126 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



April 



rolling them. It Is quite likely that heating 

 the wax, also tends to drive off this element. 

 Bleaching, almost entirely frees the wax 

 from this substance, and this is why white 

 wax is too hard for starters for comb honey. 

 If some one can tell us how to bleach wax, 

 and still leave it as soft as the yellow, we 

 would like to hear from them. Nothing but 

 an actual test in the hive in the hottest sum- 

 mer weather, will demonstrate its fitness 

 for the purpose. 



thie\'t;s. 



Tliieves are plenty this season, ns I wrote you last 

 month. They robbed mine 3 times, destroying near- 

 ly 3 swarms. After I arranged wires around my yard 

 I was alarmed one night and went out and "blazed 

 away" with the old musket charged with gravel 

 stones. I did not find any gone next morning and 

 have not been troubled any since, but do not feel 

 safe to have my bees exposed. I think of building 

 a house or something to keep out thieves. 



N. A. Prudden. 



Ann Arbor, Mich., Jan. 13th, 1878. 



I wonder if those who steal bee-hives, re- 

 ally know how much damage they some- 

 times do ? Our friend Crall, of Ashland, O., 

 stated a few days ago, that the hive contain- 

 ing his imported queen, had been stolen, al- 

 though he had them all safely, as he sup- 

 ix)sed, in his bee-house. The house was not 

 locked, as he thought it unnecessary. If 

 their plan was to carry off the hive, they 

 would find it a hard matter, in a house api- 

 ary, like ours. Can we not do something 

 toward showing humanity that it does not 

 2jay to steal V 



AGE OF WORKER BEES, AND EXTRACTORS THAT 

 THROW HONEY OVER THE CAN. 



Mr. Bass of Toulon, who has kept bees over 20 

 years, says he knows that bees live longer than 45 

 days in the summer, for he put a new swarm into a 

 new box hive in June, and in Oct., the hive was full 

 of new comb, honey, and a good swarm of bees, and 

 he and his wife said they knew there bad been no 

 bees hatched in any of the combs, which was proof 

 that those bees lived about 4 months, and he didn't 

 know but they might have lived 3 or 4 years if he 

 had not killed them. He says there is too much 

 "fool nonsense" in the bee journals. 



I was in the A. B. J, office last Dec. looking at ex- 

 tractors &c., and was suprised to find there was no 

 tin cover over your extractor. I asked Mr. Newman 

 if the honey would not fly over the top, when turn- 

 ing fast enough to throw it out of the combs, and I 

 understood him to say it would. D. Tyrrell. 



Toulon, Ills., Feb. 1st, 1878. 



If there was no brood in the hive during 

 all this time , of course they had no laying 

 queen, and therefore the bees were not in a 

 normal condition. It would be a little sin- 

 gular that such a swarm should fill the hive 

 with honey, and that there should be none 

 of the small workers from a drone laying 

 cjueen, nor from fertile workers. I once 

 found a hive that had a queen with bad 

 wings; they built comb, and filled the hive 

 with honey, and the bees held out much 

 longer than they do ordinarily, for they had 

 not exhausted themselves in nursing and 

 rearing young bees as an ordinary swarm 

 does ; but the hive contained brood and 

 small di'ones, though no worker brood. I 

 am inclined to thuik the hive mentioned 

 contained brood of some kind, or the bees 

 would not have staid and built comb. 



Either you sadly mismiderstood friend 

 Newman, or else he has sadly misunder- 

 stood the purpose of an extractor. Manu- 



facturers who would send out extractors 

 that would throw honey over the top, on to 

 ones clothing, ought to be dipped in honey 

 all over, until they know just how nice it is, 

 to have it daubing round. A tin cover would 

 add gi-eatly to the expense, and would be 

 very unhandy ; if I had to shut down the 

 cover to keep the honey in, every time I 

 wanted to extract a couib, I am afraid I 

 should be tempted to put the whole machine 

 into the rubbish heap. 



The wire cloth and smoker came to hand in good 

 condition; tried the smoker and was well pleased 

 with it; do not see how you can make it for the price 

 you ask. Wilmer Gibson. 



Warsaw, La. Feb. 7th. 1878. 



HOW TO GET "A START." 



I want to tell you of a little experiment I have beea 

 making with a small swarm of bees, not enough to 

 fill a pint measure. They came out on the first day 

 of July, on Sunday, and were hived by a neighbor. 

 He did not think thorn "any good" and gave them to 

 me. During the first 5 days they built a piece of 

 comb 2x4 inches. I fi.xed 3 pieces of comb in the 

 frames for them and put the bees in ; they clustered 

 in one comer of the hive but did not get "on the oth- 

 er combs, until I fed them some honey which seemed 

 to start them to work. On the 11th day, the queen 

 began laying, and they increased quite rapidly. In 

 Nov. I gave them more comb honey and wrapped 

 them up for winter. I think they are all right yet. 



D. C. Brown. 



Stamford, Ct., Feb. 23d, 1878. 



I felt a few days ago as though I was "Big Injun" 

 on wintering bees, for I thought I had got them 

 through the winter without losing a single stock; but 

 upon looking them over, I found one queenless, and 

 only about % pt. of bees left, so I suppose I shall 

 have to count that lost. However, I feel much better 

 than I did three years ago when I lost every one, of 

 dysentery. I had last fall 29 stocks and of these. 2S 

 are now in good condition. They were all packed in 

 txjxes, with chaff around the body of the hive, and 

 straw around and over the cap, with chaff cushions 

 over the frames. 



I enclose you a card which a neighbor of mine has 

 just handed me, showing a cut of a new stone ware 

 hiv-e manufactured in Missouri. Of all, "patent hive 

 humbtigs," it seems to me this is the greatest. 1 

 think one might as well try to winter bees on a cake 

 of ice as in this hive. Jas. Mattoon. 



Atwater, O. March 11th. '78. 



combs breaking down WHEN FEEDING, &C. 



We, that is my wife and I, are studying bees ; we 

 bought one swarm last year, aftei- the season wa? 

 nearly over and put them in a common box hive. 

 In the fall we found that they had a good deal of 

 •comb, but very little honey. Hence we ha\'e had a 

 pretty good opportunity to experiment with them 

 by way of feeding. A few weeks ago, the center 

 comb ifell to the bottom of the hive, and we felt com- 

 pelled to transfer them to a movable comb hive. 

 This was successfully accomplished and they are 

 busy every fine day. Every step that we take is a 

 new one. We do not propose to increase the stock 

 faster than we are sure of our ground. 



Will it pay to get an extractor for one swarm? 

 Also, how many swarms cjin we get from the one we 

 have, and have good stocks and some honey? We 

 study Langstroth diligently, but as yet have only 

 theory. H. S. Bennett. 



Fisk Unvcrsity, Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 25th, 1878. 



When bees are fed rapidly, the combs are 

 quite apt to break down. It is, probably, 

 because they do not have time to build the 

 comb as strong as they would with a natural 

 yield. If you were never going to have 

 more than one colony, I hardly think I would 

 advise an extractor, since we have section 

 boxes that can be used so simply. I cannot 

 tell you how many good stocks you could 

 get from one. Some bee-keepers, in some 

 localities, might secure a dozen, by artificial 



