92 



TIIE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Oct., 



take effect. The water dissolves the grain and 

 the acid prevents their formation again. 



Now, friend Novice take your tub, put in 

 your fifty pounds of sugar, and the two and a 

 half gallons of boiling water. Make a paddle 

 and roll up your sleeves, and stir this mixture 

 two and a half hours by the town clock. Now 

 take out your paddle and rub your fingers up 

 and down the paddle, and if you do not find any 

 quantity of grains on the paddle, I shall be 

 much mistaken, and will forever afterwards 

 hold my peace. 



Now to make syrup according to my experi- 

 ence boiling is absolutely necessary. The sugar 

 should be boiled slow so as to destroy the grain 

 of the sugar, without using cream of tartar, but 

 vinegar in its stead, and at least .just double the 

 amount of water that Novice recommends, and 

 soft water at that if it can be had. 



To those contemplating feeding syrup, I would 

 say that the same old rule will hold good in this 

 case as well in others, viz. : Haste makes waste, 

 or in other words, make haste slowly. 



For the benefit of those who wish to feed 

 syrup, we give the mode in which we make it. 

 To twenty five pounds of coffee sugar, two and 

 a half gallons of rain water, one-half tumbler of 

 eider vinegar to every ten pounds of sugar. 

 Boil slow with cover on the ke i ie to keep in the 

 steam. When you think it is a out the proper 

 consistency dip out a li lie in a saucer, and let 

 it cool and you will then be able to judge if it is 

 right. If you should afterwards find it disposed 

 to grain a little, add a little water and cook 

 again. 



Dronings. 



T find that my modest title has called forth 

 some rather captious criticisms, but as it was as- 

 sumed unaffectedly, and in deprecation of that 

 snarling style which unfortunately too much pre- 

 vails in our peculiar community, I shall still ad- 

 here to it — 



1. There is one primary and most important 

 point upon which I (in common, I presume, with 

 all inexperienced bee-keepers), need full and ac- 

 curate teaching, viz. : How to have the combs 

 built straight, so that the frames can be readily 

 removed from the hive, whether for extrac- 

 tor or any of the manifold manipulations of the 

 apiary. In nine cases out of ten I find that my 

 bees, (apparently as unscientific as myself), will, 

 in spite of all my precautions, build arrogi, in- 

 stead o£ verticn.ll i/ in the frames. This, of course, 

 renders removal utterly impossible, and virtually 

 makes it a box-hive. Novice says that he has 

 all his combs built between straight combs, but 

 if the young novice has no straight combs to offer 

 as a mode), what then ? Comb-guides, I find, 

 are by no means infallible ; and I do hope that 

 our leading apiarians, (such as Novice, Gallup, 

 Marvin, &c.)i W >11 each give us a lesson on this 

 truly important point, for without it we shall be 

 tempted to abandon the movable frames (" so- 

 called") in despair. The importance of this 

 point must be my apology for referring to it 

 again so soon. 



2. It is time that some conclusion had been 

 reached as to the very beM plan for introducing 

 queens. The great trouble with the novice is to 

 find the old queen. Gallup advises that a queen 

 shall be given to young bees exclusively. If 

 this plan is fully endorsed, it will greatly sim- 

 plify the process, for it will dispense with the 

 main trouble, that of finding the old queen. I 

 refer to his article in the June (1871) No., p. 

 288, commenting on Grimms' efforts to giv6 

 queens to old bees. 



8 I can testify that Mr, Butler's plan of uni- 

 ting swarms is not only practicable, but advan- 

 tageous. I tried in seven or eight instances this 

 summer, and, (with one exception), it answered 

 admirably. I also had two swarms to unite vol- 

 untarily. Not caring, of course, to separate 

 them, although either would have constituted a 

 large colony, I put them in an unusually big 

 hive, (somewhat after Alley's style), and in ex- 

 actly one month from the day they were hived, 

 they had, (besides filling their own special com- 

 partment >, made me at least forty-five pounds 

 of surplus honey ; but I was not greedy enough 

 to take it all from them. B. 



[For the American Bee Journal. 



An Inquiry. 



What do queen raisers do with the old queen 

 when they remove her and allow tho stock to 

 build cells? Do they always run the risk of in- 

 troducing her to a strange colony ? I have built 

 a nucleus by taking the frame and adhering bees 

 upon which I found the queen, and putting them 

 into a new hive ; also, put one or two frames from 

 other hives, set this in the place of the hive from 

 which the queen was taken, move queenless stock 

 a few feet from the old stand. After the cells 

 have been built and removed, gradually bring the 

 hives together, and unite them by putting the 

 combs into the hive with the queen. I have never 

 lost a queen, but would like to know whether it 

 is the best plan. Won't queen raisers tell 

 me? E. A. Gastman. 



De-atur, 111. 



A Correction. 



Mr. Eoitok : — Allow me to correct a few mis- 

 takesin the piintingof my articleon " The utility 

 of Drones," page 68, line 11. Bead : " During the 

 harvesting season, therefore, it will contain fifty- 

 fire thousand (55,000) workers and 8200 drones." 

 Further : "Then with no more trouble and no 

 more cost, we will raise five thousand (5000) 

 workers instead of 3200 drones." 



Further : "If (55,000) fifty -fine thommd work- 

 ers gather 50 pounds of honey, (00,000) sixty 

 thousand will gather 54 0-11 pounds; gain will 

 be 4 0-11 pounds, etc., etc., etc. " 



Yours, &c, C. P. Dadant. 



