384 



GLEANINGS IN I3EE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



claim this as altogether my own invention. The 

 pepper-box cover, or bottom, tog-ether with the at- 

 mospheric pressure to keep the honey in place, is 

 old; but there are some things about it that are 

 new— or, at least, I have not seen them before. How- 

 ever, as far as I am concerned, there is no patent on 

 it, and I hope there never will be. For that reason I 

 sent one of them to the editor of Gleanings some 

 three months ago. He wrote me that he liked it, and 

 said he would illustrate it in his paper; but so far he 

 has not done it. I desire anybody to make or use 

 them who wish to. Our tinners here make them to 

 hold Wi lbs.; single, for 15c each, or $1.2") to $1.50 per 

 dqzen. I have fed over $:S000 lbs. of honey with 

 them ; have over 100 of them, and, for my use, it is 

 the best feeder that I have ever seen. I have had 

 them In use when the weather was freezing cold— in 

 fact, by spells down to zero, and the bees would 

 empty them if the honey did not get candied. 



To use this feeder, fill it; put on the cover, turn it 

 upside-down; put it over a hole in the honey-board, 

 or, with a two-story hive without honey-board, put it 

 on the frames, with an opportunity for the bees to 

 come up between the frames under the feeder; tuck 

 the quilts around the feeder; put on the top cover 

 of the hive, and let the bees work at it. A good 

 strong colony will usually empty a feeder in two 

 days, if the weather is mild. Some colonies that I 

 was feeding last fall had the feeders filled up in 

 November and left on all winter. When I looked 

 them over in March, almost all the feeders were 

 empty. A few had a little candied honey in them. 

 Now, I think 1 have done with this subject for the 

 present. If any one wants any further explanation, 

 .just say so. Ask any question you please, and I will 

 try to answer it. Edwin France. 



Platteville, Grant Co., Wis. 



The feeder was laid aside without illustra- 

 ting, friend F., because it is virtually our 

 regular pepper-box feeder, that we have ad- 

 vertised and sold for years past at 10c each, 

 or $1 .00 per dozen. Your improvement con- 

 sists in so making it, that it has a rim to 

 keep it up from the honey-board, and so 

 that, if the honey-board has but one hole un- 

 covered, no bees can get around the outside. 

 It is also, perhaps, a trifle handier for the 

 bees, when set over the frames. From the 

 illustration given above, I presume our 

 friends will have no trouble in making their 

 own, with the aid of our $1.00 soldering out- 

 fit. The tin hoop, that just slides over the 

 top of the quart can, has a "bead" run round 

 it, about midway from either side, and in 

 this a circle of tin is snapped. After being 

 securely soldered, it is pricked full of holes, 

 and this cover is then slipped on the can, so 

 the rough part of the holes is downward. 



HOW TO MAKE BEE-FEEDERS, ETC. 



Cut a 14x20 sheet of tin in four equal piec- 

 es, so that each piece will be 6x14. Roll it 

 up so as to lock the joint and make a cup 

 5 in. high. Two more sheets of tin will 

 make just 8 tops and bottoms for our 4 feed- 

 ers. At 7c per sheet, you will have 19c for 

 doing the work on uhe 4 feeders, if you sell 

 them at 10c each. You will need a tinner's 

 machine for turning up the bottoms, and for 

 running a bead where the perforated cover 

 is slipped in ; but you can make a very fair 

 feeder, without any other tools than a pair 



of snips and a set 

 of soldering imple- 

 ments if you art- 

 very anxious to do 

 the work all 1 your- 

 self. This feeder 

 will hold a little 

 over a quart, but 

 Ave call them quart 

 feeders. * When you 

 make tinware, al- 

 ways give your cus- 

 tomers full meas- 

 ure. By making 

 the feeders half as 

 high, you will have 

 a 5c feeder ; but as 

 you have got to 

 have just as many 

 covers, it is pretty 

 close work to make 

 the latter and make 

 a profit. The strips 

 francf/s pepper-bos that go round the 

 feeder. cover can be saved 



from the sheets that cut the round pieces. 

 By leaving out the holes, and making the 

 band to the cover half as wide, you will have 

 a quart pail. If you have not tools to lock 

 the joint, you can roll it round a cylinder of 

 wood, lap the edges, and solder. Slip out 

 the wood, and take another. We make all 

 of our honey-pails thus, for the covers fit 

 nicer. How many of my boys will start a 

 tin-shop this winter? Keep it neat and nice, 

 and you will enjoy it and make money too. 



A SUBSTITUTE FOB CHAFF HIVES FOB 

 WINTEBING. 



E (that is, my son William and myself) com- 

 menced one year ago last spring with three 

 colonies of bees, and with a little care and 

 managing we hnve now to go into winter-quarters 

 with 22. Just about a year ago we traded with one of 

 our neighbors for swarms about the time we put 

 them away for winter. And I want to tell you how 

 we did it, for the benefit of others who are asking 

 how they can winter their bees successfully, surely 

 and cheaply. I am not going to say this is the best 

 way, by any means; but I think it is a better way 

 than putting them in a damp cellar, or any cellar, 

 and, perhaps, next best thing to a chaff hive, and, in 

 a very cold latitude, a little better. I went to the 

 dry-goods stores and bought a lot of dry-goods 

 boxes— one for each hive, large enough to hold a 

 hive, with a space all around of about 4 or 5 inches. 

 I filled in the bottom with 3 or i inches of chaff; then 

 I took a hive, stopped the entrance at the bottom, 

 and bored a hole with a center-bit about 2 inches 

 from the bottom-board, in center of front of hive l' s 

 inches, and inserted a pine tube, made by boring a 

 ?i in. hole through a piece of pine plank about six 

 inches long, and also boring a hole to correspond, in 

 the box, and setting the hive in the box with the 

 tube, passing out through the hole in the box to give 

 the bees a free passage out and in at will, except, 

 perhaps, during a very warm time in winter at mid- 

 day, while there might be much snow on the ground, 

 and danger of snow-blindness, and bees alighting on 

 snow and becoming chilled. With that exception, 1 

 would leave the tube open after filling the rest of 



