466 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



bees hatched out all right just as well as those 

 that were capped over. — A. I. R.] 



Arthur C. Mii^ler has the joke on me. 

 On p. 325 I quote him saying, " If there is 

 any class of people who seem prone to only 

 half observe and to jump at conclusions, it is 

 the bee-keepers," and then I reproach him by 

 saying that, if he would "observe" more 

 carefully himself he would find the observers 

 all right, but the things observed, elusive. 

 Now he comes back at me by saying that, if I 

 had "observed more carefully" myself I 

 would have seen that he made that identical 

 remark right after the words I had quoted. 

 And I don't know of any satisfactory reply 

 to make. 



SwarThmore, in Rocky Motmtahi Bee- 

 Journal, reports success in obtaining early 

 drones last year, by having drone eggs mailed 

 to him from the South, and giving these eggs 

 to queenless colonies. If eggs can be suc- 

 cessfully mailed, there might be a traffic in 

 eggs from choice queens for queen-rearing. 

 [Something like twenty years ago we used to 

 send worker-eggs from a choice queen by 

 mail, and succeeded in doing it very nicely 

 up to a distance of 100 miles ; but beyond 

 that we never had any success. I should 

 have said that it would be impossible for 

 Swarthmore to get drone eggs that would 

 hatch, from a distance of three hundred miles. 

 —Ed.] 



The question whether extracting-combs 

 should be cleaned out by the bees in the fall 

 has had a thorough discussion in Revue In- 

 ternationale. Reviewing the testimony, J. 

 Crepieux-Jamin says it is remarkable that the 

 advocates for fall cleansing offer the sole ar- 

 gument that the honey not cleaned out will 

 ferment. The chief argument on this side, I 

 think, is the granulation of particles left to 

 hasten granulation in the next year's crop — 

 an argument of double weight when applied 

 to unfinished sections. [I think the only 

 reason why we in this country prefer to have 

 our extracting-combs cleaned out by the bees 

 is, as you suggest, to prevent the accumulation 

 of particles of granulated honey. But in 

 Europe there may be localities where these 

 wet combs will ferment. — Ed.] 



Sometimes it is said that a beginner gets a 

 yield of honey that he never after equals, be- 

 cause his first enthusiasm is gone. I believe 

 that's a libel on many of the veterans. A bee- 

 keeper may ride his hobby so hard as to kill 

 it, but they don't all do it. Just forty years 

 ago I took the bee-fever, and the temperature 

 is just as high now as it was then. I'm look- 

 ing forward to some things I want to do with 

 bees next summer with just as keen a relish 

 as I had forty years ago. The extra results 

 achieved by a beginner are largely to be cred- 

 ited to the fact that he has a small number of 

 colonies, and so the bees have a better har- 

 vest. [Your last sentence explains it. In 

 the ABC book the statement is made to the 

 effect that the average yield per colony will 

 be much larger in a small apiary, remote from 

 any other yard of bees, than in larger apia- 

 ries. — Ed.] 



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Four weeks ago we shoveled snow 



That drifted deep all over ; 

 And now to-day where frost held sway 



We move great heaps of clover. 



" Diseases of Bees and Legislation " is the 

 succinct title of the report of N. E. France, 

 Foul-brood Inspector of Wisconsin. It con- 

 sists of an exceedingly detailed description of 

 foul brood in all stages, together with the best 

 known methods to arrest its ravages. It also 

 treats on pickled brood and black brood, and 

 dysentery and other diseases of the bees, and 

 gives an account of the present state of legis- 

 lation relative to these diseases in the United 

 States. The subject of adulterated honey is 

 well treated. No price for the book is given. 

 All wishing a copy should apply to Mr. N. E. 

 France, Platteville, Grant Co., Wis. 



Mr. F. Greiner writes : 



The Bee-keepers' Society of Erfurt, Germany, will 

 hold its 50th anniversary this summer. An interest- 

 ing exhibition is planned in count ctiou with this con- 

 vention or celebration. Bee-keeping of a hundred 

 years ago is to be shown. One hundred and fifty 

 stands of bees will be on the ground, which will be 

 prepared and started for the heath in Thuringia at 

 the close of the festivities. A portable apiary of 30 

 colonies (wanderwagen) will also be on exhibition. 



Mr. Greiner also adds the following rtlative 

 to an improvement in comb foundation : 



Lorence Horvat, of Austria, speaks of a new style of 

 comb foundation in a recent number of the Central- 

 blatt. He describes it as having notched cell-walls 

 instead of the smooth, and says, when this new foun- 

 dation was first brought out the claim was made that 

 the bees would more readily draw it out into combs, 

 but he did not take much slock in it. Since then a 

 test has been made at a bee-keepers' institute, held at 

 Vienna last summer, as follows : Three brood-frames 

 were filled with new-style, three others with old-style 

 foundation. The six were inserted in the brood-nest 

 of a good colony, bees between brood-combs, alternat- 

 ing them with the frames of foundation. When an 

 examination was made 24 hours later, it was found 

 that the three frames of new-style foundation had 

 been drawn out into combs, and eggs had already 

 been deposited in a few cells. The three forms of 

 ordinary foundation had hardly been touched by the 

 bees, although they had been given an equally favor- 

 able position in the hive. A number of trials of this 

 kind were made, but turned out practically the same 

 in each instance. 



Our thanks are due to E. N. Eaton, State 

 Analyist of Illinois, for a copy of the report of 

 the State Food Commissioner, Mr. Alfred H. 

 Jones. As a copy of it can be had (free, I 

 think) by addressing the Illinois State Food 

 Commission, Room 1623, Manhattan Build'g, 

 Chicago, it will not be necessary to say much 

 about it, except that it shovfs the result of the 

 analyses of nearly every thing used as food in 

 that State (or perhaps all States), such as 

 milk, cheese, extracts, butter, ice, honey, vin- 

 egar, etc. Even a hasty glance at its pages 

 shows a very strange feature of our life. It 

 seems as if adulteration of the most unblush- 

 ing kind were the fate of nearly every thing 

 the people of Illinois get to eat. Of course 



