598 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUUE. 



Dec. 



ment ; but it gives me pain to hear you use 

 such expressions as you do at the close of 

 your first sentence. If i/ou know all about 

 this " Ubiquitous Life Power," and the rest 

 of us don't, we should be glad to be told 

 what is and what isn''t ; but as we are, it 

 seems to me that a '• sccvis to me " now and 

 then would be a little more courteous to the 

 rest of your co-Avorkers. Your experiment 

 may have shown this : That worker-bees, 

 brought up without ever having been in a 

 hive full of bees, and seen things done, would 

 know how to do these things when of proper 

 age ; but I confess that 1 can not see the 

 connection between that and what you say 

 in regard to souls being saved by prayer. If 

 you will pardon me, [ fear that it will look 

 to our people as though you had an anxiety 

 to let it be known that you do not believe in 

 prayer. You may reply to this, that one has 

 as good, a right to let this be known as to let 

 it be known that he does believe in prayer. 

 May I suggest this difference? All true 

 prayer, as you yourself have suggested, is 

 for the salvation of souls, or for the saving 

 of the world, if you choose; and all praying 

 men pray to this end. Now, at least a great 

 part of those who are opposed to prayer 

 (mind, I do not say all), are bent on the ruin 

 of souls; or, if you choose, the ruin of the 

 world. A dying mother's last breath is often 

 spent in prayer for a wayward child. Would 

 you wish to speak lightly of such a thing, 

 friend W.V or even intimate that such 

 prayers do not avail? 



Blessed are they who hung-er and thirst after 

 righteousnefcs, lor they shall be tilled.— Matt. 5 : (i. 



AN A B C SCHOI^AR'S EXPERIENCE. 



ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT FOOT-POWEB BVZZ-SAWS. 



eFTEN, when reading: the experience of others 

 in Gleanings, I have thought I would write 

 a little about my own progress In bec-keep" 

 ing; but having never written any thing to be put 

 into print, I hardly knew how to commence, and so 

 have delayed till now. 



In the spring of 1879 I commenced with bees (not 

 knowing any thing about them), by buying a swarm 

 of blacks in a Langstroth hive. In two weeks they 

 had dwindled down to nothing. But I was not satis- 

 fled ; bought another strong black swarm in a Quin- 

 by hive, with the combs built in every direction, and 

 lots of drone comb. I paid an enormous price for 

 them. About these days I had a sample copy of 

 Gleanings handed to me. After reading it I be- 

 came very much interested in bees. I Immediately 

 subscribed for it, and have not been without it since, 

 and would feel lost without it now. 



Now about that swarm of bees. That summer 

 they did not swarm, but made 81 lbs. comb honey; 

 they wintered well on summer stand the following 

 winter. In the summer of 1880 I divided them three 

 times, sending to Mr. Nellis for queens. 1 thought 

 I had done wonders when I introduced my first 

 queen safely; I felt protidcr over that than all I 

 have introduced since. Of the three divisions, two 

 were pure Italians, one hybrid. I put them in 

 "closed-end bar Quinby'' hives; found it verydiffl- 

 cult to handle them without killing bees. From the 

 old swarm, I took 30 lbs. box honey. In making my 



first division I moved the parent stock about 8 rods 

 away, when many bees were in the fields; then I 

 put the new hive in its place, containing one frame 

 of brood and two of honey. Well, before night the 

 bees from the old hive were stealing the honey from 

 the new one at a great rate, and the next day they 

 almost cleared out all the honey. I was so ignorant 

 then I could not tell what was up at fltst, but found 

 out, very soon, more about that kind of robbing 

 than most A B C's have a chance to in the same 

 length of time. I finally carried the new swarm 

 over a mile away to a friend's, and left them there 

 till the young Italians commenced to hatch. This 

 lesson I learned pretty thoroughly: That it is not 

 safe for beginners, especially if they have blacks, to 

 make divisions when honey is not coming in quite 

 freely. 



Now, the winter of 1880 and spring or 1831 finished 

 up my old colony and two of the new ones, leaving 

 me only one very, very weak; but they were pure 

 Italians. During the above winter I made eleven 

 hives of my own design, something like the chaff 

 hive, packed with chaff on all sides; sent to A. I. 

 Root for sample L. frame, and made the hives to fit; 

 so, in the spring of '81 1 had 11 new hives, but only 

 one poor swarm of bees; but by giving that one as 

 good care as I knew how, I succeeded in increasing 

 it to 3, and transferred it to the L. frame, then 

 made kindling-wood of all the Quinby frames. I was 

 bound to have those new hives filled, so I sent to a 

 man in Massachusetts for 8 one-frame nucleus 

 swarms with "dollar " queens. He agreed to send 

 rather more than a pound of bees on a Langstroth 

 frame, about the l.'jth or 20th of June. I think it 

 was the 8th of July when they came all In one box 

 with partitions in it; the frames were a good deal 

 smaller than the L., and not one of the eight had 

 over ;4 pound of bees. I complained a little, and 

 about a month later he sent me 3 lbs. of bees, to 

 make matters right. Well, I transferred each one 

 of those 8 combs to a Langstroth frame, and into 

 the space they did not fill, I put a strip of fdn. All 

 of the queens proved to be pure; by careful atten- 

 tion I built them all up to 6 and 8 frame colonies by 

 fall, and from one I got two boxes of surplus. All 

 gathered enough to winter on, so by fall I had my 11 

 hives full, and all in L. frames, in fair condition for 

 winter— all Italians but one. 



In the winter of 1881 and '82 I thought to myself, 

 now I will prepare for next season just as though it 

 were spring, and my bees were all alive. I sent to 

 A. I. Root for a sample chaff hive (I forgot to say, 

 that long before this I purchased the A BC and read 

 and re-read it, also read Langstroth's work). I knew 

 that, to make chaff hives, I must have a buzz-saw. 

 The Barnes cost more than I could afford. I had 

 never seen one, so knew nothing about how to com- 

 mence, but put my wits at work, and made one aft- 

 er my own liking; viz., a combined buzz-saw, turn- 

 ing-lathe, and jig-saw all run by the same treadle, the 

 buzz-saw and lathe by the same belt, which I made 

 out of bed-ticking. The mandrel is the S7.00 one ad- 

 vertised in Root's price list. On opposite sides of 

 the nut that holds the saw tight on the mandrel, I 

 had two slots filed in, and two steel brads made to 

 fit, then brazed In; now, by taking off the saw I have 

 the spur center and head-block of the lathe; the 

 saw-table turns back out of the way. I will not try 

 to explain all here, but will only add that the jig- 

 saw will cut through two-inch plank quite fast; on 

 the lathe I can turn out a wtiffle-tree; and one aft- 



