“novice’s” gleanings in bee culture. 
78 
NO. {Ml. — My bees are gathering honey by 
Die barrel. Yours, truly, 
N. K. 1’arxTK'K, Oastnlia, 0. 
jii.y 1st, 1ST;;. 
Right glad to hear it, hope they'll keep 
doing so. 
Xo. 97.— Your extractor I believe to be a 
Rood thing, but having never seen one of any 
kind, 1 know nothing of the principles upon 
which they work. I must confess that I am 
more dumbfounded with its description than 
I am with the hive. Couldn't you get up a 
xnwplo.of it also, that you could send by 
mail and charge enough to pay you? Very 
respectfully, Wst. C. Gaunt. 
98. Can your gearing be attached to the 
Peabody extractor without much cost? I 
have one of them. In feeding bees in your 
"simplicity” hive, will it do to pour sugar 
syrup ou top of the frames? If not, what is 
the best mode? Cttis. D. Elms, 
lidentown, N. C. 
Wo regret to say that wc know of no 
way in which the Peabody extractor can 
be made better, if gearing could he at- 
tached, the momentum of so much metal 
beside* the honey would make matters but 
little better. 
We have now on hand a half dozen 
Peabody machines that have never been 
used which we will sell for $8 each ; regu- 
lar price, $15. They will do excellent 
work, and very likely will never wear out, 
hut the one who uses them we fear would. 
99.— Most porticular P. S.— Fearing that 
my long sheet’s contents would get some- 
what crossways in your pile of unreadable 
letters, 1 have concluded to give you the gist 
—"nothing but the gist.” 1. Howto make 
bees build worker comb only, and when to 
feed bees syrup— here — for winter. 2. Price 
of empty worker comb. 8. Could your scales 
be gotten up cheaper than $o, and is more 
Ilian one pair needed in an apiary ? llow do 
you rig a hive to at any time weigh witli the 
scales? 
T. J. Kennedy, Custulian Springs, Tenn. 
Illess your heart, friend K., we have 
never yet had a letter on the subject of 
bee culture that was unread, though some 
of them required even 1’. (i.’s utmost ef- 
forts (she lias been a “school inarm'' four- 
teen terms), and we think they have all 
repaid I he time spent. 
1st. Wc don’t know. This past sea- 
son we were so well pleased to see them 
build comb at all, that we were not over- 
particular. We keep drone comb out < f 
the way of the queen, and find it just as 
good for the extractor. A colony with a 
young queen is not as apt to build drone 
comb, and by reducing the worker force 
wc think it, can almost always be managed. 
Few things are jjositively certain with 
bees. 
2d. Novice suggests that our best 
worker combs are worth a dollar apiece to 
us, but P. (I. says we don’t want to sell 
’em at any price. Won’t some of our 
subscribers offer them cheaper, /. e., in 
metal cornered Langstrnth frames? 
:id. We should consider’ but one pair 
of scales necessary in an apiary, and we 
keep ;i one-story hive permanently hung 
mi them. It is held by a wire running un- 
der it, and is kept from swinging by the 
wind too much, by two more wires attach- 
ed to front and hack carried horizontally 
to stake : leaving it to rise and fall by 
>1 
II 
each ounce of increase or diminution. 
Again, $5 is too much for an imple- 
ment like that for bee culture. But that 
isn’t the worst of it. Our stock is sold 
out, and dealers and manufacturers now 
say they cannot furnish any more at less 
than $65 per dozen ; that ours was stock 
remaining on hand, etc. Novice threat- 
ens to study up something for about a dol- 
lar that will tell when a hive is gaining or 
losing at a glance, but even then it’s very 
convenient to have scales that will weigh 
accurately' when we are feeding for win- 
ter, etc., and as they must be weather- 
proof, perhaps they can t be made any 
cheaper. It is just fun for its to know 
every ounce of success or the contrary. 
To. illustrate : our bees have been going, 
northward of late as soon as daylight and 
almost sooner, and on returning they were 
covered with yellow dust. By the time 
the scales had shown a few ounces in- 
crease, Novice investigated, and found a 
ten acre cornfield that it seems had beeu 
planted with pumpkins, and corn put in 
occasionally. The time was sunrise, or 
shortly after, and he claims the hum of 
industry that arose from a sea of yellow 
blossoms (rivaling anything in Vick’s col- 
lection in size if not in splendor) was 
enough to — to — well enough to make any 
spring balance feel the effects of it. In a 
few days the grasshoppers, too, discovered 
the nectar, and they seem now to be dis- 
puting with the Italians as to who shall 
get up earliest. 
X' o. 100.— I have kept bees in Iowa for live 
years, and I tliink it is one of the best States 
in the Union for bees. But our best honey 
harvest is from the middle of July till last of 
September. 1 kept black bees for2 years and 
diil not get a pound of surplus, and tile sum- 
mer I gave them Italian iiueens I got over SOI) 
pounds from 5 stocks, t use the Langstrolb 
hive exclusively. 
Ai.ritED McMaixs, Chariton, Iowa. 
No. 101.— My extractor Oust finished) works 
"like a charm ;” the only trouble is the 
strips of lin came very near cutting the first 
pair of oombs into four inch strips; however, 
I soon learned to turn slower and did not 
cut them so badly, but think the wire cloth 
will be much better. My extractor is a home 
made one, but 1 think it is on the right, prin- 
ciple : stationary can, revolving frame. 
Any man that gets mo to raise box honey for 
him after this, will have to pay me at least 
three times the price of extracted honey for 
it. John Atkinson* Nelson, Bo. 
Nothing gives us more pleasure than In 
hear from those who are succeeding with 
home made implements. There is a 
species of independence in being able, 
when needful, t#make materials at hand 
answer onr purposes that we always ad- 
mire. 
No. 102.— I will enclose you a letter from 
the young man whs took my bees to Iowa. 
If my bees do any thing like what they re- 
port there, 1 will he happily disappointed, 
i had counted on exonerations; having ex- 
tracted nearly all tile bunoy and reduced the 
hives in bees as much as if they had swarmed, 
it was as much us I expected that they would 
Imild up lo proper condition for winter, as 1 
know they would have accumulated nothing 
here. It. Wii.kin, Cadiz. O. 
We rejoice at the prospect of Mr. W s. 
.success in his project, and enclose ex- 
tracts from the letter referred to : 
