1*74 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1)3 



Heads of 42 vain, 



PROM DIFFERENT FIELDS. 



/M I- KOOT, Dear Sir:— If Bee-keepers are as 



Jr\ a ,,us - v as vve are this "arm weather von will 

 *==*? not hear much from them. We are" writing 

 nun our extracting room where we keep one eye on 

 the bees through the wire screens and use the "other 

 one to guide the pen. 



We pride ourselves on a comfortably arranged ex- 

 tracting room. Our table is about 7 ft! long by 2 wide 

 set right in front of the reversible wire screen window 

 traine and has a boxed off apartment at one end. big 

 enough to hold the extractor and just high enough to 

 let a 45 gal, bbl. under. We did tr'v to have it arranged 

 *n that a little wooden boy (or similar device) would 

 Kick up Ins heels and notify us when the barrel was 

 nearly lull, and lie didn't work worth a cent, so for 

 want ot time to get him fixed just right, we had to 

 discharge him and rely on a gimlet hole bored so 

 lie Honey runs out (just enough to notify us when the 

 barrel is nearly full) and is caught in a pan. 



H e have used a Gray & Winder and other extract- 

 ors but never had one to suit us so well as our old 

 Home made one, fixed over with your improved gear- 

 ing and frame. 



Our cappings drop through a hole cut in the middle 

 Cos are caugnt in a vessel set for tn « l J ur- 



We can attest to the usefulness of R. II. Dickson's 

 lrame racks, as we have lour similar ones in use, on 

 winch we carry 14 or 16 frames as easily as (i or 8 for- 

 merly. In regard to extracted honey-we will sell 

 most 01 ours by commission put up in neat jars hold- 

 ing trom , pt. to 2 qts.— some four or live sizes. We 

 nought our glass ware at Pittsburgh from some of 

 our old friends. Thos. J. Walton, lalem, O. got us 

 up some labels of our own designing partly, at $3.75 

 j>er thousand. By placing the label at a distance, you 

 will notice the advantage of the large letters in bronze. 

 Our apiary is laid out after your hexagonal plan, 

 and we like it very much, being much the handiest 

 arrangement we ever had. Our 115 Concord vines are 

 growing beautifully. 



We use a I.angstroth frame from necessity, will 

 probably continue to do so, although we would other- 

 wise willingly conform to a standard, for we think 

 ine idea oi Apiarians arriving at some degree of uui- 

 loinnty. a« excellent one. 



Our hives range from 10-12-14 to 20 frames, the lat- 

 ter ot which we had adopted before the "Standard 

 iiive articles appeared, as best suited to our use. We 



Maples and trim off small limbs, or wound in any oth- 

 er maimer the trees early in the season, the sap will 

 tlow down the trunk of the trees forming a syrup 

 winch is excellent for the bees, comes when wc most 

 need it, no danger of drowning the bees and it will 

 not injure the trees in the least. 



Jamks Scott, Ep worth, Iowa. 

 A very good idea without doubt, and the 

 blossoms of these young Maples are also an 

 important source of honey, when the weather 

 is such that the bees can gather. Would not 

 letting the sap run down the trunk be a waste- 

 ful way of doing it and would it not induce 

 the bees to go out in unsuitable weather? vou 

 see friend S. we feel like a "burnt child" in re- 

 gard to the latter idea. We would hazard the 

 suggestion that it might injure the trees after- 

 ward, if we hadn't raised so many objections 

 already, but we heartily advise planting forest 

 trees by all means. Our 4000 Basswoods are 

 looking beautiful now in spite of the abuse the 

 grasshoppers gave them last season. We have 

 just had them trimmed up and the ground spa- 

 ded around each one and they are making a 

 tine growth. 



— ~-™- •■ "i'i"-«i<;.i, no ueoi Miueu io our use. We 

 4 bought then that the 30 inch idea was large but it 

 lias been growing in our head and has not diminished 

 *mce, lor we now find it hard work to keep our 20 

 trame stocks from casting swarms. 



Now I must tell you all I know of smokers. One of 



-7> l ;,ft 1 f l ,U,1 fV V; "'-r 1 to knoM on h ™rh,g that we burnt 

 Buffalo chips" it we "sent West lor it?" That's just 

 where we get it. After a dry spell we take our basket 

 on our arm and "go west" to the barn-yard or pasture 

 ot and till u with chips. Those a couple of inches 

 i? a^ tat ° S L 1Jps !, lo;lvin £ each piece a couple 

 t £^,«? c Ua f e A wh A en , dr ?' are splendidly adapted to 

 jotue wants oi the Apiarian. By pouring from the 

 benzine jug a few drops it can be lit in a minute's time, 

 Ml burn nearly all day, giving the best kind of smoke 

 a! scare. lv ever blazing unless caught by a high 

 « ind. \\ ,. keep ours constantly burning while going 

 (lie rounds, and it is then ready lor use when we run 

 across oneo out hybrid stocks that want to go fo? 

