1890 



GLEANINGS IN HEK CULTURE. 



901 



will make it a Thanksgiving day for all vege- 

 tation us well as human kind, as we h;ive IkhI 

 none for a month. H. (1. I5ui!NKT1'. 



A va. Fla.. Nov. 21. 



EDITED BY DR. (\ C. MILLER. 



Mice make mischief many times in the cellar. 

 If they wonld only eat what honey they want 

 it wouldn't be so bad; but they destroy so much 

 brood comb. Latterly I keep them out of tlie 

 hives by covering the entrance with wire cloth, 

 tiiree nu'shes to the inch. It keeps the mice 

 out without shutting in the bees. I like it. 



KICVEItSIBLE BOTTOM-BOAKDS. 



After a trial of nuire than a year these pi'ove 

 quite satisfactory to lue. They were less trou- 

 blesome to reverse this fall than last, because 

 the hives were not out of square. I'm sure that 

 a two-inch sjjace under the bottom-bars is a 

 gooii thing. 



^IIAP.^^AX hoxey-plant seed. 



This is yielded in good quantity, and is said 

 to contain much oil. I picked some heads and 

 threw to the chickens. They wouldn't touch it. 

 Then I picked out some seed looking like grains 

 of rye. They ate these readily, and some of 

 them then began to eat the seed with the hulls 

 on. Could this seed be profitably raised for 

 chickens? 



JJ. Taylor, Forestville. Minn., has the laugh 

 on me. The little sticks between sections that 

 I paraded as my own '" git up " were shown to 

 nu> by him in Madiscni last winter. My " for- 

 gette'r '" was in good working order. 



lion. R. L. Taylor is an exasperating customer. 

 In his President's Address he spoke of, the 

 "fact" that honey "may be kept in perfect 

 condition from one year to another." but didn't 

 tell how. I wrote* challenging him to tell. 

 Baclv comes a postal, saying, " I have kept hon- 

 ey over in perfect condition, and it sold without 

 question at the same price as new honey, and it 

 was really decidedly better." and a few words 

 of sauce, but not a word about the " how." If 

 comb honey is meant. 1 have known of only 

 two or thr(Hi cases of keeping over in good 

 shape, and that on a very limited scale. 

 Whether he has a different or the same plan, it 

 is important to know about it, and lii-o. Tay- 

 lor is not the sort of man to make a statement 

 without solid foundation. Let's make him tell 

 or put him out. 



The papers now have an imitation of comb so 

 natural that the bees themselves are deceived 

 by it, and ent it in wintei-. Ne.xt! 



Years ago a bee-keepers' de])artiuent in an 

 agricultural paper was a rare thing. Now it is 

 common. The, busy bee has buzzed itself into 

 notice. 



INTKODUCIXG QUEENS. 



Joshua Bull, in the ApL, says that for years 

 he has had complete success in introducing 

 queens, provided there was a virgin queen in 

 the colony to be operat(!d on. All that is nec- 

 essary is to remove the virgin, "and imiuedi- 

 ately let, the laying (|iieen loose ujjon the comb 

 right among 1 he bees." 



(rot caught, didn'l >()u ".' Tiie weather stay- 

 ed pleasant .so long, tluit. when the cold siuii) 

 canu^ on the tirst of December, there were 

 things still undone that you expected to do be- 

 fore the freeze-up. Weather always does that 

 way. Look out next tinu'.. 



Temperature in the cellar is important. The 

 general agr(!ement seems to be that 4~) degr('(\s 



is about riglit: inil don't you depend entirelv 

 on that. Cellars diHcr. Thermometers ditb'r. 

 Hives dilTei'. Take 4.") for a starting-[)oint, and 

 then find whether your bees are anv quieter 

 above or below that. 



I believe my bees are bettei' off above 45 rath- 

 er than below, in the cellar. 



Editor Alley is a, law unto hiiuself in a good 

 many things. Iie"s generally emphatic in 

 whatever he does. He is very emphatic in the 

 December numbei' in mixing up tin; editoiial 

 •• we" with the common, every-day " L" chang- 

 ing from the one to the other with a reckless- 

 ness very refreshing, ending up with " I regret 

 we." All right, friend Alley. The " w<' " l)usi- 

 uess is becoming antiquated. 



Don't you wish (iLEANixos would come once 

 a week, especially in the winter? ' Well, the 

 next best thing, if you do not already take 

 them, is to take am)ther of the bee-papers. 

 There are several that I shouldn't like to ))e 

 without. 



Have you ordered all the supplies you need 

 for lu'xt year? You'd better. If yon wait till 

 about the time you need them, you may be de- 

 layed, and now you may get a discount on them. 



Last summei' when woric was crowding, you 

 and I had hardly time to read the bee-jouiiials. 

 and sometimes could take time only to glance 

 throngli them. Wouldn't it be a good plan to 

 read them all over this winter? 



Some editors think they know every thing. 

 They don't. Most of them don't tliink so. 

 They are always glad to get suggestions from 

 their readers. I am reiuinded of this by friend 

 Root's request that patrons offer suggestions to 

 uuike his catalogue more helpful and conven- 

 ient. So it will be a good plan, if you think of 

 any thing that would improve a hee-paper. to 

 wiite the editoi' about it. But don't get luad if 

 your suggestion is not followed. In nine cases 

 out of ten there are good reasons why it should 

 not be. 



Think of comb lioney being "wanted" in 

 San Francisco at 13 to 14 cents a pound. But it 

 seems to me it liardly goes up in proportion at 

 the Nortli. 



Will lioney drop in price about the first of 

 January? Usually it does. But one year, 

 when it was hardly as scarce as now, it kept 

 going up till late in si)ring. 



I am reported as saying at Keokuk, that the 

 large black ant will not honey-comb bottom- 

 boaids if tiiey are kept off the ground. 1 don't 

 know whether I said just that. l)ut I know J 

 didn't mean it. I am not sure that they will 

 ti-ouble if the bottom-board stands directly on 

 the ground. The worst trouljle seems to be 

 w her(> tlu> Ijottom-board stands tlal on another 

 board. Tlu^ ants seem to commence work be- 

 tween tlie boards. I think they will not trou- 

 ble if nothing touches the ui'ider side of the 

 bottom-board only around the edges. 



Th(> HoiH'y Column in (h.EAMXcis is good, all 

 l)ut where some one says, " Prices remain un- 

 changed." It isn't pleasant to be obliged to 

 look back one or more numbers to see what the 

 price is. 



1 wish I could get my bees trained like Man- 

 um's to put off the brace-cotub busiiu^ss till fall. 

 j\Iine seeiu to be just as bad early. 



Oh. but ex-i)re.Mdent Taylor will feel conceit- 

 ed when he sees his picture in the I'eport of the 

 Keokuk ccmvention! 



"Volunteer Contributicnis" appeal's in two 

 programmes that 1 have seen. That may be all 

 very well for a little while: but some of these 

 days somebody will wish that " Volunteer Con- 

 tributions " had never been born. 



.lones protests against the last part of foul- 

 brood treatment given in ]\Ir. T*iiiigle's K<'okuk 

 essay. He says it isn't safe. 



