1885 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



457 



Democratic Leader, we call upon you to cor- 

 rect the impression you have publicly given, 

 that all the strained honey seen in the mar- 

 ket is made of sour apple-cores and parings. 

 Come to think about it, it was only a year 

 ago that these same papers informed us "that 

 all the jelly used In the United States was 

 made entirely of old boots and shoes. What 

 jelly will be made of in ISHB remains to be 

 seen. 

 I 



BEES BY THE POUND. 



fY request of friend W. Z. Hutchinson 

 we copy the foUowhig from the Coun- 

 tr>i GviitlfiiKin of .Juno 11, 1885 : 



Kds. Cmnttry (iinlUmnn— You will, perhaps, 

 rcniR'iiiber that the wi-itcr mentioned, in a re- 

 eent urtii'lc that those who had lost their bees 

 might find it advisable to buy bees by the pound. 

 He foiio\ved the advice that he pave others, ;ind has 

 lately reeeived Irom Tennessee thirty-two [laekatres, 

 each coutainins' a queen and nearly three pounds 

 of bees. It may be ol' interest to tiee-Keepers to 

 know in what way they were put up for slii|)nient, 

 and how they were treated on arrival. 



The shippinR- eayes, or boxes, were 7'i inches 

 deep, 11 inches wide, and 1.")'; inches long'. The 

 sides were of half-ineli liiinlier, and the ends of 

 stuff not more tlian tlircc-si.xteenths of an inch in 

 thickness. <,tuite a puint is made of iiiakiim- Ihe 

 cages as lijrht as possil.li'. in orfler to sa\e cvpress 

 char{<es. The tops and liottonis of the eayes are of 

 wire cloth. The food for the bees to eat while on 

 their journey is prepared by mi-vins powdered su- 

 jrar with honey to the consistency of .a stiff dough. 

 At one end of each eatre. upon the inside, is si slant- 

 inff shelf, or rathei- trou«h, fornieil hv plaeinsj the 

 lower cdfire of a thin pii'ce ol' lM)ard. :i inches wide 

 and as lon<>' as inside width of the cave, avainst the j 

 end-board of the (tayc. This piecc> of board projects 

 inwarilly and upwardly, from t he end of t he ca^'c, 

 forming an an^Ie of l.'> . it beiny held in place b\- 

 cleats nailed to the sides of the cat!-e, the ends of the 

 V)oard rest iny- upon the cleats. It is in the trou;rh 

 formed by this board and the end of the eajre that 

 the food is placed. When e\-ery thinfr is in readi- 

 ness, the cajre is, of course, weijihed. and then bees 

 shaken from the combs into it. until it contains the 

 requisite aniouiM. In order to be certain that the 

 (lueen is in the cayc. it miylit be well to caire her 

 until the bees are all in, then pnt her in with them 

 and close up the caye ,it once. When Ihe ca^es are 

 all tilled with bees, two of the cajres ar<' placed side 

 by side, and stiips of thin board tacked across their 

 ends, thus fastening- them together and virtually 

 making;- one |)acl<ayc of two c.iycs. Neither does 

 the matter stop here, for one of these double ea>res 

 is placed foui- inches above aiintln r double cag:e, 

 and the two fastened together by upriylit iiieces of 

 lath nailed on at the corners and siiles. The lower 

 ends of the lath project four inches below the lower 

 double ca<;e. thus fornunjr leys to su|)poi-t the eajres 

 and keep them olf the tloor. Fastened to the up- 

 rlRht center side-pieces of lath, was a liyht rope 

 that passed o\er the top of the cajics. thus forminK- 

 a handle to lift and carry them by. t'pon the top 

 of each "nest" of cajres was the consifrnee's name 

 and address, a business card statinisr where they 

 were from, and a placard which read as follows: 

