804 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



pleasure with very little attention on your part. If 

 you had no empty combs, of course you could not 

 do so well with empty frames or frames of founda- 

 tion. C. C. Miller. 

 Marengo, 111. 



I know the above will work, because I 

 have done pretty much the same thing, only 

 I did not have any out-apiary. Of course, 

 an out-apiary would prevent all trouble 

 from going back to the old colony, and you 

 can at any time put bees or frames of brood, 

 covered with bees, wherever you like, and 

 they will stay right there. 



VARIOUS MATTERS. 



CRATING HONEY SO AS TO HAVE EACH CRATE 

 WEIGH AN EVEN NUMBER OF POUNDS. 



fEARS ago, when I t flrst began to put up honey 

 for market, I paid no attention to having the 

 amount in each crate weigh an even num- 

 ber of pounds, but I put an even number of 

 boxes in each crate, and in weighing them I 

 marked each crate by the quarter pound. That is, 

 if a crate weighed 30 lbs. 3 oz. it was marked 30J4 

 lbs.; and if it weighed 32 lbs. and 6 oz. it was mark- 

 ed 3234, thus making the ! 4 the nearest to the one 

 which it weighed. I followed this plan for several 

 years, when I saw some labels advertised, to paste 

 on each crate, which gave the weight of the gross, 

 tare, and net, in ounces. These seemed to me to be 

 handy, so I sent and procured some of them, using 

 them the next year. In sending in returns that 

 year, not a single commission merchant said any 

 thing about the ounces, except to grumble about 

 the way I had marked the honey, and advised me 

 to make my crates in the future weigh an even 

 number of pounds, if I would obtain the best prices 

 for my honey, and save them much annoyance and 

 vexation. The next year found me making each 

 crate weigh an even number of pounds, which 

 thing I have kept up ever since, and in no single 

 instance have I had returns made for a pound less 

 than I shipped. As long as glass was used on each 

 section or box, the matter was very simple; for all 

 I had to do was to sort out the thin glass into piles 

 of the right number for a crate, and the thick ones 

 in the same way, till I had the number of piles that 

 I would have crates of honey. These piles were 

 now weighed, and a label put on each one, telling 

 what it weighed, so that, when the sections of hon- 

 ey were brought out for each crate, and placed on 

 the scales, the pile of glass was taken which would 

 make the whole weigh an even number of pounds 

 when the glass was placed on the honey. By add- 

 ing this to the tare of the crate I had the gross 

 weight, or just what the crate weighed when it was 

 all ready for market. Later on, when it was not 

 desirable to glass the honey, I sorted the pile of 

 honey all over, placing all the lighter sections in 

 one pile, all of the medium in another, and all those 

 that were extra well filled or the heavy ones in the 

 third. I would now take all the sections for a crate 

 from the medium pile, which would contain the 

 larger bulk of the honey ; then if they did not 

 weigh an even numberof pounds I would exchange 

 some of these medium sections for either the light 

 or the heavy ones, as the circumstances might re- 

 quire, till the right amount was secured. I know 

 this is a little work, but 1 have been satisfied that it 



well paid me for so doing. Having just crated my 

 honey for market, and thinking that I had never 

 given this item before, led me to do so now. Try it," 

 brother and sister bee-keepers, if you have not aU 

 ready done so, and see if you do not think this a 

 good way. 



NON-SWARMERS. 



I see by page 733 of Gleanings for Sept. 15th, 

 that the editor thinks that the plan I gave to pre- 

 vent swarming would be the same as "hiving the 

 new swarm and setting it on top of the old one. then 

 in a few days destroying the queen-cells below and 

 shaking the bees and queen in front of the lower 

 one." Not so; as, in this latter cape, the bees and 

 queen are on the brood which they had before they 

 swarmed; while in the plan I gave, the bees below 

 would be building comb in the lower hive the same 

 as would any swarm hived in an empty hive, while 

 the brood above would be hatching (with few bees 

 to cover it), and coming down below, so that the 

 strength of the colony would be kept at the highest 

 pitch all through the honey harvest, while during 

 the first 21 days the queen would have all the cells 

 built by the bees to occupy with eggs. I think all 

 will see that the two plans are very different; the 

 first having an uncertain element in it, while the 

 latter places them in that certain condition gener- 

 ally enjoyed by all new swarms during the first 25 

 days after they are hived. 



cutting open queen-cells to see when they 

 will hatch. 

 On page 754 of same number of Gleanings are 

 found some of the points of merit the queen-cell 

 protectors possess; but there is one thing not men- 

 tioned there which has been of some service to me, 

 which I believe has never been mentioned. All re- 

 member how, in former years, they have been 

 grieved when obliged to spoil one of two nice 

 queen-cells which were built so near together that 

 they could not be separated without cutting into 

 one of them so but that the bees would tear it down 

 and drag out the immature queen. Well, I was not 

 long in finding out that a queen would hatch just 

 as perfectly from a cell having one side gone, if 

 the same was placed in a cell-protector, as she 

 would had the cell been whole, for I have had 

 scores of them hatch perfect queens from such 

 mutilated cells. After finding this out it occurred 

 to me that, if I did not know just when a queen 

 would hatch from a given cell, all I had to do was 

 to remove it from the protector (or do the same be- 

 fore it was put in) and open the cell at the side near 

 the base, look at the immature queen, and put the 

 cell back in again. From curiosity and for experi- 

 ment I have many times opened a cell to that ex- 

 tent that I could turn the queen out in my hand, 

 look her all over and place her back again: and 

 where care was used I have never known one to 

 fail of hatching a perfect queen afterward. After 

 having looked inside of a queen-cell several times, 

 or turned the embryo queen out in your hands, 

 any one can tell almost 'to within a fourth of a day 

 when they will hatch. This gives quite an advan- 

 tage over the past, for many times we have waited 

 for days for the hatching of a cell which finally nev- 

 er hatched at all, on account of the larva dying 

 from some cause or other. G. M. Doolittle. 



Borodino, N. Y., Oct. 7, 1889. 



I think, friend D., somebody has mention- 

 ed assorting the sections so that each case 

 contains an even^n umber of pounds. I 



