04 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



wherewith right at hand — we talie them one 

 or two of these heavy combs, aud it is just 

 fun to feel that whatever conies, they will 

 have a plenty anyhow. 



CHAFF PACIiJNG, ETC. 



^XSjiRJEXD ROOT :— A look at your bees during the 

 ISfJ Wium week just past has probably seated you 

 ^^* more firmly on your chaff packinEr hobby. The 

 entrances to your packed hives are nearly or quite as 

 IVoe Iroin dirt as in mid-summer, while many if not 

 all of those not packed iiave the front covered with 

 iilth aud nastiness. Under the former too you find 

 but few dead bees, perhaps from a tablcspoontiil to a 

 teacuid'ul under each hive, while under the latter 

 you find on an average, a ijuart or more. 



The comparative amount of brood too, you have 

 found equally in favor of the chaff packed bees. How 

 is it irieml Root, arn't wc correct; won't you swing 

 your hat in the Eext No. of Gleanings.? Take my 

 M'ord for ir, you can ride that horse straight ahead so 

 lar as success is concerned, without any fear of being 

 obliged to back up. 



If your friend Wing fails to secure straight combs 

 ijy foUo'ving your advi«e, (page 15), and if after win- 

 tering his nees somewhere else than in liis hen house, 

 Ihey still persist in making them too crooked to han- 

 dle weU, let him take them from the hive before the 

 lioncy is scaled, extract the honey, lay them on a 

 smooth, planed board some larger than the frame, 

 and with another board on them, press them firmly 

 into their place in ths fram^, and he will liave every 

 comb as straight as a boaivl. 



Wo accept friend Doolitlle's amendment (page 41), 

 witli thanks, and as we have never been very well 

 ])leased wltli our success in building up stocks by 

 tepreadine the brood combs and inserting empty 

 ccmbs between them, except in warm weather, (per- 

 iiaps it was not judiciously done), wliile he has suc- 

 ceeded, tve hope he will give it a fair impartial trial 

 ,Uist as he directs, and report the result. Jf such fuss- 

 ing with bees will pay in hives tliat are not protected, 

 it certainly will iu such as are, because one can not 

 only commence earlier, but later in the season he can 

 fijiread the brood without risking its loss. 



When we brought ibis chaff" jiacking arrangement 

 before the public it was not done for the purpose of 

 grinding an ax or seeking notoriety. We have noth- 

 ing to sell in the bee line except honey, and we can 

 llud a ready sale for all we can get of that at a paying 

 price. Neither do wc take any particular pride in 

 ireeing our name attached to tlie end of a newspaper 

 article. The experience of the last live or six years 

 has clearly demonstrated that heavy losses are sus- 

 tained throughout the n^ rthern states by all other 

 methods of wintering bees, and with tlio ho])e that 

 pe»ba))£ this loss might be avoidet!, we have tried to 

 induce others to give the plan a fair, impartial, un- 

 I iased trial aiid report the result, as "By the mouth 

 of many witnesses the truth is established." 



Friend D., aie you quite correct in your figures 

 in relation to the number of workers in your hives ? 

 Can you get and keep for 45 days 8 out of 9 fra'.nes 

 filled with brood after making due allowance for 

 honey, corners and pollen ? Again, you estimate 

 .0 cfUs to the ir.ch, wliicli if made by black bees is 

 prolably corrcci. but if made by Italians you can 

 not ccurt more ihini about 4i which would matc- 

 ■ially leEEcn the nrmier of 1 ces. .'. II. Thw.nlev. 



Tcmpl;inF, Mich. Feb. t-*th, mi. 



COMB FI>N. KttABE «;\ CE.OTSS Olt 

 PAPEK, ETC. 



5T^0R some time past I have read the complaints 

 JipJ about fdn. "sagging" in the frames, especially in 

 large brood frames, and in vain 1 have looked to 

 your inventive genius to produce a remedy. Now allow 

 me to direct your attention once more to my books ; on 

 page 35 of "Bee-keepers' Guide Book", and page 39 of 

 "Am. B. K. Guide" you will find that Kretchmer (my 

 father) invented and used comb foundation, having 

 tracing linen for a base, being coated with wax, which 

 the bees perfected into comb and used as brood comb. 

 Now don't you think that fdn. made in the manner in- 

 dicated must prevent all sagging ? Of course such fdu. 

 could only be used in brood frnme.s, but there is the place 

 where the ditficulty is most damaging. I enclose you a 

 specimen from a large roll of the kind of tracing linen 

 then used by him, it is the exact width of strips of fdn. 

 manufactured by him, aud no doubt a much finer article 

 may be fcund in these days. And as regards the bees 

 working on them, father told me .several times tliat the 

 bees used them as though they were natural, using tlie 

 comb for brood and honey, m.'iking no distinction from 

 natural comb, and no doubt, if the bees used them then, 

 they will to-day. I trust you will give the above a little 

 thought and perhaps furnish us with fdn. that can't sag 

 m the brood frame. E. Keexchmee. 



Coburg, Iowa, Jan. 20th, 1877. 



Many years aijo we tried making fdn. on 

 cloth and paper, and succeeded very well with 

 thin tissue paper, but all our experiments on 

 cloth, even the thinnest we could get, were 

 failures, simply because the bees wuiijd occa- 

 sionally get hold of a thread and then they 

 would tear the cloth all out, apparently think- 

 ing it a moth web. Since receiving the above, 

 we obtained some very line book muslin, and 

 also tried the tracing linen, but although we 

 can make beautiful fdu. en both, the cloth 

 makes the base of the cells so much thicker 

 than where we use wax alone, that it will add 

 to the weight and consequently to the expense, 

 while the clippings will be entirely out of tlie 

 question for comb lioney. It may be urged 

 that a fabric may be made, inestimably thin, 

 but even then you add to the expense of every 

 square foot, and in large quantities it makes 

 quite an item. If anyone wants it witli a 

 cloth base, we can readily furnish it, and it 

 will certainly do away with all complaints of 

 stretching and bulging, as in fact will that 

 made on tissue paper. 



PATE:VT B^^ftHT BEE HSVF.S. EX05SBI- 

 CEPTIVE ABVffiKTlSEMEWTS, ETC. 



WHAT SUALL WE DO WITIT THEM ? 



^Ir' AST month several letters had collected 

 ijLjj from parties who had been deceived and 

 somewhat wronged in the purchase of various 

 articles, some from those Avho had purchased 

 on the strength of a warrant that was not 

 good, and letters ivoiw others who had sus- 

 picious advertisements in sotfie of the journals, 

 and for the sake of preventing our readers 

 from beipg disappointed in the same way I pro- 

 posed nmkiug the whole into an article as a 

 warning both to the advertisers, and their too 

 j incautious customers. The article wa.s stud- 

 j ied up, and but so often as I sat down to the 

 task, did 1 feel lliat it was going to be too harsh, 



