Part 4

In packing the frame honey, first pierce the projection of the frames through with an awl, invert it and place in the holes one inch finishing nails, then place the top of the frame down and crossways in the case, and with a tack hammer drive your nails. Place the next frame by the side of this first, corresponding as built in the hive, if it can be; and place them so as slightly to touch. In filling the last end of the case, place an iron rod on the head of the nail to drive it, as you cannot play the hammer.

When the case is full, take two strips (common lath) just long enough and wide enough to fill the case tightly from end to end, and cover the ends of the frames and fit tightly against the sides of the case; drive an inch nail through the strips in the end piece of each frame, and the frames will be perfectly solid.

I shipped from one to two hundred pounds in a case, in this manner, and Mr. Perrine tells me the average was not over two frames broken down per case, and no loss from leakage, the boxes being pitched inside.

A. SALISBURY.

_Camargo, Ills._, Sept. 6, 1870.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

The New Smoker.

I introduce to the notice of bee-keepers a new smoker for bees, believing it will be pronounced the best, until a better one is found.

It will be found the best for ease of lighting, and to retain fire, and as burning with equal facility, rotten wood, old rags, or a combination of wood and rags; and it will not annoy the operator every few minutes by going out.

To make one, procure a piece of wove wire; I use very fine wire cloth, but suppose that a coarser article will answer. The piece should be twelve inches wide and from twelve to eighteen inches long. Take of old rags a sufficient quantity to make a roll about 2 or 2½ inches thick and twelve inches long. Roll the rags evenly and firmly together, and then lay them at one end of the sheet of wove wire, and roll the wove wire over them pretty tightly, and bind with wire. Light at one end with a match; and your smoker, if nicely made, will burn from two to four hours. Or if it be only half filled with rags, then fill out lightly with damp rotten wood, and you will have a big smudge.

JOHN M. PRICE.

_Buffalo Grove, Iowa._

[For the American Bee Journal.]

Reply to Mr. Worthington’s Inquiry.

MR. EDITOR:--I see in the June number, page 264, Mr. Worthington asks how to examine bee stores, &c., in the American hive. Here is the way I do. Remove the cap and honey box; blow a little smoke through the slot in the top bar of frames, to quiet the bees; remove the movable side, and with your pocket knife, you can easily run the blade between the top bars, loosening them; lift out the frames, placing them in a skeleton frame made to hold them; and in this way you see _exactly_ the condition of your bees. In returning the frames to the hive, you have only one place to watch to prevent killing bees, that is the top.

J. W. SALLEE.

_Pierce, Mo._

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If asked how much such contrivances against the moth will help the careless bee-man, I answer not one iota; nay, they will positively furnish him greater facilities for destroying his bees. Worms will spin and hatch, and moths will lay their eggs, under the blocks, and he will never remove them. Thus, instead of traps, he will have most beautiful devices for giving effectual aid and comfort to his enemies.--_Langstroth’s “Hive and Honey Bee.”_

[For the American Bee Journal.]

Bees in Bennington, Vermont.

MR. EDITOR:--The season in Bennington has been very good for bees, that is, considering that they were in poor condition last spring. Many colonies died last winter in this town, and I should think it safe to say that one half our bees then perished for want of honey. I was not at home in February to attend to mine, and lost five colonies before I was aware of their being so short of supplies, which I discovered only after losing my best stock of Italians. It was quite warm in January, and one day was so like spring that I carried my hives all out, and for a couple of hours it seemed like swarming time. The weather was so mild that my bees began to breed considerable, and so used up their honey. When I removed the dead bees from one of my hives, I found brood in three combs sealed over, a spot as large as my hand in each, besides eggs and larvæ.

