1S82 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



587 



HIVING-BASKET. 



j" HAVE been requested to describe the hiving- 

 basket I use. Well, I will, as I use it with g-ood 

 results, and the best of success. You will re- 

 member, that last May I purchased from your 2.5- 

 cent counter two of those two-bushel diamond-splint 

 clothes-baskets. I got them here all safe and sound 

 (they ask 75 cents for them in our stores), and lined 

 them with good stront;- white factory cloth. I then 

 made a burlap tJap cover, that would cover the 

 whole basket, with 8 or 10 inches to spare. I tacked 

 this piece of burlap to one sWe of the basket, and 

 just a little way around the rounding corners. I 

 tacked two little wooden blocks (say 2x3x78) to each 

 of the loose corners, to make the tiap stand solid 

 over the basket. This is all. The whole arrange- 

 ment is very light, so much so that the left arm of a 

 90-pound tailor will hold it with ease. Our swarms 

 alight on trees mostly; and whether up where we 

 have to use a step-ladder or not, we hold this broad, 

 long (just the thing for those long clusters), light re- 

 ceptacle under the cluster, and shake the limb 

 Z)ri»'7f!iy, and quickly lower the basket, and flip over 

 the tiap with the right hand, and set the roaring 

 mass down under the tree, when, if we continue to 

 shake or smoke the limb a moment, the few outside 

 bees cluster on the thin and gauzy receptacle, from 

 which so freely emanates the hum and odor 

 of the swarm. Now do with the bees just what you 

 would were they in a heavy, hot, and horrid box. 

 This basket is easily attached to a pole, if you have 

 any limbs too awful high for a ladder. I have not. 



This seems like a small subject, yet only a few 

 such advantages, one or two in each department of 

 the business, changes failure into success; disagree- 

 able and troublesome work into a joyful business. 



" BAGGAGE SMASHERS," AND FRIEND HEDDON'S AD- 

 VICE IN REGARD TO THEM. 



At the close of Mr. Dadant's able article in last 

 Gleanings, you tell us of the wanton smashing of 

 your trunk, and ask, " What ought to be done in 

 such cases, friends?" As 1 am, to say the least, not 

 your enemy, I will for one reply by saying that my 

 rule is, "Return good for good, and justice for evil." 

 I won't stop to argue the case, or start any new the- 

 ory in the matter, as I have the practical evidence 

 of the laws of all the nations of this world. If that 

 case were mine, I should sue the company for the 

 damage, and g^^t that baggage-man out of the situa- 

 tion, into his more appropriate sphere of dock-wal- 

 loping, just as soon as I could. This last I would do 

 for charity, for the sake of some poor and diffident 

 woman he might successfully abuse in the near fu- 

 ture. I know full well that sometimes, in a small 

 way, with some people, nothing is better than the 

 return of good for evil; but he who goes it blind, 

 adopting this as a rule for a life's action, makes a 

 sad mistake that legislators never fall into. 



I have just sold my entire crop of comb honey at 

 18c here, cash in advance of delivery, at our depot. 

 A few years ago, I could hardly believe this could be 

 done; but I now rejoice in the acknowledgment of 

 my mistaken judgment. I hope it will continue. 

 Let us work to that end. J.\mes Heddon. 



Dowagiac, Mich., Nov. i:j, 1883. 



I am very much pleased, friend II., to hear 

 that our 2o-cent basket does as well, or bet- 

 ter, than any expensive svvarming-box, I 

 presume it would be worth about f)0 cents, 

 cloth lined, with a burlap llap to it. It will 



probably be well tried next summer. — You 

 may be right in regard to your plan of treat- 

 ing the railroad employees in such cases; 

 but I think you will agree with me. that it 

 should not be done with anger, malice, or 

 revenge. These heartless men are often in- 

 temperate ; and the saving of tliis man is of 

 more moment than the saving of jn'operty. 

 I do not know just what to do in such cases, 

 and 1 confess 1 have more than once won- 

 dered just what our friend Trofessor ('ook 

 would do, or rather, peihaps, what ought he 

 to do. 1 wish he would advise us a little. I 

 rather imagine he would be too kind-hearted 

 to do any thing ; but is that the right way to 

 do? 



WHAT FRIEND HASTY THINKS. 



DOING WITHOUT SEPARATORS. 



fHAD not contidence enough in the plan of do- 

 ing without separators to make experiments 

 -^ voluntarily; but you see I got out of tin, and 

 something "had to be did." The results of my 

 willy-nilly expedients I will proceed to give. *' First- 

 ly," I had some pieces of very heavy enameled cloth, 

 that had been oiled on the reverse side with linseed 

 oil. These I had been using as tarpaulins about the 

 yard. I thought 1 could spare them, and so cut 

 them up into separators. I cati hardly recommend 

 this plan for general use. The bees nibbled up the 

 materiaKas I feared they would); and then, "just 

 to pester me," they worked the black and dirtj' nib- 

 blings into their wax, utterly ruining a fine lot of 

 section honey, except for extracting. 



To skip to the other end of the series, my last ex- 

 periment was to use separators of ccmmon lath. 

 Bungling as the device seems, it answered very well 

 to secure what surplus a late swarm would make. 



On some colonies, separators of plain cotton fac- 

 tory were used, hoping that the shape of the combs 

 would be determined before the material would be 

 all gnawed out. They seemed, however, to do nei- 

 ther good nor harm, except the waste of bee labor 

 involved. Other colonies had separators of cotton 

 factory treated with linseed oil, and dried. These 

 were harmless, but they resisted the gnawing of the 

 bees scarcely any better than the untreated fabric. 

 Ptill other colonies had separators of the same sort 

 of cloth dipped in melted wax and wrung out. These 

 answer tolerably well for once using; but, being 

 somewhat cut away at the edges, would be too nar- 

 row to use a second time. 



This brings us to the colonies on which no separa- 

 tors at all were used. I did not mean to lose honey 

 by failing to give the bees sections to put it in, and 

 so kept on giving to the late swarms until some of 

 the comrades would have been inclined t.) hoot at 

 me. We must make the most of our strong points, 

 and late honey is the strong point of my locality. 

 My latest sets of sections were put on Sept. 6th, I 

 believe. None of these were worked in; but a set 

 put on Aug. 2nth had about three pounds of honey. 

 Well, I consider myself almost fortunate that so 

 many of the supers left without separators had no 

 work done in them. The bulged and broken mess 

 of unsalable honey I should have had on my hands 

 would have made me feel like saying naughty things 

 about the comrades who advise throwing separators 

 away. Take now for example my record of colony 

 10—1. On the 22d of July, 48 sections, pound size. 



