804 



GLEAN l^trS IN BEE CULTUUE. 



Apr. 



I And I need to watch against taking cold more 

 than overwork, as much of our bee-work is done sit- 

 ting- or standing in the open air. When we have a 

 good many bees we need occasionally to work in 

 damp, cool, or windy weather. I have been nearly 

 all my lite troubled with weak lungs, being given 

 up as in the last stages of consumption when at the 

 age of 19 and 20, then in later years could hardly 

 live through the cold winters on account of having 

 pneumonia so often. 



All lady bee-keepers should have rubber boots; 

 They should put on extra clothing, a small hood un- 

 der the bee-hat, and a tight-fitting cloak of light-col- 

 ored heavy goods to wear in cool and damp weath- 

 er. They should fix themselves up comfortably, 

 so a bee can't crawl inside their clothing, and they 

 will enjoy their work much more. They should not 

 do as a woman did I once knew, who took great 

 pains to fasten her hat on securely, and then rolled 

 her split-open sleeves up to her shoulders. With 

 her dress partly unfastened, she pitched into her 

 bees, and they pitched into her in so lively a man- 

 ner she thought "bee-keeping did not pay," and so 

 borrowed our extractor and took all their honey 

 away in the fall. She wondered why her bees died 

 in winter. Mrs. L. C. Axtell,. 



RosevMle, Illinois. 



I heartily indorse your remarks on good 

 and comfortable clothing for your sex, Mrs. 

 A., especially where they undertake open- 

 air work like l)ee-keeping, etc.; and I hope 

 no lady will he deterred from using rubber 

 boots, by the thought that it may be unlady- 

 like. It is always ladylike to be well protect- 

 ed. My wife has got in quite a habit lately 

 of using my own rubber boots when she has 

 occasion to go to the bain, and she says they 

 are a real comfort. Most shoestores nowa- 

 days have light rubber boots specially for 

 ladies. Throat troubles, and perhaps many 

 cases of consumption might be kept away 

 by proper care and the use of proper pre- 

 cautions when going out in the wet and 

 damp weather. 



^ I ^ — 



T-SUPEB FEEDER. 



DR. c. c. millj;r tells us how to feed bees. 



T SHOULD say there are, in all reason, enough 

 /fflf feeders without a new one; but T wanted one 

 ^i that would cost little, hold much, and be con- 

 ■^ veniently used as an accompaniment to the T 

 super, so I submit the one I have planned. It 

 is made of pine wood, and is nailed together with 

 %-in. wire nails. The materials are: 



1 piece 1.5 x IIV4 x ^4 (a) 



2 '• 11«4 X 418 X V4 (b) 

 2 " 14 X -iVi X 14 (c) 



2 " UVt X 21/2 X H, (d) 



4 " Hytx-m'x%(e) 



First a plain box is made by taking two of the 

 pieces e for sides, and nailing upon them the two 

 pieces h for ends, and then nailing on the piece a 

 for a bottom. As this is to be a water-tight box, 

 the nails should be put in quite thickly. 1 have 

 put them in about % of nn inch apart, and I'm not 

 sure whether a different distance would be any 

 better. In order to make them hold tighter I slant 

 each nail in driving, slanting the first nail one way 

 and the next the other. Barbed nails (if such 

 small nails are ever barbed) might be better, and 



would not need to be slanted in nailing. Allow me 

 to say. in passing, that the principal objection to 

 the wire nails is their smoothness, which makes 

 them pull out more easily. If barbed, this difficul- 

 ty is overcome; and a simple way to have them 

 perhaps even better than barbed is merely to let 

 them get rusted. A rusted wire nail will hold very 

 tight. In nailing the bottom on to the side pieces 

 e, the nails need not be more than half as close to- 

 gether, as the grain of the wood here runs in such 

 direction that such close nailing is not needed. 

 The remaining two pieces, 6, are to be nailed in the 

 box, one parallel to each of the side-pieces, leaving 

 between it and the side piece a space of % inch. It 

 will be seen that the ends of the box are \ of an 

 inch higher than the sides, and the two inside 

 pieces, e, that are afterward added, are to come 

 dush with the upper edge of the ends, and this will 

 leave a space of | of an inch between these inside 

 pieces and the bottom. Very few nails are needed 

 to fasten these inside pieces, as no strain comes up- 

 on them, and they are not to be water-tight. 



Top. 



n 



b'llJ. 1.— OKOSS-SKC'l'lON 

 VtfcJW FROM END. 



Bottom. 



F'ig. 1 represents a cross-section, showing how the 

 end-board is nailed on the pieces e. 



Now on each side nail a piece, d, upon the upper 

 edge of the inside piece e, making the inside edge 

 of d come flush with the inside surface off. Only 

 a few nails, say 5, are needed for this. Now, upon 

 the upper edge of each end of the box nail the 

 piece c, by driving three or four nails at each cor- 

 ner, making these nails (if not rusted) slant in 

 opposite directions, as they are to bear the whole 

 weight of the box, and all its contents. These three 

 nails at each corner should be close together, per- 



DIAGRAMS OF DR. MILLER'S T-SCPER FEEDER. 



haps V4 of an inch apart. Fig. 3 shows the position 

 the pieces c and d occupy when nailed on the box. 



The feeder is now complete, except that a strip 

 of wire clotb must be nailed upon the outside low- 

 er edge of the inside piece r. to itreN'cnt the bees 

 from crawiing through iiiKier iliis botinl. Of 

 course, this strip of wire cloth must ootnc clear 

 down to the bottom of tht- hox, and it should have 

 been nailed upon e before putting the box togeth- 

 er. For convenience in making, it is probably 



