofessor never recalled his blunder, or even so much as a d- mitted that he had never seen the inside of a bee-hive at all, bitt only guessed at it, or repeated what he had been told by some one. About two years afterward, the great sci- entist Tyndall, by some means, got an inkling of the way in which Agassiz had "put his foot in it," and, in the Popular Sci- ence Monthly, wisely admitted that the bees did not stand in the cells to build their comb, but fixed them in this wise : says he, "The bees place themselves at equal dis- tances apart upon the wax, and sweep and excavate — " etc. Now if Tyndall is teach- ing us other things in the same way, i. e., delivering lectures on some subject on which he knows nothing, how much can we depend on any thing he says. Oh why could not he 1878 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 227 and i\.gassiz, before attempting to explain the matter to the people, take the time to get a hive of real live bees, as did Darwin, and not be obliged to take any thing at sec- ^md liaud. If they two, were afraid of stings, a.ny expert honey raiser coidd afford them tlie facilities for a safe observation and thus l>revent tlieir going into such folly, or false- hood, to call things by their rightnames, for they pretend to have knowledge where they have none. Take the money and buy a hive of heex. all ye that thirst for knowledge, and take it direct from God's own works, instead of receiving it second hand. For particidars in regard to the North Pole, or as to whether tlie planet Jni)iter is habitable, we may be obliged to listen to those who know better than we do ; but in our own industry no such necessity exists, for a swarm of bees is within the reach of all. When distinguished persons have visited my apiary, I liave almost invariably heard them mention the great discovery of Agas- siz, in regard to the way in which bees build their comb, and when I explain that it was a great mistake, they usually think that so great a man as Agassiz, and one wlio always went to the ants and bees with his own eyes, must have been right, and that I had made a mistake somewhere. I have occupied all this space, my friends, .just to give you an illustration of how little real ivork, some of the great scientists and lectiu'ere are in the habit of doing, and of the importance of proving things for yourself, with your ovm eyes and hands. If we examine the bees closely during the Keason of comb building and honey gather- ing, we shall lind many of them with the wax scales protruding between the rings that form the body, and these scales are either picked from their bodies, or from the l)ottom of the hive or honey boxes in which they are building. If a bee is obliged to carry one of these wax scales but a short distance, he takes it in his mandibles, and l(wks as business like with it thus, as a car- penter with a board on liis shoulder. If he lias to can-y it from the bottom of the honey box. he takes it in a way that I cannot ex- plain any better, than to say he slips it un- der his chin. When thus equipped, you would never know he was encumbered with anything, unless it chanced to slip out, when he will very dextrously tuck it back with one of his fore feet. The little plate of wax is so warm from being kept under his chin, as to be quite soft when he gets back ; and as he takes it out, and gives it a pinch against the cond) where the building is going on, one would think he might stop a while, and put it into place ; but not he ; for off he scampers and twists around so many^ differ- ent ways, you might think he was not one of the working kind at all. Another follows after him sooner or later, and gives the wax a pinch, or a little scraping and burnishing with his polishing mandibles, then another, and so on, and the sum total of all these ma- noevers is that the comb seems almost to grow out of nothing ; yet no bee ever makes a cell himself, and no comb building is ever done by any bee while standing in a cell ; neither do the bees ever stand in rows and '•excavate", or anything of the kind. The iinished comb is the result of the uni- ted efforts of the moving, restless mass, and the great mystery is, that anything so won- derful can ever result at all, from such a mixed up, skipping about, way of working, as they seem to have. When the cells are built out only part way, they are filled with honey or eggs, and the length is increased when they feel disposed, or '"get around to it," perhaps. It may be that they find it easier working with the shallow walls about the cells, for they can take care of the brood much easier, and put in the honey easier too, in all probability; and, as a thick rim is left around the upper edge of the cell, they have the material at hand, to lengthen it at any time. This thick rim is also very nec- essary to give the bees a secure foothold, for the sides of the cells are so thin, they would be very apt to break down with even the light weight of a bee. When honey is com- ing in rapidly, and the bees are crowded for room to store it, their eagerness is so plainly apparent, as they push the work along, that they fairly seem to quiver with excitement ; but, for all that, they skip about from one cell to another in the same way, no one bee working in the same spot to exceed a min- ute or two, at the very outside. Very fre- quently, after one has bent a piece of wax a certain way, the next tips it in the opposite direction, and so on until completion ; but after all have given it a twist and a pull, it is found in pretty nearly the right spot. As near as I can discover, they moisten the thin ribbons of wax, with some sort of fluid or saliva. As the bee always preserves the thick rib or rim of the comb he is working, the looker-on would suppose he was making the walls of a considerable thickness ; but if we drive him away, and break this rim, we will find that his mandibles have come so 228 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. July nearly tos^ether, that the wax between them, l)eyond tlie rim, is almost as thin as tissue paper. In building natural comb, of course, the bottoms of the cells are thinned in the same way, as the work goes along, before any side-svalls are made at all ; but the man- ner of thinning the bottoms of the cells in tlie foundation, or artificial comb, is quite an- other thing. Dollar queens are now a "dollar," and I think we can send you as many as you want, by return mail. Dollar queens are always young- queens; tested queens are not necessarily young-, therefore the dol- lar queens have one very important advantage over the others. Our losses of queens, dviring the months of May and June, have been very heavy, especially, when a cool spell of weather ensued, but during the warm weather of July, we seldom have much trouble. through, we have never had any trouble. If vou want bees in the Chaff hive, you had better get the hive by freight, and we will furnish without charge, a simplicity hive -ivithout top or bottom, to send the bees in by express. One colony has already filled and sealed 40, lb. sections; the one on the scales, shows a gain of ,5 to s lbs. every pleasant day, and I do not see but that they g-am nearly as much where well r^uiiplicd with sections, as where the honey is taken awav with the extractor. Of course, the filled sections are to be taken out every few days, and their places supplied with empty ones, containing the fdn. Over ;.',Ono of the A B C, part first, in the first 6 months; part second, about hive and section box makiiij: be ready in about 10 davs. Price of or Mc f iir both in one. *Bear in mind is prnite 1 only so fast as sold; and, up in t- •> ', every improvement and is at ouco added, so that it is always times. have been sold containing all ?, etc., etc., will each part 25c; that the A B C as it is all kept new invention clear up to the The boys in the apiary were just looking a good deal troubled, because they had hived a swarm three times, and then they would not stay. Said I, "Did you give them a frame of unsealed brood?" "Oh no: we forgot that part of it." They were given the brood and hived again, and then they stayed. We have now 300 fair colonies. Most of them were made early in June, to accommo- date the early queens sent in; and now, the young bees are just getting ready for the basswood. If you would have your orders for fdn. filled im- mediately, and get it before you have hardlv had time to expect it, please order our regular sized box- es that we keep on hsnd, all readv to ship. See price list. We have had one importation of queens from Italy only, during this month; nearly half of these were dead, owing- to the cool weather. Another large lot is now on the way. We will do the best we PDHsihly can to fill orders, and will return the money at any time when you may become tired of Avaiting. We have had one report of brood hi the small sec- lion boxes. It was drone brood; every box in the frame was filled with it. The owner had put the tin separators next the side of the hive, and turned the open side of the boxes next the brood combs. To be sure you will have brood in the sections, when you do things thus carelessly. If you don't stop sending queens without any mark on them, to tell what they are, I do not krow what I shall do. I have threatened several times to sell all such for hybrids forthwith ; but I don't quite dare to, even if it would be serving you right. Do you "spose" we can fuss to introduce queens, and then have you write a few days after that thev are Injbriclsf We have bought and sold hundreds of queens during the past month, and nearly every order— except for imported queens -has been filled bv re- turn mail. Many are rejoicing over nice queens at small expense in the month of June, but it has been a tearful task to send them long distances, thus early. In some cases we have sent 3 tested queens in succession, before we have succeeded. Hayhurst, of Kansas City, Mo., and Henderson, of Murfreesboro, Tenn., seem to be rather ahead in preparing queens for shipment. We have received packages of from 1.5 to 25, from each of the gentle- men named, without so much as a single dead bee among the lot. Several others have done nearly as well. At least 0-10 of all the queens we have tested in our own apiary have proved pure; so there is little inducement for purchasing tested queens. As a consequence, hybrids are scarce; and we do not get enough to fill half of our orders. It is the same with the black qneens; we send out all that are sent us at 2.5c, but of course no one can raise them for that price. A GREAT many are asking me to buv their bees. As I cannot possibly reply to you individually in this matter, I will try to do so in" a general way. To buy bees largely will require a great amount of cap- ital, and it will be a very risky business; however I will try it in this way. 1 will' pay $5.00 for a good colony of Italian bees, with io metal cornered frames of comb filled with the usual amount of brood, delivered at our R. R. station. In any other kind of frames, the price will be §4.00; and for black bees, $3.00. You may ship them in any kind of a hive or box you choose, but as every extra lb. adds to the express charges, which yoii are to pay, I would suggest that, they be put in a light strong box, with the top and bottom of wire cloth. The Express Go's will return you the boxes and wire cloth without charge. We have so far recovered from the severe chas- tisement inflicted by the "Growlery," that we are able to fill ail orders .nlmost the day they are re- ceived, and I trust with but few mistakes. The brick factory is located on the IT acre honey farm, the cellar dug, and the stone for the foundation partly on the ground. A side track from the R. R. is to-day being laid, that our lumber, tin, wax, etc. maj' be unloaded directly at our doors ; while the apiary runs back into the grounds, where there is a stream and a bit of natural woodland. This stream is to be made into a pond for a pleasure boat in summer, and for skating and ice for the wax works in wnter. So much for business. One of the buildings formerly used for the Fair is to be our chapel for our Sabbath morning Bible class, and wo ai-e just now digging a well, th;it is to supply a constant stream of water for the drinking tank to be placed in front of the factory. Every body is to be induced, if possible, to drink pure water, and a rope of moral suasion is to be put around the saloon across the way; and Tut! tut! tut! Novice ; before you find very much fault with your neighbors, had you not better look after your "Gi-owlery" at home ? W e have had so many cases of suffocation in shipping powei-ful colonies in hot weather, that we now ship all in the Simplicitv hive, with wire cloth over top and bottom; with this current of air right Prof. Cook's new Manual of the Apiai'.v is out, and a very pretty book it is. It is brimful of pic- tures, and they are not only excellent in execution, but are chosen from subjects that will be most sure to interest bee-keepers of the present dav. The paper and printing are benutiful, and friend Cook's style of writing is much like his way of talking, so kind and genial, so friendly and considerate of the feelings of all, that I feel like thanking God that we have such a man as Prof. Cook, to take hold of the subject of bee-culture, in this inth century, in the masterly way in which he has done it. This is my verdict on reading it over. "Of course then, you will advise all to buy this book, and to buy it in preference to all others, since it is new, and' quite up to the times?" perhnps a thousand or two of my readers will say. My friends. I know from past experience, that it is my duty to 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 229 be a little careful, how I answer this oft repeated question, as to what book you shall buy. If I could have my own way, I would have you read all the bee hooks we advertise for sale; but a great many of you say you have not the money for all, and still more say they have not the time to read them, and (juite a good many, after reading several authors, get the whole so mixed up, especially wliere eoiUiieting di- rections are given, that they "seem to be worse off than if they had read only one brief treatise, and followed it. In answering the questions asked by thousands of beginners, I have found this latter trouble, perhaps, the worst of them all. This is especially the case with my way of treat- ing the subject of bee culture. I have not followed the old stereotyped ways of doing things, and the simple style of hives, extractors, section boxes, etc., that I have inti-oduced, were made with a view of having the different operations in bee culture fol- low along in one regular system. If they are used as I advise iu the ABC, you will find it straight, plain sailing; but if you attempt to mix them up with all the various plans, hives, and machinery afloat, you will come to much confusion, if not to "Blasted Hopes." While I hold myself responsible for all the teachings of the A B C, I cannot be re- sponsible f(^r those of friend Cook's Manual. Per- haps, my way of doing things is a narrow and eon- traetedone, but I cannot see how I can well help it, with the sea of work that looms up before me. If you choose the manual for your guide, you will have to go to friend Cook with your (luestions. If you wish me to advise you at every step, I prefer you should follow A B C; and by this, I do not say that the latter will be a better work, by any means; for friend Cook, wjth his superior education and training, is probably a better writer than I can ever hope to be, although I may excel him in mechani- cal work, and inventive genius. I cannot but feel that my friend has erred sadly, in so vehemently defending a few patent hives, smokers, etc. In this age of progress, these things are so rapidly passing away, it seems a pity, to have such a book "marred by their unsightliness. In de- fence of patents, friend Cook states Mr. Weiss to have been the original inventor of rolls for making fdn., and that the invention was taken from him without so much as a word of thanks. On page 29, of Gleanings for 1876, 1 made, as I fully believed, the first suggestion that fdn. should be made with rollers; and stated that a mechanic was then at work on a pair of rollers for me. This statement went to N. Y., and all over our land, yet not a word was said of my not being the first one to suggest that fdn. should be made on rollers, in sheets, as I then expressed it, a "mile long". Before deciding on rollers, I wrote Mr. Long that his sheets, 5 by 16 inches, were too shoi-t to fill an L. frame, and asked if he could not make them .iust one inch longer. This he said he covild not do, for Mr. Weiss' plat£« Avere only 16 inches long. When it was afterward claimed that Weiss had rollers before mine, I wrote to Mr. Sisson who had charge of the Magazine, ~a.n6. I have his letter now, assuring me that Weiss used plates, for he had them in his possession. In giving the world rolls to make their fdn., neither Mr. Washburn nor myself ever had the remotest idea that John Long's fdn. was made on rolls. If $100 is a great price, why has not Weiss or some one else during all these years furnished them cheaper. You arc all welcome to all the secrets in mechanics, or anything else, I have in the world; and where I have borrowed the idea of others, I believe I am ready to pay up. The Manual figures, and thereby recommends, a S40 machine. As quite a number have been deluded, by false promises and state- ments, into sending for these, I feel it a duty to publish one of the letters I have received in regard to them. A. I. ROOT.-Dear Sir:— The machine came safely to hand. You ought to have a medal for getting up an article to work so nicely. It is a satisfaction to do work with it, and tnorc particularly f^o, after having Ixithcrcd with one of those Bourgemeyer thinas. J. Oatman & Sons. Dundee, 111., June mth, 1878. I feel that friend Cook has made a bad mistake also, in regard to dsite side from the rabbet, nail a little block so that, when the frame is in place, the bottom piece can be sprung over this block, and hold the frame snugly in place, with the comb guide in the rabbet. Lay your fdn. on the comb guide, and on it lay a thin strip as wide and long as the fdn. This pressed fii-mly down will prevent the fdn. from kinking while being rubbed tight with the warm iron rod. I have a quart tin can placed over a lamp, filled with hot water, and keep the irons in it. With this arrangement, the 230 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. July fdn. can be fastened in the shop, the operator can keep cool, and the cook, in a g-ood humor. O. Brumfield. Brumfleld Station, Ky., June Vth, 1878. DO BEES CHOOSE THEIR HIVES BE- FORE SWAUiniNG t BOME claim that bees which go to the woods have their trees picked out. My father was a , _ great bee man, and I have followed swarms and hunted bee trees for 18 years. My experience teaches me that swarms hunt their trees as they go. I have seen them spread 15 rods and search as they went. I noticed two swarms in particular, one had gone to one side and past the tree, but I saw a few bees flying round the hole, and the rest drew up and went in. The other searched through one body of timber and went to another. When they had got part way through they gathered to a tree, then started again, and went slow enough so that I could watch every move thev made. When they got to the edge of the woods, they gathered to a large oak. I noticed a few bees Hvinir round a limb of an other oak, and thev kept gatlieritig till the whole swarm came. I cut the limb and took it home. In trans- ferring, I found old comb of a swarm that had died. 1 have found a great many trees that had old comb. I have seen bees flying round holes in trees, when some would think they were hunting homes; I think they were hunting water. I have cut trees where they were flying from morning till night, and found nothing but water in them. Ashland, Ohio, June 10th, 1878. T. I. Elliott. I am inclined, friend E., to think you are right, and tliat bees do very often Inmt up a location, after the whole swarm has got into the woods ; but, even in that case, we might fix our decoy hives in such a way as to attract their attention, can we not? the idea that they go into these hollows for wa- ter is also a sln-ewd one ; from the Avay they visit stagnant pools, holes in the ground, etc.. I should think it quite proba- ble that they would go into hollow trees tliat might contain Avater. It would furnish them a nice place secure from wind, and the rotten wood would give them a secTure foot iiold, where they might drink "their till." I know bees are very partial to trees that have old comb, where swarms have habited before. aUEEN CAGES. lipHERE is one trouble with our candy jll queen cages, and that is, when we wish — ' to release a queen, we have got to wait the pleasure of her ladyship in coming out. This is a small item, but where one has hundreds of queens to introduce in a few days, as we do now, it is quite a loss of time. .V "cage that allows the whole top to slide off is better, because we can pick the queen right tip, and go on. Another thing ; it is (pute a difficult matter to make these queen cages for 5c, or $4.00 per hundred. Well, you see I got an idea in my head, that a cage might be made entirely by machinery, without any hand work about it, and I "walked aroimd the stairway" many times over it. but could not get it quite to satisfy me. Finally, some little pine cages came one day, in the mail, contaming some black ! hive, you will soon have cross bees, to your sorrow. queens, by mail. Please let us know, through Gleanings, what the post office law is about sending (lueens by mail. The post master, at this place, refuses to mail them. Have 1 a rigiit to the use of the mails in sending queens to my customers? or have I no right? Let us know just wliat rights queen dealers have in tho matter, and oblige many. N. S. Ames. Napa City, Cal., May 3.5th, 1878, Thei-e is no law against sending queens by mail, as some have stated it, but there is a'ruling to the effect that bees are unmaila- ble matter. This ruling was made, I be- lieve, by one of the assistant P. M. Gs.. for tlie reason that the officials woidd get stung, if bees were so permitted to go, and also "tliat the honey sent with them might daub the other mail matter. With strong, secure cages, the former objection is remov- ed, and with the use of the candy instead of honey, the latter is removed. If I am cor- rect, every P. M. has the privilege of tising his own jfidgment to a certain extent, in al- lowing the public to use the mails for their accomodation. Accordingly our Medina P. AI. has, all along, told us we miglit send our queens by mail, if they were carefiUly and strongly" put up, at least until positive 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 235 and special orders ^vere giveji to the con- trary. I believe nearly all tlie post masters in the U. 8. have adopted a siniilai- course, ;uid if you will show tliis item to yoin- P. ^L and explain the matter with one ot the <'andy cages, I am inclined to think he will do the same. It is a very difficult matter to make these rulinj^s such that they shall do exact justice in all cases, and some very amusing dilemmas liave occurred in trying to obey them to the exact letter. Mr. James \'ick has given us many illustrations of this, but, while lie has shown the absurdity of trying to comply with these requirements, I fear he has not always made it plain that he could have done any better, had he been <'ompelled to take the places and duties of these much blamed othcials. SMOKEIIS. I have rfhw used the Improved guinby .smoker two weeks, and am led to tielieve that it is equals to the Bingham, and that is praise enough. Lansing, Mich., May ], IHTS. A. J. Cook. A GOOD day's work. 1 will give you my daj-'s work for to-day. This luorniry? I mounted my nag, rode .5 miles, trans- ferred two hives of bees, and g-ot one dollar for it; ixot one subscriber for Gleanings; went half a mile further, transferred one more swarm, and got half a dollar for that; got my dinner, and started h( mo; went about one-founh of a mile, found a fine <'olony of bees, in a tree, about 1.5 feet from the ground, working out of two holes about o feet apart. '"How is that for highV" Please find en- closed 60 cts. for Gleanings, one year. This makes 12 subscribers I have sent you this year, and I am the only one out ot the 12, that ever took a bee .journal before. Lewis Nigh. P. S.— I forgot to tell you, in the right place, that J got home at half-past o o'clock. Lamar, Mo., May 2:3d, 1878. I can imagine, my friend, something how you felt as yoii rode home. If we could suc- ceed so well every day, we would hardly be titted to appreciate a good days work, and so. I suppose, it is best that we have a great many days when everything seems to go backward instead of forward, in spite of all Ave can do. Who can tell of a better day's work than friend N. madeV Now do not be afraid to talk out, boys? He is probably an enthusiast, or he would not have got his eye on all these bees, and odd jobs of trans- ferring. TURNIPS. Last year, I procured a quantity of turnip seed iname losti from Scotland, of a sort that would re- main unhurt in the field all winter, for pasturage for sheep. This I sowed in my corn field and tf)bac- co lots, at their last working, so as to save labor. All along, I had a good bite for the ewes, and when ihey shot up to seed, I took the sheep off, and con- spfiuently had acres of pasture that was perfectly \er ihis sjn-ing, I find it in much the same condition which it was in when fed. I can find none that is candied in the cell or under the hive, showing that the use of acid, to cut the grain of the sugars is not neces- sary. I was about to write you, stating that just the reason why I liked the metal corners was because of their very "siickery .slickeryness," when, in lift- ing a hive p;vrtly filled with combs, honey, and bees, it tipped a little to one side, and all went to the ground in a broken, mashed up mass; so I guess I will postpone the writing till some other time. Careless; Of course 1 was. J. H. Townley. Tompkins, Mich., May 18th, 1878. The little plane is quite a gem; every person that sees it, wants it. K. V. Ackeu. Williamston, S. C, May 27th, 1878. I One thing which 1 like about your journal is that [ you say "i." When a fellow means "1," 1 don't bke j him to include me and everjbidj' else, and say j "we," especially if he has been, or is, doing s( mt- ; thing mean. Dr. A. C. W]lli.\m.'-. I Hugo, 111., May 25th, 1878. ' Thank you. I have used I instead of we, because I could not feel it to he right, to give my individual oj-inions in any other way. 1 feel a little guilty, wlien I say ''we." but wlien I say ''1, " I know that I am tell- ing tlie plain simple truth, a.nd when I am doing that. I am not afraid of anything or anybody. I know some of the friends scold a gi-eat deal, because I mix uj) my pronouns, but I do not see how I can well do dift'erent- ly. and convey just the idea I wish to convey. fastening foundation in the frames. I think I can surpass any invention yet spoken <.f in the journals, lor fastening n^undation into frames, sections, etc. I do it thus:— Here follows a description t)f an appara- tus essentially the same, as the one de- scribed in our price list, under head of "The Melted Wax Plan.-^ Procure a tin popper box about 2 inches in diame- ter, and o inches deep; remove the lid, and oppoeile the handle, Ik nd tlie cup so as to form a Md that will run a stream about \a of an inch in diameter; ne.\t, have a tub of cold water to work over, so as to (atch all waste wa.\; also, have another vessel (a coal oil can with a veiy small spout is good; filled witu wa- ter. Take your boards fitting so as to come half way into the frame, and bring the fdn. in the proper place; fill the pepper box with very hot wa.x, hold the frame in the left hand over the tub, inclined at an angle of 4't degrees each way, and pour wax on at the top of the fdn., moving the cup along the frame from one end to the other; then instantly set the pepper box over a lamp to keep it hot, and catching uiJ the oil can of water, pour a stieam of cold wa- ter over the hot wax. so as to cool it quick. Repeat the operation for each frame. If the pepper box becomes clogged at the spout, hold it in the lamp blaze until the wa.x is removed. If hot wax. is used as I use it, I defy any man to put in fdn. any more securely than 1 do. 1 send you, bj' tr-day's mail, a sample enclosed in a small box, so as to show you hf)w neat my work is, as well as secure. I can pu t in from 5 to 7 per minute, 18 inches lop.g. saving ^j of the wax used bv other plans. L. W. IJeits. Willsboro, Del., May 2t.th, 1878. Thank you, friend 15., for the idea ot the stream of cold water. . The sami)le you send shows the work beautifully done, witliout any mi.stake. but y(ni certainly do use more wax than is used l)y the plan of ndibiug the sheets fast to tlie cnml) guide. The only ob- jection to the latter plan is that so many say they ''can"f. Doing from ■") to 7 per minute is pretty fast work. 230 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. June I must say your little smoker is a perfect little pay for, and no more. Where the price is ♦fem. Thomas H. Price, j veiy low, a publisher cannot well atford to i run small accounts, all over the land. Geneva Lake, Wis., May 12th, 1878. REMEDY FOR THE BLACK FLEAS ON RAPE. If you are troubled wntii the black flea on your rape patch, dust it with ashes, when the dew is on in the morning-. I have no trouble now. The Chaff hive is ahead of all others for section honey, with me. I made new honey in Feb. Bees all wintered well. Sweet clover is beginning' to bloom, 4 feet high. Alex Fiddes. Centralia, 111., May 9th, 1878. Ought the leather part of the smokers to be oiled? King's Creek, O., May 38th, '78. A. L. Morgan. I presume it would do no farther harm, than to make the implement untidy, and rather unpleasant to handle. Unless the leather should get very hard and stift", I do not think I would oil it, but you might try it and rei>ort. I live in north Mississippi, at a point near latitude :i4^ longitude 90 '. I keep bees. I have tried comb fdn. and find it insures straight comb, if one-half a slieet, cut diagonally, be fastened by the long base uii(( the hypothenuse), to the top bar of each al- ternate frame in the hive. 1 find that the top bar of the all wood frames you supply to the trade, is too thin and flexible for safety in tliis warm climate, at least 1.5 per cent of them saggin-r, when the Lang- stroth frame is filled with eight 11 is. of honey in new (•omb, whether built on fdn. or not. I think, but do not know, tliat threads of strong linen, or fine wires, worked into the (;omb fdn., would be a great safe- guard against cracking and bending while extract- ing, or in th'j lower story (lurintr hot weather. You (!omplain of propolis being liard to remove from the lingers. It is generally a species of waterproof pitch or gum, of a nature similar to tar or pine resin, and can be readily removed, by dipping the smeared part in lard or other oil, nibbing it until the pitch and the greise are blended, then using ordinary soap and old water. The process need not occupy half a minute. H. A. Moody, M. D. ' Longtown, Miss , May 21st, 1878. Our top bars are now made stronger, as has l>eeii e\i»l-iined. Threads of linen, or of any other substance of sucli a nature, will be picked at by tlie bees, until it is all torn out, thus wasting their valuable time, be- sides defeating our object. They doubtless feel suspicious of any such foreign body, be- cause it so nearly resembles the'tibres of the nests of the moth worais. The copjier wires will answer, but. at present, I l>elieve we are generally well enough pleased with the fdn. as it is. "without going to all this troub- le. Many thanks for your hint on lu-opolis. We sliall have to have a neat little '-lard l)ot.'' fastened uj) by the soap and Avash t)asin. STOPIUNG .JOURNALS. The April Xo. of CiLEANINGS being my last, for the year for which I subscribed, I am pleased that you do not send more, until you are asked to do so and paid. I should be pleased, if the habit of sending papers which have not been ordered or paid for were broken up. I have had my patience some- whiit tried in this way. " E.Cheney. Winnecnnne, Wis., May 21st, 1878. I am very glad, my friend, that you ap- prove of our course. . Some of our "friends scold, if we stop it at the expiration of the time, and some, if we do not stop it ; and it is. tlierefore. a little dillieult to strike just tlie best way to i)ieasc- all, but I think by far the greater numbei- approve tlie more modern way of giving you just what you I send you my account of last year's "beeing." The season was not good. No honey gathered to speak of after July 5th; drouth very severe. I win- tered my 28 swarms safely; half in" cellar, the rest on summer stands packed in boxes with hay. Lost two by thieves. Here is the result. Dr. To lumber and machine work on hives and boxes $21.00 '• two queens 2.20 " foundation 1.50 " obser-ving hive l.Oi) Totol expenditures $25.70 Cr. Extracted honev 2.52 lbs. Comb " 250 lbs. Total 502 lbs. Average 18c $;90.3f> By 4 swarms sold without hive 17..50 " 8 hives and boxes on hand _ 20.00 " 12 swarms increase, (5j $5 " 60.00 Total receipts Total expenditui-es. 87.8e 35.70 My own work and profit S163,ie Not much honey gathered from fruit blossoms (too cold and wet), only sufficient for brood rearing; but thev are getting strong, ready for white clover. Ann Arbor, May 18th, 1878. N. A. Pkudden. I would like to have some of your subscribers in Mass., and in Worcester Co., in particular, inform me, through Gleanings, how much honey good hives of Italians will produce in the state and coun- ty named. I mean surplus honey and taking the hives as they average. Will some bee-keeper be kind enough to give the information and oblige. Geo. O. Churchill. Darwin, Cal., May 22d, 1878. If I am not mistaken, such questions are very difficult to answer. In almost any lo- cality, if the circumstances are aU right, 100 lbs. or more may be obtained from one colo- ny in a season, but the general results will be all the way from nothing up. Perhaps the general average is about 50 lbs., when increase is prevented, throughout the coun- try. What do our friends in Mass. sayV SWARMING WITHOUT BROOD. I transferred 15 stands April 18th, and got only two stings, one by accident, the other intentionally. Bees were in good condition. Lost none >vintering. May 4th, one colony east a large swarm. It was a- raw chillj' day, so much so that the beos, by the thousands, were chilled and fell on the ground. At first. I was at a loss what to do with them; but I finally concluded to give them a sheet of brood and a new hive. I went to the mother hive to get the brood, and to my utter surprise, not one particle of brood was to be found. Now, why was there no brood? There was a queen came out with the swarm for I saw her. Why did they swarm on such a day? E. H. Crippe.v. Moscow, Ind., May .5th, 1S78. If the hive was full of bees, they had cer- tainly had brood very recently: I think they swarined out because they kiiew something was wrong, and kneAV not what else to do. Bees will swarm out of their hive, for a vrning for our 'Sunday's work. True enough, the places of business were all open, and the first individual I accosted, used so many oaths in his reply, tliat I could hardly get an opportimity to get in a mild 'reproof, i did get it in however, but when he found out who I was, he used another oath, to ex- press his pleasure in seeing me. I asked him if he was not going to Sunday school, but he said he sent his little girl, and gave lier a penny etery Sabbath, and he thought that enough. How is it, my friend? Is that the way i/nu do, and ix it enough? "But why do not you go too?" "'Oh I did go one "spell, but they quarreled so nuich ther\ that 1 could not stand it, so I staid awav. and said I would never go any more, and I have kept my promise." Now it c;)me,s very natural to s_iy, tin!; this was only a pretext or a;n excuse for staying away, and for swearing, but some- thing seemed to tell me that day, tliat I must not hnd fault, but must look for some good lesson, or moral, from all that was said on the other side. By inquiry, I found that the S. S. folks had quarreled," just a lit- tle at any rate, and the lesson here was, be very cai-eful about having quarrels or con- troversies that, might deter any casual visit- or, from regular attendance. After I had looked about the town some, and talked with a few of the people, I began instinctively to feel that I needed with me, the weight and influence of all the most in- fluential people I could find. I needed to attack the enemy, on all sides at once, and to bring all the artillery I coidd scrape up, to bear directly on this' Sabbath day matter. I had a good talk witli the superintendent of the school, who is a young convert, and felt almost discouraged ; then Fred and I hunted up all the ministers of the different denominations, and placed the matter be- fore them, as best we could, and called upon th(?m to aid us in our endeavors to have the Sabbath day kept inviolate. In every case, I was astonished to hnd such a cordial good. will manifested, and sucli a willingness to join in and help, even though it brought pastors and people in contact with others, wlio, as near as I could learn, knew nothing I of each others fields of labor, even though : but a narrow street sei)arated tlieir respec- ; five churches. Every one with whom we 1 talked, exi>ressed joy at the prospect of a quiet Sabbath day, and when we hnally ap- proached the salocnis, the matter had been thoroughly canvassed before we called, and, ' as near as I could jndge, a general feeling had sprung up, that it would be better to ' close up except on week days. When I passed along the street, in the morning, and saw the stores open, and the people sitting quietly around, it seemed a terribly hard. task for a stranger to go to them, and find fault with the manner in which they con- ducted the affairs of their own town, but after we were once really in the work, the difficulties that had loomed up so formidably 1 during the day, wiien I tiiought of the woiiv", j had so completely vanished, that I felt almost '' as much at ease, as in talking to the children j in the Sabbath school, ^it our last call, a 1 smart lawyer took me to task in a way, that would probably have upset me, and the spir- I it in wliich I had commenced, had I not been , armed and equii)ped for just such trials, by praying beforehand, that God would take care of the work in whicli we were engaged. I had commenced to remonstrate with the proprietor of (jnite a large brick lirug store, I and while we were talking, he came in and j took a seiit. I purposely made a pause, as I ; inferred that he hud something to say, when he spoke somewhat as follows. "Mr. Root, we J^iverpool people have our faults, and may not always do just right, but, for all that, we claim "^to be as moral a i people as those up in Medina. We, in com- j mon with the rest of the American people, claim the privilege of worshiping God, ac- cording to the dictates of our own con- science. I have been at work to-day, and I 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 239 i\o not know that it is any body's business, if I choose to work every '.Sunday. Sir, is it any worse to work on the Sabbath, than to go "to prayer meeting Siniday evening, talk and pray with the young pe'ople, and then go home and soak your building with coal oil and set Hre to it,' just to defraud the in- surance companies of tlieir Jionest earn- ingsV" Now, I shall have to ex])lain, my friends, that it is true, that one of oiu'citizens. a man that stood high in the estimation of almost every body, did come to our young i)eople"s prayer meeting, and although he did not join in prayer, he talked to the young folks, ;!nd made professions of Christianity, and then, that very night, saturated the con- tents of his store and dwelling, which were all together, and set tire to them. There was a zero temperature at the time, and it was with extreme difficulty that our tire engine could be made to work. Our whole town was in danger of destruction, for his store was right in the midst of a long block of tall buildings. The lives of our citizens also, and our tiremen. were greatly endan- gered. I replied, ■'! heartily agree with you, my friend, that you have no such men in Liver- pool, and that the crime was innneasiu'ably worse than Sabbath breaking ; but the Me- dina people have not sent me here, and know nothing of my errand." "Who did send you? and where is your nuthority?'" "God sent me, and the book that com- mands us all to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, is my authority, if such it may be called. I do'not come to dictate, or to find fault, but only, in a friendly way, to suggest, and to beg the iirivilege of talking over the matter pleasantly." ''But you have tried Sabbatli school work 1800 (?) years, and yet the world is only growing worse. Do you not think it is time to try something better?" ''Then you do think, my friend, that we are growing worse, and that Sabbath schools are insufficient?" ''Yes." "And will you not come over to the ])rayer meeting to-niglit. and give us suggestions in regard to a better way?" "I yv\\\ tell you a better way ; there is too 3nuch whisky drank and sold in tliis town, and the remedy is to prosecute both the drinker and the seller, according to law, and then they would stop it." "It may be l)est, but, my friend. I would ratlier go to the man who g'ets drunk, and to the man who sells tlie drink to him. and talk with both of tliem, in the same pleasant and kind way in which you and I have just been talking, and I have a feeling that neither law nor ju-osecutionswill be needed. That is the way in which I would make the Sabbath schools a power in our land, and a way of w(n'king in which I Innir (Jod will be with us." "You are right, Mr. Root. I know you are right ; your plan can do no hann, for it nev- er makes enemies. Go on, and do not be discouraged." The above mav not be his exact words. but it is the sum and substance of them, and as I thanked God that I had— no, not L but that the spirit of Christ had once more, that day, come out victorious, do you know how happy I felt? We had met enemies, but had left friends, every where we had been. We had an excellent ]n-ayer meeting that night, and the few words which the young superintendent spoke, as he publicly conse- crated his life to the work, were worth going miles to hear. After he sat down, a man who had been for yenrs a professor, but who had never thought it his duty to go to Sim- day school, until I had had a talk with him that day, got up, and promised to give his life and energies also, and to stand by his young brother. Others took up the key note, and after meeting closed, one who had never been a professor, came to me, and said he, too, was ready to enlist, and give God the remainder of his life. My friends, do you not think I felt on my way home, that^tliere was a pretty fair prosi)ect that business would give way to tlie Sabbath school on Sunday? and do you not think 1 could feel, too, that I had done a pretty fair day's work? or rather, perhajjs, that so long as God saw tit to bless my humble efforts in the way he had done that day, I could hardly afford to si)end many Sabbaths idly? It seems to me, that some of my readers, and I can't blame them, are saying, "Mr. R.. why do you not carry this same spirit and armor, into your work among the bee journals? and disarm by kindness those who speak so harshly and uid'jiudly of you, now and then? why are you mixed up in so many quaiTels and controversies?" I humbly acknowledge the justice of the reproof, but yet, I do not know how to do very much differently. Could I see the par- ties who censure me so severely, and talk with them as I did with those last' Sunday, — I do not know about that, after all. When 1 am doing mission work, I am in a different mood. I am then free from l)usiness, am working without pay, and prepared to turn the other cheek also, with more thorough consecration, than at other times. I am afraid it is not possible to get through this world, and have everybody feel pleasant to- ward you, especially, if you are going to take the part to a very great "extent, of those who are being wronged ; but I do know that kindness and gentleness might, a great many times, be substituted for severity. It takes a gi'eat deal of wisdom, to decide on the best course in such matters, and I ana afraid your friend errs a great deal, in tliis direction. I can talk kindly with a druid^en man who is abusing his wife, or the one who sells liim the drink, but the man who goes around de- manding and getting money from people who are using a simple bee bi^'e. claiming falsely that he lias a patent covering it, I am afraid I should not treat ])le;'.santly ; or even if I did, I am afraid he would not feel kindly to me, if I spoiled his business, es- pecially, if he had some slim excuse for his coui-se. About the man who attended the prayer meetings, and tlien set his building on fire ; although lie has attended these meetings considerably, for the past year or two, during 240 gleani:ngs in bee cultuee. July which time he has resided with us, he has not been a member of any of our churches. He was zealous in defending the cause, but not very ctuistmt in his attendance, nor had lie tiiken any part in our Sabbath schools ; although he had, before he ciime to our town, be^n a Sabbath school superintendant. In a talk tliat I had with him in the jail, he stated verv positively, tliat the event could never have happened, had he read his Bible, and asked God to guide him in the right patli. as had been his wont, in former times. I think it very likely that he came to meet- ing that evening, and siwke, for the purpose of leading suspicion away from himself ; for he i>oiu-ed on tlie coal oil, both before and after this meeting. If a man defends the truth strongly, and yet is net a truthful man, what shall we thinkr' or if a man who has been upright and truthful all his life sud- denly gives \^ay to falsehood and crime, what stiall we think of himV It simply re- minds me of the great need there is for us all to remember how wily is Satan, and how gi-eat is the danger of yielding in some un- guarded hour. This man, I do not know out that I can say friend, for we had been on ({uite friendly terms, told me that when the temptation lirst presented itself to him as a means of sretting out of debt and saving him- s"lf froui bankruptcy, he spurned the thought from him as would almost any one but tliat it kept constantly recuiTing, and he linaliy harbored it, long enough to himplv sp^-culate on how it mi^ht be done ; even up to the last minute, he liad not dili- iiitely decided on the crime, but something seemed to urge him on, as if it were in a dream. I^ad me not into temptation. I hive felt, all along, that this occurrence would be brouarlit forward, to prove that ; reli'^ion was not a correctire for crime, and j one'of our readers asked, if I did not fear I the tendency of Sabbath schools to evil, | with such results before my face. My | friends, there is a broad gulf between going to Sabbath school as my fi'iend who has ! been so often in jail for bein^ intemperate , now does, and the way in which this man | did. The former goes to be tuight, and i with a humlile, honest desire to learn, and j to get the strength he knows he so sadly lacks. The latter wentr-I will give you just one illustration. Dm-ing his two years stay in our town, he taught a class just once— a class of boys, and our boy was one of them. During this first lesson, he told the boys tliere was no harm in dancing and card playing of themselves, and that there was no impropriety, or inconsistency in going to a prayer meeting and to a dancing party the s'une evening, if they chose. His very boys r-belled at such teaching, and right tliere, corrected tiieir own te remove the lower frames, a portion of tlie back end of the upper story is made remov- able. This piece has the central i)art of the rabbet on its top edge ; it also hangs by its top edge, something as a frame does. This idea is not especially new, for "dummies" in a bee hive are an old device ; but the idea is new, of making this dummy a frame of candy, or a feeder similar to the Dunham feeder. To take out the lower frames, you tirst remove the 4 central frames that hang on the dummy ; the dummy is then lifted I out and laid down, or hung on a nail as our friend suggests. You can now move any of the lower frames under this opening, and remove any or all of them. When you put the dummy back, no bees are killed, because it touches only at the points of support like a frame. Eurthermore, it is not really nec- essary to lift the dummy out, for it can be moved back into a recess, just large enough to receive it. and not large enough to alloAV of combs being built. He writes : It is said that every bed-room should have a clos- et We think this one will not come amiss. The rery want of just such a place has induced vis, here- tofore, to cut a hole rujht tlirowjh aU our chaff cush- ions, inserting a small box, without bottom, in which to keep a flour candy brick in wmter, and in the spring a tin feeder filled with g-rape sugar, for stimulatire feeding. We tuck in a handful ot rags on the top of the feeder. It is the "boss way to feed Our bees used the candy all winter, and had hatching bees in 3 and 3 combs in February, etc. You can examine and feed in the coldest weather, without disturbing, can aec when they want more, and you have no large empty space m tne hive when it is gone. Should dysentery occur, the candy j is not stained. ! The principal objection I should have, i-s i that it is a loose piece to the hive, that , would get out of ''kilter,-' and get lost ; the ! bees would, in time, stick it so tight that it 1 would be difficult to pry out, and I fear it 1 would in the end be more trouble to get it out, than to lift out the few remauiing I frames, after we had once taken out tlie four central ones as we are obliged to do in either case. I verv much dislike, my friends, to tind fault with all the plans you submit, but 1 cannot but feel that I am do- ing you a kindness, in advising the plain, simple plan, without machinery, that I gave you in the Chaff hive. We have got our slate factory goin^, and can now furnish rery nice little slates, somewhat smaller than those furnished by friend Newman, for one cent each. We find them very handy for a multi- tude of purposes, aside from the queen cards. They are useful to note down all about feeding, brood, queens, etc., etc. Also, if you have purchased a queen, vou can note on tlie slate where she came from, and all about it. They have been especiallj hiiudy for us in this respect, for we have purchiisort munv hundred (lueens this season, already. Wet the slate before you write, and the writing will be in 1 no danger of being obliterated. Price by mail will : be 2c each. 1878. GLEANINGS IK BEE CULTURE. 241 Cash for Beeswax! Will pay 30c per lb. for any quantity of nice clean wax delivered at our R. B. station. A. I. ROOT, Medina, O. QUEENS! QUEENS! I have propagated and sold Italian queen bees for the past 10 years, and will supply a large number for 1S78. Tested queen, $-Z.OO; warranted, $1.50; un- warranted, $1.00. Safe arrival guaranteed. Address Wm. HOLLAM, Kewaskum, 7-8d Washington Co., Wis. 1878. ITA.TL.TA.TV QTJEEIVS. 1878. Large, very handsome and prolific. Warranted $1.25: unwarranted *1.00; tested $3.00. No money required until purchaser receives his queens. Send for circular. Address H. ALLEY, Wenham, Mass. Italian queens from an imported mother, full stocks and nuclei. Price list free. 7d O. H. TOWNSEND, Hubbardston, Mich. Tin for Separators and S^tractors. As we buy in large quantities, I can perhaps give you better rates than you are getting at home. Price per box of 113 sheets, size 14x20, for Separators $6 25 " " sheet, for less than a box 7 IX tin for making Extractors, 14x20, per box 9 00 •* " per sheet Ifl We will ship it from Medina, or from Philadelphia, as may be most convenient. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. SMOHE AND SMOKEHS. I am overwhelmed with letters asking "which size of smoker is the best?" Mr. J. E. Hetherington ordered eight of the large for Im apiaries, and for coarse f ml they are the best. The Standard is what its name implies, and consti- tutes the hulk of sales so far. The small is a pretty implement answering nicely for a few colonies of bees, and to kill lice on house plants; it is larger, however, than the improved Quinby. The first "Direct Draft" smoker ever sold has been used one year, and sold for one dollar, as the gentle- naan wanted a large size. It was a Standard and he paid $2.00 and says "he would not be without one a single day in the season for the price." They go aU the time and btuii sound or rotten wood, tohctfco, or sulphur. Dircetious sent with every smoker. These smokers are a necessity in modern hcc cultiMr, and are i)iiUsiii})s-if}/ri:}h of House Api iry 2:) i—'Th it Present,'''' JSovice aad Blue Byes 25 ^—E Iters >>i's Binder for Gleanings, will hild ^^ Volumes 5C H— " *' better atiality fiO 't^Pocket Mir/nifyi'ij Olass 80 S— First or s.-'cond T'oi'ttms o/ Gleanings.. 75 ^>—Best quility Einersoa's Binder for Glt^anings 75 10~-Double Lens M'jtfnitier,on 3 brass feet 1,00 11— P/iO^o Medley, Bee-Keepers of America\,OQ 12 — First and second Vol. (i/'GLEANlNGS..l,50 13 — A real Compound Microscope, beauti- fully finished, and pa<'ked with Imple- ments in a Mahogany Box 3 15 ^i— Opera Glass for Bee Iluntino $5.00 Xumber of Sub- scri'iers required at or at 75c. 1.00 5 2 5 •2 5 2 ft 2 fi 3 ;{ 7 3 4 8 4 9 4 9 4 10 6 20 8 25 10 BKOS.' Circular and Prices of Italian Bees sent free. 4-0 Elizabethtown, Ind., Box 37. Superior Double Kefined Grape Hugur for feedinj? bees @ 3V2C per lb. in barrels of 37.') lbs., and 4c in boxes of .")0 or 110 lbs. Crystal Glucose Svrup .5c per lb. by the barrel. We will furnish the above, at above prices, direct from the factory, at Davenport, Iowa, or deliver it on the cars here in Medina, at 'ic in advance of above prices. Any amount less than .50 lbs. will be .5c per lb. A. I. ROOT, Medina, O. FOB. SAIiE. IM Italian Queens. All of them bred from Tm- pored Mothers of my own Importations. Tested Queens $3. Untested $1. Adress JOHN A. BUCHANAN. 8d Wlntersville, Jetferson Co., O. I PAT. BINDER t fPERIODlCALS^ Imported and home bred queens ; full colonies and nucleus colonies ; bee-keeper's supplies of nil kinds. Queens bred early in the season. Send for catalogue. !ttf DR. J. P. H. BROWN, Augrista, Ga. WeTfitETan Weens D. Tremontaui, Cremoiie, Italy. April, Ma.v and June 13 francs in gold. July and August 10 " ** Sept. and Oct 7 *' Price for California and Australia, 3 francs more than above. No order for less than 8 queens is accepted. If any queens die in the trip, they must be sent back in a letter to have the right to an invoice of compensa- tion. If anyone should refuse to accept the invoice, all right to a compensation shall be lost. [The value of a franc is 18J£ cents, gold.— Ed.] D. TREMONTANI, Cremone, Italy. BAKNES' PATENT FOOT POTVER MACHINERY! CIRCULAR and SCROLL SAWg. Hand, Circular Rip Saws for hearj- and light ripping. Lathes, &c., &c- These machines are especially adapted to Hive Maltln2r« It will pay every bee-keeper to send for our 64 page Catalogue. ITEa- cliines Sent on Trial. W. F. &JOHN BARNES, Rockford, Winnebago Co., 111. You can not look over the back No's of Glean- i ijfGS or any other Periodical with satisfaction, unless they are in some kind of a Binder. Who has not said— "Dear me, what a bother— I must have last month's Journal and it is no where to be found." Pjat each No. in the Emerson Binder as soon as it comes, and you can sit down happy, any time you wish to find anj-thing you may have previously seen even though it were months ago. Binders for Gleanings (will hold them for four years), gilt lettered, free by mail for .50, 60, and 75c, according to quality. For table of prices of Bindei-s for any Periodical, see Oct. No., Vol. II. Send in your orders. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. According to (juantity Jiimght at one time. For fur- ther particulars see our Illustrated Catalogue, mail- ed on application. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. Supplies for your Apiary, send a postal card with your name (and if you will do us the kindness, those of bee-keeping neighbors) for our price list of Apia- rian svipplies of everv description, and sample sec- tional box and comb foundation. Italian queens from imported mothei'S. 3-8 J. C. & H. P. SATLES. Hai-tford, Wis. E. A^. HALLE'S Price List of Bees & (Queens for 1878. 1 Colony Italian Bees with tested queen (before July 10th) S14 00; (after July 10th) $11 00 1 Colony Italian Bees with untested queen af- ter July 10th 9.50 1 Tested Queen 3.50 1 Untested " 1 00 A discount of 10 per cent on all orders for queens of :?10.00 or more. All queens raised from import- f^d mothers. I have made arrangements to Italianize all the black bees within 3 miles of m.\' apiary, and I think nU my (pieens will be pxinly mated; all queens will be shipped in rotation, and I desire parties or- dering queens, to inform me whether they wish the money returned if the order can not be tilled at once. 3-S.l Address, E. W. HALE, Wirt C. H., West Va. All theipieens in our last importation having ar- rived dead, we shall be unable to furnish imported Cyprians for the present. Queens from our iraport- i ed mothers $10 each, purity guaranteed. IMPORTED ITALIANS. We have given explicit directions to our agents to forward us onlv the very best queens; they ai-e > to be lisrht, large, "and active. For such we must j a'ik ?;.5. each. Any that do not come up to this i stan(iard, we will dispose of at :?4. each. We will deliver at express office here in box as re- r forwiird bv mail, as requested. Safe arri- giiaranteed. No circular issued ceived or val of all ()ueen this season. . , Rea-istered If^tters or monev orders at our risk C. W. & A. H. K. BLOOD, stf Box 3:34. Quincy, Mass. DEVOTDEO TO BEIEH A.IS t> HO^VEV, AND IIOMX:: ITVTEni^fesTH. Vol. VI. AUG 1, 1878. No. 8. A. I. ROOT, Pi blisher and Proprietor. Medina, O. Published Monthly. rXFKMS: «1 .OO Ter Anuiuii in Ari- i vancc; 3 Copies for «2.oO; S/or feS.I.'; JI2slaT>l i^lierl in 1 S7.'l. Cl O o? more, 60c. each. Single Number, i Or. •} MY EXPERIENCE. NO. CLIPPING queen's wings. LHEX a queen arrived I renio\-ecl the wire cloth from the eajre, and with a pair of small scissors cut otf half or two thirds of one of the queen's wing-s. Some of the bees, and sometimes the queen, would crawl out of the cnge; but by exercising- a little patience I alwaj's succeed- ed. This operation was alwaj'S performed in a close room, before a window. UNQUEENING. To find the queen, T open the hive cavefullv, take out one of the central frames and scan it closely; if the queen is not found, I set it in an empty hive jsnd take another. I proceed in 1 his manner until I have removed all lhe combs. I look the combs over as I put them back into the hive, and if I do not find the queen I close the hive, wiiit until the bees g-et quiet, and then try aj^ain. When the queen is found. I cape her with plentv rf bees and food, and keep her until I have a laying queen in her place. One quecTi had to lie retm-ned twice, he- cause 2 queens ordered died before they reached me. I always unqueen a swarm a day or two before I expect a queen. INTRODUCING. As soon as a queen arrived her wing was clipped, and then the cage containing her was placed in a (lueenless colony. In 24 hours I cut out the qiieen cells that were started. Jn 24 hours more, if the lipcs seemed friendly to the qu^en, she was released. AVhen I released the fiueen, 1 daubed her with un- sealed honey taken from the hive into which she was to be introduced, and then allowed her to crawl upon a brood comb. As soon as the bees gathered around her, and commenced cleaning off the honey, the frames were carefully replaced and the hive closed. Every queen, with (mc exception, was introduced without any trouble. I mentioned this exception when I was writinsr about artificial swarming. When the queen was released the bees seemed friendly to her, but in a few hours 1 always found her "balled." 