484 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



for ourselves or others. And we should never sell 



to others what we would not not keep for ourselves. 



Milroy, Pa., July 5, 188^. J. W. White. 



Just the tiling exactly, friend \V., both on 

 queens and extracted honey. I have before 

 stated that our customers are partial to hon- 

 ey in its liquid state, and I have given direc- 

 tions in the A B C for keeping honey in its 

 liquid state by corking it while hot, with a 

 cork soaked in melted wax, and I had also 

 found out how easy it is to injure the honey 

 by heating it a little too much, but it never 

 before occurred to me that the heat of the 

 sun could be sufficient to bring about this 

 very desirable non-candying property. Why, 

 the idea opens a great field for the sale of 

 extracted honey. You are right, friend W.; 

 extracted honey is rapidly coming into favor. 



Your remarks in regard to the plan to be 

 followed to get queens for honey are more to 

 the point, to my notion, than any thing I 

 have ever before seen in print. It is simply 

 to test them for honey — the only thing, or 

 almost tlie only thing, that is of any rea) im- 

 l)ortance, when we sum it all up. I agree 

 with you, that the greater part of the tested 

 queens are not tested for much more than 

 color and gentleness of the workers. Our 

 select tested queens, we try to test in regard 

 to the ability of the bees to gather stores ; 

 but it is a long job, and I fear very few of 

 them would come up to your standard. Our 

 red-clover queen was selected from over two 

 hundred, just because of the honey her bees 

 w^ould gather, and our recent honey-queen 

 was selected from over four hundred in the 

 same way. But only just this week, the 

 boys say they find some bees among her 

 progeny which show the third yellow band 

 with a suspicious faintness. Now, shall we 

 let all her extra energy go as of no account, 

 just for this one little matter of colorV I tell 

 you, if I were going to rear bees for honey, 

 and nothing else, I do not know but I would 

 just as soon have her that way as any other. 



One other point, friend W. You state that 

 you have had extra-good queens from one 

 you know was very poor, and vice versa. 

 Well, are you sure it was the drone that 

 caused this unexpected result? May it not 

 be, that if we could pick our drones as well 

 as queens, we should find just about such re- 

 sults? By way of encouragement, I would 

 say that I once reared some queens from one 

 so poor she could never keep up a decent nu- 

 cleus, and the young queens were all just as 

 bad, or even worse. 



THE DEANE SYSTEM FOK SECTION 

 BOXES. 



AN IMPROVEMENT ON THE PLAN GIVEN ON PAGE 

 139, MARCH NUMBER. 



SINCE making some recent improvements to the 

 new Deane system for comb honey, friend 

 Root writes to know how about the expense of 

 the hoop iron, etc. The improvements consist in 

 having the observing-glass in the clamp l^xU in., 

 and clamping the cases together by means of 3-16 

 iron rods with thumb-nuts. I regard friend Root's 

 objections to the wires that I formerly used as just, 

 for they were frail; but the action of this thumb- 

 nut is positive; and after tightening the nut you 



can handle the cases truly as a solid box. No dan- 

 ger of the bottom-bar of case sagging, for the clamps 

 hold the weight of the honey, and there is scarcely 

 any weight on the bottom-bar. 



In my former article I spoke of sending the honey 

 to market by placing thick brown paper on top and 

 bottom, and nailing strips across; but I find we may 

 get a thing so cheap that we may compromise its 

 utility, and I would advise the following: After tak- 

 ing the honey from the hive, take off the cases, 

 place the sections side by side, 3t in number; clamp 

 them firmly together by means of the rod and nut; 

 have a bottom of J4 -in- lumber, and a top of %-m. 

 lumber; rabbet the sides of top }ix^s, and let }s in- 

 go down on top of sections; then screw your top on, 

 tack in the ends 4}4xlO?4, to hold the sections in 

 place, and the case is complete. Before tightening 

 sections to nail on bottom and ends, put five strips 

 %x}ixi}i between two rows of sections so they will 

 not shake in transit. 



Now, friend Root, for the comparative cost of the 

 hoop-iron frames, etc., of the Deane system, and 

 the broad frames, etc., of the — 



ROOT, OR SIMPLICITY SYSTEM. 



Nine wide frames @ 4c each, 36 



Three shipping-crates @ 30c each, - - - - 90 



Total, 



f 1 26 



NEW DEANE SYSTEM. 



Three pairs of clamps with glass @ 13'/ic, - 3Ti4 

 One " " hoop-iron frames @ 6c, - - 13 

 Two " " taps and rods @ 6c per pail-, - 13 

 Eighteen cases @ W^c each, - - - - 37 

 Top% bottoms, and ends, for 3 cases of 34 lbs. each Sl'-A 



Total, SI 3(5 



Balance in favor of nobody, - - - 

 This is the necessary furniture in the flat, for one 

 hive of 73 lbs. of comb honey. Now, what have each 

 of us left, after sending our honey to market? 

 Friend Root has his nine wide frames, and I my 

 two hoop-iron frames, taps, and rods, and 18 cases. 



Necessary cost to restock friend Root's hive:— 

 Three shipping-crates ® 30c, - - - - 90 



Necessary to restock mine:— 

 Three pairs of clamps @ 13^c, . - . - 371/4 

 Three sets of bottoms, tops, and ends @ VZy^c, 37'/i 



Total, - 75 



Balance in my favor, - - - - 15 



So you see, friend Hoot, the original cost of mine 

 is the same as yours, while on the restock I beat you 

 15c to the hive, and each of us has our honey in 34-lb. 

 packages, the most salable shape; 5c reduction on 

 the crate is bringing it somewhere in the neighbor- 

 hood of " give away the crate," spoken of in Juve- 

 nile Gleanings, August No., is it not, friend Root? 



A word about your former objections: The only 

 two that I consider valid I have met with improve- 

 ments, one of which, so far as I know, is yours; 

 viz., the glass in the clamps. The other I think 

 fairly belongs to me. If my memory serves me 

 right, I don't think I ever claimed the wires for 

 trussing up the cases as new, for I think I gave 

 friend Bingham the credit for that idea, in a former 

 card to you, before the publication of my article in 

 March last. Again, I would say that, with this sys- 

 tem of mine, there is no necessity for either notch- 

 ing or dovetailing the cases at the joints, provided 

 you can nail the bottom-bar exactly in the corner of 

 ends; but as this is dilHcult, I notch them for that 

 purpose and no other. 



AVHAT I CLAIM AS NEW. 



A case without a top-bar, to be used in either 



