448 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



or swelling will not affect the space between 

 the brood-frames and sections. It is a com- 

 paratively easy matter to control bee-spaces 

 between shallow supers, and between super 

 and brood-nest ; but between an upper and 

 lower set of brood-frames, L. depth, it may 

 not always be uniform. There will be a 

 small variation between a dry and a wet 

 season, with us. Your logic is good in re- 

 gard to exact bee-spaces ; and in localities 

 where they can be maintained uniformly, 

 perhaps a thin top-bar will answer; but 

 with us I fancy we shall need the additional 

 assistance of a deeper and wider top-bar. 

 This is a splendid field for experiment, and 

 I hope many of the readers will test it care- 

 fully. 



MOVING BEES. 



MAKING THE BEST OF EVERY THING. 



THE TWINE METHOD OF FASTENING HIVES ; A BIG 

 TESTIMONIAL, FOR IT. 



1 have just returned from moving 40 colonies of 

 tees with an ordinary farm wag-on, without springs, 

 over quite a rough road, some 8 miles, to an out- 

 apiary, with more ease and expedition than I ever 

 did before (and I have moved many hundred colo- 

 nies, and used all sorts and methods of fastening). 

 I used the twine fastened as given by Ernest, on 

 page 253, April 1; and though exceedingly busy I 

 write this to let some one who has bees yet to 

 move, know that the method is a decided success, 

 if ordinary precautions are used, and common 

 sense exercised. I hauled 30 at a load, and with 

 each colony in an old-style Heddon hive. I used 

 two half-story supers filled with sections and start- 

 ers, which made it more difficult to fasten, and 

 more cumbersome to handle than single bodies 

 would have been. The bottoms were all loose- 

 nothing nailed or fastened, except by the cord, 

 which was about the size of an ordinary clothes- 

 line. I took the precaution, however, to secure the 

 two parts, where they come close together on the 

 top, by a smaller piece of twine, so as to prevent all 

 possibility of slipping. To enumerate the advan- 

 tages of this method, I will say that time and tem- 

 per are saved in preparing the colonies for ship- 

 ment ; no nails to mar or split cover, hives, or 

 bottom, and they can be undone in one-fourth the 

 time it usually takes by any of the old methods. 

 Thanks are due to the editor of Gleanings for 

 giving those of us who must move our colonies to 

 out-apiaries for so great an improvement, say I, 

 and all will join me who try it. 



Belleville, 111., June 2. E. T. Flanagan. 



Yes, sir, friend Flanagan, you are right. 

 The twine method of fastening hives for 

 moving bees is rapid, cheap, and, with or- 

 dinary care, safe. No little thing like this 

 ever gave me more real pleasure to give to 

 the bee-keeping world than this, because I 

 knew it was good. Our Mr. Ward, the 

 teamster, invented the plan. I hope our 

 readers who have any thing to do with mov- 

 ing bees will give the plan a trial. I have 

 explained it to our packers, and they are 

 actually sending out hives, for short dis- 

 tances, by freight and express, tied by this 

 plan, with no crating whatever. For par- 

 ticulars, see page 252, April 1. 



HOW TO GET ALONG ; WHAT TO DO WITH DISAP- 

 POINTMENTS, ACCIDENTS, AND STUMBLING- 

 BLOCKS. 



Friend Root:— The Baroes saw that I ordered of 

 you the 13th of this month came to Concord yester- 

 day evening, so I took a spring wagon and went 

 after it ihis evening, and brought it home, and 

 thought I would set it up to-night; but after open- 

 ing the box I found the arm, or support, that the 

 journal of the fly-wheel rests on, was broken in 

 three pieces, and one end of the mandrel was 

 sprung— done in shipping, for I heard those pieces 

 rattling when the railroad men rolled it out of the 

 freight-room. Now, I shall have to get a new sup- 

 port for the lly-wheel, and a new mandrel, before I 

 can use the mill. I think the company ought to 

 send them free, and I will leave it to you to fix the 

 matter with them; but have them sent immediate- 

 ly, and I will do whatever you say, for I have con- 

 fidence enough in you to believe that you will do 

 just the best you can under the circumstances. 



Poplar Flat. Ky., May 37. L. C. Calvert. 



Later, May .3/.— Well, friend Root, my mill coming 

 in the shape it did gave me the blues, and I could 

 not help it; but I never went to sleep after going to 

 bed until I made up my mind to try my saw next 

 morning, so I got up early and went to putting it 

 together. I took a strip of plank and laid the brok- 

 en arm on it, and very carefully put the pieces (for 

 it was broken in three pieces) together, and marked 

 it off and cut a bed in the wood for it, and then 

 screwed a block over it, and put the mill up and 

 tried it, and it ran all right. Now for the mandrel. 

 I put the crooked end in its box, and screwed the 

 box fast in my bench-vise, then made a gauge fast 

 to the bench, and turned the mandrel until it came 

 to the point where it was furthest from the gauge; 

 then I carefully sprung it and kept on until I could 

 turn it clear round, and it would just touch the 

 gauge all the time. I put it in and started the mill, 

 and you ought to have seen the blues go out at the 

 back door of the shop. I ran the mill the rest of 

 that day, and Thursday and part of Friday, and it 

 has cut over 3000 feet, line measure, and now I feel 

 as if I were almost fixed for running a hive-factory, 

 lean say that the mill will do all that it is recom- 

 mended to do, and I am well pleased. But that 

 broken arm, or support, for the fly-wheel, I want 

 sent, but I am in no hurry for it. Any time will do. 

 I think it could be sent by mail about as cheap as 

 any way, as it is not very heavy. As you stand to 

 operate the mill, it is the left-hand side that the 

 broken piece is on. L. C. C. 



Well done, my good friend C. How 

 many times in my daily travels about the 

 grounds and the factory I find things come 

 to a dead standstill by some break-down, 

 disappointment, or mishap ! Very often, 

 time enough is spent in severely censuring, 

 to have gone to work and started things go- 

 ing again. I have before written in regard 

 to people who have a knack of mending 

 things. Oh what a need there is in this 

 world for people who are good at patching 

 up broken tools and machinery ! It is true, 

 in the above case, that the fault lay either 

 with the shipper or transportation compan- 

 ies, or both ; and I have known people to re- 

 fuse to take a thing from the depot because 



