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Vol. IX.

A. I. ROOT,

Publisher and Proprietor,

Medina, 0.

Devoted to Bees and Honey, and Home Interests.

SEPT. 1, 1881. Published Monthly.

Established in 1873.

No. 9.

TERMS: $1.00 PER ANNUM, IN ADVANCE: 2 Copies for $1.90; 3 for $2.75: 5 for $4.00; 10 or more, 75 cts. each. Single Number, 10 cts. Additions to clubs may be made at club rates. Above are all to be sent to ONE POSTOFFICE. Clubs to different postoffices, NOT LESS than 90 cts. each.

NOTES FROM THE BANNER APIARY. dry weather came, when postals began to arrive

JULY

No. 22.

WATER IN QUEEN-CAGES.

ULY 20-How feasible some things look on paper, and how useless they prove in practice! For instance, I told you some time ago I intended to put up soft candy, something about like thick molasses, in the bottom of my queen-cages, and then cover it with harder candy. I have not yet made it a success. I filled some cages in this manner, and they looked all right until I began throwing them across the shop to see how they would stand rough treatment, when the soft candy just "busted" out in every one of them. I filled some more in the same manner, only I made the coating of hard candy considerable thicker. I did not "throw" these cages, but put some queens in them, and had them all ready to ship, when some thing detained me an hour or two, and, by that time, the soft candy was running from the cages. 'Twas lucky that they were not in the mail-bags, wasn't it? Well, before I could send the queens, I had to go and fill cages in the old-fashioned way, making the candy as soft as possible. I could not bear to think of using those tin bottles that you furnished last season, friend Root, because so many bees reached their destination daubed and dead. I was glad to see your explanation of the matter, in the last GLEANINGS, as the subject had puzzled me somewhat. Well, the ordinary candy, made very soft, sccmed to answer every purpose until the hot

that read about as follows:

"Those queens that you sent the 15th came to hand the 19th, and I am sorry to say that, in two of the cages, both the queen and bees were dead. They looked to me as though they had died of thirst. How do you expect bees to live without water such weather as this! Please send me two more queens as soon as possible, as I have two queenless colonies."

I could see no escape from my troubles unless I went back to the plan that I adopted the first sea son that I shipped queens, that of putting into the cage a dram vial of water, and stopping its mouth with a piece of sponge. I thrust a bit into the hole through which the queen is put into the cage, and bored a hole to the depth of half an inch, inside the cage, in the direction of one corner of the cage. A bottle of water was set into this hole, and a wire nail driven down in front of its mouth. The candy was now poured in around the bottle until just its "nose" stuck out. To make sure that the bottle would not be broken in the mails, I began throwing a cage across the shop. I threw it with all my might, and continued throwing it until I split the cage in two, but the bottle remained uninjured. You see, it is so imbedded into the candy that it can not be broken. Come to think of it, friend Root, just to show you how it is all arranged, I will send you a cage containing an untested Italian queen.

Aug. 3.-How dry and dusty it is! not a drop of honey do the bees seem to get; if this weather continues much longer, I shall certainly have to feed. GLEANINGS came last evening, and I don't know how many times Mrs. H. said, "Come, Will, don't you know that it's after ten o'clock?" I declare, it sometimes seems as though GLEANINGS is as interesting as those old-time love-letters used to be. And

so other breeders have gone to using water in their queen-cages, have they? How we all do sometimes fall into the same groove, don't we, and at just about the same time too? Postal cards are now coming in thick and fast, and the best of it is, they all read as follows:

**Queens came to hand last night in fine condition. Thanks for promptness."

Some of my customers object to the painted wire cloth upon queen-cages; and, as our hardware men keep no other, I burn off the paint.

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Aug. 15.-Mr. M. B. Warner, of Cardiff, Onon. Co., N. Y., in a private letter to myself, says that friends Doolittle and Betsinger have, or have had, some queens that were so pure that the queens reared from their eggs would produce three-banded bees whether they (the queens) had mated with Italian or black drones. Mr. Warner says that he visited Doolittle a week or two ago, and friend D. told him that he (Doolittle) had two queens that he was rearing queens from that would do this. How is it, friend D.? There is one thing about this matter that puzzles me somewhat, and that is, how we are to know how a queen has mated, only as we judge by her progeny.

Aug. 16.-The water-bottle in the queen-cages is working finely. By using a two-dram vial, I have succeeded in sending queens to both Texas and California. It seems that bees need to drink during these hot days, just the same as other "folks" do. W. Z. HUTCHINSON.

Rogersville, Genesee Co., Mich.

