272 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



June 



the bees came out and spotted their hives 

 with a tarry matter that is not washed off 

 the tin root's yet ; and liad not fine weather 

 come at just the right moment, I do not 

 know but that we might have lost a liundred 

 colonies, even after tne first of May. As it 

 was, we lost but two or three. Why does 

 cool weather make so much more trouble in 

 April and May^ than it does in winter ? Is 

 it because they nave a good store of new pol- 

 len that they have filled themselves with r* 

 Will friend Ileddon please answer? 



SUGAR VERSUS HONEY FOR WINTER- 

 ING, ETC. 



M S everybody has something to say in regard to 

 J^^_ cellar or outdoor wintering, I will tell my ex- 



" ^ perience with chaff hives. I have wintered 



Buccessfully, packed in chaff. The winter of 1880 

 and '81, my bees were packed in tenement hives, 20 

 swarms in number, and I lost only 3 out of the 20, 

 and they died with dysentery. I had some swarms 

 that I fed on while-sugar syrup in the fall, and they 

 came through without any sign of dysentery, clean 

 and bright in the spring. When 1 prepared my bees 

 last fall for winter, 1 fed white-sugar syrup to those 

 that were lacking in stores, and to the i-est I gave 

 good early honey, and I have wintered without any 

 loss on the summer stand in the Roop winter-pro- 

 tector hive, which I think is the best hive out for 

 both summer and winter use. Double-walled or 

 chaff hives are the thing for spring and fall, espe- 

 cially during such a spring as this has been; with 

 the sudden changes, bees would suffer in single- 

 walled hives. I think, if we would feed white sugar 

 more for winter use, it would pay. 



TELEPHONES AS A WEATHER INDICATOR. 



I see a question in Gleanings in regard to the 

 ringing of the telephone wire, and your answer was, 

 the wire was too loose. We have one, and the wire 

 is drawn as tightly as it can be, and it rings louder 

 than it did when it was loose. I think it is the at- 

 mospheric changes that cause the ringing. We have 

 noticed that it always rings before a storm or a 

 change in the weather. It has proven to be more 

 correct than the barometer that hangs on the stoop. 

 The other morning I was going to town, and the tel- 

 ephone was ringing, and I said it would rain before 

 night, and it did. If you have one, please take no- 

 tice, and let us hear more about it. E. W. Lowe. 



Sebewa, Ionia Co., Mich., May 9, 1883. 



The testimony in favor of white sugar in 

 place of natural stores, places the matter be- 

 yond controversy, it would seem. It was 

 one of the points I urged emphatically, when 

 the first number of Gleanings was issued. 

 The testimony of the years that have passed 

 has steadily confirmed it, and the only change 

 I would make since then is to advise the 

 purer granulated sugar, instead of coffee A ; 

 and for this idea we are indebted to friend 

 D. A. Jones. The few colonies we have lost 

 during the past winter are in each case 

 among those that had enough natural stores. 

 The one of neighbor II. 's five, that died in 

 May, was the old original stock started from 

 the pound of bees ; and as they were so much 

 ahead of the four made from them, they 

 gathered sufficient natural stores, while the 

 young ones had to be built up on sugar.— 

 The ringing of the telephone you allude to, 



friend L., is not quite what we have been 

 discussing. The ringing sound while talk- 

 ing, was the objectionable feature. You 

 speak of the musical note, like that of the 

 ieolean harp, and you are, of course, right 

 about it, being greatest when tightly strung. 

 Its queer sound, often breaking out in the 

 night time, was once quite a serious objec- 

 tion to ours, but I never before heard of as- 

 sociating it with weather changes. It is oc- 

 casioned by the rising of a light but steady 

 breeze, if I am correct ; and as a rain is al- 

 most invariably preceded, several hours be- 

 fore, by such a rising of the wind, no doubt 

 a ringing of the telephone would indicate 

 the coming of rain, on the same principle as 

 the barometer and hygrometer. 



(liARK'S FOUNDATION FASTENER. 



AN IMPROVEMENT ON THE PARKER MACHINE. 



ITH this I send you a modiflcation of the 

 Parker machine for fastening fdn. in sec- 

 tions. You described it a year ago in 

 Gleanings, but I think perhaps you never used it. 

 Myself and neighbors have used it the two seasons 

 past. Will you please try it? I wish no acknowl- 

 edgment of any kind for it. 



It is to be screwed on a 

 table or bench, with work- 

 ing end over the edge, so 

 the lever will swing; use a 

 little honey on the edge of 

 the presser occasionally, 

 and as the lever is brought 

 forward to relieve the 

 pressure on the founda- 

 tion, the section should 

 swing around as though 

 -.^ hinged at the corner; this 



CLARK'S STARTER MAOHIKE. y,\\y caUSC the fdU. tO 



adhere firmly to the section, while if the presser i3 

 raised and the section i-elieved without bringing it 

 forward, the foundation is quite liable to remain 

 on the presser. 



The particular object of the machine is to give one 

 two hands to handle sections and foundation, while 

 the foot docs the pressing. Norman Clark. 



Sterling, ID., May 18, 1882. 



You are right, friend C; we never got 

 around to make a machine, and therefore it 

 was never tried. It happened this time, 

 however, that your machine reached us 

 when the girls were crowded to get starters 

 put in fast enough, and all hands were so 

 busy I just told one of the girls to fix it up 

 themselves. In a short time I passed by, and 

 found them putting in starters faster and 

 better than they ever did before on any Par- 

 ker machine. The greater lever power ob- 

 tained makes it easy to rub the wax into the 

 wood so it can never get off without tearing ; 

 and with both hands to work with, one can 

 bend the fdn. up so it will hang right, and 

 do it vastly faster than with the Parker ma- 

 chine. With three flat-irons kept hot over a 

 coal-oil stove, as friend Miller taught us to 

 do on page 167, April No., I tell you work 

 goes on nicely and rapidly. Friend C, the 

 little machine is worth $5.00 to us, and I 

 hope it will be worth the same to at least a 



