IbTG 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



247 



€i nraith 



From Different Fields. 



^^. EAR NOVICE:— I nmolTered fu-ecolomes at Sl.OO 

 Jfjiv' e:tch ; but the contlition they are in is deploraljle ; 



^ thej hare received no attention whatevei for sev- 



<;ral years, ai\d I don't think they iiiive made one lb. of 

 surplus honey in that time. Would it do t-c transfer them 

 durijijr September ? or would it be bett-er to take the best 

 possible care of them as tkey are until spring ? Three of 

 them are in box hives, and two in old LanRstroth hivf s of 

 ■\-hich they have tilled the top story with cotabs and liave 

 toeeu breeding botk above and below. There are no 

 frames in the upper hives, and one caainot insisect them 

 ■tvithout breaking the combs as I did on eudeavoriRg to see 

 their condition. It would bo quite a difficult job in trans- 

 ferring them, to remo-se the comlj, I was told during 

 July, bj an old and experienced bee-keeper, that it would 

 Biot do to traasfer them, ajid f-Il they were tit for was to 

 'brimstone and take the honey which would probably be 

 worth as much as tfeey vrere offei'ed to me for. I am the 

 veriest tyro, having no knowledge of bees but what I have 

 learned by reading a great deai of Gleanings- Never- 

 theless I am inclined to think they could have been easi- 

 ly put in frame hives during July, and possibly yt-t could 

 be if they arc fed to make them build up their broken 

 ■combs, what do yo« say ? The hives are almost falling 

 to pieces having openings and decayed parts that you 

 ^■ouid put your finger in. J. R. Ebdt. 



■Vriieeiing, W. Va. Aug. 29th, 1870. 

 They can be transferred, eveu iu September, 

 if you chose to take the time to do it, but it 

 •may l>e nearly a half day's work to do it well. 

 -It your bees are getting no honey, and robbers 

 ■around, you will have to be fery careful that 

 ^lo honey is allowed to run out and get them 

 titarted. Work slowly and carefully, and 

 ^r^iean up every thing as you go along ; the 

 tliick heavy combs, yo'j had better leave out 

 'until the last, and then give them only so 

 much as v^'ill make a good supply for winter. 

 <jret the brood coiiite into the new hive as 

 «oou as you can, and put it iu place of the old 

 hive, that the bees may cover and defend thtni, 

 and commence slicking up their home. When 

 we can spare the time we consider it just fun 

 to transfer such a colony, even iu the fall, 

 liave a sauce pan full of rotten wood, and 

 •'.iiake saiok^e enougJi so that you can drive 

 them entirely out of the way when you are 

 cutting the combs, and be careful that .jnDu 

 neither kill bees, ncr get things daubed gen- 

 •crally ; after they get their combs fastened, 

 teed them until they have every thing built 

 out strong, and have an absndunce of honey. 

 The honey alone is probably worth the ^4.00. 



I do not undei-stand how you put the fdn. in section 

 il>oses. All the way I could devise was to put two 

 :l)ieces -fyv top and bottom and one for sides ; of course 

 the fdn. should be perpendicular. This arrangement 

 <loe3 not leave space iov the bees to i>ass up and down. 

 When the fdn. <;ame I took all the comb from a strong 

 folony and gave them tlie four sheets. In 3<5 hours 

 they had one sheet about half tilled with honey but 

 the queen does not «cem to like to use them. One 

 of them was -rjiiite narrow, the bees Irailt it down with 

 natural comb and the queen stocked it with eggs as 

 fast as built, but not until there was room nowhere 

 else did she lay an egg in the fdn. Do you have sr.ch 



experience ? Your "custom"' of making good all 

 breakage looks a,s though you "acted by the plumb'' 

 and practiced what you preaeh, 



J. A. W-A-KD, Madjsonville, Ohio, Aug. 2ist, '70. 

 As the fdn. must Ix; fastened securely at the 

 top to make a sure thing of a good comb in 

 every section every time, we have had to abac- 

 don our original plan of allowing the sheets 

 to be held by the open spaces in the section, 

 and now cut into 4^ squares and fasten tliem 

 only at the top, with melted wax and a ix3ncil 

 brush as given on page 173. In our apiary we 

 have had no trouble at all in getting eggs in 

 the fdn., but a very few have sent reports some- 

 thing like your own. We have oftoi had 

 queens exhibit an apparent aversion to partic- 

 ular frames of natural comb, and we think it 

 can be nothing more in this case. We have so 

 many filled with brood in beautiful shape, that 

 we ran not thinlv there is any serious ditllculty 

 in the matter. If our customers place their 

 money safely in otir hands, we are going to try 

 to. put the goods as safely in theirs, with no 

 other expense to them than the freight or 

 expres-s. 



I started with six stocks of black bees in box hives 

 last spring ; I bow have eight and 1 our are in mova- 

 ble comb hives of my own make ; had Cleanings for 

 my "boss." Framed hives and Italians are a new 

 thing here ; have never seen an Italian bee. There is 

 a man by the name of Muliver, that has passed near 

 me and sent me word that he was coming to see me, 

 and I supjiose to indict me. He is „elling rights foY 

 framed hives, he claims to have a right on all framed 

 hives and gars tiiere is hiaiseU" and nine more in 

 a company, and tiiat Mitchell is head boss of all. He 

 don't seem to ktiow anything about a Bee journal. 

 Now when he comes what must I do or say ? Must I 

 show him <;Jleanis-gs, and what you say abotit Mitch- 

 ell, or must I drive him cS? I would iike to know 

 what you think about it. 



I agree with A. J. 6., and say that bee? do gather 

 pollen from pumpkin and sijuash here; perhaps they 

 will from one thing in one part of the world, and 

 another in another part. Would it not be well to 

 think of this? • Z. D. HAisuitL. 



Mooresboro, N. C, Aug. 23d, '7(5. 



When such men call on you, treat them 

 pleasantly, but tell them firmly what you think 

 about such business. If they threaten, pay 

 no attention to them whatever, and we find it 

 one of the best ways in the world to decline 

 discussing the matter at all. Give tliera a 

 copy of GLE.\NiNGS, if they will accept of it, 

 and we will give you another iu place of it. 

 Whatever you do, do not waste time in argu- 

 ing with such men. 



Our bees are doing well. We have 400 stauds now, 

 from 1^0 in the spring. We hare taken but 500 lbs. 

 bos honey yet- The bees are now working on buck- 

 wheat and bone-set. We have a new hive that we 

 call the centennial with honey boxes or frames in 

 front cf brood chamber and by closing the lower en- 

 trance we can force the bees into the front boxes or 

 frames. The hive is double, outside of hive '24slS 

 inches, and holds American frames. It has two di- 

 vision boards. We had ItO put up this summer. 



Lehman Bros., Delphos, O., Aug. 2.sth, '"C. 



We are offering cur honey at 7 and 9c. per lb. according 

 to oualitv. NvNN Beo"s. Oberlin, 0. Aug. 27th, 137(5. 



