Part 3

I am aware that these experiments do not conclusively establish any particular fact or theory in bee-keeping but they may throw a little light on some points, and I find them useful in my own practice.

THADDEUS SMITH, Point Peelee Island, Ont., Can.

Friend S. it seems, has the rare good sense to see that single experiments do not settle a matter by any means. We are quite taken up with the old hat idea. Get one just large enough to hold your colony, and keep plenty of sealed honey below them, and they will be in the _best possible_ wintering trim, if we know aught of bees. We once wintered a colony without any honey board. We supposed they had been given the ordinary allowance with the rest but may have been mistaken. They were out of food before March, but they had commenced to rear brood briskly—rather in advance of the rest.

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SECTION HONEY BOXES.

It is at least too bothersome for _me_ to make the Harbison frames, as per GLEANINGS; I have made some very nice frame boxes, top and end pieces all 1½ inches wide, ends are 5 inches long and top and bottoms 6¼ inches long and nailed to end pieces, which are ¼ thick and top and bottom ⅛ inch thick; outside sections are 1¾ wide with a groove to receive a glass 5×6. I place the pieces in a long bottomless box or frame, wedge them up together and nail them, and then fasten strips of stout paper across them. I forgot to say in the proper place, that for an entrance I cut a notch in each side of the bottom pieces ¼×2 inches. I leave the bottom pieces wide because it makes a better box and is more convenient, one box can be raised up and another placed under it without much danger of killing bees, use a wax guide in each frame.

R. S. BECKTELL, New Buffalo, Mich.

[As it is a little inconvenient to cut the notches in the Harbison frame with our circular saws, we think they may be omitted and the stout paper used as above. In making these light frames, perhaps it would be well to fix on a size that would allow of putting 4 or 6 inside our large frames. Quinby advises this with his new hive, and illustrates it in _Am. Ag._ for Feb.—Ed.]

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Gleanings in Bee Culture,

Published Monthly,

A. I. ROOT & CO., EDITORS AND PROPRIETORS

MEDINA, OHIO.

Terms: 75c. Per Annum. [_Including Postage._] _For Club Rates see Last Page._

MEDINA, MAR. 1, 1875.

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Almighty Father! We pray that thy blessing may accompany each separate number of our little Journal on its mission among the bee-keepers of our land. May each and every one of us bear our losses during the present and ensuing months, should such there be, with a proper spirit of resignation to events we cannot control. Give us also that cool, calm, and deliberate frame of mind, that best prepares us to look earnestly about, and see what means thou hast placed within our reach to avert a repetition of our past troubles during the spring months. Give us submission, without a spirit of idleness, and teach us to work while we pray. Enable your servant to deserve the great trust, that he has never until _now_ felt has been accorded him. Give him that humility that will enable him to forget self and labor honestly for the benefit of his brother bee-keepers, and to deserve the confidence they repose in him.

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_A. B. J., Magazine_, and _World_, for Feb. were all on hand in fair time, and are all good.

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Kruschke Bros. are now supplied with Rapp and Esparcet seeds just imported; see advertisement.

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With pleasure we refer our friends wanting Queens or full colonies, to the advertis’t of J. Oatman & Co.

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Chinese Mustard seed seems difficult to find, but we shall have some in due time we think, even if it has to be imported.

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We shall have to refer all those inquiring for bees to our advertising columns. Everything _we_ have for sale is in our price list.

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Summer Rape seed, American grown, by mail in cloth bags, per lb., 25c.; per express 15c. These will be our rates for the season.

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Photo’s for the Medley are still coming in, and as we wish to include all that _will_ send them, we shall delay it perhaps a week after this number reaches you. Remember this is the last call, and that we wish to include every bee-keeper whose eye meets these pages.

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On page 104 of Vol. 2. Mr. Quinby says the Queen of Mr. Elwood’s colony that produced the great yield, _came from us_; yet in Mr. Elwood’s report page 19, current Vol., it does not so appear. Who is in error? We certainly wish no credit given the dollar Queens which they have not earned.

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We are happy to say Miss A. (P. G.) has recovered from the fever and is again at her accustomed post. We trust our friends will now have less cause to complain of the types and other small items, that have of late too often prevented things going with the promptness and accuracy that makes business a pleasure.

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It seems some of the other sex are determined to have the “last word” in regard to bee stings; a privilege we accord them with all the good will imaginable, after we have mentioned for the benefit of beginners, that no matter how distressing are the symptoms at first, they will very soon get inured to the poison, and finally, no swelling will ensue at all.

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This is the month for feeding the rye and oat meal, with most of our readers. Put in shallow boxes out of the wind, but in the sun as much as possible. Here is a chance for you to exercise your ingenuity in so arranging a glass sash, as to secure these conditions, and yet not trouble the bees by having them bump against the glass by mistake. If they don’t notice the meal, as some complain they will not, start them by giving a piece of comb honey laid in the midst of the meal; get a few bees on the comb from several hives until they have got a taste, if you cannot start them otherwise. When they begin on natural pollen they will take little notice of the meal. Equal parts of oats and rye _ground fine_ seems to please our bees best.

