544 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



-July 



pies is too narrow to admit of drawing it out with 

 the fingers, and therefore it becomes necessary to 

 have a booli for that purpose. One hook is enough 

 for each operator, and the expense for springs is 

 only a trifle, besides being a permanent investment. 

 In fact, they need not cost any thing, if you can 

 find some old bed-springs, for you can malie tliem 

 yourself when you have leisure, and all the tools re- 

 quired are a vise, a hammer, and a chisel. If the 

 springs should come into general use it might per- 

 haps pay to make them by machinery; but then the 

 trouble of many different sizes might arise. I 

 therefore think it better that each one should make 

 his own springs, using only the original shape as a 

 pattern. 



Let nie here say, that the super-spring is not in- 

 tended for reversing-arrangements. For such you 

 must use something that can not slip, and here the 

 screw is perhaps the best implement. 



TO GET THE LAST SECTION IN THE T SUPEK. 



On p. 460, Dr. Miller 

 speaks of the difficul- 

 ty of getting the last 

 section into the T su- 

 per. I have never, as 

 yet, seen the T super; 

 but from the descrip- 

 tions I think 1 can 

 form a pretty correct 

 idea of what if is like. 

 Let me suggest, that 

 the doctor try the implement here illustrated. A 

 strip of tin, c a, 36 inches long, is cut off, the width 

 of a section, and bent in the shape of the letter U. 

 In the bend is fastened a semicircular block of wood, 

 a, as thick as the width of the tin, and with a diam- 

 eter of 4i'4 inches, or a little over. The U is placed 

 upside down on the T tins, between the two adjoin- 

 ing sections, h h, and the last section, c, is slipped 

 into the top of the U and pushed down between its 

 smooth sides, wbere it will have nothing to catch on. 

 When the section is in place, withdraw the U. 



" Too much machinery," I hear you say again. 

 Well, let the doctor try it and report. If it does not 

 give satisfaction, there is not much loss. 



ABOUT ILLUSTRATIONS. 



There is no doubt that illustrations are a valuable 

 aid to the full understanding of much that we read. 

 I shall soon give a description of an e.xcellent and 

 cheap home-made cameraobscuni, with the help of 

 which any one can easily illustrate what he wishes 

 to describe. The artist's camera which you adver- 

 tised some years ago, and which I bought of you, is 

 too small, and necessitates transferring the picture; 

 while with the one I have in view, you draw direct- 

 ly on the paper, and on a larger scale, which will be 

 easier for most artists. Wm. Muth-Kasmussen. 



Independence, Cal., June 37, 1887. 



I plead guilty, friend M., to the charge 

 that I so often make, of complication, or too 

 much machinery ; and that is just exactly 

 what I should say of your invention figured 

 above ; that is, it seems to me I would 

 rather get along without it than to have it 

 around. But I might be mistaken, if I made 

 it my regular business. Ernest says he has 

 been bothered to some extent by this very 

 matter, and there is no question but that 

 your device will work every time. Will the 

 friends who make a trial of it please report? 



MTINTBRING BEES. 



.1. E. POND'S EXPERIMENTS. 



HY is there such a difference in the results 

 from wintering our bees'? One is uniform- 

 ly successful, while another loses a large 

 percentage, if not all, although in practic- 

 ally the same locality, and under the same 

 climatic differences. I am led to ask the above 

 question by reading of the ill luck (I suppose) of 

 many in the same situation as regards climate as 

 myself, while I ha\'e not lost a colony Ijy reason of 

 the weather for over 16 yeai'S, and wintering, too, 

 on summer stands. With this question in my mind 

 I prepared my bees (ten colonies) last fall for the 

 purpose of experimenting. Some were in chaff 

 hives, some in double-walled hives with dead-air 

 space, two in 's-inch, and two in 'j-inch hives, and 

 all on Simplicity L. frames, 17?8 long and it's deep. 

 They all came safely through, and in excellent con- 

 dition, with but little difference in strength, al- 

 though with considerable difference in the amount 

 of stores consumed; and, strange to say, a colony 

 in a chaff" hive consumed the most, and one in a 

 i4-inch-thick hive the least; and this, too, by care- 

 ful weighing on the same day in fall and spring, 31*4 

 lbs. being the most consumed, and Wi lbs. the least, 

 from November 11th to March 5th, each colony be- 

 ing as nearly like every other in the fall as ten 

 hives could well be made, as regards strength and 

 stores, and all being hived on nine frames in a 14^4- 

 inch-wide brood-chamber. 



Some of these colonies were kept in two-story 

 hives with full access to every part. Some had a 

 Hill device over the frames, the others having an 

 inch or more space over the tops of frames, given 

 by putting on a rim about an inch deep covered 

 with common burlap. All the hives were given full 

 width of entrance, and all had 5 or 6 inches of for- 

 est-leaves packed moderately hard on top of the 

 frames, over the covering quilt made of burlap, top 

 ventilation lieing given by boring a two-inch hole 

 in each end of the cover. The colonies were all 

 prepared alike, except the difference mentioned in 

 the hives, and all had a southern exposure, with a 

 thick hedge 6^4 feet high on the north and west 

 sides. The brood-chambers of all were prepared as 

 follows: 



Nine frames, the upper halves tilled with sealed 

 stores; none in the lower half; in November the 

 hives were all examined, and the clusters forced by 

 changing frames to the west side of the hives. 

 Those wintered in two-story hives had three or four 

 frames of honey in the upper story, the rest being 

 empty. The queens in these were confined to 

 the lower story, the workers having access to 

 the upper, if they chose to go there, which they 

 did, and from which they transferred all the honey. 

 My deductions from the above are. that cold does 

 not kill our bees, and that, if the hives are so pre- 

 pared that the excess of moisture is so disposed of 

 that it can not freeze in the brood-nest, there will be 

 no trouble with bees dying in winter, or dwindling, 

 or being depopulated by diarrhea in spring. In the 

 matter of stores, the cells were practically all seal- 

 ed, and pollen was distributed through the hives as 

 it ordinarily would be in the fall, none of it being- 

 removed when being pj-epared for winter. 



If this immunity from loss in my apiary were but 

 a single instance, I should deem the matter one of 



