226 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



H. A. BIJRCH & CO. 



OllCVEIlAL intimations have come to us, 

 ^ that Mr. Bnrch proposes to fill all un- 

 finished orders this season ; but the 

 most direct encouragement we have had is 

 in the following letter :— 



Friend Root ;— I have been keeprng bees some 

 years, with but little proflt. I can generally winter 

 without loss by using enameled cloth and cushions; 

 but being black bees, they make but little honey, so 

 I thought I would get a better strain of bees; and as 

 H. A. Burch & Co. claimed to have the best, I wrote 

 to them on the 21st of April, 1881, and sent them a 

 postolHce order for S6.05 for a colony of Italians in a 

 standard L. hive. I have waited patiently, but up to 

 date I have not received my bees. So a few days 

 ago I sent them a card, and this is the answer I re- 

 ceived:— 



Yours of 8th April received; please accept thanks. 

 Will do what we can; but between the action of the 

 bee journals last year, and our loss by fire in .Janu- 

 ary last, wo can't name any dates. If we can send 

 bees by and by, will do so. Yours Irulv, 



H. A. BURCH& Co. 



South Haven, Mich., April 11, 1882. 



Rather poor encouragement, after waiting so long, 

 as I wished to Italianize and try to make my bees 

 pay. I am seventy years old, and a poor man, and 

 not able to do much hard labor, so I thought by tak- 

 ing Gleanings and reading the A B C I might make 

 keeping bees pay, as there is plenty of basswood 

 here on the creek, besides fruit-blossoms and white 

 clover; but it seems I must wait for the " sweet by 

 and by." I could hardly spare the money I sent them; 

 but as they seemed reasonable in their prices, I sent 

 the price asked. If I had felt able to pay Dadant & 

 Son's prices, I should have gone over into Illinois and 

 purchased a colony of them, as they live onlj' about 

 15 miles from me. Dear sir, tell me what to do in 

 this case;. it is very hard on me; they should have 

 sent my money back, and not have made use of it. 



Henry J. Alvis. 



Montrose, Lee Co., Iowa, April IT, 1883. 



We are very sorry indeed for your disap- 

 pointment, friend A., and I do not think I 

 am taking any liberty in saying the bee 

 journals, all of them, would most gladly do 

 any thing in their powder to assist Mr. Burch 

 in making good all these claims. If any 

 one can tell us how to do so, we will consider 

 him a public benefactor. We will gladly 

 publish statements from all as soon as they 

 receive their bees, or, in fact, any thing else 

 that goes to show they are settling up in an 

 honorable way. 



A HAL.F-STORY SIMPLICITY HIVE, 



ARRANGED TO HOLD ONE TIER OF SECTIONS. 



S WRITE concerning the half-story crate, of 

 which I wrote last fall. I send you a sample. 

 ' You will see by measuring, that it is just half 

 as high as the regular Simplicity hive; and by re- 

 moving the nails which hold the bottom, or rack, in 

 place, you can easily take it out, and by having the 

 metal rabbet in the ends, and placing two of them 

 together, we have a Simplicity hive complete. Now, 

 this is not all I wish to say in favor of them. You 

 well know, that the greatest reports in comb honey 

 have of late come from those who practice the tier- 

 ing-up plan ; and as it is utterly impractical with the 



crates made by you, I trust you will unhesitatingly 

 express your opinion in their favor, and keep them 

 constantly in stock for the benefit of your custom- 

 ers. You may say what you will; but with my ex- 

 perience, which is somewhat limited, a full sized 

 hive is too much to be added, all at one time, and I 

 feel myself substantiated in saying, that better re- 

 sults can be obtained from it than from any other 

 crate now in use. But, my object in sending it to 

 you is to obtain yovu- price for them. I shall want 

 about two dozen. Please let me know as soon as 

 convenient. Perhaps I should have stated in the 

 beginning, that it is the invention of Mr. Wm. Fry, 

 and has been used since 1870, and has come under 

 my observation during the last swo seasons. 



Basil Bleasdale. 

 Warrensville, Ohio, April 15, 1882. 



When I first invented the Simplicity hive, 

 a part of the original idea was to have whole 

 bodies and half-bodies; and two half-bodies 

 were to make exactly one whole one. The 

 hoop hive, that some of you may remember, 

 was made exactly on this plan. Now, friend 

 B., I think you a little hasty in saying the 

 greatest yields of honey are positively from 

 the tieriiig-up plan. Our greatest yields of 

 comb honey, in the hands of the masses, 

 have come "from the chaff hive ; and with 

 this it is certainly not very convenient to 

 tier up, by any way that I "know of, unless 

 you consider Doolittle's plan, of taking out 

 the sections as fast as they are capped, and 

 substituting empty ones, on the tiering-up 

 system. If so. the chaff hive, I should say, 

 is the very handiest for that purpose. Again, 

 you surely have read your price list and 

 ABC book enough to know^ that we use a 

 half-story cover, especially to hold a single 

 tier of sections. Well, when the bees get 

 this single tier pretty well filled, and need 

 more room, there are two ways of giving it 

 them. The first is to give them an upper 

 story, filled with wide frames, putting the 

 nearly filled sections in for the upper tier. 

 This is some work, but not much more than 

 taking out a part of the sections that are 

 filled, and replacing them. The second way 

 is to raise up the whole case of partly fin- 

 ished ones, and put a new^ case under it, hav- 

 ing all sections with open tops. Of course, 

 your cover will not go on now, and so we 

 must have a half-story, made of half-inch 

 lumber, and then we are all right. 



Now for the new plan, and I hope tite 

 friends will be patient while we consider it, 

 for it is one of the vital points before us. In 

 many of the cases in use, and illustrated in 

 catalogues, the sections are held over the 

 brood-nest in such a way that the bees can 

 cover the under side of the sections with 

 wax and propolis. This should never be, for 

 it is a fearful task to undertake to scrape it 

 all off, before sending the honey to market. 

 The bees should never be permitted to touch 

 the outside of a nice basswood section ; 

 therefore we must have the sections rest on 

 wide wooden bars, with spaces between to 

 match the spaces between the sections. 

 These bars must be attached to and form 

 the bottom of the section-case, or half-story, 

 and this spoils all idea of ever using two of 

 these half-stories for a whole story, to hold 

 frames at some subsequent time. Well, 



