144 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



April 



them to secrete wax and start brood rearing, 

 and, at other times, to be taken with, the 

 disease as mentioned. I am strongly in- 

 clined to think the quality of their stores has 

 something to do with this. 



DRIVING BEES OUT WITH THE COLD BLAST SMOKER. 



You did not answer ray inquiry in regard to your 

 plan of getting 1 the bees out of the old box hives. 



Well, Mr. Root, I got your Simplicity Smoker in 

 good condition, and found that it could do the dri- 

 ving better than Root, Mitchell, or any other man. 

 All I had to do was to take the top board off the 

 T.B.Miner hive, and puff the little rascal at it; I 

 turned the hive over on its side, and you should 

 have seen the little fellows break up camp and 

 leave. Now, [ ask no man for information on driv- 

 ing out bees. You will be safe in recommending 

 the smoker to drive out the bees; it will do it 5 times 

 out of 4. G. A. Jacobs. 



Boalsburg, Pa., March 24, 1879. 



THE REMAINDER OF THE GRAPE SUGAR. 



A few days ago, I looked at the two remaining 

 hives to which i gave frames of grape sugar last 

 fall. The first one was in almost the same condition 

 as those mentioned in a previous letter. LSee p. 86, 

 Mar. No.] In the other one, the sugar had been 

 placed to one side of the hive— one comb between it 

 and the hive— and had not been touched by the bees. 

 It was hard and dry. I doubt whether the bees 

 could have eaten it, if they had desired to do so. 



E. A. Gastman. 



Decatur, 111., March 2), 1879. 



FAITH IN HUMANITY. 



While at Almont, Mich., a little over 4 years ago, 

 I bought some books of you, on which 1 still owe 

 you 25c, which I enclose with interest. Please have 



a specimen copy of Gleanings sent to and 



J. K. L. 



There, friend L., I thought you would 

 send it some time. It is hard for me to be- 

 lieve that any one of you really means to 

 keep what you are satisfied belongs to me. 

 You have sent interest for the whole time, 

 and one cent more. It is a trivial transac- 

 tion, but it has raised my faith in humanity 

 a great deal. Yesterday a printer came anil 

 asked to set type enough so that he could 

 buy some crackers and cheese, as he had not 

 a copper to get any dinner. It was dinner 

 time, but he said he could work at the case 

 while the hands were away. I gave him 

 some money and told him to get his dinner 

 first and he could then work better. The 

 boys laughed at me for my faith that he 

 would come back; he has not come yet, but 

 I think he will sometime. 



It would seem that we hardly need more than 

 your A B C, it is so full and minute in everything 

 pertaining to bee culture. J. W. Mangrave. 



Salem, Neb., Mar. 25, 1879. 



SUPERSTITION ABOUT BEES. 



I would like your opinion in regard to the old story 

 of telling the bees when a person dies. A neighbor 

 of mine says, when her uncle died, the man that 

 laid him out told them, if they did not go and tell the 

 bees, they would die or go away. They did not do 

 so, and, sure enough, the next morning the bees 

 were all dead —2 colonies— and it was in the middle 

 of summer! she says she saw it herself. How do 

 you account for it? Please let us have your opinion 

 on it. You know Whittier's poem on the subject. 



Ledyard, N. Y., Mar. 17, '79 S. Minchin. 



If your neighbor saw the bees dead, I sup- 

 pose there is no question but that they did 

 die. It may be, they starved to death, as 

 bees sometimes do, even in summer time: 

 but, even if they died with plenty of food 

 and every thing, apparently, as it should be, 

 I should conclude I did not know why it 



was, but never that the death of their owner 

 had anything to do with it. I can't help 

 what the poets say. There is sometimes 

 much more poetry than truth in their verses. 



THE LADIES' DEPARTMENT. 



That letter of sister Axtell's is a very excellent con- 

 tribution to Gleanings, and will, I think, encourage 

 many a timid woman to undertake bee-keeping. 

 Her bee-dress, too, is just the thing. I get over her 

 objection to saw dust by using screened factory cin- 

 ders around my hives. They keep the grass down, 

 and after they get a rain, make clean walking for 

 men and bees, and queens will not readily be lost on 

 them. The coarse part makes good roads elsewhere. 

 that "blessed bee" man. 



I think the public owe you a vote of thanks for 

 your honest review of "The Blessed Bees." Many a 

 "man would have been saved years of vexation, and 

 hundreds of dollars, had some one been honest 

 enovigh to "stamp" on Ten Acres Enough, in the same 

 way. "Honesty is the best policy," to say the least of 

 it. G. W. Thompson. 



Stelton, N. J., March 15th, 1879. 



FLOUR CANDY FOR BEES. 



A tin pan, a spoon, 5 lbs. standard A, nearly a pint 

 of boiling water. Koil slowly until it is "stringy" 

 when allowed to drop from the spoon; let a few 

 drops fall into a dish of cold water; after a half 

 minute, if they hold their shape pretty well, and can 

 be handled without sticking to the fingers, it is 

 ready to take off. After it has been taken off, stir 

 in 5 heaped tablespoonfuls of wheat flour; continue 

 the stirring till it begins to get thick, then pour 

 quickly into saucers or tin pans. If the stirring is 

 continued just a little too long, we shall have a 

 lot of crumbling stuff that must be worked over. 

 Our confectioners at Steubenville make a bee candy 

 that becomes sort o'mellow after it is a few months 

 old. I think it would be good for queen cages. 



R. M. Reynolds. 



East Springfield, O. March 6th, 1879. 



Our candy maker says you use a great deal 

 too much water; it takes too much time to 

 boil it out again. We have tried stirring the 

 flour in, after the candy is done, but find 

 that it is more labor than the plan given in 

 A B C, and it is difficult to keep out lumps 

 of Hour. I do not think you use flour enough 

 to get the best result's in brood rearing. 

 Please send me a sample of the bee candy 

 that becomes mellow by age. 



SIMPLICITY HIVES VERSUS A DEEPER FRAME FOR 

 WINTERING. 



I send you my report for 1878, also some facts, to 

 show the superiority of Simplicity hives for winter- 

 ing. My 4 colonies in the spring increased, by natu- 

 ral swarming, to 14, and gave me 500 lbs. surplus 

 comb honey— 100 lbs. in sections at the sides of the 

 hives, and the remainder in 10 lb. boxes placed on 

 top. This was mostly clover honey. 



1 prepared them for winter by making frames of 

 lath; on the sides of these frames I tacked ducking, 

 and filled them with cut straw, chaff not being ob- 

 tainable. These cushions I put in place of the broad 

 frames that held my section boxes. The caps on top of 

 hives, I also filled with cut straw. Thus surrounded, 

 they remained on their summer stands, and come 

 out this spring in splendid condition. Every hive 

 seems to have more bees than in the fall. Fully half 

 of the bees in this portion of ihe State have winter 

 killed. One of my neighbors had 40 colonies in the 

 fall, half of them in Simplicity hives, and the other 

 half in American frames. He lost 18 in the deep 

 frame hive, and but 2 in the Simplicity. They were 

 placed in a nice, single walled, octagonal bee house, 

 but not protected by chaff in any way. Another 

 neighbor bought 14 stands, last fall, 13 of them in 

 deep frame hives, and 1 in a Simplicity. The 13 all 

 died, and the 1 came through all right. These were 

 placed in a house for protection, but had equal ad- 

 vantages. I find that those left on their summer 

 stands, even without protection, show a much small- 

 er percentage of loss than those that have been 

 housed. John C. Fowler. 



Ashkum, m. March 18th, 1879. 



