1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



773 



" Well, then, why under tlie sun didn't you 

 stay at home? for surely this hurried flight 

 throngli tlie State is far from satisfactory. How 

 much more will you know about Vermont and 

 her bee-keepers than you did before you came? 

 Why, you must stay a week, sure; nothing 

 short will be satisfactory to us; what say you, 

 Mr. Crane ?" 



"Well, I am of your opinion, Mr. M.; but, 



i'ust think; he stopped with me only a few 

 lOurs; and if he stays with you until to-mor- 

 row afternoon you liave no cause for com- 

 plaint, as he assures me he must go." 



"Very well, then. INIr. Crane; suppose you 

 stay here all night, and we will make it ' warm * 

 for the young Root before morning, as we will 

 keep him up all night so as to make all we can 

 of him while he stays." 



" Really, it would be impossible forme to stay 

 with this little girl,"' said Mr. Crane. " But I 

 should like to, for I think the young man 

 should be punished for not making us a longer 

 visit. But my experience teaches me that lyoit 

 are pi-etty good at keeping your visitors up to a 

 late hour, so I will risk you with him." 



" Surely, gentlemen," said Ernest, " you are 

 very considerate. I only wish I could remain 

 a few days longer, but it is impossible." 



" What is this you have here, Manum ? This 

 is something new, isn't it ? I never saw any 

 thing like it before. What do you use it for?" 

 asked Mr. Crane. 



" Why, Mr. Crane, is It possible that you do 

 not take the papers? Why! this was illustrated, 

 and its use explained, a year ago in Gleanings. 

 It is my queen-nursery, and a useful thing it is 

 too. There, you see one of these half-depth 

 frames holds 16 of these little boxes; and by 

 hanging a queen-cell in each and hanging the 

 frame (nursery) in a colony, whether they have 

 a laying queen or not, the cells will be kept 

 warm, and the young queens will hatch as well 

 as though they had not been removed from the 

 combs. In this way I always have a quantity 

 of virgin queens on hand; and since I have 

 learned how to do it, I prefer to introduce vir- 

 gins rather than laying queens. In fact, I 

 have better success with them. I have intro- 

 duced over ,500 virgin queens this year, and I 

 don't think I have lost over a dozen." 



"Well, well!" exclaimed Mr. Crane; "why 

 haven't I known of this before, Manum ? Why 

 haven't you told me about this thing before? I 

 like it; it is the best thing of the kind I ever 

 saw." 



" Well, Mr. Crane, my answer is, Why don't 

 you read Gleanings ? aiid, furthermore, why 

 don't you write for it ? Again, why don't you 

 come up and see me occasionally, as you used 

 to years ago? I am the same Manum that I al- 

 ways was, only that I know less about bees 

 than I used to in my own estimation." 



" I see you have some of our excluding zinc 

 here; how does it work ?" said Ernest. 



" Yes, I have enough for (5.5 hives; but it does 

 not exclude the queens from the upper story, as 

 I find that very many of my queens got up into 

 the upper story this summer, so that j'eally it is 

 not S9,fe to use it for the purpose of excluding 

 queens." 



" What is this used for ?" asks Ernest. 



"That is my section-gluer for putting four- 

 piece sections together. A good smart hand 

 will put together 1.500 to ;3()(J0 per day with it." 



" And what is this for?" 



" That is a block with which I make my bee- 

 escapes. This block has Ijccn in use over 15 

 years. You see it is simi)ly an inch hole bored 

 in this block of hard wood, and this is the 

 " piuich," made cone-shaped so it will fit the 

 hole loosely. I now cut common window wire 

 screen into three-inch-square pieces, lay a piece 



over the hole, and with the wood punch I press 

 the screen into the hole which forms the escape, 

 making it cone-shaped, and then with the 

 point of my knife I cut two of the wires at the 

 tip of the cone crosswise — thus, x — and with an 

 ordinary lead-pencil passed through the x, the 

 opening is made just the right size to allow one 

 bee to pass through. Then I tack the escape 

 over an inch hole at the gable ends of my hive- 

 caps; and by placing my sections of honey un- 

 der the caps, the bees will very soon pass out 

 through the escapes and can not return." 



"And here you have used these escapes over 

 fifteen years, as \\ell as many other (to me) 

 new things which you have here, and have 

 never told us of them. Now, Mr. M., why don't 

 you mention these things and their use through 

 Gleanings ? It is these little useful things 

 that we want; so hereafter, when you get up 

 something new. please tell us all about it in 

 your articles. They will interest some if not all 

 who read Gleanings; and whenever you can, 

 send us a photograph of them." 



" Well, gentlemen, Jennie says, ' Tea is ready,' 

 so let us go in and sample her cooking.'' 



After tea Mr. Crane departs for home, and 

 Ernest and Manum settle down for a good talk, 

 and lay plans to make the most of the next day. 

 I noticed all the evening that my friend Root 

 was full to overflowing with thick top-bars 

 and closed - end frames. Really, he did not 

 seem to be interested in talking about any 

 thing else; and I thought to myself, " This 

 young Root has thick top-bars and closed-end 

 frames well rooted within him; but to-morrow 

 I will make an effort to root them out of him." 

 So, having laid our plans for the morrow, we 

 retired at a late hour. 



" Good-morning, Mr. Root. The weather is 

 rather unfavorable this morning for carrying 

 out my plans, as you see it rains very hard. My 

 intention was, since you must go to-day, to 

 take you to Burlington, 35 miles from here, 

 where you could take tlie 9 p. m. train for Troy; 

 and on the way to Burlington I could show 

 you four of my apiaries; then we would call on 

 Mr. Eugene Cox, who has some 75 colonies; 

 then next we would call on Mr. Fred Dean, 

 who has .50 or more colonies; and then Mr. H. 

 Stilson, with 140; and then "Sir. W. H. Dodge, 

 with his 200 or more colonies; hence you see I 

 had planed to give you a lively time if it had 

 been pleasant. But as it is we will just settle 

 down and have a visit all by ourselves. I wish 

 it would stop raining long enough so I could 

 make a picture of you standing by my new 

 hive hot-house; but as that is impossible, I will 

 show you one I made a few days ago which I 

 will give you to show to the readers of Glean- 



MANIM S mVE IIOT-UOUSE. 



INGS if you care to reproduce it for that pur- 

 pose. You will notice that it is simply one of 

 ray Bristol hives with a glass roof. I make a 



