1885 



(JLEANINGS IN 15EE CULTrUE. 



It was one of your Simplicity hives, which by some 

 accidental oversig-ht in the fall 1 had placed 

 squarely on the bottom-board, so as to leave abso- 

 lutely no ventilation. .Were they living- or suffo- 

 cated? I first " hefted" it by lifting- it bodily, bot- 

 tom-board and all. Pretty weig-hty. Then I lifted 

 the hive from the bottom-board, and out the bees 

 rushed instanter by hundreds from their confine- 

 ment of three and a quarter months— the liveliest 

 lot in the whole apiary I This may be a fact of some 

 interest to you in your discussion about "winter 

 ventilation." At any rate, I place it at the service 

 of yourself and your bee-friends. I may add, that 

 the oil-cloth cover was tightly on, on top. 



J. K. Edwards. 

 Washington, D. C, March 20, 1885. 



rrieiid E., the above looks a little like a 

 "clincher," but I do not think it is quite, 

 for Simplicity hives as a rule have cracks 

 enough to give about all the ventilation a 

 colony would ordinarily need in winter. 

 But it proves one thing, however, that our 

 fastening bees in tlieir hives is not always 

 detrimental. Accidents of this kind have a 

 great many times demonstrated that bees 

 often do live, in spite of carelessness, and in 

 spite of a kind of treatment (cnaineled cloth 

 sealed down tight for instance) tiiat our bee- 

 books would most of them pronounce •" sure 

 death." 



THE DISPLAY OF HONEY AT KEW OHLEANS. 



I don't think you are doing- your .subscribers just- 

 ice by not giving- us a report of the honey show at 

 New Orleans. I for one have been waiting jjatient- 

 ly for the report. 1 think it would interest ijiost 

 bee-keepers more than the harang-ue about the Hed- 

 don hive and llxtures that lew practical bee-keepers 

 would use. I don't know of what use a bee-journal 

 is if it don't g-ive a report of such lairs as the Orleans 



show. I.l-KK S.NOW. 



Laniai-, liartoii Co., Mo., April 1. 1^^5. 



Friend S.. altliougli there werf a great 

 many line displays at New Orleans, 1 do 

 not tliink among "tiiem all was any ecjual to 

 some we have had at our different fairs. 

 The exhibition at Toronto, for instance, was 

 ahead of any tiling I saw at New Orleans. 

 Most of the States made an exhibit of honey 

 as well as other products, and some of them 

 were very line, but probabh not nearly as 

 tine as one singly Miight have been liiade 

 had the Stales air united in getting it up. 

 The exhibits were most of them much like 

 what we have had at our fairs and exposi- 

 tions, and therefore I do not see that it calleil 

 for any i)arti(*ular comment. 



CALIFORNIA HONEY AND EASTERN HONEY. 



1 have just noticed in Gleanings the result of 

 your experiments with the hydrometer on ditferent 

 kinds of honey. You say that the California sage 

 honey is not as thick as the eastern white-clover 

 honey, and that a gallon of the latter will weigh 

 more than a gallon of the former. Now, I think 

 that you are a little "off," somewhere. If I mis- 

 take not, you always count your eastern honey at 

 11 lbs. to the gallon, while our California hone.v will 

 weigh a little over 13 lbs. to the gallon ; that is, a 5- 

 gallou can when full will weigh from U;2 to 05 lbs., 

 never less than 60 lbs. W. W. Bliss. 



Duarte, Cal., March l(i, 1S8.5. 



Friend B., I admit that the California hon- 



ey was the thickest, and I expected the hy- 

 drometer to rise up higher in it, but it did 

 not do so. The only conclusion I could 

 come to was. that the specimen of clover 

 honey tried alongside of it was remarkably 

 heavy; there were " a good many ounces to 

 the pound," as the saying is. I will make 

 some further tests with the hydrometer, and 

 report. 



WHAT TO DO WITH HIVES FULL OF COMBS AND 

 HONEY, WHERE THE BEES HAVE DIED, ETC. 



I have been trylngrto raisje bees and make honey 

 several years, but have had bad luck, and get but 

 little honey. Last year and the one before I had 

 over 30 stands and they do not make as much honey 

 as I can eat, and now I have only 16 left. I should 

 like to know how to manage the old hives that have 

 had bees to die in, so when they begin to swarm I 

 can hive them. John M. Eldridge. 



Huntsville. Ala., March IT, 1885. 



Friend E., put some more bees into your 

 hives, by all means. You can wait until new 

 swarms come out, and hive them on the 

 empty combs if you choose; l)ut I think a 

 better way would be to divide a strong col- 

 ony before swarming, and work those emp- 

 ty combs in. 



foul brood w.\nted. 



I am just in receipt of a letter from Frank Che- 

 shire, of London, Eng., whose investigations in foul 

 brood are well known and valued by the bee frater- 

 nity, in which he says: " I shall regard a little piece 

 of comb containing the remains of larv.p dead of 

 foul brood as a great actpiisition, since it would en- 

 able me to determine the identity or otherwise of 

 the bachillus on the two sides of the Atlantic." Will 

 you kindly give this publicity in your valuable jour- 

 nal, so that anj' brother bee-keeper having foul 

 brood may aid in valuable researches by mailing as 

 reciuested':' His correct address is, Frank Cheshire, 

 Avenue House, Acton, London, England. Any one 

 mailing will be kind enough to pack securely in 

 wadding, inclosed in a wooden bo.\, so that the sam- 

 ples will not be useless when they reach London. 



Philadelphia, Mar. 23, 1885. Arthur Todd. 



We i>resnme some of our readers will be 

 able to accommodate friend Cheshire. As a 

 rule, however, I object to foul brood being 

 sent around l)y mail promiscuously ; but it 

 may be all riglit in this case. At oiie of our 

 conventions. Prof. Cook made the remark 

 that it any professional man wished to make 

 exiterimcnts with it he had better go where 

 it was already, insteatl of liaving bet s ship- 

 ped to him ; out I believe he referred i)rinci- 

 l)ally to sending an infected colony away for 



experiment. 



de.\th fro.m a bee-sting. 



I remember reading in Gle.\nings some time 

 ago what S. A. Dyke said about bee-stings, and 

 1 think that his advice to use veils is very good, 

 as a Mr. W. T. Burns, living on West Prairie, Trem- 

 peleau Co., while taking: the honey from a hive 

 of bees, on the 13th of last August, was stung- 

 in one eye, was taken with convulsions, and he 

 died in half an hour. An instance of the kind 

 may not occur again, and then it niaj^ — wo do 

 not know; and to keep on the sale side is com- 

 mendable to every one handling bees. 



Tomah, Wis., Mar. 20, 1885. L. S. Griggs. 



Friend (t., this is sad news indeed, and it 



