1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



759 



tial suffocation. Now, the smoke which was 

 produced by this fire was very similar to that 

 which issues from the mouth of an ordinary 

 smoker, especially when it is filled with dry 

 bark, and I can not help thinking that, from a 

 physiological point of view, the effect of the 

 one on the bees must be very nearly as bad 

 as the effect of the other. 



It is a very difficult thing to estimate at all 

 what amount of mortality is caused among 

 bees by the injudicious use of the smoker; but 

 could it be accurately arrived at, I dare say a 

 good many bee-keepers would be surprised to 

 find what havoc they had caused among the 

 inhabitants of their apiaries by the injudicious 

 and indiscriminate use of even a cold-blast smo- 

 ker. 



Port Esperance, Tasmania. 



CALIFORNIA ECHOES. 

 By Rambler. 



Wanted, some cheap and sure way to keep 

 bees at home during the fruit-drying season, or 

 a mechanical protection for the fruit. There 

 are millions in it for the lucky inventor, as well 

 as peace between the two classes of producers. 



We find in our travels, that, no matter how 

 dry and parched a section of country may be, 

 and not a habitation forjniles, a blooming 

 flower of the honey -producing; kind will have 

 upnn it a busy representative from a colony of 

 wild bees. 



Lake County is not to be despised as a honey- 

 producing county. One man reports a yield of 

 900 lbs. from one colony. Later details will be 

 given in a Ramble. In the same locality, gnats 

 are produced at the rate of a million to the 

 square foot (estimate). 



Yellow-jackets are also more numerous and 

 troublesome than bees. They trouble fruit, 

 and meat hung up to dry will be nearly all car- 

 ried off by them. Our venison was troubled in 

 this way several times. Between hogs and 

 hornets, Bro. Wilder had a hard time to pre- 

 serve the results of his hard-earned chase. 



Bee-keeping in a limited way is indulged in 

 around Oakland. One occasionally meets bees 

 in old box hives, and the owner speaks of rob- 

 bing so much honey from them by the cutting- 

 out process. Though this primitive way is 

 practiced, there are a few who have their half- 

 dozen hives in proper shape, and secure a good 

 amount of honey. 



Mr. Mendleson, of Ventura, thinks it requires 

 some experience and skill to place a decoy hive 

 so that bees will occupy it. It must be so placed 

 that spiders will not weave their webs over the 

 entrance, and not too much in the direct rays 

 of the sun, neither in too dense a shade. Mr. 

 M. pointed out several decoy hives in trees in 

 Xhe canyon that leads to his apiary. Nearly all 



had bees in them, which shows that Mr. M. has 

 the requisite skill to place decoy hives success- 

 fully. 



That's a good idea in the Canadian Bee 

 Journal, about a revolution in the handling of 

 beeswax. In this State, really good wax is 

 produced by means of the solar wax-extractor; 

 but we have seen good wax spoiled by being 

 melted up in some old dirty kettle. Old combs 

 can be rendered, with care, into good wax; but 

 old rusty tin cans or tubs are used, and the re- 

 sult in this case is an off-colored wax. Let us 

 use care and clean receptacles, and the value of 

 our product will be greatly increased. 



aUEEN-CELLS OF TWO KINDS, 



THKIR NAMES. AND HOW THEY MAY BE DIS- 

 TINCiUISHED: HOAV TO TVAAj WHEN A 

 COLONY 18 TKY'ING TO SUPER- 

 SEDE ITS QUEEN. 



nil Dr. C. C. MiUer. 



Not many days ago I was talking with a bee- 

 keeper who is 'way up in matters pertaining to 

 our pursuit, and in the course of our conversa- 

 tion I happened to say something about post- 

 construrted queen-cells. His face has a trick 

 of becoming an interrogation-point, and just 

 then it assumed that expression. " What do 

 you mean by post-constructed ? " said he. 



Then it was my turn to become an interroga- 

 tion-point. " Do you mean to say," said I, " that 

 you have never met the terms pre constructed 

 and post-constructed f "" 



" Never read or heard any thing of the kind." 



" Why, they are terms in common use, I have 

 always supposed, and I'm sure I've seen them 

 in print years and years ago." 



He seemed skeptical, but dropped the subject 

 with something like a challenge for me to refer 

 to book and page. 



To-day I spent a considerable time in looking 

 over a good many bee-books. I had a strong 

 impression that I should find the words.in the 

 first volume of the American Bee Journal, but 

 was surprised to find them neither there nor in 

 any of the text-books. In Dzierzon's " Rational 

 Bee-keeping," page 10, I found two classes of 

 queen-cells mentioned — swarm-cells and sup- 

 plementary cells, the same thing under a dif- 

 ferent name. In Cheshire's book, "Bees and 

 Bee-keeping," Vol. 2. page 387, he pictures the 

 two kinds, calling the one normal ({ueen-cell, 

 the other emergence queen-cell. Finding no 

 mention of any thing of the kind in any of the 

 other books, I went back to the first volume of 

 Amei'ican Bee Journal, and, instead of going 

 by the index, as I had done before, I commenced 

 carefully scanning each page, beginning at the 

 first. At page .54 I struck this passage: "She 

 usually leaves the cell on the 17th day after the 

 egg was laid, if hatched in what the Germans 

 call a pre-co?istrj/cto7 cell; but will issue from 

 what they call a post-constructed cell, some- 



