1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



779 



to be fed. A little practice in " hefting " 

 and estimating will enable you to become 

 correct enough for all practical purposes. 



HOW MUCH CAN WE AFFORD TO PAY FOR A COMB- 

 HONEY PACKAGE? 



Will it pay to invest, at a cost of W2 cents per lb. 

 for comb honey? Could I get my money back by 

 an increased price for my honey? 



Canadice, N. Y., Aug. 2. L. M. Doolittle. 



The question as to whether it will pay to 

 invest a cent and a half a pound for a pack- 

 age to hold comb honey, in addition to the 

 price of the sections, is a hard one to settle. 

 You would have to determine, as nearly as 

 you can, how much the honey costs you to 

 produce it. Knowing the market price you 

 could then decide for yourself better how 

 much you could afford to pay for a package. 

 Of course, you want to reserve as large a 

 margin as you can, after getting the honey 

 upon the market. 



A BEAUTIFUL SPOT. 



Bees are not doing- much here now. Forest fires 

 are raging- in the mountains, and will destroy the 

 most of the fall bloom. Many a stray swarm will 

 have to pay for its folly with its life, that sailed 

 gracefully away amid the ringing of bells and a 

 great blast of trumpets for their new home in the 

 forest, while a very sorry looking bee-keeper stood 

 with his hat off, trying to keep cool. The timber 

 on the mountain in front of my place is enveloped 

 in flames. It is a grand sight, as the mountain is 

 about 9000 feet high, and the timber extends up for 

 8000 feet. The burning forest is at night reflected 

 from 13 mountain lakes around its base, wh'le Mt. 

 Shasta and Lassen's Peak stand to the north, wrap- 

 ped in a mantle of snow. Who wouldn't be a bee- 

 keeper in the Sierra Nevadas? I think if A. T. 

 Koot were here he could listen to the songs of birds 

 and the music of the falling waters to his heart's 

 content, and gaze into crystal lakes that would 

 equal any thing he saw in Southern California. I 

 almost forgot to mention the speckled beauties 

 that he would find in their native haunts. Think of 

 camping on the shores of a beautiful mountain 

 lake, and wandering over grassy slopes to catch a 

 mess of trout for your breakfast. G. W. Cover. 



Downieville, Cal., Sept. 2, 1889. 



I know I missed a great deal in not visit- 

 ing the northern part of California, es- 

 pecially round about San Francisco ; but 

 when 1 make my next visit I will try to give 

 you a call. 



BEE-STINGS A CUBE FOR RHEUMATISM. 



I see there is one adverse report by Mrs. John 

 Burr, in regard to bee-stings for rheumatism. 

 Would she expect to be cured of so serious a dis- 

 ease by one or two good stingings, or one or two 

 doses from the best doctor in the land? Let her 

 persist in keeping bees, and get stung a few years 

 as much as 1 have, and she will have to die of some- 

 thing else. 1 had noticed, before this thing was 

 mentioned in the bee-papers (to my knowledge), 

 that my rheumatism was playing out, and that I 

 should never get a pension on that if it didn't re- 

 turn, which I think there is no hope of, as long as I 

 keep bees, for I have no small help to keep the 

 smoker going; and, my word for it, I would rather 

 take the punishment that Sullivan gave to Kilrain 

 than to face it sometimes. But at the same time I 



would rather stand stings than rheumatism, and 

 have pain enough to draw your arms, legs, and 

 muscles, up into knots. 

 Pine Grove, O., Sept. T, 1889. S. Daniels. 



HOW TO KILL A SWARM OF BEES. 



Will you kindly give me your advice as to the 

 best way of killing a swarm of bees when their win- 

 ter supplies are too small? I am a friend of the little 

 fellows, and a new hand in the work, and I should 

 like to have jour advice. G. H. Gilbert. 



Martell, Wis., Aug. :50, 18S9. 



Why, friend G., if you are a friend of the 

 little fellows, what do you want to kill them 

 for? Modern bee culture does not include 

 any process for killing bees. Instead of 

 buying brimstone, we now buy sugar ; and 

 the bees are almost certain to pay back the 

 money with good interest, the very first sea- 

 son, what the sugar cost. If you can't keep 

 bees without wanting some process to kill 

 them, excuse me if I suggest, in a kind and 

 friendly way, that you give up the business. 



A NARROW (?) ESCAPE. 



Mr. Root:— You came very near having to pay 

 the thousand-dollar reward; but your time is too 

 valuable to go into all of the details. It was claim- 

 ed by one of the " smart Alecks" who know every 

 thing that is going on, that he knew a man who 

 could make the comb and fill it with honey, as he 

 saw it done. So 1 asked for the man's name, and 

 he mentioned one whom 1 knew very well. So I 

 sent a boy to friend H., and got them together. To 

 sum up, he saw him making foundation and ex- 

 tracting honey, and that was all there was of it. 

 How ashamed he was, after it was explained to him 1 



Perry, N. V., Sept. 8, 1889. Jos. R Wright. 



RAISING QUEENS ABOVE PF.RFORATI D METAL. 



I have had some experience with raising- queen- 

 cells over a zinc honey-board. It worked well till 

 the last batch ; out of curiosity I looked at them four 

 days before they were to hatch, auJ found three 

 torn down. I cut out all but one, and left it to see 

 what they would do with it; in 48 hours I looked and 

 it was gone. No queen had hatched to tear them 

 down. The honey-flow had partly failed, but they 

 were still storing some surplus. 



SHIPPING HONEY. 



How should honey be shipped— by freight or ex- 

 press? and would distance make any difference? 

 This is the first year we have had a crop since 1886. 

 We have never shipped any. Our home market is 

 full of 10-cent honey; we have no such for sale. 



The Ignotum tomatoes are doing fine; they are 

 the best-flavored tomatoes I ever tasted. 



Swedona, III., Sept. 4, 1889. S. F. Trego. 



I believe the general decision is, that hon- 

 ey of all kinds should go by freight. Ex- 

 press is expensive for any thing that is not 

 worth more than 15 or 18 cents a pound ; 

 and although express should be safer than 

 freight, experience seems to indicate that it 

 is even more apt to be injured than by 

 freight. But be sure to put the ends of the 

 sections toward the locomotive. 



RUBBER ROOFING IN LIEU OF TIN, FOR HIVES. 



Please answer through Gleanings what you 

 think of this rubber rooting that is used to cover 

 buildings. Would it not do to use to cover bee- 

 hives? Von know how it is about leaky covers to 

 hives. I believe this roofing is the very thing. It is 