Thanks, friend H.; the queen came to hand in fine order. I am quite certain that painted wire cloth is just as good as any.

A REVIEW OF HAYHURST'S TEA

B

PARTY.

AS REPORTED IN AUGUST GLEANINGS.

EFORE brother Salisbury went to that party, he, it seems to me, had been reading the Danbury News man's wrestle with a stovepipe, or the Detroit Free Press' report of the police court, and so he made himself merry at the expense of Cyprian bees.

As I have had two years' experience with Cyprian bees, and now have 90 colonies of them, I would like to "speak my little piece."

The good points of the Cyprians are these: They are very hardy, and stood the winter the best of any

bees I had. They are very prolific, and will breed up early in the spring; they are not inclined to rob, and will not let other bees rob them. They are great honey-gatherers; work well on red clover, and at this present time are filling their combs with redclover honey and pollen; and, lastly, they are the best-natured bees I ever worked with. They will never attack any one when their hive has not been disturbed, mind their own business, and will not buzz around your head when you are working with another hive. I have hitched my horse under a shade tree within 12 feet of a colony of full-blood Cyprians, and I never knew a bee to touch her; but if you kick over their hive, as friend Hayhurst did, they would be apt to pay you for it. The Cyprians have come to this country, and they have come to stay, and don't you forget it." NEIGHBOR H. Medina, O., Aug. 22, 1881.

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S September is the month when bees should be fed, if they need it, for winter, I will give my way, even if it is old, for winter feeding. I dissolve 3 or 4 lbs. of granulated sugar in 2 lbs. of water, and let it come to a boil; if there is any scum, take it off. Feed in the top of the hive, in a common milk-pan, covered with a piece of cheese cloth; leave it loose enough so it will reach the bottom of the pan when the bees take the syrup all out. Fix it so the bees can not get under the cloth, and you will not drown a bee. If you boil your syrup, and make it thick enough, the bees will seal it up the same night they are fed; but if left thin, and dissolved in cold water, they will not seal it until the water dries out in the hive.

I have, within the past few days, had them empty a pan in 5 hours. Tin pans cost only a dime, if you do not happen to have as many in the house as are needed, and you can hardly get a good feeder for any less. NEIGHBOR H.

Medina, O., Aug. 22, 1881.

A REPORT FROM CANADA.

ALSO SOME HOPEFUL WORDS FROM A YOUNG FRIEND OF OURS.

【JDITOR GLEANINGS:-You have had no report from this part of Canada, to my knowledge, and as we intend to figure somewhat prominently in the "bee-keeping" future, I will try to put together a hurried report, to give you an idea of what we are doing.

"

Last season was much the same here as in other localities; "only about half an average;" there was a good flow of honey in the latter part, however, and bees went into winter-quarters in good condition, and came through with little loss. Our original beekeeper in this immediate vicinity (who has kept beeş in a "sort of way for about 20 years) wintered 30 colonies the past winter, and sold down to 20 in the spring; has made about 20:0 lbs., about one-third comb honey, and the rest extracted honey, and increased to 60 by natural swarming. Another neighbor commenced the season with 13; increased to 45, and made 1500 lbs. extracted. My father wintered 11 out of 12; sold 2 in the spring; increased to 28, and extracted 900 lbs.

And now for my own report:

In the spring of 1880, when my father's bees began to fly (he had bought a couple of colonies the autumn previous), I became entranced with the little fellows, and then and there became a bee-man. I hardly knew a bee from a black fly. I knew nothing of yourself and GLEANINGS, or any thing else in the bee line; but, bees I would have. I bought a colony of blacks for $6.00; had two swarms; bought another first swarm, and made about 90 lbs. of honey

from all. I took another colony from my brother to

work on shares; wintered the five safely, and started out in April, 1881, to "make a business" of it. Bees were scarce, and very hard to get, and only blacks at that. I bought 9 more stocks, mostly in

box and straw hives, some very weak, and some

queenless. I transferred the whole "business into new hives; bought a lot of foundation, and equalized them as well as possible, for clover bloom. 1 have bought, besides, 17 first swarms (all blacks), and now for results: I have extracted 1300 lbs. of

first-class clover and basswood honey, and have today 55 colonies,-18 Italian, 11 Cyprian, 8 Holy-Land; the remainder will be "as the others" before the season closes.

Clover and basswood bloom was splendid: but since the latter closed, we have had little or no honey, partly on account of the hot, dry weather. My apiary has been so mixed all through the season that it's hard to give any figures as to results per colony; but I find, by a premature closing of my books, that they will show a net gain of 1400 per cent on net investment in the spring.

