1877. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



205 



haps test the merits of these small engines. 

 As this will be done especially for the beuodt 

 of bee keepers, a full report of the matter will 

 be given in Gleanings. 



-^■•■^ 



GOOD qijee::^ ci:;i.i^s. k\ e straw ver- 

 sus CHAFF, THE L,. F^UAITIE, Ac. 



sq(^|NCLOSED you will find 25 cents to pay for as many 

 M/i| numbers of Gleanings as you can afTord. Now I 

 i^-^l am not satisfied with what you sent, and would like 

 to see more of your Journal, but you see we are very poor 

 up here ; the reason is we are very lazy ; you can't im- 

 agine how we enjoy laziness, and being lazy we must be 

 i.KUorant. Now it I'get for the 25 cents its value, I may 

 tr.v to raise more, but I want you to con-ect some mis- 

 takes. The idea of directing us, in making artificial 

 swarms, to collect several frames from as many hives, and 

 put them together, then 15 days afterward look sharn for 

 queens, won't do up here; neither would it do in ^Vis- 

 consin. I have had queens hatched in 11 days from the 

 time the queen was started and it is never more than 14 

 days. If they are left 15 days there will not be a live 

 queen in a cell. Our way is to be found in, " What to do 

 and how to do it." 



Again I see that you rather give the preference to chaff 

 hives ; now that may be the best thing you have up there, 

 but it does not look best to me. If, in that cold region, 

 you need a hive that will keep the bees warm in winter 

 and cool in summer, that will equalize the temperature, 

 make your hive the size you want it, then nail pieces on 

 the corners reaching from C to 8 inches below bottom, to 

 the top and standing out one inch. Then put 3 strips 

 across, Mxl inch, from one corner strip to the other all 

 round, filling between the strips and the body of the hive 

 with rye straw, cut to the right length and placf d vertic- 

 ally. This straw will last ten j'ears and can be removed 

 in 30 minutes to the hive. It will not cost as much by 

 one-halt and will save nearly all the paint, provided the 

 top be made of tin as it should be. Such a hive, it two 

 story, (whi?h it should be) with the upper story filled 

 with dry cobs, is the best winter quarters for bees that 1 

 ever found in Wisconsin. 



Last winter was the hardest on bees for ten years ; 

 three-fourths of the bees in east and middle Tenn. died 

 last winter, so that bee keepers are generally demor- 

 alized. This has been the best honey season for ten years. 



I got one new idea from your front pa^e, which is that 

 Italian bees are "moth proof." I thought I had said all 

 that was to be said in their favor ; but never thought, that 

 It was the bees ; I thought it was the hives. I think you 

 are right. 



In regard to the L. frame it will do -very well in this 

 climate, but in the North, they are not best. A frame 

 more nearly square is better. Bees will starve in L. 

 frames with plenty of honey, they can not reach the 

 honey at the ends when the weather is very cold, and I 

 hold'that no hive is what it ought to be unless it is at 

 once summer and winter quarters. I have tried 27 differ- 

 ent models of hives and 1 put the Langstroth two story 

 hive, No. 3 in this climate and no where in the North. 



I have some 05 stands of pure Italian bees, half of them 



c.ime through the winter the other half strong. [ think 



that I will get from the good half 25 lbs. each, average. 

 This is a good country for bees, is ver f healthy, with 

 splendid climate. The people are "selfiifh and cjrasping." 



Now if you have an extractor that will extract any 

 thing, more than the 25 cents, out of this letter, I will be 

 pleased. 



Your friend and the fri» iid of all men, and women, who 

 are using their mental and physical powers for the good 

 ot the woild, and opposed to all patent bee hiccs. "May 

 ihe kiml Father bless you." 



A native of Ohio, down in the State of Tenn. 



Jameslown, June 27th, 1877. B. L. Brier. 



