ISSl 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



67 



" I can never pass that hive without thiniing what a 

 hot set of hybrids I had in it last year." Lookiug at 

 me inquiiingly he asked, "Did my wife ever tell you 

 about it?" 



"No, Mr. Duster; why?" 



"Well," said Duster, "if she never told you, I 

 rt ckcn I can keep it." 



" But I'll ask her now," said I. 



"Yes, yes," he drawled out; "I see, I see. Per- 

 haps I'd better tell it myself, as women are so given 

 to embell'shing- things, and this scrimmage I had 

 with these hybrids needs nothing of the sort; so, 

 here goes. 



"It was a hot dayin August, about this time in the 

 afternoon, and I had come from my business very 

 warm. I stripped off all my woolens, so that when I 

 stepped out among my bees I had on only mj' shirt 

 and an old thin pair of overalls, scudding under bare 

 poles, nearly, you see— close reefed, anyhow. Well, 

 I was just passing that hive, and happened to think 

 that the boxes were about ready to come off, but for- 

 got what manner of bees these were of. I removed 

 the cap, and ccmmenced to lift the boxes; they did 

 not stop like the Italians, and fill the space between 

 the frames, holding on to the top-bar, and looking at 

 you as much as to ask, ' What's the rumpus ? ' No, I 

 guess not I They just streamed out and up both mj* 

 hands and seized ' each particular hair' as fast as they 

 came to them, humped their backs, and I felt some- 

 thing! Yes, I could stand that; but they knew a 

 trick worth two of that. They went to work to try : 

 the te.xturo of mj' overalls, and just here was an ex- ! 

 cellent opening for business, and I assure you they j 

 improved it. Did you ever have bees stiug you i 

 when (hey could just reach through the cloth to ; 

 your hide? Yes, T guess you remember it— just like ! 

 red-hot needles— that's it. Y'ou ask why I did not at i 

 once put down the boxes and run? That's about 

 what they asked the Irishman who had mounted a 

 wild celt that ran with him under the apple-tree 

 limbs until he had lost almost all of his clothes. 

 ' " Why didn't you get off? " Get off, en' by gorry, is 

 it? Faith, en', en' how could I get off whin I had a 

 tough match to stick on?— d'ye mind? ' That was 

 about m5' fix. 



"'Mr. Duster! why don't you dust? run, or the 

 bees will certainly sting you!' 



"I stopped just long enough f o see my wife stand- 

 ing on the back piazza of the house, trying to cover 

 a smile with one hand when it was too big to be cov- 

 ered by both. Run I a man never had more induce- 

 ments-so pressing, so warm. Run! well, didn't I 

 run? I dropped my boxes somewhere, and 1 con- 

 fess I ran — I, Mr. Duster, the bee-man. A small 

 out-house close by (not built for any such purpose, 

 though) gave me shelter. 'Any port in a storm,' 

 thought T. 'Hold the fort,' came from that back 

 piazza. You see, I had an audience too big by one. 

 What I said or what I tltought, while I fought the 

 bees in there, is no one's business, I reckon," said 

 Mr. Duster, sententiously. 



" I've read somewhere," said Mr. Duster, " about 

 the devils among the swine, and huw they ran, and 

 so on. Now, some of these scientific fellows don't 

 believe it. If they had been where I was, they'd 

 believed that Satan was in the bees, and I think too 

 they certainly would have run as bad as the hogs 

 and I did." 



At the close of (his philosophical conclusion, I 

 bade Mr. Duster good-day. R. H. Mellen. 



Amboy-on-Inlet, 111., Jan. 12, 1881. 



FRIEND ROOP'S IDEAS ON WINTERING 

 BEES. 



ALSO SOMETnUKG ABOUT THE HIVE HE USES. 



ijpiR\lJR excuse for writing this article is, we want 

 MM to help our fellow-beings to save their bees. 

 We have now had eight years, in which half 

 of all the bees have been lost each winter north of 

 the Mason and Dixon line. For fear some of our 

 brethren will consider us wild in our estimate, we 

 hand in the following, clipped from the Wauseon 

 Herald, a count j- paper of Fulton Co., Ohio:— 



EFFECTS OF THE LATE COLD WINTER ON THE BUSY 

 BEES. 



strange as it may seem, that, with all the care and 

 the benefits of experience, investigation, and im- 

 provements in the methods of bee-keeping, yet the 

 mortality has never been so great among the honey 

 gatherers as last winter. We have made some in- 

 quiry on the matter as to the extent of the losses in 

 this vicinity and tind that— 

 M. S. Pray hart :53 Lost U 



AVm. Lewis " 53 " 46 



Wm. Wilforrt " 40 " 35 



a. W. Piatt " 25 " 2.3 



Dr. Ramsev " 10 " 10 



Judge Catelv "1 "0 



Judson Smith "6 " (5 



R. E. Terwiliger " 11 " H 



Robert Bartly "6 "6 



John Watkins "8 "7 



J. D. Gay " U " 11 



.7. W. Currv " 5 " 5 



Jacob Huth "7 "7 



Jacob Luke " 16 " 12 



Wm. Dowel, of Ai, kept 3.') swarms of bees burled 

 in a cave; are all living, while out of 23 that were 

 left out. only 11 are now alive. 



We also learn that Daniel Kepler, Secretary of the 

 Northwestern Ohio Bee -Keepers' Association, at 

 Napoleon, out of 55 lost 45; while W. F. Williams, of 

 Napoleon, out of 150 lost 75; and Mr. Rakestraw, of 

 the same place, out of SO lost 76. 



The above shows how well a few apiarists succeed- 

 ed w'ith modern appliances two years ago. We have 

 spent much time during the past several years to 

 find out the condition of bees each spring in all the 

 Northern States— how wintered, etc. The first year 

 or two of mortality set the bee woild wild with ex- 

 citement, and many new methods for safe winter- 

 ing were heralded abroad, to the great detriment of 

 young apiarists,— the advccates of these different 

 methods not knowing themselves whether they 

 would prove a "bonanza" or a "Peter out." Shall 

 we then fold our hands and sit down contented with 

 chaff packing and standard hives? We have nothing 

 to offer as an excuse for showing our hive, for the 

 reason that we have tried it the past seven years, 

 and if "ye editor" will, we will tell you how it works 

 for us. 



The brood chamber of this hive is 12 inches deep, 

 11 wide, and 18 long. It takes 12 frames 10x10 inches 

 inside measure, or 1200 cubic inches of comb space, 