1 do not know why this colony acted as it did ; it had no queen or fertile workers, as they continued to build queen cells as fast as I tore them down; I think— but never mind what I think, let me tell you how T finally managed it. One frame of brood and two frames of honey were removed, the bees brushed from them, and then they were pvit into a new hive and placed on the old stand, while the old hive was carried to a new location. The qr.een was left c:igcd in the old swarm. In two days most of the old bees had re- turned to their old stand, leaving a small swarm of young bees among which to liberatethe queen. She was released as usual, and the next day was laying nicelv. I now exchanged places with the hives, put- Ting the hive containing the queen back on the old stand. In a dny or two most of the bees were back ut the old stand, and the queen still continued to lay. The three frames that were removed were now brought ba<,-k and placed in the old hive. After this the bees "behaved" themselves, the qu^en laid finely, and I was happy. I am aware that the abo^e was considerable trouble, but I was hmnul to sue" ceed. \v. Z. Hutchinson. Ilogersville, Genesee Co., Mich. I fully endorse all that our friend say.s about introducing, and I would particularlv emphasize the importance of carefully sav- ing the old queens, until you are sure the new one is safely introduced and laying. A queen can be introduced to almost any colony, if you will take the necessary pains. Bear in mind that good behavior at the start, is not always a sure indication of success. Read what this friend says: I introduced one of the queens into a eolonj' for one of my neighbors. She was accepted and is now laying. Mine, the rascals received with smiles and carrcsses, but afterwards despatched her, I suppose, as I cannot find her and there are no eggs. Pittsburgh, Iowa. July I'Jth. 18"S. K. H. Thompson. .^^.-♦.ffi^ <&.■ rs KONtY E^EAL,T2JY, ETC. fHAVE had the dyspepsia for several years, and when I commenced transferring bees this spring — I ate from one-half to three-fourths pounds of honey every day, until transferring time was over. Now I am perfectly well and weigh ten pounds moi e than I did the first of April. My wife was aftiicied with a sore throat, which the doctor said would ter- minate in consumption if not properly cared for, and that it would require three months' treatment with great care to cure her. She commenced eat- ing a little honey every day, and in three weeks her throat was as well as ever. It is easy medicine to take; try it. I will challenge any one man on transferring the greatest nvmiber of swarms this spring. I have transferred J40, and use the Gallup hive. In trans- I ferring so many, I lost only one swarm, and it left in two days, leaving the hive full of honey and brood. AVhat is the cause of that? That $1.50 queen which I got from you proved to be a good one; her j'oung all have three yellow bands. There has been much blowing through Gleanings about the Italians— that they can be handled like so many flies; but my experience is that they are the crossest things I ever saw in the shape of" bees. If any one, without any protection, were to uncover them and take out a frame, they would sting him to death in five minutes; while I can handle mv blacks with perfect ease and snfety. Still I like the little yellow fellows. I have 34 black colonies and S Ital- ians, all in good condition. M. D. Tyler. Manchester, O., July 22, 1878. Well, I have never had the dyspepsia, but I have had— a fashion of eatinggreen apples when they first come, a little in excess, and after such indiscretion, a little wisdom in diet is needed. I have found that a gener- ous allowance of clover Inniey, well ripened, a loaf of nice bread, good nice yellow butter, 2-50 GLEANIKGS IN BEE CULTURE. Aug. and a pitcher of milk, is all the medicine I need, and, as onr friend suggests, it is not at all bad to take. I do not know why the bees swarmed out, l)ut if I could have "examined the hive, per- liaps a reason mi'Jrht be assigned. You cer- tainlv have a claim to be called an experi- enced hand at transferring. If yoiu- Italians are crosser than your blacks. I should be much inclined to call them liybrids. even if tJie workers are 3 banded, and you did pur- cliase the queen of me. They may, liowev- er, be cross Italians ; for bees, both blacks and Italians, vary much in disposition. HATCHIIVG QrKENS I NDER A SITTING HKN. GETTING THKM FEK- TILIXED %V1TH01'T IN- TKO»UCING, ETC. BY OUR ORIGINAL TEXAN CORRESPONDENT. MERE we come. I have a queenless stock of bees which I found in a bee tree a few days , ag-o. and in hiving them, some of us big foot- ed folks killed the queen— stepped on her. So en- closed And $1.90, for which please send, by return mail, a dollar queen and 1 lb. of fdn. to put her on, with the biff swarm of black bees, just to give the fdn. a trial in the brood chamber. Now, friend Knot, I have been taking Gi.eaninos nearly a year, and "nary a word" can 1 find in any of them, telling a man how to raise his own queens. Some of your subscribers said the way to produce a good lot of queen cells was to hang a frame of brood in a queen- less hive, &c. This we can do, but to let them stay there don't make us any queens; and if we put this frame of cells where there is a queen, the queen or bees would tear them all down. After a hive swarms lean go there and get queen cells as soon as they are sealed over, and hatch them most any where, in a nucleus, or put them in a sufficient cage and hatch them under a sitting hen. Very well, but then comes the bigest trouble of all; how do I get them fertilized? and where will I keep them until they are ready to meet the drone? This is the puzzle with me; my miclei won't keep them when they have a queen, and if I take them out in the back yard, at about .5 days old, when drones are flying plenty, and turn therii out, they won't fly out and get fertilized and then return to the cage again. In a few minutes after I liberate her, I flnd her at the entrance of some hive with a hall of bees round her, killing her. Now, my friend, I am away down here in Texas, and have no neighboring bee-keeper to as- sist me, and I have 38 hives. I would like to Italian- ize, and it is a big expense to buy all my queens when I could get an imported one and raise my own queens. E. J. Atchley. Lancaster, Dallas Co., Texas. Artificial swarming, in the A B C, will tell you how to raise queens, friend F., and in the July number of last year I gave you quite a lengthy article on queen rearing, with illustrations. If you have really liatched queens under a sitting lien, you de- serve a medal for original experiment. It seems you have gone still further, and pushed boldly into tlie unexplored region of attempting to have queens take their flight and meet the drones, without being intro- duced to a colony. T have often thought of this, but hardly dared risk losing queens in that way. You will have to get some kind of a little hive for them, and a piece of comb containing unsealed brood, or neither the queen nor bees will be likely to return after their flight. Our neighbor, Shaw, has suc- ceeded in getting queens fertilized in little hives tliat could almost be put in one's over- coat pocket, but he had so much trouble with swarming out and robbing that lie has abandoned them. It has just now occurred to me that if we had a locality so far away from other bees that there would be no dan- ger from robbing, we might, by carrying a hive full of drones, get queens of the right age fertilized in a very snort time. and. i)os- sibly, by simply letting them out of the queen cages, one at a time. I once hatched a lot of queens in wire cages, in a hive, and let them out one at a time when eight days old. When they came back showing marks of fertilization, tliey were caught and caged before they had tinie to get into the hive. The plan succeeded, but we sometimes had to wait a couple of hours before they came back, and many of them had to fly several times before they were successful. I think queens will, eventually, be fertilized in some such way, without being introduced to a col- ony or niicleus at all. Who will work out the problem? Queens could be raised ready to be fertilized for 2oc. or less, without any trouble; but the great expense is in keeping a colony or nucleus justonimrpose to get them to laying. A queen that is kept caged until eight days cannot be introduced by any means that I know of, and even if she could, it is about as much work to introduce queens as it is to raise them. Is it possible to get them fertilized, without introducing them to hivesV If our hive contained nothing but drones, there could be no d-anger in letting the queens right out; and, it may be, not even if we let out a half dozen at once. I think they would all go back into the hive with the drones. ^►-♦O 1 HEE KILLER. Tj? SEND you a cage, with an insect that I found M with a bee this morning. How he kills the bee T^j I can't tell; but when he has once accomplish- ed that, he holds to something with one foot in a swinging position, and holds the bee with his other foot. In an instnnt he can drive his bill plumb up into a bee, seemingly up into his honev sack, and suck the honey. It is not easily scared, as you cnn handle the cage roughly, and ho does not let go the bee. If he arrives alive, give him a bee and see his actions. T. B. Pabkeb. Goldsboro, N. C, July 13th, 1878. The insect spoken of above was received dead. It is undoitbtedly the •'bee-killer," or Asilus ^lissouriensts, described by Prof. A. J. Cook in his "Manual of the Apiary,'' page 267, of Sd edition. Here is an engrav- ing made from the specimen we received. It is found only in the southern part of our country. Prof. Cook describes it as a two winged fly, strong, and very quick on the wing, which captures the bee, and feeds on its fluids. JOINEK. s^KIEND NOVICE :— I received the smoker in if*] good order and am well pleased with it. ^ fuel for smoker.s. After trying several kinds of fuel, I give the preference" to cotton rags, as making the most smoke and least heat, and being easiest got, when paper rags are but 3 cts. per pound. A half pJGS IN BEE CULTUEE. Aug. A VISIT AVITH ONE OF THE ABC CLiASS. HILE I read in Gleanings that A took so many hiiniiretl or thousand pounds of V? W honey, and that B wintered so many colo- nies and brought them out "all sate," I am tree to confess that I am not half so much interested in, or pi-olited by, such things, as I am in what may seem to many to be very little things; such as, how to get straight combs, how to clip queens' wings, how to prevent swarms going together, and the thousand and one little evevy-dan incidents and manipulations of the apiary. By the way, what has befallen the c^olvnnn or two of "Queries and Answers," which used to make the columns of Gleanings so inter- esting and instruetive to us novicen'^ I have often thought that the letters of hegifiners, telling their (lilticulties, and lioiv then overeame them were to me very profitable, and thinking that some others, per- haps, feel just as I do, I will put down a few things which may possiblv call forth something from Nov- ice in the ne.xt "A B C" lesson. CLIPPING QUEENS' WTNGS; THE SEQUEL. Having read much about clipping queens' wings as a preventive of absconding, and having o Italian (luoens which I would rather not lose, I overhauled their hi\ cs in May, and my daughter cliiiped tliiMr wings after the manner recommended by some lady ; viz., taking them to a room and allowing them to run on the window panes. The operation was suc- cessful; but whoever invented the "preventive," or related it, left the story imfiitished, having given nil (Unctions about how to manage when the swarm would come off, nor even intimating that there might be trouble. Well, I found out "by experience." "When the first swarm came otf, they were not noticed until all were out of the hive, and a fruitless search had been made by them for their queen. When I found her in the grass not a bee was near her, and the question came up; how will I get her fixed so that they will timl herV Putting her on the brush end of a snitili saiiling (used for a "swarm catcher" or hiver), I raised it up where the bees were flying. Not one came. Seeing them pretty thick near the limbs of an apple tree a rod distant, I went there; but with HO lifttir success. Sus!)ecting that may be the lady was not there, I examined; when lol she was (/'i)ic Then followed a //i//iMn the grass. The search being successful, I directed my niece to get some thin stutt and fasten her in it, and then wo would tie the whole in the hiver. This being done, and she being put close to where they were flying thickly, examining a limb of the apple tree, a few bees— perhaps a dozen— lighted on the gauzy cage; but they were very restless, and seemed ilissafistied with her confinement. By this time, the swarm had begun to return to the old hive, but few of them en- tered however. Putting the queen (liberated from cnnlinenient) and a few bees into a Simplicity pro- sided with fdn., I sot the hive partly over the mass near the entrance of the old hive, being sure that they would soon discover the object of their search and fill the new hive. After waiting a while I open- ed the hive, when lo! there she was hetween the frames and side of the hive with about -i or 6 bees at- tending her. Feeling that that effort at swarming was a failure, I concluded to return her to the hive. But, mark you I when I dropped her near the en- trance, expecting that all would be glad to see her, and that she wtiuld enter in and take full posses- sion, they "balled" her instantly; anda moj-c e.tcited set of Ifttle fellows I never saw. I used various de- vices, lifting them up, trying to separate the bunch, etc., etc., in order to liberate her, but all to no pur- pose. They clung to her like green burs to wool. 1 then got a tumbler and set down over the bunch till after dinner. Armed with a Simplicity smoker, charged and going, T repaired again to the field of confiict, to find those inside the glass just holding the fort as they had been from the fii'St, and those outside all in ciininidt inn. I opened the smoke bat- tery on the (Uitsiders, who soon cried for quarter and began to make ijito the hive as fast as they could scramble. Then lifting the tumbler I poured a volume into tlie rebels, who instantly let go their prey and followed quietly, the queen'making com- mon time with them. This ended the trouble.— A 2d swarm came off and went through a similar per- formance, save the "balling." As they were begin- ning to 7T(uni to the hive before 1 discovered that they were out, I made i>o effort to settle them, but returned the queen at once to her hive. Now, why the difference in the treatment of the two queens? My theory is that the first one, being held so long in my hands, had acquired a foreign scent and they did not recognize her. Within 3 or 4 days in my absence, both swarms came off again and simultaneously. The queens were found on the ground. The swarms had settled tofiether. Two "hivers" were made ready, a queen put on each, and the bees, being shaken "from their place, divided and settled about equallj- with each queen. So they were put in their new homes; but the children say "Pa, we don't want anj- more (jueens clipped." But I have /a*//)'/- exiierintci with t-lii^ped queens. A swarm, having come off, was put in the hive in the afternoon. Ne.xt morning, I saw evident signs of discontent, —rwrming up the sides of the hive, flying off' a few feet, then returning, and a gen- eral commotion. Being determined to prepare for the emergency which was evidently coming. I had several buckets of water ready to be used at a moment's warning. About 10 o'clock a.m., the cry was i-aised, "Here theji come." Taking time by the forelock, I wet them down as they came out, while others attended to those in the air. Presently I said to myself, "why not shut in what remain." 'Twas done. Those in the air, after sailing around a while, came back and began to alight on the hive, by which I knew the (lueen was not among them. After they became somewhat quiet, I opened the entrance, and they began to go in quite lively. When perhape ^i of them had entered, they sudden- ly stopped and began to "boil out" again. I closed the door. All outside went off on a 2d excursion, but soon returned and settled down quietly. I de- termined to leave them until sunset and then see if they would go iii. I was expecting another swarm arTd was thankful they had not come oft' in the com- motion. About 3 p. M., they came and settled, and were quietly hived, the others remaining nicely on the outside of their hive. I was just beginning to con- gratulate myself upon how well all had worked, when lo! a commotion among the malcontents. The air was filled with them on their way to the newly hived colony. Each swai'm being very large, they more tlian fillcii the hive. About sunset I open- ed the discontented hive, found the queen, and clip- ped her wings. Ne.xt morning I discovered that thej^ were still discontented. About 8 o'clock they came out. Finding the queen, 1 put her on a little apple tree close to the hive, where soon 3 or 4 bees found her and communicateil the news to others, a fciv of whom came and clustered. But nearly all went to join those which had betaken themselves to the colony of the day before. The outside of that hive being now covered 2 inches deep with those which could not lodge within (the weather being in- tensely warm), I thought I would try an experiment on them. Taking the clipped queen, I put her with a few bees in a new hive and placing it on top of the other hive, I began transferring the outsiders to the new homo. For a while it seemed to work admira- bly. They went up by feather and paddle and brush, till "thousands of thom, indeed -about all that were on the outside, were safely housed in the new home. Just as I was beginning to congratulate my- self on the success of a plan not laid down in the books, the familiar cry was raised, "Here thej- come." Into the air they go in wild commotion. Knowing that the queen could not fly I at once be- gan to look for her; but she was not to be found. I supposed she was lost. I didn't care much, as her family seemed not to like her. In a few minutes, the rovers began to return and enter the hive to which they had /(;-.s^ fled; viz., the colony of the day before, just beneath the hive from which they had just emerged. I soon noticed discontent and com- motion in this hive, which had been (juiet and vcrij industrious all the morning. Whereas all had cnnnl- ed into the hive on their return, they now began to IMHir (ri(f of one entrance and settle on the alighting board and miderneath the hive. All lieconiing cjuiet after a while, I left them to attend to other matters. About 11:30 o'clock, the cry was raised once more: "jyi'/r they come." They ivnnrd out so that the air was darkened by them ; they were the larg-est single collection of bees that I ever saw. I perceive 1 in a moment, that they were "off for the timber" and made no eft'ort to stop them. As thej- went slowly, and many of them were within 5 feet of the ground, I decided to keep them company so long as they kept that gait. They only went about ^i of a mile, when they began to enter a sugar tree about 3!i feet from the "groiind. The tree w as about 150 yds. from the door of a farm house. In the evening, I learned 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 253 from the proprietor of the house, that about i or 5 o'clock he had g-one out to look at them, when he discovered a swarm hanging on one of the limbs on the same tree, about 30 feet from the ground. They presentlj' took flight. He followed them some dis- tance, and thought he "could *((xi7.i/ have stopped them, as many of them were not more than 3 feet from the ground, "but he ."(/of frinlitrnid for fear they would light on him," so he let them go. Now. to return to the hives which they had left; I found evidence that the bees had "woi-ked like beavers," judging from the amount of comb built, and the change made on the fdn. On one comb were about a pint, or \\i pints, of bees very quietly clinging to each other as in comb building, while some were go- ing out and in as in regular honey gathering. On examination, I found my clipped cjueen quietly walking about; I diminished her quarters, determin- ed to see what she would make. Next morning, a swarm having been hived near her home, "Here they come again" was heard. The few bees she had aU forsook her and came to the new colony. 1 caught her and put an end to her career. Several questions arise. Was the swarm seen hanging to the sugar tree the sanir that had entered it, or another? If the same, why did they leave their selected home? Why alight on the same tree and so much lower down? Did any one ever know of such a case? And as to the queen whose wings were clip- ped, why did the bees leave her? I have conjectur- ed that, being young, she may not have been fertil- ized, and being disabled from Hjing, their instinct taught them the consequences. What do you think on the various points? In A B C, caution beginners about clipping, or tell how to manage; also to be careful never to clip young queens. WILL. TOADS CATCH BEES? I have read statements on the affirmative, but never saw it until a few weeks since. One bright morning, I espied a large toad making towards a colony of fine Italians, head erect and eyes spark- ling. I watched him. Straight to the hive he went, and pei'ched his forefeet on the alighting board. He went through the motions of a cat watching for a mouse. Directly, one unfortunate bee, coining home, struck on the side of the hive and tumbled down. Toady had him in less time than you could wink, and seemed to smack his lips as over a dainty morsel. I watched for signs of sickness but they came not. He was ready for more. I removed him to the garden. I have several times noticed anoth- er about twilight, coming towards the hives, but have not "proved it on him" yet. PATENTS. I saw a man, a few days since, who set up a claim that he had patented "f7ic Tjottomlr^s hona.i box;" i. e. as he said; "No one can use frames with anything over them, unless there is a huncy haard hetwrrn." On my telling him that I had known that to be done HcarK ngo,hadd(>ne it myself, he said; "Yes, I know people are doing it; but they are i/ifrnir/uif/ on my patoit, and as soon as I get things in order, T am go- ing to put them through." Here, thought I, is another "patent right swindle," and I'll write to Mr. Root about it, and ask him if this thing hasn't been done years ago. He says his patent is dated ISTO. I know I have read in Gleanings about initting both boxes and section frames riijht nrrr ilw hni<»l comb frames, without any honey board between. I wish you would look this thing up, and give us an item in Gleanings for Aug., so that we may be ready for our friend when he calls round to collect money for tlie pririlcije of exereisuw comnnm sc/i.^e. A neighbor called on me last week to double up a couple of feeble swarms, one 4S hours, the other 10 hours old. In searching for the queen in the older hive, she was found running up the division board. Before 1 could catch her. she took wing; not, how- ever, until I had (j\iite distinctly noticed an apend- age of which I have lead and heard, but ne\'er saw. Sorry she escaped entirely, as I would have pre- served her in alcohol. Yoiu- smoker did good ser- vice. The gentleman offered me .?! for my trouble, and when I refused it, he told me to send for Glean- ings. So you see by my refusing compensation j/ou got a subscriber. J. H. Buchanan. Huntsville, O., July 9, 1878. I am afraid, my friend, that notes and (jneries was dropped because beginners tell sucli very long stories when they ask tlieir (juestion's, just as you have done. Besides, the A B C is now beginning to answer the greater part of them. Much has been said in back Nos., in regard to looking oitt foi- queens with clipped wings, during swarm- ing time, and repeated cautions have been given against clipping ([ueens before they are fertilized. Had your first (lueen beeii put in a cage, and tied securely to your brush, I opine that your troubles would all have been saved. 8o much for not doing things thoroughly. The rampage your bees got into was caused by a kind of mania that sometimes seems to possess them for a few days, during the swarming season. There have been a great many complaints tliis season, of bees leaving their hives without any apparent cause, and even, attimes, with- out any queen, as you have narrated. One crazy swarm in an apiary will start the fever, and at the very sound of the swarm- ing note, all in the vicinity seem to become suddenly demoralized ; at such time they will desert queen, brood, and well tilled combs, and rush out to join the rioters. We liave not, at present, a clipped queen in our apiary of over 200 hives, and it is mostly for the reasons you have given. Such excessive swarming results in sucli losses, that I have rather favored artifiicial divisions ; we have had scarcely a touch of the swarming mania this season, and all have worked right along, uninterruptedly. Of course, sheets of fdn. and frames of sec- tions have been furnished tuisparingly to all stocks. It may be the swarm deserted the tree, after going into it. Why do you not look and see if they are still there? You are right about the toads. ■ — m ■>■ m ANOTHER COMB HOLDER. ¥'OUR cut, in July Gleanings, of your comb holder is very nearly like one we used last — , season ; but we did not like it so well as one I made this spring, a rough drawing of which I send you. I don't know that any one would like one ; if they would, nearly any one can make something similar. Ours is 34 inches high ; the standards are Hi X 'b in.; a piece IV.i in. square runs aci'oss the top to hold it together, and for a handle to lift it by; the shelf is 13 inches wide, is placed 4 inches below the bottom of the frame when hanging on the arms of the stand. This shelf is handy to lay cages &c. on. There is a drawer 6x8x3 in. under the shelf, in which we keep a dozen, more or less, of queen cages, a pair of small curved pointed scissors, a slim sharp knife, etc. Our Queen Stand (as we call it) weighs just 1 lbs. We leave it out in the bee-yard, as it is well painted and a groove is cut around on the un- der side of the shelf so that no water can get into the drawer. When we are in the yard, and happen to want to look into a hive, the stand and its con- tents are ready near by. T. M. Valentine. Carlinville, 111. valentine's queen STAND. Our engraver has taken the liberty of ad- ding to the picture, a smoker, ancl a stool whereon the tired apiarist may repose (?). 25i GLEAXIXGS IX BEE CULTURE. Aro. while inserting queen cell. etc. He Las al- so hung an all metal screw driver on one of the posts, as you see. and a stout screw driv- er is a very handy tool in an apiary, as most of you have probably experienced. FKOZO: THE EGG, TO THE BEE. OUR engraver has been amusing himself, by seeing how clearly he could por- — tfav tlie emlnvo bee. at different ases. 1 3 i -3 7 lo 1> The figiues underneath are intended to represent the age in days. First is the egg just as it is laid : next the larva just after^il: has broken the egg shell on the third day. During the fourth "and tifth days, they groV very rapidly, but ii is dithcult to tix any ])re- cise mark, in regard to the size. On the 7th day. the larva has sti-aightened himself out. and the worker bees have capped him over. I have made a pretty accurate exY»eriment on this point, and it was just G days and 7 hoius after the tirst egg was laid, when they got it completely capped over. Just v.-heh they begin to haA e legs and eyes. I do not know : but I have foimd that the winjs are about the last part of the work. The bees leave them bareheaded, sometimes, after they get to be about 16 or 17 days old. If t am correct, they never cap over these bare- headed bees, biit let them hatch out. with- out ha\ing any capping to gnaw off. We are all of us too ignorant, by far. on this matter, and I suggest that we set to work and investiciate the matter thoroughly. The eggs of the common fowl have been "broken, and drawings made of the embryo, every day from the tirst to the 21st. Can we not doas much for the science of apicultin-eV I A\ill give So. to the pei-son who sends me the best set of drawings of the embryo bee. during tlie 21 days from the egg to the bee. with accomi)anyi"ng notes. FASTE>~r\G THE FOX. i:, T3JZ vHAJtES. lUE friend. A. L. Foreman, of White Hall. nis.. who discovered the use of starch for moistening the rolls Avhile rolling fdn.. has sent us a sample of what he calls FORE3IA2f"S EUREKA FDX. FASTENER. The wheel is made of some hard wood, cherry or apple for instance, and is nearly i of an inch thick, bv about U inches in di- ameter. The haniUe is about -5 inches long. A sheet of f(ba. is to be laid against the coiiil) guide or toj) bar. as you see tit. and then the wheel, after being dipi>ed in honey, is to be rolled over it. so lis to press the wax tirmly into the dry wood. A straight edge is used to nm the wheel against, that it may be guided just where we want it. The princi- pal objection that now presents itself to me is that the wlieel cannot be run close up on the cornei-s of the I'dn. Friend F. remedies this, by attaching the fdn. to the top bar. before the fi^ame is nailed up. I hardly think this plan will be liked generally. It might answer nicely for section boxes, but when we consider the difficulty of getting the sheets exactly in the centre of the top bar, I think I should consider the grooAing rather preferable. -««>-•«« «:>^ yi\' AFTOJIATIC SAVARmiXG HOBBY. SOME WOXDERFUL JuSD UNEXPECTED DEVELOPMENTS. HIS spring, I fLsed up 3 decoy hives— discarded ■ hives of :J.3iO cubic inches. I tacked bass- wood bark around the entrance, put in some nice white comb starters, and fastened :i in the forks of leafy trees, and one near the top of a ledge of rf rocks: all were near the apiary, one only 16 ft. from the house. On. and before, the 2Tth of June. bees were fljing- in and out the latter hive. That evening I brought from neighbor T 's a new swarra of that day. Early uext morning. I shook them in front of their permanent hive. They took wing, went stmight to the tree and entered the de- coy hive. As theirqueen was clipped they returned. I think they had selected the hive before (''» swarm- ing, had reconsidf^red on being hived, then on being disturbed, decided to carry out their first plan. I began to wonder how the other hives were get- ting along, went to the other tree, and lo! a swarm of blacks had been working there for 2 or 3 days. It was a small swarm of less than a quart. To-day, vou can count a dozen bees In and around the first hive. 1 think they ai-e not "hunting water." Oliver Foster. M*. Vernon. Iowa. July 8th, ISTS. I was just ready to swing my hat. at the success of the above, when the following came to hand. The writer almost ought to be put in the "•Growlery."' For months, I have threatened to "put my foot" on your scheme for stealing bees. What you are trjing to get into, in your part of the world, has. for many years, in puritanical Mass.. been stamped as a /it /?.*!/ "and a fraud. If there is a disreputable man in community who would steal, if he could legally, he is sure to "stick up his hives all through the woods, and thus entice and coax bees— not to light, but to decamp. Every honorable bee-keeper in this section who discovers "a hive thus exposed, even though it is in the owner's words, makes it a point to smash thnt hive before he lenves it. This is done openly and defiantly, and all the^ people say amen. Such traps are hunted for, by organizel bands, as wild beasts might be on the frontier. The practice is an unmitigated fraud and the greatest drawback upon honest bee-keepers. EveiT swarm of bees that ever left me has followed directly into siich hives, placed there purposely, by thieves, to steal my bees. But for them, my bees would not have left. I. and all others, however, make a practice of setting a guard "over the hive until night and then appropriate it. Hopin? that this method of stealing bees will be rf^prohated bv S[\ honest men. and especially in GLE.ixiNOS. I am M. H. A. Evans. Granitesville. Mass.. July 4th. 1ST8. Xow, Friend E.. I do not know but you Avill think me a haidened sinner, but the fact is that I am much more interested in hearing vou state that the plan really suc- ceeds, tlian I arn alarmed at the injustice that mav be done unv one. If anv one de- 1878. GLEAXIXGS IN BEE CULTURE. 255 coys my bees, all right : if they wish to keep thein. I am willing. If I should be so for- tunate as to catch any body's else. I will let them have them most cheerfully. If we can persuade the bees that it is a better place in these hives we liave fixed for them than they can tind in the woods. I shall think we are making great progress. Our next friend thinks it rather doubtful, however. Listen: Don't let your ABC class run away with the idea of enticing stray swarms into those honey boxes out in the woods, fields, or any where else. They may now and then get a swarm, but such a thing has never been known here, and most of us have hives, at all seasons, standing ready for bees to move in. In a country where bees are very plenty and timber very scarce, it might succeed; hut those who live near old timber will have their trouble for their pains. Bees are doing well here, with nice showers, warm sun, plenty of white clover. Good com weather is alwavs good honev weather with us. Wyoming. Wis., July 10th, 1878. R. L. JoiXEii- AVell. I am afraid you are about right, friend J., for we have had a decoy hive up in a peach tree almost all summer.'and "nar^" a bee"" — hold on. there are individual bees buzzing about the hive nearly all the time, but not a swarm has yet gone into it, al- thouffh several swarms' have come very near lighting on the tree. The hive is a painted 3 frame nucleus, and that, perhaps, was not sufficiently back woods like. COZWB F»N. AT ONE OPERATION. A >t:w process for making it. ^ MADE some fdn. by dipping a plaster of Paris f], cast. It makes exquisite comb on one side, but 'r^ the other side is aivfuTlu irregidar. I made a machine with two casts hinged together that makes the impression on both sides; I hinged two frames together, placed fdn. between and a thin board on the outside of each frame; then filled in both sides of fdn. with plaster of Paris. It is to be dipped in the wax while open, then closed and cooled in wa- ter. I enclose a sample. Please tell us ju.sni<(if to make the casts. I have failed to get a perfect sur- face on account of bubbles of air, which leave holes. Mt. Vernon, Iowa, July 1st, 1878. Jutj/llth-.—l am getting '"enthusiastic" over those plaster of Paris fdn. dipping plates. I have just been "running off" some full sized sheets, and they are quite perfect. After cooling in water 1 dip one of the plates, which are opened straight, then quickly raise and press it lightly with the upper plate, while in a horizontal position; cool it again and "peel 'er off." I never saw your §100 machine work, but would like to "run you a race." A board should be fastened to the boiler to rest the plates on. As I do not dip quite to the hinge, there is no clogging. Now, if these plates could be made of metal instead of plaster of Paris, they would last a life time and 1 think the work would compare favorably as to quality and speed, with the expensive machines. Could you make us a pair or tell us how? and what would be the cost for my size. 84x11? It is not nearly as hard, however, on" the plaster of Paris casts as I supposed it would be, only a vei-y light pressure being required while the wax is melted, and, as they are not expensive, I find it u-iU ]xiy. , Mt, Temon, Iowa. Oliver Foster. At present writing. I am inclined to think, friend F.. that you have struck on some- thing quite valuable. When Perrine car- ried off my first jniir of rolls, and afterward -RTote that he had patented the idea of rolls, I made some experiments by dipping em- bossed glass, in the way you have mention- ed, and" actually set about having a couple of glass plates made to be used exactly as you have used the plaster. I confess "that the idea never occiu'red to me of tisinsr plaster casts for the purpose, although I had already made very beautiful plain sheets with the aid of plaster dipping plates. The sheets you make are not as nice as those rolled between metal rollers, it is true, vet perhaps the bees will use them just as well. As you make the sheets just the size want- ed, it will save rolling and dipping the scraps as we have to do. I am inclined to doubt your being able to make a pair of metal plates work as nicelv as vou do tlie plaster, for unless the metal is kept at just about such a temperature, the wax will stick badly. I have had visions this afternoon of a large pair of metal rollers made hollow so that a stream of cold water might be kept limning through them, to keep them cool : well, these roLers I would have di]) into melted wax so that a sheet of fdn. could be rolled out on the other side, a "mile long,"" as we have so long talked about. I think it veiy likely there will be something done, but it will take a great deal of money for experiments, before all the conditions are successfully worked out. Another thing; it is a great convenience and saving of time and money, to have a machine so that each bee-keeper can make his own fdn.. out of his own wax. during the dull seasons of the year. If the experiments of friend Foster should result in a fdn. machine that would not cost over S-5 or SIO. I shall rejoice with you. even if it does strike something in the same way. as it did when honey Avent from i5c to only 16c per lb. More than that. I will set about some experiments immediate- ly, toward helping it along. For making nice plaster casts of the fdn.. see Feb. Gleaxixgs. for 1876. I do not know how we can make plates for the purpose, imless they are electrotyjied from a sheet of fdn. * m * a:tiong the bees. experience IX QUEEX BmxG. f THINK it is time that I tell you how my tested queen is getting along. She beats every thing - - to lay that I ever saw ; she was put in my weak- est swarm because the rest were hybrids, but she was the first to swarm of my four colonies : and they did not dwindle like my black stocks. I have raised 8 or 10 queens from her and I believe they are nicer than their mother, and produce as nice work- ers. I wlU send you one of them soon for your in- spection. I received a nice imported queen from Blood, the 9th of this month, and on the 15th. found her filling- the combs with e^gs. I have just received my smo- ker and tried it ; don't it make them "git" ? I think, in a few days, all I will have to do will be to go and puff it at them without any smoke, and they will "give in." PAIXTIXG HIVES IXSIDE. I am putting my bees in chaff hives weU painted, white, inside and out. I think it makes the bees proud to paint their houses inside, by the way they take to them. A GOOD DAY'S WORK. Our Lamar, Mo., friend, speaks of doing a big day's work. I can head him a little I think. On the Sth inst. I transferred one colony at home, and settled and hived < ne swarm; then got into a wagon, taking a hive with me, went i miles, transferred one mi-re from an old box hive, before nn ; ate my dinner, went 2 miles further and got a load of chaff, and on the road home, found a bee tree. I saw them from the road as I was driving along. Does this beat La- mar or not ? Lots of bees have swarmed and run off this sum- mer, but I haven't lost any. My 4 hives have swelled to 11 and two more will sw"arm in a few days. We are getting box honey too. Some hives have tilled six 5 lb. boxes already. '2oG GLEANINGS IX BEE CULTUEE.' An.. GROWLERY. In reading the list of "g-rowlers,"' I almist wished That I had one word to say. after aU the orders 1 have sent you for myself and others. I am well pleased with my own gv><">ds, and better pleased to see mv neig'hb '"r* pleased with everything that they pet o?you. I lost my last queen that you sent me l>y my" carelessness, after you had lost three by •lending in o»ild weather: but I soon filled her place with one rearvd from the ttsted '"■ne you sent me. that can not l>e beaten. James Parshaix. Tnion Vallev. Mo.. July 17th. 18TS. CAJi ^TE SELL OJTR HOXEY » A •'C.^NDIED" talk OS THB MATTER. • t ^jJie ''Uvcnie]%. (This department is to be tept for the benefit of those who are dissatisfied: and when anything is amiss. I hope you will •T:aLk risht out." As a rule we will omit names and addresses, to avoid being tco personal.] Tp DARE Dot make this depaitnient very .X long tMs month, for one friend '"fowled" ~~ more than aU the rest because I occupied so much space in a way that did not particuh\rly benefit anybody, and I fear there is considerable truth in the remark. The tirst one in the list last month was more wronged th.iu I supposed, for he did fur- nish samples of what he wanted, and those samples were some of my own work of a pre- vious season, too. The inan who would not receive the buckwheat, not only apologized but sent more than half the money to^ pay the express charges, when he found it came out of my pocket, and not that of the ex- press Co's. W. H. B. has not as yet sent in any bill, and all have treated me in a kinder way than I felt I had any reason to expect. This is not a hard worldto get along in. my friends, if one behaves himself half de- cently. I return tc-iay the "tested" queen that you sent me June 2l5t. I have carefully tested her, and I find that she breeds an indifferent lot of bees: some of them are well marked, but a great many have but one band. Now you c-an take my word for this, as I had her in a e 5lony where there was no other brood, and I cannot be mistaken. Xow. Mr. Root. I cannot think that you are a •"fraud." or that you wish to act the rogue, but I must confess that I was disap- pointed and a little out of humor when I found that the queen wasn't pure. I had gone to the trouble to raise several young queens from this "tested" queen, as you called h?r. and what are they worth? I might have raised gx>d queens from my own stock while I was bothering with this one : but there is no use crying over spilled milk, I will tell you what I want you to do. If yon can send me a tested queen re-.ired from an imported mother, that is large and yellow, and one that will produce all three-banded workers, you may do so. providing you send her im- mediuelv. " L. W. V. Washington. Pa.. July fM, 1S78. That is right: I am glad you sent her liaek. I have had one other "simDar com- plaint, and it had, before this, decided me 01 testing all queens sold, in my own apiarv. When at work in the apiarv. examining hives, taking off honey, etc., "we write on the hive the grade and'qualitv of the queen. Some are marked S^5.00 queens: some .-<2.-50: some S2.(JJ: and some Sl.oO. There are bat few of the former and but few of the latter: but when we have an order for a queen, we know just where to find exactly the one we want. It is expensive business. I well know, to introduce a queen, and then finl her not "j^t you bo-.ijht her for. ^ PHESI'ME a good many of your subscribers. •I like myself, are wondering what to do with their — » h ney. Are there any resp-msible parties in our large cities that will buy our surplus? or must we depend on selling at home for what we can get? Last winter was so favorable for bringing bees thniugh al'.vc and in good condition, that there prolwblv are now more bees in the country than ever Itefore. Then again, last year's crop is not. perhaps, all sold. I see no one advertising for hon- ev: extracted honey was not quoted last winter in our Chicttgo paper, and comb honey was quoted, "Dull at 11 and i2 cents, sales only in a peddling way." Now the use of comb foundation has in- creased the production of honey, and California is coming in with a crop which will find a place in the market. Honcv was low without her as a competi- tor last year. What can we get this year? What ouaht we to ask? It seems to me we must put the pric" very low to find a sale for the large aimunt we shall have on hand this year. Still, honey has not e<~>me in rapidlv: I mean into mv hives or my neighbors', this season. Bees here did not work oh white clover until late, and bass wood blossomed very poorly. It took my strongest swarm a little more than a week to fill up and cap over. Xow. please tell me what to do with my honey, if vou do leave the rest of this letter out. and oblige J. B. COLTOX. Waverly. Brenner Co., Iowa, July 20, ISTS. I fear my advice in the matter may not be very aaxeeable to our honey producers, but for all that. I feel it a duty' to say that our honey must, so far as I can see, be sold very low. " It used to be said that comb honeV should be sold for the same as good butter. Butter is from 10 to L2 cts. in our to'mi. but nice honey, in sui:\ll sections, sells from 18 to 20 cts. retail. In old fashioned boxes, it would probably not bring over loc. If it should go dowii ."c. lower yet. I do not think we need be much surprised, or complain. Some of us will probably retire from the business, and go into sometliing else: others will perhaps wear poorer clothes, and buy less largelv of things we can make at home, but for all that I do not think we need be any less happy: it may be we shall all be happier. Contentment does not always come with money easily earned. As a geu- er;il rule. I would sell my honey near home. If it will not sell in the stores and groceries, carry it around among those who know you. If you are acquainted with some good man in "some of the larger cities, send, or "better still, carry it to him. and let him sell it for you. or sell it outright, as you can do to best advantage. In rpgr-.rd to prices : our commission men. Stair cc Co.. of Cleveland, sold our first hon- ey at about 22c. : but since then there has been STich a flood of the small sections in the market, that it has gone down as low as 16c.. and we have concluded to keep the rest of our.^ for possibly a better price, "We are re- tailing at 20c,, .and should not care to close out our whole cron, for less than ISc, net. If nicely packed in the shipping cases, it can l>e kept safely a year, if need be. I would kee]> it in a frost proof, dry room, if rtossible. Wherever you have it left for sale, have it clean and neat, and make it your especial business to see that it is kept so at all times. Honev should, at all times, at- tract customei-s byitslDols. and not repel them. 1878. GLEAXrS'GS IX BEE CULTURE. i-57 Pertaining to I5ec Culture. [We respectfully solicit the aid of our friends in conducting- this department, and would consider it a favor to have them send us all circulars that have a deceptive appearance. The greatest care will be at all times maintained to prevent injustice being done any one.] pT^ HE patent bee hive men seem to have A,^ pretty much left the tield. if we except — JSlitciiell. and letters of inquiry in re- gaid to him and his business are much less in uumljer than during former months. Those wlio have read his advertisements in regard to queen rearing on Keller's Island, may be interested in the following. He has advertised for several months that he was aheady located there. Mr. Mitchell was here several weeks ago and saw my bees, which he pronounced very line. I told him thei-e were none on the island except mine and two or three swarms in the woods, which had es- <.-aped from me. Then he was anxious to secure a place to bring his queens to be fertilized. A place was got which pleased him very much. The next I learned of him was that he was taking queens from Sandusky to Jc>hn?Mn's Island in Sandusky Bay. That island is about a half mile from the peninsula on which, in many places are black bees in abun- dance. I have been told that he is opposed to bring- ing queens here, because theie are v, ild bees in the woods. Chas. Carpester. Kelley's Island, O., July 2Cth, 1S7?. and pulley in the center. The mandrel is about iO inches long. The result is quite satisfactory: our sections now go together so tight that they liave to be driven slightly, and they are always just alike. The girls were inthe habit "of driving them with a light hammer, but our engineer, who is also something of a genius, amused himself while caring for the engine, by turning some very pretty little mallets for the puii^ose. These are much better because they do not mar the pine, and their faces are "broad enough to close the whole piece down at one blow. Well, they were soon putting up sections that were strong, and doing it rapidly, too. Ijut I had just begun to observe that it took too much time to lay down the mallet and pick up the knife, when the following letter came to hand: SUGGESTION. To bro. Lunderers "lap-board"" for putting tr- gether sections (June Xo.. page 1..'. I suggest the addition of a false bcttom. to play up and down l>c- tween the two stops. Fasten one end with a hinge, and let the ether project beyond the board, so as to be easily grasped by the left hand, and thus raise out the box without the pocket knife. This has the advantage over the knife, in the foct of its being al- ways ready and in place. K. G. Warxer. Columbus. O., June '26. IST?^. I at once sent our friend .?-5.C0 for his idea, and now we have a board made thus : Friend Koot: I had a call from one of X. C. ilitchell"s ^^c•tims. He wanted to know if Mitchell was a swindler. He said he sent Mitchell §1-1.00 for queens, and ^O.W for an extractor, and has never heard from him since. I showed him several letters about Mitchell in GLEAXtscs. He said he wou!d ■write to you. J. E. Axberson. Washington, Ky., July 19, l.S7>. Would you be so kind as to let us know in Au- jgust Xo. of the Gleanings, whether Mitchell of San- dusky has a patent upon the division board. We have received pamphlets from him. and he threatens vengeance upon til who i:se ihcm. If he hes none on the di\ision board, upon what has he a patent? Please explain fully. Can we use the Simplicity hive with division board with impunity? Many Bee-Keepers. Rogersville, Ohio, July 22nd, 1S7S. July Xo.. page 231. answere all your ques- tions. Pay no attention whatever to his foolish threats. I'EAKING SE'':'FION EOXE--. .VXB FITriXG TKEJI TOGETHER. The board is the samt- as the one in June X'o.. except that it has a block, C. as well a.-> the two side ones, and these 3 blocks aierall screwed do-wn so securely, that we drive against C without any danger of driving it oil". The box is put together as usual, ex- cept that the mallet is used to drive against C. as well as down toward ihe lap board. When the box is done, a slight tap on ll;e button, A. throws up the little square block. B. in the centre, and the box Lops cut of its place quicker than you corld say -scat'." of coui"se. A is pi;rt of a strong lever on the underside, pivoted somewhere between A and D. To make it spring back in place, an elastic tape is tacked across the underside near A. We use a Simplicity cover for the lap board, as vou "will see. To" work i"^pidly. you should keep the little mallet in your hand all the time. Jlev. Mo.. Julv 9. It'S. 25S GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Aug. [That is j II 5t what I want yvJii to do, mj' friend, com? right alony anl tike the "rockin? chair," whether you bring- sa'orcribers or njt. You are all of you always welom?, and I wish you to feel per- fectly at hoin3. Now for th3 questions; but do not all speak at 0^33.] Ian 13 vears old, and am trying- to learn bee keep- ly. Mv father his 21 hive? of bees and I have 7. Kind's Creak, O., June 21, ISTf*. A. L. Mor3AN'. We hid a swarm of Italians which we bivel, and they cime out again at 1 o'clock, and started for tall timber. The bjys followed them one mile, run them into a tree, cat it, and brought them back, and I clipped the queen. Byron Bigos. Fairbanks, Sullivan Co., Ind., June 22, 1878. I had a swarm of bees one week ago to-day. and to-day they (the new swarm) threw off another swarm. Htw is that for the "frozen zone" ? J. M. Cheat.^am. Six Oaks, Minn., June2M, '73. I am n )t in very good trim for writing to-night, as I went up a black oak tree after a swarm of bees, and g )t one eye closed; but want to ask vyou a few questions. Our bees in this section were ready to swarm in May; but, owing to the c^ld rainj- weather, they did not swarm, but killed off the drones, and most of them hive been very cross. The last of June and the first of this month they began to swir.n and t-) "light out;" could nit do anything with them. One man lost seven out of nine swarms. The second swarms act better. A good many of the swarms that left were fo\ind hanginer on bushes. What was the cause of their killing^off the drones? [Scarcity of hiney.] What made them so cross and act so about swarminj. [Same reason, and swarm- ing mania.] Frank Polleys. Melrose, Wis., July 10, 1878. VENTILATION'. One of my last young colonies, I put into a new hive mide after the diagram in the .iournal you sent m ;. It being made good and tight, the bees left it next day and settled again. I bored holes in the back end of the lid, which let off the strong, hot, pine smell that was in the hive, which I am satisfied I cjuld not hive lived in myself. After doing that, mv bee? went t J work, and 1 think are doing their very best. J. T. Cooper. Viola, Mercer Co., 111., July 13, 1878. [Do not b ire holes in your hives, my friend, but .l'u?t shove the hive forward on the bottom board, and you can get all the ventilation ever needed. New swarms should have a very large entrance.] I have tried the smoker, and it sent the bees down into the lower part of the hive a "howling," as the boy said ; but we got it very hot and melted the sol- der, and we came near never getting it open again. It has not bothered anj', however, only the first time. O, it is so much better than the mouth smoker ; it has paid for itself in the last two days, we have kept it hot most of the time. Jeue.miah Wood. Lebanon, Ohio, July 5th. 1878. [We have lately commenced soldering the joints, .iust to have them stand the banging in the mail bags better.] We are having the finest honey harvest I ever saw. Our plains are covered with sumach, and bees have filled their hives completely full during the last week, and are now in boxes. Give them fdn., and th'^y will extend it and have it filled with honey in 4H hours. Charles Pool. Carthage, Mo., July 9th, 1878. how to transfer. The hive that you sent came in due time, all straight as a string. Thanks for vour promptness. I think you would have laughed if you had seen the preparations that I made tor transiferring. I got all the tools that I could think of, saw, hammer, chisel, and i pans of smoke to keeo robbers away, and as I had no honey knife, I used an old cavalry sword. Well, I got the hiv^e open, and those bees .fust toolt one look at the array of tools that I held against them, and gave up in despair. There was not a cross bee in the whole lot. I got them all neatlv fixed in the movable frames, and to-dav thev are at work as lively as ever. W. P. Hall. Pembroke, N. Y., June 25, 1378. questions and troubles from the north pole. Do drones go into other than their own hives? [Yes, frequently.] I had a large swarm one day, and the next m )rning early they killed off their drones. [Their queen had beconae fertilized, and they had no further need of drones.] I have had four cases where swarms lit on other hives, to my great vexation. [Fix bushes for them to cluster ori. and cover the hives they try to light on with a sheet.] I had a large second swarm come out the 3d day after hiving, and go into a hive near by that had swarmed the day before, and all were peaceful, onl.v the intruding mother bee was soon killed and brought out, but I saw n^ funeral procession; only three i>ees brought her out and dumped her down with )ut a liit of ceremony. [That is "b^e stjde."] The earliest swarm I ever had, before this year, was June 'iid. My first swarm this season was April 2tth, and thereafter I had swarms every few days all along. Italians were ahead by three "weeks; and chuff protected hives out of doors were the same. I did not lose any bees last winter, either in the cel- lar or out of d wrs. I like chaff 1 ft. all around and over the hive, and out door wintering best, espeeial- I3' if you will insure winters like the last. I would rather have natural swarms than make them. Hiv- ing them is better fun than a dozen circuses. Oh, I forgot to say my cellar bees all killed off their drones a few daj-s after the killing frost. May 13th. The first 6 swarms were from out door hives. Cel- lar bees are livelj' and swarming now. [I agree with you about the circuses.] J. E. Breed. Waupaca, Wisconsin. I would like to see the following questions dis- cussed in Gleanings: 1. What is the best way to get queens fertilized when raised in great numbers? [The 3 frame nu- cleus.] 2. What is the best way to keep fertilized queens on hand? [Same as aboVe.] 3. What is the best time and way to Italianize an apiary without loss of brood and honey. [In Au- gust. See A B C] Give us your way, and induce other bee-keepers to do the same. Chas. W. Grote. Mauston, Juneau Co., Wis., July 22, 1878. I wrote you May, 1876, that I was going into the bee business, and would follow the teachings of Gleanings. I hive done so with the following re- sults: I bought 4 weak swarms May 1st, 1876; I have now 55 strong swarms, and expect 10 or 13 more. I have had a fair yield of honey each year. My suc-- ccss is all due to vour teachings. W. H. Jemison. Adams, July 1st, 1878. Sections are very valuable just now. I did not think 1 would need over 500, but I could have sold quite a lot. Everybody that has a few bees asks, "Have you any more of those patent honey boxes than you want? I would like to get some." They all seem to think they are patented, because they are so much nicer than the old glass boxes. W. H. Frederick, Maximo, O., June 29, 1878. [It has been much the same here. Steady old far-, mers have been calling for sections and fdn. all daj' long, and even into the night in some cases.] The stand I reported 3 swarms from in April gave me 2 more in May. All are doing well. Those hav- ing a cross of black blood are doing much the best. I purchased 10 queens of H. Alley last year; not on'." of them arc extra layers. They are small, but the brightest queens that I have ever had. Milton, I 1., June 20, 1878. A. L. Foreman. [As almost everybody insists on having yellow (lueens, I presume friend A. was trying to please them.] In acknowledging the receipt of the queen I pur- chased of you, last month, 1 said that I had trans- ferred her to friend Cla.xton. and that he showed some disappointment because she was not so large as the one you sent to him. I saw her this morning, and must say that she looks very different from what she did when received, and should say that in looks she is very good. What her progeny will be I can't tell yet. I think I owe this explanation to you. Wm. Shinton, Patterson, N. J., July 7, 1878. [Queens rarely show to the best advantage, until they have been "a week or more in a strong colony.] 