1870 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



157 



OUT-I>OOR \fINTEKING, MICE, ETC. 



f WINTERED 5i out of 58 swarms ; they are in sood 

 condition. One of them sent out a swarm with a vir- 

 ' gin queen a week ago ; 1 examined them to-day and 

 found the queen had just commenced laying. The old 

 stock also has a laying queen and three queen cells start- 

 ed ; two, containing small larva^ and one sealed over. 

 They are Italians and I should think, a little foolish. I 

 have another stock on which I left a set of partly filled 

 honey boxes all winter, and to-day I noticed that they 

 were putting honey in the old combs. Drones are out 

 from nearly all the hives. 



I use the Lansrstroth hive with roof not fastened to the 

 cap, and winter thus : get your stocks strong in young 

 bees and honey, put on the quilts, till the caps with fine 

 dry straw, leaving the roofs V inch above the caps. Place 

 a weight on them to prevent their being blown off, fix the 

 entrance s ) that mice can not get in, then give them a 

 thorough letting alone. S. H. Hough. 



Rootstown, Ohio, May 17th, 1870. 



Although the saving of 54 out of 58 is noth- 

 ing unusual, it is quite unusual to get swarms 

 as early as May 10th, in this vicinity ; and we 

 are much inclined to give, at least a part of 

 the credit, to the strtiw covering. It seems 

 the yield from fruit blossoms has been quite 

 unusual, and reports to that effect were receiv- 

 ed all the way up from the southern states. 

 It is pleasing to note how a flow of honey 

 gradually creeps northward ; and so invaria- 

 bly does it come, that we have learned to 

 expect it as a matter of course. Today — .June 

 3nd — we are told tlie clover yield in Cin. was 

 never better ; tberefore we understand that we 

 are to be prepared for it here in about 10 days. 



We have never until this season, realized 

 the importance of having hives mice proof; 

 but after the number of combs that have been 

 cut to dust besides the honey consumed, we 

 have determined hereafter to have all en- 

 trances so that however much they may be 

 enlarged, no mouse can ever get in. If the 

 bees have as great an antipathy as we, to the 

 peculiar oder that the mice leave, they will 

 certainly thanlc us for making the entrances a 

 little more exclusive. The old Langstroth 

 hives as usually made, allow them to go in at 

 will during the winter, and it is these that 

 give us most trouble. The entrances to the 

 Simplicity and hoop hive, have always exclud- 

 ed mice so far, and if the matter is borne in 

 mind when hives are made, they can easily be 

 kept out. The complaint has been a very gen- 

 eral one, owing we suppose, to the warm win- 

 ter. If the entrance slot in the L. hive, and 

 all others, be made not to exceed % of an inch, 

 if we are correct, mice will never gptin. 



OUR 18 \EAR OTLS9 BEE-KEEPER. 



I 



HAVE springrcd my bses accordini7 to the plan re3- 

 ommended by G. M. Doolittle, I think, and it worked 

 ^^^^ )ucely vmtil honey began to come in fast, when the 

 bees would fill the empty combs I put in, with honey, 

 before the queen could fill them with eggs ; but having an 

 extractor I fixed them and got a nice lot of apple honey. 

 Th&re are drones nearly ready to hatch. I swarmed our 

 grape vines {a la Novice) and have a nice lot arranged 

 hexaiionally. What I wanted to know in the May No., 

 was how a mnd-mill was made to turn a7iy machine. I 

 should think if a balance wheel were used, it might stop 

 on the center and consequently break somethmg. 



I had one objection to Italian bees, viz., when fed with 

 syrup, if they can get into it, some of them are sure to 

 drown ; while black bees are afraid of getting their feet 

 wet. But dry sugar works all right. I want to try the 

 comb foundations but don't want to \)ay as much for them 

 as the combs will be worth when built. I will send you a. 

 block and punch ,for ]iutting frames together, such as I 

 use. I made the patterns, took them to the foundry and 

 got some made. 



I will subscribe to what is said under the head of §1,00 



queens, having a daughter of an imported queen whose 



workers all show three yellow bands; they don't have 



to be podded out with honey either, and four bands can 



be distinctly seen on some of them when they are filled. 



I have the eggs already laid for the first lot of cells, and 



expect to have laying queens by the middle of June. 



Lloyd Z. .Ioxes. 

 Galva, Henry Co., Ills., May 23d, '76. 



There are two kinds of wind-mills, friend J. ; 

 those arranged for power, and those for pump- 

 ing. The former have no cranks at all, and 

 we fear it would be somewliat difficult to ap- 

 jily the power to buzz saws, if the mill is built 

 for pumping. We think you are right about 

 Italians getting into honey or syrup; our 

 neighbors speak of feeding in a pan or box, 

 witli only grass or shavings for a float, but 

 our bees die in cousiderable numbers when fed 

 thu?. Many thanks for the new block and 

 punch for putting on corners; but although 

 they do the work perhaps a trifle quicker, the 

 having extra implements to handle, we think 

 more than counterbalances the advantage ; at 

 least tliat was the Tlecision in the work shop. 

 Very glad indeed that you too have found the 

 $1.00 queens a good investment. 



SO MAIVY NEW THINGS. 



M'OW you have gone and done it again ! Got up a 

 hive that is better than all before. But you tell us 



' ^ not to buy vinless our bees have earned the money. 

 So far all right, but is it right to just keep templing us 

 ^oor/e/?o !(,•.« with ^qx^qWAw^ just a leetle hetter all the 

 time, so that there is nothing left for the Blue Eyes, even 

 if we do make the bees pay far all the traps your ingeni- 

 ous brain can invent ? 



Notwithstanding all the rain last season, our bees man- 

 aged to get a little buckwheat honey (extracted) to sjiare. 

 It all sold for from IS.'i to '20 cts. per lb., and after payuig 

 for those frames, there is a little left. As I want to see all 

 these new traps find enclosed, etc., * * * 



J. .1. WniTSox. 



Valley Mills, Marion Co., Ind., Feb. 9th, '76. 



We are very sony indeed to have made .so 

 many changes, but the latter can hardly be 

 called a change, as it was only a compromise 

 with the styles of fram.es already in use, and 

 as they cannot be merged into one, we have 

 tried to have the exterior case or shell, made 

 one and the same thing for all of them. The 

 result to be attained, and in fact that has been 

 attained, is that all of the G diflerent frames 

 can be put into the same shell, have the same 

 cover, the same quilt, the same bottom board, 

 the same entrance, the same surplus boxes, 

 and in fact the same hive except the frames. 

 Now if all could agree on this outer shell or 

 case, we might go to work unitedly to improve 

 and even beautify it. If the united talent of 

 our beekeepers could be concentrated on one 

 hive, we ousht to get up something pretty 

 near perfection. Now to thus work together, 



