1S8.5 



tJLEANlKGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



FROM DIFFERENT FlELDl 



ANOTHEU WAY TO CLEAN THE CLARK SMOKER. 



fHAT smoker T bought of j'oii was in good 

 hoftlth; ))\it ill llie run of time it Ijccame 

 badiy affected with the quinsy: and, as tlie 

 Frenchman said by the l)ello\vsed horse, it 

 went "ove heze, ove hcze." ] gave terapo- 

 rarj' relief by pushing and pulling a square hickory 

 stick through its windpipe, turning the stick at the 

 same lime; l)iit the glue-like soot gathered and 

 settled on and on, until its lungs ceased to work. 

 I then took it to my work-bench and performed a 

 surgical operation by making a hole slanting 

 tlirough in the bottom-board of the bellows, in the 

 direction of the back end of the air-tube, leading 

 from the bellows to the fire-pot. I then wound a 

 strip of thin new domestic around my hickory stick, 

 and swabbed and cleaned out this badly choked 

 tulje precisely as a deer killer cleans out his rifle. 

 I first opened tlie tube with my brace and a small 

 bit, by carefully working the bit in at each end of 

 th# tube. This fioie in the bellows-board I stopped 

 with a little l)all of soft beeswax. T made it air- 

 tight in half a minute, and can open it in that 

 length of time. 



I will suggest that you make the tube leading 

 from the bellows to the fire pot xtr<ii{i]it, and solder 

 one end near the nose of the fire pot, and let the 

 other extend back, accessible through the hole 

 in the bottom-board. A bellows constructed in this 

 way can be cleaned by a child, wilh h swali and pan 

 of water, I think, in a few minutes. 



Quitman, Te.xas. .1. M. Steu.ma.n. 



Thanks, friend S. Your suggestion it) le- 

 gard to stopping Die liole with a piece of soft 

 beeswax, is ingttiious and vahiable. This 

 would make theopeningabsohttely air-tight, 

 <iuickly done and aliudsL no expen.se.— Yon 

 can not make a stiaiglit tui>e send the blast 

 straight out at tlie noz/le of tiie smoker. 

 On this acconnt I think we liad better have 

 it bent ; but we may adopt your plati of 

 leavitig an opening for swabbing out. 



YEI.LOW-JESSAMINE HONEY NOT INJUHIOeS WHEN 

 FULLY KIPE, BITT THE UNSEALED HOISONOIS. 



This honey is considered poisonous if eaten be- 

 fore it is ripe, or capped over, among our people in 

 Eastern North Carolina, where it abounds all over 

 the woods in large quantities. Of this I can remem- 

 ber being told ever since I was quite small; and I 

 have heard of many instances where people were 

 made sick and partially hJind from eating unripe 

 jessamine honey; and in consequence of this, all our 

 bo.\ hive men are very careful to save no honey in 

 the conll'i, except that capped— all uncapped being 

 squeezed out, which is supposed to work off all im- 

 purities in It, after standing a few days, on being 

 squeezed out. 



COTTON AS A HONEY-PLANT. 



Bees are just booming on the cotton honey-flow 

 at this time. Italians, albinos, and Syrians, all go 

 toi' il with a vim this year. You know I reported 

 lastseason the e.\tra yield of cotton honey from one 

 hybrid colony of Syrians, while Italians were lying 

 idle; but "ft IS not so this year. The albinos seem to 

 like it better than either Italians or Sjrians, though 

 all of theth are filling every available nook and cor- 

 ner with it. 



CATCHING .\ND CAGING QUEENS. 



If beekeepers would use a queen-catcher, some- 

 thing like the"Klimitz" catcher, there would be 

 fewer queens lost by cramping and otherwise in- 

 juring them by picking them up by the wings. I 

 have used, ever since July, 18Tt, a queen-catcher 

 made of wire cloth, of which the Kliraitz catcher is 

 a very near imitation, and I have yet to hurt the 

 first queen with them. I caught a queen last March 

 with mine, when she got so cold she could hardly 

 crawl in the cage, in going up the catcher, and I 

 blowing warm smoke on her, too, all the while. 



3— Abbott L. Swinson, 41— 6.5. 



Goldsboro, N. C, Aug. 10, 18a5. 



QUEENS GETTING UNDER THE ALIGHTING-BOARD. 



My success with bees is moderate. I have in- 

 creased this season more than 100 per cent, and all 

 my colonies ieem to be in good condition. Some of 

 the new swarms are giving more honey than some 

 of the old ones. My bees are a common kind— 

 neither Italians, nor yet the little black bee. I had 

 one or two interesting experiences with swarms, in 

 one of which a swarm came out two or three times 

 and then went back. Suspecting something wrong 

 I looked closely under the alighting-board and 

 found a fine queen imprisoned in a spider's web, 

 with a dozen or fifteen bees trying to release her. 

 I released her for them and the next day got a fine 

 swarm. 



One day a fine swarm came out and was success- 

 fully hived; but I noticed on the table in front of 

 the new hive two collections of bees. In one of 

 these I found a dead queen, in another a queen just 

 able to crawl about. A shower coming up I went 

 indoors; and when I came back the second queen 

 was dead, and the sv.arm gone— back, I think, to the 

 hive from which they came. Could it be that, in 

 fighting, both queens were mortally wounded? 



EIGHT-FRAME HIVES. 



1 am still holding on to the Simplicity hive with 

 wired frames, Init can't, for the life of me, see the 

 use of a bottom hivewilh t mi frames. Putting in 

 two broad frames with section boxes— one to right 

 and one to left— shows that seven or eight frames 

 are ample for l>rood. Why not, then, have the low- 

 er hive nmde for only seven or eight frames, in- 

 stead of for these, and two broad frames for honey'r' 

 It is certainly much more convenient to get honey 

 from the second story than the first. Why not, 

 then, force the bees to store all their surplus above, 

 where it is much more accessible? I know that 

 some think that bees store more at the sides than 

 above; but mj very limited experience is the other 

 way. I know, too, the oft -iterated argument about 

 the vast number of Simplicity hives in use. But 

 that is not a valid argument, if a hive with fewer 

 frames would do better. Some of my bees do so 

 much better than others, I think I shall guillotine 

 some of my queens as soon as I believe I can suc- 

 cessfully introduce others. But, by the way, is it 

 not troublesome to introduce queens while there is 

 a second story on? I suppose a frame has to be 

 lifted out of its place in order to watch the deport- 

 ment of the bees to her, else she disappears from 

 view between two frames. 



One criticism— on you and some of your corres- 

 pondents—about the use of words. Starch, for in- 

 stance, is sometimes recommended, as, for instance, 

 in putting in fdn. Is it the dry article, or the pro- 

 pared that is meant; J. A. Gokee, 8-18. 



Tuscaloosa, Ala., Aug. 13, 1885. 