1878, GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 259 H02a"Eir S)13W. Tliis, as its name iiu- i)Ues, is a dew that falls during tJie uiglit, ossible to volatilize sugar by heat, and then condense it again, I shall believe in a honey dew distilled from the atmosphere, like the dews of the night. If this were possible we slioukLsee our sugar slowly passing away, while exposed to the air, precisely as does the moisture it contains. Experiment shows that sugar may be. wet and dried innumera- ble times, but that, while the water passes off very soon, the full weight of the sugar is invariably left behind. Ill support of the exudation tlieory. I will say that I have many times found a liquid hanging on the leaves of the Ijasswood and some other trees, in the form of a lather, like .soapsuds; but, although this had a mucilag- inous property, I could discover notliing sweet about it. Should nature change the starch it contained into sugar, a very simple and oft occurring change, we should have honey dew distilling right from the leaves of the trees; and I liave been informed tliat sucli luis been known to be the case— the leaves of the basswood trees of the forests have been found dripping witli honey. This was during the great honey yield in Minne- sota, a few years ago. In support of the theory that it falls from tlie air or clouds, it is said that, in the old world, there is a substance called manna (I presume in ccnnmemoration of the manna of the Bible), which falls from the air during certain seasons of the year, and that it is gathered and used as food. It has been sug- gested thiit this manna is the pollen of a cer- tain kind of tree, which, being light, is car- ried quite a distance by the wind. Pollen consists principally of starcli; and a little dampness, such as the dews of night fur- nish, will frequently converi: this starch into sugar in a very few hours. It is possible, that some kinds of honey dew are the results of the decomposition of pollen, which may become scattered over the grass and herb- age. In. conclusion, I would ask those who come across this wonderful substance, or thid the bees working on it, to make careful experi- ments and examinations. Do not jump hast- ily at conclusions, but go clear to the top and bottom of things. Many have declared there w^re no aphides on the trees at all, and one man who had so decided, afterward concluded to climb the tree, and, in its very topmost branches, he found the leaves all alive with a sort of green insect, which was spraying the air with the dew in a manner that made it look like a veritable shower, as the sunlight illumined the scene. Look carefully, and tlieii write me your discov- eries. SI'g'ES.lBS. Every body who has had Italians veiy long, i)robably knows what hybrids are, especially, if they have kept bees when the honey crop was suddenly cut short during a drouth in the fall of the year. The term hybrid has been applied to bees that are a cross between the Italians and the common bee. If one buys an Italian queen tliat is pure, he can at once set about rear- ing queens if he chooses, and it matters not 260 GLEAMS IXGS IN BEE CULTURE. Aug. liow many common bees there are around him; : if he rears all his qiieens as I have directed ; under artificial swarming andt^UEEN KEAKiXG. he may have the full benefit of the Itiilians so far as honey gathering is con- cerned, just as well as if there were no other I be^s within miles of him. This seems a IKiradox to most beginners, for we have let- ; ters almost daily, asking if it will be of any ; use to purchase Italians, when other bees j .tre kept all around them. If you are keep- , ing bees for the honey they produce, and for • nothing else. I do not know but that you are better off. with other bees in the neighbor- liood. The queens that you rear will be full , bloods like their mother, but after meeting the common drones, their worker progeny will of course be half common and half Ital- ian, generally speaking These are what we call hybrid bees. In looks, they are much like the Italians, only a little darker. Some- times a queen will produce bees all about alike ; that is, tliey will have one or two of the yellow bands, the first and broadest be- ing about as plain and distinct as in the full bloods. Other queens will produce bees variously striped, from a pure black bee. to the finest three banded Italians. I have had lilack queens fertilized by Italian drones, luid these seem to be hybrids just the same as the others; I have not been able to distin- gi'ash any particular difference. As honey gatherers, these bees that have tiie blood of the two races are, I believe, tak- ing all things into consideration, fully equal to the full blood Italians. There are times, it is true, when the full bloods seem to be aliead: but I think there are other times and circumstances when the taint of black blood gives an advantage in respect to the amount (rf honey gathered, that will fully make up tiie difference; and I would therefore say, if honey is your object and nothing else, you are just as well off to let your queens meet just such drones as they happen to find. Why then do hybrid queens find slow sale, at about one-fourth of the price of pure Ital- ians? -Just beciiuse of their excitability and vindictive temper. Italians, as they generally run, are dis- l)osed to be quiet and still when tlieir hive is opened, and to remain quietly on their combs while they are being handled, showing neith- er vindictiveness nor alarm. Black or com- mon bees, on the contrary, are disposed to be frightened, and either make a general sUunpede, or buzz about ones head and eyes in a way quite unlike the Italians. The Ital- ians do not stand still because thev are afraid to make an attack, for, let a robber approach, and they -will sting him to death in a way 9i> cool as to astonish one who has seen only common bees under similar circmnstanoes. A race of bees so prompt to repel intrudei-s of their own kind, it would seem, would also be prompt to repel interference from man; but such is not the case. They do not seem to be at all suspicious when their hive is opened, and a frame lifted out. "Well, these half bloods inherit the boklness of the Itjil- ians, and, at the same time, the vindic- tiveness of the blacks. And to raise the cov- er to a hive of hybrids VN'ithout smoke, dur- ing a scarcity of honey, would be a bold op- eration for even a veteran. Without any buzz or note of alarm, one of these sons of war will quietly dart forth and infiict his sting before you hardly know where it comes from; then another, and another, until, al- most crazed with pain, you drop the cover, and find tliat they are bound to stick to you, not only out into the street, but into the house, or wherever you may go, in a way very unlike either pure race of bees. Some- times, when a hive is opened, they will fix on the leg of one's trowsers so quietly that you hardly dream they are there, until you see them stinging with a vehemence that indi- cates a willingness to throw away a score of lives if they had so many. This bad temper and stinging is not all; if you should desire to introduce a queen or queen cell to these bees, they would be very likely to destroy all you could bring; while a stock of either pure race would accept them without trouble. : During extracting time, or taking off sur- plus honey, you will find little trouble, pro- viding you work while honey is still coming; but woe betide you, if you leave it on tlie hives until the yield is passed. In preparing hybrid stocks for wintering, ! I have seen them so cross that it was almost imiKissible to get in sight of the hive, after they ks\d once got roused up, and when I charged' on them suddenly with smoker in excellent trim, they charged on me as sud- ' denly, took possession of the smoker, buzzed down into the tube in their frantic madness, and made me glad to beat a retreat, leaving them in full possession not only of the '••field/' but the -artillery" as well. This was a very powerful colony, and they had been unusu- : ally roused up. Although it was quite cool weather, they hung on the outside of the hive, watching for me, I suppose, until next morning. I then came up behind them with a great volley of smoke, and got them under 1878 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 261 and kept them so, until I could give them ciiafi cushions, and put them in proper win- te-iing trim. The queen Avas extremely pro- lific, and I do not know that I ever had one single queen that was the mother of a larger f amilj- of bees. ^lany of these hybrid queens are extraordinarily prolific. I believe the hybrids are more disp<')sed to rob than the Italians, but not as much so as the common bees. I decide thus, because, v/lien at work among them, the bees that buzz about the hives, trying to grab a load t^rf plunder if a chance offers, are almost in- variably full blood blacks. They may have a dash of hybrid blood, but I judge not, be- cause the hybrids and Italians will often be ;tt work, when the blacks are lounging about tiTing to rob, or doing nothing. I have known a strong hybrid stock to be slowly accumulating stores in the fall, when full bloods, in the same ai)iary, were losing day l)y day. S^ASSikWSSlMS-. Few questions are asked oftener than, "How shall I Italianize? and when shall I do itV There is always a loss in removing a queen and substituting another, even where we have laying queens 091 hand ; and where we are to use the same colony for rearing a qneen there is a still greater loss. Laider the head of artificial SWARMING and queex rearing, these lK)ints are fully discussed. Where one has ati apiary of black bees, his cheapest way, especially if he has plenty of lime to devote to the suhject, is to purchase a choice tested queen, and rear his own queens from her. If he has as many as a dozen colonies, and irroposes to continue to increase the number, it may be his best and surest way. to pur- chase an imported queen. If the choice queen is purchased in the spring or summer months, I would not remove the old queens, luitil the summer crop of honey is over; but, instead of allowing natural s^A'arming, take two or three frames from each old stock ;ii>out swarming time, and make nuclei, giving them queen cells from the Italian brood. When these queens are hatdied and laying, build the nuclei up, with frames of brood given one at a time, until they are full stocks. By such a course, you have tlie full l>enefit of your old queens during the honey season, mitil the new ones are ready to take their place. After the honey yield has be- gtin to cease, you can remove the old queens, and give the now sm;es have a fashion of eating l>ees ; even our common fowls sometimes get into the habit of gobbling them with as little fear of consequences, as if they were the most harmless insect in the world. It is quite likely tliat birds have a way of cnish- ing their prey with their bills so as to pre- vent the possibility of the bee's using its sting. It has been suggested that the birds and fowls eat only the drones ; but several examinations of their crops showed that it is, without question, the workers, and it is (|uite probable that the honey contained in the honey sack is the principal inducement. Mr. T. L. Waite, of Berea, (3., furnishes some very positive evidence, and also men- tions a habit of the King bird, I think is not generally known to naturalists. During the month of June, 72, a flock of seven of these birds were making such regular and con- stant vibits to his apiary that his suspicions were aroused, and concealing liimself , with watch in hand, he observed a single bird snap up 5 to 8 per minute. After having piusued this "innocent''' amusement for a sufficient interval, liis birdsliip was in the habit of taking a rest on a neighboring tree, where, after a short meditation, he com- menced a series of muscular contortions of tlie head and neck, that finally resulted in his opening his mouth wide, and 'iieaving up'' a wad of some strange black looking sub- stance. By chance their perch Avas close over a bed of rhubarb or pie plant, and our friend secured a number of these wads as they fell, and thus settled the point of their being nothing more nor less than crushed bees. After they had ''squeezed" out all the honey, probably having no further use for the '"pomace", it was unceremoniously cast aside, while his worship, with a keen ap- petite and zest for the sport, went "bee hunting" again. They came regularly for a "meal" two or three times a day. I guess we had better use our rifles and shot guns in such a way as to induce them to learn that apiaries are "unhealthy"' localities for such boarders. ZiOCUST. This tree is .so well known as to scarcely need a description. It grows very rapidly, and bears blossoms at a very early age. and could we be assured of hav- ing regularly the crop of lioney that the lo- cust bears perhaps one year in five, I should at once plant a locust grove exclusively for honey. It blossoms profusely, almost every season, but often, the bees pay no attention to the flowers at all. The honey comes at a time, when it is very much needed, as it is a little later than the fruit bloom, and a little earlier than white clover. If anytliing could be done, by a se- lection of different varieties, or by cultiva- tion, to make it bear honey eveiy season, a locust grove would be a very valuable ad- dition to the honey farm. The leaf of the locust nuich resembles the leaf of the clover, only it has a gi-eat number of leaves on a stem instead of only three ; the blossom is nuich like that of the connnon pea, both in appearance and size. It is an interesting fact, that the locust, pea, and clover all belong to the same order, Legumi- nosce. M. TaOVlNa 313EB. Perhaps about as many mishaps, especially with beginners, have come about from moving bees unwise- ly, as from any other one cause. A little thought in regard to the habits and ways of bees would save nuich of this. Bees fly from their hives in quest of stores, perhaps a mile; sometimes a mile and a half or two miles; but they will seldom go beyond these limits, imless at a time of great scarcity of pastur- age. Well, after a bee has once fixed his lo- cality, he starts out in the moniing on a run, and never stoi)s to take the points, as he does the first time he sallies out from a new locality. The consequence is, if j'ou have moved his hive, either in the night or day time, and Jiave not moved it more than a mile, he will, when he goes back, strike di- rectly for his old locality. On reaching there and finding his hive gone, he is lost and helpless; and even though the hive may be but a few rods away, he will never find it in the world. New hands freouently move their hives close together at the approach of winter, that they may better protect them with chaff (U- straw. I do not know how many times mishaps resulting from this kind of proceeding have been related to me. All goes very well, perhaps, until we have a warm day; then the bees start out for a fly. and very luiturally retiu'n to their home just as they have been doing all summer; if no one is near to restore their hive to its former location, they fly helplessly around for a while, and then alight on the trees aiul fenc- es, scattered about, and finally perish. If other hives are near, they will get into the wrong hives aiul get stung; or, if their num- 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 263 l)ers are great enough, they will sting the (jueen becanse she is a stranger to them. Sometimes the bees of the whole apiary will become so mixed np, that they have a gen- eral melee and light, resulting in great dam- age, if not in the destruction, of many of the s.warms. Moving hives short distances dur- ing the working season is almost always done with loss of more or less bees, and con- sequently honey. It is true, bees may sometimes be moved without loss, for there is quite a difference in the disposition of colonies, and where one may be moved all about the yard without any apparent loss, tl)(P next may suffer, if moved only a few feet. I once piu-chased a very strong colony of blacks of a neighbor, and to be on the safe side, moved them on a cold day in Dec. I should think it was a week afterward, when it became warm, and the bees went back to their old home in such numbers, that the first cold night froze out the remaining ones, and I lost my stock en- tirely. At another time, a neighbor wished me to take a swarm from a very strong stock of blacks. As I had but little time, I set an- other hive in its place, containing a frame of brood and a queen cell, and moved the old one several rods away. He told me next day that the bees had all found their old home, and deserted tlie brood comb entirely. I directed him to move it again, and place it the other side of the orchard, but it seems these wily blacks had learned the trick, for they all found it even there. Italians, as a general thing, are more ready to take np- with a new location than the blacks, and stick more tenaciously to their home and brood. Sometimes, shaking the bees all in front of the hive, and letting them nui in like a natural swarm, will answer to make them stick to their new locality ; at other times, moving the hive away for an hour or two, until they get really frightened at the loss of their home, will have the same effect, after it is once brought back to them. In this case, they seem so glad to get their dear old home again, that they will adhere to it wherever it is placed. Neither of these plans can be relied on implicitly, and I really do not Know of any that can. Sometimes we snccepf oy leaving a comb for tlie returning bees to cluster on, and then take tliem to the new stand just at night fall. When allowed to run in, they exhibit their joy by loud notes of approval, luit, just as likely as not, tliey will be back at the old spot the next is to be made per- fectly secure, where the bees are to be shipped by rail, or entrusted to any wlio may not give them careful handliuij. "We fasten the metal cornered frames, by sticks placed at each end of the frame. These sticks are 10 inches long, by about 7-16 inch by i. For a 10 frame hive, you will need 22 sticks. Put i tlie first two against the side of the hive tight up in the corners, then a frame of comb, and another pair of sticks. When all 1 the combs are in, the last two sticks are to j be made a little wedge shaped at their lower ends, and pusiied down hard between the comb and the side of the hive. The frames should.be so tightly wedged, that the whole may be tipped about in any direction. You are now ready to tack on the wire cloth. We use a cheap, painted wire cloth. If the cover, bottom board, quilt, enameled sheet, etc., are to go with the bees, I would attach tliem to the bottom with strips of lath, leav- ing a space of an inch for the air to circulate between the lower wire cloth and the attach- ments. If the upper story is to be sent with the hive, I would make a separate package. It is quite important that none but old and tough combs be used, when shipping bees by rail. The beautiful new combs built on the foundation would be very nice to send out to customers, but they would be almost sm-e to break down. Bees can be sent by freight, and I have sent them safely in that way, as far as Massachusetts; but, as a gen- eral thin g, I think I would risk them only by express. Where bees are to be moved in a wagon oi buggy, and the colony is an old one with the combs all bridged over from one to another, I would not go to the trouble of putting the sticks in, for I have always found them to move safely Avithout, even if they are in met- al cornered frames. Have them well venti- lated and handled carefully, of course. If bees are to be sent long distances, be sm-e they have a good supply of stores, for the excitement attendant on the contlne- ment and jolting about will sometimes cause them to consume honey enormously. On this account I would be very careful about moving bees needlessly. Carrying bees into cellars and out again many times during the winter, I should object to, just on this Jic- count; especially, if we can winter them just as well without so doing. Fix a permanent stand for your bees, give them a good chaff hive, and they, as well as yourself, will be spared naucli annoyance, if they can l>e al- lowed to remain there year after year. If you wish to move bees during the day time, while many are in the fields, you can get them nearly all in, by smoking them at intervals for about a half hour. This will give those that are out time to come in, and the smoking will prevent any more going out. If the colony is a very strong one, leave a hive with a comb of brood on the old stand, and the owner can start a nucleus very con- veniently with the returning bees. It is ([uite desirable that the express agents should handle bees carefully, and the sight of them buzzing about just under the wire cloth is, usually, a guarantee of safe hand- ling; but, as many do not know how to han- dle and take care of bees, we have of late had a large printed card tacked to all the hives and nuclei sent out. Since doing this, we have never had any complaints of dam- age in transit. The card reads as follows: ? Tills liive contains LlTe Bees, and tliey 'svill be "billeil*' If roisglily liandled, or left 111 tlie sun, or not kept tUis side Hr« Will you plea!*e l>e carefnl of tlio little fel- lows? A. I. ROOT, ITXediaa, O. As soon as you receive bees, place them at once where they are to stand permanently, and let them out as quickly as possible. They will buzz about, and make quite a stir for a while, but all will get back to their hive safely; for their buzzing about is just to mark their new locality, as we described in BEE-HUNTING. Set the hive level, and I would have it square and true with the points of the compass. Set it on tlie bottom board, loosen the wire cloth where the en- trance is to be, and -then let them remain, until they get acquainted with the surround- ings a little. Next day, if you clioose, you can take oil the wire cloth, and remove tlie sticks, using smoke, of course, ton showing- up Humbugs and Swindles. Below, I give you a copj- of the recent ruling in regard to queens by mail: * * * "When packages containing bees are found in the mail car, the employe in charge thereof should deposit the same at the terminal oiffice of his run, and the postmaster thereat should notify the partv addressed, by letter, that such package isj held sub- .iect to his order, and that the same will be forward- ed, at the expense of such party, bv such means as he laay indicate other than the malls. James H. Mark, Act. 1st Ass't P. M. Gen'l." We stopped sending them out about Julv 24th; but they have been coming in to us, bv everv mail, and the number now piled up that will have to die, I fear, before provision is made in regard to them, is enough to make a cheerful person look sober, and I am not naturally a cheerful person. In sending by express, we shall gain nothiiisr bv having our cages weigh less than 10 oz., as the charge will be 10c. an ,- way, and therefore we would better use larger cag- es. As the queens will be much better cared for, it may be that this ruling, which now seems so unrea- sonable and unjust, mav be a blessing in disguise •Jfterali. Let us try and think so. The burden will fall heaviest, I fear, on those who live a great ways from the express offices. If queens are received dead. I will take your word for it; do not think of gmng to the expense of returning them bv express. Please remember the 10c. to prepay express charges over the lines mentioned in our ad. 1 have lost so heavily on queens that I feel almost discouraged, and, I expect 1 feel a little bit cross, about the great number of burdens I have to bear, in the shape of ! money to make good losses. 1 One more thing ; pkaftr do not accuse any body of dishonesty, when things do not look just right at the fii-st glance. I do not doubt your word, and I do not believe there is a single one among our 3 or 4.00(1 readers, who would want me to send them another queen after they had received one all right ; I have asked you to return the dead queens, that 1 might examine their cages, and find out, if possible, what made them die; not because I was afraid to trust you. Nor do I refuse to send you goods without pay because I am afraid to trust you, but because of the great expense of keeping "accounts with so many people scattered all over our land. One friend said he did not believe an Impf)rted queen which we sent him had ever been fertilized; do you think I whuld send j-ou a queen of any kind until she had been laying y If I did. I should have more "troubles" yet, I fear. DRONE r.EE. At the time I wrote the article on drones, I did not give an engraving, because no drones were to be found. As they have been very plenty for a month or two back, 1 have had one engiaved for the ABC boik. What do you think of him? If any of you can make a pencil sketch of one, more accurate than this engraving and tf about the same size, I will pay for your time and trouble. But remember, these sketches are to be taken from the drones themselves. I know there are some excellent art- ists among our readers, and if anv of vou are dis- posed to help in the work on the A B C, I am quite \vllling to pay you for it. It is an easier matter to get the engraving done, than it is to get an acciirnte drawing of these restless little friends of ours. The engravers are now at work on a queen, of about the same proportion as the above. A STORY WITH A MORAL. A GREAT many troubles occur in business from imperfect addiesses, or none at all. It has been most especially trying this season, with our great masses of correspondence, to waste our precious time, in hunting postal guides, writing to P. M's, and guessing at the hand writing. To illustrate: an old friend and customer, sent some time in May, for a lot of corners, but closed his letter, without a single mark in the shape of a name on it. Oii the euA-elope, we deciphered Columbus, Ind. We turned at once to our subscrivjtion list, and wrote to every name there, but our fi-iend had allowed his subscrip- tion to expire, and none of them had sent for any corners, or could tell us who might have done so. Of course we could do nothing, but wait. In time came a letter, if I recollect aright, telling us we had better stop business, if we could not till an order in- side of a month, or even write a fellow a postal card to say what we were going to do. I at once recalled to mind our friend Coates when I saw his name at the bottom, and felt sorry that I should not have guessed it was he, before. To make sure of no more delays, I called the shipping clerk and told him to be sure that the corners went by the very first express. Some time afterward, word was brought me that a tracer had been sent for goods, which were lying at the man's express office un- called for, and yet he kept writing that they had not come. "Who Is the man?" "Coates." "Is it possible that Coates has not yet got his cor- ners?" "He won't go to the office after them." "Let me see the tracer." It was Irought. "Why this is Columbus, Ohin!" The order was next hunted up, where he told what his name was. When examined, it showed that when he sent his name, he had omitted the state, and the shipping clerk took it for granted it was the Capital of our own state; Columbus is such a household word to us. By the time he got his goods the honey season was pretty much over. The ship- ping clerk was to blame, it is true, for taking anij- thiitii for gi-anted in regard to addresses, but the principal blame attached to our friend for not put- ting name, state, and town on everj- letter he writes. People will not do this, I fear, even if we should talk until we are gray. In fact I am quite sure I should forget it myself once in a while, if I tried ever so hard.' Well, what shaU we do? Steady boys; this story has got a moral to it. What is the moral? Let everybody who does business, have their full name and address printed in some shape, on everything they send out by mail. Printing on envelopes is done very cheaply, but there is still a better waj". It is often almost as important to have dates as to have addresses, and the new rubber dat- ing stamps will fix it all nicely. Have one right by your writing materials, and stamp it on every thing you mail; yes, even your books ahd papers, models, seeds, samples, etc. We have a great big basket, for things that are sent us, and a great many times they lie around and are lost, waiting for something to identify them. Many of them, we never find out about at all. Why, it niakes me really feel happy, when I catch sight of the purple ink used in these dating stamps, to indicate where things came from. I want to please .vou, and to get you your goods at Ihe very caiiicxt minute possible, arid you cannot think how it would help us, to have your crooked, funny names and residences all printed out in plain English on your letters, or somewhere else. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 267 CLEANINGS INBEE CULTURE. .A.. I. ^tOOT, EDITOR AND PUBLISHER, MEDINA, OHIO. terms: $1.00 per year, post-paid. Better is a little with righteousness, than great revenues without right. —Proverbs, 16; 8. m i«i m When you let your queen out of the cage, in in- troducing, you should daub her wings with honey; then she can neither "stjueal" nor fly away, as they are sometimes disposed to do. WHAT TO DO. To those who are short of money and cannot sell their honey, queens, bees, etc. In the first, place, get up early in the morning, and after you are up, don't sit on a" log with your hands in your pockets, but work. Fix up your apiary so nice that every neighbor that comes along will want one like it, and then you can sell him a hive, or a queen, or possibly some honey. Stick up a neat "shingle," saying "Bees and Honey for Sale", and have your honey so nice and tempting when anybody calls that they can't help buying. Do not buy your sign, but paint it yourself, .iust to save the money. If you are in debt, stop out goes; put your money in your pocket and button it up. Keep putting in all you can get, but don't let any get out. Save just for the fun of it, whether it pays or not. Scrape up all your beeswax, on rainy days, but don't send it off by mail or express, and lose half in charg- es; if you cannot sell it near home, club with your neighbors and send a barrel of it by freight. If you cannot sell honey and bees for cash, trade for some- thing j'ou know you have ffot to buy. Wear old clothes, and be careful of them. Be careful of eve- rj'thing. Do not make mistakes and blunders, but get lip early ei^ery morning, and make every single day count something, even if you are sick. Get up early Sunday morning, too, and give God the best day's work of the whole week, in laying up treasures that do not pass away. A SHORT CHAPTER ON ROBBING. About 5 o'clock this morning, I heard a peculiar high note in the apiary. It was too cool for the bees to fly very much, and I therefore soon found where the sound came from, for it was the robbing key, without any question. A small colony of verj' pretty Italians were scampering out and in, as if for dear life, and b.v the way they wiped their mouths, as they came out, I judged, at once, that they were not being robbed. By looking a little closer I saw that the bees going out were light and small, while those coming in were plump and large. "Now, you young scamps, who are you robbing?" said I, as I scanned, one after another, the whole 214 hives in the yard. A way off in a remote corner was anoth- er uproar; at first I thought they were being rob- bed; but soon, I found that they were engaged precisely as were the first colony. The next thing was to line the thieves, and soon they were located in the direction of our engraver's hives. He had purchased and transferred a black swarm, the even- ing before, and the Italians were going in and out unquestioned, as merrily as could be, while the blacks stood about idly, as if it was no manner of concern to them, how quickly their hard earned stores were all appropriated. As it was a Simplici- ty hive, the mischief was stopped by simply shoving the hive back a trifle, for this closes the hive so ef- fectually, that a whole avalanche of robbers could never force their way through, as they do so often where hives are closed with blocks or wedges. What shall we do to make such provokingly shiftless bees show a little spunk and take care of them- selves? Well, I would open the hive about dusk, and see if their (lueen was all right; if not. give them one; if she was, I would give them a frame of Italians just hatching out; then I would be sure that in 3 or 4 days, at farthest, they would "hold the fort", without any farther trouble, whether there was a queen or not. providing they had some brood in the hive, or something worth fighting for. QUEENS. I tell you, my friends, the (lueen business is "bus- iness," most surely; especially where they are sent by mail. A great many of them are lost in reaching us; some are starved, some smothered, and a few die without any assignable cause. Then thev must be introduced, and quite a number are lost "in that way; more are lost again in reaching our customers, and as we guarantee safe arrival, all these have to be made good. Some are lost in introducing again, and, of late, we have had several reports of queens that did not lay, after their long iounievs. Who is to bear the loss? I, or you? I am sure I hardlv know; I do not like the idea of taking your mone'v for a queen that is no manner of use to vou, and yet if I am to take all these risks, I shall cei-tainlv have to have a larger profit, or I shall sink monev contin- ually. I enjo.v the business, for it is a rare pleasure, I assure you, to hear of friends a thousand miles away rejoicing in iheir fine Italians, aud great crops of honej', that came from a dollar queen, and that the expense of getting the stock for this great dis- tance was only a 2 cent postage stamp. We are im- proving, and succeeding better and better every day, and, perhaps, 1 shall get my monev back some time, even if I do not this season. Please do not be cross, when it comes your turn to be disappointed a little, and try and think we are working hard to give you all you have paid for. DEPOSITORY OF Or Letters from Those Wbo Bave made Bee Culture a Failure. f' SEE by a copy of "Gleanings," furnished me by a friend, that you have a column for "Blast- — - ed Hopes," so I will venture to send you my ex- perience. I bought this spring 76 swarms of Italians and hybrids, in Langstroth hives, and had to move them 70 miles on common farm wagons. I prepared them by nailing a screen cloth over the entrance, and also over one slot in the honey board, and put- ting nails into each frame b.v boring through the end of the hive, so there could be no swing. The hives were heav.v with honey, and full of bees and brood. I loaded them with straw packed around and between, being careful not to stop ventilation. The first da.y (April 17th), the roads were rough, and the horse baulked, so we were very late at night getting to our stopping place; consequentl.v the hives were much jolted over rough places in the dark. The next day it rained, aud we had more baulky horse trouble. I hired another team so as to lighten the loads, and drove 20 miles that day. Plent.v of honey was under the wagons in the morn- ing. The next day was hot and we got home. I opened some of the hives and found the bees all daubed with honey, and some dead entirely; at least in 2.5 hives the bees were all dead. I went to work at once doubling swarms, fastening combs in the frames, &c. The brotd was all killed, and the comb was broken down in almost ever.v frame. A more demoralized, sorry sight, I presume it was never your lot to look upon. But to make a long story "short, I have saved 27 swarms, which aie in fair shape now. Here comes another blasted hope: Basswood honey is what we depended on, but the frost has spoiled the bloom, and there is hardlv a smell of a chance there. Bees have not made enough to live on since May 1st, until last week. Now ihey are picking up on clover, and may get some fall honej'. If you know of an.vone who has more "Blasted Hopes," tell them to "send for our hat. If not we shall consider ourselves the champion in this line. Now, after all is over, and we can sit down and coolly think, we see where we miaht have done bet- ter, find even have succeeded with all our mishaps. We should have taken out all the hone.v, leaving on- ly enough for the journey, and then turned the hives liottom upwards; with this additional prepa- tion, we feel confident it would have been a success. There would have been no honey to daub the bees, and all the weight being in the tough brt od combs, I think thev would have come through safely. Let others profit bv mv experience. C. A, Hatch. Loyd, Wis., June 15, 1878. 2(58 GLEAiNTINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Aug. From Different Fields. WHAT A WOMAN DID. J?rf-57?E, like many others, have the bee fever. We W*/' had 5 strong colonies, but wanted more, so \Jj\l we went about ]5 miles and boug-ht another large one, full of bees and honey. It was set in the buggy and came home, when lol and behold! the honey was nnuiing out on every side! The comb had broken down, and the bees were drowning in honey. We opened the hive, and the clean bees soon came out in clusters; but the others were sick. We took them all out, and washed them with warm wa- ter, and put them in thin bags to dry. Those that came out in clusters we put in a Thomas hive; it was a midnight transfer. The queen was in good order. The next mornnig those that we washed and dried were quite lively, and we put them in with the others; »n the afternoon they swarmed. We hived them, and they went to work in earnest. We take Gi.eanimgs, and think it is worth twice the money. We also have the A B C, which is very good. IVlRS. H. S.mith. New Hamburg, Ont., June 18, ISVH. Your bees were suffocated by closing the hive too tight, on such a warm day. Wire cloth should liave covered at least the whole bottom, and it would have been better to have had an opening, similarly covered, in tlie top also. I tear none IJut a woman would have possessed the skill, even liad they the zeal, to have made the best of a bad matter as you did. Keep up the same en- thusiasm the year round, and you will sure- ly have bees and honey, to your satisfaction. . I have had the queen go into the sections with separators ! I think they went up in order to get drone combs, as I have tried to keep all such combs out of the body of the hive. June 20th, I accidentally killed a queen; 3Sth. I cut out all the queen cells but one, and looked the combs twice over carefully, to make sure there was no other queen or cell ; aoth, they threw out a swarm ; July 1st, I found the cell that I left still re- maining, also some eggs unevenly scattered tlirough the combs ; 4th, the (jueen cell hatched ; 10th, the bees swarmed out, and I found no more eggs. Where did 1 he queen with the first swarm come from ? and how about the eggs found ? What will the old stock do now for a queen ? Lebanon Springs, N. Y. Elmer S. Gooderich. I have had some little fear, that using drone comb in the sections might be more apt to induce the (pieen to go into them, but as we have never yet had a c;ise of that kind, I cannot think it a very frequent oc- currence. Were your sections small, like ouisV The queen is much more apt to use a larger section. If you are sure you missed no queen cells I would suggest that some other queen got into the hive by mistake. This they frequently do about swarming time. The old stock will perish tuiless you give them a queen or brood. If the eggs were not hatched into larvae, I should opine that they were the work of a fertile worker, by some unusual treak of nature. DIPPING PLATES OF WOOD, ETC. Instead of using your dipping plates, which gave me the trouble of brushing, &c., after each dipping, I made some dipping plates of yellow poplar, 8-16 of an inch thick, and use nothing on them but water; it makes sheets of wax which are smoother, and which come off more readily than from your metal plates. Alter the last dipping in the wax, I dip them in the tub of water, and the sheets of wax come oft even too easy. Your plates are always sufficiently wet for another dipping in the hot wax, and if there is too much water on the plates, they don't work as well. Now for the rolling of the fdn. I don't use a brush at all on the top roller, as I have found out that, by giving one turn to the crank after the sheet is out, the bottom roller always applies enough of the starch to the top one to roll another sheet, and so on, without any brush, soap bark, or soap. I made my starch aboTit the thickness of syr- up at first, and as it worked well, 1 did not trv it thinner or thicker. P. L. Viallo'n. Bayou#oula, La., June 15, 1878. We used dipping plates of wood, long be- fore we used them of glass or metal either ; and, since receiving your letter, we have made wooden plates such as you describe. They work without any soap bark, or brush- ing, it is true, but we have n.ever been able to get slieets of a uniform thickness, as with the metal plates, and have therefore gone back to the latter once more. For small sheets, the wood dippers may answer better. We roll tlie sheets just as you describe. When the machine was engraved, we used a Idush. and I i)resume the brush shown in the engraving gives many the impression that one is to be used. At present, 1 lb. sections sell slowly at 18e. per lb. What the price may settle down to, we cannot tell, as there is much honey afloat in small lots, filling up the market pretty effectually. We hope there will be a lietter demand soon. Stair & Kendel. Cleveland, O., July 6, 1878. STRENGTHENING THE COMBS BY WIRES. My friend, the Hon. H. A. Moody, M. D., of the northern portion of this state, among other things, says, in July No., that wires worked into the comb would be a great safeguard against cracking and bending while extracting. To obviate this trouble I wrap a small copper wire around the frames when filled out. two wires each way; and I have no trouble with comb breaking out while handling or extract- ing. The wire can be bought for 25c per spool. I find coal oil effectual in removing propolis from the hands. Dr. M. Notwithstanding the speculation in buying and selling Gleanings, from and to its publisher, I real- ly don't think I could be induced to take f 1.00 per copy for mine. Now, dear Novice, about discontinuing "Our Homes." If you find a want of matter for "Grow- lery," withhold "Our Homes." When I read with so much intense joy, how God blesses your labors, and with such lavishness, I find that I have you con- stantl.y associated, in m.y mind, with the celebrated iSluller. rt is simpl.v marvelous. K. A. Abbey. Terry, Hinds Co., Miss. I should object to the wires around the frames, because they would interfere more or less with brood rearing, but it would be a very simple matter indet'd, to stretch wires across the centre of the frame before the comb was br.ilt, or tlie fdn. fastened in. Perliaps a thin wire stretched from corner to c(nner might answer, and this could be done, with our frames, without the necessi- . ty of boring any holes for the wires at all. If 'the fdn. were ])ressed partly into this, there would be little if any sagging; tine iron wire is very much cheajter, and I do not know why it would not answer. After being so ])erfectly covered with wax, I do not think there would be any tendency to rust. I, too, have thought often of Muller, l)ut I shall have to grow a great ways, before lean so thoroughly consecrate my life and busi- ness to the welfare of the needy and the des- titute, as lie has done. Now and then, I get glorious glimpses of the way in which (iod takes care of. and provides for, such as he. Thanks for your kind and cheering words. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 269 HONEY DEW, ETC. I have 26 stands of black bees, and they are doing finely this season in makinfj honey; but they have not swarmed much. At this writing they are work- ing tinelv on the second crop of red clover. I am a reader of Gleanings, and think, if I live until an- otlier season, that I will try some of the Italians. I ha\c read in thebecjournalsfor several years about the honey dew. I believe they all agree that it is produced by an aphis, a kind of insect, but thca-e is one thing l' would like to have explained. Why is it that vou scarcely ever see any honey dew, only on a ratlier cold iiioriiing. I hardly ever see any when t'le days and nights are hot. E. B. Hilton. Fulkerson, Scott Co., Va., July 10, 1878. AFTER SWARMING IN ONE DAY. The section boxes are the nicest thing out; and they suit best in this market. I have sold some for 30 cts. per 11). when other new honey was selling for 1.5 cts. I'd like to know if it often happens that a second swarm will come out the next day after a first? I divided one, and the one placed on the stand where the old one had stood, swarmed first of any — a large fine swarm. The next day, another swarm came from the same hive, and, after fussing awhile, lighted in front of the hive of the one coming out the day before, and Avont in, going to work as peace- ably as if they had all come out together. One oth- er hive has done the same thing, as to coming out so near together, and I am certain, from the size, that they were not after swarms. What a letter I haAC written ! but then one cannot read your paper without feeling like writing just what one would talk. Mrs. F. M. Vilas. Madison, AVis., July 11, 1878. .Sometimes the weather, or it may be other causes, will prevent a lirst swarm from issu- iuff, until the queen cells are nearly, if not quite, ready to hatch. In such cases the sec- ond swarin may issue as soon as one day af- ter the first. I suppose it was by that stransce instinct that prompts any swarm to alight on the spot where one has clustered but a few days before, that induced the sec- ond swarm to go in with the first one. Is it by the acute sense of smell, that bees do this? Who will answer? I wish to Iiave you all write, just as you would talk; and to go right into your subject, without pre- face or introduction. a slip clipped from some newspaper. While reading it, I was reminded that a. bee-keep- er from a neighboring town told me that he had been suffering greatly from neuralgia for several days, but, on getting stung "right on the spot," by one of his bees, the pain left at once, and has never returned ; the bee sting i>roved more potent, than the most powerful liniment. Here is the slip of paper. Two chronic rheumatics in Germany have lately been cured by the stings of bees. One of them, a farmer's wife, who had suffered for six months so as to be unable to sleep, and almost unable to use her right arm, kept three bees on the arm until their stock of poison had exhausted itself. The effect j produced was astonishing; as the lady, even on the I first night, was enabled to enjoy a good, long sleep, the first time for at least six months, the racking pain being entirely gone. The arm was, of course, ! swolen greatly in consequence of the stings, but the j swelling disappeared gradually upon the applica- I tion of some cooling lotion. All pain was gone, the j lame arm recovered its previous vigorousness, and not the least sign of rheumatism has since shown itself. Goods received .all right. Honey extractor came to hand the 6th (express charges were 90 cts), and it works like a charm. I like the drone starters for honey boxes; the bees work on them and leave the others alone. Ever.y body that sees your section box- es is pleased with "them. To-day, a man offered me 30 cts per pound for all the honey I had to spare in them. I sold some extracted honey for 20 cts. Shamburg, Pa., July 10th, 1878. D. S. Oiler. CYPRESS FOB HIVES. I like the 2 story Simplicity hive received from you well, and am making arrangements to manu- facture them. It is the best and best furnished bee hive ever introduced here. I have here every facil- ity for making them, and good material in cypress timber, such as tliey used in the building of Solo- mon's Temple. It is a little more porous than white pine, more durable, and nearly as easily worked; and, I think, is admirably suited to the construction of bee hives. It is something between cedar and white pine. A. Spencer. Indian Bay, Ark., May 25, 1878. This morning I opened the chaff hive I bought of you, in which, on June 5th, T hived a large swarm of common bees. On examination I found the comb frames well filled and six frames of sections all filled. The section boxes I replaced with others. They were not as nice as I expected, but I think it altogether my fault. I had placed them too far apart and the conib bulged out; but upon the whole it was admired l)v those who have kept bees. W. H. H()PP()('K, Sonierxille, N. J., July 4, 1878. You should place the sections tight up, of course, and if you wish to liave them nice, they should l)e taken out just as soon as yon can find a single one sealed over perfectly. BEE STINGS ASjA'REiMEDIAL AGENT. As some of our frienls have been borrow- ing"'rcable, for fear that getting stung would induce untold maladies, somebody sends us I have an increase of 9 swarms from one, all in splendid condition, and 115 lbs. of comb honey from the same, to date. "How is that for high?" Milton, 111., July 16th, 1878. A. L. Foreman. SWARMING TRIALS. I only commenced bee keeping this year. I bought two colonies of pretty poor hybrids in com- mon boxes. During the spring ttey turned out 3 swarms each; but 2 of the swarms vanished to the woods, notwithstanding I wore out a couple of tin pans, broke a brass dinner bell, smashed a mirror worth $6.00, and crawled through a marsh waist deep in mud after them, trying to get them to "stop a leetle;" but they covild not "see the point;" so they were lost! My faith in "bell ringing," "tin pan wearing out," and all such and diverse contrivances was worn thread bare. Now, friend Root, I have 6 colonies in box hives. I want to "do something," but hardly know what to start at, or how to start it. Can I transfer these bees during Aug. or Sep.? I want to move my bees about ;jf)0 yards from where they now are, and can't move them a little at a time, as you direct. How can I manage it? and at ic/mf time? The thermom- eter never goes below 20 degrees abOA'e zero here. Will it be necessary to provide Chaff hives, or give «»)!/ winter protection? I wish to Italianize; when can T commence trving to? R. C. Taylor. Wilmington N. C, July 14th, 1878. You can transfer in Aug., or Sep., if there is not too much honey in the hives, and you do not get robbers at work. Move the 6 col- onies all at once, and then set a single hive of the same general appeara}ice, to catch the returning bees. This decoy hive must have a frame of brood to make them stay, but need have no queen. After all are moved, take the bees from this hive every night, and shake them before the liive that needs them most, until but few retiu-n. Some Avill probably be lost, the best you can do. If moved in the winter, no such measure need be taken. It is not necessary to provide chaff hives, or chaff ])ackingin your climate, but 1 think much could be saved by so doing; we find the chaff coverings of great advan- tage, even in Ai)ril and May. Italianize now, or any time when queens are sold. 270 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTQRE. Aug. I admire your zeal and spirit in chasina: your run-a-way swarm ; but I think you had better leave the looking glasses at home next time. Ps bees here. Box hives and black bees are the rule. I made one ef- fort to Italianize my bees, and they are all hybrids now. Tell our friends, if they want an extractor, to buy one ready made. I bouKht Kearin^ from you and had one put up here; it c ist me^ibout eleven dollars. \Vc are havin'g- a g-reat harvest of honev dew. Aullville, Mo., July 10th, 1878. A. S. Davison. Large apiaries of ])ure It-;ilian bees, I pre- sume, will give the largest proportion of l)ure queens. Of the queens we have bought not more than one in ten have proved hy- In-ids ; I think those reared in our own api- ary will average still better. work as upon the white clover. The honey seems to be secreted on the inner surface of the large tulip shaped flower, from which he licks the honey a'* your cow would lick the bottom of her salt troiig-h. There is not emus^h to be visible to the eye, but it is distinctly perceptible to the ta^te ; so I hardly think the bees would g'et a table spoonful of honey from one flower, as stated in Aug. Gleanin to watch any longer, so I concluded to fix things un myself. I dipped up bees from the old hive, and put into the new; then removed the old hive and put the new one in its place. I took the old box into the house, transferred the combs to two new hives: divided the bees and gave one a queen and the other a queen cell, and covered each with a mus- quito bar. So I made 3 swarms, and had 3 queen cells left over, for which I had need. I wish to Ital- ianize my apiary, but groan to think of the labor involved in catching 25 black queens. Can you tec that ^ot to her stiuifr her. I know I didnot hurt her while I bail her in my hand. The det\d tliieen toad .iiist commenced hiyiiig'. From one of your iarval qvieens, I took this morn- sng-, 48 1 {h. seetion boxes well tilled. I hajd pre- viously taken 2-t from the same, and presume tbere sire 10 in the lower story; 88 boxes full from a young ■queen in chaff hiye will do. I >ret 16«.T cts per lb. for bo.\ Jiouoy. I am glad it is I'heap; more can use it f reeiy. I would like to see it 10 cts., and think 1 could make it pay at that, Pewee Valley. Ky., July 11th, 1878. A. W. Kaye. I would not tuke a quven in my hands to "Clip her whigs ; too many cases jtist like tlw one yon have given have been reporterninar, fifty' 1 lb. section boxes well filled. W. H. H(>Pi>>)CK. Summer\-ille, N. J., July 4th, 1S78. clover; why bees will not, at TI.MES, WOKIv ON IT. We have an abundance of white clover, and I have traveled over acres of it, but have not seen a single bee on it. At what time do bees get honey from clover, if they do not get it when in bloom? Empire, Wis., .July 8th, 1878. .Ta.mes Laffertv. Honey is gathered from white clover with comparative slowness, and at the time when you wrote, they were probably at work on basswood ; or they may have been at work in some other locality, on clover that furnislied more honey. They will often jniss right over a tield white with bloom, for some one more distant, tliat, we jyrc^umr, furnishes iiiore honev. RESERVE QUEENS, Please tell me how you manage to raise and keep , queens, so a person can have them on hand when he wants them. Would it not do to divide bees yet this summer, if a person had tiueensV Maxvill, O., July 11th, 1878. B. N. Kudesill. Raise queens as advised in the A 15 (\ under artificial swarming, and keep thein in the nuclei. You can keep them in a one comb nucleus, but they are so apt to swarm out, or get robbed, that I should hardly ad- vise less than 2 frames, and 3 are safer if you wisli to keep the queens until very late in the fall. You can keep (jueens safely a couple of weeks, in our caiuiy queen cages. Put in 15 or 20 bees, and see that they iiave plenty of candy, made of honey and ' sugar. The cages mus"t be kept in a warm place, or they will die in a very few days. If put over a strong colony of bees, they may be kept a couple of montlis in the summer season. With reserve (lueens on hand, you can divide a colony at any time, in winter or summer, providing oiily that there are bees enough for two colonies ; if they lack stores, of course you must feed. I would like to learn through Gleaninos, if bees can be made to work or not. I have got 7 stands that r kept over winter, and they don't appear to want to do much. Whether it is tliey ha\e nothing to do or whether the.v are too lazy, I don't know. I have got the Langstroth hive, with honey board on top f)f frames, from Vt inch to 1 inch thick. Is that too heavy to put honey bo.xes on'/ S. M. Peachey. Allcnsville, Pa., July 8th, 1878. I have never seen any bees that I could not make "work." If they have not got a good laying (|ueen, give them one, then give them room in the hive, and get them to comb building.' You certainly have not been so careless as to allow them to get their hive so full that they can not workV Honey lioards are now pretty generally dis- carded, because they prevent the sections f)'(nn coming close to the bees where we want them. A lot of liives recentlv came 272 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Aug. from Mieliigiin, with veiy pretty liffht honey Ijoards. Init after using them a month or two. our boys declare they never wish to see another wooden lioney board. Put your .sun>his boxes into the l)road frames, and when you wish to cover the brood frames, use a sheet of enameled cloth as we have described in tlie A B C. UNUSUAI^ KITTLING <^F DRONES, AND HOW TO PREVENT IT. T have a question to ask. I have been a bee-keep- er for some 12 years, and saw this week a freak of the bees that I think unusual. I made up a new colony from a very stronjr stock, by shaking- the bees "from the eombs and allowing- but few to ad- here thereto; allowed them to remain 36 hours and then inserted a (jueen cell. The queen emerg-ed in a few hours after: but what seems strang-e to me is the fact, that the bees, although they had an abund- ance of stores, commenced and continued to kill their drones until the hive is now entirely without the necessarj' male population. Of course the tlow of honey ceased with this new colony, as the bees were too young to go to the tields; but what ap- pears so strange to me is that a colony of young hatching bees with an unfertile queen should des- troy all their drones. Why is it? I was careful to see that the old queen remained in the hive I took the brood combs from. W. J. Sherriff. Pittsburgh, Pa., July 12th, 1878. I can not account for the case you men- tion, farther than by saying, that the promptings of instinct seem sometimes to be at fault ; as, for instance, in starting a queen cell over a drone larva, paying hom- age to a fertile worker, and the like ; and I should class yours in the same list. Had you used both old bees and young, I do not think the drones would have been killed. Those who wish to resei've drones for late queen rearing, should I'emember to make and keep queenless, a few stocks, which have the drones in great abundance. ABSCONDING WITH A CAGED QUEEN, AND WITH EGGS IN THE HIVE. I had one swarm that tried to go to the woods while the queen was caged in the hive. I introduced a nice Italian queen to another hive all right, and she went to the woods next day, leaving a hive full of new comb, some sealed honej% and a lot of eggs she had laid. Now, "how is that for high?" Can you explain it? J. F. Meyer. Wyandotte, Kan., June 25th, 1878. Both cases mentioned are quite unusual ones. A swarm will sometimes come out when the queen is caged, but they will come back. as soon as they discover her absence. I have known bees to abscond in several in- st'inces, where the queen had stocked the hive with eggs only, but scarcely, if ever, after the eggs had hatched into minute larvae. The bees seem to have nothing to busy themselves about, with eggs alone.'but with unsealed larvae there is always work to do, and bees, like every body else, must be kept busy, to be kept out of mischief. without any improvement, nearly all being too long. and there was no fit in covers. I often wish that E was nearer you so that I could avoid the high freight charges. L. G. Rucher. Patrick Court House, Va., June 24th, 1878. The same difficulty is met, my friend, al! over our land, and 1 presume all over the world, for that matter. I think you can get accurate work in this way : give your carpenter a single jiiece, and tell him yoit want so many, just like it, made of seasoned lumber. Tell him, unless they are just like it in every respect, tliey will be of no value, and have a clear understanding that you are not to piij^ for them if they do not come up to the mark. Before you pay for them, examine them in every respect. When one piece is finished, give him another, and so on, clear through. This plan will likely cost, but it Avill insure good work. Whein the hives are put together, examine the first one most critically, in every way in Avhich it is to be used, and do not have a quantity put up, until you are sure all is cor- rect. Can you throw any light on the following occur- rence? Toward the end of June, my bees commenc- ed to swarm. We successfully hived them, 8 in number, and most of the swarms had made a good deal of comb, when, one by one, they left for the woods. I only had 14 stocks, and as this happened last year in exactly the same way, it is rather dis- couraging, to say the least of it. * What can I do to prevent it? My hives were the common box hive. I am getting by degrees the movable frame hive, and hope, when I use them altogether, to prevent swarming. One thing I don't understand in Glean- ings; you say, "Place a piece of brood comb in th<' new hive, and the swarm wll rai-ely leave." Where- do you get the brood comb? and how do you place it in the hive? Fred. Penfold. Kichmond, Ind., July 'Jth, 1878, If your bees had a fertile queen, and the hives contained plenty of unsealed brood, when they deserted, I should ascribe it to what seems to be a kind of swarming mania that sometimes possesses bees durinsr a rainy season like the ju-esent one. Who ever uses box hives must expect to have a host of such and similar troubles. A frame of unsealed brood may be taken from any hive in the apiary, and you can hang it in the new hive in any way you choose, only so that the frames near it are all properly spaced, that you may not have crooked combs. One great advantage in making swarms artiticially is that it almost, if not entirely, prevents this swarming mania, such as has been repoited this season fi-om almost every quarter. T received "Queen Bess" and her escort all right, and do not wonder at it, she was so snugly ensconc- ed in her little safe, and so amply provided with food to last 2 or 3 weeks. A. CAtiL. Bryant, 111., June 30th, 1878. HIVE MAKING. I am not a mechanic, but have to rely on others to make my hives. In the spring of 1877, I bought of .you a sample hive and employed the best workman in the village, but his work was not correct: some piecis were too short, and others too long. After furni-ihiiig the material, 1 have to pay more than you charge. This spring I had another lot made up REPLY TO GEO. O. CHURCHII/L IN JULY NO. Bees in this section of Mass. will store about 25 lbs. of surplus hone.v, when run for surplus alone. Some few swarms will give .50 lbs. ; occasionally one will give 75 or SO lbs. The most I ever obtained in a single season from one stock, was lO^J lbs.; and that but once in 15 years. As a rule here, the hive that casts a swarm I don't e.vpect any surplus from; but, when one swarms earl.v and the harvest is continu- oufj, I sometimes get from 10 to 25 lbs, from the original stock, while the new swarm, unless it casts a maiden swarm, will double it. Last year, I madt^ artificial sw.tnns a^ early as the 15th of May; then, both stocks gave atiout 25 lbs. But, in keeping a lot of bees, one will always have some with the queen out of condition when the flowers are in con- dition. Queens will var.v so about their time of laying too, that the hive with a late laying queen gives— <;i; while an early laying queen gives tho prfitits. W. O. Sweet. West Manstteld, Mass. