1889 



(JI.KANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



441 



ing conclusions hastily. 1 never smo a bee 

 bite one of the holes ; but I have seen them 

 bite and gnaw wood and enameled sheets, 

 and other things much more substantial. 

 Unless something further comes to light in 

 regard to this matter, the A B C will be 

 changed in the next edition. Your ex- 

 planation in regard to the capping made by 

 larva? agrees exactly with my own observa- 

 tion. I am glad, friend Cook, that you en- 

 joy, as I do, seeing the bees commence work 

 on the fruit-trees before four o'clock in the 

 morning. 



A. E. MANUM EXPLAINS. 



TARRED PAPER TO KEEP AWAY ANTS; LARGE 

 BASSWOOD YIELDS, ETC. 



6 LEANINGS of May 15 is just at hand; and 

 while I was writing something to appear in 

 its columns for June 15, Mr. Scott (one of my 

 men) was feasting on the good things it con- 

 tains. When he came to me and asked the 

 privilege of reading me your comments on the use 

 of tarred paper to keep ants at a proper distance, 

 I at once dropped that subject and took up this one 

 in answer to your comments, in order to have it go 

 in the morning's mail. 



I do not use the paper in the brood-chamber, but 

 outside of it, and inside the outer case. My hives 

 are all chaff hives. Tell " Mrs. S., down in the 

 lunch-room," to get a strong man to lift the sugar- 

 barrel (as I suppose it is full, as all are liable to be 

 when near a cook-room) while she slips a large 

 piece of the tarred paper under it. The paper 

 should be larger than the bottom of the barrel. Do 

 not throw the paper into the barrel, as you pro- 

 pose. If that does not keep them away, tell her to 

 sprinkle tine salt around the barrel. 



SPECKLED TROUT. 



I did write one page, telling all about our trout- 

 fishing, but finally left it out, as you had requested 

 me to be as brief as possible. I find it difficult to 

 tell your readers all I wish to in the space you allow 

 me. 



VERMONT BASSWOOD; LAHGE YIELDS PER COLONY. 



You ask on page 402, about our bass wood range. 

 1 do not think that my location is one of the best 

 for basswood honey, and it is one of the poorest for 

 clover of any that I know of in Vermont; yet in a 

 favorable season it is not uncommon, in the height 

 of clover-bloom, for our scale hives to register 8, 10, 

 and 15 lbs. per day for a very few days. Rut re- 

 member, we aim to have large swarms; we work 

 hard from early spring up to clover bloom to in- 

 duce queens to lay a large number of eggs. Our 

 basswoods are principally at the base of our moun- 

 tains, and not as far up on the mountains as Bro. 

 Doolittle's are, hence our basswood seasons are not 

 as prolonged as his are. There are a goodly num- 

 ber of basswoods scattered among other timber in 

 the valleys and over the foot-hills; but this is being 

 cut off very fast. One factory here in our town 

 bought last winter over 300,000 feet of basswood 

 logs. All were cut within range of my bees, hence 

 I may not be able to report 33!^ lbs. per day this 

 season, although I shall try hard to secure 50 lbs. in 

 one day. If I do succeed in reaching 50 lbs. I will 

 tell you how it is done. It is all to be gathered by 

 one queen's progeny, 

 lihope, Mr. Root, fyou will some day favor us 



Vermonters with your presence; and if you should 

 visit us in the trout season I assure you we will try 

 to give you a feast on ppockled trout, and will try 

 to till your pockets with spruce gum to take home 

 to the children. And 1 now invite you and yours to 

 make us a visit whenever you can spare the time. 

 Bristol, Vt., May 21, 1889. A. E. Manum. 



Thanks, friend M., for your kind invita- 

 tion. Possibly 1 may be able to call on my 

 friends up your way next season. This fall, 

 you know I am to look over Wisconsin and 

 the adjacent territory. In regard to bass- 

 wood-trees, I do not feel satisfied, because 

 there are so few planting them. Our trees 

 are now looking very handsome, and Ernest 

 has got into pretty fair running order what 

 we call the "Basswood" apiary. My 

 dreams of 17 years ago, we expect are to be 

 realized this season ; i. e., seeing bees store 

 honey from trees over their own hives, and 

 said trees to be of my own planting. Un- 

 less we do plant basswood groves, bee- 

 keeping, to a large extent, must go down. 

 Now, brethren, please remember that these 

 are the words of Uncle Amos. 



A BIG TESTIMONIAL IN FAVOR OF 

 PERFORATED ZINC. 



SHALL WE DESTROY GOOD DRONE COMB, OR USE IT 

 WITH PERFORATED ZINC? 



TTp FTER reading what my neighbor L. E. Mercer 

 2ll|, said (see page 358) about zinc honey-boards, 

 jRif I started for the apiary to see how the one I 

 -^*- got from you by mail this spring was doing. 

 I put it on over a rather small but prolific 

 queen, and filled the super with part drone and 

 part worker comb, and this is what I found: The 

 super was about half full of honey. The drone- 

 cells were empty, and cleaned up for the queen to 

 lay in. The brood-chamber of 8 combs was full of 

 brood to the top-bar, and one outside comb was 

 half full. There were about two dozen drones. I 

 vote the queen-excluder economical and humane. 

 If the queen had been allowed to go above, they 

 would have wasted many pounds of honey in rais- 

 ing thousands of drones; and after extracting the 

 honey I should have shaved the heads off those 

 drones, which is a cruel and expensive practice. I 

 was afraid they would make the bees swarm more, 

 but now I think different; for the super gives 

 plenty of room for all the bees that can be raised 

 in the brood-chamber. My hives are ten-frame 

 Langstroth, and the bees usually fill 8 combs in the 

 brood-chamber and the lower half of the combs in 

 the upper story with brood before extracting com- 

 mences; but the queen is soon crowded out of the 

 super combs by the honey. This is contraction, 

 but I sometimes wish the brood-combs were as deep 

 as the Quinby frame, so the queens would not need 

 to go above for room. This might do if all the 

 super combs were built on foundation; but in buy- 

 ing bees 1 have got a lot of nice straight drone- 

 combs which are splendid to extract from, if the 

 queen could not get to them. Now, the great ques- 

 tion with me (and I wish you would pop It to the 

 vettrans this season) is, whether to melt up all 

 those drone combs, perhaps 2000, and put founda- 

 tion in the frames, or put a queen-excluder over the 

 brood-chambers and keep the drone-comb. 



