L873 



GLEANIKGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Tfe— that is we gicciiies— use the Isham honev box- 

 Ihe nicest, stamicliest, and handiest honey box we 

 ever saw. We Ivuow him lie lives round here, he haii 

 a patent on his box— we saw his papers, all res'lar— 

 he deserves them too— lias lately sold three counties 

 to an apiarian who has seen a jjood many such aflairs, 

 iuul sold lor a handsome sum. If you saw it, you 

 would want a Slate at least— llie tiK>rk would suit your 

 taste. 



Now to finish all this rigmarole and to convince vou 

 tliat we are your Irieud, tlio' we expect you will blow 

 «is with a stiff breeze, we say— we frankly confess, that 

 we have tried your tiu corners for frames, after usinj? 

 •wooden ones," and we don't want to see in our hives 

 •another frame that has not those same tin corners. 

 .And our green advice to all beginners is, don't make a 

 .single frame till you get these corners. We shall get 

 a"id of all our frames whicli have not these corners just 

 as fast as we can. We have tried several hundred of 

 them and now we send our orders for (5500 more with 

 ihe cash, as evidence tliat we mean what we say. 



2. EKOAPI'IANS. 



[We can give full address to any who may desire, 

 but the writer at present prefers a nom de plume.— Ed.] 



At the risk of having the above sound some- 

 thing like a puff for the corners, we have deci- 

 ded to give it a place, especially as some 

 disparaging remarks that have been given 

 might tend towards giving an impression that 

 the corners hardly deserve. We will cheerful- 

 ly give place to anything on the contrary side, 

 coming from any Apiary where they have been 

 considerably used. 



Our friends are in error about Mrs. Tupper 

 using a frame 12x13 inside. Variety of taste 

 has dictated so many different thicknesses of 

 the stuff composing the frames, that we cannot 

 see how our friend gets rid of fractions by 

 using inside dimensions as a standard. We 

 have seen end bars in use ojie inch in thickness 

 and top bars with a massive comb guide still 

 thicker. Supposing we all should adopt a uni- 

 form size inside of frame, where would be the 

 outside, and what would be dimensions of hive 

 to suit ? We can readily make metal cornered 

 frames to agree in outside dimensions, with 

 any frame in use, and this allows them to be 

 worked in the same hive mixed up with the old 

 ones, thus giving the owuer a fair chance to 

 contrast their lightness, ease in handling, and 

 at the same time greater capacity for brood 

 and honey, from the larger comb surface. 



We certainly don't want any of jour friend's 

 "rights" but if you will send us a sample of 

 liis honey box, we will cheerfully help him sell 

 it, if we think it meritorious. Let him manu- 

 facture and supplj' all demand, and let his pat- 

 ent papers protect him in so doing. Nice 

 honey l)oxes should be made by machinery, 

 and ordinary bee-keepers would prefer to buy 

 rather than to make them. 



A NOVEI. IDEA IN WIIVTERIIVC 



WITH SOME Ol'IIER IMPOUTANT FACTS. 



T? HAA'E used several hives with an outside case 

 ;«K filled in between with straw or leaves, for five or 

 •s* six years. Also hives with double boarded sides 

 :ind ends with dead air space between the boards but 

 I fail to see that they do any better than the single 

 Itoards. Last winter a small colony in a hive of }{. 

 inch boards wintered »vell without any protection ex- 

 •■ept the fjuilt covering ou top, and the entrance closed 

 with a idece of wool when the weather was freezing. 

 I have two small colonies (made u)) in the fall of my 

 nucleus hives) in the same hives, and they have stood 

 thus far as well as others. The only diflerence that I 

 .-ee, is tliat they are more apt to fly out when the sun 

 >hines briglitly, and need shading. 



Another cxperimeat.— I saw it stated that empty 

 space beneath the bees was of great advantage. Last 

 winter I removed all the frames from the lower story 

 of » hive and left the colony to winter in the upper 



story. They did well, but it was a very fine strong 

 colony and proves nothing. This winter I have (juitc 

 a weak colony wintering in the upper storv and doing 

 Tery well so far. 



