AN A B C SCHOLAR'S EXPERIENCE.

I thought I would say something about my bees. I have 25 stands of bees. I began in the spring of 1879 with 2 stands; in the fall I had 6. That was a very poor honey season. I got no honey, but fed 100 lbs. of sugar; so you see I made nothing that season. In the spring of 1880 I bought 10 stands, $5.00 each. Another very poor season; had 16 in the spring of 1880; took 100 lbs. of cap honey. I took that in May; got no more that season, but fed some sugar in the fall. I started in the winter with 25 stands. I put 16 in boxes; packed hay all around the gum; put cushions on the frames; left 9 on their summer stands; those I left on their summer stands were the strongest and best stands. They have had two flies since I put them away for winter, while those in the boxes have had no fly at all; but they all seem to be doing very well. I don't know whether

to let them stay in the boxes when spring comes or

not. As soon as sugar-making comes on, I will commence to feed, as my bees didn't breed later than August. I fed them in the fall, but they didn't commence to breed. My bees were not as strong as I would have liked. White clover was a total failure both years. I do hope next year will be a good one for honey. The honey I took in May was from poplar. GLEANINGS is worth all it costs. It is very interesting.

Gosport, Owen Co., Ind., Jan. 2, 1881.

D. F. STEELE.

BOTTOM-BARS TO FRAMES, MADE OF THIN HOOP

IRON.

I am an A B C student, but have no other than the old box hive, and wish to make a beginning soon, if I have to make my own hives and frames. How would a tie used for baling cotton do for the bottom and sides of a frame, riveted to a wooden top-bar? When dipped into melted wax it would not rust. J. H. RODERICK.

in order to make it pay. Don't let Mr. Gray alone
till he produces this comb, for it is almost impossi-
ble to make a paying business of producing honey,
without some such cheap comb, and which can not
be destroyed by worms.
F. DELLA TORRE.

Aiken, S. C., Jan. 1, 1881.

Your experiment has been made before, friend D., and it is pretty well known that it will succeed. You are right; if some sort of fdn. could be produced that needs only to be dipped in melted wax to make it ready to hang in the hives, it would be a boon indeed. The difficulties so far have been that the bees would object, and tear out our artificial substitutes. The fact that hornet's-nest comb will be used by the bees, is a fact that has often made me feel something of the kind, made entirely of the same kind of a papery substance, would eventually be the thing used. Making it in the way Mr. Quinby made his tin combs is too slow, and it does not give us the proper shape for the bottom of the cells for economy of space and material in the bee hive.

BEES ON COTTONWOOD, ETC.

I see on page 41, Jan. No., 1881, that friend C. W. Kennard wishes to know if bees work on cottonwood. They certainly do; but whether they get only pollen, I can't say. I have a large cottonwood within 20 feet of my shop, and in early spring, when it blooms, it's a sight to see the bees work on it. The bloom is easily blown off, and I have seen 5 or 6 bees on one flower on the ground.

Friend Root, I am so glad friend Given is among us again! don't let us lose any of these bee veterans and inventors. I can't do without GLEANINGS, and don't want to lose their counsel.

WINDMILLS.

Friend Root, can't you give us an article on windmills? Tell us all about a 2 or 3 horse-power mill, the best and easiest managed-price, etc.

A. S. DAVISON.

Dodd's City, Fannin Co., Tex., Dec. 25, 1880. Frames made as you mention will do very well, only that they are liable to be bent, or the comb injured in setting them down; in Aullville, Lafayette Co., Mo., Jan. 5, 1881. fact, frames may be, and have been, used with no bottom-bar, and there is no objec-INGS was first printed on a press that ran by As our older friends remember, GLEANtion that I know of, except the liability to wind power; and, in fact, our whole beeinjury while handling. The general verdict, hive factory was run in the same way. So after a time, is, I believe, that a light strip long as I did the work myself, and could of pine is best, all things considered. You wait until the wind blew, it answered very see much depends on the bottom-bar, to keep well; but when I was obliged to hire hands, the rest of the frame straight and firm. and they were obliged to wait, or work with a low and irregular speed, it began to be rather expensive. If I am correct, there is no way yet invented by which wind power can be made to give a regular, steady motion like steam, although it will do very well when there is wind enough, as there is many days in the spring and fall. The wind is also much more reliable in some localities, as on the prairies of the West. Pumping, and grinding grain seem to be the legitimate work of windmills at present; sawing wood can sometimes be done very profitably by

PAPER HONEY-COMB, ETC.

