1877 



SUPPLEMENT TO GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



11 



Implements, Etc. 



MEULF.Y OF OUK BEEKEEPEKS. 



Wo are a little surprised tliat this work has had no 

 5:irfj;or sale, contaiiiinp as i*; does excellent, large photo- 

 A'raps of both Laiisstroth and Quinby, besides if(KHi sized 

 ^lietures of almost all the prurninetit bee-keepers and 

 writers for the 15eo Journals. The name of oach is plaiidy 

 t*rinted on them, and as it contains over l.jO pictures, il; 

 makes a very pleasant study, especially after having fol- 

 l.iwoi! these fi lends in their writings as we have ninny of 

 ihein, for years. Think of havinK a jrood photo of Heth- 

 -tTinifton, Grinnn, Uooliltle, Knlin, I'rof. Cook, Dadant, 

 i.>ean, Davis, Gallup, Katie Grimm, Mrs. Harrison. Dr. 

 Hamlin, Muth, jVellis, Nesbit, Wajtner, Prof. Kirtland, 

 ('arsons, Carey, and eiioufih more to nearly fill this paw, 

 r-iU sent safely' for oidy ?1,00. 



LAMP NUESEKY. 



This is simply a hive made of tin, with double wnlls; 

 the space between the two walls which may be from ii to 

 1 inch, is tilled with water, and this water is kept at an 

 ••nen temperature of about 100'^ by a lamp under the hive. 

 The lamp is to be enclosed in a box to avoid drafts, and 

 llie whole t-hould be in a close room, to save the expense 

 <i( oil. The tin hive is to be placed a foot or more above 

 the top of the lamp chimney. When the oil is purchased 

 by the barrel, tlie experi.se is but little more than one cent 

 per day. (Jet your fjueen cells on the plan friven on pafj;e 

 ,'*, and when capped over, they may be taken away from 

 llie bees entirely, and the frame containing them hunsr in 

 the nursery. If you have followed the instructions iriven, 

 the queens will all hatch out lone before the workers, and 

 all you have to do is to jilace them in any queenless hive 

 or nucleus, as soon as they are hatched. You need not 

 open the hive to introduce them, but you can just let 

 them crawl in at the entrance, and the loss will certainly 

 be no greater than that ol inserting queen cells. You 

 <'an if you choose, have several combs containing queen 

 oells in the nursery at the same time, and >vhen we can 

 have queens hatching every day for weeks, we really en- 

 }6y the fpn. It is easy keeping a supply of cells on hand, 

 wlien we once get started, and we do not examine our 

 nursery often than alwut live times a d.ay. It will be ob- 

 served that with the lamp nursery, we have no cutting, 

 Jior mutilating of our nice combs, as we do where we cut 

 out queen cells. When the queens are old enough to be- 

 siii to gnaw out, they can easily be heard by holding the 

 itsiub of cells, next to the ear, and as they are ready to 

 ieti'oduce as soon as they begin to cut out the caps, they 

 ?iiay be safely taken out with a sharp pen knife, and put 

 -Ht once where wanted. They sx)metimes kill each other 

 ■when crawling about in the nursery, but not often unless 

 xbere are bees present. We have found a half dozen or 

 more crawling about peaceably together on lirst going 

 <s:\t in the morning, but they would be certain to kill each 

 other, if left until a few hours older. Price of nurseiy 

 i«tli lamp large enough to burn several days, S.5,00. 



INSIDE OF EXTRACTORS, AND GEARING. 



We can if desired furnish the inside of an extractor 

 oinnplete, including tinned honey gate for 65., but as it is 

 next to imix)ssible tor a common tin-smith to make a can 

 just right without cjuc to look at, even could he afford 

 tiiem at our late retlucetl prices, we think it much better 

 for you all, to order a complete machine, at least the first 

 tame. As we can send the gearing complete with the cast 

 ii"Ou arm to fasten it to the can for 81,50, (.?2,00 by mail), 

 it may be well to order this from distant localities. With 

 :» (Inished extractor to look at, and the hoops to go around 

 the top of the can (single hoops 50c. or §5. per doz.), a tin- 

 ■vmith might make them very well. 



We cannot imagine why some of tbe friends insist 

 that the inside of an extractor must be taken out when 

 it is to be cle-an^ed, when it is right in its place in the 

 ■oan in the very beet po.'^sible shape, if we simply use 

 a tea-kettle of boiling water. Give it a good swashing 

 ^>y turning tbe crank, draw off the water, rinse again, 

 «nd wliat more is needed f During the honey season 

 there is no need to clean it, if the cover be thrown 

 over whenever you stop working, and we can imagine 

 no necessity ol removing ibf. inside unless lor repairs, j 

 •or that the can may be n.sed for Bom-e other purpose. 



