233 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mak. 15. 



MY KEPOUT FOR ISltO. 



I sold 318 queens, and spent ?18.0() in advertis- 

 ing. My receipts were probably meager for the 

 amount spent in advertising, but I have not 

 a dissatistied customer, nor a queen reported 

 impurely mated. Many have wondered, and 

 some have asked, '" How are your books since 

 you advertise 'to be paid for on arrival "? " I 

 am glad to say I have found bee-keepers, as a 

 rule, "gilt edge." and the best class with whom 

 I have ever dealt; and the result is so satisfac- 

 tory I shall advertise that way again another 

 year. 



THE HONEY CROP 



the past season was short, and from 100 colo- 

 nies I received IL'OO lbs. (half comb, half extract- 

 ed), which sold on an average at 1.5 cts. per lb. 

 Late in the season, owing to frequent fall rains 

 and mild weather, there was a profusion of 

 bitter-weed from which the bees tilled their 

 hives for winter stores— something that has not 

 occurred in several yeaj's. The honey is very 

 unpalatable, but has a good body, and is about 

 as dark as Spanish n(>edle. The bees are win- 

 tering well, and on the 29th of December they 

 were bringing pollen from elm. The discussion 

 on closed-end frames has caused me to decide 

 to use them with all new swarms another sea- 

 son. W. H. Laws. 

 Lavaca, Ark., Jan. 16. 



RIPENING OF HONEY NOT ALWAYS A PROOF 

 AGAINST CANDYING. 



In friend Beach's article, page 780, 1890, he 

 says if the weather is warm and dry while hon- 

 ev is being gathered, and remains so until it is 

 thoroughly ripened and sealed, in his opinion it 

 will rarely ever candy. If friend B. had seen 

 what I did last summer he would have talked 

 different from that. The month of July, 1890. 

 was very warm and dry here. Our bees at that 

 time were working in "the pine-forest and cot- 

 ton-fields. The honey (or sugar, if you choose) 

 would granulate just as fast as it w^as brought 

 in. It was impossible to extract it, as it was 

 just a thick mush. All the way it could be 

 used was to cut it out in the comb, or use it in 

 the building of new colonies. It is needless for 

 me to say that this honey was as good and nice 

 for the table as any honey ever i-aised. Friend 

 B. also says we know when cotton honey is 

 coming in. by the pollen on the bees' backs. If 

 he will notice when bees are working on cotton 

 he will see that very few bees go inside of the 

 blossoms, or at least they do not in Mississippi. 

 The honey is obtained from the outside at the 

 base of the bloom. J. R. Cleveland. 



Decatur, Miss., Jan. 27. 



remarks following, he asks for information of 

 others as to whether brace- combs are sometimes 

 built through the honey-board, as Dr. Miller 

 explains. I have had some experience with 

 thick frames: and if you can profit by an A B 

 C scholar's experience, here goes. When I first 

 turned my attention to bees, about three years 

 ago. I had no foot- power saw to make frames 

 with, so I had to make them by hand. I made 

 them the same dimensions as the Langstroth, 

 described in the ABC, with the exception of 

 the top-bar. I made this >sx%, so as to have a 

 shoulder at the end to nail the end-bars to. 

 Now, with these frames I have little or no trou- 

 ble from burr-combsor brace-combs either; and 

 I am inclined to think that a wider frame would 

 be better. In fact. I think if the top-bars were 

 wide enough, after being spaced they would be 

 queen-excluding; and then we could, I think, 

 dispense with the honey-board entiiely. I am 

 going to experiment with this problem the com- 

 ing season, and will report. J. H. Goe. 

 Mossy Rock. Wash., Nov. 2(i. 



CLOSE SPACING AND FIXED FRAMES. 



I am very sure that less than %. instead of 

 more, between the bottom-board and the bottom 

 of the frames, is very important. If more, the 

 bees must go up some other way; and, besides, 

 there is much valuable time lost by the bees by 

 too much space at the end of the frames; and 

 for me I want every frame full clear to the bot- 

 tom, so as not to allow any loafers. I know 

 what it is to move hives in and out with frames 

 loose or fixed, to say nothing of the trouble of 

 taking off cases from loose frames. I shall use 

 none but fixed ones of some sort, in the future. 

 It is a wonder there are any in use except fixed. 

 It's too much on the guessing-at-it plan. 



Hallowell, Me., Jan. lo. E. P. Churchill. 



WIDTH AND THICKNP:SS OF TOP-BARS. 



On page 888, 1890. Dr. C. C. Miller gives us a 

 talk about the thickness of brood-frames and 

 the building of burr-combs; and in Ernest's 



OB.JECTIONS TO THE T SUPER; WIDE FRAMES 

 PREFERRED. 



As I never see any thing in Gleanings or 

 the American Bee Joiiriial about wide frames, 

 I should like to say a few words in regard to 

 their use. Supers seem to be all the go. I have 

 been using both wide frames and T supers, and 

 I am completely disgusted with the latter. Bees 

 very often build comb between the sections and 

 the top-bars of the brood-frames, and this all 

 has to be scraped off, and the sections are gen- 

 erally soiled or darkened on top by the bees 

 passing over them. Again, you can not take 1, 

 2. 3. or 4 sections from a T super withont taking 

 the whole case off. Now, with wide frames 

 there can not be any comb built on the under 

 side of the sections, nor are they soiled in the 

 least. You can take off sections where wide 

 frames are used, just as you want them; you 

 can take out a frame, fill with sections, and take 

 1, 2, 3, or 4, and just put empty ones in theii* 

 places. I have sections in wide frames that 

 have been in them for two years, and I am tak- 

 ing them out now, and they look as bright as 

 they did when I put them in. Who can say 

 this of T supers? W. S. Douglass. 



Lexington, Tex.. Jan. 18. 



[There is no need of having biHT-combs or 

 having the T super fastened to the brood- 

 frames if you use a honey-board, or, better still, 

 the right kind of brood-frames, with a bee- 

 space of not more than }i inch above. Your 

 greatest objection to the T super can be obvi- 

 ated if our osvn testimony and that of hundreds 

 of reliable witnesses can be relied upon. But 

 there is one thing which you have mentioned, 

 and which is very true. In a poor season, or 

 for any other cause that sections remain upon 

 the hive for any length of time, the sections 

 will discolor; that is, they will have a soiled, 

 travel -stained, yellow appearance. In wide 

 frames, or even in the section -holder's, if an 

 enameled cloth be laid flat (no bee-space) upon 

 the section tops, the outsides of the sections 

 will be clean and white, no matter how long on 

 the hive.] 



ONE WHO LIKES THE RUBBER GLOVES. 



In answer to Miss Emma Wilson's inquiry in 

 Gleanings for apron material, I would sug- 

 gest oiled silk, if not too expensive. The rub- 

 ber gloves are nice; and, every time they are 

 taken off, they should be pulled off' the hand so 

 as to leave them wrong side oat, so as to dry 

 the moisture in them, or they will soon spoil, as 

 they are air-tight. Mrs. C. A. Stebbins. 



Churchland, Va., Feb. 5. 



