r,oO 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aro. 



expense of makiiis: the exi)eriraent is then 

 ronipaiatively trittinj;. If he succeeds in 

 Imildins liis nuclei up to fjoort strong colo- 

 nirs. and winters them, lie will probably 

 ma^e a profitable investment of it next year. 

 If lie is not calculated for a bee-man he" will 

 jnobably lose tJiem all during: the winter, 

 and l»ecome disgusted with the business, 

 withotit beinfj veiv much out of pocket. 

 The (luestion is. Will a pound of bees, and a 

 frame of brood and a queen, started, say, in 

 the middle of August, build up so as to 

 make what maybe called a fair colony by 

 the middle of XovemberV We coidd do it 

 easily here: but whether the average novice 

 would succeed in doing it. is another (pies- 

 tion. 1 advised him to use the Simplicity 

 feeder, because tlrs will hold all a jiound of ^ 

 bees will need at a time, and the expense is 

 trifling. 



^'ery likely many of you can buy cheaper 

 than at the prices 1 have given. In fact, nu- 

 clei are advertised in this number, cheaper 

 than we sell them ; and if you wish to pur- 

 chase. I would advise you by all means to 

 buy of somebody uear \ our home, to save 

 the expense of express charges. If you can 

 go and get them with a horse and spring 

 wagon, all the bettei-. I do not know of any 

 work I ever enjoyed more tlian building up 

 iniclei in the fall into full colonies, in this 

 way. I would keep up the feeding until the 

 Aveatlier gets too cold for the Ijees to take it 

 from the Simplicity feeder : and then if they 

 have iiot an abundance of stores to go into 

 winter. I would connn«nce feeding again in 

 the spring, as soon as it is warm enough for 

 them to go back to the feeder again. .\s the 

 Aveather becomes «'ool. I would cover the 

 brood-nest, all excei)t a little opening right 

 over the cluster, and I would set the Sim- 

 plicity feeder right beside this opening. If 

 this opening is small, say half an inch in di- 

 ameter, it will do no harm if left open all 

 winter. Such openings had better always 

 be left, unless the covering to the bees is 

 some coarse material, such as burlap or 

 sacking. 



I should very much like to hear reports 

 from those wlio undertake this matter of 

 building up nuclei, so that we may deter- 

 mine for futine seasons how late it will be 

 safe to attempt it. Of course, much de- 

 pends on the laying powers of the queen, 

 and the way in which the bees go to work to 

 help her. The pound of bees ought to be 

 young ones. 



MRS. CHADDOCKS LETTER. 



She Tells Us how to Make Beeswax out of 

 Doors. 



ALSO SOMKTHI.NO ABOUT A BKE-.MAX WHO MAKES 

 MONEY. 



AST Monday I spent a pleasant hour with Mr. 

 Kufus Porter, ol I<owistown, III., and his 

 most eslimublc wife. Mr. Poitcr has been 

 for many years a suecessfnl iH'c-keopcr; but 

 he is not doing any thinjr with them now. his 

 son having the entire eontrol of them. Mr. P. has 

 about 73 eolonles at present, in Langstroth hives, 

 and he runs them altogether for extracted honey. 

 He ships all his honey, and i)ays no attention to his 



home mariiet; he winters successfully, and he 

 knows how to render beeswax. He told me how his 

 bees were prepared for winter. In September, or 

 early in Oetober, he takes off the honey-apartment, 

 and jilaces a few corn-cobs, or a little frame made 

 on purpose, over the brood-nest, and then he puts 

 on a frame made to fit the top of the hive and to go 

 inside the cap, with a piece of coarse coffee-sack 

 nailed across the bottom of it. This frame is filled 

 with wheat chaff thrown loosely in, and not packed 

 down at all. His bees face to the south, have no 

 shade over them, and he lets them severely alone. 

 After he had said a good many other things, be 

 said, " Now I want you to take something back. I'll 

 tell you bow I extract beeswax, and 1 want you to 

 promise to try my way." 



"OhI" said I, "you have a wax-extractor." 



"Well, yes," said he; " I have one; I paid six dol- 

 lars for it, but I do not use it. 1 ha\e a big iron 

 kettle sitting away back in theyard on some stones, 

 and when I have some wax to render out I build a 

 lire under the kettle, fill it nearly full of water, and 

 after it comes to a boil I dump in part of the old 

 combs: and as the wax rises to the top I dip it off 

 and pour it through a sie\e, made of mosquito net- 

 ting, nailed to a frame— this frame, or seive,, being 

 placed f)ver an old tub, or half a salt-barrel will 

 do, with cold water in it. When I have dipped off 

 all the wax that rises from what I first put in. 

 I )iut in another batch, and dip off again, not 

 letting the water boil, but just keeping it boil- 

 ing hot. Alter I am through with melting I 

 take the wax out of the cold Water and heat it 

 so that it will run, and makc«it into any shape 

 that I want it. Now I want you," said he, 

 " to try my way, and report on it. You can burn 

 the half-barrel and the sieve when you get through, 

 and there will not lie many things to clean up. Now, 

 will you try this wayV" 



I said, "May be." 



In 1871 Mr. Porter made f 1-00, r^rnr hhkk.v, from 

 one hundred colonies of bees (spring count, I be- 

 lievei. But this is no sign that others can do it. 

 Mr. Porter being one of those who have the touch 

 of Midas (was it Midas? If not, it was somebody 

 else, who turned every thing he touched into gold>. 

 Any way, he knows how to get money out of every 

 thing that he undertakes. He was engaged for a 

 number of years in the small-fruit business, and he 

 made money at that. Now he is running a drain- 

 tile factory, and all of you who live on low land 

 know that there is money in drain tile. 



MVHALA B. t'HADDOCK. 



Vermont, 111., Aug., 1885. 



Mrs (,'.. friend Porter's plan might please 

 some of the friends, under some circum- 

 stances ; but it seems to me as if it would 

 be also wasteful. He had better buy a sort 

 of press to scpiceze the wax out of the resi- 

 due ; and it seems to me that, in burning up 

 the barrel and sieve, that is rather wasteful 

 too, because a good deal of wax Avill be ad- 

 hering to them, unless you clean it off with 

 boiling water or steam. ' We do not like to 

 waste even a barrel on our premises. It has 

 one merit, however— it gets unsightly things 

 out of sight, unless you should call the old 

 kettle unsightly ; but I suppose that might 

 be kept back oif the barn or hog-pen. You 

 knoAv I think it is a grand thing to keep the 

 front yard looking tidy, even if you can not 

 have all the premises so. 



