1883 



GLiJAijINGS m BEE CULTUBE. 



707 



it is an easy matter to make the shovel end 

 square, so it will tit the bottom-board, and 

 with a file and grindstone it may be made 

 sharp. As the price is so insignificant, and 

 it is a nice little shovel with a good con- 

 venient handle, it is certainly an ingenious 

 and valuable idea. — The improvement for 

 the Parker machine is made by excavating 

 a little trough, filled with starch or honey, 

 in the lower block of the machine. It is cut 

 in at the right spot, so that when the lever is 

 drawn back the corner cau be easily dipped 

 down in the lubricating material. It seems 

 to me quite an acquisition . — The cheaper way 

 of making the Hill device is indeed wonder- 

 ful ; but after friend H. explains how he 

 does it, I am sure it can be done easily, and 

 I do not know why the Hill device is not 

 just as good as those we get out with circu- 

 lar saws. It might get jammed out of shape 

 by careless bee-keepers, it is true ; but bee- 

 keepers have no business to be careless. — His 

 frame is wired by simply running the wires 

 diagonally up and down, back and forth, and 

 the arrangement will no doubt answer nicely 

 to keep the fdn. from sagging ; but it does 

 not prevent the top and bottom bar from 

 sagging, as our method of work does. — The 

 section with the drone fdn. in it partly work- 

 ed out, demonstrates pretty conclusively that 

 drone comb is not the thing for comb honey, 

 when the yield is moderate. The bees have 

 really made worker comb on drone fdn., but 

 they must have done it at quite an expense, 

 both of labor and material. I think here- 

 after we shall send no drone comb for start- 

 ers, unless it is specially ordered. — Many 

 thanks, friend E., for the valuable hints giv- 

 en ; and especially for the important facts 

 you give us in this matter of drone or work- 

 er fdn. for section boxes. 



SOiflE ITEmS FROM FRI£ND ITIICHENER 



HOLY-IiANDS CROSSED WITH ITALIANS. 



SENT out my last queen for the season to-day. 

 Queens all sold, orders all filled, nuclei all unit- 

 ed. We have been very successful sending out 

 queens this fall. After the weather gets cool we 

 put in from 20 to 25 bees ; use nothing but candy ; 

 sent one safely to H. F. Hunt, Quebec City, a short 

 time ago. We go into winter with 58 colonies, un- 

 less we sell a few more. Will winter half in chaflf 

 hives and half in cellar. We did not make holes 

 through the combs this fall, as those that had none 

 last winter wintered as well as those that had; and 

 In place of sticks of wood over the frames, we are 

 going to use sticks of candy — not that they are 

 short of stores, but just to save their stores a little, 

 and the candy will absorb the moisture, which will 

 soften the candy so the bees can use it. There you 

 have got the secret. Bees can be wintered with 

 very little honey this way in a good cellar or good 

 chaff hive (mine are just like yours, only I use 

 shingles for covers) with a small amount of candy 

 at a time laid over the frames. Loaf sugar cut into 

 squares as we buy it is just as good as candy. We 

 can place the candy in the shape of a Hill's device, 

 you see. 



This has not been a very good season for honey on 

 this Niagara peninsula, at least near Lake Erie, al- 

 though our best Holy-Land stock (we think the 



queen was mated with an Italian drone) filled every 

 section in the upper story of a Langstroth chaff 

 hive, although a few were not capped nice enough 

 to sell. I agree with friend D. A. Jones, that "Holy- 

 Land bees and their crosses" are the best. They 

 will gather more honey; they are quite nice to han- 

 dle, if managed right, and in cool weather they will 

 scarcely stir off their combs, while hybrids and some 

 Ititlians are perfect furies in cool weather. Neither 

 will they leave their hive to chase their enemies on 

 such slight provocation as other bees will; and 

 while they remain spread out over their combs when 

 lifted out of the hives, they can be shaken off, al' 

 most every bee. 



THE HONEY-PEAS. 



The Southern cow-peas, sent me by W. H. Greer 

 and Dr. T. J. Happel, way down in Tennessee, did 

 not produce many peas, or blossoms either, and the 

 bees did not work on tbem at all. They grew well, 

 but I suppose the weather was too cool for them to 

 come to perfection. The small amount of Russian- 

 sunflower seed you sent me in a sealed envelope pro- 

 duced two bushels of seed, but the flowers produced 

 no honey. It is a sort of gum, or propolis, the bees 

 gather from them here. Ila Michener. 



Low Banks, Ontario, Can., Oct. 29, 1883. 



FIXING THE BEES FOR liVINTER, ETC. 



ITALIANS AND HYBRIDS. 



^pk5»0W that the bees have been idle for a number 

 Jjfv| of weeks, and as another long winter is near 

 at hand, I can not but feel a love for them. I 

 started with 11 swarms last spring; have made 13 

 nuclei, and raised 34 queens with best of success. I 

 have taken 200 lbs. exirdctd and 100 of box honey; 

 and if I had raised no extra queens, I could have 

 taken 200 more, I think. My main success depends 

 upon laying queens at all times, and fdn. I doubled 

 my nuclei down (which were all strong in bees), and 

 now have 34 stocks in fine condition. 



I like a woolen cloth next the frames, or rack, 

 best; but in its absence I use burlap, and a few 

 sheets of newspaper on this. I know some doubt 

 the idea of paper, on the grounds that the moisture 

 will not pass up through; but last winter's experi- 

 ment satisfies me that it does; and the stock with an 

 old burlap that was perfectly gummed over, with 3 

 heavy woolen cloths, and good full fine chaff cush- 

 ions, all on came out the very best. The next best 

 had 3 sheets nf paper and cushion; the one that died 

 first had one thin woolen cloth, and top story % full 

 of chaff; and the ones that were covered first by 

 snow came out the best and strongest. 



HYBRIDS FOR HONEY. 



There are as many ideas as to wintering as there 

 are different bees. W. Z. Hutchinson has tipped the 

 balance in favor of hybrids. Girrard, of Aroostook, 

 had the Italians, but sent them 10 miles away so as 

 not to mix his blacks, for he said all they would do 

 was to swarm, and give him no honey. He truly 

 had a big show of box honey at our State fair this 

 fall. Many like the Italians because they stick to 

 the combs so nicely, and so they do; and when we 

 extract, don't they stick too? I can extract 2 hives 

 of hybrids to one Italian, and not spread them about 

 the hive half as much as the Italians, and they will 

 do double the box work of Italians; and when I 

 work at extracting all day, from nearly all hybrids, 

 and get but one sting, I don't think they are so very 



