368 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



AtlG. 



sweet this year, and possibly the new ground 

 will furnish a larger quantity of juice, but 

 not as sweet or of as tine a flavor, as is the 

 case in growing sugar cane on soil too rich. 



BROKEN-DOWN COMBS, AND WHAT TO DO 

 WITH THEM. 



Iii buying bees, as we have been doing, 

 many colonies were brought in with broken- 

 down combs ; and, in transferring in very 

 hot weather, we had some break-downs of 

 our own. As this was right in the height of 

 basswood, these combs were heavy and drip- 

 ping with honey. Brood and all was down 

 in a sticky heap, if moved or touched in 

 any way, more bees would be daubed and 

 killed, and the brood made worse. I linally 

 directed that a second story be placed over 

 the hive, and some clean combs, with one 

 containing unsealed brood in the center, be 

 hung in it. It was a success. The daubed 

 bees at once crawled up on the empty combs 

 above them, and then went back and licked 

 up the honey, and stored it all above, around 

 the one comb of unsealed brood. By night, 

 the broken combs were licked off clean and 

 dry, and the brood was in the best condition 

 to be transferred into frames. 



BEES BY THE POUND. 



July Vdth. — Our efforts to raise the price of 

 bees by the lb. seem rather unavailing, be- 

 cause it has been so long understood that, 

 after July 1st, they were to be only a dollar ; 

 and, as every body sent me a dollar and no 

 more, I decided we should have to stand to 

 it, even if it was a losing business. Some of 

 the best inventions I have ever made have 

 been to get out of some "tight place," and 

 so I argued in this case, if the people will 

 stick to the old price, I shall have to study 

 up some cheaper package, and some quicker 

 way of getting the bees into it. The bottle 

 queen cage has been a great success, and so 

 I determined to make one on a large scale to 

 carry bees. A good many want the cage 

 made of sections shown in the cut in the 

 price list, and so I made a cake of candy in 

 a section, and had the tinners make a water 

 bottle to reach from one side to the other, 

 and just 1 inch in diameter. It has a divis- 

 ion in the center, to make two bottles, so 

 that if any accident should happen to the or- 

 ifice of one, the other would still be open. 

 About i lb. of candy and } pint of water is 

 given to each section. 



A SECTION CAGE PROVISIONED AND WAT- 

 ERED FOB SHIPPING P.EES. 



You may wonder why we do not use a sec- 

 tion with honey in it, rather than to take so 

 much trouble to fasten in sugar and water. 

 Well, I do not think honey is as safe as su- 

 gar and water ; it is more trouble to fasten 

 it in the cages securely, and, most of all, it 

 takes a great amount of hunting to find sec- 

 tions with just enough honey, and not so 

 much as to cause it to break out and daub 

 the bees. The girls can fix the sections as 

 above, by the quantity, at much less ex- 

 pense, than to have somebody hunt over 

 hives and honey ; and the sugar and water 

 is quite a little cheaper. One of these cages 

 with a wire cloth cap on each side will hold 

 2 oz. of bees nicely. Two of them attached 

 by a wire cloth band, such as I showed you 

 last year, will hold i 11)., and the provision is 

 good for a couple of weeks. Three of them, 

 prepared in the same way, are good for 1 lb. 

 of bees, and this is the way we have been 

 sending them for some days past. 



HOW TO GET TnE BEES INTO THE CAGE. 



The difficulty in doing this by moving the 

 hive away, as I described last year, was 

 what made the boys drop the plan. I went 

 down into the tin shop and had a large 

 square tunnel made. It was as long as a liO 

 inch sheet would make it, and large enough 

 at the top, to take a frame of bees in easily 

 endwise. The bottom wasc 

 drawn up so it would go in- 

 to one of our 4ix4i sections. 

 I presume the tinners tho'tl 

 I was just making another 

 trap to be thrown away, and J 

 I confess I rather thought I 

 so too, I had made so many' 

 things I was sure would 

 work, but which, when tried, 

 would not do at all. Hur- 

 rah ! It did work, for Ern- 

 est came in with his cage 

 tilled so quick, that it did T ! r ^a bees m- 

 not seem he had hardly time to'a cage. 

 to open a hive. The bees just slide down the 

 sides of the smooth tin, and then cluster 

 against the sides of the wire cloth, without 

 trying to get out at all. If you get in too 

 many, as we often do, they have to be sha- 

 ken to make them fly out until the finger of 

 the "Favorite Scale 1 ' shows exactly a pound. 

 The queen is caged as soon as the hive is 

 opened, or is held by an assistant, and then 

 put in the last thing, that there may be no 

 mistake. 



INSERTING OUEEN CELLS. 



We had a great number of queen cells to 

 be put into hives, and but a little time in 

 which to do it. I could only be spared out- 

 doors, a half hour, and all the help I had 

 was almost entirely inexperienced in such 

 work. The queenless hives were marked by 

 laying the slates on the top of the hives. I 

 took the box of cells and a smoker, raised 

 the cover and mat of a hive, moved two of 

 the combs that contained brood a little 

 apart, and, with my first and second linger, 

 lowered the cell down right between the 

 two Avails of brood, while, with the other 

 hand, I moved the combs up so as to press 

 the cell just enough to hold it, being partic- 

 ular to have the brood that was attached to 