February was very cold, and a terror to light swarms. I set my hives out again the last of March, and had then only fifteen stocks. Three of these I united with others, thus reducing the number to twelve. One of these got discouraged, and tried to form a partnership with another colony, but got killed in the operation. Thus, by the first of May, I had only eleven colonies remaining, and they were very weak. I fed them every day till I began to see they were getting stronger. Then, thanks to the Bee Journal, I knew enough to double their feed as they increased in numbers and the hives in weight of brood, for they could not of course get much honey till the first trees blossomed. The weather then became warm and pleasant, and the bees got a good start in life, so that when clover and red raspberries bloomed, they were soon ready to march out and take a limb of a tree on their own account. I soon had twenty-five swarms and began to think hives and all would swarm. Besides those we hived, four swarms took the wings of the morning. By the way, a great number of swarms ran away this year to the woods. I found a small swarm about three miles away from home. They came over a barn I was painting, and clustered near by. I hived them in a powder keg, and carried them home at night.

I have taken two hundred and twenty-five (225) pounds of box honey from my bees, besides ten six pound boxes partly filled, of which I take no account. I have twenty-one hives to winter. They are very heavy, too heavy, I fear, to winter well; but hope for the best. Bees within half a mile of mine have not done anything at all; because they had no care or feeding in the spring, and when summer came they were merely ready to begin their spring’s work. I think it pays to feed bees as well as other stock.

I have only two swarms of black bees, and some hybrids, the rest are pure Italians. I received two queens from Mr. Cary this season, and inserted them all right. They were, to all appearance, accepted and owned for four or five weeks, when one day I found one of them thrown out dead on the bottom board; and if it had not been for the Bee Journal on the superseding of queens, I should not have known what the trouble was. The other is all right so far, and the young bees from both queens are beauties. I never saw finer, and am well satisfied with them. My bees are all descendants of Mr. Cary’s stock, and another year I shall get some more from him and other breeders, to avoid breeding in and in.

I have never yet seen a honey extractor at work, but there is one within a few miles of me and I am going to see it. If it proves to be the one thing needful in my case, I shall go for one another year.

I have procured some of the Rocky Mountain bee plant seed from Mr. Green, and if it is good, as I have no reason to doubt it will be, I shall let you know all about it.

The season has been quite favorable here, not as dry as it was in some places; and our crops are very good, with an abundance of fruit. Taking every thing into consideration, I am well satisfied with my bees and their labors last summer. When I bought my bees, a man in the same business blowed a good deal and said it would not be a great while before I would run out with my Italian bees and wintering in the house. Last year (1869) he had in the summer sixty-six colonies. He fed two barrels of sugar this spring, as he says, and now has twenty or twenty-one colonies. Who has run out? I fed half a barrel or one hundred and twenty-five pounds of sugar. He don’t “fool away his money for Bee Journals, nor Italian queens.”

C. H. BASSETT.

_North Bennington, Vt._, Oct. 5, 1870.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

The Season in Massachusetts.

After reading the various accounts in the Journal as to how bees have done in other parts of the country, I think it will not be out of place to let its readers know what has been going on in Massachusetts, or rather in a part of that State.

About May 20th our bees commenced to collect honey rapidly, and from that time to June 7th, honey was very abundant, and I never saw bees put into the hives and surplus boxes faster. From June 7th until July 1st they did very little. In fact we had then ten days in succession when no honey was collected; and by the 1st of July pasturage failed altogether, as it generally does here in New England. I never knew bees to put honey into boxes later than July 12th, and that for only one year, since I have kept bees.

Perhaps it will be new to some of the readers of the Journal to know the fact that bees do not collect honey here, in Essex county, as a general thing, later than the first week in July; and this season they did not work later than the last day of June. Very little honey was put into boxes between June 7th and July 1st. Had the season held out as it gave promise in May, honey would have been plenty in Massachusetts.

