198 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mak. 



ro, and is thus quoted in the price lists of dealers; 

 and by to-morrow every little one-horse grocery, 

 from Manitoba to the gulf, will be quoting it. I 

 never shipped any honey except once, and I hum- 

 bly beg the bee-keepers of the country to forgive 

 this indiscretion, and I will promise to do so no 

 more. I employed two young men to pack and 

 ship this honey. One of them was a natural-born 

 peddler; and if I had set him to selling in lieu of 

 shipping, 1 should have had my money sooner, and 

 more of it. 



I embrace every opportunity of bringing honey 

 to the front as an article of food, and every one can 

 create a demand if he will only " try, try again." I 

 think there are but very few townships, six miles 

 square, that produce more honey than they can 

 consume, in the whole country, if it were thorough- 

 ly canvassed. I should like to belong to a. guild of 

 honey-producers who would bind themselves not to 

 ship until their own neighborhood was supplied. 



I'm glad that I stirred up Bro. Doolittle. I was 

 wakeful last night, and T could see a picked crow, 

 with only one tail-feather left. If he had written 

 thus plainly before, I should not have lost my bees 

 by following him; and now novices will be benefit- 

 ed. Many writers imagine that their readers know 

 as much about bees as they do, hence failures. 



Peoria, 111., Mar. 6. Mrs. L. Harrison. 



Mrs. IL, right in line with your remarks, 

 friend Uanzenbaker, of Washington, D. C, 

 who is now making us a visit, just remarked 

 that he had recently sold his orange-grove 

 in Florida, consisting of 22 acres. When I 

 asked him if he produced orange-blossom 

 honey, he said he had as much as 60 lbs. last 

 season, and that he had sold it all for 25 cts. 

 per lb. 



" Why, friend D., where in the world did 

 you find a market for the orange-blossom 

 honey at 25 cts. per Ib.V" 



" Vvhy, right where it was gathered, of 

 course. I always sell ray honey where it Is 

 gathered, and I believe 1 get a better price 

 for it, as a rule, than I could get by sending 

 it away off somewhere and having a great 

 big freight-bill to pay." 



IMPBOVEMENTS IN BROOD-FKAMES. 



IMPORTANCE OF WIRING COMBS, ETC. 



Friend Roof :— A few days ago I sent you one of 

 my improved brood-frames, and gave you some of 

 my experience with the thick top-bars and brace- 

 combs. I will now explain some other important 

 features of this frame, which I think will commend 

 themselves to all. I see that some are contemplat- 

 ing doing away with wire in the frames, as well as 

 with the boney-board, by the use of heavy top-bars. 

 I am satisfied we can never dispense with wire in 

 our brood and extracting combs. 



When combs contain sealed honey, and they are 

 exposed to frost, ihey are almost sure to crack, and, 

 if not wired, they will break out. Unwired combs 

 also often break down from the effects of heat. 



The breakage caused by dropping combs into the 

 hive, or by shaking off bees, or by extracting the 

 honey, far more than balances the expense of wir- 

 ing. Another point in favor of wiring: We are en- 

 abled to fill eight frames with a single pound of 

 thin foundation; whereas, without wire we must 



have foundation heavy enough to fill only four 

 frames to the pound. 



Having decided to use wire, the next question is, 

 how to put it into frames with heavy top-bars. 

 Some stretch the wires across from one end-bar to 

 the other; but I should not like that way. The 

 wires being so long, they would sag or sway, and 

 not hold the comb true in the center of the frame. 

 I think we can never improve upon the six vertical 

 and two diagonal wires, and the central vertical 

 folded tin bar. These, properly put in, hold the 

 thin bottom-bar straight and rigid while every wire 

 is stretched as tight as a drum - string, and the 

 frame is braced, preventing its getting out of 

 square, which is very important. The comb is stiff- 

 ened in the middle by the tin bar, where it is inclin- 

 ed to sag out while the comb is being loosened from 

 the extractor wire. 



We can not very well sew these vertical wires 

 through the heavy top-bars as we did through the 

 light ones; and, besides, I was always disgusted 

 with having wires stretched across the top of the 

 top-bars. They are almost sure to be cut, sooner 

 or later, while cleaning off the top-bars. 



My plan is to saw out a square strip from one of 

 the lower corners of the heavy top-bars, which 

 makes a rabbet half as wide as the top-bar. The 

 wires are looped over the heads of small wire nails, 

 which are driven into the vertical side of this rab- 

 bet. The tin bar is sprung in, in the usual way. 

 The sheet of foundation is cut to fill the frame, in- 

 cluding the rabbet. 



After imbedding the wire and tin bar with a ma- 

 chine that does it at one operation, the strip that 

 came out of the rabbet is dipped into melted wax 

 and rosin, and pressed into the rabbet over the top 

 edge of the foundation, the nail-heads, etc., and 

 nailed, which, I assure you, thoroughly fastens 

 the foundation at the top. 



At some future time I may describe how all the 

 wire nails are driven into the top-bar at one stroke 

 by magnetism; how the wire is run into the frames 

 on wheels; how the very thin foundation is made to 

 adhere firmly to the wire alter it is imbedded, and 

 how all the wires and tin bar are imbedded at one 

 stroke. 



FRAME-SPACEIiS. 



You ask for a device that will properly space the 

 frames, and not cost more than ten cents per hive. 

 You will notice that my end-bars embrace this fea- 

 ture, and it does not cost more than two or three 

 cents per hive extra, and I think it answers the 

 purpose as well as any thing that can be devised. 



The end-bars are simply sawed out li?8 scant, wide. 

 They are then passed over a cutter-head, such as is 

 used in cutting the entrances in sections, leaving a 

 shoulder one inch long in the center of one side of the 

 bar. In nailing the frame, the shoulder, or projec- 

 tion, at one end, is made to project on one side, and 

 that on the other end projects on the opposite side. 



