Part 5

If you mean that you put ten frames in a space of 15½ inches we should advise using eleven frames instead of ten. If you mean 15½ is the length of top bar, we should consider it as good as any unless you use your hives two story, in which case a little longer frame might be better. Small frames put inside of larger ones, have often been tried but there are many difficulties; they must be made very accurately, to stay in place, the bees do not seem to like so much wood in their way, every thing is covered with propolis, and their owner generally concludes that the arrangement is too much bother to use on a large number of hives. We have just as much fear that too much butter and cheese will be produced, or too many eggs, as that the market will ever be overstocked with honey. What has been the result with small fruits? Remember too that they are perishable goods, while honey will keep safely for years.

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In answer to _J. H. Irwin_ in Feb. No., page 22: He can find as much comb honey in Langstroth frames as he may need, by writing Paul Dunken, Freeman, Cass Co., Mo. He has 500 to 700 frames.

W. G. SMITH, St. Louis, Mo. Feb. 4th, 1875.

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I thought it was quite settled now that to raise brood, bees are obliged to have farina in some shape, but I was amazed to find what a quantity they consume, by starting my three colonies with only brood and 25 or 30 bees to a hive. I thought I was liberal in supplying them and they got on swimmingly at first, then the dead brood commenced appearing and I gave them more pollen and all went well again. I found out too that _very young bees_ in an emergency like that, gather pollen as well as older ones.

ANNIE SAUNDERS, Woodville, Miss.

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In ’73 my bees paid in honey sold $22.50, in ’74 about $12.00 per hive. I have had your experience for the last two years in the loss of bees.

H. W. MINER, Saranac, Ionia Co., Mich.

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Excellent season for bees, had between 1500 and 2000 lbs. surplus in boxes. Sold, for from 18 to 25c per lb. Box hive man—can see no better way yet.

J. F. TEMPLE, Ridgeway, Lenawee Co., Mich.

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GLEANINGS is indispensable, but my wife says I get some new hobby from every number.

WM. H. ROOT, Port Byron, N. Y.

Tell your wife that healthy, wholesome hobbies are always productive of good, and that we shall always strive to have GLEANINGS teach none other.

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Can I make a bee hive and use a movable frame such as Mr. Quinby describes, without paying for the individual right? And if I have to pay for the right, who is the proper person to be paid? and how much will it cost to make and use for myself, say one or more?

T. H. APPLE, Meadville, Pa.

We are happy to be able to say that you may make hives, in any way you desire, so far as we know, without the least necessity of paying any body a right for any thing.

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We got up a resolution at our convention, to apply to our Legislature for a law to label all packages of honey with the producer’s name, and let the seller be responsible for adulteration, if not mentioned,—subject to a penalty when detected, etc., etc. Can you give us advice how to act?

M. QUINBY.

We do not know that we are able to give any advice in the matter. Would not the law like many others be dropped and forgotten because no one would enforce it? It seems to us that the great work is to educate consumers to know _honey_ and to demand it. This is all that we have to rely on in a great variety of goods, and that establishment that once gets a name of dealing only in _genuine_ commodities, has its fortune made. People are learning rapidly. If any one likes the _cheap_ honey let them use it.

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I have given my bees some rye flour, they take it first rate, for the last two days they have been carrying it in pretty freely. It is bolted flour such as the bakers use. Is it as good as the unbolted or not? I have not lost a colony yet and they all have sealed honey enough to spring them I think, but I have commenced to feed for brood rearing; feed syrup made of white sugar.

Now friend Novice, I want some advice. I want to adopt some other hive than the Buckeye, but I want a two story hive that I may procure, not box honey, but frame honey, and I want the frames in both stories alike so I may use them interchangeably.

T. B. PARKER, Goldsboro, N. C. Feb. 1st, ’75.

The bolted flue flour, is just as good as the unbolted, except that the bees sink down in it. If mixed with bran or sawdust it does very well. When they can choose, bees always prefer rye and oats, to wheat flour.

