810 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15. 



each corner of the frame through the end-bars 

 at 1, 3, 3, and 4. Let it be tight up in the cor- 

 ner. Now string a wire through the two upper 

 holes at 1, 3. Fasten one end of it by giving it 

 two or three turns around a ?^ wire nail partly 

 driven in, then drive this little nail in tight. 

 Then stretch the wire just as tight as you can. 

 and fasten with another % nail at the other 

 end. This wire will then lie flat against the 

 top-bar. Stretch another the same way. to lie 

 flat on the bottom-bar. Cut a wire of sufficient 

 length; run it half way through under the low- 

 er wire at the middle, then run one end through 

 the upper wire, then through the lower, then 

 the upper, then the lower, then through the 

 awl-hole at 1, and fasten with a J^ nail. In 

 the same way, thread the other end back a^nd 

 forth, and thread it through the awl-hole'at 

 3. Fasten lightly the end temporarily on a 9§ 

 nail driven partly in. Now lay the frame over 

 the board already described, letting the nails 

 come inside the angles of the perpendicular 

 wires. Taking hold of the wire at 5, stretch it 

 iicrj/ tight over the nail; then taking hold at 

 the next strand, stretch tight over the next 

 nail, and so on till it is drawn tight through the 

 hole at 3, when it is to be fastened. Lifting 

 your frame off the board, you will find it wired 

 just like the picture, only the perpendicular 

 wires will not be as straight and taut. But if 

 you have stretched them quite tight they will 

 be as good as the perpendicular wires in my old 

 frames that have made such straight combs. I 

 succeed in getting the horizontal wires perfect- 

 ly tight. 



I have described minutely the way I put on 

 the wires, not because I think it the best and 

 easiest way, but because it is <i way. and I hope 

 some one may tell us how to do it more easily 

 It is a good bit of work, but hardly more than 

 the old way of perpendicular wiring; but even 

 if much more, it is, I think, the only wiring I 

 shall use till I learn a better plan, or till I learn 

 of faults in this that I do not now know. 



Severest criticisms are invited; for if the 

 thing has faults enough to be useless, the soon- 

 er we know it the better. C. C. Miixek. 



Marengo, 111., Aug. 36. 



[I think I see two objections, doctor, to your 

 plan of wiring. The two horizontal wires have 

 too much weight to bear. The ordinary tinned 

 wire will pull in two quite easily, and will 

 stretch quite a little before it will break. If 

 one of the horizontal wires breaks, the whole is 

 gone. Another objection, which you have in- 

 cidentally mentioned, is the labor required to 

 wire it. I am not certain, but I think I should 

 prefer the Keeney method with the intersect- 

 ing wires at the top. and the horizontal wire at 

 the bottom. Out of some 300 or 300 combs wired 

 that way last season, there are very few that 

 have any appreciable bulging. But the plan 

 which, in my estimation, is ahead of all. is the 

 horizontal loose wires. There can be no bag- 

 ging. I have tried a full sheet of the very 

 lightest foundation we could make on a special 

 mill, the same wired on the horizontal plan. 

 The bees built out a perfect coinb. There is no 

 other plan of wiring with which I am acquaint- 

 ed with which we can use such thin founda- 

 tion.] E. R. 



THE PUNIC BEES. 



THEIK CHARACTERISTICS, ETC. 



They are truly wonderful bees, and are an- 

 swering to all their claims. Mr. Alley says. 

 '• They are the most prolific, gentle, and hardy 

 of any race or strain of bees I have ever had 

 any thing to do with. They will supersede the 



Italian." The queens are the most even layers 

 I have ever seen. Lift a fresh comb from a 

 Punic stock, and one will see the most beauti- 

 ful work in the way of egg-laying ever beheld. 

 Every egg will point downward in line with 

 the grain of the cells, and one could swear that 

 the queen used a straight-edge when putting 

 them in. Not a cell will be skipped. The bees 

 are as quick as a flash, and are off to the field 

 in no time. On their return they look and act 

 like robber bees, with the same quick motions. 

 They pass through the traps like a flash. It 

 does one's heart good to watch them. I never 

 before saw such lightning rapidity in motion. 

 I have spent hours watching them and picking 

 them up in my fingers as they go and come, 

 simply to hear the little fellows squeal as a 

 young queen will when handled. They refuse 

 to sting. If the sting happens to stick a little 

 into one's skin while being rolled about in the 

 finger, how quickly they withdraw it and fly 

 away! 



It is a grand sight to open a full colony of 

 Funics and see the little " niggers " at horne so 

 quiet, so unconcerned, and, to me. so beautiful 

 because of their usefulness and not of the five 

 gold bands. The Funics put the gold into their 

 keeper's pockets, which is better than on their 

 little backs. 



Their length of life, and hardiness, are some- 

 thing remarkable. I had some imported queens 

 come a few weeks ago that had been on the 

 road 38 days; and after the queens had been 

 introduced the attendants lived fully two weeks 

 longer in confinement. E. L. Pratt. 



Beverly, Mass., Sept., 1891. 



The above is pretty strong testimony for the 

 new race of bees. They may deserve it all, 

 however, and it were no moi'e than fair that 

 we give a little on the other side. Mr. Thos. 

 Wm. Cowan, editor of the BriUsli Bee Journal, 

 one who has traveled very extensively, in an- 

 swer to a correspondent who wanted to know 

 more about the new bees in his journal, says: 



As a rule we do not like to import into our col- 

 umns controversies originating' in other journals; 

 but as our correspondent asks for information, for 

 tlie benefit of our readers we give all we know 

 about African bees. We know notliing of the ex- 

 perience of the persons mentioned, and have re- 

 ceived no reports from any of our numerous cor- 

 respondents al)0ut Punic bees. We know of no 

 such race Amongst African bees witli wliich we 

 ai'e acquainted are those from Algeria, Morocco, 

 and Tunis— all varieties of Apis melliflca. Tliej' are 

 prolific black bees, said to be good workers, but 

 wliich have not sustained their reputation wlien in- 

 troduced into Europe. Queens of any of these vari- 

 eties could be purcliased for a few francs, and 

 some years ago Algerian queens were ottered tov 

 ten francs apiece by M. Feuillebois at Beni-Amran. 

 The- variety cultivated by the Kabyles is shiny 

 black, and the workers much smaller than the 

 average European bee; the drones, however, are 

 (juite as large. The Kabyles inhabit the mountains 

 lying toward the desert of Sahara, wliere they live 

 in small villages, and derive a considerable income 

 from honey, and more particularly from wa-x. 

 These bees are cdUed '' thizizoua thik' am'm," and 

 are cultivated in cylinders of coi'k bark, basket- 

 work, or earthenware. Some of tlie Tiatives liave 

 as many as .500 such hives. They were tiist import- 

 ed intoFrance in 1874, and, by their behavior, show- 

 ed that they came from a warm climate. They are 

 great propolizers, which shows that they are not 

 used to cold. Although quiet at times, if stimulat- 

 ed they become very savage, and not only attack 

 persons, but even enter the houses in their vicinity. 

 Tliey l»ave not proved siitisfactory in Europe, and 

 we know no one now who cultivates them. 



We know nothing about the so-called Punic bees, 

 and can give no information as to their value. Pos- 

 sessing as we do one of tlie largest libraries of bee- 



