1885 



GLEANINGS IN 13EE CULTURE, 



•533 



studs are eight ft. above ground floor, a roof made 

 of split red-oak sliiugles, one door on south side, 

 one ventilator through the roof and down through 

 the upper lloor, and then four feet thick filled up 

 all around with ground, a kind of stilT clay used in 

 this case, so as to keep the earth in place as fast as 

 the earth is filled in; a loose stone wall leans 

 toward the earth, which is built all around up to the 

 roof, on the upper floor (3 feet packed with forest- 

 loaves) put in from the gable ends, and the gables 

 l)oarded. Mr. Topell put in his bee-house, in 18S3-'8t, 

 ;JJ colonies; wintered them all. In 1881-'8o, (5!) colo- 

 nies 4 tiers high; lost only 4, and these were very 

 small ones. The hive contains 7 frames of his own 

 make, 8X1.3!4 inches. He lost these by sheer starv- 

 ation— too much e.vtracting. Now, my suggestion 

 would be for a man of more means to make the in- 

 ner hollow space of brick, and the outside wall laid 

 in mortar. A plate on this wall, and roof carried 

 over the whole concern, and a double door 4 ft. 

 apart on the south gable; such a building will last a 

 lifetime. My bees are doing well. 

 Milwaukee, Wis., July 10. IIudolph Bhown. 



UaOOD IN SECTIONS, AND ITS RELATION TO SI1.4.L- 

 LOW FllAMES. 



I inclose 27 cents forasami>le by mail of your 

 new perforated wooden honey-board. 1 had thought 

 of using perforated zinc, but it strikes me that this 

 vrooden honey-board may have more stability, and 

 be better every way. I need something of the kind 

 very much indeed, to keep fio queen out of the 

 sections. When I used a frame 10 inches deep in 

 the clear, it was very hard to get bees to work in 

 top bo.xes at all. Then I went to work and cut them 

 all down to.eight inches, and, whew! nine out of 

 every ten had brood of all kinds in the sections, in- 

 cluding lots of iiueen-cells. All this gave me lots of 

 trouble, and I am resolved to have no more of it. 



Lynn, Mass. I*. It. Fuee.mont. 



t'KEDINO ECiOS AND MIM<; ALSO SOME SUOfiESTIONS 

 IK)W TO MAKE ItEES DEFEND THE.MSELVES. 



Dzicr/on, on page 258 of his " Kational Bec-Keep- 

 ing," tells us something about egg and milk feed- 

 ing. I should like to know if it has luivn tried in 

 this country, and how it works; how much to feed, 

 and how to feed it. Woulil there be any sugar sav- 

 ed by feeding them? 1 wish you would tell all you 

 know about it, as there will be more than one poor 

 bee-keeper at his wit's end to know what to do in the 

 spring, after such a poor season as this has been. 

 We always have plenty of eg?vs and milk al)out that 

 time of y(>nr. 



I had (luile a time getting my l)ecs ready for win- 

 ter. 1 had to feed 600 lbs. of granulated sugar, and 

 they had robbing on the brain the worst I ever saw. 

 Feeding is the best thing I ever tried, to make bees 

 fight that won't defend their slores. Did you ever 

 try it? If you didn't, the ne.xt swarm you catch 

 (liatway, you try feeding them about one pint in 

 the tlve-cent feeder for about two nights. If they 

 don't spunk up, then stir them up the third morn- 

 ing, and leave the feeder in front of the hive a 

 while. They will boil out to defend their old dry 

 feeder when they won't defend their stores. After 

 they get to fighting, take the feeder away, and they 

 commonly keep their "dander" up. I worked sev^- 

 eral colonics that way last fall, and it never failed. 

 I packed my bees in L. hives, with division-board, 

 and forest leaves at the sides, and chaff cushions on 

 top. I wish 1 had the leaves out and chaff in tliQir 



place. I put them in when they were dry and brit- 

 tle, and packed them in tolerably tight, and they 

 drew dampness enough to make them swell and 

 push the boards in some. B. T. Baldwin, 25—13. 

 Marion, Grant Co., Ind. 



SOME EXPERIMENTS IN WAX. 



As the question comes up a good many times 

 among our bee journals and bee-keepers, as to the 

 amount of wax contained in old combs, I will give 

 you my experience in this matter. In my first lot I 

 had 7 lbs. of comb, in about half of which brood had 

 been reared once only. This yielded 5 lbs. of pretty 

 white wax. In my second lot I had ;jj lbs. of combs, 

 all ages, from one to five years old; this yielded mo 

 13 lbs. of nice clear yellow wax. In the third lot I 

 had 17 lbs. of combs, old and dark, all of it; some of 

 it I knew to be ten j-cars old, an 1 none less than 

 two years old, and very little of it but that was six 

 and seven years old. This yielded 4 lbs. of dark 

 yellow wax. 



From this it may be seen that now combs are al- 

 most or quite all pure wax; ombs three or four 

 years old contain about two-fifths wax, while combs 

 six and seven years old only about one fourth or 

 less of wax. 



To cut up sheets of wax or foundation, use a 

 buleher-knlfe, as you advise (sharp), and keep it 

 wiped on a rag saturated with kerosene oil. This 

 does not injure your fdn. in the least. In this way 

 I cut fin. easily, thirty to forty sheets hig'h, clear 

 through, without any more difficulty than cutting 

 eight or ten sheets high, as there is no sticking, and 

 you may cut as deep as your knife is long, or near- 

 ly so. 3— Abuott L. Svvinson, It— 50. 



Goldsboro, N. C, May 21, 1SS5. 



Friend S.. your experiments are inteiest- 

 iiisjj as well as valuable. We should infer 

 from your deductions, that it does not al- 

 ways pay to render up old combs. 



lIOtlSE.MINT HONEY. 



I send you, by to-day's mail, a sample of horso- 

 mint honey. What <lo you think of it? and how 

 does it compare, in your opinion, with white-clover 

 and basswood honey of the North? What is it worth 

 in the Northern nuirkets? ('. A. Wjieeleh. 



Brighton, Texas, July 11. 18-i5. 



Friend W., your sample is beautiful— clear 

 as crystal , j?obd body, and beautiful thivor. 

 There is just a little trace of tliat pecidiar 

 odd llavor especially beloiifjinu- to borsemint 

 honey, but it is so slight that 1 should think 

 the honey ought to compare favorably with 

 any clover or basswood honey made. In 

 fact, I believe 1 should like a good dish full, 

 like the sample you sent me, better than 

 either clover or basswood : Init I might in 

 time tire of it (piicker. I could not say what 

 it would biing m the Xortlicni markets, for 

 there is a prospect that tioncN will have to be 

 sold very low this season. Sec iioney quota- 

 tions on page Al'y. 



UASI'UEIUtY IIONEY. 



I send you a sample of honey made from red ra.sp- 

 berry only. Bees don't work on white clover nearly 

 as well as on red raspberry, which is roaring- all day 

 with bees. Don't be afraid to taste of it. 



Cedar Creek, Wis., July 13, 188). N. Haner. 



Friend IL, the sample of honey you send 

 is beautiful. It is so much like white clover 

 that I should be inclined to call it an extra- 



