1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



381 



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t°2 PERYEARj 



The blind leceive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepeia 

 re eleanffd, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up. and 

 ■h ]>our have the ^I'spfl preaehed unto them.— Matt. 11 ; .5. 



We have in our apiary a queen purchased 

 f the Atchleys, whose bees are actually live- 

 andcd. Two-thirds of the so-called five-band- 

 d bees show only three or four bands — at least, 

 lost of those we have examined failed to show 

 ny more than the fourth band. 



OiiH large Hoardman solar wax extractors are 

 usy at work on sunny days, rendering up old 

 jmbs. They are doing so well that we shall 

 ut more of them in the yard, more especially 

 ) assist the wax-room in rendering back to 

 ood wax what we call " water-soaked wax." 



Wk thought at one time last fall that we 

 30iild run out of basswood lumber: but we 

 ow have plenty of it on hand, although we 

 ave had an extremely heavy run on sections 

 lis year. The dry and beautiful spring, with 

 s good roads, enabled the farmers to bring in 

 ie logs, and hence the lumber. 



Rr-:FKKENCE was made in our March l.'ith 

 sue to the fact that we were working on a 

 Rw edition of our ABC book, and that we 

 ■ared the old edition would be exhausted be- 

 ire we could get out the new one. wSome in- 

 uiries have come as to when the new books 

 ould be ready. From present indications, not 

 fefore the first of December next. 



A.s we were looking over the bees this spring 

 le noticed that cushions under tin covers were 

 imp near the top side, while those under wood 

 ivers were dry throughout. Metal is a con- 

 ictor of heat and cold; and the warm air 

 ider the cover, being heavily charged with 

 oisture, coming in contact with the cold met- 

 , would discharge its moisture and thus wet 

 le cushion. 



We have been having some beautiful warm 

 lys; and in the corner of the evergreens, when 

 le sun was shining brightly, we noticed the 

 ies flying stronger in this portion of the apia- 

 than elsewhere. Why? Because those great 

 g trees broke the force of the cold breezes 

 om the north and west, and made this part of 

 le inclosure the warmest part of all outdoors 

 Dout the Home of the Honey-bees. 



It is with much regret that we announce that 

 r. S. Cornell, one of the leading bee-keepers 

 Canada, died suddenly on the 7th of last 

 onth. He was working in the garden, and 

 as found there dead. Mr. Corneil was a very 

 ithusiastic bee-keeper. Though not a pro- 

 ic writer bis articles were written with care. 



and were devoted principally to scientific re- 

 search; and, although not pretending to be a 

 scientist, he was pretty well up in all that per- 

 tained to it, especially regarding germ-life. 



We wish to repeat what we have said a num- 

 ber of times before, that it is folly to send old 

 comb a distance by express or freight to have 

 it rendered up by your foundation - maker. 

 There is not enough wax in the stuff to warrant 

 the expense; and then the foundation- maker is 

 annoyed because it usually comes right in the 

 height of the sea.son, when he does not wish to 

 bother with rendering it up, dirtying up his 

 tanks, etc. But unless it is rendered up very 

 soon it is very liable to be worm-eaten and 

 ruined. We have decided that we will no more 

 accept such comb when sent us. A far better 

 way is to render it in a solar wax-extractor at 

 home, and then send the pure wax to your 

 foundation-maker. There is no use in paying 

 transportation charges on dross. 



At this date, April 23, our colonies are all 

 alive. They went into winter quarters exactly 

 106 in number, and came out this spring exactly 

 106, so that we have not had to unite. A while 

 ago we stated that the number was 12.5; but 

 our apiarist says the exact number is 106. This 

 seems like a small number; but as we adver- 

 tise and sell nuclei and full colonies, our stock 

 of bees is reduced down to about lOO every fall, 

 and increased to about 200 during the fore part 

 of the season. In this number of 106 was one 

 colony under a sealed cover, and it wintered 

 just as well as the rest under absorbing cush- 

 ions. Indeed, our apiarist thinks it has win- 

 tered a little better than any of the rest. Yes, 

 we shall keep on trying sealed covers, but we 

 do not advise any one else to do it unless he is 

 perfectly willing to take the consequences. 



SPONGE FOK WATER BOTTLE FOR QUEEN- 

 CAGES. 



On page 281 we referred to the use of a sponge, 



to stop up the water-bottle in queen-cages, as 



being a valuable idea. At that time we had 



overlooked an editorial in the Review, which 



reads as follows: 



Years ago, when I w;ia using' a water-bottle in 

 queen-eages. I stopped tlie moiitli of tlie bottle with 

 a cork made of a piece of sponge. If tiie spong-e is 

 of tlie right size it does not slip out, neither does 

 the water run out nor evaporate too rapidly, yet it 

 is furnished to the bees at all limos on the moist 

 spong-e in the best po.ssible manner. This plan was 

 a success iti every sense of the word. 



Although, years ago, we used the sponge for 

 holding the syrup itself, we did not use it as a 

 plug to the bottle. The Good candy was a great 

 improvement over the hard candies that had 

 been used in queen-cages heretofore, but it 

 was a mistake, we believe now, to drop the 

 water-bottle, particularly for long distances. 

 We shall certainly give it a trial this coming 

 season. 



