sickening appearance in the boxes. The 

 next question, tlien. is: "How siiai! we 

 liead off tiie niotir?" Tiiey will always 

 trouble combs of any description, if taken 

 from the bt-'es in warm weather. We will 

 give the way we manage. We build a plat- 

 form on either side of our honey room, of 

 scantling, about 16 inches high, and on this 

 we place the boxes, so that the fumes from 

 burning sulpher can enter each box, (the 

 section boxes pile admirably for this pur- 

 pose); in about two wet'ks we sulphur, by 

 burning % of a pound of sulphur for every 

 2(J0 cubic feet in the room. We take coals 

 from the stove and i)ut them in an old 

 kettle, so as not to set anything on tire, 

 pour on the sulphur, and push it under the 

 pile of honey, and shut up the room. — 

 Watch through the window, and in 15 

 minutes after the last fly or bee that chances 

 to be in the room has died, open the door 

 and let out the smoke, for if it stands too 

 long the smoke may settle on the cond)s, 

 and give them a greenish hue. As there 

 may be a few eggs that have not yet hatched, 

 we sulphur again in about 10 days, after 

 whicli the honey will be free from moths, if 

 you do not let millers into your room. 



Novice says, on page 245, vol. 5 of (Mean- 

 ii}<js: " If "the sections of honey are put 

 into the market at once, as they should be, 

 in our opinion, there will be no need of any 

 fumigation with sulphur." On page 2il, 

 same vol., he advises having your shipping 

 case by your side while taking off honey, 

 and packing the honey in it, as it is taken 

 off. No worse advise than this could ever 

 get into a bee paper. While in New York, 

 we saw more than 1,000 lbs. of iioney with 

 the sealing all mutilated, or entirely eaten 

 off. with great disgusting worms in the 

 boxes, sent out by some careless bee-keeper, 

 whose opinion was, if he had any, the same 

 as that quoted above. After your honey 

 has been sulphured the last time, you are 

 ready to pack it in shipping cases or crates, 

 the best of which is one gotren up by P. H. 

 Elwood. Starkville, N. Y., and holding but 

 12 section boxes, of about 2 lbs. each.— 



THE SHIPPING CRATE. 



Speaking of his crates, Thurber & Co. says, 

 "they |)resented the finest appearance of 

 any crat>' tliey had received tiie past year." 

 The crates and boxes should all be kept 

 clean and bright, and no pains spared to 

 make tlie honey present as enticing an 

 appearance as possible. Thus >ou will 

 realize the highest market price for your 

 honey, and in a year or two your honey will 

 be sought after by those desiring to pur- 

 chase, instead of your having to ship it on 

 commission, or peddling it out. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Borodino, N. Y. Jan. 8, 1878. 



[The " Crate" spoken of by friend Doo- 

 little is identical with the "Prize Crate" 

 described on another page.— Ed.] 



Western Illinois Convention. 



I submit the following remarks on the 

 Western 111. Convention Report in the Jan- 

 uary number: 



BEST METHOD OF CATCHING BLACKS AND 

 INTUODUCING ITALI.\NS. 



I like McGaw's plan of catching queens 

 best, only when you take cap off', set it on 

 the end in the shade, and cover the hive for 

 a few minutes. This gives the bees time to 

 recover from their fright, and to show by 

 their quietness, or restlessness, whether 

 the queen is with them; also to prevent her 

 flying up over the cluster when you pour 

 them on the sheet. I then put her in the 

 cage, and put it down in the middle of the 

 hive for 6 hours; then remove her and put 

 Italian in the same cage for 48 hours, and 

 let out about sunset, I never failed this 

 way. I have lost valuable queens, some- 

 times by failing to remove all cells 7 or 8 

 days afterwards. Italians rarely ever start 

 the cells with the queens inside, but blacks 

 hardly ever fail to do so. 



FERTILE WORKERS. 



These used to be my masters, but now I 

 am their master. About mid-day, take out 

 2 or 3 middle frames from the hive, with a 

 fertile worker; go about 10 yards from the 

 hive and shake off every bee in a pile; then 

 take the frames to a strong stand, a)id 

 exchange for frames full ot brood, with the 

 young bees just emerging. Brush back the 

 bees, and give the frames to the fertile 

 worker-stand and close up. Then you can 

 give them a queen in the cage or cell to rear 

 one by night, as by that time there will be 

 young bees enough out to accept and pro- 

 tect either. Besides, if the fertile workers 

 ever found their way back to the hive, they 

 will kill them when they have a queen or a 

 cell. I never failed in this method. 



BEST TIME OF UNITING. 



A tolerable cold evening, just at dark, 

 alternate frames with bees on, and shade 

 others on top of frames; feed with scented 

 water and sugar. 



BEST TIME TO PUT IN QUEEN CELLS. 



If the cell will hatch in an hour, it will do 

 at once; otherwise, better wait at least 8 

 hours, or till late in the evening. I have 

 tried McGaw's plan of putting in at once, 

 but always had them destroyed. Never 

 cut them out in less than 9 days. 



INTRODUCING VIRGIN QUEENS. 



I have never succeeded with one in a 

 a cage. 



BEST METHOD OF SWARMING. 



First raise the queen inside of the hive, 

 by means of partition board, and build up. 

 I have tried 20 or 30, but have never beat 

 this. I also prefer natural swarming, if 

 they come early enough to suit me. 



HOW TO GET BEST YIELD OF HONEY. 



Stimulate in the spring, using Graham 

 flour, on Palmer's plan; but never feed 

 sugar or honey in day time. Close entrance 

 to within 1 inch, keep warm and feed a 

 little on top of honey board, at night, three 

 times a week. Have them all strong when 

 the main honey season opens. One strong 

 stand can do niore than 6 weak ones. 



