664 



GLEANiNGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. ]. 



means we may have no finished sections in 

 eitiier super: whereas we might have had one 

 super finished. In fact, it looks a little as if we 

 were to be sl<ipped this year. We certainly are 

 having no ttood of honey, although white clover 

 is and has been abundant. Basswood has come 

 and gone, and given us nothing. Only a small 

 number of the lew trees we do have gave us any 

 bloom. Swarming has troubled us less than 

 usual. It gives us a sort of homesick feeling to 

 read of the big crops oth(TS are harvesting. 

 Nevertheless, we are glad they are getting 

 them. 



We have one of the improved Bingham 

 smokers, and I have ii?ed it almost entirely this 

 summer. One thing I like about it very much 

 is, that you can burn such long pieces of wood 

 in it. We use apple wood a good deal as fuel. 

 and it is excellent. As two of our apiaries are 

 under apple-trees, it is very convenient to fill a 

 smokei', when necessary, by simply breaking ott' 

 a dead limb and breaking it in pirces small 

 enough to go in a smoker. If a dense, sharp 

 smoke is needed, we get a hot fire started, cut 

 up some green apple wood, and what a very 

 dense smoke it gives usi This will work in 

 either the Bingham or Clark. 



W'e keep a box for holding shavings at each 

 of the out-apiaries, and although they are cov- 

 ered with tin covers we did have trials this ex- 

 traordinarily wet spring in keeping the shav- 

 ings dry. If you have never had auy experience 

 in starting a smoker with damp fuel, tliere is no 

 use telling you about it. You couldn't appre- 

 ciate it. A few live coals from the stove, or a 

 piece of saltpeter wood, is a great help in light- 

 ing a smoker. I can hardly tell whicli smoker 

 I like l^etter, the Clark or the Bingham. They 

 are both good. The Bingham is the more dur- 

 able one, as it does not suck smoke back into 

 the bellows. I think the Clark not quite so 

 clumsy to handle, and I prefir it for driving 

 bees out of sevtn-al supers at a time, as it sends 

 a stronger blast. Emma Wilson. 



Marengo. 111., July 28. 



BBOOD-COMBS. 



MKS. L. C. AXTELL EXPLAINS HOW TO PKHSKKVE 

 THEM. 



It is not a very easy task lo presei-ve old 

 combs when one has uver a thousand, as we had 

 this spring. We piled ihem up carefully, so 

 that no comb should touch the other, and with 

 spaces between and aiound tlieui, upon slielves. 

 in a small plastered room wdere we had been 

 keeping our comb honey in years past. Four 

 times we smoked them with sulphur until there 

 was no living insect on the window. The burn- 

 ing sulphur was set under them, so as to as- 

 cend through them. The fumes of the sulphur 

 killed the millers, or moths, but not tlie worms, 

 in the room or in the combs. I have seen al- 

 most no dead worms. The weather being hot 

 they breed fast; and as we were using those off 

 the lower tier, and not using many, we did not 

 notice how bad they were up high in the room 

 near the roof, especially on the west side of the 

 room. A few days more and they would have 

 been entirely ruined. As it was, we picked off 

 nearly a wash-boiler of webs and cocoons, and 

 left many tliousands in them for the bees to 

 clean out, by placing thom in all hives that 

 have no supers on. 111 ling the bodies of the 

 hives; and, if enough bees, tiering them up one 

 and two tiers high above the l)e(>s. But as the 

 bees wer(> getting no honey at tlie time of find- 

 ing them in tliat condition, we feared robbing 

 out those colonies, wliicli would most surely 

 have been done. We first put them, with tln'ir 



thousands of worms, into empty hives, and fas- 

 tened them up so but an inch or two of room 

 was left for the bees to go out and in. The bees 

 cari'ied out what little honey was in them, and 

 cleaned out most of the worms ; but if the 

 combs were not set an incli or two apart tlie 

 worms again made webs and went on with 

 their work of destruction. Aft(>r the honey 

 was taken out we then tiered them up over 

 hives as above spoken of. 



Some of the worst combs we set four and five 

 together, close in front of the comb-honey colo- 

 nies — the large colonies, which came out of their 

 own hives and clustered over tliem cleaning out 

 all worms and webs, and sealing up the injured 

 combs where the webs were torn out. I believe 

 they might be left thus at one side the entrance 

 of large hives for some time — I don't know but 

 all summer — provided the wind would not blow 

 them down, nor the rains wet and rot them, nor 

 the sun melt them. Of course, we could set tliem 

 in fi'ont of such hives only as were under shade; 

 or, if not shaded, we leaned some old boards up 

 against them. 



I had no idea how nicely the bees would clean 

 and patch up those combs; but we shall have to 

 take thetn in before a heavy storm, as I think a 

 storm would injui-e them. If the t)ees were get- 

 ting much honey it might do to set combs having 

 a little honey in that were i^eing injured by the 

 moths, close to the fronts of full colonies; but I 

 think it would cause robbing nights and morn- 

 ings unless honey were coming in very plentiful- 

 ly. They might be left there over night and ta- 

 ken away in the morning: but those dry combs 

 cause no rohlMng or commotion whatever. We 

 had a few combs left in hives .all summer that 

 bees could get at, and not a moth troubled them 

 at all. After this, when we lose bees in winter- 

 ing I think we shall leave the combs in the hives 

 they died in. and leave the entrance open for 

 the liees to keep out the moths and take out the 

 honey. Moths do not seem to work so much in 

 dried combs that are perfectly free from honey 

 and bee- bread. I think it is pollen that they 

 like much better than honey. I think I have 

 seldom or nevei' S( en moths in a section of comb 

 honey if there were no eel Is of bee- bread in them. 



Putting combs in a cellar, and fastening them 

 an inch or so apart, would, I think, be a good 

 place to keep them, as some have recommend- 

 ed, provided they could be kept from the mice. 

 Mrs. L. C. Axtell. 



Roseville, 111., Aug. 11, 1892. 



HUMBUGS AND SWINDLES. 



the cold process of PUTTING UP FHUIT. 



Friend Root: — Can you give me any informa- 

 tion of the Ohio Fruit Company, New Concord, 

 Ohio? They are selling the California cold 

 process of putting up fruit, and I liave bought 

 the recipe. They use compound extract of 

 salyx. Is there any danger in its use? What 

 is it? Is the process a humbug or not? Why I 

 ask is this: I see in a ladies' journal a notice of 

 its lieing a fraud, and the salyx extract as poi- 

 sonous, and telling us not to run any risk. I 

 thought if any man in Ohio would know of its 

 reliability it would be you. 



Hloomdale, O., Aug. 3. W. N. Ferguson. 



[My good friend, neither Bradstreet nor Dun 

 makes any mention of any such fruit company 

 at all; therefore there is no such company, or. 

 at least, it is a very small institution: and, be- 

 sides, this whole matter of selling I'ecipes for 

 doing any thing is a humbug and a swindle. 

 The matter has been gone over again and again; 



