304 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1.5. 



see it. They had eaten up one cliicken, and he 

 was going to put in anotlier. They were in an 

 old box hive, and were a new swai'ni, and tlie 

 hive was half full of combs. We tipped it up. 

 Chicken bones were thei-e, picked clean. 



"There," he said, "see, meat all gone." 



"Did the bees eat it?" 



'"Yes," he said. 



I said, "Let me take the hive down. I want 

 to investigate this case." 



I took the hive off the stand and turned it 

 over. 



"See, there is a mouse-nest up on the cross- 

 sticks, just at the bottom of the combs.'" 



I put in my hand to takeout the nest. As I 

 took out the nest, out jumped a mouse — two or 

 three of them, and away they ran. " See," I 

 said, "mice eat your chicken." 



"No," he said, "the bees eat the chicken." 



We cleaned out the nest and mice, and clean- 

 ed off the bottom-board. This was in the middle 

 of winter. I could see a little capped honey up 

 in the combs yet. I told him I thought his bees 

 would live until about the tii'st of March, and 

 then starve. 



"Oil, no!" he said; "I will put in another 

 chicken." He had one ready cooked and cool. 



"All right, but let us keep the mice out this 

 time." We put the hive back, put in the chick- 

 en, and fixed the hive to keep out mice. 



About the middle of March I saw the man in 

 town. 



" Well, how are the bees ?" 



"Oh! the bees are dead." 



" How about the chicken— did they eat it?" 



"No." And just then he saw a man across 

 the street whom he must see light off. 



Now, this man was a bee-keeper, had 30 colo- 

 nies of bees, and had kept them a long time. He 

 was a man of good common sense otherwise; 

 but he was very superstitious about bees, and 

 had a good many notions just as absurd as his 

 chicken theory. 



RENDERING WITH WAX AND STEAM. 



In Feb. 1.5th Gleanings, pages 130 and 131, 

 Mr. F. A. Salisbury gives us an excellent article 

 on rendering wax with steam and acid. I am 

 satisfied that all he says is true, and am glad he 

 wrote that article; also E. R.'s comments about 

 the Dadants. All right; that will do first rate 

 for you chaps who have steam; but how are we 

 poor chaps going to raise the steam? Can a 

 man who makes from .50 to 100 lbs. of wax per 

 year afford to put in steam-works on purpose to 

 render out his wax? Now, give us some cheap 

 way of raising steam, and I am with you. 



THAT TRADE-MAKK. 



Let every tub stand on its own bottom. I 

 want my own trade-mark. If the name of E. 

 France & Son pasted on a package of honey is 

 not a sufficient guarantee of a first-class article, 

 I don't want to ride into market on some other 

 name, and I don'twant some other fellow using 

 our reputation. E. Fr.\nce. 



Platteville, Wis., March 31. 



[If I ever said any thing I felt sure of, fi'iend 

 F., it is the statement regarding the flat board 

 cover which you call in question. I generally 

 slide the cover on the hive, and so do all our 

 boys, and we don't roll the bees up and kill them 

 as you speak of. Of course, we use smoke to 

 drive down most of the bees; but there are al- 

 ways a few there that will run up around the 

 edges. By using a great deal of smoke we can 

 drive them «ft down; but it is cruelty to the 

 bees, and unnecessary. By your plan you have 

 to bother with a bee-brusli; but by our plan we 

 use nothing but the smoker. Now, I know that 

 I am not alone. Witness Dr. C. C. Millei-. W. Z. 



Hutchinson, James Heddon. R. L. Taylor. Prof. 

 Cook, and a good many others who might be 

 mentioned, all of whom use their flat cover sub- 

 stantially as I have indicated. With your ar- 

 rangement, however, I hardly think you can 

 slide the cover on. You have and desire burr- 

 combs, and, of course, it would be impossible to 

 slide the cover with bridges built, to the top of 

 the frames and to the cover. With the right 

 kind of top-bars and the right bee-space and 

 right spacing, you do not need to have burr- 

 combs. But you say you want them for the 

 bees to climb up on. Call upon those who do 

 not have burr-combs, and ask them whether 

 they get any less honey than some of those who 

 do. I have investigated this matter quite thor- 

 oughly, and I do not believe that burr-combs 

 make any difference one way or the other. 



I join hands with you in regard tothegrowth 

 of basswoods. You know that Dot)little, on page 

 '1:!'-',. seemed to ((uestion my statement that bass- 

 wood fioni old stumps would gi'ow large enough 

 in ten years to make basswood lumber. If trees 

 will make such growth in Wisconsin and Ohio, 

 I feel sure they would do so in York State,where 

 the basswoods grow equally thrifty, or even 

 more so. Young trees set out. or growing from 

 seed, will not begin to make such a growth. 



The communication by F. A. Salisbury, on 

 rendering wax by steam and acid, was designed 

 for foundation-makers, and those who have a 

 large quantity of wax to refine. The articles in 

 Gi-eanings can not always hit all classes. For 

 instance, those on wintering are of no interest 

 to those in the Southland those in regard to 

 making foundation are of no value to those who 

 buy the article. Those about extracted honey 

 are of no particular moment to those who pro- 

 duce the product in the comb. 



After all, it is not a very difficult matter to 

 produce a jet of steam. Take an ordinary 

 square tin can, and have your tinner attach to 

 it a tin pipe, and let the same communicate 

 with a barrel near the stove. I have tiled a 

 five-gallon tin boiler on the stove, and find that 

 it will generate quite a pressure t)f steam. In 

 fact, it will heat hot a coil of pipes in my bath- 

 room; but the probabilities are that the wax- 

 press and the ordinary methods of rendering 

 wax will answer perfectly well for those who 

 have only a hundred pounds or so.] E. R. R. 



[Now, I too want to say a word about sliding a 

 flat cover on th(> hive. This thing was talked 

 of by patent-right venders more than twenty 

 years ago; and when the hives were new, say 

 during the first season, the whole thing worked 

 beautifully. Just visit the same apiary, how- 

 ever, say three years later, then how do the 

 sliding covers work, with every thing covered 

 with wax and propolis — covers and hives, per- 

 haps, warped and twisted ? Why, it worked 

 exactly as friend France has said; and I confess 

 that my experience with such arrangements 

 was such that I began to feel bitter and sarcas- 

 tic toward any one who talked about such an 

 arrangement. Now comes the point that makes 

 this difference in testimony. Of late, an cir/Zit- 

 frame hive is getting to be fashionable. The 

 cover is narrower and lighter than any thing 

 we have had heretofore. Another thing, these 

 lioys have gone and banished, or pretty nearly 

 banished, the burr-combs and bits of wax that 

 used to daub the covers, tops of the frames, and 

 every thing else. If the hives are made nice 

 and accurate, the bee-spaces just right, and 

 kept so, I begin to have faith that the careful 

 bee-keeper may keep his covers and the tops of 

 his frames so clean that he can. even after five 

 years of use, slide the covers on without killing 

 a bee— at least, I hope so. But there will have 

 to be a big reform. I tell you, in a good many 



