JANUARY 1, 1913 



29 



Heads of Grain from Different Fields 



Bulk Comb Honey Brings 20 Cts. a Pound 



I reported to you last April that I had saved 

 all my bees hut one colony, and that I had ten 

 colonies in fair condition. I will tell you briefly 

 my 1912 experience. I worked for both extracted 

 and comb honey, or, in other words, I made all 

 bulk comb honey out of my crop. I used the shal- 

 low frame for comb honey and the regulation size 

 for extracted, and made a combination that seems 

 to please my customers. I put it up in 2%, 3%, 

 and 6 lb. buckets, and get 20 cts. per lb. for it. 1 

 closed the season Sept. 15, and I invoiced as fol- 

 lows: 1215 lbs. of honey, and my bees increased 

 from ten colonies to 23, and all in fine condition for 

 winter, either mild or severe. 



TELESCOPE COVERS FOR WINTER PROTECTION. 



I have adopted the telescope cover for winter pro- 

 tection that looks as if it would be a success. This 

 telescope is 30 inches wide, long, and high, covered 

 with rubberoid that slants to the rear with about 

 4 inches drop. This is stufifed, rammed, and cram- 

 med with forest leaves until it seems as if no cold 

 air could get to the hive except at the front that 

 faces east. 



I am not prepared for cellar wintering, and do 

 not believe I would swap my chances, as my bees 

 are now fixed for a bee-cellar if I had one conven- 

 ient. I feel reasonably sure that if I could save my 

 bees from freezing such a winter as last, with only 

 fair protection, that I shall have no trouble with 

 them in any winter, as I now have them snug and 

 warm. I put them away Oct. 2, and shall try to 

 forget them until April 1, so far as care is con- 

 cerned. These telescope covers cost me 68 cts. each ; 

 and as they will last as long as the hive I feel that 

 they are not expensive. 



GOOD OUTLOOK FOR ANOTHER SEASON. 



I was surprised at some of the reports from Indi- 

 ana regarding the small crop of honey. It seems to 

 me, as an amateur, that 121 lbs. per colony, spring 

 count, was not so bad; and had I expected such a 

 flow from white clover I certainly would have been 

 better prepared to receive it, and no doubt could 

 have increased this amount considerably. From the 

 white clover that we now see all over this part of 

 Indiana, it looks as if next year would be a re- 

 peater. 



Southport, Ind. J. F. Kiqht. 



A Missouri Beginner 



One day in September, 1909, I returned from 

 work earlier than usual — about 3 P. M. My back 

 yard seemed full of bees. I proceeded at once to 

 get out the garden hose and make rain for those 

 bees. It settled them all right, but in a bad place, 

 in the midst of an old grapevine that had not been 

 pruned for years. I had an old copy of " Facts 

 about Bees," so I hunted it up and hurriedly con- 

 sulted its pages. 



About the first thing I saw was in regard to us- 

 ing smoke to subdue cross bees. I knew those bees 

 in my back yard were cross, by the way they flew 

 round and round, and kept up such a loud hum. 

 So I made a smoker by wrapping cotton rags around 

 the end of a ten-foot piece of gas-pipe. The only 

 thing I could find for a hive was an empty box 

 about half as large as an eight-frame hive. 



By pushing it with my smoker, I got it under the 

 grapevine, and in position to receive the swarm; but 

 how to get bees out of that mass of vines I did not 

 know. I lighted my smoker, and by blowing through 

 the gas-pipe I could make plenty of smoke. The 

 smoke only scattered the bees among the vines. As a 

 last resort I swung my smoker high in the air and 

 aimed a smashing blow at one side Of the cluster. 



Every bee went to the ground with a thud, and soon 

 ran into the box (I guess they were glad to go 

 anywhere by that time). 



I now read the booklet more carefully, and dis- 

 covered that bees should be fed in the fall if short 

 of stores, so I went to the corner grocery and bought 

 a pound of honey. I put oflf giving it to them that 

 evening. 



The next day was Sunday. When I went out to 

 look at the bees there were none in sight. I waited 

 a few minutes; still nothing doing. I carefully 

 turned up the box, finding one dead bee under it, 

 nothing more. We had honey for Sunday dinner. 

 My wife and neighbors had the laugh on me; but I 

 had a well-developed case of bee fever. 



The next spring I bought a two-frame nucleus in 

 a Danzenbaker hive. 



The years 1911 and 1912 have been poor ones in 

 this vicinity ; yet my two-frame nucleus has increas- 

 ed to two strong colonies that have given a fair 

 amount of surplus each year. 



Kansas City, Mo. Edw. G. Smith. 



A Simple Plan for Frame Wiring; Efficiency with- 

 out Expensive Equipment 



I have often noticed in the bee journals mention 

 of devices made especially for wiring frames — in 

 fact, some of them rather elaborate. As the follow- 

 ing plan is so very simple and yet extreiflely prac- 

 ticable it will perhaps be of assistance to some who 

 are doing this very necessary work in a roundabout 

 way. 



It might be well to begin work with the frames 

 out of six eight-frame supers, as a convenient num- 

 ber to handle at one time and to pile them on the 

 table in front of you at either the right or the left. 

 It is understood, of course, that they have been 

 punched the requisite number of times in each end. 

 For a seat, use a couple of empty bodies on top of 

 one another. This will give you a rest for your feet, 

 and will overcome the feeling of being perched on a 

 fence, besides putting you on a proper level with the 

 table. Your knees will be well up in front of you. 



Take a frame ; place it endwise with the bottom- 

 bar up between your knees. The spool of wire should 

 be slung around your waist with a short piece of the 

 wire itself. This is the outstanding feature. The 

 spool will lie in the hollow above the leg at the waist 

 line, and the friction will keep it neatly coiled, and 

 yet permit of free unwinding. 



As yet your two hands are unoccupied, and can 

 be used to the best advantage — i. e., in threading 

 the wire back and forth through the perforated end- 

 bars. Have a pair of pliers on the super between 

 your knees for cutting the wire when enough has 

 been pulled oflF. Go through the whole lot of frames 

 with this operation, simply giving the wire a bend 

 around each end-bar, and then come back again to 

 make them taut, the latter operation permitting of a 

 rest to the knees as you now hold the frame side- 

 wise between them, with the end-bars alternately 

 up ; and the loose ends of wire are best fastened by- 

 shoving them through the hole a second time and 

 turning it round and round the horizontal wire close 

 to the end-bar. No hammer or nails have to be used, 

 and considerable time is saved. 



Working on a suggestion of Mr. Morley Pettit, we 

 used a fourth wire in our frames, placed about 

 three-eighths inch below the top-bar. This wire 

 catches the upper extremity of the sheet of wax, 

 holding it close to the top-bar ; and in every case 

 where the supers were placed on colonies in the 

 evening, and the bees allowed to run up from below, 

 they were fastened securely by the bees. 



The time of day does not make much difference ; 

 but in hiving sw^rn^s it; would be best tq \ise sheets 



