296 



GLEA-NINGS IN BEE CULTUllE. 



June 



no difference ; but your idea may be correct, 

 while it is being brought up to speed. 



HONEY-KNIVES ALL IN THE " SHADE." 



Don't go crazy over Jones's uncapping-knife until 

 you take a g-arden-trowel of good finish and metal, 

 grind to an edge by beveling from the outside or 

 convex surface, then finish on oil-stone to keenness, 

 and you have it. The trowel will cut like a plane, if 

 held properly, and will hold the cappings of one side 

 of a frame without trouble. I have tried it and 

 hnow; the main trouble is to get one of good enough 

 metal. 



THE IMPROVEMENT IN FDN. 



Glad to see your idea of fdn. in last Gleanings. I 

 have advocated for some years that cells ' should be 

 made, say half size, and round, if necessary, because 

 cheaper, but only the proper number to the square 

 Inch. I found, in 1877, that bees would thin the side 

 walls for room; they are not obliared to thin the 

 base. Bees will work our way in preference to their 

 own, only when compelled to; and this statement 

 will do for an axiom. J. M. Shuck. 



Des Moines, Iowa, May 4, 1883. 



I am sure, friend Shuck, we are greatly 

 obliged for the suggestion, any way, and 

 just as soon as we have any uncapping to do, 

 I assure you we will have one of our bright 

 10-cent steel garden-trowels ground up, and 

 try it. The steel and temper are pretty fair, 

 and if they would do for honey-knives, why. 

 we could have them made with a great deal 

 more care. Who will be the first to try a 

 garden - trowel, for an uncapping - knife? 

 Eriend S., you are in a fair way of getting 

 thanks, if you don't get any money, for your 

 idea.— Thanks, too, for your kind words in 

 regard to the new fdn. While experiment- 

 ing with it, I remembered you once wrote 

 me that bees would accept of plain wax 

 sheets with holes pricked in them at the 

 proper points for cells, or something to that 

 effect? I believe your axiom is a good one 

 to go by. 



SEVEN-TOP TURNIP. 



It would have done you good to see my bees work 

 on my seven-top turnip a few days ago. I have 

 about one-half acre of it, and would not be without 

 it in early spring, even for my bees, say nothing 

 about salad and seed. 



HONEY FROM A FIELD OF BARLEY. 



I notice, for the last three or four days, that my 

 barley patches are alive with bees, and, on exam- 

 ination, find that they alight on the stalk near the 

 top blade, and follow up the blade that is next to un- 

 fold, which is already twisted, and forms the top of 

 the stalk (for the barley is jointing, and is not head- 

 ed out), and on examination 1 find small drops of 

 honey-dew, clear as crystal, produced, apparently, 

 from plant lice, for, upon opening the fold that I 

 spoke of. It discloses plant lice imbedded or envel- 

 oped therein. If it comes from the insects. It is cer- 

 tainly sweet. The honey certainly Is secreted from 

 the plant, or sprayed from the Insects. Some may 

 be ready to say that it is water; but if it is water, 

 the bees would work on it mornings as well as even- 

 ings; and besides, it would not be sweet. The bees 

 just roar on it from about noon until dark. I can't 

 say how long it will lust. We had a rain last night, 

 but I have been so busy to-day I have not noticed 

 whether the honey still continues or not. Have no- 



ticed to see if they worked on wheat and oats the 

 same way, but don't find a bee on them. 



J. D. FOOSHE. 



Coronaca, Abbeville Co., S. C, April 4, 1883. 



JNIany thanks, friend F., for this new fact 

 you have given us. What a wonderful field 

 is opened to those who are on the alert to see 

 and gather every new fact in regard to the 

 source of honey"! Does it not indeed seem 

 as if a bountiful Creator had so ordered it 

 that honey may come from such a multiplic- 

 ity of different sources, that the field for ex- 

 ploration is almost endless? You may lose 

 your crop of barley, friend F ., but who knows 

 but that the crop of honey may almost equal 

 the loss in grain? 1 have seen bees hover- 

 ing over grain just before heading, in a way 

 that has led me to suspect something much 

 like what you mention. You know we have 

 recently had reports of a similar phenome- 

 non on corn . 



WATER FOR BEES WHEN IT RAINS. 



It don't seem as if bees ought to need watering 

 when it rains; but this is the third day of a regular 

 nor' caster, really cold, and no opportunity for the 

 bees to fly. Yesterday I tried a sponge filled with 

 water, laid down at the entrance, and they were so 

 eager that I started for town and bought a dozen for 

 a dime. They will empty one of them in fromlVi to 

 3 hours all day long. So I am going to look out for 

 water after this when it is so cold they can not get 

 away from the entrance. The cellar men around 

 here complain that the cokl weather is taking off 

 the bees, while our chaff atpl -'sawdust" men feel 

 as unconcerned as you pleasj. F. A. Palmer. 



McBrides, Mich., May 1.', 1883. 



BEESWAX — THE OUTLOOK. 



We have no beeswax. There is not 50O lbs. In the 

 city of Boston. Crocker & Blake. 



Boston, Mass., May 13, 1883. 



You see how it is, friends; pretty soon, 

 and the wax of the world will be gone. 

 What shall we do? I will tell you, if you 

 won't be scared. For brood - combs use 

 wires, and go back to our old paraffine ex- 

 periments of years ago. Had we only put 

 wires into i\i'e frames as we do now, we 

 should then have succeeded without trouble. 

 For comb honey, we can use a mixture of 

 wax and paraffine that the bees will work 

 out much faster than pure wax ; and for our 

 small 4i sections, I think we can manage so 

 the sagging will do no harm. No one will 

 ever receive any fdn. containing a particle 

 of paraffine or ceresin, from our establish- 

 ment, unless it is ordered, and every pack- 

 age will also be labeled as such. We shall 

 in all probability find wax enough at some 

 price, for all demands this season. 



pollen; can it take the place of honey, and 

 TO what extent'/ 

 The first pollen was gathered by the bees from 

 soft-maple on the lust day of February and first day 

 of March. The elms bloomed from the middle of 

 March to the 6th of April; then the sugar-trees be- 

 gan to bloom just before the cold snap, which killed 

 the bloom upon the earlier trees and kept the late 

 trees back so that there was still some pasture up- 

 on them. After the first of May they would get one 

 or two good days' work a week, some days an hour 

 in the middle of the day. The cool weather seemed 



