800 



GLEANINGS IN BEK CULTURE. 



Jlm.v 1 



beautiful white wax from a new comb lying on 

 a board. To make sure it was the same bee, a 

 dab of yellow paint was put on it? thorax, and 

 for fully eight days longer came the marked bee 

 and carried its fifteen to tw-enty loads a day. 

 [This is very interesting; but the trouble with 

 the average American is that he is too much in 

 haste for the dollars and cents to learn some of 

 the hidden secrets of nature. This one bee re- 

 ferred to was making a specialty of gathering 

 wax. It is a little strange that it did not bring 

 others. — Ed.] 



Louis Scholl thinks the queen would not pass 

 a dummy between brood-combs in the breeding 

 season. Well, that's one of the things I've tried; 

 and with one or more dummies between brood- 

 combs (only one dummy in a place) the queen 

 passes freely from one comb to another. As he 

 says, a bad comb will stop her, but not a good 

 dummy. [We have had just exactly your expe- 

 rience, doctor. A few days ago, in going through 

 the south yard we found where the queen had 

 gone behind the dummy to lay eggs, for we had 

 placed one or two combs in the cool weather out- 

 side in order to make the breeding-room smaller 

 to fit the small cluster; but the cluster had in- 

 creased in size in the mean time, and the queen 

 had occupied the comb the other side of the dum- 

 my, and with her a lot of bees. — En.] 



Mrs. J. W. B.'VCON, p. 693, speaking of caging 

 a virgin queen for a few days in the nucleus be- 

 fore taking the laying queen away, says, " I find 

 her dead nine times out of ten." I suppose that 

 means she finds the virgin in the cage dead. I'm 

 not sure it ever occurred here. How is it in Me- 

 dina.' And please tell us whether you still value 

 the plan. [We suspect the trouble with Mrs. 

 Bacon is that, in practicing the dual-introduction 

 plan, she puts a second queen in too many days 

 before the other queen is expected to lay; that is 

 to say, No. 2 is too old at the time of getting out 

 of the cage. Ordinarily we should say that the 

 second queen should be given not more than three 

 days before No. 1 lays. You ask what we think 

 of the plan. While we made it work, we are not 

 practicing it now, as we find we can get much 

 better queens from cells put into a nucleus than 

 from two or three or four day old virgins intro- 

 duced to the same nucleus. The trouble is that 

 the virgins are likely to receive rough treatment 

 on being released, the degree of rough handling 

 depending upon her age at the time of being let 

 out from the cage. Years ago it was not deemed 

 practicable to introduce virgins five or six days 

 old. But they can be introduced very readily to 

 baby nuclei, because these little weak stocks have 

 less of a colony feeling, and will take up with 

 conditions that they would not tolerate if they 

 were stronger. — Ed.] 



"Would you advise me to try bee-keeping 

 again.? Stings affect me seriously. Some 18 

 years ago I gave up bee-keeping. Since then, 

 but several years ago, I had three stings. One 

 of the fingers swelled to the shoulder, and I car- 

 ried the hand in a sling three days. Another on 

 the face affected the side, numbing my arm, last- 

 ing about three days. The third, near left eye, 

 closed that, and right eye partly, neck and shoul- 

 der swelling; was in fair health, but stronger 

 now." Thus, in substance, writes L. R. Pen- 



field. Hard to advise. If for the money alone, 

 don't think of touching bees. If you like them 

 so much that it's hard to let them alone, try it in 

 conditions that will allow you to give them up 

 any day with little loss. .Avoid many stings at 

 first by means of veil, gloves, and gentle bees, 

 and it may be that, after a few stings, the effect 

 will become less. If not, quit. [Mr. Penfield 

 can overcome his difficulty easily if he will sub- 

 mit to a process of immunizing, such as we ex- 

 plained in Gleanings some time ago. Let him 

 take a bee up by the wings, or get some one to 

 do it for him; cause the bee barely to prick the 

 skin of the hand or arm with its sting, then in- 

 stantly brush it off. This should be done vers 

 quickly, so as not to get much of the poison into 

 the wound. If no serious effect follows it may 

 be repeated in about a week's time. After a 

 month or two the dose may be repeated, a little 

 oftener, say once in three days; but in each case 

 care should be taken to get the smallest quantity 

 of the poison through the skin. If this be re- 

 peated at intervals for a period of six months, the 

 system will become gradually immunized to tlie 

 effects of the poison, just as it does to other poi- 

 sons; and in the same way increasing doses may 

 be taken, and oftener. We had one case exactly 

 similar to that of Mr. Penfield, in which the par- 

 ty can now go among the bees, and can be stung 

 ten or a dozen times without any bad effects. 

 One thing Mr. Penfield can not do; and that is, 

 to take the whole of the effects of a sting. If it 

 be left in the wound, and the entire contents of 

 the poison-bag are injected into the fiesh he will, 

 of course, experience just the effects described; 

 but if he presses the bee just hard enough against 

 the flesh so that it barely pricks the skin, and no 

 more, and immediately brushes it off, being sure 

 not to press the poison-sac, the effect will not be 

 serious; in fact, he mav not notice it at all. 

 —Ed.] 



Editorial 



M.ARKET early — or at least be sure that all hon- 

 ey is sold before the holidays. 



We have been using the Alexander wire-cloth 

 bee-veil. With this, one does not have to use a 

 hat; and in spite of the awkward looks of the 

 thing it is decidedly comfortable. We really felt 

 sorry for Mr. Alexander when we first saw him 

 working in one of those head-gears. While it 

 is not particularly pretty we can say of it, "Hand- 

 some is tliat handsome does. " 



MORE pure-food LAWS. 



Oklahoma and Rhode Island have recently 

 enacted pure-food laws for the protection of their 

 citizens. The law in the first-named State is said 

 to be quite stringent in its provisions, and re- 

 quires the name of the producer or wholesaler on 

 all goods. It may be well to remind our readers 

 right here that they can render the inspectors 

 considerable help by reporting cases of adultera- 

 tion with reference to the sale of syrups and sim- 

 ilar sweets. Laws of this kind require the co- 

 operation of all good people to make them thor- 

 oughly effective. w. k. m. 



