1887 



GLEANLNGS LN BEE CULTURE. 



4;^ 



ment, without physical development. This fact will 

 perhaps account for the discrepancy of time in the 

 hatching' of queens being from 16 to 18 days. 



Siam. la., Dec. 25, lH8fi. K. B. Robbins. 



Your experiments in making the queen's 

 eggs hatch are very interesting. I liave care- 

 fully looked through Cheshire's book, "Bees 

 and Bee-keeping," upon this matter, but 

 can not discover that he touches upon the 

 point you bring out. If your experiments 

 were carefully conducted it would seem that 

 the egg, in oi-der to hatch, requires the 

 milky food ; but as to whether this food ab- 

 sorbs" the shell, or covering, of the egg, I 

 must confess that I feel a little uncertain 

 yet. Perhaps Prof. Cook, or Prof. J. Com- 

 stock can give us some light upon this mat- 

 ter. 



A FE-W POINTERS FROM THE OHIO 

 STATE CONVENTION. 



A FEW NOTES FROM ERNEST. 



(TAN. 14. I have just arrived home from 

 cJr the State Convention, held at Colum- 

 ■^1 bus, Jan. 11, ]2, and 13. As we are 

 ^ about to go to press with this issue, I 

 will throw out a few hints which I 

 gathered there, in advance of the regular de- 

 tailed report which will be sent in for next 

 issue by the secretary. 



PREVEIS^TING THE GRANULATION OF LIQ- 

 UID HONEY. 



Our readers will remember that we have 

 once or twice had occasion to refer to the 

 liquid honey sent us by Mr. Goodrich. This 

 honey still retains its beautiful transparen- 

 cy, although it has been subjected to vary- 

 ing temperatures. Mr. Goodrich, the pro- 

 ducer of said honey, was at the convention. 

 By request he gave his manner of keeping 

 his honey, which, in brief, is essentially as 

 follows : 



The honey is extracted, and drawn into 

 sap-pails where it is temporarily covered 

 with cloth. To prevent its granulation he 

 heats the honey in the pails to a tempera- 

 ture of about 120 or 130 degrees. This he 

 does by placing a number of said pails, filled 

 with honey, in a vat or tin trough of hot 

 water, heated to the proper temperature. 

 There is thus no danger of overheating the 

 honey. While the honey is being heated it 

 is stin-ed, so that every portion may be heat- 

 ed alike. He ascertains the proper tempera- 

 ture by inserting a thermometer in the hon- 

 ey itself, and not in the water, as we should 

 naturally suppose. The honey is then put 

 in Math's 2-lb. bottles. 



Of course, the idea of heating honey 

 to prevent gi^anulation is not new ; but the 

 manner of doing it will, I think, be valuable 

 to some of our readers. Heating honey is 

 apt to takeaway some of that delicate flavor; 

 but I think all who taste the Goodrich honey 

 will acknowledge that it is as fine as the 

 finest. 



FULL SHEETS OF FOUNDATION, VERSUS 

 STARTERS OR EMPTY FRA3IES. 



I was surprised to see how many reported 

 favorably in regard to frames with starters 



only. I then explained the Hutchinson 

 plan, and a number thought it seemed rea- 

 sonal)le. No less authority than our good 

 friend Mrs. Jennie Culp favored full sheets 

 of foundation, notwithstanding, and she 

 was backed by Mr. A. S. Goodrich. 



WHAT A WOMAN CAN DO. 



As you may guess, Mrs. Culp, of Ililliard, 

 O., was at the convention, and I hardly need 

 say that we all enjoyed hearing her tell of 

 her experiences with the bees. Her kind 

 face, and pleasant manner of speaking, 

 make her one of the welcome members of 

 the convention. Indeed, 1 think it is not 

 too much to say in her favor, that I doubt 

 if there are many bee-keepers among the 

 sterner sex who are her peers as honey-pro- 

 ducers, even though she is nothing but a lit- 

 tle woman. Let us see : She took about 

 8000 lbs. of honey last season, and increased 

 from 40 to 65 colonies. Her average per col- 

 ony was, as you see, 200 lbs. She did all 

 this work unassisted, with the exception 

 that she got her pupil, J. S. Ricketts, to 

 help her a few hours on one or two days. 

 Finally, in the midst of the honey-flow, 

 when she discovered that her strength was 

 not equal t(5 her energy, she left the apiary 

 and went to camp-meeting to recruit up. 

 One of the members of the convention then 

 asked her why she did not get some one to 

 help her, and thus have secured a very large 

 average per colony. 



" Why," said "she, " I couldn't get any- 

 body to help me, either for love or money ; 

 what could I do?" 



She then stated, that, if she had not had 

 the " light wheelbarrow sold by Bro. Root," 

 she never could have handled those heavy 

 crates as she did. Her honey has been sell- 

 ing for 16c for extracted, and 18c for comb 

 honey. She mentioned one instance which 

 I will relate here : 



She had taken so much honey from one 

 particular colony (nearly three hundred 

 pounds) that she" marked "on one side of the 

 hive, "I shall not expect any thing more 

 from you this season." This was toward the 

 close "of the honey-flow, and she feared to 

 drain it too closely. She had, however, 

 left the surplus-receptacles on the hive. " A 

 few days after," said she, "I thought I 

 would just peep in and see what they were 

 doing." She found it full of honey. On 

 taking off and weighing, the scales showed 

 95 lbs. of honey. 



These facts were not told us by the lady 

 with any spirit of boasting— in fact, it was 

 with some difficulty that we were able to get 

 her to tell how much honey she had secured 

 from the bees the past season. She has 

 a good ^locality for bees, l)ut I believe her 

 management has a great deal to do with her 

 success. 



There are many other things that [ should 

 like to speak of; for instance, Mr. J. W. 

 Newlove's manner of preventing, to a large 

 extent, the swarming fever; Mr. Frank A. 

 Eaton's method of inducing bees to go into 

 sections, etc. ; but I fear I should be en- 

 croaching upon the secretary's report. I 

 believe, however, I have enlarged upon some 

 things of which the nature of a report would 

 not permit. 