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should be slow about investing beyond your means, or getting into debt. Go just as fast as you can, by all means, if you have every thing all paid up, and your colonies are good and strong for winter. I do not believe it will spoil your brother if I say a word about him, to encourage other young men to go and do likewise. He is in the apiary, busily at work from daylight until dark, every day in the week, and therefore has no time to go up town," or lounge about anywhere. Of course, he neither drinks, smokes, swears, helps in the mission school at Abbeyville. nor uses tobacco, and on the Sabbath he His voice is also heard in our young people's prayer-meeting. It may be that, on account of his quiet ways and devotion to his bees that many in our town do not know of him; but nobody knows anything bad of him. If I am right, the world will know of all such young men in God's own time.

I presume the 1400 per cent was made by commencing with a small capital, and not counting your time, friend C.

A NEW TOOL FOR BEE-KEEPERS.

SEND by this mail a sample press for perforating separators, subject to your alterations. I can furnish them to you by the quantity for 75c per press, and I think every bee-keeper would have one if he knew the value of it. I made my separators out of old tomato-cans, and perforated all of them; it will last a lifetime, if used rightly. I have already furnished the bee-keepers around here with one of my presses, and they all want me to have it patented; but I tell them you would not handle it if

Next season the business will probably be in the hands of my brother (who is at present in your own apiary), while I "go to prepare" myself for a position in the social and apicultural world, which II did. Now, friend Root, I want a good big order. I shall leave to yourself to picture.

Now, friend Root, I can hear you say, "Very good, friend C.; but, go carefully; go slowly at first till you get experience." I promise you I will be careful, for I guess I know what care it has taken to put that little apiary in its present shape; yes, to build it up from nothing in six months; but to go slowly, never! I have a great many faithful advisers on this point, and I would say to all such who may read these lines, that with all due respect for your good wishes and greater experience, "Please, before you say further, come right here and step into my shoes." I have lived a quiet country life on my father's farm for twenty years; but that life is at an end now, and time is precious; time is money, edu- | cation, influence, every thing, and time is short. I keep bees. firstly, for the money that is in them; secondly and mostly, from a profound love of the great, the grand, and beautiful in nature and science. I have said nothing on the thousand and one different points pertaining to the scientific culture of the honey-bee, but I fear this little report is already too long; and, wishing you every success in your noble calling, I close for the present. A. E. CALVERT.

Reaboro, Ont., Can., Aug. 16, 1881.

May God bless you, my young friend, in your enthusiasm ; but still I can not but think it best for you to scrape up a stock of energy for the coming winter, so that, even if you should lose every bee, you will keep right on at work, all the same. By advising to go slowly, I do not mean that you should waste any time, by any means, but that you

know they will sell; and as well I would like to have an order for more saw-mandrels. WM. DEWORTH. Bordentown, N. J., Aug. 12, 1881.

The machine is at hand, and we give you an engraving of it below:

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MACHINE FOR PERFORATING SEPARATORS.

It is a splendid piece of work, and if friend D. will make such tools at the prices he mentions, he will build up one of the largest industries of our land. The machine cuts a circle of about 5-16, but it would easily perforate a hole as large as inch, in tin.

It

does the work rapidly and well. I presume extra dies for different-sized round holes could be furnished cheaply. The postage on it will be about 25e. This will make it $1.25, postpaid. Orders may be sent us, or to friend D. I presume he ought to have an order for 100, to make them at this price; but I can hardly afford to order so many until we know how many want them.

Ladies' Department.

D

A THOUSAND TONS OF HONEY. EAR FRIEND ROOT:-Your journal comes gliding into the parsonage every month, awakening no little amount of interest. At first I was disposed to lay them upon the shelf until they had accumulated in sufficient numbers to make a good fire some cold morning. That, however, was averted. I took up the first journal a few evenings after it had been received, and glanced over its pages. I became interested, and now look for its coming as I would for a friend. May the Lord bless you in your efforts to satisfy all the cravings of your numerous readers! also to bear the burdens which Blasted Hopes" would place upon you from month to month. You are doing a noble work, and, I should judge, a self-sacrificing one, if I may judge from your liberality. I have just read the account of your visit to Detroit. Why did you not come to the northwestern part of Michigan? You have some very warm personal friends in this region. I have just returned from paying a visit to one of your lady friends. On entering her home she said, "You must excuse the looks of things to-day, for I have been very busy, and could not attend to my housework. Come, see what I have been doing."

