1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



221 



All my bees are in splendid shape up to date. I 

 have 10 in chaff hives on their summer stands, and 

 22 in the cellar under the house. They were put in 

 Oct. 20, and are as nice as a new pin. 



Jackson, Mich., Feb. 6, 1889. W. D. Soper. 



I would by no means think of applying 

 salt at the rate you speak of, unless I had 

 first tested it on a small scale. Now, please 

 bear in mind that you can not test salt, phos- 

 phate, bone-dust, guano, or any thing else, 

 unless you put it in your field in strips, 

 leaving a strip without the fertilizer along- 

 side of one with it. If there is a decided 

 improvement in the fertilized strips, clear 

 through the whole length, it amounts to 

 something. Then you are ready for the 

 question, "Does it increase the yield enough 

 to pay the costV" I am sure there is a good 

 deal of blundering in the dark in this mat- 

 ter of fertilizers. 



DR. TINKER DISCUSSES MR. SHEPHERD'S ZINC ; SEE 

 PAGE 11, JAN. 1. 



Friend Root:— Mr. Shepherd's zinc is new, so far 

 as I know, but the perforations are the exact length 

 and width of those I have in my zinc. His zinc has 

 no advantages over the usual style of perforating, 

 as you state in the foot-note. Mr. Shepherd is also 

 mistaken in supposing that more openings can be 

 made in a given piece of zinc by perforating his 

 way. The strips of zinc I use in my wood-zinc hon- 

 ey-board are only 3 i of an inch wide, and yet eight 

 of these strips (the number used in a honey-board) 

 have 352 perforations. Mr. Shepherd's zinc is one 

 inch wide, and eight strips of the same length 

 would have 372 perforations, or only 20 more than 

 my honey-board now contains. But strips of my 

 zinc one inch wide would have three rows of per- 

 forations, as you will see by the inclosed sample, 

 which would make 528 perforations in the honey- 

 boards, or 156 more than Mr. Shepherd's zinc would 

 have in the same size of board. 



Strips of zinc one inch wide, if used between 

 wood slats spaced l 3 i inches, as they should be, 

 would not leave enough wood in the slats to proper- 

 ly support the zinc, as you well observe. The wood 

 slats in my honey-board are a little over 7 8 of an 

 inch wide by , 3 « thick; and used with strips of zinc 

 ?i of an inch wide they make a strong honey-board; 

 and if the zinc has two rows of perforations there 

 will be all the perforations necessary for the largest 

 colony. 



I presume Mr. Shepherd's perforator is made of 

 wood, carrying a punch and die, as it would cost 

 about $75.00 to make a good iron machine to go by 

 a belt. The wood machine can be made to do very 

 fair work at the start, but the dies are soon spoiled. 

 Good perforated zinc is now so cheap that I can 

 not think it would pay any one to make a wooden 

 machine. Dr. G. L. Tinker. 



New Philadelphia, O., March 2, 1889. 



regard to extracted honey. If it is in the 

 comb the temperature should not be allow- 

 ed to go down to freezing. Swarming can 

 not be prevented by the use of perforated 

 zinc, although it may be thwarted for the 

 time being. The zinc simply prevents the 

 queen from going out with the swarm. 

 The latter, in her absence, will usually re- 

 turn. But it is not advisable to let the bees 

 make a second attempt. Trying again, and 

 failing, they will be pretty apt to destroy 

 the queen. The zinc is a convenience while 

 you and the rest of the family are away. 



BREAKING OF ONE-PIECE SECTIONS, AND HOW TO 

 PREVENT WHEN THE TIMBER IS TOO DRY. 



Last spring, after I had put on the first sections, 

 I carried a crate containing about 350 to the attic, 

 under a slate roof. Temperature was 110° to 130° 

 during the clear days. When I came to use them, 

 several weeks later, they were so dry I could not 

 fold them without breaking. 1 carried them to the 

 cellar for a day, when I could fold without a single 

 break. 



A NEW FORAGE PLANT. 



The Am. Agriculturist for Feb. tells of a new for- 

 age plant called " serradella." Dr. A. W. Thornton, 

 Washington Ter., speaks of it as being valuable for 

 bee-pasturage. It is planted about corn-planting 

 time, and blooms from July 1st to frost, so it can 

 be cut twice. It is equal to timothy hay for feed- 

 ing. W. W. Kulp. 



Pottstown, Pa., Feb. 11, 1889. 



Your ideas in regard to handling sections 

 to make them fold up are good, friend K. 



HOW TO KEEP HONEY FROM CANDYING; PERFOR- 

 ATED ZINC NOT A PREVENTIVE OF SWARMING. 



Can you tell me of a method to prevent honey in 

 the comb, and also extracted honey, from candy- 

 ing? Can swarming be successfully pre'Vented by 

 placing perforated zinc before the entrance so as to 

 keep the queen from flying? S. Howe. 



Clarence, N. Y., Mar. -1, 1889. 



Candying can not be prevented entirely, 

 but you can do a good deal toward it. See 

 what is said in the ABC book, especially in 



ITALIANS BEST, HYBRIDS INFERIOR, AND BLACKS 

 POOR. 



I have 50 strong colonies of bees— blacks, Italians, 

 hybrids, and albinos. The Italians are the best 

 honey-gatherers I ever saw. For Texas they are the 

 bee. If honey is to be had, they will surely get it. 

 My best Italian colony gave me about 90 pounds of 

 comb honey. My best hybrid colony gave 50 pounds 

 of comb honey; best black colony, 35 pounds of 

 comb honey. All of them had the same showing. 

 The flow from the horsemint lasted about 30 days, 

 being the only good flow from that source since 1884. 



Lexington, Tex., Feb. 12, 1889. W. S. Douglass. 



DECOY HIVES ; BUILDING UP AN APIARY BY 

 MEANS OF. 



I have been reading your ABC, and was attract- 

 ed by your article on "Decoy Hives," under 

 " Swarming." I am but a novice, and have had 

 very little experience in bee culture, and am in- 

 debted to Mr. F. Danzenbaker and your ABC for 

 what little I know. In 1886 I noticed about 100 bees 

 flying about our barn in swarming season, and im- 

 mediately put an old bee-hive there. Next day at 

 ten o'clock there was a large colony; that after- 

 noon there were a few more bees around the gable 

 end of our house, and I put a hive there. Mean- 

 while I had put another hive in place of No. 1. (I 

 will designate hives by numbers.) The next day I 

 had a second swarm in No. 1 and one in No. 2. 

 They had crossed the Delaware, which is two miles 

 wide at this point, and had half a mile from our 

 place to the river; and as it is a marsh for ful- 

 ly a mile to the first house on the New Jersey 

 side, they must have flown at least 3J4 miles. Sub- 

 sequently I had two more swarms from across the 

 river, and two more from this side, all outside of 