Use the Langstroth frame by all means, if you are going to have a two story hive. If you have not seen the L. frame you had better have us send you a sample by mail. We should also use the Simplicity hives to hold them, for then you can have both stories also, just alike, and perfectly interchangeable. We can furnish a one story hive, frames, quilt, and all complete for $1.75, and _two of these_ makes a complete two story hive. We decidedly prefer the L. frames for two story, on account of their shallowness, any of the other frames loom up so tall when placed one above the other. We think we have ample evidence that the Langstroth hive winters equally as well as any deeper frame in any climate.

Our only reason for giving a preference to the Standard frame over the Langstroth, under any circumstances, is that more than 10 L. frames, placed side by side, make a hive inconvenient to make and inconvenient to handle. Therefore if you are going to get your surplus _above_ the brood combs, use the L. frame every time. The Quinby would come next to it, as it is much the same thing on a larger scale, but the American, Gallup, or Standard, are not suitable to be used two stories as a general thing. Single instances ’tis true, may sometimes seem to point otherwise, but we have _gleaned_ the above from a large number of reports extending over several years. Any of the frames will we think, work very well on the plan given on another page by friend Joiner, but the last three mentioned would stand a little the most compactly.

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Do you believe a pure Queen fertilized by a black drone will produce pure drones? and do you believe pure Queens fertilized by such drones, will produce pure stock, and do you allow such drones in your Apiary? What would you charge for—say 3 cards 4×5 inches each of drone comb filled with fresh laid drone eggs from your imported Queen, with bees enough to keep up the heat, and send by express in May next?

GEORGE K. HUFFMAN, Effingham, Ills.

So much time has been wasted in discussing this question that it is questionable whether it be best to hazard an opinion, until we can be _sure_ of solving the question positively. If a black Queen could be fertilized, _beyond mistake_, by an Italian drone, we might readily decide the matter, for we should then have one or two banded workers, and black drones invariably. Will those who are equal to this task, if any such there be, please experiment and report. Will. R. King, of Franklin, Ky., did claim to have made such an experiment, but evidence was brought forward almost immediately, showing that his statements were only a series of falsehoods. [See page 93, Vol. 1.] We see no reason at present to doubt the experiments of Langstroth and Berlepsch; besides we find Italian workers, in almost all Apiaries of black bees in our vicinity, but the colonies producing them show only black drones.

So long as our object is honey, and we only procure Italians because they gather _more_ honey, we cannot see that the question matters particularly either way. Every Apiary of 50 colonies should have at least one Imported Queen, and all colonies should be made with Queens reared from this one. You will then have good bees in every hive without bothering about drones at all. All Apiaries of less than 50 stocks can have an Imported Queen’s daughter—as they cost but $1.00 each, you can buy 4 or 5 if need be, until you get one whose workers suit you. Every one who rears Queens _for sale_ should _certainly_ have an Imported Queen. At the low price at which they are now offered there is no excuse for such blundering, and if our readers would decide to patronize none but those having _bona fide_ Imported Queen mothers, advertisers would make haste to supply themselves. The plea that Imported Queens do not always produce three banded workers, we think a mistake. All the reports from Queens of the Nunn importation agree without an exception that the workers are not only three banded, but that they are quite superior as honey gatherers. James Bolin’s letter just at hand is a sample of one of them.

The idea of judging a Queen by her _looks_ and granting a diploma etc., on the strength of it, is simply ridiculous. Concerning Imported Queens, I would say that I obtained one of friend Nunn and if there are any better ones anywhere I would like to know it. Her progeny and those of Queens reared from her are the very best workers I have in my Apiary.

JAMES BOLIN, West Lodi, O. Jan. 7th, ’75.

Friend H. had better have sealed drone brood instead of eggs, it can then be sent safely by mail without bees. We can send it at the same price we do eggs from our Imported Queen, viz., 25c for a piece 2×3 inches. We have little faith however that the drones can be made available.