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We are very sorry indeed to be obliged to say that we think “Money in the Apiary” by H. A. Burch, by no means worth the price (25c.) asked for it. The more so as our relations with Mr. B. of late have been of the most friendly nature, and he has uniformly spoken well of GLEANINGS. The book is entirely too small, containing only about one-fourth the matter of a single number of any one of our Bee Journals. King’s Bee-Keeper’s Text book, only costs 15c. more, and yet it is a work of 140 pages, condensed, and to the point, alphabetically indexed, etc. etc. Money in the Apiary contains less than 20 pages, less in size, and some of it unimportant matter at that. We advertised the work without seeing it which we regret, but it would be unkind, and do no good now to find fault with what is past; shall we not rather consider a remedy that will do justice all around? Our advice would be that Mr. Burch give his patrons _four_ just such pamphlets, for the 25c. he has received, and make it a quarterly. If he will do this, we will give him a standing advertisement gratis.

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_Feb. 24th._—All three of the hives, that we are wintering out-doors, have come through so far in good condition so far as bees are concerned, although they spot their hives and the ground badly. The hive bro’t from a distance worst of all; the one prepared with woolen by Miss A., next, and the Standard hive best of all. The latter stands just where, and just as it did when we left off extracting, has had no preparation nor tinkering, and is all in complete trim to extract again, so soon as its 20 combs are filled. Could we be sure of making a whole Apiary winter like this one, we should feel quite relieved, even if we _were_ obliged to put two fair colonies into every hive to do it. The Queen has just commenced laying. We were agreeably surprised to find that almost every bee from these three safely regained their hives, while those in the forcing house, collect in masses on the glass, get nearly all of them into one hive, and seem in a fair way at present to become utterly demoralized, although they have reared quite a patch of brood during this month in some of the hives. Will others using the cold frames, please send us minute reports? Even though our own now looks discouraging, we are going to give it a careful test to the best of our ability, clear through.

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DOUBLE WALL HIVES FOR WINTERING AND THE FINN BEE HIVE.

It will be observed that we have among our advertisements, one of the Finn Bee Hive. In receiving this, we feel it a duty to state frankly our opinion of the matter, and then if the parties think we should, we will cheerfully return the $1.00 they have paid us for this one insertion. Of course what we say here must only be taken for our own opinion, and in the matter of selling rights we may have been unduly severe. In matters of this kind it is a very safe rule to ask ourselves if we are honestly doing as we would be done by.

If Messrs Keyes & Finn made hives for sale such as they advise and sold them for a fair price, there could certainly be no wrong, for very many bee-keepers of late stoutly affirm that bees do winter safely in hives well protected, on their summer stands, while those side by side, not so protected, perish. In order to show both sides of the question, we give the following:

They are stowed away in boxes parked with straw. Kept good in that way winter of ’72 and ’73, all that were packed early. Those that were packed in Jan. of same winter died, though stronger in bees and honey.

W. S. LUNT, Fostoria, O. Jan. 5th, 1875.

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At present, Feb. 10th, 38° below zero. I put 28 hives in the cellar and have lost one. They are too cold, temperature varies from 29 to 34°. I would prefer 42° as nearly as possible to keep them. I put up 20 in rough boxes on summer stands, boxes six inches larger than hives, filled in with shavings. I have wintered so two years and never lost any. They seem in fine condition but it is quite expensive—cost me $15.00 to put up the twenty hives but think it pays well. Would like to have them all put up in the same way. One of my neighbors had three stocks in box hives and has lost them all, think the loss will be quite severe in this vicinity.

LEWIS KELLY, Smyrnia, Ionia Co., Mich.

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Having had the pleasure of a visit to the Apiary of J. S. Hill & Sons, near Mt. Pleasant, I will, with your permission, Mr. Editor, say a few words in regard to it. Any one entering their bee yard can see at first glance that there is the best of order, system and management. It contains 85 large Langstroth hives completely storm and weather proof, adapted alike to the storms and zero cold of winter, and the broiling sun of July and August. Perfect ventilation with no possible chance of a draft of cold air on the bees, and no danger of moisture of frost in the hive to give the bees the dysentery.

