1874 



gi/eants-gs rx BEE CULTURE. 



11 



OUR, 

 "Day before going to Press," 



Questions not too lengthy, may be answered through 

 this department even if not received until within two 

 days, of the first of the month ; and in two days more, 

 nothing preventing, you may have your paper contain- 

 ing the reply. If our friends would use a separate] 

 piece of paper for this, and in fact for each of the de- 

 partments, and write on one side only t'would be quite 

 <t favor.but if tt's too much trouble, don't do it, for we 

 want to hear from you any way 



DECEMBER 29TH, 187'3- 



Mr Muth informs us Honey Jars will be 

 somewhat less for next season, as per his ad- 

 vertisement which see. 



Our bees are to-day, Dec. 27th, as quiet and 

 healthy as we could desire, but the weather 

 has seldom been colder than freezing for the 

 last month. 



Annals of Bee Culture has not yet made its 

 appearance, although it was advertised to be 

 •out about the first of Dec. 



If friend Adair would succeed with his 

 Quarterly he should be more prompt than he 

 has been with the Annals heretofore. 



The American, Bee Journal of late does not 

 reach us until near the middle of the month, 

 and Mrs. Tapper's not until about the 25th al- 

 though she proposes to be on hand by the 15th, 

 The Magazine has we believe, been generally 

 on hand a day or two before the first of the 

 month. Cannot we all strive in a friendly way 

 to see who will be most punctual ? 



Wind-mill, too great for Novice's inexperience 

 in feeding the press. If notified we will fur- 

 uish a good copy in place of all such. 



Probably none of our readers have seen an ur- 

 chin more pleased during the hollidays, than is 

 Novice at present, who is rejoicing in the poses- 

 sion of a new Printing Office ordered expressly 

 to print our little Journal. 



Of course the "Windmill" had to be "harness- 

 ed" and brought into subjection, which has been 

 accomplished perfectly, only that 'twill go too 

 fast at times for his untrained hands, but with 

 the assistance of Miss Maud or Master Ernest, 

 to remove the papers from the Press and pile 

 them, he gets along very well. As he must of 

 course try his hand too, at type setting — in 

 fact he is enjoying himself hugely at this very 

 minute in setting up this very item — we 

 trust everything hereafter, will appear in "ap- 

 ple pie" order. [He has already made " pi " 

 among the types to his full satisfaction.] 



"P. G" says, "beware of making too great cal- 

 culations on a fair specimen of typography, 

 f jr the Journal even under Novice's supervision 

 may be a failure in that respect ;" to which he 

 adds, we may assure our friends if 'tis not well 

 done we at least did our vary best to have it so. 



Since the above we have printed all but the 

 cover and perhaps should make an apology for 

 using type for heads of Departments, that we 

 should not have used had we not been repeat- 

 edly disappointed in getting the proper kind 

 in time. Also, should some of our friends by 

 chance receive a No. with the print slightly 

 askew, reccollect it was probably occasioned 

 by a sudden acceleration of the speed of the 



Novice will you be kind enough to tell us how to 

 clean cpiilits— ours are stuck up with propolis— some 

 of them are about as stiff as a board,— you will do us a 

 favor by enlightening us on this point. 



J. Oa'tman & Co., Dundee, Ills. 



We really don't know of a cheaper way than 

 to put on a new cover of cotton cloth. Ben- 

 zine it is true will dissolve the gum, but we 

 have found it rather unsatisfactory to wash 

 them. Cannot some use be made of propolis 

 (like bees-wax) that it may be made a market- 

 able commodity '? The quilts are not apt to kill 

 bees even if quite stiff, and we use them two 

 or three seasons without much trouble. 



1st.— Will it do to store honey in wine or brandy 

 casks, (we can buy such when it" would be very dim-' 

 cult to get them made on purpose )? 



•2nd.— Do you think the young bees or cjueens would 

 not be apt to make mistakes in an Apiary on your 

 plan, supposing the grape vines were omitted ? 



3rd.— I expect to have all my bees— 31 stocks— in 

 "Simplicity hives" next spring. Would it do to pour 

 a halt pound of feed on the cluster of bees at once? 

 Wouldn't it make a muss ? 



4th.— We are told to make our bees till the apartment 

 given them at all times. Suppose that on examining a 

 hive in spring, the bees are found to occupy about 

 three combs, all of which contain brood, but very lit' 

 tie honey, that being in the other combs at each side. 

 How are" we to contine the bees to those three combs, 

 and avoid the evil of cutting off their supply of honey 

 and pollen ? Kespectfully, yours, 



G. C. Miller, Mount Hanley, Nova Scotia. 



1st. — We have always used wine and brandy 

 casks for shipping small quantities of honey, 

 and found no trouble. They can be purchased 

 cheaply, of almost any size at the drug stores, 

 and seem to be just what is needed. 



2nd. — We think the omission of the grape 

 vines would make no difference whatever ; we 

 have a number of hives iu front of the house, 

 entirely without the vines. 



3rd.— A half pound, unless very thick, and 

 the colony very strong, would be sure to run 

 out and make a muss. Try less. 



4th. — You will find no such trouble in prac- 

 tice we think. Allow them honey and pollen 

 sufficient at all events. 



Our readers may have observed an adver- 

 tisement of a plan for securing straight combs, 

 in some of our Bee Journals, during the past 

 season, by our friend whose name appears be- 

 low. The plan seems to be somewhat a com- 

 bination of Dadant's Comb Guide Press, and 

 directions given in the North American Bee 

 Journal some time ago. We believe Mr. W. 

 has sold a number of the Directions, but we 

 think we have convinced him of the impracti- 

 bility of his method, for one of our subscribers 

 who had purchased it, offeied to send it to us 

 and in fact we know of no reason why infor- 

 mation should not be freely communicated if 

 valuable. 



Mr. W. now sends it to us for publication, 

 and we hope all credit will be accorded him, 

 where it is found to be valuable. 



We have seen a similar device used, but 

 found our thin pine strips to answer so well, 

 and so much less trouble to us, to make and 

 put in, that we have used nothing else. It 

 should be remembered that we have always 

 built between two others, and 