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 273 \ur %mx^. For everyone tiiat doeth e%il hateth the light, (neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.— John, 3; :J0. ^r J EVERAL yeai-s ago, u very intelligent j^j bee-keeper paid nie a visit of several - days, and as he had been visiting bee- keepers and localities with a view ot select- ing a new gronnd, our convereation turned upon the prominent bee men and writers. At the time, I was not a believer in the Bi- l>le. or at least I claimed I was not, and he iseemed to rejoice wiien he had discovered the fact; if I recollect aright, he made the remark that the greater part of our ijiunber ■were skeptics; that Mr. A. did not believe in religion, and worked with his bees on Simday; also Mr. B. and V. and D. and E.; that Mr. F. was a Free Thinker ; Mr. G. a Spiritualist ; Mr. II., something else, ami so on. I remember a little feeling of pain at this, for lightly as I was in tlie habit of speaking of the Bible. I could not help feel- ing a slight shudder. Would he, while vis- j iting other bee-keepei-s, say of me, *'Yes, ' jind Novice, too, does not believe in Bibles i ;ind churches and Sunday schools ; but says I it is an old piece of sui)erstition, and it is high time that it was all done away with, and reckoned among the things of the past?" It is true, my friends, I was fond of saying just those words; but, mind you, I had not been in a Sabbath school for nearly 20 yeare, ;ind my knowledge of the Bible was just about as detinite as of Sunday schools. Finally, said he, "Oh! what sort of a man ■do you think Mr. so and so isV ''A very pleasant writer, and a good sort of a man, is he not?" ''Well, you would not think he favored re- ligion very much, were you to hear him talk ; not he. He has a very pretty home, but when he introduced me to the woman with whom he is living, he did so with an apology, because she was not his wife." I .started in surprise and horror. "Did you remain?" "Why, yes; I did not want to hurt their feelings. He is a Spiritualist, and the Spir- its told his wife she had better go away with another man, and she sent this wonian to take her place. He said they were going to iiie married after a wliile." I presume I shall be accused by some, of having descended in these Home Papers to scandal and gossi]), and, at about the time this conversation took place. I was, myself, loud in my denunciations of gossi])s and sewing societies : but T thank God now, for a people wJio will talk out, and condenm ^•rime and ini(puty. even if they do, at times, ■exaggerate and oVei-ste]) the mark. I have jxiven the above convei-sation as nearly as I •can, if not in the exact words, in sul«tance. I have given it. because^ I felt the lesson ■was too great a one, to be lost. Time passed, and I received letters as tisual from the man who liad thus dared to defy the laws both of (iod and man. but it was impossiltle for me to reply to him, in the same spirit I had done lieretofore. Pretty soon, lie wrote that business called him near me, and he should like to pay me a visit. I did not know what aiLswer to'make; I dared not tell him the truth, and I could not feel it my duty to in- vite to my home . Tlie subject lay on my mind, on my con- science perhaps, for it was the Mrst time I had ever come so near being face to face with that yaVvning abyss that is so terrible, and yet is approached by such very quiet and innocent looking paths. It is quite likely, the thought of this niairs life had ; something to do with my conversion. Some of you remember the March No. (Ib77) that gave notice of my conversion. I expected persecution, and expected to lose some of my subscribers, when I wrote wJiat I did. I I do not know whether I lost any or not.- I do know tliat the tirst vehement objection to having such thmgs in a bee paper came from this man. A few months later, when the Home Papers were commenced, a letter came from him demanding that such fool- ishness be stopped ; saying that I had a de- paitment in my paper for humbugs and swindles, and, inasmuch as religion was the greatest humbug and swindle the earth had ever been ciuvsed with, it should be shown up in that department. I have now, per- haps, a million of letter's liled away, that have come from bee friends. In reading them all. I have never seen anything ap- proaching aii oath, with but one "exception. Need I tell yon that tliis one came from the man I have just been speaking of. I re- plied to all, even his threats and blasphemy, as best I could, but, in all my experience, I have never found one so bitter and so angry, at the mere mention of the Bible or Jesus Christ, as this man has been. In one of liis letters, I believe he stated he had once been a professor of religion, and therefore knew all about it. I have had one case to deal with, that is somewhat parallel. I have mentioned be- fore, a young man whose besetting "sin is in- temperance. While sober and steadily at work, he believes in (iod and the Bible ; but after he luis been on one of his dnuiken si)rees, the sight of the Bible seems to anger him beyond measure ; and then he is skep- tical. He has been working with us for the past three months, and has been as steady and faithfid as we could ask, until some- thing tnrnee(l I he God of truth. "Xow Albert, yon say yon worship truth, and yet yon liave jnst admitted, that had I not read jjfiiilt in your actions, yon would have gone on with yonr work, without say- ing a word to nie of what had happened^ •"Bnt if you did not ask nie about it. wonid I Iiave told yon any untruth by not saying anythingV ••Does Thomas Paine teach that kind of •reasoning." in his Age Of Reason V" He made new promises, and declared as before, tliat it wmild be tiie very last time, and tiiat 1 would see how well he would do, if he could jn.st come back once more. For over a Aveek. he tried hard to do right, was faithful and diligent, and did full as much work as any one of the boys. Uast Satur- day, there was an excursion' to the lake, and he asked to go. I reminded him of the dan- ger, bnt he smilingly told me I need have no tear, he would be home at 6 o'clock, all right. As lie liad not made an ai)i>earance on Sunday p. M.. the livery man went after liis horse and buggy, and found it at a neighboring town. Albert got into a dis- graceful dnmken row, and was brought jiome and lodged in jail, yesterday a. m. The first Avord of welcome I received Avas accompa]iied with an oath, beciinse he Avas sentenced to 10 days on bread and AAater. As soon as I opened my Bible, he declared he Avas a Spiritualist. ••I rather think you are, Albert, for you are. most assuredly* not a folloAA'er of Christ. I have no time to talk ''isms."' for I have left all of my business, to come over here and do some business with yon. if you are Avilling." ••I ;im certainly willing to do anything to get out of this trmible, and" ••No more promises. please; tell nieAA'here they sold yoti the drink." '•J took it from Medina, AA'ith me." '■Albert! do you mean to say that, after that frank and seemingly honest jiromise, you took the money I giwe yoii, and went and bought whisky Avith it? ••Do you not see hoAv completely the Devil has got hold of youV You are naturally truthful, but after you gave Avay to tempta- tion for drink, you planned to get it Avithout my knoAvledge; then yon listened to him Avhen he told you that you had been abused, and so you ^ot into a fight; next he advised you. through an evil Avoman in the guise of friendship!^ to blow out the brains of the mayor of the toAvn. because y(ni Avere sen- tenced to 10 days; and he has just noAV told you to lake (iods name in vain, right before me. Satan has been 'claAAing* after you for many days past ; do you not see Avhere all this tendsV' ■'I guess you are right, Mr. Root; I did not expect you Avould ever give me another chance, or come near me any more. A friend got the liquor for me."' "'A friend 'f^ "What queer ideas i^eople sometimes have of friendshi]). My experience seems to teach that it mat- ters bnt little Avhat the form of Avickedness is. the feeling of dread of sacred things seems to be about the same ; and the dislike a guilty man lias for the Bible and Clirisfs teachings seems, sometimes, to be almost akin to that Avhich a mad dog has for the sight of AA'atev. It is a great deal easier for one Avho is doing Avrong to claim that he is a S})iritualist. than that he is a tolloAA'er of Christ, for in his oAA^n heart, he feels the glaring inconsistency of the latter claim. If you Avere crossing a stream, and you should see the Avater coming doAAn alf riled and muddv. you Avould infer that somebody or something AAas above stiiTing it up; on the same grounds, Avhen I hear anyone taking (TOd"s name in vain, or loudly denouncing: the ]5ible and its teachings. I judge from past experience that something has stirred up the muddy Avaters, and that tlie cause Avfjuld readily be found, were AA'e to search for it. Is this a pretty severe doctrine'? Well, look al)Out you and see ; and if you are not satisfied then, go into your jails, get ac- quainted Avith their inmates, and hear theii* s-tories of temj)tations and falls. Fol- loAV out these threads of human life, and tr}' to lift up the fallen, and then see Iioav nnich aid you get from those Avho take God"s name in vain, and denoimce the teachings of Christ Avhen here on eartli.^ Notice Avliat the effect Avill be on one avIio* seems lost by intemperance, or other vices, and Avho has almost decided to accept Christ and rise up. when a skeptic or a profane man comes along and ventures a little of his doctrine. I care not Avhat '•ism" yoii profess, so that it jiroduces real tangible good, and I have no objection to haA'ing Sunday on Saturday, or to saying Sabbath school, in place of Sun- day school, so that Ave do not Avaste time OA'er unprofitable controversies and discuss- ions. I Avould let the majority of the i>eo- ple decide all such, as it seems to me, unim- portant matters. Whatever day seems to be generally obsened as the Sabbath. I AA'ould observe, and to intrude such a sub- ject on one Avho is just looking to God to help him cmt of the mire of sin would seem to me perfectly awful, if I may be alloAve(i the expression. I df) not knoAv but I should pass the sul>- ject of the form of baptism in the same Avay. When a man is converted and begins, all at once, to }iay his debts, and teirthe truth, Avhich he had no^ done before, A\-e can safely trust God to tell him Iioav he ought to be baptized, and if Cod should fail to tell him anything about it. I AVOuldgiA^e him the Bible and let him alone. Outsiders and skeptics are, I feel. someAAiiat excusable, in telling us that religion is a superstition of the past, Avheii they find us occupying the greater part of our time in discussing comparatively un- importiint forms and ceremonies, but when they find a Christian aa'Iio is active and Avide aAA'ake in reforming men from intem])erance, untnithfulness, dishonesty, impurity, blas- phemy and the like, the AAliole Avorld. AAithout a single exception that I know of. ]»0AV their heads in honest SAaupathy. and from the bottom of their hearts, silently, if not outAvardly, approve. "For he that in these thing's serreth Chri>!t. is iu - c"ptabl.> to God, ar.tl aopr.ivctl of men. Uumiins, U\ IS'. 1878 GLEANINGS IN BEE CTLTURE. When a man who has been converted puts liis hand hito his pocket and hands out the hard casli, for wrongs he has done years be- fore, that single act is of more weiglit in a community than all that cnn be written and said, to discourage intidelity. When I see people working hard to get converts to tlieir especial creed, to their views of bap- tism or observence of the .'sabbath, I think of the words, For yc compass sea and land to make one preso- ld te, etc. Mat. 23 ; 15. Again ; a scrap of paper was once brought me narrating how a boy had gone to Sunday School and on coming home had deliberately taken an axe and chopped oft" his right hand. This was in consequence of Bible teachings and Sunday Schools, so tl;e paper said. Well, if people in general are going to un- er contains an essential oil, besides some gummy matter, that gives an odor doubtless reminding the bees of the aroma of the open- ing buds. Not only do they thus collect the, to us, tasteless sawdust, but they have been found at different times on a great variety of substances. A friend in Michigan, at one time found them loading up with the fine black earth of the swamps, and they have been known to use even coal dust ; but the strangest thing of all, was told me by the owner of a cheese factory near by. He said the bees were one day observed hovering over the shelves in the cheese room, and as their numbers increased, they were found to be packing on their legs, the fine dust that had accumulated from handling so much cheese. Microscopic investigation showed this dust to be embryo cheese mites, so that the bees had really been using animal food as pollen, and living animals at that. If one might be allowed to theorize in the matter, it would seem this should be a rare sub- stance to crowd brood rearing to its utter- most limit. As clieese can now be bought here for 6 or 8c. by the quantity, it might not be so very expensive for bee food after all. Bees can be taught to use a great variety of articles of food in tins way, when they are in need of pollen, and therefore the story of giving a hive of bees a roasted cliicken, to promote their comfort and welfare, may be not entirely a myth. Ground malt, such as is used in making beer, has been very highly recommended in place of rye meal, but as I have never succeeded in getting any of it, I cannot speak from practical experience. The princii)al supi)ly of pollen in our locality is from maple in the spring, and from corn in the latter part of summer and fall. Al- most all flowers that yield honey, yield pol- len also, to a greater or less extent, and when the bee comes in laden with the one,"; he almos always has some of the other. The red clover yields a peculiar dark green pol- len, that pretty surely indicates when the bees are gathering honey from it. They of- ten get a considerable load of honey, with but a very small one of pollen ; but, if you did not notice very carefully, you would quite likely declare that they had gathered no hon- ey at all. The pollen from corn is generally gather- ed early in the morning; when it is first coming into bloom, I have seen them start out in the forepart of the day, much as they do for a buckwheat field. THE AGENCY OF THE BEES IN FERTILIZINGh PLANTS, BY MINGLING THE POLLEN. This is too wide a subject to be discussed at full length here, but I will give you a few examples, to start you on the track. A per- fect blossom contains both stamens and pis- tils, the male and female organs of repro- duction ; but sometimes we find fiowers hav- ing stamens only, and others having pistils only ; and these two blossoms may be borne by th3 same plant or by different plants. If I am correct, the plant is fertilized by the pollen from the stamens falling on the stigma at the summit of the pistil. Unless this is done, the plant ripens no seed. Na- ture has adopted a multitude of devices for carrying this pollen from one blossom to the other, but perhaps the most general, and the one with which we have to do principally, is the agency of the bees. Common corn is an illustration of a class of plants that bear both kinds of blossoms on the same stalk. The blossom that bears the seed is low down, and is what we commonly term the silk of the ear. The one that bears the i>ollen is at the very summit of the stalk, and the pollen, when ripe, is shJQven off and falls on the silk below ; or what is still better, it is wafted by the wind to the silk of the neighboring stalks, thus preventing in and in breeding, in a manner strikingly analagous to the way in which the drones fly out in the air, that the chances may be greatly in favor of their meeting queens other than those from their own hives. You may object that the silk from the ear of corn is not properly a flower, so 1 will give you a more striking instance. The common rag weed, avtemisoe folia, als'^) sometimes called bitter weed or hog weed, bears two distinct, and entirely unlike, flow- ers. 332 gleani:ngs in bee cultuee. Oct. KAO-AVEED AXD CORN, SHOAVING THE TWO KINDS OF BLOSSOMS ON ONE STALK. (Jn the ends of the tall racemes, as at B, the pollen bearing blossoms are seen very conspicuously, and many of you who are fa- miliar with the weed, perhaps never imag- ined that it had any other blossom at all ; if so, will you please go out doors and take a look at them again. Right close to the main stem, where the branches all start out, you will find a very pretty little tlower, only that it possesses no color except green, and it is here where all the seeds are borne, as you will see on some of the branches where tliey are matured. Xow, if you will get up early in the morning, you will find that these plants when shaken, give off a little cloud of fine green dust, and this is the pollen of the plant. Before I knew what it was, I used to find it annoying on account of the way in which it soiled light clothing. As this plant is in no way dependent on the bees for the fertilization of its blossoms, they con- tain no honey, or at least 1 have never been able to detect any ; although I have, diu'ing two seasons, seen the bees quite busily en- gaged gatliering the pollen. It is said that corn sometimes bears honey as well as pol- len, although I have never been able to get proof of it. These two plants, as I have be- fore remarked, seem to insure crossing the seed with other jAants of the same variety, by bearing tlie pollen-bearing flowers aloft, on slender spines ; also by furnishing a great preponderance in numbers, of these l)lossoms, for precisely the same reason that a thousand or more drones are reared to one queen. A stalk that succeeds in pushing itself above tlie others, and in bearing a pro- fusion of pollen flowers, will probably be the father, so to speak, of a multitude of the ri- sing generation, and this process, repeated lor generations, would develop just the ten- dency of corn and ragweed, to shoot up tall spires, clothed with an exuberance of the pollen bearing blossoms. As the plants that give the greatest distance on the stalk be- tween the lower, or seed blossoms, and tlie upper ones, are most likely to shed the pol- len on neighboring plants, this, too, fosters the tendency mentioned. But what shall the great multitude of plants do, tliat liave no tall spines witli wiiich to shake their pollen to the breezes? Here is where the bees come in, and fulfil their allotted task, in the work of animal and vegetable life. They would, it is true, visit many plants for the pollen alone, but with by far the greater part of them, tlie pollen is only a secondary consideration, or not sought for at all; in vieing witli each other, or, in the strife to perpetuate their species, what shall the plant do to offer the greatest atti-action to the bees, to visit them, and carry the precious pollen to the neigh- boring blossoms, for the purpose we have mentioned? Suppose we wish to gather a group of school children aboi;t us, what will be the surest and most effectual method of do- ing it? Coax them with candy, maple sugar, and the like, of course; and that is just what the plant does; or it does still more, for it ransacks its storehouse and, I dare say, sends its roots abroad through the soil, with untiring efforts, to steal a more delicious and enticing nectar, more wonderfully ex- quisite than even the purest and most trans- parent maple sugar syrup ever distilled, or "boiled bown," by the skill of man, for the sole jiurpose of coaxing the bees to come and dust themselves in their precious pollen, or to bring from some other blossom, the pol- len they have previously been dusted witli. Now, this honey is precious, and it must tax the plant to its utmost to produce it; nature, therefore, who is a most careful economist, not only deals it out in sma doses, but she places it in the most cunning nooks and cor- ners, that the bee may be obliged to twist himself into all possible shapes, around and among the stamens, until the pollen is most surely dusted all over him. Observe, that the flower secretes no lioney, until tlie pol- len is ripe, and ready to do its work ; tliat the honey slowly exudes into the nectaries, that the bees may be kept coming and lick- ing it out every hour in the day; and that the flow of honey ceases, just as soon as the pollen is ripened and gone. A lady has sug- gested a beautiful experiment, to determine 1878 GLEANINGS IN BEE CTLTURE. 33c the amount of honey yielded by the spider tlower, Cleome ; she tied lace over tlie stalk, to keep away the bees that were constantly visiting it. The honey collected in quite a large drop. I presiune we could measure the amount with many other plants in a similar way. The little cups on the tiower of the FiGWTjRT I have seen full to the brim, with honey, wlien found standing alone out in the woods. Truly : "Full many a flower is born to blush unseen. And waste its sweetness on the desert air." Did you ever remark the spot of fur or i-etty Avell where to look next. One afteinoon the door of the hoziey house was left open, and the bees were doing a •land office" business, before the niiscliief was stopped. After closing the door until the}' had clustered on the windows in the I'oom, it was opened, and the process re- jjeatefl until all were out ; but, all the rest of the afternoon, tliey were hovering about the door. Toward night they gradually disap- l)eared, and when I went down about sun- down to try a new feeder, not a bee was near the door. I put the feeder in front of a hive where the bees were clustered out, and as 800n as a few bees had got a taste and filled themselves, they of course went into the lave to unload. I exi)ected a lot to come out, as soon as these entered with tlieir pre- cious loads, but was much astonished to see ;i regular stampede come tumbling out, as if they were going to swarm, and still more when they rushed right past the feeder and took wing for where do you suppose? the honey house door, of course. How should they reason otherwise, than that it had again Sjeen left open, and that was where these iu- comers had found their rich loads. On find- ing it closed, back to the liive they came, to repeat the maiioeuvre over and over again. A beginner hears the feeding of oat meal higlily recommended as a substitute for pol- len. He places some near the entrances of the hives, but not a bee touches it. He is told again, to wait until early spring, before the bees have access to natural pollen, and then they will take it. He does so, but, as before, not a bee notices it. He is next told to put a heap of it in the sun, a few rods dis- tant from the hives. This time he may suc- ceed, but it would not be strange, if he should once more report that his bees would have nothing to do with it. Finally, he is directed to take a piece of honey, and get some bees to feeding on it, then to set it on the heap of meal. The bees soon gather over it in great numbers; those who go borne loaded stai't out many more searching all about the vicinity, to see where the treius- iU'e comes from. The hum of the busy ones on the honey soon attracts them, and in snuthug about the pile of meal, some bee dis- covers that it can be used as a substitute for pollen ; the otlaers soon follow suit, and, in a little time, both the bees and their owner are happy, and the pile of meal quickly dis- appears. After this, he never has any more trouble in getting the bees to work on meal, for he knows how. The bees and their own- er have both learned a valuable lesson about i>ollen. Is there any very great difference in the way they have Ix-en taught V Did they not both learn by practical experiment? The touch-me-not has learned by ages of experiment, to produce a bright orange flow- er, to secrete honey in the spur, to place the pollen bearing stamens at the point where the bee must rub against them in getting the honey, to construct those wonderfid seed pods, which explode and scatter the seed far and wide, just that it may reproduce and multiply its si>ecies. I should judge it had succeeded pretty well, in a waste piece of woodland near my home, for tliere are now acres of it as higli as one's head, and it is quite a valuable acquisition to oiu- apiary. As near as I can make out, the plant has much increased since the advent of the Ital- ians, as might be expected; and instead of having a dearth of pasturage for several months in the fall of the year, we not only have honey enough so that the bees trouble the houses and groceries very little, but they amass sufficient stores to ciury them through the winter, with little if any feeding. This is true of dandelions, as well, and the large, brilliant, slrowy blossoms that now line our roadsides and waste places, iiistead of un- sightly weeds, should remind one of how much an apiary of bees contributes to fulfill the words of sacred prophecy: The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them ; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.—Isaiah, 35 ; 1. Nov\Icamiot positively affirm that 'the flowers were given tlieir gaudy colors by the bees' selecting the brightest and most con- spicuous, thereby inducing such blossoms to bear seed in preference to those less gaudily attired, neither do I know that cherries be- came red, because the birds selected those that showed a disposition to that color, year after year, for many ceiituries ; nor can I prove that the bright plumage of male birds came about in the course of time, sim- ply because the female encouraged the at- tentions of, and showed a preference for those most hantlsome. I can only suggest tliat the actions of birds, bees, flowers, and fruits, seem to point that way. You all know how quickly we can get fancy colored flowers, yellow queen bees, or birds of al- most any shade or color, by careful selection for several generations. Have not the bees so colored the flowers, and birds, tlie berries, etc., although they did it all unconciously ? My friend, before you again complain be- cause you have found a cell or two of bee- bread in your comb honey, would you not 336 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. Oct. l)etter ponder on the wonderful agency whicli those simple grains of pollen exert on the plant life that is yet to come, years per- haps, after we have faded away and gone. POLLEN IN SECTION BOXES AND COMB HONEY. I do not mean to convey the idea that we should be satistied with pollen in our honey, for a very good and useful tiling is some- times a very J):ul one, if out of place. When pollen or meal is brought into the hive, it is taken, at once, very near to the brood; in fact, it is placed in the comb opposite, if possible. When opening hives in the spring, we find pollen scattered all throu^'h the brood combs to some extent, but the two combs next to the two outside brood combs are often a solid mass of pollen. Should a few stormy days intervene, however, this will disappear so quickly, that one who has not witnessed the rapidity with which it is used in brood rearing, would not know how to account for it. When it is gone, of course, the brood rearing must cease, although the queen may continue to lay. Tlie amount of brood that may be reared by keeping a stock supplied with pollen artifi- cially, during such unfavorable weather, is a very important item, where rapid increase of stock is desired. Usmg the candy slabs with 1-4 or 1-5 wheat flour, is perhap^s the surest way of doingthis. See candy for bees. A friend has a house apiary, where the combs are pretty deep, and no upper story is used. His comb honey was all secured in frames containing sections, at the side of the brood. When asked if the bees did not de- posit pollen in the sections when used in tliat way, he replied, "Not if a comb is in- terposed between the brood and the hon- ey." This is because they always want the ])ollen next the brood. Now, Ave can get more comb honey by having it near the brood than in any other way ; what shall we do to keep out the pollen, and to keep the queen from laying eggs in oifr surplus honey sections? The remedy I have adopted, and advised through this work, is the use of the tin separators, with the small 1 lb. section boxes ; for it is well known that the queen is averse to using small pieces of comb, or comb near much wood. In oiu" own apiary, I have never known the queen to deposit eggs in tliese sections, when tlius prei)arod, even if tliey are placed next the brood combs; but others haAe Avi'itten that they are, at limes, filled with both brood and pol- len, even when thus prepared. If I could see the hives, I think I could find the trou- ble, yet there may be exceptional cases. The frames or sections used in the lower story are more likely to be filled witli pollen than those in the upper story; for if the broad frames and sections are so made that but about i incli space is left for the bees to go up into them, tlie queen is very unlikely to attempt to go up. An occasional cell of pollen will sometimes be found, which I re- gret the more, because such combs are much more likely to contain worms, if taken out in warm weather. If it were not for this small, accidental quantity of pollen, I am not sure we would ever find worms in the comb honey. See bee moth. PillOFOiLalS. This is the gum or var- nish that bees collect for varnishing over the inside of their hives, filling cracks and crevices, cementing loose pieces of the hive together, and for making things fast and close generally. It collects, in time, on old hives and combs, so as to add very material- ly to their weight. It is not generally gath- ered in any great quantity, until at the close of the season, and it seems to be collected in response to a kind of instinct that bids them prepare for cold weather. I wish I were able to tell you more definitely where they get it ; it has been suggested that it is collected from the resinous buds of the balm of gilead, and trees of a like nature ; but to tell the truth, I do not know that I ever saw bees collecting fresh propolis at all. I see them almost every day, collecting propolis from old hives, old quilts, and pieces of refuse wax, when we are so wasteful and untidy as to leave any such scattered about. That the principal part of it comes from some particular plant or class of plants, or tree, I am pretty well satisfied, for almost the same aromatic resinous flavor is notice- able, no matter what the locality, or season of the year. Bees gather propolis with their mandibles, and pack and carry it precisely as they do pollen. It is never packed in the cells however, but is applied at once to the place wanted. It is often mixed with wax, to strengthen their combs, and is applied to the cells as a varnish, for the same purpose. In the absence of a natural supply, the bees frequently resort to various substances, such as paints, varnishes, resins, pitch, and the like; and the superstiton, popular in some sections, that bees follow their owner to the grave, after his death, probably obtained credence from seeing the bees at work on the varnish of the coflin. To save the bees the trouble of Jwaxing up the crevices in 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 837 their hives, it has been suggested that a mixture of melted wax and resin be poured into the hive and made to flow along the cracks and corners. This may do very well, although I fancy the bees can do this better and cheaper than we can. Our principal trouble has been to get rid of the surplus propolis, and I would miich rather hear of some invention to keep it out of the way, than to add more. It has been recently suggested that we paint our hives both inside and out, and also the frames, except where we wish to have the comb attached. From what ex- perience I have had with painted bottom boards, I am inclined to favor the idea, for even if propolis is attached to the paint, it cleaves olf much more readily than from the plain wood. By keeping the surface on any wood work on the inside of the hives well oiled, or even rubbed with tallov.% we may almost entirely prevent the accumula- tion of propolis. Many inventors of hives, and arrangements to be used inside of hives, seem utterly oblivious of the fact, that eve- rything, in the course of time, is not only waxed over with this gum, but all holes, cracks, and interstices, where the bee can- not crawl, are filled, and covered up with it. Many new arrangements work nicely the first season, but after a year or two more, are so clogged and fastened up, as to be utterly impracticable. It is propolis that is the great hindrance to all closed tops, or closed end frames for brood combs, to the old fashioned honey boards to all sorts of slides and hinges, or to anything else about a hive that is to move like machinery. On account of the troubles with propolis, I have advised a plain simple box, for both the chaff and simplicity hives, and for the same reasons, principally, I prefer to use the met- al cornered frames. It is all very well, to talk about keeping the propolis out of the joints and connections, but in our locality, in the fall of the year, we often have it in such quantities that it runs during a hot day, like molasses, all through every part of the hive, at times, making ones fingers stick to the utensils, so it is almost impossi- ble to lay them down when we would. With tlie ordinary wood top bars to the frames, when tlie supporting arms are removed from the rabbets, the propolis will rim down so that, when the frame is put back, it is bed- ded almost as nicely as if it was laid in glue. Should the weather be cool when next your hive is to be opened, the stick must bepx'ied up with a snap, that is not at all according to the liking of our bees, the most of them, even if they are pure Italians. To obviate this, I believe the metal rabbet, or, at least, a strip of hoop iron, is now in general use; but the bees will, in time, wax a wood sup- porting arm pretty firmly, even to this, be- s ides there is an almost constant liability of cutting bees in two, when the frames are put in place. I know of no way of working safely and rai)idly, except with the knife edge supports which the metal corners give; j yet I know a great many do not like them. In using the wood top bars, I should always carry a small screw driver in my pocket, with wliich to pry*things loose about the hive. HOW TO KEEP PROPOLIS FR031 SURPLUS HONEY. Of course, the readiest means is to remove all sections just as soon as a single one is capped over ; and, as but little propolis is gathered during a strong yield of honey, but little will be found on the honey, unless it is left until the yield has ceased. Tiie bees not only cover all the wood work of the sections if left on too long, but they also varnish over the whole surface of the white capping, almost spoiling the looks and sale of the honey. We can keep it from the wood, by having every part of the sections cov- ered, when in the hive, except the inner sides where the combs are attached. Our frames for section boxes, as described, do this effectually. HOW TO REMOVE PROPOLIS FROM THE FIN- GERS. A varie;y of substances have been sug- gested. Alcohol is perhaps the neatest, but is rather expensive ; benzine answers near- ly as well, but has an objectionable odor; soap will answer, if a little lard be rubbed on the hands first, but will have little effect on it otherwise. A friend down South says he has a pair of light cotton gloves, which he slips on when handling the waxy frames, and his hands are left clean whenever he is obliged to stop work. For removing it from glass, etc., alcohol is perhaps best. DO THE BEES NEED PROBOLIS V Much discussion has arisen in regard to the habit of the bees, of making all openings tight with propolis. Theory says, if allowed to follow his bent, or instinct, he will smother liimself to death. Practice says, he does, at least at times, so prevent the es- cape of moisture, that liis licme gets damp and wet, filled with icicles, etc., eo that he suffers; or at Isast, such is the case in the hives we havo provided [for him. Who is 33S GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Oct. riglit V the bee V or the enliglitened bee-keep- er ? Well, I think the gi-eater i«irt of the fault lies in the hive we have given him. The enameled cloth which I have lately been using for covering bees is as impervious to air and moisture, as tlie yropolis he collects with so much pains and trouble. If the outside of this is allowed to get frosty, it will, most assure^lly, condense the bx'eath of the bees on the inside, and if the outside is but thinly protected from the weather, ici- cles will certainly form on the inside, and freeze the bees all fast in a lump. Now I would have no fear at all in having the bees wax up everything as tigfit as they wished, if I could have their winter apartment made so small tliat they completely tilled it — filled it so fall, indeed, as to be crowded out at the entrance, unless in very cold weather — and have the entire outside protected with some non conductor that would enable the bees to keep the inner walls warm at all times, and I think we should have no damp- jiess. With chaff packing and chaff cush- ions, I have succeeded so well, that I am perfectly willing the little fellows shall tix up just as snug for winter, as their instinct prompts themto do. VALUE OF PROPOLIS. Altliough this gum has been used to some extent in'medicine, I believe it possesses no particular value over burgundy pitch, and other cheap gum resins. know how ft can be so absolutely straight. Tbe wire we use, is No. 'M annealed. We have roade arrange- ments so that we can furnish it at 30c. per lb. A sample ounce on a spool, postpaid by mail, will be- sent for 10c. ; when we get "rigged," we hope to sencB them cheaper. As there are about 4,003 feet to the- pound, the expense of the wire will not exceed Ic. for 10 francos, put in as I figured them last month. Nearly 3 years ago, I toM you that fdn. should be made with rollers ; I now tell you — and I am "walk- ing around the staii-way" on it— that if fdn. with wire in it is wanted, a wire cloth should be made that, when dipped in melted wax, is ready for the bees. This will enable you to use yourwax at home, and all you will need to purchase will be the wire cloth. It will require some verj- nice and expensive machinery^ to make it at a ibw price. The wire should be so fine, that the fabric will be something- like lace. QUEENS BY MAID. A few days ago, I noticed an envelope in our mail, that contained a rather bulky square box. When opened the box was found to be a bottle queen cage such as our engraver has illustrated below, except that wire cloth was tacked over tbe end and top, and! it contained 8 bees and a queen, in perfect health, and as lively as one might wish. This 28th day of Sept., we have rec'd our 4.000th subscriber. Grape sugar in frames is answering nicely gener- ally, alth'iugh an occasional colony seems to have a little trouble in understanding what it is for. In place of the soft saw sets that have given some trouble this past season, we now have some, made of forged cast steel. Price 75c. If sent by mail, 10c. more. The asters are in full bloom, and the bees are very busy on them. Strong colonies are storing a dark honey, having much the taste of brown sugar syrup, which I think must be from these asters. Our imported queens are all gone, and we have not heard a word from Tremontani, to say whether be will send us the 50 ordered this fall or not. If those who would like one this fall will drop us a postal, we will notify them as soon as the 50 are re- ceived, or we hear from them. I will guarantee safe delivery, on all I undertake to ship yet this fall. We have just made arrangements for furnishing painted wire cjoth for shipping bees, at 5c. per square foot. This will also do for queen cages, but the mesh is so coarse that it is not as safe for intro- ducing as the tinned wire cloth, made especially for that purpose ; for the bees sometimes reach through and get the queen by the leg, and either cripple her, or kill her outright. Many of those who ship us queens do use the coarser, notwithstanding. WIRE IN THE COMBS. At present writing, we have brood, all nicely sealed, right over the wires put into the fdn., on the plan given last month. Although we have combs nicely built out on the fdn. furnished by friend Nel- lis, that made on my own plan is a much straighter comb. It maybe that I was not careful enough in fastening the wire with the fdn. rolled in it, but as it cannot be drawn tight, like the other, I do not puunket's ijottL/E queen gage. It came from E. B. Plunket, Rome, Ga., and he has sent us another since, with equally good success. The A'ial is a (4 dram, and he closes the mouth with a piece of sponge. Now comes the question:— Is it right to send queens bj' mail after they have been so positively forbidden? Was it right to aid the negroes to es- cape from their masters contrary to law, a few years ago? The North thought it was, and the South thought it was not. This is not a law, in regard to queens, it is a ruling of the P. M. G. To give you an idea of the state of affairs, I will quote some of the recent rulings: " 50. Potatoes, being perishable matter, are n(jt deemed mailable, but if inclosed in sealed packages prepaid at letter rates of postage it would be the duty of a postmaster, m the absence of any knowl- edge of their contents, to forward such packages in the mails." The idea that pDtatoes are perishable in any sens . that would leave a possibility of their injuring mail matter, is, it seeias to me, a strange one; for they are only mailed in small quantities for seed, and if uncalled for, only dry up. A few years ago, the mails were specially active in assisting agriculture and kindred industries. If potatoes can now be sent sealed up, why not bees? ".5:3. The following named articles have been, since our last issue, submitted to the Department, and ruled upon as unraailable. viz: cement, confection- ery in any foi'm, eye-glasses, or spectacles, glass, jewelr.v, having pins attached; salve, sewing-ma- chine needles, soap, steel-pens, stove-polish, sugar, tin dishes, tooth-powder." As scarcely a mail comes into anj' town of any size, that does not contain more or less of the arti- cles named above, are not such rulings almost a dead letter? "53. The regulation prohibiting the carriage of "flour" or other powdered matter in the mails may be held as not applying to sealed packages prepaid at letter rates of postage. " Potatoes and flour must go at letter postage, but tobacco— I presume it will be as well to be mild in the matter, but really, is it not time that a protest was being made in some shape or other? If articles are presented, or put in the mails, so poorly done up that they are liable to do injury, of course, they should be thrown out, and the P. M. is paid for at- tending to such matters ; but must the innoceut suffer with the guilty ?— there isn't r.vm for me to say another word ; I am at the bottom of the la^t page to be printed. 1878. GLEA^q^INGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 339 §M "c^mknf This department was suggested by one of the clerks, as an opposition to the "Growlery." Ithink 1 shall Aenture to give names in full here. WE have purchased a number of articles of you ; foot-power saw, extractors, fdn. machine, __ sample hives, smokers, &c. Everything has been entirely satisfactory, and we had an idea that j'our institution was a model of promptness and perfection. We could not see where any one could And cause for growling, and I think that the cause of it is as much the imagination as anything. Mrs. p. p. Cobb. Middleville, Mich., Sep. 22, 1878. 1 ordered on the 3d, you receipted and shipped on the 5th, and to-day noon, the 7th, I have my queens in their bottle cages, perfectly lovely. Such prompt- ness will secure patronage. Thanks. F. W. BUROESS. Huntington, L. I.. Sept. 7th, 1878. I was surprised and am well pleased with the man- ner in which you pack the articles. For compact- ness and neatness, your packing of goods cati't be excelled. I had no trouble in putting everything together, and transferred 5 common box hive colonies into the L. hives, with success. I am ever so much pleased with your work, and so far as making •prettier work is concerned, I think you have already arrived at perfection. 1 can't see how anyone could help being well pleased with your hives, frames, sections, &c. The fdn. you sent works like a charm. K. C. Taylor. Wilmington, N. C. Sept. 10th, 1878. I feel that I owe you a debt of gratitude for the little "world of pleasure" which you have opened up to me through your publications. I do not re- member that I ever passed a more pleasant summer than the last, and I must acknowledge that bees had much to do in producing this result; hence allow me to express my hearty thanks. From the printed testimony, I had come to the conclusion that a remedy had been found which would alwayii prevent a once carefully hived swarm from leaving the hive; viz., the frame of unsealed brood. But I have had an exception to this rule. One of my swarms came out and clustered again, leaving only a "coiyporal's guard" to "keep house." However, it remained after being hived again. I think the plan is a very good one, and, no doubt, .iudging by the losses of my neighbors, saved me a number of swarms. You say you have never heard of pollen's being stored in the sections. 1 had a number which I had to keep for home consumption, simyiy on account of this. I also had a number which were spoiled by the queen's using them for brood (both dror-e and worker), and two of my neighbors had the same. One of the queens used a number of the sections and tilled almost every cell. The tin separators •were "properly used in both .cases. Do not under- stand me to complain, however, for I think this in- -vention for taking honey is the best in use, and much superior to any other method. I speak of them only that we may all arrive at the exact truth in regard to them. My plan of disposing of unfinished sections, is to uncap and feed them to the bees having the least amount of winter stores. I think this will pay best, with honey at present prices. In regard to the simplicity smoker, I wish to say that I could nf)t be induced to use any other, at least, of all those which I have seen. At first, how- ever, I had trouble to get it "to go;" but after a time, I found this was my fault and not the fault of the smoker. It now gives perfect satisfaction. Some time since, I got one for a neighbor, and now he saj'S he wouldn't be without it for ten dollars. lie means it, too. During the summer, a friend called me to come and see if I couldn't do something for his bees. They wouldn't swarm, and were storing honey on the outside of the hives. I removed the honey, and found that one had thus stored ?5 lbs. I put the surplus bees from two hives into one, gave them a frame of eggs, and now they are all rii>ht. P. S.— My Report; 1 had four colonics with which to begin the season; from these I have made not less than .f 50. Will th at do for a beginning? New Philadelphia, O., Sept. 23, '78. L. S. Jones. Now, my friends, what do these two de- partments prove V If notliin^ more, do they not show how differently we Took attliingsV No more pains was taken to till the orders for the friend who praises our work so ex- travagantly, than with those in the Growl- ery Department. The above three letters give me a great deal more credit than I de- serve, for our work is very far from being such that / am satisfied with it. The Growl- ery has, perluii)s at times, been a little more than I deserve. Shall we not look first on one side and then on the other, and conclude that we all need more charity, and more pa- tience V I know I do, and I hoi)e you will keep on chiding me, when I forget to do as I ought, but ])lease, dear friends, when you complain, do it kindly. From Different Fields. MISHAPS WITH BEES, AND MISHAPS BARRELS. WITH HONEY FTER my Italian queen had been laying for ,w\\ more than a week, I thought her, of course, all ^*=* right. lu a few days more I made another examination, and could find no eggs, but did find a young black queen and my Italian gone. Now these bees must have kept the queen cell all the time my new queen was laying, and when the young queen hatched, destroyed the fertile one, something which I think is unusual for them to do. Had the colony mentioned above been a hybrid, and had our friend not looked as many times as he did, he might have had very good grounds for declaring that he had been cheated. I wonder if a great many of the quarrels and misunderstandings in buy- ing and selling queens may not have come about in a similar way. A barrel of honey was shipped here from Peoria, 111., last week, and set upon the depot platform, and while there commenced to leak very badly; my bees having an eye to business and only two blocks off, soon scented it and, in a very little while, every bee in my apiarj' seemed to be on the go; the leak- ing could not be stopped, so the bees just helped themselves. I never saw so many bees in one place before; the air was black, and the barrel could hardly be seen, so thick were th^y flocking to it. Late in the afternoon, the owner came and took it away; when weighed, it was found to be 2C0 lbs short. J. W. Keeran. Bloomington, 111., Sept 18, 1878. I should have feared the consequences af- ter the honey was gone ; did the bees all go home without any body's being stung, after their snjiply was "so suddenly cut off? Had you weighed your hives when the bees be- gan the work, and again after tliey had been stopped, you could have told !\ist how much honey you owed the owner of the barrel. COLOR OF queens, ETC. We begfin the season with G stocks of pure Ital- ians and hyUriils, in fair condition, though 3 or 4 were short of sto- es. Began to stimulate by feed- ing syrup drained from tubs 'f maple sugar. Fed the syrup out of d k rs at 1 be rate of ' i to '■'i of a ten quart pan full dMily. Dining the latter part of May, I found my best stock o'ti' ely out of honey, with brnod in 1() frinnc'^. Bees be.Tan to swarm .June 14th. Have (akon (iff 4(10 pounds of nice honey and dovibled ray St ok, and have a nucleus which I shall try to 340 gleani:n^gs in bee cultuke. Oct. winter. Have just exhibited a crate of corab honey at our State Fair ; it took the first premium and at- tracted a g-ood deal of attention, as did also Novice's Honey Extractor, which received a diploma. Now, Mr. Root, just solve this problem. Two years ag-o, I bought a daughter of an Imported queen, of Nellis ; last year when her colony swarmed I cut out the cells and made nuclei, but her queens were so near black that I killed all of them except one ; tjiis year I haTc bred her again and she pro- duces very fair colored queens. The queen is clip- ped so there is no mistake in regard to her identity. Her colony gave me 80 lbs. of honey and is my best stock, as it was last season. If you can tell why a queen breeds dark queens one year and light (fair) ones the neyt, I would be pleased to have yon do it. Seems to me all this talk, about Imported stock being better than homebred, is gammon, though my imported bees are 5 lbs better than our home- bred stock. I believe inbreeding is what ails so many bees, not lig'ht color, though close breedln? tends to albinoism. "Why does not close breeding take place in Italy as well as here ? I believe it does, and I believe a queen reared in Italy is no bet- ter than one reared in "Old Vermont" or Ohio. I confess I have a strong liking for pretty things- bees not excepted. Hare one stock (new queen) that about suits me so far as color is concerned. Wish you would continue your researches until yoti can tell us how to make our queens hrcM true every time. I hatched a couple of fine cells (from one mother) a few weeks ago, one produced a fine queen, the other nearly black. Please explain all the knotty points in queen breeding-, in Gleanings when you have the space. Fdn. has proved a grand success with me. East Berkshire, Vt„ F. W. Cumings. I cannot explain the matter, any more tlian I can why a flock of ducks or chickens are variously colored. I presume by careful selection in breeding, we could get 'them all light colored, but shall we waste time on tins, which seems to me a secondary matter? Shall we not rather choose gentleness, good honey gatherers, hardiness, etc.? If i am correct, your black queens will produce just as finely marked workers as any. ASKING QUESTIONS. Edison, the inventor of the plionograph, IS said to have made the following remark : The impression has gone abroad that I don't like newspaper men, because I don't want to be bored. I like newspaper men well enough ; but what I ob- ject to are those New Jersey farmers that oome to see me every day, and have me explain the phono- graph to them. That's what worries me. My assis- tant has almost grown consumptiretftlkinfftothem. The clerk of the apiary has been very pa- tient all summer, and I thought he rather enjoyed having visitors, but a'few days ago he made a remark that seemed to imply that he, too, was beginning to feel the pressure. What shall those do who want to learn? Why, come and see us by all means, if they IJxefer to, but an A B C book would be far cheaper, and it would stand the wear and tear of being asked the same thing over and over. ent (?) bee hive. As Mitchell is trying it get a hold in our neighborhood, I would take it as a favor if any one that has had any dealing with him, that has not proved satisfactory, would send me a short account of the transaction on a postal card, to be used at our next meeting. Did he raise any queens at Sandusky this last summer ? The next meeting to be held in the same place, on the second Friday of February, 1879. W. S. Botd. Hamilton, 0., Sep. 2l8t, 1878. Thanks ; but you are mistaken about loose queens being dead. I have cut them out of the cell, and held the still white, almost per- fectly formed, queens in my hand, put them back, waxed over the cell, and had them hatch out all right. I have also hatched them all right, without any cell at all, when kept in a wire cloth cage right among the bees. Any number of MitcneH's frauds will be found in back Gleanings. His division board swindle has been repeatedly shown up in all the journals. AILANTHUS HONKY. Can you, or any of the 4,000 readers of "Glean- ings," tell me whether the honey taken from the blossoms of "Ailanthus Glandulosa" is poison or not. J. F. Barton. Chicago, Sept. 4, 1878. The matter was pretty thorouglily dis- cussed a few years ago, and I believe the conclusion was reached that it was not poi- sonous, the fatality among bees, at that time, being due to other causes. REPORT FROM A "NEW HAND." My bees have done very well, considering the cold wet spring ; bees brooded up very strong- through February and March, but April and May being very cold and wet, many colonies dwindled down to mere nuclei. I started with 17 stands, and increased to 43, mostly by artificial swarming, and took an average of nearly 100 lbs. of honey from the parent hive. I took most of the honey from 7 stands ; the largest amount taken from one stand was 306 lbs.,; 303 of extracted and 104 of 1 pound sec- tions. 1 also made 3 artificial s.varms from the same stand ; from the first swarm I took 43 lbs., and from the second 48 lbs., which gives from one stock a product of their increase, and 396 lbs. of honey. I presume this is as much as a new hand should ex- pect. P. A. Reigle. A rlington, O., Sept. 14th, 1878. I should think it was as much as a new hand could expect, friend R. If you go on at this rate, I shall begin to think years of experience amount to but little, unless it is to break paths wherein the A. B. C. class may walk or rather "skip ahead." I send you a condensed report of the meeting of the South Western Ohio Bee-Keepers' Association, held in Lebanon, Ohio, Sept. 14th, 1878. Drones can be kept for late queen raising-, by ta- king the queen from a hive that has plentv, and keeping her in a nucleus till late, when she can be returned. By shaking a queen cell that is nearlv ready to hatch, the queen will be loose, if she is dead; but, if she is alive, she will not shake about. Nine pounds of honey will last a moderate sized colony from Nov. 1st till Apr.lst ; but it will take 3o lb. to last a strong colonv all winter and spring. Bees should be protected bv chaff, if possible. There were exhibited, a Root smoker, a King smo- ker, a Savage queen cage and N. C. Mitcholl's pat- ENAMELED SHEETS TOR WINTERING. You do not propose to use the enameled cloth over the bees in winter, do you? That cloth Is water-proof, and if placed above the bees, will be moisture proof: that is, it will not al- low the breath and moisture from the bees to pass upwards, so it will condense on the cloth and proba- bly freeze a solid mass of ice and bees, and any quantity of chafT cushions or absorbing material you might place over the enameled cloth would be that much trouble and expense taken for nothing. T. C. Hunt, Richmond, Ind., Sept. 20, 1878. You are giving us theory, my friend. Prac- tical work gives no such result; the reason is, probably, because the chaff cushions pro- tect the enameled cloth so well that no frost ever reaches it, and consecjuently no mois- ture is ever condensed on it. I used it last winter, and shall use it again. It may not be best to follow me, for I sometimes make mistakes. If you want something i)orous, I would suggest'the burlap. It is much cheap- er than any other kind of cloth. 