1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



167 



Many fail in foot-powers, because they do not get 

 speed enough to make a clear and smooth cut. 



Again, why don't you make your saw mandrels 

 longer? Don't you know that a longer mandrel is 

 less liable to get out of line with your gauges than a 

 shorter one? It is almost impossible to re-babbit a 

 short mandrel, and leave it exactly perpendicular 

 to the gauge; a It inch mandrel, it one box moves 

 1-64 of an in., would be twice as much out of line 

 with a gauge as one 28 inches long, and 3 times as 

 much as one 42 inches long. Make them as you 

 please, though, for I shall not send for any as long 

 as I can get them at home for '» the money you 

 charge, and save freight. 



Well, if you ever come over the Terre Haute, 

 Yandalia, and St. Louis K. K., stop and see me, and 

 we will talk over all these little differences. 1 make 

 a few hundred hives for my neighbors, but won't 

 advertise as a hive maker yet. I have an 8 horse 

 power portable engine, doing most of the work. I 

 make my frames out of green white oak, and they 

 don't pull apart worth a cent, after they have been 

 nailed 24 hours; try one and see. 



Jno. L. Lafferty. 



Martinsville, Ills., April 15, 1819. 



Thanks for your suggestions and criti- 

 cisms, friend L. There is so great a latitude 

 for the speed of circular saws, I have never 

 thought it worth while to give a table of the 

 speeds. Emery wheels, 1 know very well, 

 must have about such an amount of speed, 

 or they are comparatively useless. It used 

 to be the custom, to give the proper speed on 

 a label pasted on the wheel ; but of late this 

 has been abandoned. As it is a little diffi- 

 cult to measure the speed of machinery, it 

 has been often the custom to increase the 

 speed until the saws or emery wheels cut 

 satisfactorily, and I do not know but this is 

 about as quick a way of getting at it, as any. 



Many have complainedof the prices of our 

 mandrels, but, although I have made many 

 inquiries, I have not been able to rind any 

 body who could furnish a well made mandrel 

 any cheaper. Dealers in wood working ma- 

 chinery have their prices usually much 

 higher. 



THE ABC CHILD THAT GREW SO 

 FAST. 



WHERE nE IS BY THIS TIME. 



M S I have received private letters from parties 

 vHSV asking me to report to Gleanings my suc- 

 ss5=a cess in wintering, 1 will say, I went into win- 

 ter quarters with I! swarms, and tried straw pack- 

 ing in large boxes on their summer stands, but 

 found it no protection at all. I lost one the 1st of 

 Jan., and nearly half Ihe bees of all the rest, by 

 frost and ice inside the hives. I moved them into 

 my cellar. The ice thawed out, leaving the combs 

 wet and they soon molded. I bought 3 swarms in 

 box hives making my number 8, all of which got 

 along well until March 8th, when I set them out. I 

 experimented on :» with rye flour candy, as given by 

 Mr. Langstroth. They bred up well on it, but on be- 

 ing taken out. they chilled and the brood turned 

 black. Two of them swarmed out ; one entered the 

 hive containing my Italian queen which you sent 

 me (she had done nicely and filled the hive with the 

 3 banded bees), and killed the queen and nearly all 

 the bees, and took possession. The other one dwin- 

 dled all away, and died gradually. All that were fed 

 flour candy, and were the strongest in bees, dwin- 

 dled badly, and are now weak. Those not fed arc 

 strong, and are bringing in pollen lively. I consider 

 the flour candy feeding a bad plan when fed in the 

 cellar. The weather is cold and backward yet, with 

 heavy freezing every night; no buds or blossoms 

 have started. I am not discouraged, as you predict- 

 ed, but am going into it this summer in good earnest. 

 I have got 1 pk. of Alsike clover seed, $15.00 worth 

 of fdn., and have sent for 2 imported queens, and 

 believe I know what kind of treatment bees need in 

 this locality for wintering: 



1st, strong swarms; 2d, double packed hives, with 

 chaff cushions at each side and chaff pillow on top; 



winter on summer stand, with large vent hole at the 

 bottom, and hives tipped forward to all water can 

 run directly out, and t» frames of sealed honey in 

 each. If put in a cellar, it must be dry, and very 

 dark; no screen will be needed to keep them in, if 

 dark, and no packing is needed. Ninety-five out of 

 every hundrtd stocks arc frozen to death here. 

 They were mostly wintered out. Ccmb honey is 

 worth 25c here, extracted, 20c. E. A. Morgan. 



Arcadia, Wis., April 19, '79. 



BEE CATECHISM. 



Q. What is the chief end of bees? 



A. To get out patent hives. 



Q. What is the greatest hindrance to bee cul- 

 ture? 



.1. Ignorance and patent hives. 



Q. What is the best patent hive? 



A. The best hive is not patented. 



(J. Is there any hive that will keep the moth out? 



A. Yes, if tight enough to keep the bees out. 



Q. Can moths go wherever bees can? 



A. Yes. 



0. But don't some of these patent hives fool the 

 moth? 



A. No; they fool the men that buy them: moths 

 know better. 



Q. What patent hives are most useful? 



A. Those in the barn with hens' nests in them. 



Q. But is there not more money in patent hives 

 than in bees? 



-1. So the patentee thinks. 



Q. But how are we to know a poor hive? 



A. By the number of drawers and hinges and 

 slides ami wires and angles and crevices and hiatuses 

 and hiding places and moth catchers and ventilators, 

 besides several other cunning contrivances to make 

 it sell. 



Q. But when the moth eats up everything, what 

 shall we do? 



A. Get a kind of bee that will eat them up. 



Q. How are we to prevent bees from going off? 



A. Give them plenty to do at home. 



Q. Who are the greatest bee savans of the coun- 

 try? 



A. The men that don't use patent hives and don't 

 care for moths. 



Chillicothe, Ohio. J. H. CreigbtON. 

 —»•»•<»- 



FASTENING FOUNDATION IN THE 

 BROOD FKAMES. 



j^r^UR friend, A. Leonard, of Oneida, 

 |LJj) N. Y., sends us a plan for fastening 

 ^^^ fdn. into frames, which, although not 

 strictly new, may prove convenient for those 

 who have failed in getting them in as secure- 

 ly as they could wish, by the plans we have 

 given in our circular. 



Mi 



LEONARD'S PLAN FOR FASTENING IN FDN. 

 Our engraver has told the whole so well 

 with his picture, that one unconsciously 

 looks about for a hammer to drive down that 

 nail. 1 thought of the same plan a year or 

 two ago, but, as it would be cheaper, I deci- 

 ded simply to plough a wide groove as we do 

 for the wood comb guide, and then crowd in 

 a strip of wood, fitting so closely that a very 

 few brads would hold it and the fdn. secure- 

 ly in place. I never adopted this, however, 

 because we succeeded so well in simply rub- 

 bing the fdn. into the wood in our usual 

 way, and because it would necessitate mak- 

 ing two kinds of top bars. 



