1877 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



47 



Last tall 1 purchased a dozen stocks of black bees in 

 hvx hives and placwl tliem side by side in a lonn shed, 

 tlu'ii packed them all around with st raw. Have a board 

 IiiuKcd in front to let down when warm days come. 

 'I'liere is no upward ventilation except the two holes for 

 honey boxes with quilt over them. Will it pay to cut out 

 top of brood chamber and then cover with cushions ? It 

 M-onis to me they would work more readily in the section 

 boxes if treated so. I do not wish to tnmsfer until I se- 

 cure a swarm from each one. I have a stock that weighs 

 nearly 100 lbs. gross, what shall I do with it when 1 

 transfer. What is the color of the ckks of the moth 

 uiiller ? G. S. Geaff, Omaha, Nebraska. 



HONEY, now TO GET PKOM A BOX HIVE WITH- 

 OUT TRANSFERRING. 



It will certainly pay to get the sections 

 down as near the brood as we can, and if we 

 were not ready to transfer, we would take the 

 whole top off the box hive, and nail on strips, 

 so as to fit an upper story on it. A one story 

 Simplicity will do very well, and you can then 

 y:et either extracted or comb honey as you 

 choose ; should the queen prefer to go above, 

 as she often does, you will get your transfer- 

 ring so far along. The 100 lb. stock, will be 

 just the one for such an experiment, and we 

 think you might manage to get most of the 

 honey up into the frame hive. 



EGGS OF THE MOTII. 



The eggs of the moth are very small, scarce- 

 ly visible unless we look closely, are perfectly 

 round, and nearly white. In Langstroth's 

 book we get a very good idea of them from 

 illustrations, and description. 



PEEMIUMS FOE THE LAEGEST CLtJB, ETC. 



I)i-. J. P. H. Brown offers to present to the person send- 

 inar the greatest number of subscribers to Gleanings, be- 

 tween the first of February and the first of July, a tested 

 luecn from imported mother. Queen to be sent upon 

 presentation of certificate from the publisher. 



De. J. P. H. Beown, Augusta, Ga. 



Many thanks friend B., but at the risk of be- 

 ing considered ungrateful for such kindnesses, 

 we would beg to enter a little protest. Our 

 good friend Nellis has sent us the lai'gest club 

 by considerable, but as he has paid us 60c. 

 each, and received f 1.00 — or whatever amount 

 he thinks proper above the GOc. — he has had 

 his pay for such service already. Why should 

 you make him a present for so doing, more 

 than for selling the large number of dollar 

 queens, which he did last season ? Both were 

 the means of doing a public good, and he re- 

 ceived his pay. We are very anxious, to have 

 our list of subscribers increased, but we do 

 want to have it done in a healthful way. The 

 A7n. Agriculturist at one time run their list of 

 subscribers up to 150.000 by giving presents 

 and the like, but as the greater part subscribed 

 for the sake of getting the presents without 

 caring particularly for the paper, they would 

 not renew the next year, without similar 

 "boosting." The result was that the list soon 

 went down to about its usual number, and if 

 we have made no mistake the areat list never 

 I'aid expenses. Shall we not rather take pa- 

 pers for their own intrinsic merit, and not for 

 the presents, just as we buy a lb. of nails ? 

 The naiU we want to use. 



We prefer to pay every one who sends us 

 n subscriber, because we like every thing 

 >ir;iightened up as we go along, that we may 



use our friends all alike without any hard 

 feelings. If you do us a favor, and take no 

 pay, we feel we ought to remember it, yet how 

 can we do so among so many ? If you send 

 us 5 names at $1. each, we jmstly owe you $1.25 ; 

 yet if you say you do not want it, and ask a 

 small faror a few weeks after, please do not 

 feel unkind if we charge you full retail price, 

 for we have no way in the world to keep track 

 of the matter unless you mention it. Our let- 

 ters are all filed away alphabetically, yet it is 

 often worth nearly a dollar to uft, to find one 

 received 6 montho before. When we do a per- 

 son a favor, is it not humaa to expect a simi- 

 lar one in return, sometime V Beware how you 

 accept money without a note, without inter- 

 est, or how you allow people to undersign you, 

 unless you wish to do them a similar favor 

 when they call upon you. 



SIIIE AND TOP STOUING BOXKS, AND WUY DO BBES 

 BUILD COMB UPWARD? 



I commenced the season with 4 good colonies. Im- 

 creased to 18 and doubled back to 12. Italianized 4, 

 6 are hybrids, and 2 are blacks. I am going to pur- 

 chase an imported queen in the spring. My bees are 

 not willing enough to work in boxes, to please me ; 

 when they do they build upward ; what makes them, 

 do this ? Will bees work In side boxes better than on 

 top of hives ? I am wintering all my bees on summer 

 stand packed with chaflf on top ; some with chaff on 

 both .aides of hive. 



APIAKY. 



Dk. 

 To hives, oil, paint, sugar and candy, account 



book, and queens 830 00 



Ck. 



By 12 colonies of beesfn)§7,00 per colony ?84 00 



" 240 lbs. of honey(«)25c 00 QO 



" 9 beehives 18 00 



Total credit $162 00 



Net gain (not counting labor) 132 00 



I can introduce queens, make artificial swarms 

 rear queens, do anything that pertains to bee culture, 

 and will be but 18 years old in January, 1877. 



Hakdin Haines, Vermont, Ills., Dec. 12th, '76. 

 Your bees build upward because they have 

 no starters of natural comb, or fdn., because 

 your boxes are not close and warm, and per- 

 haps because you open a passage into too 

 many of them to start with. With our new 

 arrangement of sections in the frames, you 

 can give them sections to commence on even 

 in the lower story, and you and everybody 

 else can test the vexed question as to whether 

 side storing boxes are better than top storing, 

 to their entire satisfaction, for you can place 

 them in either position in a twinkling. Who 

 among our readers can make a better report 

 before they are 18 years old ? 



How do they generally send their 81.00 queens, by mail 

 or express ? And in what kind of a cage ? And do you 

 know how many one can sell in a season ? 



Albert Potter, Eureka, Wis. Jr.n. 10th, 1877. 



We believe they are sent by mail unless quite 

 a number are to go to one person. The cages 

 used are such as we offer on our price list, or 

 khose made by boring into a block of wood, 

 and covering the opening with wire cloth. A 

 piece of sponge saturated with honey, seems to 

 be the safest way of sending their food. Some 

 of our neighbors have sold 100 or more in a 

 season. They are now sold annually by the 

 thousand, and are proving a great blessing. 



