1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



33 



opened the tops and put cushions on them. Not 

 one of the latter show the honey they did hist March. 

 In this section, bees went into winter quart era with 

 slim supplies. L. B. Wolf. 



Evansburg, Coshocton Co., O., Dec. 13, 1879. 



Last winter, I lost 8 hives out of 50, leaving 42, and 

 got 1,800 in. of honey,— about 400 lb. box, the rest 

 extracted. I have now 51 hives. 



WILL HONEV FKEEZE 



Hard enough to break glass cans or stone crocks? 



[I did not know, friend IT., that honey would freeze 

 at all; but I do know that, in candying it will often 

 push the corks out, and even buist tin cans in which 

 it is soldered up, if the cans are entirely full, unless 

 they are sealed up hot like fruit, in which case there 

 is no candying at all.] 



HOW TO PUT THE TIN ROOF ON A CII *FF HIVE. 



How do you make the tin covers for chaff hives? 

 Amity, N. Y., Dec. 10, 1879. J. W. Utter. 



[I will answer this by lifting out a portion of one 

 the ABC pages.] 



quantity for supper, and I suppose you have enough 

 to almost give all the readeis of Gleanings a taste. 

 Then you see we e< .uld give you some, when we have 

 a big lot and you don't have any.] 



PICTURE OF THE APIARY, AND THE CARTOON. 



Thanks for the beautiful picture of your apiary, 

 given us in the Nov. No. of Gleanings. All who 

 Bee it call it "just splendid." 



I see, by the cartoon in the same No., that you 

 have at last succeeded in getting an excellent 

 "photo." I think 1 should h <ve knowti that any- 

 where. I tell '• my folks, " if a visitor c< mes here 

 when f am away, looking just like the man in the 

 picture, they can catl him Mr. Boot, with a certainty 

 of being correct, and give him a cordial reception. 



J H. TOvTNLEV. 



Tompkins, Jackson Co., Mich., Dec. 16, 1879. 



COVET. TO CnAFF HIVE, HEADY FOB THE 

 TIN SHEETS. 



To make these cheap roof-boards water 

 proof, we will cover them with tin. Get 

 12 x 24 roofing tin, which will cost, at pres- 

 ent prices, about $8.50 per box. Two sheets 

 are required for a cover. Notch out two of 

 the corners to each sheet, f x f ; fold three 

 sides of the sheet at right angles, f of an 

 inch, and it is then just right to put on the 

 covers, if the covers are as they should be. 

 The tin is nailed fast only in the edges of 

 the eaves and along the gable ends, no nails 

 being on the top side of the cover. In our 

 picture of the cover, the ridge-board is rep- 

 resented in place, but it is not to be put on 

 until after the sheets of tin. It is put on the 

 last thing, and held by nails from the inside, 

 none of them being allowed to come up 

 through. This tin cover is to ba painted 

 like the rest of the hive, and, so long as it is 

 kept painted, the tin will last unimpaired. 



LOCALITIES FOR BEE KEEPERS IN MICHIGAN. 



I would like to know the price of land in Central 

 Michigan, and if there is goverment land ihere for 

 sale: also if there is plenty of basswood in that vi- 

 c nity, or any thing else to make a good apiary. If 

 some reader ot Glkaninos will answi r the question, 

 they will greatly oblige an ABC scholar. 



Samuel HRATn. 



Mahoning, Armstrong Co., Penn., Dec. 15, 1879. 



Bees in this set ion did not gather more than about 

 a 3 as much surplus as in the year 1878, and, as a gen- 

 eral thing, have gone into winter quarters with a 

 large portion of their honey unsealed; but 1 hope 



: the winter will be more mild than last, so that bees 



1 may have more chances to fly. 



fut-bottomed fdn. not a success. 

 Thave uspd considerable flat bottomed fdn. in sur- 

 plus i his season, but do not consider it a success, as 

 the bees bite the base of the cells through in their 

 efforts tomake the bottom like n.ituralcouib. They 

 do not leave the bottom of the cells flat. 

