18 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



An^st 1, 1632. 



hive. They carried up 15 or 20 pounds, and upon 

 this they U\ ed through tlie winter. Many more of 

 the hees I lost in feeding, hy their getiir ■: ima the 

 honey, before I had learned how to prevent it ; so 

 that my stock came out very slender tl.is s| rin". 

 But they have done tolerably well this s'Jiiiinsr. 



The stock that I transferred July VilU of the 

 present season, and to which I nniteil another, 

 September 20th, as already stated, I commenced 

 feeding immediately, and ted them as often as 

 once or twice a week until the union. From that 

 time to the present, I have designed to i;ive them 

 daily all the honey they would carry up, which 

 has been about 30 pounds. They have, tlierefore 

 been vigorous and active all the while, and are 

 now well furnished for the winter. If I transfer 

 another stock after the middle of June, it is my 

 design to give them daily all that they will cat and 

 carry up for the rest of the season. As I use the 

 Charlieshope hive, I should like to have a stock fill 

 the lower apartment with this cheap honey. They 

 would make so much the more in the boxes the 

 ensuing season, that I tliink it would be good 

 econotny. 



I am, gentlemen, your obedient servant, 



J. R. BARBOUR. 



Mivbury (Byfield,) J^Tov. 10, 1831. 



P. S.— I have thought, that it would be inter- 

 esting to the Trustees to peruse a letter which I 

 received from Gorham Parsons, Esq. of Brighton 

 giving a particular account of his success in using 

 my apparatus. I therefore send the letter along 

 with this conmiunication. 



In reading Mr Parsons' letter, I am reminded of 

 one thing on which I have not spoken. It is in 

 regard to the number of bees destroyed in trans- 

 ferring a stock. I would say then, that in remov- 

 ing them from a common hive, you need not lose 

 any, except such as may happen to get maimed in 

 some of the operations. The water will not kill 

 them. It only renders them torpid. Heat will 

 reanimate them. Hence the necessity of taking a 

 warm pleasant day for the operation. 



l!niGHToK,Sfploml)i>r 1st, 1832. 



^Deah, Sir— I availed myself of the liberty you 

 gave me when at Byfield, and ai)plied at the New 

 England Farmer office for your model of the ap- 

 paratus for removing bees from an old or defect- 

 ive hive to a new one. It was readily di'livered 

 to ine, and I had a cistern and receiver made of 

 the proper dimensions, conforming to the model 

 which I have since returned in the same good or- 

 der as when received by me, and I beg you to ac- 

 cept my thanks for the loan of it. I made use of 

 niy apparatus soon after it was made, and the paint 

 dry, and have succeeded so well, thai I feel bound 

 to communicate to you the particiilare, winch are 

 as follow, and by which you will perceive whether 

 I followed the directions you gave me. On the 

 19th of August, I commenced with an old square 

 hive, with five glasses on the top, in each of wliich 

 the bees had made more or less comb. This 

 swarm was put into the hive in June, 1897, and 

 had performed well till this season ; and this was 

 the only hive I owned that had nut given me one 

 or more swarms this season ; from four hives I 

 had six swarms, and succeeded in hiving them all 

 securely. In this old hive I was apprehensive 

 that there was some difficulty, from the confused 

 manner in which they left, and a|)proached the 

 hive, and the irritable disposition tliey showed on 

 approaching the apiary since the early part of 



summer. I was under the necessity of having my 

 garden syringe used very freely, to make them 

 sufficiently quiet to remove the bottom board, and 

 put the follower, as you term it, in its place. I 

 soon succeeded, and took out the bottom board, 

 which, in this hive only, had not been exchanged 

 for near two months, in consequence of their dis- 

 position to sting all who approached. On this 

 bottom board I found more than a dozen worms, 

 from one half inch to an inch and a quarter in 

 length, all active, and moving very quick, except 

 two, which the bees had covered close with their 

 propolis. While examining the bottom board, 

 one of the worms bored through the end of his 

 covering, and crawled out ; he was an inch and 

 five-eighths long, and as large as a common pipe- 

 stem, a few inches from the end. The other worm 

 that was covered, on raising the propolis with my 

 knife, I found had nearly effected his escape by 

 making a pathway in the wood under his cover- 

 ing ; it appeared as if made by a gouge — nearly 

 one quarter of an inch in width, and of tlie same 

 depth ; he would soon have obtained bis liberty. 

 I was fully satisfied the worms would have soon 

 destroyed my bees, and was glad I had commenced 

 their removal. The last mentioned worm was 

 quite as large as the other; their bodies of a yel- 

 lowish white, their heads covered willi a hard yel- 

 low scale. The next morning, the 20th, I stop- 

 ped entrance of hive, — buckled straps to secure 

 the follower,- — took off glasses from top of hiv«, — 

 corked up boles leading to glasses, and removed 

 hive from apiary, — then attached the receiver to 

 bottom of follower, and took the hive (top pn 

 which glasses stood down,) and jilaccd it in crS- 

 tern,— then, after drawing the sliders on the follo>v- 

 cr and in the bottom of receiver, filled the cistern 

 gradually with water nearly to the top of the hive. 

