(.LKANINCJS IN HEE CULTURE. 



3:^3 



liatl some |nrlt_\ had wiiilcis on bees licri' too; 

 hut I liavi' never used sealed covers. l*erliai)S 

 one is oocasionally sealeii; hut a very large per 

 cent, at least '.Ht. liave had more uiiward venti- 

 lation than 1 wanted, on account of (loorly con- 

 structed hives. I iiliniys use soinet hinfj; similar 

 to the Hill device — a piece of hurlap spread 

 over tlie top of the device and the bees, and 

 tlien till in — not full if a two-story. t)nt full or 

 nearly full ifal'o-story — with olii cloths, col- 

 ton or wt)olen. old caipet. etc. (i. F. Avhks. 

 Alherton. I ml., April 8. 



HOW TO ( .\rcil IIOHHEKS WITH A I'OKTKK HKK- 

 \-:sCAVK. 



Huring the drouth las^t fall 1 had somi' tronlile 

 witli robber-hees; and after trying sevei-al plans 

 to pi'event. 1 have settleii upon one nior(> way 

 of '■ heading otf the little rogues, and am not 

 quite satisfied that I am right, hence this letter 

 to you. When the robbers begin another run 

 on a hive, I propos(» to plug the entrance with a 

 Porter bee-escape to point in; remove the top of 

 the hive and (piilt. and substitute double wire 

 clotli (wiri" al)out one inch apart), and let rob- 

 bers and all run in. and keep tlteiii tlicre a few 

 days. What do you think of the sclieme? If 

 all right, how long should I keep them cooped 

 up before opening the hive? 



Mks. a. R. Forman. 

 Slatonville, Ark., Mar. 1.5. 



[The scheme will be excellent; and although 

 this same thing has been proposed before, we do 

 not remember that any one has tried it. W'e 

 should be glad to have you and others try it. 

 and then report. It will catch the robbers; and 

 if they can't get out to tell the rest of their 

 comrades, they can't get up a very big robbing.] 



KKKNEY VS. THE HOHIZOXTAI. WllilXCi. 



In (ILEAXIXGS for 18!»0, page 371, Mr. E. D. 

 Keeney gives his new way of wiring to which 

 the members of the Root establishment seem to 

 have taken a liking at once. Ernest has pro- 

 posed wire nails, to be used in place of the 

 staples in Keeney's plan, these nails to be bent 

 to a hook. This was a great improvement. 

 On page 5f)l. friend Hatch makes another im- 

 portant improvemimt on Keeney's plan, to 

 which Ernest says: " I like your improvement 

 on the Keeney method." On page .x)7 he says 

 to Keeney: " Your method of wiring is working 

 nicely, and it will probably supei-s(!de all oth- 

 ers.'' Now. why is this method abandoned, and 

 the horizontal method by piercing end-bars 

 recommended? Has ii proved a failure? With 

 me the former is done more rapidly, and gives. 

 so far, good satisfaction. S. 



Klona, Iowa, March '.>. 



[The Keeney wiring as improved by Hatch 

 did not prove to be a failure. With heavf or 

 medium brood foundation it worked v(ny nice- 

 ly: but it would not work satisfactoi'ilv with 

 light brood. The latter gradi; as yoii may 

 know is considerably cheaper than eitlier of the 

 other two. and as this works nicely with tlie 

 horizontal wiring we gave it the i)refeience. It 

 is less work to wii'e on the horizontal plan: our 

 girls who wire many hundreds of frames will 

 vouch for this. Again, the Keeney plan did not 

 please all. because the foundation would bulge 

 in places. We recommend the horizontal plan 

 in a wfH'd because it is cheaper, not only in 

 tiqie of wiring but in th(! grad*^ of foundation 

 that can be used with it. It should be remem- 

 bered that the horizontal wires should not be 

 drawn too tight, otherwise the foundation will 

 bulge.] 



