GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



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Wesley Fostbk, Boulder, Colo. 



PARCELS POST. 



What advantage is it going to be to the 

 beekeeper to have a i)arcels post with a Um- 

 it of eleven pounds, and a charge of twelve 

 cents a pound to send it, when he can send 

 merchandise by express clear across the 

 country for half that amount, and no limit 

 as to weight? It looks as if our servants 

 were listening to the express companies, and 

 also perhaps accepting their franks. We 

 shall not get relief until the postoffice com- 

 petes with the express companies, which 

 will mean that they will be forced out of 

 business. Why are they allowed to operate 

 in violation of the law, as they are doing? 

 Perhaps we should not ask for parcels post 

 at all but should demand an enforcement of 

 the law. 



WHAT MAKES BEEKEEPING WORTH WHILE. 



The ideal home is one of many interests. 

 But one point about this ideal home is that 

 all the interests center in and radiate from 

 the home. The children stay at home be- 

 cause they would rather be there. The girls 

 help with the housework, and practice on 

 the piano. Then there is the workbench, 

 and the garden and horse and cow for the 

 boy to help with. Games and children's 

 magazines, and music in the evening, will 

 easily make home most attractive to chil- 

 dren. If home is bright and pleasant it 

 will not hurt the children to get out once in 

 a while either. 



One of the happiest memories of my boy- 

 hood was the fact that my brothers and I 

 had free access to all the tools on the place, 

 and we used them at the workbench. We 

 had a cigar-box telephone from the house to 

 the barn, and we could hear the pigeons 

 cooing in the barn; and when we were in 

 the barn we could hear sister playing the 

 organ in the house. Then we had a stone- 

 derrick in our cellar, like the big one in the 

 stone-quarry near by. We made it ourselves, 

 and cars and track. Practically all our play- 

 things we had to make, which was good for 

 us. Then we had each a piece of garden and 

 a hive of bees. Pa would sell any thing to 

 us that was on the place, and let us pay for 

 it out of the sales. Brother and I bought 

 the chickens, and sold eggs and chickens at 

 the college boarding-houses. Then I went 

 into Belgian hares and raised over a hun- 

 dred. I didn't make much, but it was lots 

 of fun. But the pigeons! ah, they were the 

 real pleasure, with their cooing and fight- 

 ing, and mother protesting because they 

 would alight on the roof, and that did not 

 improve the rain water. But we kept the 

 pigeons. We had commys, just common 

 pigeons, you know; then we had fantails 

 and tumblers. We could tell every one of 

 our birds on the wing half a mile off. And 

 what rejoicing when one of ours would coax 



a mate from some other farm! and what a 

 sense of loss when one of our fantails got 

 coaxed to some other place! 



Nothing is finer than a home with chil- 

 dren all alive and interested in the work 

 and pleasures to be found on a small plot of 

 ground, and a roof with love permeating it 

 all. I think father and mother enjoyed 

 their children's enthusiasm, and bravely 

 stood the care and worry the younger ones 

 could not know. 



Do not these things make the life of a 

 beekeeper worth while? If you are a bee- 

 keeper, and do not have this community of 

 interests in the home and its life, I assure 

 you that you are missing some of the rich- 

 est things in life. 



SELLING HONEY FROM DISEASED COLONIES. 



Do you know the law in regard to foul 

 brood in Colorado? Perhaps you are vio- 

 lating it unwittingly. 



How to produce honey in a foul-brood dis- 

 trict, and at the same time be reasonably 

 sure that no diseased honey is sold, is a 

 problem. But it can be done, and there are 

 a few who are doing it profitably. Inspec- 

 tion and treatment will, perhaps, be neces- 

 sary three times during the season. In- 

 specting and treating every diseased colony 

 early in May or June will prevent the stor- 

 ing of much diseased honey later in the sea- 

 son. During July or August, another in- 

 spection can be given, and all honey stored 

 by diseased colonies should be treated the 

 same as the honey in diseased brood-combs. 

 All colonies found diseased during this in- 

 spection should be treated the same as dur- 

 ing the first inspection in June. 



A large amount of fine honey may be ob- 

 tained from these colonies; but it should 

 be extracted or rendered, and labeled as foul 

 honey. It can then be boiled thoroughly 

 and fed (a questionable practice) , or it may 

 be made into vinegar. Such honey can be 

 used to good advantage by bakeries if the 

 empty cans are cleansed with live steam 

 and not thrown out on the garbage-pile. 

 The laws of some States prohibit the sale of 

 honey from diseased hives; but it is difficult 

 if not impossible to prove the violation of 

 the law in most cases, so honey is constant- 

 ly sold in this way. It is useless to have a 

 clause in a law that can not be enforced. 



If honey from foul-brood hives is sold to 

 bakeries it would be a good plan to instruct 

 the bakery of the nature of the honey, and 

 to require those in charge to report the treat- 

 ment and disposition made of the cans. It 

 might be well to have these cans shipped 

 back to the producer of the honey, and re- 

 quire the producer to obtain a permit to sell 

 diseased honey. A record could then be 

 kept of the whole transaction. 



