1SS0 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



°21 



%$ad§ of gram, 



From Different Fields. 



HOW TO TRANSFER MOVABLE FRAMES. 



fi HAD about 30 colonies last spriug to change 

 from American to Langstroth hives. I studied 

 about a week upon a plan of doing it. Having 

 no stairs to walk around, I have to do the best I can 

 without that auxiliary; I wait until I get to bed, or 

 else get close to the chimney corner, and hang my 

 head over the back of the chair; then something 

 has to come. Well, I completed my theory to my 

 entire satisfaction, also equalizing my bees at the 

 same time. It may be it will do for your ABC. 

 That is where I belong, but I commenced at the 

 wrong end. Now, for my plan : I got a tight box, of 

 the right size to hold the Am. frames, nailed strips 

 inside to hang the frames on, and used a piece of 

 carpet for a cover. If you have any hives in use of 

 the same size as those you are changing to, borrow 

 4 or 5 frames; if not, take out of different hives 

 that amount. Shaking off all of the bees, place 

 them in the box, carry the box into the house, trans- 

 fer the combs to the new hive, and now you are 

 just ready to commence. 



Take the hive you have prepared, and the empty 

 box, and commence at (we will say) No. 1. Move it 

 about 3 ft. to one side, set the new hive on the old 

 stand, then lift out one frame at a time and shake 

 the bees in front of the new hive, placing the combs 

 in the box, carefully keeping the box covered bee- 

 tight. So continue until all are hived, and the bees 

 sticking to the old hive are jarred off, and the hive 

 taken entirely away. Then carry the box into the 

 house, and transfer, and go to No. "2, and repeat the 

 process until night. At night, you will have a box 

 full of combs and no bees. Put them into some of 

 the hives until morning, and then take them out 

 again to start with. If they get cross, or commence 

 robbing, stop a day or two. To equalize, give the 

 combs out of a strong colony to a weak one. You 

 see none of them get their own combs. I use thin 

 strips of wood to fasten the combs in with, and I 

 tack them on one side of the frames before I com- 

 mence to transfer. I do this for two reasons; viz., 

 half the work is done before you disturb the bees, 

 and it prevents the brood from being damaged by 

 coming in contact with the table. R. Robinson. 



Laclede, Fayette Co., 111., March 18, 188U. 



Your plan is a very good one, Friend R., 

 when we have frame hives to work with. 

 Should you put a very weak colony on the 

 combs taken from a strong one, however, it 

 might make some trouble. I have often 

 practiced your plan, and once recommended 

 it for extracting, taking all the combs from 

 each hive ; it did very well, but I finally de- 

 cided it was rather better to give each stock 

 their own combs. 



MAKING GRAPE £UGAR CANDY FROM THE DAVENPORT 

 GRAPE SUGAR. 



Friend Novice:— I must tell you my troubles in my 

 first attempt to make grape sugar candy. I ordered 

 one, 110 lb. box from the Davenport Co. They 

 charged me 4',ic on l he cars. Why do they charge 

 so much more for it than the price you gave in 

 March Gleanings? But I was going to tell my 



troubles in making it up. I made one batch of 4!i 

 lbs. to try it, and it hardened all right. Then I made 

 about 50 lbs., and put it in frames of 4V£ lbs. each, 

 and waited just one week and it showed no sign of 

 hardening. Theu I stirred in to each frame a half 

 tea-cupful of sugar and a table-spoonful of flour, and 

 in :.'t hours it was all right. Now, what was the 

 trouble? I did not melt all of the first 4U lbs., but 

 mashed the lumps. Of the last, the dish was so full 

 I let it all melt. If heating it too hot will keep it 

 from setting after it is made up, you ought to men- 

 tion it in Gleanings for the benefit of the bee-keep- 

 ing fraternity. 



I have been transferring bees in March. One of 

 my neighbors cut a tree for wood, the 18th, and 

 found a swarm of bees in it. I went and transferred 

 them for him, and had good success. M. D. York. 



Milliugton, Mich., March 21, 1880. 



It is nothing unusual for manufacturers 

 to charge more for their goods than others 

 do, and I presume the company charged you 

 their regular price for small lots. The 

 cheaper grades of grape sugar are not as 

 hard as the liner, and are also much slower 

 in assuming the solid state, after having 

 been once melted. They are also, like hon- 

 ey, quite sensitive to a slight increase of 

 heat, and after having been the least over- 

 heated, will utterly refuse to solidify after- 

 ward. On this account, I said in my di- 

 rections, that it would answer as well to 

 warm the grape sugar just enough to allow 

 it to be mashed into a paste. If you are 

 careful to do only this in heating it, it will 

 harden very soon, after stirring in the cold 

 coffee sugar and flour. In spite of my cau- 

 tions, I find a great many have melted both 

 sugars right up together, and have then had 

 to wait a week or more for their candy to 

 harden, if, in fact, it hardened at all. 



REPORT OF CHAFF HIVES. 



I have 40 swarms in chaff hives, in good condition, 

 each having brood; while I fnund brood in only one 

 of the single walled hives. Bees in the single hives 

 consumed 40 per cent more honey than the chaff 

 packed bees. My hives are all two story and all 

 filled, in upper story, with chaff. 1 have the single 

 chaff hive, the double chaff hive, and the tenement 

 chaff hive. I think so much of the tenement, that I 

 shall make 25 of them for this season's use, which is 

 accommodation for 100 swarms. A great many bees 

 will starve this spring, In this section. I shall not 

 winter in anything but a chaff hive again. 



Monticello, Wis. W. P. Clement. 



BEES ON THE KICKAPOO RIVER VALLEY. 



Bee culture and movable frame hives are almost a 

 new thing in this part of the country. When Mr. 

 Gill and myself first commenced to use movable 

 frame hives, people laughed and made a good deal 

 of sport of us. They said our bees would never do 

 anything because we smoked and handled them so 

 much. Some said we smoked them three times a 

 day regularly. But last summer we took considera- 

 ble honey from them, while box-hive men got scarce- 

 ly any. Then they wanted to know how we got so 

 much honey when they got none. We told them we 

 went out every morning before sunrise and smoked 

 them all out of the hivts and started them off to 

 work. Now most all bee-men around here want 

 some of our kind of hives and bees (Italians) and a 



