1885 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



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MOKE NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



THE ADVANTAGES OF A PEHMANENT HOME. 



■prow I do envy those people who can always 

 stay put! lamas I'oiul oT a jileasant home, 

 lawn, shrubbery, Howers, trees, fish-ponds, 

 cranberry meadows, graperies, and straw- 

 berry-patches— well, as the Editor of Geean- 

 INGS himself— which is sayinj? a prreat deal. But 

 these things are inconsistent witli moving- about 

 much, and 1 have had considerable of this to do in 

 the course of my life, especially of late years. 

 Since my last article appeared in Geeamngs, I 

 have moved once more. Why do the Scotch call a 

 change of residence " flitting "? It is a much slow- 

 er affair than a "flit." The worst part of moving 

 is getting things to rights, and settling down to reg- 

 ular habits again. During this interval of inter- 

 ruption, several matters have co'nic up in (Jeean- 

 iNGS on which I wish to say something; and as 1 

 must try to squeeze them into one article, I adopt 

 a similar heading to my last, and call these; more 

 " Notes and Comments." 



A PLEA IN favor OE WINTEHING <IN SIMMEI! 

 STANDS. 



I want to speak a good word in behalf of friend 

 Reed, of Milford, Wis., Avhose letter appeared in 

 Gleanings of May 15th. I ordered two of those; 

 very cheap stocks of bees advertised by him, and 

 found them, on arrival, (exactly as lepresented by 

 him. Some things in a letter from him touche.l me 

 very much. He said he had cherLshed the ambition 

 of getting up a first-class apiary, but luul^ l)een 

 obliged to give up through ill health. An old com- 

 plaint had been brought back by the exertion put 

 forth in carrying his bees out of the cellar. This is 

 one argument, and by no means a slight one, in 

 favor of outdoor wintering. In the past, when I 

 practiced cellar wintering, carrying out my hives in 

 spring generally brought on an attack of lumbago, 

 and I never kept more than 2(1 or r.'5 stocks. Let us 

 not commend bee-keeping as an occupation suited 

 for invalids or weakly iJcrsons uiUil we give up the 

 folly of cellar wintering. Had friend Heed wintered 

 on the summer stands, probalily he might ha\e 

 been able to continue his nuicli-loved i)ursuit. 

 Anyhow, I am sure he has the sympathj- of all his 

 fellow bee-keepers, and the prayers of nuuiy that 

 his afflictiou may prove for the best. 



CLIPPING queens' wings. 



By the way, friend Keed has almost converted me 

 to clipping queens' wings, which he practiced. 

 Having to go from home lor a few days, June 10th, 

 I carefully searched for queen-cells on the morning 

 of my departure. I was away longer than I e.\i)ect- 

 cd, and felt pretty anxious about tht; bees. On re- 

 turning, my wife said to me, "Some of your bets 

 have had a great flght." I examined the hives, but 

 found no evidence of a flght." Ne.vt day, as 1 was 

 busy writing, my wife said, "Those bees are fight- 

 ing again." I sallied forth and found the bees not 

 fighting but swarming, out of one of friend Heed's 

 hives. The bees whirled arenind in the air, but did 

 not alight. So I suspected the (pieen was not with 

 them, and, on searching, soon found her crawling 

 on the ground. Then I saw what I had not noticed 

 on looking through the hives, that one wing was 

 clipped. I felt pretty cheap; for one argument I 

 have used against clipping is, that it disfigures tlie 

 queen. However, I picked her up, put her under a 

 tumbler, moved the ojd hiyc, get fin pmpty owe iii 



its place, and soon the swarm came back. I ran in 

 the queen, and the whole thing was over in a quar- 

 ter of the time usually taken in hiving a swarm. I 

 am hard to convert; but undoubtedly I should have 

 lost that swarm if the queen's wing had not been 

 clipped: and now the question is, " to clip or not to 

 clip." One curious thing about the alfair is, that 

 the hive is uj) on a stand two feet above the ground. 

 So on the previous occasion, when they tried to 

 swarm, her majesty must have crawled up one of 

 the legs of the stand, in order to get back into the 

 hive. 



MIVES. 



Gleanings has had a great deal to say about 

 hives of late. Well, I have tried many— so much 

 the worse ior my peace and comfort, and I am set- 

 tling down on some form of Simplicity. The one 

 you make has many excellent features, and the 

 movable liottom-lioard just suits my hibernation 

 theory. The Ileddon style, too, I like; liut that lath 

 honey-board seems to ojierate as somewhat of a 

 barrier to liie bees ascending to the honey-boxes. 

 Frieml Lake, f)f Baltimore, makes some hives with 

 vali.al)le features, [[is No. », especially, is a capi- 

 tal hive,convenieiit to handle, and agood wintering 

 hive. The Falcon hive, made by W. T. Falconer, of 

 Jamestown, N. Y., is the neatest, nicest, and best- 

 finished foini of Simplicity I have seen. It has one 

 feature that is esiiecially good in the working sea- 

 son when the hives arc overfiowing with bees, and 

 that is a removable side. It comes out readily, and 

 is never fastened with in-opolis, because there is a 

 divisionlioai-d and chaH'-lllled frame between the 

 side and the brood-nest. When these are taken out 

 there is plenty of room to main'pulate the frames. 

 I suppose we can not get all valuable features com- 

 bined In any one hive. I wish we could. But can 

 not all nuikers of Simplicity or Langstroth frames 

 agree on the exact size of frame to be used? I have 

 had more trouble with frames varying just a little 

 in size, than any one thing in my apiary. Vou 

 want to ciiange frames from hive to hive for vari- 

 ous purposes, and it is most [)rovoking to find one a 

 little too long, and another a little too short. The 

 trouble is mainly with the loi)-l)ar. 



WIUEU EU.VMES. 



Both last season ami the iiresent I have tried 

 wired frames. I find that the bees nibble round the 

 wire in some eases, and work away for a good while 

 before tliey accept the situation, and I can not see 

 that there is any particular need of this wire, for I 

 have just as pretty frames of comb as can be pro- 

 duced, built on foundation simply hung from the 

 top-bars. So far, not a single sheet so hung has 

 fallen. I think, however, that in large apiaries 

 where it is neccssarj- to prepare a lot of hives in 

 winter there might be troul)le about this sheet get- 

 ting loose, for extreme cold seems to make the wax 

 very dry and less adhesive. But, can not some cute 

 inventor give us a frame in halves, which, going to- 

 gether and binding all four edges of the sheet of 

 foundation, will secure straightness and firmness, 

 antl render reversible frames entirely unnecessary? 

 I have no inventive faculty or 1 would try. 



EXrUESS CO.MPANIES. 



1 got a nucleus the other day from Dr. Tinker, 

 containing a frame of brood, a pound of bees, and 

 one of his Syrio-Albino (lueens. When 1 came to 

 open the box I found the brood-comb broken down, 

 mapyof the bees killed, and among them the queen. 

 The package wfig admirably put up, and sqch a diS: 



