1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



4:«» 



'C(>pd in making mo feel it a little: and. wiicn 

 drawn oil. my liands would look lilce cooked 

 pigs" feo^t: and. if nuigniticd to the size; of onr 

 cartli. they \>onld appear to be eos-ered with 

 mountains higher tlian tiie Alps. If you want 

 to get stung on one of yon tingei'S. .iust tie it up 

 in a rag. That is my experience when I have a 

 sore finger. I wf)rk \\ith my bees with bare 

 arms, bare hands, bare face, and no protection 

 of any kind, and seldom get stung: and if evei-y 

 person would keej) pure, gentle bees (no hy- 

 brids), and study the countenance and move- 

 ments of the bees, and their nat\u'e. they (in 

 mv opinion) could do the same. 

 Oxford. ().. March 11. D. A. McCoiiD. 



bees off a comb with one stroke, or practically 

 amounting to that. Those little toy yucca 

 brushes won't do." Vour brush is long enough 

 to take the bees off with one stroke.] E. R. R. 



THE HAYES FOUNDATION-FASTENER. 



I was very much pleased to receive .\f)ril 1st 

 Gleanings, and see the tine illustration of the 

 foundation-fastener; and I was greatly sur- 

 prised that you gave it such an amount of free 

 advertising in your foot-notes. Rut I was as- 

 tonished when I received your postal of the Tth 

 inst.. stating that yon had credited my account 

 §5.00 by article in April 1st (ii,EAXiN(i.s. I can't 

 understand it. The Gleanings article placed 

 me greatly in i/o»r debt: and if you had bal- 

 anced my account I should have considered it 

 just and right. Mell R. Hayes. 



Washington. Kan.. Apr. 1<). 



[When an article or machine is so manifestly 

 good as yours, it is a pleasure to give it a good 

 notice. Our girls scolded considerably when 

 one of the packers proposed to take the only 

 one we had for an order. Th(\v hardly knew 

 how to get along without it. and so we had to 

 make them a new one.] 



STEALING HONYE. 



My health has been bad for several years 

 past, and money is hard to get: but I can not 

 have Gleanings stop. I send you a clipping 

 taken from one of our daily papers. In addition 

 to the honey taken, I lost •") fine queens. 



Last Frida.v niglit. (lining tlie heavy rain storm, 

 same one with a great amoiuit of courag-e opened 

 ten hives of l)ees in Mr. Oscar Banks' apiarj-, and 

 stole about 200 pounds of honey, and left the frames 

 and bees scattered all over the' apiary. 



Charlotte. N. C, May 1. O. Ranks. 



A BEE-BKUSH, AND A GOOD ONE. 



Excuse me for making you a present of a bee- 

 brush. I wish you tct give it to the readers of 

 (Jleanings. I used one last season. I think it 

 good enough for the World's Fair. I gave a 



c 



SAYAK S BEE-BRVSH. 



friend one last spring, and he also reports it the 

 best he ever saw or used. I have improved it 

 by putting the string on to tie around the 

 Avaist, and then it is always at hand. It can 

 be made of any rope untwin<'d. 

 Grafton, Wis. Seth Sayak. 



[I believe your brush is a good thing;. In 

 talking with one of those extensive Yoi-k State 

 extracted-honey producers, W. L. Coggshall, of 

 West Groton, he said he could not tolerate a 

 little yucca brush, nor yet the Davis. " We 

 want something." said he. "that will bi'ush the 



buzz-saws, etc. — A caution. 



If you find any errors, please correct them, for 

 lam laboring under considerable disadvantage 

 in writing, because of a sad accident that be- 

 fi 11 me one day last week. I have a Rarnes 

 saw: and \\ Idle showing one of the boys how to 

 cut a certain board, the festive saw" waltzed 

 into my right tliumb. and I compromised by 

 leaving half of the first joint. I have come to 

 the conclusion that a buzz-saw is a dangerous 

 institution, even without pulley, crank, or trea- 

 dle. In the last numbiM' of Gleanings you give 

 some plain talk about that supremely crankv 

 and governinent-mule-cheeky Dr. Hall. The 

 very idea of claiming originality on his part is 

 certainly somewhat absurd and ridiculous, 

 when, to my cei'tain knowledge, it has been in 

 use by the old botanic and hydroiiathic phvsi- 

 cians for more than 50 years. Humbuggerv 

 and medical frauds have wonderful cheek and 

 bilious secretions. Alpheus Dove. 



Rrookville. Ohio, March 5. 



wibe-cloth bottoms fok hives in the cel- 

 lar, fatal to bees. 



In the fall, winter, and summer of 18S7 and '8S 

 I was working in the apiary of N. H. Putnam, 

 River Falls. Wis. He had been reading a good 

 deal. I suppose, about large spaces under brood- 

 frames, in wintering bees in the cellar: at anv 

 rate, he conceived a plan which he thought 

 would work to perfection. He had me nail to- 

 gether the side and end pieces of a Simplicity 

 hive-cover, and then tack window-screen oil 

 top of the frame instead of the cover-boards. 

 These were taken into the cellar, and turned 

 upside down. The hives were brought in. the 

 bottom-boards removed and set on these frames, 

 and fastened there. Twelve swarms in Sim- 

 plicity hives were fixed this wav. There were 

 about 70 swarms put into the cellar that fall. 

 AVhen taken out in the spring, those that were 

 not wired were all right, except one swarm. 

 The twelve with sci-eens fastened underneath 

 were all dead. Upon examination we found 

 that dead bees had dropped down on the screen, 

 covered it over, and molded. The result was. 

 the bees wei-e smothered to death. The cellar 

 was quite damp, so that the mold filled up the 

 spaces between the dead bees. 



Fred A. Davis. 



West Superior. Wis.. Apr. 4. 



A COLONY IN the OPEN AIK. 



I sent to you a year ago and got a catalogue of 

 bee- fixtures, and a copy of Gleanings: and I 

 saw in the latter where, if a person saw acolonv 

 of bees in the open air. he was asked to write and 

 let you know. I saw a colony of bees on a cor- 

 ner of a rail fence, and they had five combs- 

 three large ones and two small ones— a small 

 one on both sides, as nearly as we could get at 

 it. There was about 15 lbs. of honey and 3 of 

 wax. Wti,liam Haviland. 



Laingsburg, Mich., Apr. 8. 



IS IT the nameless bee -disease or some- 

 thing else '.' 

 With much interest I have read the articles 

 written on the nameless bee-disease by our best 

 writers and apiarists, its cause and its cure. 

 Now, I wish to ask whether any one ever saw 

 these small brown shiny bees in the spring. If 

 so, they are an exception and not the rule. I 

 never saw this disease (as almost everv one 



