78 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mak. 



CHAFF, THE FIRST COMPLAINT. 



I am not very well pleased with the chafl theory now, 

 w*e packed three swarms a la Townly to the very letter of 

 the law, and lately they are bound to get out and perish 

 on the snow. Shut them in ! Nonsense ! they will gnaw 

 out in spite of us. Did you say their honey wasn't good ? 

 Aye, but it was, all sealed, plenty of it too. Plague on 

 the hobbies, I think I shall not make any chaff hives yet. 

 Hasn't friend Jones, Beeton P. O. Ont. 400 swarms ? and 

 doesn't he keep them in frost proof repositories from 

 November till nearly May ; and never loses any ? And 

 he never gives them a fly either. And doesn't friend Bo- 

 lin, and all the rest of the successful ones follow the same 

 plan ? Think of friend .Jones, 50 miles north of Toronto 

 wintering his bees all successfully and us farther south 

 losing them. I think I shall build a bee house just like 

 bis next summer ; they are very cheaply built as he 

 builds them. Ila Michenee. 



Low Banks, Ont. Can. Jan. 27th, 1877. 



That is right friend M., if we are in danger 

 of going wild on hobbies, we shall expect you 

 as one of our best friends, to lift up your 

 voice against it. Mr. Doolittle would say you 

 were keeping the bees too warm ; if such is 

 the case, can not you give them a little more 

 ventilation? Friends Jones, Bolin, Grimm, 

 and ever so many others, do succeed in win- 

 tering, but they have the springing troubles to 

 contend with, after they are wintered. What 

 we expect of the chaff, is to have it "spring" as 

 well as to winter them. Give us the facts on 

 the other side by all means. Good cellars, are 

 certainly as safe as any plan that has ever yet 

 been tried. 



the spring, as almost anything else in bee cul- 

 ture. It seems to be a part of the phenomena 

 of spring dwindling, for very strong stocks 

 seldom or never do it. We have hoped the 

 chaff packing might remedy this too, but time 

 will have to determine. 



I commenced last spring with one stock of Italian bees. 

 About the middle of May they played "sharp" on me and 

 swarmed just as I was in the act of making an artificial 

 swarm. I hived them all nice and good, and three weeks 

 later the first swarm gave otf a very large swarm, which 

 ■was saved and did well. Prom parent stock I got 100 lbs. 

 of nice comb honey, and from first swarms I got 50 lbs. 



While I was absent from home in June, a stray swarm 

 of black bees came along and was hived. They com- 

 menced work in the peak of cap ; and there they are now. 

 Now comes the "tug of war ;" how shall I get them out 

 of the cap down into the body of the hive ? The entire 

 .space from top of lower frames to peak is full. Shall 1 

 wrench the cap off and transfer them below early in the 

 sprmg ? Or shall I wait until near swarming time and 

 form a new colony with what is in the cap ? I shall take 

 the black bees five or six miles into the 'country to pre- 

 vent mixing, and shall Italianize them as soon as I can 

 get queens. E. H. Ceippen. 



Moscow, Ind. Peb. 6th, 1877. 



The combs are in all probability not attached 

 very much at the bottom, so we think yon can 

 lift otf the cap without very much trouble. 

 We are inclined to think you have the old 

 style American hive, if so you had better split 

 the cap up when you transfer, and then to lin- 

 ish up the job, you had better split up the hive 

 too, before you get any more such. Be sure 

 you have the frames well covered, whenever 

 you hive a swarm in any hive, that the bees 

 can not possibly start their combs on the cover. 



SWAKMINO OUT IN SPRING. 



There are hard times ahead— my bees are all trying to 

 organize into one colony ! C. W. Leffens. 



Lubeck, W. Va., Peb. 1st, 1877. 



We are perhaps as helpless in preventing 

 swarming out and going into other hives in 



I am going to use some Simplicities next seaton, 

 metal cornered frames below, section frames above. 

 I do not like to use movable bottoms, but I can not 

 get hives made here with any exactness as I want 

 them. Metal corners are icy concerns in late fall 

 weather, but they are so nice to handle, I will try to 

 keep them warm some way. I want the section 

 frames to hang Sn the upper or lower story (as per 

 last Gleanings), in frames. Comb honey in large 

 boxes sells slowly here and as low as extracted, and I 

 am going to make a desperate eflfort to secure some in 

 sections. The "deacon," my neighbor, some two or 

 three years ago, made some neat little boxes holding 

 3 lbs. and they sold quick at 30 cts. per lb. when 20 lb. 

 boxes would not sell at all. The local market here \» 

 now supplied with extracted honey and we must get 

 honey up in some other shape, or export at low pri- 

 ces. I am not one who is scared at low prices ; 10 cts. 

 pays me well enough. A man recently wrote to my 

 neighbor the "deacon,"' from Chicago for 50 lbs. ex- 

 tracted honey ; was willing to take buckwheat honey 

 if we had no better, but must have some honey to eat 

 on his "slapjacks" at any price— none to be hatl in 

 the great city of Chicago that could be relied on as 

 Jwney. It seems to me here is a splendid opening lor 

 another "Muth.-' If I were "foot loose" and had even 

 a limited reputation in that city as an upright dealer, 

 I would furnish Chicagoans with as good an article as 

 Muth does in Cincinnati. I want a buzz saw worsi^ 

 than anything else but I will have to wait awhile. 

 Our blacksmith is studying on a band saw or jig or 

 something ot that sort and when he gets tired think- 

 ing of that, we are going to get him to go in with us 

 lor a "buzz." R. L. JoiNEii, 



Wyoming, Wis., Jan. 30th, 1877. 



We clip the following from the Louisiana 

 State Register. If we mistake not our friend 

 Perrine, has really turned bee-Iieeper. 

 bee notes. 



Dr. Rush, formerly of Point Coupee and one of the bei^t 

 bee-k63pers in the South, has located his entire apiary on 

 the plantation of Major A. W. Rountree, opposite the 

 Carrollton Perry. He has one hundred colonies. 



Messrs. Perrine & Grabbe have started into business by 

 putting up a saw mill and cutting out material for one 

 thousand hives. They have purchased about one hund- 

 red and fifty colonies of black bees, and brought one 

 himdred colonies of Italians with them from Chicago. 

 They are located on St. Charles Avenue, in the Seventh 

 District. 



Our friend Alex. McConnell, lOG Clio St., who is tlie 

 father of the bee business in this state, and who has for- 

 gotten more about bees than most be'e-keepers ever 

 learned, has put his apiary in first class order, and starts 

 out with one hundred colonies of the purest Italians in 

 the state. 



Last, and least, the editor modestly mentions that he 

 has some bees that he will be glad to show any of his 

 friends who are in any way interested in the honey bus- 

 iness, if they will call at his residence on Carrollton Avv'. 



This state in its honey producing capacity is supsrior to 

 California. This fact is becoming recognized and wo an- 

 ticipate this spring some considerable interest in tlu' bee 

 business. 