She led me into a room. On the table was a large wash-tub, containing 150 lbs. of extracted honey. She then led me into another room, in which was honey in every kind of conceivable vessel. The crowning point to all surprise was a statement, made by the good lady, as follows: "I have extracted a thousand tons of honey this season, lacking half a pound." No wonder she had put honey in every conceivable vessel, from a broken tea-pot to an immense wash-tub. She meant to say a thousand pounds. Place her in the column of "Bright Hopes," if you have such in your journal. She commenced with five hives; now they number fifteen, all healthy and strong. She proves to be one of the most successful managers in bee culture in this part of Michigan, and a very warm friend of A. I. Root. JAMES DAVIES.

Atwood, Antrim Co., Mich., Aug. 16, 1881.

SOME One of you has sent us a beautiful sample of thin fdn., folded in a thin piece of dark paper. On the paper is printed, with cheirograph, "Thin molded fdn. for comb honey, 50c per lb." The sample has very nice side walls, on both sides. Who did it?

J. B. LAMONTAGNE, of Montreal, sends us a bee book in French. As we can only review it by looking at the pictures, about all we can say is, that it seems fully up to the times. The engravings are most of them from our modern bee-books, and the book has 188 pages and 100 engravings.

MR. MERRYBANKS and his neighbor is crowded out this month by other matter.

OUR Copper wire, No. 25, is exactly right for tele

phones. Price per lb., 45 cents.

THE Burch matter has occupied too much space already. I hope you will excuse me for declining any

more articles on the matter.

EVERY thing is drying up here, as it is with almost all of you, I suppose; but, strange to tell, the bees are still getting all they consume, and we get on with queen-rearing almost as well as we did at any time, although the queens are slower in becoming fertilized. I presume the honey comes from the seed crop of the red clover.

FANCY SECTIONS FOR HONEY.

HAS any one of you had good success in getting these filled, and do they look nicely when filled? I ask this because we sell a good many, but I can not remember that I ever had a report in regard to them: and if they do not please, I wish to take them out of our price list.

THE following is from the Cincinnati Bulletin:—

If a bee is pinched by you, and stings you on the hand, remove the sting with your thumb nail, and suck the place between the lips, and don't halloo "Ouch!'' like an idiot, or be so reckless as to thrust the same hand back among the bees immediately.

I should give the same advice, with the exception of omitting the sucking. It takes time, and does no good that I can sce.

IT is a little amusing, nowadays, to have customers ask how soon we can send a queen. Why, my friends, we have had queens by the hundred waiting for customers, for the past six weeks. In fact, the clerks are standing ready to grasp each letter almost the minute it is out of the envelope, pleased at the chance of sending you by next train almost any article mentioned in our price list. Any one who is behind on orders in August or September ought to be ashamed of himself.

THE following from the Indiana Farmer is a little suggestive, and strikes at just about the real state of the matter:-

That the best honey in the most marketable

shape will always bring the best price, has never been more fully exemplified than in a case which was brought to our notice a few days since. While office, at a fancy grocer's, two lots of honey were down street, within a stone's throw of the Farmer brought in. As for the honey, it was all very white and nice, but one lot was in a "skip" which held something over 20 lbs., and must be cut out and sold in chunks. The other 25 lbs. in 1 lb. sections, all encased in a nice shipping-case. The latter brought 23 cents per pound, while the former lot brought only 12 cents, and the grocer could hardly be induced to take it at that price.

OUR ingenious friend Scovell of Columbus, Kan.,was the one alluded to in our last number, who invented the new way of grooving the Peet cages for the tins, at the same time friend Foster did. It is, in reality, the same thing as the cage I paid him $25.00 for a few years ago. Friend S. also sends us a plan for wiring frames, without the necessity of making any holes for the wire. Take a thin board, say or thick, and saw grooves in it, as far apart as you want the wires. These grooves are to go just half through the board. Now rip off strips from this board, and you have places for the wires in each strip. The strips are of such length that one may be tacked under the top-bar, and over the bottom-bar of the frame. It is ingenious, but I think rather more work for us than our usual way,

THE EXPERIENCE OF A NOVICE IN BEE passing a few remarks in regard to them, I asked

CULTURE.

CHAPTER I.,

IN WHICH HE TELLS HOW HE FIRST CAME TO KEEP BEES, ETC.

D

EAR FRIEND NOVICE:-I have often thought of writing you a letter, telling you of my success as a bee-keeper, and how I commenced.

