148 



GLEANINGS IN BEP: CULTURE. 



Feb. 1 



in a fertilizing hive, one free, and the other a 

 virgin in a cage awaiting the removal of the 

 first, and sometimes we do not want this lat- 

 ter to be freed for several days. 



If we want a virgin, or, for that matter, 

 any queen, to remain in a hive without be- 

 ing liberated, all that is needed is to shove 

 in the block as shown at 4, and the bees can 

 not get at the candy. Then when we want 

 the bees to eat out the candy, all that is nec- 

 essary is to draw out the block as shown at 

 5, so as to expose the candy to the bees. 



The cage may be held in place suspended 

 by a wire supported by a nail resting across 

 the top- bars; or the cage may be merely pin- 

 ned to the comb by a pin ]| inches long, call- 

 ed a bank-pin. You can get half a pound of 

 these pins for 21 to 25 cents, and the women- 

 folks will be delighted to get what you don't 

 need for the bees. In pinning a cage on a 

 comb you will, of course, run the pin through 

 the meshes of the wire cloth. Don't run the 

 pin in level, but a little slanting, letting it 

 point downward as you push it in. It will 

 thus hold more securely. 



Marengo, 111. 



[For the purpose of comparison we present 

 here an illustration of the original queen-cage 

 bearing your name, which cage has been 

 listed in nearly all the bee-supply catalogs 

 for years. We have carefully compared this 

 with your new model, and in our minds the 

 old one is just as good, and in some respects 

 superior. It is true, the new model has a 

 very simple plan by which the bees may be 

 shut off from the candy, and this in itself is 

 a good feature, because it is often (and gen- 

 erally) desirable to keep the bees away from 





the candy a day or two before they are pei*- 

 mitted to eat it out and release the queen. 

 But we accomplish this by nailing a little 

 strip of pasteboard over the candy of the old- 

 style Miller which the bees gnaw away. 

 Sometimes we use a little strip of tin secur- 

 ed by a nail through one end. This may be 

 revolved around to close access to the candy; 

 at other times it can be turned the other way, 

 exposing it. This little strip of pasteboard 

 could not be applied so handily to your new 

 form of cage, and pasteboard has the advan- 

 tage that it is automatic, because the bees 

 will gnaw it away in 24 hours, and afterward 

 eat out the candy. 



But the new cage we consider greatly in- 

 ferior to your old one in point of strength. 

 There is nothing to protect the wire-cloth 

 end from getting crushed; and, moreover, it 

 is not easy to close up the end without a 

 stopper of some kind. Indeed, your photo- 

 graph shows the crumpled-up ends of the 

 wires, which, to say the least, do not look 

 neat. 



We notice that you specify the wood block 

 to be X6 inch thick; but i inch we would con- 

 sider very ample. The thinner it can be. 



and allow the queen room enough to turn 

 around, the better it is for insertion between 

 the combs; for in the height of the honey- 

 flow it is desirable not to have them spread 

 apart any wider than is absolutely necessary. 

 Then, moreover, we sometimes introduce 

 virgins in these cages by slipping the cage 

 through the entrance. A cage | inch thick 

 with the wire cloth, as yours would neces- 

 sarily be, might not go into an ordinary g- 

 ineh-deep entrance, while one having the 

 wood I inch thick plus the wire cloth will 

 pass through. 



To sum up, we do not see that you gain any 

 thing except in the matter of shutting the 

 bees from the candy, and you lose consider- 

 able in the strength of the cage as well as its 

 general appearance, which, to a supply-deal- 

 er and manufacturer, is a matter of consid- 

 erable moment. 



But there is one thing more which should 

 not be overlooked. You recommend tinned 

 wire cloth. While, as you say, its greater 

 expense does not cut any figure in any thing 

 so small as this, yet experience has shown 

 that this material is the very worst that can 

 be used for introducing-cages. We former- 

 ly made the Miller cages of tinned wire cloth, 

 soldering the joint. It was a very much 

 neater-looking cage; but we found that young 

 queens were dying in all such cages very 

 badly, and we soon began to get unfavorable 

 reports from customers. We made the Titoff 

 queen-cell and introducing cage of tinned 

 wire cloth, and very soon our boys began to 

 report that the queens, for some unaccount- 

 able reas> n, were dying at a very rapid rate. 

 We could not account for this at first, espe- 

 cially as the same cage made of black paint- 

 ed wire cloth gave uniformly good results. 

 Then we resorted to the expediency of boil- 

 ing all cages made of tinned wire cloth, 

 thinking that would remove all poisonous 

 solder salts; but still the queens continued to 

 die. We finally concluded that the spelter 

 (or, rather, we should say, the acid or chem- 

 ical) used to bind the tin on the iron or steel 

 wire was the cause of the trouble; for when 

 we dipped these cages in hot wax there was 

 no mortality. When, again, we made the 

 cages of black painted wire cloth, there was 

 none. So don't, doctor, whatever you do, 

 change over to tinned wire cloth, for you 

 will rue it if you do. We have such an im- 

 mense amount of evidence in the form of 

 complaints to show that it killed the queens 

 that we have been obliged to abandon it in 

 all queen-cage work. — Ed.] 



SELLING HONEY. 



Advertising:, the Best Solution of the Low 



price Problem ; a Conversation Avith L. 



E. Mercer. 



BY H. H. ROOT. 



On p. 1369 of the Nov. 1st issue, mention 

 was made of Mr. L. E. Mercer's visit at Me- 

 dina. Mr. Mercer is a bee-keeper who has 

 passed the experimental stage in the busi- 



