896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1. 



so big that he thinks he's more than one per- 

 son? I'd like to see just one good reason for 

 saying " we " when you mean " I." 



H. GuEHLER, a prominent German honey - 

 dealer in Berlin, keeps in front of his retail 

 honey -depot an observatory hive, which at- 

 tracts attention and noticeably increases sales. 

 Four such colonies are kept in his apiary so as 

 to change off, each one being confined only 

 half a day at a time. 



Artificial honey is reported in Bavaria, of 

 such composition that "chemical analysis has 

 not detected any thing differing from the honey 

 of the bees." But the B. B. J. wisely comments, 

 "The composition of leather and meat are al- 

 most identical, but one would hardly relish the 

 one as well as the other." 



Mrs. Hallenbeck introduced a queen after 

 this fashion: Shook a lot of bees in front of a 

 hive supplied with combs, sprinkling the bees 

 with thin syrup, then dumped the queen among 

 them, letting all run in the hive. Of course, I 

 suppose the hive was on a new location. Now 

 just say why that isn't a real good plan. 



Mrs. Hallenbeck says, in Progressive, that 

 the percolating plan of feeding with tumbler 

 and saucer has been used by her ever since she 

 fed bees. Mustn't keep things to yourself, sis- 

 ter H. [I wonder if she knew she had struck on 

 to a really good thing. If she did, why did she 

 keep it under a bushel ? Dear me! I wonder if 

 there is any thing new under the sun.— Ed.] 



That table of Coggshall's, on p. 8(),5, while 

 very interesting, doesn't prove any thing. If 

 he would be kind enough next year to put the 

 ten-frame hives in the different apiaries side by 

 side with the eight-framers, it would help no 

 little to decide between the two kinds. [I don't 

 agree. I think it shows pretty well that there 

 is not so much difference between the eight and 

 ten frame hives as many suppose. Of course, it 

 would have been better if the two kinds of hives 

 had been in the same yards; but even as it was, 

 if the ten frames are really better they ought 

 to have shown some slight evidence of it in the 

 table. The eight frames seem to hold their 

 own every time. — Ed.] 



Herr Reepen, in Centralblatt, mentions the 

 testimony in GLEANiNOsas to bees moving eggs, 

 and says it may be like some other supposed 

 facts that were firmly established and after- 

 ward found to be not facts but errors. He 

 thinks the exceeding tenderness of the outer 

 coating of the egg makes transference impos- 

 sible. [If man wiih his clumsy fingers can 

 transfer eggs successfully, and good queens re- 

 sult therefrom, it seems to me the bee can do it. 

 The accumulated evidence that it does do it is 

 quite conclusive. The coating of the egg is 

 very tough, as I have found in dissecting for the 

 microscope. If it will resist the manipulation 

 of man, it certainly will that of the bee.— Ed. J 



The man who tells all about his failures may 

 do as much good as he who tells of his successes. 

 How much time we might save if we could 

 know, without trying, that certain things would 

 only end in failure! [Yes, indeed. We will 

 gladly open our columns for the telling of fail- 

 ures. Many a scheme we may pet for years, 

 and, when a favorable opportunity comes, try 

 it only at a great loss. If a few of these pet 

 schemes were shown up, not as they appear in 

 beautiful and enticing theory, but in actual 

 practice, it would save many another good 

 brother bee-keeper dollars. The knowledge of 

 what others have done, even though it resulted 

 in failure, is invaluable to the fraternity at large. 

 Come, brethren, don't be too modest. — Ed.] 



THOSE ESSAYS AT THE ST. JOSEPH CONVEN- 

 TION. 



A REPLY TO W. Z. HUTCHINSON: THE VALVE 

 OF CAREFULLY PREPARED PAPERS FOR CON- 

 VENTION purposes; conventions for ad- 

 vertising BEE-KEEPING. 



Biy Emcr.son T. Ahhott. 



"There was one mistake (?) made in getting 

 up the program, and I am not sure but it is a 

 worse one than that of having no program at 



all I have reference to the securing 



and reading of long essays descriptive of bee- 

 keeping in foreign lands We can 



not afford to travel hundreds of miles to listen 

 to what we can just as well read in the bee- 

 papers."— W. Z. Hutchinson, in American Bee 

 Journal. 



Friend H. puts this as though there could_ not 

 be two sides to the question; and as I was the 

 one who conceived the idea and secured those 

 papers, and as I am just as certain that there 

 was no mistake made in so doing, I want to 

 have my say. 



There is but one reason given why such 

 papers are a mistake: and that is, one can not 

 afford to travel hundreds of miles to listen to 

 what he can just as well read. If this be true, 

 then there is no use of having a convention at 

 all, for it is just as easy to ask and answer 

 questions in the papers as it is at a convention. 

 Do not the bee-papers do that very thing in 

 every issue? It is all very well to take up some 

 of the time, but not all of a convention, by such 

 questions as, "'Which is the best smoker?" 

 " Which is the best queen— one with a body all 

 yellow or one with a tip of black at the end of 

 her tail?" "Can you cut sweet clover for hay 

 just as it comes in bloom, and then let thestock 

 keep it eaten down so it will not bloom any 

 more that season, and yet the bees be able to 

 gather a bountiful crop of honey from it?" 



