336 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



Wb have 5627 subscribers this 28th day of May, 1883. 



Wax is now getting to be so plentiful that we can 

 pay only 34 cts. cash, or 36 in trade. 



ITntil further notice, we shall pay 90 cts. for un- 

 tested queens, and sell them for $1.25, 



Our pay-roll Saturday night, for the week ending 

 May 25, was $761.50. You see, friend?, there are a 

 few of us, at least, at work filling your orders. 



Trade is still booming, but not quite as brisk as 

 when the Juvenile for May was sent out. We shall 

 doubtless be ahead on all orders in a few days more. 

 We can always send fdn. at once when so wanted, 

 and so we can, as a general thing, regular goods of 

 almost any kind; but it i^ just about all we can do to 

 keep them in stock, wi.liout undertaking to make 

 odd-sized sections, frames, etc. 



We are sorry to hear that the bee-hive factory of 

 Adam Miller & Son has been recently destroyed by 

 fire. They are, however, about starting up again, 

 or are doubtless started up before this. I have not 

 yet learned whether they were insured or not. Look 

 out for fires, friends, and keep insured. Don't go 

 into any business, or have your worK in any sort of 

 a building, that won't admit of insurance. This is a 

 duty you owe your fellow-men who patronize you, 

 as well as yourself. 



Please don't make long, expensive trips for your 

 goods, friends, until you have had some intimation 

 that they have been shipped. A friend has just 

 written us that he has been 2-t miles after his goods, 

 three times, and yet he ordered them only a week 

 ago. I am very sorry indeed to hear of such disap- 

 pointments, but it seems to me our friend was a lit- 

 tle thoughtless. After you have been informed that 

 the goods have been shipped, it is quite soon enough 

 to go after them. 



As many bee-keepers are moving to Florida, and 

 many more contemplate trips there, it may be well to 

 consider the desirableness of such a plan. The most 

 I should fear would be the point in the sermon we 

 have this month in Home Papers — that a climate 

 that would furnish every thing with so little labor 

 would ultimately tend to cripple one's best powers 

 and energies. How is it, friends? Can we afford to 

 dispense with the frosts and snows cf the North? I, 

 for one, don't believe I can. 



We are very glad indeed to call attention to the 

 low prices at which bees are offered by the pound by 

 some of our advertisers. This would be an especial 

 favor to those who have lost bees heavily, because 

 they can, at a small expense, populate again their 

 deserted hives. I presume they will very soon sell 

 all they have to spare. With the great number of 

 losses that have been reported during the months of 

 April and May, there will probably be a large de- 

 mand for bees by the pound, and low prices will be 

 a kindness to those wanting. 



mildewed sections, and what to do with them. 

 During the excessive damp weather, there is more 

 than usual tendency for sections to mold or mildew, 

 especially if the lumber is not fully seasoned, and to 

 have the sections fold nicely the lumber bhould not 

 be too dry. Well, now, friends, do not be in haste to 

 pronounce them worthless, even if they do look 



awful. Fold them up and stack them in a heap un- 

 til thoroughly dry, and you will see them, usually, 

 turn white again; but if they do not, tack a sheet of 

 sandpaper on a table, get some cheap help, and sand- 

 paper them off. It is not a long job, after you get at 

 it; and if the sections are some you got of us, I will 

 pay for fixing them up. There is something queer 

 about the way basswood will "sweat" in damp 

 Aveather. 



Careless and heedless people make a world of 

 trouble; but in no place do they make more trouble, 

 perhaps, than in an express or freight office. Imag- 

 ine one who is needing goods badly, say supplies for 

 his apiary at the lime when the honey is coming in, 

 being told that no goods had come for him, and it 

 afterward proves that they were in the office all the 

 while, in some out-of-the-way place, forgotten ! Here 

 is a little item that a friend just sent us: - 



I have received my goods. The a<rent hei-e had them in his 

 oHiee. I went und asked him for tlieni, nml he said they were 

 not tliere; but wlien you hunted f liem over the line [ Ua<l him 

 " penned up." Tlien lie looVced and found tlieni. 



Coving-ton, O., May 21, 1883. J. N. F. Shellab.\rgeR. 



extra combs ULLED with old nONEY. 



Quite a number arc asking now what they shall 

 do with such. Put bees on them, by all means. If 

 you can give a new swarm combs filled, or partly 

 filled, with honey, you can get them into the boxes 

 just so much quicker. After they get well to work 

 in the boxes, and find the honey in the way, they 

 will of ten uncap it, and move it into the sections 

 above. They will be getting your old honey into 

 new sections and into new combs. Of course, I 

 would not want to do this unless the old honey were 

 a good article. I would ncv^r think of extracting 

 the honey in eld combs, unl ^s I »ranted extracted 

 honey. If you don't need them all now, use them 

 later in the season for building up colonies. Where 

 one wants to raise more bees, they arc the nicest 

 things in the world to do it with. 



THE INTliUVAL BETWEEN FRUIT - BLOSSOMS AND 

 CLOVER. 



The bees with us are just commencing on the 

 fruit-bloom. This is, perhaps, the case with many 

 of you. Of course, there is no danger of robbing 

 now, nor is there any danger of the bees starving, 

 unless very bad, stormy weather shoufd ensue. 

 But when the fruit-bloom is over, then look out. 

 Colonies heavy with brood will need many pounds of 

 stores to carry them through until clover blooms; 

 and if they have not a bountiful supply of stores, be 

 sure they are ftd. Keep egg-laying and brood- 

 rearing going right along at a galloping rate, and 

 don't mind the cost of sugar. Any thing will do to 

 feed now. Cheap maple sugar, brown sugar, wet 

 with water, or even grape sugar; but I would not 

 give them any more than they will need to take them 

 through until clover. Sometimes locust - bloom 

 comes in and fills up this gap. Keep a careful 

 watch of the plants and flowers, and stop just as 

 soon as the bees can get natural stores. But what- 

 ever you do, don't let them starve for lack of food 

 during this, perhaps the most critical point, during 

 the wh^le year. 



DELAYS IN RECEIVING GOODS. 



It may be worth while to tell our bee-friends a 

 little how mercantile men do in lines of goods that 

 are in great demand, to avoid delays. It is simply 

 this: They send an order to the factory six months 

 ahead, or a year, Ijefore the goods are wanted, apd 



