92 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTtJRE. 



EeB. 



now have 13, nice and strong; one swar:n of hybrids, 

 very ugly. Francis C. Smith. 



Kilmanagh, Huron Co., Mich., Dec. 23, 1883. 



Why, friend S., I have no reason to think 

 any oi: the reports sent in are untruthful. In 

 the first place, they do not come from any 

 one locality, but are, as you see, scattered 

 far and wide. And again, if you observe, 

 the letters read as if they came from good, 

 candid, hard-working men, who would have 

 no object in making exaggerations. I agree 

 with you, that it is indeed wonderful ; but 

 when it comes from " the mouths of many 

 witnesses," it would not only be unreason- 

 able, but unMnd and unchristian like, to dis- 

 believe it. You are a Christian, ai'en't you, 

 friend S. V 



A REMARKABLE YIELD OF HONEY; FROM 47 TO C4, 



AND 247 LBS. OF HONEY TO THE HIVE, ON 



AN AVERAGE. 



Mr. James H. Cox, of Hudson, 111., informs me 

 that he started last spring with 47 hives of bees, and 

 increased to 64 in the fall; but he sold several colo- 

 nies during the summer. He took during the season 

 something over 11,000 lbs., of which 4000 lbs. was 

 comb honey. I do not remember the exact number 

 of pounds, but the average on the 47 hives was about 

 247 pounds. 



A TROUBLE WITH TWO-STORY HIVES. 



I have had some inconvenience with these hives. 

 It frequently happens, that at the end of the honey 

 season the upper story will be full while the lower 

 story will be nearly or altogether empty. Is there 

 auy way to prevent this, except by changing the 

 combs? I can readily see that the Simplicity hives 

 would be quite handy in such cases, as it would not 

 be difficult to exchange stories. 



Decatur, 111., Jan. 19, 1883. E. A. Gastman. 



Particular stocks seem to have a fashion 

 of always going to tiie top with their honey. 

 This is oftenest the case with hybrids or 

 black bees, I believe, Italians having a fash- 

 ion of keeping their stores down, and refus- 

 ing to go up into another story, if they can 

 avoid it. Where one has all the boxes above, 

 and wants to get comb honey, the trait may be 

 a valuable one ; but in that case they must 

 be carefully looked to and fed up for winter, 

 if they require it. Setting the combs and 

 brood below is perhaps the readiest remedy, 

 friend G. 



FROM 15 TO 36, and 1463 LBS. OF COMB HONEY. 



As every one else is sending in reports, I guess I 

 must send in mine too. I started, last spring, with 

 14 hives; bought one of you, making 15. Increased 

 to 36. Only one, that I know of, left for parts un- 

 known last summer; and last fall, while putting 

 them into winter quarters, I came across one hive 

 with 15 or 20 bees in, but full of honey. I sold 1462 

 lbs. of honey; got 20 cts. for the most of it; amount- 

 ed to $386.69. I have between 300 and 400 lbs. to sell 

 yet. I laid aside 100 lbs. for my own use; have 

 about 80 frames of nice honey that I took out to put 

 the cushions in. J. A. Kennedy, 



Per Louisa. 



That is doing pretty well for a man 74 years old, is 

 it not? 1 help father with his bees. I can hold the 

 smoker, you know, if nothing else. L. K. 



Farmingdale, 111., Jan. 20, 1883. 



Whew ! that last remark savors a little of 



Juvenile Gleanings. I shall have to 

 confess, Louisa, that I was wondering, as I 

 read, how a man 74 years old could write so 

 nicely. It seems, then, that you not only 

 hold the smoker, but you write letters, and 

 save your poor old father's eyes, and make 

 Uncle Amos glad, to see you have done it 

 so nicely, as well as so kindly. Well, well, 

 perhaps the time may come when we shan't 

 know young Gleanings from old Glean- 

 iNfJs. Who knows V Oh, yes ! AVho can ex- 

 plain that hive full of honej^, with only 14 or 

 If) bees in it ? Let the children tell how it 

 came about. 



HALF-POUND SECTIONS; A FAVORABLE REPORT. 



Can you arrange your machine to make the '/j-lb. 

 section, size about 3x3^x2? W'e have been using V4- 

 Ib. sections to a limited extent since 1878, and find 

 them very profitable, if put on the hives proper!}', 

 and the right care taken of them after they are put 

 on. We will say further, that we have used them of 

 all sizes, and with and without separators, and think 

 that we have about the right size, and that we ca7i 

 not use them without separators. 



Peoria, N. Y., Dec. 28, '82. J. C. Newman & Son. 



Inasmuch as the above is the first favor- 

 able report of these from one w'ho has used 

 them, we are very glad to get it. We have 

 now our machinery arranged for making 

 sections as small as the above, and are only 

 waiting to have it decided what dimensions 

 are to be called for most, before we keep 

 them in stock and fix a price on them. 



NICKEL INSTEAD OF ZINC. 



I see on p. 626, Gleanings for Dec, an article on 

 galvanized honey-gates. Allow me to suggest nickel- 

 plating them. 



KEEPING BEES INDOORS. 



I am trying an experiment which may be of inter- 

 est to bee-keepers. It is, keeping bees in the house 

 in winter. A neighbor, an old- fashioned bee-keeper, 

 was going to take up some bees, so I told him I 

 would take up the honey for the bees; he was great- 

 ly astonished to think that the bees were worth any 

 thing, but said I was welcome to them. So on 

 Thanksgiving day I took them and brought them 

 home. I had very unwisely sold all my surplus 

 honey, so had nothing on which to feed them. I 

 knew they would have to have some liquid in order 

 to take up any candy, and I had no convenient way 

 to give them any, so was at a loss to know what to 

 do. At last it popped into my head to try keeping 

 them in the house. As they cost me nothing, I 

 knew that I should lose but little if I lost them. I 

 made a cage the same size as a Simplicity hive, and 

 covered it with wire cloth. I put a Simplicity feeder 

 inside, and then put my hive on lo the cage. I have 

 fed them thus far about 5 lbs. of syrup. I find the 

 best proportion for syrup to be 1 lb. of sugar and 1 

 lb. of water. At this date they have drawn out a 

 large piece of fdn., and built some new comb on 

 their own hook, in two empty frames; they have 

 filled most of it with syrup, and capped part of it 

 over. I am now trying to get them to raise brood. 



A. C. Miller. 



Barrlngton, Bristol Co., R. I., Dec. 30, 1883. 



I think nickel plate would do nicely, 



friend M., but you know that would be a 



little bordering on the aristocratic, which 



would not matter so very much, if it were 



