556 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



CLEANINGS tNB_EE CULTURE. 



-A„ I. ROOT, 

 EDITOR AND PUBLISHER, 



MEDINA, OHIO. 



TEKIUS: $1.00 PER YEAR, POST-PAID. 



FOR CLUBBING RATES, SEE FIRST PAGE 

 OF READING MATTER. 



3VEX3XDX3\T^^., 3XTO-V. 1, 1880. 



And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilder- 

 ness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that 

 whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 

 have eternal life.— John iii. 11, 15. 



If you want to succeed in business, answer 

 promptly every letter or postal, of whatever nature, 

 the very day it is received. 



The price of Spider plant and Simpson seed has 

 been reduced to $1.00 per lb., or 10c per oz. , as you 

 will see by our next price list. 



One of our friends wanted a smoker that holds 

 two quarts. We made him one, and I tell you it, 

 ought to give smoke enough to suit any one. If 

 anybody else wants one, the price will be $1.50, or 

 $2.nO if sent by mail. It has a monster bellows, to 

 correspond to the huge firepot. 



DECLINE IN THE PRICE OF GLASS. 



Glass has finally declined, so that our list should 

 read 50c. a box less. Friend W. O. has also been en- 

 abled, in consequence, to put his ink down again at 

 old prices; viz , $4 00 per gross, and 20 per cent off 

 for lots oi 5 gross. See his revised advertisement. 



Beware of personalities! One bee journal died 

 through giving too much space to differences be- 

 tween two of its contributors, if T am not mistaken. 

 Ask yourself over and over again if the article in 

 question is going to be of general interest and value 

 to all of your readers. 



Every family ought to have at least a look at one 

 of the 5c Sundav-school books. You can not buv a 

 book at the stores that, will please the children more, 

 even if vou pav five times as much : and all of these 

 are carefully selected, and are perfectly safe to give 

 your children. Sample by mail for 7c. 



They have got a bee paper in Canada, called the 

 Dominion Apiarian Bazar, published at Toronto. 

 The editor is a very good-natured and funny fellow; 

 but for the life of us we cm not tell what, the sub- 

 scription price is. Perhaps that, like the stump 

 speaker's topic, will appear as he "gets along." 



"Dollar queens are all gone for the season, unless 

 our friends in the South can still supply us. Tested 

 and imported queens we can still supply, at the pri- 

 ces given in our catalogue; but we may be obliged 

 to send them by express, instead of mail, a« it gets a 

 little colder. Remember, wp guarantee only safe 

 delivery at your express office. 



Our friend Given feels hard toward me because I 

 objected to a "growl*' on account of its length. I of- 

 fered him, I think, one column, and he can have it 

 anytime; and he can use it, too, to show up my 

 shortcomings in any way he chooses, and, if he pre- 

 fers. I will matte no defense. But I can not think 

 it best to take any more room for something not of 

 general interest to our readers. I also objected to 

 publishing a testimonial without the name of the 

 writer appended. Did I not do right? 



FEEDING STOCKS THAT ARE NEEDY, IN NOVEMBER. 



To bees that are without stores now, I would give 

 candy made of granulated sugar, and grape sugar, 

 as mentioned on page 515. If the colony is strong 

 and well protected, give them aframe full: if rather 

 weak, and in a hive not chaff -walled, give them small 

 lumps of it. a little at a time, rigtit over the cluster, 

 and then cover them upwarmlv. As fast as they 

 consume it, give them more, until they have enough 

 stored in their combs to last them. 



Our neighbor Shane has just taken some boney to 

 Cleveland, and reports that they offer 18c for the 1 

 lb. sections, but only 15c for the so-called prize sec- 

 tion, holding ljj£ lbs. Quite a difference in price, for 

 so little difference in size. Our neighbor Mason also 

 took down some nice extracted clover honey, and 

 got 18c per lb. for that; but it was onlv a small lot 

 sold to a grocer, who retails it in tumblers. 



ORDERING SMALL LOTS OF GRAPE SUGAR. 



