1883 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



601 



mon stovepipes extending from a stove outside into 

 and through the barns, and they gradually made the 

 pipes larger and larger, and built a furnace outside 

 to increase the heat and smoke. Well, a Mr. Jack 

 Milner got up a sketch and model of what the 

 planters had been using, hurried to Washington, 

 paid the fees, and got letters patent for curing to- 

 bacco with sheet-iron dues (big stove-pipes), extend- 

 ing from a furnace outside, into and over the floors 

 of the barn, etc. He came home and brought suit 

 against everj'' man who made big stove-pipes to cure 

 tobacco, and thitatened to sue every man who used 

 them and refused to pay him a royalty for barn- 

 right. A year ago the cases were tried before 

 District Judge Robert W. Hughes, sitting as a 

 Circuit Court. After but little testimony, and much 

 speaking. Judge Hughes instructed the jury to the 

 effect of turning Millner out of court, after wiping 

 his face with the coarse rough towel of costs. I hold 

 myself bound with all those bee-keepers whose par- 

 amount rights you are guarding, and propose to 

 defend; to pay my pro-rata share of all costs in- 

 curred in resisting Forncrook, Flick, or any other 

 frauds, in their attempts to levy black-mail upon 

 our fraternity. 



HIVING-BOXES, AND BASKETS. 



Friend R , I have no use for a hiving -box, basket, 

 or even apron, though Miss Cyula Linswik's hiving- 

 apron is unique. I take the hive filled with ten 

 frames of comb, or fdn. ; and if the cluster is low 

 (and all my trees, nearly, are low), I put it on a table 

 and block it up with extra covers, etc., until I can 

 bend the limb so that the bottom of cluster will 

 touch the frames, and shake hard once; the queen 

 nearly always falls with the cluster on the frames or 

 into the hive. I wait a few minutes, shake any bees 

 that may re-cluster, brush all the bees around the 

 edges of hives on to the frames, and put on the 

 cover, and shade if necessary. In half an hour I re- 

 move it to where it is to stand. If the cluster is 

 rather too high for a table, and not high enough for 

 climbing and sawing, I take my folding ladder, hav- 

 ing top-board wide and long enough to hold an L. 

 hive, and, spreading the legs, I fix the hive, and, 

 by bringing the legs together, raise the hive under 

 the cluster; even when I saw off a limb I carry the 

 cluster and shake the bees down on the open frames. 

 I rarely have a swarm to come out, if the hive is 

 cool and otherwise in order. Alec forgot one last 

 July, and left the bees exposed to the hot sun for 

 several hours. Of course, they sought a cooler place. 



Danville, Va., Sept. 11, 1883. L. M. Shdmaker. 



I am sure, friend S., I am much obliged 

 for your very kind words, althougti I did not 

 mean to say that you did not know enough 

 to go to Florida. — In regard to your help in 

 the apiary, you have surely done well ; for 

 not only have you done a kind thing for the 

 friend you speak of, but you have uncon- 

 sciously taken your first lesson in teaching 

 pupils bee culture. If you can teach an old 

 darkey (begging our old friend's pardon), 

 you will surely succeed in teaching a bright, 

 intelligent boy or girl. And now, friend S., 

 go on . Do not let your light cease shining. 

 — I am very sorry that any of our sections 

 were made so loose they did not hold. Tell 

 us what it cost to fix them, and we will pay 

 you. — In regard to your manner of putting 

 in starters, I thank you for the suggestion of 

 a try-square. I think the blade of a try- 



square would answer nicely in rubbing in 

 starters.— Wire instead of twine has been 

 suggested in making wooden mats. The ob- 

 jections are, that the mat would be so stiff 

 it would not lie down anywhere, unless ex- 

 tremely line wire were used. In that case, 

 the repeated bending would be quite sure to 

 break it.— Thank you for your kind words in 

 regard to the patent- section business.— Your 

 plan of using a hive filled with combs for a 

 hiving-box is not quite new ; but for all that 

 it may be liked by many. I should say they 

 are too heavy and unwieldy, compared with 

 a basket or box. 



NOTES FROJ?I OROVESIDE APIARY. 



NEED OF AN EXTRACTOR, ETC. 



fHAVE to-day completed an examination of my 

 twenty colonies of bees. I found them strong i 

 ' and apparently healthy, with an excess of hon- 

 ey in the brood-combs, but not so well stocked with 

 eggs and brood as I should like to have found. 

 Some of the swarms that were cast the latter part 

 of June have fifteen American frames that contain 

 an aggregate of 60 lbs. of nicely capped comb honey, 

 by actual weight. Perhaps it may be asked, why I 

 did not extract, or put on supers, and obtain some 

 of the surplus in boxes. Until the present season I 

 have not felt the need of an extractor, and delayed 

 procuring one; but, if Apis and myself do not dis- 

 solve partnership, ere another season we shall pro- 

 cure one, probably. 



Supers were put on. As soon as the swarms had 

 drawn out the foundation supplied th.m at hiving, 

 and stocked it wiih eggs, brood, ana honey, sections 

 were put on and occupied in force; but the occupa- 

 tion was of short continuance, as the cold stormy 

 weather that soon followed retarded the flow of 

 nectar, and the bees sought a more congenial at- 

 mosphere in the brood-chamber, where they have 

 remained most of the time since. The racks, in- 

 stead of containing sections of nicely capped comb 

 honey, have only sections from Ji to % full of clean 

 white comb as evidence of what might have been 

 done had "good corn weather" prevailed in its 

 season. 



EXCESS OF POLLEN. 



After cold and wet, came cold and dry, and the 

 storing of pollen appears to have been in order, the 

 lower third of some of the combs being a complete 

 mass of it. Should I conform to the monitions of 

 those of greater experience than myself, I should 

 remove this superabundance of pollen from my 

 hives; but as I have not done so heretofore, I have 

 concluded to let it remain, not considering it detri- 

 mental to the health of bees, unless it becomes de- 

 composed by age or improper conditions inside of 

 the hive. I have not as yet observed any dysentery 

 among my bees, and do not believe that " sound " 

 pollen will produce it; but I do believe that decom- 

 posed pollen (when eaten by bees after their diges- 

 tive and assimilating organs have become debilitat- 

 ed by a protracted winter's confinement in a cold 

 damp atmosphere) will aid in its development. 



VENTILATING FOR COMB HONEY. 



My experience this season and the one preceding 

 has not been favorable to the acceptance of a blank 

 space above the brood-frames, as delineated in 



