OE VOTED TO 33EE!?^ ATSr> HOT>fE3ir, AlSjy IIOMIE INTERESTS. 



A. I. ROOT, ^ Publisbed Monthly. rTI3KMS: *1.00 Per Annum in Ad' 



Publisher and Proprietor, > ' -] vance; 3 Ct/pi«s/or »2.50; 5/or ft3.76: 



Medina, O. j IiJsta'blisliecl in 1873. ClO or more, 60c. each. Single Number 10c. 



Vol. V. 



MARCH 1, 1877. 



No. 3 



oi;r friends iw oidrmany. 



^ra^E pi-esume the name of Gravenhorst, is 

 \^'^ sufficiently well known to interest at 

 least a large portion of our readers, in tlie fol- 

 lowing very kind and friendly letter. 



MY DEAR NOVICE :— I owe you many thanks for 

 sending me Gleanings. What shall I ilo iu return ? 

 Shall I write an article occasionally on bee culture? 

 I must tell you that I know you through the American 

 Bcc Journa!. The late Mr. Wagner sent it and I re- 

 ceive it to this day. I have reafl with much [ileasure 

 your articles in the Journal. Thus I have watched 

 your endeavors to lind out the most prolitable way of 

 managing bees in the best hive, the giving your bees 

 bits of comb, and tlie wintering of your bees out of 

 doors with the chaff cusliions. This is very good, but 

 I shall wonder if you will be satisfied in future witli 

 it. I have great respect for the American bee-keep- 

 ers and I admire their results in every way, neverthe- 

 less I think you want a more practical hive than you 

 have in use. Excuse me when saying tlius. But let 

 us see what i3 tlie chief matter in managing bees in 

 movable comb liives. Tlie greatest results by saving 

 the most time and money ; and wintering bees in the 

 most profitable way. To get all this, depends upon a 

 good hive. 1 am acquainted witli all the American 

 hiveri, but none of them will do it as I should wish it. 

 A Langstroth liive I have received from a iricnd in 

 America, may be a good hive, nevertliclcss it does not 

 answer m\- claims. Wliat would you say of a hive 

 that enables yon to attend 100 and more colonies with- 

 out assistance ? I have such a hive in use, and all the 

 other hives I heretofore had arc now In the lumber 

 chamber. This hive is the very same the Englishman 

 speaks of in your Gleanings, Vol. IV, No. 11, page 

 267, as the newest and best hive now in use in Ger- 

 many. And in fact it is. The German bee-keeper, of 

 whom the Englishman tells your readers, is one of 

 our best apiarians, and will in future only use this 

 hive as do the most German bee-keepers. Iu the 

 book 1 send you, you %vill see an engraving on the title 

 page. The hive is a straw hive and must be turned 

 over to attend it. From its turning over results Its 

 good qnalltles. Should you like to have such a hive. I 

 shall be much pleased to send vou one, if you only 

 will pay over freight from Bremen to Medina. The 

 book 1 send you will teach you how to make such a 

 hive if a friend is at hand to translate it, should you not 

 read German. Of course many an American bee- 

 kecjier will be much pleascfl to see euch a hive, and I 

 do not doubt, will us? it; above all you will have a 

 new sulijecl to write from in your paper. 



I have two apiaries, cacli 150 colonics. Jfy bee 

 yards are enclosed on 4 sides with shelves. In the 

 t.Tst side is a little work house through the wimlows 

 of which I can watch everv fly-liolc. This little house 

 is a wonderful place lor a bee-keeper at leisure, and 



the whole arrangement is very good in spring time.' 

 As soon as the bees, returning from the field, come 

 inside the yard, they are saved, as no wind will throw 

 them to the ground where they perish. Without any 

 other protection exccjU what the hive and the bee 

 yard give, my bees are standing on their shelveB. 

 Do not fear that the young queens, returning from 

 their bridal night, will be lost by standing so many 

 hives near each other. In Hanover, about 6 miles 

 from Brunswick, there arc sometimes more than 300 

 old fashioned straw hives all together, and no more 

 queens are lost than if the hives were scattered in a 

 bee yard as shown in your engraving on the title page 

 of your Nov. No., which came to hand to-day. 

 Yours In the bonds of bee-keeping, 



0. F. II. GUAVENnOHST. 



Brunswick, Germany, Nov. Kith, 187(i. 



Many tlianks, distant cousin, for your very 

 kind and friendly letter. To liear from such 

 dear friends away across the ocean, really does 

 make one feel that with all other advances 

 the world is making, we are yet to feel that we 

 are in reality, brothers and sisters, even though 

 of difl'ereut nationalities, and though wide 

 seas intervene. Tell us about bee culture in 

 your land by all means, and rest assured our 

 people will always be interested in such mat- 

 ters. 



We have bee-keepers that attend to consid- 

 erably more than 100 colonies, if we mistake 

 not, and with the chaff hive pictured in Dec. 

 No., we think one man could do the work re- 

 quired for twice the number, by changing 

 work with a ueiglibor a part of the time. If 

 we are making no mistake, bees in such hives 

 should need no care at all, for almost 6 months 

 iu the year. As our hives sometimes contain 

 nearly 100 lbs. of honey at one time, we fear 

 our people will be loth to think it best to turn 

 them over, to get the frames and honey out, 

 notwithstanding, we have great respect for 

 your experience, friend G. We are ashamed 

 to say, that none of us as yet, read German 

 very understandingly, but the girls are still at 

 work with their books. 



We are already pleased with the idea of hav- 

 ing the bees euter an enclosed yard, as they 

 come home laden ; have j'ou no house apiaries 

 in Germany V We agree that thei'e is little 

 danger of losing queens, so long as the en- 

 trances are a couple of feet apart, unless in the 

 extracting season. May the kind Father 

 abundautly b^ess and prosper, the bee friends 

 in Germany. 



