738 



G1.EAMNGS IN BEE CULTUKK 



Nov. 1^ 



spring. I have been a teacher for thirty years, and 

 shall retire after another term and spend the rest 

 of my days as an apiarist. 



Kewanee, Mo., Oct. 14. E. T. Joyce. 



[The plant is one of the Eupatorium family. I 

 think it is commonly called "boneset,"' and some 

 .seasons it yields a large amount of nice honey. 



The lesson you speak of Is certain'.y an important 

 one. It is what Langstroth called the "sheet an- 

 chor" in bee-keeping — strong colonies. In your 

 case you had good reason to be discouraged if you 

 did not get any honey until the last of August: but 

 It often happens in many localities that the fall 

 flow of honey is the most important of all. — A. I. R.] 



An Easy Way of Putting Bees in Shipping-cages 

 with Queens. 



The editor has described and illustrated his meth- 

 od of putting bees in mailing-cages, but I believe I 

 can beat his plan. I make a wire-cloth cage that 

 will just admit the end of the mailing-cages, leav- 

 ing the other end to be closed with a plug or the 

 finger. I place this open end over the queen, and 

 as many bees as possible; and if more are needed I 



SGOop them in. A little smoke at this end will 

 drive the bees up to and into the mailing-cage 

 through the hole in the end. If they do not go up 

 fast enough I dip the end of the cage into a cup of 

 water and slowly lower it into the water, so that 

 the bees are forced uj) into the mailing-cage. 



Oswego, N. Y. F. H. Cyrenius. 



[We doubt very much whether you could fill a 

 cage much faster by your method than we do by 

 ours, for it is surprising how quickly one accustom- 

 ed to the work can pick up the bees and get them 

 into the cage. Then by your plan you are not like- 

 ly to get bees of the right age. By the "hand- 

 picked ■' method young bees can always be secured. 

 Your idea is quite ingenious. — Ed.] 



A Simple Set of Grafting-tools for Queen-rearing. 



The drawing shows a set of my grafting-tools. 

 While I am only an amateur, I would give five dol- 

 lars for a set that would work better. On page 496, 

 August 1, Mr. Pritchard tells of the trouble he has 

 in getting queens to hatch from queen-cells in 

 cages. I make my cages round to fit the Pratt cell- 



PIN 



cups, and then slip these over the cells as fast as 

 they are capped. I hang a frame of them between 

 two frames of brood, and I hatch almost every one 

 of them — at least every one that would hatch if un- 

 caged. 

 Salem, N, J. Henry Bassett. 



[A number have suggested a pin-head transfer- 

 ring instrument, but we do not remember to have 

 seen such a tool made from a feather cut down. It 

 would seem as though this would be a good thing. 



Mr. Pritchard also says, paee 496. that queens 

 that emerge in cages commence laying two days 

 later than queens that emerge directly on to the 

 combs at any place. — Ed.] 



That Sour Smell in the Vicinity of Hives. 



On p. 670, Oct. 15, I see a correspondent writes in 

 regard to a sour smell which he noticed in the vi- 

 cinity of his hives. I wish to say I noticed a strong 

 odor, which I can compare with nothing better 

 than buttermilk, about my own hives, but only 

 during the fall honey-flow while the bees were just 

 tumbling over each other bringing in the nectar. 

 This odor may have lasted a week or ten days, and 

 disappeared in a day or so when the rush was over. 



I examined .some frames, but could not see any 

 thing to attract my attention particularly. May not 

 this odor be from some natural change taking 

 place in the fresh nectar? or might it not be the 

 natural emanation from some particular kind of 

 nectar? At first I was inclined to be anxious on 

 account of it; but as the bees kept right on work- 

 ing, and every thing appeared to be normal in the 

 hives, I concluded it must be a natural thing, prob- 

 ably due to one or both of the above causes, and 

 ceased to worry. 

 Hoboken, N. J., Oct. 20. O. D. Cheney. 



A Bee-demonstrator as Interesting as a Snake- 

 charmer. 



I am sending you a copy of the program arui oth- 

 er literature used at the Maryland State Grange 

 picnic last year. I gave a bee demonstration, the 

 Grangers inviting me, and advertising it as an 

 event on the official program. I thrilled a crowd, 

 estimated to be about 8000, on Wednesday and 

 again on Friday, doing stunts that were considered 

 " simply marvelous." The crowd played a trick on 

 a speaker that I considered more marvelous than 

 my stunts. One of Maryland's most noted orators 

 was just in the middle of a good-roads speech when 

 the crowd caught sight of me unloading a colony 

 of bees. Practically every one of them arose and 

 made a rush for the bee-cage. The orator had to 

 quit, and nothing would satisfy the crowd but 

 bees. The officials told me to go ahead — that the 

 speaker would finish later, and he did. The news- 

 per men put my name in "scare heads" as "The 

 Bee Charmer,'' "Bee Wizard," etc. After the first 

 demonstration the crowd nearly mobbed me. 



Taneytown, Md.. Aug. 3. R. A. Nosbaum. 



Honey Resembling Brown Sugar Not from Canta- 

 loup-blossoms 



On page 6"35, Oct. 1, R. V. Paschall asks about the 

 source of his thick candied honey resembling com- 

 mon brown sugar, and suggests cantaloup blos- 

 soms. We have considerable of it here, but no 

 cantaloups. One man put a swarm into a new 

 hive, and in three weeks every thing was filled up 

 solid with it. We called it honey-dew, but it is dif- 

 ferent from the honey-dew secured in other locali- 

 ties. It is too thick to extract, and the flavor is not 

 first-class. If it is not honey-dew. what is it? 



Torrington, Ct., Oct. 13. Walter H. Hull. 



[It might be honey-dew, as you say. Honey-dew 

 varies greatly in flavor and color. Some of It lis 

 very fair eating; but most of it is hardly .suitable 

 for table use. The fact that the honey of which Mr. 

 Paschall wrote was said to be better than clover 

 does not prove that it was not honey-dew. — Ed.] 



Queen Caged for Three Months. 



I had a funny experience in irtroducing a queen 

 this summer. I put a fertile queen in a Tltoff nur- 

 sery cage alone in a queenless hive, meaning to let 

 her out In a few days. I forgot all about her when 

 I left at the close of the season. .June 15. My part- 

 ner and I went to the apiary Sept. 16, and were 

 looking through the bees, and found the queen In 

 the cage. She had been there thrte months. She 

 was alive, and seemed to be all right, good size, 

 and lively. The bees had fed her all of that time. 

 I will watch her and see whnt she does next year. 

 I let her out of the cage with the bees, and they ac- 

 cepted her. 



Pasadena, Cal. George Larima>-. 



[This is not an unusual case. We have had 

 queens that have been confined thus much longer. 

 Of course, in such cases the bees having accepted 

 the queen keep her supplied with food. — Ed.] 



Bee-keeping for Farmers' Wives. 



I have 47 colonies this year, and have taken off 

 728 lbs. of section honey. I wonder wh.v more of the 

 farmers' wives do not keep bees, as they pay better 

 than poultry, and give us more clear profit than 

 cows. I take nearly all the care of mine, as my 

 husband has other farming to do. 



Nineveh, N. Y., Sept. 28. Susie F. Cole. 



[Some farmers' wives. In some localities at least, 

 could earn more money with bees than with poul- 

 try.— Ed.] 



