532 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



then filled with candied honey, a bright label put on, 

 and a piece of tinfoil put over the top, and it was 

 ready for market. To partake of the sweetness 

 within, take off the cap, squeeze the bottom slight- 

 ly, and the honey is forced out in small or large 

 mouthfuls, according as you squeeze. The Ram- 

 bler was so pleased with them that he has one now 

 for a keepsake, and as a curiosity to look at, for 

 that is all we can do with it at present; for, being 

 made of seemingly pure tin, the tubes alone would 

 cost nearly five cents each in large quantities. Mr. 

 H. being disappointed in the cost of the tin tube, 

 then experimented with a paper tube; but it looked 

 so poor by the side of tin that our friend gave up 

 until he can find some better substitute, or manu- 

 facturers who can give better terms on manufac- 

 ture. Mr. H. reckons that a two - ounce package 

 should not cost over 1'/4 cents, or. better, one cent. 



PIG. t. THK H VKM-Kll AND KAMHLER FIVE-CENT 

 PACKAGE, PILED UP. 



For the present it seems there is nothing left in 

 the five-cent line but the neat comb honey package 

 of Bro. Harmer, and the Rambler's round section. 

 The round section is easily made, but the Harmer is 

 easier to pack and handle. We hope success for 

 it the coming season; but the Rambler has not the 

 patience to make them. 



We have thus presented to your readers our dis- 

 coveries and the obstacles in the way of the five- 

 cent package. That some one may further develop 

 the idea is the wish of Mr. II. and the Rambler. 



I am very glad to see you studying on this 

 matter or a cheap package for honey in 

 small quantities. It seems to me. however, 

 that none of the tilings >ou mention can 

 possibly be afforded for a 5-cent package. 

 The two first might possibly be made large 

 enough to be worth 10 cts., or perhaps even 

 25. No. 3, it seems to me, might do very 

 well for a dime. There has been on our ta- 

 ble for perhaps two years a little tin box 

 with a wooden cover. ' It is called " Howe's 

 sample mailing-case," patented Sept. 9, 1879, 

 and is intended for sending sugar and other 

 similar articles by mail. It is simply a 

 shallow tin box, not unlike a blacking-box, 

 but much smaller, and deeper. At the cen- 

 ter of the bottom of the box a hole is made. 

 Through this is soldered a common screw, 

 of such a length as to reach exactly as high 

 as the sides of the box. Now, a wooden 

 cover is held in its place by being turned on 

 to this central screw. It may be screwed 

 up so tight that the edges of the tin cut into 

 the wood as it goes around, so as to make it 

 tight enough not only for candied honey, 

 but I should think it would be perfectly 

 safe for liquid honey. The box is manufac- 

 tured by Dailey Brothers, Detroit, Mich. I 

 do not know the price, but they could, with- 

 out doubt, be furnished for a cent apiece, in 

 quantities, and large enough to hold not on- 



ly 2 ounces, but perhaps even 4, of honey. 

 The box is remarkably strong. The wood- 

 en cover projects a little so as to protect the 

 edges of the tin, in such a way that even the 

 worst treatment it may receive in the mail- 

 bags could scarcely do it any injury. I have 

 long thought that it was perhaps the cheap- 

 est and most substantial package that we 

 could get hold of. We will at once make 

 investigations, and see how low they can be 

 furnished. 



QUEEN -CELLS ABOVE PERFORATED 

 HONEY-BOARDS. 



ALSO SOMETHING IN REOARD TO FRIEND DOOI.IT- 

 TLE'S NEW BOOK. 



Up NY one would suppose, Mr. Editor, by your 

 2f\l^ foot-notes at the end of J. D. Fooshe's arti- 



jplr cle, page 490, that you must have read my 

 ■*■-** new book on queen-rearing rather careless- 

 ly, for in it 1 tell that queen cells will be 

 completed when placed over a populous colony at 

 any time of year when the bees of any colony are 

 sufficient to enter such upper story, as to their 

 numbers, where there is a queen-excluder between 

 the upper and lower stories. You seem to think 

 that the swarming fever has something to do with 

 the matter; but such is not the case, as I have prov- 

 en for years, and especially so duriDg the past 

 three or four weeks of scarcity of honey, during 

 which bees have been on the verge of starvation, 

 yet in no case where I have put prepared cells 

 above a queen-excluding honey-board have the 

 bees failed to carry out and complete the cells, per- 

 fecting them to the fullest extent, so that queens 

 reared in such cells have come up to the highest 

 type of perfection, even though the colony below 

 were living only from " hand to mouth." The bees in 

 the upper stories seem to be placed in the same 

 condition, or at least feel that they are, as when 

 they are about to supersede their queen on account 

 of old age, in which case all are aware that bees will 

 rear good queens, no matter what time of year it 

 is, or whether honey is coming in or not. In all of 

 my six years' experience with the plan given in my 

 book I have never failed to have queen-cells com- 

 pleted when placed in an upper story over a queen- 

 excluding honey-board (which plan is similar to 

 that given by Mr. Fooshe), except late in the fall, 

 when bees had gone into that quietude which they 

 go into after the honey season is past. If we wish 

 cells tin », we must feed the bees so as to arouse 

 them to activity, when they will complete queen- 

 cells, so that as good queens will hatch from them 

 as any which can be produced during the summer 

 months, or in the height of the swarming season. I 

 am not guessing at any of this, hut speak it after a 

 practical experience along this line for the past six- 

 years. 



The plan as used by Mr. Fooshe, of getting the 

 queen cells under way before putting them in the 

 upper story, is practically the Alley plan, as given 

 in his book, which you in your head-lines call " an 

 improvement on Doolittle's plan." That just as 

 good queens can be reared in this way as by the 

 plan of making cells of wax, which I outlined, I 

 have no doubt; but the objections to it are, 1. That 

 one or more colonies must be kept queenless to 

 start these cells, which the colony having an upper 

 story on are to bring to completion. A queenless 



