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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JUNJE 



them as soon as any one. If you care to intrust me 

 with your orders, 1 will mail them promptly the min- 

 ute they reach me. 



OiTR friends will please notice that up shall charge 

 $2.00 per lb. for bees during this month. The prices 

 for queens, frames of brood, etc., will be as other 

 years. The reason of the great call for bees espec- 

 ially, is that 1 lb. of bees will " fit " any hive, while a 

 frame of brood won't. 



WIRE NAILS K EDUCED. 



Quite a reduction in the price of wire nails, as you 

 will see by the last edition of our price list. As those 

 we sell are made purposely for us, and of slimmer 

 wire than any of those in the market, there are 

 more of them in a pound. Please compare our nails 

 and prices, with those found elsewhere. 



SOMETHING NEW IN SMOKERS. 



An original Clark eold-blast smoker, that blows 

 so easy, and makes such a cloud of smoke I am real- 

 ly afraid it will make trouble- among hybrids and 

 smoker manufacturers. It lights with a match, and 

 the price is 50c., or $i.03 for 10; if wanted by mail, 

 25c. extra. A circular with an engraving, sent on 

 application. 



THE NEAV QUINBY SMOKER. 



In my mention of the new Quinby smoker, I should 

 have stated, that, after we have blowed the fire with 

 the direct blast until it is burning vigorously, throw- 

 ing out sparks perhaps, by moving the slide and 

 making it a cold blast, the sparks stop instantly, 

 and we have only a blast of cold air, charged with 

 smoke. We can furnish them in any quantity at 

 friend Root's prices. See our price list. 



Our friend L. C. Root has wintered ngain in his 

 cellars, with a loss not to exceed 10 per cent, and of 

 these, many died of starvation. He preferred to let 

 them starve rather than to risk the damage which 

 he thinks would result from disturbing them by 

 feeding in the cellar,orattemptingto takethem out 

 before the usual time, when the soft-maples arc in 

 bloom. 



BEES BY THE POUND WITHOUT WATER. 



We have tried a few cages provisioned with Vial- 

 Ion's candy, without water, for sending pounds ot 

 bees short distances, say in an adjoining State; and 

 up to date of going to press, no complaint hcs been 

 received. Our friend Gates, of Bartlett, Tenn., has 

 sent us perhaps 2) packages in the same way; but 

 while some of them came with scarcely a dead 

 bee, others came with all the bees dead, and candy 

 remaining. In very hot dry weather, the bottles of 

 water seem much more necessary. 



W.4.TERBURY WATCHES CHEAPER. 



NOTWITHSTANDING the rcocnt improvements in 

 Waterbury watches, we have been enabled to make 

 the following reductions in prices, and every watch 

 we sell is tested by ourselves before we send it out. 

 One watch, $3.50; two, $6.75; three, $9.75: six, $18.00; 

 twelve, $34.50. If wanted by mail, send 15c. ad- 

 ditional for each watch. If you should order one, 

 and it does not please, you may return it inside of 30 

 days, in asgoodorder as you received it, and get your 

 money, you paying all postage. 



CYPRIAN AND HOLY-I.AND QUEENS AND BEES. 



Neighbor H. rushes into the office, just as the last 

 form is being made up for the press, and says we 

 must say this for him, to save him from answering 

 so many postals:— 



The Cypiinns wintered the best of any bees I had. The Holy- 

 Lands did not winter quite as well, but were not in as g'ood con- 

 ditirin in the fall. They will net up earlier in the morning:, rty 

 faster and lurtlior than any either bee 1 ever saw. The <jlieens 

 are very iirolilie, and they built up strung' very quickly in the 

 sprint;. 1 have them in sep.arate apiaries, and will .send yon 

 laying- ([ueens of either race for .50c. extra over the price of our 

 usualdiillar qiu-^ns. H. 15. H.vrrinTtTOS. 



May a7th. IKSl. ^ 



"John" reports Ihat there isn't a black nor hybrid 

 queen among the whole 145 colonies. 1 am glad on 

 some uceounts, and yet I am sorry; we have had so 

 many orders for such, during the past month, I fear 

 we shall have to disappoint many. We have plenty 

 of nice tested queens, and about all orders for dol- 

 lar queens singly are filled, but lor cioUar queens 

 with lbs. of bees, we are behind 60 or 70. We have 

 got the bees, and the queens are coming from the 

 South daily, but still they don't come quite fast 

 enough. In a week, we may have them stacked up 

 so we shall not know where to put them. 



MAY 27, .lUST four MINUTES OF 2 O'CLOCK P.M. 



We hold the press, to announce that Mr. Gray has 

 succeeded in making a very fair sheet of fdn, by 

 means of the rubber plates, in a wired frame. The 

 sheet is perhaps a little heavy, but as the bees will 

 woik it all into thin comb it is no loss at all, and we 

 shall of course get it thinner as we proceed. The 

 metal corners are put on the frame after the sheet is 

 made in it. The price of the pair of rubber sheets 

 alone is $5.00; mounted and hinged, $8.00; and $15.00 

 for the whole apparatus for melting and distributing 

 the wax. This is for the L. frame, or any size that 

 can be cut out of the L. frame. Small plates for 

 starters, etc., 5 cts. per sq. inch ; the same mounted, 

 a half more. 



Quite a brisk trade has sprung up in fhe 14.50 

 scales, and as there has been so much inquiry as to 

 how a scale of this cnpacity could be made for such 

 a small sum of money, wo submit the engraving and 

 description of it below. 



THE iil-LB. SCALE, FOR ONLY $4.50. 



It is of the well-known Chatillon make, has both 

 platform and scoop, as you see, full steel bearingiS, 

 and the whole is neatly striped and ornamented. 

 Capacity from Vi oz. up to 244 lt>s. We have never 

 had a complaint from anj^ we have sold. 



EXTR.\CTING WAX BY STEAM. 



From the 34 box-hive colonies, we of coin-se had ii 

 considerable amount of old combs to render into 

 wax. Well, a few da.vs ago friend D. A. Jones wrote 

 about extracting by steam. Perhaps it was more 

 than a month ago, but he writes so "awful bad," 

 that I have been almost that time in trying to read 

 his letter at odd spells, begging friend J.'s pardon. 

 Well, after I got it read, and got the idea, I took a 

 very Lirge honey-barrel and suspended in it, from a 

 hoop at the top, a basket, made from queen-cigo 

 wire cloth. This was set right under a steam pipe, 

 and after the steam was let on. all vou had to do was 

 to shovel in the combs. The business was done as 

 fast as you poured them in, and when the contents 

 of the basket was poured out, there seemed to be 

 scnrcelv a trace of wax left in it. while that in the 

 barrel was about the prettiest yellow wax you ever 

 saw— so clean that it was poured directly into our 

 dipping-cans.and made into fdn. at once. With any of 

 our(jther arramrements it would have been about a 

 day's work. Friend Jones, here Is our thanks, even 



