GLEANINGS IN iJEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



aster as bpfel it could have been caused only by 

 a fall from the express wagon, or a violent concus- 

 sion of some kind. There is no excuse for this kind 

 of thing, and it is time a leoson were taught express 

 companies in regard to careful handling of bees. 

 I have had several losses, due to culpable negli- 

 gence on their part, during my experience as a bee- 

 keeper, but never got any redress. Generally a 

 complaint has drawn out the threat of refusing to 

 convey bees at all. 1 think somebody will have to 

 enter action for damages, before due care is taken. 

 No one likes to do this. The loss is usually not very 

 large, and the risk of losing costs in an action hin- 

 ders taking steps for a legal redress. It seems to 

 me that this is one of the directions in which a Na- 

 tional League might bring pressure to bear. 



WjI. F. CL.4UKE. 



Guelph, Ont., ("an., .July 15, 1SS,5. 



In regard to clipping' (lueeiis' wings, friend 

 C, it turned out very well in your case ; but 

 I don't believe a (pieen oflcn comes back, 

 especially where she has to climb up to a 

 hive that stands on legs.— In regard to hives, 

 I have seen so many changes that never 

 " came to stay."' that of late 1 am getting 

 quite backward indeed in regard to adopting 

 any fixture, or any thing that seems to be an 

 improvement, until it has stood tlie test of 

 use. The Simplicity hive and the chafi: liive ! 

 both seem to settle back to the original plan, 

 about once in so often ; that is, things that 

 we at one time thought would be a great im- 

 provement are, sooner or later, dropped as 

 too much machinery, or too much bother, 

 and we have left, as before, a plain simple 

 liive without any loose fixtures. — Why, 

 friend C, you yourself give the best reason 

 in the world for having frames wired, but 

 yet you don't seem to see it at all. Had Dr. 

 Tinker had that one frame of brood built on 

 wires as we have them, it would have been 

 almost impossible for even an (.rpn,ss ofticial 

 to have smashed it up.— A word in regard to 

 express companies. AVhen we first began to 

 ship bees we had troubles from combs break- 

 ing down, bees dead, and honey running out 

 of the hive, etc. We brought a bill to the 

 express company, and they ])aid it. Finally 

 another bill was l)rought in, amounting to 

 something like $L'0.()0. They paid that too ; 

 but they then declared that hereafter it 

 must bedistinctly understood that they are 

 not to be responsible fof damages done tiie 

 bees ; that is, they could not stand sucli loss- 

 es. They admitted that may be their em- 

 ployes were careless, but they got the best 

 they could, paid good wages, and got along 

 very well with most kinds of merchandise. 

 After studying the matter over a good deal, 

 it occiu'red to me that there were two sides 

 to this (piestion. One side is. that the ex- 

 l)ress companies ought to employ agents 

 who wouUl handle fragile things carefully. 

 Because they get pay for so doing, it is their 

 business. If we should want to send a l)as- 

 ket of eggs by express, or an expensive vase, 

 or a piece of statuary, it is the express coni- 

 l)aines' business to handle it so carefidly 

 that no harm could come. If they did not, 

 they must pay damages. This course of 

 action promised endless (juarrels, lawsuits, 

 and other tnipleasant things in life. Do you 

 want to know what the otlier side was that 

 presented itself to meV It was this : Em- 



ploy packers so well trained that they could 

 pack a sitting of eggs, an expensive vase, or 

 any thing else, in such a way that it could 

 be tumbled from one end of the room to the 

 other, without injury. It might be a hard 

 matter to do it with "the eggs, but with the 

 vase there is no dilHculty at all ; and, in fact, 

 almost every thing we ship we have learned 

 by experience no* be so put up that there is 

 very little danger of harm, with such hand- 

 ling as express companies ordinarily give 

 things they carry. We have adopted the 

 latter plan, and we have got along pleasantly 

 with express and railroad companies, and 

 with almost everyliody else. Isn't it the 

 better way. to take tlie worhl as you find it— 

 that is. within the bounds of leason, and 

 adapt yourself to the world? Of comse, 

 there are extremes, such as the followincf : 

 In loading a lialf-barrel of liouey. one of the 

 railroail employes let it drop. The agent 

 ju-omptly informed me of the circumstances, 

 an<l asked me to help them out of a bad job, 

 and the money was handed over at once. 

 At another time a cask of beeswax was bro- 

 ken open and a (piantity abstracted. The 

 railroad comitany objected to paying the 

 claim. IJut their agent, who was a "personal 

 friend of mine, wrote to the company some- 

 thing like this: "'Mr. Hoot does' a large 

 amount of business with us, as you may 

 know, and I take pleasure in saying that he 

 makes comparatively few complaints. I 

 think his claim ought to be honored." In 

 response to this, the money was handed 

 over at once.— Just one more thought in re- 

 gard to wired frames. I know the bees do 

 sometimes, when there is a dearth of honey, 

 gnaw the wax away from along the wires ; 

 but when put into the hive during a good 

 yield, the wires are very cpiickly covered and 

 out of sight'; and as soon as one set of brood 

 is reared over the wires they are never mo- 

 lested afterward. 



WHE5RE DID THE EGG COME EROM? 



DO IlKES STEAL EGGS FHOM OTUEH COLONIES? 



HE condition of the colony was such as to pre- 

 clude the possibility of its containing an un- 

 developed egg. ]n the tirst jjlace, a swarm 

 was thrown off June 12th, and as soon as 

 (lueen-cells were old enough all but one or 

 two were taken out and used to (jueen other colo- 

 nies. On the 35th of Juno a second swarm was 

 thrown oil. The hive was examined, and a .young 

 (jueen removed, and the swarm ran back. On the 

 2'.tth the queen was still on deck; but a close exam- 

 ination failed to discover any eggs. On the 8th of 

 July no (jueen could be found, no eggs in the hive, 

 no unsealed brood, and very little scaled, and that 

 was in a comb that had been used in exchange with 

 another hive, the exchange being made about June 

 20th, to get (]ueen-cells for the other colony. 



Now, suppose this comb had been full of eggs 

 (which was not the case, as the colony it came from 

 had been (pieenless for three or four days), is it at 

 all probable that any egg in it at that time would 

 have remained undeveloped till the 8th of July, at 

 which time the colony was found to be qucenless, 

 and had started queen-cells, in one of which was an 

 cggy Not expecting to find any thing in the cell, 



