188? 



GLEANINGS iN BEE CULTURE. 



68.') 



last spring:, and ordered it to come by freight, with 

 three weeks for it to come in before we needed it, 

 and you sent it by express, which cost me 75 cents; 

 and when we got it from the express office there 

 was a hole torn in the sack. You could press a 

 good-sized ejrg through it. T don't think there was 

 much seed lost, but it was a bother, and I want 

 your ABC book so bad. If you do not want to 

 send it, please don't. I shall not be at all mad. I 

 hare made out as bad a case as *1 can, only to tell 

 you how badly I got stung yesterday. 



Mks. Chas. Pennington. 

 Cottage Grove, Minn., Aug. 11, 1887. 



My good friend, if people are imposing up- 

 on me there is one pleasant thing about it— 

 I don't know it; and, you know, '' where 

 ignorance is bliss, "tis folly to be wise." 

 May be I do sometimes do a'little more than 

 my part in trying to have things pleasant 

 and satisfactory ; but what harm does it do, 

 when I have all I need, and more too, of all 

 that the world can furnish V May be it is 

 true, that my wants are not very great ; and 

 if this is true, I am glad again. Your tu st 

 and second reasons do not count very much 

 for a smoker ; but if our clerks disobeyed 

 orders, as per your No. 3, I think we liad 

 better send you the book and call it square. 

 If it is more than you ought to have under 

 the circumstances, why, just lend it to your 

 neighbors, and do good with it, and that 

 will make it all right, so far as I am con- 

 cerned. 



THAT BEFORE-DINNEK NAP. 



AI.SO SOME IMPORTANT SUGGESTIONS IX HEGAHH 

 TO THE USE OF SLATTED HONEY-BOAUDS. 



fRIEND ROOT:— I want to flght some more 

 about the nap before dinner, and I shall be 

 heartily glad if you whip. I consider it a 

 matter of exceeding importance that we 

 should understand this matter thoroughly, 

 and know just what ought to be done. We are 

 agreed that the twenty minutes' rest before dinner 

 is desirable, and i have I'aised the question, " Where 

 is the chance for it?"— a question which you 

 haven't answered. I venture to say that 999 out of 

 every 1000 women in the Gleanings constituency 

 will say the thing can't be done. Of course, I mean 

 where the woman has no help, and the thing to be 

 regularly continued. I can think of some meals 

 where it is practicable, as a meal of bread and milk, 

 or of cerealiue and milk, or any meal where every 

 thing is cold and no cooking done, and perhaps it 

 would be better for all if there were more such 

 meals. Hut in most cases there is a cooked dinner. 

 Suppose it is a plain dinner of beefsteak and pota- 

 toes, plain boiled. "Just before dinner time," 

 when the steak is done and the potatoes boiled, let 

 the cook lie down for twenty minutes, and in what 

 shape will the dinner be? 



Now, Mr. Root, you didn't ask your wife about it, 

 did you? I have great respect for her opinions; and 

 if she agrees with you I shall say the thing is feasi- 

 ble, and try my best to put it in practice. The aft- 

 er-dinner rest I freijuenlly insist upon, sometimes 

 " by force and arms." Our good friend Mrs. Harri- 

 son (p. 669) takes an hour's rest before eating her 



dinner— does she cook the dinner before that hour's 

 rest? I suggested to my wife that it would be the 

 right thing for her to rest before dinner, and she 

 replied, " I guess you'd get some funny meals." 

 Then with a good-natured laugh she added, " There 

 are some things men know precious little about." 



IS THE SLATTED HONEY-BOAKD DESIRABLE? 



Referring to page 656, I have given a pretty fair 

 trial to the plan of using stipers without shitted 

 honey-boards. I can hardl.v believe that I got any 

 more honey than with. By the use of a bait section, 

 which I s^hould use in any case, I have no troulile 

 about getting the bees to occupy the si-ctions 

 promptly, as soon as they have any thing to store 

 in them. Until this year I did not suppose they 

 would occupy them when honey was not yielding; 

 but during the terrible drought this summer I 

 found supers filled with bees, although they were 

 not storing an ounce, and all the sections except 

 one had nothing in them except empty foundation. 

 Between the top-bars of the brood-frames and what 

 is placed immediately over, I have always found 

 brace-combs and honey, or else bee-glue, if honey 

 is stored above. It is possible that just such a space 

 might be made that neither glue nor comb would 

 be placed in it, but in actual practice I have never 

 reached it. (By the way, if T had not so many hives 

 already on hand I would give a trial to the plan of 

 J. B. Hall, of Woodstock, Canada. He showed me 

 frames that he uses, with top-bars an inch thick: 

 and, if I am not mistaken, he said no brace-combs 

 were built over such top-bars.) Now, there is waste 

 in having the space filled over the top bars; and if 

 a honey-biiard is used, this waste occurs once in a 

 season; whereas if no honey board is used, and 

 three supers are put on in a season, putting each 

 super, as is the practice, next the brood-nest, there 

 will be three times as much waste. So if the honey- 

 board is no hindrance to the bees going up (as I 

 think it is not, with proper management), it looks 

 as if more honey could be obtained with than with- 

 out honey-boards. I dislike tbe job of cleaning up 

 these honey-boards when they are taken otT at the 

 close of the season. It is a sticky, dauby job, if at 

 once cleaned off; but as there is no hurry about it I 

 put a lot of them over a hive, confined so no robbers 

 can get at them; and after the bees have cleaned 

 off all honey I clean off the wax at my leisure. Bad 

 as this is, it is several times worse if no honey-board 

 is used. Instead of one job for the season, each su- 

 per, when changed from its place immediately over 

 the frames, must be cleaned off; and this with the 

 dripping honey in the way, right in the busy time 

 when every minute counts. 



HONEY SEASON OF 1887. 



The worst I ever knew. One word tells the whole 

 story— drought. My colonies have been strong all 

 through the summer, and I have taken in all some- 

 thing like 300 pounds of section honey, mostly from 

 the Wilson apiary, a good share of this being a sin- 

 gle section (the bait) in a super. In some cases, if 

 not all, the bees filled this one section of empty 

 comb when there was abundance of empty room in 

 the brood-combs. A curious feature has been the 

 absence of troul)le from robbers throughout the 

 entire season, possibl.v because they have been 

 handled so little. At this date, Sept. 6. the bees 

 seem to be working quite husilj', at least in the 

 forenoon, but iio gain of honey appears in the 

 brood-combs. They are. however, full of brood, 