Won't you induce Mr. Gray to make a machine that will turn out artificial honey-comb completemade from shellac tissue paper, and in a way similar to that described in Quinby's "New Bee-Keeping," which uses tin? I am sure it would be a success, for I have used a small square of hornet's-nest comb, inserted in ordinary brood comb with success. After "uncapping" it to 1⁄2 in. depth of cell, I just dipped the rough edges in melted wax, to make the bees think they were composed of that material all

the way to the bottom. The shellac would serve to hold the strips together in this case, as the solder does in the other. These little bottomless cells could then be stuck to a flat sheet of shellac paper (one set on either side), then by touching the edges to melted wax your comb is finished. The machine should turn out these bottomless cells in webs of a certain width, and an indefinite length, like a loom,

wind also.

HONEY FROM COTTONWOOD-TREES, ETC.

I think bees get little or no honey from cottonwood in this locality; but I do know that they get a "right smart chance" of propolis (see A B C, p. 145) from cottonwood in the spring.

Bees have had only one fly since about Nov. 15th. I notice one or two colonies have been coming out

In January No., page 29, you say you have not de- combs, there are other ones for having them

EXPERIMENTS WITH HONEY-PLANTS.

I send you a few seeds of the Iris Lævigata, a plant of the order of touch-me-nots, but much more beautiful, and a great bee-plant. The Rural New-Yorker sent me six seeds; only three of them came up, and the bees were sucking them till the great frost in November. I sowed two rows, 300 feet long, in sweet Basil. I have gathered over a peck of them to sow next spring. They are good bee-plants. I sowed two acres in Alsike clover from August to middle of September last, and turnips with the clover seed, so as to come on in succession. I sowed a great many Spider plant seeds from the five plants that came up. I shall sow 4 bushels of silverhull buckwheat, beginning, as soon as all danger of frost is over, with a halfbushel, and continuing with the same quantity every 8 days till all is sown. I sow on highly manured land. In like manner I shall plant 2 acres of the great Russian sunflower. I have planted out upwards of a thousand Cuthbert raspberry plints, but not more than 50 will be of any benefit to the bees this coming year. I have sown five acres of land of Italian-clover seed with wheat. I have saved a great many Susette Fontaine mustard seed to sow in the spring. A little cousin of mine in Mississippi sent me a few seeds in 1878, in a letter. She says that it is a cross between the colewort and mustard. Be that as it may, it has leaves about 2 feet broad, and it grows from 8 to 10 feet high in good rich land, and is the strongest mustard I ever tasted. I will send you some if you wish them. On the sides of our roads we have growing a plant which grows about 2 or 3 feet high, blooms very early, and remains in bloom till checked by the frosts about the last of November; we call it sheepmint. It is a great beeplant, and so is the mustard. Did you know that bees gather honey from the bloom of the tobaccoplant? I raise a great deal of pearl millet. When in bloom it gives the largest quantity of pollen, and a great deal of honey where the fodder comes from the stalk. The sourwood, tulip poplars, and Judas

Our half-acre of Mammoth Russian sunflowers hardly attracted the attention of the bees at all. I have also expended nearly $50.00 for raspberry plants, and got nice fine plants too, but I do not believe one in ten is now growing. Go carefully, boys, on these new things.

THE COLD WEATHER IN WISCONSIN.

The mercury froze up again last night at 10 P.M., and continued to be in that state until 8 A.M. to-day. I think that it probably would have shown 50° had we any way of measuring it. This is the coldest spell ever known in this country. Since the first it has not risen above zero during the day, and has ranged from 30° to 40° below every night. Can bees be expected to come out alive out on summer stands? Mine keep up a buzzing noise all the time, but I think it will give them dysentery. Birds, fowls, and pigs, are freezing to death. E. A. MORGAN. Arcadia, Wis., Jan. 10, 1881.

