1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



225 



point" of the confusion in frames. I have "racked 

 my brain " to remedy that point, until I am sure I 

 have it, if all parties will agree to it. Let the case 

 be light and strong, well ventilated, and so arranged 

 that an entrance can be easily opened at the bottom 

 on one side, or end. Have all the brood as near the 

 hatching-point as possible. Let the buyer place the 

 case on his hive, with the entrance directly over the 

 entrance to the hive; or the case may be placed in 

 front, and close to the hive. There the bees can be 

 allowed to fly for a few days until all are hatched, 

 when they can be turned into the hive, and the case 

 removed. If there is a queen with the nucleus, she 

 should be confined by a wire screen or perforated 

 zinc division-board, to one or two of the combs until 

 the brood is two-thirds or three-fourths hatched^ 

 when Pho. with most of the hatched bees, should be 

 put into the hive, and the case left until the rest are 

 hatched, ^s hen they, too, can be turned into the hive, 

 and the case and combs returned to the shipper. 

 Thus if ihp bujer will order a little earlier, he can 

 get his bees in a more compact form, estimated just 

 as accurately, and 10 to 20 per cent cheaper, than he 

 can by the pound; and with a trille more atf ending 

 to, he can have them transferred from the combs 

 in which he receives them to his own. 



There are circumstances under which it is far 

 more convenient to receive bees alive and full 

 grown, than in any other way. Therefore let us 

 work to improve the conditions in which we ship 

 them, by the pound, until we can send them 900 

 miles in the hottest weather, without loss. Still, I 

 for one shall try to persuade my customers to take 

 them in the brood, estimated by the thousand, when- 

 ever It is possible for them so to do. S. C. Perry. 



Portland, Mich., March 17, 18SL 



A>ry good, friend P. Your plan will work, 

 and I believe has been adopted, to get the 

 brood out of the unshapely bits of comb 

 while transferring. The objections are, 

 briefly, as I see them, in most hives it would 

 be difficult to find solid patches of brood all 

 hatching about the same time. In fact, we 

 usually find more or less unsealed larv?e 

 along with the sealed brood. We shall have 

 to put bees with this to take care of it, and 

 these bees will have to stay in their shipping- 

 boxes till the brood is hatched. If the queen 

 is with them she will be laying all the while, 

 and they won't want to get out. After the 

 bees are hatched, the comb would be lost, 

 and the nicest place for a queen to lay is in 

 the cells left unoccupied by hatching bees, 

 besides the loss of the biood-comb. The 

 shipper may either cut the brood from combs 

 from his own hives, or use little frames, both 

 of which plans we consider bad. Let me 

 digress a little. 



When I was a boy I invented a machine 

 to tie grain-bags. It was a piece of brass 

 spring wire, corrugated by stringing out a 

 coil. On each end was a small leaden bullet. 

 Put it around a bag, slip under one of the 

 small bullets, pull on both ends, and the bag 

 was tied securely. It was untied in an in- 

 stant by slipping the bullet under the wire, 

 which could be done even with your mittens 

 on. I was going to get it patented when my 

 brother ''Marslr' suggested we should look 

 at new inventions is this way. Said he,— 



"Brother Ame, suppose all the world had 

 tied bags with your brass wire with bullets 



on the end, and then suppose somebody 

 should come along who liad invented strings, 

 wouldn't we all iiave considered the strings 

 a big invention V 



The argument so discouraged me that I 

 dropped it right there. Priend lleddon pre- 

 sents the same idea in a recent article. 

 Now, 1 would suggest to you, suppose we 

 had been shipping bees in the way you men- 

 tion, and somebody had suggested sending a 

 whole frame, to be lifted right out of one 

 hive, and set right into the hive of the pur- 

 chaser Avheii received. Of course, either 

 way necessitates a universal standard frame; 

 and my opinion is, there is no use talking 

 about getting along without it. In fact, we 

 have a standard frame; for more than one 

 himdred thousand people are using a frame 

 of one standard dimension, and these peo- 

 l)le buy and sell and manufacture hives and 

 frames that work interchangeably any way. 

 Mow, if you will excuse me for finding so 

 much fault. I want to say that your idea of 

 selling bees in the shape of sealed brood is 

 //((' way, and we must all come to it. In 

 fact, it is the only way we can buy and sell 

 drones that I know of, for drones can not be 

 shipped alive — at least, I have never suc- 

 ceeded in doing it. 



BRUSHES FOR BRISHIIVQ OFF BEES 

 FROM THE COMBS. 



ANOTHER I3IPROVEMEKT. 



M FTER the notice of friend Cook's death 

 ym last fall, there was quite a little in- 

 "^ quiry for his improved brushes, and 

 pretty soon our stock was all exhausted. 

 We tried several differ- 

 ent brush manufactur- 

 ers, but did not succeed 

 in finding any who would 

 undertake to make any 

 such as we wanted. 

 Several of the bee- 

 friends tried 

 their hands at 

 it, but none of 

 ^ them 1)1 eased us 

 as well as the 

 brush shown in 

 the cut. You 

 will notice the 

 handle is made 



galvanized iron wire. 

 This is better than wood, 

 for it is not injured by 

 rain, if left lying in the 

 grass, as many careless 

 / r)ee-keepers will be like- 



"':'',',";' I „ ', ,, ■ ",\il Iv to do. Neither will 

 the handle be broken in 

 DAVIS' iMPKovEu BEE- two if they get their 

 imusu. clumsy feet on them (I 



include myself in the above, for I am a bee- 

 keeper, and my feet are sometimes clumsy). 

 I tried to buy the idea of the friend who got 

 them up, but here is what he says about it: 



