.54(1 



GLEANINGS IN liEE CULTURE. 



July 



than once on the point of starvation. At 

 siicli times they seem determined to tear 

 dowTi queen-cells. Tliere have been so 

 many favorable reports in regard to the 

 (]ueen-cell protectors, that we feel sure we 

 must have made some mistake somewhere. 

 On account of foul brood being in our apia- 

 ries we can not raise any more queens this 

 season, and consequentlj are not able to 

 test the protectors. We hope to make a 

 further trial next \ear.— In regard to the 

 piping of queens, if you will turn to page oo7, 

 current issue, you will see that there is still 

 another D. discussing this same question. 

 D. No. o says D. No. 1 and No. 'I are both 

 right, ;is you state. 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS, 



FALSE STATKMENTS IN HEGARD TO LIQUID HONEY. 



f^llE boss of the printing-office hands us 

 §)': the following, which he cut from the 

 ^ Cleveland Leader: 

 An siiithority on canned goods reveals the 

 interesting- lact that most of the jellies in 

 the inaiiset are made of apple-parings and cores. 

 Sometimes the stock is kept so long that it will not 

 make jelly, then t hey make strained honey out of it. 

 —Plnladdiihia Sunii'cal ami Medical Reporter. 



Friends of the Philadelphia Surgical and 

 Medical Eeprjrter, and newspapers in gener- 

 al, we beg to contradict your report. %We 

 don't know about the jelly part of it, but we 

 are inclined to think it is as untrue as the 

 part is in regard to honey. Nothing like 

 even poor honey can be made from apple- 

 parings and cores ; and inasmuch as tliere 

 is scarcely a town or village now in the 

 United States where good pure honey is not 

 kept on sale by some honest bee-keeper, we 

 insist that the whole story is an impossibili- 

 ty. People are too well "posted to be hum- 

 bugged in such a way, even if the world is 

 l)ad enough to do it. There may be poor 

 honey occasionally put on the market ; but 

 the sensational scare, that it is made of stale 

 apple-parings and coies, is an untruth. We 

 should be glad to l)e told where any such ar- 

 ticle is kept for sale. 



A LETTER FROM AUSTRALIA ; THE DOOLITTLE 



METHOD OF INTRODUCING QUEENS 



A SUCCESS. 



We have been introducing queens hy Mr. Doo- 

 little's method, and have always found it to suc- 

 ceed to a marvel. There is no doubt, that iiv mak- 

 ing his plan known to the public he has conferred 

 an immense benefit on bee-keepers, vvhich I think 

 they should acknowledge in some practical form. 

 I may say, too, that I. W. Garrett tells us he has 

 tried it, and never found it to fail. We inti-oduced 

 a laying queen two days ago, and in eighteen 

 hours found her laying, and the bees working 

 away not ten yards from their old home, as if they 

 had been there all their lives. All our first experi- 

 ments were with virgin queens, all of which we 

 found laying at the end of the week. In December 

 last I wrote to D. Stroud, of South Africa, about the 

 South-African bees, and asked him for a list of his 

 prices. We did not take the Jiritish Bee Journal, 

 nor know of any one who did; but, strange to say. 



we have had no reply from him. As we are only ai 

 days i)ost from the Cape, there has been plenty of 

 time. Again, last month I wrote, sending him two 

 black queens in a Benton mailing-cage, as an ex- 

 periment, to see whether they would reach him 

 alive, and to show him the kind of cage now in use. 

 From his communication to you he did not appear 

 to know very much about some of the late inven- 

 tions. We have lately been considering whether 

 the Italian bee is really best suited to our part of 

 the world ; hei-e our principal honey crop (from the 

 eucalypte) comes to us in the autumn, and, except 

 in the orchard or clover districts, the bees scarcely 

 do much more than make a good living in the 

 spring and summer. In an old number of Glean- 

 ings which was sent to me, I noticed that excep- 

 tion was taken to some race of bees because they 

 spent their spring months in brood-rearing, in- 

 stead of honey -gathering. Now, it seems to me 

 that this is just the bee we want, so as to have our 

 colonies strong, and in full working order by the 

 autumn: but I have forgotton which particular 

 race of bees it was. Will j'ou give this matter your 

 best consideration, my dear Mr. Root? bearing in 

 mind that our climate is. as a general thing, a very 

 dry one, and that we are not obliged to winter our 

 bees, and let us know which you think would be 

 the best race of bees for us. T. F. Bradley. 



Campbelltown, N. S. W., Aus., Apr. 18, 1887. 



The bees which you probably liave in 

 mind are the Holy-Land bees. " They will 

 satisfy you in the amount of brood. As to 

 where they may be found, see our advertis- 

 ing columns. It is pretty hard to say whicli 

 would be the best bees for your locality. As 

 a general rule you will not Bnd a better race 

 than Italians. 



FOUL BROOD, TO CURE. 



Your favor of the 18th inst. is at hand, also the 

 A B C of Bee Culture. I am satisfied your method 

 of treatment of foul brood, as so admirably detailed 

 in j'our very recent issue of the ABC, would be em- 

 inently satisfactoi'y where this dreadful disease is 

 in its incipient stages, and when its presence is the 

 result of bees having access to honey from colonies 

 so atfected. The conditions of my colonies, and the 

 sources whence it comes, are such as to render any 

 thing but the most persistent, thorough, and heroic 

 treatment worse than useless. The development is 

 rapid, and of a most positive and unmistakable 

 character. 



Now, here is our method: Cage all the queens for, 

 say, 30 days, to stop brood-rearing. Confine the bees 

 in cages from 34 to 48 hours until their honey-sacks 

 are exhausted. Boil thoroughly and i-epaint the 

 hives. Beeswa.x all the combs, and destro}' frames. 

 Move the bees iJ'i miles in the country, and put on 

 new frames and full foundation. Now, friend Root, 

 do you think this would eradicate the disease? The 

 destrui'tion of the hive involves too much expense, 

 if we can possibly avoid it. The work of renovat- 

 ing will commence as soon as basswood How ceases. 



Eureka, 111., June -M, 1887. S. W. Lakin. 



The plan which you propose for curing 

 foul brood, I think will work all right. 

 While there would be considerable advan- 

 tage, perhaps, in caging queens for a period 

 of 20 days to prevent brood-rearing, yet our 

 experience has repeatedly shown that the 

 starvation plan (that is, l)urning the bi'ood- 

 combs, and placing the affected bees an(l 



