1887 



ULEANtNGS LN BEE CULTUKE. 



271 



A SWAKM OF BEES IN A FENOK-POST. 



I am very busy g-etting settled in our new home. 

 1 shall not have the many advantages lor bee-keep- 

 ing- here that I did at Mohawk. I shall have to see 

 what may be done in a location where little natural 

 forage seems to be afforded. 1 shall report as I ad- 

 \ ance. 1 go to Mohawk for my bees about April 

 Ist. It is about one month eailier here than there. 

 1 find 1 am not without bee.s. here, even now. 1 no- 

 tice one stock in a fence-post, and one in the roof of 

 the house. Those in the po.^t seem to have winter- 

 ed well with one side open to the weather. This 

 indicates a favorable location for wintering out of 

 doors. I will report results after 1 get all at work 

 in hives. Lvman C. Root. 



Stamford, Ct., Mar. 21, 18S7. 



Why, friend Ii.,you are starting a new 

 idea in the way of hives. A fence-post 

 would have one advantage— it would not be 

 easily blown over by the winds. It has 

 been suggested, that the rotten wood found 

 inside of a tree has a special advantage in 

 keeping the bees dry, and permitting the 

 necessary ventilation. A rotten log is some- 

 thing like the old straw hive. Put a super 

 over them filled with sections, and may be 

 you can give us a good report, even if your 

 present locality is not favorable, like your 

 old one. We are glad to hear from you in 

 your new home. 



NOT GOING OUT OF THE HONEY BUSINESS YET. 



I have 33 colonies in fair condition, from 25, fall 

 count; and although I have had more than the usu- 

 al average of losses, and less than the yearly es- 

 timated surplus, I can not help but believe there is 

 truth in the following, copied from Prov. 14:23: "In 

 all labor there is profit; but the talk of the lips 

 tendeth only to penury." As long as I can get 300 

 lbs. of pork for 100 lbs. of honey, and 10(1 bushels of 

 wheat for 600 lbs. of honey, 1 am going to raise the 

 honey and let others raise the pork and wheat, no 

 matter if honey goes down to 3 cts. I believe the 

 price of honey is conipai-ativelj' too high, regardless 

 of all the noise which has been made about its be- 

 ing ruinously low. 1 also believe that all the honey 

 in the counti'y can be easily disposed of by employ- 

 ing traveling agents of the right stamp, and sell di- 

 rect to the consumer. I. T. Goui^d. 



Corunna, Mich., Mar. 31, 1887. 



HOW TO KEGUIiATE THE VOLUME OF SMOKE IN A 

 SMOKER. 



I suppose you have often noticed, when using 

 smokers, when the wood was dry and the smoker 

 upright, it would burn too last; and when the smo- 

 ker was laid down flat it would go nearly out in a 

 few minutes, sometimes entirely. Now, I have de- 

 vised a plan to give the smoker any slant, and 

 thereby control the draft. The plan is this: A cor- 

 ner clamp, with slot therein, and a small thumb- 

 screw, is fastened to the corner of the bellows. A 

 rod is run through the slot, and fastened by a 

 slight turn of the thumb-screw. By adjusting the 

 rod, the smoker-bellows may be held at any angle. 

 I should like to know what j'ou think of it. 



O. F. Winter. 



Winterton, Sullivan Co., N. Y., March, 1887. 



We never have any trouble with the Clark 

 smoker, as now constructed, going out or 

 burning too fast Avlien not desired. If we 

 want a great volume of smoke we turn the 



Clark smoker on end. If wfe want it to 

 die down soon, we lay it so that the barrel 

 lies down in the grass. If we want it to 

 strike a medium between these two extremes 

 we lay it on the bellows, the same as seen in 

 our price list. As you ask my opini(m in re- 

 gard to your invention, I will be free to say 

 I think Ihere is too much machinery about 

 it for the average bee-keeper ; and while I 

 thiidv it would accomplish all the results 

 that you have claimed for it, yet 1 think 

 that the same results, or nearly tlie same, 

 may be ol)tained by the methods I have giv- 

 en above. 



IN FAVOK OK KMPTY FRAMES WITH STARTERS 

 ONLY. 



I have read with interest your journal in regard 

 to empty frames vs. empty combs. It may make 

 some difference in different locations, but 1 have 

 found in this section that I can get more surplus 

 honey (in comb) from a swarm hived on 10 L. frames 

 with only one-inch starters to get straight combs 

 than I can a swarm hived on 10 L. frames full of 

 empty combs. In the spring of 1886 I united two 

 colonies with others, as they were weak in stores, so 

 I could have the 20 frames to experiment on. The 

 fore part of May, 1886, I hived a swarm in each of 

 those ten-frame hives filled with comb. They made 

 me no surplus. The last of May, 1880, I hived a 

 swarm in the ten-frame hive with only starters of 

 foundation. They filled the ten frames with comb, 

 and gave me 24 lbs. of very nice comb 'honey. The 

 swarms were alike, the three queens being nearly of 

 the same age. I am convinced I can do better by 

 hiving on empty frames than I can on those filled 

 with empty combs— that is, box honey. 



JosiAH Eastburn. 



Fallsington. Bucks Co., Pa., March, 1887. 



W. S. KALEK DEFENDS HIS SW.\RMING-BOX. 



1 see on page 168, March No. of Gleanings, Mr. 

 Felton, of Newtown. Pa., has misrepresented m.\- 

 swarming-box to some extent, and I would ask the 

 privilege of explaining to your many readers the 

 advantages of my box. 



1. You do not stand and hold my box. Wait till the 

 bees cluster; put the box under, then shake, and 

 they cluster on the comb. 



3. We use a frame of comb in the box, and the 

 queen will alight and stay on it every time. 



3. The bees will stay on comb in a box any reason- 

 able length of time, and can be carried any dis- 

 tance, without the loss of bees. 



i. The mode and cheapness of its construction, 

 and the indorsements that it is getting from bee- 

 men, proves its value to them. I make this state- 

 ment to our brother bee-men who take Gle.\nings. 



Anderson villa, Ind., March .=>, 1887. W. S. Kaler. 



lutgen's methoi> of causing a bee filled 

 with honey to expel it, a prac- 

 tical success. 

 . I saw, in a recent issue of Gleanings, that, if 

 you would catch a bee by its wings, and press the 

 extremity of its abdomen on the thumb-nail, that, 

 by the pressure thus exercised, you would cause 

 the bee to regurgitate, or expel, in some way, 

 the honey from the honey-sack. 1 put the matter 

 to a practical test, and I assure you the test was in 

 every way satisfactory. The experiment was con- 

 ducted in the presence of Mr. A. S. Beach. As 

 soon as the pressure was applied, the honey would 