Remember that grape sugar can not be sent profit- 

 ably long distances, either by freight or express, in 

 small lots, say less than 100 lbs. We have had a great 

 deal ordered in lots of 10 and 25 lbs., where T felt sure 

 it would cost our customers almost, if not quite as 

 much, by the time he got it, as to go to the groceries 

 and buv coffee or granulated sugar. Tf you will or- 

 der a barrel, we can get rates of freight on it, to al- 

 most any place, from 40 to 75c. per hundred. 



DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE HOLY-LAND AND CY- 

 PRIAN BEES AND THE COMMON ITALIANS. 



Friend Jones, while here, gave us the following 

 test: The two former races have between the wings, 

 right where the shoulders join on to the body, a sort 

 of disk, or shield, of a golden yellow color. In Ital- 

 ians, this same shield is of a brownish color, and, in 

 the blacks, pure black. At the time he was here, 1 

 thought it a pretty decided mark of distinction; but 

 a more careful examination reveals the fact, that 

 many of our Italian stocks have the golden disk al- 

 most as plainly as the others. 



In the Nov. No. of last year, I advised a friend to 

 go to his minister, rather than to a lawyer, to settle 

 a matter ahout some horses that were killed by 

 bees. I did not mean to intimate that lawyers were 

 useless members of a community, as society now is, 

 but rather that we might strive to live in such a 

 wav as to avoid, as far as may be, the necessitv of 

 calling on them. Our familv physician is one of the 

 best friends we have, — or, at least, he ought to be; 

 but for all that, we would he very glad indeed if we 

 could get along without him,— in the capacity of a 

 physician. 



COVERING THE BEES FOR WINTER. 



Tt is about time now for most of you to put on the 

 ch«ff cushions. Cover the bees wi'h th<» wooden 

 mats, burlap, old grain-bags, or the enameled sheets, 

 as you choose: but make this covering close, so no 

 bees can get above it during the winter. Bv far the 

 nicest way to do this, in my opinion, is to spread 

 ahout a peck of loose chaff all around the sides and 

 edu-es of this cover. If some of it rattles down 

 amonc the bees, it will do no harm. Now press in 

 vour thick chaff cushion, and no draft c»n possibly 

 get throogh the hive. If you do not agree with me 

 in regard to the enameled sheet for winter, used in 

 this way, don't use it. 



A QUANDARY. 



Mr. Geo. M. Deer, Riga, Lenawee Co.. Mich., 

 wrote m« a postal, saying he had a barrel of honey 

 that he would sell me for 8c per lb. Thinking that 

 at this verv low price, it was not likclv to be extra 

 good. I told him to send it along. Tt has come, and 

 is as handsome clover and basswood honey as you 

 ever saw. What troubles me is, that on another 

 page I have reported that nice extracted honev sells 

 for 18c. Prohablv T sha'l not be able to get 18c for 

 it, but it will, without doubt, ret>il for 14 It is a 

 fair bargain, and T presume friend B. is perfectly 

 satisfied ; but the honey is so much nicer than I ex- 

 pected, T <lo not feel easy about it. How much more 

 per lb. shall I pay him? Tn other words, how large 

 a profit ought we to make on what we buv of our 

 neighbors? We who are trving to be Christians, say. 



THE HOLY-LAND AND CYPRIANS. IN COLD WEATHER. 



Neighbor Blakeslee reports his Holy- Land 

 queen as rearing brood and drones too, at a great 

 rate; but neither he nor any live man can handle 

 them at this time of the year. Neighbor H., too, 

 has Holy-Land drones by the thousand, but not a 

 one among the Italians. This peculiarity of rearing 

 brood and drones late in the season, without anv 

 feeding, is certainly a great thing, and that alone will 

 be worth all these new races have cost, in my opin- 

 ion. They are as easilv handled as Italians, when 

 the weather is warm and they are getting honey. I 

 hereby take back what I said about their not being 

 different from Italians'. Will tried twice to unite 



