1881 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



85 



AN A B C scholar's EXPERIENCE. 



I thought I would saj' something about my bees. 

 I have 25 stands of bees. I began in the spring of 

 1879 with 3 stands; in the fall I had 6. That was a 

 Tery poor honey season. I got no honey, but fed 100 

 lbs. of sugar; so you seel made nothing that season. 

 In the spring of 1880 I bought 10 stands, $5.00 each. 

 Another very poor season; had 16 in the spring of 

 1880; took 100 lbs. of cap honey. I took that in May; 

 got no more that season, but fed some sugar in the 

 fall. I started in the winter with 25 stands. I put 16 

 in boxes; packed hay all around the gum; put 

 cushions on the frames; left 9 on their summer 

 stands; those I left on their summer stands were 

 the strongest and best stands. They ha%'e had two 

 flies since I put them away for winter, while those 

 in the boxes have had no fly at all; but they all 

 seem to be doing very well. I don't know whether 

 to let them stay in the boxes when spring comes or 

 not. As soon as su^ar-making comes on, I will com- 

 mence to feed, as my bees didn't breed later than 

 August. I fed them in the fall, but they didn't com- 

 mence to breed. My bees were not as strong as I 

 would have liked. White clover was a total failure 

 both years. I do hope next year will be a. good one 

 for honey. The honey I took in May was from poj)- 

 lar. Gleanings is worth all it costs. It is very in- 

 teresting. D. F. Steele. 



Gosport, Owen Co., Ind., Jan. 2, 1881. 



BOTTOM-BARS TO FRAMES, MADE OF THIN HOOP 

 IRON. 



I am an A B C student, but liave no other than the 

 old box hive, and wish to make a beginning soon, if 

 I have to make my own hives and frames. How 

 would a tie used for baling cotton do for the bottom 

 and sides of a frame, riveted to a wooden top-bar? 

 When dipped into melted wax it would not rust. 



. J. H. Roderick. 



Dodd's City, Fannin Co., Tex., Dec. 25, 1880. 



Frames made as you mention will do very 

 well, only that they are liable to be bent, or 

 the comb injured in setting them down ; in 

 fact, frames may be, and have been, used 

 with no bottom-bar, and there is no objec- 

 tion that I know of, except the liability to 

 injury while handling. The general verdict, 

 after a time, is, I believe, that a light strip 

 of pine is best, all things considered. You 

 see much depends on the bottom-bar, to keep 

 the rest of the frame straight and firm. 



PAPER HONEY-COMB, ETC. 



Won't you induce Mr. Gray to make a machine 

 that will turn out artificial honey-comb complete- 

 made from shellac tissue paper, and In a way simi- 

 lar to that described in Quinby's "New Bee-Keep- 

 ing," which uses tin? I am sure it would be a suc- 

 cess, for I have used a small square of hornet's-nest 

 comb, inserted in ordinary brood comb with success. 

 After "uncapping" it to !i in. depth of cell, I just 

 dipped the rough edges in melted wax, to make the 

 bees think they were composed of that material all 

 the way to the bottom. The shellac would serve to 

 hold the strips together in this case, as the solder 

 does In the other. These little bottomless cells could 

 then be stuck to a flat sheet of shellac paper (one 

 set on either side), then by touching the edges to 

 melted wax your comb is finished. The machine 

 should turn out these bottomless cells in webs of a 

 certain width, and an indefinite length, like a loom, 



in order to make it pay. Don't let Mr. Gray alone 

 till he produces this comb, for it is almost impossi- 

 ble to make a paying business of producing honey, 

 without some such cheap comb, and which can i\ot 

 be destroyed by worms. F. Della Torre. 



Aiken, S. C, Jan. 1, 1881. 



Your experiment has been made before, 

 friend D., and it is pretty well known that 

 it will succeed. You are right; if some 

 sort of fdn. could be produced that needs 

 only to be dipped in melted wax to make it 

 ready to hang in the hives, it would be a 

 boon indeed. The difficulties m far have 

 been that the bees would object, and tear 

 out our artificial substitutes. The fact that 

 hornet's-nest comb will be used by the bees, 

 is a fact that has often made me feel some- 

 thing of the kind, made entirely of the same 

 kind of a papery substance, would eventual- 

 ly be the thing used. Making it in the way 

 Mr. Quinby made his tin combs is too slow, 

 and it does not give us the proper shape for 

 the bottom of the cells for economy of space 

 and material in the bee hive. 



BEES ON COTTONWOOD, ETC. 



I see on page 41, Jan. No., 1881, that friend C. W. 

 Kennard wishes to know if bees work on cotton- 

 wood. They certainly do; but whether they get on- 

 ly pollen, I can't say. I have a large cottonwood 

 within 20 feet of my shop, and in early spring, when 

 it blooms, it's a sight to see the bees work on it. 

 The bloom is easily blown off, and I have seen 5 or 6 

 bees on one flower on the ground. 



Friend Root, I am so glad friend Given is among 

 us again ! don't let us lose any of these bee veterans 

 and inventors. I can't do without Gleanings, and 

 don't want to lose their counsel. 



WINDMILLS. 



Friend Root, can't you give us an article on wind- 

 mills? Tell us all about a 2 or 3 horse-power mill, 

 the best and easiest managed— price, etc. 



A. S. Davison. 



AuUville, Lafayette Co., Mo., Jan. 5, 1881. 



As our older friends remember, Glean- 

 ings was first printed on a press that ran by 

 wind power; and, in fact, our whole bee- 

 hive factory was run in the same way. So 

 long as I did the work myself, and could 

 wait until the wind blew, it answered very 

 well ; but when I was obliged to hire hands, 

 and they were obliged to wait, or work with 

 a low and irregular speed, it began to be 

 rather expensive. If I am correct, there is 

 no way yet invented by which wind power 

 can be made to give a regular, steady mo- 

 tion like steam, although it will do very well 

 when there is wind enough, as there is many 

 days in the spring and fall. The wind is 

 also much more reliable in some localities, 

 as on the prairies of the West. Pumping, 

 and grinding grain seem to be the legitimate 

 work of windmills at present ; sawing wood 

 can sometimes be done very profitably by 

 wind also. ^ ^ 



HONEY from COTTONWOOD-TREES, ETC. 



I think bees get little or no honey from cotton- 

 wood in this locality; but I do know that they get a 

 "right smart chance" of propolis (see A B C, p. 145) 

 from cottonwood in the spring. 



Bees have had only one fly since about Nov. 15th. 

 I notice one or two colonies have been coming out 



