DXaVO'TJBD TO BEEH ATS D HONEY, ATVI> HOME INTERESTS. 



Vol. VII. 



MAY 1, 1879. 



No. 5. 



A. I. ROOT, 



Publisher and Proprietor, 

 Medina, O. 



Published Monthly. 

 Established In 187 3 



(■TERMS: Sl.OO Per Annum in Ad- 

 i vance; 3 Copies for $2.50; 5 /or $3.75; 

 ClO oi more, 60c. each. Single Number, lOc. 



SCRAPS AND SKETCHES. NO. 5. 



A HOME-MADE LAMP NUKSEHY. 



fDID think of ordering- the $1.00 soldering imple- 

 ments, and trying- to make a nursery myself; 

 J but as I bad no machinery for cutting or fold- 

 ing the tin, and no experience in the business, I con- 

 cluded to give the job to our village tinner. 



I took a frame from a hive, carried it to the tinner, 

 and had him make a tin box ' 2 in. deeper than the 

 frame, and large enough, each way, to bold the 

 frame. After this box was finished another was 

 made just like it, only it was » in. broader, each w-.y, 

 and 1 in. deeper. Inside the larger box, at the low- 

 er corners, were soldered pieces of tin, which kept 

 ihe smaller box— when it was placed inside— just an 

 inch from the bottom and sides of Ihe larger one. 

 Outside the smaller box, near the centre of each 

 side, was soldered a sort of prong, made of tin, 

 which projected downward; and when this box was 

 placed inside the other these prongs slipped into 

 fin loops, or staples, which were soldered inside the 

 larger box, and thus the sides were prevented from 

 bulging. The bottoms were not fastened together, 

 and bulged some; but as the nursery was l A in. 

 deeper than the frames, it did no harm. Four strips 

 of tin, each l'» in. wide and as long as the width of 

 the nursery, had 1 . i in. of their edges turned up so 

 that they resemble long, shallow troughs, 1 in. wide, 

 and % in. deep. These troughs were turned bottom 

 side up, slipped on over the upper edges of the 2 

 boxes, and soldered fast, thus forming a sort of tin 

 "binding", which fastened together Ihe outer and 

 inner walls of the nursery, and held them firmly in 

 place. Near one corner of the nursery, a 3 .1 in. hole 

 was cut through the tin "binding", into which to in- 

 troduce a tunnel when the nursery requires filling-. 

 Inside the nursery, near the top, were soldered 

 strips of folded tin upon which to hang the frames. 

 The nursery was made of the best roofing tin. 



if you will tell your tinner just what you wish for, 

 explain the "why's" and "wherefore's", and let him 

 read ihis description, he ought to be able to make 

 you a nursery; and if he can work as cheaply as our 

 tinner, he will charge you only $2.00. 



A tall box was next made to put the nursery in, 

 and blocks were nailed inside, at the corners, for it 

 to rest upon. When the nursery was put in place, 

 ihere was 54 i»- space, all around between it and the 

 box, and the top o f the nursery was Level with the 

 to]) of the box. To keep the nursery in place, and 

 in prevent the heat from escaping, strips of wood 

 ' i in. square, were put in between the upper edges 

 of the box and nursery. For a cover, I used a wide 

 hoard which was oleated to keep it from warping-, 

 and strips of woolen cloth were tacked around the 

 upper edge of the bux, to make the cover tit close 

 and snug. I used an ordinary hand lamp, lifted 

 with a burner that allowed the lamp to be tilled 

 while burning. The bottom of the nursery was a 

 foot from the top of the lamp chimney. A door was 

 made in one side of the box, near the bottom, 

 through which to put the lamp. Upon trial I found 

 the box was so close that the lamp would not burn, 

 and I had to bore some holes in the sides to let in 

 the air. The nursery was kept in doors, and in very 

 warm weather the lamp could be turned down so 



low that very little oil would be consumed. 



W. Z. Hutchinson. 

 Rogcrsville, Genesee Co., Mich. 



m» I gl «m 



SPRING DWINDLING. 



A REPORT FROM THE BATTLE FIELD, BY AX 

 "EYE WITNESS." 



fp O-DAY is the 15th of April, and scarce- 

 Jj^ ly a bit of pollen 1ms been gathered. 

 The buds of the soft maple are open, 

 but for some reason which I cannot give not 

 a bee is to be seen hovering near them; the 

 slippery elm is also in bloom, but, strange to 

 say, not a bee hums about it either. The 

 weather has not been very warm, and there 

 is a cool north wind which may account in 

 part for the seeming indifference of the bees 

 to blossoms. Last month, I reported S5 col- 

 onies left. Since then, one after another, 

 they have been dwindling down, in a won- 

 derfully short space of time, and stocks that 

 were called fair, having brood on several 

 combs a week ago, are now found with only 

 a handful of bees, the brood dead by expos- 

 ure, the unsealed larva' starving and drying 

 up in the cells, and a general air of discour- 

 agement all about the hives. Some colonies 

 bring in a little pollen now and then, but 

 the greater part of them seem to have sus- 

 pended work, and the bees are loafing idly 

 about on the combs. Usually, we find a row 

 of cells of unsealed honey around the young 

 brood, but now the heavy combs of sealed 

 honey remain untouched, and not a cell of 

 honey is placed close to the brood for imme- 

 diate use. and ev< r\ bee seems to have stop- 

 ped work. When we open hives, there is 

 no need of a smoker, for the greater part of 

 the bees seem too listless to care to show 

 fight. Some cases seem to indicate that the 

 black bees are less affected than the Ital- 

 ians; but. again, we find heavy stocks of 

 blacks, in box hives, bought of one of our 

 neighbors, all at oner reduced to a handful, 

 the queen gone, and the whole establish- 

 ment an easy prey to robbers, if the robbers 

 had energy enough to appropriate it. The 

 dwindling is not in my apiary alone, but is 

 also lessening the stocks of the farmers and 

 other bee-keepers in our vicinity, and, in 

 fact, all over OUT land, as you may gather 

 from the reports in this No." Not that every 

 body has lost thus, for many whole apiaries 



