1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



573 



do not wish to raise our own queens, we can 

 send away for them; and to make sure that 

 none shall be killed in introducing (and as a 

 few days without a laying queen in any colony 

 is of little consequence at this time of the year), 

 the old queen should be killed nine days before 

 we expect the new queens to arrive. When 

 they arrive, open the hive and cut off all queen- 

 cells, when the queen is to be introduced by 

 letting the bees eat the candy away till the 

 queen is liberated, according to instructions 

 generally accompanying the queen. 



Another way, which is usually successful, is 

 to remove the old queen in the forenoon of a 

 pleasant day, and at night, after the bees have 

 all returned home, give them a little smoke; 

 and when they are filled with honey allow the 

 new queen to run in at the entrance. Do not 

 open the hive for four or five days, and you 

 will rarely fail. 



[I indorse all friend D. has to say on queens 

 in tumblers. Perhaps it might be well to add 

 that, in our experience at least, queens will not 

 stand direct rays of a summer sun very long 

 without injury. Many have died for us in 

 queen-cages when left exposed to the hot sun. 



We too have tried the last method of intro- 

 ducing with good success. The secret seems to 

 be in letting the bees alone a few days after 

 the queen runs !n at the entrance. — Ed.] 



of any of the breeders who advertise in these 

 columns. 



L. E. W., Ft.— We regret to say that the 

 Langdon non-swarmer does not work as it was 

 at first expected by its friends, and we have 

 therefore taken the matter concerning it out of 

 our ABC book. It has been abandoned as a 

 failure by every one now, I think. 



L. D. Oa. — In the case of the Heddon short 

 method of transferring, in which two-thirds of 

 the bees are drummed out of the old hive, leav- 

 ing one-third in the hive set to one side, there 

 may be and probably will be a queen reared in 

 this latter portion, providing you do not your- 

 self destroy all the queen-cells until after the 

 brood is all capped over. At this time they 

 would be hopelessly queenless, and could be 

 united at the end of 21 days. 



M. F., Col. — 1 can hardly explain why your 

 bees apparently dwindle away, without know- 

 ing more particulars. It may be due to the fact 

 that they are queenless, or that they have some 

 disease. If not queenless, and if they are per- 

 fectly healthy, the trouble may be owing to a 

 poor queen. If there is such a one present, get 

 rid of her and give them a frame of hatching 

 brood and a frame of unsealed brood, and let 

 them raise a queen of their own; or, betljer 

 yet, introduce to them a queen that you can get 



SOLAK WAX-EXTKACTOR FOR RENDERING OLD 

 COMBS. 



Some seem to think there is no better way to 

 render than the submerged sack method; but, 

 all things considered, the solar is far ahead of 

 this method. The first saving is in time. I save 

 all odds and ends, burr-combs, hive-scrapings, 

 and bottom -board litter, and put all in the so- 

 lar. The very blackest old comb you may have 

 — though not yielding as much wax as the 

 meltings before-mentioned— will give a bright 

 wax from the solar; but if put through water 

 it will be very dark.— i?. C. AiKin, in American 

 Bee Journal. 



ANOTHER BEE-STING CURE FOR RHEUMATISM. 



For nearly a week previous to last Wednes- 

 day, nearly all the paiu I suffered was in my 

 instep. On that day 1 was sitting in a neigh- 

 bor's apiary (he has my bees on shares this 

 season) to watch for swarms while he was ab- 

 sent. As a swarm was issuing I hobbled along 

 to secure the queen. I put my "game" (lame) 

 foot, on which I had a black sock and a low 

 slipper, near the entrance of an adjoining hive. 

 In a jiffy three or four bees had given my pain- 

 ful instep as many hypodermic injections. On 

 the instant I thought of what some had recent- 

 ly said about his sciatica and bee-stings, and I 

 let the stingers alone until I had secured the 

 queen. I was almost immediately relieved of 

 the pain in my instep, and in a few minutes I 

 could stamp my foot quite firmly on the giound 

 without pain, which 1 had not been able to do 

 before for several weeKs. Last night, pain in 

 the same instep was a little annoying; and if it 

 doesn't behave itself in good style in the fu- 

 ture, more bees will have to be sacrificed for 

 "suffering numanity." — Dr. A. B. Mason, in 

 the American Bee Journal. 



BEE-KEEPERS NOT SUFFERING FROM OVER- 

 PRODUCTION OF THE HONEY-PEODUCT. 



I have read with much interest the article of 

 Mr. Doolittle on page 163, with reference to 

 over-production, but I can not say that I was 

 greatly surprised at the range of prices of hon- 

 ey from the year 1874 to the present — a period 

 of 22 years. It is true that the difference be- 

 tween 28 to 30 cents per pound obtained in 

 VSli. and 13 to 15 cents per pound obtained at 

 present, is very large, but in my opinion the 

 trouble is not in the over-production of honey, 

 but in the increased production of other luxu- 

 ries and necessaries of life, combined with a 

 contraction of the currency of the country. It 

 is perhaps true that there is more honey pro- 

 duced now than in the year >fci74, but not to a 

 greater extent than the increase in the popula- 

 tion of the country; and this being true, every- 

 thing else being equal, there should be no very 

 great difference in the prices or demand for 

 honey. But every thing else is not equal. There 

 has been a great increase in the production of 

 Vhe fruits and sugars, and these combined, at 

 their present low prices, to a great extent, have 

 supplanted honey, and form the principal table- 

 luxuries of the people. 



It is a rule, founded in economy, that the 

 human family will use and subsist upon the 

 cheaper commodities, if the cheaper commod- 



