16S 



GLEAXLJ^GS ES' BEE CrLTURE. 



May 



iried !«> exi''ain mauers a liule. but my tAce 

 was riushed. and it was qiute out of the 

 question for me to look pleasant^ Then. I 

 knew I Wiis angry ; the plain way was to 

 acknowledge, aiid' ask his forgiveness, but I 

 was t<>T pr>ad t«-> do that, for I kept telling 

 mvself th^t he should not have kept insist- 

 ing that I should stop. He made a iiart of 

 his purch tses and went away, but the "hurt" 

 look on his face as I spoke to him so unkind- 

 ly, has haunted me ever since, imd over and 

 over again have I thoii^ht how much I 

 would give, to have it recalled. It never 

 can t>e fec^iHed entirely, for there is some- 

 tiiing ab-iut these unkind words that, it 

 seems to me. can not be entirely obliterated. 

 It seems very hard to refuse' to talk to a 

 man who wants to talk, or to refuse to write 

 a postal, when you are politely requested to 

 do sc>. and I hardly know what I ought to 

 do. under all such circumstances, but I do 

 know that all customers should be treated 

 pleasantly, and courteously, no matter what 

 the circTimstances may be. You have all 

 been kinder and pleasahter to me than I de- 

 serve, and may God help me. to fiU my little 

 sphere of usefulness, in a better way than I 

 have done. Truly, "he that ruleth himself. 

 is sre-Her rhan he that taketh a citv." 



QUEER "I>OI>G«»"* r>F QrE£>'=<. 



^ HAVE a 5?i!ie'!S"iLaT diSerent rernorr to mike 

 •i from what I gave yoa last rear. After 

 ^ losias' my bees lait spring- ' bv morins 

 them ^HQ the car?. I pnrchoiied Vfo coloni?s of hy- 

 brids in b .1 hives, for ?li. and transferred them to 

 the L. Hive: increased x<-> 9, partly by artificial and 

 partlv bv natural swaming': and ■Rrintered on sum- 

 mer st.sDds packed in chaff. I put one swarm in a 

 "ch-^S hire" ••rier*^ '-■f you last fall. There was 

 tt:"- - '- - ■ > fact: the bees flew Ic-ss in the winter, 

 ar -Tir ci^nsamed less stores than those 



■^ ' " -"n either side and top: but I can't 



di^- • -- :- it they are any strnnsrer. The last of 

 Feb. they were bringing in pollen at a are at rate: 

 we consider ourselves aboat 4 or 6 weeks ahead of 

 last year. We d< "n't l''^\ for bni-od. usually, until 

 about the first of April: but this year they have 

 raided brriod a?nw:i*f all winter. 



>o«- 1 have sc'inethina' strange lat least it is so to 

 mei to telL I went Vt "Town meencff." which. I sup- 

 pose you know, comes on the first Monday in April. 

 an^ - —'- -^•jjni found there had been something 

 tir_ . -_^ on: robt>er5 had t^een at work, but 



^- " --n. Xeit morning. I found tliat Xo. 



ttt-^ -r^_ "rWng titles with Xo. 2. I closed the 

 entranc-e nearly up and went to the woods to work. 

 •>n ciming' up at noon I f'''und they had been ar [ 

 work again. There was a string- of bees from Xo. 2 

 to Xo. L I fotmd the queen in a '•ball" of bees 

 beside Xo. 1 ; I got my c^g-e. but before I had tim^ 

 to secure her. she flew • ut of mv hand and started 

 on a tour. WelL I told the fol -is she would s^-on L^ 

 back, a statement which one of our neighbors 

 doubted. In about two minutes she came and lit 

 on the kitchen floor, but bef ire I got near her she ■ 

 agalr. '^^•'•k w:r:2-. ?he finally lit on the house, clear 

 Q? ■ I clambe-ed up. and this time 



ni dyship. Then I made an exam- 



i^ -h-?r V'., ; had a dead queen, \ 



" - -* -r 4 d'lvs. as no eggs ' 

 : and that Xo. 2 had 

 ';a— ?n l-elon:red to ; 

 eivedher 

 -en? they 

 n ;-apTive. 