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I have a hot-bed and my bees are doing well in it. I have about 60 plants in it, I think they help the atmosphere a great deal.

A. N. DRAPER, Upper Alton, Ills. Feb. 1st, ’75.

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My boy had when we came here a small box of sun-flower seeds, which he kept as one of his playthings, last spring he accidentally spilt them down in the garden by the fence, and, old as they were, they came up profusely. They looked so thrifty, I took it into my head I would transplant them. I went to work and set them all around in the fence out of the way where there would nothing else grow to advantage, and if you will believe me, I had an enormous crop; and behold when they blossomed the bees went at them in earnest, and after the bees got through with them, there were several quarts of seed. I sold a dollar’s worth to my druggist, and the balance I fed out to my hens, and as a writer of old has said, I found nothing so good and nourishing for laying hens as sun-flower seeds. Then I cut off the heads and place them near the bee hives, fill them with sugar and water, and that suits the bees to a T. So you see I was to no expense, and they paid well, I write this that others may be benefitted as well as myself, by so doing.

Common sense, philosophy and religion, alike teach us to receive with becoming reverence, all undoubted facts, whether in the natural or spiritual world; assured that however mysterious they may appear to us they are beautifully consistent in the sight of Him whose “understanding is infinite.”

DR. R. HITCHCOCK, South Norwalk, Conn. Feb. 2nd.

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_ADVERTISERS’ DEPARTMENT_

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CLUBBING LIST.

We will send GLEANINGS With The American Bee Journal ($2.00) $2.25 With The Bee-Keeper’s Magazine (1.25) 1.75 With The Bee World (2.10) 2.60 With All three, The Bee Journals of America 5.00 With American Agriculturist ($1.60) $2.10 With Prairie Farmer ($2.15) 2.65 With Rural New Yorker ($2.50) 3.00 With National Agriculturist ( 1.25) 1.75 With Scientific American ($3.15) 3.65 With Fruit Recorder and Cottage Gardener ($1.00) 1.50

[_Above rates include all Postage._]

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Books for Bee-Keepers.

=SENT= post-paid on receipt of price. Langstroth on the Hive and Honey Bee $2.00 Quinby’s Mysteries of Bee Keeping 1.50 Bee Keeper’s Text Book, muslin, .75 Bee Keeper’s Text Book, paper, .40

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Good Books.

These, though not specially designed for Bee-keepers, have a tendency to inculcate principles that ensure success in bee-keeping as well us almost all other rural pursuits.

The first on the list should be in the hands of every one who has planted grape vines to shade the hives, as we have advised.

Any of these books will be forwarded by mail, _post-paid_, on receipt of price.

Fuller’s Grape Culturist $1.50 Fuller’s Small Fruit Culturist 1.50 Fuller’s Strawberry Culturist .20 Fuller’s Forest Tree Culturist 1.50 Henderson’s Gardening for Profit 1.50 Henderson’s Practical Floriculture 1.50 Tim Bunker Papers 1.50 Ten Acres Enough 1.25 Roosevelt’s Five Acres too Much 1.50 Art of Saw Filing (Holly) .75 Window Gardening 1.50 Leuchar’s How to build Hot-Houses 1.50 Play and Profit in my Garden. Rev. E. P. Roe 1.50 Waring’s Draining for Profit and Health 1.50 Onion Culture .20 Purdy’s Small Fruit Instructor .25

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Averill Chemical Paint.

THE _ONLY_ RELIABLE. THE _MOST_ BEAUTIFUL. THE _MOST_ ECONOMICAL. THE _MOST_ DURABLE. Requires no oil thinner or drier. Requires no waste of time in mixing, Has stood _eight years’ criticisms_ With _yearly increased popularity_ And _yearly increased_ sales.

Is sold by the gallon only, in packages of from 1 to 40 gallons each, in Purest White and any Color or Tint desired.

Address, for sample card of colors and price list,

Averill Chemical Paint Co., Office and Factory 132 & 134 East River Street, CLEVELAND, OHIO.

