1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



279 



with no mold or dampness, and the frames of comb 

 were clean and bright. The front entrance of the 

 hives, " 8 xl4 in. were left open, but, of course, were 

 found closed by dead bees. Now the question is, 

 what caused their death? During the winter of '78-9, 

 I wintered the same hives, in the same room, with 

 like conditions, with the loss of one stock; this last 

 season the loss was 50 per cent of the whole, ard the 

 balance are weak. F. W. Chapman. 



Morrison, 111., April 20, L880. 



We formerly used a book made as you 

 suggest, friend C, with a page for every 

 hive in the apiary, but it was so inconve- 

 nient for me always to have the hook on 

 hand, that I used the queen cards and slates 

 in preference. Painted numbers, with large 

 figures, are very pretty and handy until the 

 hives get moved about by selling, swarming, 

 etc. When this has been done so that they 

 really mean nothing, it seems to me rather 

 to give the apiary an air of untidiness. To 

 avoid this, it has been suggested that the 

 numbers be painted on tin labels, and simply 

 hung on the hives.— I cannot give any reason 

 for the colonies dying, under the circum- 

 stances as you describe them, but perhaps, 

 if the hives were where I could examine 

 them, I might find some trouble. I very 

 much dislike to think that bees do die, when 

 we can see nothing wrong. 



HONEY-DEW. 



I have seen honey-dew on basswood, maple, oak 

 and pear. I have seen it on maple in such abun- 

 dance that it wouhl drop off the leaves. I think 

 honey-dew is on all trees, whose blossoms produce 

 honey. H. F. Britton. 



Wallingford, Vt., April 22, 1880. 



PARKER'S MACHINE FOR FASTENING IN STARTERS. 



I must tell you that the little machine for fasten- 

 ing foundation in the section boxes, described in 

 March Gleanings, has been used by Bro. J. F. Laf- 

 ferty and myself for 12 months or more. It was 

 Bro. Lafferty's idea. I wonder how long Mr. Parker, 

 of Defiance, O., has used the little machine. 



Moonshine, 111., April 19, 1880. Wm. St. Martz. 



It may be a little singular that two parties 

 should both invent precisely the same thing, 

 but it is by no means impossible. Devices 

 quite similar were mentioned in Glean- 

 ixijs, several years ago, and, if I mistake not, 

 friend P. had his in use considerably more 

 than a year ago. AY ill he please tell us 

 about it? 



A NEW TOOL FOR THE APIARY. 



Now I want to tell you to add to your price list a 

 cut of the little three-cornered scraper, with claw on 

 the end of the handle. Then you will have the best 

 tool known for cleaning hives, lifting frame?, and 

 other uses in the apiary. The same is used for 

 scraping writing off the heads of barrels and boxes. 



HOW THE ABC MAKES TROUBLE. 



The smoker came safe, and last of all the blessed 

 ABC. I read it until 10 o'clock, and could sleep 

 none that night. It made me lots of trouble. Such 

 a fix as it did get me into! 50 I.angstroth hives, 50 

 more, 12x12 Inside by 15 deep (no frames), very pret- 

 ty little hives; nicely made; too good and too 

 many to throw away ! The Gallup frame will just tit 

 them, but is not deep enough. Can you not write 

 me a little bit of a letter and tell me if I can use 



them by framing in some way? The box oo 

 good. Only think of the mischief I have done, all on 

 account of not reading and posting myself as I 

 should have done. I have made 1,000 section frames 

 by hand, but never any more. My bees are doing 

 well; 74 hives are eating about 8 lbs. of dry rye 

 flour a day, and about 4 lbs. of grape sugar and hon- 

 ey in a syrup. Please answer and oblige— 

 Leavenworth, Kan., Mar. 24, 'hi. Wm. Tanner. 



Thanks, friend T. You will see that I 

 have profited by your hint already, and the 

 box scraper is already in the list.— I am very 

 sorry the A B C made you so much trouble, 

 but you know trouble sometimes works out 

 good finally. The best advice I can give is 

 to fix your odd hives so a Simplicity will set 

 over them, aud then you can use them until 

 you are ready to discard the others entirely, 

 and so gradually work all your bees into the 

 regular sized frames. 



DO bees get "lazy" in tropical climates? 



I enclose an article clipped from a newspaper. 

 The statements in this article have often been pre- 

 sented as facts. As you have subscribers in Aus- 

 tralia, if I mistake not, you might draw out the 

 facts from your correspondents, and I think it 

 would interest your readers to know just how much 

 climate affects the habits of the honey bee. 



Iteese, Mich., April 12, 1880. J. H. Gray. 



CURIOUS FACTS IN NATURE. 



Some curious facts from the world of nature crop 

 up occasionally, which are well worthy of consider- 

 ation. For instance, it has been proved that the 

 bee may under certain circumstances, turn out to 

 be any thing but the pattern of industry it is pro- 

 verbially supposed to furnish. Australian colonists 

 have from time to time taken out swarms of bees to 

 their adopted land, in the hope of deriving practical 

 benefit from the profusion of flowers with which the 

 whole country abounds. For some little time the 

 newly imported bees maintained their food in the 

 comfortable hives provided for them, and supplied 

 the colonists with far superior honey to that col- 

 lected by the indigenous honey producers, the "mf»l- 

 lipones." Presently, however, the hives were dis- 

 covered unstocked at the end of autumn, notwith- 

 standing the long summers in the northern parts of 

 Australia, and it was found that the bees entirely 

 neglected to lay up a stock of food, as was ibeir 

 wont. Though the bees increased and always regu- 

 larly tenanted th° hives, no honey was brought 

 home. It soon became evident that, finding- ihe 

 perennial summer of the tropical parts of Australia 

 afforded them an abundance <>f food, without inter- 

 vention of long winters, the bees forsook their old 

 habits, gave themselves up to a life of happy indo- 

 lence, and no longer took the trouble to convey 

 their superabundant supplies to the hives prepared 

 for them. In short, there being no 'winters to pro- 

 vide for, the bees gave up the practice of storing. 



The above may be partially true, but I 

 think it is, in the main, a mistake. Our Aus- 

 tralian subscribers have not so stated it, as 

 yet; will they please tell us a little more 

 definitely, Avhether they have observed any 

 such tendency? 



RINSING THE niVKS WITH SALT WATER, ETC., TO 

 MAKE NEW SWARMS STAY. 



I have heard that it is best to rinse out the bee 

 hive with salt and water before putting in a young 

 swarm; so I thought I would ask your advice about 

 doing it, providing a person has no comb honey. 



Beroa, o., April :.':;, 1880, GEO. Pfaltzoraff. 



The idea of rinsing the hives with salt and 

 water, or water sweetened with honey, is 

 old and abandoned now. I remember well 

 when my mother washed out the hive, and 



