168 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUllE. 



Mar. 



make any cliarge for it. It would lessen our | 

 labors a "little if you •vvonld send along an | 

 addressed postal' card, for I think a postal j 

 card Mill hold all I want to write on most of 

 the devices tliat come with every mail. If ! 

 yon think I liave passed over your invention [ 

 too hastily, and wish me to have a clerk ; 

 search the attic for what has been sent in in ! 

 the same line. I will do it for you, charging i 

 you what it costs me. I believe', liowever. my j 

 memory is pretty good : and Avhen an inven- ! 

 tion has once been placed in my hands, Avith j 

 an explanatory letter, I seldom if ever forget j 

 tlie i)riiicipal features pertaining to it. If j 

 you do not like my way of doing business, I 

 let me suggest tliat you quietly "trade at 

 souu' other sliop,"" without calling me names, 

 or accusing me of wanting to steal your 

 ideas. 



what we call whitewood. and we have long 

 since decided that whitewood is entirely 

 unfit for hive bodies, just because it shrinks 

 so as to spoil every thing. We have never 

 found any thing that answered like pine. 



ARRANGING THE HEDDON HIVE FOR 

 THE EXTRACTOR. 



SOMETIUXr, ABOUT THK KIX1> OF I.UMI3E1J TO USE 

 FOU HIVE BODIES. 



0r \l f liends Avill notice in the cut on page 

 s"). that there are strips clear around, 

 about one inch below the top of the 

 hive. I supposed these were intended 

 for an upper story to slip over, as in 

 the old Langstroth hive ; but to be sure, I 

 sent for an upper story, arranged as it is to 

 l)e used for extracting. It came, and with it 

 the following reply from friend Ileddon : 



Bru. Root:— The cleats around the upper edg-e of 

 the bi-ood-chainber arc designed to help the appear- 

 ance of the hive, and serve as handles to lift it by. 

 All upper stories (either comb or extracted) do 

 rest on the houey-board, and we object to any tele- 

 scoping about hives. James Heddon. 

 Dowag-iac, Mich., Feb. 12, 1885. 



Now, with the exception of these strips, 

 the upper story is exactly like the lower one ; 

 and if the bottoms were not permanent, they 

 could be used interchangeably, and one piece 

 of tlie hive coidd be dispensed with ; that is. 

 we make hive bodies, and that is all— no 

 upper or lower story about it. In packing 

 liives close together. "these strips are right in 

 the way. Hand-holes, like those we have in 

 the Simplicity hive, wotdd, it seems to me, 

 be just as convenient for handling.— One 

 thing more. Our Simjilicity hives which go 

 out by the thousands, and are scattered all 

 over the face of the eartli. almost, liavc been 

 criticised somewhat, but I believe every 

 Simplicity hive we have ever sent out can be 

 used interchangeably with every other one, 

 no matter if you get one from Australia, and 

 another from the Sandwich Islands. Well, 

 I sent to friend Ileddon for a liive for a sam- 

 ple. As he (lid not send an upper story, I 

 sent the second time for one. This upper 

 stoiy sits loosely right over the lower one. 

 When put in place, and frames removed 

 from tlie lower story, and put in above, the 

 bottoms of the upper frames touch the 

 tops of tlie lower ones. When placed with 

 the upper story on a honey-board, the bot- 

 toms of the frames toucli the honey-board. 

 1 suppose the lumber of which the upper 

 story is made shrunk, in seasoning, and I 

 presume it is moinJij because it was made of 



BEE CULTURE IN TENNESSEE. 



DITOilGLEANlNGS:-i)i all the reports and 

 correspondence in Gleanings, I sec but lit- 

 ' tie from this part of the South, so I will give 

 a little of my experience in bee culture. I 

 have been for about fifteen years a bee-keep- 

 er on a small scale, ranging from 10 to ~» colonies, 

 always making it a paying business, getting honey 

 enough to supply mi' family, and some to sell; and 

 recently fludiug myself unable to closely follow the 

 pursuits of the farm, and having a natural love for 

 bees, I bought 40 colonies on the 5th of May, 1884, 

 in the Langstroth hive, for which 1 paid !?200. This, 

 added to my 24 colonies, put me right in the midst 

 of 00 colonies at the commencement of the honey 

 season. So I went to work, and I suppose you 

 know how busy it keeps a fellow to keep it done 

 up in good ordei-. But after a few days of hard 

 work I had ;'(i30 lbs. of good po}>lar honey. In June 

 and the early i)art of July I got about lOOtllbs. of 

 linden honey. 1 sold all except 500 lbs., at 7 cts. 

 wholesale, so you see I got my money back and all 

 expenses paid, and some money left. 1 took only 

 about half my linden crop, and well it was; for now 

 it is needed in the combs to give to some colonies 

 that are nearly destitute. The linden crop was very 

 light, on account of excessive rains. 



Our pi-incipal fall crop here is gathered from a 

 weed known as wireweed, or tanglefoot. On ac- 

 count of drought it was an entire failure in li-84. 

 When the season suits, it yields an enormous crop 

 of honey, blooming from about Sept. 10, until 

 killed by the frost. This plant has been with us but 

 a few years, and has taken possession of nearly all 

 our waste and glady lands, I must mention here 

 that 1 was sick in October, when my bees needed 

 attention, after the failure of the fall crop, and had 

 five colonies to die for want of attention. I did not 

 allow vay bees to increase, having as many as 1 

 wanted, and no trade established for bees. 



I live in a fine country for bees, tbe northern por- 

 tion of Giles County, Tennessee, with but few bees 

 near me. I do not think there are more than fifty 

 colonies in a circle of four miles around me, and 

 they arc principally black. I am going to try to 

 Italianize them this year, in order to get rid of black 

 drones. The owners of these are generally men 

 who do not care, and most of them want an over- 

 coat and a bed-quilt over their heads before they 

 venture to open a hive, so you see I have none of 

 the advantages of social and friendly intercourse 

 with intelligent bee-keepers, that some have. 



I forgot to say, that the imported queen 1 got 

 from you through friend W. A. Compton, last Au- 

 gust, is doing well. Wc have had a severe winter 

 up to this time. The bees did not got to fly well in 

 the whole month of January. For two days past it 

 was pleasant, and nearly all the .VJ colonies took rye 

 meal freely. 



1 ran altogether for extracted honey; never used, 

 and, in fact, never saw any of the comb sections. I 

 shall probably have a carp-pond to talk about in the 

 future. J. N. Grigsbv. 



I.ynn\ille, Tennessee, Feb., 18S5. 