 - - - from 



: him 

 - - - nice 



1- ;- it- 1 ^v-^r .^w; i^ he is 

 ne 'S'> h? tells mei I'U not un- 

 it. He dm't want any patent 

 J. J. McWhorter. 



hi, 



ei.-- 

 X 



d 



on rr enh 



The t>ees from a queenless colony fre- 

 quently swarm out and unite with one that 

 has a queen, if they are permitted to do so. 

 but I do not know" that I ever heard of a 

 queenless colony trying to rob one that had 

 a queen. I do hot know how the queen that 

 belonged in Xo. 2 came to be near the 

 queenless hive ; it d>:>e^ look as if the latter 

 had robbed the former, and the former, bees 

 and all. had moved over. When a hive is 

 robbed, the queen usually deserts the hive 

 about the time her colony has ceased to re- 

 sist, and she will often be found somewhere 

 on the outside lunid a ball of her own bees 

 and the robt>ers ; is it not possible that the 

 queen only ceased laying in Xo. 1. and that 

 the queenyou foundreally t»elonged in the 

 hive she wji^ near, after all'r 



RUBBER L1>ED DIVISIO.X BOARDS. 



Pjio. April «th. !<:•;. 



SHAVE made some of the chaff division boards 

 and sideii up with -j inch grape box material, 

 and like them very much better than the quilt- 

 ed ones. 



One great trouble has been the variable size of 

 hives even from the same factory. A variation of 

 -s inch in planing lumber makes a variation of -^ 

 inch in the length of a hive . and 1-16. half as much. 

 Your suggestion of a brass gauge for planing lum- 

 ber is a goo«l one. A slight variation makes it im- 

 >- ~s::: Ir to use the wooden dirtsion board where air 

 •l^-it ; :-rs are desired, as in wioter packing by the 

 - - 1~-..:: ;n of the brc-cd chanit>er. I have eDntrived 

 a remedy, and believe it wUl be valuable to the 

 whole fraternity, it is to cut the division board of 

 ^z or ^5 inch material, and S inch sh jrt, and then 

 slot the end. in the middle, \vith a saw. and slip in a 

 strip of rubber packing 1 inch wide: or a -wider strip 

 may be set in two slots made near tbe edses. Thus 

 use»i. -Md inch packing is stiff enough to form a tight 

 joint, and will press tne other end close to the wall. 

 I think for m<5st purposes the sawed end will be 

 tight encugh. if not. a face of elastic cloth or an- 

 other rubber edge can be added. They are lighter, 

 more easily stowei when not wanted, and cost much 

 less than chaff boards, and are far less liable to in- 

 jury. I have tried the single and bent rubber, and 

 prefer the single thus far. as being just as g)X>d and 

 easier made. J. W. Pobtek. 



Charlottesville. Va,, Feb. llth, 1S7S. 



If your division boards are made of t inch 

 wood, they will warp badly : we had in our 

 apiary over a hundred such and they were 

 all discarded on tliis account. The chaff 

 cushion division board was made thick to 

 pi-event this, and also to secure warmth. In 

 cold weather the bees cluster close out to the 

 thin wood sides, and I found a tine patch of 

 brood, one day in ilarch. right next to this 

 w<x)d. It is so thin that the animal heat of 

 the bees warms it through, and the chaff pre- 

 vents any frost from ever reaching it. One 

 of our best colonies was wintered in a sim- 

 plicity hive, on 4 frames of comb in the cen- 

 tre of the hive, with nothing but a chaff 

 di^'ision board on each side and a chaff cush- 

 ion in the uppjer story. Division boards 

 made of a single thin"lx>ard, or even two 

 thin boards with an air space, do not give 

 anything like as good results. If I am cor- 

 rect, both rubber and cloth are mentioned 

 for this purpose, in the earlier volumes of 

 the A. B. J. 



OcR bees have all wintered nicely, none having- 

 been lost except the two that were allriwed to starve. 

 Sinc-e I have given up trying to look after every 

 thing myself, and set one of the boys at the task, 

 they have done finely. The house apiary is far 

 aherad of the bees out side, and I am now satisfied 

 that it is an excellent place in which to raise bees, 

 any ucay. 



