530 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



found in the long winters and forced confinement of 

 bees, thereby preventing' a frequent discharge of 

 the fteoal contents of the intestines, which, being 

 retained, must ferment, produce intlammation, dys- 

 entery, exhaustion, and death of the bees. "Come, 

 let us reason together." Geo. B. Peters. 



Council Bend, Ark., Sept. 25, 1881. 



sojuething to put under the 

 cushions. 



THE PROBLEM SOLVED APPAKEMTLY. 



SWENT into the saw-room the other 

 day, and Mr. Gray was at work at some 

 queer-looking thing with eight legs, 

 that looked as if it might be guilty of killing 

 sheep, or sucking eggs, if it got loose after 

 dark. 

 '• What in the world is that, Mr. Gray V" 

 " Why, it is something that Shane brought 

 over. He wants us to make 189 like it — one 

 for each of his hives. It was sent him by 

 some great bee-man down near Cincinnati, 

 who never loses his bees wintering." 

 '' Was it Muth V" 

 "•No, that was not the name." 



"inn?" 



"Yes, Hill; that is the man. He wrote 

 Shane a letter and sent him this machine, 

 which I think is to be put under the cushion, 

 to make a chamber for the bees to cluster in, 

 so they can readily pass over the frames 

 from one to the otlier." 



Here is a picture of the thing, my friends. 



hill's device FOR COVElMNGTHE FRA^IES 

 IN W^INTER. 



I saw Mr. Shane when became after them, 

 and he has promised me the letter from Mr. 

 Hill, but it has not come yet. The sticks 

 are sawed on a circle, from half-inch bass- 

 wood. They are sawed on a curve that 

 would make a circle of perhaps .5 inches in 

 diameter. The stuff is held at an angle 

 when sawed, so the outer surface is some- 

 thing like the surface of a sphere. The two 

 iusitie sticks are 9 inches in length; the two 

 outside ones, only S. The back-bone, as it 

 were, is a strip of very light hoop-iron, like 

 that used to hoop pails, it is about a foot 

 long, which holds the ribs about 4 inches 

 apart. Y ou set this on the frames, then lay 

 over it a piece of bagging, or burlap, and till 

 the upper story with chaff. 



It occurred to me, when I first saw it, that 

 under this would be a splendid place to put 

 sticks or bricks of candy, when candy has to 

 be fed. Mr. Shane said he used four cobs, 

 similarly placed last winter on all his stocks, 

 but that he had never thought to mention it 

 when I had interviewed him in regard to 

 his great success in wintering. We sliall use 

 it over all of our colonies, and I have much 

 faith that it will give the space above the 

 bees, about which so much has been said in 

 the reports of wintering with the sections 



left on. A quilt or cushion does not seem to 

 answer as well as loose chaff, because it in- 

 terposes too many thicknesses of cloth. Per- 

 haps very porous cloth, like burlap, might be 

 unobjectionable ; and cushions are so much 

 cleaner and handier than loose chaff. 



if you can not well make these things, we 

 can furnish them for 5 cts. each, or $4.00 per 

 hundred in the flat. If wanted by mail, the 

 postage will be about 4 cts. each. ' 



|/j^ *%rcidkr^r 



This departmont is to be kept for the benefit of those who are 

 flissatistied ; and when anything is aniisa, I hope yo\i will " talk 

 right out." As .1 nile. we will omit names and addresses, to 

 avoid being too personal. 



llp^RIEND ROOT: -I 



JiqI but quit on ace 



took Gleanings a long time, 

 account of glucose and dollar 

 queens. I am glad you have dropped the gl i- 

 ccse. When you drop dollar queens, which I think 

 you will, I shiiU likely send for Gleanings. I am a 

 poor writer, but your well-wisher. May God bless 

 you. D. G. Parker. 



St. Joseph, Mo., Oct. 18, I88L 



I haven't had a suitable letter for the 

 Growlery for some time, and I am not sure 

 the above is one ; in fact, the concluding in- 

 junction seems to indicate that friend F. is 

 a good friend of mine, in spite of differences. 

 I presume most of our readers will smile at 

 the allusion to dollar queens now. Friend 

 P., you are not fully up to the times, I fear. 

 Our highest-priced qu(^ens are reared exactly 

 as the dollar queesis are ; in fact, all are 

 reared together. When tested, the best are 

 three dollars, and the poorest are 50 cents, 

 'i'he dollar queens are simply those sold be- 

 fore they are tested at all. Most bee-keep- 

 ers have their own peculiar notions in re- 

 gard to queens, and, as a general thing, each 

 prefers to test them himself. It saves time, 

 to buy a lot of dollar queens and pick out 

 one from among them that suits you. The 

 great queen trade that now fills our mails a 

 great part of the year is mostly in dollar 

 queens ; and if you will look over the re- 

 ports in our back numbers, you will see that 

 their colonies are giving the great yields of 

 honey. The men who have sold hybrids 

 and culls for dollar queens have killed their 

 trade, and are now mostly out of the busi- 

 ness. 



in regard to "glucose," as you are still 

 pleased to term it, here is an editorial from 

 the last American Bee Journal : — 



To prohibit the use of glucose by law would be 

 about as proper as to compel hotel-keepers to use 

 first-class meat in hash, or cheap boarding-house 

 keepers to debilitate the butter. If persons wish to 

 buy and eat glucose, they have a right to do so: we 

 would throw no obstacle in the way of buying it. 

 But we do object to their buying and eating it for 

 pure honey or syrup, or any thing except what it re- 

 ally is. If buyers inquire for glucose, let them have 

 it; if for hone.v, sell them honey. 



Now% if that is not exactly where I have 

 always stood in the matter, it must be I do 

 not see things straight. It looks to me just 

 as if friend Newman had come over to my 

 position ; but very likely it seems to him I 

 have gone over to his side. Never mind, so 

 long as we are agreed. 



