374 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Au<*. 



A "VISIT" FROM A LOUISIANA ABC 

 SCHOLAR. 



MR. A. I. ROOT:— I think it was in April No. of 

 Gleanings that you told us, when we did 

 not want our letters published we might 

 make them as long- as we liked. Now, I don't know 

 how long I shall make my letter, but I am certain 

 that if I had you cornered up in a tight room, I could 

 talk you nearly to death. Before I left Saginaw 

 City, Mich., for this place, I lived near a friend to 

 whom I wrote that I was going to keep bees. In his 

 answer, he told me that he would make me a pres- 

 ent of Gleanings for one year, as he thought I 

 could not get along without it, and also advised me 

 to send for the ABC book. Well, Gleanings comes 

 promptly every montn. I sent for a Simplicity smo- 

 ker and A B C, both of which came all right, and 

 without which I should have been sadly behind 

 where I am now. I never owned a hive of bees be- 

 fore, and started out with 30 box hives. The mice 

 destroyed one, and I now have 59. Oh, what a time 

 I have had! I have taken swarms out of trees fifty 

 feet high. (By the way, when you see friend N. N. 

 Shepherd, please tell him that I owe him something 

 for his idea of the swarming box. It is a fine thing.) 

 When 12 swarms came out at once and clustered, 10 

 of them in one bunch, didn't it make things lively 

 for the " boy "? But I saved them,— every bee. 



I think, sir, that you are doing a great deal of 

 good, both in teaching us how to keep bees and also 

 in teaching us how to live. Oh! you don't know how 

 glad I was when I got my first copy of Gleanings 

 and saw that it contained such matter as Our Homes. 

 All things considered, I think I am getting along 

 pretty well, but, like others, I have done a great 

 many wrong things. 



mistakes of beginners. 



Like one of your correspondents, I put my first 

 frames in so that the bees made the comb from cor- 

 ner to corner, and many other like foolish things; 

 but what did I know about comb-guides and such? 

 If I had had to feed my bees, I am pretty sure I 

 should have done as my companion in ignorance 

 did. I mean the one you told of who poured the hot 

 candy into the cells of the comb. I reckon there 

 are many such things happening that the perpetra- 

 tors never tell of. I know a man in Michigan who 

 sent to you for an Italian quean, went and put her 

 in the hive of blacks, and, of course, the queen 

 "died." The second and third one "died" also. 

 (You see he was persistent). At last, by the time the 

 fourth arrived, he bad learned that there was a for- 

 mal introduction required. Why not send with each 

 queen a small leaf of instructions how to introduce 

 them,— something like the instructions you send for 

 using a smoker? A "basswood" man would know 

 how to use a smoker as soon as he saw it; but my 

 friend would have been putting queens into that 

 hive till the present time, providing your stock held 

 out, if he had not fortunately learned that there 

 is a way to do it. Well, we will all try to improve 

 and help one another. 



I suppose I shall have a big time extracting when 

 my extractor comes. I have 20 box hives and gums 

 that I want to extract and transfer, besides my 

 hives with the frames fast, and if you did not send a 

 machine to extract pieces of comb, I wish you would 

 send one. 



DEEP OK SHALLOW FRAMES FOR " WARM CLIMATES." 



I use a hive made Simplicity fashion, but use the 

 American frame. People told me it was better for a 

 " warm climate." Since I have got too far along to 

 change just now, I have seen others who use a frame 

 the same length as L. frame, but only 7 inches deep, 

 because it is better for a " warm climate." 



I think I have 30 lbs. of wax now, but my wife is 

 sick, and my little cotton field, with my cows and 

 bees and housework, keeps me pretty busy, and I 

 have not got it melted up, except 10 lbs. which I got 

 out of a tree in the woods (pretty good yield, I 

 think). I have 3 more trees to cut. I wanted to 

 save my wax and have it made into fdn., but I shall 

 never be able to make my hives and frames without 

 a little buzz-saw, and I will get along without fdn. 

 this summer by putting one empty frame between 

 two combs. 



NEED OF AN INDEX. 



Now about that index in Gleanings: I need it 

 very much. For instance, when my 10 swarms were 

 in a bunch I was short of hives; so I took a pork 

 barrel that had one head out, knocked out the oth- 

 er, covered it with a board, took a six-quart milk- 

 pan and carried it five times full of bees, put them 

 into the barrel (having first caged a rescued queen 

 and put in), then fastened it up so that not a bee 

 could get out, and kept them closed for 20 hours. 

 When I opened it they had gone to wprk, and now 

 have nearly a barrel lull of comb. Now, when I put 

 them in there I only intended to keep them there 

 until I could have time to think. I did not know 

 what I should do with them, but I remembered hav- 

 ing seen the question in Gleanings, "What shall I 

 do with a barrel of bees?" and rested quietly in the 

 faith that everything would be explained there. 

 Well, how do you suppose I ever would have found 

 it without the index? I found it, but, lo and behold! 

 there was no information for me. Nevermind; I'll 

 work it out some way, and, in the mean time, give 

 us the index, and at the end of the year give us the 

 contents of the volume, and send us your bill. 



Please tell the readers of your ABC book how to 

 have the bees make straight comb without fdn., and 

 it will call down blessings on you. I bless you for it, 

 even though it came to me in a late number of 

 Gleanings, after I had the frames of a dozen hives 

 all fastened in tight, so that I shall have them to 

 transfer. 



" Get stung much?" O " scissors " ! 



The first swarm I had was a double one (two clus- 

 tered in one bunch). I had just got ray book, and 

 had not read much— just enough to find out that Mr. 

 Root does not consider veils of much use, or at least 

 not a necessity; and, as I can only afford necessities, 

 I went for my two swarms, and, dear, dear! as quick 

 as I stooped to place my hives, 700 of them (as nearly 

 as I could guess by the pain) took me all over the 

 face, neck, and hands. I thought, just for a mo- 

 ment, that if I only just had Mr. A. I. Root there, and 

 could see to get hold of him, and hold him right oyer 

 those swarms, I would be willing to suffer with him. 

 But the bees were hived, and hived without veil or 

 gloves (my bees are all common), and I agree with 

 you, that if a man has neither veil nor gloves, he 

 will soon learn that he does not need them. 



SETTING A SIMPLICITY UPPER STORY OVER BOX 

 HIVES. 



Don't get mad now. Here cotnes another: Several 

 times you have told us that we could set our new 



