50 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE:. 



Jan. 



kind of hives ? is a question much more easily and 

 surely answered than one can tell which is the best 

 frame. I get very much the best results from my 

 purest and lightest Italians. The Italians seem to 

 be much more disposed to partially stop brood-rear- 

 ing, and bend all their energies to honey-gathering, 

 whenever there is a heavy flow of nectar, than any 

 other kind of bees T have tried, and this is a very 

 great advantage. 



As I said at the commencement of this article, I 

 have not tried to discuss any of the advantages or 

 disadvantages of the single-story system,as compared 

 with double stories, nor to give theories,— only a plain 

 statement of how I have used single-story hives in 

 my own apiary for several years past. Neither do I 

 think my manner of work is original with me; near- 

 ly or quite all of the items of it having been already 

 published in the journals, only not in a connected 

 form. Neither do I want it understood that I think 

 single-story hives are the best for use in all localities, 

 and in the hands of all bee-keepers; but I do think 

 that there are a great many localities and a great 

 many bee-keepers who can be more successful with 

 this form of hive than with double-stories; and if 

 my plain writing will be any help to any one, I shall 

 be satisfied. O. O. Poppleton. 



Williamstown, Iowa, Dec. 10, 1883. 



Many thanks, friend P., for your excellent 

 paper, telling the way in which you use 

 single-story hives. The very point you make 

 in making it valuable is, that you have a 

 complete system of working. I know that 

 very much of the labor of extracting may be 

 saved by keeping an extra set of combs, such 

 as you mention, for we once followed the 

 same plan during one season. I was at one 

 time a little inclined to think, however, that 

 the bees seemed to do better on their own 

 combs than on a set of combs belonging to 

 their neighbors. This, however, may have 

 been only a notion of my own. It seemed to 

 me, too, that the bees cared for the brood 

 with better economy where it was put back 

 into the hive in pretty nearly the same rela- 

 tive position it originally occupied ; that is, 

 I thought they were a little mixed up for a 

 time when I changed the combs about pro- 

 miscuously. Where one works for extract- 

 ed honey exclusively, I have no doubt but 

 that a long single-story hive, and a frame a 

 little deeper than the Langstroth, might be 

 an advantage. Priend Dadant already uses 

 the Quinby frame you allude to, and he is a 

 very successful producer of extracted honey. 

 Our friends will remember that 1 once adopt- 

 ed into our apiary this form of hive with the 

 Adair frame, and we have some old litho- 

 graph drawings now, picturing an apiary 

 and a hive of this description. That was the 

 time when we used to make bee-hives and 

 print Gleanings by windmill power. 



BEES AND SUNDAY. 



WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH THEM DURING SWARMING- 



TIME? 



I HAVE been pleased to have " Bees and Sunday " 

 discussed in Gleanings. I very much wish that 

 you would continue the matter, as I, and I pre- 

 sume others, wish to see the matter in all lights be- 

 fore we can decide intelligently as to our duty in the 

 matter. We know that it is right to milk and feed 



the cows, as their comfort depends upon it. This 

 matter of Sunday labor is very perplexing. Not 

 long since I heard aboyquestion whether his mother 

 did right to put out her dried fruit on Sunday, and 

 ask why that should be brought in when rain threat- 

 ened, any more than the hay in the field. A lady 

 who thought herself ripht in going to the lake on 

 Sunday, blamed others for playing croquet while 

 there, because it was Sunday. Most people would 

 think it right to go after their cattle, if they should 

 start to run away on Sunday. Possibly our lesson 

 gives us a hint on this subject. Those sheep and 

 oxen were valuable property. Yet, '"to obey is bet- 

 ter." )f wrong to hive bees on Sunday, we should 

 like hints to prevent their swarming. I will give 

 one. Do not disturb or handle them for several days 

 before Sunday, if swarming is feared. They often 

 swarm soon after being smoked, and having honey 

 taken. 



I think my bees obtained a good deal of honey this 

 fall from the tamaracks, but no perceptible surplus. 

 The trees were plashed with a clear sweet liquid, 

 and the bees worked on them mnrning and evening. 

 I found no trace of insects. They also obtained 

 honey from the willows, whenever it was damp. 

 The willows were well covered with a cochineal in- 

 sect. Sometimes you could see a shower of tiny 

 drops. Things under the trees became sticky, as 

 well as the leaves. Miss L. Williams. 



Delavan, Wal. Co., Wis., Nov. 9, 1883. 



The instances you mention, my good 

 friend, help us to see how ditlicult it is to 

 lay down positive rules for anybody. I con- 

 fess 1 am unable to decide what is right in 

 regard to this matter of caring for stock, 

 running roilk-wagons on Sunday, and things 

 of that sort, in almost every case, circum- 

 stances would have to be taken into consid- 

 eration. l)ut we can have this to comfort 

 us: That where we do the very best we 

 know how, according to the dictates of our 

 own conscience, we shall not get very far 

 astray. We know that Jesus went about do- 

 ing good on Sunday, and also that he taught 

 the people on the Sabbath-day. I do not 

 mean to say in the above, that I am unable 

 to decide what is right and proper for me to 

 do in regard to the matter of the observance 

 of the Sabbath . The thing tliat troubles me 

 is to decide for my neighbors what iliey 

 ouglit to do, especiallv when they have not 

 asked me to decide. \'ou know our Savior 

 said, in such cases, " Judge not." 



HOW TO FIND THE QUEEN. 



IIOAV MUCH DIFFEKENT IS SHE IN LOOKS 

 FK03r THE OTIIEK BEESV 



ij^NE of the juveniles says in this number 

 UP that he has looked and looked, and 

 ^ can not tind a queen, or any thing like 

 one. I had to smile a little while reading 

 his letter ; and one reason I smiled was be- 

 cause it reminded me of the time when I 

 could not laid a queen. I wanted to get out 

 a black queen so as to get in an Italian, and 

 I hunted the bees over till it was a wonder 

 they did not get out of all patience, and sting 

 right and left. Sadly and sorrowfully I shut 

 up the hive, and miised over the matter a 

 spell, and went and opened it again, and 

 went through the same periormance, looking 

 for the queen for a half -hour or more. Fi- 