 ■It «£?fi S '' V" °" e ^ ives out we lft y th e coal remain- 

 ™f»,? end o1 anothei " ;l "tl tliiw keep the Miioke 



Our honey season still continues good and the hon- 



?? , A"" V K ,"'- V ^f ,eaX ' ™ Water ' and of good consis- 

 U in j . W e have taken over 200 gallons (and ready to 

 go at it again) from 43 colonies. y 



Wen ill have all our bees pure before long and hope 

 to enter the held with good pure stock next spring! 

 and not a black bee « ithin several miles of us. 



v. r S . Slb ,f V '" a - enter the $1.00 list next season for 

 w e like the lun ot rearing Queens. 



Please send me a few Queen Registers and find en- 

 closed 25c. tor same. Yours respectfully, 



Indianapolis, Ind. June 28th. D. Lions Browne. 



1 also have one item on early Bee Pasture which I 

 consider oi value, if you are of the same mind, you 

 can publish it for the benefit of the Brotherhood. You 

 are aware that in the West and East perhaps, growing 

 o forest timber is becoming part of the tanner's occu- 

 pation, and Maple is one of the kinds most used ; now 

 »1 bee-keepers will go into the plantations of young 



DEAR NOVICE :-Gleaning8 for May (the missing 

 number) is at hand. A postal card is not half lug 

 enough to express my sympathy on ; "I know how it is 

 myself." Four years ago I lost almost all my bees- 

 ca ^e— late transferring. I am satisfied that you are 

 right, that lack of pollen did the business. "We are 

 not ready for you to abdicate the editorial chair vet 

 It we can find the reason your bees stored no pollen 

 your loss may be more useful to us than Bolin's suc- 

 cess. Y ou say that for the last three years you have 

 found but little old pollen in your combs in the spring. 

 Is that not about the time that you have run the ex- 

 tractor exclusively, and fed up in the fall ? Is it not 

 barely possible that bees, when kept robbed with the 

 extractor, in their eagerness to store honev for winter 

 neglect to store pollen, except for immediate use ? I 

 robbed one stock last season of all their honev as fast 

 as gathered; they gave me double as much honey as 

 any other stock, and kept up the supply of brood.' but 

 as soon as flow ers failed and the brood "was all hatch- 

 ed I gave the beea to an adjoining stock. An examin- 

 ation of their combs to-day, shows them to be perfect- 

 ly empty-no pollen— a fact I never noticed before. 

 w , e c S uld feed P°'len bad weather, all would go 

 we 1. But if your system of extracting all the honev 

 and feeding lor winter ou syrup, makes us entirely 

 dependant on an early spring for success. I think we 

 had better "go slow" in this climate, where earlv 

 springs are an exception. The fact that Bolin's bees 

 were wintered on natural stores is proof to me that 

 they also stored pollen. 



I do not use the extractor as a general thing during 

 the last halt of July, and the first half of August, (the 

 time Indian corn is in bloom) and when I begin again 

 I find the combs half filled with pollen. 



I think more of my bees than of any thing else I 

 have, (wife ami children excepted) and' I tremble lest 

 1 lose them again. Bingham of Mich., I see has come 

 to the conclusion that it is all luck, and I was always 

 an unlucky chap, so you had better reserve a place 

 tor me in "Blasted Hopes" corner. 



Heavy losses occurred in this vicinity this spring 

 chiefly from attempting to winter weak swarms. T 

 lost three such, all the weak ones I had. My strong- 

 est swarms wintered best, though their combs moul- 

 ded some, but they soon cleaned them. It is very 

 unfavorable weather now for bees, cold— rainy— win- 

 dy, and has been for two weeks. I had my bees in 

 Pv^oS^ fo i" hone y gathering-made some swarms 

 the 2bth ot May— was raising some Queens— had 

 thousands ot Italian drones, and no black ones to 

 speak ot— had begun to "go" for some of the strong- 

 est a la Novice to prevent swaiming, when this bad 

 weather came on, cold as March. 1 have done all I 

 could to keep my bees up, but they are killing drones, 

 destroying Queen cells, throwing out brood, and cut- 

 ting up Jack generally. If the weather don't change 

 I will be put back to the 1st of May. "iS'ic/t" is bee- 

 keeping. Yours truly, R. L. Joiner. 

 Wyoming, Wis. June 14th, 1874. 



This is a new view of the matter we must 

 confess, but it will hardly apply in our locali- 

 ty, for we seldom if ever use the extractor after 



