204 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mak. 15. 



Slipshod ways of handling comb honey are 

 justly decried on pp. 171 and 183; but the same 

 thing applies with double force to extracted 

 honey. Take the honey itself that's sealed up 

 in the worst specimens of section honey you 

 can find, and it's away ahead of much of the 

 miserable, thin, soured extracted so often to be 

 found. [I agree with you. — Ed.] 



Skylark, p. 109, wonders that bee-keepers 

 differ so much in their views while there's no 

 difference of opinion among dairymen or poul- 

 try-breeders. Didn't know before that nobody 

 kept cows or chickens around Skylark's way. 

 [But, say; is it actually a fact that the dairy 

 and poultry men don't have differences of opin- 

 ion?— Ed.] 



DooLiTTLE tells in American Bee-keeper, 

 that, in a colony that gave him 566 lbs. extract- 

 ed honey, the queen had brood in 33 frames 

 fully equal to 15 frames of brood coming out to 

 the wood all round. He figures that, during 

 linden, there were in the hive 160,700 bees. 

 [That would mean about 30 lbs. of bees alone. 

 No wonder they made a record. Too bad he 

 hasn't that queen to breed from now.— Ed.] 



The editor, page 167, thinks I oughtn't to 

 chuckle over that vote in favor of T supers, be- 

 cause the voters were nearly all " T-super 

 men." What puzzles me is to know how many 

 of them would have voted for T supers if they 

 hadn't been "T-super men." [That's just it. 

 Or, in other words, a Democrat will usually 

 favor free trade, or tariff for revenue only; and 

 a Republican, protection. But, say ! if Mr. 

 Taylor and I count votes right, the T super 

 doesn't get the palm. See Editorials.— Ed.] 



A FISH DIET IS suggested as a change for the 

 editor of Gleanings, by Hon. R. L. Taylor, in 

 Review. (Jood idea. 'Spect, though, there had 

 been a .scarcity of fi^h in the Taylor mansion 

 for some time before that idea was penned, to 

 the effect that there couldn't be the same de- 

 liberate thought given to an editorial comment 

 that the printer put right where ii belonged, 

 as there could be if the printer packed the com- 

 ments all in a pile somewhere else, so you'd 

 have to turn over the pages each time to fish 

 'em out. [See editorial, elsewhere. — Ed.] 



Introducing. Here's the easiest way yet— ^ 

 if it always works. Herr Korndoerfer says, in 

 ImkersclnUe, without hunting out the queen to 

 be removed, blow chloroform into the hive- 

 not enough to make many bees drop; then let 

 the new queen run in, and that's all. He says 

 the chloroform makes them forget the past. 

 Hardly looks possible, but it's easy to try. 

 [Queens very often will be accepted if merely 

 let into the entrance, without chloroform or 

 any thing else. When we didn't care much for 

 the queens we let 'em run in and take their 

 chances. Strangely enough, but a small per- 

 centage were lost. Bees seem to be more in- 



clined to accept queens let into the entrance 

 than when let loose into the top of the hive by 

 removing the cover. — Ed.] 



Colors OF hives. J. B. Kellen, editor Lux- 

 ernburg Bienenzeitung, calls attention to the 

 fact that, if the absorbing power of white be 

 placed at 100, that of yellow will be 140, light 

 green 155, turkish red 165, light blue 198, and 

 black 208. [A couple of years ago, on a very 

 hot sunny day,! put my bare hand on a yellow 

 hive-cover, then on a white. The former was 

 so hot I could not bear my hand on it: the lat- 

 ter was quite comfortable — just barely warm. 

 This I tried on a lot of other white and yellow 

 covers, with the same result. I am quite ready 

 to believe these figures. — Ed.] 



INSANITY OP BEE keepers; WHAT MAKES LOW 

 PRICES ON HONEY? 



I wish to make a few re- 

 marks before I say any 

 thing. This is not my 

 usual style, for I generally 

 "pitch into" my subject 

 just as I used to pitch into 

 the river, when I was a 

 boy, whether it were head 

 or heels foremost. 

 If a merchant is making money on his busi- 

 ness, he does not blow about it; neither does he 

 publish it in the papers, and scatter it broad- 

 cast over all the land. If an investor in any 

 kind of stock sees a large amount of money in 

 it he quietly buys up all the stock he can get, 

 and says nothing about it. And so through all 

 business circles, through all trades, professions, 

 and occupations; the successful man is as dumb 

 as an oyster. The time is out of joint, and we 

 may well pause to consider our situation, and 

 look around for a remedy. The normal condi- 

 tion of bee-keepers at the present time is insan- 

 ity—a state of actual, acute, and rampant in- 

 sanity. 



The successful bee-klfeeper is not like the 

 other business men noted above. The greater his 

 success, the wilder and longer he will blow his 

 horn. In fact, his horn seems to be a "harp of 

 a thousand strings." If one is at rest, a hun- 

 dred more are in sonorous motion. He seems 

 to take delight in teaching his neighbors, ac- 

 quaintances, and even strangers, " how to do 

 it." I know from experience that this passion 

 for teaching bee-keeping is not confined to 

 publishers, supply-dealers, or queen-breeders, 

 whose interest is superadded to their love of 

 the calling and this characteristic mania for 

 spreading it all over the land. Why this insane 

 and suicidal course should be pursued I can 



