501 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



FI.AT-BOTTOM FOUNDATION. 



The foundation made l>y our triends J. Van Dcu- 

 sen c& Sons, Sprout Brook, Montgomery Co., N. Y., 

 has been before the people a good many years; Imt 

 of late I can not remember of seeing- any reports in 

 regard to it. As we have some customers who pre- 

 fer it to any other, we keej) it in stock. It is per- 

 haps the handsomest and best made foundation of 

 any in the world; and if I am correct, the manu- 

 facturers furnish an article with a greater number 

 of square feet per pound than any other make. 

 Ttie only objection is, that it takes bees longer to 

 work it than where the bottom of the cells is made 

 the natural shape. Has further experience demon- 

 strated this last point to be correct? Who will tell us/ 



K.MPLOVING WOMKN KUK CLERKS, BOOK-KEEPEUS, 

 ETC. 



Diu it ever occur to you, that an olHce where only 

 women are employed must be a jilcasant place? No 

 smoking, no sweai-ing, no impure talk; in fact, 

 in our office there is not any talk of any kind, 

 unless it pertains directly to business. Our office is 

 a pleasant place, and 1 have a great many times 

 thanked God for it— not only because the work per- 

 taining to book-keeping and correspondence has 

 mostly lallen into the hands of women, but because 

 it seems to have drifted, some how or other, with 

 very few exceptions, into the hands of Christian 

 women— for let me tell you it is not every one, even 

 among women, who win a place in the office and 

 keep it. Come to think of it, our business in the 

 dift'erent departments is mostly characterized by re- 

 finement and courtesy; and while this state of af- 

 fairs is much due to the influence of the women 

 who ai-e all about us, and in every room, I t)elieve it 

 is more consequent upon the Christian spirit which 1 

 trust and believe pervades our business everwhere. 



SEALED on UNSEALED BltOOD TO DETEHXtlNE WHE- 

 THEU OK NOT A QUEEN IS PHESENT. 



Did it ever occur to you, that when you tried very 

 hai'd nut to make a mistake, you oftentimes make 

 more mistakes than when you do not try so hard. 

 Few things in bee culture have re(iuired more em- 

 phatic teaching, over and over again, than this one 

 of having unf't'^tlrit brood in every nucleus, when 

 there is any danger that the colony may be queen- 

 less. Ttic young larv.e take the place of a (jueen, as 

 it were, and half apoundof bees will adhere to their 

 combs and defend themselves from robbers, provid- 

 ing they have even a little i)atch of unsealed brood, 

 where without this they would all be demoralized, 

 and become an easy prey to robbers or any other 

 foe. Well, in my editorial in our last issue, p. 4tJ7, 

 where I was so very anxious to say uin<file(l brood, 

 by an error the editorial went out with the simple 

 stsitement that ■"(■nlrd brood would answer for start- 

 ing (luecn-cells, whereas tiealcd brood amounts to al- 

 most nothing; for the little bi'ood that might hatch 

 out, although it would prove a small addition to the 

 little colony, could in no way help furnish the all- 

 important (lueen. Now remember, it is unsealed 

 brood, or small larva' just out of the egg, that we 

 want when we are going to determine whether or 

 not a i)<)unil of bees or nucleus contains a queen. 



(iUAUANTKElNC; SAFE AKUIVAL ON QUEENS AND 

 BEES. 



Since the traffic in bees and (pieens has assumed 

 such proportions, the question often comes up as to 

 how much a guarantee covers. Sometimes a cage 

 reaches its destination with some of the bees dead— 



I the others apparently all right, and the queen all 

 j right. Well, suppose the purchaser, under such 

 circumstances, should refuse to receive the iiack- 

 age because, according to his notion, it is not in 

 good order. This does not very often happen, but 

 it has hajipened a few times. Most people acquaint- 

 ed with bees would, for the sake of being human, if 

 nothing else, take the live bees away from the dead 

 and dying at once, and put them into a hive on 

 some combs of food, and, of course, save the queen 

 if possible, and then report to the shipper. Now. 

 I should say, that unless the purchaser does take 

 pains to sa\e the (jueen, and as many of the bees 

 as he can, he is not entitled to more than enough 

 bees to make up the number that were dead. In 

 regard to (jueens by mail, the shipper guarantees to 

 deliver them safely at the nearest postofficc. If the 

 purchaser leaves them several days in the post- 

 office, he is not entitled to another <iueen. In case 

 acjueon is icccived in feeble condition, the pur- 

 ch.aser should at once cage her on a comb contain- 

 ing unsealed honey, and place all in a hive of bees, 

 so as to do all in his power to revive her. If she 

 dies, or if she never fully recovers, he should state 

 the case to the shipper, and the shipper should 

 make her good, or furnish another at half j)riee, or 

 arrange it in some such way as would be satisfacto- 

 ry to /»)^/( parties. If the purchaser does not take 

 the queen from the office, and do all he can at once 

 to save her life, I shouldsay he is in part responsible. 

 If he takes her out of the office, and lays her upon 

 ' a shelf, or lets her lie until the next day, and she 

 I dies, he is entirely or partly responsible for her 

 loss, depending upon circumstances. Queens, like 

 the rest of an.imated creation, are liable to die at 

 j any time; and altogether the safest place for them 

 is in a hive of bees. Therefore as soon as they are 

 ' received they should, without a single hour's delay, 

 I be caged on a comb of honey and brood, and i)laced 

 in the hive. If circumstances are such that you 

 can not give this immediate attention, I do not 

 think you ought to complain. The shipper simply 

 agrees to deliver the queen in good order at your 

 IHDstnffiec. 



Every little while some one who is perhaps a little 

 new in the business thinks he ought to have anoth- 

 er queen, because his queen was lost in introduc- 

 ing; and he bases his claim on the fact that he fol- 

 lowed the printed directions exactly. Whoever 

 purchases a queen ought to be aware that introduc- 

 ing is always more or less risky ; and the man who 

 sells the queen can in no case expect to be respon- 

 sible, unless he advertises to guarantee safe i»i(((»- 

 (/kcMok as well as safe airical. 1 believe only one 

 (lueen-breeder has undertaken to do this as yet. 



One thing more: Quite a few of the friends have 

 a way of declaring a (pieen was never fertilized, be- 

 cause she may behave herself somewhat like unfer- 

 tile queens. I want to protest against this, because 

 iw man living has any right to say he can tell by a 

 (lueen's looks or actions whether she is fertilized or 

 I not, especially after she has been shipped through 

 the mails. Of course, queens might be caged up 

 and sent oif as soon as hatched, and they will live 

 just as long this way as i^erhaps after they have 

 been laying; but it will be next to impossible to in- 

 troduce such a <iueen. The man who would send 

 out unfeidlc (jueens for untested queens, would 

 probably pass counterfeit money if he had a chance; 

 therefore when you arc purchasing queens, be sure 

 I that the nuui of whom you buy them is honest. 



