160 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



may be. But charging a dollar, or several dollars, 

 for information that can be written or printed on a 

 little bit of paper, or even in a small pamphlet, is 

 not only behind the times, but hardly In accordance 

 with the spirit of our modern institutions. We not 

 only can not accept advertisements for any thing in 

 this line, but J should not want to do any advertis- 

 ing for a man in that kind of business, lest he might 

 send our customers circulars, urging them into 

 such investments. I think it will be safe to class 

 all such offers as little better than swindles;; and 

 if innocent persons have got into any such business, 

 they will have to suffer for being found in bad com- 

 pany. 



• — ^ — • 



We have already 5000 subscribers and 40 over, and 

 it is only March first. Don't you think that is doing 

 pretty well? 



The bees are flying to-day (March 1st), and we And 

 so many weak we should like to dispose of about a 

 dozen queens, as follows: Three hybrids at a dollar 

 each; eight or ten tested queens, at $3.00 each. Safe 

 arrival guaranteed. Selected and imported queens 

 at catalogue prices. 



We can not, at present, agree to take queens of 

 anybody. The demand and supply is so uncertain, 

 and the property so perishable, that the best I can 

 do is to tell you when we are in need of them. Work 

 up your local trade near home, and it will be much 

 better for all of us than sending the poor little pets 

 thousands of miles through the mails. 



Friend Pelham, of Maysville, Ky., has developed 

 our old idea of making fdn. by means of dies cast of 

 type metal, and offers a 10-inch mill for only $15 00. 

 The fdn., however, has an unnatural base; but this, 

 he thinks, will not hurt it. It seems to me it must 

 take the bees longer to work the cells into shape; 

 but a practical test in the hives may show he is 

 right. His samples are very handsome to look at. 



DIPPING SHEETS FOR FDN. 



Make your dipping-boards of thin maple, about 30 

 inches long, and have your dipping-boiler about two 

 feet deep. Use boards without any handle; and 

 after you dip once, turn it end for end, and you will 

 have sheets of about uniform thickness their whole 

 length; and after they are rolled, one sheet will 

 make two sheets of fdn., to till wired L. frames. It 

 saves labor in dipping and labor in rolling, and we 

 can now furnish you fdn. of an even thickness, 35 

 inches long, if you want them so. We have found 

 that dipping-boards of seasoned hard-maple stand 

 the water better than either whitewood or basswood. 



MACHINERY FOR FRAME-MAKING. 



Several have inquired how we make the notches 

 in the top-bars for all-wood frames, and for the top- 

 bars to wide frames. We long ago discarded cutter- 

 heads for this purpose, because they dulled so quick- 

 ly, and we now do it by means of saws clamped 

 closely together on the mandrel. We use as many 

 ordinary grooving saws as arc needed to get nearly 

 the required width of the groove, or channel, and 

 then put a thin cut-off saw on each outside. The 

 cut-off saws cut off the wood square and smooth, 

 and the groovers then rake out the wood. For 

 grooving lengthwise with the grain, the cut-off saws 

 are not needed. The expense of sharpening saws is 

 but little more in the end than for cutter-heads; 

 and having so many more teeth, they do a far larger 

 amount of work without re-sharpening. For the 

 groove In the all- wood top -bar we use only one 

 groover, with a cut-off saw each side of it. 



FRIEND SHUCK, AND HOW HE DID IT. 



SEE P. 86, FEB. NO. 



s^^OU say, "We should like to know all about how 



Jll you do it, if you will be so kind." Certainly; 

 ' but it would make quite a lengthy letter, to 

 give all the details, so I will tell how it was done, and 

 leave out the details. 



I had about 200 extra combs, and used 25 lbs. of 

 fdn. I use the Simplicity form of hive, and worked 

 my bees for all the honey I could get, increasing 

 only to prevent natural swarming. This, with the 

 working qualities of our bees, and the favorable 

 season, is the key to our "good luck." Striving to 

 prevent natural swarming hindered our obtaining a 

 "big" yield from any one stock. The largest 

 amount of extracted honey from one stock was 

 328 lbs. The most from one stock, in comb, was 

 157 lbs., and 32 lbs. extracted. One stock, occupying 

 only 4 L. frames June 1st, with a 3-year-old queen, 

 superseded their queen July 10. I sold the young 

 queen and 114 lbs. of bees from it July 20, and gave 

 them a laying queen next day, and obtained 136 lbs. 

 extracted and 23:'i: lbs. comb honey. 



Another stock occupying only 3 combs gave bees 

 and brood for 2 new stocks ; was without a laying 

 queen from Aug. 2 to Aug. 29, and gave 101 lbs. ex- 

 tracted and 23?i lbs. comb honey. A stock occupy- 

 ing only 4 combs, without any increase gave 1335^ 

 lbs. extracted and 4454 lbs. comb. The poorest of 

 the 30 original stocks was a one-frame nucleus, and 

 queenlcss June first. The queen hatched, June 7. 



July 8 I gave them Vi frame of hatching brood. 

 July 17 I took 4^ lbs. extracted honey, and Sept. 20, 

 from an upper story I obtained 2Q^i lbs, extracted 

 honey. 



During the last week in Maj% most of these nu- 

 cleus colonies were robbed of all their brood, 

 except one comb each, for the purpose of 

 strengthening full stocks, or those that were nearly 

 full; and to my surprise, at the close of the season 

 the nuclei were but very little behind in the amount 

 of honey produced— those to which the brood had 

 been given. S. A. Shuck. 



Bryant, 111., Feb. 7. 18S3. 



The above would seem to cast a doubt on 

 the advisability ot taking brood from one 

 stock or nuclei, for building up others ; but 

 I supposed that, even if the stocks helped 

 were not much benefited, the nuclei would 

 certainly be weakened, and injured for hon- 

 ey-storing. Triend S. does not seem to have 

 found this the case, however. Does it really 

 pay, friends, this taking bees from one colo- 

 ny to another, and upsetting the regular or- 

 der of things V 



BYRON WAIiKER'S IMPROVEMENT IN 

 SECTIONS. 



ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT GETTING READY BEFORE 

 THE SEASON IS UPON US. 



fJlHE letter of Byron Walker, containing my tes- 

 timonial, with your comments on it, occa- 

 — sioned me some surprise. Had I known what 

 use Mr. Walker intended to make of my testimonial, 

 I am not sure that I would have given him permis- 

 sion to use it as I did. I supposed he wanted it for 

 his own circular, instead of publishing it in Glean- 

 ings. It is true, that I like his sections the best of 

 any that I have used, but it is too much to ask you 

 to publish a letter recommending another man's 



