1883 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



389 



said I was foolish to plant trees for the benefit of 

 others; but laughing does not hurt me any. If we 

 sit down and wait for things to turn up, they will 

 never turn up; the world is too full of sitters and 

 laughers now. As friend Doolittle says, sitting 

 around saloons never accomplishos any thing. I am 

 on friend D.'s side there every time. 



STATISTICS. 



I wish to make a suggestion, which I think would 

 be of benefit to bee-keepers in making out stati-tics, 

 were they to give the coldest weather registered at 

 their respective places, as it then would be known 

 what they had to contend with in wintering. Jan- 

 uary 2Ist and 22d was our coldest — C° below zero. 



BUZZ-SAWS. 



About Christmas, after studying the engraving in 

 Gleanings, I concluded to build a power saw. I 

 ran it from a shaft running 33 revolutions per min- 

 ute, with pulleys to give 800 revolutions. It Is not 

 very stylish, but it is lightning "on the cut." I use 

 12-inch saws. I bought a second-hand mandrel, con- 

 nected boxes, at a bargain, and an old 16inch saw on 

 it at the time. I put it on the gi-indstone, cleaned it 

 up, took it to the saw-works, and had it cut down to 

 12 inches, and purchased a Simonds cut-off saw. No 

 foot-power saws for me. I have made all my hives, 

 frames, separators, and racks, and find it nice work 

 — that is, to get every thing as it ought to be. 



Will Ellis. 



St. David's, Ont., Can., May 14, 1883. 



SOFTENING THICK, OR CANDIED HONEY, BY STEAM, 



ETC. 



You say, on page 252, " Your plan for softening 

 honey by steam is hardly new." Well, i3 this your 

 conclusion, or can you give some one's experience? 

 Now, own up, as you did about the bees going right 

 off without clustering, or tell us all about it; and if 

 you know, why did you not tell us about it before? 

 Further: if you knew about it, why did you ask the 

 question. Does not the water from the condensation 

 of the steam dilute the honey so much as to make it 

 unsalable? We extracted only about COO lbs. last 

 spring in the way mentioned, and that was rather 

 thicker than it shouM be for market. When fairly 

 cool, nearly one-rourlh was candied in the bottom. 

 Most certainly, if we had wished to feed the honey, 

 we never should have extracted it ; neither would we 

 recommend others to extract. W. H. Balch. 



Oran. N. Y., May, 1883. 



But it so happens now, friend B., that I 

 was not mistaken about the bees going oif 

 without clustering, does it not V In the bacli 

 volumes of our journals, many plans have 

 been given for softening old thick honey, 

 that it might be extracted ; and I had an 

 impression that steam had been tried, but I 

 may be mistaken. It seems to me that wa- 

 ter added to honey, in any shape, would in- 

 jure the color and flavor, and it was my im- 

 pression that this was the objection urged 

 when the idea was suggested some time ago. 

 I can not now turn to the place where it was 

 discussed, hut perhaps some of our older 

 readers can. 



SMOKE FOR OETT^TG SWARMS OUT OF INCONVENIENT 

 PLACES. 



Mr. Benedict said: A good plan is to have a long 

 pole of pine or basswood, made so it can be spliced, 

 if not long enough, or with a groove to slide one in the 

 other, to lengthen it; have a strap of iron on one 



end to fasten rags or other material to make a heavy 

 smoke; if the bees alight in a high place, smoke 

 them until they are dislodged. They will almost in- 

 variably alight nearer the ground than their first 

 place of lodgement. It is best to apply the smoke 

 as soon as they begin to settle. Sometimes they 

 alight in the forks of a tree, and then it is necessary 

 to use a good deal of smoke. Have another pole with 

 a swarming-box attached, made with the sides bored 

 full of ;4 or ?i inch holes; put this box above the 

 bees, and if they do not run into it, smoke them in. 

 Mr. McCreary uses the pole and swarming-box. He 

 fastens two large pieces of comb on the pole, pour- 

 ing melted wax between them to fasten them to- 

 gether; he seldom uses smoke. He has tried Bene- 

 dict's plan, but likes the pole with comb attached 

 best; he did not cut a limb to get a swarm last year 

 at.swarming time. The pole he uses is made in sec- 

 tions, to slide up to lengthen the pole. 



Morrow Co. Bee-Keepers' Asso'n. 

 Cardingtou, O., May 11, 1883. 



apple-blossom honey. 



Pardon me for trespassing on your valuable time; 

 but are you not mistaken in regard to the honey 

 from apple-blossoms? On page 04 of A B C, you say, 

 "They are neither equal in quantity nor quality to 

 clover, basswood, and some others." Now, in this 

 localitj' they are better in quantity, and, it seems to 

 me, equal in quality. My best hive gave me 36 lbs. 

 in ten days; 4 or .5 of them very bad weather. A 

 friend of mine who has had a large experience says 

 he has known them to gather 10 to 15 lbs. per day, 

 which, considering the quantity of bees in a hive at 

 this season of the year, seems to me an immense 

 yield. The sample I send you was about one-fourth 

 sealed, and has been extracted 36 hours. 



Unionville, Conn., May 30, 1883. C. J. Sanford. 



I really beg your pardon, friend S., and 

 gladly change the statement made in the 

 A B C book. Your sample of honey is beau- 

 tifully clear, and has an unmistakable flavoi' 

 of apple-blossoms. If I were to decide, I 

 think I would give fully as much for it as 

 for clover or basswood. Since tasting of 

 your sample, I am reminded that I have oft- 

 en cut out luscious mouthfuls of apple-blos- 

 som honey, when the combs just began to 

 show it, and then it always seemed beauti- 

 ful ; but when we got out the extractor, and 

 took out a pailful or more, it seemed to be 

 dark and rank. It now looks as if other hon- 

 ey, possibly from dandelions or hickory, 

 rnight have been mixed with it. I now feel 

 enth usiastic over apple- blossom honey again, 

 and I should really like some of it bottled 

 and labeled, so we might let the great sweet- 

 loving public pass their judgment on it. 



making thin foundation. 

 Just tell the "brothers," as you call them, when 

 making thin fdn. into strips, just as the last end of 

 the strip is going through, to start another, so as to 

 let them lap a little, and there is no trouble to take 

 up the end as it comes through. You can make the 

 strips several yards in length this way, and cut in 

 two as you please. You will say, perhaps, the idea 

 is not new, and that some one has written about it 

 before, no doubt. At any rate, I am glad to have all 

 the little hints and helps suggested by others, 

 whether I can suggest any thing new or not; and I 