 The bees went up readily, and appeared to fill the 

 receiver, which was then removed from the o.'d 

 hive, first closing the bottom of receiver with the 

 tin slides. On examining the old hive. \ found ii] 

 one corner of it more than one hundred worms of 

 all sizes. They had covered many of the bees 

 with a sort of web, and destroyed them. Some 

 bees remained in the spaces between the sheets of 

 comb. A few ])leees of the comb, which tlic 

 worms had not approached, were then fastened on 

 sticks and put in the new hive ; the comb free 

 from worms, unless they were in the sealed cells 

 (which I hope was not the case;) the receiver at- 

 taclietl to new hive, the communication opened, 

 and the bees passed into it readily. The bees 

 found in the comb and apparently (Irowned, were 

 put into the apartment appropriated for them "in 

 (he receiver, but not more than half a i)int were 

 resuscitated. I lost nearly that quantity, but I 

 thought most of the loss was occasioned by not 

 putting them into the receiver before the bees 

 were put into the new hive, as their warmth was 

 necessary to restore life. I took fi'om the old hive 

 twenty pounds strained honey, and from the comb 

 in the neighborhood of the worms ten pounds and 

 an half, which is kept to feed the bees when re- 

 quired. Neither the honey nor comb received 

 any injury in quality, or diminution in qnanliiv 

 from the immersion in water, and no one u;is 

 stung during the whole operation. On the 2!ttl] 

 following I removed another swarm, for the pur- 

 pose of putting them into a Charlieshope hive, and 

 on the 30lh, anniher, for the same purpose. The 

 last WMs a swarm of this season, the other a swarm | 

 of 1830, that had thrown out a swarm early ihis 



season. I had do difficulty in removing them : 

 no person was stung, and the three swarms in 

 their new tenements apjjcar to be doing well. I 

 fear, however, it was rather too late in the season 

 but they must be supplied, to fill their comb, till 

 the cold weather makes them torpid. I am much 

 pleased with your plan, and think it a great im- 

 provement in the management of bees ; hope you 

 will communicate it for the benefit of the public. 



I am also very much pleased and gratified with 

 your method of securing bees from the ravages of 

 the bee-moth. I called last spring to look at your 

 bees, but you was from home. I was struck at 

 once with your closing the apiaries with millinet 

 on a light frame, kept close at the ends by buttons. 

 I have fouud the practice of sto.])ping the entrance 

 to the hive with wove wire doors, very troub- 

 lesome and nconvenient, at times hazardous, and 

 injurious to the bees in warm weather, as they 

 appeared to suffer for want of air, which your plan 

 of closing the apiary only, entirely obviates. 



I adopted it on my return home for all my apia- 

 ries ; found it simple, and not expensive ; it did 

 not cost quite fifty cents to secure my largest apia- 

 ry, containing three hives in a range. I never 

 failed to close my apiaries at sunset through the 

 season, and shall continue it till cold weather ])uts 

 a full check on all winged insects ; and am fully 

 satisfied it will prove efiectual, unless the moth 

 wings his way to the hive during the day. I have 

 found a number on the outside of the apiaries in 

 the morning, and destroyed them. I cannot but 

 prefer the Charlieshope hives to any I have yet 

 met with. I shall be disappointed if, on trial, they 

 do not obtain a preference with all who use them. 

 I tnust defer at this time the result of my experi- 

 Inent W'ith the worms taken from the old hive, 

 which I put in a box with honey and honey-comb. 

 On my next visit, if I have the pleasure of meeting 

 you, will give you the particulars. 



Respectfully, your obedient servant, 



GORHAM PARSONS. 



Rev. Isaac R. Bahboub. 



ECONOMICAL BREAD. 

 The Rev. Mr. Haggitt, of Durham, England, 

 has lately stated a successful experiment for sav- 

 ing the consumption of flour in making bread. 

 Mr Haggitt gives the following accoimt of the 

 process: I took five poimds of bran, boiled it, and 

 with the liquor strained from it, kneaded 5*i pounds 

 of flour, adding the usual quantity of salt and 

 vest. When the dough was sufficiently risen it 

 was weighed, and divided into loaves; the weight 

 before it was put into the oven being 93 pounds 

 13 ounces, or about 8 pounds 10 oz. more than 

 the same quantity of flour kneaded in the common 

 way. It was then baked two hours, and sometime 

 after being drawn, the bread was weighed, and 

 give 83 pounds and 8 ounces — loss in baking, 10 

 pounds and 5 oimces. The same quanlity of 

 flour kneaded with common water loses about 15 

 pounds, 10 ounces in the baking, and produces 

 only 69 poimds and 8 ounces of bread ; gain by 

 my method 14 pounds, that is, a clear increase of 

 one fifth of the usual quantity of bread from a giv- 

 en quantity of flour. He also states that the bran, 

 afier being used in this way is equally fit for many 

 domestic purposes. 



An alderman, afler a turtle feast, does not sleep 

 half as sou;id as a day laborer, after a mess of oat- 

 meal porridge. 



