800 



GLEAMKGS IK BEE CULTURE. 



June 



BBOOKS' SWARM-CATCHER, ETC. 



This reminds me of a similar sug'gestion I had 

 thought to write you when I wrote before, hut over- 

 looked it. My plan has been to seize a common 

 swarming sheet and throw over the hive when the 

 bees begin to return, and if I had failed to secure 

 the queen, which was generally the case, I was sure 

 she would be in the swarm by the time they had set- 

 tled. I would just take up the sheet by the four 

 corners and carry them where 1 wanted them. I 

 think it not desirable to multiply implements and 

 fixtures about the apiary, and see nothing to the ad- 

 vantage of the complicated arrangement of Mr. 

 Brooks. This, I believe, is in accordance with your 

 theory — simplifying every thing as much as possi- 

 ble. I like your Simplicity hives, and I think I shall 

 like your chaff hives (when I get them), and I am 

 pleased with Gleanings and ABC book, and gen- 

 erally with the implements and fixtures you recom- 

 mend, and your Ideas; but I don't like your delay 

 In sending my goods. C. H. Smith. 



Ellaville, Ga., May 10,1883. 



I do like simplicity, friend S., but it seems 

 to me friend Brooks' simple apparatus isn't 

 very complicated. vSince you mention it, I 

 think a sheet might be made to do very well, 

 and we thank you for the suggestion. I, 

 too, terribly dislike delays ; but with a busi- 

 ness that is on the boom only at a particular 

 season of the year, and at the same time you 

 can never tell how much of a boom there is 

 going to be, it is a pretty hard matter. We 

 are improving, and preparing ourselves and 

 learning by experience every year ; but when 

 a season comes like the present one, when 

 everybody's bees winter, I know of no other 

 way than for those who dislike delays, to or- 

 der so far ahead there can't be any disap- 

 pointment. That is the way we have to do. 



CLIPPING QUEENS' WINGS AS SOON AS THEY HATCH 

 — A WARNING. 



I bought 4 hives of Italians last spring; increased 

 to 18; by fall they were very weak to commence 

 winter. This was caused by cropping my young 

 queens as they hatched, though I had the luck to 

 queen them again In time, and they got through 

 safely, and I lost none. If you wish to put this in 

 Gleanings, do so for the good of some beginner. 

 It won't do to crop young queens. I have 23 colo- 

 nies now in good condition. I have taken 115 lbs. 

 from them this spring. J.W. Teague. 



Brownwood, Texas, May 15, 1883. 



It isn't at all strange you had bad luck, 

 friend T.,if you commenced clipping their 

 wings as soon as they had hatched. How 

 did you suppose they were going to fly out to 

 meet the drones? or had you imbibed the 

 new doctrine recently taught m the Scientific 

 American? If you did, you unwittingly 

 made a pretty fair proof of the absurdity 

 of it. 



THE RAILROAD APIARY. 



Friend Root:— We call you friend, because you 

 seem to be friendly to all bee-keepers, and we cer- 

 tainly feel friendly toward you. As our extracting- 

 car [see p. 247, May No.] seems to be a new idea to 

 many bee-keepers, we take the liberty to give you a 

 description of it. The car is 13 feet long by 6 wide, 

 painted bright scarlet, and trimmed with white, and 

 makes a very showy appearance; but the car la not 



for show, by any means. It has a door in each eiid, 

 and two windows on each side with double sash, one 

 side being glass and the other wire cloth, so that we 

 can have free ventilation through. Each side of the 

 car is fitted up with two drawers that hold just 10 

 Langstroth frames. We start out with one drawer 

 full of empt}' combs on each side. Pushing the car 

 alongside of the hive, we take the full frames from 

 the hive to the empty drawer and fill the hives right 

 up with the combs from the other drawer. Then 

 we are through with one swarm, the time occupied 

 with the swarm being incredibly short. Then we 

 are ready for swarm No. 2, and the combs from No. 

 1, when extracted, go into the hive of No. 3. Of 

 course, the honey is being extracted inside the car 

 at the same time. The drawers are so arranged that 

 the car is bee-tight when they are either open or 

 shut. We will send you our picture some day. 



M. A. Williams & Co. 

 Berkshire, N. Y., May 17, 1882. 



bees IN A greenhouse, ONCE MOHE. 



In Middletown there is a man by the name of 

 Firth who raises winter cucumbers for the New 

 Vork market. Last fall he bought a late swarm of 

 bees that had not stores enough to winter on. Be- 

 fore Christmas he put them into his hot-house, and 

 kept them there until about the 20th of April. They 

 would fly and work on the cucumber blossoms 

 whenever the sun shone. He fed them 7 lbs. of 

 sugar, and some honey from the comb. He had the 

 hive in one end of the room, and put his feed in the 

 opposite end. The room, I should think, is about 35 

 feet long by 13 or 14 wide. He said that the blooms 

 with the bees were mostly male blossoms, but he 

 picked more cucumbers from that room than from 

 either of the others (he has 3 hot-houses), the bloom 

 in the other two being mostly female or bearing 

 blossoms. The bees fertilized the blossoms in their 

 room, and he did it in the other rooms by 

 hand with a camel's-hair brush. They raised young 

 bees and built up strong. He put in one lot of dark 

 honey in the comb for feed, which they would not 

 work on at all, even when he put it under their 

 hive. He intends to put a hive in each of his hot- 

 houses this winter. It has been a hard spring for 

 bees here, being very cold and backward. 



E. D. Howell. 



New Hampton, N. Y., May 13, 1882. 



There you have it, friends. A man who is 

 not a bee-keeper has kept a colony all win- 

 ter in a greenhouse, and they are common 

 bees in a box hive besides. They worked on 

 the cucumber blossoms too ; and with a 

 greenhouse large enough, we might have 

 not only cucumbers, but cucumber honey ; 

 and I declare, I am not positively sure but 

 that we might, after a while, get cucumber 

 swarms, not to mention" cucumber queens." 

 The friends who claim that bees spoil the 

 fruit should make a note of this fact : Where 

 our friend had no bees, he had to fertilize 

 the blossoms with a camel's-hair brush, or 

 he would have had no cucumbers. 



A SWARM in APRIL, SENDING OUT A SWARM IN MAY. 



A swarm issued April 6th, and was put into a hive, 

 and the same queen led out another swarm May 6th, 

 settled a short time, and concluded to try the woods, 

 and off they went. I was at church. Had I been at 

 home, I think I could have accommodated them in 

 the way of a home. How often is this beaten in the 



