GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JAN. 



Thirteen years ago, I commenced' using frames 

 the same length as the simplicity frame, and two 

 inches deeper. Since then, I have tried the Thomas, 

 Gallup, Conklin, Hazen, Simplicity, and other sized 

 frames, and rejected all but the Simplicity; and 

 were 1 to commence again now, it would be with the 

 Simplicity frame, with the top bar made different 

 from friend Boot's, ten frames in a hive. 



2d. Is the chaff hive better than the Simplicity 

 when both are shaded? 



My experience during the past summer, in my 

 own apiary, of 38 chaff hives, and over 40 not packed, 

 Is very much in favor of the chaff packing. Colo- 

 nies in the chaff hives have swarmed the least and 

 stored the most sectionj[honey. 



3d. Would you advise one to make chaff hives in 

 preference to any other? 



Yes; especially, if bees are to bo wintered on 

 their summer stands. 



4th. Is sawdust better than chaff? 



No; use no sawdust in packing. It not only packs 

 too close, but it absorbs and retains moisture. 



5th. Is the'upper story surrounded with chaff? 



Yes. 



6th. Ought either to be stamped tight, or thrown 

 in loose? 



Press the chaff down tight withjthe hand, close 

 enough so that it will not settle and leave an open 

 space at the top. 



7th. What does it cost you in money to get up a 

 chaff hive? 



1 can not give an exact answer, but it is not far 

 from $1.25. This is for the lumber, dressed, ready 

 to cut into suitable lengths, shingles, nails, and 

 paint, but does not include frames and chaff cush- 

 ions. 



8th. How do you keep ants out of the chaff? 



I have never been troubled with them. A friend 

 tells me that salt sprinkled occasionally on the 

 ground around the hives will effectually rid an api- 

 ary of these scavengers. 



9th. I have been quite successful wintering bees 

 in my cellar; would you advise mc to abandon it 

 for chaff packing? 



No; you can make a few chaff hives and if, after 

 giving them a trial for summer and winter use, you 

 think it will pay, you can soon change to such hives. 



10th, Do you use metal corners? 



Yes; I make no frames now without them. It is 

 true, they slide easily on the rabbet, but that is just 

 what suits me; no carrying a crmvhar around with 

 which to pry frames loose. J. H. Townley. 



Tompkins, Mich., Dec. 1878. 



3IAIL.IIVG QUEENS. 



fNTIL 1868, all the queens sent out by my son 

 and myself went to our customers by express. 

 In the summer of that year we mailed some, 

 by using a pretty large sponge .well wrapped up to 

 prevent a too rapid evaporation of the water which 

 the bees used to moisten their candy. Those which 

 had only a short distance to travel fared well; but 

 if the journey was long, the sponge, in spite of all 

 our precautions, dried out, and the bees died. While 

 we made a failure in mailing queens, others— among 

 whom I would specially notice Mr. Alley, of Wen- 

 ham, Mass.— were quite successful, and until the ex- 

 clusion of bees from the mails, the great majority 

 of those distributed for the last few years were sent 

 by mail. 



It seems very unreasonable to many, that such an 

 important interest can no longer use the mails, 

 which reach every man's home, but must rely upon 

 the express companies, which, to say nothing of 

 their heavier charges, cannot reach many who de- 

 sire to purchase queens. I do not think that our 

 bee-keepers have given due weight to the objections 

 against sending them, put up in the usual way, 

 through the mails. All will agree that packages 

 which contain honey that may leak out, should be 

 refused; but what valid objection can lie against 

 such boxes as have been used for some years past? 

 The story of bees escaping from them, and stinging 

 the officials, is received with great incredulity; but 

 it may happen with wire cloth so weak, and' often 

 so Insecurely fastened, that it can be punched thro' 

 or displaced by the rough usage to which the mail 

 bags are often subjected. Taking all things into ac- 

 count, the ruling which excludes bees, put up as 



they have been put up, from the mails, seems to me 

 to be right. 



