1885 



GLEANIKGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



5)7 



scorpion, have you, friend B.?— I am glad to 

 knowtliat your little bees behave themselves 

 in accordance with tlie rules laid down in the 

 ABCbook. Tell ^s'ellie I tliink she must 

 be right, and that the little bees have got 

 hold of the ideas in the A B C and (Clean- 

 ings, even if they have not really read them, 

 only that they had these ideas before ever 

 the A B C book did. You pay me a compli- 

 ment, Xellie ; don't you see itV God gave 

 the bees this instinct, and the instinct away 

 over in Burmali seems to be about the same 

 as witli the bees here; therefore when I de- 

 voted those weeks and montlis to studying 

 the habits of these little friends. I mapped 

 (unconsciously) just the way they would be- 

 have under special treatment ovei- there. 

 We should like to know liow nuicii honey 

 you get. 



ua ■ 1^ 



COMPLICATIONS IN BUSINESS TRANS- 

 ACTIONS. 



HOW .MTCH HONKV SHOUf-U NEIGHBOK S. <!1VK FOU 

 11 COLONIES OF BEES IN BOX UIVESV 



■JTr NEIGHBOK has eleven good swarms of bees 

 qfl^, in high box hives. He is sick of bees, and 

 1^ wants to know how much honey I will give 

 ■*-'^-^ him for them (the honey to come from next 

 year's crop). As I use the Simplicity hive, 

 I shall have to transfer them all, and work over the 

 box hives into Simplicity hives. Now, how much 

 honey can I give him per swarm? This is^a fair 

 honey section, but few bees kept here, all in box 

 hives. 



I am an A 1! (' scholar, and practiced on three 

 swarms last summer. I got ",7 lbs. comb honey 

 from a swarm put in June 12; 2.5 lbs. from each of 

 two more put in June 26th and 28th, besides all are 

 very heavy with honey for winter. I have them all 

 in the cellar. .l.w S. Seei.y. 



Sodus Point, Wayne Co.. X. V.. .Ian. 12, KSS.'). 



Friend S., you will, if yon take my advice, 

 instead of saying }i<>'inj. say iikdu'i/: and if 

 you can possibly manage it. I would" pay the 

 cash down for llie luvos, and take iliem 

 home. Trades and swaps like the al)ove, or 

 sometimes a great deal more comj)licated, 

 have been the means of making more ([lutr- 

 rels than almost any otiier one thing: 

 whereas, liad it been a simple purchase 

 there would iiave been no room for misun- 

 derstanding and hard feelings. Almost 

 every day 1 hear of some cpiarrels or jangles 

 that come about l)y coniiilicated business 

 transactions, when it might just as well as 

 not have l)een a. simitle pin-chase. Perhai)s 

 you have not got tlie money to pny. In tliat 

 case, without knowing you or yoiu' neighbor, 

 I should almost feel like saying, don"t buy 

 the bees until you have the means to pay 

 cash down. If you want the bees very bad- 

 ly, you can rake and scrape uj) the money to 

 pay for them in a few weeks, in all probabil- 

 ity, before you will be ready to make any 

 use of them. Probably you" will get some 

 honey from the bees next year, yet a good 

 many bee-keepers carry eleven (colonies or 

 more through the whole season, without 

 getting a pound of honey. I do not believe 

 there is any need of so doing, in scarcely any 

 locality, yet such things arereported. as yoii 

 will see i)y Reports Discouraging. Now, if 



you want to make the sale conditional, I 

 ' would give your neighbor a note for the 

 j bees, something like this : 

 j ''Oct. 1, 188o.— I promise to pay John 

 Smith S30.00 for eleven swarms of bees now 

 ! in my possession, providing I get honey 

 I enough from them to be worth the abov"e 

 i sum. Jf I do not get the above amount of 

 1 honey, what honey f do get 1 receive as pav 

 j for the care of the bees, and the bees are 

 considered his i)roperty as in the start."" 

 ! Now, even though the above is a pretty 

 long lingo, there will be a good many 

 I chances for misunderstanding and hard feel- 

 ings as it is. Jt is a fuss and bother too. 

 Even if you get the agreement in black and 

 white, sometimes so simple a thing as punc- 

 tuation will leave a chance for a wrangle. I 

 would not do it. Pay cash down for what 

 you want to buy. (u- charge it on a book and 

 show it to your neighbor, and ask him if the 

 charge is right, or give him a note in the 

 I usual way. Jesus once said, "' Let your 

 I communication be yea. yea ; nay, nav ; for 

 whatsoever is more than these "cometh of 

 evil."' Now. if we make our trades and 

 swappings in the same way. wouldn't it be 

 a very great escape from '••evil""':' You feel 

 ; happier, your neighbor feels happier, and all 

 t the world looks liappier to you when you 

 pay cash down for what you want, or else 

 •'don"t do it." One nioie idea. I liave 

 i thought that unprincipled men sometimes 

 purposely entered into complicated bargains 

 with a view of having convenient avenues to 

 slip out of what was plainly understood at 

 the time as a bargain. Our short-hand 

 writer suggests that some tishes sometimes 

 roil the water on puipose to make a cover 

 for escape. 



SOME PLEASANT 'WORDS IN REGARD 

 ^O FLORIDA. 



HOW TO I>1{EI'.\11E BEES SO TIl.VT FOIU COLONIES 

 MAV BE (AUKIEIJ IN ONE HAND, I.IKE A VA- 

 LISE OK TRAVELING-TKUNK. 



0N the 2-tth day of November last I left my home 

 in Indiana for Florida. I did not stop any- 

 where until I arrived at this beautiful place, 

 i on the Halifax River. I have hesitated for 



some time to write to you and your readers, 

 I fearing that my first impressions might be too 

 i highly colored and misleading; but after six weeks 

 of close observation I find no cause to change them. 

 T have not been in any way disappointed by the let- 

 ters I have read of Florida, and I fully indorse the 

 1 statements made by friend Hart, of New Smyrna, 

 i which is only eighteen miles south from Daytona. 



I find the winter in Florida most delightful; the 



I air is pure and balmy: flowers are blooming, 



oranges and lemons are ripening, and the bees have 



gathered honey and jjollen almost every day since I 



have been here. 



I When I left liome I took four colonies of bees 



with me, and succeeded so well that I think it might 



benefit others to know how I managed them. I use 



! the Gallup frame. My hive is 12x12x18 inches long, 



inside measure, of very light and thin lumber. 1 



made four boxes like my hive, only fi inches long, 



across the bottom of which I fastened two pieces 



with notches cut into them to hold two frames se- 



I cure in place. T then removed the hive T wished to 