1878 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 341 I am one of your ABC class, I suppose. I chopped wood last winter and bought 11 colonies, al- so purchased 15 more this sprins-, makins' in all 26 in box hives. I increased them this season to G4, and had one go to the woods. I practiced artificial swarming- on those that were traiisfen-ed. The sea- son has been very poor in this locality, basswood be- ing- an entire failure, which nearly constitutes our surplus in a good season. I think Wisconsin equal to any State for basswood. Have sold only $45.00 worth of bees and honey, which I think looks a little discouraging. My bees, up to Aug. loth, did but little, but as buck- wheat and golden rod began to bloom, thcj' marched out, as you say, like a grand caravan, and just tum- bled beifore their hives with their great loads, from early till late. They are now working- on asters and smartweed the most of anj-thing. I have Italianized 25 swarms this season, and now have little yellow fellows by thousands. You don't know how much I think of ihcin. I fear I am too much of an enthusiast over my bees; am with them every spare moment, and am often asked, "Why don't you sleep with them?" I purchased my queens of Mr. S. I. Freeborn, of Ithaca, Richland Co., Wis., one of Wisconsin's most successful apiarists. He has now 350 swarms. You won't wonder that I think well of him, when I tell you that he sold me 25 fertile queens for 610.00, and several of them tested, at that. Can I equalize ray honey this fall, just as well as to feed up the late swarms? My first swarms have some to spare, I think. M. A. Gill. Viola, Wis., Sept. 9, 1878. It will answer just as well to equalize, as you mention, but be careful you do not rob the old stocks. I think you have made a good season of it. my friend, if you count your stock on hand at what it is worth. Last spring, I sent to you for a pattern Simplicity bive, in due time it came, and I have used it for a a model ever since. I have made a good many hives, some of which I sold to my neighbors; they all like them very much. I also sent 12 of them up the river some 25 miles, to be filled with bees at $1.25 ))er swarm, all first swarms. They were all filled by the 10th of June, and were left to shift for therri- selves for the next 0 weeks, being put in empty hives, without a single starter of nny kind for a pat- tern. The hives were not opened for C weeks, I be- ing some 25 miles from them, with my hands full at home, and the man that I got them from never looked to see how thej' were building their comb. I must say I Vv-as a little uneasy about it, but it proved to come out all straight: every comb in the 12 hives was built as nice as if they had been supplied with fdn. You say that bees do not stick the enameled cloth, but they do stick the tins that the cloth is hemmed with, to the ends of the frames, and to the tin rabbets, so that it is quite a little trick to get them out of the rabbets, and it seems to me it will be a big job to remove them in cool weather, when the propolis is hard. Adam Helfinch. Quincy, Ills., Aug. 15th, 1878. It is a "big job," to remove anything from over the frames in cool weather,'but I tliink you will find that the enameled clotli gives the least trouble of anything yet in use. It is some little trouble to get the tins out, but I think this is balanced by their holding the cloth so close, and so nicely in place, at all times. You can use a simple hem, in place of the strip of tin, if you prefer. A NOVEL MODE OF MAKING SECTION BOXES. I thought I would tell you of a little foot power machine for cutting lathing and dovetailing it for section bo.xes. It is one which I have invented for my own use, and which I think will work well, and can be made for ?10 or less. It is made a good deal like a machine for cutting shingles, with a knife six inches long, and a gate, to one side of which is at- tached a bundle of chisels. I first cut the dovetails in the bolts, then cut the bolts into laths, and they are ready to put up in boxes. To prepare my lum- ber, I take mj' cross-cut, go to the woods, saw' down a linden and saw off a few cuts, bolt them up, and then take them to the shop and square them into small bolts, just the length for use; finally, I place them in an old wash-boiler, and steam them, and they are ready to be cut. The steaming is not neces- sary, but it makes the wood cut easiei*. Have the knife sharp and it makes a smooth cut. My work is not quite as accurate and smooth as yours, because my machine is not quite as perfect as it can he made. I believe it can be made to do splendid work. Those sections made of linden, I think, look very nice and white. A. Cox. White Lick, Ind., June 17, 1878. The sample looks very fair, and although the wood has something of the roiiglmess and broken texture of a shingle, the clean white linden makes quite a respectable ap- pearance. The fact that they can be made at so small a cost is much in their favor. Trees tliat are growing in llie woods, in the morning, may be in your hives being filled, in the evening. It will require some very careful work to get the dimensions accurate, but I am sure it can be done, by a careful hand. This machine is for home use ; it would hardly do for making sections for the market. nOW^ TO IMPORT QUEENS. I would like it very much if, in the next month's Gleanings, you would give your readers full direc- tions, advice, and all necessary information, as to how to proceed to fn-der queens direct from Italy. In what part of Italy can we get the best bees, the lightest colored, &c. Jos. M. Brooks. Elizffbethtown, Ind., Sept. 11, 1878. Go to your banker and get a foreign draft for the number of francs you wish to send for queens, as per Montani's price list in every No. of GLEAiSriKGS. If he fills your order at once, you should get them in about 60 days after sending the money ; at least, that is as soon as we have ever received any. Sometimes the orders are delayed much long- er, and I have thought of sending to some other party because Tremontani was so slow this season. He has now, however, filled all our orders, and as no one else advertises in our American journals, I can not tell where else to send. His queens are, I think, as fine as any sent from Italy. As there has always been a difficulty in getting as many as are needed, perhaps it would be well to rig out one of our A B C class with lamp nursery, artificial queen cells, etc., and send Jiim over there. Who will go? Don't all speak at once. When the queens arrive in N. Y., they should be forwarded at once; but sometimes things ''fail to connect," and they send on first for duties, charges, etc. We were in- formed with our last lot, that if they were sent only for breeding purposes, and so marked, there woidd be no duty to pay, and we have instructed Tremontani to so mark them. At our prices tliere would be a fair margin, were it not for the various mishaps. Out of 32, 2 were lost in introducing; two that we shipped were reported not in the cages when received; one would not lay after our customer got her; another proved to be a drone layer; several were lost in ship- ping, etc., and as we had to make all the.se good, in order to keep peace in the family. Ave had more fun for pay than money. It is fun to import, especially when we can get the most of them through alive, as in our last lot. I have never seen an imported queen that did not produce 3 banded bees. U2 GLEAJ^IXGS IN BEE CULTURE. Oct. SWARMING WITH A CUPPED QUEEN. I want to sav to J. H. Buchanan that I can give a phin to hive bees with a clipped queen. I think it is just fun to hive them, and 1 have practiced this mode for some time. I take a cage, and when the queen comes out, cage her. and when the bees are mostly out, I just pick up the old hive and move it awa.v "about a rod, and set my new hive on the old stand. In a few minutes, when they find no queen with them, thcv come to enter the old hive, and pile right into 'the new one. When they get well under wav, I let the queen go in, and then, as quick as they are well in, I move them to a new stand, set the old one back, and all is over. David Bailey. Chester, O., Aug. 34th, 1878. The same plan has been given substan- tially, several times ; if yon are on hand, and get the qneen, there is but little diffl- cnlty. Should you not find her, or should the swarm unite with others, it may be more complicated. I think your bottle queen cage is a grand success. I have kept a queen in the one you sent me with my Italian queen, for several weeks. J. R. Anderson. Washington, Ky., Sept. 11, 1S78. REPLENISHING SMOKERS. Can you not improve your smoker so that the top can be removed more readily, when it is hot? It is sa conical, the hand slips off, and it is hard to remove to renew the Are. J. B. Coopek. Coles Station, 111., Aug. 30. 1878. I have studied long and hard on this very ])oint, but have, as yet, struck on nothing that will be strong and efficient, and not add to tlie expense too much. I shall keep on tliinking. HOW a boy manages. To-day is the day for my name to go out of the list of subscribers for Gleanings, but I hope it will go in again, in less than 5 days, for to-day I earned 35c., and ray mother gave me 15c., which I send to you for another ',4 year's subscription. My bees have done nothing for me this year. I had 3 swarms, each of which absconded, owing (I suppose) to improper hiving ; for I gave them no brood or comb. I had 5 colonies (blacks) last spring, and have only 5 now, with no surplus honey, as yet. I think that looks rather discouraging, but I am not discouraged, for Spanish needle is now in bloom, and the bees are st()ring honey pretty fast in boxes. I received the buckwheat all right. I sowed about V^ of it, the 1st day of July, which is now in full bloom, and attracts a groat many bees. The other half I sowed the 31st of July, and havn't had time to go and see it; for it is a good ways from the house. Geo. F. Spencer. Payson, 111., Aug. 30, 1878. An old gentleman who has kept bees for 30 years, getting from 10 to 30 lbs. of honey from a colony, when he saw me take 56 of those finished sections from a colony, said he would never be surprised at anything in regard to bees and honey in my hands; when I told him that colony had now furnished 105 of those sections, he said he never could have be- lieved it, if he had not seen it for himself. W. W. Hooper. Minerva, O., Aug. 36, 1878. WHAT MADE 'EM "FIGHT." Can you tell what makes bees tight after taking off a box of honey, and what will stop them? R. H. Baily. Ausable Forks, N. Y., Aug. 37, 1878. Yes ; you took off your boxes at a time when robbers were around, and they got a taste, and hence the "un])leasantness." If it is necessary to do such work after the hon- ey lias failed, do not keep the hive open an instant longer than can be avoided, and if robbers "i>ile in" even then, remove your lioney just at dusk, or bv moonlight, using smoke of course. SOFT WAX, ETC. Yours of the £0th, inquiring if I received my im- ported queen, is received. You sent the queen on the 3d of July, and I received her on the 6th, in good order. I introduced her safelj% she is producing nice yellow bees, and I am well pleased with her; so you can take my name off your book. I like to see that you want to have everything correct. I will write a few lines about comb fdn., but not to complain. I have used five lots of fdn. that I have received from you, and I never was troubled with sagging, which many complain of, except in the last lot; the wax was so soft it would melt down by the heat of the bees. I then put in strips only 4 inches wide and between two combs, and they would tear down. Could not such soft wax be hardened in some way, so that it would not tear down? If not, I think it would be well to put in some wire, or something else, to prevent stretching and tearing. I. G. Martin. Reidenbach's Store, Pa., Aug. 36, 1878. Thank you for reporting. Some wax, I know, is too soft for combs unsupported, but this same soft wax is worked out mucli fas- ter than tlie hard, firm wax. There may be a i)rocess devised for hardening it, but I think the wire supports will be best. CALIFORNIA AGAIN. I had 80 swarms in the spring and have now over 500, and hav0 taken over 10 tons of honey. I find that bees are not half taken care of, as a general thing. I know, from trying a few, that I have not taken care of a good many of mine. A man that don't know how to take care of bees can handle 4 or 5 hundred; but a man that understands taking care of them can do about as well with 35 or 30 stands, as the other man with his 500. I will send you a state- ment from our paper. Jefferson Archer. Santa Barbara, Cal., Aug. 18th, '78. FOUR MONTHS' WORK. To the Editor of the Santa Barbara Press: According to promise, I herewith present my fourth monthly report of the progress and proceeds of those four stands of bees. From one of mine, I now have 16 swarms and have taken 436 lbs. of hon- ey. From the one that I have prevented from swarming, I have taken 405 pounds of honey. Mr. White's swarm has increased to 15, and he has taken 390 pounds of honey. Mr. Stone's, swarm has increased to 10, and has yielded 157 pounds of hone.y. During the first three weeks of this month, the weather was 60 cool and damp that the bees did not gather large quantities of honey, and owing to the condition of the weather, I could not use the ex- tractor, otherwise this month's report would have been much more favorable. Out of the three Italian queens I sent for, I have one first class queen, and am raising as many from her as I can; and am now prepared to furnish young fertile queens, from an imported mother at $1; tested and warranted queens, $3. jEFFEnsoN Archer. Santa Barbara, Cal., June SOth, '78. HONEY DEW. We have a large plant of Camellia .Taponica; for many years, this plant has distilled from its large, shining leaves, large drops of thick honey or syrup resembling in taste grape sugar. Camellias aie never visited by aphides, and this plant, being large and spreading, stands solitary every winter. We have intended to send you some of these honey pin- ducing leaves, for the last two winters, and should the phenomenon occur again next winter, will sure- ly mail you a few specimens. Stair & Kendel. P. S.— The honey can not come from the flowei"S, as it appears when the plant is not in bloom. Cleveland, Ohio, Aug. S7tb. 1878. The sections are a success, this time, go together just right, and are the exact size, making every- thing work smoothl.v. I think Foreman's fdn. fast- ener can be made to fasten clear into the corners of the frame, by having the end of the handle properly shaped, with a flat face, and edges square, so that it can be pressed into the corners, instead of the roller. Chas. H. Rue. Manalapan, N. J., Aug. 27th, 1878. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 343 CALIFORNIA. The honey season is over, after 100 days of ex- tracting, arid we are siad of it. Atwood and myself have taken 70,000 lbs. this season. We had 18S stands in the spring, increased to 300, and made all our combs for extracting, also for the new colonies. Our best work was 3,300 lbs. in 6 hours, all capped. R. W. has taken 45,000 lbs., and has 420 colonies. He and Mr. A., my partner, are going to Europe. They have in their care 150 tons; other parties are send- ing by them— J. G. C, J. H., and others; there is no market here. Quotations arc 5 to 6c in San Fran- cisco. 1 think there has perhaps been 300 tons pro- duced in this county, this year. I think our average is far above anything ever done in California before; we frequently took a ton a day. The best swarms made 0 lbs. per day, for 10 days. We use the L. hive, 10 frames below, and 8 above. Your friends, A. & K. Scenega, Ventura Co., Cal., Aug. 24th, '78. P. S.— Please insert no names, if published. K. We are just now getting lots of honey, but it sells tor nothing. Yet it is a good thing to have in the house. Wm.C. Grier, Lamar, Mo., Sept. 3, 1878. ONE TIER OP SECTIONS OVER THE BROOD. My bees are doing poorly, this year, only one or two out of sixty filling an upper story. Two tiers of lioxes above are too deep this year, and I hope you will walk around the C. S., and evolve some way of putting on one tier, without the expense of another set of cases. I have tried two or three ways, and don't find it yet. Buckwheat sections sell here for 12;4c.; clover sections 15c.; white ext'd IGc.; dark cxt'd 8c. RIPENING TDIN HONEV. Freeborn and Hatch, of Hichland Co., I under- stand, are candidates for "blasted hopes," having 400 or 500 stocks, with thin buckwheat honey, their only stores. Now, if it were my case, I should re- duce those 500 to 100, exti-aet that thin honey, and make vinegar with it, and feed up on A sugar; I think I would thus have 100 good stocks next May, that, with the empty combs, would easily be in- creased to 400. 11. L. Joiner. Wyoming, Wis., Sept., 2, 1878. Why, it is the easiest thing in the world, friend J., to give the bees only one tier of sections. Cut some strips of wood, or even pasteboard, 3| inches wide by 14^ inches long, and lay them across the bottoms of ths upper tier of sections, and not a bee can get into tlie up]ier tier. Only 4 of tjiese strips will be needed to a hive, and when you want to let the bees above, you have only to re- move these pieces. To ])rit them in or take tJiem out. tip the upper story partially on its side, and then draw all the" frames of sec- tions (all togetlier) out half way. When fixed let them all slide down in their places again, and wedge up as they were before. I liave never meiitioned this, because I have not been satisfied that it v»'as of enough ad- vantage to give them one tier at a tinie. If your neighbor's bees are crowded into so small a compass as to cover the combs densely, I feel siu'e they will ripen and seal the honey. Take a hive and remove half the combs, and confine the bees on the other lialf, by a division board, keeping them en- tirely out of the vacant side, and see if the lioney is not ripened. If you crowd a part of them out doors, in hot Aveather, it will be just right. instincts of the bee, it should be capable of being readily adjusted to the wants of small colonies. If a small swarm is put into a, large hive, they will be unable to eonrcntratc their animal heat, so as to work to the best advantage, and will often become discouraged, and abandon their hive. If they are put into a small hive, its limited dimensions will not afford them suitable accommodations for inci-easo. By means of my movable partition, my hive can, in a few moments, be adapte- ilfle old queen and several queen cells capped over, IQ the old stock. I am certain about this, for I had clipped her wings six weeks previous, and she had njKde no attempt to swarm. 1 destroyed the cells and both swarms are doing well. C^AS. Dodd. Colborne, Oat., Canada, Aug. 31st '78. Although such «is©s are not very fre- (jut^nt, they do liai>i7en now and then. I win suggest that it comes about in this way. The pasturage is good, and queen cells are stiirted ; tefore they are ready to hatch, the yield slackens, and, inste-;Kl of destroying all the cells, one is allowed to hatch and be- come fertile. I judge this to be the case, because I have fretjuently found two laying ([Tteens in a hive, after cells have been torn down from a cess^ition of pastm-age. Now, if honey should start up again, the young queen would be as likely to lead out the swarm as tlie old one ; perhaps, more so. ^Vnd after swarming you would tind queen cells in th« parent hive. Since we have had a lull in business, we have been sending statements to everj'body that owed us, so we could build tlie factory, | Vou know ; aml^ that we miglit have no one i sided work on it, I also instructed the clerks to send sUt-ements to all those to whom a ] Ijsilance was due. Below is a sample of some (rf the replies. We shall never put anything in the '■coriKjr stone" fund, unless desired to do so. I only wish the balance was $W, instead of 20c. If I had money, t would order immediately 5 queens, and 'ZO or 2.5 chaff division boards with one side loose, so 1 could fill them with chaff myself. Then I want, tWs fall, 10 more chaff hives in flat, and fixtures for s;ime, and next spring, will want ever so much fdn., and sections innumerable ; yes, and "Gleanings" runs out in December and. Oh, my! don't put it in to the "corner stone" fund just yet. G. W. Gamble. Fredericksburg, Wayne Co., O., Sept. 4, 1877. ODOR FROM BUCKWHEAT AND KEEPING HONEY FROM "SWBATINO," The perfume of our apiary is delightful, and is dlBpcernible at some distance. Some think it is from buckwheat, but the honey is so light that we think it is from golden rod. We have put our honey up stairs and down stairs and in "my lady's chamber," yet it will sweat. How can it be kept dry? Peoria, Ills., &ept, 2d, '78. Mrs. L. Harrison. The dlor from buckwheat is very un- pleasant to most people; at times, it has something about it almost approaching the (Xlor of carrion. I think it fur more likely tliat your honey is from the golden rcxl. If it is in an upstiirs room where it does not freeze, it sliould keep free from dampne^ss. We li ive kept it the year mund in our store. ^^thout any unpleasant '-manifestations.'^ ]i|ossil)ly, the source from which it was gath- ered may liiive something to do witli it. QUICX WORK IW REARINS QUHENS. I had yonnsr queens hatching from the brood of njv new" imp Waterloo, Ont., Canada, Sept, 2d, '78. The queen bee I ordered from you came prompt- ly, and I successfully quartered her in her neV liome, altr>ough It was my flrst effort in that busi- ness. I thought her to be a nice queen, but ha^wj awaited derelopments before writing you. 1 sux>- posed I was going to hare golden colored bees, su^ as I could pride myself on; having a queen from Jjji imported mother, what should hinder me, wheculation, and so it went. At this time, I had been praying and striving to overcome this besetting sin, and it seemed a little strange to myself, that I had no dispo- sition to think about this simi of money, \Vliich was really a little more than I ever ex]>ected to have all at one time. There wtvs a strong tendency to rel ax my usual in- dustry, and to grow a little imix)rtant; but, as I was all this time laboring with the boys in jail, and with others who needed work, and who could not well be reached in any other way, I kept pretty humble, consider- iii,g my natural disposition, and when some new hand asked for a place, and nromised to lead a better life if it was given nim, and tlie place came in answer to i^rayer, I could but feel that all this business, and money too, was a sacred tnist given into my charge, fense, it was thought well to have the factory as near the R.R. station as possible, and about two acres of ground was deemed necessary. After hooking at all the eligible land in the vicinity, some one started the idea that the county fair-ground would an- swer nicely, if it could or.ly l)e had. I took in at a glance, the ground, sloping gently to the south and east; the i^retty patches of woodland ; the stream of water ; above all, the fact that one comer c^mie ri,ght close up to the station, nearer than any piece of land that could be purchased; and, with all the re.-?t, I thought of the advantages it would give for a mission work in onr town. The station has seemed a favorite place of resort f(»- those of a disorderly turn, and tliere is nroch Sabbath breaking about there ; what etfoct might the morning Bible chvss have oil the \Hcinity? Already I saw, in my inind's eye a neat little cha].>el, for tJiis class mi the Sabbath, and a re;«ling room during week days, for the hands, or whoever else Height care to use it. I made a good cash otter for the grounds, but, as tiiey belonged to the people, a day luwl to be hxed some time ahead, for the consideration of the sub- ject. The matter was talked about in our moniing Bible class, and I told the boys that, whatever the people iniglit decide on, God woidd give it to us, if we showed our- selves in real earnest in carrying on His work. As the time proposed for the decis- ion came near, much vras the talk in regard to the matter, and many were quite vehe- ment in declaring that I should not have their fivir-ground. I prayetl that, if it was bast, the ground might be given us, and not only that, but that the minds of those whjo objected might be changed, and that it might be given with a hearty g(X)d will. Tlie day ctvme, and the decision wtus inadf, that I could not have it. I believe that answers to iirayer may al- most always be explained, by those who axe disposed to do so. as coming about in somj- other way; and, in this civse, it might hav^ been said that our people, at lust about that time, began to be interested m the reforimi- tions that were gradually taking pl-ace among the young men, and to associate I them with the Bible class, and the factwy. I A sort of reaction took place ; aiiother ineet- ! ing was c^jlled, and it was de^^'ided tliat I ! could have the i)roi)erty at niy tirst offer. t If the imiyer for this ob]e<;t had no effect oil i the people, it certainly had on myself, fori I felt it to be so sacred a matter, tliat I &n- ! trusted it all in God's hands, and took n» part in the talk myself, being i^erfectly wil- ling to trust my own town's people to do what was right and best. A veiy sensible thing to do, say you? Well, I believe the effect of earnest prayer is to make ewe sensible, and that one who jrrays over his work will generally do it, in a safe and sen- sible manner. The m aci-es of land, with its buildings, cost me S3..500, and I had ir4.000 left, wil^i which to build the factory. (_>ur trade is always dull in the fall, and I knew, frotu ]jast' experience, that I shonld run short; tor. with the new printing press, new en- gine, and other expensive machinery, I feared I could not get into any kind of work- ing trim less than $8,000. Without saying anything to anybody about it. I calculkteil that, after I had got tlie buildmg as fjn; along as I could with what money I had, J could get enougli on a mortgage to tinish it, and tliat the next season's trade would pay it all up. I did not know but the "Growl- ery'' would take off some of the ti'swle, if the complaints were allowed to come out in aji honest way, but I calculated to reform my- self somewhiit, as v/ell as the boys. Toward the hrst of Sept.. before the roof even was on tlie factory, tiie money at the bank was all gone; and, what was stiU worse, aj- tliough I h;\d had thousiuids tliere a fet\^ months before, without getting a cent of in- terest for tlie use of it. I found tliat I cou5l not get any more, witliout paying ten ytex cent; stiU fartlier, I must have two gooil signers t- ei"S of real, broad acres. Oiu- friends iji town, who were owneis of stores and build- ings, would not do; tliey wanted sound, substantial fai-mers. Would not a mort- gage be security enough? They did not tiike mortgages at all. Now, for years, I have prided myself on the fact, that I never asked anybody to sign with me, and therefore I have excused my- self for not signing with anybody else ; and I presume I had got to feeling a sort of pride in my name, which was unencumbered with any responsibility for other people's debts. I got a little important, and declared 346 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Oct. I would not ask anybody to sign with me ; i but Saturday night came, and the boys and girls came for their pay, as usual, never dreaming that the money would not be forthcoming, as it always had been. I rea- soned with myself, that they had no business to expect their wages always so promptly ; that other establishments were sometimes a little behind, and why should not I be? A few looked disappointed, and when I learned of one who went without the needful things of life, because I had not been as prompt as I had led them to expect me to be, my heart smote me. Perhaps, he had just such a soft blue eyed baby at home as mine, and it might be that I had been the means of depriving this little one of comforts, because the fath- er could not have his small earnings on Satu.rday night. As I went home, in the darkness of the night, I bowed my head to tlie ground, in the" damp grass, under the api)le trees, where I had gone many times before, and asked Ilim who never refuses to go our ''security.'- when we are in the right track, to show me wherein I liad erred, and to tell me whit to do. Yf hen Jesus healed the blind man, he told him to go and wash ; wlien he healed the sick man, he told him to take up liis bed and walk ; and when he fed the multitude, they were first required to sit down on the grass in iifties. Sec; now, I do not know that a prayer of mine was ever answered, unless I went right to v/ork. But. we often hear asked, could you not go right to work just as well without praying? To be sure I could, but would I go to work in the same way':* I leave you to judge. As a natural consequence of being refused mon- ey at the bank, I imagined tliat the people at the bank treated me with a sort of lofty indilference ; and my first inijjulse was to declare that I would have nothing n)ore to do with them, but that I would deposit my money elsev.iiere, &c. After kneeling in the grass, hov/ever, my work was very plainly shown to be, to root out all those feelings, to bear •■snubbing," if such came, with patience, and to take a far liumbler place than I had been holding. Instead of getting mad at the cashier of the bank, and declaring that I would never have anything more to do with him, I went and stated plainly to him my exact circumstances, and asked Iiis advice. This put both him and myself in quite a different light, and he was tlie same good friend he had always been. Tiie truth of it was, he had never been in the least imfriendly. Do you know what a hard thing it is to do, to refuse to trust an intimate friend and acquaintance? If the casiiier of a national bank could not do this, he would be totally unfit for his position, and would most certainly lose it. I know of nothing but i)rayer, that takes '-kinks" out of a body, and shows them just where they belcmg. ' "If you object to asking anybody to sign with you,'" said he, ''give your signers a mortgage, and thus secure them from run- ning any risk.'' What a sensible piece of advice, and yet it had not occurred to me before. Further- more, he volunteered to lay my case before the liMiik dhv'tors. ;iiid -'"h if an arrange- ment could not be made, whereby I might have credit for all money taken in, and be charged interest for only what I used, and no more. If I were to borrow money for a year or more, I could easily get it for 8 per cent, but then I should be obliged to keep a considerable sum lying idle in the bank, just to have it ready as needed. The ar- rangement spoken of was made, and all that was necessary was to get the two names of considerable land holders. A relative by marriage said las father would sign with me willingly, but that his mother must not be told of it. In my way of thinking, man and wife are one, and I made my request to both. The old gentleman seemed (luite wil- ling to accommodate me, but his wife, whom I knew well, having got acquainted with her ill my mission work, strongly objected. Said she : "As long as you are alive, Mv. Root, I have no fear; but should you die, and the property be sold under the hammer, it might not bring even :?2.000. We are old people, and it would be a sore trial to us to be wor- ried with such business. We worked hard for our fevf acres, when it Avas all woods a.bout here, we have lived humbly and care- fully, and we wish to end our days quietly, in the same way." What a wicked thing it would have been, to have secured her husband's name to any paper without lier knowledge, and to have worried her in her old age, even if she had been extreme in her ideas. God forbid that I should ever get out of troubles in that way. Saturday night was coming again ami not enough to pay tlie hands, and yet I shrank from asking anyone else to be responsible for my business sjieculations. I stated the matter to a member of our church, who owns considerable property, and althougli he did not refuse, I saw pla'inly that he pre- ferred not to do it. He very kindly told me, that people were talking about the proba- bility that I would get "swamped," in trying to do things on so large a scale, because my business was something that few could un- derstand; if I wanted to buy a farm, or go into a store, or start a lumber yard or black- smitli sho)). it would be readily understood ; but the idea of employing half a hundred hands, in a business that even I myself can hardly give a name to, is, to average persons, a mystery. Said he: " Mr. Root, your whole work is out of the common track; it is, as it were, a constant experiment. Your mission Sabbath schools and Bible class, your bees and your bee jour- nal, have all elicited wonder and surprise ; but everybody, almost, thinks them tran- sient things, and we have looked to see them go down long before this time. We rejoice to see you looking to God for help and guid- ance, and our faitli in you is constantly in- creasing." I knew that what he said was the truth, yet the old pride kept coming up as I re- plied : '• I could have built a wooden building and had it all paid for; or I could have built sma.ller, at the risk of having to build again in a year or two ; or I could have purchased a smaller engine, and printing press; but 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 347 all these things would have been poor policy in tlie end. I can stop all my hands on the building now, and let it stand without a roof, until I can earn some more money my- self." " No, no, you must not do that ; I will get you the money to pay your hands to-night, and -vve will lik it befoi-e another week, so that you will get along." Do you know how much good such a friend does a body? My wife and I knelt together in our own room, and asked God to tell us what to do, to avoid trespassing on the good natiu-e of any one, or making anybody re- sponsible for our own affairs. As it had been intimated that trouble might ensue should I die suddenly, she suggested that I sliould have my life msured for the benefit of my estate. This was done, and a mort- gage given, the signers being my father, and a friend who ha.s for many years been the superintendent of our Sabbath school. This experience has humbled my pride in several ways, and has taught me several useful lessons. The first is, to be very care- ful how you let your business get into such a shape thnt you cannot always pay your debts easily, without involving others. A cjise right in our ovm town was sho\^^l me. Our hollow-ware foundry cost $18,500, and was mortgaged for !?6,000, wliich everybody thought very safe. The mortgage was fore- closed, and after trying a long time, the property was sold for only $4,-500. Can we blame people for being backward in taking mortgages, or for hesitating about signing? Do we want our banks, that are the deposi- tories of so many people's money, to be ac- commodating at the expense of running risks? or do we want tliem to make every transaction safe beyond the pof^dhility of loss? I prefer the latter way, and if the in- convenience of it falls on my own head, I hope I may have the grace to bow in humil- ity. A gaiii ; the banks pay nothing for the use of money, but will not let it out at less than 10 per cent, and even then, they de- mand the very best security, hold a judg- ment note, and will not take a mortgage on real estate. Are they charging too much? Very well, do not find fault, but just quietly start a bank yourself. But you say you have not the money. It may not be entirely your own fault that you have not got it, but it comes so near it^ — in my opinion — that I think you had better trade or not ti-ade with them, as you think best, and stop criticising. In the city of Cleveland, I am informed, there is a savings bank, that pays 6 per cent, for money, and loans it for 7. Such an in- stitution in a small town would be a great convenience, and would also help poor peo- ple to save their money. Many of our boys whom I am very anxious to see get ahead are, I fear, paying out their money thought- lessly, and to encourage better habits, I have had a card pxit up over the time clerk's desk tis follows: TEN PSR CHNT INTEREST, PATABIiK MONTHLY, Will be allowed any of fhe hanrta who have money they do not -wish to use immediately. A. I. ROOT. Some have laughingly told me that I can not stand such a rate, but I certainly can af- ford to pay it to my liands, as well as to the bank. Nearly SlOO are in our little savings bank ali-eady, and one of tJie boys is trying to save enougli to buy Iiini a little home near the factory. It is now 5 o'clock in the morning. What a grand thing it is to be at work thus early, and to feel tliat you are abreast of all your duties, instead of having them driving you. It is like having the money to pay all bills as soon as due, or as soon as called for. The third lesson I learned by the little transaction I have na.rrated, is to set no one at work, and to make no purchases, until I am sure of liaving the money ready to pay them when it is called for. There are those, I know, who do not care about being dunned, and who seem to think that the reply, " I havn't the money," is reason enough for not paying, and can go along afterwards with an untroubled conscience. I do not wish to judge them, and I try to have charity for them ; but it seems to me a most galling thing, to have a fellow being say, " You have got my money ; I want it," when you cannot hand it over. If you have not got it, and know of no place or way by which vou can get it, may God forgive you for ever having incurred the debt. If you cannot possibly pay it, can you not get your credi- tor to assent to giving you a few days to bring it about; If he does, let me implore you to liold that promise sacred. Sell your l)roperty at almost any sacrifice ; work for 25c. a day ; live on the cheapest fare ; wear any sort of old clothing, and be laughed at a hundred ways, if need be ; but keep your word, until your friends learn to depend ulS- on it as they would on the rising of the sun. To those who have failed in business, and paid nothing, or only a few cents on the dol- lar, I have nothing to say, and would, by no means, give them needless pain, but the young men, those whose names are yet with- out any such blemish, I would urge, with all the vehemence I possess, to guard against such a thing, now, Avhile there is yet time to be warned. If you are going to incur risks, or to take chances, do it with your own h!,rd earnings, and not with otlier people's. Think what a fearful thing it is, to have it said, as you i)ass along tlie street : "•There is a man, who owes me money, which he will never pay. He took my hard earnings ; the dollars 1 gathered slowly, one by one, by the sweat of my brow ; the mon- ey I needed to clothe, feed, and educate my children. J»Iay God give me charity, and hel]^ me to forgive him the grievous "wrong he has done me and mine." Think of going through life with such a load resting on your shoulders ; think of ly- ing down at niglit year after year, haunted by such thoughts ; think of the price you will pay for indulging in something beyond your means, which you could have done without. It is this kind of work that robs us of the innocence of childhood, that em- bitters people against their fellows, that spoils faith in Christianity, and breaks down churches. Is it not far better, my friends, to humble ourselves? and, if it comes down to plain bread and butter, let it be honest 3« GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Oct. and innocent bread and butter. If we can- not liave more than a lo^r house, and pay our way as we go. may God help us to be satis- tied with the log house. It seems to me, just now, I would rather have the log house anyway, if it was out in the woods, without any road to come to it, but then I could not give so many hands employment, and I s^hould be leadnig a selfish life, so I guess I will try to do the best I know how, just where God has seen tit to put me. It is later in the day now,— and the clerks are all about me, asking questions as iisual, and perhaps some of them are doing their work carelessly, as usual. I guess I will commence reforming myself, by trying not to scold any to-day ; if I carry out this good resolution, some of them may look at me in astonishment, and think perhaps that some- thing is the matter, but never mind, I am going to try hard. Help thy servant, O my Savior, to perform his duties better, and to take a humbler position, nearer to thee, and low at thy feet. GKAPE-SITGAK. WEITTEN BY ONE OF THE MANUFACTrKEBS OF IT. SrN order to give a distinction between glucose ! nnd grape-sugar, as those two diflferent articles _±' arc commercially known, I will say that the first is a heavy, gummy syrup, of about 40 per cent, glu- cose, or grape-sugar, 46 to 48 per cent, dextrine, and 12 to 40 per cent, water; the latter is a concrete mass, without crystalization, of CC to 70 per cent, grape and glucose" sugar, 5 to 6 per cent, dextrine, and the balance water. Both articles are made in this country, out of corn Btarcl), such as is used for pudding and other culi- oary purposes, only that the starch is further puri- fied to get rid of the glutin, a very important sub- stance as food for man, but objectionable in this manufacture. The coovertion of the starch into dextrine or soluble starch and grape-sugar is done by sulphuric acid. This chemical is removed again by marble or chalk. In preparing grape-sugar for feeding bees, we make it our special object to remove all sulphuric acid, and afterwards, the resulting sulphate of lime. Our grape-sugar for feeding bees is guaranteed to be free from sulphuric acid, and never contains more than 1-50 part of 1 per cent, of sulphate of lime. Both glucose and grape sugar pass through differ- ent refining processes, which are almost the same as in our sugar refineries. Starch can be converted into sugar or dextrine by means of malt also, as is done by distillers of grain and brewers. In baking bread, a large part of the starch in the flour is con- verted into dextrine, and a little grape-sugar is also formed. The celebrated malt extract consists mainly of dextrine and grape-sugar, and it derives its valuable nourishing power for convalescing people, from these two substances. As a sweetener in coffee or tea, and for other culinary purposes, grape-sugar is not cheaper than cane sugar; as its sweetening power, even in its chemically pure state, is only H of the latter. This may be the reason that they have given up its use in the hospitals of Paris. However, I know that there are large factories of "dry glu- cose," or grape sugar, in France, and that its manu- facture is not forbidden there, nor is its use for brewing beer forbidden in Germanj'. In order to compare the value of cane-sugar with grape-sugar, such as we offer for feeding bees, I would say that I have analyzed 100 or more samples of refined sugars, and found that "coffee A" sugar contains 90 to 93 per cent, of pure sugar; powdered, granulated, or block sugar, 97 to 99 per cent, of pure sugar. As a food, dextrine is probably as valuable as grape sugar, and the latter is as valuable as cane sugai'. Therefore the difference between comtner- cial grape sugar and the best dry cane sugar, can- not exceed 20 per cent in favor of the latter. I would further say that honey consists mainly of rape sugar, some fiuit svigar. a much varving per- centage of cane supar, ;ind sundry flavoring sub- is present in the honey, soon a heavy deposit of a gummy, milky mass, will form ; while with pure honey, there will be only a very slight milky appear- ance observed. In Germany, an experience of 1.5 years and over has proven that grape sugar, if carefully prepared lor the purpose, is excellent and wholesome for bees, and never costs more than u to hi of cane sugar. In this country, we have sold grape sugar to about 200 different parties acd receive dupli- cates of orders daily. I think I have exhausted the subject and will fin- ish up here; however, I will be rcadv to answer any other questions asked. Lewis Best, Sup't Davenport Glucose Mauufact. Comp'y. Davenport, Iowa., Sept. 20lh, 1878. In addition to the above, it may be well to quote from Mr. Langstroth's book, page 273. Bear in mind that this statement has been before the people for more than 20 years. Eeferring to grape sugar, he says : It can be obtained at a much lower price than cane-sugar, and is better adapted to the constitu- tion of the bee, as it constitutes the saccharine mat- ter of honey, and hence, is frequently termed honey sugar. It may be fed either diluted with boiling-water, or in its raw state, moist, as it comes from the factory. In the latter condition, bees consume it slowly, and, as there is not the waste that occurs when candy is fed, I think it is better winter-food. Now, my friends, I have waited patiently for you to tell me of some way for feeding grape sugar in frames, as we do candy ; but as none of you have done so, I just "walked around the stairway," and did it myself. Although it is a very simple matter indeed, it is destined, I think, to prove an invention of considerable importance. Take your grape sugar as it comes out of the l)oxes and barrels, and put it in a new tin pan on the stove. Be sure you do not put in a drop of water. Heat it gently, and it will, m time, become so soft that you can mash it all down into a kind of paste. Fix your frames precisely as ^directett in the A B C, for can- dy making, and sitread your grape sugar in- to it nicely and evenly, and let it cool. In an hour or two, you can hang it in the hive ; and there is your feed for 4c. per lb. We will put it into frames for you, for 5c. per lb. ; but it Avill be much your cheapest way to have it shipped by the barrel, and put it in the frames yourself. You must not un- dertake to winter bees on this alone, because it may get too hard and dry ; but, with some honey to go with it, it will do very well, and for brood rearing, I think it is even better than honey, probably on account of the dex- trine. iM^m^f SEVERAL EGGS IN OXE CELL. Did you ever have a case like the following ? My neighbor has a queen that lays from 8 to 10 eggs in one cell; in fact, she just piles them in. I can't ac- count for it. I like your smoker very well; I would not do without it for twice the money. John F. Meyer. Wyandotte, Kansas, Sept. 3, 1873. [A fertile worker often lays several eggs in a cell, and a drone laying queen sometimes does the same; 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 349 a good queen never does, unless she is cramped for room. In this case, she will go over the cells a sec- ond time, and lay two or more in them all. The drone laying queen and fertile worker often put sev- eral eggs in one cell, and none in the next; we gen- erally recognize their work by this, even before any of the larvjE are sealed over.] SITTING HENS VERSUS LAMP NURSERIES. Hang up your lamp nursery. I am hatching queens in clam shells under sitting hens. Have three hens at the business. Two do not take to it, but prefer to sit standing. The one that tends strtct- ly to business hatches out every cell. A. Jackson. Deposit, N. Y., Sept. 18th, 1878. Please send me a copy of Gleanings. I have a copy of your A B C of Bee-Culture, that cost me f 1 ; on the cover, the price is 25cts. ; please explain. Have you agents in this county ? I think the book is worth all I paid for it. Cicero Hancock. Morganfield, Ky., Sep., 3d, 1878. [The above transaction speaks badly for the man who sold the book, but well for the book. Thanks for your good opinion. As we sell them for 15c. by the hundred, your agent can well afford to sell them for the price marked on the cover. It was put there purposely, to prevent such "speculations."] Your postal, of Aug. 16th, came to hand In good time; but the queen has not arrived yet. I fear that the express company have got her ladyship off on a telephone concert somewhere. C. Thomson. Brighton, Mich., Aug. 19, 1878. P. S. Since writing the above, her ladj-ship has a-rrived all right— a perfect beauty, without paint. Thanks. C. T. WHICH IS cheapest ? If it takes 20 pounds of coffee sugar to winter a colony of bees, how much grape sugar will it take ? Or, in other words, how much cheaper is grape sug- ar than coffee sugar for feeding bees ? I read Da- dant in Sep. A. B. J. ; give me vour honest opinion. Martonsville, Ky., Sep. 18th, 1878. J. T. Wilson. [See article on another page. From the experi- ence I have had, I would guess at it, in about this way : if grape-sugar was 7c.. and coffee A sugar 10, I would take the latter. If the grape-sugar was 6, 1 would take the grape. As it really stands in the proportion of about 4 to 10, I think the grape-sugar a great saving. It will not pay to order any kind of sugar by express; sugar goes at a very low rate by freight, in quantities of 50 lbs. or more.] now LONG will a swarm op bees keep two lay- ing queens? This is the fourth season for a queen which I pur- chased of M. Argo. About the first of June, I no- ticed the bees had started queen cells, and conclu- ded that they intended to supersede her. The latter part of June, T found a young lajing queen in the hive ; then in July, when extracting, I found the old queen still there, and there she has been ever since, as well as the young queen which was raised. At least, they were both in the hive a week ago, when I opened it to show a beginner the curiosity. Hudson, 111., Sep. 13th, 1878. Edgar Sager. Send me two copies of Gleanings, and one copy to Jno. G. Buckland, Esq. Waikonaike, Otago, New Zealand. ^our ideas and work about bees are too elabo- rate for this colony ; they are left out all winter, and generally have to look after themselves all the year round. John H. Every. Dunnedin, Otago, New Zealand. June 1st, 1878. [So, you see. Gleanings has got away off there.] The queen and racks came in good shape. I like your bottle queen cages very much. I think a queen could be kept any length of time in them. Be sure and report how yours are getting along, that you caged in July. Amos Johnson. Sugar Grove, Pa„ Sep. 16th, 1878. [AH of those caged in July are sold, except 3 or 4 hybrids ; these are all right yet. Fresh bees have been given them, once or twice. One that stood near my type writer was chilled during a cool night, but the rest were kept in the house apiary, the even temperature of which keeps them perfectly safe. queens that won't lay. A friend of mine had two queens, reared in full colonies, which never laycd either drone or worker eggs. One being small, he removed her, and gave the bees brood to rear another queen. Thinking it might be the fault of the bees, lie sent her to me to introduce into a nucleus, and try her among other bees. I introduced her, and she has been reigning supreme about 13 days; I have made two examina- tions, and nary egg has she layed. She is an Italian queen, large size, fully developed, with perfect wings, and is in every respect equal to a laying queen in a large colony. Both the above queens were reared in June, by swarms that had swarmed naturally. Did you ever hear of such queeus before? S. Dillman. [Several such have been reported, and I have owned one, fine, large queen that would not lay.] sweating honey— .4. live drone trap. I have more trouble with my honey, on account of its leaking and running out, than ever before. Sec- tions that have been off 6 or 7 weeks leak very much; what is the cause? taking off too soon? or thin cappings? It is oozing out now. I have not taken any off since July 1.5, until the other day, I took 20 sections, and it is running the same as the other, and I know that it is white clover honey made in July. The honey season this fall was short and light. I took 48 sections 4\t by 4Vi that weighed COlbs. strong; they were well finished, but bulged. I had one chicken. H grown, that caught and nte more drones than is reasonable to tell; it stood in front of the hives, and took them on the wing and off from the front of the hive, until it was satisfied. John A. Jarret. West Point, Iowa, Sep. 2, 1878. [I fear your honey Is kept In a damp place; I would give it to a swarm of bees to clean off, and fix up. You will need to feed them heavily first, or they will go to uncapping it. It is possible there is a kind of honey that absorbs moisture from the at- mosphere. Try keeping it in an upper room, pro- tected from frost. Your chicken is certainly ahead of drone traps.] The last lot of smokers came to hand all right, and were all engaged before I got them from the exp. office. Thanks for sending more than ordered. I will give you a report of what my bees have done for me, this summer. My outlay is as follows : Four swarms in spring, @ ^10.00 S40 00 Queens from you 4 50 Imported queen from Blood 5 50 Total outlay $49 50 My credit is as follows: To increase of 10 swarms $100 00 350 lbs. box honey @ 12^0 45 73 Queens sold 11 00 Total credit $15* 75 So you can see my profit is $105.25 from 4 stands of bees, and they are gathering honey very fast yet. I think my honey will exceed 400 lbs., but I have made a safe calculation ; I count my bees at $10. a stand, because they are all Italians, and In the spring, they were not ; they are worth that clear of the hives. I took some of my honey to market the other day, and they thought it the ni- cest honey they had ever seen in their town. James Parshall. Union Valley, Mo., Sept. 9th, 1878. »■^g i expects, and is pronounced the best in market. In (juality of material and man- ner of construction, it is as durable as can be made. It works as perfectly in everj' way, as any smoker now in use. See what bee-keepers say of it. "I have thoroughly tested the smoker. It works like a charm. Everything about it is perfect. They are made in a thorough and workmanlike manner. 1 consider it the best smoker in use." Wenham, Mass., July 10, 1878. H. Alley. "After selling a large number of your smokers we are gratified to know that they give general satisfac- tion. We keep all the prominent styles in stock, and whenever a visitor buys one he always selects the New Quinbv in preference to any other." Canajoharie, "N. Y., July 17, 1878. J. H. Nellis. Sent on receipt of price. 2V, inch tube by mail ?l 75 2 " " " -. 150 Bv express 35 cents less. Send for circular of General Supplies to 5-1 L. C. ROOT, Mohawk, N. Y. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 365 IMPLEMENTS TOR BEE CULTURE ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED. For description of the various articles, see our Twelfth Edition Circular and Price List found in May No., Vol. VI., or mailed on application. For directions Hdw tit Malw all these various arti- cles and implements, see ABC of Bee Culture. This Price List to be taken in place of those of former date. Mailable articles are designated in the left hand column of tig-ures ; the figures giving the amount of postage required. Canada postage on merchandise is limited to S^ oz., and nothing can be sent for less than. 10 cents. Alighting Board, detachable. See ABC, Part First. . : $ Bass wood trees for planting. For prices see Price List Balances, spring, for suspended hive (GO lbs.) 8 00 Barrels for honey 2 50 " " waxed and painted... . 3 50 Bees, per colony, from $7 to $16, for partic- ulars see price list Bee-Hunting box, with printed instructions 25 Binder, Emerson's, for Gleanings .W, 60, 75 Blocks, iron, for metal c ivsLnce; 3 Copies for %2.!yO^ 5 for %3.T 5; Medina, O. ) ESstatolislied in ISYa. (,10 oj 7nore, 60c. each. Single Number, 10c. MY EXPERIENCE. NO. 11. A HOME-MADE FOOT-POWER BUZZ SAW. Tnj?i AM sitting- in my work-shop wliere It is quiet, jf jl and am using- my buzz saw table for a writing- ~i desk. I made the most of said buzz saw mj'self, and I am g-oing- to devote the wliole of this article to a description of it, with the hope that it may help some one else who has a "notion to make" a buzz saw. I first made the large band wheel. It is composed of felloes, 4 inches wide, sawed from two inch oak plank, and pinned tog-ether. The wheel is S inches thick, across the face, and 40 inches in diameter. Two pieces of oak plank, S inches wide and 3 inches thick, are halved together for spokes. The outside ends of the spokes taper down to 4 inches in width, and then enter mortises cut in the inside of the wheel. Exactly in the centre of the wheel, where the spokes cross, a square 3 inch mortise is cut for the shaft. Inside of the wheel, opposite the treadle cranks, are nailed pieces of old wagon tire; these counterbalance the weight of the treadle. The shaft is made from a oxS inch oak scantliTig, and ex- tends the whole length of the buzz saw frame. I spiked 4 wedge shaped pieces of plank upon the shaft, one upon each side, with the wide ends all one way. The wide ends of these pieces form a sort of collar, or shoulder, against which the spokes of the large wheel are firmly held by means of a key through the shaft. I can take the key out, shove the wheel along upon the shaft, and run a belt from a little steam engine (if 1 am ever rich enough to own one) to the pulley upon the saw shaft. If T have a short job of sawing-, I can use foot-power; if the job is a long one — why, turn on steam. Around each end of the shaft is an iron band; in each end of the shaft is driven a gudgeon made from ?.i inch round iron; and upon the end of each gudgeon is a crank, 2?4 inches long. The treadle, or rather the piece upon which my foot presses, comes up hchind me, and from each end of this piece, a bar of wood extends to the back part of the "ma- chine," where it is fastened with a bolt, upon which it turns. These bars pass directly under the cranks which are upon the ends of the shaft, and are con- nected with them by pitmans. The pitmans are about 18 inches in length. I can tread upon any part of the treadle, and it will go down steady and firm; the two cranks pre- vent it from being "springy." The top of the frame-work is simnly a 2-inch oak plank, one foot wide, and six and one-half feet long-. At each end of this, "uprights," one foot wide, and forty-two inches long-, are mortised and bolted. In the center of each "upright," a hole is cut for the shaft to pass through, and a piece of hard wood is bolted upon the outside of each "upright," for the gudgeons to run in. To the bottom of the uprights, are pinned pieces of plank, 4 inches wide, and ;iJ4 ft. long, and it is to the back end of these pieces that the back end of the treadle bars are fastened. This frame, if such it can be called, is firmly braced each way. Upon the top of this table, the buzz-«aw table proper is fastened, with bolts, in such a maimer that it can be removed in a few moments, and a turning lathe put in its place and run by the same fo<)t-p()\\r- er. I should not have made the frame so long, if I had not had this end in view. The upper part of the saw table is fastened at one side, with hinges, and is raised or lowered with a screw. One of the boards composing- the table— one that is uear the saw— is left loose, so that it can be slid backwards and forwards, the edges being bev- eled to keep It securely in its place. Near the end of the board that is next the opera- tor is fastened, at right angles, another strip of board, :i inches wide, and 2\i feet long. The work is placed in front of this strip, and then pushed up against the saw, the strip holding it "squarely" to the saw. That board in the table that comes next to the slid- ing- board is fastened with bolts, so that it can be moved up as it wears a^v^ly. I also have a gauge that works parallel to the saw; it can be put close vip to the saw, mo\ed 3 feet away, or taken off alto- gether. Then there is a block frf wood that can be fastened to the "sliding board" above mentioned, and by leaning boards against this, and letting- their lowei" edges come against the gauge that runs par- allel with the saw, I can bevel their edges. This block is fastened with a set screw, and can be moved, so as to make bevels with ditf(;rent angles. In the center of the table, where the saw comes up thrcmgh, is a small piece that can be removed, and a piece with a larger slot cut in it can be put in its place; the piece with the lai-ge slot is used when I wish to set the saw wabbling. By looking- arovnul at the machine shops, I found a small, second-hand mandrel. It was all complete, with collars, and a :Mnch iron pulley, and ran in set screws that fastened with bolts. They fitted it up for the 6-inch Barnes saws, and let me have it for fS.OO. To get enough motion, I had to use a. large band wheel, and this made the table too high to work with ease; to remedy this. I made a platform. 9 inches high, to stand lipon, and "rigged" my treadle accord- ingly. I bought Mrs. H. a new bed-tick, and she very gen- erously gave me a six-ijjch stiip off one side the cloth; this, I folded twice! stitched it upon the sew- ing machine, and it made a nice belt, o inches wide, and having a thickness of 4 layers of cloth. The material cost as follows: lumber, $4.75; bolts and screws, ■^2.0'i; blacksmitliing, !?l.t"i; saws, S;3,00; mandrel, f 2.00; belt, 32c. Total, .i;i:!.57. So much of the work was done at odd spells, that it would be imiiossible to tcUexactly how much time was occupied in its construction, but I do not think it would be far from three weeks. I am well pleas(^d with my saw; I ha\e sawed out 1,000 fence pickets, cut up "ash. and walnut lumlier for two bureaus, some stuff' fiu- rustic picture frames, made a lot of bee-hives, &c. I would not advise any one to attempt to make a buzz-saw, unless they have more time than money, and a ?