GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



preach once." Why don't they preach now V 

 Ihave wondered if it were not because they 

 loved "easy-chairs" and " shady-oflices " 

 better than they loved the earnest, honest 

 work of saving souls, especially when the 

 souls to be saved were away down in the 

 social scale, and where it was hard and dis- 

 agreeable work to go after them and hunt 

 them out and lift them up. 



-Our market reports in the different jour- 

 nals show that there is a good deal of honey 

 sold for less than 8 cts., and I have a good 

 many times thought I was doing some ot- the 

 friends a favor by taking their honey off 

 their hands in to7i lots, even though I gave 

 them only 8 cts. for nice honey. If they 

 didn't make it pay to produce it at 8 cts., I 

 presume likely they won't raise any more, 

 and pretty soon there won't be any in the 

 market. You know what was said a year or 

 two ago about raising queens for a dollar. 

 The traflic now in queens at a dollar 

 amounts to thousands of dollars annually ; 

 and those who raise them in large numbers 

 at this price seem to be happy and content- 

 ed in the business, although they may not 

 be getting rich very fast. Scarcely a day 

 passes but that a brother or sister writes, 

 begging to be allowed to send me queens as 

 fast as they can be got to laying. Although 

 1 take a great number ot them, I do not 

 dare to take a fourth part of what are otfer- 

 ed. 



HIVJCS FOK TRANSPOKTINO BEES. 



Taking Advantage of tUe Bass^vood Bloom. 



HOW SnALT. WE CONTRIVE TO GET THEM MGHT, 

 WELL VENTILATED, AND SUBSTANTIAL? 



fiHEIlE is a slight mistake in rry article on page 

 2iC, iQ regard to the Simplicity cover, to make 

 — ■ so as to serve a double purpose. You let me 

 Fay, '•Take a Simplicity cover, have a tin top in- 

 stead of the broad lioard. After nailing the rim to- 

 gether, put on the tin in such a way that it can be 

 taken ofT without much ti-ouble. This will be a cov- 

 er for ventilation when the tin is off, and a tight 

 cover when the tin is on." 



Well, friend Root, I do not know what you think 

 of this new way of ventilating bee-hives, I think, 

 that for ventilation it is a "boss" arrangement; but 

 the opening is rather largo to make it bee-tight at 

 the same time. I wanted to say, tack on a piece of 

 wire cloth first (and leave it on permanently); this, 

 if stretched well, will be a support for the tin; if 

 made in this way it will serve the double purpose of 

 a tight cover; and also, when the tin is removed, 

 will be a good cover for admitting air. 



Marietta, O., April 8, 1884. R. Stehle. 



I caught your idea, any way, friend S., and 

 it is certainly a very ingenious one. We are 

 talking now about fixing hives especially 

 prepared for this purpose. The only diffi- 

 culty I see with the wire-cloth top with a tin 

 cover to slip over it is, that some tired indi- 

 vidual might sit down on these covered 

 hives ; and if he were very heavy he might 

 go right through the tin, wire cloth, combs, 

 and all. Hives for transportation shouldn't 

 weigh an ounce more than what is absolute- 

 ly necessary, yet they should be strong 

 enough to stand handling, even when they 



are loaded with honey. For confining 

 bees for shipment during hot weather, there 

 is nothing like a sheet of wire cloth over the 

 whole top; and for a powerful colony it 

 ought to be over the whole bottom as well, 

 or pretty nearly that. We can fix it nicely 

 with the removable painted tin covers, and 

 we would have these tin covers wired at the 

 edge like dripping-pans, so they would nest 

 into each other, for convenient form for 

 shipment. But how about the sitting down 

 on them V I have just made arrangements 

 for importing some'tin, manufactured to an 

 exact size for this purpose. I hope we shall 

 be able to get the expense down to an even 

 10 cents each for the dripping-pan covers. 

 Wire cloth is now so cheap (only litc per sq. 

 ft. in quantities) that this will be only a small 

 item. Now, how shall we get a very strong 

 hive made out of stuff, say | or A in. thick V 

 Of course, such hives would not be used for 

 wintering bees, unless it were for cellar win- 

 tering. 



WHERE OUR BEE.S HAVE DIED, HOW 



SHALL. WE GET OUR HIVES FILLED 



AGAIN J 



ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT SELLING AND BUYING BEES 

 BY THE POUND, 



mw 



HERE has been a great loss in bees this past 

 winter, and the principal conversation among 

 *^ bee-keepers is, " How shall we re-stock our 

 hives? Shall we pay from 8 to 10 dollars for colonies 

 with one or two lbs. of bees and a queen, with emp- 

 ty frames, and most likely with frames that will not 

 lit our hives, and, consequently, will have to be trans- 

 ferred to frames of our own size?" Another says, 

 as we can not get good strong colonies (only 8-frame 

 nuclei) can we not purchase bees by the pound, and 

 queens according', and thus not be cheated? and as 

 we have got a plenty of combs and hives, not spsnd 

 our money for what we do not want. 



Will you please tell us about handling bees by the 

 pound? Can they be sent long distances successful- 

 ly? If so, we will most certainly buy our bees by the 

 pound. 



Another subject I wish to speak of. I see by 

 Gleanings there is a strong talk of sending bees 

 north for the basswood honey-tlow. I would say, 

 the county I reside in corners on the one that 

 George Hilton lives in, and that our honey resources 

 are remarkable. First, we have the usual wi.'low, 

 tag alder, and otherpollen-bearing trees and shrubs; 

 we also have the apple and other fruits, white clo- 

 ver, and on every side of my location the basswood- 

 tree abounds as far as any one has thought that bees 

 fly as depicted in Gleanings, except on one side, 

 where the forest extends only about one mile and a 

 half, where has onc3 been a very dense forest of 

 pine timber, which has been removed for several 

 years. Fire has swept througn, cleauiag the ground 

 nearly tit for cultivation; the soil being rich and 

 moist, white clover, red and black raspberries, also 

 blackberries, grow in profusion. Fireweeds also 

 grow very rank, and yield a vast amount of honey. 

 Now I woul 1 say to the bee-keeping friends, 1000 

 colonies would not overstock my place in basswood 

 time; and if any one has more bees than he can 

 well manage, I should be glad to take 100 or more 

 colonies off his hands for a share of the honey. I 



