1877 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



07 



WAXlI<«i KAStRKB.S FOIt IIONKT, ETC. 



'^f'j MADK on<|Uliy of you pouic lime siiico, about plno 

 <|i kcgsi, whether you thought they nvou1<1 answer 

 '"^^ (your reply was in the ailirmative,) il' well coaled 

 •■villi paraflitie. Mr. Jones, IJeelon, says it will spoil 

 hor.ey lo be jnU in thtui. Woukl \ou kii-dly let me 

 l;now Jf you have seen, or kuowa oT any utc^l sue- 

 •: (.ssuilly ? 1 have had a number made and would 

 rather lote thein than spoil a erop of honey. I have 

 had eome diflieuliy in disposing of extiaeted honey, 

 hiiving to create a market lor It in plaecs around me. 

 1 have sold all the coir.b honey 1 could buy in iheae 

 parts,— not having any niysell— and have maikcl for 

 ;» large lot jet. C'oukl you inform me of any person in 

 ^•r.tario with a <iuantity lo pell? 1 coidd give 17c. 

 « ath for it, if in !uee boxop, email preftrrcd, within 2 

 <.r;;co miles cl Toronto, liaving several i^artits there 

 1 1) supply. Can you give me the botanical names of 

 ^■oUlen rod and purple-top lireweed ? 



BENJ. C. GitEEKMAN. 



Stayner, Can., Dec, 20lh, ISTC. 



It is quite a serious matter indeed to put 

 Iioney in anything; that will injure it, but we 

 are so well pleased with parafline, that we 

 should not hesitate to put the honey even in 

 nine, if we were careful to coat perfectly every 

 part inside. This operation is much more 

 ^■asiiy done with paraffine than with wax, for 

 when meltfd it runs almost as freelj'^ as water, 

 und every portion of the barrel can be given 

 several coats before it cools, even If we use 

 but a small quantity. Again, wax sometimes 

 cleaves from the wood, which we believe para- 

 Hi ne never does. We spoiled quite a quantity 

 of honey, or at least made it second quality, 

 !iy coatinfi the barrels with wax -md rosin, 

 and although we have given the warning in 

 our own and other Journals, we sec Mr. Hhear- 

 er still advises the use of rosin in a recent 

 number of the Mdfjazine. 



Some one can certainly supply you with 

 comb honey another season we think, if they 

 cannot this. Golden rod, is &olidi).(jo\ we do 

 )iot know of a purple lireweed ; we think true 

 lire weed has only a white blossom. 



aOOB^aTTIvE'S SYSTEM, HffOW FA3£ "^VE 

 CAN AFFORI> 'i'W SOEf.«W Mini, E'lC. 



^.^^'OU tell how Doolittle uses his sections as .side stor- 

 yff ing boxes, but I am still in the dark as to how they 

 ^ "" go on top of brocd, whether they rest on the brood 

 fi;imes or aie hung in boxes by those it iiicb projections. 

 ■'TJsose on toj), rest on % inch strips laid on the frames at 

 <'!!cii endj. And I am am also in a quandary as to how 

 ^ou close up the last case of top eases, as each case has a 

 tin separator on one side only. [Close last with a little 

 i-.iiard]. Again, how do you get those 1:2^ inch cases in a 

 ii inch hiver [Brood upartmtnt is 12 inches, but the 

 »vst of the hive is wider.] Why does Mr. Duoliltle prefer 

 two tiers of casus with .V inch space between for .•^ide 

 J;(>ses instead of making one case to hold four boxes ': 



W. P. HoGAP.TT, Quindaro, Kan., March 8th, 77. 

 We asked Mr. D. why he did rot use cases 

 lo iiold more than two sections, and he replied 

 nccau.se he could not shake the bees off from a 

 J'.cavy frame, and that he wished to have tho.sc 

 ^it toj) and sides precisely alike. It will at 

 once be seen, that friend D's. arrangement is 

 both complicated and expensive compand with 

 ■lie plan v,e have adopttd, of having the cas^e 

 'v\- .sections precisely of the dimensions of the 



brood frame, that we may hang them both 

 above and below, on the same rabbetj; as do 

 the brood combs. With the latter plan, no 

 explanation is needed, for a simple look at the 

 frames and the liive, enables the veriest novice 

 to see what each part is for, while his arrange- 

 ment would necessitate a lengthy explanation. 

 We would by no means think of shaking or 

 brushing the bees olf ; such work is altogeth- 

 er too slow and laborious. Take olf your casts 

 of sections, or whole ui)per stories just at 

 dusk, and leave them close to the entrance of 

 the hive, over night, and every bee will be out 

 quietly before morning, unless there is brood 

 in the hive, and we have never as yet found 

 any. If frames of sections are left outside, 

 they may be injured by rain or storms coming 

 up untxpectedly. To avoid this?, we would 

 always put them in an empty hive, with a cov- 

 er on it, leaving openings below of course, for 

 the bees to get out. If it is at a season when 

 the bees are disposed to. rob, you will have to 

 get up in the morning as soon as they can fly, 

 or you may have "much troubles." This may 

 seem a task, but we think it far preferable to 

 fussing and waiting to get the bees out of the 

 sections in the usual way. As a hive, or rather 

 a story of sections will weigh on an average 

 50 lbs., it would be no great task to prepare a 

 ton ready for shipment, in this way — perhaps 

 it may prove even easier than to extract the 

 honey. If you can't get up at daylight when 

 occasion of this kind demands it, you are not 

 fit to become a bee-keeper. 



iiaa' ♦♦♦ -^ 



CROWI» IN THE CORSr-FIEED. 



^jRIEjS'D novice :-As well might the farmer ex- 

 pect to realize a full crop of corn, when he knows 

 that a largo ilock of crows infest his fleld, and are 

 pulhng up the corn as fast as it sprouts, as for the bee- 

 keeper to hope for a largo crop of surplus from stocks 

 of bees that are overrun with drones. 



For years we have been trying lo get rid of drones, and 

 to prevent the building of drone comb, but in all our 

 operations, we did not strike the root cf the evil. Why 

 do stocks standing side by side in the same apiary, give 

 such different results ? We answei : becauseone of them 

 is eaten up with drones, and the drones consume the 

 honey as fast as the bees can gather it ; and the otherjhas 

 less drones and more workers. 



Again : Why is it that a .«,tock will store a large surplus 

 the first year it is hived, and the next year do nothing? 

 We answer: because what drone combs were built were 

 mostly stored with honey as fast as built, and but few 

 drones were raised the first year; but the following season 

 after tbe combs have been emptied by the bees, and be- 

 fore honey comes in rapidly, the queen has full sway, and 

 will fill up a greater proportion of it with drone brood. 

 Hence, this great horde of consumers the second seasonf 



Have you not} often noticed some stocks at the com- 

 mencement of the honey harvest that had got well into 

 th<! boxes, and most of them were from half to two-thirds 

 filled with comb and honey, but all of a sudden progress 

 in the boxes was stopped P Just take a close look into 

 the boxes and you will see that a large batch of drones 

 has hatched and entered the boxes and are eating up the 

 honey as fast as the bees can collect it, and such stock 

 will never be profitable. 1 ha^e never known a family to 

 iJTCsjier and aceurnulaie, svhcso members were lazyjcon- 

 sutr.ei"s, neither wiil a fi'.mily cf bees. 



l\\ looking over .some of our old memoranda we find the 

 following : In the spiing of 18>7 we built a small pavilion. 