(H'c for such work; for they will have to over- come many dilliculties, before they have their saw "bvizzing""thr(iugh inch lumber, at the rate of "eight feet per minute." W. Z. Hutchinson. Rogersville, Mich. INIany of your ideas are oxcellent, my friend, and tlie iiitfciniity you have ex]iil)it- ed ill iiiakiii<>- elieap ai)[)liaiices answer, with- 358 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. Nov out investing in expensive fixtures, is ex- tremely praiseworthy. A feeling of praise- worthy independence that is worth every- thing ahnost is engendered by being able to make what yon want, yourself, out of the materials that lie about you, and cost you comparatively nothing. HOAV MU< H CAIV AVK HELP THI# BEES IN REARINO q>liEE>S ? ^fj^EAR NOVICE: Having- recovered partially jfell jB)) from an attack of my old malady, which for %=-^ nearly two years has prevented me from tak- ing any interest in bee matters, I venture to send you a few thoughts on rearing- queens. Huber, in lTfl~, tells us how Burnens transferred queen-larvic, preparing- to spin their cocoons, into g-lass queen cells, where he could witness the whole operation. Eig-ht years ago, Mr. K. Bickford gave me some glass queen cells open at the top and base, by iiisf'iting which into queen cells just begun, I was able to repeat the experiment of Huber. In the third edition of my work on the Hive and Honey Bee, 1 gave Kleine's method of availing him- self of Dzierzon's suggestion; that as Huber, by in- troducing some royal jelly into cells containing worker brood, obtained queens, so it may be possi- ble to induce bees to construct royal cells where the apiarian prefers to have them, by inserting- a small portion of royal jelly in cells containing worker lar- ViV. The late Mr. Richard Colvin showed me a method of inducing bees to build queen cells in convenient places, by enlarging with a round stick any cell holding- a suitable larva. This plan sometimes suc- ceeded H'lint na jillji was ijioen, as he could easily spread out the mouth of the cell, so as to make it somewhat resemble the appearance of a cell which the bees have begun to enlarge for the rearing of a queen. These de\ices, however curious, were of little practical importance. The plan which you give in Gleanings for Sep- tember seems more promising, as it proposes to save to the bees a large part of the cost in building queen cells. Trial alone can show whether they will accept these artificial cells. I hope they will, but I have often foiuid tliat tlicy would not do just the very things that I most enntideiitly expected of them, and I'ivr vcrKd. They hold the veto power over all our (le\i('es, and cari neither be flattered, bribed, or intimidated, to forego its legitimate exercise, nor ha\-c they the slightest regard for even the seal of the U. S. patent office! Now I, too, have taken a tinm around that famous "stairway," but only in imagination, and therefore I cannot warrant the results. I have found that the transferring of larvie to queen cells is a delicate manipulation, and whether from rough handling or because the bees do not like to be dictated to, often fails. Suppose that we could persvuide the bees to undertake the job, themselves! It is well known that, although they seldom transfer eggs from the cells in which the queen has placed them to other cells, as they know that she never puts them where they ought not to remain, yet, not unfroquently, when given brood to rear (lueens, they will remove the larvic to other cells. Now, would it not be nice, as you often say, if, when we give them rows of queen cells "stuck on a stick," we could give them a tiny slice of comb with eggs and very small larviP, and thus devolve upon them the pleasing duty of putting- in their new cra- dles the future mothers of the race? Rarely delicate would bo their handling of these foster nurselings, and perhaps much better than ours would their judgment be as to just the proper age at which to reiiio\e them. Hut for fear that, after all, either from heMike self will or for want of some Belle-Newton, with deep penetration, to show them how to avail themselves of our admirable provisions, they should prefer to rear them on the comb we give them, I would svig- gest that the brood comb to be given them, after be- ing reduced to— say one-half the depth of a normal cell, should be so placed that while they have access to its contents, they should have no room to build upon it any royal cells. Now, lest some of your readers may think that I am slyly making fim of our friend Novice, or else that I am hopelessly visionary in the conceits which I have superadded to his common sense device, I give the following, which I wrote for the American Bee Journal, July, 1872, p. 3: EXTR.\^ORDIN.\KY INSTANCE OF SAGACITY IN BEES. The facts which we are about to relate, are the most interesting of all the special bee wonders which have come under our own observation. We should hardly venture to give them to the readers of the Journal, if we did not feel it to be a sacred duty for every observer to give to the world any such facts, however seemingly incredible, confident that a/acf ("/acfum") in nature is a thing done by the All-Wise Creator, and that in due time its verity will be made apparent to all. In the year 18B4, we conceived the idea that a very strong colony, queenless and without brood from which to supply their loss, might perhaps, by having only a few worker eggs or larvie given them, be in- duced to rear queens of e.\tra size and beauty. To such a stock, we gave a piece of comb about half an inch wide and three inches long, containing suitable brood. Examining it a few days after, we found a dozen or more queen cells begun, and with the head of a pin, removed the queen larvii? from all of them but four, and left none in any of the other cells. When those cells were all capped, we thought it would be economy to set the sti-ong stock to work upon a second lot. As we had put the first piece of comb into a place cut out for it between one of the uprights of the frame and the comb, we put the second into a simi- lar place on the other side of the same comb. Lift- ing out the combs a few days after to note progress, we were surprised to find not a single royal cell be- gun on this last inserted piece, and not a single lar- v;e in any of its cells. Looking at the piece first put in, to oiu' amazement, we found all the royal cells from which the tenants had been extracted, occu- pied afresh! and the cells much more advanced than at the time we destroyed their first occupants. These bees were evidently determined not to lose the labor they had bestowed on the first set of cells, and had removed to them the larvtc from the worker cells on the opposite side ! After the lapse of U years, I still feel something of the enthusiastic delight which thrilled me, as I showed these Avonders to my family, and recorded them in the journal which I had kept from 1852. L. L. Langstroth. Oxford, Ohio. We all most heartily rejoice, friend L., to be able to get something from your pen once more, and if it be a possible thing, would be glad to have a sample of those glass queen cells, in order to have enough made, so that our readers may repeat this wonderful experiment. It has been stated that the queen, when spinning her cocoon, is incessantly in motion ; can you tell us whether this is so or not? And so the transposition process, like many other inventions, is an old thing fresh- ly revived, or invented over again. Do we really know so much more than our great grandfathers, after all? I was well aware of tlie plan given in your book for inducing any cell to be made into a queen cell, but the practical application of making a single choice queen furnish larvaj for all the cells built, in any kind of a hive, seems to have been only recently recognized. Your ideas are "most opportune, friend L., and although we have not as yet succeeded with the rows of queen cells on the comb guide, we have done enough to feel consid- erably encouraged. Our wonderfully inge- nious friend, Scovell, of Columbus, Kansas, has just sent us a beautiful artificial queen cell, in the bottom of a block, as shown in the cut. See what he says about it. By this mail, I send you a small box containing artificial queen cells. I think this plan away ahead of the one described in Oct. No. of Gleanings, for rearing queens in artificial cells. After the larvsB is placed in the cells, the boxes are to be set over the openings between the frames. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 359 The advantages are these: you can use few or many on a hive, as you like; they can be picked up and examined in a moment; if any hirva has been de- stroved, another can be inserted and the box re- turiied to its place on the hive; they can be re- moved from the hive with perfect safety as soon as scaled, and stacked up in the lamp nursery, or if the apiarist is so unlucky as not to own a lamp nur- sery, thev can be used at once in queenless hives, without anv cutting- or fixing; if a cell istakenfrom the hive with all the bees that are in the box, it can be introduced to a hive having a fertile worker, without having- the cell destroyed; when a queen has hatched, the cell can be used over again without any trouble. scovell's artificial queen cell. During- the forepart of the season, I had all my cells built along the under side of the top bars of frames, but, instead of artificial cells, I cut small bits of comb containing larviv and stuck them along the bar. I would often get as high as 15 perfect cells on one bar. The only objection to the plan is that the bees are sure to build more or less comb along the bar, sometimes covering the cells entirely up. The comb is always drone, and has to be cut away, and is useless for anything except the wax it con- tains. During the latter part of the season, I introduced over 100 cells in these boxes. If artificial cells can be made to work, it seems to me that this will be a much nicer way to use them than to have them stuck to the comb guide of frames. H. Scovell. Columbus, Kansas. All ri|?Iit, friend 8.; now sliow ns your skill in inducing the bees to accept them. **^*A ASII^US MISSOUKIENSIS. TRIED AND FOUND GUILTY, fN Gleanings for October, you seem to think that I have "exaggerated the danger" from the bee- killer (Asilus Missouriensis). In the latter part of .Tune, I wrote you that my bees were dying off in large numbers; you said it was probably the old bees, and so I found it. I then began to feed regu- larly, and continued to do so until the last of July. Bj' that time, my hives were crowded with yovnig bees, and the combs were full of brood. Buckwheat bloomed the last week in July. The fields swarmed with bees, and so they did with the Asilus; 1 saw the Asilus darting from flower to flow- er after the bees, and the ground under the buck- wheat gave full proof of their success in bee-killing, by the large number that lay there dead. The beC- killers were never so numerous before, and I hope will never be so again. W. J. Willard. Jonesboro, 111., Oct. 6, 1878. MOVING BEES SHORT DISTANCES. and what came of it. f) AST winter, I bought a swarm of bees, brought ji them home, and set them on a box in the back ■^^^J yard, pretty near the house. When the bees began to fly, I thought they were too nearthe house; so I moved them to the back end of the yard. The bees came buzzing around the old stand, but I thought nothing of it. Pretty soon, there came a cold snap, and I put them into the barn for protection. The first warm day, I noticed the liees humming around the place from which I ha the old stand; then I saw them humming around in the barn. Well, by this time, I had them well fitted for rob- bers, and'the robbers came, went at them, and soon cleaned them out; .ind that cleaned me out of bees. Well, I have got a little "sand," so I bought another swarm, and another, until I had 9 swarms, and had paid out ,5:i8.r)0. Then I sent for Gleanings, and be- gan to study it and my bees together, and visited and talked with others who had experience in bee- keeping, vintil 1 got to be quite a bee-man. I have transferred 5 swarms from box hives to movable frame hives, and have made a success of it. I think I have made a pretty good thing out of my bees. Here are the figures: Bees sold, $ 60 00 Honey sold, 36 80 16 swarms on hand at $10 per swarm, 160 00 Total receipts. Bees bought, 256 80 38 50 Net gain, 318 30 The honey which I have on hand, with what I have given away, will pay for the fdu. which I have used. C. E. Waldo. Grand Ledge, Mich., Oct. 4, 1878. ANOTHER A B O "CHIIiU." and how he grew. fi FIRST commenced in the bee business, about July 15, '78, by hiving a wild swarm wliichlit-^on 1 — I my'apple trees. I knew nothing of bees, and looked all over the papers for some advertisement by which I could get something pertaining to bees. I saw vours of the ABC, sent 25c., and got a book. 1 took the bee fever at once. I had seen honey sold here for 17 years, for 25 and 30c. per lb. I had the best place on earth for bee keeping, and had lost $200 e\-ery year bv not raising my own honey. Well, I subscribed for your Gleanings, and pitched right into work. 1 made me a hunting bo.x, and have found and cut 13 trees and successfully transferred the bees from 9 of them to hives. 1 had bad luck in falling the other 4 trees and killed the bees. , ,, , . ,, , 1 immediately sent for 25 Langstroth hives, and lo ! in one month, I was an old bee-keeper, with more experience than 1 presume some have in 5 years, for 1 worked day and night at them, fixed up my yard, advertised to transfer from old hives and fur- nish new hives, and warrant them. There are a great many bees kept here, but, strange to say, I never took any notice of them be- fore. I sent at once for Cook's Manual of the Apiary, got mv hives and stiirtcil out. In Aug. and Sept., 1 transferred 39 swarms, all to L. hives, and got *1.0U each for them, and furnished hives at $2.U0 each to $2.25 and .*2.5!) for two-story, unpainted hives. 1 have now on my books, engaged to transfer in May, 97 swarms, for my neighbors. . I have used fdn. comb in most places, to help build up faster, where they would buy it of me. I have a wire screen cap to wear on my head and over my face, and wear buckskin gloves on my hands. I upset the old hive, place the new one on the spot, give a few puffs of smoke, and rap until 1 see the queen run out; then commence by cutting the nails in the old hive with a thin cold chisel, and with a long bl-?ded knife, cut the combs loose from the board and take it off, then lay the large slabs of hon- ey down and cut them to tit the frames. , , , ^, 'I use wire clamps hooked at both ends to hold the combs in place, and sot them in the hives On the third dav, 1 open and remove the wires; when ittnu everything ttx"d up, 1 examine to see if any eggs have been laid by the queen, and generally look her I'have had e.xtra good luck, and never lost one swarm, neither have I had any rotibing; and 1 (Ud not protect them or shut them up, though I did all the work in the y;M-d near other hees. I usually take out from 25 to 30 lbs. of honey. 1 have one swarm taken from a tree, < )ct. 7, '78, which I think are Italians, thouuh 1 never saw one. I have sent a sample to vou to inform me. This swarm to- day (Oct. 9) has two sheets of fdn. worked out since transferring, and eggs deposited now at this writ- ing, 5 p. m. I would not sell the swarm for $20. In the spring. 1 mean tn lliiliani/,e all my stocks, and Italianize for as many of my neighbors as I can 360 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Nov. inrtuco to have it ;ii)iplics. Sec, of this place. The coun- try atioimils in wilil iiowors, and even nf)w bees are niakiu^' honey from K'ohlcn rod. I have l)eeri transferrin'.'- up to the 7th of Oct. right alono-, but put in most of Die honey. In huntins: bees, I use a preparation of anise, al- cohol, honey, and water, and w ith my thumb, as I pass alou. Lenoirs, Tenn., Oct. 15, 187H. Before I can guess at the cause of these troubles, my friend, I should like to knoW more of the circumstances. Are you sui'« it is not because your hives are too close to- gether V I once had a dozen liives, all alike, standing in a row, in a buckwheat field, and after the yield had partially ceased, they be- gan balling their queens, getting into each other's hives, and behaving much as you de- scribe. Give your bees separate stands ; have them at least 6 feet from center to cen^ ter, not in straight rows, and I think yoi\ will do away with at least a part of such troubles. Your course was a very good one for such borrowing must be stopped, or it will ruin an apiary. GRINDING TOOLiS ACCURATELY* ^SpjVERY bee-keeper dhoidd have in his JCiji shop, not Only a good grindstone, but a ~" tool like the one below, that he may do nice trlie work with it. The man who is arlned with sharp tools is head and should- ers above the one Avho is not, for almost any kind of work. WOLCOTT'S tool GlilNDEK. Mr. Kirk, of Waterbury, Conn., wants a cheap and efficient guide for holding plane irons, chisels, &c., while grinding. Here it is. Take a piece of hard wood, 32 inches long, 2I4 inches wide, and U thick; put an iron spur in one end, and taper the piece 10 inches from the end to the spur. Cut a mortise through the center, 15 inches long by U wide, com- mencing 13 inches from the spur end. Kound the corners of one side, to make it easy for the hand. Now, take a hexagonal piece of wood, 3 inches in diameter, and 1 inch thick; in one side, put a spur to hold chisel handles, cut the under corner of another for plane bitts; make a mortise in another for plough bitts; a % inch round hole in another for small ehi^jcl handles, &c. This hexagonal piece is- held in place by a hand-screw, running through the mortise. l)eing movable up and down, and can be turned in aiiv direction. In grinding, never take the spur from the post or wall which holds it, till the work is finit-hed, but turn it up as often ae you please, to look at it. No extra hand is reiiuired to turn the stone. We gritul liatclicts and drawing knives on the same principle. No patent. I have used it 37 years. J. L. Wolcott. Hloomington, Ills., Sept. 17th, 1878. Thank you, friend W. I am so mucli pleased with your tool, tliat I have had an engraving made of it, which, 1 think, with your description, will make it plain euougli to anyone. We send y<»u (;lkanin<;s oue year for the idea. 362 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Nov. BKES AT FAIRS AND CIDEll MILLS. "fkee tickets." ^ AM havins? some trouble. My bees are located J>|[ very near the fair o-rountl, and as the weather ^=) was hot durins- the fair, they were on hand and went in without tickets. The party that rented the dining- hall g-ot a larsre ease of honey for the tables, and to have it out of the way, it was sot just outside of the door. The bees soon g-ot possession and had everythinff their own way durinfr the day. Next morning-, I found the case sitting by mj^ door, with the 40 lbs. of honey it had contained all missing; there was not over 1 lb. in all the sections. Then they went to the hot candy stand, and made things lively there. The keepers of the stand killed all thej' could, probably a good swarm in all, and a large pereentag-e were Italians. Poor fellows! We heard it talked around that the nuisance must be removed. Well, if they go, I g-o too. Then, too, there is a cider mill not 50 rods away, and, for the last 10 days, they have had possession, and the man g-ets out of patience, and kills all he can, and thousands get drowned. I don't know what to do, only to let them work it through their own way. I am thinking some of selling off 100 stocks at auction, and starting- in a new locality, and getting my hives all of one kind. As they are now, they make a bad show-all kinds and size's. I very much hate to have my bees annoy other people, and also to have them desti'oyed, as they have been latelj'. I can soon run them up to 100 again. N. N. Shepard. Cochranton, Pa., Oct. 3, 1878, I have been throuo-h the same experience, my friend. A year ago the bees got to go- ing so, on tlie candy stands at the fairs, that a man came and demanded i)ay for the loss of his candy and trade. I offered to cover his candy and goods with pink taiieton, bnt he said lie conld not get along tliat way, and I finally told him lie wonld have to manage as best he conld. I was told afterward tliat some one told him, if he came to me and de- manded $.50 damages, I wonld ]my it. I tried to tell them how snch work came al)ont, but they conld not, or wonld not, un- derstand. This year, as soon as tlie candy makers began to get ready, T went to them, and asked them as a favor, to keep a i)addle, and kill the first bee tliat came near, before he could by any i>ossibility load u]). This candy man, although a stranger, iiromised to do as I said, and not one dozen bees came on the fair ground, although the weather was dry and warm for the wliole 8 days. We had also new complaint from the cider mill tJiis year. The man said the bees could not be stopped out; that inch boards would not hold them. Two hours work, and a bun- dle of lath made everything pleasant, and tlie bees gave up and went home. Theoi)en- ings to the mill were curtained (as explained in the A B C) of course. A QUEER HIVE. AUTOMATIC SWARMING AGAIN. eOE of my neighbors, Mr. Carter, on July 7th, ) had a swarm of black bees go into his house, — which is a frame one, sheathed on the inside and sided outside, forming spaces 4x14 inches be- tween the studding. They wont through a knf)t hole in the siding, 18 inches down from the phite. Six weeks .after they began to work in the honsi', he employed me to trmixfer ihcm inta a Simiilicitii hive On tearing off the siding, I found they had lillod with comb, brood, and honey, the space in which they worked, for a distance ()f :j feet up and down the studding, and out of tlv' sjiaces on either side of this brood nest, [ took :!(i llis. of ))ure surplus honey. Those side spaces answer to the side boxes in Simplicity hives. From the brood nest I filled 8 racks with young brood and honey. The bees are doing well in the hive, up to this date. I also trans- ferred another swarm for him, that had gone into an old flour barrel, which was standing bottom up in his garden. Both of these were stray swarms. I know of another that went into .-^n old box, which was placed in a cotton wood tree, for the martins. Here on the prairie, bees accept anything as a sub- stitute for hives. John C. Fowler. Ashkum, Ills., Sept. 15fh, 1873. There, my friend, your closing remarks have just pointed out the way. Have your apiary a. mile or two from any timber, or at least from any lioUow trees, tlien fix up your hives, one or two up in the trees, if really necessary, although I can scarcely think it will be, and the runaway swarms will be sure to liouse and hive themselves; If a conveniently furnished hive was always in readiness, I' believe many swarms would be saved. If the bees really liave an iustinct- ive i)reference for knot holes, and a seclu- ded entrance, we can easily fix that, without detriment to ourselves either. Two truant swarms have come to our apiary this fall ; one of them scattered about among other swarms and the other hung under the eaves of the honey house over night, Avas then safely hived, and is now doing duty with the rest. PROPOIilS, ^VIRE IN THE FDN., PER- RINE'S ENTERPRISE, ETC. S NOTICE that you are using the pronouns "he" and "him" pretty freely when speaking- of the — worker-bees— see page 331, 2d col. 5th line; see also several lines near the bottom of 2d col., p. 337. You can prevent propolis' sticking to the fingers if you grease them with lard. When propolis is soft it is sticky work to clean the frames, rabbets, &e.; but you can quickly harden it and make it brittle, by wetting it with cold water. I used wire in frames to prevent the sagging of fdn., in the same way which yovi describe, when I was in Shreveport. Perrine suggested the Idea to me, and if I mistake not, he told me that some one in York State had secured a patent upon it. Per- rine's object in using the wire in section boxes, was to insure safe transportation of comb honey to Eu- rope. I have very little faith in the success of traveling up and down the Mississippi, as proposed by Per- rine. For many reasons, I should certainly prefer the railroad — or land route. My friend, C. I. Balch, of Kalamazoo, Mich., went south last spring- to work for Perrine. He was tak- en sick in June, and went back to Mich. He stopped to see me on his way home, and said ho left the boat somewhere between St. Louis and Keokuk. Perrine started from New Orleans with a steamer, 3 barges, and about 400 stocks of bees. The steamer did not ha\ o power enough to make much headway in tow- ing the barges, and they were abandoned near Bay- ou Sara. The bees were put on board the steamer on the lower deck, and were consequently badly crowded. When they got to the mouth of Yazoo River, Balch went aboard with 51 new swarms pick*- ed up near Yazoo Citv. Owing to the intense heat, the bees suffered Imdly. and to cool them off, the managers drciicht-il them with water from a force pump. Balch says he saw, at once, that they were thus destroying their bees rapidly, and he remonstrated with them until they desisted. Be- fore Balch left the "I^nterprise," some .50 stocks, he thinks, were cunipletoly ruined. The bees ha1hing irJUtlilr in regard to the "En- terprise," since Italeh was here. I presume Perrine will make a partial success of the undertaking this season, but nothing like what he figured on upon 1878. GLEANIKGS IN BEE CULTURE. 363 r>!ippr. By the wav. Porrine is a freuius for calcu- latins' upon possibilities. I am s'lail you arc cnttinj;- on sn nicely with your paper and your business. I Iccep watoh of all your movements, even if you don't hear from me very often. But whv hive your advertisers left you? Are your tevms to i his'h, or have you driven them away, so von can h;i\e a monopoly of the "bee trade?" W|jien are you g-oing to quit usinff so much line tvne ? " M. M. BAT^DRiPfiE. St. Charles, 111., Oct. .'>, 1S78. Strit'tly spoalcinsi:, the worker bee is an un- develo]ie(l female. Should we say she when ret'errinu" to it? In old Enu'lisli the i)rononn "he" renre- sented nouns of either a'ender; masculine, feminine, or neuter. At the present time, it is used when refei'rinjr to the individuals of a- class made up of both sexes. It is also used when we wish to rei)resent an object as haviu'j: masculine (lualities. The fact that the worker bees take upon themselves tlie burdens of supitorting the f-tniily, makes it mitiu'al to s.iy Iw when referrint? to one of tiiem. and. by so doins?. do we not convey a true idea of his character, if not of his phys- ical foi'm ? .\ f:cie^»ly f^RiTicisra. eLEANtNfiS for Oetobor is on our table. 1 am I much intt'vf'sted in fiLEANiNns, and have been ^ . ^ one of its sulisc ib^rs since its first No. was Issued; and T ('an saj- that it lias contained many ex- cellent articles. "Our Homes." I have liked verv much, yet there are some points which should be criticised. I thinli its editrr takes a wrong course in reference to fj-lucose petitions to ConffrciS, and in praisinsr his own wares, and takinfi- \ip so much room in Glean- ings for pul)lishin^:' letters from correspondents in praise of waves received f rim him, and liy trentins". with such contempt and indifference, letters from some of the most practical apiarians of our land, who oppose the course he talses. Now, if we left thinsj-s to talic their own course, ns you sav with reference to xietitions to Congress for the prevention of the adulteration of sweets, as well as to remedy many other evils, and left uambline-, rum selling, Sal)batli breaking', anE\NiNf!S, which I most hearlils' commend; but, right here, steps in the direct draft smoker of Bing- ham's, a noble one, indeed, whicli was immediately followed by the Simplicity, a complete trespass up- on the former. In making- losses good to pntrons, GtvE.vnings does more many times than I could ask. I write the aliove with tlie best wishes for your- self and Glevninos. F. A. SnelIj. Milledgeville, 111., Oct. 17, 18TS. Many thanks, my good friend Snell. I nray be wrong, it is true, and if, as you say, you and the rest of my friends should let the inatter p-iss, without even a remonstrance, I might get worse and wm'se. Yon will per- mit me to make a little defense, will you not? In regai'd to 'Muy wares'"; I Irave often thought of what you say, but Irave you duly considered, that none of these wares are patented, and none of them afford a l;irge l)roht, tor the very reason, tlrat the manner of making them is so fully described, in Gleanings and the A B ('-, tlrat any of you, can copy them and take the trade out of my liands, if there is margin enough? in fact, I arn glad to have you do this. More than this, a better article than mine, and at a low- er price, has been furnislied by some of our readers, and often by one of tlie ABC class, at that. I try a thing, and am ])leased with it; I give it to you, to buy or make as you choose, and then you report. Sometimes you give me considerable i)raise, and a large trade springs u)). If I give my inventions to you all, is tliis not right? Sometimes as in the case of the parafine fdn., I make a mistake, and get "Hail Columbia"' from you all, ami it takes so unich of my money to fix the nratter \^^. that 1 learn a "severe lesson. Is this not riglit ? I thiidc it is. Ilemendjer, I have no monopoly ; I do not advertise that the genuine can be obt'iined only of myself. Does not tint make a difference '? Should I sto]) the A B C class from sending in their rei)orts of hcnv they succeed with things, I should spoil one of the most valuable de]nirt- ments in oin- journal. Though most of our readers are of the A B C class, is it not my duty to consider their wants and wishes? Perhai)s T have <>-iveu too much of the "Smil- ery." and too little of the "Growlery" ; if so, I will try and change it a little. I heartily agre(^ with you, tlitit we should fight agaiiist evil in whatever form it ap- pears. The grape-sugar nuitter will be con- sidered elsewhere. It seems to me the smo- ker matter h'ls l)een pretty well exhausted. If Bingham's iiatent is a valid one, and my smoker an infiiugement, I verily believe the kindest thinu' ycni can do with nie. is to pros- ecute me to the fullest extent of tlie law. I know this is an extreme measure, but since there are so many different oi)inions, it may l)e the best way of settling it. If I arh tramnling on the laws, I ought to be tautrht obedience. I think I can i)romise to t;ike the correction in a ])leasant spirit, for al- though I have Irad finite a little deal with friend Bino-h-nn. I have never received any but i)leasint letters from him. Suits at law need not, of a necessity, be quarrels. 11^^ '^rcM^vn/' [This department is to be kept for the beneflt of those who are dissatisfied; and when anything is amiss. I hope you will "talk riaht out." As a rule we will omit names and addresses, to avoid being too personal.] 'fip HOPE you won't put me in the Growlery, but ?l| then you will do as j'ou have a mind to, and that -^1 is the way to do. I have any quantity of fault to find with this last order: — The triang'ular sticks with which you fastened the wire cloth on the top and bottom of the nucleus wliich you sent me with the imported (lueen are splendid comb guides, and 1 shall use them. The roc,'ss, and this mav have given rise to the thouglitless statements made above. The re- finers of cane sugar, use tons of blood and offal from the slaughter houses, as well as burnt bones; but our sugar of commerce contains none of these arti- cles. If grape-sugar is made in so slovenly a man- ner as to cintain articles ])re.judicial to the health, the matter shoulTO^^_ 1, ISTS. For he shall eive hi? ang'el? eharg-e over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot ag-ainst a stone.— Ps., 91; 11. ^ Tx petting stamps to send us for fractional parts of a dolliir. please procure '2 cent stamps. If you can. as we use them for sending' sample copies. Our present system of patent laws is already tot- tering-, and seems about to fall. I glean this "from- the vehement protests being made by those interest- ed in the business of procuring patents. A DEDrcTiox of "i p?r cent, will be made on all Hives. Section Roxes. Honey Extractors, Comb Foundation Machines, or other e-oods that can n -it be used until another seas >n. if ordered before Janua- rv 1st. I WILT, pav 7.5 cts for the first 6 Xo's of Gr.E A?a>r,s for ISTS, and will sell them, if wanted, for f 1.00. So. friends, you see you have the read'ng of them for nothing and make 2.5 cts. besides. It is possible the X(i'« you are subscribing for now will be in equal demand in a few months. Tx a visit to our neishbor Shane, a few days ago. I saw a feeder at the entrance of his hives, "that is. substantially, the "Boss" feeder recently patented bv our friend Shuck. As Mr. Shane had been using it over a year. I think we shall have to conclude that anvone is at liberty to add the attachment to the Simplicity feeder, if they wish. We have sent queens, in the bottle eaees. all thro' the month of Oct., with less losses, I really believe, thin in anv other month when I have shipped bees. We put in bees enoueh to make a good cluster, and they stand fristv nierhts without trouble. The dol- lar queens are all g^n^, but we can supply tested queens, I think during thi« whole month of Nov. If they freeze, it will be mv loss. AsD now it is friend Muth vrh"> has got a patent on the slanting basket for an extractor. In 1867. 1 made an extractor -^ith slanting sides to the comb basket, but did not like it. beca\ise it threw the honey out at the top of the combs and did not at the bottom. If I turned fast en'^ugh to throw it out at the bottom. it was likely to throw brood out. at the top. The machine is now in possession of a neighbor. A little later. Adair, in one of his pamphlets, illustrated with diagrams the same principsil. and. if I am cor- rect, he too had a patent on the idea. Whex I described the plan of putting wires in the frame's, in Sept. So., I was not aware that anyone else had done the same or a similar thine. A friend has pointed me to the fact that, in the Julv A. B. J., Mr. D. S. Given, of Hoopeston. 111., gives the same plan, only his wires ran horizontally. It is possible that I got the hint there, but afterward forgot it. for I certainly had no intention of claiming the inven- tion of another as my own. He suggests No. 26 wire*: I would certainly not use anvthing heavier than No. .36. The plan mentioned last month of making wire- cloth to be dipped in melted wax is a success, but. at present, the fabric is too expensive. — m i«i ^ We have just received the cheering news, that 50 imported queens are on their way from Italy. They will probablv be here ere this reaches you. As we shall have little opportunitv for testing their pro- geny this fall, the price will" be f4.00 for the dark ones, and $5.00 for the yellowest. We shall get them to laying at once, if possible, by feeding grape-sug- ar: when the workers appear, those which produce the largest and yellowest workers and are vellow themselves will be $t>.00. The SI.OO queeris fr"- quently nr'^duce as tine bees as any. A careful watch will be kept, to see if any so out for fertiliza- tion before la'-ing: if any such" be discovered, they will be sold for half price. It has been said, at some of the c ^nveTitii->ns. that no good comes of publishing the reports of those who have made great resnl's with .-i few col(->nies: that it rather does harm. I admit thit it would do harm, were onlv one side of the o'lestion ffiven. To get a fair view of the work. Blasted Hones should have a place, ns well as F-'c-nxraar'na' Re- ports. It may be objected that noithfr will do any particuliir "ood. Well then, surpose we all keen still, and "don't say nothin'." Fnfortu'iatoly, we are n social set of animated beings, and if we could not talk and visit, we mi-'ht get the blues and all commit suicid'^. Perh:^os cur friends who make such lonir speeches would sav that w^uHn't matter either. In that case, I guess I should give up, and let them have the floor. The greater part of us are now domiciled in the new building. The new nrin*in'jr press is printing the verr l^tt^rs vru are looking at. the .^''> horse pow- er ene-ino is dri\-in£r a Ions line of shiiftinff. and a "heap" of mach-nery: the lumber yard adjrinins is stocked with piles of «eas'>ned lumber of evc'-v de- scription for hives and section boxes, etc.: the ma- sons are at work uo stairs, plasterinff a multitude of rooms, for each ser of hands are to have a room all bv themselves. There is one for the compositors, one for the shinning clerks, one for the bookkeepers and correspondinG- clerks, one for th"^ painters, one for folding, sewin.g. and addressing the jou'Tials and price lists, one for seeds of bee plints. one for sam- ples of all the goods we make and keep for sale, a tin shop, wnx room, lathe room, and and mv money is all cone, and the hands have not been paid for two weeks. Notwi'thnaridinc. thov have faith in me. and I trust we :J1 have faith in God to take c:ire of us. DEPOSITORY OF Or lietter* fron^i Those Who ¥fave IVfade Bee Culture a. Failure. QUEENS FLYrjiQ AWAY IJT INTRODCCnfG. Jipr report Is not very encouni'ring. so I guess I rS will not send it. but will give a little of my >-* experience ( which is a d°ar teach-^r though fools will learn in no otherK I had a stock which I supposed was iiueenless. as I could find neither eggs nor queen. So when the nueen vou sent me ar- rived. I proceeded to int-oduce her majesty as di- rected. In 15 minutes. I found he- in .1 ball on the bottom of the hive, caged her. and searched and found a nueen with one wing. I placed the cage on top of the frames, and next day found the bees walking over the ca?e, and all seemed quiet: I opened the cage when the bees rushed in, and the queen rushed out and flew away, but did not come back. Not very good property up among the clouds. My hopes are not blasted vet: shall trv again. M. L. Hudson. Charles City, Iowa, Oct. 21st, 187S. I have tried hard to find just one letter for this department, but the above is the best I could do amonsr the ABC class. Perhaps some of the veterans mi?ht have given us a more fitting one. if they only would. This flying away of queens is rather bad business; I "do not know but we shall have to clip all the wings before we send them out. after all. Daubing their wings don't always do, for they often have to be caged ag-iin. and then the'honey drying on their bodies is liable to kill them, by stopping their breathing pores. If put among the bees, where they can be licked off. it does them no harm. 1878. GLEANINGS ES BEE CULTUEE. 367 QXTZiEN'S. The most important person- age in the hive is the queen or mother bee. She is called the mother bee because she is, in reality, the mother of all the bees in the hive. So much has already been said of queens, in artificial swar^uxg. drones, and QUKEX rearing, that I presume our ABC class are already pretty well acquaint- ed with her majesty, as she is frequently designated. If you deprive a colony of theii" queen, the bees will set to work and raLse another, so long as they have "any worker larva:- in the hive with which to do it. This is the rule, but there are some exceptions i the excep- tions are so few. however, that it is safe to assume that a queen of some kind is present in the hive, whenever they refuse to start queen cells from larva? of a proper age. What do I mean by a queen of some kiudy Well. I shall have to tell you that bees, es- pecially when deprived of their queens un- naturally, and broken up into small colonies or nuclei, us beginners are very apt to have them, in order to raise a queen, often select a worker larva so old that the queen raised from it is about half worker, and half queen. LMPEItFECTLY DEVELOPED (:^UEEXS. Such queens aie small, usually dark in col- or, and will sometimes become fertilized, and lay eggs for a little while (all the way from a Aveek to several months i. but they are nev- er protitable. Sometimes they will not lay at all. but will remain in a colony all through the season, neither doing any good, nor per- mitting any other queen to be either inti'o- duced or reared. A wingless queen, or on*- with bad wings, will inoduce the same re- sult. The remedy is to hunt them out. and remove them. Where they are so near like a worker bee as to make it hard to distin- guish them, they may often be detected by the peculiar behavior of the bees toward them. See how to find a queen. So far as I have been able to make out. these half worker queens are the result of trying to raise a queen Avheu there are too few bees, or when the larva? with which they are obliged to rear a queen is too old; that is, too nearly ready to seal up. "Where they can do no better, they will undertake to rear a queen from larva only one day before sealing up: it will be. at this age. almost full size, being 6 days from the time the egg was laid. They enlarge the cell, dose it with the royal jelly, and fi-om that time onward, it has the care given a qiieen from the egg. I have watched such queens, when they first came fiom the cell, and some of them were little, if any. different from a common work- er: others would have the body a little more elongated, and a peculiar taper, or slimness, that, to a practiced eye. invariably dLstin- guishes the queen from the worker. HOAV A AVORKER EGG IS 3IADE TO PRODUCE A QUEEN. This is a question often asked, and it is one that puzzles me about as much to an- swer, as any question a visitor can ask. I cannot promise to tell you all ab^ut it. but I will tell you all I know abiut it. We will first get a frame of eggs, as we did in study- ing BEES, but we will varj- the experiment, by putting it in a colony having no queen. The minute eggs Avill hatch into larvae as be- fore, but about as soon as they begin to hatch, if you look carefully, you Avill see some of the cells supplied Avith a greater profusion of the milky food than others. Later, these cells will begin to be enlarged, and soon, at the expense of the adjoining ones. These are queen cells, and they are something like the cup of an acorn in shape, and usually occupy about the space of three ordinary cells. In the drawing below, you will see ceUs in different stages of groArth. f'm^* QUEEN CELLS. At A. is a ceU just being converted into a queen cell ; at B. one where the thin walls are extended so as to fonn a queen cell prop- er, almost ready to seal up: at C. a cell just sealed. This occurs at just about 8 days from the time the egg was laid. In 8 days more. K' days in all from the time the egg was laid, the queen Avill hatch out. a perfect insect. Xow bear in mind exactly what I say. or you will get confused. If. instead of eggs, larvae (3 days old is given the bees, they will rear a queen, and. in this case, she will hatch in only 10 days after the larvae was given them. These 10 day queens may be just as good as any. but to be on the safe side. I would prefer giving them larvte one or two days younger, that they might have the benefit of this excess of food and larger cell, during the whole of their larval period. 368 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Nov. The 6 (lay larvsu are quite large fellows, as you will see by the cut under the head of 15KKS. There are some (lueer things about queen cells, as you will notice. After the cell is sealed, they go and put a great excess of wax on it, give it a long tapering point, and corrugate the sides something like a thim- ble, as shown at C. This corrugation, or roughness, when closely examined, will be seen to be honey comb on a very small scale. Now right here is a point that you will not fail to observe ; bees, like other folks, some- times make mistakes ; for tliey do not seem to know any better than to use a drone lar- va for rearing a queen, if such happens to be present. Therefore, when selecting eggs for this purpose, be sure yoi\ do not give them any contained in drone comb. They will go right on, and dose the poor drone with the royal jelly, but the poor fellow usu- ally dies before it is time to hatch out, and then the bees and their owner wait in vain for the cell to hatch. It has been reported of late, that the inmate of such a cell some- times hatches, but he is only a drone, even then, and not a queen. Well, I am glad to be able to tell you that you never need waste time on this kind of cells, for the bees have a way of marking them, unconsciously, it Avould seem, too; queen cells containing drone larvie are always smooth, having no corrugation ; so you can always detect and remove them before valuable time is wasted. We liave pictured one at I). Now, it is very handy to be able to tell about when any queen cells you may happen to find unexpectedly will be likely to hatch ; and the bees are very accommodating in this respect also ; for, about the day before the queen hatches, or it may be two days, they go and tear down this long peak of wax on the tip of the cell, and leave only a very thin covering, as sliown at E. I do not know what tliis is for, unless it is because they are anxious to get a peep at their new mother. It has been said, they do it that she may be better able to pierce the capping; but some- times, they omit the proceeding entirely, and I have not been able to see that she has any difficulty in cutting the cap off. If the cell is built on new comb, or on a sheet of fdn., and it be held up before a strong light, at about the 1.5th day, or a little later, you will see tlie queen moving about in the cell. A little later, by listening carefully, you can hear her gnawing lier way out. Pretty soon the points of her shari) and powerful mandi- bles will be seen protruding, as slie bites out a narrow line. Since she turns her body in a circle while doing this, she cuts out a cir- cle so true, that it often looks as if cut out by a pair of compasses. Now observe that the sub.stance of wliich the cell is made is tough and leathery, and therefore, before she gets clear around her circle, the piece sjn-ings out in response to her pushing, and opens just about as the lid of a coffee pot would, if a kitten slundd happen to be inside crowding against tlie lid. I have often seen them ])ush the door open and look out, with as much apparent curiosity, as a child exhib- its when it first creeps to the door on a sum- mer morning; often, after taking this look, they will back down into their cradle, and stay some time. This is especially the case when other queens are hatching, and there is a strife as to wlio will be the reigning sov- ereign. We sliall Iiave to go back a little, and con- sider this strange substance called ROYAL JELLY. The milky food l)efore described, wliich is given to the young larva?, and which is sup- posed to be a mixture of pollen and honey partially digested, is very similar, if not identical, in composition with the royal jel- ly. The bees are not the only examples in the animal kingdom, where the food is taken into the stomach by the parent, and after a l)artial digestion, is thrown up for the use of the offspring. Pigeons feed their young precisely in this way, until they are able to digest the food for themselves. It has been stated that bees use a coarser food for the worker larvae, after they are a few days old, and also for the drone larvic, during the whole of their larval state. What I. mean by a coarser food is, a food not so perfectly digested ; in fact, drones are said to be fed on a mixture of pollen and honey, in a state nearly natiu-al. This may be so, but I have no means of proving it to my satisfaction. It has also been said, that the (jueens receive the very finest, most perfectly digested, and concentrated food, that tliey can prepare. This I can readily believe, for the royal jelly has a very rich taste— something between cream, quince jelly, and honey— with a slightly tart and a rank, strong, milky taste that is quite sickening, if much of it be tak- en. I am much inclined to think that the same food that is giv(Ui the young larva3 at first, will form royal jelly, if left exposed to the air, as it is in the broad, open, queen [ cells. After a (pieen has hatched, it is some- I times found dried down hard, and looks I much like stiff fruit jelly. Whether this is 1878 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 369 the product of the milky food when allowed to stand, as I have suggested, is a question to be decided. The bees when rearing queens, furnish this food in profusion, and I have seen, during the swarming time, single combs that contained a good spoonful, de- posited, of course, in queen cells. Here is (juite an miexphn-ed region that I wish the A Vi V. class woidd work up, and report upon. WHAT DOES THE 'intered on it alone, in this way, but unless watched closely, it is rather unsafe. You can easily fill a frame with it, by putting the grape sugar in a new tin pan on the strive and warm- ing it gradimllj' without water, until it is so soft as to be readily spread with a knife. Lay a paper on the table, your frame on the paper, and with a knife or spoon, fill the frame evenly. In 24: hours or less, you can hang- the frame in the hive, iu the centre of the cluster. If a colony has a very little honey, you can make it last them all winter, by a ju- dicious use of grape sugar. You can make it into a syrup with water, either by boiling, or stirring the sugar and water tog-ether cold. Hot water dissolves it quickest. Make the syrup pretty thin, or it will be in great danger of getting on the bees, and stick- ing their wings together so they cannot fly, for it is of a glutinous nature. If fed in the Haines feeder de-cribcd in our price list, this cannot happen. As it is always liable to harden quickly in the feeders no matter how thin it is made with water, I dislike fussing with it in the form of syrup. It is sticky and dauby stuff to handle, unles.s you are careful"; if you are as careless with your work as some of my boys are, I would advise taking- your box of sugar and utensils away from the house, out on the grass .somewhere before you begin to work with it. As the bees do not care enough abovit it to fight for It, as they do honey, you can feed it in the open air at anytime. They will carry away- a whole barrel in the course of a few weeks, and do it as quietly as if it was so much meal. Some feed it in the form of a syrup with about a fourth or fifth part of honev added. In this shape, they will take to it with much more readiness. For comb building, bi-ood and queen rearing, during a dearth of honey, it is an ex- cellent and cheap substitute for either honey or sugar. While the bees are getting honey in the fields, I presume they could not be well made to notice it, for at such times, they will rarely notice even cane sugar. When bees are short of pollen, t presume this sugar is better than even cane sugar (although it contains only about '3' the sweetening power) on account of the starchy principle it contains. Crrape sugar is miinufactui-ed from Indian corn, and where corn is cheap, shimld be the place to have it manu- factured and exported. HOW TO M VKK A SLTIPHCITY OK I> AlVG- STKOTH HIVE ANSWER THE PUR- POSE OF A CHAFF HIVE FOR W i:VTERI>«i. AS IVRAK- L.V AS POSSIBLE. f'F you put one of the chaff cushion division boards in each side of the hive, you have the i^r-j sides very well. protected; but the ends are left exposed to the influence of the frost. I believe it is I>retty generally admitted, that the air space be- tween the ends of the frame and the ends of the hive is rather a bad feature for the most successful wintering. The idea of filling these spaces with a thin eusliion of some kind of fabric is not a new one, but the amount of fussing it required has been an oli.iection to it. We have just fixed for winter- ing. Some colonies which are to contain some of our imported (|ueens, and the plan pleases me so well, that I will describe it. Cut a piece of burlap 24 by 60 in. ; fold it once, and sew it on :3 sides, so that you will have a sort of bag 12.\fiU in.; 20 inches from one end, and right in the center of the width, cut a place for an entrance, as shown in the cut, and hem or bind it. The upper figure shows the piece extended at full length; the lower one, as it is used in the hive. AA are the end of the Simplicity hive; BB, the bottom board, v^ushed back so as to give ■'» in. space for the entrance, and CC are the ends of the burlap which goes under the frames, around between the corners and rabbets, and over the tops of the frames. By this means we dispense with the enameled cloth en- tirely, in winter. For over one year, I ne\er found a sheet of the enameled cloth bitten through; hut in the past week, I have found that they do sometimes get through, as they did through the duQk. Had there been a chaff cushion over it, perhaps it would not have h;ippened, but it looks very much as if nothing is going to hold them permanentl.v, short of pieces of thin wood. The burlap is nice for wintering, and is not usually gnawed to much extent. The ar- rangement given above is the handiest I have ever used for feeding candy or grape-sugar. nOAV TO Fix A SIMPLICITY HIVE FOR WINTER. In fixing- the hives for winter, lift out all the combs and bees, and put in the burlap. Be sure that the hole in the burlap comes exactl.v at the entrance, and is free and open; then crowd in the division boards, and set in the combs containing the bees. bein,g sure that no bees are between the cloth and the eomb-^. When all the frames are in, bring- tlie ends of the cloth over, as shown in the cut. If your combs have no holes in them, it may be well to put a stick, 1.1 inch square, crosswise, just over tlie clus- ter. Now set on .your upper story, and put in your chaff cushion or pillow, large enough to nearly fill it, crowd it down tight, and they are pretty well tucked up. If the cushion gets damp from the moisture from the breath of the bees, raise the cover the thickness of a couple of matches; this will give ventilation but exclude rain and inquisitive bees. Burlap is a coarse bagging, much like coffee sack- ing; I suppose that any other cheap, open, and por- ous cloth, something of the nature of straw, will an- swer. It is soinctiiiies gnawed b.v the bees, but not often. We use two thicknesses simply tf) have it warmer, and to more nearly fill the space. It may be left in until honey comes next season. It will probivbly save time to fix an empty hive ready for the bees; swap it for a hive, then fix that, and so on. The bottom boards need not be dis- turbed. To exclude frost, 1 would then bank up with sawdust, except at the entrance. AVatch on pleasant days to see that no enti-ftisces are clogged. Wc can furnish these sheets for 20c. each; if sent by mail, ;50c. each. WINTERING NUCr-EI. Please inform me of the best means, if any, of preserving a nucleus through the winter. It is in a 7x9 box and contains a valuable (pieen. w. E. Moore. Hamlin, Kan., Oct. 17th, 187S. Get them into as small a space as possible; that is, contract the space with chaff cnsh- ions, so that the bees cover all the combs, and lill all the space, jnst as we wonld a t'nll swarm. If yon have less than a qnart of bees, it mij^'ht l)e well to take them into a dry cellar dnring the severest weather. Tlie greatest troidile you will have, will be to i)re- vent swarming out in the spring. The queen and bees are always liable to swarm out, because they are dissatistied with so small a com])any, and try to join themselves with some larger colony. Many have suc- ceeded nicely in wintering one" or two, but when they tried a larger number, the result has usually been vexation and loss. 1878 GLEANIN<^5S m BEE CTLTUKE. 373 NOVICE'S APIARY. ^n at noon day, in the sunnner time. Miss Maudie did very well, but Er- nest held down his iiead, either because the sun troubled him, or because he w^as bashful. All were looking at tlie photograph man so intently, that "Blue Eyes'' was forgotten' until manmia discovered that she had pulled her little, dainty, white sun bonnet down over her eyes so she ccndd not see at all, and then her frantic efforts to get it off canu' pretty near upsetting the whole party, right in "meetin' time."' If she hadnt a right to view the whole proceedings, as well as the rest, I would like to know who had. The engraver has by some means left the baby, in her predicanieut, entirely out of sight, al- though lier carriage is plainly visible. The honey extractor stands near by, the spade leans against the door at Novice's side, tlie spring scales that show how much honey ccunes in every day are at his back, a Sim- plicity hive turned on its side near by, tlie camp chair at a little distance, and all the surroundings that help to make it "our home" scattered about. A VIEW OF A PART OF OUR OWN HEXAGONAL APIARY. You can see how we tix the sawdust about the hives, how we kee]) down all the grass and weeds, and how the grape vine trellises are arranged, although the engraver forgot to show the opening clearly, in the trellises, by the side of the straight row of two stoiy Sini])licity hives. The R. R. track is iiardly visible, although the extractor is on the car. 374 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. Nov J\EW COITIBS VERSUS OLD FOB QUEEN KEAKSING, AND CANJDV FOK BEES. f|HE queens ordered for myself and neighbors all came in g-ood condition. Six of them have I been successfully introduced; the last two we will try to introduce this day. I think your bottle cag-e and system of packing- as near perfection as you can make it, without consldei'tible walking' around the stairway. I notice in this No. of Gleanings, page 340, the problem of F. W. Cumings in regard to the color of queens from the same mother. in June, 1877, 1 had some combs break down in an American hive, that were full of brood and eggs; and, the combs being hard to put into the old frames, I put them into the Gallup frames and made a nu- cleus. The combs did not fill the frames out in the upper corner, under the top bar, and the bees built new comb in the open space, and queen cells in the new comb, and also cells in the old comb. The ditference in the time of hatching out was not more than oO minutes. The one in the new comb was very light yellow, and the one in the old comb was al- most black. The eggs were from a good Italian queen, rather dark colored. Being green in bee business, 1 let them both stay in the hive, and when I opened it again the yellow queen was gone. The dai-k one is very prolific, and that little nucleus is now one of my strongest swarms. Since then, 1 have paid some attention to this matter, and am now of the opinion that old, dark comb has some- thing to do with the color of queens. I have expected to hear something of the success of feeding candy in winter, but so far I haAC not seen it in print. I think that it did well for me last winter, but 1 know very little practically aljout bees, candy, or anytliing else in apiculture. There is one tliiuu-, however, 1 know; I had to give the swarm to whidi 1 fed the candy more space in March, and the other 7 had all the room the\- needed. 1 made my candy of granulated sugar and 1-5 wheat flour. p. (iKAUAM. Johnstown, Pa., Oct. If, 1878. The idea lias long been advanced that old combs give darker queens ; if this is so, does it not indicate that color is an accident- al quality, and rather an unimportant mat- ter, ot itself ? The Hour candy will incite brood rearing, without a doubt, and where one wishes to increase his number of stocks, or even the number ot bees in his hives, it gives him, at any time, a control of the mat- ter, that we never possessed before its dis- covery. If you look over back numbers, you will hud many reports similar to your own. ANOTHER BOY BEE-KEEPER. ^ THOUGHT I would give you a short history of /'([ rny experience in bee-keeping, as a boy apiarist, ■rSi and then ask a few questions which I have not yet seen answered in Gleaninos. My father bought one colony last April, one year ago, for Italians, and paid $10 for it. He told me to take care of them, and follow the directions of Quin- by, as I had just bought one of Quinbv's books. 1 paid as good attention to them as I could under the eu-cumstances, for, although they were in a movable frame hive, the combs were all in diamonds, by be- ing made crosswise of the frames. June 5th, they sent out a good swarm. I hived them, and they did well. In U days, they swarmed 18 times, sometimes going back without clustering, sometimes letting me put them in a nice new Lang- stroth hive; finally, they concluded to accept the situation, by giving out a second and third swarm. The last two did so little that I united them in Nov., and they were yet too small, but I found a man that was going to murder a colony, so I begged him to let me drive them, which I did; and, while the ground was frozen, I united them with the above named colony, then fed all winter, carrying them through nicely. Father also purchased a colony in a box hive, at a sale in Nov. It had not one pound of honey, but he gave 40c. for it. The people laughed at him for pay- ing 40c. for such an old box, as the bees were not worth one cent. He told me to trv my luck on them. and if I could take them through the winter, he would believe something in "Beeology." I fed them about .