552 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JUI.Y 15. 



thousand bee-keepers would be a far better 

 memorial than a fev/ ten dollars from a few 

 friends. 



A large number of customers sometimes 

 have an odd amount of change left in their 

 favor after goods are paid for. We will glad- 

 ly apply such amounts to the Langstroth fund 

 whenever we receive instructions to do so. It 

 is getting close on to the time when a mon- 

 ument should be selected and purchased, and 

 therefore any funds that are to be sent m 

 should be forthcoming at once. We stand 

 ready to apply all 10 and 25 " centses " when- 

 ever so notified. It will cost you only a pos- 

 tal, and you will have a part in the recogni- 

 tion of the services rendered by a great and 

 good man. 



A VISIT TO VERNON BURT ; HOW HE GETS 



COMB HONEY WHEN OTHERS DO NOT ; 



PI.AIN SECTIONS A SUCCESS ; 



VALUE OF DEEP ENTRANCES. 



Owing to a great crowd of general work I 

 was not able to get down to friend Burt's un- 

 til yesterday, the 13th. You will lemember 

 that I reported in our last issue that he was 

 getting a crop of honey when the rest of us 

 around here were getting no surplus; that the 

 secret lay in the fact that he had fed his colo- 

 nies a la Boardman until the brood-nests were 

 crammed full or sealed sugar syrup and sealed 

 brood at the opening of the harvest. The nec- 

 tar, when it did come, and what there was of 

 it, went right into the sections. 



About the size ot hives, Mr. Burt now de- 

 cides in favor of an eight-frame brood-nest, 

 and a single one at that. He believes in 

 strong colonies, just as I do ; but as he carries 

 on brood-rearing intensively on Boardman 's 

 plan he secures powerful colonies. Of course, 

 they swarm, as that can not very well be pre- 

 vented in a single brood-nest. 



DEEP ENTRANCES. 



Mr. Biirt is an enthusiast on the subject of 

 deep and wide entrances, this being the third 

 season that he has tested them. He is very 

 positive there is less swarming, little or no 

 clustering out, and certainly freer ingress and 

 egress of the bees. Said he, "Just watch the 

 bees fl3'ing in at that entrance. ' ' I lay down 

 on my side, with my face two feet away. 

 While in this position Mr. Burt said, "There, 

 you see the bees land inside of the hive two 

 inches from the hive-front. Some of them, 

 you notice, do not even alight on the bottom- 

 board, but by a nice easy swoop they alight 

 up between the frames above , and you will 

 notice, too, how they take wing clear back 

 along about the middle of the bottom-board 

 when they go to the fields." 



As the bees were coming in heavily laden 

 with red clover, I had a nice opportunity to 

 verify all his statements. Some of the deep 

 entrances were after the Danzy pattern, and 

 some after the Pettit idea, with wedges. 



" How do you like Pettit's scheme?" I said. 



" It vis all right," he replied. "I have tested 

 it for two seasons, and am satisfied that the 

 bees complete the sections on the outside rows 

 better than where no such plan is used. You 

 will notice how the bees strike along by the 



middle of the bottom-board, and that they 

 walk either to the back end of the hive or the 

 sides. This has a tendency to favor the out- 

 side rows of sections ; and the practice is as 

 good as the theory." 



FENCES AND PI,AIN SECTIONS A SUCCESS. 



Mr. Burt was greatly pleased over the plain 

 section. Said he, " You never introduced any 

 thing that pleased me better than these. They 

 crate well and look well." While I am writ- 

 ing these lines, the following is handed me, 

 and I take pleasure in presenting it right here 

 as it will speak for itself : 



J/; . Editor: — We beg leave to report on those plain 

 sections and fence separators. This spring we bought 

 35 supers of the Ideal kind, with plain sections and 

 fence separators. They were bought as a trial, and 

 put to a test, and we are pleased to say they have 

 stood the test very satisfactorily. We ran several col- 

 onies with them at one of our out-apiaries. The col- 

 onies were good average ones, as near like the other 

 colonies at the apiary as possible. The bees went to 

 work in the plain .sections .sooner than in the old 

 style; and, would jou believe it? up t<p the present 

 time these colonies with the plain sections have pro- 

 duced twice as much as those with the old style. This 

 is not guesswork, but facts, as careful records were 

 kept, and we are ready to verify what we say. The 

 onlj' reason we can assign is that the plain sections 

 and fence separators gave more perfect communica- 

 tion. 



As to the chaiacter of the horey, we will say we did 

 not have a single bulged or washboardy .section. The 

 honey came to about i'^ inch of the wood; and, coming 

 so close, it made a pretty section of honey. It was 

 advanced in the spring — that owing to the fact that 

 the honey would come so close to the edge of the 

 wood that it would be easier to get broken or bruised 

 in handling than the old style. We thought the same; 

 but after handling them filled with honey we must 

 say that they are less apt to get broken in handling 

 than the old style. O. P. Hyde & Son. 



Hutto, Texas, June 11. 



Friend H. says his bees put twice as much 

 honey in the new as in the old sections. This 

 seems astounding ; but in the generality of 

 cases I do not suppose there will be anywhere 

 near as much difference, and perhaps no dif- 

 erence will be noticed. Reports, with one ex- 

 ception, regarding the plain section, have all 

 been favorable. 



A POOR HONEY YEAR. 



A. I. R. REMARKED this morning that this 

 had been the poorest honey season he had 

 known for many years. Reports seem to 

 show that it comes as near being a general 

 failure as any year we have ever known. But 

 bee-keepers have had a remarkably good sea- 

 son in Vermont and Colorado ; and we have 

 received a few favorable reports from West 

 Virginia and Northern California, and some 

 from Wisconsin and Michigan. Clover gen- 

 erally has been a failure. Basswood has not 

 begun to 3-ield in proportion to the display of 

 bloom. Peavine or red clover is jielding well 

 wherever there is any. The bees were flying 

 heavily at Mr. Burt's yesterday, and I notice 

 they are going again in great droves over our 

 factory buildings, probably from the same 

 source. 



Prices on comb honey, at least, should rule 

 higher. 



THOMAS WILLI.'VM COWAN. 



Some of our readers will remember that Mr. 

 Thomas Wm. Cowan, Mrs. Cowan, and their 

 son, an electrical engineer, have been sojourn- 