CAXDY FOR BEES. i 



This is made of A collce sugar precisely a-s confectioners 

 Tuiike it, only that is not worked as they do usually. For 

 <tinvenience in using in tiie hives, we make into sticks i 

 ■.•?x2xlO inches, weighing about /^ lb. These sticks an; i 

 just about right to lay jktoss the frames under the {(uilt j 

 where the bees will take them very readily. This is ■ 

 perhaps the easiest way in which bees can he Ud. In i 

 ■very cold weather, it shoukl be well covered with warm 

 blankets, and it is rather nnsaf.': to trust to candy entire- 

 ly, unless it is given them before se\eTe we-tther that tliey | 

 may have time to gel a gco<l sliare of it down isiLv) the i 

 <>ombs. The candy I'lund at the stores will iieihtips do as 

 well, but it is generally more expensive. Lumps of any | 

 kit.'d of sugar may be fed in the same way, btil sir® apt to 



bo ci-umbled down into the hive and wasted. Maple 

 sugar in cakes, works beautifully, and cukes made of 

 coninion brown sugar seem equally ^ood for warm weath- 

 er feeding ; we have not tried it for winter stores. At the 

 present price of sugar— He, wo are obliged to charge 17('. 

 [jer lb. for the candy, but it will be cheaper for y< u all to 

 m;ike your own if you have the time. Sec How To Make 

 Catidy in our book list. 



I,AR\ K FOR QUEEN REARING. 



S[any failures are reported with this, just because it is 

 ordered from too long distances, or at an u'se.'isonble 

 time of the yfar. It should bo borne in mind, Ihat if il 

 is out of the hive more than 48 hours, or if exposed to a 

 temperature lower than ■'.'0'^, the larva; will be uretty sure 

 to be dead. If the bees remove it frein the cells, you 

 may be sui-e it was either chilled or starved. Send to 

 some one near you who has an imported queen, do not 

 have the larvic out of the hive more than two days, and 

 you will be pretty sure to get good nice queens. As soon 

 as leceivt d, you are to insert it in the centre of n comb in 

 the middle of the cluster of a queenless colony, and if it is 

 all right, you will see them starling queen cells around it 

 at ouve. Of course there must be no other eggs or un- 

 sealed brood in the hive, but it will b<! a very good idea 

 to have some sealed brood. 



MICROSCOPES. 



These are real compound microscopes, and qidte a dif- 

 ferent thing from the double and single masiiiifying 

 gl-asses so oftet! called by that name. The one we offer at 

 ■¥3,00, is a very neat instrument carefully packed in a ma- 

 hogany box, with implements for the work of taking reg- 

 ular lehsons in the insect world. You will lindwithit, 

 that a single bee will make a study for a long lime. Sent 

 by mail for 5.S,15, and if you are not pleased with il, you 

 can return it at our expense, and the money will be "re- 

 funded. 



FEEDERS. 



XotwithPtanding the great number that have been 

 used and recommended, we really icc! like recom- 

 mending but the quart can with perforated tin over 

 the top. It is virtually, a quart pepper box, and a 

 pepper box will answer eveiy purpose; if you doubt 

 it jus* pour out the pei)per and try one. You can 

 teed even sweetened water with this arrangement. 

 When ttrst inverted, it may be well to hold it over a 

 dish of the syrup, but it may then be- carried where 

 you wish, without any loss, if you keep it in an in- 

 verted position. 



On some accounts, we like a feeder made of a bag 

 of cloth tacked to a strip of wood about twice the 

 width of the top bar of your frame, but they aie ob- 

 jectionable because the bees are very apt to build 

 combs beneath them if not watched closely, and be- 

 cause we have got to open and arrange the hive for 

 them, open the hive to fee<l, an<l take them out when 

 no longer needed. With the tin feeder we never, 

 need tp open the hive at all, for if placed close to the 

 entrance just at dusk, they will be found empty the 

 next morning, and you have no fussing with the hive 

 and frames. It may be urged that this can only be 

 done in warm weather, and that the colony must be 

 strong enough to be s! anding out around the doorway. 

 We answer, feed candy in cold weather, and do not 

 have weak stocks that need feeding in warm weather. 



HOW TO SEND MONET. 



If you do not wish to take any risk of loss, send P. O. 

 Order, registered letter, or get a N. Y. Draft, but as all 

 these ways are expensive, especially for small amounts, I 

 will make a suggestion. Probably not more than one let- 

 ter in a thousand, is lost in the mail, but to be on the safe 

 side, we v/ill assume that one in a hundred will be lost. 

 The cheapest way is to get a Money Order, but even at 

 the low price of 10 cents, we pay §10. to have the one 

 hundred letters safe, besides the tiouble of getting ihe 

 Order. Had you put ^10. in each of the hundred letters, 

 and lost one of them you would have been no more out of 

 pocket. This would show that it only pi;ys to ie;.:ister 

 amounts exceeding .?10. To make it a littlo safer, we call 

 it •t'S., and we have for years sent all sums of less than .$5.. 

 in the lettei-s, and we have saved in fees, far more than 

 the amount lost, besides saving our friends who nceived 

 it, the trouble of getting it cashed. This plan oily ap- 

 plies to pereons of known integrity, for when the money 

 is sent, they may if dis!<osed, say they never received it. 

 If you do not know me, you had better not send me loose 

 money, for I may be only writing Ibis to get tlie advan- 

 tage. ' Do you ask wiiy i do not st:ind the loss myself if it 

 is only one letter in one hundred V I would chcei fully do 

 this, were I not in dniun'r of doimr harm to make such a 

 proposal in a public ciitular, for it would be too much 

 like leating the door to ones store open all night. l-5e- 

 s-idc;., 1 should have to charge a liifle more for goods, if I 

 stood atl losses. I woi Id advise all to do bushiess wi«h as 

 much economy as possible, but when losses come. I think 

 it best that we each benr our share of them chcei fully. 



