362 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



BKES AT FAIRS AND CIDEll MILLS. 



"fkee tickets." 



^ AM havins? some trouble. My bees are located 

 J>|[ very near the fair o-rountl, and as the weather 

 ^=) was hot durins- the fair, they were on hand and 

 went in without tickets. The party that rented the 

 dining- hall g-ot a larsre ease of honey for the tables, 

 and to have it out of the way, it was sot just outside 

 of the door. The bees soon g-ot possession and had 

 everythinff their own way durinfr the day. Next 

 morning-, I found the case sitting by mj^ door, with 

 the 40 lbs. of honey it had contained all missing; 

 there was not over 1 lb. in all the sections. 



Then they went to the hot candy stand, and made 

 things lively there. The keepers of the stand killed 

 all thej' could, probably a good swarm in all, and a 

 large pereentag-e were Italians. Poor fellows! We 

 heard it talked around that the nuisance must be 

 removed. Well, if they go, I g-o too. 



Then, too, there is a cider mill not 50 rods away, 

 and, for the last 10 days, they have had possession, 

 and the man g-ets out of patience, and kills all he 

 can, and thousands get drowned. I don't know 

 what to do, only to let them work it through their 

 own way. I am thinking some of selling off 100 

 stocks at auction, and starting- in a new locality, 

 and getting my hives all of one kind. As they are 

 now, they make a bad show-all kinds and size's. 



I very much hate to have my bees annoy other 

 people, and also to have them desti'oyed, as they 

 have been latelj'. I can soon run them up to 100 

 again. N. N. Shepard. 



Cochranton, Pa., Oct. 3, 1878, 



I have been throuo-h the same experience, 

 my friend. A year ago the bees got to go- 

 ing so, on tlie candy stands at the fairs, that 

 a man came and demanded i)ay for the loss 

 of his candy and trade. I offered to cover 

 his candy and goods with pink taiieton, bnt 

 he said lie conld not get along tliat way, and 

 I finally told him lie wonld have to manage 

 as best he conld. I was told afterward tliat 

 some one told him, if he came to me and de- 

 manded $.50 damages, I wonld ]my it. I 

 tried to tell them how snch work came 

 al)ont, but they conld not, or wonld not, un- 

 derstand. This year, as soon as tlie candy 

 makers began to get ready, T went to them, 

 and asked them as a favor, to keep a i)addle, 

 and kill the first bee tliat came near, before 

 he could by any i>ossibility load u]). This 

 candy man, although a stranger, iiromised 

 to do as I said, and not one dozen bees came 

 on the fair ground, although the weather 

 was dry and warm for the wliole 8 days. 

 We had also new complaint from the cider 

 mill tJiis year. The man said the bees could 

 not be stopped out; that inch boards would 

 not hold them. Two hours work, and a bun- 

 dle of lath made everything pleasant, and 

 tlie bees gave up and went home. Theoi)en- 

 ings to the mill were curtained (as explained 

 in the A B C) of course. 



A QUEER HIVE. 



AUTOMATIC SWARMING AGAIN. 



eOE of my neighbors, Mr. Carter, on July 7th, 

 ) had a swarm of black bees go into his house, 

 — which is a frame one, sheathed on the inside 

 and sided outside, forming spaces 4x14 inches be- 

 tween the studding. They wont through a knf)t 

 hole in the siding, 18 inches down from the phite. 

 Six weeks .after they began to work in the honsi', 

 he employed me to trmixfer ihcm inta a Simiilicitii 

 hive On tearing off the siding, I found they had 

 lillod with comb, brood, and honey, the space in 

 which they worked, for a distance ()f :j feet up and 

 down the studding, and out of tlv' sjiaces on either 

 side of this brood nest, [ took :!(i llis. of ))ure surplus 

 honey. Those side spaces answer to the side boxes 

 in Simplicity hives. From the brood nest I filled 8 



racks with young brood and honey. The bees are 

 doing well in the hive, up to this date. I also trans- 

 ferred another swarm for him, that had gone into 

 an old flour barrel, which was standing bottom up 

 in his garden. Both of these were stray swarms. 

