744 



ULblANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



We are uniting, and shall begin to feed this 

 week. 



So many have asked to have the hive discus- 

 sion continued, and as only one votes against 

 it, we decide that it is the wish of our readers 

 to compare notes along this line a little further. 



The usual article from Rambler, owing to a 

 misconnection, will have to be omitted from 

 this number. His " Echoes." however, is a 

 good substitute. The series will be resumed in 

 our next. 



I HOPE that committee appointed by the last 

 convention in Toronto, to formulate a plan or 

 a basis of consolidation of the North American 

 and the Bee-keepers' Union, will be ready to 

 report soon. Let's see; this report was to be 

 forthcoming within a month; and that time 

 will be up now in a few days. 



Gleanings from now on till Jan., 1897, to 

 new subscribers, for the price of one subscrip- 

 tion— $1.00; or four-months' trial subscription 

 for 2.5c. A large number of extra copies are 

 printed for this number; and if you happen to 

 be one of the new acquaintances, we hope such 

 acquaintance may be continued. 



That half the California honey is adulterat- 

 ed (see article by C. W. Dayton, in this issue). 

 Is a condition of affairs that I can not believe 

 is true; and if not true, I'd like to see it dis- 

 proven at once before it finds wings and flies 

 like wild-fire all over the country. The bee- 

 keeping interests have suffered already fearful 

 damage by false reports. Now, ye Californian-^, 

 let's have the truth; and if you can not give us 

 facts, give us honest expressions. 



A BEE-KEEPER so well and favorably known 

 through th3 frame bearing his name, Julius 

 Hoffman, of Canajoharie, N. Y., and whom I 

 visited on my first bicycle-tour, has recently 

 lost a little five-year-old girl, " the pet and sun- 

 shine of the home." The home seemed dreary 

 and sad after this loss; but the cup of sorrow 

 was not full yet; for, on the 2d of September, 

 the eldest son was taken away. Gleanings 

 extends its sympathies. 



We receive about this lime of the year a 

 good many specimens of honey- plants for iden- 

 tification. Some of them we can name, but 

 many of them wo can not, owing to the Jfact 

 that the plants are dried and often badly 

 mutilated. We formerly, at some expense, em- 

 ployed a botanist to name all such specimens, 

 through these columns; but beyond the satis- 



faction to the one furnishing the specimen in 

 knowing the name, there was but little interest 

 in it, and the Botanical Department was dis- 

 continued. If you forward specimens to your 

 State Botanist at the capital, or wherever the 

 agricultural college is, he will give you the 

 name and other information regarding 'the 

 plant, free of cost. If you have no such bota- 

 nist, write to us and we will do the best we can; 

 but be sure to send fresh specimens in as full 

 bloom as possible, and see that they are proper- 

 ly packed so as not to receive damage in the 

 mails. 



NEW METHODS VS. OLD. 



The editor of the Progressive Bee-keeper, in 

 commenting on the fact that we had gone back 

 to the old-fashioned method of raising queens, 

 has this to say: 



I too find it more pleasant and profitable to rear 

 queens (in fact, do a great many thing's) the way I 

 first learned how. I never form nuclei until after 

 the queen-cells have been built in full colonies, and I 

 proceed as follows: I select strong- colonies, and 

 take the queen and all the brood from them. In 

 place of these I give them a frame containing' eggs 

 from my breeding-queen, in which they will build 

 queen-cells. When the cells are capped over, I 

 transplant them to eight— all but the two outside 

 frames — and leave all alone for a day or so, when 

 the bees will have them all glued fast to the combs. 

 Should there be more than eight cells, I destroy the 

 poorest ones. Should there not be eight cells, I use 

 them in the manner stated above as far as they will 

 go. When all is ready I divide up this colony into 

 as many nuclei as I have frames with cells attached, 

 and add to each nucleus a frame of brood from some 

 other part of the apiary. Tliis method may not be 

 scientific, and it may be a slow and expensive way 

 to get queens; but I am sure I get good queens this 

 way, and with me the above is the "good old way." 



FEEDING SUGAR AND COLO WATER; IS PERCO- 

 LATION NECESSARY? 



Neighbor Vernon Burt fed his bees this 

 year with sugar and cold water of equal pro- 

 portions, without resorting to percolation. Of 

 course, the sugar did not all dissolve before the 

 first feed was taken; but more water was added 

 at the next round, until it was all taken up. It 

 is possible that this plan will answer very well 

 providing the bees are fed early, or not later 

 than October 1.5. for this locality. 



Mr. F. A. Salisbury, of Syracuse, N. Y., has 

 for years fed his bees with a food prepared by 

 mixing equal parts of sugar and water in an 

 ordinary extractor, the reel of which is revolved 

 until the sugar is incorporated into the water. 

 We have tried this, but could not succeed in 

 making a clear syrup — much of the sugar 

 would still remain undissolved, and we accord- 

 ingly used the percolator plan last fall. I am 

 now beginning to feel, however, that a perfect 

 union of the water and sugar, so that a clear 

 limpid syrup is the result, may not be essential; 

 that a mixture of sugar and water, even though 



