1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



141 



should go to Colorado with his plan he would 

 not sell a bottle — would know better than to 

 try it. 



This becoming accustomed to one kind of 

 honey, and not liking any other, is a factor to 

 be taken into consideration by the honey-sales- 

 man, as I have found out to my cost. In this 

 neck of the woods I am selling, on the average, 

 ten pounds of good old candied black buck- 

 wheat extracted to one of fancy white — a very 

 fine article too. 



The package question was the sticker, but 

 it has been solved so easily ! and I don't ob- 

 ject to giving it away to the beekeeping fra- 

 ternity. As you know, Mr. Editor, I always 

 was generous that way, and so here it is : No 

 package at all, for I can sell more honey with- 

 out packages than with. How ? 1 just take 

 my samples into the first house I come to, and 

 ask for a dish to give them a sample of fine 

 honey. The lady wishes to know the price, 

 of course. The price is, say, 12'/2 cts. per 

 pound ; but if she will furnish a pail to bring 

 it in, and take ten pounds, it will be only a 

 dollar. That is a very "fetching" plea to 

 start in with ; but after getting half a dozen 

 pails to carry, there is an added force to it. 

 The neighbors all think it a good bargain, as 

 that array of tinware testifies. If some one 

 doesn't happen to have the pail, as a special 

 favor I promise to deliver it in a paper oyster- 

 pail — ten pounds, pail and all, and that's 

 about the cost — ten cents per pound for the 

 paper package, and it works all right. 



There you are, Mr. Editor, and I hope it 

 may help some bee-keeper to dispose of his 

 crop to advantage, and also give some lover 

 of honey a chance to obtain the purest and 

 best sweet known to mankind, at a reasonable 

 price, without being obliged to pay for any 

 " fancy fixin's" or unnecessary commissions. 



Sarpe, Pa. 



[Your plan of selling is similar to that em- 

 ployed so successfully by Dan White, of New 

 London, Ohio. He sells all he can produce, 

 and more too. — Ed.] 



OLD COMBS FOR BROOD-REARING. 



Should Old Combs be Thrown Away, and New 

 Ones be Drawn from Foundation? 



BY W. T. STEPHENSON. 



On page 908 Dr. Miller, referring to an item 

 in the Review, written by me, in which I de- 

 scribe combs 12 years old as being considera- 

 bly less in diameter than new comb, says that 

 he has combs 25 years old, and yet the cells 

 are no smaller, so far as he can see. In writ- 

 ing the item for the Review I put the adverb 

 " least " before " 12," but the printer failed 

 to put it in. These combs may have been old- 

 er than 12 years, for aught I know. I will de- 

 scribe more fully. I bought the colony from 

 a neighbor some years ago. The hive was 

 badly dilapidated then, and the combs had 

 been transferred from, may be, a bee-tree, to 

 that hive ; so those combs are possibly 25 

 years old or more. 



Dr. M. says his side walls (of the cells) were 

 not perceptibly thickened after having 25 

 years' accumulation of cocoons plastered on 

 them. The comb I was speaking of had the 

 side walls thickened, and that to no slight de- 

 gree. Indeed, there were cocoons enough on 

 the inside of the cells to make them peifectly 

 round. The cells looked like so many gimlet- 

 holes. Well, doctor, it's too bad ; but 1 melt- 

 ed those remarkable combs into beeswax last 

 season, but (believe me) if I had any of it 

 both you and Mr. Root should have a piece to 

 examine and see if the septum had eight or 

 ten layers of cocoons where the sides have one 

 or two. 



I melted the comb in a solar extractor, and 

 after the wax was all rendered the shape of the 

 cell was still perfect. The outside or first co- 

 coons were the shape of the cells ; and little 

 by little, as more were added, it became 

 round. 



Mr. Editor, you suggest that, if the diame- 

 ter of the cells becomes too small to suit the 

 bees, they will remove the cocoons from the 

 sides of the cell and leave the septum until it 

 accumulates eight times as many cocoons. I 

 thought you said that bees' mandibles were 

 not suitable for biting skins of fruit. If so, 

 how are they going to bite through the co- 

 coons ? They are surely slicker and tougher 

 than any peach. YoU might say they would 

 commence at the top of the cell ; but I don't 

 believe their mandibles are delicate enough 

 to separate the cocoons from the sides of the 

 cell. Why is it that the bees would peel the 

 cocoons from the sides of the cell and leave 

 the septum ? Do you think it is desirable to 

 the bees to have cocoons on the septum ? 



Besides the toughness and slickness of the 

 cocoons, the concave shape of the cells, it 

 seems to me, would be quite a drawback. To 

 prove what I have said in regard to old combs 

 producing smaller bees, I will say that I have 

 transferred the colony spoken of, and the 

 bees are a good deal larger than before.. 



New Columbia, 111. 



[It is very easy for one to draw wrong con- 

 clusions and wrong inferences ; and especial- 

 ly is this true, it seems to me, in the case be- 

 fore us. You say that the comb that you were 

 speaking of had the " ^i'le walls thickened, 

 and that to no slight degree ; " that there 

 were cocoons enough on the iaside to make 

 the cells perfectly round. Now let me ask. 

 Did you count the cocoons in the side walls or 

 did you take a micrometer and measure the 

 thickness of the side walls in some of these 

 old combs, and also the walls of combs, we 

 will say three or four years old, and in which 

 brood had been reared as many seasons ? If 

 you did not then you might easily be deceived. 

 To depend on the eye alone is too much like 

 guesswork. 



You say the cells look like so many gimlet- 

 holes. So do those of any brood comb, even 

 if it is not more than three or four years old. 

 The bees generally thicken the top edges, 

 making a circular rim, giving the cell itself 

 the appearance of a round ho'e. 



You did not, so far as I can see from what 



