ism 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



297 



tying- it back by putting a ribbon around the head, 

 or wearing- a round comb. 



The foregoing remarks are for those women and 

 girls who have to stay outdoors with bees for days, 

 weeks, and months, day after day, and who are seek- 

 ing for comfort and health rather than to look well; 

 yet the hat described, to my eye, makes one look 

 better, because more comfortable than a floppy hat 

 with one's hair in every direction. Another com- 

 fort is a small handkerchief, or a cloth not much 

 larger than the hand, tacked to the bottom of the 

 bee-hat. To lift up the hat enough to get one's 

 hand under, often lets one or more bees under, es- 

 pecially when bees are so thick in the apiary it 

 would look as if one could hardly help breathing 

 them, as it often looks in our apiary. 



Mrs. L. C. Axtei^l. 



Roseville, Ills., Feb. 21, 1888. 



My good friend Mrs. A., you have struck 

 upon an extremely interesting and practical 

 question. I presume that you and your help- 

 ers have got hold of the very best tiling for 

 the purpose, especially for women. You do 

 not mention, however, our cheap cool hat 

 which we sell expressly for holding veils 

 away from the nose and face. We never 

 think of letting our brussels-net veils come 

 against the neck or the face, for we know by 

 experience that it does not answer at all. 

 Now, can you not give us a photograph of 

 the bonnet you mention, rigged exactly as 

 you would have it for working among the 

 bees? No doubt it would prove a great 

 help to many of the sisters, and may be 

 some of the brethren, who, like your good 

 husband, don't care very much how they 

 look, so they can work with comfort. Teil 

 us where you get the bonnets, and what they 

 cost. 



NO BEE-FEEDER NEEDED. 



A NOVELTY IN THE BEE-FEEDING OF THB TAR-HEEL 

 BEES WITH A FORCE-PUMP. 



fRTENDS:— Having occasion to do considerable 

 feeding again this spring, and desiring to do 

 it speedily too, for several reasons, I puzzled 

 my brain for some time to invent some means 

 of at once putting the sugar syrup within 

 reach of the bees, without the tedious and necessary 

 anxiety of watching, together with the necessary 

 labor of repeated filling of feeders. As a result I 

 decided to ti-j- my Lewis combination hand force- 

 pump, to fill the empty combs with the sugar 

 syrup. I had often filled them by pouring the syrup 

 on the combs from a distance above them, but that 

 is exceedingly slow and uncertain work. Well, 

 how did my pump work? Why, sirs, just the thing 

 we have all needed these many years past. It is 

 the right thing- in the right place; it puts the syrup 

 right into the empty combs, and they may be set 

 back among the bees at once. 



I have fed to-day over 200 lbs. of sugar, converted 

 into syrup, in less than four hours' time. 



How to do it, do you ask? Why, make your syrup 

 of the right consistency; take a large tub, or vessel 

 of some kind, just high enough to set your combs 

 in around; put in several at a time; pour into the 

 vessel enough syrup to fill them; set your pump 

 into the syrup, slip the slide at the end of the 

 nozzle, so it will split the stream; hold the nozzle 

 at an angle of about 45° to the combs, and just work 



away, rather gently, not too hard ; if you do, you 

 force the syrup into the cells and out again. You 

 can very soon learn just how much force to use, by 

 a little practice. 



You can fill your empty combs so quick it will do 

 you good to feel their weight; put them right in 

 among the bees; no robbing, no mess of continued 

 feeding; no feeders to pay for, and no bees starving 

 because it is so cold they can't get the feed out of 

 the feeders. I have never used anything in the 

 apiary that has given me so much satisfaction, in 

 so short space of time, except a good smoker when 

 I tackled some Cyprian or Syrian stock of bees. 



Try it, friends. It is the very thing you need. If 

 you have any feeding to do. 



Abbott L. Swinson. 



Goldsboro, N. C, March 15, 1888. 



Friend S., I should not wonder if you have 

 actually gone and made a big invention. 

 Just think of it, friends ! We have had 

 fountain pumps and all sorts of pumps to 

 spray the bees with and allay swarming, and 

 for washing windows, wagons, and almost 

 every thing else that I know of, except using 

 one to force syrup into combs. Of course, 

 it will work. Before i half read your de- 

 scription I saw the point. The only trouble 

 is, somebody will go to fussing with this 

 sort of arrangement when robbers are 

 around, or he will spray the syrup all over 

 himself, and maybe all around the kitchen. 

 The man who manages after that sort of 

 fashion had better not undertake it at all. 

 If you can feed 200 lbs. of sugar in four 

 hours, and not have any feeders to purchase 

 and to take out of the hive and put away 

 after you are done, you have made a pretty 

 good thing. When 1 read the first sentence 

 of your letter I did not know but you were 

 goiiig to recommend spraying the syrup on 

 the grass and let the bees lick it up, making 

 them believe it was genuine honey from the 

 blossoms ; or you might spray the big apple- 

 tree with syrup and make the bees think it 

 was full of blossoms dripping with honey. 

 In that case they would forget to quarrel. 



A GOOD REPORT FROM SWEET 

 CLOVER. 



it not only keeps the bees busy, but it fills 



THE surplus combs OF HONEY. 



R. ROOT:— Your seed catalogue is received; 

 and on looking over the list of seeds of 

 honey-plants I was somewhat surprised as 

 to the statement concerning sweet clover. 

 I have raised it four years with good re- 

 sults. The first year I had about three-fourths of 

 an acre, and ten stands of bees. In the latter part of 

 June the sweet clover came into bloom, and soon 

 the bees found it. In a week more it was a regular 

 hum in the patch from nine o'clock till dark. It 

 was the only patch for miles around, and there was 

 scarcely any thing else yielding honey, at that 

 time, so the neighbors' bees had time to help take 

 care of the honey in sweet clover, and so they did. 

 My uncle lives 2'/4 miles in a bee-line from here, 

 and had about 25 stands; and such a stir there was 

 among them for this little patch! Why, we just 

 had a strong bee-line from here to Uncle Abra- 

 ham's. He came over one daj', and said, " How at-e 

 the bees doing?" 