*l.'_'r) worth of sugar syrup, and had the queen laying eugs at New Year. They did well this season. I transferred the two colonies father purchased to frame hives, and he now has 11 colonies, one of which I made by divid- ing. They are all hybrids, as was the old one he purchased for Italians. We did not then know what full bloods were. • We have taken 200 lbs. of box honey this year, as we had no extractor, but will have one next j'ear, if our bees live. Last April, I purchased a colony of full blooded Italians of Valentine & Son. I now have three; one full blood and two hybrids, all in good condition for the winter. Will a hybrid queen make pure Italians, if she has met a full blood Italian drone? If a hybrid queen produces bees some black, some one, some two, and some tlirec banded, will the eggs that produce the :^ banilcd workers make full blooded queens, if fed with the royal jelly? I should visit you the (joming season if I had the means to take me there and back, and go to Sunday school with you. I like to read "Our Homes" in Gleanings. Would it not be well for us boys to have a part of a column of Gleanings, telling us what to do to our bees each month, or in other words telling us the work for each month. &c. E. Jas. Hinshaw. . Lynn, Ind., Oct. 31, 1878. Your i)eri)lexity, my young friend, comes from our calling a queen hybrid, because she produces hybrid bees. A queen whose fatlier (if I may so express it) is not a pure Italian, can never produce pure l)ee's, but if she is pure and has mated with a Itlack drone, her drones will be pure, Init not her workers. The egg from a hybrid queen that produces a o banded bee. would pro))ably produce a queen a])])arently pure, but not in reality. I have thought of a boy's de]iartment, but we are all boys, in Bee Culture., at least. THE IJOTTOIMS OF THE CELLS OF HONEY COMB. Since my article on honey comb, I came across a cut in the British Bee Journal, that explains so nicely the way in which the loz- enge shaped plates form the bottoms of the cells, that our engraver has reproduced it. Of course, the cut shows only the bases, of the cells, and none of the side walls. Is it not pretty? 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 375 §ur %om§- Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I come not to send peace, but a sword.— Mathew, 10; 34. f' SUPPOSE oiu- I^oi'd gave utterance to tlie above words, like inaiiy otiiers of his — ' sayings, in accordance with tlie people and circumstances with which he was sur- rounded. The spirit of Christianity is gen- erally supi)osed to bring peace aiul goodwill wherever it goes, and so it does eventually; but it maij require a sword to bring about this same peace and good will. On page 203, 1 mentioned that I was cho- sen on a committee, to suppress drunkenness in our streets, l_»y law. It seemed an easy matter to ])romise to do this work, but when I took a second thought about it, and re- flected that the ones I should cause to be ar- rested would, without doubt, meet me in jail, in the Bible class, I confess that I himg back, because I could not see my way clear to do mission W(n'k, aiul undertake prosecu- tion at the S'lme time. 1 prayed over it, earnestly, and pretty soon the way seemed opened. A prcuninent, and otherwise good citizen had for years been in the habit of ap- l)earing intoxicated on our streets, and many times had the boys in jail held him u]), as one that nobody dared arrest, while they were taken uj) for the flrst olfense. This man l)ought his whisky by the l)arrel, and boasted that it was nobody's business, so long as he in no way interfered with any- body else. I called at his house one Sabbath morning after the Bible class, and had a long and friendly talk with him, concluding l>y telling him that I should l)e obliged to have him arrested if he was any more seen in this condition on the streets. Although we had some pretty plain aiul strong talk, I left with permission to arrest him, for the next offense, and a promise, too, that he would harbor no malice if I did. I assure you, my friends, it took some earnest ju'ayer to accomplish this, both for him, befcu'e I went, as well as imtli him. Months passed. and he did a great deal better; but slowly he got back into his old courses. I saw hini several times intoxicated, but so dreaded to mar the harmony of our town that, notwith- standing my plain and decided warning, I let it i)ass. About this time, an old gentlenum, a par- tial stranger in our town, came into our prayer meeting, one Saturday afternoon. Something came up in regard to intenii)er- ance, and the damaging effects of the half dozen saloons in our i)lace. The old gentle- man rose up, and after some pretty strong exhortations, said that a half dozen earnest, God fearing, and praying men coidd close all the saloons in the jjlace in less than 8 weeks. This statement was veliemently de- nied, and by the oldest and api)arently strongest pillars of our church. Although our minister was apparently with him in his position, the old gentleman cjuietly gave way, when he saw how much opi)Osition there was from others. The next day, he offered to go with me to the mission Sab- bath school. When well on the Way, the fol- lowing came out, as near as I can tell it. ''Mr. Ji., why were you so positive yester- day in regard to the possibility of closing \\\^ Our saloons ?'' "Because I have seen just the same thing done." "Why did you not tell us al)out it, then V" "Weil, I should have done so, but they were so veliement, they would not let me tell it." "You will tell me ?" "Yes, certainly. It was in the town of I)., in Conn., many years ago. We had been bothered by saloons, which were doing a thriving and increasing business, in spite of us, until we finally took it up in our prayei' meeting, and told God we were ready to do anything, if he would only guide us, ami shoAv us our duty. Several volunteered, and a sum of money was pledged to make good any damage to ]_)roperty tliat residted from undertaking a vigorous ])rosecution l)y law, I was chosen to do the work, and lit it I went. I got a book, ami jiut in it the name and date of every one who became intoxica- ted. I also collected all the evidence I c(udd against the saloon keepers, until I had quite a book full. I then connnenced work in a (piiet way. If they beat me on one case, I took up another, until they l)egan to think there was no end to them. One after anoth- er declared that nothing earthly coidd stand such a volley of charges, and when it came to a distinguished lawyer who had staggered about the streets with impunity, he, too, de- clared with an oath, that he su])posed he might as well give in first as last, for old B had got him tightei' than . In a few weeks, the saloons all broke up, and temperance and order prevailed." "But siu-ely. Mr. B., you were persecuted in some way y" "Ye-e-e-es, they did not give up without a struggle. They sent off for the best law- yers they could get, and when that failed, they cut iny harness in pieces, spoiled a bug- gy, and got hold of me and pounded me some. Tliey once, in fact, ducked me in a pond, but I crawled out again." "Did the committee pay you damages for your property V" "Yes, they paid me for my buggy and har- ness." "IIow almut the pounding and ducking?" "Oh, I didn't charge them nothin', for that." I turned around in astonishment. There was no trace in the old gentleman who sat by my side, of any disposition to boast of his courage ; in fact, I had to draw out of him. word by word, the account of his own sturdy deterlniuation, and mulaunted cour- age. Would I dare to go on, if my property were damaged i* Would I bear pounding and ducking for the sake of the community in which I lived ? for ChrisVs sake ? I con- fess, I felt rather ashamed when I thought of it. A few days after, the offender I have spo- ken of was ])assing along the streets held up by one of his comrades, and when he started to go alone, he came so near running over a little girl, that I put away my scruples, and 376 GLEA:t^mGS IN BEE CULTURE. Kov. liad him arrested and fined, witli a severe rebuke, and reminder that tor the next sim- ilar (itt'ense, he would go to jail without cer- emony. Did I do right ? lie threatened me, of course, and tinally in a talk after- ward, told of being so short of money, that it was with difficulty he could raise the hne, and that his family were thereby deprived of the necessaries of life. He said I had al- ways been held a peaceable man, tliat he had never known of my having a quarrel before in the world, aiul that I had certainly hurt myself in the opinion of all good i)eople, by thus pouncing on a poor, hard working man. I plead with him, pointed out the effect of such an example on his own boys, until he tinally shook hands and forgave it all, but warned me never to do so again ; I took his hand, but earnestly assured him, I should fetch him to justice, for the very next of- fense. This was the first I ever had to do with the law, in my life. That same afternoon, the mayor suggested to me, that another man w^as going from one saloon to another so much intoxicated that he apparently knew little of wliat he was doing. Soon, another individual called my attention to the same case, and then still anotiier. .Said I, "My friends. I will have the man taken care of, but before trying law, I wish first to try the i)ower of kind words." I thought, but I did iu:)t say, that I would try a chapter in the Bible, and the most ear- nest prayer and entreaties I was master of. I prayed over the case, and other similar cases. Go to him, said the still small voice, when he is at home, and sober. I pondered, over it, on my way to the mission Sabbath school. During the school, the matter was upi)er- most in my mind, and, meditating that tiie best way to get rid of an xmpleasant duty is to do it and have it done with, I turned my horse's head in the direction in which I supposed he lived. As I passed tlirough the town of Abbey ville, it occurred to me that my horse should be watered, and I drove irp to my friend Simon's saloon. Simon, since the promise he gave me in the brewery, has done some better, although I have been told that he has been drinking hard, at times, since then. He came out and took me by the hand as he always does, offered to water my horse, and showed himself a good, kind friend, as usual. 'SSimon, where does Mr. B., live.? The man who sells fruit, grapes, etc. V" "Mr. B. V Oh, he lives away up in Strongs- ville. You surely are not going there yet to night V" "I w^as thinking of doing so ; how far is it?" "Why it is over 7 miles, and the sun is al- most down now. You will have to take an- other day for it." "I am afraid I shall", said I, as I felt the air was already getting frosty, and I had nothing in the shape of a buffalo robe. I turned my horse around to go home. "You will have a good hour to visit your mother", said a voice. "But", said another, "you had started on one of God's errands, and you will not be happy even with your mother. if you turnback, and become fainthearted." I pulled the other line, and told Jack to hur- ry up, saying to myself, "(iod's work first, and your own afterward." By the way, both Jack and the light new buggy seem to have been sent me, on purpose to do mission work , for, as yet, neither have cost me a cent of money." I forgot the chilly air, as I got in the riglit track, and sped along with that peace of mind, that"tlowethasariver," when one is in the right way. Satan did not let me off so easily, however, for when I was within a mile or two of the place, and saw the fine residences that lined the road- sides, it began to seem a terrible task to ap- proach one I did not know, and take him to task for his intemperate habits. I presume I harbored the feeling a little, for it soon be- gan to appear as tlie most singular and un- reasonable thing that mortal ever did; and, feeling sure I should meet with rebuff and be driven from his door as soon as my er- rand was made known, I actually studied for some excuse for turning Jack's head about, and going home to my own business. Alone in my buggy, in the still night, I ])rayed God to take the evil spirit away, but it only came the stronger. Most earnestly did I fight and struggle in 'prayer, for cour- age to do the work I had commenced, and I remember vividly, how I promised my Savior, that if he Avould bless this visit, as he had so many others before. I would try no more to doubt, nor to be infiuenced by these foolish doubts and fears. As I came to the house, I fairly importuned God to be witli me, and to give wisdom as well as en- ergy, for the work that lay before me. As I sprang out of the buggy, my .missionary spirit returned, and I felt at home, though intensely anxious for the salvation of the man who turned the corner, just as I was about to rap at the door. There was light enough so that I could see the evidences of the work that drink had done about his home, in the state of the fences and gate, in the lack of paint, and dilapidation generally. In a moment, I was by his side. "Mr. B., I have come to see you on a strange errand. After I have stated it, if you Avish me to go away, I will go at once, without blaming you in the least, for I have come here to take a great liberty." He bowed his head, but made no answer. I then went on. I told him of the boys in our town ; of the example he was setting be- fore them. He said he knew it all, and was glad I had come. That he had been think- ing on that pleasant Sabbath afternoon, that if he continue-tl thus, he woidd soon be past hope or help ; that his property too, could not hold out long, against such wasteful- ness. He told me how, again and again, he had come to our town, thinking he would keep away from the saloons, and drink no more, how he had been drawn in and treat- ed under one pretext or another, how they had wanted to buy his fruit, and had insisted on his coming in to see it weighed, how he had yielded, and come home in a state of in- sensibility, with his money all gone, and his hope and self respect with" it. "No one has ever talked with me before as you have, Mr. Root, and I am glad, very l8?8. GLEANINGS IN BEE CtlLTtlllE. 377 glad, tliat you came." •'Thank God, my friend, and not me. Shall we not go in and talk with your wife?" ''I think you had better not'. Since my wasting my' money and i)rodnce as I did last week, slu^ does not feel very pleasant, and has but little conlidenee in nie.''' *'Byall means tell your wife, my friend, and get her to help you. Come! Shall we not go in V" Tlie man was crying, and I was not afraid anymore; God was with me, and I had no fear of going forward where he seemed to lead. The poor wife was truly in no frame of mind to meet strangers. She had no de- sire to have her husband's shame spread abroad any farther. 1 learned that slie had long ago been a member of the church near tliere, and I asked for a 15ible. It was not furnished at lirst, but I felt that I must have it, and by and by, tlu^ little girl brought it. I read a part of Luke. 6th cliapter, and then sang out of Gospel Hymns, "Only Trust Him." After a short' prayer we got ac- quainted, and I told them of Christ's work in my own home. I worked witli all the en- ergy God has given me, and in less than two hours time after my visit there, they almost insisted that I should stay over night. My Savior kept me warm that cool night, and I was too happy to feel the frosty air or catch cold. It is not no unusual tiling for such men to make promises which they never kee]); but this man came promptly "on the day he had named, and asked me what he should do to show his sincerity of puri)ose, and to help reform the young men of our town. Feel- ing the need of counsel, I took him to the minister who had been the means of my conversion, and we had a good talk. It seems the saloon keepers had not only got his fruit of him when he was so drunk that he did not know tliat they never paid him, but they even borrowed his money ; he nev- er knew where it went to, until a bystander Informed him of it after he became sober. After he had knelt in prayer, he expressed a determination to prosecute by law, every saloon keeper who had sold him drink while thus intoxicated. I confess that I had a lit- tle misgiving about advising a newly con- verted man to take almost his first step, by going to law. The minister, however, thought it was the very best symptom of a- sound and thorough conversion from his former ways. We went with him to the court house, where the grand jury hnppened to be in full session, and he told his story before them. It implicated every saloon keeper in our town, and, although they sent abroad for the very best counsel that could be secured, tor once in the world, everything seemed to be against them. None of the usual twists and subterfuges seemed to avail a ]»article, and in a panic of alarm, the two leading saloon keepers, who had baf- fied every effort for years, sold out in liaste, and left the town. Simon's mother, who, it was suspected, liad sold him drugged licpior, locked up lier slio]) and disappeared, no one knew wliere. Tlie saloon keeper across from the factory, was heavily fined, and was, I was told, most empliatic in his de- nunciations of myself and the minister, for having caused innocent people so much trouble and exi)ense. At just about this time, I was one day su- perintending tlie putting up of a wire for a telephone, from my old store to tlie factory. It was to be attached to tlie buildings, and tlie saloon keeper's barn was just in the line. I looked at other buildings, with a view of going around him, feeling sure he would not give me the "right of way." "Why sliould you hesitate to ask him," said a bet- ter voice. "Have you wronged liim in any way that should make you feel guiltyV" I knew I had not, and so I walked boldly in and made my wishes known to his wife, who said he was at the court house trying to save his property from the "temperance ring." I sat as still as I could, and listened quietly, wliile she gave me a "piece of her mind." When through, I quietly assured her, that I belonged to no ring unless it was one in wiiich God Almighty had a leading hand, and that, instead of its "being my work, it was the work of the hand of God, in just the way I had told them, in my former vis- its, that it Avould come, if they persisted in selling beer. When the husband came home, I had a talk with him, and the Avire now rests securely on the top of their barn and I am trying to get a dozen boarders for them among my factory hands, that they may be able to ])av their rent, without sel- ling beer at all. ' Although the lawsuits cost them §86.00, they give me a pleasant recognition, every time I pass their house. Simon stop])ed"me in the streets, at about this time, and informed me that my Abbey- ville Sabbath School would be closed up, if I did not stop advising people to take the law on saloon keepers. My going and talk- ing to tliem was all right, and it did them good ; I had done him a great deal of good, by my pleasant talks and exhortations, but if I wanted to bring peace and good will among men, I had no business with the law in my hands. He M'as trustee of the school house and, unless I withdrew at once, from my offensive and quarrelsome position, it would be locked up forthwith. As the above illustrates exactly the position of some of the friends who have criticised my work m Humbugs and Swindles, as I see it, I would call particular attention to the mat- ter. Many times in life, the very shortest road to p'eace and good will, is not only through law, but as in my oi)ening text, by the use of the sword itself. Through the in- fluence of my mission work, Simon's mother had been obliged to flee the community as an outlaw. Was the Avork mine ? By no means. When you put a quantity of fuel under the boiler of a steam engine, and stir up a rousing fire, no immediate effect is seen in the machinery, and an inexperienced per- son might not see the connection between the firing up and the vast amount of work that would soon be performed, tlirough the agency of that little heap of fuel. Of late, this has seemed to be the result of fervent and heartfelt prayer. After ])leading and wrestling with God, as I did that night alone in my buggy, I have come to feel, that very soon, "somewhere, a powerful answer is 378 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. Nov coming. Jind work is going to be done. As I sat still afterward no immediate answer Was perceptible, but I tliouglit l)efore I en- tered the yard that I was going to be re- ceived pleasantly, and lioped, jnst a little, tliat the mail might in time be converted. 1 had no thought that he would then, that night, give liis heart to God, and much less, tliat liis conversion woidd have such an ef- fect on tlie saloons and morals of Medina. The lawyer for the defence did, it is true, say I went off 10 miles that Sunday night, with the express idea of making troiible, but the trouble that came, was purely of God's making, not mine. I am not at all sharp and far seeing, but I have faith in God, and faith in ])rayer. He can, and I ho])e does, look ahead,' and plan and direct my work for me. In looking back at it. it seems to be sometliing as it was with David, when he 1)icked the peblile out of the brook. He had faith, and threw the stone as hard as his feeble strength would jiermit. God guided it, anil gave it the additional force needed to do the Avork. There is another class of my readers who believe in non-resistance ; these good friends will say there was no law about the work, so far as i was concerned. I simply went to the man and talked kindly with him. I have no objection to that way of taking it, and I most firmly believe that in a great part of the cases, love and kindness would do the work, with nothing more. Was the Sabbath school shut np y Simon and his father went there, and told the child- ren they had better go home, as 1 was not coming, but unfortunately for their case, the cliildren's faith in me, even if I was ab- sent, was greater than in him who was i)res- ent. I persuaded him to come in and sit in a class, and when the school was over, he went out and got one of the largest apples 1 ever saw, and told me to give it to my wife with his respects. The Sabbath school is God's work, you see, and it would be pretty hard for a human being to break it up, by any course, while the school and their teach- er had faith in ids strong arm. We may be eventually turned out of the school house, but if we are, we shall, most assuredly, pitch our tent a step nearer to the saloon and brewery. Drunkenness is not yet stopped on our streets, by any means. Many times, 1 have liad hard work to find the names and resi- dences of offending parties. Day before yesterday, a tine looking young liian was staggering toward me. As I looked at him pityingly, he came up and took me by the arm. I talked with iiim kindly and then asked his name. His voice Avas so thick, 1 could scarcely make it out ; I took out my pencil, and while his arm was around me lovingly, I wrote his name and address. "Why yer a goo' writer, Koot, ain't yer?" "I ought to be, for I write a great deal." "Wha' yer write my name ferV" "Oh, I am coming to make you a visit some day." "ZassoV "Yes ; I like to know all the boys." "Why yer a goo' feller, ain't yer, Koot V" "I try to be." I added mentally, may God help me to be a good friend to you, my poor brother. Do I want to put this boy in jail V May God forbid. But if nothing else can be done, if pleading and entreaties amount to nothing, I feel that I shall be compelled to take some otlier course, to put a stoi) to such examples in our streets, as those I have given. Use gentle means at first, and be patient and long suffering, but when tlie day of proba- tion is passed, may God give us the firmness and decision that is needed to rescue our land from the toils of Satan, and when noth- ing Ijut the sword will deter wicked men, may lie give us grace to grasp that sword unllinchingly. QUEEN CEIiliS TO ORDER. i« PTEIl reading your article in Oct. No., my i.V^ tlioughts ran thus: take a piece of wood, sim- liTTd ilar to tlie top bar of a frame, a half inch or more iii thickness, and cut a notch iti each end so it will tit down on the rabbets even with the top bar of* the frames; take a bit similar to a countersink, made for the purpose, and bore holes, of proper depth and distance apart, in the bottom of the stick; then take small pieces of thick cnmb fdn. and shape with the ting-ors and press into the h;)les and, while warm, take a queen cell stamp, and with one l)lovv with the hammer, the cell is ready for the larva. I want a queen cell stamp and bit for making' the holes. Please get them up forme, unless something better is devised. You will probably have thought the matter all over bi 'fore receiving' this, but I send it with the idc:i that there is a bare possibility of hcdping the matter along. P. Undkkwood. North Lawrence, Kansas, Oct. ", 1878. I am inclined to think both your ]tlan and friend Scovell's will work during the swarm- ing season, but it m;iy be rather ditlicult to get them to succeed yet this fall. We are trying hard. After reading "queen cells to order," I turned Sf)me knobs and nailed them to a piece of wood, then wet them in water and dipped them in melted wax. I got nice "acorns" in this way, and fastened them on the under side of an empty brood frame, by warming the base over a lamp. I do not think it will amount to anything, as about 4-5 of them arc cither torn down or have the larva'^ removed from them. In transferring the larva^, I use the long- tube of a glass atomizer. Put the pointed end in the cell and suck jjciitly, and you will draw the lar- va' up in the tube; now remove the tube to the cell you wish to graft and blow gently, which will depos- it the larva. With this you can remove the milky food, which you can not do with a stick. I think a tube could be made expressly for this; it should be longer than the one I have, and should be curved at the point. L. Heine. Smithville South, N. Y., Oct. 31st, 1878. Well, my friend, I am glad to hear you have succeeded, if only with a few of them ; it is better than we have done. I fear your tube injures the larvae. Supi)ose we take the Avhole liottom out of the cell, and insert it wax and all. To anyone who sends ifl for Gle.\nings one year, before Jan. l.sf, '79, we will send, as a premium, either of the 35c ABC books, or any one of the 35c premiums. The premium to be sent on receipt of the money; but the sender must state that a pre- mium is wanted, and the kind of premium, at the time of writing, or none will be sent him. See table of premiums. The purpose of this is to avoid the necessity of tearing down our mailing list, at the end of the year. 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 379 From Dift'erejit Fields. ^jiPUCH has been said about queens that _£\^ occasionally ])roduce very dark daugh- — ^^^ ters. As most, if not all, of the queens we import from Italy occasionally do this, I can not think it any i)roof of iminirity. Where the maiority of them are dark, tlie queen is certainly not a desirable one to rear queens from for ssile, but I can not dis- cover that the bees are in any way inferior as honey gatlierers. DARK QUEENS FROM A PURE ITALIAN MOTHER. Two j'e':irs ago this coming' fall, I purchased, as a tested queen, a young queen raised from larv;i? ob- tained from you. Last summer, I raised queens for my small apiary. Most of the ()ueens were like their mother, and most of them had well marked bees; but two were as black as natives. I killed them both. Now this year, the first (lueen T raised was black. I kept her' awhile and half of her bees were black. I raised some queens from her not quite as dark as she. I have raised two queens since, from my old queen, under similar circum- stances, nnd they are both as yellow, nice queens as any I had last year. Would you think a queen that breeds such black queens, occasionallv, pure and purely fertilized? That's the question I would like to ask you. The larva^ you sent liefore came in good order, and the bees did their part well, but I made some bad work transferring the cells, so I only got two queens where I expected four. You, sometimes, in Glt-.aninos, call a pure queen that has met a black or mixed drone a hybrid. That is not right, as 1 understand it, and as you occupy the position of teacher to a good many rrnl. novices, you should talk straight. C. M. Whitney. New Milford, O., Aug. 19, 18V8. A queen that iiroduces one or two banded bees has been so long called hybrid, by gen- eral consent, that I do not know how we should go al)out to change it, even if it were decided to be an error. Slie may be ever so nice and yellow, yet, if her bees are hybrid, she is so pronounced and sold. FLORIDA. Find enclosed SI. 00 and postal card for 1,5 cts., for which send mo a hig smoker. I lost mine in the woods. Bees are doing well. I have .50 good stocks, and am Italianizing them now. Our best bloom, the cabbage palmetto, was most of it washed out by every day showers, while it >\as in blossom. Fdn. is a big thing. I am using a hive like the Simplicity, except that I use tlat top and bottom boards, both alike. Success to the new shop. Bo sure to put a stair- way up in the center of it, with a clear way around it. Isn't there any such thing as our getting a chance to send queens again, by maiiy The late onlcr cuts me off in the cold, as I am 125 milc's from an express Oflice. K. II. MfllNTYUE. Daytona, Fla., Sept. 33, 1S7S. Yes, sir; one of our Yankee friends lias invented a bo.x that the 1\ M. G. says will do, and by another season, we think we sliall be all riglit again. HOME-MADE BUZZ-SAWS, MAKING HIVES BY HAND, ETC. A year ago, we— wife and I— saw your advertise- ment in American .■Uniciiltiirist, obtained A B C, and subscrilied for Gr.EANiNOS, and read them. AV(^ af- terwards ])rocurc(l a hive, smoker, etc., of you, all of which seem to us to Vie "tip-top." AV(? made nine two-story hi\-c'S, with frames and sections to suit, transferred four swarms of black bees from old box hives, and in due time divided them, making nine swarms. We Italianized .5 of them, got 370 section boxes full of nice honey, and a number })art f\ill for a start for next year. Thanks to you, through ABC and Gleanings. Can't you give us directions in Gleanings, how to make a saw frame and table, what kind of man- drel to use, where to procure the other necessary irons, and how to put all together complete, to run by foot power and otherwise, so as to be cfpial, or nearly so, to the Barnes saw, but which will not cost so much in firccnJutcl.s.' J. svkes Wilson. Sterling, 111., Oct. 6, 1S7S. P. S.— I found no trouble in making the hives by hand, with your help in Gleanings. J. S. W. I think you will lind just tlie instruction you ask tor in tliis number. I am very glad to hear that you succeeded in making ' hives by hand, from the directions in the ABC book. queens NOT LAYING IN THE FALL. I want another black queen. I can not find the last queen I introduced, and there is no brood in the hive. I guess she 's "gone to another and si bettor world;" if she hasn't, she had better go, for she is good for nothing here, and I want another to give to her colony. The express charges ai-e tOc. on every one we have sent for this summer. I think that's a "swingle." The last bees I got from you drank water as eagerly as they ate honev, when I let them out. The bottle was not full, and the mouth was tipped up so it did them no good. Please send a good bod.y guard with her, for our nights ai-e frosty now. M.\RY Simons. Brocton, N. Y., Sept. 29, 1878. Now. iMary, you must not be too sure your queen is good for nothing, simply because you cannot find any eggs or lu'ood ; for queens almost always cease laying in Oct., unless the colony is fed regularly, to keep up brood rearing. I used to worry when my queens became small and stopped laying in the fall, but 1 learned afterward that they came through tlie winter all right, and tliat it really did no liarin to let them rest awhile. The bottles usually get ti])i)ed around enough, on their journey, so that they get water at least once in a day or two. and tliis seems to snftice. Where a (|ueen i)asses over two express lines, the charges are always 40c. A lialf dozen could be sent as cheaply as one. Bees have done well here since July 20th, up to Sept. 25th. I commenced last spring with 17 swarms; have sold 4 swarms, and now have >J1 in good condition, and 4 nuclei with extra queens for my neighbors. t have Italianized 34 swarms. The yellow fellows forbid the entrance of moth or miller, and protect the hive completely. I shall receive from 14 colo- nies, some o\-er fiO0"lbs. of honey; about half comb, at 20c.; ext'd, 12'4. One hive gave me 132 lbs.; 84 ext'd and 48 comb. I started 3 years ago with 1 swarm; they now stand me in, clear protit, $162 in the 3 years. B. N. Bennett. Springpoit, Mich., Oct. 4, 1878. June 1,1878, 1 had forty-three stocks of bees. I ha^e, at present date, eighty in good condition for winter. The result of my season's work is as fol- lows : Bo.x honey 3,150 lbs. Fxfd " 1.000 " Total 4,1.50 " The average yield is about 90'2 lbs. per stock. I did not keep aii.v record of best stocks. White clo- ver did not yield m\ich honey in this section this year, but basswood yielded very abundantl.v, and I had all I could do to provide box room while it last- ed. N. F. Case. Glensdale, N. Y., Oct. 3, 1878. 380 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Nov. BEES DYING SUDDENLY WHILE BEING EXAMINED. I suppose you do sometimes pet out of patience j with us A B"C fellows, but here is something I wish i you to explain. I had occasion to-day to open a swarm of Italians; they were very docile, but I no- ticed, on lifting out a comb, that they all elevated their posteriors and thrust out their stingers. I could even smell the fumes of poison while bending [ over the hive, but nevertheless they all stuck to I their comb and none Hew off. I then took them : into the house to show some friends (all this being done without smoke), when I noticed several fall to the floor. I picked them up, thinking perhaps, as it was rather cool, they were partly chilled; but I no- ticed, in nearlv every case, they would draw up and act as if thev" had been stung, and that some of those that fell off were dead, I then returned the comb to the hive and stood to watch them for some j little time, when thev began to bring out dead bees; 1 I should think ten or a dozen in all. The only cause I could give for this strange occurrence was that they unintentionally stung each other from one i comb to the other, their elevated position being fa- vorable for penetrating beneath the folds of the ab- domen of the ones on the opposite comb. Was I ' light? and, if so, what is the remedy? ' MOTHER AND STEP-MOTHER IN THE HIVE AT THE 1 SAME TIME. I One more question: 1 Italianized a colony of blacks this summer, and took away the black queeu ■ two or three davs before I was to introduce her maj- ] estv. the vellow queen. They, cf course, began ; queen cells, but I left them tor the old lady to regu- j late. I looked thn .ugh the hive quite often, but saw 1 nothing uncommon, until after the colony was part- ly converted into Italians. I found one day an infe- rior little black queen, as well as the Italian. "What do you think of those young Italians paying homage to their own mother and a step-mother also. M. A. Gill. Viola, Wis., Oct. 12, 1878. I think I have seen bees die, in the way vou mention, after the honey yield liad sud- denly ceased, and they were cross and touchy. I know they look as it tliey had been stung, but as it takes considerable force for a bee to withdraw his sting. I never could quite understand it. Is it not possible that they poisoned tlieir comrades without stinging them? It is very often the case that a young queen is reared from cells started before a queen Avas introduced. (Jn this account. I would not take aAvay the old queen, until the new one is ready to be put in. caged of course. There is great danger of your Italian queen being killed, as soon as the young one is ready to lay. A NEW DISEASE OF BEES. I have got one swarm of Italian bees, and there is something the matter with them; they are dying off quite fast. In warm days, they will come out of the hive, as if in a great hurry to go to the field for hon- ey, ci awl fast three or four inches from the hive, then stop all at once, commence to shake or flutter, then start off and drag their hind parts and legs, as if they had lost the use of them; they go from one to two leet from the hive, sometimes less, turn part- ly on their sides, remain stupid for one or two hours, and then die. There is brood in the hive from the egg to the hatching bee. There is nothing said in Glmanings about how bees act when they have the foul brood. Please answer in the next number and oV)lige one of your readers. In Oct. No.,"l noticed O. Klcinow's success in early swarming. I wintered .5 swarms through, packed in chair, all in one row, in a bin in the corn house. On the :i4th fif April, two swarms came out; 30th, one; May 4th, one; 10th, one; 20th, one; they increased to 13 in number. I kept one from swarming all summer. I got 320 lbs. of honey in all. How is that "for high" in a corn crib, packed in chaff all sum- mer, and a new beginner at that? D. Button. Bloomingdale, Mich., Oct. 13, 1878. I think the disease is the same, or nearly tlie same, as that described in A B C. tuideV the head of diseases of bees, toward the dose of the article. The only remedy I can sug- gest is to remove the queen, for I have good reason to think this a hereditary ailment. Increasing o swarms to 13. and getting 320 lbs. of honey. I should call pretty well for anybody. Foul brood does not "^ affect the mature bees. Enclosed please find $1.00, for which send me one of your smokers; I mean a Gleanings smoker. A neighbor having borrowed ours concluded to keep it, saying we could send for another. Mrs. Eberman. Merrimac Point, Ills., Oct. 16th, 1878. HOW to remove propolis. You mention several modes of taking propolis from the hands; none of which we find as practical as a small piece of pumice stone, kept on the wash- stand, with which, after washing, the propolis may be rubbed off as easilv as fresh paint. Cleveland, O., Oct. lo, 1878. Stair & Kendal. Our folks always do keep a piece of pum- ice stone near the wash basin, and I former- ly used it to get off the propolis, but when I am in a hurry, and I can scarcely remember the time when I was not. I find a little lard much the most expeditious. WOODEN SEPARATORS, SCATTERING THE HIVES IN DIFFERENT LOCALITIES. Yours of Oct. 9th is at hand. We have seut you to-day one of our broad frames with sections and separator. This frame is taken out of a case whicU has been used; the filled sections, of course, were taken out and replaced. Can you beat our ba.ss- wood sections? We think they are full as neat if not neater than pine sections. We have also used basswood for separators, and found that it will do just as well as pine. r Now, we will give you a statement of what our bees have done this season. We have to mention that they are divided into .5 apiaries; two of them are located in Milo, Yates Co., and three in our own town. The two first mentioned have done best. One apiary of 12 swarms averaged 80 lbs. of comb honey per colony, and we increased them to 18, all in good conditiofi now. .Another of 8 swarms aver- aged 70 lbs. per colony, and increased to 10 swarms. One apiary in our town of 10 hives averaged 50 lbs. of comb honej% and we increased them to 13. An- other apiary of 8 swarms averaged nearly 50 lbs. per colony, and no increase. Our home apiary of 50 swarms did the poorest of all, averaging only 25 lbs. per colony, and increased to 52 swarms. As our bees did so much better in Yates Co., we have con- cluded to move pait of our home apiary into said Co., next spring. All our bees seem to be in good condition for winter, and we hope to winter them all. Greiner Bro's. Naples, N. Y., Oct. 14th, 1878. The basswood sections are certainly beau- tiful, and if we could get wood uniformly Avhite like that you send, I should consider it even nicer than pine. Your wood sepa- rator has certainly answered, for I cannot discover that any combs have ever been at- tached to it, but is not the thickness (f of an inch) rather objectionable on account of the increased room it occupies V The facts you furnish in regard to scattering tlie bees out in the country, are quite valuable, althotigh some careful experiments will be needed to determine whether it was the better locali- ty, or having a smaller number in a place, or l)oth, which caused some to do l)etter tlian otliers. One more item pleases me ; I noticed that your package had a neat stamp on it, of your name, residence, and business, and not only was your letter, but also each section box in tlie package. stam])ed in the same way. These ridjber stamps aie a great bless- ing to those who receive large tpiantities of mail matter, if to no others. 1S78 GLEANINGS LN BEE CULTURE. 381 GETTING THE BEES OUT OF SURPLUS BOXES. I Should be ver.v much oblisred to you, if you would tell your readers what is the best way to laet rid of the bees contained in surplus honey boxes when they are taken off. They clin? so pertina- ciouslv to the c >mbs in the boxes, that I find it very difficult to drive them out and hjive them return to the hive. J. B.^lsigeu. Highland, Ills., Oct. 7th, 1878. It is II troublesome oi)eration to get bees out of boxes, the l)est way you cau tix it, and this is one reason why the sections are so much preferable. In warm weather, wlien the bees are getting lioney, you can generally succeed by setting the box in front of the hive over night. Later in the season, you will often tind them clear out of the boxes, after a frosty night, and they can then be removed withcnit trouble. Where you have many boxes to come off during warm weath- er, you can set the whole iu a large box. and throw a cloth over it. Fasten the cloth so that the wind can not get it off. and let rob- bers in. When tlie bees have collected on the under side of the cloth, turn it over and let them fly to their hives. After a half hour, ttirn it again, until all are out. If the boxes have large openings at both top and bottom, you can often drive out every bee with smoke, before taking it from the hive. I do not get out of patience with the ABC class, near as often as I do with myself, friend G.; keep on with your questions. ARRESTING SWARMS, nCXTING BEES, ROAST CHICK- EN AND SWEET POTATOES FOR BEES, ETC. I have a sug'S'estion to make in reg-ard to runa- way swarms; if you find you can not arrest them by any other moans, load a gun with powder only, and lire among th'^m, and be assured they will stop at once, and settle. In hunting bees in the woods, where you have lined a swarm and are satisfied that you are not far off from the tree, catch a bee and sprinkle some /Tou'cr of s((fp/n(r on him, and turn him loose. He is off at once, and as soon as he enters the tree, he stirs up such a fuss with his sulphurous odor that the bees roll out in a great hurry, and set up a roar- ing, like a swarm in flight, which you will hear. Feeding bees a roast chicken is no myth in this part of our "moral vineyard." In the winter of '71-J, I got possession of a hive late in the fall, with- out supplies, and I fed them till spring, with roast chicken and hakcd swrct potntorx. I am more than pleased with what I have learned in your .\ B C and Gleanings, and deeplj' regret that I did not hear of you sooner. Dr. D. E. Ruff. Pattonville, Texas, Oct. 16th, '78. Firing off a gun to bring down a swarm is an old idea : I ])resuine the bees are expect- ed to consider it a premonition of a thunder storm, and therefore make haste to alight. I shall try the sulphur ; will others do the same? If it succeeds we will embody it in tlie A B C. When bees are in need of pol- len, as they often are early in the spring, I l»resume they woidd use the baked sweet l)otatoes on account of the starch they contain. SF.CTIONS IN the HOUSE APIARV. How do you set (or hang) section boxes over the frames in "ihe house apiary? Whore colonies don't seem to understand what grape-sugar is for, some white cane sugar added to it will cause them to eat it. Now, can we, in any way, mix the candy from cane sugar with grape-su- gar in the frames? AVhat is the size of the building paper you used in the house apiary, and what does it cost? W. B. roRBi-n'T. Pleasant Ridge N. C, Oct. lo, 187«, The first frame of sections. i>nt on when honey just commences coming in. is placed at the side, just back of the glass division board. When a set is to be placed on top al- so, the frames of sections are sui)ported by strips i inch thick, at each end. Tliese strips close all o])enings, and hold tlie frames just as well as if they hung by the projecting top bars, only tliat wlien lirst put on. tliey are somewhat liable to get tipped over. After a little gum has been put on them by the bees, they hold all right. When first put on, they may be held u]) against the wall, by a comb guide tacked from tlie first frame to tiie last one. Comb guides or similar strips must al- so be tacked over the oi)enings between the se])arators on the outside frame. Our house apiary has again given us more surplus hon- ey than the outside hives, and is better stocked with honey for winter. Tlie objec- tion is that no one likes to wcu'k with bees in it, so well as with the out door hives. Cane sugar mixed with grape-sugar makes a hard wax; we do not like it. Our building paper w;!s about a yard wide, and cost 3c. per lb. Enclosed please find one dollar, to pav for mv next year's Glk\nings. If all your 4,003 subscribers would send in their money now, it would help you considerably in what you mention in "Our Hf)mes." I have been building, and have fina-icial difficulties, too, (on a small scal''>, or I should order an import- ed queen yet this fall. Our locality is not the best for honey, but very good for queen rearina-. as our farm is situated on a point in lake Erie. We win- tered 1.5 colonies, increased to 40, extracted about 600 lbs. of honey, sold (!3 queens, and three full swarms. Farm work hindered me from giving my bees proper attention. Ila Michener. Low Banks, Can., Oct. 11th, 1878. Many thanks, my good friend. The idea did not occur to me of trespassing on your kind generosity in that way ; I only wished to illustrate how God answers prayer. I ain glad to know that your apiary is prosi)ering. entrances IN WINTER, ETC. I have not seen anything in Gle.a.nings about win- ter passages through the combs. Some of the A B C class would like to hear from you on that subject. Also how large an entrance should a swarm that will cover 5 or 6 combs have for winter? I would like the chaff hive better, if the cover were turned \i around so that the gables would be front and rear. E. T. Hobson. Damascoville, O., Oct. 16, 1878. From what experience I have had, I do not think the winter passages at all import- ant. I would have the entrance so small that only two or three bees could come out at once, in winter— say i by f inch. See '•EXTRAXCEs," in A B C. The cover to the chaff hive can 1)" made in the way you sug- gest, without any extra charge. I am sorry to sav that your honey is too high for me to buy for sale here. We sell comb huncy at 1.5c., and the extracted at ISUc. Some say that queens caimot sting; I say the.v can, for I had one that stung me in the tingi-r, and left the stinger V)ut not the socket. I returned her to the hive for 2 days and then killed her. She was a layinsr queen. F. Mvers. St. Thomas, Pa., Oct. 18, 187.H- Glad to hear you have honey so cheap. Did she not lay any more after stinging? Why did you kill h'erV We have had one such report before, and it was said the (pieeu kept on laying, after she had lost her sting. 382 GLEAJ^INGS IX BEE CULTURE. Xov As the season has just closed, I will send you my report. , . ■■ • ^ ^ In the fall of 1S77, I had 6 colonies and wintered them itacked in straw. I lost but one, which was rubbed in the spring. I boucrht 5 more in the spring, and so began the season with 10 colonies. 5 very weak. I now have 20. 1 of which is queenless; and have taken 100 Uis. of comb, and 1,100 lbs. of extracted honev. with possibly 100 lbs. to take off yet. Oki bee-fogies around here made a good deal of sport over mv "flxin's," as they called my Simplici- ties and extractor; but I've got the "bulge" on them now. One man who had 13 old stocks, and did not think mv hives of anv account, has got ~'00 lbs. of honey in old boxes, weighing from 10 to .50 lbs. apiece. He has changed his mind on the hive question, and thinks he will get some frame hives this winter. Please find enclosed .50c. for a hvbrid queen (or a black, if vou have no hybrid). I had as soon have it as the ^tl'ones. I've had VZ queens sent me in all -5 tested, the rest -SI ones— and the whole lot, with 1 exception, were hvbrids. So I had just as soon buy hvbrids and done with it. B. F. Pratt. Dixon, 111., Sept. 1.5th, 18T8. Wliv. my friend, you liave fared badly in vdur purchases of queens. If I paid for tested (jueens and got hybrids. I think I should, at least, want something paid back. FERTILIZATION OF QUEENS. This summer, while I was working among my bees, I was standing on the lower side of my bee- yard, when I noticed a queen rise from a hive that "was above me. and start south. She had gone but about 3 rods when I noticed a drone in pursuit of her. As thev came in contact with one another, thev fell to tiie ground; and, as they fell, they went between me and the hill, so that I could not see them after they were below the line of blue sky, and I could not find them on the ground. They were not above 30 ft. from the ground at anv time. J AS. Evans. Ketchum%ille, N. Y. Thanks; this and other like instances seem to settle the fact, that the meeting does not always take place very high up from the ground. The queen mentioned in the following was first sent to a wrong address, and by the time she was re-shipped to the right idace. site liad been some days on the way. The vial of water was what saved her. Your queen came to hand yesterday evening, alive and that was all. The vial was empty, but there was "right smart" of candy, hard and dry. I fed them with honey and water mixed, and they got very mer- ry on it. Five or six of the worker bees were dead when they came to hand, and two more died after- ward. Good bye, my friend. If you can't read this, guess at it. Are vou satisfied? Frederick Meyers. Thomas, Pa., Oct. 9, 1878. P. S.— Where can I get good extracted honey the cheapest? For what price could it be sent to me, freight paid, for cash down? I have not got enough for my customers, since fruit is scarce here. Give me the price of comb honey also. F. M. I am quite satisfied, friend M.,andlthink tliat some of our readers near you can sup- Itly you with all the honey yoii want, at a lowprice: it is so plenty this year. they were gathering .around one of my common box hi\es, and thought they belonged there, but had not the time to watch them long. I did not see them again until about .5 o'clock, when I saw a queen at the entrance trying to get in, and large numbers of bees lying about the hive dead and dying. I began to think something was wrrng. and soon fonnd the hive from which they must have come. It is a mov- able-comb hive, packed in chaff, and, on examina- tion, showed everything in good condition; brood, honey, and combs appeared to be all right so far as I could see. It is a mystery to me. Why should thev leave? Frank Gross. Rockford, Mich., March 7, 1878. Althotigh I liave always, or nearly always, after making an examination, found some reason for sucli absconding, it may be that I should not in your case. Perhaps the bees left when they were well off, and notliing was tlie matter. If they were packed in chaff, in a small close brood nest, had honey, brood, and clean combs and plenty of bees^ I guess I shall have to give it up. MOVING BEES SHORT DISTANCES, TRANSFERRING, ETC. I have got several cards from men that are taking Glkanxngp, wanting to know the size of my hives, and other things. I make my hive* 10 by 12 inches in the clear, by 12 inches deep; with 13 frames cross- wise. If you want to move your bees a short distance, do it early in the morning; shut them up till 12 o'- clock, then spread something red over the gum and let your bees out, and you will not lose one. I tntnsferred 1.52 swarms of bees last winter and spring, and all have done well. I turn the old gum on the head, put a cap on the moutli, then, with a hammer, strike lightly on the gum; the bees will soon run up into the cap; then set the cap. with the bees in it, where the old stand stood, transfer the combs into frames, and, when done, hive your bees by shaking a few out at a time. The best time to transfer bees is in the fall or winter, when the comb is hard. I have been working with b"es for 40 odd years, and have always been a subscriber for some bee- journal. I take Gle.\xings now. I am a Kcntuckian, and have just come to Texas. This is a fine place for bees. I started last spring with IS black stands, bought one Italian queen, and now I have 78 stands, and have sold 7 Italian swarms, making So. Queens I sell at ?+. Test my plan and, if it is good, put it in Gleanings. The feeder vou sent me came all right. R. Devenport. Richland Spring, Texas, Sept. 29, 1ST8. Your hive is very near the dimensions of the L. and Simplicity, my friend, but I think it would be a misfortune to beginners to adopt it, for tlie time is fast coming wlien j bees in an odd sized hive will have to be sold at a lower ])rice tlian if in the regular ] size. You can liave the frames run cross- I wise in the Simplicity hive, if you wish, as exph^ined last month. Your plan of transferring is all right, but does it not take too mucli time to drum the bees out? I often transfer a colony in the time usually needed to drum tliem off the coinljs. Your plan for moving bees sl)ort distances will work sometimes, and again it will not. bees deserting their hive. As yon answer most people's questions in regard to apiculture, I would like your opinion in regard to ln-es leaving their hives and forcing themselves into the hive f>f another stock. Yesterday. March Sth, at noon, I ol)':erved that f>ne of my swarms appeared to lie abont all out in the air. and I supposed they were out for an "airing," as the weather was very warm, and has been for some days past, I noticed The Italian bee is like Saul of Tarsus, head and shoulders above all the rest. They are gathering pollen, while very few of the lilacks gather any. The blacks arc great rogues, and rob and fight, while the Italians are attending to their own busi- ness in a legitimate way. Ask vour correspondents if they ever knew of foul brood when plenty of salt water was furnished. I am inclined to think it a preventive. M. L. WiIiLJAMS, Vanceburg, Ky., Sept. isth, 1S78, 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 383 BLACK BEES ON RED CLOVER. Your correspondent of Scott county, Va., Psiys that his bees (the black breed) collected vast quan- tities of honey, this season, from red clover. My experience is that our common black bees never feed on the blooms of red clover. How is the fact? J. M. Crockett. Pattonville, Texas, Sept. 25, 1878. I think the fact is that he lias seen black bees on the red clover in liis locality, and you have not seen tliem on it in yiy bees are all Italians. E. T. Kewanee, 111., Nov. i, 1878. A TIMELY WARNING TO BEGINNERS; ALSO SOME- THING ABOUT UTAH. I am a bee man. Eight years ago, I bought a colo- ny of bees for $100.00; have disposed of a hundred or more colonies, and have now remaining 300 working stands. I commenced a novice, and in my eager- ness, did too much, as most beginners do, stretching out too fast, and lost hundreds of colonies too weak to stand an open winter. Had I the time, and the same opportunity over again, I might have now thousands of colonies. This is only a moderate hon- ey region; the climate being hot aiid dry. Through the summer, we get very little honey pasturage ex- cept from the cultivated fields, orchards, and gar- dens, as plants and flow(>rs dry up. From May till Sept., the mercui-y runs up dailv, in shade, from 80° to 100° Fahrenheit. Last year, I took about 4 tons of honey; this year, 1 won't have half that amount, althougli, from indications, and better growth of plants, i expected a better crop than last year. Bees propagated heavily, but it seems that their secretions of nectar have not been abundant. Haviiig a large; garden, I raise plenty of mignon- nette, sweet clover, great American bee plant, cat- nip, and many assorted garden tlowers that make bee food. At times, Alfalfa or Lucerne makes line pasture, and yields plenty of tine honey; at other times, bees don't work on it at all. We have broad fields of it, so when it does yield nectar we are gain- ers. J. E. Johnson. St. George, Utah, Sept. 16, 1878. HONEY DEW. I was raised in the lonely mountains, in West Va., and was a mill boy from 35 to 45 years ago. The mill was 7 miles distant, and I had to go 3 times a week; 3 miles of that distance was a "blazed out" bridle path, the bushes thick, apparently, as nature could plant them. There were a great many chestnut trees and chestnut bushes. I am certain that I would not exaggerate if I should say that I have licked off gallons upon gallons of that sweet, drip- ping honey dew from those chestnut leaves. There were mornings after there had been heavy dews, when I have seen it drip from the leaves. Why the chestnut leaves were its home, I am sure I can't tell; but, friend Root, there are a great many things in this world that we don't know; if it were all put in one book, it certainly would be a very large book. I have been in this country 20 years, and if I have ever seen one drop of honey dew, I don't know it. I don't believe this country affords any honey dew whatever. J. Wills. Greenfield, Ind., Nov. 8, 1878. SWEET CLOVER. You ought just to have seen the bee^ working on a small patch of sweet clover, and you would not, for a single moment, doubt its value as a honej' pro- ducing plant. Although only about 'a of nn acre, I am sure the bees that were on it would have made a very extra largo swarm; it was fairly alive with them. H. Smith. New Hamburg, Out., Can., Aug. 13, 1878. Very likely, an acre of sweet clover would keep 8 swarms busy, when they could find nothing else, but it might be, even then, if my observations are correct, that they would not get enough to keep them from starving. I do not mean to saj^ that sweet clover does not produce honey in large quantities, but only that their being so busy on it does not necessarily prove it. Watch a bee, and see liow many blossoms he is obliged to visit, to get a load. We need more exi)eriments such as our friend MoUie made with the spider plant. WOODEN SEPARATORS, SALT FOR BEES, ETC. As an answer to what you said in Gleanings, in regard to the thickness of our wooden separator, we will say that we found I3 of an inch thick enough. Thei'e "would not be much room wasted by having the separators only ^i of an inch thick. Those wo have used, and the one we sent you, were 3-16 of an inch thick, and not ';'8, as you stated in Gleanings. The basswood we get here is not all as nice and white as that of which those sections were made, but as we use a great deal for honey crates, frames for brood nest, broad frames to hold sections, etc., we always use the dark colored wood for these purpo- ses, and keep the whitest for sections. Now, we have one more question to ask you; is salt necessary for bees? If it is, there should be something said about it in your ABC. Greinek Bro's. Naples, N. Y., Nov. 5, 1878. I beg pardon ; I did make a mistake on the thickness of the wood separators, and I pre- sume they can be used only i thick. One objection to even this thickness would be that they se])arate the frames, and allow the bees to put in propolis between the top and 1878. