GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



(about 20 lbs.) in the upper story in a dripping pan 

 and let them carry it down. They built up, and be- 

 fore Oct. 15th, had the hive full and plenty of brood. 

 The same day, we went into the woods and took 75 

 lbs. of honey from the side of a tree, but could not 

 get the bees. As the tree was large and the honey 

 at the bottom, we cut off the side; but the bees went 

 up 6 feet in a small hole in the center. My bees, I 

 consider extra workers, or I live in a good locality. 

 I never saw the same kind before. They seem to 

 be as large again as the common honey bees, and 

 are a black bee, but very cross. I shall hereafter 

 shade my bees and use L. frames, as too large 

 frames won't do. R. A. Morgan, P. M. 



Eagle Branch, Wis., Dec. 20, 1878. 

 I have just received one of your Gleanings. I 

 have one swarm of bees which hung on a twig near 

 my house, in May, 1875. I am very much afraid of 

 bees, so I turned an empty salt barrel over them, 

 and after dark, I set them on a board where they 

 stood until Aug., 1878. The hoops had rotted and 

 broken, and the staves were spread apart, so I ex- 

 pected to lose them. I wanted to take the honey 

 and kill the bees, but the swarm was so strong 1 

 could not go near. 



I heard of E. A. Morgan's handling bees, and went 

 to see him, but thought no live man could handle 

 them, for I always supposed that a swarm of bees 

 would go for a man as long as there was one alive. 

 But, lo! he came, gave them a little smoke, rapped 

 on the barrel a few times, then pried off the staves. 

 I watched at a good distance, for I expected to see 

 him used up in about two minutes; but the bees 

 seemed to stand around buzzing and take no nolice 

 of him. He took off the staves half way round, then 

 commenced rapping on the outside with a hammer. 

 The bees ran up into the top story of his new hive, 

 which he had taken off from the lower part, and 

 placed on a staging just above the barrel. It was 

 soon full, and hanging below were over half a bush- 

 el of bees, and still they came in from the fields. 

 All seemed to be out of the barrel. He then went 

 to work, and took out the'honey, and laid it on a 

 large work bench ; cutoff pieces from the bottom 

 and fitted inside the frames, and fitted them so 

 tight, he did not use wires; he filled 10 frames and 

 set them in the bottom part of the hive, then moved 

 the barrel away and set the hive on the spot, and 

 took the top part down and emptied the bees on top 

 of the frames and set it over the lower part, push- 

 ing a half bushel of bees off on the ground. He did 

 not put anything in the upper frames, but fixed 

 them in and went to work at the remainder of the 

 honey. He took 117 lbs. of good sealed honey. 



Meantime the bees clustered out and more than 

 half a bushel hung outside. He then went to work 

 and made s, third story and put it on, and all went 

 in; but such a roaring they kept up for a week, eve- 

 ry night and all night! He offered me *10.CO for 

 them, but I would not take it. He came again in 2 

 months and looked at them, when the hive was full, 

 and it now weighs 152 lbs. The combs in the barrel 

 were 34 in. long and the 3 center ones were 22 inches 

 wide. I think they never swarmed, but Morgan says 

 there were empty'queen cells. What do you think? 

 Did they ever swarm? And did one queen keep up 

 the swarm? 



There are over one bushel of bees. I gave him 

 $3.50 for hive and work, and think it was cheap. 

 What did he offer so much for the swarm for? I 

 stole 50 cts. worth of experience of him, and when I 

 get able, am going to take a bee paper. Answer in 

 Gleanings. I borrow of Morgan. 



Michael Arrigan. 

 Arcadia, Wis., Dec. 16, 1878. 

 Yes, friend Morgan, what did you offer 

 Mr. Arrigan $10. for those, bees far ? 15ees 

 in a barrel, or in any very large hive, may 

 not swarm for a great many years, but they 

 are pretty sure to do so sooner or later. I 

 think friend Morgan's charge of $1.00 quite 

 reasonable. lie did the work in a thorough, 

 workmanlike manner, and took pains and 

 pride in teaching all he could meanwhile. 

