1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



&] 



into the queen-cells. When this resource is cut off 

 by the sealing of the cells, the crisis occurs, and out 

 comes the swarm. There is usually a younger 

 batch of cell6 in the hive; but I think that, in the 

 building of queen cells, bees divide up into clans, 

 each cell or group of cells being in charge of a 

 separate clan, which " holds the fort " steadily, and 

 dors not let others enter. E. E. Hasty. 



Richards, Lucas Co., O., June 7, 1889. 



Friend II., your concluding words just 

 now remind me of a theory put forth by our 

 old friend D. L. Adair, perhaps 20 or 2-5 

 years ago, in the A. B. J. It was this : 

 That when the interior of the hive got into 

 the condition you have described, so that 

 the nurse-bees were full of milky food for 

 young larvye, without any place to put it, 

 then, as they could not do any better, they 

 agree to stow it away somewhere until need- 

 ed. One starts it by placing his around a 

 worker larva, giving this worker a great 

 deal more than he needs ; then some other 

 bee takes the hint and deposits his super- 

 fluous larval food in the same place. To 

 make it stay in the cell, an enlargement is 

 made, and this forms a rudimentary queen- 

 cell, and the superabundance of food causes 

 this worker larva to become a queen. Adair 

 suggested that the fruit-buds on trees were 

 formed in a similar way ; and it is well 

 known that any thing that checks the 

 growth of the tree tends to the development 

 of fruit-bearing buds. I do not know but 

 Dr. Miller will call both of us "visionary 

 fanatics " when he comes to read the above. 

 A good many of us laughed at friend Adair, 

 years ago, when he started the idea ; but I 

 confess that it looks much more reasonable 

 now, after having lived and learned all these 

 years, than it did then. 



RAMBLE NO. 18. 



HE DISCOURSES ON THE POSSIBILITIES OP MAK- 

 ING A. FIVE-CENT PACKAGE FOR HONEV. 



fHE Rambler is always delighted to visit an in- 

 genious bee-keeper. There are so many 

 new things, or new ways of performing old 

 things, that all the faculties are kept on the 

 alert to learn the new things. Oh, no! there 

 is nothing dull about a live Yankee. 



In our Ramble to the apiary of Mr. John Hen- 

 derson we found a Yankee and many new ideas. 

 This ramble would be of undue length, to mention 

 all to be seen; but at this time, when our friends 

 are thinking of marketing their honey, it wil! be 

 well, perhaps, to confine ourselves to what Mr. H. 

 has done in'the line of five-cent honey-packages. 



Long before there was any thing written about 

 penny packages for honey, Mr. H. was experiment- 

 ing. His idea was to get a package for candied 

 honey that could be eaten from the hand cleanly 

 like an apple, and to be sold for five cents. Honey 

 on a stick might do for Canadians; but according 

 to Mr. H., no true Yankee would ever be seen going 

 around with such a daubing arrangement so long 

 as wood and metal could be tortured into a mechan- 

 ical shape to prevent it. So our friend set himself 

 to work to make the package that would sell in 

 every caudy-store, and surfeit every boy and girl in 

 the land with honey. 

 His thoughts first turned to a wooden box as the 



^cheapest material. The delivery of honey from the 

 box was to be automatic. To accomplish this, in- 

 stead of turning out the whole interior of the liox< 

 a center was left, to 

 which the cover was se- 

 cured by a screw. The 

 cover was also provided 

 with an orifice near the 

 edge, and a scraper, 

 which projected to the 

 fig. 1. Henderson's hon- bottom of the box. Now 

 ey-tin. fill the box up with can- 



died honey. Screw on the cover; give it a turn in 

 the right direction, and the honey comes boiling up 

 through the orifice, to be eaten oft by the purchaser 

 —see Fig. 1. 



Our friend was not able to make costly machinery 

 for the manufacture of these boxes on a large 

 scale, and he next turned his attention to a unique 

 device which he called his " canteen honey-pack- 

 age." This package was suggested by the soldiers' 

 song, " And we drank from the same canteen." 

 Our friend's honey-canteen was about the size of 

 an ordinary blacking-box, having a bright ribbon at- 

 tached by which to carry 

 it, and with an orifice in 

 one edge for the exit of 

 honey. In Fig. 2 the dot- 

 ted line showsastrip of 

 thin flexible tin, fitted in- 

 side the canteen, and at- 

 tached at one end to the 

 canteen, and at the other 

 end to a wire which pro- 

 jected in the form of a 

 crank. Turn the crank, 

 the strip of tin is wound 

 up, and the honey is forc- 

 ed out of the orifice, to 

 be eaten. 



The next package, 

 shown in Fig. 3, Mr. H. 

 spent much time upon, 

 and thought he had 

 found just the thing; and 

 the Rambler thinks this package, in mechanical 

 operation, can not be much improved for this spe- 

 cial purpose. 



Mr. H. observed some artistic mem- 

 bers of his family at work upon an 

 oil painting. The bright colors were 

 placed upon the palette by being 

 squeezed from what appears to be a 

 tin tube. Mr. H? scratched his head 

 and scratched out this idea: If he 

 could get those tubes of the right 

 size they would fill the bill for his 

 five-cent package. After much cor- 

 respondence he found that a greater 

 proportion of these tubes were made 

 in France, from drawn tin. The tin, 

 by proper machinery, was drawn 

 down very thin. A firm in New 

 York was found that could make 

 these tubes and a few were ordered; 

 but instead of having the little lead 

 screw cap, seen on the paint-tubes, 



FIQ.3.HENDEBV, , . . , <,. .... 



son's honey- (lie honey-tubes were left open lull 

 tube. size, about an inch in diameter, with 

 a heavy supporting rim around the edge. The low- 

 er end was folded like the ordinary tube. It was 



FIG. 2. HENDERSON'S 

 HONEY-CANTEEN. 



