10 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jak. 



FOR 



1>EPARTME>T 

 BOX HIVE BEE-KEEPERS. 



Tfr'UST listen ti minute ! We saw a book ad- 

 '^P vertised, How I make fgriO.OO a year 

 with m}'^ beef;. Price S^c. of cour«e tlie book 

 was sent for aiid''lo ! it was an Enjrlish work, 

 and only treated of box hives and common 

 bees. At first. 1 was almost inclined to think 

 it deserved a place among the humbugs, but 

 as I glanced over its pages I found that the 

 author advised for stands for bee hives — vvliat 

 do you suppose, dear reader? American 

 '■heese boxes. Further on, we find there are 

 three ways of getting honey ; top storing, 

 side storing, and bottom storing. Stranger 

 -^till, this writer says it makes little difference 

 which plan be pursued, for the bees Avill make 

 about fs much honey one way as another. As 

 bottom storing requires the least labor, he 

 rather prefers that. Now where do you think 

 lie advises us to have the honey stored? Why 

 iu the cheese box of course, and all the labor 

 necessary is to cut three slots in the bottom 

 ;!-16 wide, and three or four inches long, put 

 on the cover, turn it bottom upward under the 

 hive — our friend uses nothing but small cheap 

 sti'avv hives, compelling the bees to put all 

 their surplus in the cheese boxes — and go on 

 your way rejoicing. With this very cheap 

 and simple way of managing, one man can at- 

 tend to two or thi'ee hundred hives. Hoo-ra- 

 a-a-a-a-a-y friend Heddon ! Come along man, 

 and don't be bashful, we have found your 

 "sphere" at last. Imagine vast apiaries of 

 straw hives, all perched on cheese boxes ; 

 cheese boxes piled into pyramids rivaling 

 those of Egypt, cheese boxes loaded on wheel- 

 barrows, carts and wagons, and finally a gen- 

 erous cheese box as a centre piece for the 

 dinner table, with papa carving out huge 

 cakes of honey for the expectant juveniles. If 

 the apiary were located on a side liill, we 

 might just turn the boxes up edgewise, — whew! 

 We cannot waste another line on the subject, 

 but we will send you the whole book for 35c. 



TliACHBNKRY FOR MAKINC; FOIV., AND 



Jl'fl^AS'l'KU CASTS FOR START- 



FRI§, ETC. 



^(P^jHOULD any of the readers of Gleanings wish 

 j\^i 10 make a plaster cast to experiment on fdn. 

 -"^ with, the}' ran get a verj' perfect one by using 

 I piece of fdn. ni« follows: Lay the wax fdn. on a 

 ■.-mootli level board, place a frame rim (just as large 

 as yon wish your cast) upon it, and HIl it with plaster, 

 lls^ing a little alum with the plaster to make it hard- 

 er and firmer. In this way you can jjet a cast as true 

 as the wax slieet, and by taking a second cast from 

 ;}ic lirst you can get from tliis ;i metal plate, or type, 

 iluvt win make a tru;; fdn., with the lia^e of the cells 

 raiEcd; but runtdng metal on the tirst cast taken from 

 a wax sheet, ami using It ub a type, will give a fdn. 

 \vllh the surplus wa.t in the bottom of the cell, and a 

 ilepreselon wlieie the sides of the cell should com- 

 mence, A Jnan who understands working plaster can 

 • ast BiolfiUic rolls (as one of my friends demonstra- 

 aidi iierluetly true, by wrapping a sheet ol wax fdn. 

 around a true woouen cylinder, and tilling around 

 x\ith jilaslcr ; after it hardens, draw out the wooden 

 lyllnder asid then the wax sheet; put in your slialt 

 :.ud your melted uutal, and you will have a roU as 



perfect as can be made by hand, but the cells will be 

 the reverse of the wax sheet you used, liy this meth- 

 od i think fdn. machines ought to be made for ten or 

 fifteen dollars. J. F. Laffeutv. 



We give the above because there are so many 

 inquiries in regard to the matter, but we hard- 

 ly think our readers would use plates for mak- 

 ing fdn. on the old foreign plan, if the plates 

 were furnished them without charge, the pro- 

 cess is so slow and unsatisfactory compared 

 with rollers. We fear those who are trying to 

 make two rolls that will work together with- 

 out injury to each other on the plan mentioned, 

 have failed to take into account the great ac- 

 curacy required for such machinery. Tlie plas- 

 ter casts may do very well, for starters only, 

 but would not plain thin vyax sheets do as 

 well V See the following : 



About the plaster foundations I may say that to 

 my mind they were quite satisfactory, not having 

 used those made by you or others. I got ray cast- 

 ing from J. r. Moore; it is drone size— I sliould say 

 about 4 to the inch. Witli regard to the plain wax 

 sheets I may remark that I tilled your case of sec- 

 tions with them as before stated, and gave them to 

 the bees August 8th ; one liad your toundation as 

 sent by you, and I found that they took to the plain 

 sheets more readily than your fdn., and in the J. 

 P. Moore boxes I thought tliey preferred the plas- 

 ter fdus. to the plain sheets. Perhaps I am not a 

 Butliciently careful observer to be reliable, but I give 

 you my pi'esent opinion on the subject. I hope to 

 use your foundations next season and compare with 

 the plain sliects and plaster. The editor cl the 

 British Jk'c Journal has, I think, all along asserted 

 that plain sheets are as good as anything. I have 

 omitted to mention what may i)erhaps be imjiortant; 

 that in some of J. P. Jitoore's boxes I put natural 

 comb, and I did not observe that they took to them 

 more readily tluin to the fdns. "Bkiak." 



The statement made by the B. B. J. was in 

 regard to the fdn. made by the Euglish plates, 

 which has no walls at all. The fdn. we make 

 is often raised into comb containing honey, in 

 a single night, and tltis with a whole frame, 

 which we think almost an impossibility with 

 plain sheets, to say nothing of having it entire 

 worker comb. They build drone or worker, as 

 it happens, on plain sheets. 



BEE BOTANY AND ENTOMOLOGY. 



KOCKT MOUNTAIN BEE PIAHT. 



FjROF. COOK :— T .send you by mail a branch of a 

 wild plant which grows abundantly and is known 

 *^^ here by the name of Cleonie. WVien young it re- 

 sembles a young tomaloe plant, blooming continually 

 from about the lirst of July until frost conies. It grows 

 from i to s feet high witli a .strong stock and nmcli re- 

 sembles the mustard plant. Bees made large (luaiitities 

 of honey from it of a light coloi' and fair fbivcr. Please 

 give mo tlie true tiauie. Hees hn\e made the most de- 

 licious lioney from the wild raspberry plant. It lias a 

 very light color, delicate llavor and as some say, tastes as 

 though ijcrl'umed. Winter our bees here on their sum- 

 mer stands. Chas. I*;. M( Ray. 



(^aiiou City. Col.. Nov. ]!»t]i. l.sTi;. 



This is the .Minnesota, or Rocky .Mountain Bee plant. 

 Scieiitilic name ('home intcprifulii'.^ I am surprised at 

 time of bloom, .luly Isl. Ours did not bloom till Septem- 

 Vicr. If this ^Yill ViUom -Inly 1st. i( is an invaluable piaiit 

 for honey. ^- J- CoOK. 



