1882 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



509 



I think, altogether, for my hees are not cross, and I 

 don't use any veil nor gloves either; but wc can al- 

 ways find time to handle our bees "careful," and 

 they always handle us "careful." I want you to 

 know that is txir motto, and for 4 years we have 

 handled bees, and I don't think we have ever hurt a 

 queen. C. E. Barbek. 



Langford, Rouldcr Co., Col., S^ept. 4, 1883. 



I think that excellent logic, friend 15., that 

 if you handle the bees well you may expect 

 the same treatment in return. During a 

 long yield of honey, such as you must have 

 had, 1 should have little trouble in handling 

 most hybrids ; but when the honey suddenly 

 stops, then comes the trial. 



PUNK FOR SMOKER FUETj. 



For smoker fuel, tell the brethren to go to the woods 

 and get some soft living toad-stools and dry them 

 thoroughly by the stove. Don't sret old dead rotten 

 ones; cut them up fur the smoker, and you can light 

 one or two or three pieces with one match, and it 

 will give a good volume of mil 1 smoke, and it don't 

 blow Are, nor fill up your smoker with tarry soot. 

 When you cut them open, the more white there is 

 about It the better. I have never tried any gathered 

 from any kind of timber but the hemlock. I don't 

 mean toad-stools that grow up from the ground, but 

 from old logs and stumps. Geo. H. Sprague. 



Neil's Creek, N. Y., Sept. 15, 1883. 



If I am correct, what you describe, friend 

 S., is punk proper. It is a fungus growth, 

 on logs and trees. We get it mostly from 

 maple. I believe all agree as to its good 

 qualities, but the greatest difficulty seems to 

 be to get enough of it, and it is also quite 

 hard to cut up, especially when old and dry. 

 Some specimens will readily peel up with 

 the lingers, if taken when a little wet and 

 green. Feel it up into bits right to go into 

 the smoker, and you will find it very handy. 

 It is the material our forefathers used to 

 light tires when they struck sparks from a 

 flint w'ith a piece of steel, before the advent 

 of matches. These fungoid growths on old 

 timber are a most wonderful study. As you 

 pull them in pieces, notice how queerly the 

 grain of the wood runs — often at direct right 

 angles, and of a different color and texture. 

 On warm wet days you may see these toad- 

 stools, as our friend calls them, in the pro- 

 cess of forming. They grow so rapidly one 

 can see them grow, as it were. It is first a 

 dark-colored liquid that oozes out of the log 

 (during wet weather), and then crystallizes, 

 as it were, into a vegetable growth. 



LEAKY BARRELS. 



Your card of the 30th is at hand, and contents 

 noted. The shortage on honey from Mr. Perry was 

 leakage; at center of barrel, between staves, at the 

 bung, acd at end of barrel; the bung was a pine 

 one, with wax run around it t) stop up crevices, 

 which jarred loose during transit. I ■was also short 

 on two 175-lb. spruce kegs purchased from another 

 party (at 11 cts.), 17 lbs.; 10 from one, 7 from another; 

 both were leaking. Geo. F. Williams. 



New Philadelphia, O., Sept. 23, 1883. 



It seems there is a misunderstanding about 

 waxing barrels. Those sent by Mr. Terry 

 were waxed a little on the outside. This will 

 do no sort of good. The barrels alluded 

 to that were reported in last Juvenile 



were made just as good as new by the fol- 

 lowing treatment: The hoops were all put 

 in place, the loose heads put in, and then 

 they were thoroughly cleaned with hot wa- 

 ter. After this they were set out in the sun, 

 and the hoops tightened every day until the 

 whole was as " dry as a chip." Now, while 

 the barrel was hot and dry, about a gallon of 

 hot melted wax was poured in, the bung be- 

 ing dipped in the hot wax too, then driven 

 in, and the barrel rolled and twirled until 

 every inch had been most thoroughly coated. 

 As the air inside was greatly heated by this 

 process, the bungs, when loosened, went out 

 with a bang. The whole outside was then 

 treated to tliree coats of good paint, and we 

 have got some barrels that will ship without 

 wasting a drop. It seems from the above 

 report that the spruce kegs are leaky also, 

 unless waxed. We have had honey from 

 California repeatedly, in GO-lb. tins (boxed), 

 without an accident as yet; and, counting 

 waxing and all, are the spruce kegs really 

 cheaper than the tins? 



introducing with chloroform, etc. 



I received those three one-dollar queens all right. 

 I introduced one the next day all right; but to in- 

 troduce the others, I couldn't. I tried to introduce 

 them for a week, making use of all the methods I 

 had read of; but the minute I let them out they 

 would br.ll them. At last I got out of patience with 

 them. I got an ounce of chloroform, and poured 

 about half of it on a sponge, and put it in my smo- 

 ker, and puffed a little in at the entrance. After they 

 got pretty stupid, and begin to drop off on the bot- 

 tom-board, I released the queens, and they received 

 them all right when thej' revived. I suppose this is 

 old to you, but I thought I would write. I have got 

 quite a piece of Earlj' Amber sugar-cane. Do you 

 suppose I could make sugar good enough for my 

 bees to winter on? Arthtjr G. Loper. 



East Setauket, Suff. Co., N. Y., Aug. 13, 1883. 



The idea of introducing by means of chlo- 

 roform is old, friend L., but I do not know 

 that we have ever before had the plan sug- 

 gested of using it as you did, in a smoker. I 

 am not sure that the bees would tilways ac- 

 cept a queen after reviving, but it might be 

 worthy of a further trial. Trobably a much 

 less quantity than you used would be ef- 

 ficient.— I would not advise wintering bees 

 on any amber sugar we have yet in the 

 market. JJetter sell it, and buy the pure 

 granulated cane sugar, as we have so often 

 recommended. 



TAKING BEES ON SHARES, ETC. 



1 commenced last spring with five swarms that I 

 took on shares; I have increased to 9, and think I 

 could have done better, but the man of whom I got 

 the bees furnished the hives, and he furnished only 

 11, and those ot fioc different paUcnis. Next spring I 

 shall have a uniform hive, of some kind. Those I 

 have are mostly made after the American pattern, 

 with cap to slide down over the hive in winter. 

 More than half of the queens I hatched were lost 

 before they were fertilized. Why so many? I like 

 your principles on the tobacco and whisky ques- 

 tions. Success to Gleanings I J. B. Doijbs. 



Antelope, Kan., Sept. 8, 1883. 



Eleven hives of five different patterns ! 

 Surely I would not want to take bees on 

 shares, if it were to be done that way. Your 



