t«Tt) 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



191 



From Diff'ereut Fieltlis. 



¥'OIT sent me last .year, twoctf yjour ljone,y knives, smd 

 I promised, to give xay opmion oi them. In light- 



— ■ ness and tijiish they are j>ro. i. I have u^ed one of 

 ithein, s'.nd find that .it work*: excellently, wrhen kept verii 

 ishar]). I formeriy Itad to stand beside a warm stove 

 ((usia.t; hot water, and t'An big, <?!umsy knives) in a bee 

 tii lit room all the loni^ summer day, and it vwas no ssnaH 

 .^ob to frovide ali t&e fiiewood Jiecessary. It is quite a, 

 tolessiug to do w.ithout tliis. .But I hare one obiiectian to 

 <V0ur knife. It ought to have a very slialit curve. Now 

 <lon't tell us, that tlie com-b ougilit to he straii.irht, and 

 ■should project just SK) K-tuch outside the iframe. We know 

 all about that ; but tiie 'Comb iem't always, as it ougfct to 

 toe, and it takes time and work to get it nght. Howe»^er, 

 whether the coniib is -straigtit, bulging or hollow, I prefer 

 ra slight eurve to tiie knife, say, iviih a, radius of fotr/!- 

 feef, at'i as fihere caay be others of the same opinion as L, 

 j)lease teLl«sin-next GtEANixos, how— if it is possible— 

 to get the knife be:it without injuring it. If it^an not be 

 ■done to a finished knife, I should like to have n curved 

 one inttde. 



.1 aiTi raising mostly ccmb ■honey tliss year, butiiave'C&n- 

 -.^titnt use for the honey krJie in tiimmicg comb. I have 

 .■1 Freiich ■carving knife, thti blade of which is as iong as 

 •the depth of my hive, which I tind of excellent «se ior 

 iioosening irames, trimming oil bits of comb inside hive, 

 ,und for ■majiy other pu^-poses. 



W. IM.CTH-E,ASM.USSE.l>r. 



Jit* j^rjreies, Cai., Jmie 27tb, '70. 



We prefer to have the one knife ^auswei' all 

 g>ur.ix)ses, that we may not !>e at the expenssof 

 two, besides the mconvenieuce of havkig so 

 ?aiany difi'ereiit Uiiiigs about. We have found 

 by practice that n straight blade if very thin 

 •md very sharp iit the point, may be made to 

 .■do ak&ost any kind of work, even to pushing 

 <Liowij to the boltoni of the side of the hive if 

 isieed be; by pressing the blade hard against a 

 liat board, it springs straight, and is just in 

 the right shape to exit close and smooth to the 

 board. Although we do not think a curved 

 blade will obtain favor generally, we will 

 furnish thein when desinx!, at the sauie price. 



Did ycu ■or any oi y<mv readers ever have a uatura,! 

 ■swarm with four queens? To-day a secojid swarm came 

 out for me which had four splendid queens; I had them 

 in four -cages, standing in front of the liive. While I was 

 hunting for the fifth, tlie bees got ex-cited, icame out of 

 the hive and <K)m-Ei6nced to eiuster -oji one of the eage.s. 

 They did not seesn to care about tlse three other queers 

 which were near toy- Why was this 'r I thought perhaps 

 this was a fertile queen while the othei-s were iKit, al- 

 though I dou't know. I stai'ted three nuclei with the 

 a:emaii;iiig queens. 



