58 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



ine three hives of pure Italians than one of hy- 

 brid or black bees. Hence when any one here- 

 after claims gentleness as evidence of purity, let 

 him not forget to remember that very much de- 

 pends on the operator himself; and that bees do 

 uot manifest the same ill temper towards all in- 

 dividuals who approach them, just as the 

 poison of their stings does not affect all persons 

 idike — otherwise our queen dealers may get in- 

 to undeserved disrepute. 



W. Wolff. 

 Jefferson, Wis. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Non-Swarming. 



Mr. Editor : — The swarming season has 

 come (and nearly gone), and brought with it 

 some disappointment, perhaps, in some cases. 

 I have no fault to find. My bees have done as 

 well as they ever did, so far as swarming is 

 concerned. But there is one difficulty we have 

 here, in this locality at least, in Iowa. Our bees 

 prosper well in the spring, and seem to get 

 plenty of pollen and honey from the willow and 

 fruit blossoms. They raise brood rapidly ; and 

 by the last of May, good stocks are ready to 

 swarm. So says Mrs. Tupper in the Agricul- 

 tural Report ; but I cannot agree with her in 

 regard to the reason she assigns why they do 

 not then swarm. I understand her to say that 

 a few cold days prevents them. It is not so 

 with my bees. They commenced to swarm 

 the last week in May, and continued till the 

 second week in June. Then they began to kill 

 off their drones, and all further thought of 

 swarming seemed to be given up. In fact my bees 

 were starving all through Juue. All they seem- 

 ed to get, or nearly all, was from the white 

 clover, of which there is but little here. At the 

 last of May, so far as I examined, the hives 

 were very populous and the combs full of 

 brood ; and on the 8th of July, when the bass- 

 wood commenced to blossom, their working 

 force was much smaller, and the hives did not 

 contain half the amount of brood. The swarms 

 that I got, I had hard work to prevail on them 

 to stay with me, and had actually to resort to 

 feeding. 



This is not so only one season; but it is the his- 

 tory of every season. Well, I wish some of 

 your correspondents would tell us how we shall 

 obviate this difficulty. Shall we feed during 

 this interval of scarcity ? Or can we plant or 

 sow something that will begin to yield honey 

 about the 1st of June ? If so, taking ten stocks 

 as a basis, what quantity of ground will be suffi- 

 cient ? E. Siiulze. 



Brownsville, Iowa. 



In Tusser's " Five Hundred Points of Hus- 

 bandry,'''' under the month of May, are these 

 lines : 

 "Take heed for thy bees that are ready to 



swarme ; 

 The losse thereof now, is a crown's worth of 



liarme." 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Honey-Emptying Machine. 



As there have been many inquiries about our 

 honey machine, we give directions for making 

 them, as follows : 



Get a tinsmith to make you a tin can two feet 

 high and eighteen inches across, straight sides. 

 This will hold frames from both the American 

 and the Langstroth hives. Get a straight piece 

 of three-quarter inch iron rod for shaft ; and fix 

 or have soldered in the centre of the bottom, 

 inside, a piece of iron with a hole drilled partly 

 through, for bottom bearing. For top bearing 

 get a piece of wood two inches thick and about 

 three inches wide in the middle, and curving 

 out broader at each end, say to five inches, and 

 cut so as to slip closely over the edge of the can, 

 to steady it. Our propelling power is the crank 

 and gearing of a malleable iron apple-pearer; but 

 we have thought that a crank placed directly 

 on top of the shaft would give sufficient speed, 

 as we have to turn quite slowly, especially in 

 warm weather. Can Mr. Langstroth tell us 

 anything about that ? Well, our machine is 

 now all done, except the frame to hold the 

 combs, which we make in this wise : 



We cut two pieces of wire cloth a little lar- 

 ger both ways than our comb frames. (Of 

 course the Langstroth frames are turned so as 

 to stand the longest way up and down). We 

 then took galvanized white wire clothes line, 

 bent all around the wire cloth near the edge, 

 and soldered it. Then soldered a wire to each 

 corner and around the shaft, leaving space 

 enough between the frames so that these would 

 clear the can in revolving, and two wire braces 

 to each frame from the lower corners to near the 

 top of the shaft. This completed it. It is sim- 

 ply a square wire frame, with wire cloth on two 

 sides and shaft in the centre. 



Solder all wires and braces on the outside of 

 the wire cloth, so as to leave a smooth level 

 wire cloth for the combs to rest against ; and 

 arrange the braces so as not to be in the way of 

 handling the frames rapidly. 



With our lady assistant we emptied, weighed 

 and sealed up, 285 pounds of honey, in about 

 three-fourths of a day. 



We have never yet been favored with any 

 buckwheat honey, but should really like to try 

 our machine on it. 



Wc should have remarked that we pour our 

 honey into a large jar with a strainer attached, 

 and it is then run out by a faucet into the self- 

 sealing pint jars, as they stand on a pair of 

 scales ; so that it is quickly and accurately 

 weighed. 



The experience of others with the comb-emp- 

 tying machines, would be considered a favor 

 by Novice. 



Bread and honey was the chief food of the 

 Pythagoreans, according to the statement of 

 Aristoxenus, who says that those who ate this 

 for breakfast were free from disease all their 

 lives. 



