392 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mav 1 



Your idea of curving the handles, and 

 having- the front board perpendicular 

 and the platform level, is all right. Take 

 that same wheelbarrow and put one of the 

 wheels in the center, and throw the other 

 aside, and you have a better carrier, or at 

 least one that will suit the average person 

 and the average beeyard better. 



If I were going to use a two- wheeled ve- 

 hicle I should prefer a hand-cart, for then 

 the load would be carried almost entirely 

 by the wheels. In the barrow that you 

 show, the man would have to carry too great 

 a proportion of the load. The plan of hav- 

 ing the ordinarj' barrow with the platform 

 slanting toward the wheel, is for the very 

 purpose of shifting the load as far as possi- 

 ble on to the wheel. When the handles are 

 curved and the platform horizontal, there is 

 quite a tendency to drag or catch the legs 

 unless the grass is mown pretty close. — 

 Ed.] 



a simple and cheap hive-stand. 

 I have been considerably bothered to find 

 something to set mj^ bee-hives on. If I set 

 them on bricks the bricks are let down b3^ 

 the earth-worms, and the blue grass grows 

 up in the way of the bees. So I have hit 

 on this plan: I make 4 stakes 3 in. wide, 

 one inch thick and two feet long; drive them 

 in the ground about 1 foot; space them one 



near each corner of the bottom-board and 

 level up with a spirit-level, with the notch 

 A pointed inward from the sides; slip the 

 hive in, and there you are. My stakes are 

 made of creosoted pine, from a piece of 

 bridge-timber. Of course any durable tim- 

 ber will do — for instance, bois-d'-arc hedge 

 cuttings. My boys call this philippenoing. 

 What do 3'ou think of it? 

 Sladensville, Ky. R. C. Hollins. 



[I had often thought of four simple stakes, 

 but had never got around to try them. The 

 pl.Hu is simple and cheap. It offers another 

 advantage, in that the operator, in working 

 over the hives, can shove his toes under, 

 permitting him to get closer to the hive. 

 This maj' seem like an insignificant ad- 

 va!itage; but when one is bending over and 

 tr_\ ing to get out the furthest frame on the 

 opposite side, and keeping it up day after 

 day, he finds it an advantage to get as 

 close to the hive as possible. Then there 

 is another advantage. In moving the hives 

 one can stoop down and reach under them 

 with his fingers. Manj-^ of the hive-stands 

 d(.> not permit of this. The onl^' objection 



to the stakes is that they can not be readily 

 shifted. But if one has laid out his apiary 

 carefully he can drive stakes, by line and 

 by measurement, just where he will always 

 desire to have his hives, whether on the 

 collective or individual line plan. 



I do not know but the Root Co. had better 

 consider the idea of having stakes ofi^ered 

 for sale, soaked in some permanent wood 

 preservative, at so much a hundred or thou- 

 sand. The bulk that they would take in 

 shipment would be very small; and when 

 one ordered a hundred hives he would order, 

 of course, 400 stakes. The expense of this 

 would be insignificant, and he would have 

 first-class hive-stands all ready to drive in 

 the ground, ready to receive his hives as 

 soon as he has them nailed up. — Ed.] 



A bee-keeper's fire-loss. 



Our apiary is located 3'2 miles down in 

 the river swamp below Macon, upon an 

 Indian mound which is about 25 feet high, 

 and about 300 feet in diameter at the bot- 

 tom, and about 150 ft. at top. We have the 

 top filled with bees. Then we have cut a 

 spiral shelf, beginning at the top, and go- 

 ing down and around the mound till we 

 reach a point just above the highest fresh- 

 water mark known. At the foot of the 

 mound, and above high water, we built a 

 house last spring to work in and keep our 

 supplies, etc. In fact, every thing con- 

 nected with the bee business, except the 

 hives of bees, was in this house. On Sun- 

 day night, March 22, this house, with ev- 

 ery thing we had, except the bees, and 

 eight or ten hives of them which were not 

 near enough to catch, were burned up, so 

 we have nothing left except the bees, and a 

 few — perhaps 2000 or 3000 — old sections on 

 the hives that remained over, and were not 

 taken ofi^ the hives. We didn't know of our 

 loss for a week after it happened, as the 

 water was too high to get there. Thus our 

 prospects are largely blasted for this 

 spring. The honey-flow will be on in about 

 7 or 8 days more. We will try to fill orders 

 for queens; but nuclei and bees by the 

 pound we can't. Our loss in .supplies and 

 fixtures is between $400 and S500, with no 

 insurance, to say nothing of the loss of 

 honey and trade due to destruction of our 

 supplies. A. L. Swinson. 



Macon, Ga. 



[We regret to hear of your loss by fire. 

 This only emphasizes the importance of 

 having what is known as insurance for 

 bees. — Ed.] 



THE right kind OF FREE ADVERTISING; 



MORE THAN LIVING UP TO THE GOLDEN 



RULE. 



I read with interest what you say about 

 Mr. Hutchinson as a queen-breeder, page 

 241. Well, he carried this further than any 

 fair-minded man should ask for; but I in- 

 close j'ou a letter from J. P. Moore which 

 will prove that there is one more of them. 

 The facts in the case are as follows: 



