494 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JuTA- 1. 



•' Xo: as vRt I do not sell ill large lots. I sell 

 now and then only one as a nioilel to work from. 

 I charge ^1.00 for thei-e models. Of course, they 

 are a full-sized fcfder. such as I use myself, but 

 they can be varied in size to fit any hive or 

 clamp.'" 



"At what time do you put on the sections?"' 



"That question has been many times answer- 

 ed by Mr. Doolittle and others. I put mine on 

 just as they direct; that is. as soon as I notice 

 that honey is coming in freely. This can be 

 detected by the drawing-out of the comb near 

 the top-bars of the brood -frames. When they 

 begin to whiten it is usually time to put on a 

 few sections— just a few— at first. My clamps 

 hold only 16 sections each, and it takes two 

 clamps to cover the hive; but I rarely ever put 

 on more than one at first, covering the other 

 half of the hive with a board; and then when 

 the bees got well at work in the first clamp I 

 put on another, and tier up when necessary." 



" Now.Jf I should decide to make clamps like 

 yours would it be infringing on any one's 

 patent by using the screws ?" 



" No. sir! you would not. as I am the first who 

 used the wood screws in clamps or crates, and I 

 have never taken out a patent in my life; hence 

 everybody is at liberty to use wood screws." 



•' Mr. Manum, what is that man doing over 

 there on his knees?" 



•• He is setting out strawberry-plants." 



" Are you in the fruit as well as bee business?" 



" Well. I am getting into fruit a little. My 

 land is rightly adapted to fruit: and. being so 

 near the village. I am trying it on a small scale 

 to test the matter. Last winter I read Mr. T. 

 B. Terry's little book on strawberries; and be- 

 fore I had read it half through I had the fruit 

 fever: and by the time I read it through I had 

 it bad: and it so happened that, in a day or 

 two, a fruit agent came along. I called him 

 the doctor: and he, having caught on to me 

 just at fever heat, I took a strong dose by giving 

 him an order for plants enough to set three- 

 fourths of an acre of strawberries and three- 

 fourths acre of raspberries, and a lot of black- 

 berries, blackcaps, cherries, apples, quince, 

 etc.: and now we have them all set except a 

 few hundred strawberries." 



" How can you attend to the picking of fruit, 

 and care for bees at the same time? " 



" Well, don't you see I can attend to the care 

 of the plants and trees in spring and fall; and 

 wife says she will attend to the picking of the 

 fruit. In that way I thiuK we can make it go 

 pretty well; however, the fr\iit-business is not 

 wholly new to me, as I have dabbled in it in a 

 small way for a number of years. I also find 

 that raisiiig choice varieties of seeds helps when 

 the honey crop fails. I make it a point to have 

 seed corn, barley, oats, beans, and choice pota- 

 toes, to sell every spring at a good price. I 

 have at present over 100 varieties of potatoes, 

 some of which are very fine. The most of them 

 I raised myself from the seed-balls. I have not 

 named my newest ones yet, as I wish to test 

 them another year before offering them for 

 sale." 



" Do you name all your new varieties?'" 



"No, I do not, as some of the parties who buy 

 certain varieties prefer to name the new ones 

 themselves." 



IN THE STOREHOUSE. 



" Mr. Manum, I see you have a peculiar-look- 

 ing bean here in this box. What are they ? " 



" Those are a remarkable bean, and one of 

 the best garden httsh beans I ever saw. I call 

 them 'Wife's Choice.' They are especially 

 adapted to cook as sJiell beans, being as nice 

 and tender In winter as the cranberry bean is 

 in the summer. They are also very productive. 



My neighbors, to whom I have given trial 

 me.^ses the past winter, speak so highly of them 

 that I have decided to plant Ini-gely of them 

 this seaM)n. to supply the demand I ^llall doubt- 

 less have riglit here in our village." 



BACK IN THE API.ARV. 



"Mr. Manum, do you think that painting 

 hives different colors, as you have yours, has a 

 tendency to help the bees locate their own 

 hives?" 



"Yes. I believe it is a help at least, and I 

 have used different-colored paint for that pur- 

 pose principally." 



" VVhat is your opinion regarding the new 

 self-hiving hives? '" 



"Well, really I know nothing about them, 

 except what I see in the bee journals. I think 

 possibly that, in time, such a hive may be in- 

 vented, if not already so. I should be glad of 

 such a hive; but I should be much more pleased 

 with a method by which swarming could be 

 prevented, and yet keep the colony in a normal 

 or natural condition." 



" Now, Mr. Manum. I want to ask you one 

 more question. Do you find that bee-keeping 

 pays at the present prices of honey?" 



"Really, Mr. Bull, I must say that, of late 

 years, it has not paid me. We have had 5 poor 

 seasons in succession. Last year was a little 

 better, inasmuch as the crop just about paid 

 expenses. I find that, by careful management 

 and close economy, I can produce comb honey 

 in a fairly good season for ten cents per pound. 

 In order to do so, however, I find I must do the 

 greater part of the work myself. It won't pay 

 to hire very much help in the apiary at present 

 prices of honey." A. E. Manum. 



Bristol, Vt. 



PREVENTION OF INCREASE. 



HOW DR. C. C. MILLER MANAGES IT. 



A correspondent from Indiana comes at me 

 with the following conundrum, asking me to 

 give the answer in Gleanings: "" How would 

 you manage to prevent increase in an apiary 

 where the queens' wings were kept clipped, 

 when running for comb honey ? " 



That"s easy. There are various ways. Dou- 

 ble up in the fall: double up in the spring; va- 

 rious other ways; but the plan that has suc- 

 ceeded with the least effort on my part is the 

 one I tried last winter. Put your bees in a cel- 

 lar too cold for them, and then let them stay all 

 winter without any fire. That kept down in- 

 crease for me; and, having the additional ad- 

 vantage of a remarkably cold, wet spring, I 

 have now less than half I put in the cellar. 



Still, there are some things about the plan I 

 don't like, and I'll tell you a way that suited me 

 better than any other I ever tried. The only 

 reason I don't practice it now is because I don't 

 keep my bees all in one apiary, and I don't want 

 to keep some one constantly on the watch for 

 swarms in the out-apiairies. Here's the plan: 



When a swarm issues, catch and cage the 

 queen (queens must be clipped), and put her 

 somewhere in the hive, so that the bees can 

 take care of her. The bees, having no queen, 

 will return to their old hive. Sometimes they 

 make trouble by going into another hive, but 

 not often. When it suits your convenience, 

 either right away or any time within five days, 

 take out all the combs and put them into an 

 empty hive, first shaking off about half the 

 bees. Generally I put in half the combs with- 

 out shaking, and gave three or four hard shakes 

 to each of the other combs. Now put into the 

 old hive at least one comb containing eggs and 

 young brood, being sure you give no (jueen- 