I have a few hives that did very well, considering how short the honey harvest was, and to let some of your readers know that Alley can raise honey as well as queen bees, I enclose a short report that was intended to be shown to the “Honey Committee,” at the Essex County Fair; but as I was the only person who exhibited bees or honey (except four small boxes by Mr. Gould, of Ipswich,) I did not submit it. Of course Alley got the highest “premium,” under such circumstances. I suppose if I say that the stock that did best was in one of Alley’s hives, some one will think that this article is meant only for an advertisement. Well, I cannot help that; so here goes for the report, and all who do not want to believe it, can accommodate themselves in that line, and I will find no fault. I do not, myself, believe more than only just what I think is true, even when I see it in the A. B. J.:

HIVE No. 1, filled sixty-eight 2½lb. boxes, and cast one small swarm. The honey was sold at thirty-five cents per pound, box and all. Weight of boxes and honey 170lbs.; weight of the sixty-eight boxes empty 34lbs.; net amount of honey stored 136lbs., which, at 35 cents per pound,

is $47 60 One young swarm 3 00 ------ Whole amount $50 60

HIVE No. 2. This was a stock transferred from a box hive to a movable comb hive, May 26th, 1870. It filled thirty 3lb. boxes, and the honey was sold at thirty-five cents a pound, without including the boxes. Net amount of honey stored 75lbs.; which, at 35 cents per pound, is $26 25

HIVE No. 3, filled two 15lb. boxes, and cast two swarms. The first of these swarms filled a new hive, from which I have taken twenty-five pounds of honey, and it now has enough to winter on, without feeding. The second swarm I used to rear queens, and it was worth five dollars to me.

Value of first swarm $7 00 Value of second swarm 5 00 55lbs. of honey at 35 cents per pound 19 25 ------ Whole profit from Hive No. 3 $31 25

The profit from these three hives is one hundred and eight (108) dollars.

I omitted to say that I took twenty-five pounds of honey from Hive No. 2, as late as August 20th. That hive now has honey enough to winter well.

Since September 20th, the bees have put in a considerable amount of honey, but not in surplus boxes. Even my nucleus hives put in enough from September 20th, to keep them--making a saving to me of twenty-five (25) dollars.

If other bees in this vicinity have done as well as mine, few colonies will starve in this county next winter. My article is getting long. I will stop just here.

H. ALLEY.

_Wenham, Mass._, Oct. 3, 1870.

* * * * *

Virgil recommends the hollowed trunk of the cork tree as a hive, than which no material would be more admirable, if it could only be easily and cheaply procured.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

Bees at Binghamton, N. Y.

MR. EDITOR:--Having gained so much instruction and pleasure from the perusal of your valuable paper, I think it no more than right to send you a report of the season’s operations here. But there are so many of your contributors so much more successful, that my account will appear tame in comparison; yet when compared with what has been done by my box and Kidder hive neighbors, it seems to be quite a success.

The season has been favorable in this locality, though rather dry for many crops, yet honey was more or less abundantly yielded all through the season. The weather has been such that the bees could gather honey almost every day, from the first of May until the present time.

We placed ten (10) swarms in the cellar in the fall of 1869, all of which wintered in good condition and came out strong in the spring. Four of them were Italians, and six blacks, seven in movable frames and three in box hives. Those in the box hives were transferred in April; the black queen killed about the first of June, and young, fertile Italian queens of my own raising substituted for them. One hive was broken up into nuclei in May, and also the first swarm. We have run from six to ten nuclei all through the season, to obtain, if possible, a pure queen for every hive; but we have not succeeded in getting all full marked workers in more than half of the stocks, as our box hive neighbors kept us flooded with common drones.

We have taken this season, as surplus, eleven hundred (1100) pounds of honey--eight hundred (800) pounds being comb or box honey, and three hundred (300) pounds extracted; and have increased our stock to fifteen (15) full swarms. Besides the surplus, we have forty Langstroth frames filled with comb and honey, averaging two pounds each. This is not counted as surplus, but reserved for next season’s operations.

After transferring last spring, and cutting out drone combs, our hives lacked from one to two frames each, from a full complement. Having constructed a _slinger_ this season, we are enabled to lay by a goodly store of combs for future use.

