THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Under this head will bo inclmled apicultuial 

 news and comments tliereon. 



PAYING FOR PRACTICAL INVENTIONS. 



In a recent issue of the Api we sug- 

 gested that brother A. I. Root reward 

 the person who first gave the pubHc the 

 formula for preparing the most practical 

 food for queen-maihng cages, as well as 

 rewarding the person who devised (in 

 Root's opinion) the best shipping cage. 



The following editorial extract bear- 

 ing upon this matter is fron Glean- 

 ings of Nov. 15. 



"The Apiculturist for November sug- 

 gests that, while we are giving friend 

 Benton ^50.00 for his queen-cage for 

 long distances, we should remember I. 

 R. Good, who gave us the idea of pul- 

 verized sugar and honey for the "Good 

 candy" for said cages, and that even the 

 Eenton Cage would be worthless with- 

 out this method of provisioning it. All 

 right. We do not know of anybody to 

 reward whom it would give us more 

 pleasure for his work than our good 

 friend I. R. Good. We place to his 

 credit $25.00 for what he has done in 

 helping us to mail queens safely." 



It is all right for Brother Root to 

 "sling" his money around in any way he 

 pleases, but the person entitled to the 

 reward for the best mailing cage food 

 is not I. R. Good, by any means. What 

 we said was this : 



" Mr. I. R. Good first mixed granu- 

 lated sugar and honey, but that was a 

 poor food for ship])ing cages, and not 

 as good as sponge and honey. I found 

 that the bees would use the honey, and 

 leave the dry grains of sugar to rattle 

 about the cage, which would catch in 

 the screen wire used for ventilating the 

 cages, thus .stopping out all air and kill- 

 ing the bees in some cases ; where pow- 

 dered or pulverized sugar and honey are 

 used, the bees consume all, and none is 

 left to rattle in the cages." 



Bro. Root is wrong again. If my mem- 

 ory serves me correctly the man who first 

 gave'the public the////z>^r/s^('/sugar-and- 

 honey food was located somewhere in 



the state of Texas. I cannot give his 

 name. At any rate, the first powdered 

 sugar-and- honey food I ever saw came 

 from this man. A queen was sent us, 

 and the food seemed so nice, the bees 

 so clean and bright, that I at once wrote 

 the shipper for the formula for prepar- 

 ing the food. 



It is the "best honey and pulverized 

 sugar, kneaded for a long time. The 

 longer the kneading the better the food." 

 And so we found it. I put about five 

 pounds of sugar in a large pan, and then 

 about one pound of best honey. Then 

 knead for an hour. If more honey is 

 needed it is added, and the same of 

 sugar. No glycerine, flour nor anything 

 but sugar and honey is necessary to 

 make the best and most wholesome bee- 

 food. By the way, have any of our read- 

 ers seen Mr. A. E. Manum's formula for 

 this kind of food ? Mr. Manum uses gly- 

 cerine in its preparation. Brother Ma- 

 num does not seem to know that glycer- 

 ine contains more or less arsenic, a rank 

 poison. I should hardly dare to ship 

 a valuable queen on food that contained 

 arsenic. Why fuss and bother to make 

 such food as Manum recommends and 

 describes, when the powdered-sugar 

 food is so much superior in all respects ? 



KEYING-UP SECTIONS. 



In commenting on a bee-book, broth- 

 er A. I. Root says : 



"how I PRODUCE COI\IB HONEY" 



is the .title of a new edition of that little 

 work by George E. Hilton. We notice 

 he has introduced keying-up in T supers. 

 A good idea, friend H. The time is fast 

 approaching when all beekeepers will 

 demand that their sections be wedged 

 up tight, to prevent propolis from being"' 

 deposited so freely. 



I found out this thing more than 

 six years ago, and to meet this point de- 

 vised the section case now used in the 

 Bay SrA-rf Hive. This case is so con- 

 structed that the bees cannot soil the 

 sections, and every one comes off the 

 hive as clean as when first put on. Then 

 again, the case was designed not only 

 to keep all the sections clean, but also 



