(Jl6 



GLEANliSrGS iK BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



the old stand, and this is one very good ar- 

 gument in favor of hiving at some little dis- 

 tance from where the parent colony stood. 

 Where they pick out the location before 

 swarming, they are pretty sure to move to it, 

 sooner or later. 



SHRINKAGE IN BASSWOOD LUMBER, AGAIN. 



I received your letter some time ago. You said 

 I did not take into consideration that basswood 

 shrinks and swells more tiian any other lumber. I 

 thought that was where the mischief came in. 1 

 saw in Gleanings for June 1st, page 4.54, " Sections 

 exactly seven to the foot." I was glad to hear you 

 say that you were not going to stop trying to get 

 them just right. You said one good friend accuses 

 you of giving scant measure, as you did the man 

 who sold you the apples. Why, Mr. Koot, I did not 

 think you gave scant measure to cheat your cus- 

 tomers. I thought you did not have charity 

 enough for the man who made the barrels. You 

 know it was a very di-y season, and those barrels 

 might have shrunk to the shape of a stovepipe. 



I want you to forgive me for what I said in that 

 letter. When you have any thing that ] want, I 

 shall send for it. I shall try to use the sections. 

 They are nice, only too narrow. 



I started the winter with 43 swarms, and came 

 through with them all. I put 18 swarms in the cel- 

 lar, and wintered 2.5 on summer stands. I put them 

 in the cellar December 1, and set them out April 

 ;.'6. Those that were wintered in the cave have 

 been swarming lively, with but little honey coming 

 in, and not one of them that wintered outdoors 

 has swarmed; yet those that wintered out, all had 

 young queens; and those that wintered in, all bad 

 old ones. 



Bees have wintered very poorly here. One man 

 had 38, and lost them all but two. The loss is about 

 65 per cent. My bees have gathered honey enough 

 to breed upon, good and strong; but 1 have not got 

 one ounce of honey yet. The white clover was 

 killed by the drouth. 



1 have just been cutting out queen-cells. I cut 

 them all out but 3; and if we can not catch the 

 queen when she comes out, we let them alight on 

 some bush and look at the cluster. A few minutes, 

 and the queen will crawl on the outside, then we 

 pick her off and return the bees to the old hive. 



Mollne, Mich., June 25, 1888. John Short. 



Most gladly, good friend S., will we for- 

 give any thing there is to be forgiven. I 

 like your remarks, too, in regard to charity ; 

 and 1 do believe that a lack of charity is 

 one of the greatest sins that afflict humani- 

 ty. May be I was a little too severe about 

 those barrels of apples ; but it seems to me 

 it would require a pretty big stretch of 

 charity to suppose that the shrinkage of the 

 lumber of which the barrels were made 

 would reduce a good plump old-fashioned 

 barrel to the shape and size of the new- 

 fangled ones. 



flat-bottom foundation a failure. 

 I received the goods, and am well pleased with 

 everything except the Hat-bottom foundation. I 

 hung the strips right in the center of the brood- 

 chamber of my strongest colonies, to have it drawn 

 out into comb; then I cut them and filled the sec- 

 tions, and in every instance they would gnaw it to 

 a smooth straight sheet, then form the cell, which 



time occupied 60 to 70 hours; but some of the nat- 

 ural base was complete in 34 to 30 hours (of Da- 

 dant's extra light), so I have condemned the flat- 

 bottom foundation for me, and will ship it back if 

 you request it, or try to sell it for you, for 1 would 

 not use it, even if it cost but 30 cts. per lb. There 

 is too much time lost in changing it, to suit me. 

 The labels are splendid, so is the rest of the goods. 



Abraham Koontz. 

 Crestline, Ohio, June 26. 1888. 



You seem to be pretty decided against 

 flat-bottom foundation, friend K. I suppose 

 you have read what our good friend P. H. 

 El wood says on the other side of the ques- 

 tion, on page KJO, Mai'ch 1. 



A KNEE-PAD INSTEAD OF AN APIARY STOOT,. 



Last season I made and used in my apiaries a de- 

 vice that has given me much satisfaction. It is a 

 light cushioned hoard to kneel upon while working 

 with the bees. I never liked sitting down on a box 

 or hive-cover; it keeps one too far away from his 

 work, unless he is willing to bend his back more 

 than I like to. So my practice has been to place 

 my knees on the ground by the side of the hive, 

 sometimes on a piece of board if the ground was too 

 wet. After some years of such experience it occur- 

 red to me there might be a better way. The result 

 was a knee-pad or cushion made as follows: Take a 

 piece of thin light board, 8 by 14 inches. Nail cleats 

 1 X 1!4 X 8 inches across the ends on the under side, 

 to strengthen the board and make it rest more firm- 

 ly on the ground. Now cushion the top of the 

 board by tacking on a piece of strong cloth around 

 the edge, and fill with wool, hair, or other elastic 

 material. It is finished by tacking on a light strap 

 across over the middle, to serve as a bail by which 

 it can be picked up by ihe little finger of the hand 

 that carries the smoker, if the other hand is occu- 

 pied. T. P. Andrew. 



Farina, 111., Mar. 27, 1888. 



Very good, friend A. But why not have a 

 variety V In our experience, for the pur- 

 pose of manipulating hives one posture be- 

 comes monotonous and tiresome. Our 

 boys sit, kneel, and stand while working 

 over the hives. As a general rule we like 

 best sitting on a Simplicity cover. By 

 rocking this forward and backward, like a 

 milkstool, the distance of the body from 

 the liive can be regulated easily and per- 

 fectly. In early spring, when the ground 

 is soft and wet, your pad would doubtless 

 be quite a convenience. But why not go 

 one step further? Attach small pads to 

 each knee. They would always be handy 

 then, you know, and you wouldn't have 

 to bother that little finger, either, in caj- 

 rying them around. 



' In addition to what Ernest says above, I 

 want to say that my wife once remonstrated 

 so much at the way I was using my knees 

 by kneeling down in front of a hive where 

 the ground was wet or damp, that I used a 

 light board. The objection to the board, 

 however, was that it was not so soft to 

 kneel down on as the grass and sawdust. 

 Ernesfs suggestion of having the knee-pads 

 a fixture, would tend to make the apiarist a 

 still more singular and eccentric-looking in- 

 dividual. With one of Mrs. AxtelFs bee- 

 bonnets, knee-pads, and some of the other 



