18?9 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



313 



%W&§ of %vain 3 



From Different Fields. 



SPEED OF CIRCULAR SAWS. 



DON'T believe we want to trade. I will have to 

 wait till I can sell some Vices here or something 

 else. I presume you have used the Barnes' 

 saw, putting- on a 6%in. pulley in place of the small 

 one. When they get them just right, it will be the 

 biygest improvement they ever put on. The saw 

 will be worth double what it was before. You can 

 saw 2 in. stuff as easily, and nearly as fast, as 1 in. 

 before, and a great deal smoother. Now, how is 

 that ? The saw now only goes some 1200 revolutions 

 per minute. Isn't this going back towards the slow 

 motion saw ? According to friend J. L. Lafferty. I 

 should think the in. saw ought to go 6000 revolu- 

 tions per minute, or 7000 revolutions, to make 120 to 

 150 miles an hour. Don't it take too much of the 

 power, for foot work, to get up so much motion ? I 

 sawed with the small pulley one day, when I was try- 

 ing it. 12% ft per minute, of 7 8 stuff. I have not 

 tried the large pulley, in that way; but I sawed sev- 

 eral pieces, 2x4 1 4 , through at three treads of my 

 foot; they were some soft pieces. I believe a man 

 can do 2 times as much as he could before, on sawing 

 2 in. stuff, at Leant. V. W. Keeney. 



Shirland, HI., May 23, 1879. 



You are right, or at least partly right, 

 friend K. The figures given by Mr. L. are 

 right, where we have plenty of power, but 

 where the power is limited, as it necessarily 

 is by a foot power, a slower motion will of- 

 ten give much better results. We have one 

 of each kind constantly at work in our wax 

 room, and the large pulley is certainly a 

 great improvement for ripping thick stuff. 



BUMBLE BEES KILLING HONEY BEES. 



A few weeks ago, I noticed a great number of 

 dead bees lying around one of my hives. I began to 

 examine, and found a bumble bee in the hive. I 

 honestly believe he would have killed the whole 

 swarm; almost half were then dead. C. W. Poe. 



Newberg, Mich., July 1, 1879. 



I hardly think, my friend, the bumble bee 

 had anything to do with the killing, unless 

 they, in their zeal, made a mistake and 

 killed some of their own number while they 

 were trying to kill him. I often see bumble 

 bees trying to enter our hives, but they seem 

 to do it rather by accident, or because they 

 get a smell of the honey, than because they 

 have any purpose of harming the inmates. 

 Very often, they are attacked and dragged 

 out dead, like the one you saw. 



REFUSE FROM A CORN SHELLER FOR WINTER PACK- 

 ING. 



I packed my chaff hives this year with the casts 

 off from a corn sheller, which consisted mostly of 

 silks. It is very light and dry and packs well. Have 

 you tried anything of the kind? Do you think it 

 will work well? J. S. Hartwell. 



Odcll, 111., July 3, '79. 



I have never tried anything of the kind, 

 but have no doubt that it would answer. 



QUEEN CELLS BY MAIL. 



I have just finished hiving a huge swarm of blacks, 

 and just as I had them nicely in the hive, the 

 thought occurred to me, in this wise: now, if I had 

 one of Novice's section-box, queen cages, with a 

 nice queen cell in it, to hang in there, how soon I 

 could have a nice swarm of Italians. You say on 

 page 210 of June Gleanings, you do not know but 

 you could have queen cells built In these cages; 

 why not find out, and send out queen cells by mail. 

 I will give you 50ct8. for a queen cell sent to me by 

 mail, built in one of these cages, and capped over, 



any time between now and the tenth of August, 

 just to try the experiment. If I do not hatch it in- 

 to a queen no matter; if it is from your imported 

 queen, and I succeed in getting it purely mated, I 

 will give you one dollar. What say you? When can 

 I look for a queen cell? 



The smokers I received all in good order, and 

 they are as perfect a smoker as I ever saw or expect 

 to see. I sold one of them before I got home from 

 the office, and could not get it back for five dollars. 



Benton Harbor, Mich., July 7, '79. Wm. L. King. 



The idea of queen cells by mail is not a 

 new one, friend K.; but, since queens are 

 so emphatically denied by mail, it may be 

 well to reconsider it. The objections are 

 that the cell will be sure to be chilled and 

 spoiled, unless in the very warmest part of 

 the summer ; the queen, if hatched, would 

 generally stand a much greater chance of be- 

 ing impurely mated where the cell was re- 

 ceived, than if fertilized in the apiary where 

 it was raised. We value queen cells, from 

 our imported stock, at 10c each, among the 

 neighboring bee keepers around us. If the 

 cell were built in a section box cage, and 

 sent brood and all, it might be kept warm 

 enough to stand the trip ; at any rate, we 

 will try it, and 50 cts. will be ample for cage, 

 postage, brood, and all. 



fastening fdn. in the frames. 



1 would not be without the idea in my June 

 No. of Gleanings, of the cup of melted wax and the 

 slip of board sunk in the wax for fastening starters 

 in the section boxes, for the price of gleanings. 

 Surely, Mr. Root, I have enlarged on the little cup 

 of wax. I have a long dripping pan fixed on the 

 same plan for fastening fdn. in brood frames. I 

 have a larger saw kerf or cut in top bar for brood 

 comb, dip the sheet of fdn. in the melted wax, the 

 same as for sections, place the edge of the sheet in 

 the saw cut, and it is done. It does suit me exactly, 

 and is a sure thing. W. H. Ferguson. 



Bloomdale, Ohio, June 30, 1879. 



HONEY DEW FOR WINTER STORES. 



I send by this mail, a small box containing honey, 

 or honey dew, gathered last fall, which I think was 

 the greatest cause of the loss of bees in this vicinity. 

 Before extracting the honey left by those colonies 

 which were lost, I did not think the honey dew was 

 any detriment to them; but, now, I have changed 

 my mind, as the colonies which wen- affected the 

 most with dysentery were those that gathered con- 

 siderable of this stuff. A few colonies wintered as 

 well as ever. Such gathered none of the dew, and 

 this is good proof against such stores. Again; bees 

 never wintered better than they did in good cellars 

 twelve miles south of here, the previous winter. 

 As far as I have learned, there was no honey dew in 

 that section. I have had good success wintering in 

 my cellar for three winters previous to the last, and, 

 in fact, 1 have never lost a colony in it before. If 

 my bees gather such stores the coming fall, I shall 

 take them out and give them something better, but 

 shall leave a few to give it a farther test. 



O. H. Townsend. 



Hubbardston, Mich., June 30, 1S79. 



The sample of honey sent, I think, with- 

 out doubt, is gathered from honey dew. It 

 has a rich flavor, something resembling li- 

 quorice in taste, is dark in color, and thick. 

 I have had it sent in so many times, I think 

 1 should recognize it, at once. Now, friend 

 T., I am by no means certain that bees can- 

 not be wintered safely on this; in fact, we 

 have had reports to this effect, but still I 

 should be very glad of further facts in the 

 case. I am inclined to think the honey good 

 for warm weather, but not as good for win- 

 ter, as is the case with brown muscovado 

 sugars, on account of the caramel they con- 

 tain. 



