18S0 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



117 



%Wd§ of grain, 



From Different Fields. 



Fit VMES ALL IN ONE PIECE. 



MY bees did very well last season. I started 

 with 5 stands, sold 2, and increased from 3 

 - to 15, and have taken 265ft. of honey. I have 

 just finished up my hives and frames for this season. 

 I think I have made an improvement in the way of 

 making frames, as I made all the last lot of frames 

 in one piece. To make them in this way, you must 

 cut 3 grooves in your piece, so it will bend without 

 breaking. Then bend it up and nail one corner. To 

 make the supporting-arms, tack small strips of tin 

 on each side of 2 corners of the frame. 

 Pleasant Hill, S. C, Jan. 2.1, '80. W. S. Canthen. 



The plan of making brood frames all in 

 one piece is not new. Two objections have 

 always stood in the way; one is that the top 

 bar heeds to be heavier than the rest of the 

 frame, and the other is that it is inconvenient 

 getting a comb guide in cheaply and secure- 

 ly. If we are going to use the wired frames 

 recently described, both of these objections 

 are obviated. In them, no comb guide is 

 wanted at all, and the top bar need be no 

 heavier than the bottom bar. I am not sure 

 that a full 3-16 of an in., all around, would not 

 answer every purpose for a frame. If we use 

 a corner like our new section box, we can, 

 perhaps, dispense with bottom corners, and 

 thus have a frame equally good, and very 

 much cheaper. 



now CnEAP SnOULD W r E get wired 

 FRAMES OF FDN. ? 



With Given's press, we could then get up 

 frames filled with wired fdn., ready for the 

 hives — how cheap do you suppose? Wired 

 frames, without bottom corners, all put up, 

 can be made for $4.00 per hundred ; if friend 

 Given can fill 8, L. frames, with one pound 

 of wax, the fdn. could be furnished all put 

 in the frame, for $0.00 per hundred, making 

 only 10c. apiece for wired frames all ready to 

 hang in the hives. If he will do his part by 

 furnishing a press that will raise walls on 

 such thin sheets, I will try to do the rest of 

 it. We shall want some better method of 

 making wax sheets, to get sheets of an even 

 thickness, and so thin that a pound will 

 cover 8 square feet. The inside of an L. 

 frame is just about one square foot. 



CHAFF HIVES, BY AN A B C SCHOLAR. 



I commenced 2 years agro, with 3 colonies in old 

 boxes. I transferred them to movable-frame hives 

 of my own make, the first I ever saw. I made them 

 after your directions. I have now 11 stand*, all in 

 good fix, packed in chaff, 4 of them in chaff hives. 

 Last season, I averaged 45 ft. from my chaff hives, 

 and nothing from the others. I would not give one 

 chaff hive for 2 of any other kind. 



The success I have had with bees is causing quite 

 a bee fever. I have done but little yet. but it is so 

 much better than my neighbors have done with their 

 old box hives, that they think I am doing wonder- 

 fully. They have come T and 8 miles to see my hives 

 and several have spoken to me to make hives for 

 them and transfer their beca. J. R. IIaiipin. 



Korio, Perry .Co.. Jnd.. Feb. 3.. J 380. 



LONG LIVED QUEENS. 



A few thoughts were suggested to me by reading 

 Doolittlc's article in .Tan. number on queen rearing. 



In the first place, we should select a queen to rear 

 from, that has passed into her second year; or, if 

 she is in her third year, she would be better, provid- 

 ed she maintains her ability to keep her hive fully 

 stocked. Queens raised from such a mother would 

 be apt to inherit this valuable trait of queens, and I 

 think it should receive the attention of all careful 

 bee-keepers. By pursuing a course of careful selec- 

 tion, it is possible to lengthen the usefulness and 

 value of a queen. It might also be the means of giv- 

 ing longer lived workers, but this could only be 

 ascertained by experiment, and tests of their age. 

 Even if the age of bees could be increased 2 or 3 

 weeks only, it would be an item both in the laying of 

 eggs and brood rearing, and the consequent economy 

 of stores. I believe bees are very susceptible of 

 improvement by care and good judgment, also of 

 injury by neglect and want of thoughtful care. I 

 have been led to these thoughts, in part, by the 

 memory of a queen owned by me some 14 years ago, 

 which reached the age of 4 years, and to which I 

 attribute, in no small degree, my early success in 

 bee-keepiug. I have been anxious to know more of 

 the condition of the Italian bee in its home in Italy, 

 and to have an honest statement, by actual observ- 

 ers, as to whether they are all absolutely pure in the 

 districts from which they have been imported. 



John Baird. 



Elm Grove, Ohio Co., W. Va., Feb. 3, 1880. 



Long lived, prolific queens are certainly 

 very desirable, and, as the matter which 

 friend B. takes up is oue that has received 

 comparatively little attention, I think it 

 should be looked into. The queens that 

 come from Italy do, assuredly, produce 

 workers having the three bands as explained 

 in the ABC, differing entirely, in this re- 

 spect, from the black bees and hybrids of our 

 own country. I have now imported largely, 

 and from different localities, and, in view of 

 the above, I am satisfied that there are no 

 black bees or hybrids in Italy, at least in the 

 districts from which our queens have come. 

 If you examine the tests as I have given 

 them, I think you will all agree with me. 



ALSIICE CLOVER. 



I would say to some of the Alslke-clover men, 

 that here, when it is once sowed, it never runs out. 

 I have some in a meadow, that has been mowed four 

 years, and it has increased every year. It was mixed 

 in the timothy seed when I bought it. One of my 

 neighbors sowed some about the same time, and 

 there is plenty yet. The soil, in the first case, was a 

 sandy loam; in the last case, clay. 



HONEY FROM RED CLOVER. 



The aftermath of rod clover was covered with 

 bees for 2 weeks, but there is but little grown here. 

 I transferred a new swarm the 15th of Aug. They 

 were hybrids. I gave them 4 frames of comb, and 

 not a pound of honey, and they filled their hive with 

 comb and honey to overilowing. I did not feed them 

 at all. It was an after swarm, but now they are as 

 heavy a colony, in bees, as I have. I don't think 

 the queen has stopped laying this winter, as they 

 have been down cellar through the chilly weather, 

 and carried out pleasant days. J. 8. Terrell. 



Ridgeville, Ohio, Fob. 1, 1880. 



