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GLEANINGS 1:N' BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



this scarcity of houey'" I was not bothered with 

 honey-flew. 



The aggregate result of the year's work is an in- 

 crease from 39 to 63 stands, which I reduced to 50; 

 about 10 lbs. of comb honey per stand, spring count, 

 and about l^'O lbs. extracted honey. As a rule I 

 have obtained a little better price this year than last. 

 Sixteen cents per pound is the price I got in Spring- 

 field. A very poor season altogether. 



HOW I TELL WHKN SECTIONS AKE FILLED. 



Simply look and see. I use the L. hive. The cap 

 rests on cleats nailed on to the sides and ends of the 

 brood-chamber. I fix the rack, cases, or frames, as 

 the case may be, on top of the brood-chamber, and 

 put glass on one or both sides of the section ar- 

 rangement. I have nothing to do then but lift off 

 the cap and look. No surplus arrangement is satis- 

 factory to me without this feature. You can tell 

 when sections are about full, by the editor's method 

 (page 661), but not when sealed over. I write this 

 for the benefit of W. Connally. 



WHAT TO DO WITH UNFINISHED SECTIONS. 



I have tried to get sections filled by feeding hon- 

 ey, but have not yet been able to make it pay. I 

 can make the unfinished sections pay for them- 

 selves much better. There is money in them, if we 

 do have to wait some time before we i-ealize it. 

 They are the cheapest and handiest bee-feeders I 

 have yet seen. We have only to set the box on the 

 alighting-board, or in the upper story, and the thing 

 is done. And these empty boxes of comb are splen- 

 did to tempt bees up into surplus boxes early in the 

 season. I am willing to have a thousand of them to 

 hold over till spring. 



Is chaff in cushions, w liich has become moldy, as 

 good an absorbent of moisture, and non-conductor 

 of heat, as that which is fresh? Should chaff in 

 such cushions be renewed every year? 



A grocer in Springfield tells me that California 

 honey always brings a higher price in the market 

 than any other. Is that so? (iEO. F. Kobbins. 



Mechanicsburg, Illinois. 



I suppose, friend 1?., this matter of throw- 

 ing away our old hives depends considera- 

 bly on what we are ^"oing to do with bees. 

 If one is going to rear (jueens, and work 

 for extracted lioney, I would transfer my 

 bees from the old hives at once, as soon as 

 the weatJier was suitable; but if you were go- 

 ing to work for comb honey, you can, witli- 

 out very much expense, arrange almost 

 any hive so as to take one of yo\ir regular 

 cases, and then practice tiering up.— I know 

 our price list is voluminous, and I have sev- 

 eral times not only threatened but attempt- 

 ed to cut it down by the omission of some 

 article not much called for ; but almost in- 

 variably there conies a wailing note from 

 soine brother who looked there for just thnt 

 thing or that ai raugcmont above all others, 

 and eventually 1 decided to put it back in 

 the list agaiii, as tlie lesser of two evils. 

 Another thing, when I take something out 

 of the price list not very much used, some- 

 body keeps inventing it, and writing us let- 

 ters with diagrams and long exi)lanations. 

 Now, you see by keeping the price list thus 

 voluminous it prevents the friends from 

 wasting time on something Uiat has already 

 been long in the market. In this way it 

 makes a sort of cyclopedia, as it were, of de- 

 vices and jmplej))ents tliat liave from time 



to time been found useful in the care of 

 bees. Since I have been interested in poul- 

 try I have looked in vain for a complete list 

 of the implements used by poultry-breeders. 

 Each one seems to go on his own hook, 

 knowing nothing about what handy tixings 

 his brothers may have. Another tiling, no 

 one makes it a business of making by nice 

 machinery, at a small price, things tliat are 

 now made laboriously at home. I have 

 looked the poidtry-books and poultry-papers 

 over to lind a convenient hen"s-nest, and can 

 not find any sort of one advertised. JS'ow, 

 some man with a factory might get up a 

 movable nest having all needful good quali- 

 ties, and, in fact, he might spend a year or 

 two investigating all the nests in use, and 

 he would tlieii !)(:■ better prepared than any 

 single individual to make wliat is wanted ; 

 and Willi ])r()i)er macliinery he could furnish 

 them at one-foiirlh of wliat it will cost an 

 average day laborer to make his own. Now, 

 if I am behind the times in this matter I 

 hope some lirother will straighten me out. 

 A very cheap and simple nest could be made 

 for a man of small means, and an elaborate, 

 fancy one for those having fine expensive 

 residences. — Vour ideas are good on unfin- 

 ished sections, friend R.; but is not nice 

 white honey, clover and linden, for instance, 

 rather expensive feed compared with the pres- 

 ent price of sugar V — I would not have moldy 

 chaff cushions at all. If they get damp, lay 

 them (m top of the hive till they get thor- 

 oughly dried out.— California honey will oft- 

 en bring a higher price than clover and lin- 

 den, when first introduced ; that is, where it 

 is a novelty; but after a while I think the 

 preference will be given to a nice article of 

 clover honey, although much would depend, 

 probably, oii the quality of the California 

 honev. 



FIXING A SMOKER SO IT WILL HANG 

 ON THE EDGE OF THE HIVE. 



A SlfifiESTri) I.MPHOVE.MENT liV IlilEM) EAS- 

 TERDAV. 



{THINK I have made an improvement in your 

 Clark's smoker, which very much increases its 

 usefulness. This improvement consists in so 

 ai-ranging it that it can hang on the npper edge 

 of the hive, with its nozzle pointing toward 

 the top of tlie frames. I have used one of a dift'er- 

 cnt kind for several years, which could be used in 

 this way, and I found it to be of great advantage; 

 especially was this so when handling cross bees, as 

 I could drive them back at the first sign of danger 

 by simply touching the bellows, without moving the 

 smoker; whereas if I had been compelled to pick 

 the smoker off' the ground, the bees would have 

 "got there" first. 



This is the way I fix the Clark smoker: I rivet a 

 small catch, or hook, to the lower side of the nozzle, 

 close to the end. Then I take a piece of stout wire, 

 about the size used for bucket-bails, 10' j inches 

 long; 4 inches from each end F bend it at right an- 

 gles, som(!what in the shape of the letter I'; then 3 

 inclies from the ends bend again in such a manner 

 that when the ends are fastened to the edges of one of 

 the bellows-boards the loop will stand down at nearly 

 right angles to the bottom of the bellows. This loop 

 is to bear agiiinst the side of the hive, while the 



