538 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1. 



DEAD BEKS AS A DECOY FOR SMARMS. 



An old bee -man gave me a new idea this 

 morning. It is. to take a lot of dead bees, which 

 can always be found, and string them on a 

 thread with a needle, after which they are 

 wound about a pine bough, which is stuck in 

 the ground a few steps from the hive. He says 

 that ev<'ry swarm that comes out goes straight 

 to the bunch of dead bees, and he has no climb- 

 ing to do— simply pulls the pine bush from the 

 gri)und and shakes his bees off in front of his 

 hiv(^ Another friend, who is extremely fond of 

 gardening, has a novel plan for keeping down 

 tlie weeds in his onion-bed. He has the rows 

 quite close together, and between them places 

 pine poles, then fills in between the poles where 

 the onions grow, with manure, and you just 

 ought to see them grow. The poles answer the 

 double purpose of keeping down weeds and re- 

 taining moisture. Wm. E. Cunningham. 



Louisa, Va. 



can we have a standard size of section? 



No doubt we can have uniformity in this 

 article; we can at the same time have honest 

 weight, and introduce the metric system. Con- 

 cerning the latter, we are behind the times; 

 and what good does it do to study this simple 

 international system in school, to be convinced 

 of its simplicity, because of the decimal frac- 

 tions, and not accept the meter in practice? 

 C. P. Dadant will probably agree with me in 

 this opinion. Dr. Miller says the 4i4x4}4Xl|| 

 section comes near averaging a pound; there- 

 fore, to weigh 1 lb. on the average, they must 

 be a little larger. I propose this: 

 4i4'x4Kxliiin. / _, ,y^ 

 10.8x10.8x5 cm. \ ^ ' "' 



To make this change would, according to Dr. 

 Miller, not require so much alteration in ma- 

 chinery, and be an even number (5 cm.) com- 

 pared with the confusing fractions as now. 



Sometimes it seems to me as if we are much 

 like an old woman over in Switzerland, early in 

 the fifties, when the Latin Money System (1 

 franc makes 100 centimes) was a new thing in 

 that country. She said the government should 

 have waited with the new money until all the 

 old people had died. 



4^x4J^xip in. =1 lb. scant. 



10.8x10.8x5 cm.=583.3cm3 =1 lb. 



After a whih', to suit the metric weight, 13x 

 13x4.5 cm.=648cm.=50O grams. 



Hamilton, O., May 14. John Kerstriner. 



HOW LONG may HONEY BE KEPT? 



We clip the following from the New Smyrr^d 

 Breeze, of June 8: 



Some men wlio were digging a well on the place 

 of R. C. Denham, at Live Oak, found, about ten feet 

 l)elow the surface of the ground, a petrified tree. 

 Tlie petrificatiun being only on tlie outside an inch 

 or two, the trunk was soon split open. In It was 

 found a soft, sticky mass adherent to the sides of 

 the tree; and on tasting this it was found to be 

 h oney, which had been shut up in that tree for— it 

 was impossible to say how many years 



If any of our readers who live in the vicinity 

 indicated above, or who know any thing about 

 said vicinity, can tell us wnether the above be 

 true, we shall be very glad indeed to hear from 

 them. I am inclined to think it a newspaper 

 canard: yet if the petrification was of such a 

 nature as to seal up completely the honey in 

 the tree, it may be possible. The difficult part 

 to understand is, that petrification is accom- 

 panied by water or moisture; and if this water 

 or moisture were to come in contact with the 

 honey it would certainly be decomposed very 

 quicklv. Honey sealed up hermetically in a 

 glass jar or tube might keep unimpaired for 

 ages and ages; but if the best honey in the 



world should come in contact with air and 

 moisture it would hardly keep in a warm room 

 for 34 hours. I know there are many wonderful 

 things in Florida; but truth is strange enough, 

 without going into fiction to get astonishing 

 items for the newspapers.] 



CONVENIENT TOOLS FOR THE APIARY. 



There is one tool that I have used ever since 

 I have handled bees in sash hives, and that is 

 over 30 years, that I would not do without, and 

 yet I have never seen it used nor spoken of by 

 anybody outside of my circle of acquaintances, 

 and in ray out-apiaries. It is what I call an 

 opening-knife, or combination tool. I send yon 



Top v/Tew 



yOb VIEW. 



a rough draft of one. The best length is about 

 11 inches. I have yet to see a bee-keeper who 

 used one until he got used to it, who would ever 

 do without it. The pointed end. like a screw- 

 driver, is used for prying open and loosening 

 th(> comb; the other, for paring off wax or pro- 

 polis. The handh^ in the middle should be 

 made of bone, or something white or conspicu- 

 ous, so that it can be seen easily. Make one 

 and give it a trial, and I think you will manu- 

 facture and recommend them to your patrons. 



Another thing I have looked in vain for in 

 all the reports of moving bees. I have moved, 

 almost yearly, from 5 to 30 miles, and I have 

 never lost a stand or got into trouble on the 

 road by bees escaping. -^fter a good wire 

 bottom-board to insure ventilation, the most 

 imporlant article is mud. Have your mud and 

 paddle; and if an old hive does not fit tight, 

 slap on the mud; or if it springs a leak, plaster 

 it over. It will soon dry and effectually close 

 all holes and leaks, and harm nothing. I never 

 start with a load without a bucket of mud. 



I wintered on summer stands with chaff on 

 top, separated from the bees by the thickness 

 of a gunny sack, and lost only .3 out of 80, but 

 lost some 30 since in a storm that overturned 

 and destroyed them. During the winter of 1891 

 I lost over 1500 stands from honey-dew. Three- 

 fourths of the bees in this part of Illinois win- 

 tered without absorbents on top, and died in 

 mid-winter. Jas. A. Simpson. 



Alexis, 111., May 5. 



HOW TREGO RAISES CELLS. 



[One of the prominent queen -breeders, it 

 seems, has been greatly crowded with orders, 

 and for a time was unable to get cells fast 

 enough. How he finally succeeded is told in a 

 private letter, an extract from which we make.] 



I have refused every call for nuclei, as I am 

 tie?'!/ short of bees (for an extensive breeder). I 

 now have 136 nuclei, 11 fair colonies, and four 

 great big booming ones; and the colony that 

 contains my breeding queen, making 143 hives 

 with bees in. I am so rushed for queens that I 

 have not dared to keep a single queen to test, 

 and have sent off every one soon after she be- 

 gan to lay. To keep my nuclei up I have 35 

 cheap (|ueens (hybrids) that I shift around as 



