1883 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUllE. 



65 



pies, visiting drug-stores, groceries, etc. If the 

 owner has not any work that will pay him atiy bet- 

 ter, large orders might be taken by visiting manu- 

 factories where many hands are employed, choosing 

 their lunch-hour as the most propitious time for the 

 visit. "We have found some very good honey cus- 

 tomers, while purchasing our household supplies, 

 by offering a small quantity of honey, and paying 

 the rest in money. Mus. L. Haurison. 



Peoria, 111., Jan., 18813. 



It is bad to sell honey, or any lliinpr else, 

 for what it will bring, to folks who do not 

 particularly want it. On this account I 

 would dislike to take a load anywhere unless 

 I had some sort of an idea how I was to dis- 

 pose of it. Your suggestion, Mrs. H., that 

 it were well to go hrsc with samples, is au 

 excellent one, unless you are prepared to 

 take the load home again, unless a fair price 

 be obtained. If our friends will always 

 mention what their honey sells for, in mak- 

 ing their reports, it will do much toward in- 

 forming all who read the journal about how 

 much they ought to ask for their honey. 



REVEKSIBIiE FRAMES, AGAIN. 



FRIEND BURGESS, AND HIS IMPROVEMENTS OF THE 

 PAST YEAR. SEE P. 71, FEB., 1883. 



BOUT a year ago I sent you a sample of my way 

 of making the " reversible frame." You sug- 

 gested two bearings instead of one. I accept- 

 ed your idea, and now Inclose a shortened end of the 

 frame, as I make it. You will notice that my end- 



pieces go between the top and bottom bars so the 

 wires hold all tight together. Y'our illustration was 

 the reverse. In wiring for I'dn. I use 6 wires across 

 my frame — the end ones, one inch from the end- 

 piece — you will notice the holes made. As I turn 

 the frame over from time to time I need no diagonal 

 wires. The wire beai-ings are made by winding 

 around a 7a-inch bar of iron, and then cutting them 

 open on one side. The top and bottom bars have a 

 saw-kerf near the end to receive them. The up- 

 right wire support is held in place by two staples, 

 such as are used in blind-making, placing them li4 

 inches from each end. I think a good many would 

 try a few vrrersiWc frames, if you kept them in stock. 



Recently a man wrote me, that, by turning over 

 the frames of a Simplicity hive, as you suggested, he 

 secured 18 boxes of honey where the bees had de- 

 termined to put it into the brood-frames. They do 

 not like to have the honey part of the frame put at 

 the bottom. F. W. Burgess. 



Huntington, L. I., N. Y., Jan. 12, 1883. 



When our friend sent the model of his re- 

 versible frame a year ago, I told him it 

 would not do to let the frame hang on a sin- 

 gle wire. You wall notice in the one shown 

 above, he has very ingeniously, indeed, so 

 arranged it as to have a firm double support 



like our metal corner, and at the same time 

 it permits the frame to be turned over at 

 pleasure. While I think it quite possible 

 that we may get a great deal more of the 

 honey put into sections by this reversing, 

 it still seems to me the best way to do it will 

 be to have a hive with a movable bottom 

 like tlie .Simplicity, and turn it all over, 

 placing the sections over the bottom-bars 

 instead of the top- bars. 



THE MAN WHO UIDN'T WANT ANY 

 " JSEE PAPEK." 



ALSO A GOOD WORD FOR THE CONTROLLABLE HIVE. 



fSEND you the following account of an interview 

 I had with a bee-man who uses Mrs. L. Cotton's 

 ~ hive. I was in a neighboring town the other 

 day, when ho was pointed out to me as a bee-man, 

 and I accosted him with "Hello, friend, they tell me 

 you ai'e a bee-man." 



" Y-a-a s, I keep bees." 



" Well, I suppose you take a bee journal, do you 

 not?" 



'' Awhai?" 



" Why, a bee paper." 



" No: I never take no bee papers, an' I don't want 

 any." 



" But, you have bocks on bee-kecplng, have you 

 not?" 



"No: I never could learn nothin' from books and 

 papers." 



" But, didn't you attend the meeting of our Coun- 

 ty Bee Association? " 



" Y-a-a-s, I was up there, but I didn't learn nothin'. 

 I could 'a' told more in one-quarter the time than 

 them fellers did." 



" Why, you must be an old hand at it, aren't j-ouV" 



" Y a-a-s, I've kcp' bees 'bout 20 years, I guess, but 

 didn't handle 'em much till 3 or 4 years ago." 



" How was that? " 



" Why, ye see I began makin' a differcLt kind of 

 hive then, and 1 seen some men handle bees, and I 

 learnt so I kin handle bees just as good as anybody 

 kin, now." 



"What kind of a hive do you call it? " 



" Well, I call it the con-f coMable hive, and I tell you 

 it's the best hive there is made." 



"Oh! ah! something new, isn't it? " 



" Well, I guess there are none abeout here." 



" It was not got up about here, then? " 



"No: I sent off for it." 



" Who is the inventor? " 



" Her name is Lizzie Cotton." 



" I suppose you have good success with her hive?" 



" Yes, sir." 



" How much is the highest you over got from one 

 swarm?" 



" I got 135 pounds." 



" Well, that isn't to be snecBcd at, any way. How 

 did j'our bees do this year? " 



" Pretty poor. I guess 1 had 400 or 500 lbs., how- 

 ever." 



" How many colonies had you? " 



" How many ivhaU " 



" How many hives of bees? " 



" 'Bout 25, 1 guess; but it's been an awful bad sea- 

 son. Wouldn't have got much if it hadn't been for 

 feeding in the spring; and I tell you, I've got tho 

 best feeder you ever seen." 



