1877 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



93 



acro^^s the I'. S., and thou back asain by ex- 

 press. We are very sjhid indeed lo have you 

 corroborate what was just beijiuinng to dawn 

 on our understaudiiiij; that bees make natural 

 comb varyiuj^ greatly in thickness. We be- 

 lieve light thin cappings, might be used to 

 considerable advantage, when one has uo fdn. 



VENTILATING HONEV BOXES. 



^^*^ N p:iKe ;u Feb. Xo. j'ou say "We feel i)retty woU sat- 

 mM islicd that one greiit trouble in |J:ettiii;r comb honey, 

 ^^ is haviufr too much draught througli the hive, or 

 haviiiB the suri)lus receptacles protected by nolhiii.:^ but 

 thin wood." If that is the case how will you reconcile 

 the theory v.ilh the practice of that; much spoken of bee 

 man, Adam Grirara '? When I w:\s at his apiary in Au^'ust 

 1873, I noticed the caps of his hives raised ori blocks one 

 inch, or more, high, leaving the boxes exposed to view, 

 and as his boxes did not (ill the hive on either side liy all 

 of V of an inch, the bees could come out all around the 

 tier of boxes, and of course that was anytliinfj but buins 

 protected from a draught throui^li tlie hi\e. When asked 

 the object of it, he said, "I get a great deal more box hon- 

 •y by it." How arc jou going to Root that aside V 



On page :31), friendly Gormley says, "How any one can 

 «lislike your metal corners is a mystery to me. Let your 

 Sharpville correspondent state his objection." I am not 

 the Sharpville man, but I can talk ; mayn't I ? 1 would 

 not use the metal corners if Novice would give them to 

 ine. And why ? The main reason is they cut my fingers 

 so in handling. I always take a frame by the project- 

 ing end bars, and in lifting heavy combs or jerking off 

 bees for extracting or other purposes, the corners are very 

 jnuch in the way, and cut my lingers so it hurts. There 

 is no use in making a frame less than | inches thick and 

 with those you don't need t'ue corners, and save extra ex- 

 pense. It is said the corners make the frame much 

 stronger. My frame is made of stuU 'a'xS nailed together 

 in a mould-board, and I will back it to hang as true or 

 stand as much banging as any metal cornered frame. I 

 have tried the metal corners, so it is no guess work. 



I must make a few corrections in friend McCraw's article 

 page 77. I began with 11 stocks and increased to 22 and 

 jfot .312 lbs. of extracted honey. ZdcGaw must be mistak- 

 en in saying I told him our locality is over stocked, for I 

 don't think so. There was about liO stocks went into 

 winter quarters within one mile of this place. McGaw 

 thinks my stocks were not strong enough at the right 

 time. If that is so, I don't know what strong stocks are, 

 for our hives were "chuck full" of bees, as friend Cramer 

 of Juniata, Xeb. can testify. We have hundreds of .acres 

 of white clover, and last season when it was in full bloom, 

 our bees were very strong and worked hard, but there 

 didn't seem to be any honey in the clover. I have known 

 of but one year in which white clover gave us ar.y sur- 

 plus, the balance of the time it was only good enough to 

 keep brood rearing going. There must be something in 

 the toil detrimental to it, for friend McGaw gets good 

 crops of it, but he is nearer sand and that may be of ben- 

 efit. Our main dependence is the fall bloom, which was 

 a total failure last year on account of cool rainy weather. 

 I have got as high as 116 lbs. of extracted honey from one 

 stock here, besides taking from them 18 frames brood and 

 bees, and my average that year was a little over 19 lb?. 

 per stock. 



The Western Illinois Ree-kceper's Society, that friend 

 Haines is working up, is to meet at Monmouth, 111. 

 April 10th. Will M. Kellogg. 



Oneida, 111., March 7tli, 1877. 



We suppose of course that our frieud Grimm 

 knew better how to raise comb honey than we 



do, but nevertheless would suggest that his 

 hives were placed directly in tlie sun, and 

 thereby became too warm for the bees during 

 the middle of the day. Protecting the hives 

 from the direct heat of the sun by chaft" walls, 

 will also protect them from the other extreme 

 during cool nights, will it not ■:* Our experi- 

 ment of blanketing the honey boxes was in the 

 house apiary, and these boxes were gummed 

 up so that not a bit of air could pass through 

 them, yet the bees never clustered outside, as 

 they do in hives that are in the sun. 



Friend K., we have known mechanics who 

 gave as an excuse for working with dull tools, 

 that they would cut their lingers if made sharp. 

 If we are going to have frames proof against 

 propolis, tliey must rest on knife etlges ; if our 

 readers prefer to pry the frames loose rather 

 than to learn to grasp them a half inch from 

 the extreme end of the top-bar, of course they 

 will do so. It might be interesting to you, 

 friend K., to see the quantities of corners antl 

 frames we ship every season, to your brother 

 bee-keepers. 



Take 100 nailed frames and weigh them ; 

 then compute the number of square inches of 

 comb space, and aftervs-ard tumble them on the 

 floor in a heap. Now do the same with our 

 frames. You will find several pounds more 

 weight to handle with the nailed frames, and 

 if the tumble has not injured them more than 

 the others, you will find they contain several 

 square feet of space less inside, while the out- 

 side dimensions are the same. 



"RIGHTS" Aan» WKONGS. 



WHO IS TO BLAME '? 



*i>^OW, my friends, I do hope I may be 

 J^^jl alile to sec my own faults in this matter, 

 —' and that my work may not be oue-sided, 

 as I have reason now to think it has been 

 heretofore. I have beeu much more vehement 

 in denouncing Mitchell, than have any of the 

 other journals ; has my course been really a 

 better one than theirs V He has taken money 

 from great numbers of people, and has given 

 them in return, rights that are, without doubt, 

 of no use to them ; he has also taken large 

 sums for receipts that he claimed were of 

 great value ; he has also received money from 

 others for queens and bees that he never sent 

 them, but does it follow that our erring friend 

 was alone to blame in this matter'? All these 

 oftences are permitted by law, or at least it is 

 very difficult for the law to get hold of offend- 

 ers who have no property. The law permits 

 one to take sflOO for a right for a single coun- 

 ty, or as much more as he can get, and if it 

 should transpire that the purchaser pays for 

 the right to use something that is already free 

 to all, is he not very much at fault in making 

 foolish and injudicious purchases? If our 

 friend Mitchell has a receipt for making bee- 

 feed, and if one of our readers agrees to pay 

 $10 for it, the transaction maj^ be a fair one in 

 the eyes of the law so far as we know. When 

 the man finds his monej- is thrown away, as it 

 invariably is when paid for receipts, so far as 

 my knowledge extends, who is to blame? It 

 seems rather hard to tell people who read lit- 

 tle, and v^'ho are inclined to think everyone 