I will give two plans, by either of which I think 

 that they may be safely sent through the mails: 

 Let a hole be bored lengthwise, through a piece of 

 a large corn cob. In one side, let the candy be 

 poured in a liquid state, and before it hardens, let 

 the hole be tightly stopped with a cork or piece of 

 cob. After putting in the bees let the other hole be 

 closed with a stopper, in which is fastened a vial of 

 water, with a small slot cut (on Mr. Root's plan) in 

 the cork which closes the vial. Let a thin piece of 

 lampwick be wrapped around a wire reaching to the 

 bottom of the vial, the wick coming out even with 

 the cork, so that whatever may be the position of 

 the cob in the mail bag, the bees can always get wa- 

 ter from the end of the wick. This last idea comes 

 from my neighbor, Mr. D. A. McCord, who is fertile 

 in suggesting and executing nice devices. Before 

 the bees are put in, some ventilating slots must be 

 made by a buzz saw. Such a package will be cheap, 

 light* warm, and so strong that it could not be brok- 

 en, unless by design. 



My second plan is to use 2 boxes of the usual kind. 

 Instead of wire cloth, let suitable ventilating slots 

 be made in the sides of these boxes. After intro- 

 ducing the candy, bottle of water, and bees, let the 

 boxes be firmly fastened together with annealed 

 wire, so as to enclose the bees in the double hollow. 

 Enough bees, candy, and water, to endure a long 

 journey, can be sent in this way, in quite cold 

 weather. Cork boxes, made somewhat after the 

 fashion of the old cork inkstands, would answer 

 perfectly, as I think, for sending bees from Italy, 

 by mail or express, to all parts of our country. 



Might we not reasonably hope from our Post Mas- 

 ter General's well known regard for the public 

 good, that he would allow bees, put up in such pack- 

 ages, to be sent through the mails? If they can be 

 sent safely, no doubt he would be pleased, while 

 helping an important interest, to add, at the same 

 time, a nice little sum to the revenues of the postal 

 service. 



Before closing this article, I will make a few re- 

 marks on the proper way of giving credit to those 

 who make new inventions, or valuable suggestions. 

 It often happens, after such things are given 

 to the public, that rival claims are put in for them, 

 and sometimes it is no easy matter for any one to 

 decide between such claims. It should, however, be 

 borne in mind that it is a well settled principle of 

 law, that no patent can issue to one who has kept 

 his invention a secret so long as not to be able to 

 prove that he has used due care and dilligence to 

 give the public the benefit of it; but, on the con- 

 trary, must issue, on application, to the party from 

 whom the public actually gets the benefit of its 

 knowledge and use. On the same principle, it is not 

 necessarily the first discoverer of any valuable prin- 

 ciple, to whom the credit should properly be given, 

 but to the one who, being an original discoverer 

 even if not t he first, actually gives the public the 

 knowledge of it. 1 will illustrate these principles, 

 by some facts. 



Long before Mr. Root used his bottle queen cage, 

 I had fully tested the feasibility of keeping bees for 

 along time, in a cage, with candy only for their 

 food, which they softened with water from a sponge. 

 I carried them about for days on my person, laid 

 them on a shelf in the house, etc., merely wetting 

 the sponge occasionally. My failure in sending out 

 queens, however, showed that I had not, like Mr. 

 Boot, discovered the right way of securing a contin- 

 uous supply of moisture. But more than this, I 

 even went so far as to devise a bottle feeder for 

 honey, but not for water, to be pivoted and weighted 

 in the transport box, so that the feeding side of the 

 bottle would always present the honey to the bees, 

 on the same principle that toys are weighted to as- 

 sume any desired position. That plan is f ully de- 

 scribed in my private journals, under the date of its 

 invention, with the confident declaration, Ithat by it 

 bees could be safely sent to any part of the world. 

 But what benefit did the public get from all these 

 minutia?? None at all. To A. I. Boot, to whose 

 inventions bee-keepers are so much indebted, to 

 him first and last, belongs the full credit not only of 

 making this thing a practical success, but of giving 

 the knowledge of it to the public. By what he did 

 and published, the world first learned how easy a 

 thing it is to send queens anywhere, and at almost 

 any season. "To the law and to the testimony" of 

 public use and published documents, must all such 

 matters be submitted. L. L. Langstroth. 



Oxford, O., Dec. 18, 1878. 



