274 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



^. I. ROOT, 

 EDITOR AND PUBLISHER, 



MEDINA, OHIO. 



terms: $1.00 per year, post-paid. 



IMIEIDIIISr^, J-TTZL^T 1, 1879. 



Not by might, nor by pnwcr, but by my spirit, 

 saith the Lord of hosts. — Zech. iv. 6. 



The National Convention for 1879 will be held in 

 Chicago, commencing October 21st. 



No more bees wanted, at present, as we have now 

 over 200 colonies. 



"Dollar" queens are now just a dollar, and I will 

 send you just as many young- Italians with them as 

 you wish, for 10 cts. an ounce, extra. 



We regret to say that our friend, Mr. Langstroth, 

 is again prostrated by his old malady, and is unable 

 to write any thing, as we learn through his daugh- 

 ter, Mrs. Cowan. 



We have had two importations of queens from 

 Italy, but they are all gone, and orders are still 

 ahead. More are expected daily. We have ordered, 

 this season, 150 in all. 



I expect it was the section-box queen-cage that 

 made such a run on queens this month. We have 

 been awfully behind; but our three hexagonal 

 apiaries are now yielding such a crop that we shall 

 fill all orders to-day, if our boys can get them all 

 out and cage them. 



I have always paid taxes on my bees, and always 

 want to. I do not want to see my fellow men taxed, 

 without being taxed myself. It is said, that Greece 

 pays an annual tax on bees, equal to $9,000. It 

 seems to me the Greeks should have a bee-journal 

 or— not be Taxed so heavily. 



^»i i ^ 



Nice books, for a little money, that tell about 

 "things" are what I do especially love; and "Wood's 

 Common Objects of the Microscope," with its pages 

 of beautiful plates, I think, is ahead of anything I 

 ever saw before in my life. Why, the colored pict- 

 • ures on the cover alone, are almost enough to set a 

 boy crazy, who has any fondness for microscopic 

 work. Mailed anywhere, for only 50c, or sent free 

 with our compound achromatic microscope, for on- 

 ly $3.00. 



Some of our friends are succeeding in sending 

 queens by mail, in sealed packages; but, after the 

 very positive orders from the Dept. last 'summer, I 

 do not feel like doing it, even could we succeed in 

 getting them through strong and vigorous. Is it not 

 much better to have them with bees enough for 

 them to keep on laying, during the trip, as they do 

 in the section-box cages? If it is an imported queen, 

 you have a nice lot of eggs with which to start 

 queen cells, as soon as you get her. 



The honey farm is doing finely. The seven top 

 turnip is the only plant that has yielded its crop ami 



passed away. It comes in just between apple blos- 

 soms and clover. We can send you nice, fresh seed, 

 for 10 cts. per oz. Now is the time to sow it. The 

 boys are to-day, June 26, cultivating the acre of sun- 

 flowers. An acre of mellilot is doing finely, also an 

 acre of mignonnette, a half acre of borage, and an 

 acre of mustard, besides small fields of catnip, 

 motherwort, etc. Several acres of silver hull buck- 

 wheat are just being sown, and the Simpson honey 

 plant is getting almost as high as one's head. The 

 flower garden adjoining the factory is full of honey 

 plants having great long crooked names, but bear- 

 ing but little honey and few blossoms, just yet. 



"WORK BOX*' FOR THE APIARIST. 



FEW days ago, Will had a queer look- 

 ing machine in his hand that puzzled 

 me awhile, especially those odd look- 

 ing holes in the top of it. I waited a little, 

 and found that it was a seat to he used 

 while working in the apiary, and that those 

 queer holes were to allow of the implement's 

 being quickly picked up with one hand. 

 The implement was devised by his brother, 

 our engraver, who has given you all a cut of 

 it below. 



dl 



WOKK BOX AND SEAT COMBINED. 



Those of you who raise queens know how 

 troublesome it is to stoop over hives all day, 

 and how it rests one, to sit down occasional- 

 ly. When seated, you have at each side, 

 boxes to hold your things, which may, or 

 may not, have covers, as you choose. A 

 drawer may also be put in the back side. 

 When putting up queens, your tinned tacks 

 are in the proper box, and your hammer is 

 right in its place. The seat is a nice, solid 

 place on which to lay the cage, while driving 

 in the tacks. 



This summer, we have used the transposi- 

 tion process, almost exclusively, and each 

 workman has a piece of comb containing 

 larva' of the right size, just hatched from 

 the egg, and covered with the milky food, in 

 one of his boxes. Well, we let every colony 

 build just as many queen cells as they choose, 

 from their brood, and then poke out their em- 

 bryo queen, and put one of these in its place 

 1 need hardly say that this bit of comb con- 

 taining larvae is from our best imported 

 queen. As the cell always contains an 

 abundance of food when their own larva is 

 removed and a younger given them in place 

 of it, our grafted cells contain more than the 

 natural supply of food. 



We can furnish the work box and seat 

 combined, for 50c ; if lids are added to the 

 boxes, and a drawer put in the back, the 

 price will be 75c ; and if the whole be neatly 

 painted, $1.00. 



