252 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



llel'erring to India rubber [/lores, in your July No., 

 (page 101) you ask tbe experience of your readers. I 

 give mJae for what it is worth. Premising that si.^ 

 months ago, I was thorouglily ignorant oS the habits 

 of bees, I would sfate that, nevertheless, since then I 

 have hacdlet} them about twice a week. Until reeent- 

 •y I have kept only tbe common or black bee, and a 

 more iraacible, spiteful, termagant set, 'twould be 

 hard to fnid. In dealing with these, the rubber gloves 

 are indispcus'able and have saved me many ii sting. 

 Every now and ihen they will even i)uncture the rub- 

 ber through and through and reach the hand within, 

 but the ])ain is much mitigated as only tbe mere point 

 of the sting enters the flesh. I bought my gloves for 

 ?1,75, of Muth, Cincinnati. M. W. Chapman. 



Maybew Station, Miss., Sept. 2d, '7G. 



Well we certainly have got o-iie favorable re- 

 port after all, btit as our friend is a "bee-ist" of 

 only six mouths standing, hovv^ are we to know 

 he will not in six mouths more, say he was 

 mistaken, and that he would have been stung 

 less without the gloves than with them V Now 

 friend C, and many other friends, you can de- 

 pend upon it when your beea will sting your 

 hands, they had Ijytter be let alone. If you 

 give them a puff of smoke when you first turn 

 up the corner of the quilt, and more to keep 

 them down when they start up, you certainly 

 will not have your hands stung. We oj^eu 

 dozens of hives, and remove hundreds of sec- 

 tion frames without a sting on the hands un- 

 less we pinch a bee carelessly ; and when we 

 do this, we hope they loiU sting to remind us 

 to be more c:ireful. If the use of veil and 

 gloves, enables us to tread on their rights with 

 impunity, we certainly would not advise them. 

 Your work with your bees should be as peace- 

 ful and quiet, as that among your strawberry 

 plants ; and with the corn popper smoker, you 

 can have it so at almost any season. 



You are correct. Little foot power buzz saw can cut 

 section boxes almost as bright and true as a new coin. 

 But it utterly refuses to do so for Ic per section. Casus 

 belli,— Don^t like to travel on the road leading to the poor- 

 house! Your sections, as I understand, leave a worse 

 than useless opening in the sides of each, just equal to the 

 center tenon or tongue of the top and bottom. I there- 

 fore thin.k it better to set the gauge so as to leave no cen- 

 ter tenon to speak of. Besides,- we use only two of the 

 i^rooves in the side pieces, the other two being of the same 

 use as the third wheel to a cart. I therefore don't cut 

 them. D, P. Lane, Koshkonong, AVis., Sept. 5th, '70. 



Where section boxes are made with a single 

 saw, it certainly would save time to make 

 them as you propose, but with our four saws 

 on a mandrel, we find it cheaper to make only 

 one piece, and have all alike. Besides, we 

 think the teeth on the projecting corners, rath- 

 er ornamental. 



EDITOR GLEANINGS :— When the inch and a half (!) 

 of honey between lower and upper story had been dis- 

 posed of, did you proceed to "cut things loose" with some- 

 thing equivalent to a "butcher knife r" And did you not 

 And the combs "lieivy as iron wedges ?" (See Glean- 

 ings for November, 1875.) C. Linswik. 



You seem to have so very vivid an idea of 

 the whole matter friend C, that we cannot 

 help thinking you may have had some similar 

 experience. The very thick combs that we 

 secured by the gradual spreading process, 

 seemed like a string of iron wedges, and for 



the first time we found the metal corners in- 

 conveniently sharp on our fingers. We shalB 

 try to nat let our bees — or business — get 

 ahead of as thus, another season. Y/'hou hon- 

 ey is all sealed up,, it rs a hindrance in the 

 hive and sliould be removed; besides the in- 

 jury it sustains in ap{>earaiice, e&pecially if it 

 is to be sold as comb honey. 



Corab fdu. received jn prime condition. Bees have 

 learned wh.'it to do with it and work it up rapWly. H 

 think its use would doBble the yield of corab honey 

 from any hive. 



R. Tekkis, Belleville, N. J., Aug. X4h, '7(;. 



ATben I wrote you before, I had two swarms of Ital- 

 ians in frame hives. Abont the first of June, jns5 

 when my bees needed most attention, my husbami 

 had bis right leg badly crushed uy a horse ; of cour.se 

 he restuired my whole atleBtion. As I eould do very 

 little with tbe bees, I put on upper stories and let 

 them go three or lour days, I then looked at them and 

 iound they were building- their comb in every direction. 

 I took off the upper stories, cut out the comb,fa5tene(5 

 some on the frames as best I could aad put them on 

 again. It took some courage and patience, for the 

 weather was ver3' warm and the l>ee3 particularly 

 cross; but I wiped off the sweat, pulled ont tbe stings 

 and kept on. I strained the honey and got about tf 

 lbs. Well, the second time they did no better than 

 the first, and though they had plenty of room to work, 

 one Sunday, one of them sent out a swarm. So I took 

 off ibe upper stories and commenced artificial swarm- 

 ing. I might have done it before but I had very little 

 time and less courage. I liad put my hand to the 

 plo;? and I was not going to turn back; besides, my 

 husband had strongly advised me not to buy theni. 

 Well, I won't tell yon all my blunders and mistakes. 

 I now have eight nice stocks from the two. When 

 you consider I have had my liusband to take care of 

 my house work to do ; the care of milk from two cow 

 and last but not least, my bees, you may know I have 

 had voiy little time to spare. I have also had the 

 care of the farm with only help from my two boys, 

 one eleven the other fourteen. The older one made 

 the hives for me, all but three. So like Barnaby's ra- 

 ven, I shall "never say die." My hu-sband is around 

 now on crotches and thinks of making bee culture « 

 business, as he will probably be crippled for life. No 

 doubt you are tired of my long letter, but as I told you 

 of my beginning, I thought I would let you know 

 how I had oncceeded in my new enterprise. 



Mrs. S. p. Hubbakjx 



Neilsville, Wis., Sept. 5th, 1876. 



Had you given your bees a hint of what was 

 wanted in the sh-jpe of a few finished combs, 

 or even one or two from below, they would 

 have done nice work. We seldom have letters 

 too long from your sex. 



Our bees here appear to be well aware that it's the 

 Centemiial, being very independent and cross, and con- 

 tinuing to s^varm and go to Centemiidelphii or to parts 

 unknown till near the last of August. But they left goo:i 

 stores behind them, I fear for their future. 



Stepuen Yoi'XG, Mechanicsvdle, Iowa, Sept. 11. "7 '•• 



Will it do to make bee hives of red cedar, or in oth- 

 er words will boes work well in hives made of r.vl 

 cedar ? V. P. Towxsen! i. 



Worcester, Mass., Sept. 9th, 1876. 



We think it makes little dilfereuce to the 

 bees what the wood is, and have never heard 

 any objection to cedar. 



