1S78 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



251 



I 



them. I fully afjrec with Doolittle. hfter R-ivin^ the 

 matter a thdroujrh test, that a sm*ill brood nest will 

 ffive the most section honey. Steven L. frames I 

 find amply sulBoient. Neighbor Stewart, of Orion, 

 thinks lO'to V^ better, and we will both laxiw this 

 fall, as he uses a hive with that capacity. I hive a 

 swarm on 7 frames and two eases of sections; bj- the 

 time they get their frames full, the sections are 

 ready to raise; then I put two more below and put 

 on upper story. 



SIZE OF FDX. FOU BROOD FRAMES. 



I have also tried three .5 inch strips of fdn. in 

 brood frames, and it makes as good a comb as the 

 wide piece, as far as I can see. The size of a sheet 

 of fdn. which you send out for L. frames is too wide 

 for our bees. It almost always stretches and 

 touches the bottom bar, and then lops over. It 

 should be ?£ of an inch narrower for full swarms, in 

 hot weather. 



FASTENING THE FDN. IN THE FRAMES. 



I am surprised that you adhere to the old plan of 

 buttering- the fdn. on the top bar with a knife. 

 With my cementin? apparatus, I can beat any two 

 of your" smartest girls, fastening- fdn. in brood 

 frames. You want to make your cement of bees- 

 wax and rosin, equal parts; then fix two boards 

 just the size of your frames inside, cleated around 

 the edge so as to go inside the frame just about 

 halfway; set them both on your bench, inclined at 

 an angle of 4.5^ from the perpendicular and horizon- 

 tal; drop on your frame, top bar down; lay on a 

 sheet of fdn.: have your cement over a lamp turned 

 so as to just melt it; use a tin teaspoon bent to a 

 small spout, and have a wet sponge in one hand, to 

 wet the board with before laying on the frame; 

 pour a teaspoonf ul in the upper corner, and go to 

 the next board while that one cools. Why, I can 

 stick them in so tight you can't pull them out with- 

 out tearing them. To stick fdn. in sections, my 

 wife is the "boss," and you can't see any rosin when 

 she g?ts done. Besides, rosin and beeswax mixed 

 taste no worse than propolis, even if anyone 

 should be so greedy as to scrape the box. 



HONEY PITCHERS WANTED. 



Xow, Novice, I have a favor to ask of you. Get 

 Fahncstock or Muth to get us up a honey pitcher to 

 hold extracted honey on the dining table. Have 

 them make it of semi-transparent glass to imitate 

 beeswax, and have it blown in a mold taken from a 

 filled section box; then give it a nice cut off top and 

 a metal handle. Make it look as tempting as the 

 most beautiful comb of clover honey. Call it the 

 Langstroth honey pitcher, and I predict that there 

 will soon be one on almost cverj' table in the coun- 

 try, if the price is not higher than for other pitchers. 

 Do you get the idea? I saw some vases the other 

 day that were said to be glass, but looked like the 

 purest wax. R. f,. Joiner. 



AVyoming Wis., July 10, 1S78. 



One cent a day is certainly not much for 

 fuel, but as dry. rotten, elm wood costs noth- 

 ing. I am inclined to think many of our 

 readers Avill jtrefer it. It is an excellent 

 , idea in the apiary, to make every thing 

 count ; prevent out-goes in every way pos- 

 sible ; save every scrap of Avax. every drop 

 of honey, every black and hybrid ([ueen ; 

 and get ready for close times, and droutlis 

 witli no honey. If they do not come, it won't 

 hurt you any^ 



In very hot weather, the sheets of fdn. 

 need to be a little shorter than in the spring 

 and fall. It is true, o inch strips will pro- 

 (hice all worker comb usually, but during a 

 a sudden yield, they are apt' to build drone 

 comb below, as well as to lose much time 

 that would be saved by having the strips go 

 clear down. 



