520 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



stage that they were not easily injured. At 

 other times I iaave been troubled because of 

 the number of queens with bad wings and 

 crooked or indented bodies, and I should 

 not be surprised if your remarks point out 

 and explain some of these cases. I fear 

 that many of our friends will object to using 

 basswood honey for winter stores. 



ANOTHER HIVING ARKANGEMENT, 



o. R. coe's method. 



Friend Root:— The method of hiving swarms that 

 I have used for a few years Is so simple that perhaps 

 it might be best to have It described in Gleanings. 

 I have a hiving-box made as follows: A square 

 box, 13X12 Inches, and 12 deep, with half of the front 

 side cut away. For bottom I nail on a board 12x18, 

 which extends out 6 inches in front; and for a cover 

 a plain board in which I bore several half-inch holes 

 and put in sticks 4 to fi inches long, which extend 

 down into the box on which the bees cluster. Fig. 

 3 shows the invei-ted cover with the sticks, and Fig. 

 3 the hiving-box complete, with cover on. The 

 handle of the box is a small iron rod to which I 

 have attached a few feet of small rope. 



COE'S HTVINO APPARATUS. 



When a swarm comes out I wait until they just 

 begin to cluster on a limb when I place a ladder 

 near them. I then take the hiving-box and hold it 

 in the hollow of my bended arm. I now tip the box 

 forward until the bottom-board of the box stands 

 at an angle of 45 degrees, and with the other hand I 

 shake the cluster of bees down into the box, 

 and they at once go up and cluster in the box. I 

 now throw the rope over a round of my ladder or a 

 limb of the tree near the ground, and leave it sus- 

 pended. With my smoker I prevent any more bees 

 clustering on the limb from which they were first 

 shaken into the box, and in a few moments they 

 are all quiet in the box. 



I next prepare their hive, and always place an 

 empty half-story under it, as In Fig. 1. A yard 

 square of enamel cloth nailed to two pieces of 

 boards l)i wide, I spread in front of the hive. I 

 now take the cover from my hiving-box with near- 

 ly all of the bees hanging to it, and the sticks, and 

 shake the bees on to the enamel cloth ; and if there 

 are many bees yet on the sides of the box I turn it 



over and shake them on the enamel cloth also; 

 then grasp the ends of the sticks of the enameled 

 cloth, and, as you lift the bees up, they will slide 

 down toward the center as it bags down, and then I 

 hold it so that they slide down into the half-story 

 hive. I now slide the hive forward. But few bees 

 will fly, and the swarm is hived very quickly. 



SOME OF ITS ADVANTAGES. 



The great point is, that I can get them into the 

 box as quickly as they would settle on to a limb or 

 on to a Manum swarming device, and then, to all 

 intents and purposes to the bees, they are hived. I 

 can place a dozen swarms (if 1 have so many hiving- 

 boxes) on the stands they are to occupy, and they 

 will fly from and to the box, and mark their new 

 location as well before as after they are placed in 

 the hive. This is a great point with me when I 

 have many swarms. I never had a swarm leave 

 the hiving-box after it was once in it all right, until 

 I shook them out. The enamel cloth fastened to 

 sticks is a grand thing to use in transferring and 

 many other uses, as bees can be shaken on to it and 

 slid off where we want them. O R Coe. 



Windham, N. Y ., May, 189U. 



GLEANINGS FOR JULY 1ST. 



SOME OF ITS CONTRIBUTORS. 



Friends Bout:— (You see I want to include Ernest 

 in my gi-eeting, for we have learned to appreciate 

 the practical things from his pen as well as the good 

 things from A. I.'s). I have just left off devouring 

 No. 13 of Gleanings after having read every thing 

 in it from cover to cover, including most of the 

 advertisements, and now I propose doing what, 

 many times in the past year, I have felt like doing, 

 but never did; i. e., give you both my heartfelt 

 thanks for the bi-monthly feast of good things that 

 Gleanings never fails in bringing us. I need not 

 say, "God bless you," for it is evident to all the 

 10,003 subscribers, and the additional host of read- 

 ers of Gleanings, that he is constantly doing that. 

 Let nie say, rather, may God's blessing continue 

 with you in all your future as you now enjoy it; 

 and I will add, that I believe it will so long as you 

 keep his colors nailed to the mast, and your one 

 hand placed in his while the other holds the helm. 

 And while I give thanks to yourself and Ernest, I 

 want a good big share to go out through Glean- 

 ings to Dr. Miller, Mr. Doolittle, Prof. Cook, Mr. 

 Manum, Mr. Hasty, Rambler, Mr. Heddon, and the 

 many other veterans who so ably and interestingly 

 discuss all pertaining to the apiary. 



BLACK bees gentle. 



A little more than a year ago 1 knew next to 

 nothing of one of God's most wonderful creatures, 

 and scarcely ever gave the honey-bees credit for 

 the delightful sweet I had so often enjoyed. But 

 now, thanks to you all, and to the Father's hand 

 that guides our steps, and led me to invest in a few 

 colonies of bees, I have had the veil removed; and 

 wliile I still stand enraptured on the threshold, and 

 feel that I have but entered on a pursuit that 

 promises exquisite pleasure, I have already enjoy- 

 ed BO much in the investigation of my interesting 

 little friends that lam already a thousand times 

 repaid for the score or so of stings I have receiv- 

 ed. It appears to me I must have secured an ex- 

 ceedingly gentle lot of bees. I have ten colonies. 

 They are the common black bees, with possibly a 