 I know of another that went into .-^n old box, which 

 was placed in a cotton wood tree, for the martins. 

 Here on the prairie, bees accept anything as a sub- 

 stitute for hives. John C. Fowler. 

 Ashkum, Ills., Sept. 15fh, 1873. 



There, my friend, your closing remarks 

 have just pointed out the way. Have your 

 apiary a. mile or two from any timber, or at 

 least from any lioUow trees, tlien fix up your 

 hives, one or two up in the trees, if really 

 necessary, although I can scarcely think it 

 will be, and the runaway swarms will be 

 sure to liouse and hive themselves; If a 

 conveniently furnished hive was always in 

 readiness, I' believe many swarms would be 

 saved. If the bees really liave an iustinct- 

 ive i)reference for knot holes, and a seclu- 

 ded entrance, we can easily fix that, without 

 detriment to ourselves either. Two truant 

 swarms have come to our apiary this fall ; 

 one of them scattered about among other 

 swarms and the other hung under the eaves 

 of the honey house over night, Avas then 

 safely hived, and is now doing duty with 

 the rest. 



PROPOIilS, ^VIRE IN THE FDN., PER- 

 RINE'S ENTERPRISE, ETC. 



S NOTICE that you are using the pronouns "he" 

 and "him" pretty freely when speaking- of the 

 — worker-bees— see page 331, 2d col. 5th line; see 

 also several lines near the bottom of 2d col., p. 337. 



You can prevent propolis' sticking to the fingers 

 if you grease them with lard. When propolis is soft 

 it is sticky work to clean the frames, rabbets, &e.; 

 but you can quickly harden it and make it brittle, 

 by wetting it with cold water. 



I used wire in frames to prevent the sagging of 

 fdn., in the same way which yovi describe, when I 

 was in Shreveport. Perrine suggested the Idea to 

 me, and if I mistake not, he told me that some one 

 in York State had secured a patent upon it. Per- 

 rine's object in using the wire in section boxes, was 

 to insure safe transportation of comb honey to Eu- 

 rope. 



I have very little faith in the success of traveling 

 up and down the Mississippi, as proposed by Per- 

 rine. For many reasons, I should certainly prefer 

 the railroad — or land route. 



My friend, C. I. Balch, of Kalamazoo, Mich., went 

 south last spring- to work for Perrine. He was tak- 

 en sick in June, and went back to Mich. He stopped 

 to see me on his way home, and said ho left the boat 

 somewhere between St. Louis and Keokuk. Perrine 

 started from New Orleans with a steamer, 3 barges, 

 and about 400 stocks of bees. The steamer did not 

 ha\ o power enough to make much headway in tow- 

 ing the barges, and they were abandoned near Bay- 

 ou Sara. The bees were put on board the steamer 

 on the lower deck, and were consequently badly 

 crowded. When they got to the mouth of Yazoo 

 River, Balch went aboard with 51 new swarms pick*- 

 ed up near Yazoo Citv. Owing to the intense heat, 

 the bees suffered Imdly. and to cool them off, 

 the managers drciicht-il them with water from a 

 force pump. Balch says he saw, at once, that 

 they were thus destroying their bees rapidly, and he 

 remonstrated with them until they desisted. Be- 

 fore Balch left the "I^nterprise," some .50 stocks, he 

 thinks, were cunipletoly ruined. 



The bees ha<l been shut up some 2 weeks when B. 

 left, and they must have been in a woeful condition. 

 They intended to land as soon as they found plenty 

 of white clover, and unload their bees; but the orig- 

 inal idea was to keep them upon the barges, and let 

 the bees work day times and travel nights, which, it 

 seems to me, is impracticalile; still it may succeed. 



I have heiird 7ii>1hing irJUtlilr in regard to the "En- 

 terprise," since Italeh was here. I presume Perrine 

 will make a partial success of the undertaking this 

 season, but nothing like what he figured on upon 



