1878. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



109 



Now to come back to my subject, I will 

 state that none of our crop of honey of last 

 season was brimstoned at all, and I liave not 

 seen a single moth worm in the section 

 boxes. Some are near where I am sitting 

 now, and have been all the time in a warm 

 room, but "nary a web," or sign of moth 

 worm. I am sure none have appeared in 

 the honey I have sold, or I should have heard 

 from it. The advice I have given, is that 

 the honey, when taken from the hive, should 

 be placed where it can be carefully watched, 

 and at the first appearance of any worms, 

 should be fmuigated, as directed in the A B 

 C. If no signs of the moth appear, I certain- 

 ly would not take the trouble to fuss with 

 the sulphur fumes. Perhaps Yoi-k State is 

 worse than our own, in respect to the bee- 

 moth. Our neighbor Dean has just been in, 

 and he says he has never fumigated his hon- 

 ey at all, and has never seen moth worms in 

 the sections, although they have been kept 

 in the neighboring stores from one summer 

 to another. The fact that no pollen is ever 

 found in the small sections, is perhaps one 

 reason why worms are never found in them. 



SinOKERS. 



fHAVE been reading j^our article on smokers. A 

 bellows could be made double so that when you 

 press one end the other will open. The blast 



holes could be near each other and by placing a piece 

 of tin uprig-ht between them they would not inter- 

 fere. In place of springs inside, you could use a rub- 

 ber band around one end, always taking hold of the 

 other end. 



The above would give you two puffs of smoke 

 where the single bellows would give you one. 



For a constant blast I think a fan could be con- 

 structed that would work with a small "treadle" to 

 be operated on by the thumb while holding it in your 

 hand. Isaac Jarrett. 



P. S. — I agree with you in regard to patents. 



Philadelphia, Pa. March, 6th, 1878. 



Thanks, friend J. I have studied hard, 

 both the plans you have mentioned, but 

 nothing as yet, "in my mind's eye," seems 

 as practicable, as the simple single bellows. 

 A fan can be operated without trouble, by 

 the thumb and fingers, but it will take some 

 little time "to get it under way", that is, 

 you cannot start a puff of smoke in their 

 faces in about a quarter of a second, as you 

 could with the bellows. The machinery 

 must operate instantly. I thiuk we have im- 

 proved the bellows, since last month, by al- 

 lowing the boards to come down flat togeth- 

 er, thus driving out every bit of the air. To 

 do this, we round the corners, stretch the 

 leather in the centre, and crease it outward- 

 ly before it is put on, and to prevent 

 splitting, we will make the bellows boards of 

 basswood instead of pine. The spring, or 

 springs, are let into one of the boards by 

 plougliing a cavity with a cutter head. This 

 makes a more compact bellows, dispenses 

 entirely with" the little strips at the hinge, 

 and is quite a saving of the leather. 



Please don't quarrel any more about s mokers. I 

 think I can lend a helping hand in the vexed ques- 

 tion. 



I have been giving my attention to smokers for the 

 past year, and this recent agitation has given me new 

 impetus and I think the idea has come. 



I propose to make a smoker with the following 

 points : All metal and very durable, continuous 



draft, no bellows, no complex gearing, and operated 

 with one hand. Price Sl.UO. 



If I can not send you a smoker with all of these 

 points, i will send you my idea, but 1 intend soon to 

 send you the smoker. So "look out," and don't 

 quarrel. J. H. Martin. 



Hartford, N, Y. March, 6th, '78. 



There, friend M., I have been "walking 

 round the central stairway" for over a month 

 on that very thing, and have given it up and 

 taken it up again, more times than a few. 

 The great trouble with all devices is theii- 

 complexity, and the difficulty of getting a 

 strong positive blast instantly, such as the 

 belloAvs gives. It just now occurs to me, 

 that this was not intended for print, but 

 never mind friend Martin, if you cannot "fix 

 it" we will all turn in and help you, will we 

 not "boys?" 



^ ■>■ 



"AUTOMATIC" SWARmiNG. 



another step. 



^ BEGAN the winter with 31 hives of bees on their 

 Jsji summer stands. Have sold'3, and to-day, March 

 ?s 8th, have 29 stands in good condition. Th£y are 

 bringing in pollen to-day. As I have stated before, 

 1 never had a swarm of bees abscond. Now 1 will 

 give you (what I think) the reason. 1 have generally 

 had, in the spring of the year, from 5 to 10 hives in 

 the apiary, full of empty combs that 1 left on their 

 usual summer stands so that the bees could have ac- 

 cess to them at all times. Now don't be too fast and 

 say the moth miller will eat up your combs. No 

 danger in the fore part of the season ; the bees will 

 take care of that. Now, some 8 or 10 days before the 

 bees swarm they will go to work in earnest cleaning 

 out the old combs making readj' to move in as soon 

 as their sovereign says go. I am always on hand 

 when the bets swarm, in person or by proxy, to hive 

 them immediately, and they always stay, whether 

 put in the hive they have prepared or in some other. 

 You see they have selected their residence in the 

 apiary and in the apiary they are going to stay. I 

 believe bees select a home before they swarm. 

 Friend Martin is right ; we can have hives fixed so 

 as to catch absconding swarms. In fixing them, don't 

 omit the comb because comb is an important factor 

 with bees. I'll try the plan this season if I induce 

 some of my own bees to leave the apiary. 



A. F. CONAWAY. 



Mannington, West Va., March, 8th, '78. 



It is a well known fact that bee trees 

 where bees have once built comb, are very 

 sure to be appropriated by new swarms ; and 

 hives properly arranged, I think, will be 

 chosen and occupied much in the same way, 

 if we can only study up all the conditions. 



GRAPE (CORN, OR POTATO) SUGAR. 



eRAPE sugar, so called, has been extensively 

 1 used by the wine makers in the lake Erie grape 

 ^ „ growing district for some years, to supply the 

 deficiency in saccharine matter in grapes grown in 

 such a cold climate; some of them, until very recent- 

 ly, importing it in large quantities from Germany. 

 But now it is made here cheaper and of better quali- 

 ty than the imported. Learning through Glean- 

 ings the existence of the Davenport factory, we im- 

 mediately ordered some from them and found the 

 quality better than any samples that we had ever 

 seen. 



My experience in feeding grape sugar to bees has 

 beeii the reverse of that reported by friend Shaw, 

 and we must not be hasty in deciding anj'thing posi- 

 tively about it. For the first time since I have kept 

 bees here — ten years, they failed last fall to lay up a 

 good winter supply of honej' from golden rod and 

 other wild flowers. Late in the season I found many 

 colonies with a very scanty supply. I united a num- 

 ber of the most deficient with others that had more, 

 and gave all a good supply of grape sugar on top the 

 frames— filling all the old hats 1 could find with it 

 and inverting them over the cluster, covering well 

 with quilts and cloths. I was in hopes that they 



