GLEANINGS IN EEE CULTURE. 



lb'; 



■of the frames before th'.y are at wcrk in the 

 outside oi.cs ; this is especially the case v/heu 

 we "ive the new swarm a full set of empty 

 -jmb to start with. Whatever may be said 

 in regard to tlie folly of modern appliances, 

 and processes in bee-cultuit-, there can be no 

 question o.s to the utility of waichiii^'j and 

 ;rivin.i;: every facility for steady work of the ! 

 httle Insects during the honey months. Fur- \ 

 iiishing worker instead of drone comb, giving j 

 combs to new colonies, and furnishing the I 

 wax for eoiub honey, have proved already | 

 such immense helps, that one who attempts to 

 ignore these, simply makes himself ridiculous, 

 to say nothing of the folly of decrying tne use 

 of the extractor. 



li)l?i. — Honey is coming in some, but not 

 rapidly (-noHgli to keep up work in the sec- 

 tions. ViQ, in our eagerness to keep all the 

 bees in the liives, put on additional sections, un- 

 til we have some comb and little honey in a 

 great mauj"^, and but few that are well filled 

 {ind sealed over. Will frierd Doolittle tell us 

 what to do in such a predicament, or rather 

 how to avoid it in future ? We are not very 

 much worried, for we can take these unfilled 

 sections oil" while they are clean and white, 

 and thej' will be beautiful to put on during 

 nppic bloom next season. Somehow it seems 

 iis if our bee? collapsed in numbers all at once 

 about Jub/ iOth; at least they got dov/n out 

 ot the several stories of boxes, and crawled in 

 <ioors where they were resting on the outside, 

 and although we have liad very warm weath- 

 <-v since, they have not yet "resumed." We 

 Mipposuitis all because the yield of honey 

 •Kis so suddenly collapsed. We are just uow 

 thinking of filling up the house apiary with 

 the bees and stores contained in our 3ud and 

 'kl stories. They cettainly will need no feed- 

 ing, tor at presest it will ratiier bother the 

 young queens to find a place to lay. Is it not 



jolly" to have such an abundance of "pro- 

 vender" for the little chaps, without any both- 



riog with feeders';* It may be we are forget- 

 ting our sugar hobby, but if blanketing with 

 chaff will make natural stores good, what 

 does it matter y 



2(Uh. — Don't knov/ but we shall have to take 



back a little about the "collapsing." A sheet of 



vellow wax was put into the hive with the 



: hidaut queen, and they made it into pretty 



ir comb. In just one night. Dtiring the day 



rsterday, they stored honey in neariy half the 



•:11s. If the yellow wax were as pretty and 

 rirm to handle, and as nice to look at* as the 

 white, we do not know but we should give it 

 the pi'eference. It certainly can never be told 

 from the white after it has been in use a few 

 seasons as brood comb, and we imagine the 

 bees get it into shape with more rapidity than 

 they do the other. In very warm weather the 

 safest vvay is to fasten the sheets only at the 

 top, leaving % or ^-^ inch at the bottom and 

 end ; by this means we get combs as straight 

 as may may be desired. 



■ Iftl II Jul .'I III 



PATENT HIVE-S BSiE GC3MS, AN© THE 

 FI.OA'ifIi\<i APIAiiV. 



■ ~=]RrESD NOVICE:— The July No. of Gleanings 

 \' j'.i.?tr.t hand, and read wiih increasing interest. 

 '^ AUhoiiglilr.mSOycarsoi'age and use glasses, I 

 .iv (aslorgasycu givcgocd cuKiiity) I can stand the 



quantity cvtn if 'tis small tyi.c. 



• I feci like boring somebody and as you arc good na- 

 turcd I Villi send a screak of daylight through you. By 

 \vay or introduction, I will say that il" you wane to sec 

 Patent bee hive men of all descriptions, (both hives 

 and rceii) come to Texas. Every last one of them will 

 tell you tliat they are disgusted with bee papers and 

 lice Journals, charge the whole coi pa of Ed's, with 

 big-headism, etc. etc. and scarcly one of them can coi-- 

 rectly name a Journal. And tlia.t is what provokes me. 

 To see inielligent farmers gulled by these—what do 

 you call them:-' And the farmers are in a great mea- 

 ure 10 blame, fori cannot get tUeni to take a bee payer 

 10 inform themselves, 1 find a great many that would' 

 like to exchange box and log gum, for movable frames, 

 but when yoa wane them to cake a paper and study the 

 .subject ihc-y arc off. Ills true f can do some good In 

 my way, and expect to get credit for it some day but 

 it will be alter tiiey have paid "dear for thtir whistles." 

 One party informed me tliat SoO,(JOJ worth of rights had 

 been sold of the "reurfessee beehive" in Texas, fcsnce 

 last fall. 1 am Bacisfled that it is true, in fact the wife 

 of a bee-keeper in Dallas, told mo that her husband 

 boughc It, and sold some $8,000 worth of rights before 

 he knew enough of the hive to knosv that it was a nul- 

 sauc'j. Now he wishes his bees were out of it.{Qucry) 

 N\ iUliiieousioncelet him keep the property thai he 

 looli ioi a worthless article ? 



And now, Mr. Editor, I know what is the matter 

 with J. ilcd'loir. Tile man that wants a "Manual" 

 published, and yet viriuaiiy ignores all manuals and 

 puDlioaiioas on Bee Ctilcare, except "oau ray" that 

 its will shed on his b jx hive, which is not his, nor of 

 his origination. 



I had a call a few days ago from a Mr. Colvin, of 

 Mich., with a patent bo.K nive. I believe he is an 

 honest man. He says he has used movable comb 

 hives and extraosors, but has givca them all up, even 

 to transferring comb into his uew hive, claiming that 

 tha bees will build now comb faster in his hive, and 

 till it, sooner than by the trausferring method, in the 

 frame. As a test of sincerity he offareJ me one of his 

 hives, and to take as pay the aniouat of honey over 

 and above that made by any of my own hives. He ac- 

 knowledges that he has read Bee JouniaLs but little. 

 A few uumbeis each, of the B. K. JI. and A. B. J. 

 He adihits that 'tis iacoarenicnL under sotm cirouni- ' 

 stances to gee along without the frames, la fact, his 

 first iiive was for traaics, but it was -agia" his princi- 

 ples, and he gave it up. He claims 



ist. That the brood nest should never bs disturoed. 



•2d. That his sy.^itom of ventilation invariably drew 

 the bees up into the boxes, where they went to work 

 and were jist'Cr seen to cluster oa the outside of the 

 hive. 



iJd. That the bees neoer filled the brood chamber to 

 the exclusion of the queen, if certain, conditions were 

 observed at swarming time, which he fully explained. 



And this Mr. Colvia claims James Heddon as one of 

 his conve)'t3 ; and jirobably j'ou will get a description 

 of liis hive in Mr. H.-s next communication. 



Now, I am going lu test this matter, but I will make 

 a movable frame on the same piiuciplo, and give it a 

 full test, and report. 



Why, Novice, it will never do, after all our working 

 and talking for Italian bees, movable frame, txtractor, 

 &c., &c., to be placed on the back seat and be charged 

 with "bighcadism" and "old fogyism," by box hive 

 "progrcsavo honey makers." 



There may be something in the principle, and if 

 there is, I can utilize it without discarding the frames, 

 And I do not know why he did so, unless from the pe- 



