242 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



of-the-way places, and are overlooked b'^cause most 

 persons look for a large hollow tree as the home of 

 the hunted swarm, and this accounts for the fact 

 that so many Ii'iliao queens are fertilized by black 

 drones, when it 3 supposed all the colonies within 

 two or three miK 3 are Italianized. 

 Andover, Mass. L. H. Sheldon. 



Many thanks for your last item, friend S. 

 I have often guessed about how far the bees 

 had to go in the way you indicate, but you 

 have almost reduced it to a science. 



A CIDEie-ItllLlL BUZZ-SAW. 



DO WE WANT A BELT ON A HAND-POWEK BUZZ SAW? 



SEE in March Gleanings, page 142, that H. H. 

 Lay wants a hand-ripper. Well, I have one, 

 only it is a cider-mill buzz-saw instead of a corn- 

 sheller; that is, I have the wheels of an old cider- 

 mill. I got a rod to fit the hole in the small cog- 

 wheel and the fly-wheel, and had two journals turn- 

 ed in it to suit a boxing I had. I then had a screw 

 cut on one end. I screwed one nut on, and turned it 

 true with a file; put on the saw, and another nut 

 against it. I have it so that, when turning with my 

 right hand, the saw turns toward me. The small 

 wheel turns three times to the large one once; fly- 

 wheel weighs 25 lbs. It is 13 inches between the saw 

 and fly-wheel, which does very well for ripping, but 

 would have to be further for a cross-cut. I have a 

 12-inch saw, but think a 10-inch would do much bet- 

 ter. I can saw my own se^rators, and flatter my- 

 self that they are nearl as good as yours. The saw 

 will cut 3?4 inches. A friend gave me the old cider- 

 mill, and the shaft that the saw is fastened to cost 

 me 95 cents — a good deal less than $50.00, and I 

 think it will do half as much work as a $50.00 ripper. 

 Tell friend Kingsley to throw his belt away and 

 fasten the saw to the shaft that the fly-wheel is on. 

 I have tried both ways. I make all my hives, sec- 

 tions, frames, and separators, and enjoy the work. 



J. W. Bradley. 

 Columbia, Mo., March 24, 1883. 



USING PAKAFFIINE WITH WAX, IN 

 MAKING FOUNDATION. 



CAN IT BE USED WITH WIRED FRAMES? 



ijyjP-N looking over Gleanings for 1S82, in the June 

 Jl[[ and July numbers I notice what is said about 

 paraflBne being used in wax. I Icnoio of a party 

 who made fdn. to sell last season, who began by put- 

 ting 5 per cent of parafflne with the wax; and before 

 the season was over, he was putting in 20 per cent, 

 and I used over 60 lbs. of the fdn. in my own apiary, 

 and the bees worked out that with the most parafline 

 in more readily than the other. I was not troubled 

 with sagging, but my frames are all wired, 6 wires to 



a Langstroth frame. I don't see why and 



others should " get their backs up" because paraf- 

 flne is used: it is certainly cleaner than wax, and 

 what difference does it make ic/iat we use for fdn., if 

 it works just as well as wax? What I knew of being 

 used last year was not used to save money, but be- 

 cause it made the wax work much nicer, and the 

 parafline cost the same as wax. 



If you want to use the above in Gleanings, leave 

 out the postolflce and my name; not on my account, 

 but it might possibly injure the manufacturer I 

 speak of, the same as was the tendency when you 



spoke of its use. It is not three years yet, I believe, 

 since I was told that a large manufacturer of fdn., 

 " not more than a thousand miles from Medina, O.," 

 bought a large quantity of parafflne in Toledo, per- 

 haps to be used in coating honey-barrels. I believe 

 you will come out ahead, if you stick to paralBne. 



As a general thing I dislike to publish 

 any thing without a full name and postofHce 

 address appended thereto; but for reasons 

 given above, I have decided to use this. If 

 I am correct, there is quite a difference in the 

 melting temperature in different brands of 

 parafflne. Some of it will almost melt by 

 the heat of the summer sun, while other lots 

 have the melting temperature almost as 

 high as wax. I can readily believe that this 

 latter could be added to beeswax in a quan- 

 tity a great as 20 per cent, and even more, 

 without detriment, for wired frames. We 

 purchased about a ton of parafflne several 

 years ago, but not a pound of it (aside from 

 my first experiments, which I have report- 

 ed), has ever been used for making fdn. We 

 use it for waxing barrels, and sell it to bee- 

 men for the same purpose. As wax is now 

 80 c. or more, and parafflne as low as 20 c. in 

 the quantity, it begins to be quite an object 

 to have some decisive experiments in regard 

 to the matter. Fdn. made with a small per 

 cent of parafflne is certainly worked by the 

 bees faster than that of pure wax. 



IJOES A S\% ARM EVER ISSUE AND GO 

 OFF WITHOUT CLUSTERING ? 



AN " OLD FOGY'S " NOTION ON THE SUGJECT. 



fSEE in your March No., p. 110, that Dr. S. S. But- 

 ler says he learned years ago that if the bees 

 — ' had room so that the whole of them could rush 

 out they would sometimes start for parts unknown 

 without clustering; and you, yes, you, friend R., in 

 response to that, say, " I now recall to mind a swarm 

 that went right out and off," etc. Now that beats 

 me; are you sure it was a natural swarm, and did 

 you actually see them go right out of the parent 

 hive, and off without ever clustering, or even saying 

 by your leave? 



Now, friend II., you must excuse my skepticism on 

 this point, for I have been acquainted with bees all 

 my life (and I'm not a chicken by any means), and 

 my father was a bee-keeper before me, under the 

 old brimstone dispensation, and I have never yet in 

 all my life seen a natural swarm come right out of 

 the parent hive and go off without clustering; nei- 

 ther have I seen a man or woman who would say for 

 certain that he or she had ever seen any thing of the 

 kind. I have often heard people say they had seen 

 swarms go off without " settling;" but when pinned 

 down to the facts in the case, they invariably ad- 

 mitted that they didn't see them come out of the 

 ''gum," but they were in the air when they first saw 

 them. I, too, can " recall to mind " a swarm some 

 45 or 50 years ago that went right out and off, and 

 the gun; didn't have a very big entrance either; but 

 they had swarmed, and we had hived them three or 

 four times in as many different hives, and they 

 would come out again and settle on a tree; but this 

 time they went right out and off, and they didn't 

 have their " new home " picked out either, for we 

 followed them about a mile, and they alighted on 

 the body of a tree that had no hole in it. We didn't 



