1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



55 



the stock are herded on the road, and they 

 eat it as quickly as any thing else. I don't 

 wonder that Mr. Sawyer, of Yorktown, has 

 trouble in killing it. I saw his place last fall, 

 and I didn't think he had enterprise enough 

 to kill it. A. L. Kiudow. 



Sheffield, 111. 



SWEET CLOVER ; AN ARGUMENT FOR THOSE 

 WHO INSIST THAT IT IS A BAD WEED. 



When I began keeping bees, 15 or 16 years 

 ago, there was an abundance of sweet clover 

 growing along the railroad near where I lived; 

 and although I knew very little ab jut bees I 

 took from 75 to 150 lbs. of honey per colony. 

 A law was passed compelling the railroads to 

 cut all bushes, weeds, etc., along their tracks, 

 and they soon destroyed the sweet clover. 

 Then my honey-yields shrunk to from 25 to 

 50 lbs. per colony, notwithstanding my in- 

 creased knowledge of the business. Since 

 coming here (three years this coining spring) 

 I have sown 140 lbs. of sweet clover, and have 

 very little to show -for it. I have about 20 

 acres on my farm that will raise fair crops of 

 rye, corn, buckwheat, etc., and I am willing 

 to pay $100 to have it well seeded to sweet 

 clover. Here is a chance for Mr. Lewis A. 

 Sawyer, or some other sweet-clover kicker. 

 H. J. NorThrup. 



Jonesville, N. Y., Jan. 5. 



danzenbaker's corrections ; fine points 

 in comb-honey production. 



The symposium on fences and plain sections 

 in Dec. 15th Gleanings is wcrth 10 years' 

 subscription to any unbiased reader owning a 

 half-dozen colonies of bees if he is raising 

 comb honey to sell. It w r ould have been worth 

 thousands of dollars to me had I known as 

 much on this line 30 years ago. 



You were certainly exceedingly liberal in 

 giving so much space to Mr. F. L. Thompson, 

 who so adroitly brings in Mr. Getaz and Weed 

 to show that my success in securing well-filled 

 sections is due to having the foundation fit up 

 solid to the wood all round. 



Now I wish to say to the intelligent, unbias- 

 ed readers of Gleanings, that I do not ap- 

 prove of having the foundation touch the sec- 

 tions at the sides or bottom. It seems too 

 much like air-tight compartments ; and unless 

 there are open bee-ways over the separators at 

 the top of the super the bees will cut out the 

 foundation, and make the passages themselves. 



I want to be correctly understood as abso- 

 lutely opposed to bottom starters. I much pre- 

 fer a full free bee-space under it for the bees. 

 Any one who has to use bottom starters to get 

 his section built down is heading down stream, 

 and can be sure there is something radically 

 wrong in his philosophy and practice. 



Mr. T. says, "Both kinds of sections com- 

 pared should be in the same super." That is 

 just exactly my way, and I have been experi- 

 menting 30 years, and yet I have not felt that 

 I knew enough to herald it abroad. When I 

 felt sure that I had some contraption that was 

 a sure thing, and applied it to the bees, they 

 showed up its weak points in fine style. They 



are sticklers for fine points, as may be seen by 

 a glance at the four sections on page 920. By 

 mistake all the last year's fences in my supers 

 are fV inch too high at the top edge, making 

 it an impossibility for the bees to fill or cap 

 the top row of cells, while the lower edge of 

 the fences is all right. This is now corrected 

 for the 1899 fences. If those who have last 

 year's fences will dress off ^ inch at the top 

 of those that are too high, they will be all 

 right. The right space is ,\ inch lower than 

 the under side of the top of the section. 



Bees are a little folk, and make note of lit- 

 tle things. Man can have them do things 

 contrary to their instincts and bee sense ; but 

 it pays to humor them. If we will get the 

 best results in section honey, give them sec- 

 tions not less than 4 inches wide by 5 high, so 

 that the finished combs when capped are not 

 more than /% inches thick. Use full sheets 

 of extra-thin foundation, solid at the top, to 

 swing free of both sides and bottom, in warm 

 supers, with strong colonies, always. Less 

 deep or wide sections are improved by fences, 

 but they must be too thick for a pound to ever 

 compete with the taller wider section. 



F. Danzenbaker. 



Washington, D. C, Dec. 22, 1898. 



MAKING HIVES BY HAND DEFENDED. 



Do not entirely discourage beginners from 

 trying to make their own hives, as your foot- 

 note to Mr. Vinal's article on page 880 would 

 indicate to be your intention. I do not think 

 that Mr. Vinal's statements need be discour- 

 aging, for, in spite of his statement that he 

 has "some mechanical skill," the re.-ults do 

 not show it. How could he spend 21^ hours 

 in sawing out stuff for 20 hives, to say nothing 

 of the other items given ? 



Taking my own case, it would have been 

 absolutely impossible for me to buy my hives 

 ready made. I did not have the money. 

 Thanks to A. I. Root and his ABC book, I 

 had the measurements and instructions to 

 make hives, and I made them. Yes, and I 

 made them with a hand-saw and a hand-plane 

 too, in spite of your assumption that " no one 

 can afford to fuss with a hand-saw;" also made 

 the frames, section-holders, division -boards, 

 etc., and the total cost per hive was about 55 

 cents — not counting time. Of course, you 

 will say my time was not worth ten cents an 

 hour. Well, it was not. What is the value of 

 a man's time on a new farm on cold stormy 

 days? I used very few tools in the making of 

 these hives — saws, plane, hammer, square, 

 and a rabbeting-plane that I borrowed — no 

 vise nor regular bench. When I can afford to 

 buy hives I shall certainly do so ; but being 

 able to make them has enabled me to start 

 from 12 colonies in box hives, and multiply 

 till I now have 45 in Dovetailed hives. 



Hotchkiss, Colo. H. L. James. 



[Situated as you are, with plenty of time at 

 your disposal when you could not be earning 

 any thing, you can make your own hives and 

 do it profitably. No, no ! I would not dis- 

 courage such men as you. But, say ; I'll ven- 

 ture 3 t ou have more than ordinary skill. Any 