A convenient honey pitcher would cer- 

 tainly be desirable, providing it is so cheap 

 that it would not conflict with what I have 

 Just said about saving the pennies. Will 

 the parties named see what can be done in 

 the mattery 



SOmE OF A BEGINNER'S TROUBLES. 



f' HAVE now 7 colonies of bees (and 4 bee trees), 

 all 



!|] all blacks except one, which has an Italian 

 -— ») riueen purchased of friend Sayles. I purchased 

 2 but lost one in introducing. 



INTRODUCING. 



I followed directions as given in ABC. I took .S 

 frames of brood, from different hives, and put them 



I into an empty hive, then I smoked them thorough- 

 ly, and sprinkled them with sweetened water, and 

 let some syrup drop on the queen as she emerged 

 from the cage; but instead of going down among- 

 the combs, she rose in the air and disappeared. I 

 thought I would never see her again, but about an 

 hour afterward, on lifting the hive, I found her on 

 the bottom board inside of a ball of bees. I re-caged 

 her and left the cage on the top of the frames for 



j about 40 hours, when I went through the same pro- 

 cess again; she rose in the air, and after flying 

 around awhile, entered another hive. I secured 

 her again, and made another trial; but instead of 

 going down among the combs, she flew oft' again, 

 and I have never seen her since, although I watched 

 the hive closely for 4 or .5 hours. What do yon think 

 was the cause of her acting so strangely? and 

 where do you think she would go to? I introduced 

 the other in the same manner, and she is now doing 

 finely. 



ANGRY SWARMS. 



1 had a swarm issue to-day, and after hiving 

 and giving them a frame of brood as direct- 

 ed in A B C, I thought they were safe; but, in about 

 an hour, they swarmed out again, and clustered on 

 the trunk of a tree, and had to be hived again. Tou 

 say in A B C, that it makes yau mad to hear people 

 speak of hers being mad: now, friend Root, I think, 

 if you had been around when they were being hived 

 the second time, you would surely have pronounced 

 them mad hcei<. As they were being brushed off the 

 tree they were the maddest bees I ever saw, and I 

 would have stood a poor chance, had I not been 

 well protected by veil and gloves. As it was I got 

 three stings. I have heard it said that swarming 

 bees never stina- unless pinched, how is this? 



I have burned up all the rags f could find, besides 

 nearly smoking my eyes out, trying to blow smoke 

 into the hives, and so I have concluded to try one of 

 your smokers. J. R. YouNG. 



Oglesby, 111., July 14th, 1878. 



If you do not choose to clip your queen, 

 daub some honey on her wings, and she will 

 then be unable to tly, while being released 

 from her cage. AVetind a colony every little 

 while, that will not accept a queen at all, not 

 even if she is tried a couple of Aveeks. Our 

 plan is to then take her to another stock. 

 She will often be there accepted at once. I 

 have seen hybrid stocks that were very cross 

 while being hived. Almost any bees are apt 

 to be cross, while being brushed from the 

 trunk of a tree. I would have used a smo- 

 ker, instead of a brush, as much as possible 

 at least. Brush softly, and don't pinch 

 them. Are you sure it was not those same 

 gloves that ihade thein so mad? 



Do Hens Eat Bees.— Much has been said pro and 

 con on this question, and it has been generally de- 

 cided in the negative; but we now have a case 

 where it does appear beyond doubt that they do 

 sometimes cat them. A bee-keeper at Los Angeles 

 says he has repeatedly watched hens take up a pos- 

 ition in front of a stand of bees and there and then 

 pick them up one after another and devour them. 

 To strengthen this statement, he says that he dis- 

 patched one of the hens caught in the act, and found 

 in her crop the no small number of 150 bees. A few 

 dozen fowls let run in an apiary in such a bad j-car 

 as 1S77 in California, would soon depopulate the 

 stands, saying- nothing of the large number that die 

 of star\-ation. We have noticed hens eat dead bees, 

 but never saw them take them from the entrance. 

 Neither do they eat a dead bee that is as dry and 

 old as an Egyptian mummy. They take them when 

 they are soft and plump.— Western Rurnl. 



