)0UHHA13 

 ^ • DE.VOTE.D] 



•andHoNEY- 

 •MD HOME. 



f>UBll6HEDBY(^-l-rt.00r' 

 $l?^PERrEAI^ \©) fACDINAOHiO 



Vol. XXI. 



JAN. 15, 1893. 



No. 2. 



STRAr Strains 



FROM DR. C. C. MILLER. 



Dadant first gave the idea of soaking combs 

 before melting. 



I STAND UP to be counted with W. C. PYa/.ier 

 as strong for the top-bar K thick. 



And now the question in England is, whether 

 a pound bottle shall hold 14 or l(i ounces. 



The last Revieiv is unusually good, having 

 a short but delightful autobiography of the 

 editor. 



That plan of sulphuring through a pipe in 

 the cellar, as given by friend France, on p. 19, 

 is capital. 



" I FIRMLY BELIEVE that the house-apiary is 

 to be the Mecca in the new dispensation in bee- 

 keeping," says B. Taylor, in Review. 



Did you hear the screaming at our house 

 two weeks ago? It wasn't any one being kill- 

 ed: it was only the folks laughing at Wikler's 

 plaint. 



Conduite du Rucher, the excellent French 

 book of M. Bertrand. has been published in 

 German, and a Flemish edition is now in press, 

 as also one in Russian. 



Ill health is given as the reason for giving 

 up bees in two separate instances in A. B. J. 

 Why. friends, bee-keeping is just the thing 

 " for invalids and women." 



Hutchinson says the last few years have 

 been trying ones to bee-keeping, and that he 

 has been surprised to learn of so many who 

 have gone out of the business. 



An historical album is what the American 

 Bee Journal proposes to be the present year, by 

 publishing each week -'a biographical sketch, 

 with portrait, of some prominent bee-keeper." 



It looks strange to see in the British Bee 

 Journal instructions given for making the old- 

 fashioned straw skf^ps. I doubt whether one in 

 twenty of the readers of Gleanings ever saw 

 one. 



Dooijttle's a philosopher. In Review he 

 says, " Would you deprive your children of the 

 keen enjoyment you have experienced in build- 

 ing up a home of your own, by giving them one 

 already built?" His philosophy is good too. 



A second swarm is mentioned in a foreign 

 journal, in which, upon hiving, the queen 

 showed the usual signs of fecundation, and the 

 assurance is given that no mistake could be 

 made, as though such a thing was very unu- 

 sual. I had supposed it of frequent occurrence. 

 How is it? 



The French have heretofore imported their 

 sections from this country: and they now an- 

 nounce, as a great step forward, that they have 

 sections made in P>ance, of French wood, equal 

 to the American product. M. Daujat, Mon- 

 tagna, is the manufacturer. 



"Owning up when I see that lam wrong," 

 Hutchinson counts among his sweetest pleas- 

 ures; and I believe Hutch is that sort of man. 

 " Owning up " is a rather bitter pill for most of 

 us. but it leaves a sweet taste in the mouth 

 afterward. 



Heddon thinks adulteration has done bee- 

 keepers no harm, but the talk about it has done 

 harm, and Hutchinson agrees in the latter part. 

 Possibly some day it may be said that sugar 

 honey never did any harm, but the talk about 

 it did. 



"Bees store far more rapidly when not di- 

 vided off into small clusters as they are in sec- 

 tions," says B. B. J. I think that is the general 

 belief, but some think differently, and some 

 definite experiments to settle the matter posi- 

 tively would be a good thing. 



Doolittle has just let it leak out in Review, 

 that he has been running an out-apiary for 

 three years. Bad Doolittle to keep us so long in 

 the dark. He favors comb honey in the home 

 apiary, and extracted in out-apiaries, leaving 

 the honey all on at the out-apiaries till the 

 season is over. 



When piping is heard in a hive, it is the free 

 queen that pipes, and the queen or queens in 

 the cells quahk. Lately I have seen it stated 

 tiiat the queen in the cell calls first, and the 

 free queen pipes in reply. I had supposed, from 

 the few cases I have heard, that the piping 

 comes first, and then the queens in the cells 

 quahk in reply. Which way is correct? 



A GOOD DEAL depends on the manner of put- 

 ting things. When Editor York says the A. B. 

 J. is Sl.OO a year, it doesn't seem any thing so 

 very remarkable; but when he says that each 

 number of "the old reliable" costs less than 

 two cents, it looks like a pretty good bargain. 

 Come to think of it, isn't there a good bit of 

 reading in this number of Gleanings, for only 

 four cents ? 



A writer in the British Horticultural Times 

 goes a little further than our friend across the 

 line, and says that not only is the sting used as 

 a trowel, but, through the sting, formic acid 

 gives to honey its peculiar flavor." Presumably 

 a different amount of formic acid is used when 

 bees work on different flowers. Oh, yes! we're 

 getting on in our knowledge of how bees do 

 business. 



Rev. W. F. Clarke, in Review, tells me that 

 Herr K. Mullenhoff teaches that formic acid is 

 added to honey from the bees' stings, and says, 