 Comb honey brings 20c. ; extracted, 15c. 

 [I believe the only merit ever claimed for flat bot- 

 i tomed fdn. is its being thinner than the other could 

 ! well be made. Mr. Washburn is now at work on a 

 [ $15.00 machine, expressly for starters, which, we ex- 

 pect, will make fdn. so thin — so thin — w» 11, so thin 

 that it will take sever.d sheets to make a decent 

 shadow; and you know, when Mr. W. starts out, ho 

 never fails; at least, he never has yet, on any ma- 

 chine I ever knew him to undertake.] 



worker brood from a queen that was hatch- 

 ed WITHOUT WINGS. 



The past season, in one of my nuclei, I found a 

 queen jusi as she was emerging from her cell, with- 

 out, wings; and, on the 12th day after hatching, I 

 found she wasl.iying. As the eggs were laid so very 

 regular, I left her in, and in 21 days found as pretty 

 yellow workers as you can find. 1 then introduced 

 her to a full colony, and her progeny prove to be 

 among the best workers I have in my yard. 



Query : — How did she get mated, if they must fly 

 to mate? H. H. Brown. 



Light Street, Col. Co., Pa., Dec. 5, 1879. 



[Do you know, friend B., that I shall be reckless 

 enough to say I do not believe that queen ever Wa8 

 fertilized? See in A B C, the concluding remark in 

 regaid to drones.] 



A GREAT CROP OF HONEY IN ONTARIO, CANADA. 



This year's honey crop, in Ontario, has vastly ex- 

 ceeded any thing in the same line for years. A few 

 years ago, "bee-ing" w«s almost extinct; but now, 

 prices have been so reduced that the profits are 

 small, except to very extensive apiaries, of which 

 there are not many in the province. 1 have been 

 digging honey out of barrels for some days, and 

 while raising the rich and luscious Mores, i have 

 been impressed with the idea of waste, all over the 

 country, of thousands of tons of itweete ungathered. 

 John Fotheringham. 



St. Mary's, Ont., Canada, Dec. i:<, 1879. 



[Don't you hope it will be our turn next year, boys? 

 Friend F., we would very much like a "scoop" out 

 of one of those barrels. Those new tin plates that 

 don't cost quite a cent apiece would hold a nico 



I went into winter with 26 hives last year, with 

 quilt on, and cotton waste in upper story. They 

 came through winter all right. I doubled the weak- 

 est to 23, for p .plar honey, which is our first surplus, 

 and usually very prolific. I extracted ;500 lb., after 

 which the supply strangely stopped. Lynn, of 

 which we have nil abundance, only yielded enough 

 to keep them rearing brood. We got no increase 

 this year, not so much as one swarm. Bees suffered 

 badly last winter, where they were not protected. 

 Bee-keeping received a great stimulus 8 yeai S ago, 

 and the market was overstocked wiih honey and 

 bees, hence both went down. It now has Somewhat 

 rallied; extracted honey is worth 10 to 12' i c, and 

 has ready sale. Nothing can excel poplar as a h"iiey 

 producer. In a good year, for ti weeKS, we extract 

 every week or oltener. Lynn never fails, but yields 

 largely only once in 4 or 5 years. 



WHITE CLOVKIl THAT DON'T YIELD HONEY. 



White clover is abundant, but we never get any 

 surplus from it. 



GREAT YIELD FROM THE ASTERS. 



But when asters came, in Sept , they went for the 

 h >ney, and hives were filled full. Asteis were un- 

 known here 10 years ago; now, they ar ecerywherc, 

 and never fail to yield honey from 6 to 10 weeks. 

 We are in tine fix for winter. I extracted all but 

 enough to fill the lower story, in which we have the 

 bees packed with cotton waste. J. H. Bahi>ow. 



Lyunville, Giles Co., Tenu., Dec. 10, 1879. 



