1874. 
GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 
74 
FRIEND NOVICE:— I took my bees out of the 
house March ‘2ml, ami found the entire one hundred 
stocks I put in last fall all right. That’s pretty fair 
for bees that were mostly wintered on natural stores, 
is it not ? You had better look after that “ Sugar Diet” 
■or I may be induced to get a wind-mill or two, and 
start a rival to Gleanings, to advocate “Natural 
Stores.” Jambs Bolin. 
West Lodi, Ohio. March 17th, 1874. 
Three cheers for friends H. and B. If we 
can’t swing our hat over our own success, we 
•certainly will at every such report, and we 
only hope it may get swung all to pieces, 
{’cause then we’ll have a new one,] during the 
next month. 
Hoads of i* * ;t in, 
FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS^ 
sy or I.I > hives of the “Simplicity Persuasion’’ 
*if do for frames like mine 12.V x 14, out-shlc 
WW measurements? How would you keep the 
frames of such size from swinging together, and 
against the side of the hive, without tacks ? How do 
you manage when your hives get so full of brood hv 
extracting, there is no room for honey? Iliad the 
•only remedy to be boxes. What per cent of your dol- 
lar Queens may be reasonably expected to lie pure? 
Wyoming, Wis. It, L. Joined, 
The frames would have to l>e made with 
■considerable care that they might hang plumb, 
we have used them 13 inches deep and found 
them to work nicely with nothing to keep them 
in place, at all. We believe those who handle 
many frames, very soon reject all nails, staples, 
and every thing of the kind as too troublesome, 
besides they are entirely unnecessary with 
ordinary workmanship. In place of the boxes 
we would use an upper story, or increase the 
width of the hive on the New Idea plan. Our 
<1.00 Queens should be at least half of them 
“good for 3 banded bees.” In the neighborhood 
of Shaw & Son, last fall, so far as we can learn 
they proved nearly all pure. 
HKAlt “NOVICE” I have received a specimen 
copy el your “ Gleanings,” the reading is good, com- 
position done well, the press work— allow a suggestion 
inyegurd to that, a little more “impression” and then 
“teed” up to your “guides” so as to get a “register” 
on the " head rule.” When I chance to hoar of an 
Apiarian interested in Printing or vice versa , 1 claim 
a right (not patented) to be impudent ; the latter "is 
one of whom I am which” hence the liberty of criti- 
cising “Gleanings.” Enclosed (you have found 
previous to the present reading of this sentence) a 
card that 1 have lust completed for you, accept as a 
token of appreciation of your efforts to promote 
(“sugar syrup” and) apiculture. Of course they do 
J'°t come under the head “ of its being sincerely wan- 
ted, (quotation from " Gleanings”! but then you 
can put ray name down on the subscription book, and 
1 will pay when 1 render the “ EAT” IVom tile “ CRUST” 
■ »1 our old “ l't” and sell for soap-grease. 
“twice can honey be extraetod from the comb be- 
*°re it is capped by the bees, and be considered pure, 
or in oilier words during the Linden or Basswood 
““fcest, can it lie thrown out us fast as the combs are 
ulleil before the water lias thoroughly evaporated, 
""'hi such coses Is it not liable to sour in the jars? 
” ill It pay a person with 7 or 8 hives to purchase an 
extractor? 
Leavenworth, Kan. Alonzo Hauliers, 
dive us the criticisms by all menus, we value 
them more than we tlo commendations. We 
hiiow the register isn’t good and we keep try- 
ing to do it better. It takes “home-made” 
printers a little time to grow into good ones. 
1 hanks for the cards, we have put your name 
down of course. 
I on can of course extract the honey before 
it has been gathered an hour if you like, and it 
"'ill be pure honey, butit is thin like sweetened 
water and has a raw taste and will most as- 
suredly sour. 
If left until the bees just begin, to cap it 
over it will be all right, and in no danger of 
souring, and we thus save much labor in un- 
capping. We should use an extractor if we 
were never going to have more than one hive 
of Italians ; if we did not make the honey pay 
for it the first season, we would the second. 
In regard to the raw, unripened honey : we 
think, lint are not positive, that evaporation 
in a slow oven will give it all the good qual- 
ities possessed by that ripened in the hive by 
the bees. An ingeniously written article iii 
tlie Rural N. Y. for Feb. 14, would imply to 
the contrary, but we must think it more theo- 
ry than actual practice. We will try and 
make some careful experiments in the matter 
at the proper season. 
I don’t think it would be nil easy thing to brush the 
bees off the combs of a hive running over with mv 
cross hybrids. If I conclude to make nil Extr. I will 
send to you for Inside work. Will a molasses barrel 
sawed la two do ? 
Gallupvllle, N. V. B. FINCH, 
When they are busy gathering honey they 
seem to care but little about being shaken and 
brushed off; at any other time, you would be 
likely to have troublp. 
A molasses barrel will answer every pur- 
pose, but it is hard to clean, and heavy to lift 
around. Honey soaks into wood (unless it is 
waxed) and we think you will find an Extr., 
all metal, rather preferable. 
I)o you think small Queens as prolific as large ones, 
and small workers as good honey gatherers as larger 
worker bees ? Would not wire cloth do iuslcnd of 
tin, for the bee-feeder? How many holes to the 
square Inch is necessary for the perforated tin? 
Please speak of this, unless you prefer not to give it 
to tlie public. 
Will It do to use vinegar or elder barrels for honey 
if they are scalded with lye water and then painted 
over inside with wax and rosin as vou describe ? 
lioserllle, Ills. iM its. s. j. axtell. 
We remember one small Queen that was 
quite prolific. At some seasons all Queens 
are small, yet we think those uniformly large, 
generally most prolific. We have one or two 
Queens that reared small bees, and although 
well marked they did not seem so industrious 
as others, and were never very profitable 
stocks. About perforated tin — see page 34. 
Wire cloth will answer but it is liable to 
get. bent out of shape easily, and cause the 
feeder to leak. All we know on Bee-keeping 
or in fact any thing else is cheerfully at the 
service of our subscribers; we only regret our 
inability to give better advice on many points. 
We should have no fear in using the barrels 
if they were first made dry and then perfectly 
coated with wax. They must be very stout, 
and should be iron bound for honey is very 
heavy. 
I ree’d a letter from my wife in 111. that one of my 
Imported Queens was dead, the comlis were as clean 
as they were In the summer, no signs of any disease, 
but a mouse bad eaten in at one of the mortises in the 
top bars and bad eaten all of the bees on the bottom 
board, but hail not eaten any of the combs, there were 
no! li bees alive, now did that mouse kill that swarm 
or did he eat the bees alter they were dead ? 
Yours truly, 1). A. Bkoceway, 
Ik s. — They had lots of sugar Syrup left. 
Mice raise “hobb” with our surplus combs 
when any honey is left in them, but we have 
never known them to kill bees ; still such re- 
ports are current. Wire-cloth is a preventive. 