I should have done so before, but thought to give the field to those more learned and experienced in the business. I was born and brought up upon a small farm in the town of Berne, Albany Co., N. Y. My parents were poor, and, living some way from a schoolhouse, I got but a very little education. When I was twelve years old I left the paternal roof and went out into the world to do for myself. I worked out by the month for a few years, and so my wages was not very high. I merely earned enough

to supply myself with the necessaries of life. When

I was 21 I got married, and worked a small place of about 60 acres of land for one-third, the owner find. ing tools. This business I carried on for three years,

and at the end I was no better off than at the commencement; but in reality I was money out of pocket. At the end of three years I engaged to work a large farm in Schoharie Co. (where I now reside), belonging to a cousin; and after working hard, myself and wife, at the end of the year we were really money out of pocket. I concluded that there was no show for a poor man in the farming line, so concluded to try some thing else.

In the spring of 1877, the same year that I com. menced to work the last place above mentioned, I saw an advertisement in some paper (I have forgotten the name of the paper now, but I think it was in the American Agricul urist;) the advertisement read like the following:

Dear Friend:- If you are interested in Bees or Honey, we will with pleasure send you a sample copy of GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Simply send your name, plainly written on a postal card, to A. 1. ROOT, Medina, Ohio.

Now, I had been interested in the little honey-becs all my life. I used to watch them hour after hour as they came, loaded down with wax and honey, as I termed it then, for my brother-in-law, who used to keep a few bees in box hives, informed me that it was wax that they carried on their legs, and of course I thought the same; how should I know better then? but I know better now. Well, as I have said before, I was interested, and so sent my name to you, and in a few days received a copy of GLEANINGS. But I was much surprised when I got it; of course, my first thoughts were, after reading about frame hives and artificial combs, and machines to extract the honey out of the combs without injury to them, and about artificial swarming and queenrearing, and all of this and that, that it was a humbug, and so I laid it aside; but every time I came into the house my mind was drawn to that "humbugging book," as I termed it, and the more I read it the more uneasy I got; and at last I concluded to purchase a colony of bees if I could. So in a few days I had some business to attend to in the further part of the town, and in coming home I noticed an old man carrying bees out of his cellar. As he had a good many swarms, I thought perhaps he might sell me one or two colonies; and so in a few days I had occasion to pass that way again. The old man was out among his bees. I drove my horses up near the fence, and, after fastening them, I opened a conversation with him in regard to his bees. After

him if he would sell me a couple of swarms. He said that he would. I asked him his price, and he replied that he had some that he would sell for $4.00 a swarm, and some that he would not sell at all. I asked him to show me some of his four-dollar swarms. As the price through the country for black bees in box hives was five dollars a swarm, I thought perhaps here was a chance to get some bees at a lower price. The old gentleman turned up his hives, one after another, and I discovered at once that they were the culls of his yard; for so I learned afterward, that, in carrying them out of his cellar, when he came to one that was moldy, or a young swarm that had not the combs built down even to the bottom, or was light in bees, he had carried them all to this row. I told the old gentleman that the bees did not suit me, and that I would rather pay a

larger price and get better bees. His reply was,

that if those bees were not good enough for me, I might go without. So he finally left me, and went about his work. After he had left me, I took the privilege of examining some of his other colonies. I found them to be full of bees, and good bright combs, and looked as if they might be first-class stocks, although I knew nothing about bees. I looked at about all the rest of his colonies, and after making a careful examination I marked my name on two hives, then went where he was, and told him what I had done, and that I would give him eleven dollars for these two stands of bees, providing he would trust me for that amount until I could sell some farm produce. He said he thought that I did not want any bees, for they might sting me; so I left him and went my way.

In the course of a week or so the old gentleman sent word to me, that if I wanted those bees I might have them, and that I must come and get them that very day, or I should not have them at all; and at the same time I must give him security for the amount. As I wanted the bees very much, I of course went and complied with the old man's request. After getting them put up and into the wagon, he gave me some instructions in regard to their management. But, friend Novice, those instructions were never put in practice; for if they had, I never would have been the happy fellow I now am, for I found better instructions from a different source. It was from that little pamphlet that came from you- the one that I thought must be a humbug. May God bless you, friend Root, for sending it to me!

Well, what was the result of my purchase, and what did I do with the bees? Did I make bee-keeping a failure, and should I be put into Blasted Hopes? I will leave it for you to judge. I got my bees safely home, and placed where they could be seen by my wife while she was about her work, for she had to do the watching of them while I was away in the field at work. The 28th day of May, one of the colonies cast a large swarm, and in a few days the other followed suit, and the old man of whom I bought them did not have a swarm until the 6th of June; and in the fall I had 9 fine colonies in good condition for winter, and eleven dollars' worth of honey. So you see that my bees had not only paid for themselves, but I had for my work 9 good colonies of bees. The old gentleman now began to be a frequent visitor at my house. He told the story of my success to every one he met. He began to ask me questions concerning bees, when, in fact, 1

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