Third exi)erinient. -Some years ago I was preparing 

 my bees for winter by removing frames from upjier 

 storv and putting on iiuilta. In one very strong colony 

 the bees remained on top the frames in large numbers. 

 1 pulled off an old wool hat and i)laced over them and 

 spread the (piilt over that. I found the bees filled the 

 hat and remained in it all winter. Since then I liavc 

 used all the old hats I can find. I notice in some in- 

 stances that half the bees of the colony are in the hat. 

 When those in the hat get hungry, and those below 

 get cold, how nice and easy it is for them to exchange 

 l)laoes, much easier than to go trom the outside of the 

 cluster to the inside over or around the frames— that 

 is, provided that is their way of doing— for instance, 

 when one litWe fellow's feet get cold he goes inside to 

 warm them, and another little fellow comes out to 

 take his place. This I believe is the generally receiv- 

 ed theory. I noticed it so stated lately by oiie of our 

 most distinguished bee masters, (M. Q. in Am. Agri- 

 culturist]. As I never saw any such commotion among 

 them as would necessarily be the conse(iuence of all 

 this changing in cold weather, you must excuse me for 

 being somewhat skeptical about. Has anyone actually 

 observed this continual changing places in cold weath- 

 er ? Akin to this is another statement we frequently 

 see made— that the colder the weather the more the 

 bees require to eat to keep up the animal heat. This 

 is all very nice in theory, but so far as I have observ* 

 ed, the bees are very quiet and still in cold weather, 

 and scarcely consume any honey at all. These may 

 be subjects worthy of investigation. I don't propose 

 to discuss them here. 



I have ex))erimented some with the Adair -Gallup 

 long idea hive, or rather "New Idea" long hive. 1 

 used two hives three feet long, one with large frames 

 13 square— the other with my standard narrow frames. 

 1 gave tliem the strongest colonies I had, and I must 

 confess that neither of them gave as much satisfaction 

 as the plain two story hives. They may not have been 

 long enough (?) they did not swarm and did not fill the 

 few empty frames Igave them. 



I am aware that these experiments do not conclu- 

 sively establish any particular fact or theory in bee- 

 keeping but they may throw a little light on some 

 points, and I find them useful in my own practice. 

 Thadueus Smith, Point Peelee Island, Ont., Can. 



Friend S. it seems, has the rare good sense 

 to see that single experiments do not settle a 

 matter by any means. We are quite taken up 

 with the old hat idea. Get one just large 

 enough to hold your colony, and keep plenty of 

 sealed honey below them, and they will be in 

 the best possible wintering trim, if we know 

 aught of bees. We once wintered a colonj^ 

 without any honey board. We supposed thej'' 

 had been given the ordinary allowance with 

 the rest but may have been mistaken. They 

 were out of food before March, but they had 

 commenced to rear brood briskly — rather in 

 advance of the rest. 



SECTION HONEY BOXES. 



T is at least too bothersome for me to make the 

 Harbison frames, as per Gleanings ; I have made 

 some very nice frame boxes, top and end pieces 

 all 1^ inches wide, ends are 5 inches long and top and 

 bottoms Bit' inches long and nailed to end pieces, 

 which are k thick and top and bottom V inch thick ; 

 outside sections ai'e 1% wide with a groove to receive 

 a glass 5xH. I place the pieces in a long bottomless 

 box or frame, wedge them up together and nail them, 

 and then fasten strips of stout paper across them. I 

 forgot to say in the proper place, that for an entrance 

 I cut a notch in each side of the bottom pieces .^Xi 

 inches. I leave the bottom pieces wide because it 

 makes a better box and is more convenient, one box 

 can be raised up and another placed under it without 

 much danger of killing bees, use a wax guide in each 

 frame. R. S. Becktell, New Buffalo, Mich. 



[As it is a little Inconvenient to cut the notches in the 

 Harbison frame with our circular saws, we think they 

 may be omitted and the stout paper used as above. 

 In making these light frames, perhaps it would be 

 well to fix on a size that would allow of putting 4 or 

 inside our large frames. Quinby advises this with his 

 new hive, and illustrates it in Am. Ay. for Feb. — Ed.J 



