1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



223 



Your plan is a very good one, friend M., 

 but instead of your pans that are expensive, 

 and too smooth for the bees to climb up on, 

 1 would use the Simplicity feeders, and then 

 you will not need any bits of shingles, for a 

 bee never drowns in them, even if there be 

 no float. Pure sugar, and pure water, can 

 not well be improved on as a feed. If no 

 pollen can be gathered, . of course, they 

 should have some Hour or other substitute 

 for pollen. 



ODD-SIZED HIVES AND FRAMES. 



Will it pay for me to change hives? I am using a 

 two-story hive containing- 10 frames in the complete 

 two-story, and frames about 10 in. sq. I have 5 

 stands, and all that I want is enough to supply fam- 

 ily use. From what I have read I think that the 

 bees will be more determined to swarm in the hive I 

 am using-, than large ones. If a change would be for 

 the best, I should like to make it this spring before 

 I get too many on hand. On account of your ex- 

 perience I ask you, will it pay to change, every thing 

 being considered,— transferring, wintering, swarm- 

 ing, honey, etc.? Jas. Mahaffey. 



Newborn, Earth. Co., Ind., March 16, '80. 



I should most certainly change, and that, 

 too, before you get a single frame or honey 

 box of an odd size. Even if the bees would 

 do just as well in your small frames, I 

 should change for the sake of having my 

 hives and implements correspond with the 

 standard ones in common use. Every sea- 

 son, and, in fact, almost every day, we are 

 coming nearer and nearer to one uniform 

 size of frame and package for honey ; and 

 the inconvenience of odd and ill-matched 

 hives and frames is becoming day by day 

 more apparent. Manufacturers of hives 

 and implements are, some of them, entail- 

 ing a fearful amount of trouble on some of 

 their customers by their heedless and un- 

 scrupulous way of making all sorts of odd 

 sizes, without any thought or care as to 

 whether the goods they send out will match 

 those they have sold a year or two before or 

 not. The dimensions we give in our price 

 list and the ABC have now been many 

 years before the people, and as no one else 

 has ever attempted a similar classification, 

 these dimensions can not well be changed, 

 if we would. The Langstroth frame, as I 

 have given it for years back, is now almost 

 universally accepted, not only in our own 

 but in other countries all over the world. 



CCTTING A BEE-TREE BY GREEN HANDS. 



A. I. Root:— Last Tuesday, Mar. 23d, a hand and 

 myself went to the woods to cut a sbingle tree, 

 selecting a large chestnut; and when about half 

 down, as I was looking up the tree to see which way 

 it was going to fall, I saw bees going in and out at a 

 hole in the tree. The tree in falling mashed the 

 part containing the bees, scattering the bees and 

 honey in every direction. Although it seemed im- 

 possible to save the infuriated little fellows (but 

 thinking I would try), I ran home and got some help 

 and a movable-comb hive and other necessaries, and 

 we began business with veiled faces. We gather- 

 ed up the comb, which was covered with bees (this 

 being, as we thought, a very dangerous business, 

 and none of us had our lives insured). After taking 

 out a part of the comb, I went to cutting out and 



fastening comb containing honey and brood in the 

 frames. 1 filled 4 frames in this way, then went to 

 gathering up the remaining comb, and brushing the 

 bees off into the hive. After getting through with 

 the comb, we found that we had something more to 

 do. The scattered bees clustered in a part of the 

 hollow tree, and these we scraped up with our hands 

 and put in the hive, and after getting them hived 

 we brought them home. They are working nicely, 

 and I believe they are the strongest colony I have. 

 We got about 30 lb. of honey out of the tree, and 5 lb. 

 of wax. I don't know whether we got the queen or 

 not. How can I And out? A. C. W. 



New Matamoras, Wash. Co., O., Mar. 29, '80. 



If you can not find the queen by looking 

 over the combs, friend W., keep an eye out 

 for queen cells; if the queen is lost, you will 

 be almost sure to lind cells started by the 

 next day. You did quite well for new hands, 

 but you did not tell us whether or not you 

 got stung any. I presume not ; for, if you 

 worked carefully as you seem to have done, 

 there was hardly any need of it. 



WHEN SHALL WE HANG SHEETS OF FDN. IN THE 

 HIVES ? 



How early in the spring will bees begin to use fdn. 

 in the brood frames? Will it do just as well to put 

 2 or 3 sheets in at once, with a natural comb between 

 them, where the colonies are strong? The fdn. I 

 propose to use was put in the hives last fall, and the 

 bees made a little start on it, but then concluded 

 they would rather do it this spring; so it isn't quite 

 " raw." M. Simons. 



Brocton, N. Y., Apr. 6, 1880. 



If you separate two brood combs by hang- 

 ing a sheet of fdn. between them at almost 

 any time of the year, the bees will build it 

 out, because they can not very well help do- 

 ing s<>. If their brood nest is forcibly divi- 

 ded they must lill the vacancy with a comb, 

 or suffer severely. As the sheet of fdn. is 

 right there, they build it out, but to divide 

 the brood nest thus, and give them such a 

 chill, damages the colony unless it is very 

 strong, or the weather is so warm that they 

 have commenced building comb. I would 

 not advise giving them fdn. to build out, not 

 even sheets that were partly built out last 

 fall, until fruit trees are in bloom, or, at 

 least, until just before the time of fruit tree 

 bloom. This is quite an important matter, 

 and one where the ABC class may make 

 trouble by untimely ••tinkering. 1 ' You will 

 have to learn just when to do these things, 

 to a great extent, by careful observation. 

 Spread one colony, and watch daily to see 

 what the effect is. It it lessens the number 

 of flying bees by causing more to stay at 

 home to keep the exposed brood warm, it is 

 a damage, and you will best wait awhile be- 

 fore doing any more. 



REPORT FROM OUR FRIEND C. O. MILLER. 



You ask, in February Gleanings why I don't set 

 the example and put the number of hives to my 

 name. 1 should count it presumption to have done 

 so without your approval, and, moreover, I am not 

 anxious to give my own number, but want very 

 much to see the number given with eidry signature 

 in Gleanings as well as other papers. Possibly 

 there are objections that I don't see. A bee friend 

 in Kansas writes me that he thinks it desirable, and 



