844 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Nov. 1. 



The indications are, that the bicycle will be 

 cheaper another year. That will stinaulate the 

 out-apiary business. 



When J. T. C. came home, one of the first 

 questions I asked him was what the convention 

 did about the constitution. They revised it, 

 striking out the objectionable features, and in- 

 corporating some new and valuable ones. It is 

 a pleasure to know that there are no dead-letter 

 features now in the constitution. 



We have been having remarkably pleasant 

 weather in our locality for the past three or 

 four weeks. Indeed, a pear-tree in our back 

 yard does not know any better than to bud and 

 bloom. Half the bees in our apiary are rear- 

 ing brood, a good deal as in an open warm 

 spring. If the cold season should come on 

 gradually, this weather will be all right; other- 

 wise it may prove to be a serious setback to the 

 bees. 



The statement is going the rounds of the 

 press, as though it were something positively 

 wonderful, and never before heard of, to the 

 effect that two queens were actually living to- 

 gether in harmony, in an observatory hive on 

 exhibition at an apicultural show in Vienna, 

 and that thousands of visitors can attest the 

 proof of it. We don't doubt it at all. This 

 same clipping desires bee-journals to take par- 

 ticular notice of it. Of course, our readers 

 know that it is not an extraordinary thing to 

 find two queens in a hive, both performing 

 their regular duties. 



OuiJ bees are all in winter quarters; and 

 those In the home apiary, at least, have been 

 fed six barrels of sugar. After our honey-flow, 

 scarcely a drop of nectar came in. What was 

 in the hives was consumed in brood-rearing; 

 and the result was, we had to feed nearly all 

 our colonies, many of them full feeds. All the 

 syrup fed went either through percolator feed- 

 ers or through a percolator uncapping-can, 

 which was afterward fed in the usual Way as 

 thick syrup. This syrup in the combs is very 

 nice. I have not the least doubt it will be en- 

 tirely free from all traces of granulation. 



I have before me a beautiful photograph, 

 8x10, showing the members of the North Amer- 

 ican Convention, as they had assembled on the 

 court-house steps in St. Joseph. In point of 

 clearness, good focus, and good likenesses of the 

 members themselves, I think no picture here- 

 tofore taken of the members of this society is 

 quite the equal of it. Each member of the con- 

 vention has a number-tag attached to the coat 



or dress, as the case may be. At the bottom of 

 the picture is the name of each person, the 

 number corresponding to the one in the pic- 

 ture. Mr. W. Z. Hutchinson, editor of the Bce- 

 lieepers'' Review, Flint, Mich., has the pictures 

 for sale, for 75 cts. 



The marriage of Edith Osband and John H. 

 Larrabee took place on the 30th of last month 

 at Lansing, where the groom has been living 

 for some time. Mr. L. was formerly of Larra- 

 bee's Point, Vt., where he carried on bee-keep- 

 ing very successfully. He was one of the lead- 

 ing bee-keepers of his State, and was several 

 times chosen secretary for the Vermont Bee- 

 keepers' Association. Although I had formed 

 a high idea of him from his various bee-writ- 

 ings, it was not until I met him on my first 

 bicycle-tour in 1890, at Lake George, that I 

 understood what a good fellow he was. When 

 the government apicultural station was insti- 

 tuted at Lansing, my opinion of the best and 

 most available man for the place was asked. 

 I recommended John H. Larrabee. and it was 

 not long after that I learned he was awarded 

 the appointment. That he filled the position 

 well and faithfully, we all know; but it seems 

 that a kind Providence had something more in. 

 store for him at Lansing— the wooing and win- 

 ning of a "best girl in the world." I con- 

 gratulate you, Bro. John, on your good fortune. 



prevention of swarming, and large 

 colonies. 



I am coming more and more to believe in the 

 prevention of swarming by the use of large 

 hives, or two eight-frame stories as one hive. 

 At our out-yard those colonies whose queens 

 were allowed their freedom in both upper and 

 lower story stored considerably more honey in 

 proportion than those confined to a single story. 

 None of the former n^quired feeding for winter., 

 while all the rest did: and none of these big 

 colonies swarmed or showed the least indication 

 of it. They just kept right on piling in the 

 honey during the unusually heavy flow from 

 basswood. At present I incline toward twO' 

 eight-frame bodies instead of one large brood- 

 nest all in one large body, for this reasan — that 

 there are some localities and some seasons when 

 a single eight-frame hive-body would be quite 

 large enough. 



Now, I may be wrong; but from present indi- 

 cations the straws seem to be blowing this way; 

 and I hope our readers will experiment along 

 this line, and report results for next season. 

 Or if you have had experience this season^ 

 speak out. 



DO BURK-COMBS AFFECT THE AMOUNT OF 

 HONEY '? 



Hutchinson, in the Review, referring to the 

 statement of Doolittle that burr-combs were 

 worth 50 cts. per colony for honey, mention* 

 an experiment that rather offsets it. He at one- 



