IS 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb:. 



the same barrel was recently sold for 20c. per 

 lb. and was pronounced "tip top." 



Moral. : It will pay to have a tight floor to 

 your bee house and to keep it well painted ; al- 

 so drive the bungs in tightly and if convenient 

 leave them in very hot weather uppermost, and 

 lastly never disagree with the "women folks" if 

 they do get fidgety if the floor is not always 

 kept "just so clean". 



Gleanings in Bee Culture, 



Published Monthly, 



J±. I. BOOT <Sc CO., 



EDITORS AND PROPRIETORS. 



MEDINA, OHIO. 



Terms: 75c. Per Annum. 



For Club Hates see Second Page. 

 lUEIDIILSr^, FEB. 1, lST'-i. 



Please excuse small type; 'tis our old complaint, 

 we have more matter, than room. 



We find the Prairie Farmer one of the best, among 

 our Agricultural Exchanges, its appearance is bright 

 and attractive, and its articles are from our real live 

 business men, aye and women too, and what pleases us 

 more is that their writers have a definite place of exis- 

 tence instead ot being dropped loose in a whole county 

 as is so much the fashion of late. 



We cannot say that subscribers "pour" in, as some of 

 the papers do, yet we are kept sufficiently busy to ren- 

 der it possible that a mistake may creep, in, now and 

 then. Whenever such be the case drop , iis a postal 

 card and dont be bashful in stating just where we've 

 "put our foot in it." We certainly "mean well" as the 

 boy said of his dog when he bit a piece out of the 

 man's leg. 



Ouit bees "scold" when the temperature of their 

 room gets below 35°, when warmed up to 40° or 45° 

 they are as still as if dead nearly, but when it is in- 

 creased to 50, or 55 they begin to emit quick sounds at 

 intervals, that seem to us to be interrogatories, as 

 much as to say, " wont it do to let us have a fly ? " It 

 the temperature is kept there, they soon get quite un- 

 easy. About 40° seems to us, the most desirable point. 



Candy costs from 25 to 30c per lb and sugar about 

 \VA only. By stirring it with a little water, and then 

 baking it in a slow oven until all the water is expelled, 

 we have hard cakes that answer every purpose of can- 

 dy so far as we know, at a cash outlay of only the price 

 of sugar. Now the above solution of Prob. 1. must be 

 worth at least 85.00 to every bee-keeper but we don't 

 see how we can sell receipts, for they ivill tell their 

 neighbors. 



The "Honey Bee" price 50c. By Aaron Benedict, 

 Bennington, O. is before us. 



The paper Is cheap, the print bad, and the contents 

 mainly extracts from old numbers of the A. B. J. 

 Although published in 1873, we can find no mention 

 at all of the Extractor nor of the recent troubles in 

 wintering. The concluding item is, "Hives should be 

 so constructed that the frames will fit tight in the 

 hive, preventing the space between the sides of the 

 hives and frames, etc." Truly, we fear the Island 

 wheron our friend rears untested queen i for I ha 3 

 shut him out from the rest of mankind, as well :i i bis 

 bees. A veritable Uip Van Wi'.: B -c dture. 



We would refer the numerous friends who have 

 written us for bees, to the advertisement of Adam 

 Grimm, for even after paying freight his prices are 

 less than we could sell for. The best honey-gatherers 

 we have ever bad, w'ere bees from Queens purchased 

 of him. 



To such of our Southern readers awl otliers as have 

 their bees flying when this reaches them T we would, 

 say, commence giving them dry sugar as soon as they 

 will use it ; place it iu the sun but out of the wind and 

 get them them to "building up" as fast as possible. 



Til ir rye, oat or barley meal may be given, them at 

 the same time and place, and the nearer we can get 

 them to approach their natural activity, the better - r 

 the use of the sugar will prevent their straying to su- 

 gar-camps etc., but will not prevent their going for the 

 blossoms when they appear. Dampening the sugar 

 will hasten matters but is apt to incite robbing and to- 

 call them out in unseasonable weather. 



"BEES WINKS'' AND SUNDRY OTHER 

 MATTERS. 



BV I). L. ADAIR. 



M'R. ROOT. :— In your notice of the paper I read 

 at the last meeting of our National Society at 

 i Louisville, you make an unfair statement when 



you limit it to '■'•that bees breathe through their wings," 

 thus conveying the impression that I located the 

 breathing apparatus and the lungs in the wings. Bees 

 breatlie through Spiracles or pores under the wings, 

 and I so stated, I further stated that from these the 

 air is led through delicate tubes to every part of the 

 body, even to the tips- of the wings, and no naturalist 

 will deny the statement. No organ is specialized as 

 lungs, the bees have no lungs, except those tubes 

 which follow the veins or circulating fluid throughout 

 the whole bee, and the air is brought in contact with 

 the blood through the thin walls of these tubes in 

 every part of the system, just as is the case in the 

 human lungs. Would it not be fairer to publish the 

 whole paper so that your readers could judge for 

 themselves, or at least make a fair statement of what 

 you call "Adairs folly." [By way of parenthesis : Did 

 it ever strike you i hat calling a man a fool was not 

 courtesy ? Do you think you can advance Bee-culture 

 by calling hard names? Or do you think your judg- 

 ment is so infallible th.it vou are justified iii calling a 

 man a fool because you differ with him in opinion ? 

 If I am in error convince me of it by fair argument 

 but please quit calling names.] 



The only argument you use is the statement that 

 one of your best queens, the mother of the colony 

 that gave you 330 pounds of honey had no wings, and 

 she was good for at least two seasons. Now, as you 

 attribute Mrs. Tuppers statements about injuring 

 brood to her "inexperience," you will not certainly get 

 mad and go to calling hard names if I apply the word 

 to you, and question your facilities for judging of 

 what a good queen is ; for so long as vou manage bees 

 as you do, in hives that will not allow a queen tx> 

 show what she can do, you will certainly be "inexpe- 

 rienced." Until you give the queen a compact brood 

 nest sufficiently large to accomodate her with ample 

 room, at all times, to deposit every egg she can be 

 stimulated to produce you will be" '-inexperienced. " 

 So long as you shift the brood about and mix it up in- 

 discriminately in top and bottom story, you will have 

 your bees continually disorganized, and even a queen 

 that is badly diseased can furnish all the eggs that 

 are required, and you will be "inexperienced; "and 

 you will be ''inexperienced 1 ' so long as you pass judg- 

 ment on every "New Idea," that is suggested, before 

 you investigate it. 



That Adam Grimm clips his queens wings and gets 

 a paying crop ot honey is no reason why Adam Grimm 

 might not do better if he did not so mutilate them and 

 hud his bees in hives that would require perfect, vig- 

 orous queens, and allow of better management. 



1 have a letter from oaa of the best entomologists in 

 the U. S. in which he says: — -Your argument that the 

 wings of insects serve as lungs is unanswerable. If 

 inns 1 injure the bee thus to mutilate it and reduce its 

 strength." So says Dr. Packard, Editor of the Amer- 

 ican Naturalist, an 1 author of A Gui le to the Study 