 A man who would do the work, even if he 

 did it well, without taking pains to teach 

 bee culture, might not be worth half as 

 much. Again, friend Morgan was fully 

 equipped with implements, and well posted 

 in all modern improvements. Does not that 



make a difference? I predict that he will 

 have more such work, at that price, than he 

 can possibly do, and even if he does get four 

 or five dollars a day, he fully earns it. En- 

 ergy and brains are in brisk demand, even 

 through hard times. 



THE TENEMENT HIVE. 



MR. SCHOOLMASTER:— I won't stand this any 

 longer. 1 don't mind sitting and listening 

 i for awhile; but, after a time, I get tired of 



this one sided game, and feel like "talking back." 

 With a little insignificant apiary of 30 colonies and 

 no imported queens (we get honey though), I need 

 not think of the "boss" coming near enough for me 

 to talk to him. Well, at one time in the fall, 1 

 thought of going to Medina just to see if there is 

 any hexagonal apiary there. But I would be so 

 boied to go theie and find hybrid bees building 

 square cells in a straight row of hives, that 1 finally 

 concluded to stay at home. Then, if 1 did go, I 

 couldn't very well take one of my hives with me, 

 and the "boss" wouldn't listen long enough for me 

 to tell him that I had one at home, and he would go 

 on his way rejoicing, thinking that no one can make 

 hives without "steel gauges'' and a "brick factory." 

 Another good reason for not going is that I might 

 become dissatisfied with my "ttxins." and a b.ggcr 

 reason is that . I— t— well, I might come back with a 

 poorer opinion of myself. When a fellow reads 

 about bees and works with the bees and lays awake 

 o' nights and studies about bees, is it strange for 

 him to tnke a notion to talk about bees? And right 

 here is where the trouble comes— to whom will 1 

 talk? If I'd go to talking about the fertilization of 

 queens and about introducing virgin queens, about 

 tin separators, comb foundation, and chaff hives, to 

 the old farmers— why, (hey would send me out to 

 t'other side of Columbus, before a week. Well, I 

 wouldn't have lived this long, but J. A. Buchanan 

 comes around once in awhile and sometimes I go 

 there and— well— pretty near forget to come home. 

 The genuine bee-keeper is a species of lunatic any 

 how. Did you ever see two of 'em meet? Can't 

 they talk and ask questions? They may be entire 

 strangers to each other, but they are fast friends at 

 once. And such talk ! to the bystanders, it is unin- 

 telligible jargon. 



Now "boss," did you ever try to talk bees to a 

 feller who wasn't a bee-keeper? You can take some 

 subject and explain it all out, and think that you 

 have made it so plain that the "wayfaring man 

 though a fool" can't help but understand it, and 

 then he will just turn around and ask some "fool 

 question," showing that he don't understand a word 

 you have said. Did it ever occur to you that one of 

 our most scientifically constructed hives is very 

 much like the natural comb? it is the joint product 

 of the many. And again, how a fellow will study 

 and study and blunder around every way, in trying 

 to find out some little, simple thing that he "ought- 

 er knowed always." I was led into this train of 

 thought a few days ago, while looking over Glean- 

 ings. During the last year, I have been construc- 

 ting a hive; each part has been adopted after delib- 

 erate consideration; lam pretty well through with 

 it, but, "for the life of me," I couldn't name it satis- 

 factorily. Now another fellow coolly steps in and, 

 without a bit of trouble, calls it "The Tenement 

 Hive." Well, it's a "leetle provokin," isn't it? By 

 referring to Vol. 5, p. 38, you will see that I had 4 

 hives packed in chaff during the summer of '76. 

 They were in one long box, with the entrances all 

 to the south. During the summer of '77, I had 3 

 hives in one box, with entrances at the same side. 

 I have had no trouble by the loss of queens, but 

 there are other objections. If a swarm issues and 

 then decides to come back, I have always found it 

 necessary to cover or close the other entrances. 



Other objections to having the entrances so near 

 each other will readily occur to practical bee-keep- 

 ers. With this exception, I liked the plan so well 

 that I began to think of permanent institutions for 

 three colonies. Last spring, I fixed up permanent 

 apartments for 5 colonies in a box that was made in 

 '74, to pack hives in. The entrance to the middle 

 ; apartment is at the north, the end ones open to the 

 j east and west, the other two open to the south. I 

 have found nothing seriously objectionable in this 

 plan, but I would prefer to have no entrance at the 



