u 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Eeb. 



After eleven summers among the bees, we are to 

 try to live without them. We are to have time to 

 see our friends, to make the new house somewhat 

 more homelike and cosy, etc. And when I venture 

 to inquire, "But, how shall we do without the — 

 the spending money?" she answers, "Cyula, another 

 such season as last summer, and we shall for ever 

 more have no need of spending-money ! " 



She is not very logical ; but if she be of the same 

 mind next spring, she shall have her way. 



Jan. 15, 1883. Cvula Linswik. 



Many thanks, my good friend Cyula, for 

 your kind letter, that savors ot fairness all 

 the way through, and that treats this matter 

 in so wise a way to ; but I want too make a 

 little pretest to my friend Nellie, inexorable 

 though she may be, as a general thing. It is 

 about this same "spending-money" ^o« touch 

 upon, too, at the end of your letter. You 

 say during haying, etc., it was that you 

 found so much trouble. Now, why not sell 

 off the "• haying " instead of the bees V Did 

 the hay, all together, bring as much money as 

 the bees V Of course, I know nothing of the 

 circumstances, but I can illustrate my mean- 

 ing by telling a story I have several times 

 told before. One year, when our honey crop 

 sold for over a thousand dollars, an old bee- 

 friend who lived near, and had as many bees 

 as I, or more, stopped extracting when it 

 came haying and harvest time, because he 

 couldn't "leave his grain to spoil. The entire 

 crops of his small farm would not bring 

 $300.00 (and it was a comparativly easy mat- 

 ter to hire men to do that work, too) and yet 

 he let surely over $500 worth of honey slip 

 through his fingers, and did it with an easy 

 conscience too. Have I got olf the subject 

 of bee-keeping for women V I think not. If 

 you and our good friend Nellie would keep 

 bees, and not be worried with any other 

 cares, I am inclined to think you would en- 

 joy it more than any thing else in tlie world ; 

 and, also, that it would give you a better in- 

 come than doing any thing else. Well, if 

 that is so I appeal to the folks who do the 

 " haying " at your house, to take immediate 

 steps toward some arrangement that will let 

 you two follow your own taste whereunto 

 you are called of God, and then, perhaps, you 

 may write us something a little more cheer- 

 ing on the subject of bee-keeping for women, 

 after the season of 1883 has passed. By the 

 way, friend Cyula, you didn't tell us how 

 much " spending-money " the 75 produced. 



MY NUCIiEUS HIVE. 



a 



A HALF-LEXQTH LANQSTROTH FRAME. 



'^OME, be short." 



wjj "Yes, yes." 



"^-^ Sides 10?s in. long by 9?4 wide by Vi thick; 

 ends, 6V2 in. long by 0?i wide by Js thick; bottom, 13 

 In. long by 7>4 wide Dy Ji thick; cover lOJa by 754 by 

 14. Two cleats on sides for handles; one cleat on 

 front end of bottom, to keep from warping; two 

 cleats on top of cover, to keep that straight. Front 

 end, % narrower than the above " 9?4," making it 9^i 

 for entrance. Paint, two coats, and use shade-board. 



FRAMES. 



Ends, 8 in. long by % wide by % in. thick ; top and 



bottom bars, S% in. by Ja by 3-16. Extra outer top- 

 bar, 0^3 in. by Js by %. 



HOW TO FILL, THEM. 



The regular top and bottom bars have 4 holes, for 

 wiring with No. 30 tinned wire. These holes are 2 in. 

 apart, and the two outside ones are about % in. from 

 the side-bar. Wire four of these frames, and fill 

 them with comb fdn. by the button - hook hand- 

 pressing process. Now, two of them will just fill a 

 standard L. frame (the extra top-bar is not on yet). 

 Insert two of these filled L. frames in the center of 

 a good strong colony. Within 24 to 48 hours the fdn. 

 will be new comb, and full of eggs. You can now 

 remove them, or leave them till the eggs are hatch- 

 ed, or till the young bees begin to emerge, and then 

 you can remove them (with adhering bees), or get 

 bees from some other hive, or from a natural swarm, 

 or any way you choose, and use any of the many 

 simple effectual methods to newly locate the bees 

 (but this article is not on queen-rearing, but nucleus 

 hives), and nail on your top-bars, properly placed, 

 with one 3d fine nail in each end, left out about 3-16, 

 so that when you wish to unite nuclei for wintering, 

 all j'ou have to do is to pull off these outside top- 

 bars, and slip the little frames into half the number 

 of L. frames; then put them in full-sized hives, and 

 you know the rest. When spring comes, if all are 

 alive you are ready early to fill more nucleus hives. If 

 part arc dead, the same is true by using half brood- 

 ed and half empty combs. If all should be dead (and 

 there will not be any sense in such a state of affairs 

 five years hence, or less, for we are going to get con- 

 trol of this wintering business soon), all you have to 

 do is to repeat the process of last season, when you 

 began with the fdn. I have used 8 small frames, 2 

 larger ones, 2 full L. frames, in both narrow and 

 full-sized hives, and hives divided into 2 and 4 parts, 

 for queen- rearing; but the little hive described 

 above "gets away " with them all. Nothing so nice 

 to ship a choice queen in. On arrival, the queen, 

 combs, and brood can all be utilized at once, if the 

 purchaser is fortunate enough to have the standard 

 frame. The empty nucleus hive can be laid aside 

 till the owner wishes to rear a few queens. I have 

 used 30 of them, and have now under construction 

 17.5 more, 125 for my own use. 



"Well, well; I have got only six pages, not enough 

 for a 3-cent stamp. Just let me pull the stopper 

 from my " bottle of^all sorts." 



HALF-POUND SECTIONS. 



Just a minute. Gleanings is quite quiet on the Va- 

 Ib.-section business. Mr. Osborne and you have a 

 few words to say, on page 10. " I kick " on both of 

 you. Mr. O. has too thin a section, especially if sep- 

 arators are to be used. He seems to make no allow- 

 ance for separators, while the section slioidd be one- 

 fourth wider with than without them. He is not far 

 out of the way of V2 lb., I think, however. Why, 

 you have accommodated the old broad frames nice- 

 ly, but yours is about a ?.i-lb. section. I call you to 

 order, sir. The subject is " ii-lb. sections." We see 

 an advantage in thinner combs. 



Now, that queen-excluding honey-board. Are we 

 going back to the time of Huber? Please excuse 

 me; but I must say, that I really think that, who- 

 ever thinks he needs a queen-excluder, needs only 

 more light regarding the best methods of obtaining 

 the most comb honey in the most marketable shape. 



Now, I have formed my private opinion of Mr. W. 

 E. Flower, of Ashbourne, Pa., though I don't remem- 

 ber knowing that such a man lived till I saw his ar- 



