lS8.1 



cLeantngs tn bee culture. 



•m 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS, 



WHAT ARE THE NEW HONEY-BOARDS FOR? 



fOU said in your i-eport of the Mich. State Con- 

 vention, that j'ou had never before fully de- 

 cided in your own mind what the honey- 

 board was for. Will you or some correspon- 

 dent please tell me what it is for in making- 

 comb honey, as I have not yet found out to my sat- 

 isfaction? A. S. Vail. 

 Michigan City, Ind., Feb. 18, 18-5. 



Why, friend V., bless your Iieart, didn't I 

 say tiie lioney-board was for the express 

 purpose of preventing tlie bees from waxing 

 the sections and section-case fast to tlie 

 frames, and for no otlier purpose tliat I 

 could tellV The Ilntcliinson honey-board 

 "strains out tlie drones;'" but Ileddon's is 

 only that we may have things loose when 

 we want to pick tliem up. It is a little 

 queer, that neither friends Ileddon nor 

 Hutchinson told just why they did want a 

 honey-board until after it had been talked 

 about for some time. 



SAD NEWS FRO.M OUR NEIGHBOR VIAI.LOX. 



On my return home Saturday morning I found 

 every thing working nicely; but at 11 o'clock at 

 night I was awakened to see my factory on fire; 

 and before any help could be given, the whole was 

 blazing furiously, Jind the ne.xt morning there were 

 but ashes aud melted iron, etc., left. It is^a total 

 loss of over 3030 dollars, having no insurance— our 

 insurance companies declining to insure saw-mills. 

 1 will rebuild at once, but it will be at least three 

 weeks before I can fill orders, aS I intend to build a 

 fi-amc building so as to be at work as soon as possi- 

 ble. P. L. VlALI-ON. 



IJayou Goula, La., March 3, 1883. 



Well, friend ^^, if you were unable to get 

 insured, it is a rather" sad affair, certainly. I 

 presume you would, of coarse, have no troub- 

 le in effecting insurance if you had a brick 

 building. \''ery likely another wooden build- 

 ing will be the thing for you to start up with 

 tins season, but I would assuredly start 

 about it as soon as the rush is over, getting 

 my machinery in some sirt of a building 

 that can be insured, and then T would have 

 it insured, or stoj) business. Of course, one 

 may do his own insuring when he has the 

 means at hand to rebuild as fast as lie burns 

 down; and where the insurance comi)anies 

 charge excessive rates this might be the best 

 thing to do, where one has this extra capital. 

 As a rule, however, it is a pretty hard mat- 

 ter to start in business again without any in- 

 surance ; or, at least, it greatly (•rii)i)les one 

 to be obliged to do so. In ycun- warm cli- 

 mate it seems to me your building might be 

 covered with sheet "iron, wiiich is not very 

 expensive, and is almost lireproof. Of 

 course, if you have very much bee-hive 

 material stored in your factory, that of itself 

 might ruin the building if it got afire. To 

 avoid this, I would have a warehouse far 

 eiiougli away so that it might l)urn without 

 endangering the factory, and then have a 

 suitable track and car to run the stuif back 

 and forth. That is the plan we adopt here. 



If you are located close by the railroad, the 

 whole thing can be managed without very 

 much additional labor in handling. One 

 thing is certain: Supply-dealers can not 

 afford to burn up very many times without 

 insurance. — As the above letter is dated 

 March 2, we presume friend A^'iallou is ready 

 to fill orders by this time as usual. I would 

 hope that the friends, in making out their 

 orders, will remember that the best way in 

 the world to show one's sympathy for a suf- 

 fering brother is to give him a little lift in 

 the way of patronage and the like. 



A REPORT IX REGARD TO FRIEND KAt.ER'S CARP- 

 POXD, ETC. 



Nearly five years ago I started into the bee-busi- 

 ness with one colony of Italian bees which I obtain- 

 ed from Chas. Dadant & Sons, and in October last I 

 put up 66 stands in chaff hives on summer stands. 

 Last fall I built a fish-pond which is about 140 feet 

 wide by 165 feet long, and an average depth of 6 

 feet. I bought 211 German carp of W. S. Kaler, 

 Andersonville, Ind., and stocked my pond. I have 

 seen Mr. K.'s pond, and it is a success without a 

 doubt. I see no reason why every farmer can not 

 have a pond and raise his own fish. J. W. Smith. 



Kock Lane, Ind., Feb. 16, 188.5. 



FEEDINC] BEES ON THE GOOD CANDV. 



The method of using granulated honey on top of 

 the frames, to feed bees, as suggested by friend 

 Fradenburg, 1 believe, will not work well if the col- 

 ony is small, or the quantity given at one time 

 large, or the weather very cold, as bad results will 

 certainly follow, aud loss result. A better and per- 

 fectly safe way is to take a piece of burlap or old 

 sacking, say a foot or ten inches square, and put 

 one, two, or three pounds of the granulated honey 

 on it, then fold over one part of it, covering the 

 honey completely, and flatten it down, then place 

 right over on the frames, then cover up snug and 

 warm. The bees will take the more liquid part 

 through the clotli, and then will cut through and re- 

 move the other, whicli greatly resembles a good 

 article of brown sugar. This is an excellent way lo 

 feed for spring stimulating. Try it, friends. 



Flanagan & Ii.linski. 



liellcville. 111., March U, 188.',. 



Thanks, friends F. & I.; but while reading 

 it, it occurs to me that Eangstrotli describes 

 exactly the same food, and advises wrapping 

 it in a clotli. See page 274, ■• Hive and Hon- 

 ey-Bee." 



MY FIRST WINTER WITH BEES. 



I have had a desire, from a boy, to workwith bees, 

 but never had a chance until last spring (1884), when 

 I bought three colonies and one of your ABC 

 books. The bees commenced the summer in good 

 shape, but I got too an.xious, and increased them to 

 9 by artificial swarming; aud the summer being a 

 very poor honey season I got no honey, and had to 

 feed syrup for them to winter on. They wintered 

 very well up to between the 15th and 20th of Feb., 

 when the mercury ran down to 20 and 22 degrees 

 below zero, and killed all my new swarms, leaving 

 me the three I started with in the spring. My ex- 

 perience is rather discouraging, but I have learned 

 that it is all-important to commence the winter 

 with good strong colonies. I have bought 5 more 