I do not think the extreme cold will harm the bees if colonies are strong and well packed in chaff hives, friend M. The buzzing is all right; they always do this when it is so very cold, and I do not think it will result in any great additional consumption of honey, if protected as above.

INTRODUCING QUEENS.

The three queens which I bought of you last fall, were introduced to colonies in the following manner with success: Deprive the bees of their queens as usual; take hive, bees, and all, indoors; take all their frames out, and place them around the hive in any way so their frames will be secure. Bees will soon fill themselves with honey, and begin to look up their queen. I then place the cage containing the queen

to be introduced near them on the floor. The bees
will soon cluster on the cage; then replace the frames;
shake the bees off the cage in front of the hive; re-
lease the queen, and all will enter, apparently with
joy. Carry the hive to its former place; raise the
window and let the remaining bees go home, and
then the work is done.
WM. PARMERLEF.

Bean Blossom, Ind., Jan. 11, 1881.

Taking the bees away from their hive, or trees flourish in great quantities on my farm, Se- away from their combs, will often make quoia. The violet-colored lavender, and the broad- them accept a queen when they would not leaf thyme, of which I sow a great deal, are splendid otherwise; but it can be by no means relied bec plants. Well, you see this A B C scholar is pro- on in all cases. Reports of such experiments viding magnificently for his Italians, even growing are valuable, inasmuch as they give us facts five acres of grapevines in the Concords, the Dutch- that enable us better to understand the habess, the Lady Washington, with gooseberries, cur-its and disposition of bees. Many thanks, rants, and Kittatinny blackberries; and yet he does friend P.; but I would not advise you to not know that he has a single bee living. The last risk a valuable queen thus, without careful time I saw them was on the 16th of December. I fed watching. them well, gave them 2 lbs. of coffee sugar, A No. 1. They were very lively then, and appeared like 2 large swarms. That in the Simplicity bive was rather the larger. I have a splendid house for them, well covered and inclosed; stuffed around the hives with oak leaves up to the top, with separators and cushions in the large hive, two doors, with lock and key.

WASHBOARD BEE-FEEDER.

MAKING AN ARTIFICIAL SWARM IN APRIL UNINTEN

TIONALLY.

I can't find any thing in A B C or GLEANINGS that fits this case: Last spring, the latter part of March, a neighbor had two black and one Italian stocks of bees standing on their winter stands, on the south side of a building. About the 1st of April the two blacks were moved 10 rods away to their summer I sawed a common washboard, that was not tinned stands, and the Italians left for parts unknown for in two parts, each holding 1 lb. of dissolved sugar. want of stores (too early in the season to live out None get drowned in these. WM. S. FONTAINE. here.) The hive that the Italians occupied was left Reidsville, Rockingham Co., N. C., Jan. 4, 1881. on the winter stand, with empty combs. Bees came I fear, friend F., some of your invest-back from the blacks that were moved to summer ments will be only money out of pocket. stands, and occupied the empty combs, and I sup

PENSE OF GOING TO LAW, ETC.

pose must have carried honey enough from the orig- THE BEES AND GRAPES; AND HOW TO SAVE EXinal hives to live on till they commenced work out of doors. They carried in honey and pollen enough to partly fill 5 Gallup frames. They lived that way for a month, when I introduced an Italian queen. She was accepted in good faith, and still lives, and they are a thriving colony. There are no bees near that could have come from any other yard. Some of your readers here would like to know how it was done. GEORGE E. NORTHROP.

I to-day have been reading about the troubles between friends Krock and Klasen, which I very much regret. No doubt friend Krock has been very much annoyed, and perhaps damaged, by friend Klasen's bees, and also by his don't-care and saucy manner; but I fear that friend Krock put it rather "thin" where he admits the "accidental" poisoning. I hope he will not set any more Paris green and mashed peaches and grapes where bees will find them. I am sorry friend Klasen went into the vineyard with that pistol, and hope he will throw it away. I am opposed to going to law if it can be avoided, and it can usually be done if men will only wait to cool off and reflect. I never advise men to go to law, but advise them to each select a man, and these two men select the third man, and they shall hear both sides of the matter in dispute, and shall render a verdict accordingly, which shall be final,-first having the parties enter into a written agrement to abide by such decision; and I think that would be the better plan in this case.

