1881 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



341 



The warm weather and above trcalnicnt seemed to 

 cure the dj^sentery immediatel3'. 



Bees arc doing finely now. They gathered but 

 very little from fruit-bloom. It seemed to last but 

 a few days, and the wind blew hard most of the time; 

 but as we have so many combs with honey in wo set 

 sonic on outside of division-board, and let the bees 

 carry in honey if they wish. I think we never had 

 more brood in hives, according to number of bees, 

 than now. 



I believe that, in order to winter well, whether out 

 of doors or in cellar, it is all important to have, first, 

 strong colonies; second, plenty of honey; third, only 

 a few combs; fourth, pack in chaff ; more combs can 

 be given in spring. If in cellar, keep cool as ;)6 or 38 

 degrees, never higher than 40; without chalT. better 

 to keep warmer, as per Quinby and L. C. Root. 

 Ours were so wet because wc left in too many 

 combs; weak colonies, and poor fall honey. 



L. C. AXTELL. 



RoseviUe, HI., May- 18, 1881. 



Perhaps many of our readers Avill recollect 

 that our friends above use chaff packing and 

 cellar wintering both, and that they have 

 been very successful. The above report 

 seems still to favor the cellar strongly. 



WHY DO BEES STING MEMBERS OF 

 XHEIU OWN COLON V SOMETIMES? 



I^DjsJ HE question is asked (several times of you in 

 Bjl"' GLE.iMNGS), why so many bees are killed in 

 — ' front of hives, or are carried out dead in large 

 numbers. Your reply is, that a swarm entered said 

 hive, etc. Xow, I think that is not always the case; 

 and, in fact, I will say that I hnoiv it is not always 

 the case. Persons say that they are certain no 

 swarms entered such hives, and yet great quantities 

 of dead bees are carried out, having been stung to 

 death, as they yet, on being dragged out, have 

 strength to move a little. 



As we can profit by our experience in bee culture, 

 it is our duty to give the same, if thereby we can 

 benefit each other and advance the common inter- 

 ests of our industry. Now for experience No. 1. 



A fine Italian queen, with wings clipped, was put 

 into a hive; about five days after, the adjoining hive 

 carried out dead bees; it being a box hive, I did not 

 not look into it for several days after the work of 

 death ceased; but another hive was killing and car- 

 rying out next to the second, which had frames. I 

 at once opened hive, and found a queen balled, and 

 on dispersing bees I found my wing-clipped queen 

 from No. 1. I immediately caged her, and looked in 

 No. 1, and saw low-capped queen-cells. Where was 

 the queen during all this time? 



EXPERIENCE NO. 2. 



A friend was looking at a young wingless queen in 

 my hand, and in a careless manner on my part she 

 dropped on the alighting board of an old colony. 

 "There," said I, "they will make short work of 

 her." She, however, ran into the hive out of sight. 

 This occurred about noon. At nearly night I went 

 my round as usual to see that all was right, and 

 found great quantities of dead and dying bees in 

 front of said hive. I opened it and found the queen 

 balled just inside, and bees so intent on killing her 

 that they killed each other. How long this would 

 have continued I can not say, but long enough to de- 

 populate materially. Now, I have not only had No. 

 1 and No. 2, but as many as six or eight cases since. 



and found, in several additional cases, where strange 

 queens were balled; so you can easily conjecture 

 that a swarm entering is not the only cause for such 

 disaster. 



Without a knowledge of a swarm entering a hive 

 it would be well to examine at once, and learn the 

 cause, which will be found to be, sometimes, a valu- 

 able queen saved, as in case of hive No. 3, and arrest 

 the work of death of so many bees. 



You can decide the honey-dew question through 

 columns of Gleanings by asking all, as honey-dew 

 may appear in their several localities, to report at 

 once during the coming summer where found, and 

 in what quantities; why honey-dew is so thick some- 

 times that your "breeches" stick to your boots in 

 passing through prairie grass. None of your aphides 

 production; yet we have such on our willows and 

 sycamore sometimes. A. L. Klab. 



Pana, 111., Feb. 17, 1881. 



I think you are partly right, friend K., for 



I have had some similar experiences myself. 



We should always be careful to take a look 



into the hive whenever we see an unusual 



number of bees about the entrance stung to 



death. 



^ m » 



ANOTHER HOME-MADE FOOT-POWER 

 BUZZ-SAW. 



M S it will probably be of some value to some of 

 p^ the readers of Gleanings, I will tell how I 



' made my hand-power circular saw. I first 



obtained the cog-wheels of an old-fashioned wind- 

 mill, the larger one being about 14 in. in diameter, 

 and the small one about 4 in. I put the small one on 

 a wooden shaft, and on this shaft I put a large cast 

 wheel about 3 feet in diameter; from this wheel I 

 run a band to the puUy on the end of the mandrel. 



HOW I MADE the MANDKEL. 



1 obtained a one-inch bolt, 15 inches long; on one 

 end I put two burrs: between these burrs I put the 

 saw. In order to make the saw run true, I screwed 

 one burr on first, and turned it with a sharp file; 

 then put the other one on just far enough to admit 

 the file between, then held the file between them 

 while running, and in that way I got the saw per- 

 fectly true. 1 made the bearings by pouring melted 

 Babbitt metal into wooden molds, with a stick the 

 size of the mandrel run through it. I made the saw 

 out of an old hand-saw, by cutting it out with a cold 

 chisel, and cutting the teeth with a file. This is all 

 in one frame, about 3 feet square. It works so nice- 

 ly one of my neighbors has made one like it to run 

 by water, though he didn't use the gearing. 



Chas. Kingsle-y. 



Greeneville, Tenn., March 32, 1881. 



Many thanks, friend A. You have suc- 

 ceeded in making a saw that will doubtless 

 do all of your own work, and with almost no 

 expense out. I presume few of our friends 

 will be so fortunate as to find gearing with- 

 out expense; and even if they should, if 

 they have plenty of work that will pay, it 

 may not be so very cheap after all. It is an 

 excellent idea to be able to make your own 

 tools during spare moments; but the natur- 

 al tact for such work varies so much in dif- 

 ferent individuals, that, where one succeeds, 

 a great many often fail in trying to follow 

 him. 