I fear you are "too lazy" to read your sample 

 copy thoroughly, friend B. I said very plain- 

 ly, 15 days from the time the eggs were laid ; 

 if you give them large larvse, or larvie of difl'er- 

 eut ages, of course you will have to take out 

 the cells, in 9 or 10 days, but I would strongly 

 urge that the bees be comjielled to use eggs or 

 laivte just out of the egg, that we may have 

 none of those half queen, and half worker bees. 

 A subscriber has just s-^nt us a worker bee 

 that was hatched from a queen cell, and we 

 very often And these whei-e a weak nucleus is 

 allowed to have larva? of all ages to rear 

 queens from. .Some of these small shiny 



(jueens, or worker (jueens, will lay eggs for a 

 few months, i)erhaps a year. What we want 

 is (lueens that will last 8 or 4 years. We have 

 quite a number in our apiary now, in their 

 third year, and they are just about as good as 

 the first season. A queen that will do good 

 work for -i years, is worth — how much more 

 than one that fails in one year':' A dollar 

 queen reared in this way, I consider wortii 

 very much more, than many of the tested 

 queens one year or more old. From the way 

 orders are sent in, I judge that others are be- 

 coming of the same opinion, for dollar (|ueens 

 raised in a large apiary, all Italians, are the 

 greater part of them, equal to any at any price, 

 and they are dlways young <(ueens. 



We give a space of 4 inches for chaff, and 

 you speak of one inch of straw being as effic- 

 ient. The straw with tin cover would be 

 about as expensive to many of our readers, as 

 the chafl'hive, and just think how your apiary 

 would look. A hive of boards, can be repaint- 

 ed when it looks bad, but your rye straw — I 

 am afraid I should not take pride in bringing 

 visitors into my apiary, as I now do. 



Our large honey raisers who winter with 

 the most unvarying success, year after year, 

 use the L. hive, or Quinby, which is much like 

 it in shape, and I can not call to mind one who 

 has met with such success with either the 

 Gallup, or American frame, as those who use 

 the Langstroth. Adam Griinm "who perhaps 

 stands at the head of all in successful winter- 

 ing, used an 8 frame L. hive. James Bolin 

 wiio winters year after year often losing less 

 than one in a hundred, uses the L. hive. If 

 any such reports have been given vvith the 

 Gallup or the American frames, or indeed 

 with any of the tall frames, I should be glad 

 to have them pointed out. You are in the 

 iSotUh, and have a hive that is ever so mnch 

 better, and yet your best half, you say will 

 give you only 25 lbs. each. I have taken over 

 100 lbs. of comb honey in small sections, from 

 several hives already — July 11 — and I very 

 mueh doubt if I could have done as well with 

 a deeper frame. 



Be careful my friend liow yoa speak ill of 

 the people ; you are one of them. Your con- 

 clusion does not look "grasping," and we shall 

 be very glad indeed to welcome you among us, 

 even if you are somewhat inclined to "lazi- 

 ness." 



1^^ >»♦ ^ 



I have 50 of the nicest sections built from fdn. you sent 

 me, that you ever saw. Quite a number of bee-keepers 

 came to see how the comb looked when filled ; they want 

 me to get a machine and make fdn. to .supply them the 

 next season. 1 told them I would get one and accommo- 

 date them. Bees are doing extra here this season. We 

 have more white clover than for ten years before. Bass- 

 wood just commencing to bloom but bees don't seem to 

 woik on it much. The prospect is good for a big honey 

 crop here. I think clover will last until the middle of 

 August, ('haff cushions arc going to be the hobby here, 

 for wintering. I will report from "Rocky Fork" apiary 

 after the honey season is over. N. W. Kershaw. 



Hope, Ohio, July 8th, 1S77. 



Basswood seems rather an uncertain honey 

 crop with /M of late. Year before last, we had 

 a bountiful flow, but last season as well as 

 this, only a flavoring. The trees are loaded 

 with blossoms, and the bees are humming over 

 them, but it teems to take thcin nearly all day 

 to get a load, for it is late in the evening, be- 

 fore they come home heavily laden. 



