THE mM.mmicKn mmm jawKifMi*. 



535 



liee-keepers will prevaricate, and tiy 

 to rob an bonest inventor. Perhaps 

 yonr aim in asking tbis question, Mr. 

 Tefft, is what I have man}- times been 

 sorry tliat I did not do — try to draw 

 out of every bee-keeper possible, all he 

 knew and conceived about certain lines 

 of inventions connected with bee-keep- 

 ing, and then it would be a little dark- 

 er, after something had been brought 

 out, for them to say, "Oh, I thought of 

 that long before." 6. For 12 or 15 

 j-ears I have made the breeding of bees 

 for business, a special part of my work, 

 as the readers of the American Bee 

 Journal very well know, and my 

 method has been not to aim at any par- 

 ticular color, " blood " or grade, but to 

 breed direct for hardiness and honey- 

 gathering qualities, and this is the sim- 

 plest thing in the world. It is very 

 easy to know what you want, and very 

 easy to discover where it exists in your 

 apiarj', and just as easy to breed in 

 that direction, without any power to 

 fertilize queens in confinement. — Jas. 

 Heddon. 



1. I do not know. 2. I do not know. 

 3. I do not think of anything just now, 

 and I have tried very hard. 4. I hope 

 not. 5. Yes, always. The inventor 

 \vill probably never be paid for his 

 troubles. An inventor, as a rule, never 

 is paid. The public is even cautioned 

 (by moulders of public opinion, in print 

 and elsewhere, who could not other- 

 wise be seen except to hoist themselves 

 upon the structures reared by these 

 inventors), to invest in new things spar- 

 ingly. Personally, I have no complaint 

 to make, but the inventor in " bee-fix- 

 in's " meets very little encouragement 

 in our modern literature, and, in some 

 cases, opposition that is almost mali- 

 cious. 6. " What experiment ?" I 

 should like to ask the querist what Jirst 

 experiment out of the many, many 

 thousands of experiments yet to be 

 made ? This sets us loose in the field, 

 where the vender of " traps and sticks" 

 and the employer of child-labor will be 

 obliged to seek the shade, along with 

 the balance of us, and depend upon his 

 own resources, at least, till he learns 

 something. Ring the bell, Mr. T., and 

 call the school to order. — J. M. Shuck. 



These questions are unanswerable. 

 If any one coiild an.swertliem, he could 

 supply the want by inventing the arti- 

 cle. Men may speculate, but invent- 

 ions do not come in that waj-. They 

 are usually ■' sprung " upon a wonder- 

 ing world, when it expects nothing of 

 the kind. We have done all we can do 

 to encourage invention, but while the 

 Patent Office is run in the way it is now, 

 there is little prospect for anyone to 

 obtain a sufficient "remuneration" 

 for inventions of any kind used by api- 

 arists. The amount involved is so 

 small. — The Editor. 



QUEEN-REARING. 



Candy for Queen-Cages, Secur- 

 iuja^ Qneen-CeIN, etc. 



Written /or the American Bee Journal 



BY S. W. MOUKISON, M. D. 



A great many leading queen-breed- 

 ers have at various times written to 

 me, asking how I made the food that 

 I used in my queen-cages. I have had 

 good reason to decline to give it, but I 

 now feel free to do it. 



It requires a candy expert to make 

 it, and is made simply of apple-blossom 

 honey (any other good honey will do 

 as well) and confectioner's "A" sugar, 

 boiled together, and kneaded while 

 hot. I furnish the honey, and ask the 

 confectioner to make me " cream can- 

 dy," using no glucose or water ; the 

 result is a candy which will never get 

 dry, and will keep in a dry I'oom in a 

 close tin vessel for years. 



If the confectioner should get it too 

 thick, a little more honey can be 

 worked into it ; if too thin, a little pul- 

 verized sugar can be added. 



I provision my queen-cages with this 

 candy, send them to Austria, and have 

 queens sent to me from there. An- 

 other secret of my success in mailing 

 queens is, that I never neglect to pour 

 into the space intended for food, melted 

 wax or paraffine, and, thus prepared, 

 the candy can remain in the cages for a 

 year, and used successfully. 



Secnrins: Queen-Cells. 



Mr. Alley's method of queen-rearing 

 is a grand "success. I can readily get 

 from iifty to seventy queen-cells every 

 time, by only following his directions. 

 His method can be applied, and as 

 many fine queen-cells obtained from 

 a colony that is just made queenless. 

 Take a frame of empty comb, insert a 

 knife at one end of the comb, about 

 3 inches from the bottom, draw it to- 

 wards the other side of the comb in a 

 circular line, striking the middle of 

 the comb about 1.! inches from the 

 bottom, and coming out on the other 

 side of the comb 3 inches from the 

 bottom ; now have a very sharp, thin- 

 bladed knife, a little wax just melted, 

 and a tin cup of hot water, all handy in 

 a room warmed to about 10U-. 



Secure a comb of eggs from the 

 selected queen ; cut a sufficient amount 

 of it up into strips of one row of cells, 

 cross-cut these strips into two-cell 

 pieces ; dip each piece into the melted 

 wax and quickly fasten to one edge of 

 the cut comb, which .stands inverted 

 convenient to the melted wax. These 



little pieces of comb should be about J 

 inch apart, and project slightly out- 

 ward. Another row can be placed on 

 the other side of the comb projecting 

 sliglitly outward. 



Give at once to a colony from which 

 the queen is just removed, and they 

 scarcely ever fail to give a good queen- 

 cell for every egg that is thus given 

 them in good condition. 



If the comb containing the eggs is 

 old and tough, it is well to pair down 

 with a sharp knife these rows of cells, 

 taking off about one-third. I would 

 prefer the old, tough comb because it 

 is more easih' handled. 



After three or four days it can be 

 removed to the upper story of a colony, 

 with a queen-excluding honej--board, 

 to be finished, and another frame of 

 eggs given ; and when it is ready for 

 i-emoval, other cells will be found in 

 the colony, which can be removed, and 

 the process repeated. I have never 

 by any other method secured finer 

 queens, nor half the number. 



Oxford, Pa. 



COMBS. 



Preserving and Caring for the 

 Empty Combs till Needed. 



Written Jor the American Bee Journal 

 R. F. HOLTERMANN. 



There are doubtless very many like 

 myself, who have had great difficulty, 

 and even suffered loss from moth in 

 wax-comb. By this I do not mean 

 that the moth destroys the comb upon 

 which the bees are in the hive, for 

 whenever any one makes the assertion 

 that " my bees have been desti-oyed by 

 the miller," I come to the conclusion 

 that ninety-nine times out of one hun- 

 dred, yes oftener, the bees did not per- 

 ish through the work of the " miller," 

 or they were black bees. For this rea- 

 son, and for many others, I should con- 

 demn anything but a sprinkling of 

 "black blood" in the apiary of the 

 inexpierienced bee-keeper, and pro- 

 bablj' even that. 



To what I desire to make special 

 reference in preserving comb, is to 

 comb used for extracting, or comb not 

 occupied by the bees — these have to be 

 guarded against moth. 



I never have any objections to leav- 

 ing supers with comb upon the hive 

 until I wish to prepare my bees for 

 winter. The bees will draw from them, 

 if uncapped, any honey that they may 

 require for immediate use, and, if 

 room, even for winter, and I prefer this 

 method to suplying it to them through 

 artificial feeders. Here, too, the honey 

 is ripened and kept from granulating — 

 something of no small importance. 



