140 



GLEAJ^INGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



and put them in perpendiculai-ly and the bees drew 

 them out without their bulging at all. I did not see 

 but that i inches wide answered just as well as that 

 closer. Now, to prevent sagging, I would simply 

 make it ribbed, any where from 1 to 4 inches, and 

 make the ribs say U wide, and so they would be 

 about 3 times as thick as the rest, and made so the 

 impressions will run right over the ribs. My im- 

 pression is, that about 2 inches will be about the 

 right distance for the ribs. You may object to the 

 waste of wax, thus adding to the cost; but it would 

 not cost as much as wiring the fi-ames, besides be- 

 ing much more easily done. If ribs the size I men- 

 tion will not answer, larger ones will. 



FOUB-FRAME EXTRACTORg, ETC. 



We want an extractor that will take 4 frames and 

 turn them inside the extractor. The turning of 

 frames where you are taking large quantities of 

 honey, adds very much to the labor. Can't you give 

 us such an extractor? As my letter is not Aery long 

 I will add, we want, very much, a way that every one 

 can make his own fdn. machines. I have watched 

 with a great deal of interest the progress made the 

 past two years in perfecting them. 



Los Gatos, Cal., Feb. 11, 1881. S. S. Butler. 



Your plan for keeping fdn. from sagging, 

 friend B., has been given in our back vol- 

 umes, and works all satisfactorily. The ex- 

 pense of the wax, and the need of wired 

 combs for 'shipping bees, are the principal 

 objections. With one of the Foster machines 

 you can easily put as many ribs in the fdn. 

 as you need ; but with the newly dipped 

 sheets, I think there will be no sagging auy 

 way. — An extractor can be made, such as you 

 describe, without trouble ; but it will of a ne- 

 cessity be so lieavy and unwieldy that you 

 would get along faster with the ordinary 

 kind. Extractors for four frames we have 

 made for years, but I never have heard a 

 favorable report from one of them. 



RAPE AS A honey-plant; A BIG REPORT FROM IT. 



I would like to hear the experience of bee-keepers 

 in regard to rape as a bee feed. My bees began to 

 work on it about the 25th of May, and it kept in 

 bloom for about 8 weeks. After the seed got ripe 

 it came up early in the fall, and the bees gathered 

 honey and pollen until the 5th of November. I put 

 one stand of bees in it the 3d of July, and they made 

 about 200 lbs. of honey, besides helping another 

 weak swarm. I would recommend a trial of it, es- 

 pecially in dry weather. A. Rater. 



Monroe, Iowa, Feb. 18, 1881. 

 I am well aware, friend R., that rape is a 

 great honey-plant ; but with us, as 1 have 

 many times explained, the little black tlea 

 makes a good crop almost impossible. I 

 have seen a tew stalks of it furnish honey in 

 abundance, when it escapes this pest, even 

 in our locality. 



ro BEES ever complain when out of stores? 

 As I was passing around my bees on thelCthof the 

 present month, I heard quite a humming among 

 some one of the colonies. It put me in mind of a 

 queenless colony during the summer. When I found 

 where the noisy colony was, I was at a loss what to 

 do with them, as the theimometer indicated 2° below 

 zero. I arrived at the conclusion to unpack them 

 and ascertain the cause. I looked and foimd them 

 running over their combs excitedly, but I failed to 



find any honey in their combs; I then gave them 

 some nice basswood honey in one-pound sections. 

 In a short time all was quiet as usual. 1 ha^e had 

 one other colony act the same as this one did — quiet- 

 ed as soon as I gave them honey; was it for want of 

 stores, they did this way? They are in nice condi- 

 tion at present. Wm. Parmerlbe. 



Bean Blossom, Ind.,reb. 19, 1881. 



I once made the remark, that if a farmer 

 starved his pigs they would squeal, but that 

 the poor bees had no means of making them- 

 selves heard when suffering. The above 

 seems, however, to indicate I was at least 

 slightly mistaken. I can offer no explana- 

 tion of the matter, only that a weak colony 

 will sometimes make aloud humming, when 

 just about to succumb to a zero temperature ; 

 but in such a case, feeding would probably 

 be of no avail. 



HOW TO TELL THE SOURCE FROM WHICH THE HONEY 

 COMES. 



I shall want some honey labels next summer; but 

 there is one thing I should like you to enlighten me 

 on: How does a person always know from what 

 source the honey comes? I have been long used to 

 bees, and have noticed that they work on all, or 

 nearly all, kinds of flowers that will give honey. For 

 instance, I might label a section or package white 

 clover, when it might have come from a dozen dif- 

 ferent flowers. I want labels giving name and ad- 

 dress of producer, and source from which it was pro- 

 duced, provided I can be informed how to distinguish 

 it. 



black-heart as a HONEY-PLANT. 



Last fall at the time buckwheat was in bloom, the 

 river bottom here was covered with a wet-weather 

 weed. I think it is called black-heart. Some call it 

 smartweed; it grows as high as a man's head, pink 

 flowers as long as a perse n's finger. The bees seem 

 to work on it more than the buckwheat. I had honey 

 stored last fall, nearly as light colored as June honey, 

 and well flavored; seme hives had dark, I suppose 

 from buckwheat; others, the light colored. Perhaps 

 the light colored was from the black-heart. I think 

 I live in a preti y good place for bees. lama quarter 

 of a mile from a good sized stream of water, well 

 fringed with maple, elm, and willow; besides, the 

 bottoms are pretty well supplied with wild flowers, 

 pariicularly in the fall. So far, it has been a pretty 

 hard winter on bees. I have lost none yet; most of 

 mine are chaff -packed on summer stands, 14 colonies. 

 Four that I took from the " brimstone" last fall I 

 looked at this week, and they are all right, rearing 

 brood the same as my other colonies. 1 gave them 

 sealed frames from my strong colonies. I use the 

 10-frame Langstroth hive. I take out the side frames 

 of honey in the fall, and crowd the bees on just what 

 frames they will cover nicely, from 5 to 7; put in 

 chaff division-boards 2 inches thick, cushion on top, 

 quilt of duck underneath ; have wintered last winter, 

 and so far this, with good results; think this will be 

 a good test if 1 come through without loss. 



Wm. H. Graves. 



Duncm, Stark Co., 111., Feb. 11, 1881. 



You can not tell ])ositively the source of 

 all your honey ; but it is a pretty easy matter 

 to label clover and basswood correctly, both 

 by the well-known flavor of each, and by the 

 time of the year in which it is stored. Buck- 

 wheat we know by the color and taste both ; 

 and in the case you mention, I think you 



