960 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15. 



ing large hives, or the " Long Idea." as it has 

 often been called, of spreading combs out hori- 

 zontally, so as to give the bees ample room. 

 This would prevent the necessity of such fre- 

 quent extracting. 



Considerable discussion followed in regard to 

 the nameless bee-disease, or bee-paralysis. 

 Friend Poppleton thought he had lost tons of 

 honey by the dai.iage resulting from that 

 disease. The general testimony seemed to be 

 that no remedy yet proposed hit all cases. 

 Quite a number thought it was worse with 

 Italians than with the common black bees. I 

 asked if we had a queen-breeder in America 

 who could furnish us full-blooded black queens 

 at a low price. 



Pretty strong evidence was brought forward 

 to show that neither bee-paralysis nor foul 

 brood is ever carried from one place to another 

 by buying and selling queens. Of course, if the 

 feed sent with the queen contains honey from 

 foul-broody hives, it might spread the con- 

 tagion: but the queen herself, and the atten- 

 dant bees, with ordinary care, need never 

 spread either of these diseases. 



A bee-keeper near Atlanta, Ga., reported 700 

 lbs. of honey from cotton, during one season, 

 from 30 colonies; but the cotton-plant yields 

 honey only occasionally. 



WAXING BARRELS, ETC. 



On page 899 we read, " A barrel or keg proper- 

 ly made of the right kind of wood needs no wax- 

 ing." I confess I felt uneasy when I lirstsaw it. 

 The question came up in our congress, and both 

 Mr. Hart and Mr. Poppleton, and all the Flori- 

 da bee-keepers, declare that every barrel must 

 be well waxed or paraffined. Friend Popple- 

 ton suggested that honey that ordinarily soaks 

 into the wood would alone pay the expense of 

 waxing. The waxing process is the quickest 

 method of ascertaining beyond question wheth- 

 er the barrel is absolutely tight. Only about a 

 pound of paraffine, costing 15 cts.. is required 

 if the waxing is properly done. First, the bar- 

 rel must be not only thoroughly seasoned, but 

 it must be made hot. either in the sun or by 

 some method of artificial heat. When hot, the 

 hoops should be driven down tight, and fasten- 

 ed. To prevent wax sticking on the outside, 

 friend Hart puts the plug in one of the heads; 

 and, before pouring in the wax, the outside of 

 the head is dampened to prevent sticking. 

 Pour in a sufficient quantity of melted wax or 

 paraffine, and have it hot enough so it will not 

 be cooled ofT very much in the process. As 

 soon as you get the required quantity into the 

 barrel drive in your plug. The hot wax will 

 expand the air in the barrel so as to make a 

 tremendous pressure; and when you come to 

 roll the barrel over, and twirl it around so as 

 to cover the whole inside, if there is any crack 

 or cranny anywhere the wax will be forced out 

 at this spot. If your barrel is hot enough and 

 dry enough, the wax will never cleave off on 

 the inside. In Florida there is a minute insect 

 that makes small pin-holes in barrels and other 

 utensils; and the only protection from leakage 

 is waxing just before the barrel is used. Cy- 

 press wood makes a more perfect and a lighter 

 barrel than any other material. Barrels made 

 of oak, unless thoroughly waxed, will give the 

 honey a taint that mav spoil its value, or cut it 

 down considerably. Let us remember thai our 

 Florida friends have had much experience in 

 all these matters, for they marketed over 40 

 tons of honev in 1894, and all from one compar- 

 atively small locality. 



THROWING OUT THE T!t?OOD WHILE EXTRACT- 

 ING. 



Unless you have a very careful operator a 



good deal of the brood is ikely to be thrown 

 out with the honey; but this is much more 

 likely to be the case where the small extractors, 

 made only for the L. frame, are used. Large 

 extractors, like the reversible Cowan, and 

 others, are much less liable to do this; but Mr. 

 Poppleton thinks he could throw out the thick- 

 est and most thoroughly ripened honey with 

 one of these large extractors, without disturb- 

 ing the brood at all. 



Our irrepressible friend Danzenbaker was 

 present, of course; and it is really worth some- 

 thing to listen to his animated talk about his 

 new hive, and especially his one-pound sec- 

 tion, made 5 inches tall, 3% wide by 1% thick. 

 This section has been used for several years 

 past by Capt. J. E. Hetherington. Friend 

 Danzenbaker has a long string of arguments ta 

 prove the great advantages of this section over 

 the square one. The principal one of these 

 points is. however, to my mind, that, being 

 taller and thinner, it permits of placing 32 sec- 

 tions on top of the hive, where with the ordi- 

 nary one- pound section we have room for only 

 24. He claims that the bees enter them more 

 readily because they are deeper up and down, 

 which may be true; aad very likely (as there is- 

 more surface for attaching it to the wood), it 

 maybe a little stronger for bearing shipment. 

 The idea, however, that purchasers at large 

 will pay more for honey in sections of thi& 

 shape seems to me a little strange, aside from 

 the fact that is it something new and a little 

 different from the ordinary style. It may be, 

 however, that a section of honey something the 

 shape of a testament or hymn-book looks a 

 little better to the general eye than one exact- 

 ly square. Permit me to say to friend Danzen- 

 baker, and hundreds of others who are getting 

 out new inventions, and especially tho.«e who- 

 have something new to offer every New Year's 

 day (or oftener still), that it will cost the bee- 

 keepers of the world something like a million 

 of dollars to change the dimensiohs of their 

 frames and section boxes in common use. At 

 one time in my life I was persuaded that the 

 Jjangsiroth frame was not the best-shaped one. 

 I accordingly adopted what I called the 

 "Standard frame." and urged everybody to go 

 into it, changing their hives and fixtures all 

 over. At that time I had influence enough to 

 induce hundreds of bee-keepers to commence 

 changing their hives. After three or four years, 

 however. I was so sure that i had made a mis- 

 take I went back again to the old established 

 Langstroth, and tried to drag all the rest, who 

 had been foolish enough to follow me. back to 

 where we were in the first place. The Standard', 

 frame is now almost unknown, and we are fast 

 getting to a point where the L. frame is the 

 principal one in use everywhere — north, east, 

 south, and west. If a general change is ever 

 made, it must, in my opinion, be for better rea- 

 sons than any that have as yet been brought 

 forward. 



HONEY THAT NEVER CANDIES. 



Several bee-keepers from the vicinity of At- 

 lanta astonished us by declaring that their 

 honey never candied. One man said he had 

 never seen any candied honey until he saw 

 specimens on the table before the convention. 

 On being interviewed we found his honey was 

 secured from various sources. Now, it is very 

 peculiar that honey from a certain locality 

 never candies, no matter what the bees work 

 on. There were others present, living not very 

 faraway, who mentioned having certain kinds- 

 of honey that would candy hard and solid, even 

 when stored in sections, and capped over. 



The general account of my visit to the expo- 

 sition grounds will be given in our next issue. 