Mr. Hill having years ago been convinced that cellar wintering would not do in our changeable climate, has given a great deal of thought, time and attention to the business of out-door wintering; that he has made it a success, is proven by the fact that his loss in the past four or five years, has been very light, in fact scarcely any loss at all; while others all around him lost heavily. He manages to get them through winter, strong in numbers and is not troubled with colonies dwindling down in spring and deserting their hives, as did so many the past two years where they had been wintered in cellars and other repositories. Mr. Hill is a firm believer in strong stocks—in keeping them strong the year round—takes the position that the only sure way to have strong colonies in early spring, is to see to it that they are strong in the fall. His location is not nearly as good for honey as many others, yet the amount he takes yearly would satisfy many of us who are in more favored localities; his only dependance for surplus, is white clover, having no poplar, linden, or buckwheat, consequently the honey season is rather short, ending by July 1st. The hive used by Mr. Hill is, of course, not a dollar hive, and would perhaps be thought, by some bee-keepers, to be entirely too expensive, but all things considered I believe it to be the cheapest for out-door wintering.

JONAS SCHOLL,

Lyons Station, Ind. Jan. 6th, 1875.

Were we to stop here, we might think the matter settled, but why does Quinby now advise a hive with only _half inch boards_ as a protection. His large hive was most perfectly adapted for packing material on all sides of the bees, even to a thickness of 8 or 10 inches. In the large Apiaries about him would it be fair to suppose they had abandoned this plan before giving it a fair trial? We should much like to hear from Hetherington, Elwood, and others in this matter. See letter on page 29. The testimonials in regard to the Finn hive are none of them from practical bee-keepers such as are known through the Journals, and none of them owners of large Apiaries. If we wanted to make a hive such as they describe in their circular we assuredly should not think of buying a right for the privilege, but if they would make us a hive at a reasonable price suitable for receiving our frames, so that we could easily set a colony into one, we would prefer to buy of them rather than make one.

If Adam Grimm, and Capt. Hetherington will give their opinion in regard to double wall hives compared with single ones for out-door wintering, we will cheerfully pay any reasonable sum for service. During our protracted cold weather, many complaints have come in, in regard to ice forming in hives left out-doors, and many losses are reported already. In cases like these, we do think the straw mats a great advantage, and is it not possible that they are as efficient as the expensive double walls?

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HONEY COLUMN.

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Friend Root:—Please name a few parties of whom I can buy Basswood honey and oblige.

CHAS. F. MUTH, Cincinnati, O. Feb. 3rd, 1875.

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I have now on hand about 60 gallons of that choice thick Clover honey, same as you bought of me, there is very little sale for it here. Price 18c., delivered here.

WM. PAYNE, Spencer, Medina Co., O. Feb. 1.

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Have sold our Catnip honey to W. G. Smith. St. Louis, 15 cts. delivered, he paid promptly. The barrel came to $64.55 net; that isn’t bad is it? Shall set out half an acre of plants next spring, and sow some seed too.

J. L. WOLFENDEN, Adams, Wis.

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I sent my honey to Barber & Stout, Cincinnati, O., got 15 cts. cash on delivery and was paid to a cent. I also sent J. Lippincott, of Pittsburg, Pa., one barrel. Now Novice, please accept my most profound thanks for your assistance in disposing of my honey, by your recommendations to the two above named honey men. There is nothing like keeping bees to restore a burned farm, and dollars are by far the best chromos.

J. DUFFELER, Wequiock, Wis. Dec. 16th, ’74.

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Humbugs and Swindles Pertaining to Bee Culture.

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[We respectfully solicit the aid of our friends in conducting this department, and would consider it a favor to have them send us all circulars that have a deceptive appearance. The greatest care will be at all times maintained to prevent injustice being done any one.]

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We cut the following from E. C. Hazard & Co’s circular, 192 Chambers St., N. Y.

HONEY.

These packages are made of flint glass, tight, very attractive, convenient size, and salable, possessing a marked advantage over all other Honey in the market, because of its non-congealing tendencies. The Extracted Honey in bottles and tin, culled from Alsike Clover, and Orange blossoms and thrown from the comb by centrifugal force, is entirely free from all foreign substances and will be found to possess the delicate BOUQUET and medicinal qualities so seldom found in the ordinary commercial article.

E. C. H. & CO’S PURE EXTRACTED HONEY: In Quarts, Fancy Decanters, per doz. $4.50

We might think this a mistake but the _Grocery and Provision Review_ of Jan. 18th, quotes precisely same prices. As a quart of good honey weighs 3 lbs., these good people are selling it at 12½c. per lbs. and charging nothing for those _Fancy Decanters_, packages, cost of putting up etc., etc., and yet producers get from 15 to 16.

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Reports Encouraging.

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I can report 850 lbs. comb and 150 lbs. extracted honey from six swarms with Quinby hive.

O. J. HETHERINGTON.

East Saginaw, Mich. Nov. 25th, 1874.

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From 34 hives we took 3000 lbs., 600 lbs. box and balance extracted.

T. E. HAWKINS & BRO.

New Frankfort, Mo. Dec. 18th, 1874,

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Twenty-three colonies of Italian bees made 160 lbs. of extracted honey to the colony last year up to July 15th.

