288 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



[May, 



are. It is true I lost two stocks out of thirty- 

 six, but it was from another cause than tlie wuat 

 of wire cloth. In the remainder of the stock, 

 the loss did not average over twenty bees per 

 stock. If Mr. Adam Grimm had to take out the 

 whole of his stock of bees and return them 

 again, even once, each winter, it would be quite 

 a task. Now, friend Lane, answer candidly : — 

 *' Why add the expense of wii'e cloth, if it is not 

 necessary?" and it certainly is not ; for I have, 

 foa' years, wintered bees successfully without it. 

 Still, I have not the least objection to other par- 

 ties using it, if they wish. But I think it a great 

 deal better to teach others how to ventilate their 

 hives properly and have thein winter success- 

 fully ; because it is a fixed fact that if bees are 

 not properly ventilated, even with the wire cloth, 

 they will almost certainly perish before spring. 



Tyro, evidently, has had but very little experi- 

 ence with hybrid queens. His queen, no doubt, 

 was a hybrid of the worst stripe ; and, allow- 

 ing me to be judge, the mother of said queen 

 was a hybrid also. I never could succeed in 

 raising a pure queen from an impure mother ; 

 but one of our noted queen breeders claims, in 

 a private letter, that he can do it. I should like 

 to see the tools he does it with. 



We see that our friend Adam Grimm went 

 into the novel process of making artificial colo- 

 nies out of old workers as much as possible, to 

 introduce new queens to. As he is an old hand, 

 he has a perfect right to do so ; but the new be- 

 ginner, if he wishes to succeed, should endeavor 

 to make artificial swarms consisting of young 

 bees only, to introduce strange queens to. For 

 example, take the frame containing the old 

 queen out, and place it in a new hive ; set the 

 new hive on the old stand, and remove the old 

 hive to a new location. In twenty-four hours, 

 providing the weather is right, all the old bees 

 will have left the new location, and we can in- 

 troduce a new queen successfully with almost 

 any ceremony ; nay, we have repeatedly intro- 

 duced them, in such cases, without any cere- 

 mony whatever. Understand, we do not recom- 

 mend this method exclusively, but we give it for 

 illustration merely. Almost any method will 

 answer, if we first provide a colony with all 

 young bees ; we are then certain to introduce a 

 queen successfully. We do not say that it will 

 never fail ; but Ave do say that we have never 

 failed under these circumstances. With old 

 workers, they frequently apparently accept the 

 queens, and then supersede them in from eight 

 to twelve days. 



E. Gallup. 



Orchard, Iowa. 



[For the American Bee Jourual.] 



A New Fumigator- 



Mb. Editor : — As the season for active opera- 

 tions in tlic^apiary is approaching, perhaps some 

 of your readers may feel interested in the descrip- 

 tion of a new fumigator, which suits me better 

 than any heretofore described in the Bee Journal. 



In few words it may be described as a box six 



inches long, by two wide and two deep, with a 

 hole in each end and a wire cage an inch in 

 diameter running lengthwise through the centre 

 of the box, to hold a roll of cotton rags, a piece 

 of punk, or a "buftalo chip." Now for par- 

 ticulars : 



The ends of the box are made of pieces of pine, 

 two inches square and three and a half inches 

 long, with a quarter inch hole bored centrally 

 lengthwise. One end of each piece is tapered — 

 one being for a mouth-piece, the other for a noz- 

 zle. The sides are of f stuff, 2 by 7^ inches. 

 The bottom and cover are 2| inches by 7.^. The 

 cover to be well fitted, hung with wire hinges, 

 and well battered on the outside to prevent 

 warping. Before putting the box together, 

 punch a circle of six holes, ^ inch deep, on the 

 inside of the end pieces around the central hole 

 and half an inch from it, to receive the ends of 

 six wires 65- inches long, which form the wire 

 cage before referred to, for holding the rag, 

 punk or " chip." 



A small spring, placed in a slot or mortice on 

 the top of one of the end pieces, throws up the 

 cover half an inch to admit air when the instru- 

 ment is not in use. The act of picking it up 

 closes the cover. 



Should a longer nozzle be desired, a piece of 

 elder from whidi the pith has been punched, in- 

 serted in a half inch hole in the nozzle, answers 

 an excellent purpose. Mine is nearly a foot 

 long, and is all the better for being crooked. 



One thing more. Has any of your readers, as 

 I have many a time, wished to get his fumigator 

 to his mouth when he had his bee hat on '? If 

 so, he may be interested in my arrangement for 

 facilitating that operation. Make a hole in your 

 hat opposite your mouth, 1^ inches square. 

 Perpendicularly over this, fasten two pieces of 

 gum elastic ribbon, two inches long and \ of an 

 inch wide. Put two more similar pieces across 

 horizontally, fastening at the ends, and the 

 thing is done. The mouth-piece of your fumi- 

 gator can be pushed at pleasure through this 

 elastic ribbon, making a tight fit always, and 

 closing when the instrument is withdrawn. 



If any one should wish to refer to this, to pre- 

 vent circumlocution, I would suggest that they 

 call it BartleWs Right-angular, Gum elastic, Self- 

 closing Fumigator Fort-hole for Bee Hats ! N. B. 

 No patent applied for. 



Michael W. Bartlett. 

 West Newbury, Mass., April 18, 1871. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



A Question for Solution. 



A and B buy 400 hives for $400, each paying 

 $200. When they came to divide them, A said 

 to B, I am willing to pay fifty centsvpcr hive 

 more than you, if you give me the choice of the 

 hives. They so agreed to divide them. How 

 many did each get ; and how much per hive did 

 each pay ? 



John B. Overton. 



Le.ving!on, Ky., March 35, 1871. 