B. G. Stauffee, BachiHa«sviUe, Pa., June 19th, '70. 



it is not unusual for 4 or more ■queens to 

 ■cOTne of!' with after swarms, and in such cases 

 they aiM' all virgin queens. The text !)ooks 

 give as a reason, that they probably all hatch 

 at about tlie same time, and during tlie con- 

 fusion of swarming join in the throng, and get 

 along peaceably until they are ready for work in 

 their new location. Then comes the battle for 

 the sovereignty, and probably the fittest, as a 

 .general rule, survives. 



i wrote y^ou a week since, for a copy of your paper ; have 

 received' ajid read it, advertisements and all. If I had 

 known such a paper was j>ublishetl I woidd have been a 

 subscriber before this. It would ha\e been worth §50,00 

 to me this seasou. I have now, about 50 colonies. iSwarm- 

 ing is nearly over for this season. My hives are Lang- 

 .stroth's4 I paj.ut them all. Is that advisable * The hon- 

 ey boards are slotted for six S lb. boxes. How can I im- 

 j^rove on that ? My hives -contaiu, some 11, and some 1-2 

 .Li'ames. about the size of L.irame given in your paper. Is 

 that too many V 



O. Reumeiexd. Brumfield Stataoii, Ky., June 2(i, '7(>. 



Undecided about paint. Boxes nor frames 

 will give more honey. About 11 frames. 



1 got 2 lbs. comb f'oundations from Mr. Loiighist year, 

 but my Queei;s will uot lay in tliem ;i.s long as Uiey can 

 find any other comb ill the hive. I have tried reijeatedly 

 putting one of these irames in the centre of the brood 

 nest, but if the bees are gathering honey they will fill it 

 full, down to about -l}4 inches from the ))ottom and the 

 queen will la,y eggs iu the lower part every time {the 

 foundations were, only G inches wide). That wa* my ex- 

 perience last season and it h;is l)een the same tliis season 

 so far. Have you or has any one else had the same expe- 

 rience witJi the foundations? 



A. W. W/NCHOJiST, St. Cliarles, Mo., June M, '76. 



Of lute we have had one or two complaints 

 of fdn. seat out by Mr. Long, that the bees 

 would not u-se, and a sample has tjeen sent us, 

 having an unpleasant bitter ta,ste, we pre- 

 sume this is the same mentioned by A. B. J. 

 We assuredly do not wish a,nything for comb 

 honey that has any unpleasant quality of this 

 nature, and we are surprised tliat any one 

 •should .have .sent out sucli- 



MR. BOOT :— Thei-e is a mati liei'e who has a jjatent ou 

 a stand for bees as follows ; tlie stand is ^ imilar to a hop- 

 per on a f aiming mill with one small entrance. He sets 

 OJJ this, .four hives; one full of bees, tliree empty. He 

 SM,ys they will swarm xvitliout coming out ajid that there 

 will be a que«i in each hive- Will this l)e so V 



M. L. BoKiiAM, Clinton, Mo., July 2(1, IS70. 



The <levac<; is a fair sample of the greater 

 part of patents on bee hives, aiwl the maji who 

 has it, is either bad or ignorant ^ very likely 

 both. Bees from different hives will not work 

 through one common entrance, as has l>eeu 

 proven by many experiments, although they 

 may ia a few exceptional cases. The idea of 

 their rearing queens iu each seperatc luve, is 

 an utter absurbity. 



i v.'ant t^osay something ahout wintering, now that you 

 are I'etidy to listen. Two or three yeai's ag-o I wrote jou 

 i>S. the best success attending the paciing of bees in chalf 

 or dry sawdust. You -only remarked that otw swallow 

 ■did not make summer etc. During the irast setisoti I win- 

 tered 122 stands out dooi's, thus packed, witliout the loss 

 of a single cokniy, while I lost more or less that I put in 

 ■cellar. I have wintered in the Langtroth hives single 

 hearde-d padcing the caps with chalf, with perfect success. 

 J. C. Crane, Bridport, Vt. July 4tli, 187(i, 



Raiiied almost every day since June ISth so our bees 

 are doing iierjj little storing. I r.ever knew so iK)or a year 

 f-or white clover honey. This, with the loss of an import- 

 ed queen, makes me feel a little blue. Queeii lost in in- 

 troduction, I have not lost one l^efore in years. This one 

 I prized a)jo\e all, and she, gone. Well, "I never loved a 

 tree or flower etc." A. J. Cook. 



Lan.sing, Mich. July (Jth, 187G. 



