1881 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



271 



]?IACHi:VE FOR PUNCHING FRAMES. 



WE have had a hard winter on bees in this part 

 of the country. I think nearly one-half of 

 — the bees in this county have died, and in 

 most cases they have died for want of proper pack- 

 ing. 



I have made a cheap machine for punching frames 

 for wire, which does the work so nicely that I 

 thought I would send you a pencil 

 sketch of it. The diagram and de- 

 scription will make it all plain. 

 Make one, and see if the boys don't 

 think it is fun to punch frames 

 with it. 



A is the punch-bar, made of ^3 

 steel rod, 13 in. long, with head and 

 washer on upper end, and lower 

 end drawn out to a fine chisel- 

 pointed punch. B and C are lilocks 

 to hold the frame while being 

 punched. D is a wire coll spring 

 which withdraws the punch every 

 time. E is a lever. F is the tread- 

 le. G is a wooden post 2x4 which 

 you can make any height you want, 

 and fasten to the wall where it will 

 be most convenient. Lower half of 

 jpunch-bar is made square to keep 

 from turning. J. A. Osborne. 

 Rantoul, III., March 23, 1881. 



Thanks, friend O. Yonr plan is quite in- 

 genious ; but we use, for the purpose, a gang 

 of drills that bore a bundle of top and bot- 

 tom bars at once. For drills, we use wire 

 nails filed at the end. some thing like a brad 

 awl. If one breaks, it takes but a moment to 

 replace it. Wired frames are getting to be a 

 standard article. Our trade in them this 

 season is much greater than it was last, and 

 any device to help make them accurately 

 and rapidly is of course a boon to the "boys." 



DOES IT PAY TO PACK BEES IN CHAFF 

 OR COTTON SEED IN TEXAS? 



FROM AN ABC SCHOLAR. 



I HE winter of 188)-'81 has been the severest 

 we have had In Texas for many years. We 

 have bad two snowstorms, the snow lying on 

 the ground for four days, and the ice was thick 

 enough to bear up a horse. 



And now I want to prove that, in the severest win- 

 ters in Texas, only the weakest colonies need to be 

 packed with chaff or cotton seed. If yoii must pack 

 them, use cotton seed, as you can get it for 4 cts. pt-r 

 bushel. 



Mr. Carroll, of Navarro Co., Texas, says, on p. 2:38 

 of Gleanings, that it does pay to pack bees; so f 

 suppose he i>acked all of his, not leaving one colony 

 unpacked for experiment, and therefore he really 

 iloes not know whether it pays or not. 



I was sick about the time the bees ought to have 

 been packed, and after I got well I had only time 

 enough to pack the weakest colonies before it was 

 too cold to handle them. I had no chaff cushions, 

 and did not think of cotton seed, so I did it in this 

 way: I cut oat straw the exact length of the frames, 

 and after removing one of the empty combs on each 

 side of the hive, packed the straw on end in its 

 place. In this way I could contract the inside as 



much as I wanted by removing more frames. I 

 packed only five of the swarms in this way, but I'll 

 never do it again. 



My first swarm came out only two days after Mr. 

 Carroll's, and was from a hive that had not been 

 packed, and another bee-keeper of Austin had a 

 swarm a few days before mine. 



I had 13 colonies in the fall; brought them all 

 through safely until April, then the robbers began; 

 they robbed one strong colony of their stores, and in 

 the late freeze, April 14, they were killed; this is the 

 only swarm I have lost. 1 now have 15, including 

 new swarms. 



All of my bees wintered on honey from the bitter- 

 weed, and are now bringing in hon^y from the mes- 

 quite and hoarhound. The horsemint is commenc- 

 ing to bloom, and I will get my main crop from it. I 

 think I will send you a section of horsemint honey in 

 the summer, and you will think it is at least next 

 best to clover honey. 



We have had nearly a whole week of steady, soak- 

 ing rains, and I think there will not only be a large 

 honey crop, but a great increase of bees. 



Can not some other Texas bee-keepers let us know 

 their opinion on chaff packing in Texas? I am will- 

 ing to " give in " if I am wrong. 



Mr. Root, can j"ou not give U3 a column of " i<ca- 

 sonable Hints " everj' month? W. L. Stiles. 



Austin, Travis Co., Texas, May 7, 1881. 



Why, friend S., you conclude your letter 

 sayifig one of yoiir strongest colonies was 

 frozen out April 14th, and yet you don't be- 

 lieve chaff packing would pay ! It is true, 

 they were robbed ; but if they were strong 

 and well protected, I do not quite see how 

 they could have been robbed. Again, I do 

 not quite agree that your method of using 

 long straw is equal to close chaff packing. 

 May be I am too strong on chaff, but I think 

 it pretty safe, even yet. I have often 

 thought of "seasonable hints;" but it al- 

 ways rises np before me that your honey 

 harvest will be over before some other bro- 

 ther up North has commenced ; and how 

 could I manage to strike you ally It is true, 

 I might tell you what to do during corn- 

 planting time and fruit-blossoming time, 

 and so on, but you can already find that in 

 the AI3"C. 



HOW TO AVINTER BEES. 



THE HONEY OUTLOOK. 



ST is a source of great satisfaction to us who 

 have been mourning over dead bees — yes, 

 whole colonies of them, — from the late cold 

 winter, to read May Gleanixcjs, where we find that 

 those whom we regarded as the most careful bee- 

 keepers have lost yet more heavily than ourselves, 

 and therefore we get courage to stand right up in 

 the class and tell you ■J^e know how to winter bees. 

 The most careless observer in this section can not 

 fail to note that, where bees have perished in the 

 hive, they have been found invariably clustered on 

 empty comhs, and of course the inference is fair, 

 that they died from starvation. I went into winter- 

 quarters with 43 colonies; only about 12 of them, 

 however, were of full strength, and 6 of them at 

 least were but nucleus colonies. To preserve these 

 small colonies with their queens I bought two hat- 

 boxes of our hattei-s, and set in the bottom of it a 3- 