JOHN SCHEERER, Ridgley, Mo.

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I commenced last spring with one swarm on three combs, and they were not crowded at that. I extracted 55 lbs. honey, increased to four that have 22 lbs. average of their own stores.

O. W. PARKER,

New London, Minn. Dec. 25th, 1874.

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Twenty-two stocks in spring—taken 1120½ lbs. extracted honey, 288½ lbs. box honey, have now 46 strong stocks and 14 Queen rearing nuclei and weak stocks. Increased by artificial and natural swarming and lost several natural swarms.

M. PARSE. Pine Bluff, Ark. Nov. 22nd, 1874.

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I had 26 stocks of bees last spring in Langstroth hives, one-half of them were very weak. I got 1100 lbs. of box honey from 20 stocks, it was sold for from 20½ to 28½ cts. per lb. I have increased my bees this year to 45 stocks which I have put into winter quarters with from 30 to 35 lbs. each.

Wm. J. DEDRICK, Borodino, N. Y. Dec. 14th, ’74.

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I had 60 swarms in the spring, some of them very light in bees. I increased to 100, from natural swarming, and they made a little over 5000 lbs. of box honey, including that not capped. I hived no second swarms. I used virgin Queens mostly, and cells. Often some would be about hatching; I would then put them in after a swarm issued. Bees seem to be wintering well.

D. C. McCALHOUN, Hornellsville, N. Y. Feb. 1st, ’75.

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32 swarms in spring, made 3000 lbs. surplus, increased to 50, (of course it was all extracted) and have sold it all for 15 cts. per lb. delivered on track. The honey was nearly all from basswood, clover did not do much. The fall was very dry and the bees got very little after basswood failed. Don’t know how they will winter, but they are all right yet.

JAMES SCOTT, Epworth, Dubuque Co., Iowa.

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Last winter I put up 68 swarms, all came through alive but lost 4 which were Queenless; sold two more which left me 62. Increased them the past season to 99 swarms and got 2600 lbs. box honey and 600 lbs. extracted, for which I realized about $600.00. I sold 31 swarms for $7.50 each, so it leaves me with 68 swarms again this winter, all of which seem to be wintering well.

W. H. TENANT, Eureka, Wis. Jan. 18th, ’75.

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Began the season with about 20 stocks in poor condition. Five stocks Queenless in spring. Increased them to 37 in fall, in apparent good condition to winter. From 6 stocks in non-swarmers, took 560 lbs. box honey; from the best, 110 lbs., from the poorest, 65 lbs. Built up and increased the remaining stocks, and took 760 lbs. liquid white honey from them. Fed in the fall, 15 lbs. “A” sugar. Reared during the summer, 36 surplus Italian Queens.

J. H. NELLIS, Canajoharie, N. Y.

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We have only extracted from 5 stocks this summer as we thought best to “go slow and sure.” Well, we took from those 5 stocks over 300 lbs. of honey, and increased them to 13 good stocks with plenty of honey for winter supplies, while our other 4 left for box honey and natural swarms, have swarmed altogether too much, and gave very little surplus. And worst of all, some of the young swarms went to the woods, in spite of all our endeavors to prevent them.

ILA MICHENER, Low Banks, Ont., Can. Oct. 19, ’74.

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The summer was very dry, so there was very little honey stored. But the fall was unusually fine. _Four_ stocks devoted to box honey, gave 128 lbs., an average of 32 lbs. per stock. Nine stocks yielded to the extractor 741 lbs., an average of 82⅓ lbs. per stock. The largest yield from any _one_ stock was 153 lbs. I increased my 13 to 23 and they go into winter quarters in good condition with 50 lbs. of stores per hive. I should have extracted a little closer, but was away from home at the time it should have been done.

DR. W. H. P. JONES, Nashville, Tenn.

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Last year I tried small frames something like Harbison’s, only I had them so that the bees could work all ways through them—could tier them up etc. It was on a Quinby hive or rather frame, put small frames on sides and top, got between 90 and 100 lbs. of comb honey and one swarm of bees besides. I shall try them several ways the coming season. The best I have done with boxes is about the same as above. My frame is 14×10 inches, inside measure—have three New Idea hives—bees swarmed out of them while I was extracting in spite of all I could do. How’s that?—never saw such a season for swarming—returned most of mine. I have only 26 swarms and do not want to increase if I can help it for I cannot attend to them. I winter in a large cellar and lose no bees, keep up my experiments winter as well as summer— that’s half the fun. Most of my frames are so placed that the boxes come up plump against the _ends_ of frames and are just as close to the brood as those on top and in fact the guide comb is a good deal nearer, and no bee can stick his head out at the ends, unless he sticks it in the boxes; but I forget you are no box man!

R. H. MELLEN, Amboy, Lee Co., Ills.

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HOW TO FLY BEES IN A ROOM.