Our best stock gave us twenty-four six pound boxes, weighing one hundred and forty-four (144) pounds, and twenty-five (25) pounds of extracted honey; besides ten frames of brood and honey, taken from the body of the hive at different times in the season and replaced with empty frames. It is now in good condition.

This is the first season that we have practiced non-swarming on the true principle of making box honey, and had we had the knowledge and experience that we now have, we are confident we could have attained still more favorable results. We are no friend to increase, and would never increase more than is absolutely necessary. Nor can we understand how some men are so well satisfied with a large increase and a small amount of surplus. Yet we have not seen any feasible plan put forth whereby a large amount of surplus can be made without a slight increase.

After having tried both kinds to our entire satisfaction, we think we can get as much profit, and far more pleasure, from one Italian swarm in a Langstroth hive, than we can from twenty-five (25) swarms of black bees in box hives.

J. P. MOORE.

_Binghamton, N. Y._, Oct. 3, 1870.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

Bee Report from Champaign Co., Ills.

MR. EDITOR:--I write to let you know how bees have done here, this season. I had last spring fifty-one (51) stocks, nearly all in my own hive with frames, and on the top four glass boxes, holding ten pounds each, box and all. I sold two stocks for thirty-six dollars, and they earned for the man who bought them one hundred (100) dollars, in swarms and honey.

During the blooming of the trees in the spring, bees had a week to gather honey. Then they did not get any more until the white cover blossomed, and we had a rain on the 10th of June. From that time until the 25th of June bees did splendid; but after that to the 1st of August, they did not collect as much as they consumed. Then we had the fall flowers, and they have done very well.

I bought ten swarms on the 23d of June, but before they commenced work forage failed. I fed them and four of my own late swarms; one hundred pounds of sugar and two gallons of honey. I then stopped until the first of September. Then I fed them over one hundred pounds more of sugar, doubled up three colonies and broke up two. So I now have seventy-two (72) stocks, all of which I think will winter.

My bees have made about 800 or 900 lbs. of honey. To strengthen the weak ones, I took off boxes full of honey and bees, and gave them to weak swarms. Thus they got bees and honey at the same time. In doubling swarms, I open both hives and take five of the lightest frames from one, and five of the best from the other, put them in and brush all the bees out, and they will not fight.

Bees have done better in the country than in the village, as our village is nearly overstocked. The Spanish Needle is a good honey-producing plant; also a tall flower called Wild Artichoke.--It has been very dry here; but rains have gone in streaks. Two or three rains come in the right time, would have been worth a thousand dollars to me. The white clover dried up early. The bees visited the groceries and were lost by thousands. My bees are nearly all Italians, which I consider the best.

I gave a description of my hive in the Journal, last year. Every one uses it here. It costs about four dollars, and can be made for a little less.

We have had no frost yet, and the bees are collecting honey still, and will do so as long as the Wild Artichoke lasts. I feed my bees by taking off one of the boxes, and put on a saucer with some pieces of comb in it. Then dissolve sugar and fill the comb and saucer. They will take it up every night. Feed till you get them heavy enough.

I divided ten swarms, and they did well, though I divided them too late in the season. If one is going to divide, it should be done early.

Last year was a splendid season for honey. Thirty-two weak stocks gave eighteen swarms, and twenty-six hundred pounds of honey.

DR. H. CHAFFEE.

_Tolono, Ills._, Oct. 3, 1870.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

White Clover crop.--Buckwheat yielding no Honey.

MR. EDITOR:--I once more take up my pen to advocate bee-keeping. As I said in my last article that my apiary was increasing, I have now ten new swarms from eleven old colonies, and I am every day expecting some second swarms to issue, as queens in the hives that sent out swarms, can be distinctly heard uttering the word “peep! peep!” and according to more able apiarians than myself, that is the true sign that second swarms will issue in a few days, if the weather be favorable.

