592 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



form of a spheroid; the apple and cherry that of a 

 sphere; the pear is the shape of a cone, and the lo- 

 cust approaches the cylinder in form. Out of these 

 forms it is easy to figure an acreaj?e of tree foliage. 

 It is safe to double the surface measurement for 

 blossoms on the interior branches. According to 

 this estimate we have apple-trees over 60 years of 

 age, ten of which are equal to an acre, while a splen- 

 did specimen of the linden, which, alas! has suc- 

 cumbed to the ax, gave fully a fourth of an acre of 

 foliage. 



Aside from honey production, the forest gives us 

 many lessons for our improvement, and for the 

 adornment of our homes. How eagerly are the 

 lichens gathered up, and the running pine! Even 

 the seeds of the linden are utilized to make beads; 

 and when stained, they equal In appearance the 

 strings of foreign nuts we saw at the Centennial. 

 We love the forest with all its solitude and its trea- 

 sures. We love the grand old trees that have been 

 adding circle after circle to their circumference for 

 a century or more; and as we return from our ram- 

 ble we drop a sigh of regret for the noble trees that 

 will fall before the ax before another year shall roll 

 around. J. H. Martin. 



flartford, Washington Co., N. Y. 



HOW TO TAKE OFF SECTIONS. 



ALSO SOMETHINO ABOUT HOW NOT TO DO IT. 



fjiHIS is my first season with the Simplicity hive, 

 and I am well pleaded with them. My neigh- 

 — ' bors are interested, at least those who keep 

 bees, and say they are bound to have some of those 

 hives. 



I wish you would tell me how you take off sec- 

 tions. 1 put my first swarm, and a good one, into a 

 Simplicity. They soon filled the hive, and I put on 

 a case of sections, and they filled them all with the 

 nicest honey I have seen for a long time. I waited 

 for a cool morning, and tried to take them off, but 

 the bees came pouring out in a perfect stream, and 

 I put on the cover, and left them until evening; 

 then I came at them with smoker and chisels, and 

 pried the case loose, and got it off on the grass, but 

 there was a small swarm in the case and on the bot- 

 tom of It, and after much sweeping and driving, I 

 set the case on an empty hive and gave them a little 

 brimstone. That made things quiet so that I could 

 take the sections out of the case. C. A. Case. 



Old Chatham, Columbia Co., N. Y., Oct. 17, 1881. 



Why, friend C, who ever told you to 

 choose a cold morning to take off sections? 

 It was just your very worst time, for the 

 bees were all at home, and in no mood to be 

 disturbed at all. Have we not told you in 

 the A B C, and everywhere else almost, to 

 handle bees in the middle of the day, when 

 as many were out in the fields as possible? 

 At such a time, you could have lifted out all 

 tilled sections, and replaced them with emp- 

 ty ones, almost as fast as you could pick 

 them up and set them down. If you are an 

 ABC scholar, you should have taken out 

 the sections and'handled them often, so you 

 would know just about the time the first one 

 would be ready to take off. By waiting un- 

 til evening, you had the bees all at home 

 again, and they were likely just unloading 

 and arranging the honey they had gathered 



during the day. If you wanted them clear 

 out of the case, why did you put it on the 

 grass at all? Had you raised up the case of 

 sections, and placed an empty second story 

 under it, right over the hive below, you 

 could have driven every bee down on the 

 brood-frames in a very little time with your 

 smoker. The empty Itive between them is 

 needed, because without it they will boil up 

 in one spot while you are driving them 

 down in another. You had the empty 

 hive right there, it seems ; but instead of do- 

 ing as I have suggested, you killed the 

 poor little fellows Avith brimstone, as a rec- 

 ompense for their kind labor to their un- 

 thankful master. Please excuse me for 

 the way in Avhich I put it, but I can never 

 bear to hear of bees being killed. I have 

 almost felt like crying for them since read- 

 ing your letter. 



HIVES, QUEENS, ETC. 



fHAVB noticed two things about handling bees 

 in spring and fall and in cold weather. When 

 bees are clustered together in cool weather, and 

 you lift a frame out of a common hive, the bees that 

 fall on to the bottom-board curl up, and very often 

 never uncurl. In the chaff hives they don't do so. 



PHOTECTED BOTTOM-BOARDS. 



Well, I made some boxes, and stuffed them with 

 leaves forbottom-boardsforother hives, and I found 

 out that the bees did not curl up on them either, and 

 we don't find the combs so moldy down on the bot- 

 tom back corner, nor do the bees fly out so much if 

 the hives are on stuffed bottom-boards in winter as 

 they do if on common bottom-boards. When the 

 stand is made by nailing boards on 6-inch scantling 

 set up edgewise, and stuffed with leaves, I tell you 

 they are just " bully." 



Now I'll tell you why I don't like the Simplicity. 

 It's too small to make a chaff hive of for winter. I 

 have seen and used some Simplicities that just suit 

 me; they arc square inside. The front and back are 

 packed with 3 inches of any thing to fill up; the bot- 

 tom has 2 inches of packing; a light cap of half-inch 

 stuff, 13 in. front, 11 in. back, covers the whole. A 

 good thick chaff division-board on each side, and a 

 2-inch cushion on top, won't put them in good freez- 

 ing condition. Well, 17 out of 18 stocks in them did 

 not freeze last winter, and two-thirds all around 

 them did freeze. The frames come just even with 

 the top of the hive. Now for a plain square-top case 

 on top of the hive, and two divisions below, and wo 

 have the advantge of the chaff hive and the square 

 cases to tier up to keep wide frames, brood frames, 

 or boxes, during the winter. Another thing: This 

 chaff packing under the bottom-board helps to get 

 the brood to the bottom of the frames early in the 

 spring, and makes the same number of bees cover a 

 greater surface of comb, furnishing more brood in 

 the same time. Make the wide division-boards one 

 side burlap; use the burlap side to the bees in win- 

 ter, and the board side in summer. 



artificial and natural queens. 



Well, now, don't you recollect that in 1878 and '79 

 you wrote about having the queen lay right in the 

 cups, and then we could have natural queens start- 

 ed from the eggs, and see if they were not better? 

 You asked who would try it. I sent you word that I 

 would if you would, and I have for the past three 

 reasons. When I sent you word, I believe I stated it 



