180 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1 



and I don't vas steals noddings; and vat you 

 dinks dey wood not dake my vord for noddings, 

 and dey look at every tings dat I had tied oop 

 in my noze-rag, and ven day don't find dem 

 goods stole I vas as habby as a clam on a pun- 

 kin vine; don't it? Den dem offeetseers dell 

 me to go dat shore on. I doos it and stay mit 

 Nye Yorrick a few days, and den I git me a 

 steembote on and come dot horn around to 

 Frisco, and den here I vas come. 



I go me out der country in to see mine good 

 frent Philip Spiegel. who came frum der vater- 

 land more as a long time ago. Philip ish a 

 grate pee-man yust like yourselef ; he has zwei 

 — vat you call 'em? Oh! ya, kolenays, and he 

 got dis year may pe more as a lot of hunny. I 

 buy me some land by Philip's, and some pees 

 got, and now I vas a pig pee-man tu. I bide :i 

 kolonays, and dig der grount oudt and get 10 

 more. Aint dot goot? So now I vas 12 got. 

 1894 vas nix goot. and my pees all go dide ex- 

 cept 7; and ven I see dat I vas all proke up, 

 and cride my eys vide open shut. Philip's pees 

 all go dide, and be don't vas in der pee pishness 

 now any more. He says pees ish nix goot. I 

 don't dink dat vay. I vas in it tu mit bote 

 feet, and I dink I vill suckseed I vas alone 

 by mine selef, and I soon get me a new house 

 made, and den Catarina will der ocean come 

 over, den ve'll got married. Dat Catarina is 

 such a goot girl, and ven we vas got married 

 some day on your wheel get and come and see 

 us. Dat vas all. Goot by. Frits Braun. 



San Diego Co., Cal., Dec. 9. 



A PLAN FOR transferring. 



I wish to transfer 40 colonies as follows: Dur- 

 ing fruit-bloom, remove the hive containing 

 bees from its stand, and place a new hive con- 

 taining .5 frames of foundation in its place. 

 Drive all the bees into the new hive; place a 

 queen-excluding honey-board upon the top of 

 it, and then place the old hives upon top of 

 this. My theory is, that bees will go up into 

 the old hive, and care for brood and eggs; but 

 as the queen can not get above, a majority will 

 remain below and draw out the foundation into 

 comb. In 21 days remove the old hive, and run 

 combs into wax. Can you recommend the plan ? 

 Would they be likely to swarm ? 



Browning, 111., Feb. 18. G. A. Dyer. 



[The plan you speak of for transferring will 

 probably work; but a better way would be to 

 move the old stand to one side a few inches, 

 and, when all the brood was hatched out in the 

 old one, remove it after shaking the bees all off 

 in front of the new one. — Ed.] 



best pieces of furniture that the section-honey 

 producer can have. It costs but a few cents to 

 make one, and one can save dollars in founda- 

 tion by its use, and it makes the comb very 

 nice and clear. Yes, and I have been lending 

 my leveler all around the country to bee-keep- 

 ers, after they saw how nice my work had been 

 performed; and Bro. Taylor ought to have a 

 vote of thanks for presenting so valuable a 

 present to the bee-fraternity, and I suggest the 

 same. J. A. Golden. 



Reinersville, O., Feb. 7. 



B. TAYLOR'S COMB-LEVELER A VALUABLE TOOL 

 FOR THE APIARY. 



Well, that comb-leveler, that B. Taylor in- 

 vented, I made one the next day after I saw the 

 cut in Gleanings; and as soon as I had sec- 

 tions suitable I went to work and did the nicest 

 job of comb-leveling. It is certainly one of the 



E E. Gr.,Pa.— No one has ever advertised the 

 stingless bees of Mexico or Cuba: in fact, they 

 can not very well be domesticated. They are 

 too much like ordinary flies. We had a little 

 colony of them once, but could do nothing with 

 them; at least, no more than we could do with 

 an ordinary nest of bumble-bees. 



J. L. S., Mont. — Snow drifted up against the 

 entrances of hives will do no particular harm. 

 Sometimes, however, after a rain or thaw, the 

 snow melts, runs into the er^rances, and freezes. 

 Unless the ice is removea the colony within 

 will die; but ordinary snow does no harm what- 

 ever. 



You could possibly pour syrup from a heigh* 

 into empty combs, and give the bees the combs. 

 We have done this; but a much more satisfac- 

 tory way is to give the bees lumps of sugar or 

 syrup direct from the feeder placed diyectly 

 over the brood-frames. The pepper-box feeder 

 will answer very nicely for this purpose. 



S. O., TFas?!..— You can have a double en- 

 trance, as you suggest. As to how the bees will 

 fill the sections in such a case, I can not speak 

 from experieilce; but for some reason the ma- 

 jority of honey-producers prefer only one en- 

 trance. The principal reason, I suspect, is that 

 bees try to get their surplus as far away from 

 the entrance as possible, away from the cold 

 and away from robbers. 



W. G. J., N. y.— The trouble that you speak 

 of, bees building comb between the separators, 

 that is, above and below them, if I understand 

 you, is a little unusual, and can be accounted 

 for only by the possible fact that you may al- 

 low the supers to become too much crowded. 

 If you place another super under, just before 

 the one is completed, you will remedy the 

 trouble to some extent. The use of wider sep- 

 arators will also be an advantage, as you sug- 

 gest. 



A. B., O.—I would not advise you to set the 

 bees out, even if they are uneasy. It is too 



