108 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



EDITORGLEANINGS:— Asl said when I ordered 

 Glea^jings, that I would tdl you what success I had with 

 my bees, I will now do so. I commenced in the spring of 

 75 with colonies, increased to 18, (natural swarms) got 

 about 2C0 lbs surplus, 137 box and the balance extracted. 

 Sold one colony last June, and one left for the timber 

 which reduced me to IG. Left them on summer stand, 

 but discovered about the loth, of Jan. that -i of them 

 "Were dead ; and on examination, found that someone had 

 applied matches to three of them. The other had smoth- 

 ered ; cause— the bottom liars of frame were same width 

 as side bars, consequently hive got cloggetl about the en- 

 trance. My hive is made with a double wall by nailing 

 together strips of 1 inch square timber for the frame work. 

 For the inside I use thick paper; the outside is covered 

 with thin ceiling lumber, iorming a double wall, and as 

 there is no better nonconductor of heat than paper, this 

 makes a hive that bees can be wintered in as safely as in 

 a cellar, I think. Bees doing well now, though the weath- 

 er so far has been rather cold, frost showed quite plainly 

 on the morning of June -ind. I like your ijaper very well ; 

 it iust suits me , being made up of short letters from dif- 

 ferent cnes. I am an admirer of brevity ; being short 

 myself, short of money and friends, and very often com- 

 ing far short of my expectations. In May No. a question 

 is asked in regard to honey vinegar. One lb. of hoiiey 

 will make .3 gallons cf better vinegar than one can buy. 



H.A. Palmer. 3Iadora, Iowa. June 5th. 187C. 



Give my respects to our brother bee-keepers and 

 tell them to come up here and see an old sailor (a reg- 

 ular old "barnacle back") till the soil of his 8 acre 

 farm, use a jack-plane, or manage a colony of bees. 

 Fact, I believe I could give some of the "land lubbers" 

 hints in either, that would benefit them. 



Mr. Editor, this is the finest country in the world 

 (this Lafayette Co). Tell that Oskaloosa, Iowa, man, 

 page 34, Gleanings, to sow white clover in his or- 

 chard, there will be plenty of feed for his email pigs 

 and bees too. I have tried it, and have 6 lbs. of white 

 clover to sow in spring: in my orchard of 100 trees, set 

 out one year ago. Of course I cultivate with fork and 

 hoe arounil my trees : plough every second or third 

 year. Your ])igs will be fat in the fall, and only need 

 licavy feed for two or three weeks to make solid fiesh 

 for market. A. L. Davison. 



P. S.— I nearly forgot Mr. Editor, don't publish this 

 letter, or (mly what yon think would benefit your 

 subscribers. A. L. D. 



Aullville, Lafayette Co., Mo., Feb. 3d, -TG. 



G. M. Doolittle, page 128, is rather severe on my 

 queens. Perhaps if he were as well acquainted with 

 them as I am he might change his mind. They were 

 mothers of good colonies that gathered their full 

 share of honey, but the workers had that ))ecnliarity 

 of storing below to the exclusion of brood when honej' 

 came in rapidly. I have had several such in 

 years agone when trying to produce box honey, but it 

 is not often the case, when the hive above them is full 

 of empty comb. 



I congratulate you on your success. Sixteen hiind- 

 red subscribers! Did not think a Bee journal could 

 get half that. It is deserved, for if you can not tvinter 

 bees you can get up a good paper. A little more poet- 

 ry if you please, if you have any. Ifs good. 



I have 50, out of 5G colonies, and have fed over 000 

 lbs. of honey this spring. 



J. L. WoLEENBEN, Adams, Wis., June 4th, '7G. 

 Taking the trouble to extract houey tliat 

 must be fed back to them again in the spring, 

 is something we are most "rlecidedly opposed 



to; and if the hive will not hold enough to 

 carry them through tlie most unfavorable sea- 

 sou, we would advise making wider — our hoop 

 hive will hold 11 frames, which we think 

 would if well tilled, last any colony from June 

 of one year until June of the next, even if they 

 gathered nest to nathing — or taking out 

 lieavy combs to put back ; but tlte latter eveii 

 is so much trouble that we are afraid very 

 busy people might neglect to do it. So we 

 are hereafter going vehemently for a large 

 surplus of food to be left in tlie hive the year 

 round. We can certainly keep our bees from 

 starving, if we cannot obviate all the other 

 troubles. 



I bought a right of Mr. Isham and am very willing 

 to pay any one for the use of his invention if I want it. 

 I could make your corners with only the expense ol; 

 dies for I have all the other tools required. Now that 

 I have his right I can have boxes made here at a sa- 

 ving of about 30 per cent besides freight, which wa& 

 14 per cent more. 1 also learned, by using his, to 

 make a box from tin, (glass sides) which I prefer to 

 his ; it will cost less, and the glass can be readily re- 

 moved. I would be glad to pay §2,00 for Gleanings 

 if large print; I use specs. 



C. H. Getciiell, Memphis, Tenn., June .5th, ""(i. 

 We certainly admire your candor friend G., 

 but if we understand you, you have already 

 discovered that you can make something 

 better yourself, than the Isham box. In that 

 case a sample of the Isham box Avould have 

 been just as valuable to you as the "right." 

 We are quite content to leave the entire sub- 

 ject to tlie wisdom and good sense of our 

 readers ; but meanwhile, would again advise 

 beginners to be very cautious about investing 

 in patents, in any shape. Please send us a 

 sample of youK new box and we will pay all 

 expenses. We wish to see, and be able to 

 speak understandingly of all the houey pack- 

 ages in use. Make all the corners you wish 

 friend G., and if you can do good work at a 

 less price than we do, you witl benefit the peo- 

 ple at large, if we do lose a little. There is 

 plenty of work for all, and the field is so broad, 

 that no one need feel crowded. 



I improvised a queen nursery that has given good 

 satisfaction, out of two wasii boilers, one larger than 

 the other, bought at a sale for 15 cents, 5 cents, for 

 solder to stop the holes, is the cost. Mounted on the 

 open end of a tall box in tlie smoke house, it liatched 

 out viuecns and bees to a nicety even if put in as soon 

 as capped over. My bees are in splendid condition 

 and the prospect for white clover never was bettor. 

 By the time the extractor gets here I shall prob- 

 ably have plenty of use for it. I have kept my bees 

 buibliug combs all through fruit blossoms and they 

 liavo done well. Besides the worker combs wliioh 

 they have built — which I left in the hives — I have a 

 three bushel box full of be.iutiful white drone comb 

 to cut up and put into boxes, and I am going to try 

 and be in readiness for all the honey they can gather. 

 They are going to swarm in si>ite of all I can do in the 

 way of giving them room I fear, but let them swarm. 

 I'll make them useful. 



Chas. H. Rue, Manalapan, N. J., May ^Oth, '7G. 



Eees are doing well, only I can't keep them from swarni- 

 ins. They are gathering honey rapidly. 



A. J. Weidner, Bigler, Pa., June Dth, "G. 



