1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



211 



candle wicking loosely. Every drop of wa- 

 ter was used, and nearly the } lb. of candy, 

 although they were on the trip but 2\ days. 

 What 'makes your bees eat so much, friend 

 II. ? According to this, l lb. of bees, on a 

 journey, will need a II). 01 sugar and a half 

 pint of water, for 5 days. The package, 

 bees and all, weighed only \} lbs. A brood 

 comb was taken from one of our hives, the 

 bees all shaken off, one empty comb put 

 with it, a division board put on each side, 

 the bees in the cage shaken on, and we had 

 a swarm that went out after pollen the next 

 morning, and the queen began laying imme- 

 diately. No introducing, no waiting, no 

 transferring, and no risk to run, and we 

 have a pretty little nucleus on our own 

 frames, ready to give us eggs for queen 

 rearing, at once. The dish cover holds 

 about o pints, and the 1 lb. of bees seemed 

 nearly to rill it. 



Young bees are certainly worth more than 

 old ones. How shall we get them in the 

 cages? Shake them in a newspaper, laid in 

 the scoop of your scales, until they weigh a 

 half lb. The old bees will take wing, and 

 we shall thus have all young bees. Then 

 shake them into a heap, and put them in 

 the cage. Now our section box queen cage 

 can be used nicely for sending the £ lb. of 

 bees with the queen, and I think it will be 

 the cheapest package we can get. A section 

 box holds just a pint, and two of them fas- 

 tened together (possibly 8) will make a very 

 neat shipping package." I, too, will agree to 

 send h lb. of young Italians, with any queen, 

 b»r SI. 00 additional. Perhaps next month 

 we can do it cheaper. If any body else can 

 do it cheaper, let them send in their names 

 for next month's issue. 



Problem. — If 1 lb. of bees consume 1 lb. 

 of sugar in 5 days, how long will a lb. of 

 honey last them under the same conditions? 

 I will pay S5.00 to the one who sends in the 

 best practical solution of this question, by 

 actual experiment. 



►-♦••-« 



TRANSFERRING. 



THE EXPERIENCE OF AN A B C SCHOLAR. 



^yj?' WANT you to understand that I am a very 

 IJ! young ABU scholar, never owning a bee, or 

 4^i daring to go within "stinging distance" of them 

 until last tall. I then bought 9 stands in some kind 

 of a patent hive, I don't know what it was, and put 

 them into winter quarters by packing them all in 

 straw. As the weather has been very cold this 

 spring and the season backward, I let them remain 

 in their winter quarters until April 10th, when I 

 took them out and moved them about 50 yards to 

 where 1 wanted them to remain. This I did at night, 

 or after sundown rather, and without the loss of a 

 dozen bees. 



The hives were of such construction, being only 

 half inch stutf and hinged together on one side to 

 open out like a book, that I was afraid of chilling- 

 the bees too much and doing more harm than good 

 by trying to examine them much, so I let them go, 

 until about 2 weeks ago when, fruit trees being in 

 bloom, I concluded to try my hand at transferring. 

 Upon examination then, I found one swarm dead,- 

 starved to death with the exception of one her, the 

 queen. I secured her and saved her for an emerg- 

 ency, which presently arose. 



Next day I began the operation of transferring, 

 green as a gourd except from what Gleanings has 

 told me, but with tools and implements sufficient 

 almost to build, scrub out, and furnish an ordinary 

 house, much more, a "bee house." I succeeded 



finally in transferring one stand. The job was a 

 poor one, the wind blowing almost a hurricane all 

 the time; the consequence was I killed about % of 

 the bees including the queen (I know there was one 

 present, from eggs and brood). The honey was 

 broken and running, the combs were blown out of 

 my new frames in which I had fastened them, bees 

 were drowned and smoked to death, and the state of 

 affairs bad generally. After awhile, when the few 

 remaining bees had quieted down, I gave them the 

 queen mentioned above, which they received indif- 

 ferently, not seeming to care whether she was there 

 or not. I was so disgusted with this job (in 

 fact, I had more stocks left than I cared to begin 

 with) that I was in hopes the others would rob them 

 and utilize the honey, and I could distribute the 

 brood amongst them. As if to carry out my wishes, 

 they did this very thing, and another swarm was 

 gone, not wholly a loss, however, as many of the 

 bees went to other hives and were accepted, and the 

 honey and brood were saved in the same way, by 

 distribution. 



After waiting in vain for nearly a week for the 

 wind to go down, and fearing fruit blossoms would 

 be gone and my transferring not done, I went at it 

 again, one morning about 9 o'clock. I cleaned out 

 my buggy house and took the bees in there and 

 transferred the remaining 7 swarms in that way. 

 By half past four, I was through, and I think I did 

 it well too. As every thing was kept clean, I had 

 no robbing, and l-eceived but one sting. When I 

 tell you that my bees were all blacks, and had not 

 been handled or intefered with in any way for 2 or 3 

 years before 1 bought them, I think you also will 

 consider my success in my first lesson in transfer- 

 rins:, very good. 



They are now in chaff hives, and all doing nicely. 

 All are busily at work gathering pollen, and rearing 

 brood, but getting very little honey, as fruit trees 

 are done blooming and there are very few flowers. 



Should I keep the quilt down over them ? 



SMOKERS AND TRANSFERRING CLASFS. 



Now 1 want to "grumble" a little at your wares. 

 I could not make the cold blast Simplicity smoker 

 burn at all, and had it not been for the old style 

 Simplicity I had, 1 should have been in a bad fix. I 

 tried rotten wood, dry corn cobs, brown paper, cot- 

 ton rags and every thing else I could think of for 

 fuel, but it was "no go." The transferring clasps 

 also, 1 think too light and flimsy for such heavy 

 combs as I had. Could they not be made stronger 

 to advantage ? and what was the matter with the 

 smoker ? N. H. Allen. 



P. S.— Mine is a hexagonal apiary, 7 chaff hives 

 and 5 Simplicities, sawdust and all. 



Kirkwood, Mo., May 5, '79. N. H. A. 



Under the circumstances, you did exactly 

 the proper thing, to take the hives into an 

 out building. Every package of clasps should 

 contain light ones, and stiff ones, short ones, 

 and long ones, so that the operator may 

 choose those best suited to his work. I will 

 see this minute to their being put up. 



While the great majority have been extrav- 

 agant in their praises of the cold blast smok- 

 er, a few have complained about their going 

 out. I have repeatedly tested them, and 

 ours all burn until the fuel is gone, without 

 going out at all. One filled with the rotten 

 wood and set down without any blowing at 

 all, burned from 9 o'clock until 12. A roll 

 of rags did still better, and I cannot see 

 where the trouble lies unless your fuel is 

 poor. Two of our friends have pricked a 

 hole with an awl into the central blast tube, 

 to get a blast directly on the fuel, but I do 

 not like this, because it blows smoke out at 

 the draft hole. Some prefer a larger tube at 

 the top of the cone, but I object to this, be- 

 cause it is more apt to let coals and sparks 

 out. We light them repeatedly while mak- 

 ing them, but find no trouble. I will have 

 the matter more thoroughly examined, and 

 will pay return postage on every one that 

 our friends can't make go to suit them with 



