1881 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



451 



wax.— Your plan of using a piece of paper, 

 friend, is novel ; but it seems to me it would 

 take too much time, the way our girls work. 

 The hot-iron plan is a very old ope. but is 

 still used by some. 



HOW TO MAKE A WAX-EXTRACTOR FOB TEN CEiNTS. 



Take your wife's dish-pan, and cut a piece of wire 

 cloth a little larger than the top; bend it down a 

 couple of inches inside, and bend the corners down 

 outside to keep it in place ; put a little water in the 

 pan, and cover the wir(} eUith with old combs; set in 

 the oven with a moderate tire, and let it bake about 

 15 minutes, and the wax will all be on top, the water 

 and dirt on top the wire cloth. Repeat as long- as 

 the comb htlds out. Cheap and good; try it. 



X. Y. Z. 



Madisonvillc, Ham. Co., O., July 27, 1881. 



Why, friend Z., yours is exactly our 30- 

 cent wax-extractor, only you take wire cloth 

 instead of the sieve, and steal your wife's 

 disli-pan instead of Iniying one. I should 

 not be surprised if the latter part of it cost 

 you more than 10c of itself, unless y<nu- wife 

 is a — jewel. 



BEE KEEPERS' MISHAPS. 



As it is the fashion for bee-men to report, I must 

 give in my mite. I am one of the ABC class. I have 

 C colonies in chaff hives; they arc doing finely now, 

 but we don't know what the song will be next 

 spring. We must hope and trust. I noticed in 

 Gleanings of friend Good's report from Nappanee 

 concerning Holy-Land bees. All very well; we don't 

 doubt it a bit concerning the Holy-Land bees, but we 

 are s^rry about Amos Blosser's smoker burning up 

 buggy and harness. It was bad luck, but nobody 

 was killed after all. Friend Blosserhasanew buggy 

 and harness, and drives around as happy as a robin 

 in June. So it's not very much worse than friend 

 Good caging a queen on salt, the result of which 

 Avas— a dead queen. Jacob Coble. 



South West, Elkhart Co., Ind., Aug. 4, 1881. 



So it seems, friend Good, that you tried 

 feeding your queen salt instead of sugar, and 

 that you did not tell us about that part of it 

 when you told about tlie buggy and har- 

 ness. . 



an ABC SCHOLAR IN TROUBLE. 



Having only two bo.x hives of black bees since 

 last fall, I am completely at a loss what to do with 

 them, although I have read your ABC and Glean- 

 ings ever since. I wintered them In my cellar; one 

 has come out all right, and the other had dysentery, 

 and was very weak, I being obliged to feed them. A 

 friend of mine has lost 14 out of 22, cellar wintering. 

 I took them out on the 13th of April. They have 

 been working since, and I have been expecting to 

 see them swarming every day since July, as they 

 were hanging in front of the hive; but they have 

 not swarmed yet. I was surprised to see them start- 

 ing foundation outside of the hive. I did not like to 

 force them to go in, as they seem very strong. I 

 suppose it is too late to swarm now. I have sown 

 some Spider and Simpson honey-plants; they are 

 about 15 inches high. P. A. Bourget. 



Lauzon, Canada, Aug., 1881. 



Why, friend B., did you not transfer your 

 bees V I fear you have read A B C and 

 Gleanings to little purpose, if you expect- 

 ed to prosper in bee culture with your bees 



still remaining in box hives. Spider and 

 Simpson plants I Why, your bees have their 

 hives so full of honey already, from the 

 plants that grow of themselves, that they 

 probably could not get inside if they would. 

 No wonder tlle^ are " starting foundations " 

 on the outside of the hives. Perhaps it may 

 be as well now to let them remain until next 

 spring before transferring, but you have lost 

 one year. 



a novelty in "chaff hives," and abundant 

 ventilation for winter. 



I send you the following, which I cut out of one of 

 our county papers. It illustrates a freak of the 

 bees, to say the least ; and they are not supposed to 

 be the " Apis dorsata " cither. I. D. Pierce. 



Kirksville, Mo., Aug. 8, 1881. 



Vbout loui- or livf wccUs ;iyi) Mr J J Shott hived a swann of 

 btts The next, the hees left the hive ;iiul Mr. Shott supposed 

 thev had troiie entirely. Last Satnrdav he discovered tlie tru- 

 ants abmic I.'> ft. fi-onrtlie tree, wliere they liad drawn the tall 

 frass to^'etlur and were working very industriously. They ev- 

 identlv meant to niaUe a home m their strange quarters, for 

 they had stored alic.ut 1.") Ihs. ol excellent honey, the combs of 

 whi.-h weje .utarhed to the weeds and grass. 



Jlr. Shott has lett them in their chosen home: he says he will 

 not he responsible for any debts contra<-ted by said bees, as they 

 liave left his I'are, and entered life upon their own respon- 

 .sibility. 



Tell the A B C class, in order to get rid of the pol- 

 len in the fall, feed the bees after they are done stor- 

 ing till they use it up, then they will have a nice 

 lot of young bees, and no pollen to cause dysentery. 



.\ nice watering-place for bees, 

 this hot August weather, is to place a keg, with one 

 head out, in some suitable place, tilled with water, 

 and cotton cloths folded, with one end in the water, 

 and the other hanging out. We have ours close by 

 the well, and when we are drinking, throw what re- 

 mains in the keg. The cloths keep soaked, and the 

 bees have the nicest place for getting water I ever 

 saw. Ila Mishener. 



Low Banks, Ont, Can., Aug. i;i, 1881. 



Started to winter six swarms: lost three; increased 

 this summer to eleven; got UOO lbs. extracted honey, 

 and expect to get more this season. Inclosed you 

 will find one dollar. Send along Gleanings. 



J. Gou^.n. 



Woodstock, Ontario, Can., July 22, 1881. 



Why, friend G., if you were in Blasted 

 Hopes, it does not seem to me you stayed 

 there long. I should think you belonged in 



Smilery now. 



ten thousand pounds of honey, etc. 



I inclose you draft for $14.00, for which please 

 send me 200 of those two-quart tin pails, to which 

 you call attention in August Gleanings. If they 

 are all gone, please indorse the draft to my order, 

 and return it. Ship by freight to me at Levanna. 

 N. Y. 



I have taken about 10,000 lbs. of honey, instead of 

 7000, as I wiote you a few days ago, and could have 

 taken a few hundred more, but it began to be col- 

 ored by buckwheat. I think this is a pretty good 

 yield for 78 swarms in the spring (many of them 

 weak), to say nothing of the 130 new swarms. 



1 am one of Burch's victims. I sent to him in May 

 for one best tested queen, $3..50; in a nucleus. *3..50; 

 and a B. & H. honey-knife, f 1.2.5. Total $7.2.5. In 

 ease he does not return the money, I will not receive 

 it from you, as I do not think you ought to pay it. 

 My loss would have l>een much greater, but I live 

 within about 25 miles of Mr. Doolittle, and so when 

 I got ready to use some brood for queen-rearing I 



