1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



335 



FUEL FOR SMOKERS, THAT WON'T "GO OUT. - ' 



For a long' time, I have been intending to write 

 you how to make a smoker work all right. Having 

 been bothered by the smoker's going out just when 

 I did not want it to do so, I thought of the plan we 

 boys used to use, on the Fourth of July, to light lire 

 crackers; that is, to take a piece of cotton rope, 

 and set one end on fire, and it would burn all day. 

 So I cut the cotton rope about as long as the tire 

 barrel of tbe smoker, then rap it with cotton cloth 

 (old shirts are good), and tie with a string. It should 

 about two-thirds till the chamber of the smoker. 

 Light with a match, and get it well going, and it will 

 burn all day without going out. Try it and be con- 

 vinced. If it burns too fast, just lay the smoker on 

 itsside; and, when you want it strong, let it stand 

 upright. Of course, the rope and cloth must be dry, 

 and, to have it so, T always keep them in a room 

 where there is a fire, as cotton will absorb dampness 

 from the atmosphere. I have never seen anything 

 of the kind spoken of in the bee journals, but it 

 works all right, and as this is the time of year when 

 we need good smokers, it may be of advantage to 

 some. Marcus D. Dubois. 



Newburgh, N. Y., June 9, l.«80. 



Thanks, friend I)., your idea is a modifica- 

 tion of our roll of rags, and it conies just in 

 time for the bees, and Fourth of July too. 



HOHSEMINT AS A HONEY PLANT. 



My bees are doing splendidly. I commenced this 

 spring with 10 colonies, and now have 13. The in- 

 crease is from the queen you sent me last Decem- 

 ber, which is the most prolific queen I ever saw. If 

 she is leather colored, I don't care. I built up the 

 one-half pound of bees that came with her, to a 

 strong colony, which, on the 11th of April, I divided 

 to keep them from swarming; then, on the 30th of 

 May, I took 3 frames with bees and hatching brood, 

 and still the hive is full of bees. "We are having a 

 powerful flow of honey now from horsemint, which 

 is equal to white clover. The bees are crowding out 

 the queen in spite of all that I can do. I don't like 

 to use the extractor, until the honey has time to 

 ripen. J. S. TadlOCK. 



Kingsbury, Texas, June T, 1880. 



You did extremely well to build a queen 

 and a half pound of bees into a full colony 

 in the time mentioned, even in your mild 

 climate, friend T.— A great deal was said 

 about horsemint as a honey plant in our 

 back volumes of a few years ago, but we 

 have had little or no report from it of late. 

 If I am correct, it is related to the berga- 

 mot family, and to our common wild balm 

 of the woods. It is also of the same family 

 as the Monarda punctata, which has been 

 sold so much as a honey plant.— Tier up 

 your hives, friend T., by putting a story 

 filled with empty combs or fdn. under your 

 rilled combs, until the honey is ripened 

 enough to extract. 



MITCHELL, ETC. 



I am a beginner in the bee business and did not 

 know any thing about it when I began, but have had 

 very good success so far. I had to read and thru try 

 to do the best I could. I got hold of N. C. Mitchell's 

 books, and, of course, got my pay for it. I wish 

 some one would "haul him over the coals;" he 

 needs to be put where he cannot advertise quite so 

 much, We have had a hard winter for bees this last 



year. One of my neighbors dropped from 30 to 8; 

 another from 20 to f>; I put up only 4, and lost one. 

 I thought I was lucky. I used chaff cushions, and 

 think that saved mine. A. F. Dunton. 



Chippewa Falls, Wis., May 30, 1880. 



do bees sleep? etc. 



"Blue eyes" wants to know if the bees sleep? 



Two coats of white lead, and one of French zinc 

 seem to be very durable on hives. The zinc is high 

 priced, but goes a great ways. Our 30 chaff hives 

 saved all but one swarm that was in them; lack of 

 fall care ailed that one. Eight in Simplicities also 

 did well in the cellar. In the spring of '78, we had 4 

 swarms in box hives; we increased to 28, and got 437 

 lb. of honey in sections. Too much swarming? Yes! 



J. S. Wilson. 



Sterling, 111., June 2, 1880. 



Tell "Blue Eyes" that we cannot discover 

 that bees ever sleep nights, as we do, for they 

 do nearly all their comb building nights, and 

 when there is a heavy yield of honey coming 

 in, they seem to be busier nights, if possible, 

 than during the day. I have never, either, 

 been able to see that bees take any rest from 

 their labors, unless it is to rest in front of 

 the hives when coming in heavily laden; 

 and then they only rest long enough to recov- 

 er sufficient breath to get in, on to the combs. 

 During the summer season, a bee works 

 from the minute it crawls out of the cell un- 

 til its wings are worn to stubs with hard 

 work, and then it hops about until too weak 

 to hop about any longer. During the very 

 first day of its life, it is on the move, crawl- 

 ing incessantly over the combs, and all 

 about the hive. When they hang in clusters, 

 preparatory to swarming, or while the wax 

 scales are growing out of their bodies, they 

 may be said to be in a state of rest, but it 

 can hardly be called sleep. The nearest 

 approach to sleep is when the weather gets 

 so cool, that they tie themselves in knots, as 

 it were, and assume a semi-dormant condi- 

 tion; but this can hardly be called sleep, or 

 even rest, for it is not after they have been 

 at work; and, in fact, the bees that take this 

 kind of rest are often those that have never 

 done any w r ork at all outside of the hive. 



THE ALL-IN-ONE-PIECE SECTION. 



Mr. Editor:— Will you have the kindness to set us 

 right before your readers in the "Lewis Section" ad- 

 vertisement as per your last Gleanings. We want 

 to say to your readers most emphatically that there 

 is no patent on the Lewis Section, and we trust that 

 you will ascertain officially from the Commissioner 

 of Patents, that what we say is true, and report the 

 same to your readers. This we trust you will do in 

 justice to us. Lewis & Parks. 



Watertown, Wis., June 12, 1880. 



I published friend Forncrook's advertise- 

 ment, in our last number, it is true, but I 

 did it because I hated to appear so uncour- 

 teous as unnecessarily to refuse to receive an 

 advertisement, and especially in regard to a 

 matter that had been so much before us; 

 but I supposed my remarks on p. 285 were 

 plain enough to indicate my opinion in re- 

 gard to the validity of such a patent. If I 

 am correct, the controversy originally arose 

 in regard to the one to whom the honor of 

 first making such a section belonged, and as 



