308 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. lo. 



honey the bees may gather, and a tenth of 

 the increase in bees. The honey is to be in 

 merchantable shape, deUvered at the apiary, 

 and the bees to be in good substantial hives; 

 and the party of the second part gives back 

 the original stock upon the expiration of the 

 lease, except in case of foul brood or loss of 

 bees from some unavoidable cause. 



DAMPENING SECTIONS ON THE GRASS. 



Dr. Miller is somewhat worked up over my 

 idea of putting sections on the grass under a 

 tree to dampen them, and says the plan is too 

 slow for him. Well, we are not all as big fish 

 as Dr. Miller, and do not need so much water 

 to swim in. There is not a little complaint 

 about foundation falling down in the sections, 

 especially when the prepared sections are put 

 on too soon, and the bees are blamed with 

 pulling down the foundation. Now, I happen 

 to know that, when the sections are never wet 

 from the factory to the hive, there is little or 

 no trouble of that kind. 



SMOKER FUEI,. 



If too much has not been said already about 

 smokers and smoker fuel I would say that, in- 

 stead of cutting all the wood for the smoker 

 four or five inches long, as many advise, from 

 one-fourth to one-third of the wood should be 

 cut two inches long. By putting a little of 

 this short wood into the smoker first, and then, 

 when that is well on fire, putting in the longer 

 wood, the fire will burn better, the smoker 

 will work better, and the fire will be hot 

 enough so that there will be no need of clean- 

 ing the smoker out ; for if the fire is hot 

 enough it will keep the smoker clean after the 

 first few fires. I use dead wood — oak and elm 

 mostly, but I like good sound wood also pretty 

 well. Wm. H. Eagerty. 



Cuba, Kan. 



[Your scheme of dividing the profits might 

 be a very fair one ; but there is one point you 

 do not clearly cover. Suppose, for instance, 

 that all or half the bees die ; who will share 

 the loss, and in what proportion ? I take it 

 that, in this proposition, the man who operates 

 the bees would be expected to assume such 

 loss, although an exception would be made in 

 the case of foul brood and other miavoidable 

 troubles. — Ed.] 



CONTRACTING DEEP ENTRANCES ; HOW E. P. 

 CHURCHII.I, DOES IT. 



Friend Root: — Interested as I am in hives, 

 etc., I have used all kinds of entrances; but 

 the one I send you for the new entrance is 



best of all. We surely need to govern a hive- 

 door as much as a building- door; and this is 

 simple and cheap and good for chaflf hives, as 

 well, using an inside piece so as to slip into 

 the entrance. E. P. Churchii^i,. 



Hallowell, Me., Jan. 19. 



[The strip A, at its widest part, is as wide 

 as the entrance, and as long. I take it that 

 friend Churchill slips this slat, at the close of 

 the honey-flow, into the entrance; then if rob- 

 bers get to nosing round the narrow entrance 

 under A, it is further contracted by dropping 

 the gates B B, one or both. But, hold on ! 

 It is possible that strip A represents the hive- 

 front, and the slot under it the entrance. B B 

 would then be fastened to the front of the 

 hive permanently, and would be dropped 

 down close to the entrance, separately or in 

 pairs, as the case might warrant. 



As for entrance-strips, I think I would use 

 something simpler than any thing that has 

 yet been proposed; namely, a strip of wood as 

 long as the entrance, and a beespace narrower 

 than its width ; or perhaps this would be 

 better: a strip of wood as wide as the entrance, 

 and an inch shorter than its length. With 

 the last named I w^ould secure different widths 

 of entrances by sliding it catacornerwise, reg- 

 ulating the angle according to the width of 

 entrance desired. — Ed.] 



the ADVANTAGE OF WIDE AND DEEP EN- 

 TRANCES; FROM THE STANDPOINT OF ONE 

 WHO HAS GIVEN THEM A THOROUGH 

 trial; THE RANSON BOTTOM- 

 BOARD. 



Mr. Editor: — You intimate in your foot- 

 note, page 182, that you woi:ld have me tell 

 your readers why the deep entrance is better 

 than the shallow one. Well, first, thanking 

 you for a generous footnote, I would state 

 that the deep entrance is better for three rea- 

 sons: 1. The -bees want it; 2. It contributes to 

 their comfort; 3. The results in surplus honey 

 are better set forth as follows: The bees told 

 by their actions they wanted deeper entrances 

 when I found them gnawing and biting the 

 top of small entrances, trying to get room for 

 the pile of idle bees to get to work; 4. It con- 

 tributed to their comfort. This they indicat- 

 ed by their quietness and active work when 

 colonies with small entrances to the hives 

 would in hot weather roar like an approach- 

 ing storm, and hang idle on the front of the 

 hive; also, the results in surplus honey are 

 better, from the fact that more workers keep 

 at work, and less idling and piling out in hot 

 weather. Now a word about the Ranson bot- 

 tom-board. 



While I have no doubt that it will sogn be 

 as standard as the L. frame and Dovetailed 

 hive, and I think also that many things of 

 less merit are patented, still there is no patent 

 on this, and all manufacturers are at liberty 

 to make and all bee-keepers to use it; so I 

 turn it over to The A. I. Root Co. as its guar- 

 dian, with the hope that they see to it that 

 some other felloiv doesn't take out a patent on 

 it so that others can't use it at will. If you 

 please, Mr. Editor, don't let Dr. Miller call 

 me bad because I did not tell about it sooner. 



New River, Va. W. B. Ranson. 



[I consider this strong testimony in favor of 

 the deep entrance ; and while I have not had 

 the opportunity for observation that friend 

 Ranson has, yet the experience I have had 



