416 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



the half would not l)e told. The new pure- 

 food law is going to add immensely to the 

 work of the Department of Agriculture, but 

 1 lielieve there are few bee-keepers who will 

 object. I believe this law alone will do as 

 much for us as any thing that has been at- 

 tempted by the government. By the way, 

 J\Ir. Editor, you can add to the list of States 

 that have pure-food laws, given on page 161, 

 that of New Hampshire; and Massachusetts, 

 1 believe, is also in line. 

 .^ 

 As I was riding down Ninth St., Washing- 

 ton, the other day, in a street-car, I over- 

 heard a gentleman talking to his neighbor 

 about bees. At om-e I was much interested, 

 saying to myself that at last surely the peo- 

 ple ai'e becoming interested in bees when 

 they talk about them on the cars. He said 

 that Jiis uncle's family had moved out into 

 the country, and his sons had taken up the 

 specialty he preferred. One raised vegeta- 

 bles, another gave his attention to poultry, 

 while a third turned to bee-keeping as more 

 pleasing to him. He said this bee-keeper 

 had ah'eady fifty hives of bees, and each 

 hive contained "a million and a half of these 

 industrious insects," and his friend remark- 

 ed that ''nature was wonderjul." 



A large entrance in summer, suggested by 

 E. R. Root, is worthy of our attention. J 

 purchased a yard of forty hives of bees last 

 spring. The hives were mostly for eleven 

 Langstroth frames, and yet the largest en- 

 trances that could be given, a pai't of them 

 for summer, were about five inches long by 

 % inch high, while he used a winter entrance 

 about 2 inches by \ inch high, wintering 

 out of dooi's in chaff-packed hives. I found 

 some of the combs in these hives had melted 

 down and were in l)ad shape; and I am of 

 the impression the former owner had not 

 been able to secure much surplus honey, and 

 I was not surprised at the small amount of 

 ventilation given. The winter entrance, 

 small as it was, was undoubtedly all right, 

 as I do not remember to have ever seen a 

 lot of bees as strong on the 1st of June as 

 those bees were. 



six, or seven frames in the super. Just how 

 many do you find best? and relative to 

 bleaching wax, do you leave it in the sun? 

 My honey is always thick. How much wa- 

 ter would you use to a gallon of honey in 

 feeding back? At what stage do you cut the 

 comb out? Do you let them fill the frame 

 to the bottom-bar? My bees begin to put in 

 honey as soon as the wax is the size of your 

 hand. R. M. Swain. 



Cibola, Ariz., Jan. 7. 



[For several reasons I prefer thin combs, 

 ten frames to the super, and eleven is all 

 right. They are very much sooner capped over 

 and finished. Running your wax once 

 through a solar machine ought to bleach it 

 enough for any market. Thick nice honey 

 ought to sell, even in Arizona; but if you 

 are really compelled to "feed back," one 

 pint of water to one pound of honey will be 

 all right in your country; but you will have 

 to use a shallow brood-chamber in "feeding 

 back;" for if you don't, three-fourths of the 

 honey will be wasted. A brood-chamber 5f 

 inches wide is deep enough for this purpose. 

 If the bees start to fill a comb I let them fin- 

 ish it. When the brood-chamber is com- 

 posed of combs having none but worker- 

 cells, the bees build drone-combs quite fre- 

 quently, in which nothing is deposited. This 

 takes place at swarming time genei'ally, or 

 when nectar comes in slowly. — W. K. M.] 



A NEW SELF-SPACING FRAME. 



As there seems to be a lull in the topic of 

 frames just at present, perhaps it is a good 

 time for me to add my mite to the mass of 

 wisdom we now possess concerning the sub- 

 ject. Perhaps I better admit right here that 

 I am a crank of the crankiest kind, and that 

 comb-frames have been a hobby with me for 

 nearly thirty years. 



We always look with suspicion on new 

 ideas, and we often turn down a novelty be- 

 fore we see all there is in it; so please look 



WAX-PKODUCTION; FEEDING BACK THE 

 HONEY. 



Mr. W. K. Morrison: — I am always inter- 

 ested in your articles, but I am going to ask 

 you to go a little more into particulars than 

 you did in yoiu' last article in Gleanings on 

 wax-production. You tell us not to use five. 



at the little odd-shaped block attached to the 

 corner of the frame while I tell you a little 

 about it. 



Please notice that it has thirteen plain sur- 

 faces (unlucky number, I know), but for all 

 that it is easily and quickly made, and when 

 attached to the frame it takes the place of 

 three separate devices in the ordinary frame 

 — a projection by which it is suspended in 