 "Living bees: keep this side up. Please handle 

 with csirc. and hecp out of till- !<un. Please sprinkle 

 with a little water daily, at noon." The bees were 

 three days in transit, and arrived in the best possi- 

 ble condition: in no cape were there more than .50 

 dead bees, and in some of them the bees had btiilt 

 comb, liquefied some of their food and stored it in 

 the comb; and in two instances, the queen had laid 

 in the eombl 



It was evening when the bees arrived, and the.v 

 were sprinkled with water, and left undisturbed 

 until morniny. when each swarm Avas found <iuietly 

 clustered in the to]) of its cage. The cages were so 

 carefull.v sejiaiated that the clusters of bees re- 

 mained unbroken. A hive for each cage of bees 

 had been previousl.y prepared by tilling it with 

 clean, dry combs; each outside comb, however, con- 

 tained a little honey. The wire cloth was carefully 



removed from the bottom of a cage, the cover re- 

 moved from a hive, and the cage set down upon the 

 frames. The cage did not of course cover the en- 

 tire top of the hive, and little pieces of boards and 

 strips of cloth were laid around the cage until the 

 top of the hive was covered. If any little cracks or 

 holes were left, they were stopped with damp earth. 

 The object of all these precautions in completely 

 covering the top of the hive was, that the bee's 

 might be compelled to pass down through the hive 

 and take their first flight from its entrance, for the 

 reason that, after its first flight in a new locality, a 

 bee will return to the rxart spot from whence it 

 flew; if it flew from the top of the hive, it will in- 

 sist upon going in at the top, and if it can not get in 

 at the top, it is some little time before it finds and 

 uses the lower entrance. When every thing was in 

 readiness, the hand was brought down with a 

 "spat" upon the wire-cloth covering of the cage, 

 which dislodged the bees and sent them down upon 

 the combs. A cover was then laid over the top of 

 the cage, that the bees might see no light e.vcept at 

 the entrance of the hive. They flew from the en- 

 trance right merrily. In some instances a comb of 

 brood was placed in the center of the hive before 

 putting the bees in ; and when it is possible to do so, 

 this plan is advisable; in fact, if there were strong 

 colonies in the apiary that could spare the brood, it 

 would be well to give three pounds of bees as many 

 as four combs of brood, as the bees can easily care 

 for it. The express charges were f 14. 



W. Z. Hl'tchinson. 

 It seems from the above that the cages 

 used for these 6 lbs. of bees were nearly as 

 large as the one-story hive. It has been our 

 custom, when so many as '6 lbs. were wanted 

 with a single queen, to put them into a 

 Simplicity hive, with a couple of combs 

 (wired, of course), containing the stores for 

 their use in transit. Of course, a cage made 

 expressly would be lighter; but when the 

 purchaser gets it, it is of no value to him. 



THE SOLAR WAX-EXTRACTOR, AGAIN. 



KKIE.ND COO.N TKI.hS US HOW TO IJSK IT. 



T SEE by what you say about the sun extractor 

 /■•^ that it don't .seem to bo a success out there, on 



■§'■ account of the sun not being hot enough. 



'*' Well, the way I make them I can melt out wa.\ 

 or honey, candied in the comb, with the ther- 

 mometer anywhere above HO, and strain the honey 

 and wa.v all at the same time. I make a bo.v 4 or 5 

 feet long by 10 inches wide on the bottom, and '20 

 wide on top; then for the top part I make a frame 

 the same size as top of bo.v, '.i or 4 inches deep, with 

 saw-cuts run on the inside '« or ^., of an inch apart, 

 ;j of them, so that I can use 1, 2, or 3 thicknesses of 

 glass, according to the heat of the sun, by sliding 

 glass 1^X20 into the saw-cuts. The box is lined with 

 tin, then part way between the glass and the bot- 

 tom I place a frame with wire cloth; on top of that 

 I put strsiiner cloth; on that my comb-scraps of 

 honey, candied honey in the comb, or any comb 

 honey not salable in the comb, and get pure clean 

 honey below, and the clean wa.\ on fop of the 

 honey, and have a faucet in the bottom to draw olT 

 the honey. I think a machine of that kind will 

 work well anywhere east, or wherever the sun 

 shines at all in the summer, and it saves lots of 

 work; for all you have to do when you have any 

 waste honey or comb is to put it in under the glass. 

 .\11 is tight, and you can draw off your honey when- 

 ever you have a mind to. Mine will hold about 2(X) 

 lbs. of honey before I have to draw it off. 

 LeMoore, Cat, June 6, isa'i. 0, E. Coon. 



