134 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Mar. 1 



was the silken galleries of the mothworm, 

 and they treated it accordingly. We had 

 hives of Italians that just fairly riddled their 

 combs after they had been nicely drawn out. 



All these different schemes for fixing foun- 

 dation so it will not stre'ch are quite allur- 

 ing; and to one who has never worked them 

 out, any one of them appears to be perfectly 

 feasible; but "there is many a slip 'twixt the 

 cup and the lip " in apiculture. 



In this connection perhaps it would be in- 

 teresting to note that Capt. J. E. Hethering- 

 ton, the one-time largest bee-keeper in the 

 world, patented the plan of using wires im- 

 bedded into foundation. Two patents were 

 issued to him — one dated August 28, 1878, 

 and July 14, 1879. The first patent covered 

 the use of wires in any foundation, whether 

 having natural base or flat base. The sec- 

 ond was limited to the use of wires in flat- 

 bottom foundation. 



any fruit-grower to use an arsenical spray for the pur- 

 pose of killing codling moth before the blossoms are 

 practically all off his trees. I have talked this to the 

 apple growers in Colorado f.ir the past 19 years, and I 

 do not think we have any trouble at the present time 

 from orchardists spraying their trees while they are 

 still in blossom. We did have some trouble, however, 

 a few years ago along this line. 

 Fort Collins, Col. C. P. GILLETTE. 



SOMETHING MORE ABOUT RYE MEAL AND 

 BROOD-REARING. 



After the experiment of feeding rye meal 

 under glass I made examination of our col- 

 onies outdoors and found quite a number 

 without a particle of pollen, and, as a matter 

 of course, no brood, although the queen laid 

 eggs every day. As the weather was such 

 the bees could not fly, I began experiment- 

 ing with rye flour mixed wiih honey so as 

 to form a sort of dough, and was delighted 

 to find this food started brood at once, just 

 as the rye did in the greenhouse. Whenev- 

 er or wherever colonies are found destitute 

 of pollen I feel sure it will pay to supply it 

 in this way until they can get it from natural 

 sou ces. As it sometimes gets so hard in 

 the cells that even the bees seem unable to 

 remove it, wtf should be careful to give them 

 only about enough for present use. I think 

 this matter is given at length in our early 

 volumes; but I have no access to them here 

 in my Florida home. — A. I. R. 



CARBOLIC ACID WILL NOT KEEP BEES AWAY 

 FROM POIS 'NOUS SPRAYING-MIXTURES. 



Referring again to the statement made p. 

 611, Oct. 1, by B. W. Harrington, in regard 

 to carbolic acid being used in spraying-mix- 

 tures to repel the bees and prevent them 

 from being poisoned, we have found that 

 quite a little interest has been shown by our 

 readers. Mr. J. L. Byer, page 778, Dec. 15, 

 reported that it was his belief that this was 

 all a mistake. Prof. Surface's opinion was 

 used in our last issue, page 127. We are just 

 in receipt of a letter from Prof. C. P Gillette, 

 State Entomologist for Colorado, which ex- 

 plains itself. 



I have not heard of carbolic acid being used in spray 

 materials to prevent bees from being poisoned. Un- 

 less some one has tested this plan and found it to work 

 satisfactorily, I should be very much inclined to doubt 

 its having any repulsive effect upon the bees. Ento- 

 mologists have used various odorous substances for 

 the purpose of preventing insects from attacking the 

 plants, but almost wholly without results. It is the in- 

 stinct of the honey-bee to visit the blossoms that con- 

 tain pollen and honey, and I do not believe it would 

 be practical to use enough carbolic acid in spray ma- 

 terial to drive them away. . It isia. grave imistake for 



YOUNG PEOPLE WHO HAVE PAID OR ARE PAY- 

 ING THEIR WAY THROUGH SCHOOL FROM 

 MONEY EARNED FROM KEEPING BEES. 



Mary Rogers Miller, 340 Rahway Ave., 

 Elizabeth, N. J., is writing a book for Double- 

 day, Page & Co., of New York, on outdoor 

 work for young people. She has given con- 

 siderable space to the subject of bee-keep- 

 ing. One part of the book is to be devoted 

 to stories of read boys and girls who have 

 made all or a part of their college expenses, 

 their pin money or pocket money by engag- 

 ing in some form of outdoor occupation. 

 Mrs Miller is particularly anxious to get in 

 touch with young bee-keepers who witn the 

 money they have earned have gone through 

 school or college. We hope that any sub- 

 scribers who know of any such persons, or 

 who themselves, in fact, come under the 

 class mentioned, will write to Mrs. Miller di- 

 rect. 



In the meantime we have been informed 

 that a daughter of Mr. J. F. Mclntyre, one 

 of the extensive bee-keepers of California, 

 paid tier way entirely througn college with 

 the money that she made off from her own 

 bees. There are doubtless many others 

 among our fraternity who have done the 

 same. All interested should write to Mrs. 

 Miller at once. 



keeping alfalfa comb honey FROM GRAN- 

 ULATING. 



A YEAR or SO ago, our readers will remem- 

 ber that we conducted some experiments in 

 an incubator to determine whether we could 

 bring candied comb honey back to a liquid 

 condition without melting the comb. We 

 partially succeeded; that is, we succeeded to 

 the extent that the candied particles in the 

 honey were liquetied, but the temperature 

 necessary to do this caused the comb to sag 

 a little. That temperature was 106. Last 

 winter we tried the experiment on a larger 

 scale, but did not allow the mercury in the 

 thermometer to go higher than 103. While 

 we could not at this temperature undo the 

 work of granulation, we arrested its progress 

 almost instanter. This room was about 6x6 

 X7 feet high. It had a steam radiator in it 

 and an automatic regulator to control the 

 temperature. 



Again, this winter we noticed that quite a 

 little of our last two carloads of alfalfa comb 

 honey were beginning to granulate slightly. 

 Something had to be done at once. We se- 

 lected a room of suHicient size to hold the 

 honey, and put in additional steam radiation 

 till the temperature could be brought up to 

 about 90. Here the honey was stored and it 

 has been there for tne last month. It was 

 gratifying to observe that the progress of 

 granulation was arrested at once. 