The other morning I was out where my bees are. I suppose you have a strong idea of what I saw, when I raised up one of my stands. There were a half dozen of the fattest full grown moth worms almost any one ever saw. They were lying back in all their glory, after gorging themselves with the rich feast on which they no doubt had luxuriated. I made short work of them, however. Those round, plump, greasy-looking fellows seem to think, from all appearance, that they are lords of creation. But I soon dislodged them from their snug quarters, by means of a sharp-pointed iron bar made for the purpose. “They slept rather late that morning, and were caught up with.”

The piping of the young queen was something new to me. I told some of my bee-raising friends of it, and they hooted at me, calling me a deceiver and impostor. I referred them to Mr. Langstroth’s book, and Mr. Quinby’s, and told them that they should subscribe for the American Bee Journal, or even read it, and they would find that what I said in regard to the young queen’s piping, was strictly correct. My friend Mr. K. (whom I converted) in a conversation with Mr. S., asked him why he did not take the American Bee Journal. “Why,” replied he, “they can print anything in a paper, and there are fools enough to believe it.” I have known Mr. S. for about fourteen years, and know that he has had bees all that time. Yet he has not any more stands now, than he had ten years ago. (It is no wonder.)

The honey product of this season seems to be good. Bees are storing great quantities of surplus honey. The weather has been very favorable for honey-gathering, for the past six weeks. White clover has been in bloom for the last fifteen days, and will probably continue till the middle of July. From it the best honey is gathered. In the spring the early flowers were cut off by sleet, which fell about the 18th of April.

I am now preparing to sow a large field with buckwheat, exclusively for my bees, though some writers in different papers state that the bees do not get any honey from this plant. Whether it is a honey-producing plant or not, the bees seem to visit it as regularly when in bloom, as if there was something about it they are very fond of. Perhaps I can throw some light on this subject. Last fall I had three hives of bees, that came late, while nearly all the other flowers were exhausted, and buckwheat was their only resource for supplies for winter. They worked like white-heads, as long as the blossoms lasted; and after that went through the winter safely, though they were weak the following spring.

I will now give my opinion on ventilation, for the benefit of Mr. A. Green. My mode is as follows: I leave the summer entrance open, and also upward ventilation all winter. I have always, heretofore, wintered my bees in the open air. If Mr. Green uses hives with movable caps, he can close the summer entrance and take off the surplus honey-boxes, substitute straw or fine shavings in their stead, and replace the cap as before. This is the best way that I have yet tried. I intend this for winter. In summer I give them all the ventilation needed--that is, I leave all the ventilators open.

I have drawn out this article longer than I intended, and close with greeting to all bee-keeping friends.

T. H. WOODY.

_Pleasant Valley, Mo._, June 18, 1870.

[For the American Bee Journal.]

Honey-producing Plants.

MR. EDITOR:--Not having much to do, at present, I thought I would give your readers an account of my observation and trial of the different kinds of honey-plants around us here. It may be of some service to new beginners, as I have tried all kinds I could hear of and procure, that were reputed valuable for producing honey.

Among the best are Alsike clover, Melilot clover, White Dutch clover, Borage, and Buckwheat. These, with us, just fill out the season from June to October.

The plants named in the following list, I do not consider of any account here, for honey, viz.: White Mustard, Black Mustard, Rape, Chicory, Mignonette, Lucerne Clover, and the Rocky Mountain Plant. Kale did not come into blossom, and I cannot speak of its value as a honey-yielding plant.

R. MILLER.

_Rochelle, Ill._

👉 Some of the plants named as of no value for bees, are highly praised, in other localities.--ED.

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I once met with an individual whose breath, shortly after he was stung, had the same odor with the venom of the enraged insect.--_L. L. Langstroth._

[For the American Bee Journal.]

The Rocky Mountain Bee Plant.

(POLANISIA PURPUREA.)

MR. EDITOR:--About the middle of August, by invitation of Mr. Alfred Green, of Amesbury, a friend and myself visited his place to see the bees work on the Rocky Mountain bee plant. We arrived there about eight o’clock in the morning, and found the plants swarming with bees; one, two, and in some cases three bees upon the same flower.