DEVOTED TO BEE« AIND HONEY, A1VI> IIOJIE INTEBE8TS, 



Vol. VIII. 



AUGUST 1, 1880. 



No. 8. 



A. I. ROOT, 



Publisher and Proprietor,] 



Published Monthly. 



Medina, O. 



i Established in 1873 



I TERMS: $1.00 Per Annum, in 

 I Advance; 2 Copies for $1.90 ; \i 



for $3.75; 5 for $4.00: Jfc or 

 more, 1 5c < ach. Single Number, 10c. 

 Additions to ehibs may he made at 

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NOTES FROM THE BANNER APIARY. 



No. 9. 

 thieves; how shall we cihcumvent them? 



fHREEor fourbee-keepersinthis vicinity, myself 

 among the number, lost bees, hives, honey, 

 etc., last season by the visitation of thieves. 

 Now, I, for one, would like to know how to get the 

 better of these light-lingered (yes, and light-footed) 

 gentry. Some say, " Keep a dog;" butdogs are very 

 unreliable. Besides, I would rather lose a swarm 

 occasionally than to go to the trouble and expense of 

 keeping a dog. In my estimation, dogs, as a general 

 thing, are very poor property. Novice tells us to 

 build a high board fence, and it will keep out both 

 thieves and cold winds. True; but would not such 

 fences be unsightly, and would they not shut out the 

 view? A little more than a year ago, a writer in the 

 American Bee Journal described an electrical alarm 

 to be used in the apiary; but it was too complicated 

 and expensive to suit my ideas. Among all of us 

 four or five thousand Gleanings readers, isn't there 

 some one who understands electricity well enough 

 to get up something upon the electrical plan that 

 will be simple and cheap'? Friend Prudden, of Ann 

 Arbor, says that he fortified his premises with "tele- 

 graph wires around and through in every direction 

 attached to an alarm." Friend P., please tell us just 

 how you arranged them. I have sometimes thought 

 Of building a picket fence,— one that would bo in- 

 convenient, if not impossible, to scale, if not around 

 my whole apiary, at least in front of my place, and 

 then have the front gate connected by means of a 

 wire with an alarm in the house. I would have the 

 alarm connected with the gate only during the night. 

 Please tell the boys to wash the ink from their 

 cheirographs just as soon as they get through using 

 them, and not let it stand and soak in, so that they 

 will be obliged to melt it over again, as a certain 

 person did. 



Neighbor Ranncy wants to know why you could 

 not solder a piece of coarse wire cloth over the draft 

 hole of the smokers, to keep the coals from tum- 

 bling out ; and neighbor Stimson would like to know 

 what has become of the cartoons. 



I hope the friends will excuse me if my "notes" 

 are neither long nor very interesting this mouth, as 



the "rush" and "gush" of a fine flow of basswood 

 honey keeps me very busy. W. Z. Hutchinson. 

 Rogersville, Genesee Co., Mich. 



Iii regard to thieves, friend II., unless they 

 are much more common than I think they 

 are, I feel sure the apparatus you mention 

 will be more expensive and troublesome than 

 the loss you sustain as it is. Even remem- 

 bering to fix your gate every night would be 

 quite a little task, even if it really did an- 

 swer the purpose. Our apiary stands alone, 

 away off in the field almost, as it were, and 

 yet we have never lost an ounce of honey by 

 thieves. I agree with you that w r e must 

 fight, but I think it is in the line in which I 

 told you to fight intemperance last month. 

 It is bad to have your hives robbed, but it is 

 a thousand times worse to have neighbors 

 who are sending their souls down to ruin by 

 engaging in such work. Go to work to save 

 these neighbors, and the thieving will die a 

 natural death, with intemperance, injustice, 

 and all other troubles, if I get a clear idea of 

 the matter. — Wire cloth over smokers is an 

 old and discarded idea. It clogs up the 

 tubes and catches soot. — I have dropped the 

 cartoons because of the severe scolding I 

 have received from some who do not think 

 them in good taste.— Friend II., I am sure 

 we are about as much interested in that flow 

 of basswood honey, as you can be, and we 

 want you to tell us all about it,— what you 

 are doing, and how many bees you have. 



SOME THINGS LEARNED BY EXPERI- 

 ENCE AND OBSERVATION. 



GIVING A NEW SWAKM INSEALEn BHOOD. 



WILL unsealed brood prevent swarms from 

 leaving the hiye in which they are placed? 

 If not, why not? In the July No. of 

 Gleanings, we have three instances given where 

 swarms hived in a hive in which had been placed 

 brood in all stages left the hive, thus thwarting the 

 purpose for which said brood was placed in the hive; 

 viz., to prevent their decamping. Previous to 1871, 

 I had never clipped any of my queens' wings, and 

 was often fearful that my new swarms might desert 

 the hives they were placed in. During the spring 

 of said year, I read that a frame of unsealed brood 



