1883 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



531 



travel at the rate of 50 miles per hour; but I wish to 

 ask, Does the bee fly that fast, or does the wind do a 

 part of the work? There, have I not redeemed my 

 promise, friend Root? S. A. Shuck. 



Bryant, 111., Aug-., 1883. 



Friend S., I suppose I shall have to own 

 up that I read that account of the railroad 

 experiment at first, and took it for granted 

 that the bees were Hying outside of the car 

 when they went from the front to the rear. 

 I did not see my mistake until friend Doo- 

 little's article was in print, and I have been 

 a little ashamed of it ever since. I think I 

 won't decide any more whether bees can fly 

 90 miles an liour or not, until I see how 

 many facts are going to be brought out. At 

 anv rate, I feel like thanking you for the 

 able manner in which you have handled the 

 subject in this present article. 



BEE-NOTES BY FBIEND WILLI AITIS. 



GETTING BEES TO FIX UP BROKEN COMB HONEY. 

 BEE-KEEPING IN CENTRAL ILLINOIS. 



flHBRE are fifteen or twenty large bee-keepers 

 in this county. I mean men who make It a 

 business. Some thrifty farmers are into it, 

 and say their bees make them rcore money than 

 their farms. I keep only a few colonies, and have 

 for my object fun and not profit. 



CHAFF HIVES. 



I am making chaff hives for future use — using 

 chaff only around and under brood-chamber. In 

 fact, they are about the hive Langotroth describes 

 In Gleanings, except that the frames in super harg 

 crosswise. I used for outside walls, wagon - box 

 boards ($40.00 per 1000), and 3-)n. wainscoting, '-^^ in. 

 thick ($24.00 per 1000), inside walls. It works with no 

 waste at all. I use the Langstroth frame exclusive- 

 ly, below, above, summer, winter, yesterday, to-day, 

 and to-morrow. 



CYPRIANS. 



Weil, I should think they are prolific. If one 

 wants a " start," they have only to get a queen and 

 two or three bees, and set them up, and then run 

 for life. Can not friend Gray invent special ma- 

 chinery for making steel coats, or atmor, to be used 

 when we open a colony of these Cyprians? Several 

 of our best apiarians here prefer them to Italians. 

 If I have been up and lost sleep, and feel sluggish 

 and drowsy, I go out and open the C>prians, and I 

 am wide awake in three seconds. 

 smokers. 



"What would you think of a •' large and influential" 

 bee-man who never had nor wants a smoker? I am 

 trying to get him to chew tobacco, and then get him 

 to quit, so you can give him a smoker. 



INDUCING BEES TO FINISH UNSEALED COMBS AFT- 

 ER BASSWOOD AND CLOVEIt. 



I had a dozen or more frames, about half of which 

 were filled half way down, but uncapped. These I 

 took and cut the empty comb off, sawed off the low- 

 er half of the end-bars of the frames, tacked on bot- 

 tom-bare, which gave half the depth of L. frames, 

 and full of comb, unsealed. I filled a half-story full 

 of them and put it over a strong colony. They 

 could build no comb then for want of room. I hop- 

 ed to see them seal this white honey. Failure. I 

 took the other frames that were full of comb and 

 honey, and only partially capped, and put them all 



in one super, and placed it over a strong colony. 

 Failure. I then took them from the bee s a week, 

 left their Rupcr frameltss and empty, talked dis- 

 couragingly under their eaves of nights, and suns- 

 doleful soDgs about famine and idleness, then gave 

 them the combs back. Failure. I next, with con- 

 siderable trouble, hung the frames bottom side up, 

 bringing the unsealed mnrgins above. Failure. I 

 am in fine spirits yet, but the frames have been 

 carried around until they are about all worn out, 

 and the honey too. They both look now as if they 

 had come through the Revolutionary War, and my 

 wife says she would not eat it, if I was to get it seal- 

 ed in this century. Bees are at work now on Simp- 

 son plant and corn-tassels; can't you give us a pic- 

 lure of goldenrod in Gleanings, so we can see if we 

 all mean the same plant. A. C. Williams, M. D. 

 Hugo, 111., lug. 16, 1883. 



Friend W., if you manage to make your 

 bees pay, and have fun with them too, you 

 certainly ought to be satisfied. It is not 

 every one in this world who can make this 

 happy combination in his daily avocation. — 

 In regard to that tobacco matter, if you go 

 to trying to get people to chew, we will have 

 you advertised in the papers — see if we 

 don't.— No wonder you had a failure in try- 

 ing to get them to finish up comb honey. I 

 once cut out little squares, and then put 

 them into the hives to induce the bees to 

 clean up the drip and seal it all over, so as 

 to have JO-cent cakes of honey in the comb. 

 My experience was about like yovu's. By 

 feeding until you had the brood-nest cram- 

 med and bulged, you would have succeeded, 

 I think.— Goldenrod is already pictured in 

 the ABC book ; but there are so many 

 varieties you would hardly know it with a 

 great many pictures, unless you went into 

 botany a little. A dozen different golden- 

 rods may often be found by a single road- 

 side; and, if I am correct, there are some 

 forty or fifty varieties from which the bees 

 get honey. 



^ I ^ 



THE BEE-KEEPER'S SABBATH. 



BY REV. W. D. RALSTON. 



MOTICING something on this subject in Glean- 

 ings, I will give my experience. As I am the 

 pabtor of a church, of course I could not re- 

 main at home, and I would not wish any of my 

 family to absent themselves from church and Sab- 

 bath-school to look after my bees. This summer I 

 had a man, hired for two months in the busy season, 

 to help in the apiary. It was his custom to go home 

 on Saturday evening and return Monday morning; 

 and although he offered to remain in swarming- 

 time, and watch my bees while I went to church, I 

 declined his offer, feeling that my conscience would 

 not permit me to hire a man to stay away from 

 church to watch my bees. If any swarms came off 

 before I went to church I hived them; if any were 

 hanging nn the trees when I returned, I hived them 

 also; but if any came off while I was away, which 

 was from 10 a.m. until 1.30 p.m., and got tired of 

 hanging in the cluster, they were at liberty to go to 

 the woods. I can also say, that the thought of a 

 few swarms leaving for the woods has never 

 troubled me in the least. Along the edge of the 

 timber, and here and there through it, are poor men 



