864 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1.5. 



'-36Tages7v:I0 



Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath.— Eph. 6:4. 



We (that is, the junior part of us) were not 

 present during the tirst day's sessions of the 

 convention. We are, therefore, indebted to 

 Bro. Hoi term an n, of the Camidian Bee Jour- 

 nal, for a part of the material to make up the 

 report in another column. 



The Crane smoker, as it was improved some 

 two months ago. has proven to be almost fault- 

 less, so far as the perfect working of the valve 

 is concerned. The problem of keeping smoke 

 out of the bellows, and of making an inclosed 

 and a strong blast, is solved in the Crane 

 principle. 



One of our men. with a delicate micrometer 

 (an instrument for measuring thousandths and 

 ten thousandths of an inch), is now measuring 

 the base of foundation that has been drawn out 

 into comb. The results are quite interesting; 

 and as the work is being done under the in- 

 struction of the Michigan Apicultural Station, 

 the report of these results will be issued from 

 that station in due time. 



We have just had a delightful visit from one 

 of the oldest manufacturers and dealers in bee- 

 keepers' supplies in England — Mr. S. J. Bald- 

 win, of Bromley. Kent, England. He had been 

 to the World's Fair. After making a short tour 

 to Wisconsin to see the (J. B. Lewis Co., he 

 made a bee-line to Medina. We found our 

 friend to be exceedingly well posted in all 

 that pertains to bees. He is a correspondent of 

 the British Bee Journal, a lecturer, and an 

 expert. "Expert'" in England means more 

 than it does here. Such a onu is not only expert 

 in the ordinary sense of the word, but is ap- 

 pointed, if we understand the matter, by the 

 British Bee-keepers' Association to deliver lec- 

 tures in various portions of the United King- 

 dom, and to perform various operations in the 

 presence of those who are seeking instructions. 

 Mr. B. enjoys the distinction of making an 

 exceedingly tine article of foundation, and has 

 taken many medals at the shows for this and 

 other supplies. He will visit, before his return, 

 the establishment of W. T. Falconer & Co., and 

 thence proceed homeward. 



HONEY ON A STICK. 



Some time ago. as our readers will remember, 

 a short item appeared in our columns, entitled 

 '■ Honey on a Stick." Our correspondent told 

 how a race of small bees placed the comb around 

 a small twig. This was done so nicely by the 

 bees that these sticks of honey weie sold in the 

 markets. At the time this item appeared we 

 had some doubts about the existence of such an 

 article; but Mr. Benton assured us that the 

 facts as stated were essentially correct; and in 

 proof he showed us a sample, not of honey on a 

 stick, but a comb encircling a small stick. The 

 latter appeared to be about ^ of an inch in di- 

 ameter: and the comb encircling it. as nearly 

 as we recollect, about % of an inch — the length 

 of the whole being some 4 inches, the stick pro- 

 jecting at one end, leaving a convenient han- 

 dle. The manner of eating the honey would be 

 just about as you would pick meat off' a chick- 

 en-leg, holding the same in the fingers in the 

 good old way. 



keeping two queens in a. hive; some of 



THE possibilities. 



The question of keeping two queens in a 

 hive, for the purpose of ensuring a tremendous 

 force of bees, so that either swarming may be 

 prevented or larger honey crops secured, is a 

 very important one. While the possibilities 

 along this line have been hinted at in the past, 

 they have never been thoroughly discussed. 

 We should like to have those of our readers, 

 who have had experience along the lines point- 

 ed out Dy friends Mitchell and Golden, tell us 

 what they know, and whether it is possible and 

 practicable to keep two queens in a hive at all 

 seasons of the year. 



Assuming that it is practicable, more brood 

 can be reared in a given time, and consequently 

 the colony can increase more rapidly; in other 

 words, the two queens, if only average layers, 

 would give all the advantages secured from a 

 queen that was extra prolific. If we can not 

 always get individual queens up to this high 

 standard, perhaps it is possible to make two 

 queens do the work of one extra good one. 

 There are other possibilities, such as the almost 

 absolute immunity from unexpected queenless- 

 ness, and the rearing of an extra queen in the 

 hive while the old queen-mother goes on doing 

 her duty. 



honey-exhibits at the world's fair. 



Theke has been considerable discussion in 

 several of the bee-journals as to which honey- 

 exhibit at the World's Fair was the largest or 

 finest. With some exceptions we could not see 

 that any one State greatly excelled any other. 

 New York had the largest amount of honey on 

 display; but in our estimation it was not as 

 attractive as those of Michigan, Ohio, or Canada. 

 Of course, we might be biased in our opinion 

 regarding our own State; but, observe this: It 

 was with R. L. Taylor that we were looking 

 over the various State heney-exhibits. Coming 

 to a certain one, we remarked that we thought 

 that exhibit was a little bit the finest of any of 

 them. We supposed that we were speaking of 

 the display of honey from Michigan; but, lo 

 and behold I it was from Ohio. We stood a 

 little bit at one side, and in a position where 

 we could not see the lettering indicating the 

 State the exhibit was from. For the consola- 

 tion of our Michigan friends, we may say that 

 their comb honey itself, in our estimation, was 

 the best filled out; indeed, as nice a lot as we 

 ever saw on exhibition. It came from the api- 

 ary of R. L. Taylor. 



just about as we were leaving Agricultural 

 Building for the last time we learned that sev- 

 eral of the foreign countries had honey-exhibits. 

 We did not happen to see any, except that from 

 the British Bee keepers' Association, and that 

 indeed was fine, and did great credit to our 

 English cousins. 



the small, attendance at ouk bee-con- 

 ventions; HOW THEY MAY BE INCREASED. 



One reason for the small attendance at some 

 of the meetings of the N. A. B. K. A., and the 

 consequent failure to secure reduced rates of ISi 

 fare, is because a bee -convention is hardly suf- 

 ficient to draw the far-away bee-keeper, con- 

 sidering the great expense of travel; and, to be 

 honest about it, there really is not enough in 

 the average bee-convention to pay one, ordina- 

 rily, to come several hundred miles; and then, 

 too, he will get the very best part of the pro- 

 ceedings in the reports that appear in the bee- 

 journals. It is true, he misses the pleasant 

 handshaking, and face-to-face personal ac- 

 quaintanceship; but he feels that he must fore- 

 go all this. Taking all these things into con- 

 sideration, we have always maintained that 



