92 



GLEANINGS m BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



not a bit frightened about its being unwhole- 

 some when it is as nice and pure as tliat 

 made by the Davenport ( 'o . 



My small bee business does well. Eight stocks 

 last sprin? and a starved swarm that came to me in 

 April or May, produced 63 lbs. of beautiful thick 

 honey and twelve swarms ; making- in all 30 stocks 

 in good condition. John Fothekinoham. 



St. Mary's Oat. Canada. 



EIGHT FRAME HIVES, AND "TANGING" BEES. 



1 think you will soon talk 8 frame Langstroth, for 

 the brood chamber. 



Het-e is a chance to make that fortune in a com- 

 bined smoker and tanger. One day, last summer, as 

 1 was crossing the road with my Quinby in hand, I 

 was accosted by an old "fogy" friend, who claims to 

 have kept the "varmints," ever since the time when 

 Michigan wore her "baby clothes." 



"How's your bees getting on lately? " said he. 



"O they keep me quite busy," I said. "You see. 

 there is one swarm in that little 'cedar,' and another 

 In that cherry, and I have just been raking one out 

 of those blackberry bushes." 



"Wal! that's a biar 'skip' hanging up there," said 

 he, "but what on airth is that machine you've got 

 there?" 



"That is a 'Quinby Smoker,' sir," and I pinched the 

 bellows, while the pipe was quite close to the old 

 man's nose. 



"Lawks!" said he, "I thought it was some new 

 fangled patent right, to 'tang* 'em down with when 

 thev swarm." 



What they call "tanging," blowing horns, ringing 

 bells, &c., is practiced by those who have their "bee 

 education" handed down from one generation to an- 

 other, and, who ridicule practical books upon any 

 subject. It is amusing to hear the superstitious sto- 

 ries they will tell about their bees. 



Alonzo Borden'. 



South Lyon, Mich., Jan. 34th, '78. 



I am already converted to 8 frames for 

 the brood nest, or perhaps 7; but I would 

 want my hives wide enough to contain a 

 frame of sections at each side of the brood, 

 and this would bring it just as we now 

 make them. For wintering, we vvant just 7 

 combs or less; we therefore replace the 

 frames of sections with chaff cushion divis- 

 ion boards, until honey comes again the 

 next season. It is, many times, very con- 

 venient to have 10 brood frames " in a 

 single story, and for this reason, and the 

 others mentioned, I would not make hives 

 to hold less than 10 frames. 



Mv bees came through all right last winter, altho' 

 we had a hard spring; rhauy lost heavily. Mr. Aug- 

 ustine lost 30, out of 34 swarms; he wintered on sum- 

 mer stand=!; I wintered in house apiary, and increased 

 by natural swarming, 300 per cent. I took 443'^ lbs. 

 of honej' from 4 swarms, comb and extracted. From 

 one, I took 60 lbs. comb honey, and S4 lbs. extracted, 

 and it cast 4 swarms; all are doing well to date; they 

 had no assistance from other hives. I bad 3 swarms, 

 that showed signs of dysentery, after being confined 

 two weeks in their hives; this was on the 14th of 

 November; two of them appear all riyrht now; from 

 the other one. the bees come out with their bodies 

 very much distended; of course, I do not e.xpeet 

 them to survive the winter. All the rest are "slick 

 and slim" to date. 



Oh. Se3! what a height friend Novice has reached 

 with his climbers, on the ladder. Now, Mr. N. when 

 you g "ft up to 4 or 5 thousand steps--say, won't we 

 subsc:-ibers look very small down here? eh? 



M. Richardson. 



Port C jlb^no, Canada, .Jan. 1.5th, 1878. 



Four swai-ms, and 144 lbs. honey, nearly 

 half comb, is certainly pretty well, and I 

 guess we shall have to admit that your lo- 

 cality is good enough for anybody. Was 

 that colony chaif packed, or in the house 

 apiaryV 



Friend R., wlienever subscribers or any 



cause else, makes me forget that I am one 

 of you, I hope the "ladder," and the "climb- 

 ers'" too, will be taken away from me until 

 I come to my senses again. I alvvays want 

 to be a bee-keeper, and vvhen it is my turn 

 to go into blasted hopes I want to be a 

 "blasted hoper" too. 



r wrote you last summer, enquiring the best time 

 to transfer bees from an old box hive to one of mov- 

 able frames. I am sorry I wrote anything about it, 

 for I have none to transfer. Some scamp carried off 

 bees and hive, leaving me only the bottom board ; 

 that is my first "Blasted Hope." 



E. B. Blackman, Hudson, O. Feb. 2d, 1878 



Truly my friend, your prospects are not of 

 the most encouraging nature ; notliing but 

 a "bottom board.'' We all tender our "sym- 

 pathy, I am sure, and if you lived near by, I 

 do not know but we might tender something 

 a little more substantial; but then, you 

 have the "first principles" on which to build 

 again. 



THE KOHLER PROCESS. 



I notice on page 4 of Gleanings, a reference to 

 the Kohler process of getting queens purely fertil- 

 ized. I would like to have a full explanation of the 

 process, and your opinion in regard to it. 



Wm. C. Smith. Warsaw, Mo. Feb. 6th, 1878. 



The Kohler process was given in the Aug. 

 No. of the A. B. J. for 186S. It is substan- 

 tially, keeping the young queen, with a suffi- 

 cient number of drones. "from flying, until so 

 late in the afternoon that the common drones 

 have all ceased flying. The hive or nucleus 

 is then opened, and a teacupful of warm di- 

 luted honey, poured, a little at a time, direct- 

 ly on the cluster. This sets the workers cra- 

 zy, and very soon the queen, drones and all, 

 sally fortli for a flight. If of the proper age, 

 say from a week to ten days old, the queen 

 is almost invariably fertilized within a half 

 hour or less. The iiive containing the bees, 

 queen and drones, may be placed in a cel- 

 lar, after the queen is 3 or 4 days old, and 

 kept there until the age given above. I am 

 inclined to think the plan has never been 

 much used, because it is too "much machine- 

 ry." You can readily start a young queen 

 out to take her flight, "by simply giving them 

 the warm honey, as you can easily demoii- 

 s tr ate . 



RABBETS WITH NOTCHES IN THEM. 



Prof. Cook objects to the metal cornered frames 

 "because they slide about in the hive too easily." it 

 occurs to methat this objection can be entirely ob- 

 viated by cutting small notches in the tin rabbets. 

 These notches, too, would space the frames, so that 

 all would hang at the exact distance apart which 

 might be decided upon. O. Clute. 



Keokuk, Iowa, Feb. 7th, 1878. 



Your idea has been very often advanced, 

 but the objection is that we cannot slide 

 the fraines along when we wish. The great 

 advantage of the metal rabbets, is that they 

 allow the frames to be moved easily close 

 up, or apart when handling them. Besides, 

 the notches would prevent the frames hang- 

 ing straight downward, and would not al- 

 low of their being placed at any exact point 

 chosen. I have never been troubled by the 

 frames slipping about, after the bees had 

 been at work long enough to fasten the 

 combs with tlieir slight attachments. Af- 

 ter trying combs fixed at exact distances, 

 for many years, I decidedly prefer them 

 movable at pleasure. 



