300 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



shutters of his bed room window. The ur- 

 chin of his dream had, in truth, slipped into 

 the honey house the day before, helped him- 

 self to the honey, dribbled it along the floor, 

 then scattered it about as he divided it 

 among his mates, and, worst of all, left the 

 door ajar. Alas, alas ! thought he, as he 

 nervously pulled on his summer clothing, 

 how true it is, that there is but a step be- 

 tween the sublime and the ridiculous, and 

 how different are the stern realities of every 

 day life from the fine speeches sometimes 

 made. The bees about his bed and hover- 

 ing over his nose were a reality after all, but 

 they were not queens. 



HOW TO CIRCUMVENT ROBBERS. 



AND KEEP ON TRANSFERRING AND RAIS- 

 ING QUEENS ALL THE SAME. 



WIRE CLOTH HOUSE, FOR TRANSFERRING, 

 ETC., DURING A SCARCITY OF HONEY. 



The house is 6 feet long, 3i feet wide, and 

 Si feet high. The operator is expected to 

 sit on the seat illustrated last month, and a 

 movable shelf is fixed across one end, on 

 which to do his work, a single sheet of 

 painted wire cloth goes right around the 

 building, and overhead. 



To prevent bees from getting under the 

 edge, a strip of cloth is tacked on, having a 

 hem on the lower edge, in which is drawn a 

 cheap iron chain. This holds every portion 

 down tight to the ground, even though the 

 surface may be uneven. The whole is so 

 light, that it can easily be moved from hive 

 to hive, or tipped up at any side when the 



jfHE basswood season failed with us, 

 about the 20th of July, and left us with 

 something like 250 queen rearing colo- 

 nies. The bees very soon informed us which 

 colonies would protect their entrance, and 

 which would not ; and by giving combs of 

 unsealed larvae to all that had no laying 

 queens, and combs of hatching bees to all 

 that were short of bees, we soon had every 

 one "holding the fort." Now bees were 

 coming in daily, and bees were going out 

 daily. Queens and ounces of bees were or- 

 dered by every mail, and must go by first 

 express, especially if we hoped to hold our 

 customers, and so, even if robbers did incline 

 to dip into the hive like that fellow who is 

 trying to dip into the urchin's dish of honey 

 in the cartoon, business could not be stopped. 

 I instructed the boys to make a Avire cloth 

 house, to set over a hive when they wanted 

 to open it, and here it is. 



operator wishes to get out. About 8 yards 

 of wire cloth are needed at an expense of 

 about $3.00. The wood work well painted 

 and the cloth and chain will cost about a 

 dollar more. When you wish to fasten any 

 colony into their hive without smothering 

 them, just set your house over them, and 

 they are out of the way. 



Pertaining to ISee Culture. 



[We respectfully solicit the aid of our friends in 

 conducting' this department, and would consider it a 

 favor to have them send us all circulars that have a 

 deceptive appearance. The greatest care will be at 

 all times maintained to prevent injustice being done 

 any one.] 



fTOOK off my first honey to-day, 55 nice sections. 

 I expect to get 200 more next week. This is the 

 _^ result of taking- Gleanings and Simplicity hives. 

 I was told to-day that one of Mitchell's agents sued 

 a man for using the Simplicity hive without any 

 right. He lost the suit, because he could not prove 

 that he had any patent on the hive. M. Rlseh. 



Columbus, Ohio, June 30, 1879. 



I have heard once before, that, when 

 Mitchell could not think of any other excuse 

 for demanding money of country bee keep- 

 ers, he claimed to have a patent on the Sim- 

 plicity hive, but I did not know before that 

 Mitchell or any of his agents had the brazen 

 impudence to commence a suit about it. 



Extract, from the Oxford (Pa.) Press, July 

 9, 1879. 



A PATENT RIGHT SWINDLER GETS HIS DESERTS. 



A smooth spoken man, having the appearance of 

 a farmer, drove up to the residence of John Witmoy- 

 er, in the upper part of Berks county, several days 

 ago, and wanted Witmoyer to buy a township right 

 for the sale of a patent corn shelter. Witmoyer 

 happened to have been a juror in a case in which a 

 farmer had been swindled by a device similar to 

 this one, so he concluded to draw the man on. He 

 told the agent to prepare the agreement, which be- 

 ing dune, was handed to the farmer for his signature. 

 Witmoyer, however, astonished the agent by saying 

 he would just read it, when it was discovered that 

 the agreement was a promissory note for $300. So 

 John called in his two big sons and together they 

 carried the patent right man to the horse trough in 

 the barnyard; where they baptized him; then they 

 gave him a number of kicks apiece, put the dogs on 

 him, one of which tore off a large patch of his pant- 

 aloons, and so cheered him on his way. The agent 

 has quit business in that part of the country. 



Would it not be well to serve some of the 

 patent division board men in something the 

 same way ? If anything, the man was let 

 off too easily ; for his crime was, virtually, 

 highway robbery. 



Some of the friends advertise queens by mail. I 

 hardly know what to advise in the matter. While I 

 feel that the rulings of the P. O. Dept. are needless- 

 ly standing in the way of the best interests of a 

 large class of our agricultural community, I dislike 

 to advise disobeying such very positive and decisive 

 orders as that given in this No. At present I cannot 

 consent to send queens by mail, even though it may 

 be done in sealed packages or enclosed in tin boxes, 

 so as to elude the vigilance of the Dept. A 

 queen sent by express in a box so large that she is 

 laying on the way, I think, is worth more, as a rule, 

 than one that has passed the close confinement of 

 the mail bags. 



