364 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



Continued from page 344. 

 I watched most intently — no mistake at all — 

 this little globule was enlarging before my 

 very eyes, and before two minutes were up, 

 it had spread over, like a little silver mirror, 

 and run along the side of the pitcher shaped 

 petal of the flower. A bee now became anx- 

 ious to push his way in, and I let him lick 

 it out, and then saw the process enacted 

 over and over again. To be sure that I was 

 not mistaken, I called Mr. Gray, and he, too, 

 saw the little "tableau" enacted over and 

 over again. 



One thing more. On page 262, 1 spoke of 

 a way the Dees seemed to have of reducing 

 thin, watery honey to the proper consistency. 

 Well, I secured a position where the bees 

 would come between myself and the sun, 

 and watched to see how many bees went to- 

 ward the apiary loaded. To my surprise, I 

 saw one and then another, while on the 

 wing, humming from one flower to another, 

 discharge this same watery liquid, and when 

 my eye had become accustomed to it, I saw 

 all the bees at work, expelling the water in 

 this way, while on the wing. This, then, is 

 the process by which they make clear, crystal 

 honey, from the sweetened water, as it were, 

 that is exuding so constantly, into the nec- 

 taries of these little flowers. 



cleamwcs m bee cultubeT 



-A„ I. ROOT, 

 EDITOR AND PUBLISHER, 



MEDINA, OHIO. 



TF4WIS: $1.00 PER YEAR, POST-PAID. 



3VCEr>I3Sr^ft., SEPT. 1, 1879. 



And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the 

 Lord, and not unto men.— Col. iii. 23. 



To-day, Aug. 25th, we fill every order for queens 

 of every kind, imported and all. 



• ♦ • 



Thanks are due the American B:c Journal office, 

 for advance sheets of the bee and honey shows of 

 Europe, where friend Newman, the editor, is hav- 

 ing a most pleasant reception from the friends 

 across the water. Full particulars are given in the 



Sept. A. B.J. 



• ♦ » 



Our British cousins have at least one wide awake 



bee keeper, in the person of John Hunter, author of 



a Manual on B:c Keeping. A new edition is just 



out, with excellent engravings of all the modern 



implements, and the whole work i3 fully up to the 



times. We can mail it, for $1.25. 



I have never seen a queen received from Italy, 

 whose bees did not show plainly the three bands. 

 One that I sold has been returned to me, with the 

 report that she is a hybrid; but her bees show the 

 three bands quite distinctly, according to the points 

 laid down in the ABC. Come and see them if you 

 are not satisfied. 



The first fdn. mill Mr. Washburn ever male was 

 to make thick side walls, with square tops, much 

 like that made by the Dunham machines. The ma- 

 chine was carried to Chicago by C. O. Perrine, who, 



for some reason, thought it was not right and alter- 

 ed it. It now transpires that this kind of fdn., al- 

 though more expensive on account of its extra 

 weight per square foot, does not sag like the thin- 

 ner kind. We can manufacture mills to make that 

 kind of fdn., at the same price, or we can alter any 

 of the old ones, at a small expense. 



m m m 



It is a pleasant thing to be able to ship queens 

 just the minute you receive an order, even if the 

 orders come at the rate of 20 or 30 in a day. I believe 

 we have done it every single day during the last 

 month, for every thing except imported queens. In 

 Tremontani's last invoice of 16, only 2 were alive. 

 These two cost me, in cash, over $12.00 each, and I 

 sold them for $6.00. Will thinks, if he was in Italy, 

 he could send us queens so they would not die. I 

 think so too; for a queen sent to Colorado, in a sec- 

 tion box cage, that was by some mishap a mouth on 

 the wa}\ was received in fine order. 



Later:— An invoice from another queen rearer in 



Italy has just come to hand with 22 alive out of 26, 



and all orders are filled, and a few ahead. Nine of 



the 22 were introduced at once by being let out into 



colonies having queen cells nearly ready to hatch. 



The whole process occupied less than 2 hours; one 



was lost. 



» ♦ » 



When you send money, my friends, please be 

 careful to say what it is for. Several times this 

 season, we have received letters similar to this: 



"Find enclosed $3.50 for 'Favorite Family Scale'," 

 etc. Now, we supposed, of course, the writer want- 

 ed a scale and sent it ; but when he received it, he ex- 

 plained that the $3.50 was to pay a bill that he owed 

 us for a scale. Had he just said the "Family Scale," 

 it would have saved express charges two ways, and 

 lots of confusion. It seems strange that a person 

 in paying a debt, should neglect to say even one 

 little word about the money's being for that pur- 

 pose; but, it is a fact, there arc quite a number who 

 do it. Our book-keeper can tell in a minute how it 

 is, but, unless you put in that little "f/ie" or some- 

 thing else equivalent to it, how do the clerks know 

 that she is to be asked about it. With so many cus- 

 tomers, it is impossible to remember a name, much 

 longer than a minute. 



THE SHINGLE-CHAFF-TENEMENT-HLVE. 



We are asked to give full measurements for mak- 

 ing a shingle tenement chaff hive, so that any body 

 can make one. It will be a pretty difficult matter to 

 do this, and I hardly think it best to undertake it, 

 until the hive has been further tested in actual work. 

 Four colonies of bees are at work in ours, and I have 

 no doubt that it will winter them finely, perhaps 

 better than a single chaff hive; but I confess I do 

 not find it as convenient to work with as I had ex- 

 pected. If you cannot make one from the directions 

 friend Hutchinson gives, perhaps you would better 

 have one for a sample to work by. The only impor- 

 tant thing is, to make the frames so they will hang 

 right, 10 below, and 14 above at right angles to the 

 lower ones, and the same arrangement for each of 

 the four compartments. Another friend suggests 

 wintering 4 more colonies in the upper story, mak- 

 ing 8 colonies in the compact form of a cube, and so 

 close together that they may get the benefit of the 

 animal heat from each other. This would be a splen- 

 did arrangement, were it not for the fact that we 

 could not get at I hose in the lower story, without 

 taking the one above entirely out. Of course upper 

 entrances should be provided. 



