1883 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



443 



There is one more objection I would men- 

 tion to leaving the frames without any cov- 

 ering. I never knew a bee-keeper yet, or at 

 least I do not think of any now, who did not 

 occasionally get careless, and then the whole 

 top would be built full of comb. Perhaps 

 you might say the honey would better be 

 stored in that shape than to be lost, so I will 

 not lay any great stress on this point. But 

 another trouble, and a worse one, is, that 

 these colonies will be left until the honey- 

 yield is over, then the bees will go up on the 

 cover to loaf, and great quantities of propo- 

 lis will be daubed all over the cover and 

 edge where it shuts down (for I presume, of 

 course, you will not keep the covers propped 

 open after the honey-yield is over), and then 

 the cover will always stick fast, making it 

 necessary to pry it up with a snap ; for it is 

 next to impossible to clean the propolis off 

 so as to prevent this, after it once gets well 

 coated. Eor these reasons I feel like saying 

 I never want any bees above the tops of the 

 frames, and certainly none where they can 

 be mashed when the cover is shut down. 



And now I hope, my dear friend L., you 

 will not think I am taking a liberty in dilf er- 

 ing with one so much older and so much 

 wiser than myself in all these matters. We 

 have, I trust, both of us thrown out the facts 

 and suggestions in our possession before this 

 great class of A B C scholars, and doiibtless 

 they will soon give us abundant facts in the 

 matter. 



HOW FAR BO BEES FI^Y I 



SOME INTERESTING AND VALUABLE FACTS IN THE 

 MATTEK. 



HAVE been much interested in the various ar- 

 ticles, headed "Ninety Miles an Hour," pub- 

 lished in Gleanings. One o( your correspond- 

 ents aptly says, "Arguing in regard to matters con- 

 cerning which our knowledge is incomplete, is very 

 apt to lead us into error." My knowledge is very 

 incomplete on this subject; but having hunted bees 

 considerably, and timed thousands of them, I should 

 think they Hew from 12 to 15 miles an hour when at 

 ordinary work. It is very easy to mark and time 

 bees when working at a box. Just take a little flour 

 and water, make a thin paste, take a spear of grass, 

 touch the end to the paste, step up to the box care- 

 fully, and touch the bee somewhere on the body. If 

 your paste is just right, you have a mark that will 

 last all day. W^hen he starts toward home, note the 

 time. When he returns, see how long he has been 

 gone. If he comes in less than ten minutes, you 

 ought to find the tree without moving. If he is gone 

 ten minutes, his home is about half a mile away; 

 15 minutes, one mile; 24 or 25 minutes, two miles; 30 

 minutes, 214 miles, which is, I think, the usual limit. 

 The furthest I remember to have had any work was 

 3J.i miles, and they were gone from 33 to 3fi minutes 

 on as fine a day in July as you ever saw. 



This rule is not invariable, nor do I know of any 

 4hat is, where bees are concerned. Some claim a 

 great deal of the time is spent in unloading; but 

 when your box is near the tree, a bee will go, un- 

 load, and return in iVi minutes; and occasionally, 

 but very seldom, in 3i4. Some claim that bees go sev- 

 en miles to gather stores; but judging from my ex- 



perience, that is one of the imaginary facts. Be- 

 cause you see bees seven or fifteen miles from 

 houses or trees, proves nothing about the distance 

 they came. I once found a swarm in a woodchuck 

 hole, within 40 rods of hollow trees. 

 East Freetown, Mass. C. E. Chace. 



DEVICE FOR PREVENTING BOTTOItt- 

 RARS FROM SAGGING. 



SOME SUGGESTIONS FROM FRIEND BLOCD. 



HI LE we want bottom-bars that can 

 not sag or bend down in the mid- 

 dle, we also want something that 

 is light, and occupies but Utile room. The 

 bottom-bar to a frame one inch in thick- 

 ness would be altogether too heavy and too 

 bulky ; and I believe most bee-men would 

 consider that one a half-inch in thickness 

 would be more than could be tolerated. 

 The bottom- bars to our frames are about 9-32 

 inch in thickness, and this answers very well, 

 providing it is supported in the middle by 

 the usual diagonal wire. This diagonal 

 wire, as you all know, is out of the question 

 in a wide frame to hold sections. Diagonals 

 have been suggested, to be attached to the 

 separators, but this supports only one edge, 

 and gives the sections a tendency to fall out 

 of the frames. We have but little trouble 

 about the sagging of bottom-bars to wide 

 frames, by making them of basswood (which 

 we find stiffer than pine), but friend Blood 

 proposes to stiffen them with folded tins. 

 We will let him tell it. 



For some time I have been expecting that you 

 would do something to prevent the s.igging of 

 the bottom - bar of the wide frames for honey- 

 boxes. We have been troubled with the sagging of 

 the bottom-bar in some cases to such an extent as 

 to press the boxes very much out of square. Our 

 remedy is as follows: run the frame over a thin 

 saw, allowing it to cut nearly through the bottom- 

 bar; then press into the S;iv\-kerf a strip of tin fold- 

 ed in this manner: 



We nail the ends only, and can scrape the bottom- 

 bar without trouble, if we want to; try it; and if you 

 like boxes kept true and square, you will use it, if it 

 does not suggest something better. 



Quincy, Mass. A. H. K. Blood. 



A BEGINNER'S TROUBLES. 



A VERY SAD (?) TROUBLE INDEED. 



MSI am a novice in bee-keeping, I am constantly 

 p^ meeting with difficulties. Here is one: Some 



' time ago I had an exceedingly large swarm. 



In fact, it almost filled my hive, and in a few dajs it 

 filled it with honey. Then great numbers of bees 

 clustered on the outside of the hive in front, and on 

 the shady side; so I nailed together a rough box, 

 and capped it. In four days of cloudy weather this 

 box was filled with comb. In a few days that were 



