426 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Skpt. 



should be responsible, unless he buys them at re- 

 duced rates, and takes the risk in exchange for the 

 reduction. When g-oods are properly packed, it 

 seems to me ihe express and railroad companies 

 should be responsible for all damages arising- from 

 rough handling; but, as friend Root says, it is our 

 business to put up goods so that they can not easily 

 come to harm. Now, as Uncle Sam does not p.iy for 

 queen bees that die while he is carryingthem about in 

 his big leathern pockets, I consider it perfectly right 

 and fair that the shipper cf queens should guaran- 

 tee their safe arrival. I should not like to pay for a 

 dead queen, that had died because some one else did 

 not put it up propel ly. 



But 1 did agree with j'ou, fiicnd Ileddon, in think- 

 ing that these long journeys do, sumctiincs, have an 

 injurious effect upon queens. Sometimes they do 

 not lay any — I have had two or three such cases — 

 and, in two instances, I have had tested queens that 

 I hnciv produced three-banded workers while in my 

 possession, reported as producing hybrids. I think 

 bee-keepers very foolish to send clear across the 

 continent for a queen, especially when just as good 

 queens can be obtained nearer home. But, taken 

 all In all, I consider the sending of queens by mail a 

 great blessing. W. Z. Hutchinson. 



Kogersville, Genesee Co., Mich., August, 1883. 



I am very glad indeed, friend XL, tliat you 

 liave given the "Good" candy a "good" 

 trial. I have perhaps neglected to use it, 

 because I feared the bees would dig it to 

 pieces, and let the sugar all rattle out of the 

 cage. I know how friend Good fastenes it 

 in, but I feared, with his arrangement, a 

 queen might get into that little hole and get 

 stuck ; but the proof j^ou two give is enough, 

 and I am ready now to adopt this candy for 

 the Peet cage. It is of the greatest import- 

 ance that we have this matter worked up to 

 the greatest perfection we can possibly get 

 it, and so I am going to give you and friend 

 Good, each of you, $5.00 to help me arrange 

 a Peet cage so as to hold the " Good " candy 

 in the best and simplest way. I would by 

 no means think of any other plan of intro- 

 ducing, after the favorable experience we 

 have had with the Peet cage, and therefore 

 I wish you two to mail me cages like the 

 ones T mail you, as nearly as may be, yet 

 fixed just as you would have them to liold 

 this honey and sugar. When done, we will 

 give our readers the benefit of it. 



Sure enough, here conies another testimo- 

 nial in regard to the " Good " candy, and it 

 is from no less a personage than friend 

 Brooks. Read:— 



QUEENS BY MAIL. 



Friend Heddon, I know how to sympathize with 

 you in your losses in sending queens by mail, as I 

 have seen the time too that I thought they would 

 go safest by express. But I am satisfied now that 

 the mails will take them safely almost every time, 

 provided the cages, and especially the feed are made 

 just right. 1 have used a bit of sponge containing 

 all the honey it would hold without running, and 

 have been successful, but wished for something 

 that would not daub so much. Next I bought some 

 of A. I. Root's provisioned cages, with candy and 

 water-bottle in the center, but am sorry to say that 

 the first queen I attempted to ship (a $1.00 tested 

 one) came back dead, daubed up with the candy. 

 The water-bottle must have got to leakin^g, as they 



were all daubed up, and dead with candy all over 

 them. Next I tried friend Doolittle's boiled sugar 

 candy. It works nicely where you succeed in boil- 

 ing it just right, but I find that at times we get it too 

 hard and dry, by boiling just a little too long; then 

 again it is too soft, and must be boiled more. 



I am now using a feed that pleases me better than 

 any thing I have tried. My friend I. R. Good, of 

 Nappanee, Ind., presented me with a queen, provis- 

 ioned with his feed, which was granulated sugar and 

 honey, " mi.xed cold," into a thick paste. His cage 

 is made expressly for this kind of feed, and is simply 

 a small block of some light wood, with one large 

 hole bored to receive the queen and her attendant 

 bees, and another smaller hole to hold the sugar and 

 honey paste, with the partition between the two 

 holes cut through down at the bottom of the cage to 

 admit the bees to the feed. Honey, 1 think, is the 

 safest and suiest food we can use, and the granulat- 

 ed sugar seems to be the best thing for holding the 

 honey in nice condition, of any thing I have tried. 

 Now, friend Good, as Mr. Heddon docs not state the 

 kinds of cages nor the kinds of food used, I propose 

 that you send him one of your cages with bees, pro- 

 visioned with the paste, mixed just right so it does 

 not run or melt down as it were, and we will see, 

 after he has tried it, if he can then say that be is al- 

 most sorry the bees were re-admitted to the mails. 



Bees are swarming every few days. They gather 

 just enough to breed fast and swarm. The queens 

 have been having things pretty much their own way 

 this season, and have their hives rnnning over with 

 bees and brood. Smart weed is blooming, and I can 

 notice that the bees work a little stronger and con- 

 tinue longer now every morning. 



Jos. M. Brooks. 



Columbus, Ind., Aug. 19,188:2. 



A SirBSTITCTE FOR A HONEY-BOARD 

 FOR THE CHAFF HIVE. 



#%UR friend Chalon Fowls, of Oberlin, O., 

 ij brings into our office the little device 

 ^■^^ shoAvn below, to be used on a chaff or 

 other hive, when we wish to feed and at the 

 same time keep the chaff cushion in the up- 

 per story, over the bees. 



fowl's honey-board for chaff hives. 



To use it, take otf the mat or enameled 

 sheet, and set it so as to cover the ends of 

 the frames where the greater part of the bees 

 are clustered. Now turn the mat around so 

 as to go across the other way, and you have 

 the bees fastened down, and you can put 

 any kind of a feeder you wish over the hole, 

 in the board, and feed without the bees get- 

 ting out in the way. If the hole has a piece 

 of wire cloth tacked over its upper side, you 

 can tie a piece of cloth over the mouth of a 

 fruit-jar or tumbler, and invert it right on 

 the wire cloth. Then when you lift it off, 

 no bees get up. Of course, the chaff cush- 

 ion can be tucked in and taken off without 

 chilling the bees, even if the weather is cold. 

 The taper shape of the ends of the cleats 

 that hold the board from warping (and also 

 raise it up so as not to kill the bees), admits 

 of the mat fitting down bee-tight. 