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 413 end bars where the separator does not come. It is true, we could let them into the end bars, as we do the tin, but I should regard the thickness, even then, as an objection. I have thought the bees less liable to make at- tachments to the tin, but I may be mistaken. The (jueen may also be less liable to use the sections, if tin be used. Before adopting wood largely, we ought to have some care- ful experiments. W ood gives a more per- fectly level surface, and is not so good a con- ductor of heat, but as it must be perfectly clear and free from knots, I am not sure that it will be very much cheaper than tin. I liave tried to feed our bees salt, but they have never taken any notice of salt water feeders. When over at neighbor Blakeslee's, one day, I saw the bees digging vigorously into the sawdust. ''Aha!" said I, "you have been spilling honey or syrup down there. '' "Indeed I have not." "i5ut some one certainly has." "No, sir. It is where salt was thrown down, and the rain washed it into the saw- dust." If anybody can tell me how to make 7ny bees eat salt, I shall be mucli obliged to them. I will put it into the ABC, too. AMERICAN IMPLEMENTS IN SCOTLAND. Fdn. is a great success in this country; so are your dovetailed sections. I had over 130 of these filled in one hive, and sold them at -iOc. each. Alto- g'ether, from 13 stocks of bees, I sold over f 300 worth of honey, besides increasing' stock. Novice's smoker. Novice's sections, and Novice's queen cages are all being- sold by our dealers. The smoker, at my suggestion, has the cap hinged and a small piece of wood riveted opposite to lift by. Wm. Kaitt. Blairgowrie, Perthshire, Scotland, Oct. 30, 1878. Right glad am I, my friend, to hear you are succeeding away across the water, with the same implements we have used so suc- cessfully here. I am glad to know, too, that you are making improvements on them. GRAPE SUGAR. I have a word to say about this much talked of ar- ticle. I believe I was one of the first to use that made at Davenport, for feeding bees. Those that talk about grape sugar's being made with old rags and containing sulphuric acid and chalk have, prob- ably, never tasted, or even seen, that sold at Daven- port for bee feeding. Do they claim that bees can eat it with impunity when it contains sulphuric acid, and then mix it ■»vith the honey to poison those wlio eat the honey? or that we mix it with the honey ourselves? As you say, bees will not use it when honej' is plenty in the fields. I have ne\er (letecteii any trace of it in box honey, but find it in the combs when extracting from the brood chamber, and the extractor leaves it there the same as it does bee bread; the quantity so found is very small, which shows that it is con- .sumed by the bees in brood rearing, nearly as fast as carried into the hive. That it is valuable in this way, I have no sort of dovibt, and as wholesome for food as the corn it is made of. I have never tried mixing it with honey for table use, nor do I care to. Honey is cheap enough now. To all I would say, "Try all things, prove all things, and hold fast that which is good," not condemning hastily, lest we injure ourselves, as well as others. ' D. C. Underbill. Seneca, 111., Nov. 11, 1878. bees that were doomed to death for their sweets, several I got from the woods so that now I have 13 colonies upon which to experiment. I have put 5 in the cellar, 6 packed in chaff on sum- mer stands, and two unprotected. Four of them which I put m the cellar I have fed almost entirely upon glucose; they not having one drop of honey, I took 6 tiuidounces of water, added glucose enough to make one gallon of syrup, took out the combs and, with a large spoon, I poured the syrup pretty warm in the cells, and after leaving them to drip for one hour, I put them into the hive. I shall re- port fully the results of my feeding glucose at the close of winter. I have one hybrid colony; they have done well this season, as far as I know, but since cool weath- er has set in, they upon a warm day cast out num- berless quantities of dead bees. What can be the matter? They fire clean and have plenty of hon- ey. Dr. H. J. Peters. Kagersville, Ohio. I am inclined to think, my friend, your glucose, unless your colonies were extra strong, will do harm. You fed them too much all at one time, if I understand you right. Sugar syrup, or even honey, I fear would make mischief fed in the same way. Do you not exaggerate the amount of dead bees brought out':' If it is a few each morn- ing, it is probably only bees that cluster outside of the main cluster, and get chilled. Old bees will also drop down from the combs and die, more or less, at the approach of cold weather, and beginners are often needlessly worried to see them scattered around the entrance. About a year ago, our minister told me his bees must have some disease as there were he thought, a pint or more of dead ones, about the en- trance. I went down to see them, and found perhai)s a hundred bees. As they lay scattered about, they made quite a show, but as the colony was a strong vigorous one, it was probably only the old bees that had been thrown out. FEEDING GLUCOSE, DEAD BEES ABOUT THE EN- TRANCE, ETC I have joined yoiu- A B C class; I started in the bee business last spring, bought several good colo- nies and a few mothy ones, collected of farmers some QUETilNS WILL STING ; HUNTING BEES, ETC. Brr iv]ii>)-t fi>r 1X78. 1 commenced the first of May with 4t colonies, and ha\ e now sti cnionies, besides having extracted 3U0 lbs., and taken IdllO lbs. of sec- tion box honey. It has been a very poor year for bees, but honey is low; 8e for extracted, lUc for box honey, and slow sale. Bees are worth 000. I have offered 50 strong colonies of pure Italians, at $5.00 per colony, and have not sold one yet. 1 don't think of going into the Blasted Hopes yet, however. Well, black (lueens will sting, and I know they will. I was at Friendship, (Adams Co., Wis.,) in Septem- ber, where I found a job of hunting a black queen. Two men had looked for her, and could not find her, I found her and caught her, and put her in my mouth, and she stung me on the lip. 1 spit her out, and then tried it over, and she stung the other lip. ] soon had two thick lips. 1 had tried to get queens to sting befoi-e, but could not. I used to hunt bees and used for scent, oil of clove, oil of cinnamon, and oil of anise, ]i of each; mix them and put a little (3 or 4 drops) on the under side of the comb that you use in your bee box. I think that a drop of oil of cloves put into the honey (one drop to 3 table-spoon-fulls of honey) will help to get them to work sooner, that is, get them excit- ed, or get them going as they will when you open a hive a few minutes, at this time of year, when bees are out fiying. W. A. Eddv. Fasten, Adams Co., Wis., Nov. 11, 1878. I got my 414x41.1 boxes and fdn. of Sayles, of Hart- ford, Wis., and they were the nicest, and put up the nicest, of anything I ever saw. I used to hear them called the "Sayles boys," but I believe they are full grown men, every inch of them. O! I had almost forgot to say that my bees are all packed in chaff on their summer stands, the same as last winter. I have lost none. Jacob Childs. Amherst, Wis., Nov. 13, 1878. 414 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Dec. DO BEES CAKRY INTELLIGENCE IN REGARD TO THE WHEREAKOUTS OP TUEIR yUEENV I ought to say to yoii that, after the queen I got from you died,! set the casje coutainins- their own queen", on the bars of the frames, and the following day, I found the bees of this hive earrj'ing in heavy pellets of pollen. 1 turned her out, and they re- ceived her with "songs." Perhaps they knew she was alive all the while, and hence remained loyal to her, and would have none other. I came tothiseou- clusion, because several bees visited my wife's room, where their royal madam was caged to keep her warm, to look after her, or the candy in the c: re? which? I have looked her up since she was given bac ■ to them, and she has improved very much in size ■lUce 1 tirst removed her. I am now feeding this < jlony for the purpose of testing her. I feared she might not be fertilized so late in the season. She is a pure Italian. G. W. Demaree. Christiansburg, Ky., Oct. 13, 1878. I think it very likely that tlie bees, by some means, carried intelligence in regard to the queen's whereabouts. I once carried a qneen from a nucleus to a (jueenless hive, taking along a great jiart of the bees. Be- fore night, some of the bees liad gone back to their old home, communicated, in some way, the state of affairs to their comrades, and all finally joined in carrying the stores to their new home, where there were plenty of bees; thus I was saved the task of getting the honey out of some old Quinby frames in- to a Simplicity hive some rods distant. I think we shall sometime learn how to take advantage of this — —shall I call it, sagacity of bees? Ever since I read in "Our Homes," about your troubles to obtain money to complete that factory, I have been thinking how I can help you just a little; if all of us subscribers should be of one mind and send next year's subscription in advance, what a great help it would bs. I will act upon the thought, and that will take the matter off my mind, for I can't stop thinking about it, if I don't; so find en- closed one dollar for me. Furthermore, I came across a young man from a neighboring town, whose father owns some 60 swarms in old box hives, and I induced him to send for Gleanings. Enclosed And also one dollar for him. Some day, I'll tell you all about my doings with bees. I will say now, however, that I have made a small factory and turned out some 70 Simplicity hives this year, most of which are full of bees. When the "sign comes right" and I prove to our people that this scientific bee-keeping is not a liumhuo, I'll send you swc?i a list of new subscri- bers. Geo. C. Green. Factoryville, Pa., Nov. 5th, 1878. God will bless you, my friend, for the xin- seltishness which makes you think of my factory and myself, an almost utter stranger, rather than of your own factory and your- self, who very likely are far more deserving of lielp, than I am. I am very glad to hear you are succeeding with your liive making and bees; nothing gives me more pleasure than to hear that my pupils are learning to make their own su])plios, thus saving ex- pensive freights, and learning self reliance and independence^ OUR HOJIES. If any doubt should creep into my mind in regard to the propriety of having ''Our Homes" in a bee paper, "it would be ([uickly dispelled by such little chapters from real life as the following : The largest honey producer in this countj', Mr. " 1 h«rt never seen the sections, and was very much i)lcased with them. He lives about 3 miles out of town, while I live in the city. About a week a ter the tair, I was surprised at his coming to my place, and taking dinner with me, and spending most of the daj' to post himself on bee matters. I am a young man, while he is a father of a family. He is a college educated man, and one wliom it is very hard to tell anything, as he ktiows it all; so I was quite flattered iij' his oming to me to learn. At first, I was a little inclined not t.i post him, as he is my greatest competitor in selling honey in this market: then I thought of '"Our Homes," and con- cluded I would ilo just as I knew you would in my place. So I showed him * * * * and sent him home happy, Avith plenty of grapes, &c., for his wife and children. E. B. B. May God bless and guide you, my young friend, and may ym learn to look to Him, if you do not alread ', rather than to my poor self, for an example. WHERE some of THE BLAME RESTS. Enclosed you will find ?1.00, for Gleanings. I thought it strange when Sept. came and went and no Gleanings, but when Oct. also came and no Gleanings, I knew there was something wrong; so I took the boy to task, by whom I sent the letter and money to the oflioe, when he confessed that he de- stroyed the letter and kept the money; so that ac- counts for my not getting Gleanings. Please send Sept. and Oct. No's, and oblige Geo. Small. York, Pa., Oct. 1.5, 1878. I have given the above to show in what ways mistakes may come, and to show the need of going slow, before deciding where the blame belongs. A postal cMine a few days ago, with a peremptory command, to send Gleanings, or return the money forth- with. The money had for some reason nev- er reached us. Although w^e may make mis- takes here, we are trying very hard, all of us, not to do so ; will you not give us credit for so muchV I trust very few occur in the way mentioned above. GRAPE sugar and CANDY. I reduced my bees to 40 stocks, in the spring, by douliling weak swarms. From these 40 stocks, I took ;i200 lbs. of honej% and increased to fiO stocks. I ha^•e l)nught 20 stocks, making my present number 80, all of which are supplied with 35 lbs. of stores and packed in chaff for winter, except one, which has nothing but frames filled with grape sugar. They have lived on it six weeks, and appear to be doing well at this time, Oct. 30th. I consider it an experiment, and would like to hear through the magazine the result of experi- ments with grape sugar last year. I wintered three swarms last year, oti candy made of A coffee sugar, melted and poured into the brood frames, they not having an ounce of stores except the candj\ J. B. Hains. Bedford, O., Oct. 28, 1878. I, too, have wintered bees on candy with nothing else, and with the candy slabs in frames, I have no doubt but that a. colony could be wintered on it without combs even. The candy with the dour in it furnishes eve- rything needed for their sustenance. HONEY DEW ON THE OAK. We have had a very good season for bees in our country. About the first of .Inly we had a honey dew oii the oak trees. I did not observe it upon any other trees or upon the weeds or bushes luider the trees, and saw no bees working upon it. It re- mained for a week or ten days, gathering moisture at night and drving up in daytime. .Iohn Uaikd. Elm Grove, West Va., Oct. 17, 1878. Thanks for promptness. Queens are all intro- duced safely. Bees are gathering some honey from cotton blossoms. No sugar to buy. All in winter trim. E. J. Atchley. Lancaster, Texas, Oct. 28, 1878. I have been trying the Simplicity hive this year, and the bees have done well. Two swarms increased to five, and gave a total of 107 lbs. of honey. O. Robinson. Ottawa, Kas., Oct. 29, 1878. 1878 GLEANINGS IN BEE CTLTURE. 415 I notice friend Wolcott's tool grinder in last issue, and allow me to thank him and you forthe same. Mr. W. says he has used it 27 years. I have a similar one that I have had since 1803. Mine i-? a trianj^le; sides 4 ft. Ions', I's in- snuare, l)a="' \'Z in., and a spur in the other end; 12 inches from th" base there is a cross bar which earrie-* a clamp wiih 2 thumb n\its, that will hold the widest plane iron or the smallest chisel. But this don't fill the contract, although it answers verj' well where the stone is in g-ood order: where tlie grindstone is of all diameters as our machinist's is, I do not like it so well, and especially when the thing is going like a fiddler's elbow at that. I send you a design of one, cut from a catalogue of wood working miichinery, and which I think is on the right p'inciple; but it costs S20. Can we get a cheaper one? With one of this sort, it matters not if the stone is not e.xactlv level, as v(hi can use the hitrher part and improve stone and the tool you grind at the same time. AVm. II. Kihk. Waterbury, Conn,, Nov. 1">, 1878. Yoli are right, friend K.; the jn-^per way to have a tcxil "'riiKler is to hav(^ tiie tool car- ried tirmly back and forth, in a line parallel with the axis of the grindstone, but to have no movement in any other way. This will make the stone wear trne. even if it is not trne in the first place. If some one else can- not make one for So or less, I think I shall have to do it. GETTING SUnPLUS HONEY, TRANSFKKUING, ETC. I have often heard the "old style" bee-keepers say that where the bees had filled one box or "cap" of honey, if you would lift that box or "cap" and place another empty one in its place on the hive, and put the "cap" already filled on top of that, the bees would hasten to till the empty rme, would even make greater effort to do so than if the full one was not left on top of the empty one. They say the bees do not like an empty space be- tween the brood chamber and their stores, and, if possible, they rectify the matter by filling the space between with honey. Now, what I want to ask is, has your experience erer shown that there is any truth in this'? Is the empty space an.v incentive to make bees work when thfy otherwise would not with as much diligence? From what little experience I have had in trans- ferring, I would suggest to the ABC "child," E. A. Morgan {I am one also), that he would find it much better not to stop driving the bees out of the old hive as soon as he sees the (jueen go up, but continue pulHng the smoke in below until nil the bees have gone out of the hive: then he will have only the combs to handle, with no bees In his way to be killed or to bother him. T. C. Hunt. Kichmond, Ind., Nov. 15, 1878. To be snre, the "old style" bee-keepers are right, and I believe onr experience all agrees with tlie idea. This is one great element in using the sections. As yon take out the fin- ished ones, one at a time as fast as filled, the bees keep right on at work on those around them, and commence at once to fill the space left by those removed, and we have no stojiping while the season lasts. This is a very important advantage over a single large box, which is taken off the hive all at once. GALLUP IN CALIFORNIA. The following came from friend Wilkin, after he had started for Europe : Elisha Gallup, being overtaxed with labor in the healing art, at Osage, Iowa, has come to California to practice bee culture. He takes charge of my bees in my absence in Europe. R. Wilkin. San Buenaventura, Cal. So you see Gallup has got back to bee- keeping again, after all? What a world of changes this isV QUEEN'S STING.S, AND QUEENS GOING HOME. You ask in the last No. of Gleanings why I killed the queen which stung me. In the first place, she was almost black; in the second place, I took her out of a nucleus hive, and introduced her to a full, queenless colony, in order to keep it up until I had one with yellow l)unds to give them; she staid only one day and night, but long enough to plant a lot of eggs for them to raise black (lueens from, and then returned to the nucleus from which I had taken her, and destroj'cd a nice queen cell that w:is almost ma- tured. I was provoked at her, and caught her to kill her, when she stung me on the finger. I then put her back in the nucleus to see if she would die. I left her until I was satisfied that she would not die, and that she laid after she stung me. FiiKOEUiciv Meyehs. St. Thomas, Pa., Nov., U, 1878. So queens do sometimes sting, after all, and don't die either. But, friend Frederick, are you sure this (jueen was not one of the half queen and half workers whicli I have been telling you about? I know queens sometimes go home, for I have had them do the very trick you mention. SMOKER;;, AND A REVORT FROM AN .4 B C CHILD. Please tell the man that is bothered about getting the top off from your smoker, to dash a little cold water on it and he can take it off without any trou- ble, with his bare hand. 900 lbs. of honey and 8 new swarms saved from 17. H(niey all sold; 10c. forext., and 15c. for comb. This is niy first summer with bees. C. M. Sl.4Yton. Grattan, Mich., Nov. 15th, 1878. HOW TO KEEP SECTION HONEY. Please tell us in Dec. No. of Gleanings, if possi- ble, how we can best winter honey in sections. Pri- ces are so low that some of us wish to hold it for a while. Will exposure to severe cold injure it? G. W. Haven. Blooraingdale, Mich., Nov. 12, 1878. Keep your honey in the cases just as you send it "to market. It should be kept in a dry room, where water will not freeze ; dry, because dampness collecting on the caps in- jures the looks of the honey, and may cause "it to sour at the month of the uncapped cells. Free from frost, because freezing is apt to make the combs crack, and let the honey drij). We keep it over winter e^'ery season, without any injury whatever. The 3 queens I ordered through Mr. Stehle came Oct. 29, in good condition, and I think they are safely introduced. I will tell you something about it. Nov. 12th, I found a queen in front of a hive, stark and stiff (before sun up). That queen could have been bought cheap. I breathed on her, and thought I saw a twitch of the leg; with more warmth, came more kicks, and now that stock is "above par," for just before dark she was the nicest looking queen I have. I use a 5 inch tin saw, teeth ''sX'^i, for grooving boards for roof of Chaff hive. So far, it works nice- ly; the mandrel has a 3 inch collar. C. G. Knowles. Portland, O., Nov. 13, 1878. AVe often find queens apparently dead, and revive them in the way you mention. It may help others. A tin biizz sawJ When I was a boy, I used always to make my buzz saws of tin. They might do considerable cutting, on thin work, but I fear it would be a task to sharpen them so often. I started with 3 swarms in old hives, which I trans- ferred and increased to 10, by artificial swarming. I did not get any honey though. Some of the swarms are rather small, but they have stored honey enough to last them. If they were 3 times as many. I am go- ing to fix them up warm, and feed them candy, to see if they will increase. Wm. J. Wright. Pilot Center, III., Oct. 18, 1878. 416 GLEANINGS m BEE CULTURE. r)EC. FROM BLASTED HOPES TO THE SMILERV. AN UN- LOOKED FOR TRANSITION. I received the grape sugar the other day, all right. It was too late for the purpose for which 1 ordered it; viz., to feed 25 young swarms, which I think had not 2 lbs. of honey apiece when I ordered the sugar, and now they arc too rich. They made honey so fast that they crowded all the brood out. I have been buying all" the surplus bees I could get, and putting "them in my weakest hives, to keep up their numbers. This honey was made mostly in Oct., from a weed which grows in our old waste fields. It grows from ',i to 4 feet high, has a white blossom, commences to bloom the latter part of Sep., and continues to bloom during Oct. I do not know what its real name is. I send you a sample of the weed, and may be you can give it a name. 1 took from the top story of one hive, the other day, 60 lbs. of honey. This was a natural swai-m that eaine off on the 22d of May. I had taken out of this same hive, five of your Langstroth frames full of honey, and given them to some weak hives. I did not weigh them but put them at 30 lbs. Before I took off the 60 lbs. the whole hive weighed 112 lbs. If wc take 4.5 lbs. for the hive, and 10 lbs. for bees, we have 117 lbs, of honey. I got the mother of this hive from the woods ; they have one bright yellow band next the waist, but there are no Italians with- in 25 miles of me, that I know of. I got an Italian queen from Ga., in June. She laid enough eggs to raise about half a gallon of bees and then died. About ^-nr was nothing so very new after all, for Mr. L. had advised it and directed how to feed it years ago. When I was writing the article in which the quotation is made, I picked up the book in a hurry, and turned to the spot at the hottom of the page, where T remembered seeing it, put a pencil mark around the lines I wished copied, and gave it to the proof reader to copy. Now, if those who are inclined to charge me with purposely falsifying will turn to the passage, they will see that both myself and the proof reader wei-e not unusual- ly careless, in overlooking the fact that it was an extract. I now see quotation marks which I over- looked then, and I suppose the proof reader, in mak- ing the copy, did the same. The A. B. J. in printing Dadant's extract, has omitted nearly a page of mat- ter, and changed the wording so as to make it read "The llev. Mr. Kline says:" in the very same line where my extract commenced. Shall I say hard words about these friends because they did this, as it seems to me, to damage my character for truth- fulness? By no means! The best of us, when in the heat of argument, if we allow ourselves to get so far, are very apt to twist things, and state them unfairly. I know my own weakness in this respect, and I have tried every way I knew how, since this matter came up, to avoid being pulled into it. I am pretty well acquainted with all there is in Langstroth's book, as well as most of the other bee books. I have a rather Indistinct recollection of having at some time, I cannot recall whether after the matter was in print, or whether just befoi-e, re- called the matter enough to consider whether it was Mr. L. w ho experimented with grape sugar, or some one else, and that it should be looked to at once. I cannot be sure, but I rather think I dismissed the matter by saj-ing to myself, if it was not himself, it was at least some one whom he considered good au- thority, or it would not have been thus left uncon- troverted all these years. This was wrong, for I should have hastened to look the matter up, and correct it as soon as possible, with the same alac- rity that I should have shown had I been in Dadant's place. I am glad that I am cl?>sely watched, for I am sure it will in the end do me good. One of the hardest things I have ever tried to do in all my life, is to learn to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, under all circumstances, and upon all occasions. A PART of the Cotton speculation consists in fol- lowing up their first circular, with a little slip con- taining the following: SPECIAL, OFFER. For Thirty Days from November First, I will re- ceive orders at the following reduced prices, my ob- ject being to introdiico my t'oritrolUiblo Hive and New System of Bee ^lanagement, and drive out the Patent Bee Hive Swindlers. This war must contin- ue until worthless PatentHivcs cease toexist among intelligent Bee Keepers. One sample controllable Hive and all fixtures, Feeder, etc., only Four Dollars. Swarm of Italian Bees with Controllable Hive, etc., only Twelve Dollars. Swarm of Native Bees withControlhible Hive, etc., only Eight Dollars. For all further particulars examine large circular connected with this. LIZZIE E. COTTON. October, :JOth, 1878. NO "DRONES" THERE. A gentleman living in the northern suburbs se- cured a hive of bees two or three weeks ago as a nu- cleus for an apiary, and in the course of ten days he had read ten different works on the honey bee, and invented half a dozen patent hives. The" other fore- noon a man called at the house on business and was informed by the wife that her husband was out in- specting the bees. "Is he taking up honey?" inquired the man. "Oh, no; he's looking toseeif there are any drones in the hive." At that instant both were startled by a series of whoops and yells, and the husband came around the corner of the house on the jump, his bat striking the air on all sides of him. He rushed through the cur- rant bushes and back, rolled over on the grass and lit out for the l)arn, and the amazed wife shaded her eyes from the sun as she looked after him, and con- tinued in a disappointed tone: "But 1 don't believe he found a single drone by the way they stick to himl"— £):froif Free Press. The f.bf \e v.-oiild Ic an excellent item for those who manufacture smokers. Had he used a smoker, he would have saved the time and strength, needed for the above performances. CANADA. I have taken 1. 000 lbs. extracted honey from 11 stands and their increase. I received two, dollar queens from you in June. When they arrived, one was smart and active and her bees are nice bright ones. The other seemed very dull, and would hardly move any. The bees received her kindly, but she died in a few days. My honey was taken from white clover, linden, anil buck-wheat. I use a two story hive which takes the L. frame. I pack my bees away in chaff, on their summer stands, putting each hive in a box about i;i foot larger than the hive, and leave a small entrance, so they can come out in the spring and work without taking the chaff away until I see fit ; I packed them in this way last fall, and they came through in fine shape. The result of my season is as follows: Honey sold S124.00. Articles bought. 3 queens, (ai $1.35 $3.50. 30 bee hives, @ $1.60 $33.00. lifdoz. tin pails, (gi 75c $10.50. 1.000 labels $4.50. One faucet .50. 3 large cans $3.00. Total. $53.0J. Net gain. $04.00. I also have an increase of 40 combs and 4 stands of bees. Number on hand, 15 stands. H. E. Christie. Oxford Mills, Ontario, Canada. Nov. 30, 187b. The idea of selling honey in cheap tin pails is one I have often thought of, but never put into practice. If run into them as soon as the honey is settled and readv, and then soldered up, tliere could be no chance of leakage or ureakage. Honey put into barrels is very apt to acquire a bad taste, sooner or later ; ifi)ut in tin, and soldereil up, I think it would keep sweet and nice in- dehiiitely, and if candied, it could be easily melted. Friend ('., tell us more about the pails ; what do thev liold, and where did vou get them ? 421] GLEAJ^IKGS IN BEE CULTURE. Dec. Casli for Beeswax! Will pay 25c per lb. for any quantity of nice, clean wax. delivered at our R. K. station. A. I. ROOT, Medina, O. Alsike Clover Seed. A fine new lot of Alsike clover seed, very clean and raised near us. Price per lb., 25c; per bushel, (60 lbs.) $13.50; '4 bushel, *7.00; peck, *3.75. If want- ed by mail add 18c per lb. for bag and postage. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. /pAT. BINDER mjMPCRmiUls] You can not look over the back No's of Glean- ings or any other Periodical with satisfaction, unless they are in some kind of a Binder. Who has not said— "Dear me, what a bother— I must have last month's Journal and it is no where to be found." Put each No. in the Emerson Binder as soon as it comes, and vou can sit down happy, any time you wish to find "anything you may have previously seen even thoiu^h it were months a?o. Binders for Gleanings (will hold them for four years), gilt lettered, free by mail for 50, 60, and 7.5c, according to quality. For table of prices of Binders for any Periodical, see Oct. No., Vol. II. Send in your orders. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. $1.50 per YEAR ; CI.UBS of 5 or More $1.00. Send Ten Cents for a Sample Copy of The American Bee Journal The Oldest, Ijarsest and Best Bee Paper. THOMAS O. NEWMAN A. SON, CHICAGO. BARNES' PATENT FOOT POWER MACHINERY ! (UKCULARand SCROLL SAWS. Hand, Circular Rip Saws for hea\T and light ripping. Lathes, &c., &c. These machines are especially adapted to Hive Making?. It will pay every bee-keeper to send for our 64 page Catalogue. Ma- cliines Sent on Trial. W. F. & JOHN BARNES, Rockford, Winnebago Co., 111. GRAPE SUGAR. Superior, double refined Grape Sugar, for feeding bees, @ 4c. per lb. in barrels of 375 lbs., and 41^c. in boxes of 50 or 110 lbs. The above prices are for sugar shipped from Me- dina. If ordered from the factory, at Davenport, la., the price will be 'jc. per lb. less. Any amount less than 50 lbs. will be 5c. per lb. Instructions for feeding it to bees sent free. Sample by mail, 10c. A. I. ROOT, Medina, O. lin for Separators and Extractors. As we buy in large quantities, I can perhaps give you better rates than you are getting at home. Price per box of 113 sheets, size 14x20, for Separators $6 00 " " sheet, for less than a box 7 IX tin for making Extractors, 14x20, per box 8 50 " " per sheet 9 We will ship it from Medina, or from Philadelphia, as may be most convenient. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. KING'S DIRECT DRAFT SMOKER, Is giving unbounded satisfac- tion wherever used. It econ- omizex all the wind and smoke, hunia all comhustibles and goes out ONLY when put out. It is the same size as "Bing- ham's standard," and is neat and DURABLE. Price, fl.OO; by mail $1.25. Address, A. J. KING & CO., etf 61 Hudson St., N. Y. Glass for Bee-keepers. Glass, 8x18, for large shipping cases, 7c. per sheet; or $3.00 per box, in boxes of 50 sheets. Glass, 8xl3H, for small shipping cases, ,5c. per sin- gle sheet; or $3.00 per box, in boxes of 0(5 sheets. Glass, cut to any of the sizes used by Beekeepers, for $3.00 per box. At this price, each hox must contain hut one size. Glass in full boxes, shipped from Pittsburgh. A. I. ROOT, Medina, O. GEORGE GRIMM, JE?rZiKSOH', WISCOM'SIIT, Hereby respectfully gives notice to the public, that his Circular and Price List of Italian Bees, for the year 1878-9 is ready ; and that he is selling bees at his usual low prices. 10-3d. §mLMAN*Ca noravm ,^ ONiWOOD . Mw^^coi^; front&viKe: l«:i N C I N IN A "Tl O H I O . Having built a shop and put in new machinorj', I am prepared to furnish Bee Hives, Section Bo.xes, Frames, &c., &c., as cheap as the cheapest. Section Boxes, 41^x414x2, per M., $8.00, and every- thing else at bottom prices. For further particulars send for Circular. F. A. SALISBURY, 12-ld Geddes, Onondaga Co., N. Y. COMB FOUNDATION, 45 TO 55c. PER P8il»D, According to quantiti) hounht at one time. For fur- ther particulars, see our Illustrated Catalogue, mail- ed on application. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. BEES FOR SALE. 50 Colonies Italians in Langstroth Hives, - $6 00 50 " Hybrids " " - 5 (K) 100 " Blacks in Triangular " - 3 00 Will deliver in good condition on any Miss. River Packet. The stocks are worth the price for the hon- ey they contain. GEO. B. PETERS, ll-2d Council Bend, Arkansas. INDEX TO VOL. VI. ABC Class Ii9, 181, 352, 331, 333, 334, 353, 394, 413 Advertise, How to 41tj Advertising', Rates for 383 A Minister's Experience 148 Apiary, Butler's 365 . . Howard's 331 . . Linden Farm 303 .. Townlev's Chaff Hive 194 . . Floating-, Perrine's 94, 133, 363 .. Grapevine 143 .. House 161 . . Corncrib 164 . . Home Made Implements for 336 Apiaries, Views of 371 Apiaculture, History of 334 Aphides 43,316 Apis DorsBta 33. 47, 87 Artificial Heat 135, 161 Australia 8 A Friendly Critisism 363 A Good Day's Work 335, 255 A Story With a Moral 266 Bees, Absconding' 199, 372 . . Ag-e of. Etc 7, 20, 136 .. And peaches 93 .. At Fairs and Cider Mills 363 .. Buying' 5 .. Black, a Plea For 317 And red Clover 38;-i . . Borrowing- from Other Hives 361 .. Cave for 413 .. Coming out on the Snow 47 .. Can Count 314 . . Dead About the entrance 413 .. Diseases of 14,127,380,398 .. Do hens eat them':' 351 .. .. Swallows eat them'? 200 . . . . Toads eat them'? 353 .. .. Skunks eat them'? 90 .. .. Snakes eat them"? 306 .. Dividing ij .. Dying Suddenly 380 .. Deserting Their Hives 383 . . Enemies of 35, 43 . . Equalizing Stocks of 90 .. Freezing ■ 147 .. Freaks of 388 . . How to tell Queens & Drones from Workers. 397 . . Hybrid 359 .. Hunting 360,381,413 . . In Oregon 416 . . Instinct of 403 .. Larger, And 414 cells to the Inch , 73 . . Leaf- cutter 391 .. Moving 33,93,363 .. Short Distances . . 197, 263, 370, 306, 307, 359. 382 .. Old 21 .. Oats for 89 .. Packing in Straw 285 . . Salt for 412 . . Smothered 69, 234 . Shipping 120 . "Tanging" 93 . . Turnips for 150, 335 .. To Lok At 182 .. That Won't Work 371 .. Wild, in the South 164 . . What Made 'em Fight? 343 Bee Easel 339 . . Convention 306 Friend Joiner's 36 .. Culture, The Other Side of 36 . . Hawk, or Bee Killer 7, 350, 338, 344, 359 .. Honey of Borneo, etc 33,47 Bee-Keeping, Preparing for 5, 126, 328 .. Martins 93 Beginners, Timely Warning to . .......ivi Beginner's Successes and Reverses 313, 217 Blasted Hopes 10, 77, 267, 349, 366 Blocks for Putting on Corners 2:j3 Boxes. Section, for Box Hives 8 Gc:tting Bees out of 381,416 Homemade 60,326 Italians Working in 20 In Texas 233 In the: House Apiary 381 Large cs Small 327 Making 33, .5.5, 57, 357, 341 Muth's Case of 88 Painting 49 Putting Together, & Fdn .. 177, 181, 257 Problem on 180 Staining wood for 270 Two Tiers, or One 322 Unfinished or Daubed 384 What Kind Shall AVe Use? 11 Worms in 108 Boy Bee Keepers 304, 324, 342, 374 Brood, A Frame to Prevent Swarming. . .216, 228, 3:^9 .. And Eggs in Winter 123 .. Frames, Size of Fdn. for 351 . . Nest, Small 351 . . One Tier of Sections Over 343 Swarming Without 336 Buckwheat, Odor From 344 California 48, 316, 304, 343, 401 Bee Ranche 113 " Gallup in 415 Cage, Bottle 289 " Candy 197 " S3.5.00 2:^0 Candy, Cotton Seed, &c 125 " Feeding in Frames 196 " " How it Worked 234 " For Queen Cages 215 " For Wintering 306 Chaff Cushions 326 " Hive 194, 302 " Packing 160 " What kind to use 124 " Wintering 344 Cider and Cider Mills 14, 362 Colorado, Bees in 114 Comb, Drone and Worker. 24 " Guides, Novel Plan 324 " Honey, all about it 223, 224, 225, 374 " Holder 230 " " Another 253 Combs, Building imder the Hives 35 •' '* Upward 305 " Breaking down when Feeding^ 126 " Crosswise, &c 94 Crooked 164 Partially Filled 21 Strengthening by Wires 268, 338, 362, 420 Comb Foundation 231 " " 414 Cells TO the inch 12 " " Atone Operation 2.55 " " A word in favor of 308 " " Cheap wav of Making 198 Copper Rolls for 420 Cutter, Carlin's 74,108 Fastening in. 149, 183, 235. 251, 324 " " Fastener, Foreman's 251 " " For Comb Honej' 2.! How Much does it Pay? ;i07 " Home Made 326 " " Improvements in 291 INDEX TO VOL. VI. Comb Foundation Maehinefor Putting in Frames. .38 Making 39.5 " " Sagging 184 " " Tliin 1.^8 '• " vs. Natural Comb Starters... 234 Controversies, &c 326, 365 Corner Stone o07 Cutter Heads 57 Diary, Keeping 69 Diseases of Bees 14, 127, 380 Division Boards 343 " " and Feeder, Combined 231 " Kubber Lined 168,204 Doolittle. 566 lbs. of Honey from a Colony 11 Drones 17, 39, 40, 195, 222, 266 " From Virgia Queens 195, 222 " How to get Uid of 2;J3 " Unusual Killing of ... .'273 Drone Comb 24 " Layer 91 " Trap, Live 349 Dwindling, Spring 15, 127 Dysentery 42, 43 Eggs,&c 254 " and Brood in Winter 123 " Several in one Cell 348 Enameled Cloth for Transferring 304 " " Wintering 323, 340 " Sheets 341 Entomology .... 291, 328, 401 Extraetors, How to Make 82 " That throw Honey over the Can 126 Extracting 177, 195 Broad thick Combs for 32;} " From broken Pieces of Comb 350 Fairs and their Awards 218 Fall Management 285 Feeder and Division Boaid 231 Feeders, New 107, 121, 162, 231, 326 " Hains' and Dunham's 185 Simplicity 90 Feeding Candy in Frames 196 " Combs breaking Down 136 Filling Combs for 197 " Glucose 413 " Grape Sugar 121,161,372 Roast Chicken, &c 381 Spring 69 " Sugar Syrup 235 Florida 93, 343, 379 Foul Brood 48, 11.5, 120 " Salt and Water v8 382 Frames 321 " Another way to Make 329 " forHives 190 " First 214, 230 " Home Made 336 " Made all of Wood 9 " Running Crosswise 4 " Scoveirs Suspended 132,305 " TopBarsof 183,199 " to hold Sections 57 " The L. taking Precedence 123 From Blasted Hopes to the Smilery 416 From the Egg to the Bee 254 Fumigation 18!}, 305 Gallup in California. 415 Geo. Grimm 204 G loves 110 Glucose, Feeding 413 Grape Sugar ... .4, 18, 19, 26, .54, 87, 109. 161, 198, 2a'5, 326, 348, 384, 413 Grape Sugar and Adulteration 365 ' Candy 414 " " HowtoFeed 121,372 Growlery, The 74, 178, 219, 256, 313, 328, 363 Hives 187 .. Box 8, 112, 288 . . Chaflf, Clark's Rustic .302 Hiving in 234 How to Make Cheaply 89 How Not to Make Them 37 Siding 395 The j&iS.OO Offer 89,91,131,144,240,308 .. Cypress for 269 . . Entrances to 44, 381 Exchanging Places, Warning 162 . . Frame vs Box 50 8 Frame 92 . . Making 21, 151, 272 Before They are Wanted 33 By Hand 379 Extra Wide 204 .. Painting Inside 141, '355 Hives, Patent 411 Buying 306 Putting an Upper Story on 94 Queer •J62 Queries Aboiit 6 Scattering in Different Localities 380 Shading £.5, 105 Simplicity 97 Willi Crosswise Frames 4 Temperature of in winter 163 Tenement, 4 lUvps in One 391 Varnishing Inside 128 Weighing, ( tc '21 Honey, Adultcrj.tiun of 396 Aster 7, 47 I'arrels, Mishaps with 339 Can We Sell It y -.56 Candjing as Fast ns Gathered 93 In the Cells 7, --^'i Column 18, 396 Dew -jie, -..59, '269, 342, 412, 414 Extracted 46 Vs Comb 70, 196 From Skunk's Cabbiifie 411 Fumigat ing .' 305 How Much Does it Take to Winter Bees'?.. .106 Mow to Sell 420 Is it Healthy? '249 Keeping From Sweating 344,349 .5.J6 lbs. From 1 Colony 11 Marketing 303 Pitchers Wanted i'51 Ripening -. 343 Scales for Weighing 385, 416, 4'20 Sections, How to Keep 415 Selling 321, 420 Spurious, in England and Scotland 4 Storing etc '292 Side vs Top 304 Straining 199, 313 Surplus, Getting 415 Thin and Fees 90 Unsealed, in Sections 305 Weighingout, for Retail 38.5, 416,4-0 Why docs it run out of the hives in winter?. .19 AVithout a Hive 32-2 Honey Plants 71 Hotany of. . . .34, 114, 218, 276, -291, 328, 401 Asters 329, 398 inaddernut '218 Huffalo Clover '276 Button Bush 291 Catnip 13,36 . . Cleome 3>9 .. Clover 371 . . Dandelion 14, 87 Fruit I'lo'soms 118 Gill-over-1 he-ground 118 Golden Rod 119 Locust 362 ]\iignonetlc 297 . . Milkweed 297 .. Mint Familv 329 Motherwort". 276, 297 . . M ustard 398 . . Rabbit Foot '376 .. Red Bud 328 Simpson 13 Sourwood '^91 . . Spider Flower -292, 329, 364 . . Stone Clover -276 . . Sweet Clover 412 Teasel. 6 Ver( nica Spicata 329 Whitewood or Tulip "270 .. Uild Basil '291 Clover '^76 .. Rice -200 ITow to tell how Much Honey a Plant Produces.. 3^9 Humbugs and Swindles ".70, 138, 145, 1.59, -257, 30?, 364, 394, l.l. In the Nick of Time 70 Invention, Whose is It? a50 Is it an A li C Hook, or a Cyclopajdia? 410 Italians and Swarming 344 " Putting all the Honey in the Brood Chamber 48 " Working in Poxes 30 Italianizing 361, 308 Joiner, Friend 160 " " and his "Convention" 36 " " *' " Swarming Troubles 12 Kelly's Island 89, 91, 124 King Birds 262, 308 INDEX TO VOL. VI. Lamp Nursery 2{)6 " . '• amH^iecn Colls 31 " " For I intchins' Hen's Eggs 1»50 Sitting- Ileus vri 349, ;i84 i Ladies' Department 392 Lanssti oth A. r 49. 307, 343, 358, 399 | ftiartins 2 93 ^Mec 7,43 Mistakes, How tliey Come 200 " VVhi'ie Some of the I. lame Rests 414 V itehell's Patent i31, 1-5 Moth Worms 108 JSJy Experience.. 5. 33, (iil, 105, Ul, l';7, -213. -.'49, -iK, 3 1 E57, 391 Notes and Queries '57, 348 Nueleus '.6 , '.9.^ " Keeping' in the House 411 Nuclei, 3 Fianie \ s. 'J Frame 1 0 Winl ering- 37-.J One Price and no Deviation 141- Our Homes 414 Parafine 90 Patents -.'5! " Mitchell's 1^5 Phymata Erosa. 3'9 Planes, Small 5(j Pollen 300, 331 " in Scciions H: 9 Propolis ICO, ;86 How to get KkI. fit 36: Remove from the Hands 337, 380 Queens 67, 367 " liees Killing their Own 361 " Mack -.33 " 1 uyiiig 13 " " Evperiencc in '55 " Py mail 'i.9, -234, 2C6, 306 " " " J n Canada 304 " Gaged, bees leaving them i7i " Color of 333, 399 " Crippled 30H " Dark, from pure Italian mother 379 " Dollar, in A' ay 195 " *' Propoit ion of hybrids among i70 " '• Raising 73 " Do the bees carry intelligence in regaid to their w hereabouts? 414 " Early 88 " Knteiing (he wrong hive 176 " Feitile and drone laj'er in same hive 91 " Fertilization ( f 47, 74, '-91, 38.', 384, 394 " " " Kohler process 4, 9i " " in Conflnemeut 394 " " Witnessed 394 " Going Homo 415 " Hatching under a Sitting lien "SO " How to Keep a Long Time '•;88 3fa/fe l;ees Accept 399 " " They Lay two Kinds of Eggs 407 '* Hunting 382 " Import, How to 341 " Importing 87 " Imported 31i " Introduce in W inter. How to 394 " Introducing. . . .97, i31, 'J49, '.51, 288, COt, 3.5, 366, 394 by Artificial Cells 383 " " Directions for 3:5 " " Mishaps in a44 " Laying. 2 in one Swarm ^49, ;,irO " Losing in the Spring 2)^5 " Loss of 408 " " In Swarming ;05 •' Mating Twice ICO, 195, :i99 " Meeting with the Drones 405 " Mishapswith 3.i9 " Mysteries 398 " Natural, Facts about i^-i " New Theory c84 " Non Swarming ; 94 '• Not Laying in the Fall .'79 " Odorof 409 " "Old Maid" :06 " Outside the Hive l-'4 " Queer Doings of 168 " Reared out of Season 164 " Rearing for t he M arket -86 " " How Much can we Help the Bees. 358 " " New Combs vs. Old .■->74 " " Quick Work in 344 " Reports of 344 ' ' Reserve 271 " Reviving 415 " Spotted 197 " Shipping in Nov 396 " Stinging 1. '4, 381, 413, 415 " That go ViiitiDg 312 •' " Won'tLay 3i9 " Unfertile, &c 383 " Virgin, Age at whichthcy Taketheir Wed- ding Flight 404 " Voices 285, 327 " W ings. Clipping. . .1.7, 183, 249, '.5', -70, 31i, 407 " " Scissors for 270 ' Shall we Clip them? 406 " Yellow and I lack 128 " Young, with First Swarm 344 Queen Cage, t ottle 289 " Candy 197 " For 215 " $-5.00 230 " Cells, and Lamp Nursery 34 " " and Very Young lees '2ii " Artiflcial 3.3,378 "■ Scovell's 359 " " Caging '-'3S " " Do the Queens Destroy them? 308 " Grafting 276 " " Persistent Building of 3*3 " " Queens Loose in 310 Queries, &c 6,288, '.'90 Questions, Asking 3i0 Rabbets with notches in them 92 R. R. andExp. Co'8 183 Rape, Remedy for l.lacU Fleas on .-36 Reply to Geo. O. Churchill 27i Repoi t From Mich 825 " " Nebraska 71 " Texas 146 " " York State Beginner 147 Rights, Purchasing 128 Robbing '•267 " And Transferring 179 Robbers 213 Saws, r.arnes' Hand Rip HI " Buzz 57 Foot-power 383, 39i " " " How to make 357,;i85 Home Made L79,i9^ " " Horse Power i;92 Putting in Order 105, 147 "Wabbling" 50 Saw Filing 57 Scotlsnd, American Implements in 415 Screw Drivers 112 Separators, etc 149, 3-6 Tin 57 \\ooden ;80, 41i Sheets, Enameled ^HO, 341 " To Cover Frames, how to make 7.J Siam, A Letter From 40' Slates - 69, 19S "Smilcry," The 3L9, o61, 410 Smoke 17^ Smokers 109, 110, 11-', 1.5, 148, 16!, 2. 5, ^28 Fuel For 251,104 " Home Made •^■;'f " Hot, how to put Fuelm 411 "• How to make \^ How to Use 161 " Replenishihg 34J " Townley's. '^15 Soldering Implements 10< Some Valuable hints From an Old Subscriber. .. .28« Stings 110 " Are they Injurious? wi " Asa Remedial Agent -^ Of Queens 124. :,81, 413, 415 Stopping o ournals "2^ 6 Sugar Syrup 2: 5 Swarms and Italians : *>44 " And Swarming, how to Manage 181 Angry 251 " Arr sting -81 " Huilding up in the Fall 312 " Doubling up in the Spring 88 " How to liring Down 120 " Queenless ""lUi " Second in April 198 " Starved out. Danger from 232 " l^n(|ue. C R Carlin,.lan FebApr and Mav. J H Nellis, Jan to Sept. A I Root, year. Valentine & Son, Feb to .July. P L Viailon, Feb to .Inly. H Tench, Mar, Apr. F .1 Farr, May. F A Sal- isbury, May and June. R Stehle, June and July. J Oatman and Sons, July and Aug. I^ces. H Roop, Jan to Aug. J R Landes, Jan to Sept. J P H Brown, Jan to Sept. J M Marvin, Jan and Feb. A I Root, voar. P L Viailon, Feb to July. E W Hale, Feb to Aug. G W Gates, Feb to Apr. C Dadant, Mar to May and July. C C Vaughn, Mar to May. J Hoffman, Mar and Apr. A Potter, Mar and Apr. W Harvey, Apr to June. Brooks Bro's, Apr INDEX TO VOL. Vt. to Sept. S Valentine, May and Juno. H H Brown, May 10 Aug. K B Barnnm, Way to July. J H Nel- lis, War to July. Valentine and Son, Feb to July. A Fftioon, Aprto June. W V Hcnderscn, Apr to Sept. O il 'iownsend, Uily to Sept. vv H v» are, July to Aug-. Geo Grimm, Get to Dec. Geo B Peters, Nov and Dec. Kev G u Child, Nov. Hee!-.->vax;. Eckeiman & v\ ill, Jan to July. A 1 Root, July to Dec. iiiiicloi-ss. A I Koct, year. Coiiil> i'tlii. >ltiJxtiaotors. A I Boot, year. BB Murphy, Feb JNlar JSiav and June. j.u Bithardson, Apr and May. Jillootrot spcs. A 1 Boot, year. aiJiigiaAluy. Stillman & Co, year. Jb^ooii>ti^\ !?a^vss. W F & J Larnes, year. A I Boot, J ear. «j laf^.»*. A I Boot, Oct to Dec. «jri-, !— iiijJi'ai-. Davenport Glucose Co, Jan to June Nov and Dec. A 1 Boot, j ear. Ijii-apo Viiie."^. ■> G v\ arner, Aug to i ct. l:li> o!s. B B i\. urphy, Jan Feb and Dec. J Oat- man & Sons, Jan to A.u^. Ai S u ei?t, oan to Nov. J L Parker, year. M Nelson, Jan to june. G vv Simmons, yesir. F W Dickinson, l<'eL) to Apr. U W Marshall, Feb to July. F A Suell, War t(j Nov. W Harvey, Apr to June, ttl Bichaidson, Apr lo May. J 11 Nellis, year, s D Beigel, i\iay. a i> 1 ainum. May to July. Valentine A: .-on, li A Euell, June to july. Lr i> Neuenschwander, July. H IS Klkins, July lo ' ept. A A Fradenburg, July and Aug-. J L Parker, Oct to Lee. A 1 Boor, year. C McQueen, lee. F A falisbuiy, Ltc. Lewis & Parks, L ec. lioiiey Uoxcs. CBIsham,Apr. JEMoore, Sept and Oct. Honey tTai'S. C F Wuth, Jan J:ar May July Sept and Nov. lU il Tweed, .^ept. Jttouej^ Iviiiv ew. Lingtiam & Ketherington, Aug. Honey I^ackage. J II JJartiu, i-ept. Honey 'Agrees. A I Boot, year. liiiljoi-tecl C^iieeii!->. Dr j P J;rown, Jan to Aug iiiept Nov and lee. D Tremontani, year. C Dadant, fl.ar to JNiay and July, p] \\ & A ti K Llood, Apr to J ane Aug and Mpt. A 1 Boot, year. i'ei'itxlJcalsj. Jas V'ick, jan to Apr and Lee. A I Boot, year. A J King & Co, year. T ^i Newman, year. A J iVarks, June. J ii Nellis, Jan and lee. G M Loolittle, Leo. U O Tompkins, icc. l*laiiei'!s. A I Boot, Feb to 1 ec. I:*oiilti'y. J B Landes, Jan to i^ept. J JI J.'ar- vin, Jan and Feb. Valentine & !-on, Feb to Juij'. King & White, ft. ay and june. \\ ilarvey, Aprio June. C^iieeiis. J B Landes, Jan to Oct. AV W Gary, Jan to July. h\\ hale, year. D A Pike, Jan. Ai Boot, year. 11 H Brown, year. J t-haw & Son, Jan to Nov. F. M Bayhuist, jear. A Cox, Jan to Aug. J M C Taylor, year. Aakntine& Son, Feb to Dec. DrJPBtrown, year. U ^■^ A. ar^hall, lebtoJuly. J C & H P tayles, i eb to Aug. P L Viallon, leb to Pec. G W Cates, Icb to Apr. TGilcbaw, Feb to May, July to Sept. i Ladant, A!ar to May and July. H Alley, ivjar to sept. O M Townsend, Aiar to May, July to sept. G h ft.ackey. Mar. J L \Valcher, Mar losept. 0 U Keeler, iMartoSept. K L Bozier, Mar to Sept. F A snell. War to June. 51 Parse, Apr and July. A L A,oon, Apr to June. J A Imchauan, Apr to June, and Aug. \V Harvey, /pr to June. \V P Henderson, Apr to Sept. J Oalnian, Apr to .'cpt. J T Scott, Apr to Oct. C H Stordock, Apr to Aug. J A Bingham, i^pr to Oct. MMyrick, Apr to Oct. S A'^alentine, A.ay and June. C c Vaughn, Jiar to May. M Nevins, Jiay. Ha Michener, Way to Oct. J T Wilson, Xay to Nov. L B Plunkett, Jiay to Sept. B H 1 arnum, Aiay to July. U L Clark, June to Aug. Williamson ir Bro, June to Oct. li tsmyser, June. B stehle, Apr to July. B 1 erris, June. C A, cllave, July and Aug. H Si Llkins, July to Oct. AV C Gillet, July and Aug. H Si Hampton, July and Aug. AV HoUam, July and Aug. \\ D W right, Aug and Sept. C H A\ocd, Aug. nosess. li A Elliot & Co, Mar. J C Wood & Bro, April. iS»eellons<. J ( atman & Sons, Jan to May. Smith & liuell. Mar. B stehle, Apr to July. W D Parker, Way and June. J H Nellis, lob to Sept. A 1 Boot, year. F A Salisbury, L'tc. Lewis & Parks, Dee. li K Murphy, Dec. Heeds. C AV Icah, Jan. C F lane, Feb to Apr. A C Nellis, Mar and Apr. C F Muth, leb and Mar. A I Root, year. J Vick, Dec. }?»iiiolcerw. T 1' Lingham, Apr to Dec. LC Root, May to Nov. A J King, June to uec. A I Root, year. (!?»taiiip(<. A 1 Boot, Nov and Dec. Wiippiies. J Oatnian &sons, Jan to May. Val- entine &. -on, Feb to July. G W.Marshall, Feb to July. J 11 Nellis, Jan to sept and Dec. il Alley, Aiar and .^pr. JC&H P Sayles, Leb to Aug. li Tench, JIar and Apr. P L Viallon, I'eb to July. M Richardson, Apr and Aiay. J B i.a viontague. May. B B Barnum, .way to July. .\I A Buell, Juno and Julj'. A 1 Root, year. K .\ Salisbury, Dee. 'A ill. A 1 Loot, Apr to L'ec. "Waiil etl. F u .Mcoiavock, Feb. H I'almer, Feb. J M Kauffman, Apr. F E Townsend, Way. "B," J une. CDS tratton, s ept. Rev G H c hild, Nov. Index to Correspondents. Atchley, E J, 4!», i-Ni:.', ::50, 4U ; A.B. 72; Archer, J,113, ;i4;i; Ambrook, C A, lU; Anderson, A W, 16;!; Allen LBS, I'JT; A W W, 219; Ames N S, 'iSi; Acker B V, ;J35; Anderson J B, 257, 342; Abbey B N, 268; A & K, 343; ABC Friend, o61; Allen N H, 401. iioerstlcr J, 19, fi3, 162; Barbour K M, 21; Deal W J, 34, 114, 218, 270, 291, 3211, 401; Brown W G, 34; Bailey G l<, 18; Butler J, 70, 163, 327; Bowe E W, 73; Best L P, 87; Beaty J W, 88, 399; Bayard J W, 89; Barclay J W, 91; BohnJ, 89; Baldwin E M, 91; Borden A, 92; Blackman E B, 92; Butler B,94; Barnes W F & J, 12;i; Brown H H, 125; Bedell J D, 125; Brown D C, 126. 328; Bennett H S, 126; B Lunderer 127, 178; Bodwell L W, 162; Bovd W S, 163, 195, 323, 326, 340; Baker D B, 180, 1S5; Button D. 182, 380; Brown J P H, 195; Bowen O F, FJ6; Brigham 0 A, 199; Bassett D S, 199; Blood C W, & A H K, 229; Brumtield O, 230; Brooks J M, 23;j, 341; Belts L W, 2o5: Buchanan J H, 2.53; Breed J E, 258; Butler J, 265; Bailey Mrs G F, 271; Boardman H R, 271; t:ason W F, 276; Boyd W, 304; Brown 11 P, 306; ijates C, ;.07: LonhamM L, 307; Bliss F, 308; liutler S S, 308; Burgess F W, 3E9; Barton J F, 340; Bailey D 342; Bailey B H, 342; Best L, 348: Baldridge M M, 363: Leiden R 11, ;:e4: Langs C B F, 365: Bennett B N 379; Balsiger J,L81: Luler D L, 398: Baird J, 414. Cook A J, 7, 50, S6, 216, 215, L29: Carroll J, 8: Col- lins W B, 10, 312: Christie II E, 21, 421: Cheney A B, 22, 49: Conaway A F, 38, 119, 164: Clai k O S, 48: Car- lin C B, 74: Carpenter C, 89, 121,257: Clute O, 92: Coutant C, 112: Cole J S, 123: Capehart S P, 124: Car- penter 11 F, 148: Camp MM, 164: Coombs W C, 179: Cady Mrs. W G, 200, : Coveit G M, 231 : Coggshall W L, 234 : Cheney E, 236: Churchill G O, 236: Crippen E H, 236: Colton J B, 256: Cheatam J M, 258: Call A 272: Cooper J T, 258: Canthen W «, 306: Clark FP, 306; Co^\an H C, 107: Christie A, 308: CT, 310: Colby L T, 329: Cobb Mis. P P, 339: Comings F W, 340: Cox A, 341: Cooper J B, 34J : Castello G, 350: Case N F. 379 : Corbett W B, 381: Crockett J M, 383: Chaplin V M, 396: Childs J,413. Uoolittlc G M, 7, 11, 12, £2, 88; Drake S, 8, 120; Duf- feler J, 18; Deane C H, 37, 412; Daniels W S, 50, 308; Dickinson J C, S8; Drew J, 89; DclzeU T T, 90; Dev- enport B, '.3, 382; Dillman S. Ill, 349; Dean J E, 142 148,161,270; Dobyns Mrs S B, 146; Durall T O, 1.59; Davis J L, 164; Doherty G C, ICl; Dunham F, 185; Dale G M, 195; Dippel C, 196; Dieflenhach J, 231; Dy- singer D 231; Davison A S. 270; DeGarmo S C, S04; Dcdd C, 344; Demaree G W, 383, 414; Denman G H, 395; Demerest H P, 411. i:ddy W A,106, 232, 413; Eckman J W, 124, 147; Eberman Mis, 164, 3f:0; Elliott T 1, 230; Ellis C A, 231; Elam G J, 2:!;i; E\ ans M H A, 254; Eaton P G, 271; Edwards J F, 323; E\ cry J H, 349; Evans J, ;{82; E T, 412; E B B, 414. Jb'alkner B, 19; Fay lor L, 21; Flory J F, 48; Foster L A, .50; Farr F J, 50; Foreman A W, 70; Fell F F, 88, •iOl; FollmerW G, 91; Folheringham J, 92; Friend C P, 124; Foster O, 144. 240, 254, 2.';5; Fogle E T, 198; Foreman A L, 198, 258, 269; Faxon C G, 200; Fox H H, 216; F D L, 220; Forest VV C, 2:3:3; Fiddes A,2:i6; Fred- erick W H, 258; Foster W, 276; Frink G S, ;;08; Finch B, :i44; Fowler J C, 362; Foiman G W, 38:3; Fradenburg A A, 401; Favis J M, 411; Fetherolf S S, 411; Paris J, 416. tjJriswold E W, 11; Gates O W, 20; Gray A, 49; Griswold A N, 124; Gibson W, 126; Goodno O B, 147: Gould Mrs A L. 184; Grimshaw O, 196; (ireer S L, 197; Grimm G, 204; Gardner J T, 21:!; Goodrich E S. 23:3, 268, ;306; Grote C W, 2/8; Goodeil C H, 288; Gill M A, ;U1, ;380; Grier W C, :343; Gamble G W, :344; Gra- ham P, ii74; Greiner Bro's. ;380, 412; Gross F, :J82; Gilchiist J N, :394; Gerrish N L, ;i95; Green G C, 414. INDEX TO VOL. YI. Hutchinson W Z, 5. 31. 34. 69, 105. 141. 1... 213, 3^9, 2«5, 321, 357. 391; Hiiymun J. 19: Hutches N. 21: Rain^ .T n, 21. 1S5, 4U: Hind? W D, 22, 9:3: Hickey J F 71; Hale E W. 72: Hunter J, 72; Hurd M. 89: Hvde R, 90: Huirhes J S. 91; Hipolite W W, Ul; Howard D. UQ 19S- Hillis S G, 182; Hayhurst E M, 195, 215, 2S6, 344; Hiiffaker M A. 196; Horton W, 106; Higrgins R. 198; Hildreth X L. 198; Holt G W, 200: H.irlon J W , aw- H C C 221: Howard W C, 221; Hall W P. 25S; Hatch C A. 2(57, 292; Hilton E I!. 261; Hoppoek W H. 269 271- Haven G W. 270. 415; Henderson W P. 285, 328- HJT. 30:5; Hardin J R. 301; Hart wellJ L. .305; Huffman G R. 307; Hickok S H. 31S; H . 416: KeerariJ W 22 339: Klimitz C, 4><: Keeney V W, 50, Ih?, 233, 399- Knve A W.89,171: Keller H. 94: Kin«ey T L, 114: Kinjr VT L. 161. 162: Kirk W IT, 162, 2^6, 415: Kin? E : R. 196: KnoU D K. 197: Keil. .1 W. 306: , Kennedv G W, 307: Krippner J, 30**: Kleinow O, 325: Klippert A, 341: Knowles C G, 415. „. „_ I^awson R H. 22: Lockwood S D, 47: Leers W . 8. : 1 Lewis A A. 88: Larjre G G, 91, 9S: Lippinr^ott S R, 128: Lane D P, 160, ;«7: Libhy H, 181: L W V, 2.56: Laffertv J, 271: L.irge Mrs M O, 292. .329. 3a5: Little H. 307: Lee J H, 322: Lyne T X, 325: Lansstroth L L, 85'*. 39.5, 400: L^ete Mrs J, 361, 410: Lane S II. 401. >rc Gaw T G. 19: Moon .A F, 20. .50, 186, :304:Mrs. M A "W B. 21: Mackev G H. 26: Mitchr-Il J H, 35: Martin J H, 36, 48, 109, .3(H, 38->: Merriman G F, 47, 216: Mc- Cord D A. 49, 12."), 34^3: Marioneaux R. 49: McCook J, 71: MellenRH, A7: Muth C F. a^: Maddox A S, 93: I Mattoon J, 126: Mills M W. 127: Morrison S W. 161, : 291,312: Mc Mains A, 164: Mc Whorter J J. 168: Mc- Cain Wm. 196: Mas*PV W P., 203: Markham M L, 214: Miller C S, 220: Mc N'm v F, 2 '.1: Morgan A L, 256, 258: Moodv TI A. 236: Mnnv 15eP-keepers 2.57: Mover J F, 272, 348: Murphv W IT, 3«)3: Morehouse W S. 304: Mi'chener L 304. Vsi. 3V!5: Murray J W, :W5: Mosely N A. 305: Martin I G, 342: Morgan E A. 36). .395: Moore W E, 372: Mclntvre R fT. 37:i: Myers F, .3^1, :3.V>, 415: McRav C E, 401: McFarland S G, 403: M. Eliza G. 410: Mc Queen C, 416. ^ , „ „, ^^ >^llls J H. 7. 125: Xevins M. 36: Xotlee E. 94: No Xame. 160: Xigh L, 19<. 2 55: Xickersoa R, 2a: Nor- ton D, .305: Xoyes Ida F. :«2. „ , ^ Oviatt LR. 81: Otis C, 125: O. F. 2iJ: Oatman& Sons, J, 229; Oiler D S. 269. l»arker O W. 7, 47: Parker D G, 7. 412: Philps H F, 11: Pratt B F, 20, 21, 382: Parmly E. 3:3, 47, 87: Pot- ter A. 93: Prudden X A. 94. 126. 236: Perrine C O, 122: Prescott J H. 127: Parker J P. 159: Page V, 160: Porter J W, 168. 2'»,293: Palmer D B,19^: Potter A A,199,303: Peters G B. 218: Parker M E, 21S. 231: Price i' H. 236: Parker T B. 2.50. 3'<1: Parshall J. 256. 2.57. 349: Polleys F. 258: Pool C, 2.5'*: Peichey S M, 271: Penfold F. 2.2: PetcrsDr. H J. 3-8: Rudeslll BN. 271: Rucher L G, 272, :i44: Robinson R, 276: Roseman O L, 2)1: Rath von S S, 202: R M P, 313: Rel?le P A, 340: Rue C H. 342: Rummell L:344: Ruff Dr. D E, 3S1: Racine J F. 3:<4: Ruitt W, 413: Rob- inson O. 414. , ,„ ^, ,_ f^impson J A. 13, .38,217: Scott Ja-s. 19: Stover M M, 22- Stanley G W, 35: Shoemaker W H, .50: Shaffer C,.50: Sanders D J, 89: Shuck J M, 90: Swartwout J J, 91: Smith T, 110: Smith W C, 92: Slough C. 93: Shearer J W. 93. 292: Sawver S J. 120: Steele X C, 123, 162,198: Smith E E, 127:"Strong J li, 127: Starkey D ■W, 127: Stehle R. 12-!: Skee i J E. 12^: Scovell U, 132, 359: SalisburyS W, 142: Salisbury F. 147: Shepard R E. 1.59: Stanley T C, 161. Snell F A. 165, :363: Shaw H n, 164. 2O0, 270: Shephard X X, 181, 311. %2: St Martz W, 196, 343: Sharp C C, 198: Spangler W, 198: Slack J D, 199, 276: Shinkle G W, 300: Seeawith SF, 204; Smith CT, 218: Shultz W F, 218: Shinton Wm, 232 25.8: Seiduer A B, 234; Stair & Kendel, 234, 26-<, :i42 li^O: Smith Mrs. 11,268: Spencer A, 269: Sherritf W J '272: Sweet W O, 272: Subscriber 276: Squire Mrs. J M 290: Stearns W, 2*3- Stokes J W. ;304: Simons .M, 305 379: Shane H 13, 3a5: Savles J C & H P, :306; South wick E 13, 308: Suplee X H.:323: Spencer G F, :}42: Sager E, 349: Simmons GW, :364: Smith II, 38:3, 412, 416: Small Geo. 414: Slavton C M, 415. •■-rhurber & Co. 11: Townsend O H. 43: Trimble W X. 94: Tavlor H M, 94: Thornburv J il, 125: Tyrell D, 126, 304: townlev J H. 12-. 194. 21.5". 2 5-5; Tucker E. 200: Tavlor J G, 231: Tvler M D. iJ4. 249: Tilman J, 234: Thompson R H, 249: Tavlor R C. 269. :5:39: Tweed M II, 30:3, 304: Thomson R. :307: Thompson A 13,307; Thomson C, 307. 349: Tuthill Mrs. A K. :364. Underbill D C. 222, 392. 413: Underwood P. 378. A'an Allen T. 6: Vial Ion P M, 87. 120, 268: Van- dervorst J. 147: Valentine J M. 253, 270: Vilas Mrs. F M, 269: Van Houten W G. .305. White G W, 20: Woolf J D. a5: Wiltse J. 71. 74: Wolcott J L. 77. 361 : Whiting L C. 87: White F C, 90: Winfleld J. 90: Webster L. 93; Ward J A. 127; Wilson T F. 144: Wolf G W. 149, :i4:3: Williams .M L, 1.59, 161, 197, 382: Willson W L. 160: Williams II W, 160, 16:3: Wilson J S. 161, 379: White J D. 1>^3: Wolf ax M H, 199: WillardW J. 216. 344. 359: West E. 217: W H B, 220: Ware S C. 2:i4: Williams J. 235: Williams A C. 235. 410: Warner K G, 257, Wood J. 2.58: Wells J D, :303: Wil- liamson W. :306: Wright D. 306: Wright M. :308: W H H,:310: Wilson J T, :M9: Waldo C E. :353: Whitney C M.379: Wright FL.:395: Wier R F,;396: White J W, 536. 402; Williams T B. 401: Wilkin R, 401, 415: Wills J, 412: Wright W J, 415: Wilkins C. 416. Young .1 A. 20: Youna: J R. 2.51: Young M G. 3.33: Yoder W E, 360, Zatterstrom J F, 32S: Zenblen J W, 344. '!^2 TABLE or PKE.TIIL Jl^. The first column is for those only, at i who send 5 or more names. t'^ Karnes of Premium Articles. ^^ Any of them sent post-paid on rec'pt of price.\ 1— .4 B C of Bee Culture, Part First 251 2 — Lithograph of Apiary, Implements, etc. 25 :3 — Photograph of House Apiary 25 i—"That Present.'' Sovice a'ul Blue Eyes 2a 5 — E.nerson's Binder for Glkamsgs, will hold 3 Volumes 5f 6 — " " better quality 60 7 — P tcket Magnifying Glass 6") 8 — First or second Volume of Cjl.KK'Sin(iS..l^ 9 — Best quality Einersm s Biiuler fir GlE AMN»3 75 \0—Diuhle Lens M irinitier,on .<5 brass feet l.OOJ II— Photo Medley. Bee-Keepers nfAm.'?rica\,'(Vi\ \-i— First and second Vol. o/Gle amnios.. 1,5