1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



ers in the sections, and tind that the bees will 

 build the combs in the sections while they are 

 drawing out the foundation below, and thus a 

 saving is made. But as a rule I prefer to till 

 the sections with foundation, that I may have 

 handsome salable sections of honey, and use 

 only starters of foundation in the frames below, 

 having the starters in the frames, say from one 

 to 1,1 o inches wide. By contracting the brood- 

 chamber to six frames, the bees go to work at 

 once in the sections, drawing out the founda- 

 tion there, while at the same time they build 

 all nice straight worker comb in the frames, 

 which does not detract from the amount of sec- 

 tion honey in the least, so far as I can see. 



doing so. I was watching the man all the 

 time, and counted the bills at the same time he 

 did. He must have been very expert at his 

 trade. The moral it taught me is, always re- 

 count your money when it has been taken from 

 you for recounting and handed back to you. 

 Benjamin Passage. 

 Stark, Mich., Jan., 1895. 



THE CROSSES OF FIVE BANDERS. 



I notice in January 1st Gleanings, page 23, 

 an editorial stating that a cross between a 

 queen of five-banded stock and a black drone, 

 or a five-banded drone and a black queen, will, 

 according to your experience, result in all the 

 bees showing at least three yellow bands. 

 Now, there must certainly be a mistake some- 

 where, as our experience has been to the con- 

 trary; for we have had many a fine golden five- 

 banded queen mated to a black drone, which 

 in every case produced from the finest five- 

 banded bees to the blackest native, and we had 

 also the reverse. A black queen mated to a 

 five-banded drone produced bees as black as 

 tar, and now and then a bee that showed three, 

 four, and five bands. Leininger Bros. 



Ft. Jennings, O., Feb. 6. 



COUNT YOUR MONEY OVER. 



When I was selling my honey this fall, the 

 last I sold came to about S30.00. It was in De- 

 troit, and on the street. The man took it at my 

 weights, and we reckoned the price the same, 

 and he paid me before the honey was ta;ken 

 from my wagon. He took a roil of bills from 

 his pocket, counted them, and handed them to 

 me. I counted them, and found 121.00. Said 

 he, " Let me see them. I thought there was 

 more." He counted them over again, and said, 

 " Yes, that is right — twenty-one," handing the 

 roll back, which I put into my pocketbook by 

 itself. He then paid me the rest in silver, put 

 the honey in his wagon and went his way, while 

 I went home congratulating myself for selling 

 out at a good price. You can imagine my feel- 

 ings, when I got home and counted my money, 

 to find his roll of bills just $10.00 short. It made 

 me blue for a while, I tell you, for I could ill 

 afford the loss; but God probably knew what it 

 was for. It is the first time I ever lost any that 

 way, but have since learned of quite a number 



HOW TO EXTRACT THICK HONEY. 



I wonder if all honey is as hard to extract as 

 was mine last season. I left the honey on 

 the hive till it was well ripened. The frames 

 weighed about 7 lbs., and the honey was so 

 thick I could not extract all of it, as it would 

 break the combs. What was the cause? Is all 

 honey so hard to extract, or was it the extract- 

 or? The extractor was of my own construc- 

 tion. Frank N. Blank. 



Prairie Home, Mo., Feb. 18. 



[You must have some extra fine honey, for 

 the thicker it is. the better. How shall we get 

 it out of the combs? Fii'St store the combs in a 

 warai— yes, hot room for a few hours. Use a re- 

 versible extractor; extract one side of the combs 

 partially; reverse the pockets, throw out the 

 lioney, and then return to the first side and 

 throw it all out. The combs break because the 

 great weight of honey on the side opposite the 

 side extracted presses upon the bottom of the 

 cells; but by reducing this weight by a gentle 

 turning of the handle, greater speed may be 

 used to get the honey all out without breaking 

 the combs. Of course, they should be wired. 

 —Ed.] 



H. R. BOARDMAN'S ARTICLE AND C. A. HATCH'S 

 COMMENTS. 



Feb. 15th Gleanings is at hand, and I have 

 read Boardman's article on hives with much 

 interest, and can say " me too " to almost every 

 line, especially on the tiering-up part. The 

 whole article is well written, and the ideas are 

 good. But let me call your attention to some 

 points in the tiering-up paragraph. 1. He says 

 it "involves some extra labor." Good! just 

 my idea! 3. He says, "I do not expect the 

 queen to continue laying in both hives at the 

 same time." " I do expect, and am not often 

 disappointed, when the queen goes above, that 

 she will continue to work in the upper hive 

 until it is full of brood." Just so !, what we 

 have always said; and while this is going on 

 you are getting empty combs or combs of honey 

 below, by the hatching of the brood. Do you 

 see my position on this tiering-up question? 

 Let me try once more to explain it. Plenty of 

 room below for the queen, so she need not go 

 above to lay, to the neglect of the combs below. 

 1. Because we do not want any empty combs in 

 the hive. 2. Because if they are empty of 

 brood, and the workers fill them with honey, 

 it discourages storing above. See? 



But, why do you claim Bro. B. on the eight- 

 frame side? Simply because his frames count 

 eight? He advocates nine, however; and 

 when you figure out the comb surface of his 



