284 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



June 



my bees were driving- them out and robbing them, 

 while the fact was, they had no more honey. He 

 gave them a little, and they returned. He had 38, 

 and now has 7. 1 had stocks that did not have two 

 pounds of honey in October, and very few bees; and 

 when I fed them, my ingenuity was taxed to the ut- 

 most to keep out robbers, yet now they are strong-. 



All seem to have a good word for your strain of 

 bees. I get my supplies from friend Chas. H. Rue, 

 of Manalapan, N. J., and the hives he has made for 

 me were never surpassed in workmanship; and his 

 bees are just beauties. 



You'll hear from me anon. All the boys and girls 

 seem to be interested in Blue Eyes, and It affects 

 me too. I have also a Blue Eyes, 4 years to-day, 

 her birthday, and we had chocolate. My parents 

 live in Wisconsin; and when I go "West to see them, 

 I'll call and see Blue Eyes and all the rest, and also 

 those who serenade the newly married couple with 

 the constellations of the heavens; and if Gleanings 

 is a good index, I expect, to meet merry Christians, 

 merry hearts, merry bees, and merry sunshine all 

 around. 



TOBACCO. 



I find no reaction yet on my system from giving 

 up the use of tobacco, though I formerly smoked al- 

 most automatically, and all the time. 



Stephen J. Harmeling. 



Spotswood, N. J., April 7, 1883. 



THE HAIiF-STORY SIMrilCITY, AGAIN. 



SOMETHING FROM THE MAN WHO INVENTED IT AND 

 USES IT, AS DESCRIBED ON PAGE 336. 



HAVE used the half-story since 1876, and that, 

 too, with veneer stuff for sections. In the first 

 place, I used as a honey-rack, the slotted bot- 

 tom [see cut on p. 337, May No.]; there is, when set 

 on the hive, just % in. space from top of brood- 

 frames to the bottom of bottom-bar of rack, leaving 

 space for bees to pass over between the ranges of 

 brood-combs to the openings between ranges of 

 sections above. Now, 4 sections just fill the space 

 between the two little strips nailed across at each 

 end of the slotted bottom, which also answer for 

 separator rest; and 7 rows of boxes fill the rack. 

 If your boxes are just 3 inches wide, it will leave 

 about li inch play, which is exactly as we want 

 them; because, when filled with honey they will be 

 very apt to be more or less propulized down to the 

 bottom-bars. Now, being a little loose, a slight 

 crowding sidewise easily starts them loose, and one 

 box, or all of them, may be removed, and new ones 

 replaced, without paying any attention to the sep- 

 arators, they being held in place by being dropped 

 In between the sections. The rack, when filled with 

 sections and covered down with your enamel cloth, 

 incloses the bees inside the boxes, leaving no space 

 for them to get outside and soil the sections, they 

 being, when filled, as bright and clean as when they 

 left the shop. For tiering up, it is unsurpassed. 

 After the bees get well started in the sections, and 

 are crowded for room, have another rack prepared 

 with sections and separators in place. Now lift off 

 the rack in which your bees are working, and put 

 on the prepared rack in its place. Now, to make 

 your racks tier up nicelj% and prevent those bits of 

 comb containing honey on the bottom-bars of the 

 removed rack, with partly filled sections, from soil- 



ing the top-bars of the lower tier of sections, rest 

 one end of removed rack on your scrap-receiver, 

 and with your knife, or the box-scraper described 

 on your S5cent counter (which is such an article as 

 I use), scrape off the bits of wax and comb on bot- 

 tom-bar, not being particular about getting it all off 

 down clean, as I have made provisions for that in 

 not letting the top of the section come up to the top 

 of rack within 3-33 of an inch. Now place the rack 

 on top of the new rack already on the hive, and you 

 have double surplus capacity; and in like manner 

 you can tier up to any amount, all of which can be 

 done in much less time than it takes me to write it. 

 Used as a hive in swarming -time, if the bee-keeper 

 should run short of hives, and has a surplus of 

 racks, he can lift out the loose bottoms, pile two to- 

 gether, hang his frames in the rabbets at the ends 

 of racks prepared for them; set it on a loose board, 

 put on enamel cloth and a hive-cover, and he has a 

 hive as compact in every particular as one made es- 

 pecially for that purpose. To use as a half-story 

 for feeding, or for winter packing, lift out the loose 

 bottom, put in your chaff cushions or absorbents, 

 and, as far as the top packing is concerned, your 

 bees are ready for winter. 



This is not mere theory, but my actual practice, 

 having wintered my bees on their summer stands in 

 plain Langstroth hives, with those racks for top 

 packing for the last 4 years, not losing over 3 per 

 cent in winter of 1879 and '80, as my neighbors can 

 testify. Thus you see the rack is in continual use 

 throughout the year, requiring no storage room. 

 This is a plain statement of facts (hurriedly jotted 

 down), which any one visiting my apiary can see in 

 use in all the different styles I have described. 



In looking over my back volumes of Gleanings, 

 the following parties send you their ideas, for 

 which you reward them as follows; March, 1878, 

 Carlin's foundation-cutter, a ten-cent article, $10.00; 

 April, 1878, Hains' feeder, a five and ten cent article 

 (as per your price list), $10.00; June, 1878, $35.00 for 

 Dunham feeder; July, 1878, $35.00 to Scoville for 

 queen-cage, and others. After seeing those awards, 

 I must say I concluded you must have overlooked 

 some of its merits, or else you thought my inven- 

 tion of little importance, by the price you set on it. 



Warrensville, O., April 37, 1883. Wm. H. Fry. 



Friend F., I thank 5'ou for the additional 

 facts from practical experience yon have 

 given ns in regard to your invention ; but 

 still, I would go back and repeat what I 

 said last month, and, if I am correct, when 

 tiered up you still have a 3-32 for the bees 

 to get over the lower sections and propolize 

 them. The two inventions you have men- 

 tioned, for which I paid $25.00 each, were 

 never used at all, and, in fact, so many I 

 thought at first glance were meritorious, 

 have been soon superseded or discarded, I 

 have become a little careful of late. The 

 Parker fdn. fastener, I first paid $-5.00 for; 

 and as it came into general use, I have since 

 paid him $10.00 more. If your half-story 

 comes into general use, I will gladly pay you 

 $25.00 more. Some of you may think this a 

 rather poor way of doing, but it is the best I 

 know how. I am always ready to pay cash 

 for articles, or devices and inventions, that 

 I think valuable, that I may give them to 

 you through the journal. Of course, I can 

 not do this on patented articles, for these are 

 not given to the public. 



