1881 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



127 



It was an awful smell. It being a hive of your make, 

 I lifter! it up and found about an inch of dead bees 

 on the bottom-board, all putrid and stinking-. No 

 wonder the poor little things wanted to get out ; and 

 no wonder they got the dysentery. After cleaning 

 off the bottora-board I put the hive back, and in two 

 hours they were as quiet as ever bees were, and are 

 80 yet— no more signs of dysentery. I have treated 

 those in the cellar the same way, with the same suc- 

 cess. As I have bad a good deal of experience in 

 making and feeding candy, I would like to tell you 

 about candy and brood-l-eariug and moisture in the 

 bee-hive. You have suggested taking away their 

 combs, and giving them new. I do not think it nec- 

 essary, as the bees will not eat poor stores if they 

 have good candy. 



Now, Mr. Root, I want to thank you for teaching 

 me to use a Simplicity hive with a loose bottom. I 

 thank you with all my heart. W. "W. Wilson. 



P. S.— Do not publish this, as I have studied bees 

 far more than grammar. W. W. W. 



Hartland, Waukesha Co., Wis., Feb. 4, 1881. 



You see, friend W., that notwithstanding 

 your plain and explicit P. S., I have gone 

 and flatly disobeyed you, by publishing your 

 letter. My only excuse is, that it is not good 

 grammar we want, so much as practical 

 facts from real working bee-men. — I agree 

 with you, that your bees needed to have 

 their liives cleaned out, much more than they 

 needed candy ; but why, let me ask you, did 

 they get into such a state of affairs? How 

 did an inch of dead bees come on the bottom 

 board? It is my impression that, had they 

 been given a chaff hive instead of" the un- 



Erotected Simplicity, these bees might have 

 een alive and on the combs. By all means 

 clean out tlie hives, whenever there are dead 

 bees enough to make them smell badly. Do 

 not complain of having a long nose, friend 

 AV. It served you well then, and doubtless 

 has done the same many a time before. 

 You see I know, for I am somewhat so my- 

 self. Let us continue to keep our noses pok- 

 ing about the entrances. 



— m » — — 



BOOLITTLB'S REVIEW AlVU COMMENTS 

 ON THE ABC BOOK. 



Cn^itinued from last month. 



EXTRACTED HONEY. 



DOOLITTLE'S ARTIFICIAL HONEY. 



Take and make a syrup of A sugar, of the consist- 

 ency of honey; then for every 5 lbs. of this syrup, 

 put iu 3 lbs. of clover or basswood honey, and thor- 

 oughly mix, and there is not one in twenty but will 

 prefer it to clear honey, and not one in ten that can 

 detect it by the taste. 



RIPENING EXTRACTED HONEY. 



I am just one of those persons who have proven 

 to their entire satisfaction, that there is no differ- 

 ence between honey extracted before it is sealed 

 and ripened in an open cask or can in a warm room, 

 and that sealed by the bees, and ripened in the hive. 



EXTRACTING UNRIPE HONEY. 



I think your honey, when first gathered, must be 

 very poor stuff, or else you are carrying this thing 

 too far. We have tiered up hives, as you tell, and 

 left till October; then u*ed in the comb, and extract- 

 ed it by warming the combs so we could, and for the 

 life of me I could see no difference between this and 



some I warmed that was taken before it was sealed. 

 Both were so thick you could turn a saucer over, as 

 you tell, and not have it run out, and so clear you 

 could read through it six inches deep. Just tell your 

 readers to extract when they will, but ripen in open 

 cans in a waim room. 



dadant's honey-pails- 



Candied honey in Dadant's pails is selling well in 

 all the markets we have tried, and it is by far the 

 nicest way to put it up. 



Don't say tin cans are "next best," but saj, <7i6 

 way to keep honej' is in tin cans holding 300 lbs., in a 

 warm dry room, with a cover made of your duck 

 cloth. If you want to sell it in that shape, fill the 

 Dadant pails just before it ceases to run, and set 

 them away. 



HIVE-MAKING. 



THE 1-LB. SECTION BOX. 



Would it not have been well to have told your 

 readers that Manum, of Bristol, Vt., made a section 

 that was nicer than any thing could be that was 

 planed, and that, too, with nothing but a saw, and 

 that it held 15i£lbs. ? that Betsinger made prize boxes 

 that were very nice that held ~}i lbs. glassed? that 

 Hetheriugton, the largest bee-keeper in the world, 

 used a box still different that Thorn & Co., and Thur- 

 ber & Co. pronounced the best for New York market 

 of any thing there was used? How should I know of 

 any thing but 1-pound boxes if I did not read it else- 

 where outside of this book? Many can not afford to 

 buy several books, and so want to be posted by read- 

 ing one. 



I have described but tlie one section, for 

 the same reason I have described but one 

 hive. I do not wish to confuse my reader 

 and leave him in a broad sea of uncertainty 

 as to what style he had best adopt. Should 

 he choose the liiv§ I have described, and 

 then try to use some of the other forms of 

 sections, without experience, he would be 

 likely to have the same troubles so many of 

 us have gone through with in patching up 

 and trying to make system out of chaos. 

 Harbison produces more comb honey than 

 any yoit have mentioned, and he uses still 

 another box ; but I have not described it. I 

 have once given a letter from Thurber, say- 

 ing the 1-lb. section sold the best of any in 

 the market; but he may have given differ- 

 ent opinions at other times. Hundreds who 

 had no knowledge of bee culture at all, have, 

 by following the plain and direct teachings 

 of the ABC, succeeded at once, rejoicing at 

 every step ; but had I taken in all these 

 other points (and I grant they are important), 

 I can have no idea that such would have 

 been the case. As it is, every implement, 

 box, frame, and tool, fits exactly with all 

 there is in the book. Had I described and 

 advised the things used by others (even 

 though they are better, mind you), such 

 could not have been the case. 



H0NEY-C03IB. 



BEES PACKING IN THE COMB COMPACTLY. 



Betsinger says that the bees never pack them- 

 selves in the cells except in cases of starvation. I 

 am not posted, so can not say from my own ex- 

 perience. 



As I have often pulled combs apart in win- 

 ter, and found them thus, I can not quite 

 agree with friend B. 