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ITALIAN BEES.

Italian queens bred from imported mothers—a month earlier than in the North. Purity and safe arrival guaranteed. Also full colonies of Italians in Langstroth hives for sale at $15.00 per colony.

Address Dr. J. P. H. BROWN, Augusta, Ga.

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_=CLUB=_ RATES on 175 Papers. Send for _=CLUB=_ List including AGENTS’ RATES on _=BOOKS=_ by mail post-paid—400 in List— _=BOOKS=_ BINGHAMS’ Agency, Sparta, Wis. 12t9p

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TO BEE-KEEPERS!

FINN’S POROUS DOUBLE WALLED BEE HIVE,

A SUCCESS—

in wintering Bees on their summer stand. Circular free. Say where you see this notice.

Address KEYES & FINN, 3p Clyde, Jasper Co., Iowa.

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Names of responsible parties will be inserted in either of the following departments, at a uniform price of 10c. each insertion, or $1.00 per year.

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$1.00 Queens.

_Names inserted in this department the first time without charge._

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Those whose names appear below, agree to furnish Italian Queens the coming season for $1.00 each, under the following conditions; No guarantee is to be assumed of purity, safe delivery or any thing of the kind, only that the Queen be reared from a choice, pure mother. They also agree to return the money at anytime when customers become impatient of such delay as may be unavoidable.

Bear in mind that he who sends the best Queens, put up neatest and most securely, will probably receive the most orders. Special rates for warranted and tested Queens, furnished on application to any of the parties.

G. W. Dean. River Styx. Medina Co., Ohio. J. Oatman & Co., Dundee, Ills. 3t2 Dr. J. P. H. Brown, Augusta, Georgia. R. S. Becktell, New Buffalo, Mich. M. E. McMaster, Shelbyville, Missouri. 2tl Eli Coble, Corsinville, Marshall Co., Tenn. 2tl

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Hive Manufacturers.

Who agree to make such hives, and at the prices named, as those described on our circular.

Geo. T. Wheeler, Mexico, N. Y.

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Bees and Supplies, never before offered, will be furnished by M. QUINBY, St. Johnsville, Montgomery Co., N. Y. Send for circular and price list. 2t31

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Send for our large Illustrated Premium List and Terms to Agents. It contains a large list of goods at Grange Prices. Write now to H. A. KING, 37 Park Row, N.Y.

Established 1859. A large double quarto, 16-page Illustrated Family paper. (_formerly Bee-Keepers Journal and National Agriculturist._) It treats of STOCK RAISING, SHEEP HUSBANDRY, DAIRY BUSINESS, SWINE, POULTRY, GARDENING, and FRUIT GROWING, besides the elaborate departments of BEE-CULTURE, Ladies or Home and Fireside, and Youth’s Departments, a first-class Family paper, interesting, instructive, making young eyes sparkle and all hearts glad.

CLUBBING LIST.

Send for a copy of my Clubbing List, of which I give a specimen: I will send the National Agriculturist [$1.25] and Chicago Advance [$3.00] both one year to new subscribers for $3 00

Or National Agriculturist with The Phrenological Journal [$3] for 3 00

Or National Agriculturist with Harper’s Weekly [$4] for 4.50 or Frank Leslie’s for 4 25

TRY THE NATIONAL AGRICULTURIST five months and a present for =50= cents, or =$1.25= a year; much less to members of granges and clubs. Great Illustrated Premium, Grange Price List, and Sample Copy, all sent free. Large Cash Commission to Agents.

Address =H. A. KING=, 37 Park Row, New York City, Box 2289.

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ADVERTISEMENTS.

Advertisements will be received at the rate of ten cents per line, Nonpariel space, each insertion, cash in advance; and we require that every Advertiser satisfies us of his responsibility and intention to do all that he agrees, and that his goods are really worth the price asked for them.

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MUTH’S ADVERTISEMENT.

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HONEY JARS.

