GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Ebb. 



this cold weather, and have specked the snow badly. 

 Almost all of them fall to get back into the hive. 

 All are chaff packed. The colony with imported 

 queen has not lost over 25 or 30 bees so far. 



J. B. MCCORMICK. 



Neoga, Cumb. Co., Ill , Jan. 10, 1S81. 



DO BEES WORK ON COTTONWOOD-TREES? 



is asked in this month's Gleanings. I will answer 

 for one. They do, and in large numbers, creating 

 that joyous hum we always hear when the liltle fel- 

 lows are gathering pollen freely. The bloom is sim- 

 ilar to the willow, except much larger. It produces 

 no honey; but I think that a few large trees near the 

 apiary is quite a help, as it blooms just after the 

 elm. There are two kinds; one produces light yel- 

 low, and the other dark red pollen. S. A. Shttck. 

 Bryant, 111., Jan. 5, 1881. 



another report from COTTONWOOD. 



Bees do work on cottonwood, especially the "bit- 

 ter" kind. There was a great flow of the so-called 

 honey-dew on the cottonwood this season about me 

 for miles around -so that it dripped from the leaves. 



n. H. C. Bbeece. 



Greenwood, Custer Co., Col , Jan. 10, 1881. 



MEDICATED HONEF, ETC. 



My bees are flying to-day, but there is nothing for 

 them to gather. The first two weeks of this month 

 they carried in pollen rapidly from the "broom" 

 weed. The years 1879 and 18S0 were exceedingly dry 

 here, and the honey crop was consequently short. 

 In some neighborhoods, however, the yield was very 

 good.— I will say in regard to medicated honey, that 

 I have taken some 300 lbs. of honey this fall, gath- 

 ered from the senna flower, but can not discover any 

 of the medicinal qualities of the leaves in it. 



W. A. McPhail. 



Pleasanton, Atascosa Co., Texas, Dec. 2T, 1880. 



THE FARIS MACHINE. 



In January No., page 29, you say you have not de- 

 cided that the Faris fdn. machine is a success. AVe 

 have made it a success; we got a frame cast to hold 

 the plaster. We can turn out fdn. as perfect and as 

 fast as any roll machine in use. It will not sag in 

 warm weather, and the bees work it out faster than 

 that made on the rolls, as it is softer, and the grain 

 of the wax is not broken. 



Bees that are in chaff hives are wintering as well 

 as could be expected. This is a very severe winter. 



J. Russell. 



Lifford, Ontario, Can., Jan. 9, 1881. 



I am very glad to bear of your success, 

 friend R., but I think you will iind the plas- 

 ter plate objectionable before you have made 

 very much of a quantity of fdn. I presume a 

 cast-iron frame, properly made, would go a 

 great way toward remedying the difficulties 

 I have mentioned. 



CHAFF hives; BEST POSITION FOR THE ENTRANCE. 



Friend Root:— J have been engaged for some time 

 manufacturing your chaff hive, from a pattern you 

 sent me some time since. In so doing, I have been 

 led to think considernbly about its construction. It 

 is certainly a grand hive, ingeniously constructed. 

 But while it Is almost without a fault, I have been 

 led to change it a little to suit my own notion. It 

 may not be considered by you or others any improve- 

 ment at all, for, you know, doctors differ, and so 

 may apiarians. My improvement, or, we may call it. 



change, consists in placing the entrance, not in the 

 end, but in the Side. According to model sent me, 

 your entrance is opposite the ends of the frames. In 

 the lower department. This necessitates the bees 

 traveling the entire length of the hive to deposit 

 their load, when engaged in filling the back ends 

 of the frames, and this distance is augmented still 

 more when engaged in filling the back sections in 

 the upper story, making a distance of about three 

 feet they have to travel in going from the entrance 

 to the upper sections. This distance must, of course, 

 be retraced. Wc have thus a distance of about six 

 feet that every bee must travel in depositing its 

 load, and returning. This distance is considerably 

 reduced by placing the entrance in either of the 

 sides, so that the bees will strike the center of the 

 frames, whenever they enter the hive. I know it 

 may be replied, that the tunnel is longer, through 

 which the bees have to pass to strike the sides, than 

 to enter at the ends; but this distance is consider- 

 ably less than to travel the whole length of the 

 frame. Besides, it improves the wintering qualities 

 of the hive, and will enable it to bo used in carrying 

 out Mr. D. A. Jones' idea about perforated tin or 

 zinc divisions, to prevent the queen from depositing 

 eggs in the same comb in which the workers are de- 

 positing honey. Still further, it obviates the objec- 

 tion sometimes urged about the eave of the cover 

 causing the rain to fall more violently on the en- 

 trance than on the other sides. I have been manu- 

 facturing the hives, modeling Ihem after the above 

 notion. If you think these suggestions worth any 

 thing, give them a place in Gleanings. 



Wm. Ballantine. 

 Sago, Muskingum Co., O., Jan. 10, 1881. 



The position of the entrance, not only in 

 chaff hives, but all other hives, has been 

 much discussed. While there are some rea- 

 sons besides the ones you have mentioned 

 for having the entrance at the sides of the 

 combs, there are other ones for having them 

 in the way 31 r. Langstroth gave us the hive 

 called after his name, with the entrance at 

 the ends of the frames. I believe it is gen- 

 erally thought that the bees gain access to 

 any of the combs more readily by this latter 

 plan than by the other way, and that tliey 

 also have less trouble ui hot weather in ven- 

 tilating from the entrance, as no other means 

 of ventilation is, as a general thing, now 

 used. For the same reasons, it has been 

 suggested that an entrance at the sidcR of 

 the combs is a warmer arrangement for win- 

 ter. I confess, friend ]>.. I can not quite see 

 how the bees are saved very much travel by 

 one arrangement more than by the other. 



the PEET CAGE. 



I commenced this letter to tell you about my suc- 

 cess with tae Feet cage. Last season I used it alto- 

 gether, and of all the queens I introduced in my api- 

 ary, I lost but two. I sold 5:5 queens to J. J. Rohrer, 

 South West, Ind., that I' introduced the same way, 

 and last but one, and there was not one lust out of 

 42 others that I sold to different ones of my neigh- 

 bors, and Introduced myself. Now, remember, 

 those queens were introduced at different times of 

 the season, and to all different kinds of bees. Friend 

 A. P. Blosser, of Goshen, Ind., had the biggest loss 

 of any one I know of. Out of about 50 queens 

 bought from me he tells me he lost six or seven, in- 



