1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



25 



be used with boxes on top, usually have a 

 shallow cap made of f stuff, with the cover 

 nailed on permanently. As they are only 

 about 8 inches high, they would not take a 

 frame of 8 sections, even though we make 

 the top movable. It is true, they will hold 

 the 3 box case without trouble, but as a sin- 

 gle tier of boxes is insufficient to get the best 

 results from any fair colony, I would hardly 

 recommend them. Your better way will be 

 to set these shallow caps aside, and have 

 some upper stories made to hold frames, 

 witli a movable cover. As a double end 

 must be put in these upper caps, they are 

 rather a clumsy and complicated affair, and 

 I often think I would rather set the whole 

 hive aside, and use the Simplicities, just be- 

 cause the upper and lower story are always 

 alike. This upper story with its cover 

 should cost you about .50c. and now you are 

 ready to use the section boxes. It needs 7 

 broad frames to fill an upper story, and the 

 cost of these with section boxes fitted with 

 fdn., separators, and all, will be 2oc. each, or 

 $1.75 in all. This would make, all together, 

 82. 2o. This is quite an expense, it is true, 

 but they are all permanent fixtures, except 

 the section boxes and fdn. These, as fast as 

 filled, are to be replaced by new ones, and as 

 the 7 frames contain 56 sections, you will 

 have an expense each year, of about 56 cts. 

 If you use the fdn., you will need to add to 

 each about I of a cent. Therefore, to use 

 sections, the expense the first year will be 

 something like $2.25 per hive; but each 

 year after that (supposing you average 50 lbs. 

 of comb honey per colony, which is a fair 

 estimate all seasons and latitudes, begin- 

 ners and all), it will will require only about 

 62c. per hive, per year. 



After receiving 1 the hive you sent, I got me up a 

 foot power saw, and have made 20 hives all but the 

 frames, and intend to make about 30 more this win- 

 ter: that is, if my capital holds out. Bees in this 

 section did very poorly this season. I had 4 swarms 

 in the spring in common box hives, and transferred 

 one the last day of June, to the hive you sent. The 

 other 3 swarmed twice apiece, and from the 9 

 swarms in box hives, I got the enormous pile of one 

 box of surplus honey, weighing 5 lbs., and from the 

 single story simplicitv that you sent, I took 18 nice- 

 lv filled sections. This swarm was, I considered, 

 the poorest I had, until about buckwheat bloom. 



Pembroke, N. Y., Dec. 16, '78 W. P. Hall. 



There has been a little criticism in regard 

 to the way I have of advertising my own 

 wares. Please consider, my friends, that I 

 teach how all these things are done, and 

 that, in one sense, the wares are as much 

 yours as mine. The simple fact that friend 

 II. succeeded in making his own foot power 

 saw. and his own hives, will encourage oth- 

 ers to do the same, and it does me just as 

 much good to hear that you have copied my 

 hives, and thus saved the expensive freights, 

 as it does to get an order. 



It may be I have stated it too strongly, but 

 I do like to hear that you are succeeding 

 with your own shops and tools. The fact 

 that so much more honey was secured from 

 one colony than from the other 9, does not 

 advertise my waresalone, butthe hives, skill, 

 industry, and enterprise of friend II. It al- 

 so indirectly advertises Gleanings as his 

 teacher. A great part of Gleanings is 

 made up of articles like his own, from other 



beginners. Perhaps it also advertises my 

 management a little, and really, my friends, 

 I do not know how to help this, if I would. 



STIMULATIVE FEEDING, WINTER PACKING, BROOD 

 FRAMES KEPT APART, ETC. 



I am one of your ABC scholars, and I come to 

 you for information. In A B C, part 2d, you say, 

 for brood raising, we should feed a little every day. 

 How would I do it in cold weather, with the Dunham 

 feeder, without opening the hive every day? 



Mv hives are something like your Simplicity with 

 a division board at one side, and a moss cushion 

 over the frames. I have set my hives on a board 

 platform 4 inches from the ground, with board back 

 and roof, and have packed leaves between and be- 

 hind the hives about 4 or 5 inches thick, and intend 

 to put leaves or straw over the top and leave the en- 

 trance open. The hives are facing east. 



At what time should I begin to feed for brood 

 raising? Would candv or syruo be best? I want to 

 set out trees along the roadside next spring, to ben- 

 efit the bees; what kind should I get to keep up a 

 succession of blossoms as long as possible, and that 

 would not send up suckers and run all over the 

 meadow and field? I can get linden and soft maple 

 verv hindilv, within a few miles. Would raising 

 small fruits benefit the bees anv? 



To keep the frames from crushing the bees when 

 taking them out and into the hive, I drive a head- 

 less shoe nail in each side of the frame, near to the 

 bottom, and let it stick out about x i of an inch. I 

 find this a great help. Aug. J. Hintz. 



Lemont. Ills., Dec. 5. 1878. 



You do not want to start brood rearing, 

 before March 1st, and many seasons, per- 

 haps April 1st would be as well or better. 

 The Dunham feeder is not well adapted for 

 stimulative feeding, but for giving colonies 

 which are nearly starving a good lot, all at 

 once, and with little trouble. I fear your 

 packing is too far away from the bees. Ile- 

 member what I have told you so often, that 

 your bed clothing, in a cold night, does not 

 want to be over the tops of the bed posts, 

 but close and snug around your body. 



The flour candy is the best of any thing I 

 know of, for brood rearing. I would by all 

 means take the linden trees. Nails have 

 been used a great many times as you sug- 

 gest, but everybody seems to get tired of 

 them and pull them out, sooner or later. 



I have seen almost all kinds of powers through 

 Gleanings, but I have not seen a power to suit me. 

 Now the power that I want for sawing is a wind 

 mill power, and if you will please send me a picture 

 of one with directions for making you will not loose 

 the confidence of one of your readers. I h ave a 

 plan for one, and if you do not know of any, I will 

 send you a drawing of it some time. 



Gilbert Sharp. 



Fullers Station, N. Y., Dec, 16, 1878. 



My friend, a few years ago, it was my es- 

 pecial hobby, to see how much, and how 

 many kinds of machinery,, could be run by a 

 wind mill. All our bee-hive machinery was 

 run, saws, etc., and even Gleanings it- 

 self was printed by the power of a 17 foot 

 wind mill. Now while the mill furnished a 

 great deal of power for a very small expense, 

 or rather at no expense at all, if we should 

 keep count of the time wasted in waiting for 

 power, compared with what might be done 

 with an engine or water mill, that will send 

 the saws right along, it proves an expensive 

 power. Home made wind mills have been 

 made all over the land, but they can rarely 

 be made so as to stand storms and gales, un- 

 less at more expense than to buy them of the 

 regular manufacturers. The U. S. Wind- 

 mill Co., Batavia, Ills., make, perhaps, as 

 good a mill as can be made for the money. 



