254 



GLEANINGS IN nEE CULTUllE. 



Mar. 



A SWARMING-BOX TO HOLD A FRAME 

 OF BROOD. 



FRIE.\D KALER .S DKSCIUPTION OF IT. 



f^ HE friend mentioned below has made a 

 h box for taking down swarms, arranged 

 ^ so as to hold a frame of inisealed 

 brood, taking advantage of the well- 

 known disposition of bees to cluster 

 around and adhere to snch a comb. The 

 cut below, and description, will make it all 

 plain. 



DESCRIPTION OF CUT. 



A is a swarming-box made to 

 hold a frame of comb; made 

 perforated. 



B, rests that hold the swarm- 

 ing-box in place. It also con- 

 tains slots to receive the handle. 



C, the handle of different 

 lengths, to raise the box to a 

 proper height. 



D, a frame of comb to place 

 in the swarming-bo.x for bees 

 to cluster on. 



DIRECTIONS FOK USI^G KA- 

 LEli'S SWARMING-BOX. 



Get your box clean; take 

 from the hive that the swarm 

 came from (if jou like), or some kaler'j swarming bj.x. 

 other, a nice frame of ccmb. Place it in the box. 

 swing the box in the rests. Then selact a handle to 

 raise the box just nncler the swiirm. When ready, 

 jar the bees into the box. In a few minutes they 

 will be all clustered on the comb in the box. If you 

 are not ready to hive them, or another swarm comes 

 off before you are ready to hive the first one, re- 

 move the bo.x from the rests and set it away in the 

 shade, being careful to cover up snugly. Place an 

 other bo.x in the rests, and pioceed as in the flr;:t 

 case. After the.y are all in the swarming-box they 

 are almost as safe as in the old hive. Now, when 

 yqu are ready to hive them (but do not be in a hur- 

 ry), get things ready and remove the frame from 

 the box gently, and place it in the hive. Cover up 

 the hive, having every thing in shape. Shake the 

 remainder of the bees from the box, in front of the 

 hive. Watch a moment, and see that they start in, 

 and it is done. W. S. Kai.eu. 



Andersonville, Ind., Jan. 28, 1886. 



GOOD REPORT FROM A LADY. 



FROM 24 TO 48, AND 2820 LBS. OF HONEY; THE PRO- 

 CEEDS OF ONE COLONY, 279 LBS. 



T DO not know that 1 i-ead any part of the varied 

 j^p matter in Oleaninos with more interest than 

 ^r I do the reports from different bce-keei.'ers in 

 ■*" ditfercnt localities. When we have had almost 

 a failure, the old adge," Misery likes company," 

 proves true. In giving our report lor the season of 

 1885, it might be well enough to explain that my 

 position is only that of "general assistant in the api- 

 ary." The principal members of the firm are Rev. 

 J. S. Woodburn and W. M. Dougherty (the latter 

 being my only brother). In the spring we lost five 

 or six, and sold five, leaving us al)out 34 to begin 

 the season with. We raise mostly e-xtracted honey, 

 and by the 24th of June we found the combs full 

 and capped completely. We took 926 lbs., gathered 



from the poplar-blossoms. I have been watching 

 in Gleanings to see if anybody else had poplar 

 honey. It is dark, thick, sticky, and very sweet. 

 Our children like it on their buckwheat cakes, but 

 it is not salable, even at a reduced in-ice. On the 22d 

 of July we took 1337 lbs. of beautiful basswood 

 honey, well sealed over. In September we took .501 

 lbs. of buckwheat honey, which, with 100 lbs. of 

 comb, made 2820 lbs. for our season's work, besides 

 leaving the bees an abundance to winter on. I 

 think our bees had access to nearly 100 acres of 

 buckwheat, some of it quite clbse to them. By the 

 way, how much buckwheat did your acre yield? 

 Ours yielded about 24 bushels to the acre. One col- 

 ony of bees gave 224 lbs. of honej'; it was a pure 

 Italian. Another, a Holy Land, gave 174 lbs., and 

 threw off' a swarm June 1st, which gave 10.5 lbs., 

 making in all 279 lbs., the largest yield in the apiary. 

 I neglected to say, in giving the amount of honey 

 taken, that we also increased, by natural swarming 

 and dividing, up to 4S, which number is living yet. 

 Some of them liad a Hy to-day. 



Mrs. Bell L. Duncan. 

 Black Lick, Pa., Feb. .'-, 18 53. 



Our buckwheat J ielded pretty close on to 

 40 bushels per acre. Thanks for your excel- 

 lent report from the Holy Lands, my friend. 



AN IRON SECTION-BOX FORMER. 



SO.MKrHING 'J'HAT SKEMS TO BK A HKLP, EVEN IF 

 IT IS A LITTLE " M ACHINEJIY." 



§OME time in February friend G. R. Lyon 

 of Greene, N. Y., sent us a section-box 

 former shown in the cut below. 

 The machine is made of two heavy 

 pieces of cast iron, arranged so as to 

 slide easily upon a board. Pushed up to- 

 gether tiiey inclose a square space a little 

 smaller than a Simplicity section box; there- 

 fore, when with your Angers you quickly 

 stick a box together, either one-piece or 

 four-piece sections, drop it in the former, 

 then, sliding up the movable piece of iron by 

 means of tlic liandle, every corner is push- 

 ed up smootli. and no farther. 



LYON S SECTION-BOX FORMF.R. 



The corners all come up, and also come out 

 of the former perfectly square, ready to have 

 the starter inserted, when it may be placed 

 directly in the wide frames or in the cases. 

 Where you drive tliem together with a mal- 

 let, they may lie square, and they may not ; 

 besides, the mallet frequently drives the 

 pieces in too far, where the grooving- saws 

 liave cut a little deeper tiian they ought to 

 do. AVliat looks more awkward than a neat 

 basswood section box, nicely tilled with hon- 

 ey, but out of square, because the owner 

 failed to give it to the bees square and true ? 

 It seems to me that this instrument ought 

 to have a large sale, even if friend Lyon has, 

 perhaps, got the price a trifle high. lie sells 

 them at i$1.00 each ; one-fourth off where 50 

 or 100 are purchased at a time. 