I fear I shall lose all my bees. Nov. 18th the thermometer ran suddenly down to 20° below zero, and caught them scattered all through the hives, freezing thousands of them, and it still continues cold. This morning the thermometer went down to 17° be

Southport, Fairfield Co., Ct., Jan. 13, 1881. It is all very plain, friend N., except on one point, and this is, the difficulty of explaining where the honey came from to sustain them, until it could be had from the fields. Unless you know positively to the contrary, I would suggest that the Italians swarmed out, before they were quite out of honey, as they often do in early spring, when weak. The blacks came back to their old stand as a matter of course, and, finding no hives, both went into the only hive remaining, and finding at least a small patch of brood, went to work to take care of it. The stocks moved were probably quite strong, and so the two together make a very fair new swarm. As they were all flying bees (the whole force of two colonies), they gathered and stored honey from the first bloom out; and, having little brood to feed, filled the frames, as you state, very quickly. Either they failed in raising a queen, or your fertile one killed her, and then they were a fair colony. I have once known bees to carry all their stores servations in regard to bees eating grapes. I am loover to another hive, where there was a queen, and it is therefore not impossible cated in the immediate vicinity of quite a number that the bees you mention did not carry hon- of vineyards; have kept bees a good many years. I ey back to their old locality, if you are posi-had, during the grape season of last year, something tíve the Italians, when they decamped, left none. The plan was, in fact, almost exactly the one I give in the A B C for making artificial swarms, only it was done rather early in the season.

BEES UNDER THE SNOW.

In reply to Charles B. Ellis, on page 592, you say that bees are better off covered with snow, etc. Now, I think you are mistaken, as my grandfather lost 100 swarms of bees, 40 years ago. They were standing in a bee-house, four feet from the ground. There was a board one foot wide that was hung on hinges in front of them. He neglected to shut it down that night, and the snow drifted in and closed the entrance of the hives and smothered them.

W. W. BLISS. Los Angeles, Los Angeles Co., Cal., Jan. 10, 1881. I must think you are mistaken, friend B., about the snow killing the bees. Thousands of colonies are now covered entirely with snow, and I never heard of its doing any harm, unless the snow became so wet as to settle down so the water from it ran into the hives, or closed the only openings. In all modern hives, there is abundant ventilation up through the chaff coverings, even though the entrance be closed hermetically. It is possible the hives you mention were made so tight, and waxed above, that the snow smothered them; but I can hardly see how it could be. Prof. Cook once poured water all over a hive, and let it freeze on; but it did not harm the bees. Under a snowbank is almost as good as buried in the ground.

low.

H. H. FOX. Tribulation, McDonald Co., Mo., Jan. 10, 1881.

BEES AND GRAPES.

I have the very best opportunity for making ob

over 200 swarms. I have two small vineyards adjoining my apiaries (about 1 acre each.) I raised a fine crop of grapes last year, a part remaining on the vines until frost. The most experienced grapegrowers in this vicinity, whose opinions upon this subject are highly credible, are settled in their convictions that bees eat only such grapes as have had their skins punctured or broken.

There is one other thing, also, about which there is no disagreement: they are oftentimes quite annoying about the packing-house and in the vineyard, for they are ready in an instant to appropriate every grape that becomes broken, no matter how small the break or puncture. I consider this question of no little importance to both bee-keepers and grapegrowers, as some very grave charges have been made in this matter against the bees.

H. R. BOARDMAN.

East Townsend, O., Jan. 17, 1881.

BEES AND GRAPES.

I have had, for the past year, 75 colonies near and among a quarter of an acre of old bearing vines; and, although last year, and especially the fall, was a poor season for honey-gathering, I considered the grapes damaged very little by them. One of my men says they never break open a grape, but only suck the juice where they are already open; but he has observed the yellow-jackets, and thinks they do open the grapes. Now, if they are so destructive, why did not so many bees destroy mine? I think, as you say, a little Christian charity for each other would have got along with the matter without difficulty. A. D. BENHAM. Olivet, Eaton Co., Mich., Jan. 18, 1881.