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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



and decided benefit ; but on other soils the 

 salt seems to do no good whatever. We 

 should be glad to have Prof. Cook tell us if 

 he has heard of salt as a remedy.— To be 

 sure, you can cut off the arms of your met- 

 al corners, and put on reversing wires. In 

 fact, they were devised specially for this 

 very purpose ; or they are to be used on any 

 hanging frame after cutting off the projec- 

 tion on which the frame hangs.— We can 

 easily make a bee-hat with a rim of galvan- 

 ized wire, but we hardly think the advantage 

 of sufficient importance to warrant the extra 

 expense. As the cloth will become sweat- 

 soiled in a season's use there would in real- 

 ity be no advantage. 



A GOOD QUESTION ; PUMPING WATER IN THE 

 CELLAR TO KEEP THE BEES QUIET. 



Does pumping fresh water occasionally in cel- 

 lars keep bees quiet? Last winter I had some 

 small carp in a barrel. T pumped a barrel of fresh 

 water every week in the cellar, and the bees kept 

 quiet. When I took the fish out I stopped pump- 

 ing-, and then the bees got restless. I then com- 

 menced pumping water in again, and they kept 

 more quiet. Now, who can answer? Did the wa- 

 ter purify the air, or did I only think so? My cellar 

 is cemented on the bottom, and has tile to let the 

 water out, and gas-pipe laid from the pump, so 

 there is no carrying of water. 



My bees did tolerably well through the fall. It 

 was quite late when I got time to extract my hon- 

 ey, so that I had to put a stove in my honey-house 

 to warm the combs before I commenced working 

 with the bees. I shut the entrance just so one or 

 two bees could pass out at a time at all the hives. 

 Then I took all the honey away from the bees and 

 set it in hives in the honey-house. I extracted it, 

 and hung the combs in empty hives in the apiary, 

 for the bees to clean up. There was only one hive 

 that they commenced to rob at which I had neg- 

 lected to close the entrance. The combs were all 

 cleaned up nicely. 



1 got 1300 lbs. of honey from my bees this fall, all 

 extracted. White clover yielded just enough to 

 keep the bees going till the fall flow. 



George J. Klein. 



Conrad Grove, la., Dec. 14, 1888. 



Friend K., if your cellar is remarkably 

 dry, it may be that the moisture supplied to 

 the atmosphere by pumping the water had 

 the effect of keeping the bees quiet. A 

 spring or running stream through the cellar 

 has been many times considered a decided 

 advantage. 



BASS wood plank; discoloration of, and why. 



Have you had any experience in drying basswood 

 plank for sections, in a dry-kiln? If so, does the 

 drying process color the basswood? How many 

 thousand sections does one Of your section-saw- 

 yers saw per day, and what wages do you pay them? 

 I am paying 40 cents per thousand for sawing them, 

 and think it is too much. J. M. Kenzie. 



Rochester, Mich., Jan. 7, 1889. 



Friend K., we have dried a great many 

 thousand feet of basswood lumber in a dry- 

 kiln heated by steam, and we have never 

 experienced any trouble from discoloration 

 as a result of such drying. Stained bass- 

 wood lumber is generally caused by the tim- 

 ber being cut in the summer time ; or even 



if cut in the winter it will color if piled 

 carelessly. Basswood timber should be cut 

 in the winter, and, when piled up properly, 

 will cut nice white basswood plank. Our 

 sawyers cut about 500 sections per hour — 

 that is, they rip the bolts into strips. We 

 pay from $1.25 to $1.50 per day ; and if you 

 can get them cut for 40 cts. per thousand, 

 and not have a good many spoiled by hurry- 

 ing, you are getting the work done pretty 

 reasonable. 



A RETURNING queen. 



In hiving a swarm the past summer, the bees 

 kept clustering on the hive, but would not stay in. 

 After considerable search I found the queen under 

 the projecting cover. I caught her as carefully as 

 I could with my hand, removed the cover, put her 

 on the frames, but in shutting the cover carefully 

 she escaped. It looked as if a small hummingbird 

 darted away, apparently back to the old hive. I 

 hastened there, but could not see her enter, so I 

 concluded to put the bees back. In doing so I de- 

 tected the queen again on the top of the cover, 

 surrounded by bees. I succeeded in putting her 

 in the new hive, when the bees soon followed. It 

 was something new to me, a queen leaving her 

 bees and returning to the new hive, rods away 

 from the old one. F. J. M. Otto. 



Sandusky, O. 



Friend O., it is true that a queen on the 

 wing looks something like a small hum- 

 mingbird, and especially to an enthusiastic 

 novice whose eyes are apt to magnify every 

 thing pertaining to a queen. But for all 

 that, I am inclined to think that your queen 

 did not go back to the parent hive at all. 

 Never try putting a queen into the top of a 

 hive, especially where you have to put the 

 cover on the hive afterward. Put her down 

 at the entrance, as she will be much more 

 likely to go in. If you can start some of 

 the bees to traveling in before you set her 

 down, she will be almost sure to run in 

 with them. 



THE LAST ECLIPSE, AND WHAT EFFECT IT HAD 

 ON BEES IN SAN JACINTO, CAL. 



I suppose you all know that there was an eclipse 

 of the sun the first of January; but I don't think 

 you know what effect it had on bees in its path— at 

 least not all of you. The day was a pleasant one 

 here, it being clear and warm until the eclipse 

 came over the sun, when the mercury went down 

 from about 75 to 45 degrees ; and the " manzanita " 

 being in full bloom, my bees were bringing in hon- 

 ey and pollen by the wholesale; but the sudden 

 change chilled thousands of the poor little laborers 

 so that they were not able to get to their homes. 

 Many dropped within a few inches of their hives 

 and perished there, loaded with honey and pollen. 

 I believe it would be a good plan for every bee- 

 man to be ready for the next eclipse of the sun, 

 and close all his hives early in the morning of such 

 day, and, by so doing, save thousands of very 

 valuable creatures from so sudden and unexpected 

 an end of existence when life to them is so sweet. 



San Jacinto, Cal., Jan. 7, 1889. D. W. Rowse. 



: Friend R., I think you exaggerate the 

 damage done by the eclipse. From what I 

 remember of the way the sun goes down in 

 California, I can readily imagine how dark 

 and chilly it became in a short time ; but, if 