One pound (square) Jars, per gross $6.50 Two pound (square) Jars, per gross 8.50 One pound (square) Jars, Flint glass per gross 9.00 Two pound (square) Jars, Flint glass per gross 11.00 Corks for 1 and 2 lb. jars .75 Tin Foil Caps, per gross 1.20 Labels, per gross .75 A thousand labels address printed to order 5.00 One qt. fruit jars, Mason’s patent, per gross 18.00 Labels for same, per gross .65 A thousand labels address printed to order 4.25 Uncapping Knives, as good as any, each .50 Uncapping Knives, per doz 4.50 Alsike Clover Seed, per bushel 15.00 Alsike Clover Seed, per peck 4.00 Alsike Clover Seed, per pound .35

LANGSTROTH BEE HIVES,

Straw Mats, Bee Veils etc., at reasonable rates.

For further particulars, Address,

1tf CHAS. F. MUTH. Cincinnati, Ohio.

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THE BEE WORLD.

Our Bee Journal of the Southern States. Issued monthly at $2.00 per year. Sample copies free.

Address A. F. MOON & Co. Rome, Georgia.

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BASSWOOD TREES

One foot and under, per hundred $2.00 From one to two feet 5.00 From two to six feet 8.00 From six to ten feet 15.00 From ten to fifteen feet 30.00

The one foot and under, sent by mail for 75c. per hundred, extra. General nursery stock, such as Fruits and Grape vines of all kinds, Apples and Cherries. Evergreens, Osage Orange plants etc., for hedges, specialties. Maple trees also at low figures.

3t5d J. L. GREEN, Granger, Medina Co., Ohio.

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ITALIAN QUEENS.

_No Black Bees_ to interfere with pure fertilization. _Unwarranted_ Queens $1.00. _Warranted_ $3.00. Bred from daughters of imported or home bred Queens. Full Colonies Italian Bees $13.00. Address

3t8p J. OATMAN & CO., Dundee, Kane Co., Ills.

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[Sidenote: AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL.]

Every Bee-Keeper should subscribe for this Monthly. It is the =oldest and best= scientific and practical Journal of Apiculture in the World. The most successful and experienced Apiarians in this country and Europe contribute to its pages. Terms, $2.00 a year in advance. =Send a Stamp for a Sample Copy.= Address, THOMAS G. NEWMAN,

Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

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IMPORTED BEES.

For the past seven years we have Imported bees from Italy and have failed nearly every time, by lack of knowledge of the true conditions necessary for so long a journey, and on account of the carelessness of the shippers. But we are now succeeding so well that we receive ninety per cent of the Queens alive.

We claim to be

The only regular Importers of _ITALIAN BEES IN THIS COUNTRY._

We received over _One Hundred Queens_ in the season of 1874. Our Queens come from the best districts of Italy. They are all young.

We winter 60 Imported Queens in our Apiary, and will sell them in full colonies in the spring, safe arrival guaranteed.

Price: Colony of Italians with Imported Queen $20.00 Price: Colony of Italians with home bred Queen 15.00

Our hives are good, well painted movable frame hives. For particulars address

CH. DADANT & SON, Hamilton, Hancock Co., Ills.

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=The Bee-Keepers’ Magazine=, edited by H. A. KING, the only ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE treating of Bee-Culture in the United States. 32 pages. Terms, $1.25 a year with a present. The 64 page specimen number, with beautiful life-like chromo of Italian bees and honey plants (price 50 cents), sent free with the MAGAZINE five months for 50 cents. Agents wanted. Address W. B. COBB, Publisher, 75 Barclay Street, N. Y.

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125 COLONIES PURE ITALIANS.

We have purchased of the late Dr. T. B. Hamlin’s stock of Bees, 125 _COLONIES PURE ITALIANS_ in Langstroth’s Improved Hives, 10 frames, which we offer at the reduced price of $13.00 per colony, delivered on cars at Edgefield Junction, Tenn.

3t6p BARNUM & PEYTON.

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VICK’S FLORAL GUIDE FOR 1875.