1882 



(JLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



4o;; 



A SUN WAX-EXTllACTOH. 



Allow me to give you a description of my sun 

 wax-extractor that I Ivnow is very handy and ehoap 

 for all bec-kcepers. It is ii box ICx'^O, and 13 inches 

 in depth; a tin pan with a ~-inch rim and spout at 

 one end; this pan is hung about 4 or 5 inches below 

 the top of box; on the pan the wax is put; under the 

 spout a vessel is put to catch the wax. On top the 

 box a glass with a narrow frame is hingjd on; then 

 set it in the sun, and it will do its work. It comes 

 very handy for capping^; the honey is underneath, 

 and the wax is the nicest that can be seen; no 

 more fussing with washing the oappings, or letting 

 bees clean them up for j-ou, nor moths fietting at 

 your wax before you get ready to start a tire to 

 steam it out. A sheet of tin, tacked in a hive, and 

 glass laid on top, will give you a cheap trial of it. 

 Louis Hofstatteh, 33. 



Louisville, Ky., June 19, 1883. 



Thanks, friend II. It' I mistake not, we 

 have given a discription of something simi- 

 lar, in some of onr former volumes, Doubt- 

 less a hot sunny day will be required, and I 

 think likely it will "work better on cappings 

 than old tough combs. 



I'EEDING WITH FILLED COMBS. 



Our tirst honey worth naming has just commenced 

 coming in this week. I have fed about half my colo- 

 nies since April 1st, and have now fed about 1000 lbs. 

 of honey. I feed in cards of sealed stores saved last 

 fall when I doubled for winter. It is the least 

 trouble of any way that I have found yet, and they 

 do well fed in that way. H. V. Train. 



MaustoD, Wis., June 10, 1883. 



This, it is trne, is an easy and safe way to 

 feed, but it is, after all, a rather expensive 

 Avay, if the honey is good white honey that 

 will command 10 cents or more extracted; 

 or 15 cents or more in sections, for I can not 

 think it as good nor as safe as an equal 

 weight of granulated sugar. There is this, 

 however, in favor of the combs of sealed 

 hohey : One who is at all inclined to be care- 

 less would be all right with those combs of 

 honey ; for a surplus beyond any possible 

 want could be kept in the hive the year 

 round, and the disagreeable task of feeding 

 might be put off, or neglected altogether. 



OUR SH<:)P-RO()F apiary, again. 



You ought to just see it; it now numbers 9 hives. 

 We bought 2 three-frame nuclei of Mr. Dan White, 

 and have had 5 swarms from the 3 one-dollar queens 

 we bought of you last June. They swarmed once 

 and lost their clipped queen; they then went back 

 and swarmed again in a few dnys, without a queen. 

 Did you ever hear of the like? I had two such 

 swarms, but gave them bro<)<l to raise a queen, and 

 they have nice queens now laying. The bees are 

 going in on the white clover, which is now in full 

 bloom. Fred Tvgart. 



Pittsburgh, Pa., July 5, 1883. 



ORANGE HONEY, ETC. 



The present season in this region does not prom- 

 ise a large honey crop. Oranges bloomed but little, 

 hence orange honey is not plentiful. Last year a 

 man located in the north part of the county, in the 

 midst of orange-groves; on the 14-th of April he had 

 taken five gallons each from ten colonies. This 

 year, at the same date, he was feeding his bees. 



But paucity of orange-blossoms was not the only 

 cause of their poverty. Our winters are usually 

 dry; but the past winter and spring were WHusually 

 dry. Our rainfall in January was 3.60. inches; Feb- 

 ruary, .15; March, .80; April, 3.01, and May, 3.58, 

 making, for live months, a total of 9.17 inches. 



J AS. H. White. 

 Goorgianna, Brevard Co., Fla., June 30, 1883. 



WINGLESS BEES; AN UNUSU.^L NUMBER. 



I tind that a great many of the young bees come 

 out wingless this summer. A friend of mine was at 

 my place yesterday, looking at my bees, and he was 

 remarking the same as regards his, and I also find 

 they are killing off a great many drones already. 

 What is the reason? J. G. Partridge. 



Newmarket, Ont, June 19, 1883. 



The drones are killed off just because the 

 honey comes so slowly, or because of bad 

 weather ; and a cessation of the flow from 

 any cause will result in the destruction of 

 the drones. I presume the imperfect wings 

 come from the same reason, or because the 

 bees have to work so hard for the small 

 amount of honey they do get, that they wear 

 their wings out prematurely. If a bee get a 

 load from the tirst flower he visits, it would 

 be less sevei^e on his wings than to l)uzz 

 through the grass until he has visited a thou- 

 sand clover-heads to get a load. 



IS IT TOO LATE? 



Do you think it is too late to introduce queens this 

 year? A. Jump. 



Chicago, Huron Co., O., July 8, 1883. 



IIow such inquiries remind us of the 

 strides our industry has made in a few years! 

 It is an actual fact, friends, that only a very 

 few years ago we supposed queens could not 

 be raised after about the middle of July, and 

 very often there were no drones to fertilize 

 them. Now our heaviest trade is in the 

 month of July, and drones are as plentiful 

 in Aug., Sept., and Oct., as at almost any 

 other time. One would hardly think, now, 

 that very many hold the idea that queens 

 reared in August are in any way inferior, to 

 see the demand for them during this month. 

 Friend J., we now send out queens every 

 month in the year, unless we have a long 

 spell of unusually severe weather, and we 

 also introduce them, as a matter of course, 

 every month in the year. Do you ask, 

 "What is the good of it allV" Why. we 

 now get not only five but even seven hundred 

 X)ounds ofhoneii from the progeny of a single 

 queen in one season. 



HONEST IN DEATH. 



Find inclosed the sum of -tO cents, which my broth- 

 er David owed you. He died two weeks ago, and al- 

 most his last words were to remember the 40 cents 

 he was owing you. Robert Stocks. 



Springville, Ventura Co., Cal., July 4, 1883. 



The above is only a simple little incident, 

 and it may be that such incidents are com- 

 mon ; but for all that, it is a touching one — 

 to me at least. When bidding this world 

 adieu, with all its cares and sorrows, our 

 friend, in his anxiety to be just and fair with 

 all, thought of this little amount that had 

 not been sent. It may be that my life is 

 such that I am in danger of laying too much 



