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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15. 



as an extracting-super, and it is always the 

 best. This season it is full of honey while 

 the bees in the other shallow supers have 

 hardly got started. I believe the bees prefer 

 to work on one solid comb, to the same space 

 divided up by wooden bars among several 

 supers. I know this is the case with comb 

 honey, as I can produce one-third more honey 

 in 2-lb. sections, without separators, than I 

 can in 1-lb. sections with separators. 



Owing to the two past dry years, and my 

 inability to look after my bees in person, I 

 have, in common with most California bee- 

 men, lost about half of my bees, as I can not 

 look after them myself, and build them up a 

 frame at a time. I am doing it in a wholesale 

 way by placing on the hives, early in the sea- 

 son, other hives filled with empty brood-combs. 

 As soon as the queen has these nicely started 

 with brood the top hive is slipped on to a 

 bottom-board and set in another part of the 

 apiary, care being taken that each brood- 

 chamber have brood not over three days old. 

 In this way I shall have twice the number of 

 hives, all strong, long before swarming-time, 

 and in time for the best honey-flow. Now, 

 don't tell me that I ought to do better than 

 that, "queen the hives," etc., for /can't do 

 it, and so do what /can. 



The present honey-leaflet wants to be short- 

 ened and spiced. No one but a bee-keeper 

 would ever wade through it. I find a better 

 way is to paste the best recipes on the back 

 of the cans that you retail honey in. That 

 reminds me that, for the first time, I have 

 secured a honey-can that suits me. These are 

 the same long flat pattern that the maple- 

 syrup canners use. It makes a very neat, 

 large-looking, and excellent seller. I have 

 them made in 2, 5, and 10 pound sizes. What 

 I want now is a glass jar to hold 12 fluid 

 ounces or 18 ounces of honey, with "Pure 

 Honey " and a bee-hive blown in the back, 

 but the amount of the contents left off. Our 

 merchants won't handle a jar that has the 

 quantity contained blown in the back, as it 

 interferes with their getting their price ; nor 

 do they want it to hold over 12 ounces. Where 

 can I get this jar ? 



To melt sugared comb honey, put one table- 

 spoonful of water, to each pound of honey, in 

 a pan ; add the combs ; set it in the oven, and 

 maintain just heat enough to melt slowly the 

 combs. When they are all melted, set the 

 pan to one side ; and when the wax is a solid 

 cake, punch a hole through it along the side 

 of the pan ; drain out the honey, and then 

 melt your wax into a cake. If care is taken 

 not to get the honey too hot it will be found 

 uninjured by the melting. 



Rambler complains of skunks. He does 

 not say which breed, but I take it he refers to 

 the four-legged variety. If so he can get rid 

 of the pests by strychnining a piece of comb 

 containing brood, and placing the same about 

 four inches under the ground, in front of the 

 hives. The keen scent of the skunk will en- 

 able him to find it, and the strychnine will do 

 the rest. " Rest" is a good word, and I will 

 take and give your readers one. 



Murphys, Cal., March 29. 



[Your frame-support would doubtless prove 

 very efficient; but one objection would be that 

 it would give very slight hold for the hands 

 while manipulating; and frames in the hive 

 would have a tendency to swing flippity-flop 

 (when hives are handled) unless spacers were 

 used. 



It is very important in chilly weather, as 

 you say, to have a means of ingress to the 

 hive, by which the bees can crawl from the 

 ground clear into the entrance. Without such 

 provision, thousands of bees are lost during 

 chilly weather. We know that from our own 

 experience here. 



We have been experimenting with ball bear- 

 ings in extractors, but as yet we have not quite 

 settled on any thing that suits us. We have 

 determined this much : That such a form of 

 bearing should not be in the bottom of the ex- 

 tractor, to be smeared over with honey. We 

 connected one such extractor, having a ball 

 bearing, to the line shaft, and let it run a week. 

 Then we lubricated the bearing with doses of 

 honey, with the result that the bearing was 

 soon gummed up, and practically worse than 

 nothing. We have made some large Cowan 

 extractors with ball bearings on top of the 

 cross-arms; that is, the weight of the reel and 

 combs are supported on a ball bearing that is 

 clear up and out of the way of the honey. 

 The bottom of the reel is held by a bearing 

 that merely holds it in position, but does not 

 hold the weight. Such a form of extractor 

 we believe to be an improvement; and before 

 another season we shall probably have it on 

 all of our large extractors. It will be of no 

 particular advantage, however, on our small 

 machines. 



With regard to gearing, we have to strike 

 an average, as nearly as we can, for bee-keep- 

 ers everywhere. Three-to-one gearing, on a 

 large machine, is a little too high and requires 

 too much power for bee-keepers who extract 

 honey as heavy as 11 pounds per gallon. It is 

 possible that we ought to have two sets of 

 gears; but that would necessitate considerable 

 expense, and the construction of a special 

 cross-arm, to fay nothing of a large gear- 

 wheel that would stick up more or less in the 

 way. 



When we get a little more time we propose 

 getting out a sort of pictorial honey-leaflet 

 that will contain very few words, and repre- 

 sent the art of producing honey, from start to 

 finish. It will be named " Honey, from the 

 Hive to the Market." I have just ordered 

 some special instantaneous photographic films; 

 and I expect, in a few days, to take a series of 

 snap-shots representing several of the steps in 

 the production of comb and extracted honey. 

 The story now told in type will be pictorially 

 represented in half-tone. 



But before we begin on the work we shall 

 be glad to receive suggestions so that the new 

 honey-leaflet may be made to fill exactly a 

 "long-felt want." 



I omitted to state that the new leaflet will 

 be almost solely for the information of con- 

 sumers. Of course, the price will have to be 

 a good deal higher than that of those we have 

 been selling during the last year or so. — Ed.] 



