187'? 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



217 



GLOVES IIV THE APIARY. 



^inll I^'TOR GLKANINUS :— In some number of your 

 Vr'J II valuable Journal, not more than one year ago, 1 

 >!w^ think, you stated that unlesp you should soon 

 liear some favorable report In relation to the use of 

 rubber gloves in the apiary, you would feel compelled 

 to class them with "Humbugs and Swindles-" By 

 ihe use of one pair I am fully persuaded that it is ex- 

 actly where they should be classed. 



Uiibber gloves may bo exactly suited to the pur- 

 poses of submarine divers, but of all known substan- 

 ces from which gloves have been, or can be manufac- 

 tured, I can conceive of none more utterly unfit for 

 tlie purposes of the apl.irian, than rubber. Of all un- 

 comfortable garments that I ever undertook to wear, 

 at any time, under any circumstances, rubber gloves 

 in hot weather, are the worst. 



A little less enthusiasm, and a little more reflection 

 might possibly cause me to make an exception in fa- 

 vor of a bad lilting shirt, with a neck band that 

 chokes. Nothing else. 



Besides, they are not durable. Adhesion to propo- 

 lis very soon tears the rubber Irom the cloth lining. 



'Tis entirely practicable to handle bees with impu- 

 nity with naked hands ; nevertheless, I usually make 

 u&e of gloves, and lor two reasons. First, because it 

 is much easier to slip gloves on, and ofl", than it is to 

 get the propolis off my hands after having taken out a 

 lew frames with bare hands. Another reason for 

 using comfortable well fitting gloves, is, that with 

 them, I can work more expeditiously. 



Gloves of th'.n, yet Jirm leather, are tlie best of any 

 thing I have yet tried. Real genuine dog-skin gloves, 

 for example. Old kid gloves, even, answer well. 

 Gloves of any fabric that will stretch, when being de- 

 tached from adhering propolis, are almost unusable. 

 1 should like to try some gloves made from heavy 

 sail cloth, or linen duck, or perhaps what would be 

 still better, linen or cotton serge, such as is fre<inently 

 made into summer shoes. Who will make such, ex- 

 pressly for bee-keepers ? 



G. E. CORBIN, St. Johns, Mich. 



It you pinch a bee, or even set your ringers 

 on one of its feet, you will be pretty likely to 

 get stung, and I am glad our bees can and will 

 sting, whenever we are so careless as to come 

 into their houses and tread on their toes or in- 

 fringe on their rights in any way ; for bees 

 have rights as well as wornen. If I under- 

 stand the matter, gloves in the apiary, are for 

 the purpose of enabling their keeper to tread 

 on the rights of the bees with impunity, mash 

 them, pinch their toes, orr to be as awkward, 

 careless and bungling, as he chooses. Bees 

 are very careful and nice in their work, and 

 when one invades their home, they kindly per- 

 mit us to upset things, providing we don't make 

 too much noise and racket, and go to work 

 setting everything right, after we get away, 

 with a patience that to me, is really touching. 

 Now with my naked fingers, I can feel wheth- 

 er I am touching a bee, even if I do not see 

 away down ijito the hive ; I can also tell by 

 the sense of touch, when the frames are at the 

 proper distances, and if I begin to press on the 

 foot of a bee, I can tell by his buzzing against 

 my finger, that he desires me to move along, 

 for that is his own person I am getting hoM 

 of, and I invariably have warning, before the 

 sting comes. The same is the case in hand- 

 ling sections, and it seems to me "awful" to 

 think of going into a hive with gloves on..,. I 

 very rarely get my hands stung at all. Late 

 in the fall, we have the same trouble with 

 propolis but I think I would prefer the propo- 

 lis, to th^ gloves, by considerable. Benzine 

 will remove it readily. The rubber gloves, 

 seem to be a downright fraud ; not one purcha- 

 ser has reported favorably of them. 



m»^*^m. 



The comb fdn. machine 1 bought of you works 

 splendidly; it makes better work than the sample 

 you sent. \V. R. Bishop, Sherwood, Wis., July IC. 



From Different Fields. 



^nlS^ID you ever try Introducing queens at the time 

 JIU/J *'' '^^^'"S young swarms ? 



5=-^ I have "been trying to get subscribers for 

 Gleanings, but have 60 f.ar failed. Some men will 

 lose $5 sooner than pay <me for a paper. 



I). G. I'AKKEK, St. Joe, Mo., April 30, 1877. 

 You can introduce almost any queen to a 

 new swarm without trouble, if you take their 

 own queen away ; and we have never found it 

 necessary to cage them at all. It is almost an 

 every day occurrence for us to hear from peo- 

 ple who have lost money by patents, and who 

 have invested in things out of date, just be- 

 cause they were not posted ; others send us 

 more than the present prices for extractors, 

 corners, etc., necessitating our sending their 

 money back ; and one who had just one colony 

 of Italians, thought he could not aff"ord a bee- 

 paper, but inimediately afterward. -hived a 

 large swarm from them, that went to the 

 woods in the afternoon of the same-day. Our 

 June No. mentioned particularly the import- 

 ance of clipping the queen's wings, and yet all 

 these people say they cannot aiford a dollar 

 for a.iournal. 



I have 50 swarms. Bees wintered well in cellar but not 

 in bee house. This spring I am satisfied that the bees 

 breed faster in bee house than outside, but it seems im- 

 possible to raise and mate youuir queens in the same. 

 H. H. RoSEBEOCK, Owatonna, Minn., June 2;jd, '77. 



We presume our friend refers to a house 

 apiary. We have had just as good success 

 with queens in the house, as with those out- 

 side. Are not vour entrances too nearly alike 

 friend R. ? 



TOO MUCH HONEY. 



I have read a gieat many reports from others of spring 

 dwindling but this spring is the first that I have had any 

 experience in tiie matter, having lost two that were as 

 strong (apparently) as any, bufas I lifted out the frames 

 and found but little empty comb I came to the conclusion 

 that it was caused from want of room late in the fall for 

 them to raise .young bees to take the place of the old ones 

 that so soon die oil in ttie spring ; what do .vou think V 

 H. A. Palmek, Madora, Iowa, July 16th, 1877. 



We can hardly think your bees or any oth- 

 ers ever had spring dwindling from having 

 too much honey in the hives judging from the 

 experiments we have made. Last fall several 

 rather weak colonies were put on combs of 

 solid sealed honey on purpose to test the mat- 

 ter, and in some cases they were obliged to 

 build bits of comb at the ends of the frames to 

 contain the honey removed in order to get 

 clustering room, but instead of injuring them, 

 it seemed to be just what was needed. These 

 stocks were never in danger of clustering at 

 one side of the hive while their food was all 

 at the other, but as soon as they began brood- 

 rearing, the sealed honey and sealed brood, 

 ran together so that it was sometimes puzzling 

 to tell one from the other. As soon as they 

 began work in the sections the honey was car- 

 ried above out of the wa}', and if can have our 

 bees in this shape every winter, we (and the 

 bees too) will be perfectly suited. Old bees, 

 and too much honey, have been quite a favor- 

 ite way of explaining losses. Was it guess 

 work on paper, or the results of really sharp 

 looking into the hives ? 



