GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JUKK 



AVe have no bee pasture here for three or four 

 weeks after the linden harvest, say from July 10th, to 

 Aug. 1st. What can I plant to have pastnrc for them? 

 What time should I sow rape, buckwheat or mustard ? 

 and what kind of mustard ? 



When in Cincinnati a few years ago, I saw some 

 weather strips with rubber edges about one-half inch 

 Wide. 'ITic edges were cut with a saw and the rubber 

 strips glued in. Would not that rubber be the very 

 thing to put around the edges of our division boards ;' 

 if so, where is it to be had, and what is the cost per 

 linear foot ? They would close np tight around Ihe 

 edges, adjust themselves to any irregularity of shape, 

 and would be movable. 



I sold all my honey long ago. I put it up in stone 

 jars of from one to six gallons, and sold it to consu- 

 mers direct. I wish I had a ton more. 1 tried a dozen 

 glass jars (Mason's) and 10 per cent commission, but 

 concluded I could sell it just as well myself. 



J. I. KiSEK, Adelphi, Iowa, Jan. 17th, 1S70. 



All the seeds mentioned may be sown almost 

 any time during Jnly to give a yield of honey 

 in Sept. If your yield fails in August, perhaps 

 it would be well to sow during the last of June. 

 Although we have on hand a quantity of Chi- 

 nese mustard seed that v/e imported at a con- 

 siderable exiiense, and would be glad to sell, 

 we must say that in our locality, the common 

 mustard that grows quite plentifully without 

 cultivation, seems to attract more bees, and 

 keeps longer in bloom than the Chinese. If 

 you can raise a crop of any of these, in such a 

 way as to make it pay cost aside from the hon- 

 ey crop, we advise you to go ahead ; but if you 

 rely on the honey alone as paying crop, we fear 

 you m(u/ be disappointed. Very likely the rub- 

 ber might be made to answer a good purpose, 

 but the folded tin answers so well as we have 

 it, besides preventing warping, that we ratlier 

 think we should prefer it. 



Allow me to enquire how late in the season you use 

 quilts ? or do you take them ofl' and use honey boards 

 during warm weather, or when boxes are used ? 



C. BiiTMAN, riymouth, Maine, May 3d, '76. 



We use quilts the year round of course ; they 

 are used in summer to keep the bees from 

 building combs or attaching propolis to the 

 cover, and that we may close the hive quickly 

 Without any danger of killing bees, as we are 

 almost sure to do with a honey board. When 

 we put on boxes of any kind, we place the 

 quilt over them so ;vs to close all the upper 

 openings. 



Sir : — I am in want of a good honey .slinger, I never saw 



but two ; one was from 1 liked it verj' much. 



The other I bought of a pedler. It is a square tin box, 

 and when I put it in motion you may guess how the 

 .square thing goes warppety jerk, teaching that a square 

 thing was never made to turn round. Old comb it jerked 

 the honey out of like chaff, but with new comb, it took 

 hone.y, comb and all ; I finished with it a monument that 

 I have built against the fence, out of worthless patent bee 

 hives. 



Please send the price of one of your extractors all 

 readj' for work and warranted to please or money to 

 be returned ; for I have finished my monument of pat- 

 ents. Samuel J. Pease, Bluff City, Illinois. 



Most certainly, -we will take back any ex- 

 tractor or anything else that does not suit. 

 But if anything is wrong you h?.d better state 

 the matter before going to the expense of re- 

 shipping. By all means consider the monu- 



ment completed, and let it stand as a warninic 

 against future extravagances. Our own al- 

 most reaches the top of an 8 foot fence, and we 

 are novv diligently feeding the kitchen stove 

 with it, while we make resolves to be very 

 careful about wasting any more time, labor, 

 money, lumber, tin, etc., in building any more- 

 such monuments. 



I have a friend— an old bee-keeptr— who has usually 

 succeeded very well with his bees. Liist winter ho 

 housed 25 hives in good condition ; they wintered well, 

 but when he put them out in the spring, about one- 

 half of them left their hives On the I'ith of the pres- 

 ent month it w<is so warm that he was obliged to put 

 his bees out again and one swarm took leave of ab- 

 sence in the same way. I have examined the hive, 

 the comb jj white and clean, with plenty of polleis 

 and honey, and everything appears to be all right to 

 make a good strong colony happy. Now will you give 

 US some information as to the cause of their leaving ;■ 

 And also what can we do to prevent it ? I am a new 

 beginner, last season being my first. I have my bees 

 out for the second time this winter, and I think they 

 will now stay out. One of them came near suffocating 

 before I put them out, but they are all right now. 



J. G. Sasboun, Detroit, Mich., Feb. 14th, '7(>. 



As we have said before, we can only consider 

 this one of the features of the new wintering, 

 or springing malady ; and if any one can give 

 us a remedy that has not l)een already tried 

 unsuccessfully, we would be very much 

 obliged indeed. 



I put 56 stocks of bees in cellar Nov. •27th, and on 

 April 7th, took out 52, Three seemed to have starved, 

 and one may have been oueenless. Mj'.t2 are all alive 

 at this time. I have succeeded better than usual, and 

 better than some of my neighbors who complain that 

 their bec;S consumed a large amount of honey and them 

 starved — supposed cause— the warm winter. 



L. Beckwith, Berlin, Wis., Apr. 22d, 'T(i. 



I had 56 colonies when winter commenced. I put 2«> 

 in a bee house built for that purpose, leaving 36 on 

 summer stands to try wintering without any shelter 

 to protect them. Ten of the 20 I put in the bee house 

 died from various causes. Three had lost their queens. 

 Two of them had, what I call a dysentery — daubed u|> 

 and chilled to death, one smothered, three in what are 

 ca'led "Common Sense hives'' died. I can't winter 

 bees in such a hive, in-doors or out. It does for sum- 

 mer, but is good for notliing for wintering, as far as 

 my experience goes. One got robbed after I set it out. 

 which makes the ten lost. The 36 left on summer 

 stands have come out all right so .far, strong and 

 hearty. I claim the kind of hive has something to do 

 with wintering well and coming out strong. What 

 say you Mr. Editor ? My hives arc all double ; having 

 two thicknesses, with a lop over all, roof fashion. 

 They will stand out any ndiere and need no covering. 

 I had one colony in tlie "Farmer's Friend" so called, 

 that died also. Lyman Legg. 



Rose, N. Y., May 1st, 1870. 



The qualities that tit a hive for wintGrinn; 

 bees, we think may be given to almost any 

 hive or box, and also that almost any hive or 

 box may be so arranged as to have the bees 

 die in them. It may be necessary to bore 

 holes in some of them, and it mail be a good 

 idea to surround them with chafl", but we cer- 

 tainly do not need to buy a right for so doing, 

 nor is it necessary to give them a higli souud- 

 ino- name. 



