458 



GLEANINGS IN liEE CULTURE. 



July 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELD! 



WHAT TO DO WITH THE COVEH OF A HIVE WHILE 

 THE HIVE IS Ol'EN. 



IN Gleanings for April 1, page :i33, 1 find an ar- 

 ticle from Dr. C. C. Miller, on the trouble of ro- 

 l moving heavy covers, when feeding; so 1 will 

 tell you how I do it. My covers arc made of '« 

 stuff, 8 inches deep; the top is of one piece. 

 They rest on a ledge IVi wide, '■: inch from the top 

 of the hive. I'ut a small nail or screw near the mid- 

 dle of the lower edge of the cap, and another below 

 it in the ledge. Attach a twine to each nail, just 

 long enough to hold the cover in place when it is 

 raised, like an open trunk, and the work is done. 

 If your ledge is not wide enough for the top to rest 

 on, a couple of nails will answer. Now with the 

 coffee-boiler of feed in one hand, raise the cover 

 with the other, put in the feed, and close it, and the 

 work is done without lifting the cap off. No covers 

 to blow oft'; no hinges nor hooks, no springs nor 

 clamps, but two small nails and two feet of twine, 

 which can be attached to the screw-head by a little 

 loop, so it can be easily taken off. 



J. L. WOLCOTT. 



Hloomington, 111., April 23, 1885. 



In the above arrangement the string is 

 made of such a length as to permit the cover 

 to tip over baclc. just far enough to stand 

 safely, or, as our friend says, like the lid of 

 a trunk. One objection I should have to it 

 is, that the string would be right in the way 

 for manipulations of many kinds. A string 

 at each end of the cover, exactly as covers 

 to trunks are fixed, would obviate this, l>ut 

 it would be more complicated. For many 

 years, hive-covers have been made so as to 

 open in this way. or similar ways. When 

 we iirst made the Simplicity hives, the cov- 

 ers were hinged on. .Vs it afterward became 

 evident that" many times the covers were an 

 inconvenience when thus liinged. we made a 

 hinge so they would slip off. Then it be- 

 came necessary to have the attachment so 

 made that any cover could be (luickly at- 

 tached to any liive. 15ut this was found to 

 be a mattei- so ditlicult to manage that hinges 

 Avere a))andone(] entirely. \\'here a stake is 

 put on the south side of a liive on which to 

 train a grapevine, the covei- may be tilted 

 back against this stake, and I like this jilan 

 better than strings. Some apiarists while 

 examining a iiive use tlie cover for a seat, 

 standing it on end. Otliers lean tlie cover 

 against tlic liive. I lielieve that, as a rule, 

 tliough, most of our friends lind any sort of 

 a string or wire or similar attachnieiit ratlier 

 a hindrance than an aid. 



INVKSTI.Nfi S~00 IN A CAHe-l'O.M), i;t( . 



I hn\e just received Cleamncs lor this date; 

 and if I were in a joking mood, 1 should feel like 

 joking you concerning your cai-|) items. Kight 

 here I wisli to thank .\ou for the explanation con- 

 cerning the annoying delay. What I would joke 

 you about are tin- strange sentiments e.vpressed in 

 the reply to Mr. Uest, though I think you intended 

 to have the same apply to iiis particular case. Of 

 course, there ctnild l)e no need of his spending »20;) 

 on a cari)-pond 70 feet stiuare, probat)ly not ' i of that 

 sum. Vou make n \ery wild remark, however, 



when you say you would not advise " anybody " to 

 make a pond, etc. Again, you speak of receiving a 

 specimen of German carp. The.A B C will inform 

 your readers that the only German carp in this 

 country are the very few in the Government ponds 

 at Washington. Your carp are no more German 

 than I am a Frenchman, simply because I have 

 traced my lineage to France. You make a grave 

 mistake by /ccrtui(/ your carp, it you have a supply 

 of water-i)lants in your pond. 



Mii/roN P. Peiiue. 

 Philadelphia, Pa., June 1. ISt'S. 



I Friend I'., what I meant by not advising 

 anybody to make a carp-pond just now, witli 

 i the idea of making money by it, was, that I 

 i hated to see young friends "just starting in 

 life, perhaps in cramped circumstances, 

 going into these new industries with the 

 idea of getting tlieir money back in a short 

 space of time. Of course, where carp is 

 sold to stock other ponds, a very prolitablc 

 business may be done ; but what 1 had in 

 view was the idea of putting carp on our 

 markets for food. 1 would hot advise any- 

 body to go into it unless the party had money 

 to spare so that lie would be well able to 

 stand a failure, and I would say the same in 

 regard to many other industries — even bee 

 culture. If yoiti- means are limited, do not 

 invest very heavily to start with.— In regard 

 to the carp we have, they call them German 

 carp at the State hatchery, and I think they 

 are real pretty, no matter what you cail 

 them. 



CANDIED HONEY IN THE COMBS. 



A neighbor of mine lost 43 out of 45 stocks of bees 

 in American hives. There is .500 or 600 lbs. of honey, 

 I judge, in the frames. He has the hives cleaned 

 out, all dead bees brushed away, and empty combs 

 cut away. I think the honey will not taste of any 

 thing confined in the hives. I examined some to- 

 day, and found some combs with the honey can- 

 died, especially those a little arjed. Now he wants 

 me to e.xtract or get the honey out in salalile shape, 

 offering me one-half the honey for my troul)lc. I 



j simply want to know my best plan to accomplish it 

 and get it in marketable shape. Can the thick and 



j candied honey be thiiuied to extract? 



I Nevada, Ohio, June 11, 1885. Wm. M. Vocno. 



It is a pretty hard matter lo get candied 

 honey out of combs. If it is not warm 

 enougii so the extractor will thi-ow it out 

 during some of our hottest summer (hiys, I 

 i do not know liow you can arrange it. If it 

 ' was ill your si/.ed frames. 1 recommend it 

 to rear brood. I am afraid the honey will 

 not have a veiy good llavor any way .\(>u can 

 manage it. See next page. 



CAl.lKon.MA AT THE I'KESENT DATi:. 



The meeting ol tlie Central CaliCornia Hoe-Keep- 

 ' ei-s' association came otf in due coui-sc ai Hanlord. 

 I as ad\ci-tised in Gi.eani.scs; but the bee men all 

 ■ hail long faces till alter dinner, when they looked 

 better. Me<>s are in a state of semi-starvation, get- 

 ting barel.x enougli to live on— the first time such a 

 state of affairs has been known here. The reason 

 is, no flowers. The grasshoppers are taking all the 

 alfalfa bloom before it comes out; and our only 

 chance for natural suj)plies for ne.xt winter seems 

 to be what nniy come after the hoppers have died. 

 Tlieie is good hope yet. My bees ha\c gone from 



