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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15. 



conceive, except it be tlie converting of heat 

 from the combustion of fuel directly into elec- 

 tricity without having to go around through 

 steam with engines and dynamos. If this can be 

 done, and they say the signs of the times are 

 favorable, then we sliall have the splendid arc 

 and incandescent lights at a price even lower 

 than the cost of gas or kerosene. 



Four of us procured a franchise, and installed 

 in this city an incandescent plant, about a year 

 ago: and after nearly a year's experience we 

 have not yet discovered any Tuistake in our 

 choice of system and apparatus. Of course, we 

 visited numerous plants before selecting. Of 

 the seven bids from seven different companies, 

 we accepted the liighest-priced of all, a price 

 nearly double the lowest, and feel that we did 

 just right, as the dearest proved to be the 

 cheapest in the end. We light our streets with 

 32-candle-power incandescent lights : and for 

 the resident part of any village or small city 

 like our own, oi'namented with well-developed 

 shade-trees, the incandescent light beats the 

 arc light more than t\\o to one. Of course, the 

 arc light is larger and brighter, but the incan- 

 descent is so much cheaper that we can afford 

 nearly ten times as many of them at the same 

 cost. We can place them low enough so that 

 there is no sidewalk in the city on which you 

 could not see your jack - knife lying, or tell 

 what time it was by your watch, in any spot or 

 place on our streets, the " darkest night that 

 ever blew." 



Our citizens laughed at us when we put in 

 the incandescent lights, but now they are all 

 more than satisfied, and can see the wisdom of 

 the choice of our city council. All of our best 

 business houses are lighted with the incan- 

 descent lights, comi)ared with which the best 

 kerosene lamp looks like a phosphorescent bee- 

 tle, or "a convalescent white bean," as Bill 

 Nye would say. We use the high-tension al- 

 ternating-current system, with the Westing- 

 house apparatus (the best in the world); and 

 just here it may surprise many of your readers 

 when I tell you that there is no doubt in my 

 mind but that George Westinghouse is a much 

 greater inventor than Thomas A. Edison, not 

 only in all the realm of mechanical inventions, 

 but even those connected with electricity. But 

 this article is long enough. James Heddon. 



Dowagiac, Mich., Dec. 2. 



Friend H., we are very greatly obliged to you 

 for the information you give us. From what 

 we know of you, we are not at all surprised to 

 know that you, too, have been attracted by this 

 matter of convei'ting mechanical power into 

 light. Very likely you are correct in regard to 

 transmitting the electric current long distances. 

 We are beginning to see som(>thing of it in car- 

 rying our wires for electric lighting to different 

 parts of our plant. I, too, have been watching 

 for some great developments in the way of a 

 shorter cut from heat to an electric current. 



SHIPPING AND INTRODUCING CAGES. 



HOM' TO MAKE AN EXCEIXENT INTRODUCING- 

 CAGE. 



The introducing feature does not hurt it a par- 

 ticle for shipping, and the party receiving it 

 can use that part or not, as he thinks best. I 

 usually prefer to us<; some other plan with 

 queens coming from the East, for several rea- 

 sons. As a rule, the longer a queen has been 

 caged without access to comb, the longer it will 

 be before she commences to lay after being lib- 

 erated. A queen coming from the East, usual- 

 ly takes from two to three days to get in condi- 

 tion and commence to lay. Before this time 

 she is almost as hard to inti'oduce to a full col- 

 ony as a virgin, therefore 1 always introduce 

 her to a few young bees until she commences to 

 lay, and then introduce her to the full colony. 



Another reason why I do not use the ship- 

 ping-cage for introducing is because the bees 

 (iftcn have so much of the candy eaten out that 

 the (piccn would be liberated in a few hours: 

 in which case if the reigning queen had just been 

 i-emoved, the new queen would surely be killed. 

 Those objections do not apply to queens ship- 

 ped a short distance, becatise the queen would 

 be ready to lay almost as soon as liberated, and 

 the bees would have very little of the candy 

 eaten out. I believe a colony of bees are in the 

 best condition to have a strange queen liberat- 

 ed among them when they have been queenless 

 long enough to haveatjapped queen-cell from 

 three to tive days: they seem to think the queen 

 has come out of one of the capped cells, and it 

 is all right. Of course, the queen should be 

 caged in the hive one or two days before the 

 bees liberate her. to get the scent of the hive. 

 She should be caged on the comb while the 

 bees are eating their way in, so when they 

 break into tlie cage they will tind her in a nor- 

 mal condition, depositing eggs. The cage I 

 use for this purpose is a simple affair. I take a 

 piece of wire cloth 5}^ inches square, cut little 

 pieces % of an inch sqtiare out of each corner, 

 and bend the four sides at right angles, making 

 a box 4 inches square and '^ inch deep. Into 

 one corner of this box I fasten a tube of wood 

 or tin }4 inch in diameter, and i wo inches long, 

 which is tilled with (lood candy, for the bees to 

 eat out and liberate the queen. 



Friend Root: — I have just been sizing up 

 your new Benton shipping-cage, and it meets my 

 hearty approval in (>very way. ^Vith good fresJi 

 candy, or, rather, with fresh Oood candy, and 

 20 or 30 bees, it should deliver 95 per cent of all 

 the qtieens sent to California, in good condition. 



m'intvke's introducing-cage. 



I use this cage altogether in my apiary, for 

 changing laying queens from one hive to an- 

 other. I kill my old queens when they are two 

 years old. and 'introduce young laying queens 

 in their place. My practice is to go to the nu- 

 cleus with the young laying queen: lilt out the 

 comb with the queen on. and press one of these 

 cages into the comb over the tiueen, and what 

 bees may be around her. Carry this comb to 

 the hive with the old queen: tind and kill the 

 old queen, and ijlace the comb with the young 

 queen caged on it in the center of the hive, tak- 

 ing one comb from the hive back to tlu^ nucleus. 

 In a week I go and take the cage out and find 

 the young queen laying. When I receive a 

 valuable queen from a distance I liberate her 

 at once on a comb of hatching brood, with 