TMAT"KIN<i »I;K " ANUIIIK KA M HI.KIC : Al- 

 TO.MATIf 8WAHMKKS AND UONKV ADlIv 



TKHATION. 



lam glad the *" King-bee of the Home " is 

 safely hived again. I havc^ greatly enjoyed my 

 imaginary travels \\ith him. I expect' to dravv 

 my head within the shell (clam) if I tind he has 

 any idea of coming this way. Whih; we Minne- 

 st)ta bee-kee|)ers ar<' a line and distinct race for 

 pui'e product, w<^ don't want any of our |)atenls 

 arid methods of operating interviewed by any 

 oiu>. not ■• in it." Thi>y could not understand the 

 situation, seen through their Kodak. 



If that Rambler sliould ranil)le thi'ough here 

 I shall turn my :.'()() lb. "/>»/ /if .Wicc/; " (thorough- 

 bred Oxford) loose on him: and his business 

 set up will Ix'guile leisun; hours for (li.EANlNGS 

 rea(ters for a wliole fortnight. 



I hope you will tiy to help us all you can to 

 get an automatic swarmer successfully at work. 

 It will be a wonderful help to single-handed 

 folks who till the soil and cultivate the bee. I 

 must have some by June if I can. 



Regarding adulteration, my brother writes 

 me that, wlien at work in canning-factories in 

 California, all their jellies and all theirextract- 

 ed honey put up where he worked was three- 

 fourths glucose. He said he never was so sur- 

 prised, for he thought where such a supply of 

 pure product was obtainable such things as 

 adulterants were never used. This is a fact, 

 Mr. Root, and I hope you will use every effort 

 to expose and stop the frauds. 



Faribault, Minn., Mar. 24. L. J. Page. 



[We are not willing to let the matter stand 

 right here. Can not affidavits, or sucii evidence 

 as will be recognized in courts, be procured to 

 convict these adulterators? Will your brother 

 take oath to such statements? and if so, let's 

 test the law in California. W^e should be glad 

 to get legal advice from some one of our sub- 

 scribers in California, of the law profession.] 



QUEEN - EXCLUDEK.S FOB EXTRACTING; HOW 

 THEY WERE PI-UGGEI) UP WITH PROPOLIS. 



As I saw a statement from Mr. A. Sion. Kyle, 

 Texas, about propolizing jjerforated zinc, I will 

 tell you what hai)|)ened to melast S])ring. Just 

 in the beginning of basswood time I put on 30 

 zinc excluders ; left them on one week ; and 

 wlien I looked in the upi)er story there were 

 hardly any bees u|) there. I thought they 

 might be too weak, wo they would not work in 

 the second story; but when I lifted the zinc up I 

 found they were sti'ong, but they would not go 

 through the zinc; and some had almost all the 

 holes lilled up with propolis. As soon as I 

 found it would not do I took them all off. and I 

 got about :'.].")() lbs. of extracted honey from 30 

 swarms; tnn my idea is. that, if I had left them 

 on 1 should not have had 10 lbs. apiece. I think 

 they are great quecsn, bee, and honey excluders 

 in our Western country. I will try a fcnv this 

 season again. - William SeExMann. 



Boscobel, Wis., Mar. 27. 



[This seems a little remarkable. It makes, 

 however, only the second report of this kind. 

 All others, so far as we remember, declare in 

 favor of the zinc. J. F. Mclntyre, of Fillmore, 

 California, uses it largely, and recommends it 

 to his l)ee-keei)ing friends. We presume your 

 bees were working on the sealed-cover idea. 

 While the fact that honey began to l)e stored 

 a/(cr you removed the excluders is suggestive, 

 it may have been only an accidental coinci- 

 dence. It is possible that the honey began to 

 flow in al)out tiiat time. If bees don't have 

 much to do they will j)lug up with propolis; but 

 if there is a good flow of honey they do not 

 bother much with gumming. It looks a little 



