GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1. 



atives were then half-toned, and the plates 

 fastened side by side and printed. This gives a 

 most comprehensive view of the city, and the 

 eides of the picture are as clearly printed as the 

 middle. Besides all this we have a multitude 

 of half tones showing the repre-^entative men 

 of that city, with short biographies of each. We 

 know of no city of its size that has taken so 

 much pains to give to the outer world an idea of 

 its appearance as St. Joseph. It is in every 

 sense creditable to the city and to the project- 

 ors of the work, and can not fail to be of great 

 interest to all who contemplate taking in the 

 convention next month. Judging from the pic- 

 ture, we think St. Joseph will be a capital place 

 to hie to during October — the finest month of 

 the year. We do not know the price of the 

 book; but it can be obtained of the News Pub- 

 lishing Co., St. Joseph, Mo. 



PROPOI.IS; HOFFMAN FRAMES IN THE FALL; 



DISAGREEABI^E HYBRIDS; A SCHEME FOR 



FINDING HYBRID QUEENS, THAT DID 



NOT FULLY MATERIALIZE. 



At our basswood yard we have three very 

 Strong hybrid colonies, each occupying three 

 eight-frame stories. The bees are very cross; 

 but after the honey-flow we decided to change 

 the queens. When we came to hunt them up 

 we found we had a job on our hands indeed. 

 Like simon-pure hybrids— if, indeed, hybrids 

 can be called pure — they stung, boiled all over 

 the frames and over the sides of the hives, and 

 the queens, of course, could not be found with- 

 out spending more time than we cared to take. 

 We concluded that, In all three of the colonies, 

 the queens must be in the two upper stories. 

 Accordingly, after lifting those off from one of 

 the colonies (myl but they were heavy with 

 honey), we put on the bottom story, perforated 

 zinc honey-board, and the Porter bee-escape. 

 This we did with the other two. " Now," said 

 we. "if the bees will only desert their brood, 

 and go through this bee-escape, the queen will, 

 of course, go too. When past the bee-escape 

 she will be in tlie space between the honey - 

 board and the escape- board, and trapped for 

 easy execution. We had some misgivings; and 

 accordingly, in 24 hours, we went down to see 

 how things worked. The upper stories were 

 thinned out some, but not enough to Justify us 

 in hauling them over again in what might be a 

 fruitless attempt to find the queens. Forty- 

 eight hours more elapsed. As we had not time 

 to go down we sent our apiarist. There were 

 still some left in both upper stories; and the 

 bees in the lower story broodless and queen- 

 less, and nearly starving, were howling mad. 

 There now being fewer bees in the way, the 

 queens were captured and executed according 

 to the decree, but were not neatly and auto- 

 matically imprisoned, as we had planned in 

 the first place. Even if the hybrids were as 

 gentle as flies, they propolize things so that it 



is exceedingly disagreeable to work with them. 

 Why. it was all we could do to pull apart one 

 story from another; and there were no burr- 

 comb attachments between them either; and 

 as to removing the cover, it takes nearly the 

 full main strength of a good average man. 

 " Oh, yes I " you say, " I would use enamel 

 cloth." But your covers would blow off, and 

 then you have that much extra expense in the 

 useless cloth. The best solution of the trouble 

 is to keep pure Italians or Carniolans. 



H. L. .lONES, GOODNA, QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA. 



For the last ten years, with increasing fre- 

 quency, the name of H. L. Jones has appeared 

 in this journal as one of the rising lights in 

 apiculture in that far-away land where they 

 have their hot days in December. Thirteen 

 years ago friend Jones was not worth a penny, 

 in a finmcial sense; but, being possessed of 

 pluck and perseverance, he resolved to see 

 what he could do with bees for a livelihood. 

 At this time he was only fifteen years old. He 

 has now one of the largest and most successful 

 trades in bees, etc., in the southern hemisphere. 

 Without borrowing a cent of capital, friend 

 Jones has now a business worth several thou- 

 sand dollars, and his trade is constantly in- 

 creasing. We have always found him to be a 

 prompt business man, and our good opinion of 

 him, which we had at the first, has increased 

 as we have known more about him. We are 

 glad to present his picture to our readers. 



